moment which we have continually provoked we had perisht irrecoverably Oh how great and wonderful is thy Patience and Goodness in continuing and supporting and watching over such provoking Sinners We admire we praise thee for thy Long-suffering towards us and since thou hast given space to do it we repent of all our past Sins we purpose and desire to lead a new and good Life and we humbly sue for thy pardoning Mercy When we with Sorrow and Shame confess our Sins do thou we pray thee forgive our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness Give us a true and unfeigned Repentance and the Grace to amend our Lives according to thy Holy word Teach us that denying all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present World spending the rest of our Days to thy Honour and Glory In this way make us to seek an Inheritance in the World to come that since we have here no long abode no certain Duration no abiding State we may have a Treasure in Heaven an Inheritance in the next World that fadeth not away Make us so sensible of the short and uncertain condition of this our present Life that our Affections may be wean'd from this World and set upon the things to come teach and inable us so to pass through things Temporal that we finally lose not the things that are Eternal We pray thee let not this day be utterly lost to us but give us Comfort and good Fruit of our Attendances upon thee O Let thy Ordinances be to us the means of a Glorious and Eternal Life Grant us to lie down this Night in Peace while thou makest us to dwell safely Let our waking Thoughts in the Night-season instruct us Give us cause in the Morning to rejoyce in thy Goodness and Lord Comfort this our wretched mortal Life with thy Blessings let us see thy Goodness in the Land of the Living We beseech thee to have mercy upon all Men Grant them to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent to their eternal Salvation Save thy People O Lord and bless thine heritage govern and lift them up for ever We pray thee Bless these Nations wherein we live be thou as a Wall of Fire round about us and our defence against all thine Enemies and ours O purge and cleanse us from our Sins that we may be meet for the Favours of thy Providence Grant our King and Queen a long and happy Reign over us give them great Prosperity and Peace Direct all our Magistrates so to govern themselves in their several places as may be to thy Glory the good of thy Church among us and to the Safety Honour and Welfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms Teach all our People duely to fear thee to be subject and obedient to those that are over them in Church or State and to live in brotherly Love and Unity one among another We humbly recommend to thy Goodness O Father of Mercies all that are in any Trouble or Affliction give them Patience and Submission to thee and in due time deliver them We pray thee bless all our Friends and Relations do good to our Enemies and make them to be at Peace with us All this we humbly ask in the Name of Jesus Christ and further whatever he himself hath taught us to pray saying Our Father c. The USEFULNESS of EARLY RELIGION TO Old-Age demonstrated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ECCLES 12. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth while the Evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them NOtwithstanding the great uncertainty of humane Life and though none of us can tell how short his appointed time may be Though we see persons of every Age descend into the Grave some in their early Infancy and some in Youth in their full strength as well as some in an old Age Yea which is very strange though we see that a great many more die young than there are that live to any great Age yet do Mankind commonly promise themselves a long Life on Earth All expect this almost though but few attain it We believe that we may live as long as the oldest Persons that we see or know And this vain Imagination proves a fatal and mischievous snare to a great many For because they may live long as they think they will not trouble themselves betimes to prepare to die though it is as true that they may not live long They set the practice of Religion and the concern of their Souls aside for the present because they shall have as they suppose time enough to mind them hereafter They apply themselves wholly now to the Business and Pleasures of this Life and refer their Reformation and Religion to old Age. And thus while they think they have much time to spend they squander away and lose much from their main concern and with their time they lose Eternity and their Souls too Their time is spent and their Day of Salvation is over before they have secured and wrought out their Salvation And Death snatches many of them away in the midst of their worldly Cares and Pleasures and so they are undone for ever To meet with and cure if it may be this Errour I shall insist a little upon these words of Solomon Wherein he intimates the Unreasonableness and Folly of delaying to repent and be religious till old Age though it be supposed that we may or though it could be certain that we shall live to old Age. We may reckon that the latter part of this verse is a reason and argument to enforce his advice in the former part of it and that his meaning is this Remember now thy Creatour in the days of thy Youth because the latter end of a long Life will be Evil days and such as you shall say I have no pleasure in them To be religious in youth will be the best preparation against the evil days to come and in those days you will need those consolations and advantages which a religious and vertuous Course that has been before them will then afford Many other arguments are commonly insisted upon by those that handle this Text to persuade young Persons to mind Religion and Vertue but I shall set them all aside and insist upon this alone which seems chiefly if not only intended in the Text. To do this with the better success if it may please God I shall divide the following Discourse into three parts 1. To shew what is meant by Remembring our Creatour in the days of our Youth Because 't is usually thought that Youth may
