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 ministering-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
to all intents and purposes most spiteful and malicious O cruel Satan Was there not room enough for thee and all thy Infernal Crew to range up and down in the vast and wide Expanse without intruding so rudely and abruptly into Paradise O spiteful old Dragon What Wrong or Injury did our first Parents do to thee while they were dressing the Garden which their MAKER had so lately placed them in that thou shouldest invent so hellish a Stratagem and in Masquerade make so fatal an Address at once to rob them of their Innocence disturb their present Peace and disappoint them of their future Happiness Be therefore for ever accursed O Beelzebub Thou Prince of Devils and true Original of all Sin and Wickedness for thy malicious Practises to deceive all the Nations of the World for so many Thousand Years whenas thou canst not be ignorant but that the Sins of every Soul that thou has tempted be it Saved or be it Damned shall one Day be set to thy Accompt and add Degrees to thy Eternal Torment From all Evil and Mischief and from all the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits Good Lord deliver us Now here I doubt not but that the ingenious Reader will expect I should insert some short Discourse concerning Blessed and Apostate Spirits and I could heartily wish I had a sufficient Knowledge of and Insight into those Mysteries to answer fully his desires But I am afraid on the one side that he would be very little satisfied with my Endeavours in case I should in imitation of a late learned Author try to squeeze a plausible Description of LOST PARADISE out of St. John's Vision in the Isle of Patmos and fancy to my self a formal and pitcht Battle upon a vast and wide Plain in the North part of Heaven fought between two mighty Hosts of Blessed and Revolted Spirits conducted and led up by mighty Arch-Angels for their Generals riding in Brazen Chariots drawn by foaming Steeds and clad with Adamantine Coats one of which was by a massy Sword cut down to the wast and stain'd with Angelick blood Where the one of these Armies dug up the Terrain of Heaven and with the Materials they there found made Powder Bullets and great Guns it is pity that Bombs were not in use when he wrote that Treatise and with them did great Execution upon their Enemies who in Revenge tore up great Mountains by the Roots and hurl'd them at their Heads with a great number of other Romantick Stories which is Ludere cum Sacris and much fitter for Poets and Painters who when they are got to the top of their Pâ—rnassus frame to themselves Idea's of what Chimera's or Goblins they please And on the other side I judge it altogether needless to make use of the Dark-Lanterns of Homer Ovid Virgil or any of the old Heathen Poets or to borrow the dim Tapers and blinking Lights of Plato Aristotle Seneca or any of those Half-Divine Philosophers or to be beholding to the School-men for their vain Distinctions and splitting of Hairs with their lame Definitions and Explanations of Obscurum per Obscurius Neither am I willing to tire my Reader with endless Quotations out of the Ancient Pious and Learned Fathers who were for the most part somewhat tender in delivering their Opinions about the Doctrin of Spirits but wisely waved the positive Determination of Questions relating to the Invisible World and those deep Mysteries of Incorporeal Beings as not to be fathom'd by the Line and Plummet of Human Understanding And therefore I shall content my self with what Light I can get from the Holy Scriptures and where those are either obscure or silent to be very cautious sober and modest 1. That there were are and ever shall be true and real Subsistencies of Good and Evil Angels the following Passages of Sacred Writ do plainly inform us viz. Before the Angels of God 12 Luke 8. He shall come with all his holy Angels 25 Matth. 31. If God spared not the Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. The Angels that kept not their first Estate Jud. 6. The Angels came 4 Matth. 11. Out of whom went 7 Devils 8 Luke 2. Everlasting Fire Prepared for the Devil and his Angels 25 Matth. 41. But are as the Angels in Heaven 22 Matth. 30. 2. As concerning the Time when the Angels were Created it may be conjectured by comparing several Texts of Scripture and making the following Inference viz. The Sons of God and the Morning-Stars are put together and the Morning-Stars were made before the Earth Job 38. And the Earth was made three Days before the Stars in the Firmament Gen. 1. And consequently Morning Stars cannot be meant Stars of the Firmament Again by Stars are meant Angels 12 Rev. 4. And by the Heavenly Host are meant Angels 2 Luke 13. and 1 Kings 19. 