the most indisposed to render to one another For as Aristotle de Repub. lib. 1. pag. 298. hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As man in his perfect state is the best of all Animals so separated from Law and Right he is the worst For out of Society we see his Nature presently degenerates and instead of being inclined to assist grows always most salvage and barbarous to his own kind Since therefore we have so much need of each others help Society is absolutely necessary to cherish and preserve in us our natural Benevolence towards one another without which instead of being mutually helpful we should be mutually mischievous For as the same Philosopher hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. He that cannot contract Society with others or through his own Self-sufficiency doth not need it belongs not to any Commonwealth but is either a wild Beast or a God We being therefore so framed for Society and under such necessities of entring into it it hence necessarily follows that being associated together we are all obliged in our several Ranks and Stations so to behave our selves towards one another as is most for the Common Good of All and that since the Happiness of each particular Member of our Society redounds from the Welfare of the Whole and is involved in it we ought to esteem nothing good for our selves that is a Nuisance to the Publick Because whatsoever this suffers I and every man suffer and unless I could be happy alone that can never be for my Interest in particular that is against my Interest in common Now in such a mutual Behaviour as most conduces to our common Benefit and Happiness as we are in Society with one another consists all Social Virtue the proper Use and Design of which is to preserve our Society with one another and to render it a common Blessing to us all And hereunto five things are necessary viz. 1. That we be charitably disposed towards one another 2. That we be just and righteous in all our Intercourses with each other 3. That we behave our selves peaceably in our respective States and Relations 4. That we be very modest towards those that are Superiour to us in our Society whether it be in Desert or Dignity 5. That we be very treatable and condescending to all that are Inferiour to us Under these Particulars are comprehended all those Social Virtues upon which the Welfare and Happiness of Humane Society depends Now that the Practice of all these is included in the Christian Life and doth effectually conduce to our everlasting Happiness I shall endeavour particularly to prove And I. AS rational Creatures associated and so related to one another we are obliged to be kindly and charitably disposed towards each other For the end of our Society being mutually to aid and assist one another it is necessary in order hereunto that we should every one be kind and benevolent to every one that so we may be continually inclined mutually to aid and do good Offices to one another And so far as we fall short of this we fall short of the End of our Society For to be sure the less we love one another the less prone we shall be to promote and further each others Welfare and consequently the less Advantage we shall reap from our mutual Society But if instead of loving we malign and hate each other our Society will be so far from contributing to our Happiness that it will be only a means of rendring us more miserable For it will only furnish us with fairer Opportunities of doing Mischief to one another and that mutual Intercourse we shall have by being united together in Society will supply us with greater Means and Occasions to wreak our spight upon each other For Society puts us within each others reach and by that means if we are enemies renders us more dangerous to one another like two adverse Armies which when they are at a Distance can do but little hurt but when they are joined and mingled never want opportunities to destroy and butcher one another So that Hatred and Malice you see renders our Society a Plague and we were much better live apart poorly and solitarily and withdraw from one another as Beasts of Prey do into their separate Dens than continue in one anothers reach and be always liable as we must be while we are in Society to be baited and worried by one another AND as Hatred and Malice spoils all our Society in this Life and renders it worse than the most dismal Solitude so it will also in the other For whensoever the Souls of men do leave their Bodies they doubtless flock to the Birds of their own Feather and consort themselves with such separate Spirits as are of their own Genius and Temper For besides that good and bad Spirits are by the eternal Laws of the other World distributed into two separate Nations and there live apart from one another having no other Communication or Intercourse but what is between two Hostile Countries that are continually designing and attempting one against another so that when wicked Souls do leave this Terrestrial Abode and pass into Eternity they are presently incorporated by the Laws of that invisible State into the Nation of wicked Spirits and confined for ever to their most wretched Society and Converse besides this I say Likeness doth naturally congregate Beings and incline them to associate with those of their own Kind Now Rancour and Malice is the proper Character of the Devil and the natural Genius of Hell and consequently 't is by a malicious Temper of Mind that we are naturalized before-hand Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness and qualified for the Conversation of Furies So that when we go from hence into Eternity this our malignant Genius will render us utterly averse to the friendly Society of Heaven and naturally press and incline us to consort with that wretched Nation of spightful and rancorous Spirits with whom we are already joined by a Likeness and Communion of Natures But O! much better were it for us to be shut up all alone for ever in some dark Hole of the World where we might converse only with our own melancholy Thoughts and never hear of any other being but our selves than to be continually plagued with such vexatious Company For though we who are spectators only of Corporeal Action cannot discern the manner how one Spirit acts upon another yet there is no doubt but Spiritual Agents can strike as immediately upon Spirits as bodily Agents can upon Bodies and supposing that these can mututually act upon one another there is no more doubt but they can mutually make each other feel each others Pleasures and Displeasures and that according as they are more or less powerful they can more or less aggrieve and afflict one another And if so what can be expected from a company of spightful and malicious Spirits joined in Society together but that their
by passing out of one world into another And therefore as in this world it is Likeness that does congregate and associate Beings together so doubtless it is in the other too So that if we carry with us thither our wicked and devillish dispositions as we shall doubtless do unless we subdue and mortifie them here there will be no Company fit for us to associate with but only the devillish and damned Ghosts of wicked men with whom our wretched Spirits being already joined by a likeness of Nature will mingle themselves as soon as ever they are excommunicated from the society of Mortals For whither should they flock but to the Birds of their own Feather with whom should they associate but with those malignant Spirits to whom they are already joined by a Community of Nature So that supposing that when they land in Eternity it were left to their own Liberty to go to Heaven or Hell into the society of the Blessed or the Damned it is plain that Heaven would be no Place for them that the Air of that bright Region of eternal Day would never agree with their black and hellish Natures For alas what should they do among those Blessed Beings that inhabit it to whose God-like Natures Divine Contemplations and Heavenly Employments they have so great a Repugnancy and Aversation So that besides the having a Right to Heaven it is necessary to our enjoying it that we shoule be antecedently disposed and qualified for it And it being thus God hath been graciously pleased to to make those very Virtues the Conditions of our Right to Heaven which are the proper Dispositions and Qualifications of our Spirits for it that so with one and the same Labour we might entitle our selves to and qualifie our selves to enjoy it NOW as we shewed you before the Condition of our Right to Heaven is our practising those Heavenly Virtues which are implied in the Religion of the End and as the Religion of the Means no further entitles us to Heaven than as it produces and promotes in us those Heavenly Virtues so it no further qualifies us for it For when the Soul goes into Eternity it leaves the Religion of the Means behind it and carries nothing with it but only those Heavenly Virtues and Dispositions which it here acquired by those Means For as for Faith and Consideration Hearing of Gods Word and Receiving of Sacraments c. they are all but Scaffolds to that Heavenly Building of inward Purity and Goodness and when this is once finished for Eternity then must those Scaffolds all go down as things of no further Use or Necessity But as for the Graces of the Mind they are to stand for ever to be the Receptacles and Habitations of all Heavenly Pleasure And hence the Apostle tells us that of those three Christian Graces Faith Hope and Charity Charity which in the largest sense of it comprehends all Heavenly Virtue is the greatest because the Two former being but Means of Charity shall cease in Heaven and be swallowed up for ever in Vision and Enjoyment but Charity saith he never faileth 1 Cor. xii 13 BY all which it is apparent that the Religion of the Means is no further useful to us than as it is apt to produce and promote in us those Heavenly Virtues