good Lord. O Lord hear my praier and let my cry come unto thee Amen Amen And that for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us Our Father which art art in heaven c. Morning Prayer O Lord our heavenly Father almighty everlasting God which hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day defend us in the same with thy mighty power grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to doe alwayes that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Evening Prayer LIghten our darkness we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen IV. THANKSGIVING Thanksgiving is a branch of praier which like the Leper in the Gospell turns back to God with a confession and â—â—â—â—â—tiation of what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath done for 〈◊〉 And it is so necessary and essâ—â—tiall a part of Gods woâ—ship that it is the very condition of the obligation wherein God hath bound himself by his promise to hear us Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal 50.15 so that if we praise him not we break the Covenant and are usurpers upon all his blessings and deliverances Thy loving kindness is better then life therefore my lips shall praise thee Psal 63.3 4. Thus will I magnifie thee al my life and lift up my hands in thy Name Seven times a day do I praise thee Ps 119.164 My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousnesse and thy salvation all the day long for I know no end thereof Ps 71.15 While I live I will praise the Lord I will sing praises to my God while I have any being Psal 146.2 Blesse the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Psal 103.2 O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Psal 51.15 THE LETANY of Thanksgiving FOR the grace of Election by which I was chosen according to the good pleasure of thy will My soule doth magnifie thee O Lord. For the grace of Creation by which I was made after thine image in righteousnesse and holiness My soule doth magnifie thee O Lord. For the grace of Redemption by which I was recovered from the guilt dominion of sin from the power of Satan and the second death My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For the grace of Vocation wrought in me by the inward working of thy Spirit the outward ministry of thy holy Word and Sacraments My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For the grace of Justification whereby I am clothed with the righteousness of Christ Jesus My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For my measure of Sanctification by which I am made a new Creature My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For my formation in the womb my birth my baptisme the illumination of my understanding the correction of my will and all the spiritual graces received froÌ„ thee My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For the liberty of thy Word and Sacraments for thy sanctuary and solemne assemblies and for thy gracious presence with us in them My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For thy constant providence in supplying my necessities and defending me from dangers My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For my good parents my education my health liberty and peace for the comfort of my friends for my daily bread and for all thy temporall blessings My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For thy prevention of evils subvention in evils deliverance from evil My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For thy patience in forbearing for thy mercy in forgiving for thy bounty in giving even when I sinned against thee with a high hand My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For my life and the season given me for repentance good works and for thy holy means of grace and salvation My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For the checks of mine own conscience for the instruction of thy word for the motions of thy good Spirit which have either restrained me from sin or caused me to repent of it My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For thy fatherly corrections by some spirituall conflicts with Satan by diseases or hurts in my body by griefs of mind losse of goods molestation of injuries discomforts for or from those to whom naturall civil or Christian acquaintance had indeared me My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For all the holy Patriarchs and Prophets for the ever blessed Mother of our Lord for all the holy Apostles and Evangelists for all the godly Bishops and Pastors of the Church for all the noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors and for all the faithfull that have lived and died in the Lord My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For the happy translation of all Saints departed in peace from this vale of tears to the inheritance of the just My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For thine holy Angels and the charge which thou hast given them to minister unto us to pitch their tents about us to keep us in all our ways and to convey our souls into Abrahams bosome My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith and the fountain and foundation of all these favours For his conception birth For his circumcision and baptism For his fasting and temptation For his doctrine and miracles For his agony and bloody sweat For his cross passion For his death burial For his victorious descension into hell For his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven For his sitting at the right hand of God to make intercession always for us For his sending the holy Ghost to a bide with his Church for ever and for his being with us to the end of the world My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For thy blessed Spirit the enlightner of my understanding the sanctifier of my will the helper of my infirmities the comforter of my conscience the pledge and witness of my adoption and the seal of my salvation My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For all my personall particular deliverances for the religion peace plenty strength and honour of the State wherein I live for saving it all times especially from the Spanish invasion and the Popish powder treason My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. For all the secret favours which thou hast done for us for all the mercies which we have received from thee and are slipt out of our remembrance and for all the goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and
long ver 6. My loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh ver 7. I am feeble and sore broken I have rored by reason of the disquietness of my heart ver 8. Lord all my desire is before thee my groaning is not hid from thee ver 9. Forsake me not O Lord O my God be not far from me ver 21. Make haste to help me O Lord my salvation ver 22. DIRECTIONS for the Lords Day HEE that would spend a Sunday well living where he hath the liberty of Gods house and Ordinances must do something before Church something at Church something after Church Before Church 1. So soone as we awake we should have our hearts affected with the majesty and solemnity of the day putting a difference betwixt it and others considering that it is The Lords day An holy day An honourable day Great is the honour of this day above others God the Father honoured it On this day he formed the elements of the world On this day he created the Angels On this day he first rained Manna upon the Israelites God the Son honoured it with his glorious resurrection with his gracious apparitions after he was risen For On this day he appeared to the two Maries that came to the Sepulchre Matth. 28.1 9. On this day he appeared to his Disciples assembled together Thomas then not being present John 20.19 On this day he appeared again to his Disciples Thomas being with them Joh. 20.26 On this day S. John saw him walking in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks Rev. 1.10 13. God the holy Ghost honoured it On this day he descended upon the Apostles in a golden showr of all spirituall gifts and graces Since which time The Church hath honoured it and made it the day of their solemn Assemblies Acts 20.7 What God and his Church hath thus honoured that do not thou profane Secondly we must lay aside the cares of the world and the works of our ordinary callings leaving them behind us as Abraham did his servants when he went to offer his sacrifice upon Mount Moriah Thirdly we must cleanse our selves by confession repentance for otherwise our prayers in the Church will not be acceptable to God nor his ordinances profitable to us Will ye steal murder commit adultery and swear falsly and burn incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom ye know not and come and stand before me in this house Jer. 7.9 10. Shall I be enquired of by you ô house of Israel As I live saith the Lord I will not be enquired of by you Ezek. 20.31 God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of him and doth his will him he heareth John 9.31 The Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering But unto Cain and his offering he had not respect Gen. 4.4 