Pictor adumbravit Vultum ●uem cernimus a●t hic Non valet egregias 〈◊〉 mentis Opes Has si seire cupis, sua consu●c Carmina ●n ●●lis Dotes percipies pectoris eximias What here we see is but a Graven face Only the shadow of that brittle case Wherein were treasured up those gems, which he Hath left behind him to posterity. A●● 〈◊〉 ●culp: Judgement and Mercy for afflicted souls by Fra: Quarles 1646. JUDGEMENT & MERCY FOR AFFLICTED souls. OR Meditations. Soliloquies, And Prayers. BY FRA. QVARLES. LONDON, Printed by Ric. Cotes, for Richard Royston, at the angel in Ivy-Lane, 1646. TO MY MOST gracious sovereign KING CHARLES. SIR, I believe you to be such a Patron of virtue, that if this Treatise had the least probability of cherishing Vice, my countenance durst not admit a thought of this dedication to your majesty. But my own reason (seconded by better approbations) assures me, these Disquisitions and Prayers are like to beget grace in those where it was not, and confirm it where it was. And being so useful, I dare not doubt your patronage of this Child, which survives a Father whose utmost abilities were (till death darkened that great light in his soul) sacrificed to your service. But, if I could question your willing protection of it, I might strengthen my petition for it, by an unquestionable commendation of the Authors published meditations, in most of which (even those of Poetry begun in his youth) there are such tinctures of piety, and Pictures of devout passions, as gained him much love, and many Noble friends. One of that number (which is not to be numbered) was the Religious, Learned, Peaceable, humble Bishop of Armagh; whom I beseech God to bless, and make your majesty and him, in these bad, sad times, instruments of good to this distracted, distempered Church and State. This is my unfeigned prayer: and I doubt not but all that wish well to Zion will seal it with their Amen. Your majesty's poor and most faithful Subject, RICHARD ROYSTON. The Preface. Reader, IT is thought fit to say this little, and but this little, of the Author and his book. He was (for I speak to those that are strangers to his extraction and breeding) a branch of a deserving family, and the son of a worthy father: his education was in the universities, and inns of Court, but his inclination was rather to Divine studies then the Law. This appears in most of his published books, (which are many) but I think in none more than this, which was finished with his life. Wherein the Reader may behold (according to the arguments undertaken by the Author) what passions, and in what degrees those passions have possessed his soul, and whether grace have yet allayed, or expeled them, (those that are inconsistible with virtue) from the str●ng hold of his affections. Such this Treatise is, and being such, I commend it to the Reader, and this wish with it, that th●se many (too many) writers who mistake malice for zeal, and (being transported) speak evil of government, and ●eddle with things they understand not, Jude 8, 10. forgetting there is such sins as ●edition and heresy, (sins which Saint Paul, Gal. 5. 20. 21● parallels with murder and witchcraft) would change their disputes into devout meditations, such as these be; in which, the pious man shall see virtue adorned with beautiful language, and vice so presented, as 'tis not like to infect the mind, nor corrupt the conscience. The method, the arguments, the stile, all speak Mr. Quarles the Author of the book, and the book speaks his commendations so much, that I need not commend it; but I do thee to God. Farewell. The Table. Meditation I. The sensual man's Solace. Pag. 1. His Sentence. 2 His Proofs. 3 His Soliloqui●. 4 His Prayer. 5 Meditation II. The vainglorious man's Vaunt, &c. 7 Meditation III. The oppressor's Plea, &c. 13 Meditation IV. The drunkard's jubilee, &c. 19 Meditation V. The Swearers apology, &c. 25 Meditation VI. The procrastinators Remora's, &c. 31 Meditation VII. The Hypocrites Prevarication, &c. 37 Meditation VIII. The ignorant man's faltering, &c. 43 Meditation ix.. The Slo●hfull man's slumber, &c. 49 Meditation X. The proud man's Ostentation, &c. 55 Meditation XI. The Covetous man's Care, &c. 61 Meditation XII. The Self-lovers Self-fraud, &c. 67 Meditation XIII. The Worldly man's Verdour, &c. 73 Meditation XIIII. The Lascivious man's Heaven, &c. 79 Meditation XV. The Sabbath-breakers Profa●ation, &c. 85 Meditation XVI. The Censorious man's Crimination, &c. 91 Meditation XVII. The liars fallacies, &c. 97 Meditation XVIII. The Revenge●ull man's Rage, &c. 103 Meditation XIX. The Secure man's Triumph, &c. 109 Meditation XX. The Presumptuous man's Felicities, &c. 115 The sensual man's Solace. COme, let's be merry, and rejoice our souls, in frolic and in fresh delights: Let's screw our pampered hearts a pitch beyond the reach of dull-blood sorrow: Let's pass the slowpaced time in melancholy charming mirth, and take the advantage of our youthful days: Let's