21. And the Heavens and Heavenly Hosts are joined together 2 Gen. And the Heavens said to be Created the First Day Therefore it seems probable that the Sons of God otherwise the Morning-Stars or which is the same thing Angels or the Host of Heaven were created on the first of the Six Days in the Morning 3. That there were great Numbers of both Blessed and Apostate Angels we are assured from several Passages in the Old and New Testament More than 12 Legions or as some compute it 79992 Angels 26 Matth. 23. Thousand Thousands ministred unto him and Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand stood before him 7 Dan. 10. and 5 Rev. 11. An innumerable Company of Angels 12. Heb. 22. A multitude of the Heavenly Host 2 Luke 13. His Tail drew a Third part of the Stars of Heaven 12 Rev. 4. My Name is Legion for we are many 5 Mark 9. Now if Solomon who was LORD but of a very small Spot of the Terrestrial Globe which Globe is by us thought to be little more than a Point if compared with the Starry Firmament had so many Attendants What Number should we think a fit Retinue for the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS Myriades Myriadum will be too small a Summ And so will our ordinary Terms of Arithmetick and we must be forced to borrow some of the learned Commentator upon Archimedes his Arenarius and say Billions Trillions Quadrillions c. of blessed Angels to attend his Throne and to make up the Court of Heaven 4. That there were different Orders and Degrees of Good and Evil Spirits we have reason to believe from the following Texts viz. The great Prince Michael 12 Dan. 1. Beelzebub the Prince of Devils 11 Luke 15. The Prince of the Power of the Air 2 Ephes 2. The Voice of the Arch-Angel 2 Thess 4. 16. Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers 1 Coloss 16. Michael and his Angels and the Devil and his Angels 12 Rev. 3. 9. 5. That all the blessed Angels which attend God's Throne are Ministring Spirits and sometimes appeared in Humane shapes we find in the following Texts
viz. Three Men stood by him 18 Gen. 2. Behold two Men stood by them in shining Garments 24 Luke 4. And there came two Angels to Sodom and Lot went out to meet them 19 Gen. 1. And the Angel of the Lord found her by a Fountain of water 16 Gen. 7. And the Angel of the Lord called unto him viz. Abraham 22 Gen. 11. And Jacob went on his way and the Angel of the Lord met him 32 Gen. 1. The Angel of the Lord went out c. and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians 185 Thousand 2 Kings 19. 31. And there died c. 70 Thousand And when the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem the Lord said to the Angel Hold now thine hand 2 Sam. 24. 15 16. You shall see the Heavens opened and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man 1 John 51. I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak to thee 1 Luke 19. And the Angel ministred unto him 1 Luke 13. And the Angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and rolled away the Stone c. 28 Matth. 2. He knew of a surety that God had sent his Angel Acts 12 11. Who received the Law by the Disposition of Angels 7 Acts 53. Are they not ministring Spirits for the good of c. 11 Hebrews Ejaculation King of Kings and Lord of Lords about whose Throne are always attending Thousands of Thousands and ten Thousand times ten Thousand blessed Angels be graciously pleased to give Charge to some of those ministring Spirits to guide and conduct me throughout my whole Pilgrimage in this Valâ—y of Tears and at last to convey my departing Soul to the place of Everlasting Rest and Happiness What were and are the fatal Consequences of the Disobedience of our First Parents we too well know and find by woful Experience And had not their heavy Sentence been allayed with a happy Promise of a Messias both their and our Condition had been altogether hopeless But what had been the Consequences in case they had remain'd in that purity in which they were created As namely to what Numbers they had increased and multiplied in what parts of the World they had inhabited And if in colder Climates their Bodies had required Covering and Vestments Whether Flesh had been allowed them for Food as well as Fruits and Herbs And the Earth brought forth its Encrease without any Labour or Tillage And lastly if they had never died but after a certain Term of Years had been Translated from Earth to Heaven as Righteous Enoch was and afterwards Elias Are all Questions more curious than necessary as the Case now stands with us And such as I believe the wisest Man living had he all imaginable Helps of Humane Learning and acquired Knowledge would never be able with any certainty to determine Thus much we may reasonably believe and safely conclude That as they were at first created by the wonderful Contrivance and Mechany of the blessed Trinity