grow too much into the love of it and are apt to fall from thence into the frequent neglects of their worldly business on other days that they may run to it And this brings them into poverty and that into the Sins which it usually tempts men to and so they fall into ruine and misery Pleasure is too luscious a thing commonly for them who are so little taught to govern themselves in it as they are who spend their time in labour and the less they have of it beyond necessary refreshment usually the wiser and the happier they are And if such Persons make the Lord's day a religious Rest only this would sufficiently relieve them after their labours would keep them out of the Snares of the Devil it would maintain and keep up a spirit of Industry and Diligence in them and would render them much more ready and willing to return to the Duties of their wordly Callings than they are commonly apt to be after a long and licentious enjoyment of worldly pleasure If this practice were set up in the Families of our Nobility and Gentry it would in all likelihood mightily encrease in them all Vertue and Piety and by consequence true Greatness Happiness and Honour I earnestly recommend this Book to the Gentry also to be distributed by them among their poor Tenants in the Country Villages where I know such Books to be exceedingly wanted Let them that labour to improve your Estates and to maintain you in ease and plenty receive some kindness from you And if they are worthy to do so I suppose you cannot think upon the matter but you must soon determine that what may be a kindness to their Souls is of greatest importance With the general recovery and encrease of sensible powerful Religion upon the Hearts of Men How much good how much happiness would follow to the whole Nation This would do more than all disputes to bring us to one mind in Religion to cure Schisms and Heresies and Differences of Opinion and to allay those Animosities Contentions and Emulations among us which are the consequences of them If we were all better Christians there would be more obedience to the Laws and Orders of the Church and the State and less disputing of them and we should be better Subjects and better Neighbours and the common Causes of our dividing into so many separate and distinct Interests would be removed The World ever has found and ever will find it true that Righteousness exalts and Sin is a reproach to any People And we cannot expect to excel our Neighbours in any thing else if we do not excel them in Piety and Vertue I doubt not to say that all our present Dangers Disadvantages and Disparagements proceed from the decay of true and pure Religion among us and would be removed with the recovery of that I purpose God willing to add three Volumes more to this with as many Discourses in each to make up a Course for the whole Year for which I shall chuse such Subjects as the Necessity of these Times does chiefly require Only these things I think fit to say of them That as this Volume is designed and directed merely to serve and promote true and pure Religion without any concern for a particular party so I intend the rest shall be of the same Character And also that though I must and do expect some will despise them for their want of Philosophick terms and phrases which are things I have indeed with labour a voided yet it comforts me against this to believe also that among the most Learned and pious Censurers there will some be found that will even for this very reason like them the better and I hope recommend them Especially if it does but appear to them that the sense is not so common or vulgar as the words I have added a Prayer to each Discourse suitable to the Subject insisted on And I have done this not to help those that cannot pray best without a Form which is an Apology built upon mistake but because no man can possibly pray best in his common ordinary course without a composed premeditated Form which should be made either by himself or by some other for him we have so much infirmity in us all that he does certainly offer the blind and the lame and the sick to God in his Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise who trusts to sudden Thoughts and Expressions And of such Prayers it may very well be said what the Prophet speaks of such Sacrifices under the Law Mal. 1. 