The ways of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Pleasure for evermore.  
A GOOD Companion For A CHRISTIAN directing him in the way to God: being Meditations & Prayers for every day in the Week: and Graces before & after meat  
London Printed by G.P. for Rich: Collins 〈◊〉 his Shop in Paul's Churchyard at the 3 King● 1634    

A GOOD COMPANION FOR A CHRISTIAN, Directing him in the way to God, being Meditations and Prayers for every day in the week: and Graces before and after meat.  
Call upon me in the day of Trouble, and I will hear thee, and thou shalt praise me.  Psal. 50. 
LONDON: Printed by G. P. for Richard Collins, and are to be sold at his Shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Three Kings. 1632.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD LORD GORGE Baron of Dondaulk.  
MOST noble my good Lord:  
My deceased Father very often surveyed the King's Lands, but now by me he humbly tenders himself to be suruaied by you. This small Treatise (the issue not of his body, but his brain) he left with us his children, to assure us, and all men that himself chiefly studied and shaped his courses so to dye that he might never dye, & that he prepared himself so to depart from the earth, that when he did leave the Earth he had no other business but to leave the Earth, for his actions were but an example of his precepts.  
Now my very noble Lord, my poor self being a dependant upon your honoured House, having nothing in me to express my obliged duty; no not so much as advise or wishes, (since your being good & performance of goodness makes all my wishes vain) I beseech you but to read and survey not what you should do, but what you have done, that your sanctified discreetness may be a mirror to others, and an enforcement to me ever to remain,  
Your virtuous honor● humbly devoted servant, I. NORDEN.   

To the Reader.  
IT is the word of the Word, One thing is necessary; many are troubled about many things but did any ever repent that he had set his house in order? Did ever any live the worse, in that they were ever prepared to dye? Indeed in our Age desperate Security makes many foolhardy: but those which are so much men that they know they have a Soul; and so far Christian men that they believe they must give an account of their steward-ship, will entertain this Treatise as right useful. The world knows my Father in his life time wrote many Meditations, but God only knoweth that this he composed at his end for his death time: for before he could bring it into the world, himself went out of the world▪ In natural duty therefore to the memory of my deceased Father, and in a Christian Charity to the common good, I have set forth this Book, with my hearty prayers to God that we may so set our house in order, that whensoever the Bridegroom shall call, we may not only have lamps in our hands, but oil in our Lamps, and Lights in our oil, that is, not only a profession but a persevering expression of true Christianity.  
I. NORDEN.   

A COMPANION FOR A CHRISTIAN, to guide him in the way to God.  
Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye.  Isay 38.1. 


No difference in the natural substance of poor and rich.  
HEZECHIAH, that good King of Judah, being sick (supposed) of a plague sore, was commanded by God, To set his house in order, for he should die: whereby it appeareth, that, as all men are borne to dye, so are they subject, to that pestilent infirmity: To show that there is no difference of men, in respect of their natural bodies; Kings, Princes and Poorest people, are all made of one, and the same substance, and subject to all like and the same infirmities; and therefore, none but such as forget whereof they are made, will scorn (as many do,) such as are (in respect of themselves) basely attired, or poor in substance: as the rich man in the Gospel did poor Lazarus.   

No cause why the rich should disdain the poor.  
ANd as the rich & proud amongst us at this day, do foolishly, conceiving an opinion of themselues, that in regard of their riches, and revenues, their outward attire, and vain bravery, they are made of a more delicate matter, than the poor; and that the meanly attired, are not fit to come near them, much less to touch them: But let the richest, and the bravest robed, be rest of his riches, and the poor man enjoy it, and let the poor man be attired with his glorious garments, and then it will appear that the difference is only, in riches and poverty, not in the beauty, or baseness of either.   

Poor and rich incident to equal infirmities.  
AND as touching their infirmities: what sickness is it, that befalls the poor, that is not incident to the rich? And what privilege hath the rich to prevent death more than the poor man hath? Only the means of physic, which prevaileth not, when the time (set by the almighty) is come. And the like set time hath the poor, before which time though he take no physic (though necessary) he shall not dye.   

Rich and poor must dye and come to judgement.  
But it is appointed equally to rich and poor, that they shall dye and come to judgement. And therefore, it is a duty required by God: (And fit in Christian discretion and policy) not only, that Kings, and men of great estates, the rich and wealthy.   

Men are to set their house in order while they are in health.  
But that all men of what estate, condition, or degree soever they be, not only in the time of my common plague, or infectious disease, (yet then especially) and when they be sick, but rather in their best health and strength, should not only have continually in their minds, that they must dye, but at all times to set, keep, and continue their houses, hearts and senses and members of their bodies in order, knowing they must dye▪ yet not knowing the time: that when the time cometh, be it never so sudden, they may dye in peace with God, and with all men in a good conscience.   

Men of means are so to settle their possessions and goods as may reserve peace after their deaths.  
ANd as much as in them is, so to dispose and settle their worldly possessions, and goods, as peace may be preserved and continued, amongst such, as they intent, shall enjoy them when they are dead, for although all men know, that it is appointed that they must dye; yet are not all men of like watchfulness, or preparation against the time of death.   

Many are slack in setting their houses in order.  
SOme live long, and many years, and become not bodily sick at all, and therefore, it seldom or never cometh into their minds, that they must dye; and so put off the setting of their houses in order, and to reform their lives until many of them be prevented. And when they would, they cannot (either for want of time, or of memory, or of sense) perform it. Some have long and lingering sickness, looking (as it were) every day to dye; and yet can hardly find time, to set their house and lives in order.   

Sudden death prevents men of setting their houses in order.  
SOme also are taken suddenly, not only in the time of common infection (wherein all sorts are in most, and equal danger) but in time of seeming greatest safety, and of least cause of fear; which we have seen by the sudden death of many, which have taken no time at all, to settle their estates: but have been enforced, to leave their houses, in the same order, they were in, when they lived clean out of order. And few there be that providently, and timely set, and wisely keep and continue their houses and lives in such order, as by God's command they ought to do, by reason of their worldly cares. And that is the reason, that many go disorderly to their graves, how pompously soever they be attended on, at their funeral solemnities.   

Many inconveniences grow by the neglect of setting men's houses in order before they die.  
THe neglect of this commanded duty, of setting their worldly estates in order (a duty in humane discretion, and Christian policy, fit to be remembered, and performed of all men,) is also the cause that many quarrels, contentions, suits in law, enmities, sinister, ungodly and malicious practices, (sometimes tending to blood) do arise, not only between strangers; but between brethren, between brethren and sisters, wife and children, and dearest & nearest kinsfolks and friends, contending especially for lands and goods, of such as dye, without orderly disposing of that they are constrained to leave behind them, when they die.   

All men are bound to this duty of setting their houses in order.  
ALL men therefore, are bound to this duty, but especially such as have great possessions, to dispose, and much goods to be queath, and to set in order above other times, when any common plague, or sickness reigneth, to set their houses in order, for there is no man or woman privileged, at such a time. And there is commonly no man, but hath either issue, or some near of blood, lawfully to inherit his lands, and friends to enjoy his goods: yet if he dispose them not in his life-time, but leaves them to catch that catch may: it cannot be, but suits and quarrels will arise, between such as will contend for the right of inheritance left doubtful. The like about Administrations of goods, of an intestate dead party, causing many times, more money to be spent in law, than the lands or goods are worth they contend for thus uncertainly left: And therefore, better it were, for a man, to dye, not seized of a foot of land, nor possessed of more goods, than will bring him decently to his grave; than by the greatness of his possessions, and his much wealth, undisposed, and not duly ordered, to breed uncharitable, and unchristian quarrels among kindred and friends, to the offence of God, for the pelf he leaves behind him when he dies. And perhaps sinisterly and corruptly gotten, which seldom prosper long to them that shall enjoy them.   

Advertisements to the rich men.  
RIch men therefore, above all other have need to remember to set their houses and estates in order in time; knowing their time is short, and uncertain: and the greater possessions, and the more abundance of wealth they have, the more circumspect aught they to be, to live in the fear of God and to set their houses in order, before they die: for, the more they have, the greater will be their account, and the more have they to answer for, when they are dead: for, howsoever, men, either borne to inherit; or have gotten and purchased (as they will say) with their own moneys, and have heaped up great abundance of riches and possessions by their own industries, policies, and worldly wisdom. They must not yet think (as many do) that these possessions, and goods are so there's, as to use them at their own pleasures, to the fulfilling of their own carnal delight or to hoard them up, and as it were, to wrap them in a napkin, that none may be the better for them, until they be enforced to leave them, whether they will or not: assuming unto themselves that lawless liberty, and abusing that speech, Is it not lawful for me to do with mine own what I list? no, they are not so simply thine, that thou shouldest abuse them, but to use them to his glory that gave them, or rather lent them unto thee. Though peradventure to thine own vexation thou gettest them, to thy more care thou keepest them, and to thy most grief thou must leave them (which last approveth that they are not thine as thou reputest them thine; for, thou must leave them, and they will leave thee, whether thou wilt or not) yet if in the mean time thou use not thy possessions and wealth, to the good of God's children (howsoever thou dispose them to be enjoyed after thy death) it will not profit thee, give them to whom, or to what use thou wilt; for, if thou labour not in thy life time, to be assured, that thy name is written in the book of life, good deeds to be done by a deputy after thy death cannot avail thee: while therefore thou hast time, do good; and while thou hast power over the lands and goods that God hath lent thee, to be used by thee, to God's glory, and comfort of his needy members. Leave not that duty (required even of thyself) to be performed thou knowest not by whom after thy death.   

Rich men must answer according as they have received and bestowed.  
HAst thou many talents? put them to good use, and thou shalt have a good reward; for, if he that received but one talon, was cast into utter darkness, for not applying it to the good of God's children, what will become of them, that have great possessions, and many talents of silver and gold, laid up in their chests, doing no good with them to the poor children of God, when they shall suddenly be called, before the high and severe judge? Will their answer be sufficient to say, I have appointed mine heir to give such and such lands; and mine executor such and such Legacies, to good and pious uses? But, may it not to be said rather unto him, Thou fool, couldst not thou thyself have done it better in thy life time, and not to have left the doing of it in trust to an uncertain Attorney after thy death, who is as mortal as thyself?   

The cause why rich men will not part with any their wealth before they die.  
THou mayst say (as many men think) if I should give, or dispose my lands or goods, while I am in perfect headth, how could I maintain mine estate, according to my rank? I was the Son of a worshipful or honourable Father, whose lands descended unto me, 〈…〉 I not to make the best of it, and increase it if I can? Why should I give away that, that my father left me? Says another, I have possessions, indeed, which I have purchased, as mine own proper inheritance; wherein who can pretend interest but myself? Should I forgot that which I have dear paid for to them that I know not?   

Men ought not to be prodigal in giving away their goods.  
IT is not meant that any man should be prodigal, and consume the inheritance of a Father (though many have wantonly consumed honourable and inferior estates, to their dishonour, and shame, without doing that which God requireth of all men to be done, to his glory, and their own future assured comfort.) Neither is it unlawful for any man to purchase, so it be by his money lawfully gotten. But neither he that hath it by descent, nor he that doth purchase possessions, but is bound both to lend, and to give, especially, to the needy members of Christ. But thou wilt say, who are they? how shall I know them? Surely they that bear but the outward image of Christ's humanity, must be supposed to be of the number of them, to whom thou oughtest to do good, for if thou give to any poor man, whose heart thou knowest not, if thou do it in the name of one of the members of Christ (though he be not) thy work is accepted of God, as done to himself. And thou shalt not thereby diminish but procure a blessing, upon the rest of thy lands, and goods; for, God hath promised it.   

Every man is but a steward under God of his lands and goods.  
ANd deceive not thyself, but know, that though thy possessions came by descent or purchase, and thy goods by gift, or by thine own industry; thou art but steward of them under God, to feed the hungry, to cloth the naked, to lend unto, and to relieve the poor. And not to convert them, totally (as most men do) to thine own private pleasures, or worldly profits. Say not with Nabal, what is David, or who is the Son of Ishai? who are the children of God, that I should give, or lend them my silver, and gold, my bread or my victuals, that I have provided for mine own children, my servants and friends? Shall I give it to beggars, or lend my money to poor snakes, that will never pay me again?   

Some rich men seem to loathe the Poor.  
IT grieveth such Nabals indeed to look upon the poor, but with disdain, much less to give or lend unto them, wherewith to relieve and comfort them: And yet they think God loveth them dear, because, he heaps upon them daily, more and more, this world's Mammon, yet care not for the poor, like judas that bore the bag. Therefore cry the poor unto the Lord, against such hard, stony, and covetous hearted miserable rich men: And the Lord heareth in heaven, and will reward them as they reward the poor; for, as the poor cry, and the rich will not hear them; so shall the rich cry and the Lord will not answer them; and hence it comes, that Christ himself affirms it to be as hard a thing for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, as for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle: this is no skarre-crow?   

Why there are poor and rich in the world.  
HOw can these men set their houses in order before they die, when their hearts are hardened and out of order while they live, nothing regarding Christ, in his members? There shallbe ever some poor in the land, saith Moses: And Christ saith, the poor shall you always have with you. And why? only to try the charity of the rich: If you relieve them, you relieve Christ in them; If you afflict them, Christ is afflicted by you in them.   

What reward they shall have that help the poor members of Christ.  
GOd will repay, whatsoever man giveth, or dareth unto his distressed members: Give, therefore, to him that asketh, and from him that would borrow turn not away; And, your reward shallbe great, And ye shallbe called the children of the most high. Yet, notwithstanding this assured reward, and this most glorious title. What say the rich to the poor, that beg or would borrow? This is no giving age, and worse of lending. The time indeed, is in every string out of tune; harp where a man will, or can, he shall find a most harsh discord, and all out of order in poor and rich, the poor will not work, and the rich will not give. And now, begins the Lord to see whether it will be brought into better order by his favourable chastisements, the body is sick and the members droop, and drop away, and yet are men slack to set their houses, much less their souls in order before they die.   

Men seek to run from death, but carry the infection of sin with them.  
MEn that are afraid to stand the adventure of the dissolution or their bodies at home are fled, to hide themselves from Gods correcting rod. Let them bewa●e, that they carry not with them, a more pestilent infection, in their souls, than they seek to escape in their bodies.   

Some adventure their souls where they dare not adventure their bodies.  
IT is strange that many men, that are valorous and adventurous, that for the getting of a little muc● of the world, will adventure their souls; and yet of so faithless, fearful and cowardly hearts, as they will not adventure their bodies, in the place where they have laid their souls already to pawn.   

Death finds men every where.  
DIscretion, indeed, it is to avoid infection of the body. But, he that seeks to save his life may lose it; and he that flies farthest off may find death as near him, as at his own house when he returns; for he that flies, in a desperate distrust of God's power, providence, and protection, may prevent the danger, but assuredly as great a danger attends him yet, if he seek to avoid it in the faith and fear of God, in hearty prayer, referring himself to the will of God, for his dissolution, or preservation; whether he live or die he is safe, and more happy in his death (being the Lords) then ten thousand that remain (out of order) alive, abroad, or at home.   

The love of this world make men fear death.  
But what makes men chiefly to fly death? only, the love of the world, and the glory and riches thereof, because these in the vain conceit of themselves are most happy of all men, and so they are reputed, (but only of the worldly minded) because, God suffers them to grow great, and rich, and glorious, and full of the means, to make them to think themselves the dear children of God: blessing themselves in the increase of their riches, and therefore, is the very name of death bitter unto them. Who then dares say unto such a great man in these days as Esay did to Hezekiah; Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye? would he not spew such a plain dealing friend, for ever, out of his good conceit?   

Riches make the better man.  
TAke heed whosoever thou art that trustest too much to thy riches, and think not thyself the better man, because thou carriest a heavier burden of wealth than thy neighbour doth, an honest poor man: who hath that simple title only.   

Why rich men are called good men.  
But thou that art rich indeed, hast the reputation of a Good man. Why a good man? because thou art a rich man; and a man will take thy band, for a hundred pounds, before thy neighbours for a hundred pence. Why? because thou art a good man? no but of great estate? and that is thy goodness: thy neighbour, an honest poor man, and that is his greatness and goodness, whose word to his power may be as good as thy band.   

A good man will do good with his goodness.  
But if thou be so good a man do good with thy goodness, which is thy riches, while thou art alive, and leave not thy goodness, behind thee, and to carry none with thee: for if thy goodness consist in riches only, thou must leave it, and it thee; and will such a good man, think to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven hardly?   

A rich man be he never so wicked hath the title of a good man.  
IT is a strange attribute given to every rich man; O he is a good man, if he have wealth in abundance, let him be Usurer, Extortioner, Briber, jew, or Atheist, he is a good man, every man will lend upon his band, and trust him upon his word, though he be never so very an infidel. And indeed, it is but in show (for the most part) that one man doth trust another, doth any man trust another in these days, because he is an honest man? some worthy rich and honourable men I acknowledge do good to honest men, thinking them honest men, and true members of Christ. But that man that hath a purse to repay, and to lend to him again, that hath lent him, is the world's good man. And thus goes the current of worldly good men. And these are the men that as they have the glory of the world, so they seek again to glorify the world, by their glorious posterities, for whose advancement, and to purchase unto themselves, the reputation of being very (but worldly) wise men in outstripping others, in getting (let the means be right or wrong) applying all their wits, studies, and endeavours, to become rich in the superlative degree, to make their names, their houses, their heirs, great and greater than the greatest of their neighbours, forgetting themselves, what they were, what they are, and what they shallbe without repentance, and setting their houses, souls and bodies in godly order, before they die miserable in the highest degree.   

Pride and covetousness, roots of many vices.  
THou art famous for thy wealth, and glorious in thy great possessions, but be neither the more proud, nor the more covetous, two rank roots, whence do spring all the vices, that disorder both the houses, of thy soul, and body. Look rather a little back, to the place from whence thou camest, and consider what thou broughtest into the world with thee. Broughtest thou either silver or gold, lands or goods? In what garments camest thou into the world?   

Considerations fit for all men.  
IF thou hadst brought any of these things into the world with thee, and couldst carry them again out of the world with thee, thou mightest indeed, then, in some sort repute them thine; yet but in a sort, for as thy body is subject to death, to corruption, and rottenness, so are thy lands and goods, thy silver, thy gold, and goodliest garments subject to the like consumption: But remember thou camest out of the place of darkness; clothed in blood, which was also thy food, wherewith thou wert sustained in life, before thou camest into the light. Thou hadst no other garment, though thou be since washed and outwardly purified and become neat, and clad with costly attire, whereof thou needest not boast, nor wax proud, be thy raiments never so rich in cost, or colour, they are but the fragments of the rags of Adam's fig leaves, to cover thy nakedness, as he did. And if thou consider well thine own nakedness; thou mayst rather be ashamed, than to be proud of thine apparel, be whatsoever thou art man or woman: For if it were not a shame, to have thy nakedness seen, there needed no such costly attire to cover it; and yet such is the boldness of some (impudent) women, that they are not ashamed to lay out their nakedness, in an unseemly manner, as if they should say (as they do in silence) here is ware to be sold, come and buy for your lust, or borrow for your love.  
Men and women, be they now, never so proud and vainglorious, of their dainty feature and beauty, they came but out of a den of darkness; and to a place of darkness they must return, and have no certainty, how long they shall live here be they never so lusty and strong, never so fair and amiable. And yet do not only not seek to set their bodies and souls in order, but disorder them every day.   

Few come to their inheritance under twenty one years.  
IT was many years after thou camest into the world before thou didst enjoy thy freedom, near a third part of the time of man's life limited by David, which few attain unto. And therefore thou knowest not, how soon thou shalt be taken from thy possessions, thy goods and dearest worldly delights, whilst thou hast time, therefore; set thyself, thy soul and thy body, lands and goods, (which are meant by thy house) in order, knowing that thou must dye, and knowest not when, where, nor how.   

We must remember that we must dye and come to judgement.  
Look before thee, to the place whither thou goest, and forget it not, let not thy glory, & greatness cause thee to forget, that thou shalt dye and come to judgement. And although thou camest into the world with the breath of life; thou shalt return without it, yet not actively, for thou shalt become, as a mere lump of earth without power or vigour in thyself to move; but be moved at the pleasure of others. And here must thou cast off thy glorious garments, not as the Eagle casts his bill, or the Serpent his skin, to be revested with them, but in stead of them, thou must be content, and be beholden to thy friends to afford thee a silly sheet, to put thy naked carcase in.   

Men must forsake all, when death comes.  
THen must thou leave behind thee thy loving wife, thy dearest children, and best friends, thy rich possessions, thy gold and silver, and what thou esteemedst most precious: And then a little length and breadth of land (which may be cast up by inches, will serve thee in stead of many honours, manors, forests, parks, etc. which could hardly be numbered by acres) will serve thee for thy fairest chamber. And instead of thy silver & gold, wherewith thou couldst never be satisfied, thou shalt have earth thy mouth & belly full: and in stead of thine attendants, men servants, maid servants, etc. thou shalt have for thine attendants, jobs sisters & brothers, worms to attend and affect thee (even as friends affect friends, as long as they can be each to other friendly) So as long as the worms can find in thy dead flesh, whereon to feed, they willbe thy companions: But when the substance of thy body is spent, they will leave thy bare bones, to thy mother, Rottenness; the end of all flesh. And therefore set thine house in order: for this must be the certain end of thine uncertain mortal life.   

Many perplex themselves to make them they know not rich.  
MAke not thyself more miserable, (then) by striving to advance thy posterity to greatness, and so expose thyself to the loss of heaven. And flatter not thyself, with a vain conceit; that it is thy glory to get riches and possessions for thy children, with the loss of an eternal inheritance to thyself▪   

Who are chiefly to be cared for, and how far.  
THou art no further bound, than to have a fatherly care of thy family; Among the rest, thy wife and children, are most to be respected, for whom thou oughtest to provide things necessary, to maintain, and to sustain them otherwise indeed thou art to be condemned as an unbeliever: But to covet and to use forbidden, nay, too solicitous means to make thy children great, or thy friends after thee rich, is not commanded but forbidden.   

Many seek to secure their posterities in their possession, more than their own assurance of heaven.  
MAny seek to purchase, and to set and settle lands, as surely as can be devised, by gravest counsel, for the more security of their children after their death, to the end they should remain, in their names, from one generation to another, (and lawful) yet not laudable retaining lest assurance, or security (in the mean time) unto themselves, of an inheritance immortal, after their deaths): Notwithstanding their great and spacious possessions here, which were a good mean, to enable a man to do the works of charity commanded by God, lawfully gotten, which the poor have not.   

Evil gotten goods seldom continue to many generations.  
IF they have been ill gotten, or ill kept, they seldom continue to the third generation, sometimes not to the second: And yet many men covet in their worldly wisdom, to pre●ent (if it were possible) the very counsel of God himself, by limiting and entailing, their lands and possessions sometimes, to ten succeeding generations; intending to perpetualize their names and estates, to the end of the world: And yet it is seen and daily observed, that as humane policy hath found out this uncertain device of limiting their possessions, to such as perchance may be unborn a hundred years after such a device is made: So like policy hath found out a mean to frustrate the same, even by the same Law by which it was (in conceit) made strong and irrevocable: And sometimes, God in his wisdom and secret judgement, altars and turns the devices of men clean contrary to their intentions.   

God disposeth of all earthly inheritance.  
WHen Ioseph●, intended to have preferred Manasses his first borne, (to whom (by course of inheritance) the first place belonged) before Ephraim his second son: God so directed the heart▪ and the hand of jaakob in blessing▪ them (which then had great force, working with the will of God) he preferred Ephraim his second before Manasses the first borne. So God gave Isaaks inheritance, to jaakob the younger before Esau the the elder, showing how uncertain, the issue is, of the purpose of man, touching the making of his heir, though it be a part of the setting of thy house in order before thou die.   

No counsel against the Lord.  
THere is no counsel, against o● without the Lord; man may purpose this or that child shallbe his heir, and inherit his Land: or this or that friend shall enjoy his goods; but the disposition is in God▪ who altars the purpose of man even as he will: to show that the wisdom of man is indeed but foolishness, without God.   

How men ought to guide their affections in preferring their children or friends.  
IT is not yet unlawful for men to respect one son, or one child, or one friend, before and above another; and to have a desire to prefer one before another, to enjoy their Lands, and goods after them: So they respect the preferring the glory of God (and that with prayer) before their own natural affection: Namely where they find one more inclinable to virtue, to the fear and service of God, than another: to prefer such before them that have only natural endowments as feature, as beauty, priority of birth, wit, and comeliness (like Absalon;) and mere carnal inclinations: for the more favour, father's show, and the more means, they heap upon such in making them great or rich, the more they will run into riot (as is observed in too many, in this corrupt age) which breeds scandal, to the father in so disposing his wealth (when he is in his grave:) And the more dishonour unto God, that lent the means, and argues no direct setting of his house in a Christian order before he died.   

Many rather covet to advance their posterities to wealth here, than themselves to glory hereafter.  
MANY men plainly show, that they love the world, their uncertain posterity, and their own vain glory, more dearly, than they love their own souls: By so abundantly providing, to make their posterity great & themselves famous (some rather infamous) after their deaths.  
Can a man be thought to love his own soul, when he adventures it in getting superfluous, and forbidden means, to enrich, and to make them great, whom he knows not whether, they willbe good, or evil? And to that uncertain end, to hoard up, and to keep riches, doing good to none, until they must needs leave them?   

Esau more to be excused than some miserable rich men.  
ESau sold his birth right, indeed for a mess of pottage, only to refresh the necessity of his fainting spirit, and is more to be excused, than they that sell their souls (more precious, than all the Kingdoms, that Satan tempted Christ withal) for the superfluous advamcement of them, whom they truly know not: And yet when they have gotten much, and disposed it to whom they list, before they die, they are far from the setting of their houses, much less of their souls in good order before they die.   

It is lawful to possess lands and goods.  
IT is not denied, neither doth any scripture inhibit men to have and enjoy possessions, lands and goods, be they by descent, gift or purchase, and to leave them to their children: For God hath from the beginning, lent these inferior things of the earth, to the sons of men: and alloweth the use of them lawfully gotten, so they be godly used and rightly disposed: for he that disposeth them without good warrant, runs before the counsel of of God: as (in worldly wisdom, or vainglorious desires) many do, to impious and ungodly uses while they live, setting neither house, nor heart, nor soul, nor body in order before they die.   

Many never think of Death till they be sick.  
AND when the summons of death, begin to seize upon them, than they begin to bestir them saying, (as some have done) and must I dye? making an unwilling will, giving and bequeathing, what they could no longer keep. Yet when a man's will is made, and all things disposed, if he can get but a little breathing time, a year, or two, ten or more; they to whom he hath assigned his lands and bequeathed his goods, shallbe never the better for his gifts until he die, and that (were it possible) not till doom's day. And they that would have seemed to have mourned at his funeral, for the loss of so good a benefactor, will turn their mourning (which should have been for his death) into sorrow and sadness, for the recovery of his health; and will be even sick to think, they shallbe longer prevented (by his recovery) of that they were in hope presently to have enjoyed.   

