is declared In the fourth Commandement hee proclaims himself the Maker of Heaven and Earth for in memory of Gods rest from the work of six dayes the seventh was hallowed into a Sabbath and the keeping it was a confessing GOD to bee the great Maker of Heaven and Earth and consequently to this it also was a confession of his goodnesse his Omnipotence and his Wisdom all which were written with a Sun beam in the great book of the Creature So long as the Law of the Sabbath was bound upon Gods people so long GOD would have that to be the folemn manner of confessing these attributes but when the Priesthood being changed there was a change also of the Law the great duty remain'd unalterable in changed circumstances We are eternally bound to confesse God Almighty to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth but the manner of confessing it is chang'd from a rest or a doing nothing to a speaking something from a day to a symbol from a ceremony to a substance from a Jewish rite to a Christian duty we professe it in our Creed we confesse it in our lives we describe it by every line of our life by every action of duty by faith and trust and obedience and we do also upon great reason comply with the Jewish manner of confessing the Creation so far as it is instrumental to a real duty We keepe one day in seven and so confesse the manner and circumstance of the Creation and we rest also that we may tend holy duties so imitating Gods rest better then the Jew in Synesius who lay upon his face from evening to evening and could not by stripes or wounds be raised up to steer the ship in a great storm Gods rest was not a natural cessation hee who could not labour could not be said to rest but Gods rest is to be understood to be a beholding and a rejoycing in his work finished and therefore we truly represent Gods rest when we confesse and rejoyce in Gods works and Gods glory This the Christian Church does upon every day but especially upon the Lords day which she hath set apart for this and all other Ofâ—ices of Religion being determined to this day by the Resurrection of her dearest Lord it being the first day of joy the Church ever had And now upon the Lords day we are not tyed to the rest of the Sabbath but to all the work of the Sabbath and we are to abstain from bodily labour not because it is a direct duty to us as it was to the Jews but because it is necessary in order to our duty that we attend to the Offices of Religion The observation of the Lords day differs nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in â—he matter of Religion but in the manner They differ in the ceremony and external rite Rest with them was the principal with us it is the accessory They differ in the office or forms of worship For they were then to worship God as a Creator and a gentle Father we are to adde to that Our Redeemer and all his other excellencies and mercies and though we have more natural and proper reason to keep the Lords day then the Sabbath yet the Jews had a Divine Commandement for their day which we have not for ours but we have many Commandements to do all that honour to GOD which was intended in the fourth Commandement and the Apostles appointed the first day of the week for doing it in solemne Assemblies and the manner of worshipping God and doing him solemn honour and service upon this day we may best observe in the following measures Rules for keeping the Lords day and other Christian Festivals 1. When you go about to distinguish Festival dayes from common do it not by lessening the devotions of ordinary dayes that the common devotion may seem bigger upon Festivals but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire and enlarge upon the Holy day 2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstaine from all servile and laborious workes except such which are matters of necessity of common life or of great charity for these are permitted by that authority which hath separated the day for holy uses The Sabbath of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest and established by God did yeeld to these The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement for which the Letter was decreed and to which it ought to minister And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit and there is no Commandement of God but of spiritual and holy actions The Priests might kill their beasts and dresse them for sacrifice and Christ though born under the law might heal a sick man and the sick man might carry hâ—s bed to witnesse his recovery and confesse the mercy and leap and dance to God for joy and an Ox might be led to water and an Asse be haled ouâ— of a ditch and a man may take physick and he may eat meat and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes and just determined stages but they had even then a reasonable latitude so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour or such as did not minister to charity or religion And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties Upon the Christian Sabbath necessity is to be served first then charity and then religion for this is to give place to charity in great instances and the second to the first in all and in all cases God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth 3. The Lords day being the remembrance of a great blessing must be a day of joy festivity spiritual rejoycing and thanksgiving and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in singing or reading Psalms in recounting the great works of God in remembring his mercies in worshipping his excellencies in celebrating his attributes in admiring his person in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided in all the arts and instruments of advancing Gods glory the reputation of religion in which it were a great decency that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted that the particular religion of the day be not swallowed up in the general And of this we may the more easily serve our selves by rising seasonably in the morning to private devotion and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imployed in publick offices 4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of prayer entring early and cheerfully attending reverently and devoutly abiding patiently during the whole office piously assisting at the prayers and gladly also hearing the Sermon and at no hand omitting to
that we have a great work to do many enemies to conquer many evils to prevent much danger to run through many difficulties to be master'd many necessities to serve and much good to do many children to provide for or many friends to support or many poor to relieve or many diseases to cure besides the needs of nature and of relation our private and our publick cares and duties of the world which necessity and the Providence of God hath adopted into the family of Religion And that we need not fear this instrument to be a snare to us or that the duty must end in scruple vexation and eternal fears we must remember that the life of every man may be so ordered and indeed must that it may be a perpetual serving of God The greatest trouble and most busy trade and wordly incombrances when they are necessary or charitable or profitable in order to any of those ends which we are bound to serve whether publick or private being a doing Gods work For God provides the good things of the world to serve the needs of nature by the labours of the Plowman the skill and pains of the Artisan and the dangers and traffick of the Merchant These men are in their callings the Ministers of the Divine providence and the stewards of the creation and servants of the great family of God the World in the imployment of procuring necessaries for food and clothing ornament and Physick In their proportions also a King and a Priest and a Prophet a Judge and an Advocate doing the works of their imployment according to their proper rules are doing the work of God because they serve those necessities which God hath made and yet made no provisions for them but by their Ministery So that no man can complain that his