8. Offer it now to thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept your Persons saith the Lord of Hosts Would you offer any Petition to a Prince in this way or would he accept it if you should Can you think he should rather regard you for redeness and vehemency than if you take care to ask with a due reverence and respect to him And should we not much rather compose our Petitions carefully which we offer to the Lord of Hosts the King of Kings than we do those we offer to an earthly Prince Why does he compose his Address to a King and write it down and consider it before hand who will not do thus much with his Prayer to Almighty God Every Master of a Family then should have a Set of Prayers for his Family for ordinary use and those if he must exercise his own Gifts should be of his own composing But if he judges those that are composed by some Minister more useful and profitable to himself and his Family than any that he can compose as we have several Books with such Prayers in them printed among us or if he thinks those composed by a Combination and Consult of Ministers as our publick Prayers were to be so he ought without doubt to use the one or the other of these And if he does not so that rebuke is applicable to him of having a Male in his Flock and of vowing and offering to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal. 1. 14. of not doing that which he can best do in the performance of his duty He certainly is wanting in that reverence which is due to the great God who reproves such offerings with this Argument in that place For I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts and my Name is dreadful among the Heathen Reverence requires that we render him the best service we can And he may justly suspect himself for pride and vain Glory in affecting to shew his own parts and abilities rather than to do that which is most convenient who does not chuse to pray by a composed Form If extraordinary Occasions happen to his Family he should either do as David did who certainly was an excellent pattern who composed particular Devotions for such particular occasions as we may see by the Titles of several of the Psalms Or else he should find out in some Book of Devotion or desire of some Minister a Prayer
is vain and impertinent but when it is intended and directed to the instructing of our selves for our own good Behaviour in those Circumstances when they are such as we are in or are likely to come into Or when our Neighbour whom we censure is such an one as we may be supposed able to advise and direct him and whom it is not a thing above us to pretend to direct him as it is certainly above the Subject to direct and dictate to his Governours in Church or State Further the Thoughts that are unseasonable and do interrupt us in our present Duty whatever it is are in that respect vain Thoughts and these proceed from the Vanity of the Mind these are commonly at that time unconsidered and unchosen and such as the roving of the Mind accidentally falls upon But if they are chosen and designed at such an unseasonable time yet are they vain and fruitless because they divert a Man from that which is his present Duty they either hinder him from doing it at all or from doing it well Such are the Thoughts of wordly Affairs and Businesses which may be lawful enough and fitting at another time when we are or should be engaged in the worship of God and in Exercises of Devotion and doubtless such may also be those that are upon Divine and Religious Matters when Men are in the Affairs of an honest Calling as when they intrude and mingle themselves so with a mans Business as to disturb his mind to beat him off from or hinder the due performance of it We are not bound to be actually thinking of God and Heaven or the Day of Judgment at all times or to have our Discourse when we are in Company always taken up with Speculations in Religion which some unjustly appropriate the name of good Discourse to It is good discourse to direct and advise and assist one another in our Duty of any kind and then it is good Discourse which does direct or encourage a Neighbour in his worldly Business and Calling in its proper Season They have a wrong Notion of Religion and it is just such an one as that of the Papists when they call a Monkish Life by way of Eminence a Religious one who think no Thoughts or Discourse good or religious but when the Mysteries of our Religion or our future hopes and passages of Scripture are the Subject of them A man may be religious in the Actions and so in the Thoughts about the meanest Trade because he may do all that he does to the Glory of God and he does in his worldly Business that which God has commanded and set him to do accordingly the Thoughts about those things so far as they are necessary and in their season are dutiful obedient and religious Ones they are such as Religion does allow and indeed oblige a man to have He that should neglect his Trade tho it was the meanest Handicraft to meditate on Divine things or that should do his work ill by reason of having his mind unseasonably employed and taken up with these things would transgress as truly as he that should neglect the due acknowledgment of God to apply himself to his worldly Business or should perform the worship of God slightly by reason of having his mind wandering from that to his worldly Business In a word those Thoughts which are loose and undirected which do no way concern our Duty or which do impertinently divert us from present Duty they come under the name of Vain Thoughts And these were they which David hated together with by consequence that vain roving inconsiderate Disposition of Mind which produces them Thus much may suffice to shew distinctly what it is the Psalmist speaks of The next part of our Business is to justifie this good Man's Hatred of this unhappy Disposition of Mind and these Exercises of it The reason of which his hatred of them he intimates to be their contrariety to the due observance of the Law of God And that this is the mischievous Nature of them will fully appear in short by these two things 1. They are a mighty hinderance of doing good 2. They greatly expose and commonly betray a Man into the doing of Evil. 