If men could see the fruits of their gifts in their posterities, in their graves they would repent that ever they were rich.  
HE that flatters not himself, in the greatness of his means to 〈◊〉 what fame will fly of him, when he is dead for his bounty, distributed (not to the needy members of Christ) when he was alive; if he could but look out of his grave and see the gallants that he hath made to ruffle in their riot, and lasciviously (commonly) to consume what he so long and laboriously scraped together, he would wish himself, rather to have been a man of far inferior means, than to have been the means to increase the sin of them whom he seemed to love, and would no doubt have been more careful in setting his house, his soul, his body, conscience and affections, in better order, than he had done, by giving it rather to the poor.   

Delay not to set thy life, lands and goods, in order.  
BE wise therefore thou that hast houses, lands, possessions, and much goods to dispose; Set them in order in time, and observe well how, and to whom, and to what uses, thou meanest to dispose them, and delay not, till thou be sick: For thou knowest not, when, nor where, nor how, thou shalt end thy life; and think not that the abrupt making of thy will, can bring a disordered house suddenly into such order, as God requireth: while thou art therefore in thy perfect health, set thy house in order, against the time of thine uncertain death; and see thou have well gotten, that which thou hast heaped together: and if thy conscience (strictly examined) tell thee, that thou hast gotten any part of it by wrong, show thyself a good Zacheus, restore it fourfold, before thou die, that thou mayst dye in the favour of God in Christ, otherwise it had been better for thee to have died a beggar.   

Fit every man to make their wills.  
IT is a very religious and Christian duty, in every man possessing any lands or goods in the world, to make his will: and to settle his estate in good order (be it never so mean;) before he die: which is in part meant by God's command, to set thy house in order, namely thy household, lands, and goods: but that is not all the orderly settling of thy house before thou die.   

Whereof a family consisteth.  
A Household or family consisteth of husband and wife, parents and children, master and servants; among whom, if a godly order be not set, continued, and kept before thou be constrained, through sickness, to make thy will, thou wilt hardly set it in order before thou die.   

How a family ought to be ordered.  
IF love and amity have not been, and maintained in the fear of God, between man and wife: If parents have not instructed their children, in the knowledge of & exercised them in the true service of God, if children have not obeyed their parents; if masters have not wisely governed their servants, giving them their salaries and necessaries; if servants have not done their duties, faithfully, to their masters; and all mutually together; and sometimes man and wife in private, served the Lord in faithful prayer, during their perfect healths, that house is out of order, head and members, and cannot in a moment, by a will, written in an hour or two be brought into order. Therefore deceive not thyself, by delaying to set thy house in order, and every part and person thereof; and think it not sufficient, to settle thy worldly goods and lands, by thy last will, (as thou dost imagine thou hast made thy will) for whether thou dispose thy lands, or give thy goods while thou art alive; neither shall thy lands, nor goods want owners, when thou art dead.   

Parents ought to provide for their children, the chief hope of children.  
IT is a duty also joined with a care in parents, to lay up, and provide for their children: and a fatherly duty it is, and a duty that children (for the most part) take greater hold of, than of care to perform their duties to their parents. And therefore it is hard to judge, whether he that lays up little, and gives only education unto his children, to live futurely by some lawful calling; or he that is solicitous, and over-careful to provide, for the present maintenance of his children in idleness, before, and in wantonness (through the hope of great portions) after his death, be most to be condemned: if the 〈◊〉 be not more unblamable, he is more superstitious than the former: too much care argues least faith.   

He that cares not for his family, i● an infidel, and he that is too solicitous for them is no less.  
HE shows not himself a Christian in deed, that cares not for his family, but spends his time in idleness, and his means in unthriftiness, but rather an infidel: But he that exceeds in coveting, (which in itself is sin) and strives against the stream of God's direction, getting by right or wrong, spending superfluously, upon his family, or hoarding and laying up for his posterity, (as is said before) having little, or no regard, to help, relieve and comfort the poor; that have an interest in the superfluity of his abundance; as if the Lord could not provide for his children, (if they fear and serve God) aswell, as he hath done for himself; this man shows himself, as near an infidel, as the former.   

Parents should leave behind them good examples, for their children to imitate.  
THE best portion thou canst leave behind thee, is a manifest example, and pattern of a godly life for thy children and friends to imitate; and to give them (if conveniently nothing else) some necessary manual trade or lawful profession, to live by when thou art dead.   

Great patrimonies oftentimes soon spent.  
IF thou have lands and possessions, and great stocks of money, to leave to thy children, thou thinkest them richly provided for, and thy house in good order: and yet we see, many times, that the great patrimonies, and portions left by careful Fathers to their children; consumed and riotously spent before their parents be half consumed in their graves: which might be some cause, to restrain fathers from being too solicitous, superfluously to enrich their children; seeing so many examples of the evil success of other men's care.   

The best portions fathers can leave their children.  
IF thou therefore have possessions, lands or goods, to leave to thy children, season them while thou livest, as much as is in thee, both by pains, practice and prayer, in the true knowledge of faith and obedience to God in Christ, and then if they abuse what thou leavest them; thou hast discharged the part of a religious, and careful father: And so shall the disorderly consuming or abusing of them, light upon their own heads, poverty and misery, fit rewards for the riotous.   

Possessions and wealth without wisdom hurt posterities.  
RIches and revenues, are indeed the good blessings of God, and necessary means to show bounty and liberality to them that have need; but if wisdom be not joined with the riches and possessions, thou leavest behind thee, if the fear of God guide them not, in the godly use, and prevent the ungodly abuse of them, it had been better for thee, to have died without being owner of them; and better for thy children, that they had none of them at all, for when children, destitute of understanding, smell the savour of rich possessions, or great portions, assured them after their parent's death, it infects their minds, as the pestilence (which showeth itself by the tokens:) so this infection doth by the apparent marks of insolency, pride and a very noisome swarm of impious vices whereby God is dishonoured; the simple seduced, the godly abused, and the vulgar likewise infected.   

Fit for parents to conceal what they mean to leave their children.  
ANd therefore discreet parents will conceal their purpose of disposing their lands, and giving their goods, and keep the knowledge of what they have from their children, as they will keep gunpowder from the fire; for as a a spark will set the whole into a flame suddenly, so let a father once enkindle hope in a disorderly son, and it shall set all his ungodly desires on fire, which will hardly be extinguished, till (coming to his hands) all be speedily consumed.   

Not so to respect posterities, as to neglect the members of Christ.  
ANd therefore it behoveth thee not so to respect thy posterity, as by their greatness expected, to make them more proud and wicked in present: Nor so to regard to benefit thy friends, as to neglect the poor children of God: For (as hath been said before) thou art but a steward of that thou hast; and therefore, if thou give the children's bread, (which are the distressed members of Christ) and bestowest it to superfluous uses; remember the unjust steward, being called to an account, as thou must be thou knowest not how soon, and think beforehand how thou canst answer it.   

As all men are stewards, so they must think of their account.  
IT willbe required of thee, how thou hast bestowed thy master's goods, the goods that God, (the great master of the family) hath put into thy hands to give every of his servants his due portion out of it: If thou say (as he knoweth thou hast done) I have maintained my wife with some part of the goods thou gavest me, according to the best fashions the time afforded; I have according to my calling, furnished my table; inviting my friends to be partakers with me with part; I attired my children, and brought them up, as became the children of a father of my reputation; I built me a fair and chargeable house, with complete furniture within and without; I have purchased lands, for my children, after me; Some gold and silver, plate, etc. I have disposed, and given to my friends before I died.   

Many idle expenses willbe disallowed at the great Audite.  
HEre is a large bill and of diverse particulars, too great (it is to be feared,) to be allowed, at that great and general audit: for the Auditor is just, he will allow only necessaries, but as for superfluous charges, he will disallow, so wilt thou be found, charged to answer, what thou hast unnecessarily spent.   

Duties required of every man, to have always, his house, his soul and body in order of most men omitted.  
HE gave thee in charge indeed, (as before is remembered) that thou shouldest provide for thy family, thy wife, children and servants; but remember withal thou wert commanded, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and distressed widows, whom thou hast neglected, for the pride of thy wife▪ whom thou mightest have comely and decently attired, and yet clothed the desolate widows also: Thou mightest have plentifully furnished thy Table, and used thy meats, and drinks with thy friends, in the fear of God with thanks, yet not to eat thy morsels alone, with thy friends, that would require thee with the like; but that the poor; the fatherless, the widow, and the hungry, should have been partakers with thee: Thou mightest have competently clothed thy children, and yet have covered the naked too, though but with the cast rags of thy children, if thou wouldst bestow no better on them: Thou mightest have builded thee a competent house for thyself and family, to have lived and lodged in▪ and have reserved one poor hovel for the harbounlesse members of Christ, to have had shelter in; and not to pass by and see them lie without doors, like forlorn beasts.   

The poor members of Christ have right to a part of every rich man's goods.  
THou mightest lawfully have purchased land for thy children; yet mightest thou have allowed some part (with Ananias and Saphira) to have relieved the needy, that have no earthly portion: Thou mightest have given and bequeathed thy silver and gold, which thou keptst in thy chests, to thy children and friends, and not have forgotten, that thou hast given that, whereunto (as touching a part) Christ in his members had right.   

A house disordered in a man's life can hardly be left in order when he dies.  
HOw wilt thou answer the omission, of all these precisely required duties, and thy superfluous expense, bestowed upon thyself and thine: Is it possible that a house, thus disorderly guided, even to th● last can be set in order before a man dye? though the law, can find no fault, or flaw in the orderly conveyance of thy lands, nor with thy last will: yet there is a law that requires charity and mercy, that will condemn thee, to be a steward to be bound hand and foot, and to be cast into utter darkness.   

Redeem the time.  
Redeem thou therefore the time, whosoever thou art that livest▪ set thy house in order, it is yet time, if thou have but the will though prevented of the deed, do thine endeavour and it shallbe accepted never too late to amend.   

How to set thy house in order.  
SET thy house in the true fear and service of God, from thyself the head to thy meanest servant, be moderate in attiring thy wife, she will accept it, if she be modest: educate thy children in obedience to God, so shall they not offend thee: cover the naked.   

The poor are the bests guests a rich man can entertain.  
LEt the poorest children of God be some times as the fruitful vines about thy house, and as olive branches round about thy table: Thou shalt find them in the end most beneficial guests, that thou shalt entertain either to meat, or ●arbor: for thou dost not so much feed and cloth, and lodge them, as Christ himself in them, who is here amongst us, poor, naked, sick, hungry, in prison, thirsty, harbourless and miserable, and woe be to the rich, that see him and show him no compassion.   

The rich aught to have respect to the poor.  
HOw can they that have riches in abundance, food plentiful, apparel superfluous, gold and silver, and all that their hearts can desire (and more, if religious reason were ruler) pass by, and see a poor, naked, hungry, and (as it were) a starved Christian: and not to be moved with compassion, especially young forsaken children, and old and impotent men and women? As for the sturdy counterfeits, and idle striplings able for service, let their reward be the whip. And until thou begin to savour of this righteous course, to guide thy house aright, do else what thou wilt in giving and bequeathing, thy house will not be set in order when thou diest, which will be a fearful end.  
Thus much concerning the setting of thy domestic estate in order, it may not be unnecessary to examine the house of thy soul, the body and the members thereof.    

Touching thy body, the house of thy soul.  
I Have before spoken of thy setting of thy worldly estate and domestic family, lands and goods, in order before thou die.  

The chief care ought to be to set and keep the house of the soul the body in order.  
IT is fit to consider▪ how to set thy corporal house, which is the habitation of thy s●u●e, the senses and members of the s●m●, in order: And that above and before the disposing of thy worldly estate: For, as the bo●● is more worth th●n raiment, of more value than possessions, silver or gold; so is the well ordering of the same to be preferred before all that thou enjoyest, or canst enjoy in the world.   

Wherein the well-being of the soul consisteth.  
THe well-being of the soul, which is the principal part of thee, consisteth in the right government of thy body, and bodily members▪ for if thy carnal members and corporal senses, have been or are defiled with the vanities, whereunto they are particularly inclined, thy soul which lodgeth in it, cannot be but also infected and polluted; and therefore, oughtest thou to h●ue an especial regard, to the well-ordering of thy corporal parts.   

Many dwell in fair houses that have fowl bodies and souls.  
THou dwellest, it may be, in a house of ingenious architect, adorned within and without, with sundry varieties, to delight thine eye thine ear, and all the senses of thy body, as many▪ (in deed, or in desire, it may be) as Solomon had; superfluous to name, more superfluous to covet, when yet (it may be) the house wherein thy soul liveth, (and without whom thou canst not live) though it be outwardly adorned with most costly attire, like a painted sepulchre, is of itself, and through thine abusing it, and the members of it, a poor weak, and tottering building, seeming outwardly beautiful, yet (alas) under most glorious and rich coverings, most ragged, rend and rotten, weather beaten and deformed through the tempests of thy blusterous tongue, the extravagancy of thy polluted eyes, and the unruliness of the rest of thy senses, beating upon thy poor soul, that dwelleth in this frail body of thine, with restless ungodly storms of forbidden vaulties, that bring the whole house out of order.   

We must examine how we have used or abused our senses and members of our bodies.  
ANd for as much as the head, the principal part of this weak building, is the place wherein the chief organs, and instruments of speaking, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and eating, do consist; examine first how thou hast kept these in order; and whether thou have formerly given them the reins of licentious liberty, to follow the vanities, whereunto naturally they are severally inclined: If so, then is this thy whole house utterly out of order: and merely deformed, being by creation, free from any actual pollution, or corporal blemish or defect, a most comely, and beautiful building, complete and uniform in every part, from the meanest to the most eminent member.   

Our bodies are complete and beautiful houses.  
Observe from the sole of thy foot, to the very hair of thy head, and see whether thou couldst imagine, to place any member in better order than God hath placed them, for in a perfect body there is no defect in any part, though many times blemished by abuse of the members and senses.   

How our bodies are blemished.  
THe head itself, the guide and governor of all the rest, is oftentimes disordered and even infatuated by drunkenness, the face disfigured, the eyes bleared and blinded, the feet gouted, and many times the whole body dropsied through the abuse of the senses, and brought all out of order, being the very temple of God, and wherein the soul dwelleth, thy most precious part bought with no less a price than the very blood of the Son of God jesus Christ.   

A man can never dye in hope, that hath to the end defiled his body.  
HOw then can a man, whose body and members are thus defiled, and made as it were a den of detestable uncleanness, grieving the spirit that dwelleth in it, without reformation, die in any hope of future happiness? though he do set a fair formal face, upon the setting of his domestic estate in some order by a silly will, before he dies; and to leave the body, the house of his soul, and his soul itself, in so manifest a danger? For the superficial disposing and bequeathing of his domestic estate, and to leave his better part out of order, is but as a pharisaical washing of the outside of the cup, leaving it filthy and foul within.  
It is a manifest argument, that the party who hath the sore breaking out in his body, as Hezekiah had, and the tokens appear, as they commonly do, hath the plague, and is unlike to escape death.   

Signs that a man's house, body and soul are out of order.  
SO manifest it is, that he that aboundeth in corruption and the filth of his heart, breaketh forth and showeth itself, by his disorderly and dissolute conversation; by his inordinate walking; by the profaneness of his speech; by the wantonness of his eyes; by lending his ears with delight to ungodly discourses; by the pollution of his hands; and by the swiftness of his feet to follow vanities; that he is full of spiritual pestilence, and carnal contagion; Altogether unfit and unable, to set either his domestic, or the house of his soul in order before he die, without speedy reformation. A fearful farewell, when he shallbe enforced to forsake all his possessions, lands and goods, and his soul to leave his body, and all out of order when he dies.   

It is a special duty for a man to have all the parts and powers of his soul and body always in order.  
IS it not therefore a chief part of thy duty, for the setting of thy house in order, according to God's command, seriously to examine, how thou hast used or abused, thy body, the organs instruments and members of the same; and speedily to use all possible holy art, and industry to reform all thy defects? That thou mayst with the more comfortable alacrity prepare thee, to that which thou canst not avoid, namely to dye, and to set all things in order against the time.  
And because the tongue in commonly, a most forward instrument to be a party in every action, it is fit, first of all, to call it to account.    

The examination of the Tongue.  

A hard task to govern the tongue aright.  
OF all other members, the tongue hath most need, to be kept in order, though it be a hard task, being a member even from the cradle accustomed, commonly, to offend both God and man.   

The tongue (a wild beast) needs to be kept from ranging.  
EXamine therefore, how and in what order, thou hast used▪ or abused thy tongue, a member of godly use, yet often ungodly used: God in his providence, when he created man, foresaw that the tongue would be unruly: and therefore (even as wild beasts are kept in, by hedges, pales, and strong fences lest they range abroad, so) hath God fenced the tongue with a pale of teeth, and hath left as it were a gate, to be opened and shut, at the pleasure of man, the mouth or lips, which as long as they are kept close and shut, the tongue is enforced to silence; but open but that gap, the tongue hath liberty to walk.   

The tongue cannot speak except the lips open.  
IT is the tongue alone that speaketh, but the tongue and lips together, if the lips open not and shut, the tongue may move, but can make no distinct sound: so the lips may open if the tongue will not move, there proceeds no perfect voice: when they both agree, there proceeds speech, good or evil, as the heart within is prepared for, of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.   

If the heart be good the words cannot be evil.  
IF the heart be good, the words of the mouth are seldom evil; if the heart be wicked, the words will savour of evil: Cursing, swearing, lying, blaspheming, backbiting, slandering, and all words that may offend, proceed out of a profane mouth; which if thou by examination findest (as thou canst not be ignorant,) thou hast great cause, and (if thou be not partial in flattering thyself) thou wilt use all possible speedy means to reform it.   

The tongue cannot offend unless thy lips consent.  
SEt therefore a watch before thy mouth, and keep the door of thy lips for as long as thou h●st a care to keep thy lips shut, thy tongue cannot offend: if thou open them, let it be to glorify God, for if thou long after life and to see good days, refrain thy tongue from evil▪ and thy lips that they utter no deceit.   

The tongue often and many ways abused.  
ALas, what will become then of too many, that in buying and selling, think that what they get by lying, swearing, and forswearing is well gotten? And (though dangerous to speak) what may be thought of some Lawyers, that will strive with all their wit and eloquence, and use their tongues, to maintain and defend a cause which they know, in their own consciences to be false, & against truth, equity and justice; and that for a fee, justifying the wicked for a reward, condemning the innocent in his righteous cause? do not such as men c●ll Knights of the post, forswear themselves for a fee? God forbid, that men of that rank and calling, as are eminent Lawyers (worthy members of the commonwealth) should debase themselves, and face out a falsehood for truth for another man, for a little vanishing pelf? though it be your profession to advocate for other men, and may lawfully take reward, beware, take no fee against the innocent, namely against him, that you know hath truth on his side; for you condemn thereby the righteous, and justify the wicked.   

The tongue is an excellent instrument in the mouth of a wise and just man.  
THe tongue is a most excellent instrument in the mouth of a perfect, wise and just man, and is as a pestilent member, in the mouth of a Tertullus, which signifies a liar and one declaring false things: as was that excellent Orator, that falsely accused Paul, before Felix. It is not an excellent wit nor fluency of the tongue (though they be excellent gifts of God) that shall excuse that man, that by his wit and eloquence, overthroweth a cause against equity, yet I wish the practice were not so common to offend the God of truth, for which aswell the guiltless as the guilty are oftentimes punished.   

The tongue is a little member but most unruly.  
THe tongue is indeed a most unruly member (but a little one) yet boasteth in great things, and speaketh oftentimes against the greatest, uttering a world of wickedness, defiling the whole body, through the wickedness and filthy words proceeding from it, hardest of all other members to be tamed, harder than the fiercest beast, that liveth; which is tamed by the discretion and the wit of man; but the tongue can no man tame.   

He is a wise and perfect man that can rule his own tongue.  
NO man indeed can tame the tongue of another, but a man of understanding, guideth his own tongue, and addeth knowledge unto his lips: He pondereth his words before he speaketh, and bridleth his tongue, and he is indeed, a perfect man that offends not with his tongue, though many unseemly words may slip the lips (unawares) of a right religious man: But a man whose tongue he hath accustomed to speak evil, to cursing, swearing, and filthy talking, cannot with the same tongue honour God, neither praise him, nor pray unto him.   

The tongues of the wicked are weapons of offences.  
WHen power to do open violence to another, is taken from the wicked, they have no other weapon to offend their enemy, than the tongue; and that they sharpen like a serpent: and by it, like venomous Adders, they spew out the poison that lurks in their envious hearts, lying in wait with their tongues, to backbite and slander the innocent: Iniquity hath so covered their mouths, as they cannot but speak wickedly.   

How to avoid a slanderous tongue.  
IF thou wilt prevent the danger of an evil tongue in thyself, meditate good things, seek to plenish thy heart, with holy thoughts, by hearing the word preached, and reading of it with understanding and practice; so shall thy tongue savour of the same, and if thou wilt avoid the slanderous tongue of another, walk innocently: if yet it follow thee, sit down by it, and take it as a cross sent of God, for thy patience.   

How to use the tongue to profit.  
Speak therefore at all times, and in all companies, as in the presence and hearing of the great God of heaven and earth; speak as becometh a sober man, a civil man, as a religious and faithful Christian man, that thy words being seasoned with the salt of grace, may be profitable also to others, for by thy words thou mayst disorder, and by thy words thou mayst well order thy house.   

The example of an evil tongue i● parents, dangerous for their children and servants.  
IF thou leave an evil and contagious sent behind thee by breathing out ungodliness cursing and bitterness, whereby thine own house, thy wife, children, and family may be infected, and retain thy filthy disease when thou art dead; do what otherwise thou canst do, in settling thy lands and disposing thy goods, they may profit them, to whom thou leavest them, as touching their temporal estate: but as touching their well ordering in godliness, it shall hinder & prejudice them more than their patrimonies can advance them.   

An evil tongue is infectious.  
AN evil tongue infecteth all that are near it, if it have its na●● all course of talking: wherefore avoid such as delight their tongues in scurrility and filthy communication; and exhort thy children, servants and familiars, to use their tongues, in praises of, and prayers to God, for to this end hath God given thee, and them tongues to speak; and be not like them that honour God with their lips, and dishonour him with their conversations: It were better thou hadst no tongue at all, than to use it to God's dishonour, and to the hurt and ●●ander of his innocent children.   

Froward language breeds strife.  
BEware that thou stir not up quarrels and contentions, among thy neighbours by a perverse tongue: froward language breeds strife in a family, between husband and wife, parents and children, etc. And especially grief and sorrow, many time● punishments, and sometimes death for capital slanders to them that offend in their tongues.   

Slander and flattery two vices of the tongue.  
AS slander is an abuse of the tongue, so is flattery, and of the two, flattery is the most dangerous: If thou flatter, thou usest thy tongue to deceive, if thou delight to be flattered, thou longest to be deceived: Therefore neither flatter, nor hearken unto flatterers; for if they come under colour of friendship to see thee, they will speak fair, when yet their hearts are full of malice 〈◊〉 deceit; As the disciples of the pharisees and the Herodians came in flattery to entangle Christ: flattery makes some men proud; as the people shouting at Herod's oration, crying, the voice of God and not of man; Absalon stale the hearts of the people from David by flattery.   

Flattery is deceitful and dangerous.  
SO deeply doth the tongue of a flatterer pierce that his words go down, as it were, into the bottom of the belly of the flattered; for he will so subtly insinuate by protestations of love, and coloured zeal of true affection, as unless a man be the better armed with divine discretion, he cannot avoid the snare: A flatterer may be suspected by too glorious, and over-painted words, for he that means plainly, seeketh no such glozing & far-fetch terms: A● plain meaning man is soon deceived by flattery; and therefore, better are bitter reproofs of a friend, than the fawns of a secret enemy: Abandon flattery, and take heed to the fair words of a flatterer.   

How to use the tongue to God's glory.  
USE thy tongue in the setting forth of God's glory, in prayer unto and praising of him, exhorting thy household and family, in the knowledge, fear, and obedience to God; And when thou speakest unto God use not many words, no● much babbling; for few words proceeding from a feeling and faithful heart, are more acceptable to God, than many words without inward zeal, and zeal can continue no longer than the heart is fervent through the spirit of God: And when it waxeth cold and dull, it seemeth the heart becomes faint, and the hands feeble, as appeared even by faithful Moses, who at the first was fervent, yet at length became feeble. Exod. 17.   

Fit to meditate before we speak especially to God in prayer.  
BE not therefore rash, to offer the sacrifice of prayer in a faint and unfeeling heart, but meditate before thou open thy mouth, and utter not unadvisedly whatsoever comes into thy mouth: Let not thy tongue go before thine understanding, especially in thy prayers to God: speak not to, nor of God but with highest humility and reverence; and take not his name into thy mouth in vain: speak well or speak nothing, for, even a fool when he holdeth his peace, is accounted a wise man among men.   

The tongue well governed is a● necessary instrument.  
IF then thou govern this member aright unto the end, it shall prove a necessary instrument, towards the settling of all the rest of thy house in order before thou die; If it continue contaminate and polluted, it well be such a blemish unto thy Christian profession, and such a hindrance to the establishing of the house of thy soul, and consequently of thy soul itself, in order, as thou canst not but die, suspected either of Atheism, or Infidelity.   

Fit to try thy senses.  
Having thus examined thy tongue, it behoveth likewise to make trial of thy five senses, which have their imperfections also. And first of the eyes.    

The examination of the Eyes, the first of the five senses.  
IF thou canst now, temper thy tongue, and so discreetly order thy speech as becometh a man of understanding fearing God, thou shalt the better learn, how to carry thine eyes, which are the organs and instruments of seeing, and by which do enter into the heart many objects and motives, tending more commonly to the disorder, than to the well-ordering of the affections.  

By the eye enter diverse dangerous motives to the heart.  
THe eye moves the heart to many vanities; as to the lust of flesh, to the pride of life, and to the delights and pleasures of the world; All which fight against the Soul: By this organ entered Eve's desire, to taste of that beautiful forbidden fruit, that purchased her own, her husbands, and the death of all their posterity.  
The Eye indeed is the light of the body, but many times and by many means brings darkness unto the soul, which being deluded and betrayed by the enticements of the eye, and the rest of the outward senses, cannot but be much oppressed, and even groan under the burden of the infirmities and sins of the body, which although it be mortal, and shall perish, yet for as much as it shall rise again and become immortal with the soul;   

The soul grieves at the sins of the body.  
THe Soul cannot but grieve, to feel the corruption of that part, that must futurely together with it, either suffer torment, or receive glory: And therefore cannot but mislike the misleading eye, which moveth the corrupt heart to covet only carnal and perishing things, when the soul itself, thirsteth for spiritual tending to the salvation of both.   