5. I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compasse thine Altar Psal 26.6 Hence was it that the Jews writ over the doors of their Synagogues this saying of David This is the gate of the Lord the righteous shall enter into it Psal 118.20 And now being thus qualified prepared go unto the house of God and in the way meditate of some of these sentences One thing I have desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwel in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple Psal 27.4 I was glad when they said unto me Let us go up unto the house of the Lord Psal 122.1 We will go unto his Tabernacles we wil worship at his footstoole Psal 132.7 My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord Psal 84.2 A short morning Prayer for the Sunday O Most glorious and immortall God the eye of whose providence doth never slumber I yeeld thee humble and hearty thanks that thou hast preserved me from the perils of the night past brought me safe to the light of this day and the comforts thereof It is a day holy and honourable a day which is consecrated to thine own service and set apart for thine own honour Let my heart therefore gracious God be so affected with the glory and majesty of it that I may not doe mine own works nor seek mine own pleasure nor speak mine own words but may wait upon thee in the use of thine ordinances discharge those weighty duties which thou requirest of me Now forasmuch as thou art a God of pure eyes and wilt be sanctified in all those that draw near unto thee a God who regardest not the sacrifice of fools nor hearest sinners though they tread in thy courts and call upon thee in the House of praier I beseech thee to pard on and forgive me all my sins remove them out of thy presence as far as the East is from the West accept of me in the death and passion of thy Son Jesus Christ that when I shall come into thy Temple to compasse thine Altar my prayer may come up before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice And as I desire that thou wouldest hear me calling upon thee in my prayers so give me grace to hear thee calling upon me in thy word It is the word of truth of wisdome of righteousnesse of reconciliation that Word which is able to save my soul in the day of the Lord Jesus grant therefore that I may hear it with reverence receive it with meeknesse and mingle it with faith that it may accomplish in me that good work for which thou hast sent it And that this day may be every where a day of holinesse unto thee sanctifie and prepare the hearts of all thy people for thy service fill the places of thy worship with thy glory be present with the assemblies of thy Saints open the mouths of thy Ministers second the ministry of thy word by the efficacy of thy Spirit that it may be powerfull to the casting down of the strong holds of sin and Satan to the advancing inlarging of thy Kingdome to the edifying building up of thy body the Church and to the perfecting of thy Saints till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man Thou ô God who art able to do exceeding abundantly for us above all that we can ask or think hear me and answer me even for the sake of thy dear Sonne Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed given all power praise might majesty and dominion now and evermore Amen At Church COnsider first the place where thou art it is The gate of heaven Holy ground The house of God Josh 5.15 Gen. 28.17 O how amiable are thy tabernacles ô Lord of Hosts A day in thy Courts is better then a thousand Blessed are they that may dwell
salvation and we must take the cup of thanksgiving The Disciples when they had received it sang an Hymne And an Hymne is a song of praise and blessing Mat. 29.30 Express thy thankfulnesse in Psalmes and Hymnes and spirituall songs publickly in the congregation privately in thine own family Psalmes fit for this are Psal 8. Psal 23. Psal 66. Psal 103. c. Secondly as there must be thanksgiving to God so there must be almsgiving to the poor It was a custome in the Primitive Church and is still continued in many places to have gatherings and collections for the poor at the administration of this Sacrament Davids servants told Nabal that they came to him in a good day for it was a day of feasting 1 Sam. 25.8 This is a day of feasting to thee Let it not be a day of fasting to thy poor brethren God hath fed thee with the bread of life canst thou deny the crums of bread that fall from thy table He hath refreshed thee with the bloud of his Son with the wine of his sanctuary canst thou deny the drink of thy buttery or a cup of cold water Give chearfully God loves a chearfull giver 2 Cor. 9.6 Give liberally Consider how great a gift God hath this day bestowed upon thee His Son His begotten Son His only begotten Son His beloved Son His dear Son Col. 1.13 Thirdly take heed thou relapse not into thy old sins I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Cant. 5.3 If after we have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ we be again intangled therein and overcome If with the Dog we return to our own vomit again or with the Sow that was washed to our wallowing in the mire The latter end will be worse with us then the beginning 2 Pet. 2.20 22 Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Sonne of God and hath counted the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace Heb. 10.29 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he saith I will return into my house frō whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept garnished Then goeth he and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked then himself and they enter in and dwell there And the last estate of that man is worse then the first Mat. 12.43 44 45. He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body if he touch it again what availeth his washing Ecclus 34.25 A short prayer after the receiving of this Sacrament O Most gracious God from whose bounty every good and perfect gift is derived I and all that is within me praise and magnifie thy holy name for all the mercies and favours which from time to time thou hast bestowed upon me Especially I thank thee for thy Son Jesus Christ the fountain and foundation of all blessings that thou hast sent him into the world to take our nature upon him and to die for us and that thou hast fed me who am unworthy of the least of thy favours with the precious merits of his death and passion Blessed Lord God thou hast been pleased this day to set thy seal to the pardon and forgivenesse of all my sins oh let me not tear it off again by unthankfulnesse or relapsing into my old sinnes from which thou hast purged me lest my last end be worse then my beginning But when hereafter I shall be tempted by the divel allured by the world or provoked by mine own flesh lay before mine eyes by thy remembring Spirit how deare the expiation of my sins cost my Lord Saviour Christ Jesus even the effusion of his most precious and sacred bloud that in the contemplation of his death and application of his most bitter passion I may die daily unto sin and so shew the Lords death till he come That when he shall come and bring his reward with him I may receive that crown of righteousnesse which he hath purchased prepared for all those that love and expect the day of his appearing with the precious price of his incorruptible blood And whereas I have this day renewed my covenant with thee my God in vows and purposes of better obedience assist me by thy grace and strengthen me by thy power that I may pay the vows which I have made unto thee that by virtue of thy heavenly nourishment I may grow up in grace godliness till at last I come to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus in whose most blessed name and words I conclude these my imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught me O our Father c. EVERY DAYES Considerations Consider 1. What good thou hast done 2. What good thou daily doest 3. What thou shalt do hereafter Consider these in The Morning when thou risest The Day when thou walkest The Night when thou wakest These Considerations wel meditated on will the better prepare thee for these ensuing meditations of Death SECTION I. Meditations of Death THE life of a Christian is or should be a continuall meditation of death The flight of a Bird is directed by her train the course of a ship is steered by the helm so is the life of a man ordered by the serious apprehension of his last end The first man was called Adam which signifies a piece of red earth He was cloathed in the skins of dead beasts He was adjudged to the earth to dig and delve in it God would have his name his garments his imploiment continuall remembrancers of his grave and monitors of his mortality It is reported by the Ancient Fathers that the people of God used the 90. Psalm in form of a daily prayer In which Psalm there is a long acknowledgment of the shortnesse of our lives and this petition to God So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdome ver 12. Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their later end Deut. 32.29 Whatsoever thou takest in hand remember the end thou shalt never do amisse Eccles 7.36 CAP. I. That the meditation of death is profitable against pride NEbuchadnezzars Image had a head of gold brest and arms of silver belly thighes of brasse but feet of clay Whatsoever thy wealth wisdome birth beauty state or strength be thy foundation is in the dust Job 4.19 There is a great difference betwixt a Cedar and a shrub a Vine and a bramble so long as both grow but cut them down and burn them there will be no difference in their ashes Chess-men are distinguished upon the boord whilest the game is playing but being done they are tumbled into a bag without order In this life some are set upon the throne others are grinding at the mill Some are cloathed in