calling takes him off from religion his calling it self and his very worldly imployment in honest trades and offices is a serving of God and if it be moderately pursued and according to the rules of Christian prudence will leave void spaces enough for prayers and retirements of a more spiritual religion God hath given every man work enough to do that there shall be no room for idlenesse â—nd yet hath so ordered the world that there shall be space for devotion He that hath the fewest businesses of the world is called upon to spend more time in the dressing of his soul and he that hath the most affairs may so order them that they shall be a service of God whilst at certain periods they are blessed with prayers and actions of religion and all day long are hallowed by a holy intention However so long as Idlenesse is quite shut out from our lives all the sins of wantonnesse softnesse and effeminacy are prevented and there is but little room left for temptation and therefore to a busie man temptation is fain to climbe up together with his businesses and sins creep upon him onely by accidents and occasions whereas to an idle person they come in a full body and with open violence and the impudence of a restlesse importunity Idlenesse is called the sin of Sodom and her daughters and indeed is the burial of a living man an idle person being so uselesse to any purposes of God and man that he is like one that is dead unconcerned in the changes and necessities of the world and he onely lives to spend his time and eat the fruits of the earth like vermin or a wolf when their time comes they dye and perish and in the mean time do no good they neither plow nor carry burdens all that they do either is unprofitable or mischievous Idlenesse is the greatest prodigality in the world it throwes away that which is invaluable in respect of its present use and irreparable when it is past being to be recovered by no power of art or nature But the way to secure and improve our time we may practise in the following rules Rules for imploying our Time 1. In the morning when you awake accustome your self to think first upon God or something in order to his service and at night also let him close thine eyes and let your sleep be necessary and healthful not idle and expensive of time beyond the needs and conveniencies of nature and sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes when he is coming forth from his chambers of the East 2. Let every man that hath a calling be diligent in pursuance of its imployment so as not lightly or without reasonable occasion to neglect it in any of those times which are usually and by the custome of prudent persons and good husbands imployed in it 3. Let all the Intervals or void spaces of time be imployed in prayers reading meditating works of nature recreation charitie friendlinesse and neighbourhood and means of spiritual and corporal health ever remembring so to work in our calling as not to neglect the work of our high calling but to begin and end the day with God with such forms of devotion as shall be proper to our necessities 4. The resting dayes of Christians and Festivals of the Church must in no sense be dayes of idlenesse for it is better to plow upon holy dayes then to do nothing or to do vitiously but let them be spent in the works of the day that is of Religion and Charity according to the rules appointed 5. Avoid the company of Drunkards and busie-bodies and all such as are apt to talk much to little purpose for no man can be provident of his time that is not prudent in the choice of his company and if one of the Speakers be vain tedious and trifling he that hears and he that answers in the discourse are equal losers of their time 6. Never talk with any man or undertake any trifling imployment meerly to passe the time away for every day well spent may become a day of salvation and time rightly employed is an acceptable time And remember that the time thou triflest away was given thee to repent in to pray for pardon of sins to work out thy salvation to do the work of grace to lay up against the day of Judgement a treasure of good works that thy time may be crowned with Eternity 7. In the midst of the works of thy calling often retire to God in short prayers and ejaculations and those may make up the want of those larger portions of time which it may be thou desirest for devotion and in which thou think'st other persons have advantage of thee for so thou reconcilest the outward work and thy inward calling the Church and the Common-wealth the imployment of thy body and the interest of thy soul for be sure that God is present at thy breathings and hearty sighings of prayer assoon as at the longer offices of lesse busied persons and thy time is as truely sanctified by a trade and devout though shorter prayers as by the longer offices
way of exercise Page 317 13 Remedies against anger by way of consid Page 322 3.7 Remedies against Covetousnesse Page 325 Sect. 9. Of Repentance Page 332 11 Acts and parts of Repentance Page 335 4 Motives to Repentance Page 344 Sect. 10. Of Preparation to and the manner how to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper Page 347 14 Rules for Preparation and worthy Communicating Page 349 The effects and benefits of worthy Communicating Page 357 Prayers for all sorts of Men and all necessities relating to the several parts of the vertue of religion Page 360 The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living c. CHAP. I. Consideration of the general instruments and means serving to a holy Life by way of Introduction IT is necessary that every Man should consider that since God hath given him an excellent nature wisdom and choice an understanding soul and an immortal spirit having made him Lord over the Beasts and but a little lower then the Angels he hath also appointed for him a work and a service great enough to imploy those abilities and hath also designed him to a state of life after this to which he can onely arrive by that service and obedience And therefore as every man is wholly Gods own portion by the title of creation so all our labours and care all our powers and faculties must be wholly imployed in the service of God even all the dayes of our life that this life being ended we may live with him for ever Neither is it sufficient that we think of the service of God as a work of the least necessity or of small imployment but that it be done by us as God intended it that it be done with great earnestnesse and passion with much zeal and desire that we refuse no labour that we bestow upon it much time that we use the best guides and arrive at the end of glory by all the wayes of grace of prudence and religion And indeed if we consider how much of our lives is taken up by the needs of nature how many years are wholly spent before we come to any use of reason how many years more before that reason is useful to us to any great purposes how imperfect our discourse is made by our evil education false principles ill company bad examples and want of experience how many parts of our wisest and best years are spent in eating and sleeping in necessary businesses and unnecessary vanities in worldly civilities and lesse useful circumstances in the learning arts and sciences languages or trades that little portion of hours that is left for the practises of piety and religious walking with God is so short and trifling that were not the goodnesse of God infinitely great it might seem unreasonable or impossible for us to expect of him eternal joyes in heaven even after the well spending those few minutes which are left for God and Gods service after we have served our selves and our own occasions And yet it is considerable that the fruit which comes from the many dayes of recreation and vanity is very little and although we scatter much yet we gather but little profit but from the few hours we spend in prayer and the exercises of a pious life the return is great and profitable and what we sowe in the minutes and spare portions of a few years grows up to crowns and scepters in a happy and a glorious