The bodily members & senses bring the soul most out of order.  
Nothing brings the soul out of order so much as the disorder of the body (the house wherein it dwelleth) the unruly eye, and the other untamed senses, and the inordinate members of the body; seduced through the perverseness of the unstable will, carry the senses and all the parts of the body, into forbidden things: And therefore David prayed, Turn away mine eyes from regarding vanity. Endeavour therefore to subject thy corrupted will to thy regenerate will, that being guided by the prescribed will of God, the eye and every part of thy soul & body, may together work, to the well setting, and settling of thy whole house in order.   

The unruly eye is to be restrained.  
Look well to thine eyes, for they are unruly, lest they draw thee to transgress Christ's commands to pluck out the eye that offends: at least make a covenant with them▪ as job did, never to suffer them to wander after their lusts, nor to be seduced or alured by the beauty of any whatsoever forbidden fruit.   

The eye the original instrument of our woe.  
REmember what Satan presented to the eye of our mother Eve, and she to our father Adam, the first mortal fruit that ever the eye saw, or the mouth tasted: since which time, we have been forbidden to behold with carnal delight, the beauty of infinite fruits which before were good: but since become likewise mortal, by the tasting of the first, for as the first had not been mortal, if not forbidden; so nothing makes things unlawful but forbidding.   

Not to delight our eyes with worldly things.  
BE not therefore delighted with the beholding of the glittering and forbidden things of the world, lest thou be snared, as David was, with the nakedness of Bersheba: And as Ahab was, with Naboths' vineyard; for such was the force of their concupiscences, as to obtain their lusts they made way by blood.  
Let not, therefore, thine heart, walk after thine eye, nor thine eye after the things delightful (forbidden.) As upon a woman to lust after her, as David did; nor, after thy neighbour's lands, as Ahab did; nor, after the wedge of gold, as Achan did; nor, after goodly garments, as Gehezi did; who all received their several punishments.   

The nature of the eye.  
IT is the nature of the eye, to pry here and there, like a privy thief after delightful, pleasing and profitable things (though forbidden) never satisfied with seeing, being ravished with so many pleasing objects, that pervert the heart; as the heart being brought out of order by the senses, bringeth all the house of the soul (the body) out of order with it.   

Pray for spiritual sight.  
SEt not then thine affection with delight, upon all the things thy carnal eye seeth; but pray that thine inward and spiritual eye, may be once so enlightened, that thou mayst take thy true pleasure, in the contemplation of that most glorious inheritance, which God hath prepared for his elect in heaven, which is eternal; and bring thy carnal eye in subjection to thy spiritual: And pray as Paul teacheth, for the illumination of thine inward eyes.   

Satan worketh more evil by the eye than by all other the senses.  
THe things thou here beholdest, be they never so beautiful and pleasing to thy carnal sense, they are but vanishing and betraying shadows, wherewith Satan practiseth to tempt thee, as he did Eve, David, Ahab, etc. For he worketh more mischief by alluring the eye, than by working upon all other of the senses of the body, he maketh the eye envious, and scornful to look upon the poor and needy: And therefore hadst thou need, to have a most special care, to keep it single from wand'ring after wickedness, for if thou didst well consider what thou losest, by the greedy desires, which thine insatiable eye, doth administer unto thy corrupt and covetous heart, thou wouldst turn thine affections clean from this flattering worlds vanities, and shun the allurements of Satan, and only cast thy spiritual eye upon, and seek after the things that are above, where Christ our Redeemer is gone before to draw the eyes of all true believers after him, and them unto him, to be partakers of the joys, that are with him unspeakable and glorious: which thou canst never see, nor truly covet to see, unless thou cast off thy superfluous delight, in beholding these inferior, deceitful, and flattering things below, and be fed (even here) with a fervent desire, to clear thy spiritual eyes daily with that precious eye-salue, the word and spirit of God; which setteth before the eyes of thy soul (though, but as in a glass obscurely) all the glory that the children of God only and none other after this life, shall fully and clearly see, and that even with these our eyes (kept here clean and undefiled) as becometh saints.   

We must look upon worldly things as if we saw them not.  
TAke heed therefore, love not the world, nor the things in the world so, as to set thine eyes upon them as things worthy to be loved, but use them, as if thou usedst them not: Look upon them, as if thou sawest them not, without any carnal affection or delight: For as Satan promised to our parents, to make them as Gods;   

Earthly Gods dye like other men.  
SO doth he covet to make thee believe that if thou wilt embrace the world, thou shalt become rich and glorious in the world, even to be numbered and reputed among such as are called Gods in the world: And when thou shalt be thus falsely deified, thou shalt go to thy grave, and consume like other men.   

The world a harlot and Satan her pander.  
THe world (as a harlot) flat●●rs men with a beautiful and strumpetlike forehead, alluring them through the broakage of her pander Satan, to cast their eyes upon her, to woo her: And she (as the Devil did to Christ) showeth them her great possessions, promising to make them great, and rich in silver and gold; and some she persuades not to go like drudges, and base fellows in the world, for than they are no fit Corrivalls for her entertainment: if the peasant become not in the habit of a gentleman, the gentleman to equalise a Knight, and the Knight to exceed a Lord, she will not look upon them: nay, if men and women embrace not every new fashion garments, that they see that she either frames at home in her shop of pride, or brings from foreign phantastikes, she will cast the eye of disdain at them, and hold them bastards and none of her legitimate children.   

When men think themselves most beholden to the world than she rifles them and sends them to their home naked.  
SOme again she persuades to go● basely, and neither to spend nor give; and when her lovers have (as they think) been much beholden to her for her bounty in fulfilling their corrupt desires; then she begins to show herself in her likeness; picking their pockets, and rifles them of all that she gave them, dispossessing them of their great revenues, disrobes them and deplumes them of their peacocks attire; and brings not a few of them to poverty and shame, and casts them off as the harlots did the prodigal son: And if she be so kind to some, as to suffer them to be seen to ruffle and flourish, long dandling them in her lap of lasciviousness, yet at last she sends them to their graves, stripped of all, and turns them away (as poor men) naked as they came to her only with a silly sheet to cover their nakedness, unseemly to be seen of men.  
O, shut thine eyes therefore, make scorn to bestow the time of casting one look (with delight) upon the best things she offers thee, (necessaries excepted) being so uncertain, and so certainly dangerous.   

How to employ our inward sight.  
BEtter it is for thee, and to thy more solid comfort and true content through faith, to be assured, to see thy Redeemer in his glory, hereafter for ever, than to be here (as it were) bewitched with the enchantments of the deceiving things, thine eyes do here see: which do so fasten carnal affections to earthly things, that thou canst have no time to look up, from whence thy redemption (if thou be one chosen of God) comes, and where are hid the unspeakable treasures, that the Lord reserveth (purchased by Christ) for them that have their eyes fixed on him by faith.   

The carnal eye a hindrance to the spiritual.  
CLose up then thy greedy eye, that is so pragmatic a promotor of all deceivable objects, to the heart that engrosseth all that is offered unto it, that delighteth it: And commonly shutteth out the most excellent invisible things; because the natural eye, sees only things visible in the world, and hinders the spiritual eye from beholding the things of heaven.   

Mischief's proceeding from the carnal eye.  
THis carnal eye makes the heart an Idolater by coveting a murderer by envying: a thief by desiring: an adulterer by lusting: a glutton, by longing. And this by the abuse of the eye and consent of the heart; abusing and disordering the whole body (the house of the soul) and the soul itself.   

Above all seek the illumination of the inward eye.  
Leave then the fulfilling of the lusts of thy corporal eye, which only seeth by the light of nature: and seek by faithful prayer the illumination of thine inward eye, whereby thou mayst apprehend spiritual and heavenly things.   

The sight of the spiritual eye.  
THis internal eye is enlightened, through the spirit by the word, preached and understood: whereby we see God our Creator (as we see his works by our natural eye) we see Christ Jesus his Son, proceeded from God the Father, we see him suffering, not only many grievous abuses & injuries (lying in his humanity among the jews) but, his bitter & ignominious death upon the Cross: But also, our Redemption, and Salvation in and by him: By the same eye of a lively faith we see and apprehend his merits: we see him stand a mediator for us at the right hand of his Father, interceding between us sinners, and our offended God, and in whom we are imputed righteous.   

Things only seen by a spiritual eye, through faith.  
Labour to see and apprehend this great mystery of our Redemption and Salvation, which none can see, by his quickest eye of natural wisdom; no, it is foolishness to the natural man, to think that God could have a Son, made flesh to be conceived in the womb of a Virgin without man, to be borne into the world, according to the course of men, to dye and within three days to rise again by his own power (being God,) and immediately after to appear in the same humane shape, and to eat bread: and in the same body to ascend into the heavens, and there to remain a glorified body; and that in the same body he shall come again, accompanied with Millions of Angels, to judge, aswell them that remain alive at his coming, as them that are already turned into dust in their graves, burned to ashes, perished in the seas, and devoured by beasts: And that their bodies that have died five thousand years since, even Abel and all that have died since, being utterly consumed, that even their bodies (now dust) shall rise again and be reunited to the souls of the righteous, to be eternally glorified with Christ and his Elect: And of the wicked to be eternally tormented with the Devil and his angels.   

The cause why men covet not that spiritual illumination.  
THese things are hid from the eye of nature and natural reason and apprehension: and that is the cause that many wanting that spiritual eye of heavenly illumination, do apply their carnal eyes to the things here below, that do not only not profit them, but grievously endanger him. They have neither the will, nor the knowledge how to seek (as they are commanded) The Kingdom of Christ and the righteousness thereof; wherein consisteth the assurance of all them that shall be partakers of that Heavenly Kingdom with Christ, found of them that seek it in the word of truth, and apprehended by the eye of a lively faith, which is 〈…〉 of the same Ie●us Christ.   

Hearing of the Word the means of spiritual illumination.  
Use therefore the means to attain unto this celestial illumination, hear the Word attentively, pray fervently, lifting up thine eyes to heaven, seek holiness and purity: for, the pure in heart have only the promise to see God, here by the eye of faith; and hereafter, even with these eyes, by which we now behold his creatures.  
Strive with a continual holy violence, to be enlightened from heaven. Then shalt thou see to set not only this outward sense of seeing in order, and thy domestic family and goods, but the rest of thy senses, thy whole body and soul in order perfectly and religiously before thou die.    

Touching the examination and ordering of thine ears.  
Having considered briefly the reformation and ordering of thy tongue & eyes, it behoveth thee likewise to examine, how thou hast formerly used or abused thine ears, Organs and instruments of hearing, likewise placed near the intellective part of thy head, the chief outward part of thy body.  

The ear is not so apt to hear as the eye to see.  
ANd although the ear be not so active in motion to hear, as the eye is to see, that can in a moment turn itself to many and several objects, nor so fluent as the tongue that moves itself, in what, and in what diverse discourses the mind moves it unto: yet the ears, through their passive and penetrable quality, are apt to entertain things which may move the heart to conceive, and stir up the will to affect, as evil things as the eye or tongue.   

The ear a door whereat many evils enter.  
BY the ear of our first Parents (as at a door) entered the first 〈…〉 allurements, and deceitful promises, that moved them to rebel against their Maker; and therefore thou mayst not think that Satan will be less industrious in using like flattering, and falsely obsequious ministers, to sound like delightful deceiving songs in thine ears, both of pleasure and profit, as may seduce thee, and poison thy affections, and so infect the whole house of thy soul, as will bring all that appertains unto thee out of order.   

The ear a necessary member to convey words to the understanding.  
YEt is thine ear an excellent and necessary Organ, it trieth words (as thy taste trieth meat, and thy palate Wine) whether good or evil, and distinguisheth the voices it heareth, conveying also the matter to the understanding: As when josiah the King, heard the Book of the Law read, his ear conveyed the words to his intellective sense, which his heart conceiving, wrought such compunction in him, as he rend his clothes, for that he thereby found, that the Lord was angry, because the people had not obeyed the words of the Book. The godly Jews likewise were pricked in their hearts, when their sins were reproved by Peter: So, we being reproved of our sins by the Word preached (if we have ears to hear) may be moved to amendment of life.   

The words of the mouth of no use without the ear.  
WIthout the ear the tongue were of no use, but as the tongue of a brute beast only for feeding, not for speaking; for what availeth speech to a man that hears not at all? no more than to show colours to a blind man. Without the ear, the mind of one man cannot be conveyed (ordinarily) to the understanding of another; neither could man be partaker of the Word of GOD by preaching; neither were the most excellent Art of Music of any use. Seeing therefore it hath pleased God to give thee this so useful an Organ, apply it to the hearing his voice: As Mary did, sitting at Christ's feet to hear him preach.   

Apply not thine ears to flatterers nor ungodly discourses.  
TAke heed that this instrument of hearing be not abused and deceived by the frailty of the mind, in harkening unto flatterers, that only use their tongues to deceive. And open not thine ear, nor listen thou to ungodly and profane relations, and unseemly discourses, they breed but wickedness in thy mind, and corrupt thy heart with vanities and forbidden thoughts; neither spend thou precious time in hearing or reading fabulous and lascivious books, rhymes of ribawdry, foolish and offensive libels; harken not to ungodly songs, nor to old wife's tales; whereby many times the holy Name of GOD is not only taken in vain, but blasphemed, which ungodly men hear with a kind or devilish delight, and think they sin not.   

Avoid the listening to things moving to sin.  
But know thou, that whoso dareth his ear to hear things tending to move unto sin, delighteth in the means to make him more sinful, and showeth himself willing to add fuel to the fire of his carnal concupiscence, as if corrupt nature itself were not prone and ready enough to offend GOD; but it must have Satanical prompters, and outward motives to make it more guilty.   

Profane ears listen to unholy things.  
THese men have ears to hear, but apply them to that which is evil, uncircumcised ears, such as jeremy the Prophet reproveth; saying, They are not ashamed to open their ears, and listen with attention to whatsoever may tend to God's dishonour. And such ears have they, that in their wanton feasts, and banquet (even while they are partaking of the good blessings of God) even among their superfluous cups and cates (which were sin enough) cannot be godly merry, in receiving Gods creatures with thankfulness & prayer for a blessing upon that they receive to refresh their bodies (which for forms sakes (as appeareth) peradventure one in the company well disposed may seem to perform) forget yet all holy reverence to God, and desire to have their ears filled with variety of musical instruments (which may be used without offence.)   

Wanton songs at feasts wicked.  
ANd (which is most wicked) their meats and wines must be sauced, and seasoned with lascivious, wanton, and most hellish songs of ribawdry and filthiness, the more to stir them up to lust, and rejoice and laugh at their own shame, and will not stick to control any that shall reprove it; ready to abandon him out of their societies, as a Precise Puritan for interrupting their ungodly mirth, with some godly communication, which they hold motives to melancholy. There is no sweet or pleasing feast to some, but where the Devil is one of the Musitinsa (or Fool in the Play) and they to dance after his Pipe: If an Infidel should hear some of their delightful songs, he would surely think they were either of none, or of some Ethnic religion.   

Why not Psalms rather than wanton songs at Banquets.  
AShame it is to Magistrates, especially to such, as will admit of such infernal melody, who ought to suppress it▪ if they will be merry, why can they not aswell recreate themselves with instruments of music (if they desire it) and Psalms to the praise of God, as to please the Devil with songs of iniquity? Fit it is to abandon the songs, or banish the singers, for the very breath of them infecteth, not only the Taverns, where they are commonly received, but the very streets, where they are permitted to seek company to corrupt.   

Stop thine ears from filthy songs.  
THou therefore that intendest godly order in thine own house, and wishest the welfare of thine own soul, stop thine ears from hearing such vile and vicious forbidden vanities.   

To what to apply thine ears.  
Learn and accustom thine ears to hear wisdom, and hearken to understanding, delight thine ear only to hearken and to attend unto the Words of GOD preached, whereby God speaketh unto thee, and calleth thee from these ungodly vanities, To make thee holy, as he is holy: And harken not unto the voice of Satan, that speaketh by his infernal Ministers, to make thee more and more sinful. God hath given (and opened unto thee) ears to hear him, and wilt thou apply them to hear his holy Name profaned and blasphemed? to please the Devil.   

Wherefore God hath given men ears.  
HE hath given thee ears to hearken unto, and to learn understanding in heavenly things, and to discern his voice, from the voice of strangers; namely, of Satan, and of such as delight to speak, but not as becometh perfect Christians, their word tendings to offend God and good men.   

It is a like evil to talk or to delight to hear evil talk.  
Evil words corrupt good manners; and therefore think not, that it is no sin, to hear profane and ungodly discourses, though thou thyself discourse not; for, to lend an ear, with delight, unto ungodly talk, is as evil, as if thou didst use thy tongue therein, for there is no difference between a filthy tongue, and an ear attentive, with delight, to hear it.   

It is no indifferent thing to hear or not to hear the Word of God.  
AND think it not indifferent, whether thou desire to hear, or not to hear the Word of God; for, if thou turn away thine ear from hearing the Law of the Lord, even thine own prayers shall be abominable. If thou therefore, hast ears to hear, harken to the voice of the Lord, who daily openeth his mouth to teach them that lend their ears to hear him. And if thine ear be as ready to hear, as he is to speak, happy then art thou in hearing; for practice cannot but follow: Therefore, saith David, I will hearken what the Lord will say. He opened his ears and spiritually heard the counsel of the Lord; namely, what the Spirit of the Lord spoke unto the ears of his soul: for if the Spirit of God dwell in thee, he speaketh in thee, and thou hearest him (even in silence) yea though thy corporal ears were deaf, yet thine inward ears being sanctified to the hearing of the spirit within, Thou art clean, faith Christ, through the word that he hath spoken unto thee.   

The inward ears of the soul are opened by hearing with the outward.  
THerefore art thou not to withdraw thy corporal ears from the outward hearing of the Word preached: for as the sound of the voice pierceth the outward; So by virtue and operation of that Word, the inward ears of the soul are opened, to apprehend and apply the same word to the spiritual working of righteousness, faith and obedience, in the enabling thee to speak unto thyself (as it were in secret) in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the LORD in thine heart, giving him thanks for all things, worshipping him in spirit and truth: for as God is a Spirit, so they that worship him, are to worship him in spirit and truth. So that by the ear cometh hearing of the Word preached: And by the Word cometh faith; and by faith we apprehend all the mercies and blessings of God in jesus Christ.   

Many lend more diligent ear to hear of earthly than the heavenly purchase.  
THou art required to set thy house in order before thou die; consider with thyself, whether it concerneth more thine own good, or the benefit of them that shall enjoy the Lands and goods thou shalt leave behind thee. This consideration may befit such as have in their life time, showed a greater care to make their posterity great, than themselves good: as hath appeared in many, by lending their ears more eagerly to hear of purchases, bargains, and worldly profits, than by hearing the promises of that heavenly inheritance, by applying the promises of GOD by faith unto themselves: And therefore the setting of their houses in order, as touching giving and disposing of their Lands and goods, benefits themselves little, for whether they dispose them or not, they must leave them, and others will have them, the ordering of them indeed is necessary for the continuance of peace, between them that may pretend any succeeding interest in their goods when they are dead: While thou art then living, and in health, apply thine ear to that purchase, that may make thee a Freeman of heaven.   

Harken what thy conscience will tell thee.  
IN setting of thy house in order, begin at thyself, at home, in thine own conscience, examine it and hearken what that will tell thee, for that is the witness that must excuse, or accuse thee, justify thee or condemn thee. If it approve that thou hast been attentive to hear, and to follow the counsel of God, declared in his Word, and hast walked before him, as he hath commanded, if thou hast used no sinister means, unlawful or forbidden practices for the getting of that which thou meanest to dispose and set in order before thou die; then in happy case art thou, and happy shalt thou be in setting thy house in order before thou die. If thou have neglected, these holy duties make speedy reformation, make conscience thy friend by thy new obedience, and a more sanctified conversation; and be not so friendly to thy children as to prove foe unto thyself. Apply not thine ear to hear their forged flatteries, only to gain what thou hast when thou art dead: but hear the counsel of thine heavenly Father, who willeth thee above all things, to address thine ears to hear his promises, to make thee great in his Kingdom, if thou wilt hear his voice and follow it: Let it be to day, delay not the time to seek that Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness of it: which being obtained, then give, bequeath, dispose in the fear of GOD, and make thy will; for if thou thyself be in order, it is easy for thee rightly to dispose of the rest. It followeth to speak of the Taste, another of the senses.    

The examination of the TASTE.  
THE Taste is conceived (commonly) little offensive, and neither much to abuse, nor easily to be abused, to the offence of any; needing not any great business to keep it in order.  

The Taste hath devoured many.  
But take heed thou pleasest not thy taste too much, for if thou give way unto it, it will overmaster thee, and exact from thee, that will make thee a poor man, be thy to feed it never so great: Be what thou art rich or poor, if thou flatter it, and give it what it will require, thou shalt find it in the end like a fawning Lion, which thou hast long fed from a whelp, without danger, but at length it will grow strong and overmatch thee, and make thee servile and slavish unto it, and in the end devour thee.   

Great disorder in eating and drinking.  
IF thou please thy taste, or satisfy thy unruly appetite, and give way to thine insatiable desire of eating and drinking, thou canst not but fall into all disorder, as is daily observed, not only in the rich and men of greatest means, but in many (yea) meanest Mechaniks, Tradesmen, and very Rustics, that (according and beyond their abilities) rise up early to drink Wine and strong drink, exceeding in surfeiting and drunkenness, like the Glutton in the Gospel; two vices of equal intemperance, and equally embraced of poor and rich, and so excessively common, as the stink even of their vomits do infect the very air, not only of the principal Cities and Towns, but (in manner) every Village, and many private houses in the Kingdom.   

The lawful and necessary use of eating and drinking often turned into sin by excess.  
TO eat and to drink is lawful, especially with thanksgiving, for without the good creatures of God, the body cannot subsist. The use of the Taste is also to distinguish good from unsavoury food: And the palate for drinks; yet, both for nourishment, not for gluttony and drunkenness. But to the common shame of men it is observed, that there be more that eat for gluttony, and drink for delight, than do moderately eat to sustain the body, or drink to quench their thirst, whereby they do not only grievously offend God, in abusing the good creatures which he hath made, and more plentifully given unto us, than to many other Nations, not only bread in abundance, to strengthen us wine and other drinks to comfort us, and oil to cheer us, but all other things necessary for the use of man, which many buse, through the inordinate desire of the Taste unto gluttony and drunkenness, trampling as it were under their feet the good gifts of God, to the shame and overthrow of many.   

Death often followeth the excess of eating and drinking.  
WE have seen fearful examples of the sudden death of many, not only by over eating, but far more, and far more fearful of such as have not only drunk themselves (drunk) but even drowned themselves in wine and strong drink, and all to please this (seeming harmless) sense, the Taste.  
Take heed therefore, please not thy Taste too much, nor follow the desire of thy palate, for the one surfetteth the body, the other infatuateth the head; Wine is a mocker, saith the Wise man, and strong drink is raging: And therefore, he that useth much wine cannot be sober: And he that delighteth in strong drink, cannot be but intemperate, furious and out of order.   

Dangerous to be in company of Drunkards.  
DAngerous it is to be in the company of Drunkards (though a man himself be never so sober and temperate) for they are many times in the nature of frantics, and know not what they do, as hath not been seldom seen, that men have gone, seeming sober & friendly into Taverns and like places, and yet when drink hath overcome them, one hath slain the other ere they came forth.   

Drunkenness and Gluttony works of darkness and their reward.  
Drunkenness and Gluttony, are worthily numbered among the manifold wicked works of darkness; and whosoever disordereth himself in them, is as far from inheriting the Kingdom of God, as are Adulterers, Jdolaters, Murderers, thieves, and as far as even witches, the very Agents of the Devil, and shall with these impenitent miscreants be turned over to be tormented with the prince of darkness his angels and ministers for ever, as they served and obeyed Satan in their life in those gross sins, and dye therein unrepented, and without setting their souls and affections in order before they die: So shall they be fellow partakers of his and their torments. And this shall be the reward of them, that thus abuse this necessary sense of Taste, and yield too much to please their inordinate Appetites.   

The Devil hath drunkards his ministers to make others drunk.  
THere is yet a sort of Drunkards, by whom the Devil useth to make others drunk, who can devour much wine and strong drink, and bear it far beyond others, who can and will boast to out-drink twenty companions and not be drunk, and drink them all drunk: But woe to them that are mighty to drink wine, and unto them that are strong to pour in strong drink; and this is a man fit for the devil's service, for where it is the devil's practice to provoke to sin, whosoever takes that office upon him, is really the devil's minister; & whosoever enforceth a man to drink more than is sufficient is a master-Drunkard, and the more he can tumble under the Table, or send reeling into the streets, the more doth his master the Devil hug and approve him a serviceable minister: And such instruments of Satan are to be found in many civil companies; but woe will be unto them for their own drunkenness (howsoever they bear it) how much more for procuring others so heinously, ●o offend so mighty a God, as can (and hath said he will) cast such impious wretches, with their master the Devil, into the Lake of fire and brimstone, their to drink of the vial of his heavy wrath their uttermost fill for ever.   

Avoid the society of Gluttons and Drunkards.  
Keep not company with Gluttons no● Drunkards: for as Solomon saith, The Glutton and the Drunkard shall be ever poor; yea, though he be rich in purse, he cannot but be poor in piety. Saint Paul willeth thee, neither to eat nor drink with Gluttons and Drunkards, nor be partakers with them in any excess, for poverty is not all the punishment, threatened for these sins, for they shall not enter into Kingdom of heaven, but shall be kept out as vomiting dogs and filthy swine, and partake of the torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels.   

Woe against Drunkards.  
THis is the woe which the Prophet jeremy pronounceth against them that rise up early to follow drunkenness (especially to them that with their own delight do make others drunk) And to them that continue until night (many night and day) till wine do inflame and enrage them; And to make them the more merry (which ●ill men may do) They have the Harp, the Viol, Timbrel and Pipe, (noises of finest music) and (which is most shameful and offensive) wanton & lascivious songs, with drunkenness in their feasts, to the dishonour of God, and corrupting (if it were possible) the godly that are in their companies.   

A fearful thing to dye in Drunkenness.  
IT is a fearful thing to be drunk, but a more fearful thing to dye or be slain in drunkenness, As Ammon was by his Brother Absalon, Elah by Zimri, Olophernes by judith, and not a few before our own eyes have been.  
If thou love thyself, temper thy Taste, and bridle thine Appetite, refrain the company of drunkards, and partake not with the Gluttons, lest thou be either corrupted by them, or be punished with them.   