1. This Disposition of Mind must needs be a great hinderance of all good and worthy Actions Some are so foolish as even to affect this Disposition to endeavour cherish and indulge a roving unfixed Thought they allow and follow all the wild Freaks of the Imagination and this is the admir'd Wit of our Times But the Imagination is the wildest and most ungovernable and dangerous Faculty in the Mind of Man and it cannot chuse but be very unhappy for any man to indulge it and give himself up to follow it Such as do so are commonly Lawless in their Opinions and Manners they are not capable of any fixed Principles or of a steady Course of Actions and by consequence they cannot set themselves to any useful or creditable way of living Hence we often see the great Wits of the Times good for nothing they can squander away their Time their Health or an Estate but cannot get any good or do any and doubtless to be thus a Wit is to be a Fool. The inconsiderate and wandering Disposition of Mind is a great hinderance of all the Improvement of the Mind and of furnishing it for honourable and good Actions A man under the power of this can never study his Duty carefully cannot learn or understand the Laws and Rules of the several Vertues therefore he knows not how or what it is to do well He can never seriously ponder and deliberately consider the motives and inducements to do well and therefore these have no force upon him and then he must needs live a wild and ungovern'd Life he cannot be vertuous and good unless he could be so by chance and indeed an House may be regularly built by chance or an excellent Discourse be composed accidentally by the throwing of the Letters carelesly together as well as Man can live a wise and well-composed and good Life without consideration And herein lies I doubt not one ground of the common differences between man and man especially between those who have equal advantages for Improvement One man steadily fixes and applies his mind to some good Purpose to serve God and Man in some particular way of living and he is of some use in the World Another applies his mind to no one thing and he is good for nothing So when several men enjoy the same means of Grace and Goodness one becomes good and religious and another receives no Benefit at all by them The reason is because the one uses them with design to improve by them and with careful application of his mind to the obtaining this end the other has no care or endeavours about this matter His roving and vain Imaginations leave no room for better Thoughts they do not give him leave to attend to and consider
that thou hast been pleased to make us capable to know and meditate on thy Self to chuse and love thee to desire and enjoy thee who art an Infinite Eternal Good and in whose presence is fulness of Joy Oh how ready should our Hearts be at all times to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that we can desire besides thee But alas we are degenerated we are fallen from our Original Excellency we are sunk into Sensuality we need to be put in mind and told wherein our true Happiness lies and to be excited urged and exhorted to pursue it We hover here below and seldom have any thoughts or desires moving upwards the objects of Sense detain us with them and we feed on Husks among Beasts we stay and abide upon the lowest and the smallest part of our Happiness Lord we are miserable we are undone and shall perish for ever if thy pity do not rescue us from the Love of these low Things Oh Pardon our guilty and heal our distempered Souls Discover thy self to us and make us love thee shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Make us to rise by the Creature to the Creator Guide us by the streams to thee the Fountain of their Goodness and make us as we ought to love thee above all things Let us be governed by thy Love in the whole course of our lives and readily deny our selves to please thee and keep thy Commandments Let us firmly believe the glorious Things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee and draw our Hearts after them to endeavour that our Treasure may be in Heaven in Immutable things And direct us we pray thee so to pass through things Temporal as that we finally lose not the things Eternal Have mercy O Lord upon all Mankind Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the Sea and all Men be directed and led in the way to true Happiness Give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Pour down an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that the Gospel may run and be glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Let them prosper that love it and let not the Gates of Hell ever prevail against it We pray especially for that part of it which thou hast graciously placed in these Nations and hitherto wonderfully detended Lord make it a very fruitful Vineyard and purge out of it all that is contrary to true Doctrin and Godliness Bless we pray thee our Gracious King and Queen and the Royal Family with all Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and give them long and happy Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms to thy Glory and our Comfort Bless all in Authority under them help them truly and indifferently to administer Justice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintainance of thy true Religion and Vertue Give grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrin honour thee and guide thy People committed to them in the way of Blessedness Let all the Subjects of this Realm be subject to thee in Loyalty and