the practice of which is the most direct and immediate Means to the ultimate End of a Christian. Wherefore as a man may knock and file and yet be no Mechanick though the Hammer and File with which he does it are very useful Tools to the making of any curious Machine so a man may pray and hear and receive Sacraments c. and yet be a very Bungler in the blessed Trade of a Heavenly Life For though it is true these are excellent Means of Heavenly Living yet as the Art of the Mechanick consists not barely in using his Tools but in using them in such a manner as is necessary to the perfecting and accomplishing his Work So the Art of one that pretends to the Heavenly Life consists not barely in praying and hearing c. but in using these Means with that Religious Skill and Artifice which is necessary to render them effectually subservient to the Ends of Piety and Virtue AND thus I have given a general Account of the Means which are necessary to our obtaining of Heaven and which as I have shewed are either such as tend more directly and immediately to it or such as more remotely respect it The first is the Practice of those Heavenly Virtues in the Perfection whereof the Happiness of Heaven consists the second is the Practising of those Duties which are necessary to our acquiring and perfecting those Heavenly Virtues And of these two Parts consists the whole Christian Life which takes in not only all those Virtues that are to be practised by us in Heaven but also all those Duties by which we are to overcome the Difficulty of those Virtues and to acquire and perfect them The first of these for Distinction sake we will call the Heavenly Part of the Christian Life it being that part of it which we shall lead in Heaven after we have learnt it here upon Earth The second I shall call the Warfaring or Militant Part of the Christian Life which is peculiar to our Earthly State wherein we are to contend and strive with the manifold Difficulties which attend us in the Exercise of those Heavenly Virtues Both which I conceive are implied in those words of the Apostle Phil. i. 27 Only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Let your Conversation be strictly signifies behaving our selves as Citizens or which if we may have leave to coin a word may be fitly rendered Citizen it as becomes the Gospel For the word implies that those of whom he speaks were Denizens of some Free City for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Phil. iii. 20 is rendered Conversation strictly denotes a Citizenship from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Citizens and is of the same Import with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Acts xxii 28 is translatee a Freedom i. e. of the City of Rome which denotes the State and Condition of those who though they dwelt out of that City and sometimes remote from it had yet the Jus Civitatis Romanae the Privileges of it belonging to them For thus Cicero describes it Omnibus Municipibus duas esse Tatrias unam Naturae alteram Juris Catonis Exemplo qui Tusculi natus in Populi Romani Societaem susceptus est i. e. All such as are made free of the City have two Countries one of Nature the other of Law As Cato for instance who was born at Tusculum and afterwards admitted a Citizen of Rome Which exactly agrees with the Nature of this Heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Citizenship which the Apostle here attributes to Christians who though they belong at present to another
Reverence and Veneration For there we shall have far greater and clearer apprehensions of his Majesty than ever we had in this imperfect state which will improve our pre-acquired sense of it to such a degree of Respect and Veneration as will for ever over-rule our Faculties and keep our Understandings Wills and Affections in close and strict attendance to him And as our sense of his Majesty will sweetly command so our sense of his infinite Beauty and Beneficence will invincibly allure us to exert and exercise our faculties upon him For he that hath an affectionate sense of the Beauty and Goodness and Bounty of God hath a heart ready tuned for the Musick of heaven ready set and composed for everlasting Praises and Halelujahs So that when he goes away from hence into the other world and is there admitted to a more intimate view of the perfections and a more abundant participation of the blessings of God than ever his predisposed mind will immediately be seized with such a strong pathetick sense of both as that he will not be able to withhold expressing and venting it in the most rapturous strains of Admiration and Praise and Thanksgiving And this will be his business and employment for ever to admire and extoll the Perfections of God of which he will every moment make new and glorious Discoveries and to celebrate with grateful acknowledgments the infinite riches of his Bounty of which he will every moment have fresh and sweet experiences So that whilst by continual acts of Praise and Thanksgiving we endeavour to affect our minds with a due sense of the Goodness and Bounty of God we are practising before-hand the Musick of Heaven and taking out the Songs of Zion that so when we go from hence we may be qualified and prepared to bear a part in the Celestial Choir So that true devotion you see which consists in a quick and lively sense of the infinite Majesty Beauty and Benignity of God doth most effectually dispose the mind to all those divine and heavenly exercises wherein the state of heaven consists III. AS we are rational Creatures related to God we are obliged to an unfeigned love of and complacency in him And that both upon the account of what he is in himself as he is the most lovely and amiable of beings in whom there is an harmonious concurrence of all imaginable Beauties and Perfections of Wisdom and Goodness of Justice and Mercy and every other amiable thing that can claim or attract a reasonable Affection all which in infinite degrees are contempered together in his nature and also upon the account of his infinite Kindness and Beneficence to us For besides that he hath compassed us round like so many fortunate Islands with a vast Ocean of external Blessings in which there is all that is either necessary convenient or pleasant for our bodily use and enjoyment besides that he hath inspired us with immortal Minds and stamped them with those fair impresses of his own Divinity the knowledge of Truth and the love of Goodness which are both of them very forward capacities of the highest Perfection and most exalted Happiness in a word besides that to supply and gratifie these our noble Capacities he hath prepared for us an immortal Heaven and furnisht it with all the Pleasures and and Delights that a Heaven-born Mind can desire or enjoy besides all this I say he hath sent his own Son from heaven to reveal to us the Way thither and to encourage us to return into it by dying for our sins and thereby obtaining for us a publick Grant and Charter of Mercy and Pardon upon Condition of our return yea and as if all this were too little he hath sent his Spirit to us in the room of his Son to abide amongst us and as his Vicegerent to drive on this vast design of his love to us to excite and persuade us to return into that sure way to heaven which he hath described to us and to assist us all along in our travel thither So wondrous careful hath he been not to be defeated of this his kind intention to make us everlastingly happy And now what Heart can be so hard and impenetrable as to resist such powerful Charms and Endearments Methinks if we had but the common Sense and Ingenuity of men in us it would be impossible for us to reflect upon such miracles of Beauty and Love as these are without being intimately touched and affected with them But till we are so it will be impossible for us to enjoy Heaven for how can we freely exert our Faculties upon an Object that we do not love and if we cannot how can we without loving God enjoy Heaven which consists in the free and cheerful out-goings of all our Faculties upon him For if when we go into Eternity we love him not either he will be indifferent or hateful to us if the former we shall altogether neglect and take no notice of him if the latter we shall either flie away from him and banish our selves from his presence or be forced to abide and endure it with extream regret and torment For whilst our minds are averse and repugnant to him whatsoever we see in him will but the more enrage and canker our malice against him and even the sight of those his glorious Perfections which so enravish the hearts of the blessed inhabitants of Heaven will only provoke and boil up our Dislike of him to a higher degree of Hatred and Aversation For so we find by experience in this life that while our minds are unreconciled to God it is a Pennance to us to come near him to admit any Thoughts of or Conversation with him And this is the reason why we take so much pains as we do to misrepresent him to our selves to draw such Pictures and Ideas of him upon our Minds as best correspond with our own Tempers that so having thus transformed the Notion of him into the Image of our selves Narcissus-like we may fall in love with him or at least more easily endure his blessed Presence and Conversation When therefore we shall go into the other world where all these Disguises of the divine Idea shall be taken off and we shall see him as he is circled about with his own Rays of unstained and immaculate Glory we shall never be able to abide him but being all affrighted and confounded at the Glory of his Presence we shall be forced to run away and if possible to hide our selves from him in everlasting Darkness and Despair For our Wills being poisoned and infected with an habitual Enmity against him it must needs be torment to us to see him because we must always see him happy which is so great an eye-sore to those damned Spirits that hate him that I am apt to think that next to being delivered out of their own Misery the chiefest Good they desire or wish for is to be delivered from the tormenting Sense of