Moderation in diet to be used.  
USE temperance and moderation in thy diet, fulfil not thy lustful affections, nor thine inordinate appetite in overmuch eating or drinking, offensive to thy health, and displeasing to GOD; and when thou hast glutted thyself, with overmuch feeding, and swallowed up too much wine and strong drink, even enforcing thee to vomiting of it up again, is it not loathsome as well as painful unto thee? And thinkest thou thy soul also feels not a heavy burden of thy bodies surfeiting.   

The true use of the Taste.  
USE thy Taste to that end that God hath given it thee, namely, only to distinguish and judge between sweet and sour, wholesome and unwholesome meats and drinks Honey from Gall, for without the Taste, thou shouldst find no difference of the relish of edible things, the most tainted and contagious would be as pleasing unto thee, as the most salutary.   

How the appetite may be used or abused.  
AND as this sense (to this end) is of most necessary use; so is thy appetite a quality of thy body, expedient, working a desire in the stomach, to receive nourishment for the relief of the whole body, which may be also abused by the over-satisfying of the Taste, in that wherein it most delighteth, oppressing the Appetite, which in itself is content with competent. But being overfed it beginneth to loath the best food, which by this means seems unpleasant, and so at length refuseth necessary nourishment, to sustain and maintain the body; as is seen in sick folks, when their Appetite decays the Taste is out of order, best meats and drinks seem unto them of unsavoury relish. And this distemperature commonly proceeds by overmuch oppressing the body, by pleasing the Taste, and overcharging the Appetite with surfeiting and drunkenness, whence do spring all the infirmities and diseases of the body, (numberless) as a punishment inflicted upon such as abuse the good creatures of GOD to please their inordinate Tastes and Appetites.   

God's good creatures are abused by surfeiting and drunkenness.  
MANY are the varieties of Gods good creatures of both kinds, both of meats and drinks, which he hath provided for our use (not to be abused) but to be received with thanksgiving, as we are commanded, that whether we eat or drink (if we receive but a morsel of bread to sustain us, or a cup of cold water to refresh us) we ought to receive it and use it to the honour and glory of God that gives it: But how can he eat to GOD'S glory, or his own good that eats to surfeit? And how can he drink to the praise of God, that drinks himself or others drunk? He eats and drinks to his own shame, beyond the measure of beasts, which cannot be compelled to eat or drink more than is sufficient, unless it be the Dog, the Wolf, and such unclean creatures, as eat to vomit, and presently return to their feeding, and the swine that will drink drunk and wallow in the unclean puddle: To which Beasts, Gluttons, and Drunkards are fitly resembled.   

Not to oppress thy heart with over-eating and drinking.  
TAke heed therefore, lest at any time thy heart (which is the principal part and life of thy body) be overcome with surfeiting and drunkenness, and so death seize upon thee through thine excess, and thou dye suddenly (as many have done) before thou canst either set thy domestic estate, thy soul or thy body again in order, and so be reputed author of thine own death, and descend suddenly to the pit of eternal perdition, a fearful farewell from thy friends and family.   

Eat not the bread of oppression.  
BEware also thou eat not the bread of oppression, nor drink the wine of extortion, rather let thy poor oppressed brother and sister be partakers with thee of thy bread and other the good creatures that God hath plentifully lent thee; for to eat and drink alone of thine abundance, when Lazarus lieth lieth crying at thy gates for meat, is dangerous as appeareth by the example of the rich Glutton in the Gospel, being in hell cried for, but could not get the drop of a finger of water to refresh him.   

It is not over-feeding preserves life but brings diseases and shortens life.  
Think not that it is the fullness of delicate meats, and most delicious wines and strongest drinks that continues thy life, or maketh thee lusty and strong, for the fattest and fullest fed bodies, neither live longest, nor prove strongest, but are more subject to sicknesses and infirmities, and to many kinds of Maladies, than are they that feed sparingly and temperately, even of meanest food and weakest drinks received with thankfulness; As Daniel, who refused the daintiest fare that came from the King's Table, and chose rather in faith and the fear of God, to feed on pulse (or pease) and became of better liking, more fat and fair than his fellows that fared and fed on the King's dainties dilitiously every day.   

Thankfulness to God the sauce that seasons our meats and drinks.  
THe sweetest sauce that savours and seasons all sorts of our meats and drinks is thankfulness to GOD, for giving them faithful prayer for a blessing upon them: And then let them be never so mean (be it pulse, pease, roots, or herbs) instead of daintiest foul or fish, and a dish of cold water instead of wine, shall sustain poor men, women and children, and make them as fat fair and strong, as such as far far more daintily, as appeareth by many that have very mean fare, and yet live by the blessing of God; but if God send his creatures in a more ample manner, they may not be abused, nor the meanest contemned.   

Mean fare through prayer, sustains the poor, aswell as dainty fair the rich.  
THey that eat and drink more for delight, than they do for their necessity of hunger and thirst, may live and look as lean and meager, as the poorest; and the poorest that eat and drink with prayer and thanks, shall be sufficiently satisfied. The rich many times turn the good gifts of God into wantonness through excess; and the poor do often turn their penury and want of corporal food into the fullness of spiritual satiety, and are sufficiently relieved, their bodies well ordered and their health preserved.   

Daintiest and meanest fare turn to like excrement.  
THere is great difference indeed of the furniture of Tables, all but for nutriment, and did such as feed of the fairest and finest cates, consider whether their delicate food turn not to like loathsome excrement as doth meanest fare, they might rather seem to be ashamed to think upon the matter▪ whereon they so much delight to feed (that so soon turneth to that, which loatheth them to look upon when it comes from them again.) Then in regard of their dainties to despise meaner fare and such as feed on it.   

Every creature hath its proper food and appetite.  
TASTE is common to man and beasts, as are hearing, seeing, and the rest, but are divers in appetite; every creature hath its proper food, and can by its taste distinguish the proper from the improper nourishment, and seldom exceeds in the use; so the temperate man, the man knowing and fearing God, findeth in himself a taste of another and of a more high nature a spiritual appetite, and hungreth and thirsteth as much for heavenly and permanent, as doth the corporal appetite, for vanishing and perishing food.   

Spiritual taste and appetite.  
BY this spiritual Taste he savoureth the sweetness of the Lord; how comfortable his mercies are, and how operative his graces; working in him an heavenly appetite: Longing (as Solomon did for Wisdom, and Knowledge, to govern his kingdom;) for spiritual and heavenly understanding, to govern his house▪ the house of his soul, and above all his soul itself; which being out of order, none of the rest can be in good order. But when he hath by this inward and spiritual taste discerned the bitterness of Sin, and the sweetness of Sanctity, and brought his Affection's▪ his Mind and Will to effect, mind, and desire heavenly things; then his Appetite begins to hunger and thirst for the Kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof; distasting all such Carnal▪ Corporal, and Worldly things, as savour not his renewed taste. Then is faithful prayer his only exercise, and the Word of Truth his only delight. What food pleaseth the spiritual taste; His food is holy Meditation, his practice Humility, Meekness, Temperance and Sobriety: He nourisheth his soul by Faith and Obedience to the Word of God, he ●●●deth on the sincere milk thereof, and becometh strong thereby, and at last a Perfect man in Christ jesus.   

The difference between the Corporal and Spiritual taste.  
Corporal food, be it never so sweet and pleasing to the Taste, yet it loatheth at length, even that which a little before it delighted in with greediness: But this food, the sweet milk of the Word, hath the virtue to season the inward taste, and to prepare the spiritual Appetite, to feed the soul unto salvation; and the more he tasteth of it, the more his appetite (through Faith) inflamed is to hunger for more, he cannot be satisfied with little, for the more he tasteth, the sweeter he finds it, and the more he hungers for it.   

The several operations of corporal and spiritual food.  
O Taste how sweet this food of thy soul, this heavenly Manna is: It is a food of a contrary nature to the food of thy body; bodily nourishment entereth into the mouth, this by the ear; the first descendeth into the belie, and is evacuated & turns to dust: the second descends into a prepared heart, by the word preached, and nourisheth thy soul, and retains it only to work thereby righteousness, showing itself in godly meditations, and faithful prayers. And the more thou feedest on this Celestial food, the more wilt thou seek as it were by violence to have it: Thou mayst surfeit by the deceit of thy corporal taste, by feeding too much: but, on this (that cometh from heaven) the more thou feedest, the more hungry wilt thou be to feed.   

How to increase spiritual Appetite  
OMit not the continual use of it, increase it by hearing, and confirm it by receiving the Sacraments, by faithful prayer, and continual practice of a godly life. So shalt thou be always fit and well prepared to dye: And be always able and ready to set thine house in order before thou die: And being departed out of this mortal life, thou shalt taste and be satisfied with the food of Angels, in that heavenly city New jerusalem; where God shall give thee to drink of the rivers of his pleasures, and shalt evermore taste and find how gracious the Lord 〈◊〉.    

The Examimation of the sense of Smelling.  

Want of smelling hinders the tasting.  
THe sense of smelling may be conceived to be of least use of all the bodily five senses, and may be better wanting▪ than any of the rest. The greatest impediment that the want of smelling brings, is to the taste: for he that hath lost his smelling, hath much impaired his tasting? He that smells not well, cannot taste well: So that for want of the perfection of these two senses tasting and smelling, the body may receive unwholesome food in stead of good and salutary.   

Sweet ordours in garments used to move to sin evilly.  
MAny yet abuse this sense of smelling (having it in perfection) especially in the superfluous desire and custom of odoriferous fumes, commonly bestowed in and upon mens and women's garments most offensive to God, when they are used to allure to sin.   

Sweet odours necessary and of sundry uses.  
YEt are sweet odours a great blessing of God, and of holy use, wherewith the bodies of the dead Patriarcks and Christ were imbalmed, and Kings anointed; odours infused as well into simples, herbs, flowers, gums, & very excrements of some creatures: as compounded by Art; as Incense, etc. are of necessary use (with moderation) for the comfort of the brain, and other salutary ends, as in time of any common contagion, or infectious disease: Physical smells, & wholesome perfumes, are necessarily to be used, to fill up the pores & penetrable parts of the head, by which commonly all infectious diseases enter: as do also all offensive and hurtful, corrupt and unsavoury, vapours and stinks, which putrify the brain and blood, and consequently the whole body, which physical fumes and odours (by God's blessing) may prevent.   

How sweet odours, are abused, and how to be used.  
But if these necessaries for health, be used to stir up lust, or allure to sin, then is this sense made an occasion, to bring other parts of the house of thy soul (thy body) out of order. The use of them for health, and to prevent sickness is lawful, and prevailing by faithful prayer to God for a blessing: But delight not too much in pleasing this sense with sweet odours, to the offence of God; for the excess in satisfying any of thy senses, is sin; beware therefore that thou make not that an instrument of evil, which God hath given thee to be used to his glory and thine own comfort.   

Many beasts excel man in the perfection of many of the senses.  
GOD to show (as in all other his works) his omnipotent Power, Wisdom and Goodness hath created, in man and beast five senses; wherein (as touching the perfection of, some of them) diverse other creatures excel man; as the Eagle, in seeing; the Hart, in hearing; the Spaniel and Heund, in smelling; the Spider, in touching; and the Bee, in Tasting: only hath he given man reason above all the rest, yet many creatures come near unto reasonable understanding, and exceed man in exquisite Art: As what man is he that can contrive the manner, and compose the matter of the Spider's net, or form the Honey comb? Who can gather honey and wax out of flowers, herbs, and stinking weeds? Nay who can make the nest of a silly Wren?  
If then, man comes short in the performance of many things that silly creatures can do▪ why should he boast of any rare quality of his members or senses; when in every outward faculty; silly bruit creatures excel him?   

Unreasonable creatures use their senses less offensive to God than reasonable men.  
ANd sith God hath endued man as well with reason as with his senses, and given the inferior creatures, like senses without reason: what shame is it for man more to abuse his senses, tha● unreasonable creatures? for every creature but man, useth its senses to serve for necessity; when man turns them through carnal delight into wantonness and sin.  
All creatures (man only excepted) glorify God in their kinds, not exceeding their bounds, first limited and appointed unto them, in their senses or qualities: and man keeps no measure in any of 'em.   

The necessity of the sense of Smelling.  
THis seeming silly organ of smelling, placed in the head, by the nostrils doth convey unto the brain wholesome odours, and the air whereby we aspire and respire the breath of life: And by it we can judge between good and healthful, evil and unsavoury scents: And without this sense of smelling, a man might receive into his body and brains noisome vapours and mortal stinks, and not perceive them.   

Sweet odours to be used moderately.  
APply not yet this necessary instrument of thy body, to bring the rest out of order; as by delighting too much, in the superfluous use of sweet and over-pleasing odours and perfumes, for as a little Wine comforteth the heart, so too much oppresseth the whole body: And as some light perfume passing by this sense may comfort the brain: So too much will infect the same and turn the sweetness into putrefaction, to the hurt of the body and offence to God.   

Dangers incident to the sense of Smelling.  
IF this sense had or were capable of as many offensive objects as the eye, it would be as unruly, and soon bring bane unto the body. But though it have not so many means of provocation as the ta●●●, yet in as great danger; for, as poisonous meats descending into the stomach, may kill the body: So may infected fumes putrify the brain, to the like confusion of the body.   

The abuse of sweets perfumes.  
AS this sense hath (as other senses have) a virtue to comfort, so hath it a vice to offend, in the too much wanton delight in pleasing itself; for, many have a pride, not only to perfume their garments, to sweeten or to be smelled sweet in the streets, but their very hair, to perfume their Lady's lips in their chambers; that they may seem amiable, or rather more amorous (indeed too effeminate) for becomes it a man, that is (or would seem) valorous, to change his virtues (which should appear in his Wisdom, Magnanimity, and judgement) for the vices, that only are embraced by Courtesans, Light-women, and Fools.   

If we well considered what we are, we would not perfume us.  
IF thou wilt be womanlike, thou mayest as well paint thy face to make thee fair, as to use perfumes to make thee sweet: Consider what thou art, and whereof thou art made; Thou art but dust, and didst thou well observe, what comes of thy perfumed carcase, thou wouldst be ashamed (be thou man or woman) either to paint or perfume so vile a piece of flesh, that will putrify and stink within four days that thy breath is out of thy body.  
These are they that savour of the flesh, fleshly, of vanity and pleasure, even of death unto death. Seeming fair without, but filthy within; sweet in show, indeed stinking and corrupt.   

How a man ought truly to perfume himself.  
IF thou wilt smell well indeed, and desirest thyself to be a good savour to God, consider, that as there is a corporal and carnal, so is there a spiritual and heavenly sense of smelling; with which the soul of the Regenerate man, smelleth with inward delight, the sweet odours wherewith the garments of the spouse of Christ are perfumed with Myrrh, Alo's, and Cassia, of Mercy, Wisdom, and Truth. Endeavour then to smell of Faith, Hope, of the Love of God, and of like Love to thy Neighbour as to thyself.   

How to become sweet to God.  
SMell thou of a holy and godly life; of heavenly Meditations and godly Prayers: Then shalt thou be unto God a sweet savour in Christ; and of Christ, who shall smell in thee, a sacrifice acceptable, and shall have pleasure in thy beauty and sweetness. And thou shalt smell the savour of life unto life eternal. And in the mean time, thou shalt learn and be able to set, not only thy worldly goods, but also the house of thy soul, thy body, and the members, and all the senses thereof, (and above all) thy soul in perfect order before thou die. Thus of the sense of Smelling: follows the sense of Touching.    

The Examination of the sense of Touching.  
IT may be thought merely superfluous, indeed, to speak any thing against the sense of Touching or Feeling, because it is only most sensible of hurt, and least hurtful.  

The sense of touching, or feeling is dispersed through the whole body.  
IT is a sense not set in one local place of the body alone, as the rest of the senses are, as Seeing, Hearing, Tasting, and Smelling, all placed in the head, the Eye to see, the Ear to hear, the Tongue to taste, and the Nose to smell, and neither partakes of the others office: But this sense of touching or feeling, is distributed through the whole, and every part of the body: And every part is sensible of others hurt, from the sole of the foot to the Crown of the head: And cannot be conceived to rest, more in the head than in the foot: nor more in the Foot than in the Finger. Though the Head and Heart are the most apprehensive parts. And the Hand, the common instrument, and most employed in the aid and defence of this sense; as if any part or member of the body be stricken or hurt, though all parts feel it, yet is the hand most ready to help it: And the hand is most commonly the most offensive member (by touching) to hurt: And the most useful for the choice of many necessary commodities, the goodness, substance, softness, and supplenesses whereof are best known by the sense of Feeling, neither the Ear nor the Eye, are used therein.   

If one member be hurt all the body feels it.  
IF the head, or the most inferior part (be it the finger, or the little toe) suffer injury, this sense suddenly informs the head, the head the heart: which summons all the members instantly to yield commiseration, or aid unto the offended part, and all consult how to ease and relieve that one grieved member.   

The abuse of the taste procures most hurt to the body.  
THis sense is most abused, and feels greatest hurts by the abuse of the taste which (engrossing all delicate meats & drinks, to pamper the body with replention) procureth the gout, whereof one cries out of his Feet, another of his Hands; it fills another with the Dropsy, whereby one cries out of his body filled with water, another of the swelling of his legs; another cries out of the Stone, and many other maladies, when either of these seize upon the body, it is felt painful and grievous, even to the heart: As touch but the Gout, and the party will be ready to roar; oppress or dress but a wound or sore in any part of the body; or let the tooth but ache, the sense thereof goes from the place grieved to all other parts of the body.   

The abuse of this Sense of Feeling or Touching.  
THis sense of Touching, is likewise abused, by too much niceness in apparel; observed in those that think their garments never delicate and fine enough to be felt: Cloth of the wool of sheep is too base, they must have them as it were of the dainty and thin Spider's web, of the very excrements of filthy worms, soft, supple, and delightful to be felt; unlike to holy john Baptists attire, who had his garments of Camel's Hair, unpleasant to be felt: yet is not soft raiment and fine linen, unfit for Kings and their followers, and great men and women. But now a Lord can hardly be distinguished, from a man of no means: A Courtier from a Countryman, etc.   

Let us be sensible of the feeling of the wrath of God for our sins.  
IF we well considered the present times of danger wherein we live, and did but consider how God shows his displeasure for our sins, and did take it to heart, and did apply our inward sense of feeling of his wrath by the punishments already (and without repentance) like to be more heavily laid upon us, we should find it more behoved us, to turn our silks into sackclothes, and our fine linen into lamentation, our rich raiment into repentance, our feasts into fasts; then should we feel in our hearts, by the sense and feeling of the Holy Ghost, the free forgiveness, and pardon of our sins. The King of Niniveh, (upon the preaching of jonah, pronouncing from God the destruction of the City, for the sins of the same) felt such remorse and compunction in ●is heart, as he rose from his Throne, and laid his Royal, rich and soft robes from him; and instead of them arrayed himself, in sackcloth and ashes, (though he felt them harsh upon his tender body) in token of hi● & (for example) of true repentance, to his people for their sins; and caused man and beasts, to be clothed in sackcloth, and to abstain from food in token of sincere repentance, And the Lord spared the City.  
And do not many jonasses, sent from God preach like destruction to us for our sins, if we become so hardened in our hearts, as to be past the sense of the feeling of his displeasure, shall we not perish?   

The Ninivites repent at the preaching of one Ionas, we have had ten thousand Sermons to that purpose and repent not.  
WEre the Ninivites (who repented upon the preaching of one jonas) spared? And did they feel their hearts pricked, and their consciences touched, at the preaching of one Sermon, and that so short, Yet forty days, and Niniveh shall be destroyed? Did a people, that had scarcely heard of the true God, so suddenly and sound repent, and that in three days warning in sackcloth and ashes? And we that have had, above threescore years, the Law and the Gospel, the absolute, clear and free knowledge of the living God & his Christ, by above ten thousand jonasses, beating obedience into our ears, and shall we never feel it effectual in our hearts, working repentance for our sins, and amendment of life?   

We feel the heavy hand of God and repent not.  
ARe our hearts so hardened, and our consciences so seared, that we be so far past feeling, as the very severe scourge of God cannot awake us? Hath he put his sickle into his harvest, not in the City only but in the whole land, having already cut down many silly innocents, with many most guilty? Hath he spared such as knew not the right hand from their jest, Even such as never actually offended him, more than such as have committed grievous sins, and that of knowledge and with a high hand? And hath he not taken also many sincere men and women, (though not perfect) among the rest, and feel we not yet his wrath, & that his displeasure continueth, and his hand stretched out still against us?   

Tokens of the hardness of our hearts.  
DOth any man or woman yet feel in their hearts, that God is angry? Doth any repentance appear, by any outward marks of sorrow for their sins? Do they lay aside their wanton apparel? Do they any whit abate their pride? Doth the usurer abate his use and lend to the poor for nought? Is Bribery, extortion, and in justice banished? Is drunkenness abated? Is whoredom abandoned? Or any vice reform? Do not rather all forbidden things increase? And every sin multiply daily? And neither of our senses apprehendeth this? The eye of the Magistrate sees not the drunkard punished, our ears hear not the cries of the poor, and of the oppressed to pity them, cursing and blasphemies are in our mouths. And our sense of spiritual feeling, is merely mortified, that it is to be feared, he will change his Rod of visitation by sickness, into fearful famine, or make us feel the sword.   

If we feel not Gods favourable correction, he will send that we shall feel.  
LEt us leave off to dally with God, as we have done many years, he will not always be mocked. If we have not the sense to feel his hand of this most favourable visitation, he will send that, which we shall feel, if we be no● altogether dead and mortified in sin, we have seemed, but to trifle like truants (in our duties commanded) too long; God hath fed us most plentifully with bread from heaven, more abundantly, and more freely, than he hath done any nation or people in the world, as if we were his peculiar people most worthy to be beloved, above all other he hath sowed good seed in our ears; but it seemeth to have taken little root in our hearts, which instead of good fruits of godliness and obedience, bring forth the weeds of wickedness and all sorts of sins. And we have been long admonished of the danger, by Gods many zealous ministers, and we feel no pricking in our consciences, for our transgressions, nor feel, or fear, God's threats denounced against us.   

All men feel their own wants and wrongs but none regard the members of Christ.  
EVery man feels the want of the carnal things he desires; and few there be that feel the want of grace. When they are hungry, or thirsty, or poor, or injured they feel it, But who feels a sorrow in heart for their sins, to amendment of their lives? Who feels or takes to heart, the misery of joseph? who feels a true desire in himself, to relieve the poor, or to defend the oppressed? Are we not all the members of one body, whereof Christ is the head? And if any of the members suffer, think we the head feels it not? And shall any member be afflicted and the rest refuse to help it? Shall we be so careful of our own bodily members, that if one of them suffer pain, to apply all the rest to relieve it? And shall so many members of the mystical body of Christ suffer, not only the sickness of the body, but poverty want of things necessary, deprived of all comfortable attendance perish, and so many able men look awry on them? Nay, to cast sick servants most uncharitably out of their houses, enforcing many of them to die in the fields, like beasts? Will God suffer these unfeeling and senseless hearts go without a more heavy punishment then yet they have felt?   

We ought to have a feeling of the necessity of the poor.  
Have thou a feeling of thy brother or sister's miseries, and let thy heart be sensible, of thine own danger: and set thy house in order against the time of thy visitation, for the time is coming and at hand, when thou must feel the force of thy final dissolution. And therefore set thy body, thy senses, and members of it in good order before the time, and as thou hast examined thy tongue and senses: So examine thine hands and thy feet, which must be also set in order before thou die, if thou think to dye in the Lord.    

And first examine thine hands.  

The hands of greatest use hindered for want of sight and feeling.  
THy hands are of greatest use (under thy five senses) of all the other members of thy body yet much & often hindered, by the defect of the senses of saying, and touching; By the first they are guided aright, and by the other, they feel & use those instruments, required in whatsoever manual and mechanic action, and without either of these, the hands seem lame and defective; and above the other two the understanding guides them, for be a man's sight never so perfect, and his hands never so nimble and artificial, yet if the understanding fail, they can perform no action aright.   

How the body is guided.  
THe hands, indeed, are the workmen, artificers, and principal laborers for all the rest of the members of the little commonwealth of thy body, and the eyes are as the overseers, and the understanding, the guide, director, and judge of the work: and the feet, the messengers, and porters to carry the body whither the will directs them.   

As God created the hands to labour, so hath he appointed many means to employ them.  
AS God created the hands in thy body to labour, so hath he ordained many means, (yea infinite) to set them on work, dressing and tilling the earth was the first labour appointed to man: which hath begotten numberless other trades and callings among the sons of men, as a badge of the curse traduced to all mankind, by the disobedience of the first man: whose rebellion procured labour, travail, toil and vexation, to all his posterity, and he tasted first of the servile labour of his hands. And now, are all things full of labour, Man cannot utter the varieties of them: labour and sorrow are now, every man's portion during his life. For, when a man thinks he hath done all, and that he may live at rest: Then one occasion or another, offereth itself, to set him to work anew; his hands must return again to labour. And this is the portion of every man borne into the world. With the labour of his hands to eat his bread. Though some assume privilege, through their greatness and wealth, and free themselves from servile handy labours: yet even in their greatest pleasures and pastimes, there is labour, and weariness.   

Husbandry no base calling.  
IN whatsoever profession, trade or faculty, thou be placed to labour, thy hands are the chiefest instruments of thy body, to perform it: And therefore let thy hands be diligent in thy calling, and hate no laborious work: No, not (basely esteemed) Husbandry, which the most high hath created. But labour therein if it be thy lot, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.  
It is no disgrace to labour in the fields, to plow, sow, reap, etc. for even the king, and all his subjects live by the field that is tilled, and therefore a Calling: so far from being worthy of scorn, as it deserveth especially to be cherished.   

Labour with prayer, prospereth.  
IN every honest labour, wherein the hands are not idle, there is gain and sufficient, to sustain the labourer, especially, where, as the hands work, the heart prays, for the work of the body is no hindrance to a well prepared heart, to entertain heavenly and godly motions, and meditations: As godly jacob did, who joined prayers with his pains, under Laban his unkind Uncle, confessing that except the God of his father Abraham, And the fear of that God, that was the God whom Jsaac his father feared and served, had been with him, His uncle had sent him away empty: But God beheld his tribulation, and the labour of his hands: And blessed both it and him.  
Labour is sweet with profit, and there is no lawful labour unprofitable, joined with prayer to God for a blessing for the labour of the faithful is never in vain.   

Jdlenesse and ungodly exercises never blessed.  
THere be many that have hands to labour and yet will loiter and be idle, neither counsel or constraint can provoke them to laudable labour: yet, in pleasure, idle and ungodly pastimes, in bowling, hunting, And many other unlawful exercises, they will stretch their legs and strain their hands, and toil their bodies until they sweat, though they lose, not only precious time, that might be spent in good exercises, consuming their portions and patrimonies & never complain of their ungodly weariness. But if they should work with less pain, in some lawful employment, they would cry out, as the Jsraelites did under Pharaohs taskmasters.   