therefore from the bar of thy justice to the bowels of thy mercy beseeching thee in that day to deal with the soul of thy servant not as a severe Judge but as a mercifull Jesus It will be O Lord a day of wrath but gather me under the shadow of thy wings untill the indignation be past over It will be a day of darknesse of gloominesse but lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall be saved It will be a day of Judgment but in that day by thine agony and bloody passion and by whatsoever thou hast done or suffered for me good Lord deliver me And to this end I beseech thee give me grace to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world to keep a good conscience void of offence towards thee my God and towards all men to abound always in the works of charity and mercy and to judg and condemn my self here that I may not be condemned hereafter That so whensoever this day shall seise upon me I may not be bound up with the bundle of tares which shall be cast into unquenchable fire but gathered with the wheat into thy garners and set with the sheep upon thy right hand and called in the number of those blessed ones to inherit a Kingdom that Crown of righteousnesse which thou hast purchased and prepared for all those that love and expect that day of thy appearing Now unto thee ô Christ together with thy Father thy blessed Spirit be ascribed all power praise dignity and dominion now and for ever Amen A PRAYER FOR the Morning OEternall and most glorious Lord God and in Iesus Christ our merciful and loving Father we thine unworthy creatures sinful dust and ashes are here in all humility of souls bodies prostrate at the lowest footstool of thy glorious Majesty beseeching thee to bow down thine ears unto our prayers and to open thine eyes upon our supplication who from the ground bottom of our hearts do acknowledg and confess that we have been unprofitable servants prodigall children bad stewards of that time which thou hast afforded us for repentance good works of those talents which thou hast committed to our improvement If we put our hands into our bosomes we must needs draw them out all leprous For we are the brood of rebellious and disobedient Parents our hearts are cages of unclean birds of noisome lusts and the thoughts thereof have been evil and only evill and that continually And if ô Lord we look forth unto the actions of our lives there is no sin which we have not committed no commandment which we have not broken These eys which now look up unto heaven have beheld vanity these tongues which now call upon thee have blasphemed thee and these hands which we now lift up unto thee have been many times lift up against thee and thy Statutes So that we have made our selves unworthy of the least of thy mercies but worthy of the greatest of thy judgments But deal not with us after our sins neither reward us according to our iniquities Spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast created after thine own Image and redeemed with thine own Blood And according to the multitude of thy tender compassions which have ever been of old to us blot out the multitude of our transgressions Pardon our sins and receive us again unto thy favour for his sake and sufferings who hath satisfied thy Justice to the utmost farthing And for the short residue and remainder of our days give us grace to consecrate it to thy service to redeem that time which we cannot recall and to make our calling and election sure before we go hence and be no more seen And because the corruptions of our nature are too many and too strong for us and the Divel like a roaring Lion goes about continually to devour us leave us not to our selves but assist us by thy grace perfect thy strength in our weaknesse and preserve both our bodies and souls spotlesse and unblameable that when we shall have finished our course and run the race of our naturall Pilgrimage we may receive that crown of righteousnesse which thou the righteous and just Judg hast laid up for all them that love and expect the day of thy appearing And together with us we intreat thee for a blessing upon our King Queen Prince and the rest of the Roiall Progeny upon our Councellors Ministers Magistrates upon our friends kinred and acquaintance upon the whole Church and every afflicted member of it And accept of our morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for all the mercies and favours comforts and deliverances which from time to time thou hast afforded and continued to us We thank thee for thy last mercy in preserving us from the dangers of this night past for refreshing our bodies with seasonable rest and bringing us safe to the beginning of this day Lord what is man that thou art so mindfull of him or the Son of man that thou shouldest thus visit remember him Give us grace O Lord to remember thee and to be mindfull of thy mercies that we may praise thee for all the truth and faithfulnesse which thou shewest to us in the land of the living that as thou hast brought us to the comforts of this day so thou mayest go along with us in the same to enable us for the duties of those callings wherein we are placed and to deliver us from those dangers to which we are exposed even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our weak and imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us in his holy Gospel O our Father c. A PRAYER FOR the Evening O Most glorious and ever living LORD God which inhabitest eternity and dwellest in that light which no mortall eye can attain unto the God in whom we live and move and have our being we thine unworthy servants do here in all lowlinesse and humility present our persons and prayers before thy divine Majesty confessing acknowledging that we were conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity and as if that had been but a smal matter we have heaped up our actuall transgressions as the sand upon the Sea shore and as the stars in the firmament for number We have broken thy Commandements we have prophaned thy Sabbaths we have dishonoured thy name we have abused thy creatures we have neglected the day of our visitation turned thy grace into wantonness whereby we have most justly provoked thy wrath and everlasting displeasure we have wounded our own consciences weakned our assurance of salvation grieved thy good Spirit which sealeth us up unto the day of our redemption And now Lord if thou shouldest deal with us after our deservings thou mightest pour upon us the deluge of thy wrath and fury to sweep us out of the land of the living into that place
own conscience I have quenched the motions of thy Spirit I have put off the good works whereby I might have glorified thee bettered my self benefited my neighbour Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have corrupted the best of my thoughts words works and ways by cherishing the corruptions of mine own nature by entertaining the secret temptations of Satan and the open inticements of the wicked world Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have been an evill husband of the talent of grace which was committed to my improvement I have been an unthrift of that time which was lent me for repentance and the work of my salvation Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have belied my corrupt heart with fair semblances of goodness and have hypocritically deceived the good opinion of charity which beleeveth the best I have boasted in the praise that I deserved not to thy offence who requirest truth in the inward parts Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have overweened the measure of grace in my self corrupted it with my pride I have undervalued the goodness of my neighbour and either have lessened it with abatements or depraved it with unjust imputations Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have heard and seen thee my God dishonoured my neighbour traduced and wronged I have done right to neither but either for fear of offence for partial affection for base flattery or ungodly modesty or for uncharitable envy I have forborn to arise in their just defence Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have not alwayes sought the outward blessings of life by good meanes sanctified by prayer I have not alwayes received them with thanksgiving and contentednesse I have not alwayes used them with sobriety nor dispensed the over-measure with the piety and charity that I ought Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have not used my lawful pleasures so