especially to faith but consequently to all other graces of the Spirit It is all one to us whether by the eye or by the eare the Spirit conveyes his precepts to us If we hear S. Paul saying to us that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge or read it in one of his Epistles in either of them we are equally and sufficiently instructed The Scriptures read are the same thing to us which the same doctrine was when it was preached by the Disciples of our blessed Lord and we are to learn of either with the same dispositions There are many that cannot reade the word and they must take it in by the ear and they that can reade finde the same word of God by the eye It is necessary that all men learn it some way or other and it is sufficient in order to their practise that they learn it any way The word of God is all those Commandments and Revelations those promises and threatnings the stories and sermons recorded in the Bible nothing else is the word of God that we know of by any certain instrument The good books and spiritual discourses the sermons or homilies written or spoken by men are but the word of men or rather explications of and exhortations according to the Word of God but of themselves they are not the Word of God In a Sermon the Text onely is in a proper sence to be called Gods Word and yet good Sermons are of great use and convenience for the advantages of Religion He that preaches an hour together against drunkennesse with the tongue of men or Angels hath spoke no other word of God but this Be not drunk with wine wherein there is excesse and he that writes that Sermon in a book and publishes that book hath preached to all that reade it a louder Sermon then could be spoken in a Church This I say to this purpose that we may separate truth from error popular opinions from substantial Truths For God preaches to us in the Scripture and by his secret assistances and spiritual thoughts and holy motions Good men preach to us when they by popular arguments and humane arts and complyances expound and presse any of those doctrines which God hath preached unto us in his holy Word But 1. The Holy Ghost is certainly the best Preacher in the world and the words of Scripture the best sermons 2. All the doctrine of salvation is plainly set down there that the most unlearned person by hearing it read may understand all his duty What can be plainer spoken then this Thou shalt not kill Be not drunk with wine Husbands love your wives whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye so to them The wit of man cannot more plainly tell us our duty or more fully then the Holy Ghost hath done already 3. Good sermons and good books are of excellent use but yet they can serve no other end but that we practise the plain doctrines of Scripture 4. What Abraham in the parable said concerning the brethren of the rich man is here very proper They have Moses and the Prophets leâ— them hear them But if they refuse to hear these neither will they believe though one should arise from the dead to preach unto them 5. Reading the holy Scriptures is a duty expressely commanded us and is called in Scripture Preaching all other preaching is the effect of humane skill and industry and although of great benefit yet it is but an Ecclesiastical ordinance the Law of God concerning Preaching being expressed in the matter of reading the Scriptures and hearing that word of God which is and as it is there described But this duty is reduced to practise in the following Rules Rules for hearing or reading the word of God 1. Set apart some portion of thy time according to the opportunities of thy calling and necessary imployment for the reading of holy Scripture and if it be possible every day reade or hear some of it read you are sure that book teaches all truth commands all holinesse and promises all happinesse 2. When it is in your power to choose accustome your self to such portions which are most plain and certain duty and which contain the story of the Life and Death of our blessed Saviour Read the Gospels the Psalms of Daâ—id and especially those portions of Scripture which by the wisdom of the Church are appointed to be publikely read upon Sundayes and holy-dayes viz. the Epistles and Gospels In the choice of any other portions you may advise with a Spiritual Guide that you may spend your time with most profit 3. Fail not diligently to attend to the reading of holy Scriptures upon those dayes wherein it is most publickly and solemnly read in Churches for at such times besides the learning our duty we obtain a blessing along with it it becoming to us upon those dayes apart of the solemn Divine worship 4. When the word of God is read or preached to you be sure you be of a ready heart and minde free from worldly cares and thoughts diligent to hear careful to mark studious to remember and desirous to practise all that is commanded and to live according to it Do not hear for any other end but to become better in your life and to be instructed in every good work and to increase in the love and service of God 5. Beg of God by prayer that he would give you the spirit of obedience and profit and that he would by his Spirit write the word in your heart and that you describe it in your life To which purpose serve your self of some affectionate ejaculations to that purpose before and after this duty Concerning spiritual books and ordinary Sermons take in these advices also 6. Let not a prejudice to any mans person hinder thee from receiving good by his doctrine if it be according to godlinesse but if occasion offer it or especially if duty present it to thee that is if it be preached in that assembly where thou art bound to be present accept the word preached as a message from God and the Minister as his Angel in that ministration 7. Consider and remark the doctrine that is represented to thee in any discourse and if the Preacher addes any accidental advantages any thing to comply with thy weaknesse or to put thy spirit into action or holy resolution remember it and make use of it but if the Preacher be a weak person yet the text is the doctrine thou art to remember that contains all thy duty it is worth thy attendance to hear that spoken often â—nd renewed upon thy thoughts and though thou beest a learned man yet the same thing which thou knowest already if spoken by another may be made active by that application I can better be comforted by my own considerations if another hand applyes them then if I do it my self because the word of God does not work as a natural agent but as a