The idle ought not to eat.  
But Saint Paul exhorteth the Thessalonians, that they should not suffer an idle person to live among them: If there were any that refused to labour with their hands, in some lawful and laudable work●, they should not permit them to eat.   

Idleness draweth with it many dangers.  
Idleness is not to be tolerated in any house, much less in a town, least of all in a populous city, for, it draweth so many inconveniences with it, as it may further the ruin of the place wherein it is permitted: for it was one of the main firebrands, that enkindled the fire and brimstone that consumed the cities of Sodom and Gomorah, etc.   

Where Idleness is not, the land flourisheth.  
THe idle in good, will not be idle in evil; they will be in action procuring public or private mischiefs. Take away the idle from among the laudable industrious, and the land will flourish, For where idle persons are (though alone) their heads or hands will be working, and as one cock crows after another, and as one deep calleth another. So one idle person calls another. And then consult they of some wickedness; and wait opportunity to perpetrate it. They device iniquity and practise it, because it is in the power of the hand.   

Mischief's proceeding of idleness.  
A Pest they are to a commonwealth, good people and industrious are often corrupted by them, and infected with their vices poisoning whole multitudes that associate them, and partake with them. It increaseth the number of vagabonds, the greatest blemish of a religious commonwealth.   

Jnconueniences growing by idleness and the causes.  
THis sin hath made many a rich man poor, many wisemen fools; it bringeth many to beggary, many also to filthiness of life, some to robbing and stealing, sometimes to murder the innocent; & consequently brings themselves to untimely and fearful ends: wherein many parents of children, masters of servants, but especially magistrates within their liberties, are guilty: Parents in not bringing up their children in some lawful trade or calling, leaving them to their own wills: Masters being often idle themselves, leaving their wares, shops and trades to their servants, who in absence of their masters, take not only liberty to be idle, & to gad abroad, but acquaint themselves with the more idle: and become so seasoned in sin, that at length they run from one sin unto another: That when many of them come (as they call it) to be their own men, they become professed servants of unrighteousness, and slaves to Satan: Magistrates also and inferior governors, by their lenity and connivency, increase the boldness of many poor Merchants & Tradesmen, that should employ their hands, to their labours, for their wives and children, and apply their hands, some in the Bowling allies, some at tables, and other unfit exercises, spending what (and more than) they get, in taverns and drunck-houses, sometimes in worse places. And this is the reason of so many idle people in the land: & of so many innocent, and forlorn children, left desolate, in many places. To the admiration of some, and the commiseration of others that wish reformation.   

Every man is diligently to apply his lawful calling.  
seeing then that the neglect of lawful handy labour, bringeth with it many inconueniencies, endeavour to work with thine own hands in that trade of life whereunto God hath called thee: If thy vocation require not the labour of thy hands, But hast any plaee of authority in Church or commonwealth, beware thou be not idle therein, but having an office, wait on thine office, execute it with justice, and diligence; praying for a blessing, upon whatsoever thou dost, lifting up thine hands, in a pure heart unto God.   

God hath left the poor here to try the charity of the rich.  
IF thou find there be any iniquity in thine hands or hast defiled them either with bribery, extortion, or any uncleanness, wash them with the tears of sincere repentance, and open them to the relief of the poor and needy: for therefore hath God made some poor, and some rich, that the charity of the rich may be approved by relieving the poor; And then be assured, that whatsoever thou dost, in thy lawful vocation, with faithful prayer, it shall prosper. Pray when thou beginnest thy work, or to execute thine office; pray in the doing of it, and give God thanks when thou hast done it: So shalt thou ever keep thine house in order, and be able rightly to dispose what thou shalt leave behind thee when thou diest.    

Now, as touching thy feet and how thou hast walked, fit also to be considered.  

The feet are necessary member: yet often used to sin.  
IF thou canst reform thy hands, and use them in thy vocation according to thy duty, thou hast well settled the principal working members of thy body. Endeavour then, likewise rightly to order thy feet, which as they are of great use and service of thy body, So are they many times made the ministers, and (as it were) porter● too evil: For, as God hath given wings to the fowls of the air, to fly too and fro, to seek their prey and food; So hath he given man feet to walk: and as some ravening fowl use their wings to devour; so man often times useth his feet to carry the body to forbidden things, even to mischief, according as the corrupt will directs them.   

The feet without understanding, are lead by the Will.  
THe will of man by nature is corrupt, and by the direction of that corrupt will, the feet are often led to wickedness, Though of themselves they have only mo●ion, and the sense of feeling (if they be wrung or wronged) but they cannot complain; They see not, neither know they about what business they carry the body, they are both dumb, deaf and blind, and are altogether subject to the mind, to go this way or that way: If the mind be sanctified, they are always employed to carry the body to the performance of godly actions; if the mind tend to evil, they are used as the Rider doth his horse, whom he enforceth to run into any danger.   

Examine in what thou hast used thy feet.  
Examine therefore, how and whether thou hast led thy feet: whether thou have not made them, or used them rather to run after vanity and sin, than to good and godly exercises, whether they have not been enforced to follow the wicked and their ways, haunting places of sin rather than of sanctity, rather to hurt, than to help thy neighbour.   

Two ways in the general, wherein men walk.  
IF thou have formerly thus polluted thy feet, withdraw them now at the last from every evil way: for although there are but two ways in the general, wherein men walk, A way broad and pleasant, & a way narrow, and ●rkesome to flesh & blood to pass, yet are there many bypaths, and turnings in them both, but especially in the broad, plain, and pleasant way, every of them leading to what the passenger delights in, one takes the way that turns to drunkenness, another to gluttony, another to pride, another to covetousness, another to deceit, another to whoredom, another to envy and revenge; and so as men are infinite, so are their ways infinitely and diversely taken; using their feet, not only to go and to run, but as it were to fly, in that way that every man in his private conceit thinks most pleasant: All tending in the end unto death. And far more travel in this broad way and bypaths of it, than do in the narrow and unpleasant way, which of, or in itself hath no turnings, neither to the right or to the left ha●d, it leadeth only forward, and yet in the way are many stumbling-blockes, briers and thorns, irksome and unpleasant to the passengers, but when they come to the end of their journey, they find rest, plasant and unspeakable.   

Many are weary of the narrow way.  
But by reason of the unpleasantness of it, many that have gone far in it, have been weary, and have turned back, and betaken them to the broad way again, though it be written in the narrow way in capital letters, that ●uery man may read, This is the way walk in it. This is the way that leadeth to Bethel, the house of God: and the broad way leadeth to bethaven, the house of vanity, and to Betheden, the house of pleasure.   

The broad and pleasant way, leadeth to the house of death.  
THis is the way that multitudes travel in, full of company and companions, which maketh the way the more delightful to the carnal minded, and so journey on in seeming cheerfulness, until they come to their last and final Inn and perpetual lodging place, Beth-azmaveth, the house of death's strength, where they shall be kept as in a close prison, where all disorder, grief, sorrow, mourning and lamentation shall for ever afflict them.   

God will guide them that endeavour to walk in the narrow way, though therein be many le●s.  
Choose thou therefore, and keep on this narrow and unpleasant way, look not back like Lot's wife: and so be turned into a stony heart, go on, be not afraid of stumbling, thou shalt have the light of the supercelestial Sun to shine upon thee, and the holy Ghost to guide thee: and therefore resolve thyself to keep on thy journey, although thou shalt meet with diverse dangerous wild beasts of the world, ready to devour, or flattering sirens to allure thee as thou goest, either to turn thee back for fear, or to reclaim thee by flattery, drunkards, whoremongers, Idolaters, adulterers, bribers, covetous persons, wanton and profane beasts, whom thou shalt find by this highways side, as harlots to allure thee to follow them and the multitude to the pit of perdition.   

Follow not the multitude though they scorn thee.  
BEware thou be not seduced and drawn back by them, let not thy feet follow their steps, though they flourish & wax rich, and great, & glorious, and thou be scorned, derided and scoffed at, for being so austere and earnest in the good way, regard it not: for, it will not be long ere thou shalt come to thy journey's end, the city of the living God, new Jerusalem, where, after thy tedious journey, thou shalt have rest, glory and peace for ever more.   

Nothing ought to move us out of the narrow way.  
IN the mean time be of good comfort, ponder all thy paths, and order thy ways aright, and let not the prosperity of them that walk the broad way, there pleasures, or delights, any whit move thee, to turn thy feet out of the way of righteousness, truth and obedience.   

The right guiding of the feet.  
REsort often to the temple of God, be a diligent and an attentive hearer of the word of God, it shall be a Lantern to thy feet, and a light unto thy paths, so that thou shalt not slide: The lord will keep thy feet from falling, and guide thee in the way of peace, and happiness, to the works of mercy, to go to the sick to visit them, to the prisoners to relieve and comfort them, he will make thee to be, as it were feet to the lame, and eyes to the blind, as was holy job.   

Seeing we are of ourselves corrupt we must seek to be guided by the Spirit of God.  
TO this end, hath God especially given thee thy feet to carry thy body, not to places of iniquity, but where thou mayst either do good, or receive good. But trust not thine own wit, or thine own will, for the direction of thy feet aright, for they are corrupt, and will misguide thee; But ●raue daily the assistance of the holy Ghost to lead thee: for, as a blind man, though he have legs and feet to bear him, can he avoid danger in his going without a guide? And what is every man but blind? And therefore without that spiritual guide, cannot man but go in danger: pray therefore the Father in his Son to send that holy Spirit which proceedeth from them both (all three persons, but one God) to teach thee how to guide thy feet in the way of a godly, and holy conversation, that thou mayst say with holy job, My feet have followed the steps of the Lord, and not declined. And link not thyself with those profane and lewd wretches, that do not only not refrain, but apply their feet to every evil and licentious way, whom God in the end will bind hand and foot, and cast into utter darkness for ever.   

The feet of the wicked are fettered with sin.  
PRay therefore continually unto the Lord, that he will keep thy feet from the snares of Satan, and sin, the common high way that such men walk in, as fear not the Lord. Their feet are fettered, they can go no further than the chain of their natural inclination will permit them, and that is only to evil evermore, running as it were with greediness to their own ruin, and fall at length head and foot into the pit of eternal darkness, whereunto they were led in the broad way (from whence no counsel could reclaim) by the Prince of that infernal kingdom, with whom shall be only and evermore tormented all such as have abused their bodies, their senses, and members, the house of their souls, in all ungodliness, without repentance, or care to set & keep them in order, as becometh the elect of God, here in this life.   

He that governeth his senses, and members of his body rightly is well prepared, to dye.  
chose, if thou canst now so order thy senses, thy hands and feet, and all the members of thy body, as thou art bound to do, and abuse them not to the hindrance of a godly life, thou needst not to fear, but that thou art well prepared to set thy house in order before thou die: for, the outward good government of the body, is a good argument that thy heart within thee is in good order, & thy will and affections not much out of order: and therefore not amiss in few words to examine the inward estate of thy soul, as thou hast done thine outward body, namely how thy heart standeth.    

An examination of the heart.  

No man knows truly his own heart.  
WHen a man goes about to examine even his own heart, he enters into a Labyrinth of difficulties, into a bottomless deep of subtleties, deceits, and frauds. It is indeed unsearchable; and no man can truly find what is in his own heart, although a man may think he knows the thoughts, purposes, and desires, which he concealeth in his heart, and may determine in himself to put them in execution: And yet when it comes even to the very doing of what he intended, another conceit crosseth it, and turns the first determination out of doors; and so one thought thrusts out another infinitely: for, the heart is a store house of variable imaginations, and unstable purposes, for when a man is most privy to the thoughts of his own heart, (as he thinketh) he is commonly deceived; he may purpose this or that, and deliberate upon the manner of the performance, and, as it were, assure himself of a happy and wished end, and yet succeed clean contrary to his intention.   

The heart is a closet full of deceitfulness.  
THe heart is as a secret closet locked up as it were, and every man thinks he hath his own true key to unlock it, and so no doubt every man seemeth to do, when he delivers his mind to another, by word, or writing: But such is the deceitfulness of the heart that either it over-ruleth the tongue that speaketh, or the pen that writeth from the meaning of the heart, that he uttereth and writeth falsehood for truth, or some truth mixed with deceit. The door of his heart are the lips, and so subtle is the heart, that it cannot open itself, (by nature) but to evil; for, the heart of itself is corrupt, above all things: and corrupts every action, both of the body and mind, and whatsoever proceeds from it, is either evil, or mixed with evil: And therefore is the wisest natural man ignorant of the evils of his own heart.   

The heart pondereth all kinds of wickednesses.  
IF a man duly, and throughly examine the wickedness of his own heart, and be not partial, he shall find it inclinable to the most egregious evils that the most wicked reprobate, that ever lived, committed: yea he shall find among infinite other grievous sins, motions tending even to murder, nay to reason, as it were, within himself against the very essence of God, and against the deity of Christ. There is no thing so wicked and impious, but man's heart by nature is, or one time or other hath been inclined to perpetrate.   

Wisdom suspects the thoughts of the heart.  
ANd therefore do many (though well grounded in Christianity) suspect every motion that proceeds from their hearts, fearing to be deceived by the deceitfulness of them: And therefore endeavour to try them, by the touchstone of the word, whether they be sound or sinful, which is an argument of a good heart.   

The most godly think other men's hearts, words and works better than their own.  
THe best man is so far from iustifing his own heart to be clean, as (although other commend his words (which should be the true messengers of the heart,) and praise his works, that seem worthy of praise) yet he thinketh every man's heart, words and works, better, more clean and more upright than his, Yet, such is the natural pride and security of many, that they dream (through the gross corruption that lurks in their hearts,) that they are very excellent and innocent creatures, of sound and unpolluted hearts, despising others in respect of themselves, as the Pharisee did the Publican, and yet in heart profane and wicked.   

Many men deceive themselves, by flattering their own hearts.  
THere is no man that can rightly judge his own heart, though he may (as many do) make a fair outward show, as if his heart were according to his outward behaviour, when yet it is full of hypocrisy, spiteful, Ambitious, full of vices and unclean desires.  
This man persuadeth himself, that as long as the world doth hold him holy and innocent, how corrupt soever his heart be within, he standeth with God as he doth with men. If men justify him, God cannot (nor will) condemn him, a note of a corrupt heart.   

As no man knoweth his own heart, so much less another man's by his outward conversation.  
BEE not deceived, thou that canst not truly judge of thine own heart, dost thou think that other men can? Thou wilt say, by the fruits the tree is known, thy heart is the tree, and thy outward works the fruit: if then men see thy good works, they cannot but approve thy heart to be seasoned accordingly. But think that man seeth and judgeth according to the outward show only, and that there is one alone that seeth and judgeth the very heart and reins: and therefore, whether thou judge thine own or other men's hearts, by thine or their works, think of others, as (of necessity (if thou deal impartially with thyself) thou shalt find in thyself a heart corrupt, filthy, and inclinable to things thou art ashamed to reveal, and afraid to commit, and were it not for the shame of the world or for fear of punishment, thou couldst find in thy heart to commit them, and thinkest thou that all men are not of like condition with thee, as touching the natural corruption of their hearts? Who then can say his heart is clean, though he may seem upright before men?   

Self-love a vice of vices.  
IF therefore, thou diligently consider that Vice of all vices, Self-love, wherewith every man by nature is infected, & consequently thyself, thou wilt confess thy heart to be unclean, and that it is far more inclinable to think and conceive evil than good, and more prone to produce sin than to embrace sanctity. And yet to think thyself through self-love holy, and thy heart clean.   

Many men covet to cover the filthiness of their hearts by a disguised conversation.  
IT is the common fault of most men, to please themselves, with a conceit, that if they can speak well, if they can conceal their hidden inclinations and walk disguised, so as men cannot see, nor perceive the filthy thoughts and desires that lurk in their hearts, by their outward actions, they are as sincere men as any are, though (for the gaining of a little pelf in the world) they will lie, swear and forswear, when the heart (if it could speak) would accuse them to be liars, to their faces. As if their hearts were truly seen & their consciences strictly examined they could not but confess.  
How then can other men know us according to our inward hearts, when we ourselves suspect them, and for shame seek to cover and conceal the filthiness of them with the cloak of hypocrisy, to make them seem full of integrity, being indeed full of impiety?   

Our thoughts and purposes of heart ought to be tried by the word, and commandments of God.  
NAy, It may be indeed, that a man may simply think his heart clean, walking honestly and civilly before men, and find no cause of suspicion in himself, why he should not be thought to be the same (indeed) that he seems to be: and thus no doubt, do many men flatter themselves, for want, either of true search of their hearts, or for not trying their thoughts, purposes, imaginations, and desires, by the word of God. For, there is no man so senselsse, but he can conceive the most apparent thoughts and purposes of his own heart, though concealed to others (were he an Atheist) And therefore, if there be in him any spark of the knowledge of the Word of God (especially, of the ten Commandments) he may be able, as soon as any purpose of heart arriseth, to examine the equity or iniquity of it, by the same Word. And as he findeth it allowable, to put it in execution; or forbidden, to abandon it.   

The most righteous man hath corruption in his heart.  
IT is impossible, but that the best man, upon serious examination of the inclination of his heart, shall find it corrupt, though many through a slender and slight search, seem to find nothing amiss: Paul knew nothing by himself, yet did he not (as most men do) justify himself, for, in another place he cries out against the corruption of his heart (being an elect vessel of Christ) saying, That which I should do, I do not: but that I should not do, that I do.   

Many unfelt sins lurk in the best heart.  
WHereby it appeareth that the best men have many faults, which they themselves can take no knowledge off, neither observe they them in themselves: And therefore had all men need to pray as David did Cleanse my heart oh God from my secret faults. Many sins lie hid in the heart, not observed by him that harbours them: yet many men flatter (as it were) their hearts, omitting to rip them up and to try them to the quick: And therefore their hearts flatter them, and forbear (as they think) to condemn them: But these are sick and feel it not, their hearts are hardened against the time of a more serious examination, when their consciences shall witness against them (to their final condemnation) the corruption of their hearts.   

We ought not to be partial in the examination of our hearts.  
BEE not partial therefore but search thy heart in time, search it to the bottom, call all things (as near as thou canst) what thou hast thought, spoken, or determined, & if thou find by the strict rule of the Law, that it hath been inclinable to evil, and that thou have committed sin through the corruption thereof, think that there is more evil lurking in the same: for, the taste of one cup of wine, sheweth what the whole vessel is. And, although thou know not throughly, what is in thy heart, yet by thy thoughts, purposes and desires▪ thou shalt find whether it be overruled by nature, or seasoned with grace: for, if thy heart be inclined to do thine own corrupt will, it will appear, if thou go on in thy purposes and determinations, without any stop, or reluctation, thou mayst justly suspect thy heart to be totally evil. But if thy purposes, be good and holy, than they will be crossed, for though the heart be (or aught to be) the seat of the Spirit of God, yet there is a spiritual infernal power that will covet to possess a part: And he will oppose every good thought and inclination either to overthrow it altogether, or to pervert it.   

Desire of the heart to keep God's Laws is an argument of a heart something well prepared.  
But, if thy heart do earnestly desire to keep and observe the Law and Commandments of God, thou mayst take it as an assured sign that thy heart (though it harbour some wandering thoughts) is not altogether so corrupt, as that no good desires are in it. But think that Christ hath begun to circumcise thi●● heart to purify and renew it▪ It is he that mollifieth our unrepenting, and hard hearts, by his Spirit; if thy heart be sick and heavy, through sin, he will ease and comfort it. Moses commands us to circumcise the foreskin of our hearts: namely, to cut off all evil thoughts, concupiscences, fleshly and ungodly desires.   

It is God that circumciseth our hearts.  
But alas, can nature suppress nature? can corruption subdue corruption? How then can we circumcise our own hearts? Here is thy comfort, the Lord thy God will do it for thee, so thou with his grace, add thine endeavour, He will circumcise thine heart, that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayst live.  
Christ worketh after a better and a more sure manner in purifying and cleansing thine heart, than thyself canst do; Thou canst not make an hair black that is white, much less make thine heart clean that is filthy: It is he only that can change thine heart from evil to good, which when he hath once cleansed, there followeth holiness, integrity of heart, and outward godly conversation, by godly endeavour.   

The heart emptied of sin (as we think) to day becomes full again to morrow, unless God purify it.  
But if thou without the help of this blessed Spirit, go about (as it were) to evacuate and cast out thy known concupiscences and desires of thine own heart (as many profane men many times endeavour to do) Thou canst not but observe, that what thou dost cast out to day, begins again to defile thee to morrow, for such is the nature of the heart unregenerate, that like a spring of water now emptied forthwith filleth again▪   

The heart a spring of corruption and sin.  
THe heart is a continual spring of corruption, whereout we draw sin: and if we repent it to day, and seem to feel a kind of release, and pardon of it, if we continue not constant in keeping it out of our affections and desires, by faithful prayer (which by nature we cannot do) It will be as full of impieties to morrow as yesterday it was.   

Sin once entertained into the heart hardly cast out again.  
IF thou give thine heart but a little to sin, and give sin but the head, in one seeming small desire, It well afterward make way for itself, and then, when thou wouldst, thou shalt not be able to withstand it, for thy heart by nature without grace (though it be never so much admonished and instructed, by the Word of God, to entertain godliness and virtue, though never so much moved and pricked forward unto piety and obedience towards God) it will be like Lot's wife, look back again to her wont desires, until it be turned (as it were) into a stone, that no fear of punishments, nor threats of torments, shall at last be able to pierce it, to the right reformation of it; for, as the heart is totally corrupt by nature, so every motion of the heart in itself tendeth to corruption. Take heed therefore, lest, at any time, there be in you an evil heart and unfaithful, to depart from the living God, and hardened through the des●itfulnesse of sin.   

The best heart hath some feelings of evil motions▪  
Sin proceedeth from a subtle prompter, and deceiveth the heart not well instructed, the heart not regenerate: But the heart whom the Spirit of God hath sanctified, feels in itself, a mere dislike of sundry motions which intrude themselves as it were, by stealth into it, striving to have the mastery, against which the regenerate part sets itself, as the Bees against the drones, to hurl them out of the hive of the heart, Nature and Grace can no more mutually agree and embrace one the other, than Fire and Water, and that is the reason, that the unregenerate is at more peace than the regenerate heart: for as the heart by nature engrosseth all carnal things that may delight it, and is at peace in itself, having no cross motion to trouble it; So a spiritual and sanctified heart harbours, or at least endeavours to entertain every good and godly motion▪ And therefore as the best heart is in part spiritual and in part carnal, there ariseth a spiritual war as it were in a truly regenerate heart, between the Flesh and the Spirit, which argues the heart to be indeed more spiritual than carnal: for, if it were totally carnal, there would be no striving: But in that heart wherein the holy Spirit of God hath place there through the malice of Satan and through natural corruption, will fleshly and carnal motions, often intrude, either of them striving to be chief Lord of the heart: for, either of them covets to have all or none. The spirit will admit no participation with the flesh, But the Flesh yet will be content like the falsely pretending mother of the child, to have the heart divided, so she may have her share for her pleasures she could afford a share to the Spirit, but it should be but a small share by the will of the flesh.   

Nature and Grace strive in the best heart which of them should rule therein.  
FOr, let Grace be never so strong in us, yet will Nature show itself oftentimes, yea, and seem to be mistress, and commandress in the heart: Otherwise how could a righteous man be said to sinn● seven times a day? in whom it cannot be denied, but there is Grace above Nature; and that Grace keeps Nature in some measure under, though with much striving: for sin is of so imperious a condition, being the daughter of Satan, the prince of pride, that if it were possible, would bear the whole rule and sway of the heart; and so it doth where Grace is absent; and, though Grace have the mastery, yet there will rest so many, and so strong rebellions desires in the corrupt part of the heart as will break forth be it never so strongly guarded with faith and the fear of God, though they prevail not so much to hurt, as to exercise, even the most righteous man in resisting them.   

An Hypocrite may show himself in outward behaviour a good Christian.  
HAppy is the man that hath a perfect heart, renewed and purged from that original corruption, which it hath by nature, for it maketh that true and essential difference, which distinguisheth a sincere Christian from a counterfeit. An Hypocrite may seem by outward exercise of Religion, and holy duties, to be a very righteous man; as Cain, who was as forward in his sacrifice as Abel was. The Pharesee, in his prayer seemed to abound in the outward practice of fasting, in almes-giving and paying tithes, yet an Hypocrite.  
An hypocrite may look like a true Christian, have the habit of a Christian, speak like a Christian, verbally pray like a Christian, and in outward holiness make show to be a christian, and yet harbour within him, a false, filthy, and a heart full of corruption and iniquity, which he learneth of his master the Devil, who can transform himself into an Angel of light.   

God loveth a clean heart.  
BEware therefore, whosoever thou art, that thou show not more forged holiness without, than thou hast sincerity in thy heart, for, God cannot allow of a counterfeit conversation, He loveth a pure and clean heart; if that be well seasoned, and in good order, the actions will appear by a truly sincere, not by a counterfeit course of life.   

The marks of a pure heart,  
IF thou covet to hear the Word preached, if thou hunger and thirst for righteousness, if thou pray often faithfully and fervently, if thou love the godly unfeignedly, and desire to do good unto all cheerfully, Surely, thy heart is well prepared to keep all thy thoughts, imaginations, desires, thy tongue, and all the senses of thy body in good order, and to set all other things in order before thou die. Lastly examine the Affections of thy heart.   