Thoughts and Reflections But so long as we keep within the Bounds of Sobriety and do not sally out into malicious or scurrilous or prophane Jesting our Religion doth not only connive at our Mirth but commend and approve it and so remote is it from cramping those Strings and Sinews of the Mind Chearfulness and Action that it recollects their scatterd Vigour and winds up their Slackness to a true Harmony FOR it requires that our speech should be alway with grace Col. iv 6 i. e. as some Expositors understand the Phrase that it should not be whining and melancholy but sprightly and chearful it bids us rejoice evermore 1 Thes. v. 16 and rejoice in the Lord alway and again rejoice Phil. iv 4 that is to indeaver to be chearful in all Conditions and to bear all Events with a serene and lightsome mind And therefore the Apostle reckons this among the blessed Fruits and Effects of that Divine Spirit which accompanies and animates Christianity viz. Joy or Chearfulness Gal v. 22 and this is one of the Particulars in which the same Apostle makes the Christian Laws to consist as they stand opposed to the Ritual Laws of the Jews the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the Laws of the Christian Church is not meat and drink i. e. consist not of Injunctions or Prohibitions of things that are of a Ritual or indifferent Nature but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. xiv 17 which three Particulars being opposed to things that are unnecessary must by the Law of Oppositions denote things that are necessary and therefore as by Righteousness and Peace must be meant Justice and Peaceableness so by Joy in the Holy Ghost must be meant Chearfulness and Alacrity in doing the will of God because Joy can be in no other Sense Matter of Necessary Duty By all which its evident that Chearfulness of Temper is so far from being discountenanced by our Religion that 't is required and injoined by it so far as 't is in our Power and Choice And indeed it highly becomes us who serve so good a Master to be free and chearful and thereby to express a grateful sense of his Goodness and of those glorious Rewards which we expect from his inexhaustible Bounty but as for a gloomy Look and dejected Countenance it better beseems a Gally-slave than a Servant of God And as Chearfulness is a Duty that very well becomes our State so it is highly necessary to support and carry us on in our Christian Warfare FOR Chearfulness is Natures best Friend it removes its Oppressions enlivens its Faculties and keeps its Spirits in a brisk and regular Motion and hereby renders it easie to it self and useful and serviceable to God and Man It dispels Clouds from the Mind and Fears from the Heart and kindles and Cherishes in us brave and generous Affections and composes our Natures into such a regular temper as is of all others the most fit to receive religious Impressions and the breathings of the Spirit of God For what the Jews do observe of the Spirit of Prophesie is as true of the Spirit of Holiness that it dwells not with Sadness but with Chearfulness that being it self of a calm and gentle Nature it loves not to reside with black and melancholy Passions but requires a composed and serene Temper to act upon And hence Tertul. in his de Spectac Deus praecepit Spiritum sanctum utpote pro Naturae suae bono tenerum delicatum Tranquillitate Lenitate Quiete Pace tractare non Furore non Bile non Ira non Dolore inquietare i. e. God hath commanded that the holy Spirit who is of a tender and delicate Nature should be entertained by us with Tranquility and Mildness with Quietness and Peace and that we should take care not to disturb him with Fury and Choler or with Anger and Grief And indeed Melancholy naturally infests the holy Spirit and disturbs him in all his operations it overwhelms the Fancy with black Reeks and Vapours and thereby clouds and darkens the Understanding and intercepts the holy Spirits Illuminations and like red coloured Glass before the eye causes the most lovely and attractive Objects to look bloody and terrible It distracts the Thoughts and renders them wild roving and incoherent and thereby utterly indisposes them to Prayer and Consideration and renders them deaf and unattentive to all good Motions and Inspirations It freezes up the Heart with dispairing Fears and Despondencies and represents easie things as difficult to us and difficult as impossible and thereby discourages us from all those vertuous Attempts to which the blessed Spirit doth so importunately excite and provoke us In a word it naturally benums and stupifies the Soul obstructs its Motions and makes it listless and unactive and so by indisposing it to co-operate with the holy Spirit renders it an incapable Subject of his divine Grace and Influence Thus melancholy you see by its sullen and malevolent Aspects doth obstinately resist and counter-influence the holy Spirit without whose Aid and Assistance we can never hope to prosper in our spiritual Warfare WHEREFORE if we mean to succeed in this great Affair it concerns us to use all honest and innocent Means to dispel this black and mischievous Humour and to beget and maintain in our Minds a constant Serenity and Chearfulness of Temper and when ever our Spirits begin to droop and languish to betake our selves to such natural Remedies such harmless Diversions Refreshments and Recreations as are fit and proper to raise them up again and not to suffer them to sink into a Bog of Melancholly Humours whilst 't is in our Power by any honest Art or Invention to support them Which if we can but effect will be of vast Advantage to us in the whole Course of our Religion For in an even Chearfulness of Temper our Spirits will be always lively strong and active and fit for the best and noblest Operations they will give Light to our Understandings Courage to our Hearts and Wings to our Affections so that we shall be able more clearly to discern divine and heavenly things more resolutely to practise and more vehemently to aspire after them and our Considerations will be more fixt our Devotions more intent and all our spiritual Endeavours more active and vivacious For a chearful Temper will represent every thing chearfully to us 't will represent God so lovely Religion so attractive the Rewards of it so immense and the Difficulties of it so inconsiderable and thereby inspire us with so much Life and Courage as that none of all those spiritual Enemies we war and contend against will be able to withstand our Resolution X. TO our Course and Progress in this our spiritual Warfare it is also necessary that we maintain in our Minds a constant Sense and Expectation of Heaven that since the things of the other World are future and invisible and consequently less apt to touch and affect us
us to some great Work or to support us under some extraordinary Suffering For he is a wise and careful Father of his Children and knows 't is much more necessary for us to be good than to be ravished and transported and that such high Cordials are neither proper nor safe for us but in great Extremities and therefore for us to expect that he should make them our ordinary Food and Entertainment is an Argument of our Childish Ignorance and Presumption But though such immediate Whispers and Revelations may serve to good Purposes in a Pinch of Extremity yet are they by no means to be built upon as the Foundations of our ordinary standing Assurance For so long as there is an evil Spirit without and a disordered Fancy within us that can imitate these Whispers we shall be continually liable so long as we put Confidence in them to all the Cheats and Impostures of natural and Diabolical Enthusiasm and unavoidably mistake many an Injection of the Devil and many a warm Flush of Fancy or brisk Fermentation of melancholy Humour for a Whisper and Testimony of the spirit of God and by this means be often lull'd into false Confidences and Assurances which like Golden Dreams will vanish when we awake and leave us miserably disappointed That Assurance therefore which we are to aim at must be founded in the Testimony of a good Conscience and infer'd from the Sense of our own Integrity and Uprightness AND this we are commanded to indeavour after so Heb. x. 22 we are bid to draw near unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Confidence or full assurance of faith that is in a firm Persuasion of Gods Love to us and our Interest in his Promises which Persuasion is to be founded upon an inward Sense of our having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies wash'd with pure water and accordingly Heb. vi 11 to be diligent in good works to the full assurance of hope unto the end i. e. to be so diligent in our Duty as that we may thereby acquire such a full Assurance of our Reward as may inable us to continue and hold out to the End For so St. John tells us that 't is by the Integrity of our Vertue and particularly of our love to one another that we are to assure our hearts before God 1 Joh. iii. 14 19. for saith he v. 21 if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God and for this purpose among others the same Apostle tells us he wrote this Catholick Epistle that true Christians might know and be assured that they had eternal life 1 Joh. v. 13 FROM all which 't is evident that 't is our Duty to labour after such an Assurance of Heaven as naturally ariseth from the clear and certain Sense of our Sincerity towards God and the firm Belief of the Promise of eternal Life to which our Sincerity intitles us For when we are so far improved in Religion as that upon an impartial Surveigh of our selves we can feel our own Integrity and sensibly perceive that our Intention is pure our Resolution fixt and our Heart intirely devoted to God we may from thence most certainly infer our