of what he teaches he commits a Crime and may be justly punished for the same now this Lobster-like-argument of his being artificially thrown forward does again naturally crawl backwards His meaning is as he has too plainly exprest in many places That if a Man go from hence and preach a New Doctrine in Africa he commits a Crime and consequently St. Jude did very ill after Christ's Resurrection to take a Journey from Jerusalem into Persia and there to take upon him to rebuke the Superstition of the Magi and to preach a New Doctrine and so was put to death deservedly The like may be said of St. Paul for his making a Mutiny and Uproar at Athens and disturbing the Worship of the great Goddess Diana of the Ephesians And in fine both he and all the Apostles committed great Crimes in presuming to preach New Doctrine amongst all Nations where Idolatry was Established and owned by publick Authority for says the same Author page 152. To maintain a Doctrine contrary to the Religion Established is a greater Fault in an authorized Preacher than in a private Person And therefore they all suffered condign Punishments and were accessary to their own cruel Deaths But now this reflects more severely upon our blessed Saviour who gave his Disciples their Commissions Matth. 28. 19. Go yee and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And which is yet more it reflects upon God the Father who sent his Son into the World for that end and purpose and also the Holy Spirit which was sent down from Heaven after our Saviour's Resurrection to inspire those Apostles with diversity of Tongues and such other miraculous Gifts as might rightly qualify them for the preaching the Gospel throughout all the Nations of the World So that this last Assertion is in effect Blasphemy against the Three Persons of the sacred Trinity Our blessed Saviour 10 Matth. 33. Says Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven And in another place By your Words you shall be justified and by your Words condemned So that to deny Christ before Men is our Saviour's sense in a Crime that excludes and shuts a Man out of Heaven But this Author affirms positively page 271. That the denying of Christ before an Infidel Prince is not a Christian's Act but his Soveraign's Act and consequently no Sin And so he plainly gives the Son of God the Lye Our blessed Saviour when he sent out his Disciples 10 Matth. 15. Tells them That into whatsoever City they entred and were not received it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that City That is to say the refusing to receive and hear the Doctrine of Christ's Disciples was a greater Sin then that of Sodom But this Author tells us page 286. That those who refused so to hear and receive them did not Sin in so doing And here we see again the Arrogance and Impudence of the same Author in giving the Lye to the Lord Jesus Our Hebrew Masters do indeed teach us to read the Words and Sentences of part of the Scriptures but this politick Pedagogue would instruct us to read not only the Words and Sentences but the true Sense and Meaning of them backwards Our Saviour Christ in divers places owns his casting out Devils and unclean Spirits and sometimes these unclean Spirits owned him to be the Son of the most high God as did the Legion of Devils with which the Man was possessed in the Country of the Gadarenes 5 Mark 7. and divers others And the Pharisees the worst and most malicious of his Enemies acknowledged his casting out Devils Yet notwithstanding the composer of this Treatise had the Confidence to affirm page 354. That no Man was ever possessed with any other Spirit than that by which his Body was naturally moved And so gives the Lye not only to our Saviour but to all the Four Evangelists who have left upon Record most remarkable Instances of those Miracles In page 62 63 and 64. this Author tells us That Man by Nature is in a State of War every Man against every Man and every Man has a right to every thing over the Goods and Body of his Neighbour And yet in his next Chapter which is not above eight pages further he sets down Ten Laws of Nature which Laws of Nature are immutable and eternal and stamped upon Men's Souls and every of them tends to Peace and Quietness Love and Kindness Gratitude and doing to others as we would be willing they should do to us and these two Assertions are as contrary one to the other as Light is to Darkness however it is much more modest to give himself the Lye then to give it so often as he has done to the Saviour of the World and the second Person of the Trinity In page 88. he acquaints us That by the People assembled are transferr'd all their Right on him whom they chose their Soveraign which Soveraign can do no Injustice though at his pleasure he take away any of