Death Hear my Prayer O Lord and let my crying come unto thee * Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble incline thine ear unto me when I call O hear me and that right soon * For my dayes are consumed like smoaâ— my bones are burnt up as it were a firebrand * My heart is smitten down withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread that because of thine indignation and wrath for thou hast taken me up cast me down * Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sin * My wickednesâ—es are gone over my head and are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear * But I will confesse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin * O Lord rebuke me not in thy indignation neither chasten me in thy displeasure * Lord be merciful unto me heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodnesse according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences * O remember not the sins and offences of my youth but according to thy mercy think thou upon me O Lord for thy goodnesse * Wash me thoroughly from my wickednesse and cleanse me from my sin * Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me * Cast me not away from thy presence from thy all-hallowing and life-giving presence and take not thy holy Spirit thy sanctifying thy guiding thy comforting thy supporting and confirming Spirit from me O God thou art my God for ever and ever thou shalt be my guide unto death * Lord comfort me now that I lye sick upon my bed make thou my bed in all my sicknesse * O deliver my soul from the place of Hell and do thou receive me * My heart is disquieted within me and the fear of death is falen upon me * Behold thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee and verily every man living is altogether vanity * When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment every man therefore is but vanity And now Lord what is my hope truly my hope is even in thee * Hear my prayer O Lord and with thine ears consider my calling hold not thy peace at my tears * Take this plague away from me I am consumed by the means of thy heavy hand * I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my Fathers were * O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen * My soul cleaveth unto the dust O quicken me according to thy word * And when the snares of death compasse me round about let not the pains of hell take hold upon me An Act of Faith concerning resurrection and the day of judgment to be said by sick persons or meditated I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self mine eyes shal behold though my reins be consumed within me Iob 19. God shall come and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him he shall call the heaven from above and the earth that he may judge his people * O blessed Jesu thou art my judge and thou art my Advocate have mercy upon me in the hour of my death and in the day of judgment See Iohn 5.28 1 Thessal 4.15 Short Prayers to be said by sick persons O Holy Jesus thou art a merciful High Priest and touched with the sense of our infirmities thou knowest the sharpnesse of my sicknesse and the weaknesse of my person The clouds are gathered about me and thou hast covered me with thy storm My understanding hath not such apprehension of things as formerly Lord let thy mercy support me thy spirit guide me and lead me through the valley of this death safely that I may passe it patiently holily with perfect resignation and let me rejoyce in the Lord in the hopes of pardon in the expectation of glory in the sence of thy mercies in the refreshments of thy spirit in a victory over all temptations Thou hast promised to be with us in tribulation Lord my soul is troubled and my body is weak and my hope is in thee and my enemies are busy and mighty now make good thy holy promise Now O holy Jesus now let thy hand of grace be upon me restrain my ghostly enemies and give me all sorts of spiritual assistances Lord remember thy servant in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels O take from me all tediousnesse of Spirit all impatience and unquietnesse let me possesse my soul in patience and resigne my soul and body into thy hands as into the hands of a faithful Creator and a blessed Redeemer O holy Jesu thou didst dye for us by thy sad pungent intolerable pains which thou enduredst for me have pity on me ease my pain or increase my patience Lay on me no more then thou shalt enable me to bear I have deserv'd it all more and infinitely more Lord I am weak and ignorant timerous and inconstant and I feâ—r lest something should happen that may discompose the state of my soul that may displease thee Do what thou wilt with me so thou doest but preserve me in thy fear and favour Thou knowest that it is my great â—ear but let thy Spirit secure that nothing may be able to separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ then smite me here that thou mayest spare me for ever and yet O Lord smite me friendly for thou knowest my infirmities Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth * Come holy Spirit help me in this conflict Come Lord Jesus come quickly Let the sick person often meditate upon these following promises and gracious words of God My help cometh of the Lord who preserveth them that are true of heart Psal. 7.11 And all they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee Psal. 9.10 O how plentiful is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee even before the sons of men Psal. 31. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that put their trust in his mercy to deliver their souls from death Ps. 33. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart
a sad necessity but else Gods usual way is to be present in those places where his servants are appointed ordinarily to meet But his presence there signifies nothing but his readinesse to hear their prayers to blesse their persons to accept their offices and to like even the circumstance of orderly and publick meeting For thither the prayers of consecration the publick authority separating it and Gods love of order and the reasonable customes of Religion have in ordinary and in a certain degree fixed this manner of his presence and he loves to have it so 5. God is especially present in the hearts of his people by his holy Spirit and indeed the hearts of holy men are Temples in the truth of things and in type and shadow they are of Heaven it self For God reigns in the hearts of his servants There is his Kingdom The power of grace hath subdued all his enemies There is his power They serve him night and day and give him thanks and praise that is his glory This is the religion and worship of God in the Temple The temple it self is the heart of man Christ is the High Priest who from thence sends up the incense of prayers and joyns them to his own intercession and presents all together to his Father and the Holy Ghost by his dwelling there hath also consecrated it into a Temple and God dwels in our hearts by faith and Christ by his Spirit and the Spirit by his purities so that we are also Cabinets of the Mysterious Trinity and what is this short of Heaven it self but as infancy is short of manhood and letters of words The same state of life it is but not the same age It is Heaven in a Looking-glasse dark but yet true representing the beauties of the soul and the graces of God and the images of his eternal glory by the reality of a special presence 6. God is especially present in the consciences of all persons good and bad by way of testimony and judgement that is he is there a remembrancer to call our actions to minde a witnesse to bring them to judgement and a Judge to acquit or to condemne And although this manner of presence is in this life after the manner of this life that is imperfect and we forget many actions of our lives yet the greatest changes of our state of grace or sin our most considerable actions are alwayes present like Capital Letters to an aged and dim eye and at the day of judgement God shall draw aside the cloud and manifest this manner of his presence more notoriously and make it appear that he was an observer of our very thoughts and that he onely laid those things by which because we covered with dust and negligence they were not then discerned But when we are risen from our dust and imperfection they all appear plain and legible Now the consideration of this great truth is of a very universal use in the whole course of the life of a Christian. All the consequents and effects of it are universal * He that remembers that God stands a witnesse and a judge beholding every secrecy besides his impiety must have put on impudence if he be not much restrained in his temptation to sin For the greatest part of sinnes is taken away if a man have a witnesse of his conversation And he is a great despiser of God who sends a Boy away when he is going to commit fornication and yet will dare to do it though he knows God is present and cannot be sent oâ—â— as if the eye of a little Boy were more awful then the all-seeing eye of God He is to be fear'd in publick he is to be fear'd in private if you go forth he spies you if you go in he sees you when you light the candle he observes you when you put it out then also God marks you Be sure that while you are in his sight you behave your self as becomes so holy a presence But if you will sin retire your self wisely and go where God cannot see For no where else can you be safe And certainly if men would alwayes actually consider and really esteem this truth that God is the great Eye of the World alwayes watching over our actions and an ever open ear to hear all our words and an unwearied arm ever lifted up to crush a sinner into ruine it would be the readiest way in the world to make sin to cease from amongst the children of men and for men to approach to the blessed estate of the Saints in Heaven who cannot sin for they alwayes walk in the presâ—nce and behold the face of God * This instrument is to be reduced to practise according to the following Rules Rules of exercising this consideration 1. Let this actual thought often return that God is omnipresent filling every place and say with David Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there If I make my bed in hell thou art there c. This thought by being frequent will make an habitual dread and reverence towards God and fear in all thy actions For it is a great necessity and ingagement to do unblameably when we act before that Judge who is infallible in his sentence all knowing in his information severe in his anger powerful in his providence and intolerable in his wrath and indignation 2. In the beginning of actions of Religion make an act of adoration that is solemnly worship God and place thy self in Gods presence and behold him with the eye of faith and leâ— thy desires actually six on him as the object of thy worship and the reason of thy hope and the fountain of thy blessing For when thou hast placed thy self before him and kneelest in his presence it is most likely all the following parts of thy devotion will be answerable to the wisdom of such an apprehension and the glory of such a presence 3. Let every thing you see represent to your spirit the presence the excellency and the power of God and let your conversation with the creatures lead you unto the Creator for so shall your actions be done more frequently with an actual eye to Gods presence by your often seeing him in the glasse of the creation In the face of the Sun you may see Gods beauty In the fire you may feel his heat warming in the water his gentleness to refresh you he it is that comforts your spirit wheÌ„ you have taken Cordials it is the dew of Heaven that makes your field give you bread and the breasts of God are the bottles that minister drink to your necessities This Philosophy which is obvious to every mans experience is a good advantage to our piety and by this act of understanding our wills are check'd from violence and misdemeanour 4. In your retirement make frequent colloquies or short discoursings between God and