Title and Interest to the Promise of Heaven So that to the obtaining this Assurance all that we have to do is so far to purifie our Intentions from sinister Aims and subdue our bad Inclination to our Resolution of Obedience as that when ever we reflect upon and compare our selves with the Rule our Conscience may be able without any Diffidence to pronounce us sincere and then we may as certainly conclude our Interest in Heaven as we can that Gods Promises are true and if after we are thus far improved in Religion we still remain unassured it proceeds not from the Want of sufficient Evidence but either from a melancholy Temper or a weak Faith or a misinformed Conscience and whichsoever of these is the Cause of it when that is once removed we shall as plainly feel our own Sincerity and therein our Interest in Heaven as we do now our bodily Passions And having once attained this Assurance 't will animate our Hearts with an Heroick Courage against all Temptations and carry us on with unspeakable Alacrity through all the remaining Stages of our Duty it will invigorate our Endeavours and wing our Activity and make us all Life and Spirit in the Exercises of our holy Religion And as when the Christian Army after a tedious march towards the Land of Canaan came within view of the holy City and beheld afar off the Towers and Turrets of Hierusalem they were so Ecstacied with Joy that they made the Heavens ring with triumphant Shouts and Acclamations and as if that Sight had given new Souls to them ran on upon their Enemies with a Courage that forced Victory where-ever they came so when a good Man after a long Progress from one Degree of Vertue to another is got so far as that from a certain Sense and Feeling of his own Sincerity he can discern the new Hierusalem above and his own Interest in it that blessed Sight will fill him with so much Joy Courage and Alacrity that no Temptation for the future will be able to withstand or interrupt him So that his Conscience will be always ringing with Acclamations of Victory and the remainder of his March will be all a Triumphal Progress to him and when he comes to the Conclusion of it to die and pass the Gate of this blessed City the firm Assurance which he hath of Admittance will dispel the Fears sweeten the Troubles and asswage the Pangs and Agonies of the dolorous Passage So that he will die not only with Peace but with Joy and go away into Eternity with Hallelujahs in his Mouth If therefore we mean to bring this our spiritual Warfare to a happy Conclusion it concerns us now while we have Opportunity to labour after a wise and well-grounded Assurance of Heaven SECT VI. Containing certain Motives to Press men to the Practice of these Duties of Perseverance in the Christian Warfare HAVING in the foregoing Section described all those Duties which appertain to the last Part of our Christian Warfare to wit final Perseverance and shewn how effectually they all contribute thereunto I shall now according to my former Method conclude with some Motives to press and persuade men to the Practice of them all which I shall deduce from the Consideration of the great and urgent Necessity of our final Perseverance to which those Duties are such necessary Helps and Means For unless we take in the Assistance of these Duties in all Probability we shall never be able to hold out to the End and unless we persevere to the End we are guilty of the most fatal and mischievous piece of Folly in the World For Consider 1. If after we have made some Progress in Religion we wilfully relapse we shall go back much faster than ever we have
what kinds of Means are necessary to obtain it how naturally all the Vertues of Religion do raise up mens Souls to Heaven and how all the contrary Vices do as naturally sink and press them down to Hell it is to be hop'd he will be fully persuaded of the indispensible Necessity of entering into the Christian Life which if he be I would advise him 2. Seriously to read over and consider the first and second Sections of the fourth Chapter wherein are contained the several Duties which are proper to his State of Entrance into the Christian Life and also proper Arguments and Motives to ingage him to the Practice of them which if he would read to good Effect he must by no means content himself with a single Perusal but read them over at least once a week whilst he continues in that State till he fully comprehends the Meaning and Use of all those Duties and the Force and Cogency of those Arguments which if he do it is to be hop'd he will at last be reduced to a through and wel-weighed Resolution of forsaking his Sins and actually ingaging in the Christian Life Which being done I would advise him 3. With the same Care and Frequency to peruse the third and fourth Sections of the fourth Chapter wherein are contained all the several Duties proper to this second State of actual Engagement in the Christian Life as also sundry Arguments or Motives to press and inforce them and when by the Assistance of these Duties he hath continued for some time faithful and constant to his good Resolution 4. Together with the third and fourth Section let him often peruse and consider the fifth and sixth wherein are contained the Duties appertaining to the third State of Emprovement and Perseverance in the Christian Life together with some Considerations to inforce the Practice of them All which I would earnestly persuade the pious Reader to read and consider over and over again till his Mind is fully instructed in the Nature and Vse of each Duty and hath throughly digested the Force and Evidence of every Argument And this may suffice for the first thing proposed concerning the profitable Method of reading this practical Treatise II. AS for the second Part of it which is that which I mainly design in this Chapter viz. the Rules and Directions for the private Exercise of our Religion in each State of the Christian Life together with the Forms of private Prayer fitted for each take them in their following Order Directions for the more profitable Exercise of our private Religion in the State of our Entrance into the Christian Life In the Morning before you go into the World enter into your Closet and there consider with your self a while the miserable State you have reduc'd your self to by your past sinful Courses the absolute Necessity of your forsaking them and the possibility of your Recovery if your heartily indeavour it and then adress your self to God in this following Prayer O Most glorious and eternal God thou art the fountain of Beings the Father of Angels and Men the righteous and almighty Governour of Heaven and Earth from thy Throne thou beholdest all the Children of men and their most secret Actions are open and naked to thy alseeing Eye and such is the Purity of thy Nature that thou lovest Righteousness and hatest Iniquity wheresoever thou beholdest it with what Face then can I a most miserable polluted Wretch appear in thy presence who by the past course of my Wickedness and Rebellion against thee have not only rendered my self guilty and justly obnoxious to thy eternal Displeasure but have also contracted such obstinate Dispositions and Inclinations to sin on as without thy Grace and Assistance I shall never be able to conquer O desperate vile and ungrateful Wretch that I have been I have renounced the God of my Being and the Fountain of my Mercies I have despised thy Goodness trampled upon thy Authority mock'd and abused thy Patience and long suffering and in Particular I must confess to my own Shame and Confusion I have been wofully guilty of And now by these my manifold Abominations I have utterly undone my self unless thou take pity upon me I confess I have forfeited my soul into thy hands and if thou so pleasest thou mayest justly cast me away from thy Presence and make me a dire Example of thy Vengeance for ever But I know O Lord that thou desirest not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should repent and live and upon the Propitiation of thine own Sons blood thou hast declared thy self willing to receive returning Prodigals and to be heartily reconciled to them notwithstanding all their past Provocations O that I could return that I could but shake off those corrupt Inclinations which detain my wretched soul in Captivity I am willing to contribute towards it whatsoever I am able but alass without thee all that I can do will be utterly ineffectual Wherefore for thy tender Mercies sake for thy dear Sons and my Saviours sake have pity upon a miserable Wretch that without thy helping hand is lost for ever And since thou hast given me thy Gospel as an outward means to save and recover me O do thou inable me by thy blessed Spirit heartily to believe and throughly to consider it For which end I beseech thee to remove all sinful Prejudices from my Mind that so I may impartially weigh those Evidences thou hast given me of the Truth of it and do thou suggest them to my Mind with such a clear and convincing Light as that they may at last conquer my Infidelity and beget in me a firm and lively Faith And forasmuch as my mind is vain and roving and utterly averse to all serious Considerations O do thou who art the Father of Spirits and canst turn the Hearts of men which way thou pleasest inspire good Thoughts into me and imprint them upon me with such a Power and Efficacy as that my wandring Mind may be reduced by them to a through Consideration and my stubborn Will to a firm Resolution of Amendment Particularly I beseech thee to give me a right understanding of the urgent need I have of a Saviour and of all those things which he hath done and suffered and is still doing at thy right hand in order to the cleansing my guilty and polluted Nature and restoring me to thy Grace and Favour that so hereby I may be fully convinced how odious my Sins are in thy sight how base and vile they have rendered me and at what a mighty Distance they have set me from thee and that being convinced of this I may put on a holy Shame and Confusion and abhor my self in dust and ashes before thee Thou knowest O Lord it is not in my power to soften this hard and unrelenting Heart and affect it with that Godly sorrow which is requisite to work a true Repentance O do thou smite it with such a sharp and