their Lives And yet page 152. he asserts That no Man in the institution of their Soveraign can be supposed to give away the Right of preserving his own Body And page 112. If an Assembly meet and agree together they may rebel and make War against their Soveraign And I affirm that no Man of Sense or Reason can be supposed to defend the Authors reputation in so notorious a Contradiction In page 285. and divers other places he affirms That Christ's Kingdom not being of this World he left the Jews to the Law of Moses and other Nations to their respective Soveraigns and yet page 106. he plainly affirms That Christ acted in this World as King of the Jews and by his Soveraign Power and Authority sent two of his Disciples to untie and bring away the She-ass and her Colt on which he was to ride into Jerusalem Page 62. He affirms That the Desires and Passions of Man are no Sin though it be an absolute Breach of the Tenth Commandment Our Saviour forbids swearing by Heaven Earth Jerusalem or a Man 's own head 5 Matth. 34 35 36. but this Author asserts page 71. That such kind of Oaths is no swearing and so makes our Saviour guilty of Lying Page 152. he says That every man is supposed to know the Law of Nature it being so plain and yet pag. 141. he avers That the Law of Nature is of all Laws the most obscure Pag. 261. he says Christ s death did not satisfy God 's justice and yet pag. 356. he acknowledges That the Passion of Christ is a full Ransom for all manner of Sins Pag. 272. he affirms That there were no true Martyrs but those who conversed with our Saviour while he was here upon Earth and that he who is no Minister can be no Martyr Now if so all other Martyrs have
THE URIM OF CONSCIENCE To which the Author has had recourse for plain Answers in his own particular Case as every Man living ought to do in his to FOUR QUESTIONS of great weight and importance viz. 1. Who And what art thou 2. Where hast thou been 3. What art thou now doing 4. Whither art thou going Together with Three Select Prayers for Private Families By Sir Samuel Morland Kn t. Bar t. During his Blindness and Retirement LONDON Printed by J. M. and B. B. for A. Roper E. Wilkinson and R. Clavel over against St. Dunston's Church Fleet-street 1695. THE PREFACE TO THE READER IT having pleased Almighty God to deprive me of the Sight of both my Eyes for above Three Years already past and being thereby disabled to do my King or Country any further Service I thought it might not be amiss to employ some part of my Time during this Solitude and Retirement in Recollecting some Observations and Reflections which I have heretofore made from what I have seen or heard either at Home or Abroad as believing they might at present be profitable to my self and hereafter useful to others And therefore I have at last digested them into a small Treatise containing four Questions and Answers which do in truth concern every one who has the true use of that Reason with which he was born But more especially profest Christians who ought every Day of their Lives seriously to propose to themselves such Interrogatories and require at the same time sincere and direct Answers from their own Consciences Now if the Method of the following Discourse be lookt upon as Particular and Unusual I hope it may be the more grateful forasmuch as new things though of little consequence do usually find a tolerable acceptance If it be thought too Short and Concise for a Subject of such Weight and Importance there will be this Convenience that it will give less trouble to the Readers If it should be censured for Sharp and Satyrical Reflections I desire it may be considered That those Reflections are either directed against profest Atheists Libertines and vitious Livers who make a Mock of Religion and the Holy Scriptures or else that they are made use of to lessen the Credit and Reputation of a certain Treatise called Leviathan which has corrupted the Minds and Manners of so many hopeful Youths of this last Age who by reason of the tenderness of their Years and want of Solidity and Experience could not easily discern the Fallacies and Inconsistences of those dangerous Doctrines that are so subtilly couched in that impious Discourse And lastly if in this small Treatise there shall be found Errours Mistakes or useless Passages proceeding from the Author's Blindness Old Age or Weakness and his being forc'd to make use of other Men's Hands and Eyes he begs the courteous and candid Perusers to put them all into a Parenthesis and to consider that since humanum est errare he had in the following Discourse a two fold end and Purpose the One to gratify his Readers the other to benefit Himself For while They either do or may go away with what is of real Use and Practise in their Lives and Conversations