eternity 1. Therefore Although it cannot be enjoyn'd that the greatest part of our time be spent in the direct actions of devotion and religion yet it will become not onely a duty but also a great providence to lay aside for the services of God and the businesses of the Spirit as much as we can because God rewards our minutes with long and eternal happinesse and the greater portion of our time we give to God the more we treasure up for our selves and No man is a better Merchant than he that layes out his time upon God and his money upon the Poor 2. Onely it becomes us to remember and to adore Gods goodnesse for it that God hath not onely permitted us to serve the necessities of our nature but hath made them to become parts of our duty that if we by directing these actions to the glory of God intend them as instruments to continue our persons in his service he by adopting them into religion may turn our nature into grace and accept our natural actions as actions of religion God is pleased to esteem it for a part of his service if we eat or drink so it be done temperately and as may best preserve our health that our health may enable our services towards him And there is no one minute of our lives after we are come to the use of reason but we are or may be doing the work of God even then when we most of all serve our selves 3. To which if we adde that in these and all other actions of our lives we alwayes stand before God acting and speaking and thinking in his presence and that it matters not that our conscience is seal'd with secresie since it lies open to God it will concern us to behave our selves carefully as in the presence of our Judge These three considerations rightly manag'd and applyed to the several parts and instances of our lives will be like Elisha stretched upon the childe apt to put life and quicknesse into every part of it and to make us live the life of grace and do the work of God I shall therefore by way of introduction reduce these three to practise and shew how every Christian may improve all and each of these to the advantage of piety in the whole course of his life that if he please to bear but one of them upon his spirit he may feel the benefit like an universal instrument helpful in all spiritual and temporal actions SECT I. The first general instrument of holy living Care of our time HE that is choice of his time will also be choice of his company and choice of his actions lest the first ingage him in vanity and losse and the latter by being criminal be a throwing his time and himself away and a going back in the accounts of eternity God hath given to man a short time here upon earth and yet upon this short time eternity depends but so that for every hour of our life after we are persons capable of laws know good from evil we must give account to the great Judge of Men and Angels And this is it which our blessed Saviour told us that we must account for every idle word not meaning that every word which is not designd to edification or is lesse prudent shall be reckoned for a sin but that the time which we spend in our idle talking and unprofitable discoursings that time which might and ought to have been imployed to spiritual and useful purposes that is to be accounted for For we must remember
short you may supply and lengthen with ejaculations and short retirements in the day time in the midst of your imployment or of your company 18. Do not the work of God negligently and idlely let not thy heart be upon the world when thy hand is lift up in prayer and be sure to prefer an action of religion in its place and proper season before all worldly pleasure letting secular things that may be dispensed with in themselves in these circumstances wait upon the other not like the Patriarch who ran from the Altar in S. Sophia to his stable in all his Pontificals and in the midst of his office to see a Colt newly fallen from his beloved and much valued Mare Phorbante More prudent and severe was that of Sr. Thom. More who being sent for by the King when he was at his prayers in publick returned answer he would attend him when he had first perfomed his service to the KING of Kings And it did honour to Rusticus that when Letters from Caesar were given to him he refused to open them till the Philosopher had done his Lecture In honouring God and doing his work put forth all thy strength for of that time onely thou mayest be most confident that it is gain'd which is prudently and zealously spent in Gods Service 19. When the Clock strikes or however else you shall measure the day it is good to say a short ejaculation every hour that the parts and returns of devotion may be the measure of your time and do so also in all the breaches of thy sleep that those spaces which have in them no direct businesse of the world may be filled with religion 20. If by thus doing you have not secured your time by an early and forehanded care yet be sure by a timely diligence to redeem the time that is to be pious and religious in such instances in which formerly you have sinned and to bestow your time especially upon such graces the contrary whereof you have formerly practised doing actions of chastity temperance with as great a zeal and earnestnesse as you did once act your uncleannesse and then by all arts to watch against your present and future dangers from day to day securing your standing this is properly to redeem your time that is to buy your security of it at the rate of any labour and honest arts 21. Let him that is most busied set apart some solemn time every year in which for the time quitting all worldly businesse he may attend wholly to fasting and prayer and the dressing of his soul by confessions meditations and attendances upon God that he may make up his accounts renew his vows make amends for his carelessenesse and retire back again from whence levity and the vanities of the world or the importunity of temptations or the distraction of secular affairs have carried him 22. In this we shall be much assisted and we shall finde the work more easie if before we sleep every night we examine the actions of the past day with a particular scrutiny if there have been any accident extraordinary as long discourse a Feast much businesse variety of company If nothing but common hath happened the lesse examination will suffice only let us take care that we sleep not without such a recollection of the actions of the day as may represent any thing that is remarkable and great either to be the matter of sorrow or thanksgiving for other things a general care is proportionable 23. Let all these things be done prudently and moderately not with scruple and vexation For these are good advantages but the particulars are not divine commandements and therefore are to be used as shall be found expedient to every ones condition For provided that our duty be secured for the degrees and for the instruments every man is permitted to himself and the conduct of such who shall be appointed to him He is happy that can secure every hour to a sober or a pious imployment but the duty consists not scrupulously in minutes and half hours but in greater portions of time provided that no minute be imployed in sin and the great portions of our time be spent in sober imployment and all the appointed dayes and some portions of every day be allowed for Religion In all the lesser parts of time we are left to our own elections and prudent management and to the consideration of the great degrees and differences of glory that are laid up in Heaven for us according to the degrees of our care and piety and diligence The benefits of this Exercise This exercise besides that it hath influence upon our whole lives it hath a special efficacy for the preventing of 1. Beggerly sins that is those sins which idlenesse and beggery usually betray men to such as are lying flattery stealing and dissimulation 2. It is a proper antidote against carnal sins and such as proceed from fulnesse of bread and emptinesse of imployment 3. It is a great instrument of preventing the smallest sins and irregularities of our life which