banish care to the dead Sea of phlegmatic old age: Let a deep sigh be high Treason, and let a solemn look be adjudged a Crime too great for Pardon. My serious studies shall be to draw mirth into a Body, to analyse laughter, and to paraphrase upon the various Texts of all 〈◊〉. My recreat●ons shall be to still pleasure into a Quintessence, to reduce beauty to her first principles, and to extract a perfect innocence from the milk-white Doves of Venus. Why should I spend my precious minutes in the sullen and dejected shades of sadness? or ravel out my short lived days in solemn and heart-breaking Care? hours have Eagles wings, and when their hasty flight shall put a Period to our numbered days, the world is gone with us, and all our forgotten joys are left to be enjoyed by the succeeding Generations, and we are snatched we know not how, we know not whither; and wrapped in the dark bosom of eternal night. Come then my soul; be wise, make use of that which gone, is past recalling, and lost, is past redemption: eat thy Bread with a merry heart, and gulp down care in frolic cups of liberal Wine. Beguile the tedious nights with dalliance, and steep thy stupid senses in unctuous, in delightful sports. 'tis all the portion that this transitory world can give thee: Let music, Voices, Masques and midnight revels, and all that melancholy wisdom censures vain, be thy delights. And let thy care-abjuring soul cheer up and sweeten the short days of thy consuming youth. Follow the ways of thy own heart, and take the freedom of thy sweet desires: Leave not delight untried, and spare no cost to heighten up thy Lusts. Take pleasure in the choice of pleasures, and please thy curious eyes with all varieties, to satisfy thy soul in all things which thy heart desires. Ay, but my soul, when those evil days shall come wherein thy wasting pleasures shall present their Items to thy bedrid view, when all diseases and the evils of age shall muster up their Forces in thy crazy bones, where be thy comforts then? COnsider O my soul, and know that day will come, and after that, another, wherein for all these things God will bring thee to judgement, Eccles. 11. 9 Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Eccles. 2. 2. I said in my heart, go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, and therefore enjoy pleasure, and behold this also is vanity: I said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What doth it? St. James. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. Eccles. 7. 4. The heart of the wise man is in the house of mourning: but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Isid. in Synonymis. Pleasure is an Inclination to the unlawful objects of a corrupted mind, allured with a momentary sweetness. Hugo. Sensuality is an immoderate indulgence of the flesh, a sweet pason, a strong plague, a dangerous Potion which effeminates the body, and enerves the soul. Cass. Lib. 4. Ep. They are most sensible of the burden of affliction that are most taken with the pleasures of the flesh. What hast thou now to say O my soul, why this judgement, seconded with divine proofs, backed with the harmony of holy men, should not proceed against thee? Dally no longer with thy own Salvation, nor flatter thy own Corruption: Remember, the wages of flesh are sin, and the wages of sin, death: God hath threatened it, whose judgements are terrible? God hath witnessed it, whose words are truth. Consider then my soul, and let not momentary pleasures flatter thee into eternity of torments: How many, that have trod thy steps, are now roaring in the flames of Hell! and yet thou triflest away the time of thy Repentance. O my poor deluded soul, presume no longer; Repent to day, left to morrow come too late: Or couldst thou ravel out thy days beyond Methusalem, tell me, alas, what will eternity be the shorter for the deduction of a thousand years? Be wisely provident therefore O my soul, and bid vanity the common sorceress of the world, farewell; life and death are yet before thee: choose life, and the God of life will seal thy ●boyee. Prostrate thyself before him who delights not in the death of a sinner, and present thy Petitions to him who can deny thee nothing in the name of a Saviour. His Prayer. O God, in the beauty of whose holiness is the true joy of those that love thee, the full happiness of those that fear thee, and the only rest of those that prize thee; In respect of which the transitory pleasures of the world are less than nothing, in comparison of which the greatest wisdom of the world is folly, and the glory of the earth but dross, and dung; How dare my boldness thus presume to press into thy glorious presence? What can my prayers expect but thy just wrath and heavy indignation? O what return can the tainted breath of my polluted lips deserve, but to be bound hand and foot, and cast into the flames of Hell? But Lord, the merits of my Saviour are greater than the offences of a sinner, and the