and made after G O D's own Image and Likeness they were truly Noble and Excellent Creatures Of their Bodies we have a Specimen by the Dissection of one of our own they being undoubtedly the same with ours as to the Figure Number and Uses as well of their Exterior as their Interior parts though extreamly different in Perfection and Durahoâ— those lasting more than twice as many Hundreds as ours do now Scores of Years even after they were mortified by their Fall and were Condemned by G O D himself the one to daily Labour and Tillage and to eat his Bread by the sweat of his Brows and the other to be subject to the Laws and Will of a Husband to struggle with the sharp Pains and Throws of Child-bed and to have her Griefs and Sorrows greatly multiplied In the Dissection of Humane Bodies what thinking Men can take a serious view of the Skin the Membranes the Flesh the Fibers the Veins the Arteries the Nerves the Ligaments the Cartilages and the Bones as likewise of the three Cavities or Venters of the Trunk namely the Abdomen the Chest and the Head with all things therein contained as also the Arms Thighs and Legs with their different Positions Compositions and admirable Use without being struck with great Wonder and Astonishment and crying out with good King David Behold I am fearfully and wonderfully made When he considers how closely the Stomach with the help of its Fibers embraces the Meat that is chewed in the Mouth and the Drink that is received in and swallowed down and mixeth therewith specifick fermentatious Juices bred in its inner Coat and impregnated by the Saliva till the finer parts by a convenient heat become a white milky Cream after which together with the thicker Mass with which they are as yet involved by the Constriction of the Stomach they pass down to the Guts where by the mixture of the Bile and the pancreatick Juice they are by another manner of Fermentation quite separated from the thicker Mass and so received of the Lacteal Vessels as the thicker is ejected by the Stool When he rightly considers the Figure and Motion of that admirable Machine the Heart and how it is suspended in the Body by the Vessels that go in and out of it and that as an ordinary Forcing-Engine being placed in the middle of a City or Town draws the Water of an adjoining Source or Fountain into its own Bowels by one Motion or stroak of the hand and the help of a Valve to keep it from returning back again and then thrusts or forces out the same Water by another stroke of that hand and the help of another Valve into another Pipe which is afterwards distributed into smaller Branches to supply the Uses of the several and respective Houses So the Heart receives the Blood out of the Vena Cava into its Ventricles by a Djastole or Dilatation and then thrusts or forces it out again by a Systole or Contraction into the Arteries and out of these into the parts that are to be nourished from whence it is to be resolved by the Capillary Veins which conduct it back through the larger Veins into the Vena Cava again and this by the help of divers Semi-lunar or Semi-circular Valves curiously and conveniently placed in the aforementioned Vessels and Passages and thus is made the admirable Circulation of the Blood But how or by what secret Power the Heart receives its Motion and makes its constant pulses is known to God alone the Maker and Searcher of all Hearts We are apt to admire the Skill of an Artist who can make us a Pendulum-Clock of the choicest Brass and Iron to vibrate with a just and equal Motion for the space but of one Year and that with the help of a suspended Weight What shall we then think of a Movement composed of fleshy Muscles and Fibers suspended in Methusalem's body and continuing its Pulses without
did immediately prove on both his and their Testimony to be Divine And consequently were an absolute Confirmation of our Saviour's being the true Messias and sent by God himself from Heaven for the Redemption of lost sinners and opening the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers This Argument of Miracles was urged by Christ himself who certainly knew best the force of it against the Scribes Pharisees and unbeliving Jewes And he did acknowledge that if he had not done those things which no other Man on Earth could do they might have had a fair excuse for their Unbelief In the time of Tiberius says Josephus a Jew by Nation and of a contrary Profession and wrote his History about 86 years after Christ There was one Jesus a wise Man if it be lawfull to call him a Man who was a Worker of great Miracles and a teacher of such as love the Truth and had many as well Jews as Gentiles who clove unto him This was Christ and when Pilate upon his being accused by the Men of our Nation bad sentenced him to be Crucified yet did not they who had