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A26068
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A method of daily devotion fitted to the meanest capacities / by W. Assheton.
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Assheton, William, 1641-1711.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing A4035; ESTC R27663
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8,884
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48
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Imprimatur Libellus cui Titulus The Plain-Man's Devotion Part I. Jan. 5. 1687. H. Maurice A METHOD OF Daily Devotion Fitted to the meanest Capacities By W. ASSHETON D. D. Rector of Beckenham in Kent and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of ORMOND LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill against the Royal Exchange 1697. Price 2 d. To the Inhabitants of the Parish of Beckenham in Kent HAving been instrumental through God's Blessing to fix your Belief I shall now proceed by the same gracious assistance to direct your Practice And do very chearfully comply with an invitation to so useful a Task as being fully convinced That it is much more profitable both for me and my Parish to spend my time in Devotion and practical Discourses than in these unpleasing Disputes Now the more effectually to perswade you to a Holy and Religious Life pray seriously consider this short Admonition You must not always be in this World but in a very little time perhaps before to Morrow-Morning you may be removed into the next And then you will unalterably be fixt in an Eternal State either of Happiness or Misery Now as in all other Cases prudence doth direct you to Provide for the worst so chiefly it ought in the concern of your Souls Wherein if you do miscarry the mistake will be very fatal you are utterly ruined Let me therefore beg of you and I do it in Christ's stead immediately to break off your Sins by repentance And resolve without delay to make your Peace with God before you go hence and be no more seen To assist you in this necessary work is the charitable Design of these little Papers Wherein I shall in the most familiar manner even lead you by the hand and shall shew you step by step what I would have you to do And if with an honest and sincere heart you will observe these following Directions I trust we shall comfortably meet at the Day of the Lord Jesus William Assheton A METHOD OF Daily Devotion IN the Morning when you first awake offer up your first Thoughts and Words to God saying Glory be to God the Father who hath made me and all the world Glory be to God the Son who hath redeemed me and all Mankind Glory be to God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God O holy blessed and glorious Trinity Three Persons and One God have mercy upon me a miserable Sinner As you are rising say I laid me down and slept and rose up again for the Lord sustained me Psalm 3. 5. Whilst you are putting on your Cloaths consider what you are to do that Day And if any Company or Business which you are to be engaged in shall be likely to tempt or to draw you to any Sin As to Intemperance in Meats or Drinks to Lust Anger c. then Arm your self with Resolutions against it and say Lord lead me not into Temptation but deliver me from Evil. I do renounce the Devil and all his works the Pomps and Vanity of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh I believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And I will keep Gods Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of my Life All this O my God I am bound by the vare of my Baptism to believe and do and by thy help so I will As soon as you are drest kneel down by your Bed-side and with great Reverence and Devotion as in God's Presence say your Prayers thus or in the like manner Morning Prayer for a Private Person I Bless and Praise thy Holy Name most gracious God for all thy mercies bestowed upon me from the time of my Birth to this present moment I thank thee for the Preservation of the last Night and for the sweet Sleep and refreshment which I have enjoyed O pardon and forgive me my manifold Sins particularly here mention the greatest of thy Sins I am truly sorry that I have offended thee and fully do resolve to do so no more Assist me this day in the Works of my Calling and prosper all my lawful Undertakings Give me Grace to be true and just in all my Dealings and to do unto all men as I would they should do unto me Help me to be contented with my present Condition To be diligent in all my Duties Watchful against all Temptations So humble and modest chast and temperate and so moderate in my most lawful Enjoyments that they never become a Snare to me Lord I live here in a troublesome sinful World But do thou take me into thy Protection and then I am safe Guide me by thy Counsel here and at last bring me to thy Glory And this I humbly beg for the sake of Jesus Christ my dear Lord and only Saviour who hath taught me thus to pray Our Father c. After Break-fast at which the greatest part of the Houshold are supposed to be present let the Master of the Family or some other by his appointment distinctly and devoutly read this or the like following Prayer Morning Prayer for a Family O Holy Lord God Almighty before whom all Knees do bend and to whom all Creatures in Heaven and Earth do bow and obey Behold here poor impotent guilty Creatures humbly prostrate before thy Throne Adoring thy Greatness and admiring thy Goodness and desiring nothing more than faithfully to serve thee all the days of our Lives For thou only art Holy Thou only art the Lord And Glory be to thee O Lord most High Praised be thy Name O Lord from the rising up of the Sun to the going down of the same Thou art our God and we will thank thee Thou art our God and we will praise thee We laid us down and slept and rose up again for the Lord sustained us Thou hast lightned our Eyes that we slept not in Death Thou hast delivered us from the Terrors of the Night and from the Evil that walketh in Darkness From Fire and Robbery and all other sad Accidents Thou renewest thy Mercies to us every Morning and has given us one Day more to serve thee and call upon thy Name O Lord our heavenly Father Almighty and Everlasting God who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this Day defend us in the same by thy mighty Power and 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 do always that is righteous in thy sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we beg thy Blessing for all Mankind More particularly for these Kingdoms in which we live Bless save and defend the King and all the Royal Family with all Orders of Men amongst us both in Church and State Bless all our Friends and kind Relations Those that have done us any Good Lord reward them Those that have done or wish'd us any Evil Father