piercing sense of my Sins as may cause the floods of unfeigned Grief and Contrition to gush forth from it Cause me to bleed for my sins now that I may not bleed for them for ever and that having felt the Smart and Anguish of them I may utterly detest and abhor them and never be reconciled to them more Thus do thou assist me O good God in the Exercise of all these Duties till thou hast throughly conquered my Will by them and prepared it for a firm Resolution to forsake all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And now that I am going into the world among those very Temptations that have hitherto so miserably captivated and inslaved me O let thy blessed Spirit be present with me to keep my drousie Conscience awake and arm me against them with his holy Inspirations that so those good Thoughts and Desires which thou hast at present excited in me may stick fast upon my Soul in the midst of my worldly Occasions and never cease importuning my Conscience Will and Affections till they have produc'd in me the happy Effect of a serious and hearty Repentance All which I most earnestly beseech of thee even for pity sake to a poor perishing Soul and for Jesus Christ his sake in whose name and words I farther pray Our Father c. In the Evening when you find your self most sit for serious Thoughts go into your Closet again and consider cooly with your self whether you are heartily willing to part with every Sin and particularly with your beloved Sin and to submit to every Duty and even to those that are most contrary to your vicious Inclination if you are not as it 's very probable you will not for some time or if you find the least reason to suspect you are not press your self anew with such divine Reasons as are most apt to affect you with the Hope of Heaven and the Fear of Hell with the love of God and of your Saviour represent your Obstinacy to your self with all its Baseness and Disingenuity Madness and Folly till you find your self affected with a sorrowful Sense of it and then offer up this following Prayer O Father of Mercies and God of all Grace and Consolation who art a ready help in time of need look down upon me I beseech thee a miserable and forlorn Wretch that have wilfully sold my self Captive to the Devil and am now strugling to get loose from this my wretched Bondage into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God I know O Lord that I am striving for my immortal Life and accordingly as I succeed I expect to be happy or miserable for ever I have seriously considered the Reasons on both sides and am fully satisfied in my mind that there is infinitely more Force in thy Promises and Threats than in all the Difficulties of my Duty and the Pleasures of my sin But after all this I find a law in my Members warring against the law in my Mind a perverse Will that rejects the counsels of my Reason that makes obstinate Reservations of some beloved Sins and Exceptions to some particular Duties in despite of all the persuasion of my Reason and Religion So that after all my Endeavours I am still detain'd in Captivity to the law of sin that is in my Members and am not able to incline my self to an intire Resolution of Amendment O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Sin and Death I know O Lord though I am weak and impotent and of my self unable to shake off the Chains and Fetters of my Lusts yet thy Grace is abundantly sufficient to rescue and deliver me from them and thou hast promised to assist with it my honest Endeavours and crown them with a blessed Success Wherefore for thy Truth and Mercies sake suffer not thy poor Creature who with pitiful and bemoaning Looks cries out for help to thee to spend himself in weary and fruitless Struglings against this violent Torrent of my sinful Nature which without thy aid will quickly overcome my poor Endeavours and drive me down into eternal Perdition My sole Dependence is upon thee my Hope of Success is wholly in thee help Lord help or else I perish stretch forth thy powerful Arm to my sinking Soul and let not this Deep swallow me up but do thou so quicken my faint Endeavours so strengthen my weak and doubting Faith so enliven my cold and languid Considerations so clear up my Convictions of my need of a Saviour and of the Danger and Odiousness of my Sins and thereby so increase my penitential Sorrows and Remorses as that by all these means together my obstinate Will may at last be conquered and effectually persuaded to part with every Sin be it never so dear to me and to comply with every Duty be it never so cross to my vile Inclinations Then shall I freely resign up my self unto thee and with a firm Resolution devote all my Powers to thy Service And that I may do so and by so doing be reconciled to thee O my offended God before I go hence and be no more seen receive me I beseech thee into thy protection this Night that I may yet see the light of another Day and have a longer space to finish my Repentance All which I humbly implore even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose name and words I farther pray Our Father c. If upon searching your own Heart you find that after you have fairly represented to your self what sinful Pleasures you must part with what Duties you must submit to and what Difficulties you must ingage with you are willing without any Reserve or Exception to submit your self to God beware you be not too hasty to form your Resolution but take some little time to try your self see whether you will continue to morrow of the same mind you are in now and if then you perceive you have reason to suspect your self try a little longer and at the present indeavour as much as in you lies to confirm and settle your self in the good Mind you are in by pressing and urging your self with all those Arguments of your Religion by which you have been thus far convinced and persuaded and while you are thus trying your self instead of the former let this be your Evening Prayer O Blessed Lord and most merciful Father thou art a God hearing Prayer and to thee shall all flesh come I admire thy Goodness I adore thy Grace that after so many heinous provocations I have given thee for which thou mightest have justly shut thine ears against me for ever thou hast heard my Cries and pitied my Misery and thus far contributed towards my Recovery I acknowledg 't is by thy Grace that I am what I am that this stubborn Heart begins at last to relent this perverse Will to bow and stoop these lewd Affections to hunger and thirst after
Righteousness that now at last my foolish soul is persuaded to part with those sins which are its Plagues and Infelicities and to imbrace those blessed Duties by which thou hast designed to raise me to immortal Glory By these good Beginnings thou hast given me some Reason to hope for a happy Success upon my poor Endeavours Praised be thy Grace I am at present heartily willing to be thine and were I but sure to continue thus minded and disposed I would immediately make over my Heart and Will to thee by the most solemn Engagement But O Lord I am afraid of my self I dread my own Inconstancy and thou knowest I have too much Reason for it I have mocked thee too often already with my deceitful Promises and Engagements I have sin'd and then promised Amendment I have promised Amendment and then sin'd again as if all that I meant by my Promises were only to ask leave of thee to sin against thee anew Now after so many Falsifications I would not for all the World deal treacherously with thee any more wherefore before I solemnly resign and devote my self to thee by a new Purpose and Engagement I desire to make some farther Tryal of my own Stedfastness to see whether this present Inclination of my Will be the effect of Passion or a setled Judgment In the mean time therefore I do most humbly beseech thee to be present with me in all my ways and continually to influence my Mind with thy Grace and Spirit to strengthen my Faith to fix my Consideration to persuade my Will and feed and cherish these my holy Desires with good Thoughts and Inspirations that so I may remain stedfast and immoveable and no Temptation whatsoever may be able to alter the Temper of my mind or divert it from its good Inclination and that having had a sufficient Experience of the fixed Disposition of my Soul to obey thee I may devote my self to thee with a chearful Heart and an assured Hope of my own Sincerity and Constancy O Lord hear and help me for thy Mercies sake and for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most perfect Form of Prayer I farther pray Our Father c. If after a sufficient Tryal of your self you find you are constantly inclin'd to submit to God to part with every Sin comply with every Duty consider that now it is high time for you to devote your self to God and what abundant Reason you have for it and what a powerful Obligation you must lay upon your self by so doing and when you have seriously considered these things give up your self to God in this following Form of Prayer which for the greater Sanction and more awful Solemnity of your good Resolution you would do well to repeat at the next Sacrament O Most merciful Father so infinite is the Goodness of thy Nature that thou art always ready to pity and relieve the poor and needy and to extend thy timely Succours to us helpless Sinners whensoever we cry unto thee Of the truth whereof thou hast given me who am the vilest of Sinners a most sensible Proof and Experiment For not long ago I was so dead in Trespasses and Sins that hadst not thou took pity upon me and quickned me by thy Grace I had dyed for ever my Vnderstanding