first loved him forsake him for he appeared to them the Third Day alive again according to what the Prophets divinely inspired had foretold concerning him As they had done an innumerable number of very strange things besides and even to this day both the Names and sort of Persons called Christians so named from him do remain To which Attestation of Josephus were it necessary might be added great numbers of Testimonies from ancient Writers I must needs acknowledge That our blessed Saviour's Apostles though the greatest part of them were poor 〈◊〉 men of low Birth small Fortune and mean Education were by the Spirit of God endued with the wonderful Gift of speaking strange Languages and other miraculous Powers that so they might be better enabled to disperse the Gospel into many remote Countries as they afterwards did Namely St. Peter in Sicily Britain and Africa as likewise at Antioch and Rome St. Andrew in Galatia Bithinia and all along the Euxine Sea St. James in Spain Britain and Ireland St. John in Asia and other parts of the East St. Bartholomew in India St. Thomas among the Parthians Medes Persians Carmans Hircans Bachtrians the Asians Ethiopians and Indians Simon the Zelot in Egypt Syrene and Africk St. Jude in the Cities of Arabia St. Matthias in Cappadocia St. Mark in Alexandria And though St. James the Just did stay at Jerusalem yet probably he might have some Converts of almost all Nations who frequently resorted to that City Parthians Medes and Elamites Dwellers in Mesopotamia Cappadocia Pontus Asia and divers other places To all these may be very well added St. Paul who though he was none of the Twelve yet he was not the least of the Apostles and having received his Commission from Christ himself in a Vision left Damascus and preached the Gospel at Antioch Seleusia Cyprus Pamphilia Iconium Lystra Pisidia Galatia Macedonia Samothracia Neapolis Thessalonica Beraea Athens Corinth Ephesus Jerusalem Illiricum Sclavonia Troas and Rome Yet notwithstanding all this it was impossible that these poor Men should at the same time carry on any private Design of their own being all of them sent forth as Lambs among Wolves and foretold by their own Master whom all but Judas had seen scourged Spit on and crucified between two Thieves that they should be persecuted and hated of all Nations for his Name sake and the Gospel which yet at their peril they were to preach and publish and after all sorts of Affronts and cruel Usage should suffer shameful and ignominious Deaths which they all did as ancient Historians assures us St. John Christ's beloved Disciple excepted neither had he escaped as one of them tells us had God permitted the Cauldron of burning Oil into which he was thrown by Domitian's Order to put an end to his life As for St. Peter he for baffling Simon Magus was by the Command of the Emperor Nero crucified at Rome with his Head downwards St. Andrew was at Patra a City of Achaia by the Proconsul's Order first scourged seven Lictors successively whipping his naked Body and then tied not nailed to the Cross to prolong his Torments and was two whole days before he expired St. James was beheaded in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa Son of Aristobulus and Grand-child to Herod the Great in whose Reign Christ was born St. Bartholomew was first flead alive and then crucified at Albanople in Armenia St. Matthew is said to be Martyred at Naddaba in Ethiopia St. Thomas suffered Martyrdom at Malipur in the Kingdon of Cormandel where by the Brachmans he was first loaded with stones and Darts and then run through with a Launce St. James the Less was thrown down from a Pinnacle of the Temple Simon the Zelot is said to have suffered great Cruelties in Britain and then to be crucified by the Infidels Jude suffered Martyrdom in Persia for rebuking the Superstitions of the Magi. St. Matthias as is conjectured was crucified by the barbarous people of Cappadocia St. Mark was seized on by the Alexandrians at the celebration of their God Serapis where they dragg'd him by the legs over rugged and uneven ways till his flesh was torn his blood wasted his Spirits decayed and his blessed Soul expired To these may be added the cruel Usage of St. Paul and St. Luke St. Luke was by the Infidels hang'd on an Olive Tree in Greece St. Paul was by Nero's cominand beheaded at Aquae Salvae about three Miles from Rome for having converted one of the Emperor's Concubines so that she utterly refused any further compliance with his wanton desires One man in an Age may throw away his Life on purpose to get himself a Name and be famous as Erostratus who set on fire the Temple of Ephesus or Ravillac who stabb'd a King of France But for all these Apostles and many thousands of their Disciples and Converts to throw away their Lives and thereby to purchase