To examine how the heart standeth principally affected.  
AFfection is the highest degree of love, lust, and hatred; and one of these doth commonly possess every heart; which, whoso doth diligently examine, he shall be able to judge, whether his heart be right with God, or overruled by Satan. Although the Prophet jeremy, saith that the heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, who can know it? None, indeed, can know the heart of another man, nor how it standeth affected, but by his outward behaviour and conversation, which he may dissemble to men; but God will examine, and find out his most inward, evil and ungodly affections, how cunningly soever they be dissembled, for, he seeth not as man seeth, man looketh upon the outward appearance, but the Lord beholdeth the most secret affections of the heart. But a man that is not partial, and loves not to deceive himself in his own vain imaginations, by little search may find how and whereunto his own heart is most affected. And happy is he that findeth his heart affected, as were the jews at the preaching of John Baptist; By whose eager love and desire of the Word, even the Kingdom of God suffered violence; And through their violent affections, they seemed to take it by force: there was such forwardness and zeal in them to hear the Word, as they used a godly striving to get it, which godly and violent affection God himself approveth.  
There is nothing in the world that we ought so to affect and desire as to hear the word, the Gospel of Christ our Saviour preached, whereby we apprehend such love in him towards us, as cannot but draw our uttermost love and affection again towards him, in whom we have assurance that our souls shall be saved in the day of judgement, the end of all happiness.  
Every man commonly affecteth his own Country best, and they are but two, Heaven and Earth; and as we stand affected to either of these, we shall find and feel how we are again affected of them. To affect them both no man can, and to be affected of both is impossible. He that hates the light cannot but affect darkness, and he that embraceth this world and the things in it cannot truly affect heaven, and heavenly things, no man can serve two masters, God and Mammon.  
The men affecting this world, are in part known by the things they are observed to love and seek in this world. They that set their affections upon this world's honours, and seek ambitiosly (as Absolom did to the dethroning of his father) to reign as king, They that affect and hunt after pleasures to fulfil their beastly lusts, the drunkard, that riseth early to follow strong drink, the whoremaster, the covetous person, the envious, the proud, cannot these know themselves, and be known of others, to affect the world and the lusts of the flesh, more than heaven and the salvation of their own souls?  
Such are the infinite vanities that lurk in men's hearts, that steal away their affections from God and godliness, As where one truly affecteth the best things, many affect those things, wherein there is not only no profit, but deadly danger: as some their neighbours wives, as David; some their neighbours lands, as Achab; some the beauty of women, as Sichem; some pride, popularity and vain glory, as Herod; some gurmondy, as the Glutton in the Gospel; some the increase of riches and revenues, as the rich man mentioned by Christ, and common usurers; some through the force of their unresistable affection, to have their lust of Women, being prevented, have not only become distracted, and crazed in their brains, but (pricked on by the instigation of Satan (have been their own hangmen and executioners; unfit to name any, though many such have been of late memory, Nay, some (which is strange to consider, both men and women) have fallen so far in love, with the beauty and feature of their own Persons, as they have dived so deep into conceit of their own excellency, as hath carried them to more frenzy, wherein many have been known to have perished desperately.  
Some again are partial in their affections towards their children, seeming to affect one entirely, and to disrespect another merely, wherein there may be cause in regard of Virtue or Vice, but if it proceed only of carnal respects, it is reprovable: Jsaac loved Esau, more than he loved jacob; joseph affected Manasses, above Ephraim; Abraham affected his son Jsmael, so entirely, as he would have preferred him before his promised seed Isaac, O that Ishmael might live in thy sight.  
Thus doth blind affection often encounter the light, even of divine reason. And yet we see strongest carnal affections variable: what a man affecteth to day, he loatheth tomorrow; what he tenderly embraceth now, he rejecteth within a while. The affection of Ammon towards his sister Thamer, was most hot and violent, And yet when his filthy lust was fulfilled he hated her far more than he seemed to love her before.  
It is the nature of the corrupt affections of the heart, to alter and turn as the wind. How many proud men and women have we seen, observed, or heard off, that have set their affections so eagerly upon new fashions, garments, women especially, who have been stricken either, by the suggestions of Satan, laying their pride before the eyes of their weak consciences, to drive them to despair, or in the mercy of God, who hath called them to reformation, have to day worn their, proudest attire, and that in great conceited glory, that the next day have especially, cast them all into the fire and consumed them?  
The like change & alteration of affections falleth out often between dearest affectionate friends, sworn brothers (but) in evil, of whom one hath been the butcher of the other. How dear do many times men and their wives affect one the other? one seemeth the better to see the other, their loves seem so mutually entire as there were no possibility that ever a word should pass amiss, or in displeasure between them, and yet within a while, they have fall'n together like wool-cards, tongues▪ fists and nails have walked, wher● before sweetest words seemed not sweet enough.  
The like inconstancy may be observed daily amongst ourselves in men so hot in religion, and following the word, as they seem to affect nothing else, and sorrow much if they hear but one Sermon in a day, were it possible they would hear ten, such appearance hath their zeal: yet when the world offers them some extraordinary commodity or advancement, they will with Demas, relinquish Paul's preaching and embrace the world. The seed of the word sown in their hearts, falls among thorns that choke it.  
There is no affection truly constant, that hath its beginning from any of the outward senses, because, their objects be in themselves inconstant; What sees the eye? What hears the ear? What pleaseth the taste? What outward thing affects the mind, But things vanishing and variable? And therefore as the object begins to alter, so doth the affection.  
But he that affecteth Christ, he that above all things, truly desireth the sincere milk of the Word, He that thinks nothing so dear, nothing so precious, nothing so delightful, nothing so commodious, as the assurance of his glory to come, He will affect nothing in comparison of it. He will disaffect Father, Mother, Wife, Children, Lands and Life itself, in regard of it. On this he thinks and meditates day and night, here is his treasury, and upon it he sets his whole affection. He longeth to enjoy it, as a bride her bridegroom: He never thinks his affection perfect enough, he strives by hearing, reading, meditating on the Word, to inflame his affection more and more; and stands in continual fear, lest some inferior delight should work the least extenuation of it. And therefore when he findeth any thing delighting any of his outward senses, he presently suspects it, checks it, and casts it off, as an infected garment; knowing, that as long as that hangs about him, it presseth down his dear affection of things above (namely of Christ, the anchor, and finisher of his faith) to unprofitable things below.  
The heart thus affected, is even here ravished as it were with the love of Heaven & heavenly things; rejecting all transitory vanities. The purchase of lands, the trial of Oxen, nor the marrying of a wife, shall not hinder or diminish this his heavenly affection.  
What may be the reason then, why most men affect the inferior, fickle, and vanishing things that lead to destruction, and seek not nor delight in heavenly, the end whereof is glory? Surely no other reason, but that which lead Eve to affect the Apple, because it was fair and beautiful to her eye, and pleasing to her taste, which made her quite forget the happy estate wherein she was before she tasted it.  
The hearts of carnal men are carried away, and moved (for want of the knowledge of the Word of Grace) to affect as Eve did, things fair to the eye, sweet to the taste, pleasing to the ●are, and profitable to the purse, and all but for vainglory among worldly men, which maketh them to forget, not only what they were but (which is more dangerous) what they shall be; and yet rather than they will give over these worldly trifles, yea, (in respect of good things indeed,) which are heavenly) being more base than dung) they will adventure the loss of heaven, and run headlong to hell.  
Some may say, if it be not lawful for men here to affect earthy things but to the endangering of the loss of heaven, men's cases are hard. It is not denied, but, as it is permitted to men, to enjoy the necessary use of many earthly things, so it is lawful also moderately to affect one pleasing or profitable thing above or before another; provided, that they carry not the whole heart with them, as the word affection may import, which belongeth only to GOD, whom we ought to love with our whole hearts, which is that uttermost extent of affection, due to none in the highest degree but to God and his Christ.  
What profit canst thou reap, by thy so loving and affecting things here below? which above all other aught to be thy wife, that lieth in thy bosom▪ thy children who are of thine own flesh and blood, thy neighbours as thou art commanded, and thy fellow members of Christ: These are thy nearest and dearest, yet ought not these so far possess thy heart, as if thou lose any of them, thou shouldest grudge at him that gave them, as many weak men and women do, as though their children, husband, or wife, were given either to other in perpetuity: And when they die, to show their affection through immoderate grief and sorrow, to be more strongly knit unto these mortal creatures (that are not theirs but lent them) then to God himself.  
This is no virtue but a vice of the heart, neither can it be truly called natural affection, though it proceed of nature, not of grace, for even natural affection, aught to have this limitation, namely to extend no further than natural life, for when the life of him we do affect is ended, natural affection should cease.  
David, no doubt, did entirely affect his son, whom he had by Barsheba, and showed the same affection towards him while he was sick and alive, but as soon as the child was dead, he cast off his affection and sorrow, and left mourning for him that he so entirely loved when he was alive.  
Such affections therefore, as are set upon the transitory and uncertain things of this life, may be truly termed foolish if they pass the bounds of divine reason, for they only savour of the corruption of nature, and cannot return any solid comfort to the heart of the affectionate.  
Where affection is grounded only upon carnal opinion without true and illuminate judgement it is like fire in flax, soon enkindled, and soon extinct, soon hot, and as soon cold: And no other foundation have those affections that are set upon carnal and vanishing things.  
A man may (as is often observed) affect, and hate (as it were in one breath) things variable and interchangeable, for as all natural things are inconstant, so is man's heart. Saul seemed so highly to affect David, as he was content to give him his daughter in marriage; yet how soon was his love turned to deadly hatred? It was not grounded upon that love that proceeds from the Spirit of God. But Jonathan's love and affection to David was grounded upon a more divine and settled opinion, he saw that God was with David; And upon this ground, whosoever foundeth his affection towards any man, namely as he finds him to be a man beloved of God, his affection is approved of God.  
O that we could rectify our love in this point, and learn to affect the best things; and not to set our affections on things of the world, which when we have them they steed us nothing beyond necessity, how superfluous soever they be. And when we seem to have them in best assurance either they leave us, before the time, or we must leave them▪ in time.  
Let us make choice therefore as Mary did, of the better part, namely to affect things permanent which are above, and they most excellent. Then need we not to fear; be we poor, or rich, high or low, noble or base, we shall be able to set our houses both domestic, & of our souls, in such complete order, as shall witness our godly care (in our lives) when we are dead.    

A preparative to Prayer.  
LEt the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be now and always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.  
Let my prayer come before thee as Incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be as an Evening sacrifice, & like a morning obligation, a sweet smelling savour in thy nostrils. Hear my prayers and answer me graciously for jesus Christ his sake, Amen.   

A Prayer for Sunday Morning.  
O Lord God Almighty, everliving and everloving Father in thy well-beloved son jesus Christ; who art father of all, and rich unto all that call upon thy name in truth and sincerity, to thee I call and cry, together with thy form, and holy spirit, three distinct persons, in the unity of essence: who having made all things of nothing, sustainest them in thy good providence, by the word of thy power, that thy name by all men, and by all means might be glorified. Lord I acknowledge this day to be thine, as consecrated and set a part for thy worship and service, and to be observed not only as a holy day, but a glorious day unto thee, wherein I ought to pay my vows unto thee, present my person and my prayers before thee, hear thy word, and meditate upon the same, to thy glory and mine own good. To this end remove far from me all wand'ring thoughts, and worldly affections, and work in me a desire of studying thy Law and of walking in the truth, that thy word may not be unto me the savour of death unto death, but of life unto life.  
I present not these my supplications trusting to my own righteousness, but in thy manifold mercies, grant me therefore I beseech thee gracious audience, and merciful acceptance, even for my redeemers and sanctifiers sake; And (as duty obligeth me) principally, and above all other things, and primarily, in the first place, and before all other things, I extol thine infinite goodness, together with thine eternal wisdom and truth, that thou hast protected me all this night past, and made me to rest and sleep so quietly under the shadow of thy wings. And I beseech thee, from the bottom of mine heart to protect me this day with thy mighty hand from all dangers both of body and soul: give thine holy Angels charge over me, to guide me in all my ways, to keep me from evils both bodily and ghostly, that keeping my faith and a good conscience, I may have thy witness and testimony within myself, that thou hast not ordained me to wrath, but to obtain eternal life and salvation. To this end, remove far from me the offences of this present evil world; mortify and kill in me the concupiscence of the flesh, & crucify all carnal lusts and affections, that vice being supplanted, virtue and grace may be established, live and grow in me. Let not since have dominion over me, reign and bear rule in my mortal body, to oversway my soul and incline it unto evils, but let thy love possess my soul, that grace may incite and stir up the same unto all holy duties which may be so pleasing unto thy majesty, as may procure thy favourable kindness, blessing, and protection. Give me a contrite heart, to bewail my former life, and let me find comfort in thy mercy for the remission of my sins. Sanctify me O blessed and holy trinity this holy day with thine especial grace, that I may honour thee, as a Creator; love thee, as a redeemer; and expect thee as a Saviour; that I may have a modest carriage in my behaviour, true devotion in my prayers, and reverend attention in thy presence, to hear thy word. Unlock the cares of my body that I may hear those things which thou shalt teach me, that hearing, I may understand them; understanding, I may remember them; remembering, I may practise them, to adorn that profession which I have made in thy name, and confirm me in the faith of thy son jesus Christ, whereto I was baptised. Raise me O Father by the power of my saviours resurrection from sin and iniquity, and give me spiritual rest, peace of conscience, joy in the holy ghost, and fellowship in the communion of Saints, that when I shall leave this world, I may keep an everlasting Sabbath with thee in the kingdom of heaven. Behold O Lord I knock at the door of thy mercy withal the power of my soul, and strength of my mind, for all these graces and favours, beseeching thee to continue unto me the right use of the same, that thy spirit may witness unto my spirit that I am thy son, and shall be heir of thy kingdom of glory, and that I may be partaker of the inheritance with thy Saints in light, where are pleasures that last for evermore. Grant this O Father for jesus Christ his sake. Amen.   

A Prayer for Sunday Noon.  
O Lord my God, great in majesty, and infinite in mercy; wonderful in thy goodness unto thy Church and children, who hast commanded me to make prayers and supplications for those that shall enter into the ministry, and stand before thee to wait at thine Altar; the har●est being great and the painful and conscionable labourers but few; I beseech thee that thou wouldst be pleased to send able ministers into thy Church, and set such over particular congregati●ns as like john the Baptist, may be burning lights, burning, as being zealous in fervency; and lights also as being conspicuous and eminent for charity, sanctity, and all holy graces of thy spirit. Thy Urim and Thummim being on them as upon thy holy ones, let them be sound for doctrine, and holy for life and conversation; preaching, let them practice, and by practice let them preach and teach the things which concern thy kingdom. Open and let open unto them the door of utterance, that they may teach thy word freely and boldly. Take away all differences & contentions from amongst them, make them examples to those that believe, in soundness of doctrine, and integrity of conversation. And because the rule of my life depends upon thy word in their mouths, bless them with all graces fit for their calling, that I may give thanks unto thee for them, finding thy blessing upon me through their labours, and may praise thy name for evermore, Amen.   

A Prayer for Sunday Night.  
O Everlasting and everloving Father, merciful Lord God, creator, guider and preserver of all men and all things, who creating man after th●ne Image, in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, enriching him with all gracious abilities, helps, and f●rtherances, for the working out of his own salvation with fear and trembling; give me a reverence of thy majesty, and a fear of thy most holy name which is so dreadful and terrible, that being by thy grace forewarned, I may fly from thy wrath to come, and at this present come before thee in all confidence of thy goodness, to implore thy grace, and the manifestation of thy favour. Look down from heaven, thine holy habitation, and behold with the eye of thy love and tender compassion, me, poor soul, that distrusting mine own righteousness, go out of myself, calling upon thee in the words of the Publican, and saying: O God be merciful to me a sinner. Write not bitter things against me, neither suffer me to possess the sins of my youth. Forgive and forget all my transgressions, and cast mine iniquities as far from thy presence, as is the east from the west. And pardon good Lord, I humbly beseech thee, the faults and frailties which have escaped this day in the sanctifying of thy Sabbath, whether they be sins of omission, or commission; wash them all away in the blood of thy Son, sanctify me by the Word thy word of truth, that this day hath sounded in my ears; grant that like good seed sown in good ground, it may take root downward, and bring forth fruit upwards to the glory of thy great name, the praise of thy grace, and credit of the Gospel. O let thy word be ever in my mind, to meditate of it; in my mouth, to speak of it; and in my life and conversation, to practise it. By it work in my heart Faith, Hope, Charity, and all other supernatural graces, which accompany salvation: open mine eyes, that I may see thy Law; and incline mine heart, that I may love the truth; and loving the same, may yield obedience unto it; doing thy will on earth, or at least endeavouring to do it, as the Angels in heaven; willingly, without murmuring; speedily, without delaying; constantly, without ceasing; and universally, without omitting what thou commandest and commendest in thy word. So shall I not be distracted with foolish fears, nor despair of thy mercy, but ever hope and trust in thee, and find grace to help me at a time of need. Grant this, O Father, for thy Christ, my jesus, thy Son, my Saviour's sake, who ever liveth and reigneth with thee, one true, immortal, & everlasting God: to whom with thy blessed Spirit, and thee, O holy and heavenly Father, be ascribed of me and all thine, all honour, and glory, world without end. Amen.   

Monday A morning Prayer.  
O God, my God, and Father of my Lord and Saviour jesus Christ, whom no man knoweth but by thine especial gift; grant, that to the rest of thine exceeding benefits towards me, this which is the greatest that can be bestowed upon mankind, may be added also; namely, that as thou hast raised up my body from sound and sweet sleep, the image of a corporal death; so also thou wouldst deliver my mind and affections from the sleep of sin, and from the darkness of this world, and after death restore the same body to life, as well as thou hast called it from natural sleep. And seeing thou hast brought me to the beginning of this day, which is the first day of the week be thou (as this night past, and ever heretofore) present with me, and precedent in me. Lèt thy holy Spirit be my counsellor and instructor, my God and my guide to lead me into all truth. Help me by the assistance of the same Spirit to watch over my thoughts, words, and works, that I may neither think, speak, nor do any thing which is not warranted by thy word, but that setting thee and thy law before my eyes, I may come to the knowledge of thy will, in all reverence and humility of soul submit myself thereunto, that ordering my life and conversation thereby, and walking according to this rule, peace may be upon me as upon the Israel of God. Let me neither oppress, nor defraud my brother in bargaining, buying, and selling, false weights, and balances, or the like dishonest means, but guide me so by thy grace, that my conscience may ever cheer me up through a delightful apprehension of thy blessefull favour. To this end order thou my paths, and establish my goings in the way of peace, grace and salvation. 'Cause thou me to walk before thee and be upright; make me to provide things honest before thee and men, behave myself as in thy sight, and do unto others, as I would be dealt withal myself. Let no sin, inordinate lust, or unruly passion have dominion over me, but help thou me to lead captivity captive, to kill and crucify my lusts and sinful affections, and wage war with my corruptions, until through Christ, which strengtheneth me, I shall prove more than conqueror. Grant this unto me for jesus Christ his sake. Amen.   

A Prayer for Monday night.  
O Lord my God, and gracious Father in jesus Christ, I do here in all humility prostrate and cast down myself before the footstool of thy throne of grace, to offer unto thee this mine evening sacrifice of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, who didst offer up thy Son upon the cross to be a propitiation and meritorious sacrifice for the sins of the world. Lord hear me, and help me, and be merciful unto me: my sins are great, but thy mercies are greater: my trespasses finite, but thy compassions infinite, & never fail; though I fail of my duty towards thee, yet thou art good and gracious unto such as seek thy face and favour, humbling themselves, and pouring out their souls before thee. Wherefore I humbly beseech thee that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so thou wouldst extend thy mercy beyond my deserts. Endue me with faith, sanctify me with all other graces of thy Spirit, that appearing in thine Image, thou mayst know me and acknowledge me for thine owne-Lord hear my prayers, and let my praises be acceptable in thine eyes. For unto thee, O Lord, upon the altar of mine heart do I offer up all possible praise, and thanksgiving for all thy blessings both spiritual and temporal, heavenly and earthly, in great abundance conferred upon me: and above all, for jesus Christ the fountain of them all, by whom I have redemption through his blood, and access through his life. I thank thee likewise for the sweet influence of thy gracious & well guiding holy Spirit, for the manifestation of thyself and sacred will, by thy word read and preached, for the confirmation and strengthening of my faith, by those sacred signs, and pledges of thy love which thou exhibitest and givest to me, and unto every believing soul in the Sacraments. I thank thee for my life, liberty, food, and raiment, health, wealth, peace, and plenty, which thou in much mercy hast afforded unto me from time to time; for keeping me now and ever from sudden death, and sundry dangers whereinto I might have fallen, by reason of my manifold sins. And I beseech thee to continue this thy providence over me, (and mine, and thy whole church) as thou hast hitherto been a S●nne to comfort me, so be thou now a shield to protect me: keep me in soul and body, goods and good name: vouchsafe me this night peace unto my soul, rest and quietness to my body, that therein being refreshed, I may be cheered up in my mind, and made the more prompt and ready to do thee laudable service the day following, and all the days of my life, and that for Christ jesus sake, the Son of thy love, Amen.   

Tuesday A Morning Prayer.  
MOst gracious God and merciful Father, thou that art glorious in power and holiness, I thy poor and miserable creature being but dust and ashes, do here humbly present myself, soul, and body before the throne of thy majesty▪ confessing and acknowledging from the bottom of my heart that I am a most vile sinner, conceived in sin and borne in iniquity, and am by nature backward unto that which is good, and prone unto all manner of evil. By means of this original corruption, drawn from the loins of my first parents, mine understanding is full of all blindness and darkness, my memory of forgetfulness, my will of perverseness, mine affections of disorderliness, my heart of hardness: yea there is within me a distemperature of all parts, so that from the crown of the head unto the soul of the foot there is no soundness within me; wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins: every my barren heart with the sanctifying graces of thy spirit, that growing in knowledge, fructifying in faith, love, charity, and abounding with all other holy virtues and heavenly qualities, I may be washed, justified, and sanctified, in the name of the Lord jesus, and by the Spirit of my God; and have the witness and evidence within myself, that there remaineth no condemnation to me, being in Christ jesus, walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Lord I confess, I am utterly lost, and have no hope of salvation left unto me, having walked after the vanity of my mind, and lived in all lust & lewdness, riot & revelling, uncleanness & sinfulness; so that if thou shouldest be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? Enter not therefore into judgement with 〈◊〉 servant, for in thy sight shall no flesh living be iustistified. Though my sins have magnified themselves in infinite length, breadth, depth, and height, yet let thy mercy (which passeth all understanding) far exceed them. And howsoever, by reason of my sins, I have justly deserved to be not only deprived of thy blessings, but for ever deserted, & forsaken, yet for his sake in whom thou art well pleased, cast me not away from thy presence of grace here, or glory hereafter, but by the one lead me to the other, by holiness bring me to happiness. Behold, O Lord, how I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid, O grant me grace, that I may live with thee for ever. Thou hast redeemed me, oh let me not fall into captivity and bondage unto sin and Satan, because I wear thy cognizance & livery, but so confirm and strengthen me, that both in life and death, I may continue thine, that I may never draw back unto perdition, or forsake thee the everliving God, or renounce my Christ, who hath the words of eternal life, yea who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; but that both in prosperity and adversity abiding by thee, I may live in thy fear, die in thy favour, rest in thy peace, rise in thy power, and reign with thee in thy glory. Amen.   

Tuesday An Evening Prayer.  
O Lord God everlasting, and full of pity, I am a sinner, yet thy servant, not having transgressed through wickedness, but much weakness and infirmity; spare me therefore (good Lord) according to thy usual dealing with those which in prayer have had recourse unto thee, and according to thine old unchangeable nature of thy kindness and long suffering. Thou mightest have taken me away in my sins, but thou hast given me space of amendment, and grace to return unto thee, to seek thee whilst thou mayst be found, and call upon thee whilst thou art near. O Lord, be not far from me, but draw near unto my soul, make haste to deliver me and help me. Nay Lord, thou art ever with, and never failest those who seek after thee, and call upon thee with words of devotion and contrition; to such thou art a present help in trouble, their shield and buckler, their rock and strong hold, their castle and fortress, the horn also of their salvation. Instantly do I knock at the gate of thy mercy, Lord open unto me and receive me to thy protection this night, as thou hast safegarded and guided me this day past, so keep me now and ever, because I trust in thee. Lord preserve me in health, wealth, and godliness (if it be thy gracious pleasure) vouchsafe me peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost, guide me here by thy counsel, and after that receive me to glory. And now seeing thou hast brought the night upon me wherein thou hast ordained man to take his rest, keep me, O Lord, as the apple of thine eye, save and defend me from all annoyances, fond dreams, strong fantasies, and delusions: Cause thine Angels to pitch their tents round about me, and keep watch over my soul and body, that I may not (if it be possible) sin in either word or deed, but may persist and go forward in mine innocency and integrity, until the appearing of my Lord and Saviour unto judgement.  
Good Lord deliver me from sudden death, fears and affrightments, casualties by fire, water, or tempestuous weather, disturbance by thieves, or any other danger whatsoever. Let my lying down in the bed, put me in mind of my resting in the grave, and my rising from thence, of my resurrection, that both in life and death I may continue thine, through jesus Christ. Amen.   

Wednesday A Morning Prayer.  
O Eternal and allseeing God, who art of infinite majesty, look down from heaven, the habitation of thy holiness, upon me thy poor and unworthy servant, lying grovelling, and groaning under my sinful misery. Thou art a God of power, and canst relieve me; of goodness, and wilt in thy good time mercifully help me. Unto thee therefore, upon the bended knee of my soul do I come, humbly beseeching thee to cure my sinful corruptions, and by that blood which my blessed Saviour (out of his gashy wounds) did shed for me, to wash away my sinful stains. O Lord, the fountain of thy mercy, can never be drawn dry, nor the merits of my blessed Saviour emptied: O therefore bathe my soul in them, that being sanctified and justified, I may appear in thy sight more pure and white than the snow in Salmon.  
And because it is a pleasant thing unto thee to give thanks, I bless thy name for keeping me this night past, and bringing of me to the beginning of this day. Defend me gracious father in the same: let thy eyes always attend upon me, prosper, preserve, cheer up and cherish, guide and govern, instruct and direct me in all my studies, labours, actions, employments, and duties of my calling, that I may spend and employ this day, and the remainder of my life according to thy blessed will, setting thee always before mine eyes, and living in thy fear, ever working that which may be found acceptable in thy sight, to the glory of thy most holy name, the peace of my conscience, and the salvation of my own soul, and the edification (by my good example) of all those that attend and depend upon me. To this end be thou (O Lord) my God and my guide, my protector, and defender: keep me unspotted of the world, teach me to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, towards myself; righteously towards my neighbour, and piously towards thee my God; repenting me of my sins, and serving thee in holiness and righteousness all my days, that in life thou mayst be my God, in death my deliverer, after death my eternal rewarder. Amen.   

Wednesday An Evening Prayer.  
O Most glorious and gracious God, who overflowest in thy bountiful goodness unto the sons & daughters of men, that endeavour to serve thee and glorify thy name. I do here at this time with that good Samaritan return to give thee thanks for all thy merciful blessings bestowed upon my soul and body, in things spiritual and temporal; for mine election, before all time; my creation, in the beginning of time; my redemption, in the fullness of time; my justification, by faith in Christ; for my sanctification begun, and hope of eternal glory to be revealed. I praise and glorify thee most holy father, for preserving me hitherto, for prospering me this day passed in my vocation and calling, and for that thou hast yet spared me, and given me liberty and a gracious opportunity once more to invocate thy holy name. O Lord I acknowledge and confess that thou mightest have taken me away in the midst of my sins, and in the very act of committing of them, but thou hast dealt more mercifully with me; continue good Lord, this thy mercy and gracious favour towards me this night, and let thy blessing rest upon me, keep me from fear and danger, and from all noisome dreams, and from all other hindrances of sweet repose, and comfortable rest, which thou hast appointed for the recreating and refreshing of mankind. But because sin is that which may withhold good things from me, and deny thy gracious blessing of protection, therefore I most humbly and heartily entreat thee for jesus Christ his sake to seal unto me a free pardon of all my sins, of what nature or quality so ever they be, whether they be sins of omission, or commission, of knowledge, or ignorance, of weakness, or wilfulness; O Lord deal not with me according to the magnitude and multitude of them, but for thine infinite mercies, and sons merits speak peace unto my soul, assuring me of thy gracious pardon and reconciliation in jesus Christ. Add them not unto my account, but blot them out of thy book of remembrance, and cast them out of thy sight into the bottom of the sea, that they may never rise in this life to shame me, nor in the life to come to condemn me; work in me an unfeigned sorrow for sin, which may occasion my repentance unto salvation, never to be repent of.  
Make me to bewail my sins committed, and give me grace never again to commit my sins bewailed, but proceed from one degree of holiness unto another, from faith to faith, grace to grace, until I appear before thee, the God of Gods in Zion. Amen.   