Tragedians and from them by Arrianus saying That all our Tragedies are of Kings and Princes and rich or ambitious personages but you never see a poor man have a part unlesse it be as a Chorus or to fill up the Scenes to dance or to be derided but the Kings and the great Generals First sayes he they begin with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crown the houses but about the third or fourth Act they cry out O Citheron why didst thou spare my life to reserve me for this more sad calamity And this is really true in the great accidents of the World for a great estate hath great crosses and a mean fortune hath but small ones It may be the poor man loses a Cow for if his Childe dyes he is quit of his biggest care but such an accident in a rich and splendid Family doubles upon the spirits of the parents Or it may be the poor man is troubled to pay his rent and that 's his biggest trouble but it is a bigger care to secure a great fortune in a troubled estate or with equal greatnesse or with the circumstances of honour and the nicenesse of reputation to defend a Law-suit and that which will secure a common mans whole estate is not enough to defend a great mans honour And therefore it was not without mystery observ'd among the Ancients that they who made gods of gold and silver of hope and fear peace and fortune Garlick and Onions Beasts and Serpents and a quartan Ague yet never deified money meaning that however wealth was admired by common or abused understandings yet from riches that is from that proportion of good things which is beyond the necessities of Nature no moment could be added to a mans real content or happinesse Corn from Sardinia herds of Calabrian cattel meadows through which pleasant Liris glides silkes from Tyrus and golden Chalices to drown my health in are nothing but instruments of vanity or sinne and suppose a disease in the soul of him that longs for them or admires them And this I have otherwhere represented more largely to which I here adde that riches have very great dangers to their souls not onely who covet them but to all that have them For if a great personage undertakes an action passionately and upon great interest let him manage it indiscreetly let the whole designe be unjust let it be acted with all the malice and impotency in the World he shall have enough to flatter him but not enough to reprove him He had need be a bold man that shall tell his Patron he is going to Hell and that Prince had need be a good man that shall suffer such a Monitor And though it bee a strange kinde of civility and an evil dutifulnesse in Friends and Relatives to suffer him to perish without reproofe or medicine rather then to seem unmannerly to a great sinner yet it is none of their least infelicities that their wealth and greatnesse shall put them into sinne and yet put them past reproof I need not instance in the habitual intemperance of rich Tables nor the evil accidents and effects of fulnesse pride and lust wantonnesse and softnesse of disposition huge talking and an imperious spirit despite of Religion and contempt of poor persons At the best it is a great temptation for a man to have in his power whatsoever he can have in his sensual desires and therefore riches is a blessing like to a present made of a whole Vintage to a Man in a Hectick Feaver he will be much tempted to drink of it and if he does he is inflam d and may chance to dye with the kindnesse Now besides what hath been already noted in the state of poverty there is nothing to be accounted for but the fear of wanting necessaries of which if a man could be secured that he might live free from care all the other parts of it might be reckoned amongst the advantages of wise and sober persons rather then objections against that state of fortune But concerning this I consider that there must needs be great security to all Christians since CHRIST not onely made expresse promises that we should have sufficient for this life but also took great pains and used many arguments to create confidence in us and such they were which by their own strength were sufficient though you abate the authority of the Speaker The Sonne of GOD told us his Father takes care of us Hee that knew all his Fathers counsels and his whole kindnesse towards mankinde told us so How great is that truth how certain how necessary which CHRIST himself proved by arguments The excellent words and most comfortable sentences which are our Bills of Exchange upon the credit of which we lay our cares down and receive provisions for our need are these Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on Is not the life more then meat and the body then raiment Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly Father feedeth them Are ye not much better then they which of you by taking thought can adde one cubit to his stature And why take ye thought for raiment Consider the Lillies of the field how they grow They toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these Therefore if God so clothe the grasse of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe you O ye of little faith Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithall shall we be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seek For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousnesse and all these things shall bee added unto you Take therefore no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self sufficient to the day is the evil thereof The same discourse is repeated by S. Luke and accordingly our duty is urged and our confidence abetted by the Disciples of our Lord in divers places of holy Scripture So S. Paul Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God And againe Charge them that are rich in this world that they bee not high minded nor trust in uncertaine riches but in the living GOD who giveth us richly all things to enjoy and and yet again Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper And all