Subjection and due Obedience to those that are over them in Church and State and let Piety Love Righteousness and Peace and Truth abound among us We commend to thy Fatherly goodness all that are in any Distress and Affliction all our Friends and Relations we pray for our Enemies do for all beyond what we are able to ask or think We humbly ask a comfortable and safe rest this Night and that it may please thee to make the out-goings of the Morning to rejoice Let thy word which we have heard this Day guide our Conversations and let us bring forth in them the Fruits of the Spirit let not the Cares of this World or the Deceitfulness of Riches choke the Word and render it unfruitful but grant we may live to the Glory of thy Name and to the Peace and Salvation of our own Souls by Jesus Christ in whose most comprehensive words we sum up our Requests saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom 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 Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Necessity of Obedience TO THE COMMANDS of GOD Proved and Stated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven HOW common a thing is it among those that have heard the glad Tidings of the Gospel for Men to take up a presumptuous reliance upon the Merits of Jesus Christ with neglect of Obedience to the Commands of God! Some of the most profligate and careless Sinners will hope to be saved And if one ask them how They will say by the Merits of Jesus Christ Many indulge themselves in their darling Sins and yet hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ And most certain it is that the Doctrins of some Teachers give occasion to this presumption They occasion Men to think there is nothing necessary to their Salvation but strong Believing and so to endeavour nothing but that and to rely upon the Righteousness of Christ so as to neglect all Endeavour after any Righteousness of their own And this Error and Delusion where it obtains does often prove able to harden a Man against the most earnest Exhortations to leave his Sins yea and even against the most plain Rebukes of Providence for them and to frustrate all other Means of Grace and Conversion whatever It is therefore of great Importance to remove it out of the way and this I shall endeavour by discoursing on these words of our Saviour which if they had been well considered together with many other plain Scriptures it had prevented the entertainment of such Imaginations in the Minds of Men. He had been in a long Discourse enforcing many of the Commands of the Moral Law And now towards the close of this Discourse he begins in this Verse to tell them of what importance and necessity it was to them to practise what he had taught He plainly teaches that no belief in him would avail them any thing if they did not together with it keep the Commands of God Not every one says he that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
according to his Divinity and whence according to his Humanity what things he suffer'd and why what is the Vertue of his Resurrection what Gifts of the Spirit he promised and gave to the Faithful But it should also be taught what sort of Men the Members must be to whom he may and will be the Head What sort he requires and makes and loves and redeems and brings to everlasting Life When these things are insisted upon says he then Christ is preached Christus Evangelizatur Aug. de Fide Operibus Tom 4. This Preaching then does not take men off from relying upon Christ it does not tend to make them depend upon themselves for Salvation but it shews them in what way they must rely upon Christ for Salvation that they may certainly succeed in the doing it 2. To improve yet a little further what has been said we may thence learn the Vanity and Deceitfulness of their hopes of Salvation who lead wicked and ungodly Lives they that live in their Sins and yet hope to be saved expect to come to Heaven by the way to Hell they depend upon the Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ without taking the only course to have an Interest in them 3. There is not only folly and deceit in these Hopes but also there is great guilt and provocation in them For this is to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness which is that St. Jude Ver. 4. earnestly condemns when we encourage our selves in Sin from the undertaking of the Redeemer What is said of him in the Gospel is an encouragement for Men to forsake their Sins but not to continue in them This is the greatest abuse that can be of redeeming Love it is contrary to the end and design of it The Mediator took the Name Jesus to signify that his purpose is to save his People from their Sins And indeed his design had been a very strange one if he had come to procure a Dispensation for our Love of infinite Goodness for our Reverence of an infinite Majesty and of our Obedience to the Creator of all things if he had come to dispense with the Laws of Equity and Justice of Mercy and Charity of Truth and Faithfulness towards our Neighbour This is a design unworthy of the Holy Jesus this had not been to glorify the Father and how can it be but highly displeasing to impute to him such a Design as this Opinion and Practice must be reckon'd to do And yet further This is contrary to the Obligation of redeeming Love as well as to the Design of it and must needs be upon that account very displeasing It was the greatest Instance of divine Love to give his Only begotten Son to Die for us and then it is the greatest Obligation to the Love of God And is it not a most enormous