seasonably so moderately so religiously so thankfully as I ought but I have offended thee my God in my mirth Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have not sought peace with all men nor always imbraced it when it hath been offered I have not loved mine enemy nor blessed him that cursed me nor done good to him that meant or did me hurt I have not given him such pardon as I begged from thee for my self Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have sinned in vaine thoughts in vast desires in ungodly hopes in unchaste dreams in secret covetings of the goods or delights of my neighbour Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have sinned in the unconscionable practice of these sins without remorse or repentance or if any good motions of thy Spirit have bred in me a godly sorrow for them the next temptation hath either replased me into the old or implunged mee in some new sin Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have hid some of these sins as Adam some of them I have excused with pretences some I have denied against the testimony of my accusing conscience some I have wickedly maintained none I have throughly repented amended Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have committed many secret sins that I have not been aware of I have sinned in the best of my works and intentions of piety and charity even when I most laboured to doe thee service Lord be merciful to me a sinner I have sinned all these wayes and done many evils that I have forgotten many that I have past over without consideration and repentance and now what shall I do to thee O thou preserver of men and Judge of the whole world Lord be merciful to me a sinner Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy loving kindnesse according to the multitude of thy tender compassions blot out all my offences Amen Amen And that for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us OUR Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in 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 Kingdome the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen Morning Prayer OLord our heavenly Father almighty everlasting God which hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day defend us in the same with thy mighty power and grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kinde of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to do always that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Evening Prayer LIghten our darknesse we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy onely Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen THe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen II. DEPRECATION DEprecation is a branch of prayer directed to God either for the aversion and prevention of an evill before it comes or for the removing and taking it away when it is come And the evil which we deprecate may be either the evill of sin or the evill of punishment When we either feel or fear an evil we must not with Eliah or Jonah sit down and in a sullen humour wish our selves out of the world but we must pray as Christ did for his Disciples Joh. 17.15 not that he would take us out of the world but that he would keep us from the evil And so doing we have Gods promise not to be tempted above our strength For either he will abate the crosse or increase our strength to bear it either he will remove the temptation or give us his grace which is sufficient for us Deliver us from evil Luke 11.4 Deliver me from all my transgressions Make me not the reproach of the foolish Psal 39. Remove thy stroke from me Deliver my soul from the sword my darling from the dog Save me from the Lions mouth from the horns of the Unicorns Psal 22.20 21. THE LETANY of Deprecation FRom all the sinnes that I have done and from all that I would have done if thy grace had not prevented and restrained me Good Lord deliver me From my close bosome sins and from those sins to which I am inclined by nature or inticed by company or allured by pleasure and profit or drawn by the example of this evil world Good Lord deliver me From all the sins that I have felt in my conscience and confessed with my mouth and bewailed with my heart and begged pardon of thee with my tongue Good Lord deliver me From all the secret unknown sins which my conscience hath not felt nor my mouth confessed nor my heart bewailed
nor my tongue begged pardon Good Lord deliver me From the whole corruption of my nature from all the temptations of the Divel from the allurements of the world from the lusts of the flesh and eyes Good Lord deliver me From all vanity of minde dulness of understanding perversnesse of will crookedness of affections deadness hardness of heart and from a benummed blinded or seared conscience Good Lord deliver me From all wandring imaginations from all loosness of desires from all transgressions of thy holy and just commandments and from the first motions to any sin against thee or my neighbour Good Lord deliver me From relapsing into the sins that I have repented from turning thy grace into wantonnesse from treading under foot the bloud of thy covenant from neglect and contempt of the meanes of salvation Good Lord deliver me From all schism heresie from infidelity and apostasie from the sin against the holy Ghost Good Lord deliver me From famine scarcity from plague and pestilence and from all other thy sore and heavy judgements at this time and ever hereafter Good Lord deliver me From poverty and extreme necessity from sickness and diseases in my body from grief and vexation of mind from losse of liberty goods or friends from blemish and scādal of my good name Good Lord deliver me From giving offence unadvisedly and from taking offence unjustly Good Lord deliver me From thy wrath and indignation from final despair of thy grace and pardon and from sudden death Good Lord deliver me From the sentence of condemnation from the Lake of brimstone from the chains of everlasting darkness from the worm that dies not and the fire that shall never be quenched Good Lord deliver me O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Psal 116.4 Amen Amen And that for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us OUR Father which art in heaven c. Morning Prayer O Lord our heavenly Father almighty everlasting God which hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day defend us in the same with thy mighty power grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to doe alwayes that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Evening Prayer LIghten our darkness we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only Son our Savior Jesus Christ Amen THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen III. SUPPLICATION SUpplication is another branch of praier whereby we intreat of God that hee would give us such blessings as we want or continue and inlarge such blessings as we have received And these blessings are either corporal or spiritual temporal or eternal For such blessings as are spiritual and accōpany salvation pray for them in the first place First seek the Kingdom of God the righteuosness thereof we may pray for them absolutely for the other we must pray conditionally with a reference submission of our will to Gods will who best knows what is good for us Not my will but thine be done Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven O Thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come Psal 65.2 Lord hear my voice let thine eares be attentive to my supplications Psal 130.2 Behold now that I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord who am but dust and ashes O let not the Lord bee angry and I will speak THE LETANY of Supplication THat it may pleafe thee to fill mine heart and my mouth with thy praise all my life long for all thy faithfulnesse and truth and loving kindness shewed to me in the land of the living I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to give me a clear judgment to see my sins holy affections to hate and abhorre them true repentance to bewail and forsake them with a stedfast purpose and resolution against them for the time to come I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to wash mee throwly from mine iniquities and to cleanse me from my sins that I may be whiter then snow I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to apply to my conscience the obedience of the life and the sacrifice of the death of Jesus Christ for the assurance of thy favour and my pardon I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to create in me a clean heart to renew a right spirit within me to give me truth in my inward parts and to establish me with thy free Spirit I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to give me such graces as I want and to increase those which I have that I may grow frō strength to strength till I become a perfect man I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to make me an instrument of thy glory to direct all my thoughts words works for the inlargement advancement of thy Kingdome I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to establish in mee the Kingdome of thy power to rule and awe me and the Kingdome of thy grace to sanctifie me to the knowledge love and obedience of thy will I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to enable me to doe thy will with chearfulness alacrity with perseverance and constancy as thy blessed Angels and Saints in heaven do it I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to open thy full hand to bestow upon me the necessaries of this life the fruits of the earth in due season with the continuance of health liberty and peace I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to give me thy blessing with them that I may use them wisely soberly justly charitably thankfully and contentedly I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to blesse me in all the works of my calling with grace and strength to obtain to keep and to use a good conscience towards thee my neighbours to my lives end I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to sanctifie my life to sweeten my death and to raise up my body in the day of the Lo Jesus I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. Finally that it may please thee to give me my masters joy my fathers inheritance the Crown of righteousness the glory of the new Jerusalem to satisfie me with that fulness of joy which is in thy presence I beseech thee to heare me