was so blind that I saw not my Danger my Conscience so sear'd that I felt not my Guilt my Will so inslaved to my Lusts that I could not indure to think of parting with them but now blessed be thy Grace which first excited my Endeavours and hath hitherto prospered them I do not only see the Danger my Sins have exposed me to and sensibly feel the Guilt of them but am freely willing to renounce them for ever and to part even with those darling Lusts that have heretofore been as dear to me as my right Eye And now O Lord I am come before thee and I hope with a truly Loyal and sincere Heart to offer up my Soul and Body to thee and vow an everlasting Obedience to thy blessed Will For Jesus sake refuse not this poor Oblation which though it be infinitely unworthy of thine Acceptance is the best thing I am able to present thee To thee O glorious Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost I do from henceforth eternally devote my self and all my Faculties And here at the Table of my blessed Saviour and upon these sacred Memorials of his Wounds and Blood I utterly abjure all known and wilful Sins and Rebellions and particularly all such as have been heretofore most dear to me faithfully promising by thy gracious Assistance from henceforth to observe thy Law without any Reserve or Exception This in the Sincerity of my Soul I do here vow to thy divine Majesty and however I may be hereafter tempted I will never wilfully depart from it or from any Part of it so help me O my God for Jesus Christ his sake in whose own words I farther pray Our Father c. Directions for the more profitable Exercise of our private Religion in the state of our actual Engagement in the Christian Life When you go into your Closet in the Morning consider seriously with your self the solemn Engagement you lye under what a crying guilt it would be to violate it what Madness and Folly to recede from it after you have taken so much pains to reduce your self to it what mighty Reasons you have to persist in it and what powerful Assistance is promised you if you be not wanting to your self and then offer up this following Prayer O Eternal God who art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and dost through him bestow so many good and perfect Gifts upon thy Creatures I desire for ever to remember and adore thy Goodness towards me whom thou hast snatch'd as a Firebrand out of the Fire and at length reduced to a serious Purpose of Amendment after a long and obstinate Course of Disobedience in which if I had still persisted I must have perisht everlastingly O blessed be thy great Name that after so many years Rebellion against thee for which I have long ago deserved to be banish'd into utter Darkness I do yet behold the light of another Day and am allowed a farther Space to repent and execute my Purpose of Amendment And now O Lord as thou hast wrought my Will into a good Resolution in despite of all the corrupt Inclinations of my Nature leave not I beseech thee thy Workmanship unfinish'd but by the mighty Operation of thy Grace excite and inable me faithfully to perform what I have so seriously resolved It is a mighty Work that I have undertaken to cleanse a base polluted Nature and root up all its filthy Lusts and Affections and plant it with all the heavenly Dispositions and improve them into everlasting Happiness and thou knowest what strong Oppositions will be made against me and with what powerful Temptations I must struggle throughout the whole Course of my future
Endeavour So that unless thou wilt still go along with me and still quicken and animate me by thy blessed Spirit my Work is so great and my Strength so little that it will be in vain for me to proceed any farther These importunate Temptations that surround me will quickly conquer my present Resolution and I shall do as I have too often done already resolve and sin and sin and resolve and so increase my Guilt by the Treachery of my Vows and Engagements Wherefore for Jesus Christ his sake withdraw not thy self from me but continue to assist my weak Endeavours by thy powerful Grace till thou hast crown'd them with a perfect Victory For which End I beseech thee inspire me more and more with Patience and Constancy of Mind that I may stand fast in my good Resolution in despite of all Temptations to the contrary Suggest to my Mind those holy Examples thou hast set before me especially that of my blessed Saviour and incline my Heart to coppy and imitate them Direct me to some wise and faithful Guide that may be willing and able to assist me in all my spiritual Necessities and by frequently exciting me to dedicate my Actions to thee do thou purifie my Intentions from sinful and from carnal Aims that so I may always live to thy Glory And since thou art present with me wherever I am and dost always behold me whatsoever I am doing O do thou inspire me with such a strong continual and actual Sense of it as may be a constant Check to my sinful Inclinations and render me afraid of offending thee Let thy blessed Spirit be my constant Monitor to put me in mind to consider my Ways and frequently to examine my Actions that so whenever I go astray I may be immediatly convinc'd of it and by my speedy Repentance recover my self before I have wandered too far from my Duty And grant I beseech thee that the sense of my past Failings may still render me more watchful and circumspect for the future that whensoever I have been carelesly or wilfully faulty I may from thenceforth be more cautious of my Actions and more vigilant against the Temptations that betrayed me And that I may not run my self unnecessarily into Temptation for the future preserve me O Lord from sloth and idleness and from intermedling with matters that do not belong to me and do thou still put me in mind to do my own Business and to be faithful and diligent in the State and Calling wherein thou hast placed me And that I may always serve thee with Freedom and Alacrity remove from me I beseech thee all unprofitable Sadness and Melancholy and help me to acquire an equal Tranquillity of Mind and a becoming Chearfulness of Spirit For which end Good Lord do thou inspire me with a lively Sense and earnest Expectation of that blissful State towards which I am travelling that having this glorious Prospect always in my Eye I may go on with Joy and Triumph over all the Difficulties and Temptations that oppose me And that by all these means I may be more and more strengthened and confirmed in the good Resolution I have made do thou stir up my slothful mind to a dilligent Attendance on thy publick Ordinances that so in the solemn Assemblies of thy Saints I may constantly hear thy Word with Reverence and Attention offer up my Prayers with Fervency and Devotion and approach thy Table with all that Humility and Love Gratitude and Resignation of Soul that becomes this solemn Remembrance and Representation of my dying Saviour In these things and whatsoever else is needful to secure my Resolution of Obedience assist me O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thy self and eternal Spirit be render'd all Honor Glory and Power from his time forth and for evermore After this Prayer bethink your self a little what Temptations you are like to meet with in the ensuing Business of the Day and briefly recollect those powerful Arguments which the Gospel urges to fortifie you against them and apply them particularly to the Sin or Sins you are most inclined to and then renew your Resolution to God in the following Prayer O God who art my Hope and Strength upon whose Aid and Assistance I depend look down I beseech thee upon a poor helpless Creature who am going forth into a busie World that is full of Snares and Temptations Blessed be thy Name my Heart continues still resolved upon a through Course of Amendment and therefore here in thy dreadful Presence I do again most solemnly promise and ingage my self that whatsoever Temptations I meet with this Day I will not wilfully commit any Sin no not the Sin I am most inclined to nor omit any Duty how contrary soever it may be too my Nature and that I will faithfully indeavour to keep such a constant Guard upon my self as that I may not be surprized and overtaken through my own Inadvertence and Vnwariness But this O Lord I promise not out of any Confidence in my own Strength but in Dependence upon thee and in Hope that out of thy tender Pity to a poor impotent Wretch thou wilt not be wanting to me in any necessary Assistance but that either thou wilt remove from me all great and importunate Temptations or inable me by thy Grace to repel and vanquish them and this I do most earnestly beseech in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ with whose Prayer I conclude this my morning Sacrifice Our Father c. In the Evening when you find your self best disposed for religious Exercise set apart such Portions of your Time as you can conveniently spare from your necessary Refreshment and Diversion to call your self to Account concerning the Actions of the Day and enquire whether they have been agreeable to your Morning Promise and Resolution and upon Enquiry you will find either that you have faithfully discharged what you promised or that you have sinned unawares or through Carelesness and Self-neglect or that you have sinned wilfully and against your own Conscience If upon Enquiry it appear that you have been faithful to your Morning Engagement represent to your self the great Reason you have to rejoice in it and to praise God for it and then offer up this following Thanksgiving BLessed be thy Name O most gracious and merciful Father for those great and numberless Favours which from time to time thou hast heaped upon me who am less than the least of all thy Mercies particularly for the signal Mercies of this Day for that thou hast not shut thine Ears against my Prayers nor withdrawn thy self from me but hast accompanied me with thy Grace through all those Snares and Temptations to which I have been exposed Praised be thy Name that thou hast not suffered me to be tempted above what I was able that thou hast so powerfully assisted me against those Temptations I have been ingag'd with and by putting so many good Thoughts into my