He comes after to glean and gather up those Mistakes and Trivial Passages for the Exercise of Self-mortification and for the begetting and continuing a mean Opinion and low Thoughts of his own Abilities And therefore flatters himself with hopes to find a favourable Interpretation of his hearty and sincere though weak Endeavours being already past the Seventieth Year of his Age to leave that behind him which may at least help to turn some Souls to Righteousness when he himself shall be turned to Dust and Ashes THE First Question Q. Who And what art thou Answer One who deserves no Name A poor and despicable Individual of the unhappy Species of Human Race which in its Original was Excellent and Admirable but is now become Wretched and Miserable Sometimes in the Silence and Shades of Night my roving Fancy gives me a transient view of Adam in his Innocency as he was LORD and KING of this lower World and sitting in State with his Royal Consort in the Garden of EDEN whither all the Creatures resorted to do him Homage with all Respect and Submission as to their Liege and rightful Soveraign Again sometimes it represents the doleful Scene of his terrible Fall by his fond Compliance with his new Bride's desires to disobey his Maker's Command and thereby to expose himself and her and his whole Posterity to Death and endless Misery That Angels were created before Man and that one of their chief Order for his Pride and Ambition was cast out of Heaven we need no better proof than the sad Rehearsal of Adam's Fall for certainly no other Created Being would ever have attempted to deface God's own Image and Likeness but the chief of Apostate Angels and Prince of Devils Methinks I hear the Father of Lies in the shape of a Serpent which was probably at that time the most Lovely and Beautiful as well as the most Crafty and Subtil of all the inferior Creatures thus accosting the Mother of all Living Fair Queen of this Lower World What great pitty it is that such excellent Creatures as your Self and your Royal Associate should here feed on Herbs and courser Meats whereas there is so noble a Plant in this your own Garden the Fruit whereof is not only incomparably fair to the Eye and extreamly pleasant to the Tast but has also a secret Vertue to inspire the Eaters with Heavenly Wisdom and Knowledge If your Maker has forbidden it you it is only to raise and heighten the Desires of your Divine Souls after their proper Adcquate and Coelestial Objects How should the LORD GOD take Offence at your doing that which will most certainly make you so like to himself and his own Divine Essence How far Eve might be surprized to hear a Serpent speak in her own Language Or whether the Gift of Speaking might in those Days be sometimes given by God to some of the chief of Inferior Creatures upon some special occasion as it was in after-times given to Balaam's Ass And whether the Devil spoke to her through the mouth of a real Serpent or in an assumed shape I shall not go about to determine Some learned Men believe that this Serpent was a Dragon because say they the Naturalists in their Writings describe the Dragon to be a Creature of wonderful Beauty and doubtless it was a much more beautiful Creature before its Curse in case that were the very Animal that was made use off by the Devil with a long golden Beard bright and sparkling Eyes Scales shining with glorious Colours and the like insomuch that the Egyptians worshipped a Dragon as a Diety and the Greeks borrowed 〈◊〉 that Beautifull Creatures Image to represent their God AEsculapius But in how beautiful a shape soever the Devil appeared it is evident that his Design was
to all intents and purposes most spiteful and malicious O cruel Satan Was there not room enough for thee and all thy Infernal Crew to range up and down in the vast and wide Expanse without intruding so rudely and abruptly into Paradise O spiteful old Dragon What Wrong or Injury did our first Parents do to thee while they were dressing the Garden which their MAKER had so lately placed them in that thou shouldest invent so hellish a Stratagem and in Masquerade make so fatal an Address at once to rob them of their Innocence disturb their present Peace and disappoint them of their future Happiness Be therefore for ever accursed O Beelzebub Thou Prince of Devils and true Original of all Sin and Wickedness for thy malicious Practises to deceive all the Nations of the World for so many Thousand Years whenas thou canst not be ignorant but that the Sins of every Soul that thou has tempted be it Saved or be it Damned shall one Day be set to thy Accompt and add Degrees to thy Eternal Torment From all Evil and Mischief and from all the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits Good Lord deliver us Now here I doubt