love thy coming My soul doth magnifie thee O Lord. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord Psal 116.12 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever with my mouth wil I make known thy faithfulnesse to all generations Ps 89.1 Let them that fear the Lord say alwayes The Lord be praised Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shal be world without end Amen Amen And that for Jesus Christ his sake in whose most blessed name and words we conclude these our imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught us OUR Father which art in heaven c. Morning Prayer OLord our heavenly Father almighty everlasting God which hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day defend us in the same with thy mighty power grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to doe alwayes that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Evening Prayer LIghten our darkness we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy onely Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen THe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen V. INTERCESSION INtercessiō is abranch of prayer extending and inlarging our desires for others as we see in Abraham who interceded for Sodom and Mases for Israel and Samuel for Saul And this duty is very acceptable to God for necessity constrains us to pray for our selves but charity moves us to become petitioners for others And the prayer of charity is more acceptable to God then the prayer of necessity Again it is very profitable for us for though our prayers should not profit them yet they will profit us for they shall be turned into our own bosomes Psal 35.13 Si pro te tantum roges pro te tantum rogabis Si autem pro omnibus roges pro te omnes rog abunt Amb. l. 1. de Cain c. cap. 1. I exhort therefore that first of all supplication prayers intercessions giving of thanks bee made for all men for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2.1 3. And pray always with all manner of prayer and supplication in the spirit and watch thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints And for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to publish the secret of the Gospel Eph. 6.18 19. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him James 5.14 15. But as for me when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosome Psal 35.13 Peter was kept in prison but earnest prayer was made of the Church for him Acts 12.5 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Psal 122.6 THE LETANY of Intercession THat it may please thee to bless thy Church militant here on earth to preserve the purity of doctrine the due administration of the Sacraments and the preaching of thy Word that the gates of hell may not prevaile against it I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to purge it from schism and heresie and to reconcile all unhappy differences that we may keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to fence it about with the wall of thy providence to infatuate the counsel to disperse the powers and projects of all those that wish evill unto Sion I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to blesse that part of thy Church wherein thou hast planted me and to whose brests thou hast applied me with peace and plenty with a free exercise and reverent esteem of all thine ordinances I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to bless our gracious King Charls our royall Queen Mary our hopefull Prince Charls and all others that are derived from that same sacred stock or ingraffed into it I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to bless the government preaching of the Clergy make them painful in their Ministry and exemplary in their lives that they may save themselves and those that hear them I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to blesse the Councell with wisedome the Judges with integrity the Magistrates with courage the people with obedience our Armies with strength victory I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to blesse all schools and seminaries of learning religion especially the two Universities of this Land I beseech thee to he are me good Lord. That it may please thee to blesse all those that are near and dear unto me by the bond of nature or Christian acquaintance I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to blesse all those that have been instruments of my good and are yet living Such as have educated and instructed me Such as have counselled and advised me Such as have clothed and fed me such as have reproved and corrected me when I sinned I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to remember the reformed Churches beyond the seas to repair the ruines desolations which her enemies have made in her to reduce such as are banished to inlarge such as are imprisoned to relieve such as are impoverished and to comfort such as are persecuted for the testimony of a good conscience and the truth of thy Gospel I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to raise up such as are dejected with the guilt of their own consciences with the horror of their fins with the apprehension of thy wrath with the weaknesse of their graces or jealousies of thy mercy and to say to their souls that thou art their salvation I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to prosper and assist all those that jeopard their lives for the maintenance of the Gospel go forth with their Armies cover their heads in the day of battel and bring them home with honour and victory I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to bless all women with child with safe deliverance all young children with a godly and
religious education the Seaman with a prosperous voiage the Husbandman with a plentifull harvest the captive with patience and deliverance and all prisoners with repentance and amendment I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to instruct the ignorant to convert the obstinate to confirm the righteous to comfort the distressed to binde up the broken-hearted to rectifie those that erre and to reduce them that wander into the right way I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to remember thine ancient people the Jewes to open their eyes that they may see him whom they have pierced and beleeve in him I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee in thy good time to bring in the fulnesse of the Gentiles and to reveal the glorious light of thy Gospel to such as yet sit in darkness and in the shadow of death I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to forgive those that persecute and speak evil of me those that injure and molest me those that slander and traduce me and to soften the hearts of all those that are mine enemies I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. O Lord hear my praiers for my self O Lord hear my prayers for others O Lord hear the prayers of thy Son Jesus Christ for us all who sits at thy right hand making intercession for us and hath taught me to come to thee in this most perfect and absolute form of prayer OUR Father which art in heaven c. Morning Prayer O Lord our heavenly Father almighty everlasting God which hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day defend us in the same with thy mighty power grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance to doe alwayes that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Evening Prayer LIghten our darkness we beseech thee O Lord and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the fellowship of the holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen A peculiar Letany to be used by or for sick persons Collected out of severall places and passages of holy Scripture IN those dayes was Hezekiah sick unto death Then turned he his face unto the wall