Mind hast strengthened my Resolution and rendred it so successful and victorious 'T is to thy Grace that I owe all the good I have done and 't is by thy Aid that I have escap'd all the evils I have been tempted to wherefore not unto me O Lord not unto my Strength or Endeavours but unto thy Name be all the Glory and Praise of this days Deliverance and Preservation O never let the Remembrance of this thy Goodness towards me depart from my Mind but let it kindle in me such a grateful Sense as may more and more incite me to love and obey thee and depend upon thee for the future And as thou hast been pleased to conduct me safely by thy Grace through all the Dangers and Temptations of the Day so do thou take me into thy Care and Protection this Night and grant that I may awake in the Morning with a Heart so inflamed with the Remembrance of thy Goodness and so incourag'd with this Days success and so indeared to the Practice of Vertue by the growing Delights and Pleasures of it as that I may persist in my religious Course with greater Courage and Alacrity and this I humbly beg for Jesus Christs sake in whose name and words I farther pray Our Father c. If upon Enquiry you find that you have been failing in your Duty or that you have done any evil Action through meer Heedlessness or Surprize indeavour to affect your self with a sorrowful Sense of your own Folly Weakness and Carelesness and then conclude with this Form of Humiliation O Most blessed Lord God who art infinitely glorious in thy own Righteousness and Holiness and doest for ever will and act according to thy own Nature which is the most perfect Law and Pattern of Goodness To thy spotless Nature no Evil can approach who art of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity with what Confidence then can such a polluted Creature as I am appear in thy Presence how can I lift up my guilty Eyes to thy Throne who to my past Rebellions which have been more in number than the hairs on my Head have this day added so many sinful Failings and Defects that shouldest thou be severe to mark what I do amiss were sufficient to kindle thy Displeasure against me 'T was but this Morning that I ingag'd my self to thee not only to abstain from all wilful and deliberate Sins but also to set a watch upon my Mouth and Actions that I might not offend thee unawares but to my Shame I must acknowledg I have been wofully careless and remiss having this Day suffered my self through my own Inadvertency to be surprized into such Actions as nothing can render pittiable or excusable in thy Sight but the miserable Frailty and Weakness of my Nature What shall I say unto thee O thou Judg of all the Earth I am guilty I am guilty and have nothing to plead for my self but the Blood of Jesus that all-sufficient Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World O Lord I do earnestly repent and am heartily sorry for these my Misdoings the Remembrance of them is grievous unto me the Burthen of them is intolerable have mercy upon me have mercy upon me most merciful Father and for Jesus Christ his sake forgive me all that is past and grant that the Sense of these my Miscarriages may render me more careful and vigilant for the future And let thy blessed Spirit be always present with my Mind to recollect my Distractions and awake my Considerations and warn me of my Dangers that I may no more be surprized by sudden Temptations nor hurried into evil Actions by unexpected Hopes or Fears but do thou so subdue my lower Appetites to my Will my Will to my Vnderstanding and my Vnderstanding to thy Spirit as that under his blessed Conduct I may for the future be prepared against all Temptations and furnish'd to every good work And now O Lord let not the Failings I have been guilty of this Day deprive me of thy gracious Protection this Night but grant that after a safe and comfortable Repose I may awake in the Morning with such a sorrowful Sense of them as may for the future oblige me to be more watchful and resolute against them All which I beg for Jesus Christ his sake with whose Prayer I conclude this my evening Sacrifice Our Father c. If upon Enquiry it appear that you have commited any wilful deliberate Sin indeavour to affect your self with Horror Shame and Compunction for it by representing to your Conscience the monstrous Foulness and Ingratitude the deep Malignity and desperate Madness of your own Action and then conclude with this Form of particular Repentance O Thou most dreadful Majesty of Heaven and Earth who hatest Iniquity and hast proclaimed from Heaven thy fierce Indignation against all Vnrighteousness and Vngodliness of men look down I beseech thee upon me a vile and guilty Wretch who stand here arraigned at thy Tribunal by my own Conscience and am so confounded with the sense of my Sin and of thy just Displeasure against me that I tremble to draw near unto thee and yet I dare not stay from thee I acknowledg my self unworthy infinitely unworthy to come before thee and am prompted by my own Horror and Shame to hide my self from thee but yet I know I must come or I must perish And therefore here O Lord I cast my self at thy Feet and if thou shalt think meet to tread upon me and to spurn me from thy Presence for ever I must own that thou art just and righteous in all thy Ways For thou hast been wonderfully good beyond what I could modestly have wisht or am able to express thou tookest pity upon me when I was all wounded and polluted and weltring in my Blood when I was sleeping securely upon the brink of Perdition and had scarce any Sense or Feeling of my Guilt and Misery in this woful plight didst thou visit my poor Soul and with thy preventing Grace awake me to a sense of my Danger and effectually warn me to flee from the wrath to come And now when thou hadst brought me to my self and to a through Resolution of Amendment and my Soul was in a fair way of Recovery like an ungrateful Wretch as I am I have flown in the Face of my Physitian I have abused his Goodness and baffled his Grace and wilfully and deliberately torn open my Wounds again And this I have done most treacherously as well as ungratefully not only against all the Obligations of thy Goodness but also against my own repeated Vows and Engagements For 't was but this Morning that I solemnly renewed to thee my Promise of Obedience and therein vow'd not to offend thee wilfully upon any Temptation whatsoever but O vile Traytor that I am both to thee and to my own Soul I have by most base basely falsified this my Engagement and this I did with the most unpardonable Circumstance even
and for evermore Amen After this Thanksgiving consider briefly with your self the indispensible Necessity of your Perseverance to the End and how not only vain and fruitless but also hurtful and mischievous to you all your past Labour in Religion will be without it and then conclude your morning Devotion with this Prayer for Perseverance O God who art unchangeably holy and blessed who art the same yesterday to day and for ever and dost never swerve or vary from the essential Goodness and Purity of thy own Nature look down I beseech thee upon me a fickle weak and mutable Creature whom thou hast redeemed to thy self and hitherto conducted by thy Grace and Spirit Thou knowest O Lord the Weakness of my Nature and how unable I am without thy Strength and Assistance to finish the Race which thou hast set before me thou knowest what Temptations I must struggle with and what Difficulties I must yet overcome before I am seiz'd of the blessed Prize I am contending for wherefore since thou hast hitherto been my constant Support and Defence forsake me not now for thy Names sake but as thou hast begun a good Work in me so I beseech thee to finish and compleat it to uphold my feeble Soul by thy free Spirit under all Temptations and Difficulties that so by patient continuance in well-doing I may seek for and at last obtain honour and glory immortality and eternal life For which end O Lord preserve me from being over-confident of my own Abilities and inspire me with a holy Jealousie of my self that whilst I stand I may take heed lest I fall And if at any time I should be so base and so unhappy as to offend thee wilfully which I beseech thee to prevent for thy Mercy and Compassion sake O suffer me not to sleep in my Sin but recal me instantly by the Checks of my Conscience and the Convictions of thy Spirit lest while I add Sin to Sin and one degree of Wickedness to another my Lusts should regain their Dominion over me and thou shouldest be angry with me and reject me from thy Covenant for ever And that I may every Day serve thee more freely and stedfastly wean me I beseech thee more and more from those Temptations to Sin that are round about me and give me such a true understanding of the Nature of all the Goods and Evils of this World as that neither the Flatteries of the one nor the Terrors of the other may ever be able to withdraw me from my Duty And lest while I am mortifying my old Sins I should carelesly permit new ones to spring up in my Nature good God do thou mind me to search and try my own Heart and take a severe Account even of the smallest Defects and Imperfections within me that so I may correct and reform them in time before they are improved into inveterate Habits And grant that I may be always so sensible of my own Imperfection as that I may never rest in any present Attainment but may still be pressing forward to the mark of my high calling in Jesus Christ. Suggest to me I beseech thee frequent Thoughts of my Mortality that so while I have Time and Opportunity I may be preparing for my Departure hence and making provision for a dying hour In order