not but that the ingenious Reader will expect I should insert some short Discourse concerning Blessed and Apostate Spirits and I could heartily wish I had a sufficient Knowledge of and Insight into those Mysteries to answer fully his desires But I am afraid on the one side that he would be very little satisfied with my Endeavours in case I should in imitation of a late learned Author try to squeeze a plausible Description of LOST PARADISE out of St. John's Vision in the Isle of Patmos and fancy to my self a formal and pitcht Battle upon a vast and wide Plain in the North part of Heaven fought between two mighty Hosts of Blessed and Revolted Spirits conducted and led up by mighty Arch-Angels for their Generals riding in Brazen Chariots drawn by foaming Steeds and clad with Adamantine Coats one of which was by a massy Sword cut down to the wast and stain'd with Angelick blood Where the one of these Armies dug up the Terrain of Heaven and with the Materials they there found made Powder Bullets and great Guns it is pity that Bombs were not in use when he wrote that Treatise and with them did great Execution upon their Enemies who in Revenge tore up great Mountains by the Roots and hurl'd them at their Heads with a great number of other Romantick Stories which is Ludere cum Sacris and much fitter for Poets and Painters who when they are got to the top of their Pâ—rnassus frame to themselves Idea's of what Chimera's or Goblins they please And on the other side I judge it altogether needless to make use of the Dark-Lanterns of Homer Ovid Virgil or any of the old Heathen Poets or to borrow the dim Tapers and blinking Lights of Plato Aristotle Seneca or any of those Half-Divine Philosophers or to be beholding to the School-men for their vain Distinctions and splitting of Hairs with their lame Definitions and Explanations of Obscurum per Obscurius Neither am I willing to tire my Reader with endless Quotations out of the Ancient Pious and Learned Fathers who were for the most part somewhat tender in delivering their Opinions about the Doctrin of Spirits but wisely waved the positive Determination of Questions relating to the Invisible World and those deep Mysteries of Incorporeal Beings as not to be fathom'd by the Line and Plummet of Human Understanding And therefore I shall content my self with what Light I can get from the Holy Scriptures and where those are either obscure or silent to be very cautious sober and modest 1. That there were are and ever shall be true and real Subsistencies of Good and Evil Angels the following Passages of Sacred Writ do plainly inform us viz. Before the Angels of God 12 Luke 8. He shall come with all his holy Angels 25 Matth. 31. If God spared not the Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. The Angels that kept not their first Estate Jud. 6. The Angels came 4 Matth. 11. Out of whom went 7 Devils 8 Luke 2. Everlasting Fire Prepared for the Devil and his Angels 25 Matth. 41. But are as the Angels in Heaven 22 Matth. 30. 2. As concerning the Time when the Angels were Created it may be conjectured by comparing several Texts of Scripture and making the following Inference viz. The Sons of God and the Morning-Stars are put together and the Morning-Stars were made before the Earth Job 38. And the Earth was made three Days before the Stars in the Firmament Gen. 1. And consequently Morning Stars cannot be meant Stars of the Firmament Again by Stars are meant Angels 12 Rev. 4. And by the Heavenly Host are meant Angels 2 Luke 13. and 1 Kings 19. 21. And the Heavens and Heavenly Hosts are joined together 2 Gen. And the Heavens said to be Created the First Day Therefore it seems probable that the Sons of God otherwise the Morning-Stars or which is the same thing Angels or the Host of Heaven were created on the first of the Six Days in the Morning 3. That there were great Numbers of both Blessed and Apostate Angels we are assured from several Passages in the Old and New Testament More than 12 Legions or as some compute it 79992 Angels 26 Matth. 23. Thousand Thousands ministred unto him and Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand stood before him 7 Dan. 10. and 5 Rev. 11. An innumerable Company of Angels 12. Heb. 22. A multitude of the Heavenly Host 2 Luke 13. His Tail drew a Third part of the Stars of Heaven 12 Rev. 4. My Name is Legion for we are many 5 Mark 9. Now if Solomon who was LORD but of a very small Spot of the Terrestrial Globe which Globe is by us thought to be little more than a Point if compared with the Starry Firmament had so many Attendants What Number should we think a fit Retinue for the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS Myriades Myriadum will be too small a Summ And so will our ordinary Terms of Arithmetick and we must be forced to borrow some of the learned Commentator upon Archimedes his Arenarius and say Billions Trillions Quadrillions c. of blessed Angels to attend his Throne and to make up the Court of Heaven 4. That there were different Orders and Degrees of Good and Evil Spirits we have reason to believe from the following Texts viz. The great Prince Michael 12 Dan. 1. Beelzebub the Prince of Devils 11 Luke 15. The Prince of the Power of the Air 2 Ephes 2. The Voice of the Arch-Angel 2 Thess 4. 16. Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers 1 Coloss 16. Michael and his Angels and the Devil and his Angels 12 Rev. 3. 9. 5. That all the blessed Angels which attend God's Throne are Ministring Spirits and sometimes appeared in Humane shapes we find in the following Texts
to the Horizontal Line or 90 Degrees which Experiment being exactly performed gives great light to young Practitioners in the Mechanicks Lastly I know by Experience that an Engineer standing on the top of a Tower may by the help of Ropes and Pullies with a small force heave up a Tun weight or more to the perpendicular height of 10 or 20 Foot provided there be proportionable time given him for that Operation and also that he has a sufficient Fulcrum or place to which he may fasten one of his Blocks I can likewise imagine the Soul of a Man whilst his Body stands bolt up right to be a spiritual Engineer and to be seated in the Brain as in its Watch-Tower and there to make use of each hand and arm to lift up a ponderous Weight to the perpendicular height of 6 or 12 Inches But I must at the same time ingeniously acknowledge that I do not at all apprehend neither have I any Idea or Imagination by what secret power the Soul contracts or dilates the Muscles how it elaborates and sends forth the Animal Spirits or how it makes use of any of the ten pair of Nerves whose Origin is derived from the Medulla substance of the Brain which is in a manner as soft as Butter And I leave to the Contemplation of the most skilful and subtil Mechanick or Philosopher in the World the innumerable Difficulties that will arise from all the following Instances 1. Of a Porter taking up great and ponderous Burthens from off the ground and heaving them on his shoulders 2. Of a Waterman who upon a Wager pulls in his Oars with both his Arms towards his body and at the same time thrusts from him with his Thighs and Legs in which Motion viz. that of his Arms and Hands he works with a Quintiple disadvantage according to the Doctrine of Staticks because the Muscle of the Humerus is fastned but to a 6th part of the Cubitus or Radius as I my self have measured upon a dead Man's bones 3. Of a Seaman working at a Drum-Capstan a Contrivance I presented to the late King Charles the Second many years ago to weight up the ponderous Anchors of great Ships which has since saved great Numbers of English Sea-men's lives 4. Of one who distorts all the Parts Members and Joints of his Body so as to make it appear in many different Figures and strange Shapes Such a one I have seen at Paris and such a one there was not long since in the City of London who went by the Name of Posture John 5. Of one who jumps wrestles throws the Bar runs a Race or fights a Prize 6. Of one who performs strange Feats of Activity Vaults and cuts Capers in the Air to a great height as he is dancing on the Stage or on the Ropes 7. A skilful and active Musician the different Motions of whose Fingers are of incredible swiftness Ejaculation O Almighty GOD Maker of all things Visible and Invisible How wonderful and unsearchable are all thy Works How deep are all thy Thoughts and thy Ways past finding out by us poor Mortals or indeed by any finite Creatures All that I shall add to what has been already mentioned upon this Subject shall be only this That if there are so many insuperable Difficulties about Bodily Operations as to Motion and Sense how much greater must of necessity be the Difficulties of the Souls Operations which are wholly abstracted from and have no Correspondence at all with Bodies or Sense Of this Sort as I think is a late learned Philosopher's Cogito though I understand not at all his Inference of Ergo sum But whatever he intends my meaning is the Soul 's drawing necessary Conclusions from undoubted Premises and so forming within it self Syllogisms As likewise its Apprehensions of a Supreme Diety or an Almighty MAKER of all Things who is from Everlasting to Everlasting and depends upon none And its Reflections of Conscience either Accusing or Excusing Moral Actions Forgive me Courteous Reader I am already lost in a Labyrinth of Thoughts and my Soul is over-whelmed with a Deluge of Imaginations and can make no further progress At the Resurrection you and I shall know more and be much wiser