and prayed unto the Lord. And Hezekiah wept sore And the Lord said Behold I will adde unto thy dayes fifteen years Isaiah 38.1 2 3. THE LETANY O God the Father of heaven whose property it is to kill and to make alive to wound and to heal to bring down to the grave and to raise up again Have mercy upon me Thou who didst heal Naaman of his leprosie David of his noisome disease Job of his ulcers Hezekiah of his desperate sicknesse Have mercy upon me O Christ the Son of God who madest the blinde to see the dumb to speak the deaf to hear and the lame to walk Have mercy upon me Thou who didst cure Peters wives mother of her fever the Centurions servant of his palsie the ten Lepers of their leprosie and didst help such as were possessed with Divels Have mercy upon me Thou who didst cure her that was diseased with an issue of bloud twelve years her that was bowed together eighteen years and him at the pool of Bethesda that had an infirmity thirty and eight years Have mercy upon me Thou who didst restore to life the daughter of Jairus the widows son and raised up Lazarus out of his grave Have mercy upon me Thou who didst bear our sicknesses and sorrows thou who hast styled thy self the Physician of the sick thou who hast called all such as are weary and heavy laden to come unto thee promising them ease and refreshment Have mercy upon me By thy fasting and watching by thine hunger thirst by thy grief and sadness by thy agony and bloudy sweat by thy cries and tears by thy Crosse and Passion Have mercy upon me That it may please thee who diddest cure many diseases by Peters shadow many sicknesses by Pauls handkerchief the eyes of the blind with clay spittle the leprosie of Naaman with the water of Jordan and raisedst up the dead by the bones of thy Prophet to blesse all those means that are or shall be used for my recovery I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to give me grace to submit my self wholly to thy will to take thy visitation with patience thankfulness to drink of this bitter cup without murmuring or repining I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee to streng then me against all the temptations of the divel to succour me in all the agonies conflicts of mine own conscience and to lay no more upon me then thou shalt inable me to bear I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. That it may please thee to continue unto me my memory and understanding my speech and senses the comforts and graces of thy holy Spirit that I fall not away from thee I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee if it be thy will to give me a longer time of repentance to rescue me from the gates of the grave to spare me a little before I go hence and be no more seen that I may still praise thee in the land of the living I beseech the to heare me good Lord. That it may please thee if thou hast appointed me for death to fit and prepare me for it to strengthen my faith to pardon and forgive me all my sins and to assure me of my salvation that I may render up my soul with comfort and chearfulness I beseech thee to hear me good Lord. Finally that it may please thee when I have rendred it up to receive it into thy hands to deliver me from the pangs of everlasting death and to set open unto me the gates of everlasting life I beseech thee to heare me good Lord. Psal 6.2 4 5. Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am weak O Lord heal me for my bones are vexed Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake For in death there is no remembrance of thee and who shall give thee thanks in the pit Psal 38. Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore ver 2. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin ver 3. For mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burded they are too heavy for me ver 4. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness ver 5. I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day
in thy house Ps 84.1 4 10. Then be carefull to discharge those duties which God there requireth of thee and they ordinarily are two 1. Prayer 2. Hearing the Word In prayer first look to the devotion of thy soul It must be the lifting up of the soul Psal 25.1 The powring out of the soul 1 Sam. 1.15 A strong crying Heb. 5.7 A wrastling with God Hos 12.4 Without this thy prayer will be but babbling Mat. 6.7 The howling of a dog or wolf Hos 7.14 A bell without a clapper A pile of wood without fire A bullet without powder A bird without wings A cloud without water A tinkling cymball The Jews writ this sentence also over the doors of their Synagogues and Oratories Prayer without intention is as the body without the soul Then in the next place look to the reverence of thy body God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Psal 89.7 Uncover thy head The four and twenty Elders fell down before him that sate on the throne casting their crowns from their heads Rev. 4.10 Bend thy knee O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker Psal 95.6 The other duty is the hearing of the word read and preached which requires of us First attention Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Sam. 3.10 Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine eare Psal 45.10 I will hear what God the Lord will speak unto me Psal 85.8 The Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she attended unto the things that were spoken by Paul Acts 16.14 He that hath an eare let him heare what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Rev. 2.11 My sheep hear my voice John 10.27 And for this end we must consider it is The word of God 1 Thes 2.13 The word of Grace Act. 14.3 The word of truth John 17.17 The word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 The word of righteousness Heb. 5.13 The word of faih Rom. 10.8 The word of etenal life John 9.68 That it is Good seed Mark 4. Sincere milk 1. Pet. 2.2 Strong meat Heb. 5.14 That it is A wholsom word 2 Tim. 6.3 A lively word Heb. 4.12 A good word Heb. 6.5 That it is Better then thousands of gold and silver Psal 119.72 Sweeter then the hony and the hony comb Psal 19.10 And all this because it is that word which is able to save our souls Jam. 1.21 Secondly the hearing of the Word requires retention as well as attention Therefore ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul Deut. 11.18 Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119.11 Mary kept all these sayings in her heart Luke 2.51 And lastly people must be here admonished not to depart from the Church till the Minister hath pronounced the blessing All the people departed every man to his house 1 Chron. 16.42 But it was after David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings and had blessed the people in the name of the Lord ver 2. Surely there is something in the blessing of the Minister Then the Priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people and their voice was heard and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place even unto heaven 2 Chron. 30.37 Leave not then thine Angel till he hath given thee a blessing AFTER CHURCH AND now being come home it is thy duty yet further 1. To meditate upon such things as have been taught thee His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate day and night Psal 1.2 O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day Psal 119.97 I have more understanding then all my teachers for thy Testimonies are my Meditation vers 99. My meditation of him shal be sweet Ps 104.34 My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned Psal 39.3 The beasts that chewed not the cud were unclean Secondly thou must praise God for so much of the means as he was pleased to afford thee that day Blessed be the God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things Ephes 1.3 As the liberty of his house The comfort of his Day The communion of his Saints The instruction of his Word The dispensation of his Sacraments The gifts of his Ministers Thirdly we must pray for a blessing upon the means of our salvation He only it is that can put his Law in our inward parts and write it in our hearts Jer. 31.33 Paul may plant and Apollos water but God gives the increase 1 Cor. 3.6 The excellency of the power is of God not of us 2 Cor. 4.7 Lastly teach it thy family You shall teach them your children talking of them when thou fittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest down and when thou risest up Deut. 11.19 I know him that hee will command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord to doe justice and judgment Jer. 18.16 I and my house will serve the Lord Josh 24.15 If thou doest thus sanctifie this Day of rest here thou shalt celebrate an everlasting rest and Sabbath hereafter All manner of persons within the Church of England shall from henceforth celebrate keep the Lords day commonly called Sunday and other holy days according to Gods holy wil and pleasure and the orders of the Church of England prescribed in that behalf that is in hearing the word of God read and taught in private and publick prayers in acknowledging their offences to God and amendment of the same in reconciling themselves charitably to their neighbours where displeasure hath been in oftentimes receiving the communion of the body bloud of Christ in visiting of the poore and sick using all good and sober conversation Canon 13. of those 1603. A short Evening Prayer for the Lords day O Most glorious God and in Jesus Christ my mercifull and loving Father I confesse and acknowledge those many weaknesses imperfections which have passed from me in the performance of the duties of this day I have called upon thee for the pardon and forgivenesse of my sins but so coldly and carelessy that my very prayers are become sins and stand in need of pardon I have heard thy holy Word but with such deadnesse distraction of spirit that I have been a very unprofitable and forgetfull hearer So that O Lord though I have done thy work yet I have done it so negligently that I may rather expect a curse then a blessing from thee But O God who art rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption mark not what amisse hath passed from me remember that I am but dust pardon and passe by all my sins negligences and ignorances look not upon the weaknesse of my