Thursday A Morning Prayer.  
O Lord God, great and glorious, which inhabitest in the highest heavens, and dwellest in that light which no mortal man can approach unto, yet beholdest in much mercy and compassion the sons and daughters of men, not only lightning every one that comes into the world, but making the outgoing of the morning to be full of glory, causing the sun to shine upon the just and unjust, mercifully driving away the darkness of the night and shadow of death, I praise thy holy Name, and thank thee most humbly that thou hast vouchsafed me to pass this night in comfortable sleep, and to be brought again safe and sound unto this morning light. Now I beseech thee by the holy incarnation and blessed nativity of thy Son jesus Christ, the thrice happy daystar that appeared to the world, let thy mercy this day rest upon me, and let the bright beams of thy light shine into mine heart, that I be not transported either through the corruption of my nature, or power of darkness, to spend this day after mine own mind and pleasure, but that I may carefully follow the heavenly light of thy word, to perform thy holy will, willingly, without murmuring; speedily, without delaying; constantly, without ceasing; and universally without omitting of that which thou commendest unto me in thy word. Increase in me, O Lord, the gift of Faith and Hope, that I may believe in thee, and trust to thy merciful promises made unto me in jesus Christ, and labour to find in my soul those graces to which thou hast annexed the promises; and grant that neither by mine own negligence, nor the infirmity of the flesh, nor the grievousness of temptation, I be drawn or driven away from a sure confidence of thy gracious acceptance with thee; in the merit of his sacred blood dispel these mists and clouds of my sinful life, which blemish my soul and darken mine understanding; wash away all my pollutions and stains in the blood of his passion, that I may be acknowledged for one of thine when I come unto thee in my need: give me a will to work truly and daily in my vocation, and to order my skill by the rule of thy wisdom that I be not unfruitful.  
Bless my body and soul that no evil or harm come unto them, and keep my memory and senses that they pass not the limits of reason and understanding wherewith thou hast endued me. O Lord, lighten my mind to look upon good things only, inflame my heart with the love of them, and conduct me with thy grace, that as thou hast awaked my body from sleep, so my soul may daily be raised from sin and soul, and body, and spirit may be renewed in righteousness to serve thee the living God, to the praise and glory of thy great Name, the credit of the Gospel of grace, and finally to the salvation of my poor soul in the day of the glorious appearing of my Lord and Saviour jesus Christ. Amen.   

Thursday An Evening Prayer.  
O Lord God, my most loving and merciful Father, great in mercy, and constant in truth, I do acknowledge my bounden duty of thankfulness unto thee, for thy manifold graces and benefits imparted unto me; and although I be unable to recount them, and far more unworthy to be partaker of them, nevertheless in full assurance and confidence of thy love to me in jesus Christ, I presume to come unto thee, and now again commit into thy hands this night my soul and body, withal my senses and faculties, thoughts and affections, words and deeds, my heart and soul, and all that is within me and without me, my Faith and the continuance of the same, beseeching thee to keep me and them day and night blameless and undefiled against the day of thy coming. O Lord, pardon and forgive me all the sins which I have either wretchedly effected, o● wickedly imagined against thine honour, and the good of my neighbour. Lay not the faults and frailties of my younger years unto my charge, forget them Lord, and forgive them, and for the better confirmation of thy gracious pardon, I humbly entreat thee, O Lord, to annex unto thy grant the power of thy grace to attend upon me, that I may not do mine own will but thine; and eschewing evil and doing good, strike mine heart with thy fear, O Lord, that in fearing thee, I may labour to escape those things which thou threatnest, and give me the comfort of thy saluatition, that in loving thee I may be thought worthy to obtain those things which thou promisest. Be favourable unto me, O Lord, that I may this night quietly take my rest under the shadow of thy wings void of all fear, spiritual darkness, dangers, bodily or ghostly, final despair and the like; and when the dark end of this mortal life (like the shutting in of this day) shall come, grant me, O Lord, a watchful heart willingly disposed, and thereby enabled with thy grace, to abandon these transitory nights and days, and depart hence in the peace of a good conscience into thine everlasting rest through jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour; In whose name and words I conclude these my imperfect prayers, saying as he himself hath taught me in the Lord's prayer, Our Father, etc.   

Friday A Morning Prayer.  
O Holy Lord God, maker and governor of all things both in heaven above, and the earth beneath, unto thee do I come with a broken and contrite heart, sorrowing for my sins, seeking to find comfort at thy hands. Thou, O Lord, my God, knowest my grief, mine anxiety and care, oh let me feel and find thy comforts to refresh my soul, and rejoice my heart. Be with me this day in all my worldly business and affairs, and let thy grace and holy Spirit, evermore defend me and preserve my innocency and integrity, that I may be known, and acknowledged for thine own at the last day.  
I thank thee gracious Father for keeping me this night past, and for that thou hast safely brought me to see the glistering light of the day, O Lord, stir me up, that I may express my thankfulness by my serviceable obedience: preserve and keep me from sin, and all annoyances of both soul and body. Make me this day as abstinent from flesh prohibited and forbidden by the Church, so from all filthiness of both soul and Spirit, that perfecting my beginnings of holiness in the fear of God, I may be assured of an inheritance with the Saints in light.  
Strengthen me against the vanities of the world, the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life, and renew whatsoever is decayed in me through the malice of Satan, or mine own corruptions, and that approving what is thy good and acceptable will, I may endeavour to do the same, and so work out my own salvation with fear and trembling.  
Give me grace to spend this day, and the remainder of my days in all peace and purity, sanctity and sobriety, to thy glory, the good example of others, and finally the salvation of my own soul, for jesus Christ his sake, the Son of thy love, to whom with thee O Father, and thy holy Spirit, one God in unity, and three persons in trinity, be ascribed of me and thy whole Church, all honour and glory, world without end, Amen.   

Friday An Evening Prayer.  
Merciful Lord God, and my gracious Father in jesus Christ, I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid, O leave me not nor forsake me, but ever be thou my God and my guide, lead me into all truth, and in the end let me see thy salvation. Wash away all my sins in the blood of thy Son, sanctify my nature, abolish my corruptions, guide me here by thy council, and after that receive me to glory. Keep me now and ever, send me this night quiet rest, and grant that lying down to sleep, I may rise again in thy peace, walk in thy fear, the day following, and for ever glorify thee. Infuse into me O Lord, the Spirit of sweet consolation, and although my sleep be a death, and my bed as the grave, yet suffer me not to perish suddenly or unprepared, but watch over me for good, guide me now and evermore, let no affrightments fall upon me, keep me from fire, storms, tempests, thieves, sudden death, and danger, and be unto me a gracious protector and director. 'Cause thine Angels to pitch their tents round about me, my house and habitation. Remember thy Church, and every member thereof, to preserve and keep it, especially the poor afflicted protestants in all parts beyond the seas and at home in our own land; send them help from thy holy place, and evermore mightily defend them; Be unto them a sun and a shield, a sun to comfort, and a shield to safeguard and protect them in all assaults, dangers and difficulties, trials, temptations, and tribulations; Put an end and period unto all their griefs and afflictions, and in thy good time vouchsafe them a happy deliverance out of all their troubles, for thou never failest in thy compassions towards such as are thine, as fear thy name, walking before thee and labouring to be upright. Lord send comfort unto them, and lift up the light of thy gracious countenance upon them. And Lord receive them and me, and all that belong unto me this night and ever, unto thy gracious protection through the mediation of jesus Christ: In whose name and words I finish these my imperfect prayers, and meditations saying, as he himself hath taught me in the Gospel, etc. Our Father which art, etc.   

Saturday A Morning Prayer.  
O Lord most great and gracious loving Father in jesus Christ, sanctify I humbly beseech thee this day unto me, and myself now and ever unto thy service. And here, O Lord, I give thee thanks for that thou hast kept me this night past, unto this present hour and moment, and hast brought me unto the last day of the week: grant that I may spend the same soberly, righteously, and holily. Bring me to the knowledge of thy righteous will in all things, that knowing it, I may endeavour to do the same, to thy glory, the peace of mine own conscience, and the safety of my soul. Purge my soul from sinful lusts and affections, and cleanse my conscience from all pollutions and defilements thereof, that I may ever with boldness of Spirit, and affiance in thy mercy, behold thy face, and grace in jesus Christ. Root out of my mind all covetous, malicious, and lustful thoughts, keep me from sin and from uncleanness, be thou my guide in all my ways, my stay and succour in all my necessities. Put an end and period unto the motions of the flesh, enlarge mine heart for all holy duties and habitual graces of thy Spirit, that I may nourish them as my life. In these my prayers I am not mindful of myself alone, but of thy whole Church, howsoever distressed, or wheresoever dispersed over the face of the earth. I pray unto thee likewise for thy servant and our dread sovereign Charles, our king and governor: O Lord, as thou hast graced him with a crown, so crown him with thy grace, and as thou hast given him a glorious kingdom here, so give him hereafter part of thy kingdom of glory. Be merciful unto our most gracious Queen Mary, the young Prince Charles, & the Lady Mary, the Lady Elizabeth & her royal issue. Bless, preserve, and prosper, all those that travail in an honest way, whether by sea or land; and likewise all women in travail with child, and sick persons, troubled both in body or mind, or howsoever diseased, O Lord, speak peace unto their consciences, and as thou hast laid them down with the one hand, so raise them up with the other, if not to this life, to life eternal, and that not for any merits of mine (Lord, I disclaim them all) but for the precious merits of thy Son our Saviour jesus Christ. Amen.   

Saturday An Evening Prayer.  
O Lord God, Almighty, merciful Father, maker and preserver of all things, look down I beseech thee with the eye of pity and compassion upon me miserable and sinful wretch, prostrating myself, soul and body, upon my benknees, before thy divine majesty, humbly beseeching thee to look upon me in much mercy pardon my sins, every me with thy graces, sanctify me with thy grace, and bring me to thy glory, and there refresh my soul with such things as eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive. Enter not into judgement with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified. Examine not my ways this week past, by the strict rule of thy Law, neither reward me in the rigour of thy justice, but for jesus Christ his sake have mercy upon me miserable sinner, that have deserved the severest of thy punishments. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so extend thy mercy beyond my deserts. Satisfy my soul with thy mercy, and that right soon, so shall I rejoice, and be glad in thee, and learn to praise thee evermore. And now, O Lord, as this week is at an end, so let my sins have end, and never be reiterated or done any more. Lord call me not to an exact account for them, for (Lord) I confess I am worthy of death, and eternal damnation, yet seeing there is mercy with thee, that thou mightest be feared, and loved for evermore, spare me I humbly beseech, and have mercy upon me according to the multitude of thy mercies. And being graciously reconciled unto thee, be thou pleased to be my merciful protector and preserver from all perils and dangers this night, bless me with quiet rest, that being refreshed in my body, I may be cheered up in my mind, and made the more fit to serve thee in the duties of my calling, and sanctify thy Sabbath, and keep it as a glorious day unto thee, through jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   

A Prayer before Sermon.  
VOuchsafe O most merciful God, to open the closet of my dark understanding, that thy word may enter thereinto, and be so received of me, as that Ignorance (the mother of disobedience) being excluded, heavenly knowledge may enter in, and that growing daily in knowledge, I may be more and more renewed in the spirit of my mind, and do all such good works as thou commandest and commendest unto me in thy word. Give me grace that the seed of thy word being sown in my heart, it may take deep root downward, and bring forth fruit upward to the credit of the Gospel, the comfort of my poor soul, and above all to the glory of thy most holy name. So let thy Spirit rule and guide the lips of thy servant and minister, as that he utter nothing but the word of Truth, with such boldness that neither fear nor affection stop not the passage of the same. Make me to attend and wait upon thine ordinance, desiring to be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from this thy table.  
And because the harvest is great, the faithful labourers but a few, I pray thee who art Lord of the harvest, to send forth such as may be industrious. And conscionable in the discharge of their ministerial duties. Let thy Urim and Thummim be upon them, as upon thine holy ones, that sincerity of doctrine and integrity of conversation, may adorn their persons, and beautify their function and calling. Banish from this sacred work all such as are not sent from thee, let them have no exhibition from thy church, running without commission, from thee. Lord guide the heart and tongue of him whom I shall hear this day, that he may speak home unto my conscience, and leave no corruption unboweled, but that his words may separate all sinful affections from me, and stir me up to be a follower of it in all holy virtues and gracious acts. Bless all the hearers of thy word, make them doers of the same, not deceiving of their own souls. Grant that thy messengers dividing the word aright, and thy people keeping it carefully, and practising it conscionably, they may at thy hands through Christ jesus, obtain the remission of their sins past, and receive from thy divine Majesty, confirming and comforting grace for the time to come, power to presever and continue thy servants unto their dying days. Give them light, instead of darkness; peace, for trouble; and eternal happiness, instead of worldly felicity; that tasting the sweetness of celestial comfort, they may despise terrestrial, and after this life ended in joy, enjoy the perfect joys of eternal glory, through jesus Christ my Lord and blessed Saviour. Amen.   

A Prayer after the Word heard.  
O Gracious Lord, of thy bountiful goodness, thou hast through thy Son jesus Christ, sent for my learning and unspeakable comfort, thy word of truth the Gospel, which none can learn but by hearing; and none can hear but by preaching; and none can preach except they be sent; I humbly beseech thee therefore to give me thy grace, that as I have heard thy word at this time by thy minister and messenger, so I and all that have heard, may know and understand the same, retain, and practise it, according to thy heavenly will, that I may thereby grow in knowledge, increase in grace, and be a lively instrument of thy glory unto my life's end. Amen.   

A short prayer for willingness to dye, and a preparation unto Death.  
O God in whose hands consisteth the life of all mankind, for thy Son jesus Christ his sake, vouchsafe to give me grace, to set before mine eyes as a most certain mark whereto this frail body of mine must tend by death; this being to the faithful, the end of pain, and the beginning of pleasure; but to the secure and graceless, the ending of temporal bliss and felicity, and the inlet or entrance unto eternal torments, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Give me therefore, good Lord, an earnest desire of serving thee, and leading my life agreeable to thy will, that whensoever it shall please thee to call for me by death, I be not (through fear) stricken with any horror of damnation, and doubt of salvation; that at my last gasp I may never cast away my confidence, nor my hope of rejoicing, but through a lively faith in jesus Christ I may rest upon him the corner stone, and sure rock of my salvation, and so depart this life in peace, and in a joyful expectation of a blessed resurrection, and be content to lay down this mortality of mine, to receive it in the day of Christ, a spiritual and glorified body, that then being ever with my Lord, I may with all thy saints sing a continual Alleluiah, to the praise and glory of my redeemer and Saviour. Amen.   

A short prayer for competency of maintenance.  
O Lord my God, the maker and preserver of Angels, men, and all creatures, infinite in thy power, and wonderful in thy love unto all the sons of men, Thou hast promised never to fail those that attend, and depend upon thee; Thou openest thine hands and fillest all things living with plenteousness, never suffering any of thine to perish for want, that carefully seek relief and comfort from the disposition of thy most gracious bounty, and beneficent goodness, suffer me not to want necessaries for this present life, nor those things without the which I cannot comfortably serve thee in the duties of christian calling; enable me to live without distracting cares; to this end bless my labours and endeavours, that I may have sufficient for me and mine, and not be chargeable unto any, but rather able to do good unto others that may stand in need of refreshing from me. Give me neither poverty, nor riches: feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord; or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Afford me that portion of temporal blessings, health, wealth, maintenance, as thou in thy wisdom shalt think convenient and behooveful for me, not so much for delectation, and satisfying of the flesh with the concupiscences thereof, as for sustentation of this mortal life of mine, and consolation of my heart and spirits, and making of them more joyous and cheerful in thy worship and service. Let neither overmuch poverty oppress me, that I be driven to use means contrary to thy Law, nor too great a saturity, fullness and plenty so p●ste me up, that I forget the goodness of thee my God, or fall into any the least riotous excess▪ as if thou hadst hired me by thine abundant blessing, to grow the more wanton and vicious. O God, as thou art of ability, and power, so thou art willing to succour such as be in want, to relieve the oppressed, to comfort the afflicted, to raise the lowly, and to aid the needy: and therefore, sweet Lord, I humbly crave thy favourable assistance towards me to bless my store, and replenish my basket with thy blessings, that I may be able to live in thy Faith, Fear, and Love, and out of the depth of misery, and danger of all men, through jesus Christ Amen.   

A short prayer to use wealth as we ought.  
O God almighty, the giver of all good things, thou art my stay, my comfort, and only guide, direct me, I pray thee, to employ that talon which thou hast bestowed upon me, for the advantage, and advancement of thine own glory. Lord thou hast been abundantly gracious, and bountiful unto me, and hast blessed my store and increase with wealth, insomuch that I have not only that which sufficeth mine own necessity, but have also sufficient to relieve others in time of their need. Give me therefore a will to disperse a broad and give unto the poor according to the abundance of my wealth, to feed the hungry, to cloth the naked, and minister unto thy distressed Saints, that I may not live unto myself, but for the help of all those that want my furtherance, that I may lay up in store a good foundation against the time to come, and be found of thee in peace, enjoying life and salvation through jesus Christ, Amen.   

A prayer for a woman with child.  
O Merciful God and omnipotent Father, and creator of all things, who in the beginning didst place mankind in most unspeakable happiness, where they should have continued, had not our first parents broke thy divine precept and charge given them in paradise, and thereby procured most justly thy wrath and indignation against themselves, and their posterity for ever, so that the earth for their sakes was accursed, denying things necessary for their use, without great labour, pains, and industry. And unto us the daughters of Eve, for our transgression, thou hast adjudged most grievous pains and torments of body in the travail of childbirth, saying that in sorrow and great pains we shall bring forth our fruit. A heavy sentence thou knowest it is, O Lord, and we feel it to take sharp effect in us, but sweet Lord, for as much as thou art merciful & bringest all things to pass according to thy good pleasure, and showest thyself in nothing more omnipotent then in the conceiving, forming, and bringing forth of mankind into this world, which al●●ough it was in the beginning ordained most easily, yet by the subtlety of our continual enemy Satan in causing our first parents to transgress thy commandment, and break thy will by tasting the forbidden fruit, it is now most painful and dangerous, grievous and perilous, insomuch, O sweet Lord, as without thine especial grace and assistance, favour and mercy, it is altogether impossible for us (frail women a weak sex) to bear and abide the same, our imperfection and feebleness is such, as of ourselves we are not able to endure the least of all the sorrows and sufferings that accompany this kind of travail: wherefore sweet Lord, and loving Father, my humble desire unto thy majesty is, for jesus Christ his sake, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to extend unto me and to all women thy mercy and loving favour, to mitigate the pains thereof, that we may be able patiently to endure the pains of our travail at the hour appointed, and make that easy and light unto us, which our defects have made heavy and burdensome: & sweeten that which our deserts have made sour, that the burden wherewith I am now laden, may graciously be delivered from my weak body. Send us all good Lord happy and gracious deliverance, that we may be made joyful and happy mothers. And vouchsafe unto me & to all that have conceived, and be with child, strength to bring forth that which thine omnipotency hath so wonderfully wrought within us. In our troubles, O Lord, help us, thou most mighty and merciful God, mightily deliver us. Let thy power, might, and love, be no less manifest in the delivery, then in the forming of thy creature, that being through thy goodness made a joyful mother I may obtain my perfect strength again, and live to praise and please thee for evermore. Amen.   

Another short and most necessary prayer to be said of one with Child.  
O Lord whose goodness we have offended, and by our sins deserved infinite pains, look with the eye of pity and compassion upon me, lay aside thy justice, and show me thy merciful favour and loving kindness. Let me enjoy the benefit of thy helping hand, and not feel the weight of thy heavy displeasure; favourably lighten me of this heavy burden in thy good and gracious time, and in the hour and instant of my delivery, be present with me (O Lord) and tender my safety through jesus Christ. Amen.   

A thanksgiving after the woman is delivered of the Child.  
FOrasmuch as it hath pleased thee Almighty God of thy gracious goodness, to ease me of my pains, and deliver me of my burden, and from the pangs and throws of Childbearing, I do here humbly prostrate my soul and body before thy sacred majesty, to be unto thee a reasonable, lively and living sacrifice, holy and acceptable in thy sight, giving thine omnipotent majesty infinite, and unfeigned thanks for this thy gracious preservation of me, and delivering me out of this great danger of death wherein I was, and under which I might soon have perished, had not thy mercy sustained me, and thy goodness embraced me on every side. To thee therefore O holy and heavenly Father, be given and ascribed all possible praise and thanksgiving, from this time forth for evermore. As thou hast been gracious unto me in giving me a child, so Lord give me grace to devote and consecrate it unto thee and thy service. To this end work mightily in it by thy holy Spirit, sanctify it from the womb that it may be thine not only whilst it hangs upon the mother's breasts, but so long as it shall breath in the land of the living, and until thou translate it hence to reign with thee in glory. Amen.   

A short Prayer for Wisdom.  
O Lord, most great and glorious, I confess that whilst I bear about with me this body of sin, imprisoning the soul, my nature corrupted and depraved with sins, original and actual, seeks by all means possible to oppose the spirit, and do those things which are dissonant and contrary to the motions, inspirations, and gracious influence and working thereof. My flesh lusteth against the spirit: so that the things which I would do I cannot, and the things which I suppose to be done in much knowledge and wisdom, will be found not only ignorances and errors, but sinful wickedness in thy fight. Wherefore I humbly beseech thee, O Holy Father, to send out thy light and truth, thy Spirit of wisdom and revelation, to teach and instruct me, to be my God, and guide, to lead me into all truth. Lord send down that wisdom which waiteth about thy throne, and plant the same in my heart, that all my sayings, doings, and devises, being always ordered by this wisdom from on high, I may intend and do that which is pleasing in thy sight, and profitable for mine own salvation, and shun the contrary in all things, through jesus Christ, my Lord, and Saviour. Amen.   

A short Prayer for defence against our Enemies.  
O Lord my God, be not far from me in trouble; and in all dangers bodily, or ghostly, draw near and make haste to help me. I am I confess, a most sinful creature, and have justly deserved thy wrath and indignation against me. the sorest and severest of thy punishments, yea that all thy blessings should become curses unto me, and that I should either be destroyed by thine and the church's enemies, or that I should be ruinated by mine own prosperity. Yet Lord, for thy mercy sake, turn thee unto me, and have compassion on me, let not mine enemies prevail in their mischievous devises, lest they be to proud; in thy mercy convert them, or in thy justice confound them, make them as the stubble before the wind, and thine Angel scattering of them. Lord, I am in thine hand, and they are within the compass of thy power, stay and allay their fury, let them not take effect in their mischievous Imaginations and attempts against me, but put them to confusion, rid me, and deliver me in thy righteousness. Be thou a son and a shield unto me to comfort and protect me. To this end cause thine Angels to pitch their tents round about me, that being defended under the shadow of thy wings, and armed with the power of thy might, I may not fear what man can do unto me. Lord regard me with the eye of thy grace, and guard me with the hand of thy power, that being preserved in both soul and body, I may live in piety, peace, and godliness, unto my life's end. Amen.   

A Prayer to be said before the receiving of the Lords Supper.  
O Lord jesus, the Son of the living God, who freely, and of thine own accord, offeredst thy most sacred Body to be broken, and thy blood to be shed for my sins, that thou mightest ransom me from hell, and deliver me from wrath & eternal condemnation; O sweet jesus, my sins, original and actual, of weakness & wickedness, have deserved thy wrath and frowning ire, yea that thou shouldest withhold the eye of thy grace far from me, and punish me with everlasting destruction from the presence of thy glory. Yet Lord, seeing thou hast shed thy blood for me, O Lord I beseech thee to wash away all my sins in the streams that issued from thy precious wounds. As thou hast loved me in laying down thy life for me, and hast left unto thy Church this holy Sacrament as a pledge and assurance, that through thy death all that truly partake of this sacred and heavenly institution, apprehending the mysteries therein contained, and applying the merits of Christ jesus crucified, they may have comfort and peace in believing those merciful promises, which thou hast made unto us in thy Word, and be partakers of the benefits of thy Son's Passion, and have fruition of thy saving virtue here, and life and glory hereafter.  
Accept me, good Lord in jesus Christ, as washed, justified, and sanctified, and by thy Spirit, O my God, cleanse and purify my heart daily more and more▪ sanctify mine affections, and enlarge my heart for holy and heavenly things, that mortifying the deeds of the flesh, I may grow and increase in grace, perfecting my holiness in the fear of God. At this time I entreat thee of thy gracious goodness, O most holy and heavenly Father, by thy Spirit of confirmation to help and strengthen me against my weakness, and grant that through a steadfast, lively, and constant faith, I may receive and eat this sanctified bread, and hallowed Cup or blessed drink, in a holy and reverend remembrance, that thy body (O Lord jesus) was crucified, and thy blood was shed for the remission of my sins, and grant that it may so effectually work in my soul, that I may ever hereafter live in all holy obedience according to thy heavenly will, through jesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour. Amen.   

At the receiving of the Bread, say thus.  
O Sweet jesus, as thou hast given thy flesh to be the bread of eternal salvation, so vouchsafe to work in me by a lively faith, that I (receiving the same) may evermore continue in thee, and thou in me. Amen.   

At the receiving of the Cup, say thus.  
O Lord vouchsafe that as thy blood was shed to wash me (a sinner) from the corruption of old Adam, so grant that it may through a lively faith take effect in me, washing me from the filth of Sin, and renew in me the fruits of righteousness, that I may become a fit member of thine, live in thee, and dye in thee. Amen▪   

A prayer after the receiving of the most holy Communion of the body and blood of Christ.  
O God, Father everlasting, great, and glorious, I thy poor and unworthy Creature, being not able to yield thee thanks sufficiently, praise the for thine unspeakable favour and loving kindnesses, in feeding me at this time, with the spiritual food of the body and blood of thy Son jesus Christ, whom thou vouchsafest to send for our redemption into this miserable world, and to give him even unto the death for me, In remembrance whereof he hath willed me, to eat his body and drink his blood, to the end that by Faith I should be knit and united unto him, and made a lively member of his mystical body, and being washed from all my sins in his blood I should lead a new life, in all obedience, holiness, and righteousness.  
Vouchsafe, I humbly entreat thee for his sake, to endue me with thy holy Spirit, whereby hereafter casting away the works of darkness, I may walk in the true light of thy holy Spirit, and ever remain in the number of thy holy and elect children, waiting faithfully when he shall come again for my deliverance out of this mortal life▪ and whilst I live here, vouchsafe me an unfeigned desire to partake of that his holy Institution, and (through thy holy Spirit) to lead my life according to thy holy will in all things, keeping my body and soul unspotted and undefiled as fit receptacles of so heavenly food, that my soul may be partaker of the mysteries thereof by faith in jesus Christ. Amen.   