usually creep upon idle disimployed and incurious persons 4. Iâ— not onely teaches us to avoid evil but ingages us upon doing good as the proper businesse of all our dayes 5. It prepares us so against sudden changes that we shall not easily be surprized at the sudden coming of the day of the Lord For he that is curious of his time will not easily be unready and unfurnished SECT II. The second general instrument of Holy Living Purity of intention THat we should intend and designe Gods glory in every action we do whether it be natural or chosen is expressed by S. Paul Whether ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God Which rule when we observe every action of nature becomes religious and every meal is an act of worship and shall have its reward in its proportion as well as an act of prayer Blessed be that goodnesse and grace of God which out of infinite desire to glorifie and save mankinde would make the very works of nature capable of becoming acts of vertue that all our life time we may do him service This grace is so excellent that it sanctifies the most common action of our life and yet so necessary that without it the very best actions of our devotion are imperfect and vitious For he that prayes out of custome or gives almes for praise or fasts to be accounted religious is but a Pharisee in his devotion and a beggar in his alms and an hypocrite in his fasts But a holy end sanctifies all these and all other actions which can be made holy and gives distinction to them and procures acceptance For as to know the end distinguishes a Man from a Beast so to chuse a good end distinguishes him from an evil man Hezekiah repeated his good deeds upon his sick bed and obtained favour of God but the Pharisee was accounted insolent for
glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Amen Holy is our God * Holy is the Almighty Holy is the Immortal Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth have mercy upon me Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in the Night when we wake Stand in awe and sin not commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still I will lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in safety O Father of Spirits and the God of all flesh have mercy and pity upon all sick and dying Christians and receive the souls which thou hast redeemed returning unto thee Blessed are they that dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem where there is no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glorie of God does lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof And there shal be no night there they need no candle for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Revel 21.23 Meditate on Iacobs wrastling with the Angel all night be thou also importunate with God for a blessing and give not over till he hath blessed thee Meditate on the Angel passing over the children of Israel and destroying the Egyptians for disobedience and oppression Pray for the grace of obedience and charity and for the divine protection Meditate on the Angel who destroyed in a night the whole army of the Assyrians for fornication Call to minde the sins of thy youth the sins of thy bed and say with David My reins chasten me in the night season and my soul refuseth comfort Pray for pardon and the grace of chastity Meditate on the agonies of Christ in the garden his sadnesse and affliction all that night and thank and adore him for his love that made him suffer so much for thee and hate thy sins which made it necessary for the Son of God to suffer so much Meditate on the four last things 1. The certainty of death 2. The terrours of the day of judgement 3. The joyes of Heaven 4. The pains of Hell and the eternity of both Think upon all thy friends which are gone before thee and pray that God would grant to thee to meet them in a joyful resurrection The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.10.11 Lord in mercy remember thy servant in the day of Judgement Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God In thee O Lord have I trusted let me never be confounded Amen I desire the Christian Reader to observe that all these offices or forms of prayer if they should be used every day would not spend above an hour and a halfe but because soâ—e of them are double and so but one of them to be used in one day it is much lesse and by affording to God one hour in 24. thou mayest have the comforts and rewards of devotion But he that thinks this is too much either is very busie in the world or very carelesse of heaven However I have parted the prayers into smaller portions that he may use which and how many he please in any one of the forms Ad Sect. 2. A prayer for holy Intention in the beginning and pursuit of any considerable action as Study Preaching c. O Eternal God who hast made all things for man and man for thy glory sanctifie my body and soul my thoughts and my intentions my words and actions that whatsoever I shall think or speak or do may he by me designed to the glorification of thy Name and by thy blessing it may be effective and successeful in the work of God according as it can be capable Lord turn my necessities into vertue the works of nature into the works of grace by making them orderly regular temperate subordinate and profitable to ends beyond their own proper efficacy And let no pride or self-seeking no covetousnesse or revenge no impure mixture or unhandsome purposes no little ends and low imaginations pollute my Spirit and unhallow any of my words and actions but let my body be a servant of my spirit and both body and spirit servants of Jesus that doing all things for thy glory here I may be partaker of thy glory hereafter thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ad Sect. 3. A prayer meditating and referring to the divine presence This prayer is especially to be used in temptation to private sins O Almighty God infinite and eternal thou fillest all things with thy presence thou art every where by thy essence and by thy power in heaven by Glory in holy places by thy grace and favour in the hearts of thy servants by thy Spirit in the consciences of all men by thy testimony and observation of us Teach me to walk alwayes as in thy presence to fear thy Majesty to reverence thy wisdom and omniscience that I may never dare to commit any undecency in the eye of my Lord and my Judge but that I may with so much care and reverence demean my self that my Judge may not be my accuser but my Advocate that I expressing the belief of thy presence here by careful walking may feel the effects of it in the participation of eternal glory thorough Jesus Christ. Amen CHAP. II. Of Christian Sobriety Sect. I. Of sobriety in the general sense CHristian Religion in all its moral parts is nothing else but the Law of Nature and great Reason complying with the great necessities of all the world and promoting the great profit of all relations and carrying us through all accidents of variety of chances to that end which God hath from eternal ages purposed for all that live according to it and which he hath revealed in Jesus Christ and according to the Apostles Aâ—ithmetik hath but these three parts of it 1. Sobriety 2. Justice 3. Religion For the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live 1. Soberly 2. Righteously and 3. Godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the greaâ— God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. The first contains all our deportment in our personal and private capacities the fâ—ir treating of our bodies and our spirits The second eâ—larges our duty in all relations to our Neighbour The third contains the offices of direct Religion and entercourse with God Christian sobriety is all that duty that concerns our selves in the matter of meat and drink and pleasures and thoughts and it hath within it