God who is a God of Order hath establish'd this method Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Mat. 6. 33. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. Intimating That the chief end and design the great business for which you are sent into the World it is to Glorife God by saving of your Souls And therefore when God is dishonour'd and the welfare of your Souls is neglected then are your desires or your actions irregular and unlawful Particularly If these Desires shall once prompt you to cozen and cheat and defraud your Neighbour in any instance whatsoever As By telling Lyes to help out a good Bargain By false Weights and Measures By not paying Servants and Workmens wages By not discharging just Debts when it is in your power but keeping other mens Money to their prejdiuce that you your selves may trade with it In these and many other Instances you are apparently Covetous Nay further Though you can truely affirm as you often boast that you never wronged any man living But are most just and punctual in all your dealings and were never worse than your word Yet if your desire of getting an Estate shall be so eager that you shall neglect the Duties of Religion If for instance you cannot stay to say your Prayers in a Morning for fear of neglecting your work And if when you come into God's House there to attend his immediate Service you are then thinking of your worldly Concerns how you may turn your Penny and contrive your Affairs to the best Advantage if the Festivals and Fasts of the Church those Market-days for your Souls shall be a burthen to you saying with those in the Prophet When will the New-Moon be gone that we may sell Corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth Wheat Amos 8. 5. If the care and concern for your Bodies which should be subordinate to that of your Souls shall be thus preferr'd before it your desires are then irregular and unlawful and you are evidently guilty of this Sin of Covetousness Nay yet further Though your Estates may be very honestly gotten yet if you do not use them as you ought nor employ them to those ends for which they were given you are still Covetous Now the only end of wealth is to supply our occasions and to enable us to do good both to our selves and others He therefore that lives meanly and below his Estate when there is no reason so to do That shall pinch and pine his own body by denying it those necessary refreshments it wants That shall neglect the Education and the Marriage of his Children as resolving to part with his Money and his Life together Finally He who shall transgress that most necessary Duty of being charitable to the Poor and relieving those that are in Distress his Gold and his Silver for want of use is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against him James 5. 3. Let your Conversation be without Covetousness and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Phil. 4. 6 7. Being return'd home in the Evening and your work being finished before you go to Bed let the Master of the Family again call his Houshold together And I wish I could perswade you every night to read some portion of Holy Scripture But lest that should seem too great a burden upon the Week-day I shall reserve it as a proper Task for the Lord's-day and the Festivals of the Church for the due observation of which I do purpose God willing to give you particular Directions in another Paper However though you may want time or are too much wearied to read in your Bible yet pray do not omit to commend your selves to God's Protection in this or the like manner Evening Prayer for a Family ALmighty and Everlasting God and in Jesus Christ our most Merciful and Gracious Father We thy poor unworthy Creatures do most humbly present our selves before thee to confess our sins and to beg thy pardon To acknowledge thy mercies and to bewail our abuses of them We have transgressed our Duty to Thee our Neighbour and our selves And that both in Thought in Word and in Deed by doing those Things which thou hast expresly forbidden and by neglecting those Duties thou hast commanded us And this not only through Ignorance and Frailty but sometimes knowingly and wilfully with repeated vows and resolutions to the contrary Nay O Lord we have despised that Goodness of thine which should lead us to Repentance hardning our hearts against all those means which thou hast used for our amendment And now Lord what can we expect having done these Things but to be utterly abhorred and forsaken by thee that is indeed the due reward of our sins But O Lord there is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared O fit us for that mercy by giving us a deep and hearty Repentance a sincere Contrition a true sorrow for and perfect hatred of all our sins with a firm resolution to forsake them And then according to thy Goodness let thine anger and thy wrath be turned away from us Look upon us in thy Son our Blessed Saviour and for the Merits of his Sufferings pardon all our Sins And since we are not able of our selves so much as to think one good Thought we beseech thee to work in us both to will and to do according to thy good pleasure And by the Grace of thy Holy Spirit do thou so renew and purify our hearts that we may become new Creatures utterly forsaking every evil way and living in constant sincere universal Obedience to thee all the rest of our Days Make us humble and modest patient and submissive chaste and temperate just and righteous kind and charitable diligent in our Callings and zealous for thy Glory That so having behaved our selves as good and faithful Servants we may by thy mercy at the last be received into the joy of our Lord. And we desire thou knowest the good of all Mankind as well as our own Particularly we implore thy Mercies towards these Kingdoms wherein we live Remember not Lord our Offences nor the Offences of our Forefathers but spare us good Lord and have patience with us if perhaps we may bring forth better Fruit becoming thy holy Gospel and all the care thou hast taken about us Lord save and defend the King and establish his Throne in Righteousness that we may see many happy days under his Government Bless him and us in all his Relations in his Council in all the Nobility Clergy Gentry and Commonalty That every one of them may