than we now are When this Mortal shall put on Immortality When our Understandings shall be more illuminated and when the Eyes of our Souls shall be no longer forced to look or peep through such thick Humors muddy Waters dull Tunicks and horny Spectacles The Second Question THE Second Question Q. Where hast thou been Answer Alas I do not well know where Nor how Nor when Nor what I have been doing Of my Infant-days I have no Knowledge or Remembrance but admire God's infinite Goodness who I verily believe sends his blessed Angels to watch over young Babes and tender Infants who of all other living Creatures are the least able to help themselves Ejaculation Thou O Lord art he who took'st me from the Womb And thou hast been my hope ever since I hung upon my Mothers Breasts In the Morning of my Life for several Hours I stood idle in the Market-place with others of my Companions pleasing my self with childish Toys and youthful Vanities In my more mature Age though I had frequent Calls and Invitations to labour in God's Vineyard yet nevertheless I rather chose to gratify my own roving Fancy and satisfy my vain Curiosity in ranging Abroad and making enquiry into the Customs and Manners of foreign Countries and then to enter into the secret Intregues and mysterious Transactions of my own where I had opportunity to hear see and observe many things which must be buried in Oblivion And here I must acknowledge I met with no small variety of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Crosses and Disappointments and found my self at the brink of many a deep pit and steep precipice and in great danger to have perished without a wonderful preservation and deliverance Besides all this I leave it to Men of greater Wisdom and Experience to consider how hard and difficult a thing it is to be entangled with the Cross-purposes of publick Affairs and yet have leisure to mind that one Thing necessary The Salvation of our Souls with which all the Riches Honours and Pleasures which this World affords are not worthy to be laid in the Ballance Ejaculation Remember not O Lord the unaccountable Follies and Vanities of my Childhood and Touth nor the innumerable Transgressions of my riper Tears Blot out of thy Remembrance the many Breaches of solemn Vows and Promises by me made in Times of Danger and Sickness or any prevarications with the God and Father of Mercies and the hazarding my Soul's Eternal Welfare and Happiness for the sake of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Methinks this World does not unfitly resemble a Theatre or Stage whereon every Man presents himself Acts his Part and so makes his Exit But in all the various Passages of his Life and frequent
Arguments if they do but gratify fleshly Desires have great power and force with poor Mortals It was a promise of sensual Delights and Pleasures though in the other World by which Mahomet so advanced his Dominions and gained so many Proselites and at last exalted himself above our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus who indeed as a Prophet is by the Alcoran acknowledged but as to his Divinity or his being the Second Person of the Trinity it is by the Turks utterly denied I can never forget a Passage in Mahomet the Fourth's insulting Letter to the Emperor at the beginning of this last War namely I value not or I am not afraid of your CRUCIFIED GOD to which blasphemous Expression I do really attribute his being Deposed a few Years after with great Dishonour and Disgrace and all the Misfortunes and Disasters as so many Marks and Tokens of God's displeasure which have ever since befallen that Ottoman Empire And here I hope it will not be ill taken to make an humble Address to the young Nobility and Gentry of this Nation that they will be pleased to have so great a regard to their own Eternal Welfare and Happiness as neither to countenance this impious Book themselves nor allow it a place in their Libraries for fear it may one day corrupt some of their noble Race when they are laid in their cold Tombs I most earnestly beseech you Sirs to hearken to a poor Man's Advice who has no sinister Ends or Designs and whatever he here urges is out of true respect and kindness Who reflects with great remorse upon his own mispent Hours Days and Years and were it in his power to recall Time and Opportunities would certainly with God's assistance employ them to better Ends and Purposes Hitherto your tender years and little Experience may justly plead for your not discerning Id manticae quod in tergo est or diving into the subtil Fallacies and Mysteries of the Composer of this Treatise But now that you have some of his Blasphemies Arrogancies Contradictions and Extravagancies laid so plainly and clearly before your Eyes to harbour or cherish in your