very probable reason 8. Let a man frequently and seriously by imagination place himself upon his death-bed and consider what great joyes he shall have for the remembrance of every day well spent and what then he would give that he had so spent all his dayes He may guesse at it by proportions for it is certain he shall have a joyful and prosperous night who hath spent his day holily and he resignes his soul with peace into the hands of God who hath lived in the peace of God and the works of religion in his life time This consideration is of a real event it is of a thing that will certainly come to passe It is appointed for all men once to die and after death comes judgement the apprehension of which is dreadful and the presence of it is intolerable unlesse by religion and sanctity we are dispos'd for so venerable an appearance 9. To this may be useful that we consider the easinesse of Christs yoke the excellences and sweetnesses that are in religion the peace of conscience the joy of the Holy Ghost the rejoycing in God the simplicity and pleasure of vertue the intricacy trouble and businesse of sin the blessings and health and reward of that the curses the sicknesses and sad consequences of this and that if we are weary of the labours of religion we must eternally sit still and do nothing for whatsoever we do contrary to it is infinitely more full of labour care difficulty and vexation 10. Consider this also that tediousnesse of spirit is the beginning of the most dangerous condition estate in the whole World For it is a great disposition to the sinne against the holy Ghost it is apt to bring a Man to backsliding and the state of unregeneration to make him return to his vomit and his sink and either to make the Man impatient or his condition scrupulous unsatisfied irksome and desperate and it is better that he had never known the way of godlinesse then after the knowledge of it that he should fall away There is not in the World a greater signe that the spirit of Reprobation is beginning upon a Man then when hee is habitually and constantly or very frequently weary and slights or loaths holy Offices 11. The last remedy that preserves the hope of such a Man and can reduce him to the state of zeal and the love of God is a pungent sad and a heavy affliction not desperate but recreated with some intervals of kindenesse and little comforts or entertained with hopes of deliverance which condition if a Man shall fall into by the grace of God he is likely to recover but if this help him not it is infinite oddes but he will quench the Spirit Sect. 8. Of Almes LOve is as communicative as fire as busie and as active and it hath four twin Daughters extreme like each other and but that the Doctors of the School have done as Thamars Midwife did who bound a Scarlet threed something to distinguish them it would be very hard to call them asunder Their names are 1. Mercy 2. Beneficence or well-doing 3. Liberality And 4. Almes which by a special priviledge hath obtained to be called after the Mothers name and is commonly called Charity The first or eldest is seated in the affection and it is that which all the other must attend For Mercy without Almes is acceptable when the person is disabled to expresse outwardly what he heartily desires But Almes without Mercy are like prayers without devotion or Religion without Humility 2. Beneficence or well doing is a promptnesse and noblenesse of minde making us to do offices of curtesie and humanity to all sorts of persons in their need or out of their need 3. Liberality is a disposition of minde opposite to covetousnesse and consists in the despite and neglect of money upon just occasions and relates to our friends children kinred servants and other relatives 4. But Almes is a relieving the poor and needy The first and the last onely are duties of Christianity The second and third are circumstances and adjuncts of these duties for Liberality increases the degree of Almes making our gift greater and Beneficence extends it to more persons and orders of Men spreading it wider The former makes us sometimes to give more then we are able and the latter gives to more then need by the necessity of Beggars and serves the needs and conveniencies of persons and supplies circumstances wheraes properly Almes are doles and largesses to the necessitous and calamitous people supplying the necessities of Nature and giving remedies to their miseries Mercy and Almes are the body and soul of that charity which we must pay to our Neighbours need and it is a precept which God therefore enjoyn'd to the World that the great inequality which he was pleased to suffer in the possessions and accidents of Men might be reduced to some temper and evennesse and the most miserable person might be reconciled to some sense and participation of felicity Works of mercy or the several kindes of corporal Almes The workes of Mercy are so many as the affections of Mercy have objects or as the World hath kindes of misery Men want meat or drink or clothes or a house or liberty or attendance or a grave In proportion to these seven works are usually assign'd to Mercy and there are seven kindes of corporal almes reckoned 1. To feed the hungry 2. To give drink to the thirsty 3. Or clothes to the naked 4. To redeem Captives 5. To visit the sick 6. To entertain strangers 7. To bury the dead But many more may be added Such as are 8. To give physick to sick persons 9. To bring cold and starv'd people to warmth and to the fire for sometimes clothing will not do it or this may be done when we cannot do the other 9. To lead the blinde in right wayes 10. To lend money 11. To forgive debts 12. To remit forfeitures 13. To mend high wayes and bridges 14. To reduce or guide wandring travellers 15. To ease their labours by accomodating their work with apt instruments or their journey with beasts of carriage 16. To deliver the poor from their oppressors 17. To dye for my brother 18 To pay maydens dowries and to procure for them honest and chast marriages Works of spiritual Almes and mercy are 1. To teach the ignorant 2. To counsell doubting persons 3. To admonish sinners diligently prudently seasonably and charitably To which also may be reduced provoking and encouraging to good works 4. To comfort the afflicted 5. To pardon offenders 6. To suffer and support the weak 7. To pray for all estates of men and for relief to all their necessities To which may be added 8 To punish or correct refractorinesse 9. To be gentle and charitable in censuring the actions of others 10. To establish the scrupulous wavering and inconstant spirits 11. To confirm the strong 12. Not to give
may very much be helped if we take in the assistance of a spiritual Guide therefore the Church of God in all ages hath commended and in most ages enjoyn'd that we confesse our sins and discover the state and condition of our souls to such a person whom we or our superiours judge fit to help us in such needs For so if we confesse our sins one to another as S. Iames advises wee shall obtaine the prayers of the holy Man whom God and the Church hath appointed solemnly to pray for us and when he knowes our needs he can best minister comfort or reproof oyl or Causticks he can more opportunely recommend your particular state to GOD he can determine your cases of conscience and judge better for you then you do for your self and the shame of opening such Ulcers may restrain your forwardnesse to contract them and all these circumstances of advantage will do very much towards the forgivenesse And this course was taken by the new Converts in the dayes of the Apostles For many that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds And it were well if this duty were practised prudently and innocently in order to publick Discipline or private comfort and instruction but that it be done to God is a duty not directly for it self but for its adjuncts and the duties that go with it or before it or after it which duties because they are all to be helped and guided by our Pastors and Curates of souls he is careful of his eternal interest that will not lose the advantage of using a private guide and judge He that hideth his sins shall not prosper Non dirigetur saith the Vulgar Latin he shall want a guide but who confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And to this