nothing but ignominy and disgrace for alas they were accounted as the Scum of the Earth and the Off-scouring of all things it can never so much as enter into the Thoughts of any Man of Reason or Sense Besides there were hardly ever committed in the World any kind of notorious Crimes or treacherous Designs contrived but at some time or other they were discovered by one or more of the Criminals But let the ablest Historian in the World if he can produce a real Instance of any of the Apostles or Martyrs among so many thousands possibly Millions whose cruel Sufferings for the Faith of Jesus made them openly recant or confess themselves guilty of any fraudulent Practises or setting up a false Worship to deceive all Nations After all this tell me ye foolish and perverse Atheists Who has bewitcht you to build your Tabernacles of Happiness upon such sandy Foundations or to sell your immortal souls to the Devil at so cheap and easy rates
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
for removing them or else for giving sufficient strength to withstand them If at any time we are threatned with outward and temporal Dangers by our Enemies or Persecutors we are to rest upon Him knowing that the God whom we serve is able to deliver us and that He will surely do it if He sees it best for us if not that He will as certainly allay our Sufferings with that inward peace and those spiritual Comforts that neither the World can give us nor the worst of our Enemies can ever take from us and therefore we must be careful never to attempt or seek to deliver our selves from such like dangers by any unlawful or indirect means forasmuch as in so doing we utterly forfeit God's more powerful aid and assistance If we are in want either of Spirituals or Temporals we are to trust and rely upon Him for a seasonable and plentiful supply of both kinds He having graciously promised to give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him 11 Luke 13. And as for bodily wants those who truly serve and fear him are assured that they shall want no good thing that is sit for them 34 Psal 10. And again Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that hope in his Mercy to deliver their souls from death and to feed them in the time of Famine 33. Psal 18 19. Why should we distrust a God who is able whenever he pleases to make Rivers flow out of hard Rocks or prepare a Table in the Wilderness who clothes the Lillies and feeds the young Ravens with whom the very hairs of our Heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded 6. To submit entirely and with all humility to His holy Will and heavenly Wisdom in all His Dispensations and dealings with us and that from a deep sense of our own meaness and vileness and his transcendent Excellencies and Perfections and that infinite distance and disproportion that is between him and us To be fully perswaded that the State and Condition in which He places us for the time being is that which is best and most convenient for us however contrary to our own Desires and Inclinations And to bear our Afflictions with Christian Patience that so all His Fatherly Chastisements may have their blessed Effects and bring forth the fruits of Righteousness in our future Lives and Conversations 7. To Honour Him and to pay a due Reverence and Respect to whatever immediately relateth to His Worship and Service To have no other Gods besides Him whether Idols made with hands or those of our own beloved Lusts Not to take His holy Name in vain in our ordinary Discourses much less to prophane it with wicked Oaths bitter Curses or horrid Blasphemies To pay a due Respect to the Ministers of His Word and Sacraments and never to defraud them of their Dues and Maintenance which is in effect to rob God of his Tythes and Offerings and to commit the highest Sacriledge To keep holy His own Day and indeed all other Days solemnly set apart for His Worship and Service not following our own Ways nor speaking our own Words nor thinking our own Thoughts much less going to Church to hear News or to make Bargains with our Neighbours as the custom of some is and so to make their Fathers house a House of Merchandize or else to observe and reflect upon each others Dresses and which is much worse than all this to employ a great part of the time in Whispers Slaunders and Back-bitings or else in wanton Looks lascivious Glances or amorous Courtships and so to turn the House of Prayer and Supplications into a Scene of Pride and Vain-glory Slander and Calumny Lasciviousness and wanton Behaviour Lastly to come to the Lord's Table with due preparation and a sincere Intention to renew our Covenant made with him in Baptism then to receive with all Humility and Thankfulness those blessed Pledges of Eternal Life and Happiness 8. To be meek and lowly and to have a very