sweetness of thy mercy exceeds the sharpness of my misery: The horror of thy judgements have seized upon me, and I languish through the sense of thy displeasure; I have forsaken thee the rest of my distressed soul, and set my affections upon the vanity of the deceitful world. I have taken pleasure in my foolishness, and have vaunted myself in mine iniquity, I have flattered my soul with the honey of delights, whereby I am made sensible of the sting of my affliction; wherefore I loath, and utterly abhor myself, and from the bottom of my heart repent in dust and ashes. Behold O Lord, I am impure and vile, and have wallowed in the puddle of mine own Corruptions; The Sword of thy displeasure is drawn out against me, and what shall I plead O thou preserver of mankind? Make me a new Creature O my God, and destroy the old man within me. Remove my affections from the love of transitory things, that I may run the way of the commandments. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and make thy Testimonies my whole delight Give me strength to discern the emptiness of the creature, and inebriate my heart with the fullness of thy joys. Be thou my portion O God, at whose right hand stand pleasures for evermore. Be thou my refuge and my shield, and suffer me not to sink under the corruptions of my heart; let not the house of mirth beguile me, but give me a sense of the evil to come. Accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, and grant my petitions for the honour of thy Name, then will I magnify thy mercies O God, and praise thy Name for ever and ever. The vain● glorious man's Vaunt. What tellest thou me of Conscience, or a pious life? They are good trades for a leaden spirit that can stand bent at every frown, and want the brains to make a higher Fortune, or cou●age to achieve that honour which might glorify their names, and write their memories in the Chronicles of Fame. 'tis true, humility is a needful gift in those that have no quality to exercise their pride; and patience is a necessary Grace to keep the world in peace, and him that hath it, in a whole skin, and often proves a virtue borne of mere nec●ssi●ie. And civil Honesty is a fair pretence for him that hath not wit to act the Knave, and makes a man capable of a little higher stile than Fo●le. And blushing modesty is a pretty innocent quality, and serves to vindicate an easy nature from the imputation of an ill-breeding. These are inferior Graces, that have got a good opinion in the dull wisdom of the world, and appear like water among the Elements to moderate the body Poli●ique, and keep it from combustion, nor do they come into the work of honour. Virtue consists in Action, and the reward of action is Glory. Glory is the great soul of the little world, and is the crown of all sublime attempts, and the point whereto the crooked ways of policy are all concentric. Honour consults not with a pious life. Let those that are ambitious of a religious reputation abjure all honourable Titles, and let their dough-baked spirits take a pride in sufferance, (the anvil of all injuries) and be thankfully baffled into a quiet pilgrimage. Rapes, murders, treasons, dispossessions, riots, are venial things to men of honour, and oft coincident in high pursuits. Had my dull Conscience stood upon such nice points, that little honour I have won had glorified some other arm, and left me begging morsels at his Princely gates. Come, come, my soul, 1d factum juvat quod 〈◊〉 non licet. fear not to do, what crownes thee being done. Ride on with thy Honour, and create a name to live with fair eternity. Enjoy thy purchased Glory as the merit of thy renowned Actions, and let thy memory entail it to succeeding Generations. Make thy own game, and if thy conscience check thee, correct thy saucy Conscience, till she stand as mute as metamorphosed Niobe. fear not the frowns of Princes or the imperious hand of various Fortune. Thou art too bright for the one to obscure, and too great for the other to cry down. BUt hark my soul, I hear a voice that thunders in mine ear I will change their glory into shame. Hos. 4. 7 Psal. 49. 20. Man that is borne in honour and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish. Prov. 25. 27. It is not good to eat too much honey, so for men to search their own glory is not glory. Jer. 9 23. Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his ric●es: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord. Gal. 5. 