22 Fourthly there is required a stedfast purpose and settled resolution against sin for the trme to come The Church in the administration of this Sacrament cals such only as intend to lead a new life to follow the Commandements of God to walk from thenceforth in his holy ways The Paschall Lambe was to be eaten by such only as were circumcised The Manna was to be put into a pot of pure gold The body of Christ crucified was wrapt in fine linnen and laid in a new Spulchre Sorrow for sin without resolution of amendment is like the pumping in a Ship without stopping the leak that lets in the water In the Law if a man held the unclean thing still in his hand he was unclean though he washed his hand never so often Fiftly there is required Charity with all men The Paschall Lambe was to be eaten without leaven The Serpent disgorges his poison when he coms to drink Be as wise as Serpents Let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice 1 Cor. 5.8 If thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift Mat. 5.23 24. The three wise men went first to Ierusalem then to Bethlehem first to the vision of peace then to the house of bread The cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one bread and one body 1 Cor. 10.16 17. The signs of bread wine used in the Sacrament may teach us love charity Many grains are kneaded together into one loafe Many grapes are pressed together in one cup. If thus thou hast made thy peace with God and the world draw neare Tast and see how sweet the Lord is Psal 34.8 Eate O friend drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Cant. 5.1 A short Prayer before we receive the Sacrament O Most gracious and merciful Lord God thou hast called all those that are weary heavy laden with the burthen of their sins to come unto thee and hast promised that thou wilt ease and refresh them thou hast invited all those that hunger and thirst after thy Kingdome and the righteousnesse thereof to come to thy Table to taste of thy Supper and hast promised that thou wilt satisfie them In affiance therefore of these promises I come to thee blessed Lord Jesus beseeching thee to ease me to refresh me to satisfie me with thy mercy for my soul hungers and thirsts after thee thy salvation I confesse and acknowledge that my daily sins have made me unworthy of my daily bread much more of this Manna this bread of life which came down from heaven I confesse also that I am not prepared according to the preparation of thy Sanctuary yet for as much as I have this day set my heart to seek thee thou O good God be merciful unto me And though I cannot bring with me a clean heart for who can say his heart is clean yet behold O Lord I bring with me a contrite heart and a broken spirit despise not O God this sacrifice As for the sinnes that I have committed against thee binde them up into one bundle and cast them into the bottomlesse sea of thy mercy bury them in the wounds and wash them away in the bloud of that immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus and for the time to come so sprinkle my conscience with the same bloud that being clensed from dead works I may serve thee the living God in righteousness and true holiness all the days of my life That so this blessed Sacrament may be a means to quiet my conscience to increase my faith to inflame my charity to amend my life to save my soul to assure me that I am in the number of those blessed ones who shal eate at thy table and be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake in whose name and words I conclude these my imperfect prayers saying as he himself hath taught me Our Father c. At the receiving of this Sacrament IN the receiving of the Lords Supper many particulars would rather distract us then direct us these few I suppose most considerable First let thine eyes be upon the actions of the Minister observe the breaking of the bread and the powring out of the wine The breaking of the bread will minde thee how the body of Christ was bruised and broken The pouring out of the wine wil remēber thee of the shedding of his bloud It was shed for thee When he was circumcised When he was scourged When he sweat in the garden When he was crowned with thorns But especially to which this Sacrament hath immediate relation When he was nailed to the cross When his fide was pierced The bloud of Christ clenseth us from all sins 1 John 1.17 It speaketh better things then the bloud of Abel Heb. 12.24 It is precious bloud 1 Pet. 1.19 And all this because it is the bloud of God Acts 20.28 Secondly discern the Lords body 1 Cor. 11.29 We must consider the consecrated bread not as the bread of the Lord but as that bread which is the Lord. Not as our common ordinary daily bread but as the body of Christ sacramentally We must consider the wine not as the bloud of the grape but as the bloud of Christ in a true yet sacramentall manner Christ is truly present in the Sacrament it is the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his bloud John 6.56 Not naturally and corporally This is an hard saying who can hear it Joh. 6.60 The flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and life Joh. 6.63 Thirdly receive it kneeling This gesture is most sutable It signifies an humble and gratefull acknowledgement of those benefits we receive in this Sacrament Again the Minister when he gives and we when we receive joyn together in a short but sweet prayer The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee c. The bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee c. No gesture so sutable for prayer as kneeling Again it is appointed ordered by the Church Let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.40 Though I be absent frō you in the flesh yet am I present with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order Col. 2.5 After the receiving of this Sacrament WHen thou hast been partaker of the Lords Supper First of all give thanks It is a duty which we owe for our ordinary suppers It was called the Eucharist from this duty of thanksgiving It is the cup of blessing God blesseth us and we must blesse God God gives us the cup of
Lastly death like the Angell plucks us out of Sodom and conducts us to Zoar a city of refuge and safety It translates us out of a prison to a Palace from a vale of misery to a kingdome of glory from Leeks and Onions to Rivers of Milk and Honey From the Tents of Kedar and Tabernacles of the wicked to mount Sion the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the generall Assembly and Church of the first born which are inrolled in heaven to God the Judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Testament Heb. 12.22 23. Death is like the common gate of a city thorow which the Malefactor passes to execution but the honest Citizen to his recreation We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes and there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Rev. 21.4 These things considered we may with Solomon praise the dead that are already dead more then the living that are yet alive Eccles 4.2 And say with S. Paul To me to live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1.21 CAP. IV. There shall bee a Resurrection IT troubles us not to see the Sun set because we know it will rise again the next morning God restored to Iob every thing double but his children they were not amissi but praemissi not lost but laid up and then shall be a day of restitution Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed in me Job 19.26 27. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast out her dead Isa 26.19 So then death is but a Parenthesis and the soul and body though disjoyned by it will meet again together Nay the body shall not onely arise but it fares with the body as with old houses which being pull'd down new ones are erected in their rooms better and more stately then the former It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory It is sown in weakness it is raised in power It is sown a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Thus death like a rare Alchy mist dissolves the base metal of our bodies and converts it to a purer substance The body when it rots in the grave is as linnen worn to rags and cast upon the dunghill but at the resurrection it is like those Rags gathered up and made into paper which many times becomes gilt and capable of noble and divine impressions The fire burnt the bands of the three children but sindged not so much as a haire of their heads Dan. 3.27 Death looses us from the bands of our sins but shall not cozen us of a nail of the hand or an hair of the head for all our hairs are numbred CAP. V. The goodness of God SAint Ambrose being asked by his friends whether he was not afraid to die answered he was not because he had a good Lord. What time I am affraid I will trust in thee Psal 56.3 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evill for thou art with me Psal 23.4 Into thy hands I commit my spirit for thou hast redeemed it ô Lord God of truth Psal 31.5 He that hath created our souls after his own Image and redeemed them with his owne bloud will not refuse them when they are commended and given up unto him When Stephen was giving up the ghost he saw the heavens opened and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God Acts 7.56 Christ who sits at the right hand of God was then said to stand to shew how ready he is to receive the souls of his servants These considerations being applyed and wrought well upon our hearts will make us cry out with David Oh when shall I come and appear before him Psal 42.2 O that I had wings like a dove that I might flie hence and be at rest Psal 55.6 Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar Psal 120.5 With old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word Lu. 2.29 With Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 With Saint Iohn Come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 22.20 SECTION IV. EVery man desires with Balaam that he may dye the death of the righteous and that his last end may be like his and I cannot blame them For to die well is a point of the greatest consequence in the world because eternity depends upon it And as the tree fals so it must ly whether it be to the North of Gods judgment or to the South of his mercy Eccles 11.3 Now this work of dying well cannot be done extempore I have therefore in the last place contracted the art of dying well into a few precepts CAP. I. Live well TO live well is to fear God and to keep his Commandements Eccles 12.13 To love God and our neighbour Mat. 22.37 To deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 To doe justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God Micah 6.8 To repent of our sins to beleeve in Christ to keep his Commandments Who so doth these things shall never fall Psal 15.5 A fair day may have a foul evening but a good life cannot have a bad death Such as the premisses are such will be the conclusion It is said of Moses that he died according to the word of the Lord or at the mouth of the Lord for the Hebrew will bear this reading and the Chaldee paraphrases it He died at a kisse of the Lords mouth God kisses the righteous in their deaths and as it were sucks in those souls which he breathed into them Deut. 34.5 Old Hilarion when he lay a dying bespake his soul in this manner Get thee out of me O my soul get thee out of me why fearest thou that hast served God almost this seventy years Jerom in vita Hilarionis Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Ps 116.15 Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Rev. 14.13 CAP. II. Particular directions IN the time of thy sickness with
Ezekiah call thy self to an account for all thy sins mourn for them in the bitternesse of thy soul confesse them to God and ask forgivenesse 2. Send for thy Minister To whom if need be make a speciall confession and take along with thee the benefit of his absolution Whos 's soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained John 20.23 If I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it I forgave it in the person of Christ 2 Cor. 2.10 Secondly let thy Minister pray over thee Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him If he hath commited sins they shall be forgiven him Jam. 5.14 15. Thirdly let him give thee the Sacrament of the Lords Supper This is the best viaticum and provision for so long a journey I may say to thee as the Angel to Eliah Arise and eat for the journey is too great for thee And if with Eliah thou dost eat and drink thou maist travell in the strength of this meat to Horeb the mount of God 1 Kings 19.7 8. This is the bread that came down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day Joh. 6.51 54. V. Euseb hist l. 5. c. 45.3 Set thine house in order 2 Kings 20.1 This will not make thee die more quickly but more quietly 4. Remember the poor When we have beene kindly entertained at a friends house it is good manners to give the servants something when we goe away Blessed is he that considereth the poore the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing and will make all his bed in his sicknesse Psal 41.1 3. 5. If thou beest a father or mother of children call them before thee and blesse them So did Jacob when he departed Gen. 49.1 6. Make restitution if thou beest able to such as thou hast wronged and defrauded Without restitution there is no remission Enquire with Samuel whose oxe thou hast taken or whose asse thou hast taken whom thou hast defrauded whom thou hast oppressed or of whose hand thou hast received a bribe and restore it Send for them who have offended thee and forgive them and for those whom thou hast offended and ask forgivenesse Lastly resign and give over thy self to God Behold here I am let the Lord do to me as seemeth good to him 1 Sam. 15.26 Not my wil but thine be done And if thus thou beest prepared at the day of death oh well is thee and happy shalt thou be Psal 128.2 Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall finde thus doing thus dying Mat. 24.46 A short prayer for a happy departure O Most glorious Lord the GOD of the spirits of all flesh in whose hands are the times of all men and the keys of the Grave I most meekly beseech thee of thy goodnesse to pardon and forgive me all my sins and to make me ever mindfull of my mortality Lay often before mine eyes by thy remembring spirit that the days of my pilgrimage are but few and evil that I have here no abiding and continuing City that all flesh and the goodlinesse thereof is but a flower that fadeth a shadow that vanisheth away that so numbring my days I may apply my heart to wisedome and with the wise Virgins provide Oil in my Lamp and make my calling and election sure before I go hence be no more seen And when it shall please thee to cast me upon the bed of sickness and to compasse me about with the sorrows of the grave I beseech thee for thy names sake for thy mercies sake for thy Son Jesus Christ his sake not to be far from me in that needfull time of trouble when I shall finde heavinesse in my flesh and there be none to deliver me But draw near unto my soul and be about my bed to pardon my sins to pacifie my conscience to strengthen my faith to mitigate my pains to receive my soul when it shall be commended unto thee Receive it O God the Father for thou hast created it Receive it O God the Son for thou hast redeemed it Receive it O God the Holy Ghost for thou hast sanctified it Receive it ô holy blessed and glorious Trinity that being translated out of this vale of misery it may raign with thee one everliving and immortall God in the Kingdome of Glory world without end Amen SECTION I. Of the day of Judgement CHristian Reader let my Meditations now passe as thou thy self must from the day of death to the day of Judgment For it is appointed for all men once to die and after that to come to judgment Heb. 9.27 CAP. I. There shall bee a day of Judgment IT is an Article of our faith that CHRIST who nâ—w sits at the right hand of his Father shall come from thence to judg the quick and the dead Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied of it saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against hâ—m Iude 14 15. God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill Eccles 12.14 I saw the dead small and great stand before God The Sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to his works Rev. 20.13 It is very observable that all other Articles of the Creed have been opposed by Heretiques either in whole or in part but no Heretique denied a day of judgment Vide Danaeum in his Cat. of heresies against the Creed In this world Solomon says no man can know love or hatred by all that is before them For all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth to him that sacrificeth not as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath Eccles 9.1 2. Now shall not the Judge of all the world do right Gen. 18.25 There must be a day wherein the wicked shall be punished and the vertuous rewarded A day wherein God will put a difference betwixt an Israelite and an Aegyptian betwixt a Sheep and a Goat betwixt wheat and tares There shall be a day when I will make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God