Bosoms such Snakes and Vipers would admit of no excuse If you find a Gamester making use but of one false Die he never wins a Shilling more of your Monies If a Tradesman cheats you with false Wares you never after by your good Wills come within his doors And then Why should you give the least respect or countenance to one who endeavours to cheat you of your Souls and rob you of Eternal Happiness Forasmuch as you may be well assured That all such impious Discourses as these are Traps and Snares laid for you by the Devil and his Emissaries to entice you to Sin and Wickedness and then to plunge you in endless Woes and Miseries For the timely prevention of which the best and safest Advice that I can possibly give to the Youth of both Sexes is to employ some part of their precious Hours in reading the Holy Scriptures rather than Plays and Romances which are appointed by God himself to be the Rule of their Lives and by which they must be one day judg'd and give an account of all those extraordinary Talents and Donatives which they have received at his hands above the vulgar and meaner fort of Human Race By which I mean 1. In the first place their ingenuous liberal and more refined Education there being few Parents among the Gentry or Nobility who for their own Reputation are not exceeding careful to put their Children under such Discipline of Tutors and Governesses as may break their natural rudeness and mould them into some form of Civility and teach them that fundamental Lesson of Obedience upon which must be built all future Instructions and afterwards to cultivate their Understandings to bend their Wills and â—ncline their Affections as they grow up in years to those things which are proper Accomplishments for each of the respective Sexes Which is an Advantage that poor and indigent Parents can never purchase for either Sons or Daughters by reason of the great Expence they being forced to send them abroad into all places and among all Companies where the one are in danger of learning all sorts of Vices and the other liable to manifold Temptations and can seldom or never observe or practise such a Severity and Reservedness as otherwise would become a Virgin-Innocence 2. A second Advantage is Wealth and Riches which many times comes into the hands of young Heirs and Heiresses as if they were dropt out of the Clouds Houses and Pallaces which they built not Goods which they provided not Lands and Possessions of which they never made the purchase But are now become God's stewards and must one day give accompt of all particulars that is to say what they have laid out upon themselves what they have distributed among the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless and what they have left behind them to their Children and Families 3. A third Advantage is that of Time the Rich have no need to employ their time to gain that wherewith they already abound whereas the poor Man has scarce any vacant Hours or such as he can call his own but they are all forestall'd by their pressing Necessities The Shepherd must by Day and Night watch his Flocks and his Folds the Husbandman is confined to his Plough his Goad and his Oxen the Carpenter to his Saw and Ax the Smith to his Hammer and Anvil the Potter to his Clay and Wheel and so are all Workmen and Artificers to their several Manufactures and Employments So that the Rich and Wealthy have by this means their Time at their own disposal God having prevented them with the Blessings of his Goodness but must be accomptable to God how they have employed it that is to say what part or portion has been by them set apart for private and publick Devotions and what for reading of the Holy Scriptures what has been spent in lawful or unlawful Pastimes and what in sloth and idleness what in gratifying Pride and Vanity or indulging any manner of Excess Besides all this as the Inclinations and Aversions of great Princes are very much imitated by their Courtiers and Attendants Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Orbis so have the Examples of Persons of Quality of both Sexes no small Influence upon the Actions and Behaviours of their Inferiors and those of lower Ranks and therefore they are highly concerned throughout the whole Course of their Lives to become eminent Patterns of Pieâ—y and Godliness A Prayer for the Youth of both Sexes MOst gracious God and merciful Father in Christ Jesus who while he was here on Earth took little Children in his Arms and blessed them Be graciously pleased to have a particular Regard to the Youth of both Sexes but in a more especial manner to bestow a larger portion of Spiritual Graces and Heavenly Benedictions on those whom thou hast placed in higher Ranks and
the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from