purpose Climaâ—us reports that divers holy persons in that age did use to carry Table-books with them and in them describ'd an account of all their determinate thoughts purposes words and actions in which they had suffered infirmity that by communicating the estate of their souls they might be instructed and guided and corrected or incouraged 6. True repentance must reduce to act all its holy purposes and enter into and run through the state of holy living which is contrary to that state of darknesse in which in times past we walked For to resolve to do it and yet not to do it is to break our resolution and our faith to mock God to falsifie and evacuate all the preceding acts of repentance and to make our pardon hopelesse and our hope fruitlesse He that resolves to live well when a danger is upon him or a violent fear or when the appetites of Lust are newly satisfied or newly served and yet when the temptation comes again sins again and then is sorrowful and resolves once more against it and yet fals when the temptation returns is a vain Man but no true penitent nor in the state of grace and if he chance to dye in one of these good moods is very far from salvation for if it be necessary that we resolve to live well it is necessary we should do so For resolution is an imperfect act a term of relation and signifies nothing but in order to the action it is as a faculty is to the act as Spring is to the Harvest as Egges are to Birds as a Relative to its Correspondent nothing without it No Man therefore can be in the state of grace and actual favour by resolutions and holy purposes these are but the gate and portal towards pardon a holy life is the onely perfection of Repentance and the firme ground upon which we can cast the anchor of hope in the mercies of God through Jesus Christ. 7. No Man is to reckon his pardon immediately upon his returnes from sin to the beginnings of good life but is to begin his hopes and degrees of confidence according as sin dyes in him and grace lives as the habits of sin lessen and righteousnesse growes according as sin returnes but seldom in smaller instances and without choice and by surprize without deliberation and is highly disrelished and presently dash'd against the Rock Christ Jesus by a holy sorrow and renewed care and more strict watchfulnesse For a holy life being the condition of the Covenant on our part as we return to God so God returns to us and our state returns to the probabilities of pardon 8. Every Man is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling and after the commission of sinnes his feares must multiply because every new sin and every great declining from the wayes of God is still a degree of new danger and hath increased Gods anger and hath made him more uneasie to grant pardon and when he does grant it it is upon harder terms both for doing and suffering that is we must do more for pardon and it may be suffer much more For we must know that God pardons our sins by parts as our duty increases and our care is more prudent and active so Gods anger decreases and yet it may be the last sin you committed made God unalterably resolv'd to send upon you some sad judgement Of the particulars in all cases wee are uncertain and therefore wee have reason alwayes to mourn for our sinnes that have so provoked GOD and made our condition so full of danger that it may be no prayers or tears or duty can alter his sentence concerning some sad judgement upon us Thus GOD irrevocably decreed to punish the Israelites for Idolatry although Moses prayed for them and God forgave them in some degree that is so that he would not cut them ofâ— from being a people yet he would not forgive them so but he would visit that their sin upon them and he did so 9. A true penitent must all the dayes of his life pray for pardon and never think the work completed till he dyes not by any act of his own by no act of the Church by no forgivenesse by the party injured by no restitution these are all instruments of great use and efficacy and the means by which it is to be done at length but still the sin lyes at the door ready to return upon us in judgement and damnation if we return to it in choice or action and whether God hath forgiven us or no we know not and how far we know not and all that we have done is not of sufficient worth to obtain pardon therefore still pray and still be sorrowful for ever having done it and for ever watch against it and then those beginnings of pardon which are working all the way will at last be perfected in the day of the Lord. 10. Defer not at all to repent much lesse mayest thou put it off to thy death-bed It is not an easie thing to root out the habits of sin which a Mans whole life hath gathered and confirmed We finde work enough to mortifie one beloved
for him the salvation of a new birth and by the blood of thy Son didst redeem and pay the price to thine own justice for thine own creature lest the work of thine own hands should perish O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O Lord in every age didst send testimonies from Heaven blessings and Prophets and fruitful seasons and preachers of righteousness and miracles of power and mercy thou spakest by thy Prophets and saidst I will help by one that is mighty and in the fulnesse of time spakest to us by thy Son by whom thou didst make both the Worlds who by the word of his power sustains all things in Heaven and Earth who thought it no robbery to be equal to the Father who being before all time was pleased to be born in time to converse with men to be incarnate of a holy Virgin he emptied himself of all his glories took on him the form of a servant in all things being made like unto us in a soul of passions and discourse in a body of humility and sorrow but in all things innocent and in all things afflicted and suffered death for us that we by him might live and be partakers of his nature and his glories of his body and of his Spirit of the blessings of earth and of immortal felicities in Heaven O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. For thou O holy and immortal God O sweetest Saviour Jesus wert made under the Law to condemn sin in the flesh thou who knewest no sin wert made sin for us thou gavest to us righteous Commandements and madest known to us all thy Fathers will thou didst redeem us from our vain conversation and from the vanity of Idols false principles and foolish confidences and broughtest us to the knowledge of the true and onely God and our Father and hast made us to thy self a peculiar people of thy own purchase a royal Priesthood a holy Nation Thou hast washed our soules in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of Baptisme Thou hast reconciled us by thy death justified us by thy Resurrection sanctified us by thy Spirit sending him upon thy Church in visible formes and giving him in powers and miracles and mighty signes and continuing this incomparable favour in giâ—ts and sanâ—tifying graces and promising that hee shall abide with us for ever thou hast fed us with thine own broken body and given drink to our soules out of thine own heart and hast ascended up on high and hast overcome all the powers of Death and Hell and redeemed us from the miseries of a sad eternity and sittest at the right hand of God making intercession for us with a never-ceasing charity O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. The grave could not hold thee long O holy eternal Jesus thy body could not see corruption neither could thy soul be left in Hell thou wert free among the dead and thou brakest the iron gates of Death and the bars and chains of the lower prisons Thou broughtest comfort to the souls of the Patriarchs who waited for thy coming who long'd for the redemption of Man and the revelation of thy day Abraham Isaac and Iacob saw thy day and rejoyced and when thou didst arise from thy bed of darknesse and leftest the grave-clothes behinde thee and put on a robe of glory over which for 40 dayes thou didst wear a vail and then entred into a cloud and then into glory then the powers of Hell were confounded then Death lost its power and was swallowed up into victory though death is not quite destroyed yet it is made harmlesse and without a sting and the condition of Humane Nature is made an entrance to eternal glory art become the Prince of life the first fruits of the resurrection the first-born from the dead having made the way plain before our faces that we may also rise again in the Resurrection of the last day when thou shalt come again unto us to render to every Man according to his works O that men would therefore praise the Lord c. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious and his mercy endureth for ever O all ye angels of the Lords praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye spirits and souls of the Righteous praise ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever And now O Lord God what shall I render to thy Divine Majesty for all the benefits thou hast done unto thy servant in my personal capacity Thou art my Creator and my Father my Protector and my Guardian thou hast brought me from my Mothers wombe thou hast told all my joynts and in thy book were all my members written Thou hast given me a comely body Christian and careful parents holy education Thou hast been my guide and my teacher all my dayes Thou hast given me ready faculties and unloosed tongue a cheerful spirit strait limbs a good reputation and liberty of person a quiet life and a tender conscience a loving wife or husband and hopeful children thou wert my hope from my youth through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born Thou hast clothed me and fed me given me friends and blessed them given me many dayes of comfort and health free from those sad infirmities with which many of thy Saints and dearest servants are afflicted Thou hast sent thy Angel to snatch me from the violence of fire and water to prevent praecipices fracture of bones to rescue me from thunder and lightning plague and pestilential diseases murder and robbery violence of chance and enemies and all the spirits of darknesse and in the dayes of sorrow thou hast refreshed me in the destitution of provisions thou hast taken care of me and thou hast said unto me I will never leave thee nor forsake thee I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart secretly among the faithful and in the congregation Thou O my dearest Lord and Father hast taken care of my soul hast pitied my miseries sustained my infirmities relieved and instructed my ignorances and though I have broken thy righteous Lawes and Commandements run passionately after vanities and was in love with Death and was dead in sin and was exposed to thousands of temptations and fell foully and continued in it and lov'd to have it so and hated to be reformed yet thou didst call me with the checks of conscience with daily Sermons and precepts of holinesse with fear and shame with benefits and the admonitions of thy most holy Spirit by the counsel of my friends by the example of good persons with holy books and thousands of excellent arts and wouldest not suffer me to perish in my folly but didst force me to attend to thy gracious calling and hast put me into a state of repentance and possibilities of pardon being infinitely desirous I should live and recover and make use of thy grace and partake
prayer of preparation or addresse to the holy Sacrament An act of Love O most gracious and eternal God the helper of the helplesse the comforter of the comfortlesse the hope of the afflicted the bread of the hungry the drink of the thirsty and the Saviour of all them that wait upon thee I blesse and glorifie thy Name and adore thy goodnesse and delight in thy love that thou hast once more giveâ— me the opportunity of receiving the greatest favour which I can receive in this World even the body and blood of my dearest Saviour O take from me all affection to sin or vanity let not mâ— affections dwell below but soar upwards to the element of love to the seat of God to â—he Regions of Glory and the inheritance of â—esus that I may hunger and thirst for the bread of life and the wine of â—lect soules and may know no loves but the love of God and the most merciful Jesus Amen An act of Desire O blessed Jesus thou hast used many arts to save mee thou hast given thy life to redeem me thy holy Spirit to sanctifie me thy self for my example thy Word for my Rule thy grace for my guide the fruit of thy body hanging on the tree of the crosse for the sin of my soul and after all this thou hast sent thy Apostles and Ministers of salvation to call me to importune me to constraine me to holinesse and peace and felicity O now come Lord â—esus come quickly my heart is desirous of thy presence and thirsty of thy grace and would fain entertain thee not as a guest but as an inhabitant as the Lord of all my faculties Enter in and take possession and dwell with me for ever that I also may dwell in the heart of my dearest Lord which was opened for me with a spear and love An act of contrition Lord thou shalt finde my heart full of cares and worldly desires cheated with love of riches and neglect of holy things proud unmortified false and crafty to deceive it self intricated and intangled with difficult cases of conscience with knots which my own wildnesse and inconsideration and impatience have tied and shuffled together O my dearest Lord if thou canst behold such an impure seat behold the place to which thou art invited is full of passion and prejudice evil principles and evil habits peevish and disobedient lustful and intemperate and full of sad remembrances that I have often provoked to jealousie and to anger thee my God my dearest Saviour him that dyed for me him that suffered torments sor me that is infinitely good to me and infinitely good and perfect in himself This O dearest Saviour is a sad truâ—h and I am heartily ashamed and truly sorrowful for it and do deeply hate all my fins and am full of indignation against my self for so unworthy so carelesse so continued so great a folly and humbly beg of thee to increase my sorrow and my care and my hatâ—ed against sin and make my love to thee swell up to a great grace and then to glory and immensity An act of Faith This indeed is my condition But I know O blessed Jesus that thou didst take upon thee my nature that thou mightest suffer for my sins and thou didst suffer to deliver me from them and from thy Fathers wrath and I was delivered from this wrath that I might serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all my dayes Lord I am as sure thou didst the great work of Redemption for me and all mankinde as that I am alive This is my hope the strength of my spirit my joy my confidence and do thou never let the spirit of unbelief enter into me and take me from this Rock Here I will dwell for I have a delight therein Here I will live and here I desire to dye The Petition Therefore O blessed Jesu who art my Saviour and my God whose body is my food and thy righteousnesse is my robe thou art the Priest and the Sacrifice the Master of the feast and the Feast it self the Physician of my soul the light of my eyes the purifier of my stains enter into my heart and cast out from thence all impurities all the remains of the Old man and grant I may partake of this holy Sacrament with much reverence and holy relish and great effect receiving hence the communication of thy holy body and blood for the establishment of an unreproveable faith of an unfained love for the fulnesse of wisdom for the healing my soul for the blessing and preservation of my body for the taking out the sting of temporal death and for the assurance of a holy resurrection for the ejection of all evil from within me and the fulfilling all thy righteous Commandements and to procure for me a mercy and a fair reception at the day of judgement through thy mercies O holy and ever blessed Saviour Jesus Amen Here also may be added the prayer after receiving the cup. * Ejaculations to be said before or at the receiving the holy Sacrament Like as the Hart desireth the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul is athirst for God yea even for the living God when shall I come before the presence of God O Lord my God great are thy wondrous works which thou hast done like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward and yet there is no man that ordereth them unto thee O send out thy light and thy truth that they may lead me and bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy dwelling And that I may go unto the Altar of God even unto the God of my joy and gladnesse and with my heart will I give thanks to thee O God my God I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord so will I go to thine altar that I may shew the voice of thanksgiving tell of all thy wondrous works Examine me O Lord and prove me try out my reins and my heart For thy loving kindnesse is now and ever before my eyes and I will walk in thy truth Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me thou hast anointed my head with oil and my cup shall be full But thy loving kindnesse and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him and hath eternal life abiding in him I wil raise him up at the last day Lord whither shall we go but to thee thou hast the words of eternal life If any man thirst let him come unto me drink The bread which we break is it not the communication of the body of Christ and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ What are those wounds
of those whose time is not filled up with labour and useful businesse 8. Let your imployment be such as may become a reasonable person and not be a businesse fit for children or distracted people but fit for your age and understanding For a man may be very idlely busy and take great pains to so little purpose that in his labors and expence of time he shall serve no end but of folly and vanity There are some Trades that wholly serve the ends of idle persons and fools and such as are fit to be seized upon by the severity of laws and banisht from under the sun and there are some people who are busy but it is as Domitian was in catching flyes 9. Let your imployment be fitted to your person and calling Some there are that imploy their time in affairs infinitely below the dignity of their person and being called by God or by the Republick to help to bear great burdens and to judge a people do enfeeble their understandings and disable their persons by sordid and bruitish businesse Thus Nero went up and down Greece and challenged the Fidlers at their trade Aeropus a Macedonian King made Lanterns Harcatius the King of Parthia was a Mole-catcher and Biantes the Lydian filed needles He that is appointed to minister in holy things must not suffer secular affairs and sordid arts to eat up great portions of his imployment a Clergy man must not keep a Tavern nor a Judge be an Inne-keeper and it was a great idlenesse in Theophylact the Patriarch of C. P. to spend his time in his stable of horses when he should have been in his study or the Pulpit or saying his holy offices Such imployments are the diseases of labour and the rust of time which it contracts not by lying still but by dirty imployment 10. Let your imployment be such as becomes a Christian that is in no sence mingled with sin for he that takes pains to serve the ends of covetousnesse or ministers to anothers lust or keeps a shop of impurities or intemperance is idle in the worst sence for every hour so spent runs him backward and must be spent again in the remaining and shorter part of his life and spent better 11. Persons of great quality and of no trade are to be most prudent and curious in their imployment and traffick of time They are miserable if their education hath been so loose and undisciplin'd as to leave them unfurnished of skill to spend their time but most miserable are they if such misgovernment and unskilfulnesse make them fall into vitious and baser company and drive on their time by the sad minutes and periods of sin and death * They that are learned know the worth of time and the manner how well to improve a day and they are to prepare themselves for such purposes in which they may be most useful in order to arts of arms to counsel in publick or government in their Countrey But for others of them that are unlearn'd let them choose good company such as may not tempt them to a vice or joyn with them in any but that may supply their defects by counsel and discourse by way of conduct or conversation Let them learn easy and useful things read history and the laws of the Land learn the customs of their Countrey the condition of their own estate profitable and charitable contrivances of it let them study prudently to govern their families learn the burdens of their Tenants the necessities of their neighbours and in their proportion supply them and reconcile their enmities and prevent their Law-suits or quickly end them and in this glut of leisure and disimployment let them set apart greater portions of their time for religion and the necessities of their Souls 12. Let the women of noble birth and great fortunes do the same things in their proportions and capacities nurse their children look to the affairs of the house visit poor cottages and relieve their necessities be curteous to the neighbourhood learn in silence of their husbands or their spiritual Guides read good books pray often and speak little and learn to do good works for necessary uses for by that phrase S. Paul expresses the obligation of Christian women to good houswifery and charitable provisions for their family and neighbourhood 13. Let all persons of all conditions avoid all delicacy and nicenesse in their clothing or diet because such softnesse engages them upon great mispendings of their time while they dresse and combe out all their opportunities of their morning devotion and half the dayes severity and sleep out the care and provision for their Souls 14. Let every one of every condition avoid curiosity and all enquiry into things that concern them not For all businesse in things that concerns us not is an imploying our time to no good of ours and therefore not in order to a happy Eternity In this account our neighbours necessities are not to be reckoned for they concern us as one member is concern'd in the grief of another but going from house to house tatlers and busie-bodies which are the canker and rust of idlenesse as idâ—enesse is the rust of time are reprooved by the Apostle in severe language and forbidden in order to this exercise 15. As much as may be cut off all impertinent and uselesse imployments of your life unnecessary and phantastick visits long waitings upon great personages where neither dutie nor necessity nor charity obliges us all vain meetings all laborious trifles and whatsoever spends much time to no real civil religious or charitable purpose 16. Let not your recreations be lavish spenders of your time but choose such which are healthful short transient recreative and apt to refresh you but at no hand dwell upon them or make them your great imployment for he that spends his time in sports and calls it recreation is like him whose garment is all made of fringes and his meat nothing but sawces they are healthlesse chargeable and uselesse And therefore avoid such games which require much time or long attendance or which are apt to steal thy affections from more severe imployments For to whatsoever thou hast given thy affections thou wilt not grudge to give thy time Natural necessity and the example of S. Iohn who recreated himself with sporting with a tame Partridge teach us that it is lawful to relax and unbend our bow but not to suffer it to be unready or unstrung 17. Set apart some portions of every day for more solemn devotion and religious imployment which be severe in observing and if variety of imployment or prudent affairs or civil society presse upon you yet so order thy rule that the necessary parts of it be not omitted and though just occasions may make your prayers shorter yet let nothing but a violent sudden and impatient necessity make thee upon any one day wholly to omit thy morning and evening devotions which if you be forced to make very