and unjust requital to make this an encouragement to the living in hatred against him To live in constant rebellion and contempt This must needs give the highest and most guilty Aggravation to the Sins of Men that can be Let us consider then how much we are obliged by the Love of God to love him and that if we love him we must keep his Commandments The PRAYER OH most merciful and gracious God thy mercy is everlasting and thy truth endures from Generation to Generation Thou hast helped us in our low Estate through the greatness of thy Mercy When we had rendred our selves deserving of everlasting Misery and utter Rejection from thy favour and care thou didst then take care for us and laidst help upon One that is mighty and able to save to the uttermost Oh who can conceive or express the Love of God to us in Christ Jesus It passes knowledge We give thee O Lord most humble and hearty Thanks for this thy unspeakable Gift We thank thee for our Saviour's excellent Doctrins and Instructions whereby he shews us the way to happiness for his most holy and good Life whereby he leads us in the way to it and is become an encouraging Pattern and Example of Well-doing We bless thee for his meritorious Death whereby he has made an Attonement for our Sins has purchased for us thy sanctifying Grace and thy infinite eternal Favour Oh what reason have we to say what shall we render unto the Lord for all his Benefits How many ways O Lord hast thou deserved our highest praises our supream Affections and our best Obedience But Oh how unsensible have we ungrateful wretches been of this thy great Mercy How backward and slow to comply with the just and reasonable Terms of Salvation We are loth to part with our Sins even for the Love of Jesus or to wean our Affections from this World for the hopes of Heaven Yea we are apt to fall into the guilty and pernicious folly of turning the Grace of God into wantonness of encouraging our selves to continue in our Sins upon presumption on thy Mercy in Christ Jesus and of expecting Salvation by him while we have neglected the terms and conditions of obtaining it O Lord awaken us at length to a due and wise Care of our own Souls Of thy infinite Mercy pardon our past Neglects and give us for the sake of Jesus Christ what thou requirest that we may be partakers of the great Salvation Give us an unfeigned Repentance for all our past Transgressions stedfast and sincere purposes of new Obedience Give us an humble lively Faith in him such as may engage us to follow him make us love and chuse his Commands ready to deny our selves for his sake and to devote our selves entirely to him to live to him that died for us let it bring forth much fruit in a diligent and industrious Obedience and seek and expect our acceptance and reward only by Vertue of his Merits and spotless Righteousness Let such a Faith we pray thee be formed or promoted in us by the Ordinances we have this day enjoyed Let us lie down in peace with thee this Night and repose our selves under the protection of thy Providence If it please thee that we shall awake again in this World let our Hearts be full of a thankful Sense of thy Mercies and a Concern to shew forth thy Praise in the Course of our Lives We humbly recommend to thy Mercy and Favour all Mankind beseeching thee to enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death to bring into the way of thy Truth all such as have erred and are deceived To replenish thy Church abundantly with the Gifts and Graces of thy good Spirit to comfort and relieve any of thy Servants that are desolate and afflicted to prosper those that seek the Peace of thy Jerusalem We implore thy Mercy upon the Land of our Nativity Lord let Peace and Righteousness Charity and Piety setle and abound among us Rule and guide thou our Rulers in thy Fear Teach our Teachers Bless comfort and encourage thy Ministers both in Church and
let us betake our selves to repent and turn to thee to mortifie all carnal and corrupt Affections to cease from all Evil and to Good Make us O Lord seriously to consider the great uncertainty to us of what is to come let us not presume upon thy Mercy and so encourage our selves to continue in our Sins lest we thereby put an end to the Exercises of thy Mercy towards us Let us not be so foolish as to provoke thee by our unnecessary delays to cut us off by a sudden and untimely Death or to Doom us to a final and judicial Hardness let us not put off our Repentance to such a time as is not convenient to do it in or to such a time when we are likely to be deceiv'd and imposed upon by our own false Hearts in the doing it but make us now to set about it while thou callest us to it and art ready to assist us and to make us sincere and art certainly willing and ready to accept it O Lord thy ready Grace should find us always ready to receive it and thy pardoning Mercy should find us always ready to seek it Let this O Lord we pray be the Day of thy Power upon every one of us and make us willing to renew our baptismal Covenant now to devote our selves to thee again and to resolve that we will not henceforth live to our selves but to thee to make thy Holy Laws the rule of our Actions and to endeavour in all things to Honour and Glorifie thee And do thou Graciously accept us according to thy Promises declared unto Mankind in Christ Jesus and give strength and stability to these our Resolutions Extend we humbly beseech thee thy Goodness to all the Heathen and Infidel Nations let a mighty and powerful Call go forth among them and turn them to the knowledge of thee the only true God