mean Opinion of our selves which is the only Soveraign Remedy against Pride and Vain-glory and the best Expedient we can make use of throughout the whole Course of our Lives for the conquering our unruly Passions and subduing our inordinate Affections And this we must do unless we intend to make God our profest and open Enemy and what the issue and end of that will be with obstinate Offenders the following Texts will soon inform and satisfy us 16 Prov. 18. Pride goeth before Destruction and an haughty Spirit before a Fall Again 16 Prov. 5. Every one that is proud in Heart is an abomination to the Lord and though hand join in hand he shall not be unpunished Nebuchadnezzar was in his time for ought we know the greatest King upon Earth and yet for his Pride was driven from among Men to dwell and feed with the Beasts of the Feild 9. To be modest and chast in all our Actions Words and Thoughts and not to spend the flower of our Age and the choicest part of our Lives in Chambering Wantonness Adultery Fornication and all Uncleanness and to pull down many grievous and heavy Judgments upon our own heads 10. To be Temperate in all things that is to say in our Eating and Drinking and not squander our precious Time throw away our Estates and ruin our Families most shamefully wast such quantities of God's good Creatures as might relieve great numbers of indigent Persons prejudice our own Healths beget Quarrels and Contentions and many times shorten our days and bring our selves to untimely Ends and which is worst of all forfeit our precious and immortal Souls by Gluttony and Drunkenness and all manner of Riot and Excess To be temperate in our Sleep which was ordained by God for the refreshment of our frail Bodies that so they might not be wearied out with continual Toil and Labour and that we might be enabled from time to time to perform such Duties as Religion or Works of our Calling require of us And forasmuch as some Constitutions require more than others every Man must be governed by his own Experience for whoever does not limit himself does not only wast his precious time but also injures his Body and makes it a very sink of Humors and subject to sundry Diseases and Distempers To be moderate in our Recreations which are sometimes necessary both for the Body and Mind always provided that they are such as neither dishonour God injure our Neighbour take up too much of our time or divert our Minds from our more necessary Imployments in the number of which lawful and useful Recreations can very hardly be reckoned the sitting up whole Days and Nights at Cards and Dice and immoderate use of other Pastimes which I forbear to mention but leave the consideration of all such Excesses to every Man 's private Conscience To be moderate in Apparel and Dresses since Apparel and Garments were the Effects of the Transgression of our First
thrown away their Lives and were accessary to their own Deaths Pag. 60. he says That Contempt is the Immobility of the Heart But this cannot be for when the Pulse ceases to beat the Man can no longer live and consequently this Author contemning all sorts of Laws Learning and Religion could never have lived to finish his Leviathan Our Saviour acknowledges that if he had not done such Miracles as no Man else could do the Scribes and Pharisees might have had for their Unbelief some just pretence But this Author avers pag. 148. That Miracles are not at all sufficient to give evidence But sure I am that this bold Assertion of his which is a Wonder though not a Miracle gives the whole World a sufficient Evidence of his great Arrogance and Impudence Our Saviour says That the Reprobates shall go into everlasting Punishment And St. Paul says That this Mortal must put on Immortality but this Author says p. 345. That the Reprobates Bodies shall not be immortal And pag 245. That no individual Person shall be punished with Torment Eternal Pag. 360. he says That to pray to the King for fair Weather is Idolatry But if the King command a Man to do so and he do it it is no Idolatry Pag. 360. he tells us That if a Man who is no Pastor worships an Idol and others follow him this is no Scandal given However I wonder he should not think this to be a very scandalous Doctrine If the Author were yet living I should take the boldness to give him this civil Item oportet mendacem esse memorem especially since he asserts pag. 60. That Imagination and Memory are the same thing For if so I greatly wonder how he could imagine so many Falsities and Contradictions and yet at the same time not remember them For my part I must confess I do not apprehend Imagination and Memory to be the same thing and if it were practicable I should thus reason the Case with him Sir Your Leviathan is a product of meer Imagination for never any such thing yet was But of that