much more shall your Heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him 4. The consideration of the Divine Omnipotence and infinite wisdom and our own ignorance are great instruments of curing all doubting and silencing the murmures of infidelity 5. Avoid all curiosity of inquiry into particulars and circumstances and mysteries for true faith is full of ingenuity and hearty simplicity free from suspicion wise and confident trusting upon generals without watching and prying into unnecessary or undiscernable particulars No Man carries his bed into his field to watch how his corn grows but believes upon the general order of Providence and Nature and at Harvest findes himself not deceived 6. In time of temptation be not busie to dispute but relye upon the conclusion and throw your self upon God and contend not with him but in prayer and in the presence and with the help of a prudent untempted guide and be sure to esteem all changes of belief which offer themselves in the time of your greatest weaknesse contrary to the perswasions of your best understanding to bee temptations and reject them accordingly 7. It is a prudent course that in our health and best advantages we lay up particular arguments and instruments of perswasion and confidence to be brought forth and used in the great day of expence and that especially in such things in which we use to be most tempted and in which we are least confident and which are most necessary and which commonly the Devil uses to assault us withal in the days of our visitation 8. The wisdom of the Church of God is very remarkable in appointing Festivals or Holidayes whose solemnity and Offices have no other special businesse but to record the Article of the day such as Trinity Sunday Ascension Easter Christmas day and to those persons who can onely believe not prove or dispute there is no better instrument to cause the remembrance and plain notion and to endear the affection and hearty assent to the Article then the proclaiming and recommending it by the festivity and joy of a Holy day Sect. II. Of the Hope of a Christian. FAith differs from Hope in the extension of its object and in the intension of degree Saint Austin thus accounts their differences Faith is of all things revealed good and bad rewards and punishments of things past present and to come of things that concern us and of things that concern us not But Hope hath for its Object things onely that are good and fit to be hoped for future and concerning our selves and because these things are offered to us upon conditions of which we may so fail as we may change our will therefore our certainty is lesse then the adherences of faith which because Faith relyes onely upon one proposition that is the truth of the Word of God cannot be made uncertain in themselves though the object of our Hope may become uncertain to us and to our possession for it is infallibly certain that there is Heaven for all the godly and for me amongst them all if I do my duty But that I shall enter into Heaven is the object of my Hope not of my Faith and is so sure as it is certain I shall persevere in the wayes of God The Acts of Hope are 1. To relye upon God with a confident expectation of his promises ever esteeming that every promise of God is a magazine of all that grace and relief which we can need in that instance for which the promise is made Every degree of hope is a degree of confidence 2. To esteem all the danger of an action and the possibilities of miscarriage and every crosse accident that can intervene to be no defect on Gods part but either a mercy on his part or a fault on ours for then we shall be sure to trust in God when we see him to be our confidence and our selves the cause of all mischances The hope of a Christian is prudent and religious 3. To rejoyce in the midst of a misfortune or seeming sadnesse knowing that this may work for good and will if we be not wanting to our souls This is a direct act of Hope to look through the cloud and look for a beam of light from God and this is called in Scripture Rejoycing in tribulation when the God of hope fils us with all joy in believing Every degree of hope brings a degree of joy 4. To desire to pray and to long for the great object of our hope the mighty price of our high calling and to desire the other things of this life as they are promised that is so far as they are made necessary and useful to us in order to Gods glory and the great end of fouls Hope and Fasting are said to be the two wings of Prayer Fasting is but as the wing of a Bird but Hope is like the wing of an Angel soaring up to Heaven and bears our prayers to the throne of Grace Without Hope it is impossible to pray but Hope makes our prayers reasonable passionate and religious for it relyes upon Gods promise or experience or providence and story Prayer is alwayes in proportion to our Hope zealous and affectionate 5. Perseverance is the perfection of the duty of hope and its last act and so long as our hope continues so long we go on in duty and diligence but he that is to raise a Castle in an hour sits down does nothing towards it and Herod the Sophister left off to teach his son when he saw that 24 Pages appointed to wait on him and called by the several Letters of the Alphabet could never make him to understand his letters perfectly Rules to govern our Hope 1. Let your Hope be moderate proportioned to your state person and condition whether it be for gifts or graces or temporal favours It is an ambitious hope for a person whose diligence is like them that are least in the Kingdom of Heaven to believe themselves endeaâ—'d to God as the greatest Saints or that they shall have a throne equal to S. Paul or the blessed Virgin Mary A Stammerer cannot with moderation hope for the gift of Tongues or a Peasant to become learned as Origen or if a Beggar desires or hopes to become a King or asks for a thousand pound a year we call him impudent not passionate much lesse reasonable Hope that God will crown your endeavours with equal measures of that reward which he indeed freely gives but yet gives according to our proportions Hope for good successe according to or not much beyond the efficacy of the causes and the instrument and let the Husbandman hope for a good Harvest not for a rich Kingdom or a victorious Army 2. Let your hope be well founded relying upon just confidences that is upon God according to his revelations and promises For it is possible for a Man to have a vain hope upon God and in matters of Religion it is presumption to hope