and of Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Be mindful of thine ancient People the Jews and bring them to the acknowledgment of the true Messiah Pour out an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that we may see and understand what is evil among us and may repent and do our first Works Lord in thy Mercy reform these Nations wherein we live from Atheism and Profaneness from Pride and Schism from Envy and Malice and all Uncharitableness from Luxury and Riot and Sloth and Idleness Uncleanness and Intemperance Let us not go on to provoke thee by these our Sins lest our Iniquity prove our ruine We pray thee to Bless abundantly our King and Queen and all that are in Authority under them in Church and State make them a Terrour to all that is evil and a Praise to them that do well that we may be all Happy in a great increase of Vertue and true Godliness amongst us Bless all our Relations and Friends and Acquaintance and keep their Hearts and Minds in the Knowledge and Love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose Name we humbly beg the Mercies of the Night we thank thee for those of the Day past for all that we have received and for our good hopes of more to come To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without End Our Father c. FINIS Books Printed for John Wyat at the Rose in St. Paul 's Church-Yard A Practical Exposition on the Ten Commandments by Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry An Enquiry into several Remarkable Texts of the Old and New Testament which contain some difficulty in them with a probable Resolution of them By John Edwards B. D. Sometime Fellow of St. John's Colledge Cambridge in 2 parts Octavo An Enquiry into the Constitution Discipline Government Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church that flourished within the first three Hundred Years after Christ Faithfully Collected out of the Extant Writings of those Ages in 2 parts by an impartial hand The Christian Virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to Natural Philosophy a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esquire The History of the Life of Katharine de medicis Queen Mother and Regent of France or the Exact Pattern of the Present French King's Policy The Subjects of the following Discourses Sermon I. THE Great Excellency of the Soul of Man demonstrated and improved Pag. 1 Serm. II. Of Vain Thoughts or Inconsideration with the Mischiefs and Remedies p. 27 Serm. III. Of true Happiness wherein it lies demonstrated p. 49 Serm. IV. The Heavenly Mind described and urged p. 75 Serm. V. The Necessity of Obedience to the Commands of God proved and stated p. 98 Serm. VI. The Great Duty of Thankfulness urged directed p. 116 Serm. VII The Pleasantness of Religion demonstrated and improved p. 134 Serm. VIII The Easiness of Religion explained and improved p. 152 Sermon IX The Unprofitableness of Sin demonstrated p. 177 Serm. X. God's Hatred of Sin demonstrated and improved p. 201 Serm. XI The Meanness of this present Life proved and applied p. 225 Serm. XII The Usefulness of Early Religion to Old-age demonstrated p. 249 Serm. XIII Of a Death-Bed Repentance shewing how unreasonable it is for any Man to rely upon it p. 273 Jer. 10. 25. Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not on thy Name Joshua 24. 15. As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. Deut. 6. 6 7. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine Heart And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine House ERRATA PAg. 29. l. 31. r. he might p. 51. l. 26. for that r. than p. 77. l. 23. r. to them p. 87. l. 5. dele p. 103. l. 2. r. Eph. 6. 1 2 3. p. 143. l. 16. dele p. 155. l. 2. for ' tit r. ' t is p. 184. l. ult r. interests Books Written by John Norris M. A. Rector of Bemerton near Sarum A Collection of Miscellanies consisting of Poems Essays Discourses and Letters in large Octavo Price 4 s. Theory and Regulation of Love a Moral Essay in Two Parts To which are added Letters Philosophical and Moral between the Author and D. More in Octavo Price 2 s. Reason and Religion or the Grounds and Measures of Devotion considered from the nature of God and the nature of Man in several Contemplations with Exercises of Devotion applyed to every Contemplation in Octavo Price 2 s. 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Two Treatises concerning the Divine Light The First being an Answer to a Letter of a Learned Quaker which he is pleased to call A Just Reprehension to John Norris for his Unjust Reflections on the Quakers in his Book entituled Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life The Second being a Discourse concerning the Grossness of the Quakers Notion of the Light within with their Confusion and Inconsistency in explaining it All these Printed for and Sold by Samuel Manship at the Black-Bull near the Royal-Exchange in Cornhil SEneca's Morals by way of Abstract by Sir Rogar L'Estrange Printed for Samuel Manship