which never yet was you could have no Remembrance Egregie magister ergo falleris I cannot here omit his positive Assertion in the same page That all Men have equal Faculties of Body and Mind but God forbid it should be true for then every Man equal to him as to Education and acquired Learning would write and publish a Leviathan and by that means all Booksellers shops would soon be fill'd with impious and pernicious Books What other Men may judge of this his positive Assertion I know not For my part I am not of that Opinion That a Marius Dioclesian Julius Caesar or Tamberlane had not Gifts and Endowments of Nature far above a Plebeian or Common Souldier or that every Pesant or Country Thatcher had equal parts to compare with Jack Straw or Wat Tyler I must needs confess That if all other Men were like the Author of this Leviathan I should then conclude That all Men are indeed both by Nature and Art in a State of War It 's too plain That he was in War with the whole World and its great pitty the whole World was not in War with him when he first published his accursed Leviathan He was in War with Man's Creation and in War with his Redemption in War with the Law of Moses and in War with the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in War with the Subsistence of Departed Souls and in War with that of Angels and Spirits and yet I have heard it reported of him that he was afraid to be alone in a dark Room in War with the marvellous Act and Deeds of the Old Prophets and in War with our blessed Saviour's Miracles in War with those Heavenly Mansions which the holy Jesus is gone before to prepare for his blessed Saints and Martyrs and in War with the place of Eternal Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels or else if it be true what is commonly said of him when his Man was rubbing his Body in a Morning he would never have adventured to pronounce such Words in raillery as Rub you Rogue for Eternity in War with all civil Common Wealths and Established Laws and in War with all Church Governments and Gospel Ordinances in War with all Moral Honesty and Rules of Sobriety and in War with Religion and all its Fundamentals in War with the Works of Aristotle and the Heathen Philosophers and in War with Euclid's Elements and Mathematical Demonstrations in War with Schools and Universities and in War with all the Liberal Sciences in War with his own Definitions and in War with his own pernicious Principles between many of which there is a much greater Contrariety and Distance than he allows at the Resurrection between the Saints and Reprobates making all both Good and Bad to stand at the last Day upon the Earth's superficies pag. 242. And making the Punishment of the one to consist only in beholding for a short time the Glory and Happiness of the other How they must be placed I do not well understand some few of the Reprobates I confess might look over the shoulders of others but they being so exceeding numerous the Saints Antecii and Perecii must certainly have great difficulty to see them plainly But how to find Expedients or how to make Spectacles for the eyes of their Antipodes would have been past the Author 's little Skill in Geometry or Opticks As to the Design in general of this impious Discourse I am willing to believe that the Author 's Res Angusta Domi and personal Vain-glory might move him in such a juncture as that was to fish in troubled waters in hopes to advance his Fortune and get himself a Name But Satan who stood behind the Curtain and prompted him to this Undertaking had undoubtedly a further and deeper Design namely to encourage all Persons whatever to follow the Devices and Desires of their own hearts without the least fear or dread of burning Lakes or endless Torments by shamefully distorting and wresting the plain Texts of the holy Scriptures by searching for Errours in the Books of Moses by undervaluing and lessening our Saviour's Miracles and so endeavouring to overthrow the Fundamentals of Christian Faith by calling in question the Subsistence of blessed Angels Unclean Spirits and Departed Souls by turning heavenly Mansions and the place of Eternal Torments into meer Metaphors And lastly by setting up a New Common-Wealth and a Soveraign who by an incomprehensible Law of Nature must have the absolute Command not only of the Estates and Bodies but also of the Souls and Consciences of all his Subjects though it be to deny the Doctrine of Christ and his and to Worships Idols and Sacrifice to Devils This Arch Enemy of Souls is alas too well acquainted with Humane Frailties which are in truth the effects of his beguiling our First Parents and knows That Quicquid volumus facile credimus that very slender
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
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