A prayer to be used by the tempted, against the assaults of Satan's temptations.  
MOst gracious, merciful, and loving Father, which exercisest thy children with sundry and manifold trials▪ temptations, and tribulations, leaving 'em unto themselves, as thou dedist Hezekiah, to the end he might discover and see in himself his own vainglory, imbecility, and much frailty. Some, like Peter, thou exposest to the boisterous winds of Satan, winnowings; and others, like Paul, to the blows of the adversary's vehement buffet. Thine own and only Son thou didst not exempt from Satan's sharpest and stoutest trials, when thou didst conduct him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. If thou, O Lord, lead me in like manner to be tried and tempted, suffer me not at any time to be overcome: hold thou me up by thy mighty hand and power, animate me by the presence of thy Spirit, and holy Angels, and let thy grace be ever sufficient for me, that I may give mine adversary the foil, and in the end get the victory. In his departure from me for a season, let not Satan be advantaged or get strength; but detect his policies, discover his subtleties unto me, and defeat his doings and dealings which are against m●▪ To this end work such wisdom in me, as may make me to foresee his stratagems, such vigilancy, as that I may beware his pitfalls which he prepareth for our soul's destruction. Let no temptation take me, but such as is common to man. In thy faithfulness (O Father) try me not above my strength and ability, but with the temptation make a way to escape, that I may be able to bear it. Let me never yield to the devilish motions of Satan, suggesting unto me death, or desperation; but grant me patience to expect the hour of my departure, my soul's separation, and the dissolution of my body, and deliverance from the misery of this wretched world▪ My trouble, let it be without distress; my perplexity, without despair; my persecution, without forsaking; my casting down without destruction. If tear befall me, in thy good time wipe them from mine eyes, preserve them in thy bottle, make them precious in thy sight, and myself with thee. Leaving me for a little while draw nigh again unto me in great compassion, and gather me unto thyself, that I may ever rejoice in thee and with thee. Cover my head in the days of my spiritual conflicts, let thy love be my bannor, thy faithfulness and truth my shield and buckler. Give me faith and a sure confidence in thee, make me perfectly to trust in thy grace, looking for justification, and salvation through thy mercy, and my blessed Saviour's merits. Let not any kind of trial be irksome and grievous unto me, but give me a right judgement (as in all other things, so in this one thing) that I may count it all joy when I fall into diverse temptations. Let not my heart be hardened by them, as were the Israelites provoking thee in the wilderness; but sanctify all thy visitations unto me, that I may be bettered and reform by them that my faith being tried, patience may be wrought in me, and that patience having her perfect work, I may be perfect and entire lacking nothing.  
Lord I know that in all thy temptations thou ever hast one end and Satan another: thou triest me to the end that I being found faithful, thou mightest give unto me the Crown of Life. Satan searcheth to seduce, and sifteth to despoil and bereave me of that which is virtuous and good in me; Wherefore, O Holy Ghost (thou preserver of men) keep me by thy grace, and strengthen me by thy mighty power and outstretched arm. O blessed jesus, be not far from me, but present with me, and precedent in me: as thy sufferings abound in me; so let thy consolation much more abound. In the midst of all mine agonies and terrors of mind, let thy comforts rejoice my soul, that I being made glad by thee, I may be confirmed unto the end, and always, in all dangers of life or death, in all tribulations, and temptations abide by thee, that thou mayest appoint unto me a kingdom, as thy Father hath appointed unto thee. Grant this not for any worth of mine, but thine own merit and goodness sake. Amen.  
O Lord, let thy mighty hand and outstretched arm be now and always my defence, thy mercy and loving kindness in jesus Christ thy dear Son my salvation, thy true and holy word my instruction thy grace and holy Spirit my comfort and consolation. Amen.  
The peace of God which passeth all understanding, keep my heart and mind in the Love of God, and of his Son jesus Christ our Lord: and the blessing of God almighty the Father Son and holy Ghost, be with me, and remain with me and mine, and with the whole church of God, from this time forth and for evermore, Amen.  
God be merciful unto me and bless me. The Lord lift up the light of his gracious countenance upon me, be merciful unto me, and grant me his everlasting peace. Amen.   

A Prayer for the troubled in mind, afflicted in conscience, groaning under the insupportable burden of a wounded Spirit.  
O Father of mercy, and God of all consolation, vouchsafe, I beseech thee, succour and relief unto me that am troubled in mind, and afflicted in conscience for fear of thy judgements, and the terrible things which thou writest against me by reason of my sins. Lord break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, wound not mine humble and contrite heart, but revive the spirit of me that go mourning all the day long. Though Satan presume that thou hast smitten and forsaken me, yet frustrate his hopes and expectations, leave me not destitute of thy grace as a prey unto him, the enemy of my soul; but mightily preserve and defend me, that I may never be lost, but that in life and death I may be always thine. And albeit my conscience accuse me, my memory gives evidence against me, my reason condemn me; though I be deeply plunged in discomfort, and have lost the voice of joy and gladness, and have neither worth to appease thy wrath, nor patience to endure thy trial, yet send me (dear Father) the comfort of thine holy Spirit again into my heart, that I may not be swallowed up of overmuch heaviness, but may rejoice in thee with joy glorious and unspeakable. Open, and set open the gate of thy mercy to the greatness of my misery; for my dejected countenance witnesseth my distressed and distracted mind, my mind is sorrowful, mine heart heavy, my Spirit is oppressed; my words are stopped with sighs, and my complaints watered with tears. In execution of thy judgements, Lord, remember mercy, try not the Law with me, lest I come into judgement, and be condemned; weigh not my merits, but pardon mine offences. Sanctify unto me all these good means wherein I seek relief, as prayer, conference, meditation, reading, and hearing of thy word, receiving the Sacrament of the body and blood of thy Son and my most blessed Saviour, jesus Christ. Mitigate mine extremities, abate my fears, moderate mi●e afflictions, and remove far from me the vexatious of the night, dreams, and fantasies, let not the visions of mine head, like Nebuchadnezzars' make me afraid: when I awake, stay me with flagons, and comfort me with apples, thy most sweet and delightsome promises, which are pleasing to the palate of my soul.  
Rectify my judgement and understanding as in the days of old, and drink no longer unto me in the Cup of affliction, but in the chalice, of refreshing that I may pledge thee a saving health, pay my vows unto thee, and call upon thy name with thanksgiving in the sight of all thy congregation. If it be thy good pleasure to try me, and not take away this Cup from me; confirm my faith, continuing unto me that hope of glory, which is to be revealed. To this end cause me with the eye of faith to look up unto thee, who smitest me, and wait for the appointed time of my recovery, and delivery out of all my troubles. Lord suffer me not to be swallowed up of fearful despair, but vouchsafe me a full persuasion of thy mercy, that thou wilt never leave me, nor forsake me, but wilt be in life my God, in death my deliverer, after death mine eternal rewarder. Lord harken, and incline thine ear unto these my requests, and grant me not my deserts, but my desires, and that for jesus Christ his sake, Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, etc.  
The grace of our Lord I●sus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the most comfortable fellowship of God the Holy Ghost, be with me, bless, preserve and keep me▪ both in soul, and body, in goods and good name, in life, health, wealth, peace, and godliness, together with th● whole church, and all that pertain unto me, now and for evermore, Amen.   

A prayer to be said by the sick.  
O God my creator and preserver, thou madest me in thine own image, in knowledge, holiness, and righteousness, but, dear Father, I have sinned against heaven, and against thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy child, for I have defaced this Image and superscription of thine in me; and hereby mine understanding is filled with ignorance, my will with stubbornness, mine affections with perverseness, mine heart with sinfulness, and my whole life with disobedience and disorderliness; ever since I drew in my breath, I have drunk in iniquity like water, so that I can look for nothing but death (which reigneth over all) to arraign me at the bar of thy justice, to receive an irrevocable doom. I have no worth to appease thy wrath, yet for thy Son's sake do away all my sin, and be thou pleased to be reconciled unto me. And now (dear Father) I confess my weakness is such that I want patience to endure thy trial, take from me thy heavy hand, or lay no more upon me than I can bear, give an issue unto all temptations, and make a way for me to escape, and in the end grant me a final deliverance. As thou madest me of dust, so thou canst take from me my breath, again and cause me soon to return unto my original earth again: yet spare me a little, that I may recover my health and strength, before I go hence, and be no more seen. There is I confess no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, nor rest in my bones, because of my sins, my heart panteth, my strength faileth, my beauty and livelihood consumeth like a moth-eater-garment, O Lord, if it be thy will, remove thy stroke away from me, and consume me not by the blow of thy hand. Ease mine agonies, mitigate mine extremities, be mindful of my sorrows and merciful unto my sins, redeem my life from destruction, strengthen my weakness, heal my disease, and cause me again to walk before thee in the land of the living. But if thou hast otherwise determined of me to translate me hence, thy will be done, grant me patience under thy correcting hand, and a lively faith in the all sufficient and efficacious merit of Christ my Saviour If thou wilt not heal my disease, yet forgive me mine iniquity, seal unto me a free pardon of all my sins in the blood of thy Son, say unto my soul that thou wilt be my salvation. In affiance of thy merciful absolution, cause me to declare mine iniquities, and be filled with godly sorrow which may work repentance unto salvation never to be repent of. Sprinkle me with the blood of Christ, and puri●●e me from my daily pollutions, that being washed, justified and sanctified, I may be presented unto thee without spot or wrinkle. Let nothing separate me from thy love, but give me perseveing gr●ce to hold out unto the end, that dying, thine Angels may convey my soul into Abraham's bosom, there to reign with thee, world without end. Amen.   

A Prayer to be used by the friends of the sick, etc.  
O Lord, our God and most gracious Creator, thou madest us immortal creatures, but by sin we have brought death and destruction upon ourselves, for we have profaned thy Sabbaths, contemned thine ordinances, cast thy word behind our backs, lived in all sin and sensuality, spiritual slumber and security; so that thou mightest justly cut us off from the land of the living, and give us our portion which hypocrites, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. But Lord, for thy mercy sake, and for the merits of thy Son spare us a little, and give us space of amendment, before we go hence, and be no more seen, and grace whereby we may draw near unto thee to seek thy favour in jesus Christ. Correct us in thy mercy, and not in thy justice, lest we should be consumed, and brought to nothing. If thou give over our bodies unto sickness, let it be to the destruction of the body of sin, that being alive unto God, through jesus Christ, we may grow in grace, and be more fruitful in all good works. And whilst we live, teach us to dye daily, mortifying the deeds of the flesh, contemning the world, with the vanities thereof. Wean us from inordinate self-love, that we may not endear ourselves too much to these transitory lives of ours, but may be ready to depart when it shall please thee to call for us, knowing that we cannot live ever with thee, unless we be willing to dye and be with thee. Wherefore we pray thee take away the bitterness of death, and sweeten by the wood of Christ's Cross these waters of Marah, that we may sigh and groan in ourselves, desiring to be delive-from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.  
Work in us a willingness to depart but yet we humbly entreat thee let our lives and the life of this thy sick servant be now and ever precious in thy sight, look mercifully upon him that is grieved with sickness: Lord if thou wilt thou canst make him whole. Send him therefore help and health from thy holy place, and evermore mightily defend him. Let the enemy have no advantage against him, nor the wicked approach to hurt him, but be thou present with him, and strengthen his faith, increase his patience under thy correcting hand. Lift up by the hand of thy mercy and Fatherly indulgence, this thy servant from the bed of his sorrows. If thou wilt longer exercise him, lend him strength to endure thy trial; and in the end be bettered by it. If thou hast determined to take him hence, certify him how long he hath to live, make him to know his end and the measure of his days, that by prayer and repentance, of faith he may provide wisely for his last end, and be found of thee in peace and enjoy everlasting happiness: dispose his ●editations aright for death, and in the hour of death, and always, make him to deny himself in renouncing justification by any inherent worth or righteousness. In all sorrows and sufferings, let thy comforts rejoice his soul. To this end mortify in him the corruption of nature quicken him with the soul of new life, and establish him with thy free Spirit; purge his heart from worldly thoughts, and his mind from carnal desires, motions and affections. Wash his soul and body with the blood of Christ, and sanctify him throughout, both in Spirit, soul, and body, with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that departing in the true faith not casting away his confidence, nor hope of rejoicing, in full assurance of a blessed resurrection, he may have boldness in the day of Christ, and pass from death to life, and be ever with thee to behold thy glory; grant this for jesus Christ his sake. Amen.   

Another Prayer to be used by those that are about the sick.  
O Lord our God, great and glorious, thou that art the judge of all the earth, we dust and ashes, vile and miserable sinners, do here most humbly cast down ourselves before thee for our sins, which are the causers of all the evils of punishment which thou inflictest on the sons and daughters of men. Dear Father hear us, and forgive whatsoever is past, and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee through newness of life; walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days. And because the days are evil, give us grace to redeem the time, and numbering our days aright, apply our hearts unto wisdom. Cause us constantly to eschew evil, and do good, to seek peace, and ensue it.  
Look mercifully on this thy servant grieved with sickness, and sanctify this visitation unto him, that those graces which thou hast begun to work in him may be strengthened, increased, and by degrees perfected. Restore unto him the voice of joy and health, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice: and seeing we have need of patience, send this our brother (or sister) such competency of patience and constancy, that he may continue thy faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end, work in him a sense and feeling of sin, and true sorrow for the same, which may cause repentance unto salvation never to be repent of. If it be not thy good pleasure to raise him from his bed of languishing and set him upon his feet again, prepare his heart for death, and his soul for heaven washing away his sins in the blood of Christ and imputing unto him the righteousness of Christ, that he (appearing before thee without either spot or wrinkle) may have confidence of seeing his everliving and everloving redeemer, not with other but with ●hese his eyes: wean his affections from the love of this world, and set them on those things which are above, that being absent from the body, he may enjoy thy presence of glory for ever. Repair in this thy servant thine own Image, and renew it in knowledge, holiness, and righteousness, that thou mayest know and acknowledge him for thine own, and raise him up from the grave unto the resurrection of life, and for ever satisfy him with thine Image, and change him into the same from glory to glory. Amen.   

A thanksgiving for recovery from sickness.  
OMnipotent Lord God the author of life, who bringest down unto the grave, and raisest up again, I do here confess to the glory of thine infinite mercy, that if thou hadst not blessed and sustained me in my sickness, I should have gone the way of all flesh, but it was thy goodness to spare me and deliver me from dangers: thy name be glorified for this thine unualuable favour and merciful kindness. And I humbly beseech thee to give me grace to express my real thankfulness, by my sincere obedience, and to serve thee more carefully and conscionably then heretofore I have done: and the shorter my days are, the more ●o redeem the time, that by repenting me truly of my sins, and calling on thee for grace, by eschewing evil, and doing good, more especially unto the household of faith, I may have the testimony within myself, that thou hast not ordained me unto wrath, but to obtain eternal life and salvation, through jesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour, Amen.   

A morning prayer for a family.  
O Eternal and allseeing God, who art just in thy judgements true in thy promises, wonderful in thy majesty, and infinite in thy mercy; who hast the heavens for thy throne, and the earth for thy footstool, and the creatures of both at thy beck; The heavens are full of the majesty of thy glory, and cannot contain the same: look down therefore from thence upon us thy servants who now prostrate ourselves before the footstool of thy throne of grace; humbly beseeching thee for jesus Christ his sake to be merciful unto us miserable sinners. One deep calleth unto another, the depth of misery unto the depth of mercy: have mercy therefore upon us, O Lord, and in the multitude of thy mercies do away all our offences. We confess that we are not worthy to speak of thee, much less to speak unto thee, we being so vile and miserable, thou so glorious and admirable; yet being assured that in forgiving sins and helping poor afflicted souls, the never drawn dry fountain of thy mercy doth appear, we thine unprofitable servants are emboldened to present ourselves this morning before thee, to offer up unto thee a lively sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving, who didst offer up thy Son upon the Cross to be a propitiation for our sins. O let this lifting up of our hearts and hands be a morning sacrifice, pure, and acceptable in thy sight. Let not the greatness of our sins withhold thy implored mercy, but wash us from all uncleanness, and remove thy judgements due unto us for them, as far from thy presence as is the East from the West. Bury them in the grave with Christ, raise us up by the power of thy Spirit unto newness of life, that we may walk in all holy obedience before thee this day, and that endeavouring to keep our faith, and a good conscience void of offence, we may now▪ and in the hour of death be, and remain always thine. Defend us from all evil and sense us against the assaults of Satan, watch over us by the eye of thy good providence, and cause thy Angels, to pitch their tents about us, for our safety and continual preservation. Into thy hands, we here commit our souls and bodies, our cogitations and actions, to be guided by thee; forgetting thee at any time, do thou in mercy remember us, and forgive our trespasses, make us to see our sins, in the glass of thy Law, to mourn for them in the closerts of our hearts, and confess them in the bitterness of our souls. Teach us to cast off the rags of iniquity, and by faith to put on the robes of righteousness: help us to manage the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, that we may be able to fight against the wiles of the devil, the vanities of the world, the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life.  
Be favourable to Zion, build up the walls of jerusalem, more particularly, preserve and enlarge these Churches of great Britain, France, and Ireland, feed them as thy flock, foster them as thy family, dress them as thy vineyard, and deck them as thy spouse. Defend the King's majesty from all enemies, preserve his body in health, his soul in soundness, his heart in truth, his life in honour, his honour from underminers. Bless our gracious Queen Mary, and grant that with Mary she may choose the better part which can never be taken from her. Let thy good Spirit be with our hopeful Prince Charles, and the Lady Mary, sanctify and season them with grace, and make them thy darlings and beloved ones. Bless the Lady Elizabeth and her children: and for the days wherein they have suffered adversity, send them abundance of peace and prosperity. Bless the counsellors of state, all schools of good Learning, all thy ministers, and magistrates, with all our kindsfolke in the flesh, and friends in the Spirit, to whom thou hast any ways made us bounden: O Lord, enable us to requite them, or lay it on thine own account to restore it unto them and their posterities.  
And here we yield thee from the Altar of our hearts all possible thanks for that thou hast created us, when we were nothing, predestinated us unto the Adoption, and chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and hast called us by the working of thy spirit in the preaching of the Gospel, & hast freely justified us by Faith in Christ; we thank thee likewise for our preservation this night past, and for bringing of us this day to see the light. Now Lord, awake our souls from sin and carnal security, that we may be prepared (like wise virgins) with oil in our lamps, to meet the sweet bridegroom of our souls, whether at the day of our death or judgement. These and all other graces (which for blindness we cannot, and for our unworthiness we dare not ask) we beseech thee to give unto us for the worthiness of thy dear Son's sake jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. Our Father▪ etc.   

An Evening Prayer for a Family.  
O God the God of the spirits of all flesh, the high and lofty one that inhabitest eternity, who hast made the earth by thy power, established the world by thy wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by thy discretion: the Father of eternity, and fountain of mercy, the giver of all good things, the forgiver of all sins, and the comforter of all such as fly unto thee. Seeing we are here present before thee, be thou present with us, and precedent in us: and appealing from the seat of thy justice, to the throne of thy mercy, we pray thee give us a sense of our own miseries, and an assurance of thy mercies, that we may not be daunted with overmuch fear, but confident of thy goodness, may with joy appear in thy presence, in an humble acknowledgement of our sins. To this end we confess that we have sinned against heaven and before thee, and are no more worthy to be called thy children, for we have transgressed thy holy laws and commandments, not only by our thoughts and words▪ but by our deeds and continual actions, our iniquities are more than the hairs of our heads, and do make us seem vile in our own eyes, how much more in thy sight.  
Lord unto thee do we confess our sins, O grant us pardon and absolution for the same, open unto us (penitents) that ever streaming fountain of thy Son's blood, that my sins being bathed therein, we may appear without blemish in thy fight, by his death mortify our sinful corruptions, hide them in his wounds, and bury them in his grave, that they may neither rise in this life to shame us nor in the world to come to condemn us. Give us thy holy Spirit, let him purge our consciences, heal our corruptions, illuminate our understandings, confirm our memories, consecreate our souls and bodies that they may be the temples of the holy Ghost to dwell in. Be merciful to thy Church, enlarge the borders thereof. Bless our gracious Sovereign Lord King Charles, with long life and abundance of grace here, and his royal consort Queen Mary, with a zealous and religious affection, that she may follow after that which will bring her to everlasting joy and peace hereafter. Be with our hopeful Prince Charles, and the Lady Mary, put thy fear into their hearts that they may never depart from thee. Prosper the most illustrious Princess the Lady Elizabeth with her hopeful issue. Bless the Nobility, Gentry, Ministry, Magistracy, and Commonalty, our kind folks in the flesh, and friends in the Spirit. Protect all those that stand up for thy truth, but as for thy foes let them be ashamed and confounded. And now seeing thou hast brought the night upon us wherein thou hadst ordained man to take his rest, we humbly beseech thee (who art the keeper of thy Israel, who never slumberest nor sleepest) to watch over us by thy good providence. 'Cause thine holy Angels to pitch their tents round about us, that being freed from the terrors of the night, and refreshed with moderate rest and sleep, we may the better be enabled to praise thy name and to walk before thee in all good works, and holiness of conversation all the days of our lives. Let our bed, O Lord, put us in mind of our grave and our rising from thence of our resurrection, that whether we wake or sleep we may be always thine. And knowing that thy name, O Lord, is a strong tower of defence, we here commend ourselves this night unto thy most holy protection; If it be thy will to call for any of us in our sleep, O Lord, for Christ his sake have mercy upon us, and receive our souls into thy most blessed kingdom: but if it be thy heavenly pleasure to add more days unto our lives, add more amendment unto our days, that living we may live in thy fear, and dying may dye in thy favour, and in the end reign with thee in Glory, Amen.   

A form of Thanksgiving.  
WE bless and magnify thy great and glorious name for all thy mercies both spiritual and temporal, concerning this life, and that which is to come: for our creation, after thine Image; redemption, by thy Son; sanctifitation by thy Spirit; for our preservation by thy providence; for our life, health, wealth, peace, and prosperity; for sparing us so long, and gi●ing us so large a time of repentance, for delivering our King and state from that horrible plot of the gunpowder treason: we thank thee for that thou hast given us thy messengers to be admonishers, thy word to be our instructor, thy Spirit to be our counsellor, our God, and guide to lead us into all truth. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord jesus Christ the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation, who when we were sometimes alienes, and enemies in our minds by wicked works, and were by nature the children of wrath, as well as others, out of his rich mercy, for the great love where with he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, and sins, and the uncircumcision of our flesh, hath quickened us, together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses, blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us, taking it out of the way, nailing it unto the Crosse. We thank and praise thy glorious Name, for blessing us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, for delivering us from the power of darkness, and translating us into the kingdom of thy dear Son, making us meet to be partakers of the inheritance with thy Saints in light. Thy hands have made and fashioned us. Thou hast delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling. Thou hast delivered us from dangers, extended peace unto us like a river, and prosperity like a flowing stream, we drink waters out of our own wells Thou hast strengthened the bars of our gates, and blessed our children within us. Thou hast given us bread to eat, and raiment to put on, yea our bread (like Ashurs') is fat, and we have pleasures which even kings do want. Thou hast not dealt so with any nation, oh that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men. Wherefore, blessing, honour, glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the lamb for ever and ever. Amen.   

A Collect for the Day.  
LOrd bless us, and make thy face to shine upon us: keep us from sin and Satan, and from sickness and sorrow, shame and servitude, loss of goods and good names, or of aught more near and dear unto us, if it may stand with thy good pleasure: preserve us evermore in thy faith and holy fear, guide us constantly by thy counsel, and after that receive us to glory.   

A Collect for the Night.  
O Lord our God, which art the keeper of Israel, which never slumberest nor sleepest, into thy hands O Father, we commend our spirits, for thou hast redeemed us. O thou God of truth, Into thy most merciful tuition and gracious preservation do we commend ourselves, our souls and bodies, our kinsfolks in the flesh, and friends in the spirit, our goods, our good names, all ours, and all that call upon thy name from this time forth and forevermore, Amen.  
Lord we pray thee, be thou present with them and us, and about our beds, unto our lives end· Let not our fantasies be troubled with vain imaginations, nor the dreams and visions of our heads, like Nebuchadnezzars', make us afraid. But give us quiet and comfortable rest, that our souls being cheered up & our bodies refreshed, 〈◊〉 may when we awake, laud and ●●aise thee, and go and pray unto thee, and joyfully set ourselves about the business of the next day, and perform the duties of our particular callings. Let our whole life be a serving and glorifying of thee, that we may live in thy fear, die in thy favour, and rest from all our labours, and be blessed with thy glorious vision, enjoying the presence of our blessed Saviour, and the comfort of thy holy Spirit, and the communion of thy most holy Saints and Angels, that we, together with them may ascribe unto thee the glory of our redemption from sin, Satan, hell, and death, and the Devil, world without end, Amen.   

A Grace before mea●●  
O God, who art the giver of every good and perfect gift, sanctify we beseech thee these thy Creatures now prepared for us, make them wholesome for our bodies: and our souls and bodies serviceable unto thee for them, through jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.   

A Grace after meat.  
THe Lords most holy Name be now and ever blessed and praised, for all his mercies, and for his blessings at this time bestowed upon us: Lord as thou hast fed our bodies with corporal food; so feed our souls likewise with spiritual food unto life eternal▪ Save thy Church, the King's majesty, Queen, Princes, and the Realms, prosper the word, bless thine ordinances unto us, increase our faith▪ send us grace and truth prosperity & peace, with life everlasting, Amen.   

A Grace before meat.  
Merciful Father, which openest thy hands, and fillest all things living with plenteousness, we pray thee sanctify these thy good creatures unto us, that we may eat to live, and ●iuing serve thee our Lord, God, through thine only Son, our Saviour jesus Christ. Amen.   

A Grace after meat.  
THe God of all grace and goodness, who at this time hath fed and plenteously refreshed us, his most holy name be blessed and praised, from this time forth and for evermore. Amen.   

A Grace before meat.  
O Lord our God, by whose providence it is that we live, move, and have our being; send thy blessing upon us and our meats, and grant that whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever else we do, we may do all to the glory of thy name, through jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

A Grace before meat.  
WE laud and praise thy Name for all thy blessings and favours, and for feeding us so plentifully at this time, desiring thee of thy grace, that our thankfulness may not be in word and in tongue, but expressed by our careful study to glorify thee our God, in all our words and works through jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   
FINIS.