State with a Loyal Obedient Peaceable and Loving People Grant that we may all live to thy Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose own words we further say Our Father c. THE GREAT DUTY OF THANKFULNESS Urged and Directed Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 1 Thes 5. 18. In every thing give Thanks THere is an exceeding great evil and disorder which we may too frequently observe in the World and which every Man's reason condemns in others and yet all are apt to be often guilty of it themselves It is that we we do commonly remember long and retain a very deep resentment of an Injury whether it be a real or but an imagined one but we soon forget the Benefits we receive and lose the Impressions of them Thus do Mankind often deal with one another and thus also do they behave themselves towards God Tho he cannot wrong or injure us yet we are apt to think he does so when he does in any thing displease us and we behave our selves towards him as if he did We murmur against him and grow discontented and froward are ready to think 't is in vain to serve him and to throw off our Duty And on the other side we do at the same time forget his Benefits and take no notice of what we have many times through desire of what we want We are very earnest and importunate in our Requests for what we would have and are cold in our Thanksgivings or neglect to be thankful at all when we have obtain'd it The Spirit of God taking notice of this Fault in Mankind repeats his Instructions in Holy Scripture to the contrary He bids us take care to join with all our Prayers Thanksgivings in Phil. 4. 6. he says by the Apostle Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God However desirous ye are however sollicitous to obtain what ye want of God be sure to be thankful for what ye have Again in this Chapter where our present Text is he joins the Command of Thanksgiving with that of Prayer the 17th Ver. bids us Pray without ceasing and this 18th says In every thing give Thanks whatever your condition be recommend it to Almighty God by Prayer and how long soever it pleases God to deny or delay what you desire yet continue to pray And with your Prayers remember also to give Thanks In every thing give Thanks that is in every State and Condition endeavour to retain always a Sense of the Divine Benefits to praise him for what he has done for you and be free from all hard Thoughts of God and undecent Murmurings against him I confess this Command in this place seems to be chiefly directed to those Holy and good Men who are the peculiar Favourites of Heaven by the Interest of Jesus Christ But because this Duty is urged more generally elsewhere and there is no Duty requir'd of such good Men but it is also required of all Men at least by consequence and as all Men are required to be good I shall therefore take the words as exhorting to an universal Duty And I conclude from them that all Men are bound to express a thankful Acknowledgement unto God of the Benefits they receive from him and that in all Estates and Circumstances whatsoever In discoursing upon this Matter I shall endeavour these 2 things 1. To prove that every Man has Reason for great Thankfulness to Almighty God 2. To direct the right Expressions and Declarations of our Thankfulness In the first place I shall endeavour to make it evident That every Man has some reason to be thankful to God some reason to praise and love him and to be patient and contented in every Condition And this I think will evidently appear upon the making good the following Particulars 1. Let us consider That all Men are in some measure Partakers of the Divine Benefits There is not one among the Race of Mankind that can justly reckon himself not at all obliged to God Every man is beholden to God for his Being for the preservation and continuance of his Being so long as he subsists and for some things that comfort him in his Being and without doubt the Death of Christ is in some sense an universal Benefit Every Man is beholden to God for that Being which he has It is God that hath made us and not we our selves And from that sort of Being which God has given us are we engaged to be thankful We were made but little lower than the Angels and crowned with Honour and Dignity as the Psalmist says of all Men Psal 8. The meanest Man is next in Dignity to them in the Order of the Creation It is an exceeding Honour of our Bodies and their greatest Worth and Commendation that they are made fit to serve and entertain so noble a Guest as an immortal Spirit and this Honour the most deformed the weakest and the most crazy Body has belonging to it But our greatest Worth and Dignity lies in the Soul which God has given us There is in every Man an excellent Spirit which is capable of very great things however it is in some Men wretchedly neglected and deprest By this are all Men capable of the sublime Knowledge of the Creatour capable to love and praise and delight themselves in him by such a Being then we are capable of Happiness to a great and excellent Degree and even of the highest kind of Happiness that can be as we can enjoy or delight our selves in him who is the highest Good And our immortal Soul renders us capable of Everlasting Happiness in the Eternal fruition of an Infinite Eternal Good Every Man may reach this Happiness if he will This is that he was made and designed for and no Man shall fall short of it but by his own default Thus our Being then should engage us to be thankful to God that gave it Further 'T is to him we owe the continuance of our Being he supports and maintains us in this Life while it lasts and after it in the other This is a continual Obligation to Thankfulness it is a continual Creation As no Being can make its self so none can preserve or continue its self at all but all things have always a most necessary dependance upon the great Creatour We ought then all of us to acknowledge it is he that holds our Soul in Life And while he continues this Life he obliges us in that we are so long capable in some measure to see and enjoy the pleasant and good things of this World If we have good and vertuous Souls and are free from Envy and