whereunto assist me O Lord I beseech thee strictly to examin and review my past sinful Courses that so if there be any remains of Guilt abiding upon my Conscience I may purge them away by proper Acts of Repentance before I go hence and be no more seen And grant that as I have formerly abounded in Sin so I may now redeem that precious Time I have lost by abounding in the contrary Vertues that so as far as in me lies I may revoke and undo the multitude of my past Sins by doing all the Good I am able for the future And that I may hold out and persevere to the end preserve and continue me in the Communion of thy Church and suffer me not to be led away by the errors of the wicked and to fall from my own stedfastness And finally I beseech thee to grant that in the use of these blessed Means I may so far prevail over the Infirmities and Corruptions of my Nature as that at last I may have a clear and certain Feeling of my own Integrity and Vprightness towards thee that so being from thence assur'd of thy Love and of my Title to eternal Happiness I may run the ways of thy commandments more chearfully and at last finish my Course with unspeakable joy And now O Lord I resign my self to thee take me I beseech thee into thy Care and Protection this Day preserve me from all Evil but especially from Sin and quicken me by thy Spirit unto every good work that so I may serve thee with a free and cheerful Mind and make it my meat and drink to do thy blessed will All which I humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and Mediation I further pray Our Father c. In the Evening when you enter into your Closet consider what is the present Frame and Temper of your Mind and upon Enquiry you will perceive either that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices or that through bodily Infirmity you are indisposed to them or that through Worldly-mindedness and Vanity of Spirit you are cold and apt to be distracted in them or lastly that your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards divine and heavenly things If upon Enquiry you find that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices indeavour to affect your self with Shame and Sorrow for it by representing to your Mind the great Impiety and Baseness the monstrous Folly and Ingratitude of this your present Temper and then offer up this following Prayer O My most gracious God and most kind and merciful Father thou art the best Friend I have in all the World and hast shewn a thousand times more Love to me than ever I shew'd to my self but after all the vast and most indearing Obligations thou hast laid upon me this vile and ungrateful Heart of mine still retains some Dregs of its antient Enmity against thee Had I but the common Sense and Ingenuity of a Man in me how could I think of thee without Raptures of Love how could I draw neer unto thee without Transports of Delight and Complacency But vile and ungrateful that I am I can think of all thy Goodness with cold and frozen Affections and can come into thy Presence not only with Indifference but Reluctancy Good God what am I made of what an insensible Soul do I carry about me O I am asham'd of my self I am confounded with the sense of my own Baseness and yet woe is me I cannot help it I strive to shake off this Clog of my corrupt
Nature but still it hangs upon me and sinks and weighs down my Soul as oft as 't is aspiring towards thee O my God have pity upon me deliver me from this Body of Sin ease my weary and heavy laden Soul of this grievous Burthen under which it labours and groans and suffer not this spark of divine Life which thou hast kindled in me to be opprest and extinguisht by it but so cherish it I beseech thee with the continual Influences of thy Grace as that it may at length it may break through all this Rubbish that suppresses it and finally rise into a glorious Flame Then shall I always approach thee with Joy and breath up my Soul to thee in every Prayer then shall my Heart be firmly united to thee in a devout and chearful Affection and my Prayers shall come up as incense before thee and breathe a sweet-smelling savour into thy Nostrils Hear me therefore O my God I beseech thee and strengthen me with all might in the inward man that for the future I may contend more vigorously and successfully against these vile Inclinations of my Nature which do so miserably hamper and depress my soul that so at last I may be a conqueror and more than a conquerer through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen If through any bodily Infirmity such as Melancholy Weariness Drousiness or Sickness you find your self indisposed to divine Offices indeavour to quicken your sluggish Mind with the Consideration of some one of the most moving Arguments of your Religion such as the Love of God and of your Saviour the Majesty of Gods Presence in which you are or the blessed Immortality you hope for and then address your self to God in this following Prayer O Blessed God thou art a most pure and active Spirit who doest always move with an uncontrolable Freedom and art never hindred or wearied in thy Operations have pity upon me I beseech thee thy poor infirm Creature who am cumbred with this Body of death and so deprest by its manifold Frailties that I cannot lift up my Heart unto thee Thou knowest O Lord my spirit is willing though my flesh is weak my labouring Soul aspires towards thee it stretches forth the Wings of its Desires toward thee and would fain mount up above all earthly things and unite it self with thee in eternal Love but alas its Fervours are dampt and its Endeavours tired by this clog of Flesh that hangs upon it and perpetually sinks and weighs it down again O my God draw near unto me and touch my Mind with such a powerful sense of thee as in despight of these my bodily Indispositions may attract and draw up my Soul unto thee And if it be thy blessed will release me from these fleshly Incumbrances and fit my Body to my Mind that I may serve thee as I desire to do with a fervent and a chearful Spirit But if it shall seem good in thine Eyes to leave me strugling under these bodily Oppressions Lord give me Patience and Submission to thy heavenly Will that so when I cannot approach thee with that Pleasure and Satisfaction I desire I may be heartily content to serve thee upon any Terms and that what I want of Vigour and Chearfulness in my Religion I may make up in Truth and in Reality And O let the Sense of these my present Indispositions cause me more vehemently to long after that free and blessed State wherein with fixt and steady Thoughts with flagrant Love and an entire Devotion of Soul I shall for ever worship praise and glorifie thy name Amen If through present Worldly-mindedness or Vanity of Spirit you find your self cold and apt to be distracted in your Religious Offices indeavour to stir up your Affections by representing to your self the Greatness and Urgency of your spiritual Wants the Vanity of all outward things and the Reality and Fulness of heavenly Enjoyments And do what you can to recollect your wandring Thoughts by setting your self in the Presence of the great God to whose All-seeing Eye every Thought and Motion of your Soul is open and naked And when by thus doing you have composed your Mind into a more serious Frame present this following Prayer O Thou ever blessed Majesty who fillest Heaven and Earth with thy Presence and art always listening to the Supplications of a world of Creatures that hang upon thee open I beseech thee thine Ears of Mercy to me who am unfit and unworthy to approach thee who by setting my Affections upon things below and plunging my self into the Cares and Pleasures of this Life have estrang'd and alienated my Mind from thee and lost that delightful Relish of thee with which I was wont to draw near unto thee And now that I am retired from the World to converse with thee and spread my wants and my desires before thee those worldly Cares and Delights with which I have been too too conversant are importunately thrusting themselves upon me to divert my Thoughts distract my Intentions and carry away my Affections from thee by reason whereof my Mind wanders my Hope droops and my Desires are frozen and whilst I am drawing near thee with my lips my heart is running away from thee O my God have pity upon me pluck my Soul out of this deep mire quicken raise and spiritualize these my groveling Affections Possess this Heart which opens it self to thy gracious Influences with such a strong and vigorous Love to thee as may lift me up above all earthly things and continually carry forth my Soul in vehement Desires after thee that so I may always approach thee with a joyful Heart being glad to leave the company of all other things to go to thee my God my exceeding Joy Give me a sober diligent and collected spirit that is neither choaked with Cares nor scattered with Levity nor discomposed with Passion nor estranged from thee with sinful Prejudice or Inadvertency but fix it fast to thy self with the Indissoluble Bands of an active Love and pregnant Devotion that so when-ever I prostrate my self before thee I may presently be born away far above all these sensible Goods in a high Admiration of thee and a passionate Longing after thee And now O Lord while I am addressing to thee gather in I beseech thee my wandering Thoughts and fix and stay them upon thy self And O do thou touch my cold and earthy Desires with an out-stretched Ray from thy self and cause them to rise and flame up to thee in Fervours answerable to my pressing Wants that I may so ask as that I may receive so seek as that I may find so knock as that it may be opened unto me through Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Redeemer Amen If after this you find your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards God and heavenly things fix your Mind a little while upon the Beauty and Excellency of his Nature or upon some of the most