26. Let us not be desirous of vainglory, &c. St. August. The vain glory of the world is a deceitful sweetness, an unfruitful labour, a perpetual fear, a dangerous bravery, begun without providence, and finished not without repentance. St. Greg. He that makes transitory honour the reward of a good work, sets eternal glory at a low rate. Vainglory is a Froth, which blown off discovers a great want of measure: Canst thou O my soul be guilty of such an emptiness, and note be challenged? Canst thou appear in the searching eye of heaven, and not expect to be cast away? deceive not thyself O my soul, nor flatter thyself with thy own greatness. Search thyself to the bottom, and thou shalt find enough to humble thee: Dost thou glory in the ●avour of a Prince? The frown of a Prince determines it. Dost thou glory in thy strength? A poor Ague betrays it. Dost thou glory in thy wealth? The hand of a thief extinguishes it. Dost thou glory in thy Friends? One cloud of adversity darkens it. Dost thou glory in thy parts? Thy own pride obscures it. Behold my soul, how like a Bubble thou appearest, and with a Sigh break into sorrow: The gate of heaven is straight; canst thou hope to enter without breaking? The Bubble that would pass the Floodgates must first dissolve; My soul melt then in tears, and empty thyself of all thy vanity, and thou shalt find divine Repletion; evaporate in thy Devotion, and thou shalt rec●ute thy greatness to eternal Glory. His Prayer. ANd can I choose O God but tremble at thy judgements? O● can my stony heart not stand amazed at thy threatenings? It is thy voice O God, and thou hast spoken it: It is thy voice O God, and I have heard it. Hadst thou so dealt by me, as thou did●● by Babel's proud King, and driven me from the sons of men, thou hadst but done according to thy righteousness, and rewarded me according to my deservings: What couldst thou see in me less worthy of thy vengeance then in him, the example of thy justice? or Lord, wherein am I more uncapable of thy indignation? There is nothing in me to move thy mercy but in misery. Thy goodness is thyself, and hath no ground but what proceedeth from itself, yet have I sinned against that goodness, and have thereby heaped up wrath against the day of wrath; that insomuch, had not thy Grace abounded with my sin, I had long since been confounded in my sin, and swallow-lowed up in the gulf of thy displeasure. But Lord thou takest no delight to punish, and with thee is no respect of persons: Thou takest no pleasure in the confusion of thy creature, but rejoicest rather in the conversion of a sinner. Convert me therefore O God, I shall be then converted: Make me sensible of my own corruptions, that I may see the vileness of my own condition. Pull down the pride of my ambitious heart; humble me thou O God, and I shall be humbled: wean me from the thirst of transitory honour, and let my whole delight be to glory in thee: Touch thou my conscience with the fear of thy name, that in all my actions I may fear to offend thee. Endue me O Lord with the spirit of meekness, and teach me to overcome evil with a patient heart: moderate and curb the exorbitances of my passion, and give me temperate use of all thy creatures. Replenish my heart with the Graces of thy Spirit, that in all my ways I may be acceptable in thy sight. In all conditions give me a contented mind, and upon all occasions grant me a grateful heart, that honouring thee here in the Church militant before men, I may be glorified hereafter in the Church Triumphant before thee and angels, where filled with true glory according to the measure of Grace thou shalt be pleased to give me here, I may with Angels and Archangels praise thy Name for ever and ever. The oppressor's Plea. I seek but what's my own by Law: It was his own free Act and Deed: The execution lies for goods or body, and goods or body I will have or else my money. What if his beggarly children pine, or his proud wife perish? They perish at their own charge, not mine, and what is that to me? I must be paid, or he lie by it until I have my utmost farthing, or his bones. The Law is just and good, and being ruled by that, how can my fair proceedings be unjust? what's thirty in the hundred to a man of Trade? Are we borne to thrum Caps, or pick straws? and sell our livelihood for a few tears, and a whining face? I thank God they move me not so much as a bowling dog at midnight: I'll give no day if heaven itself would be securit●e; I must have present money or his bones. The Commodity was good enough, as wares went then, and had he had but a thriving wit, with the necessary help of a good merchantable conscience he might have gained perchance as much as now he lost; but howsoever, gain or not gain, I must have my money. Two tedious terms my dearest gold hath lain in his unprofitable hands. The ●oft of Suit hath made me bleed above a score of Royals, besides my Interest, travel, half pints, and bribes; all which does but increase my beggarly defendants damages, and sets him deeper on my score; but right's right, and I will have my money or his bones. fifteen shillings in the pound composition? I'll hang first. Come, tell not me of a good conscience, a good conscience is no parcel of my trade; it hath made more Bankrupts than all the loose wives in the universal city. My conscience is no fool. It tells me that my own's my own, and that a well crammed bag is no deceitful friend, but will stick close to me when all my friends forsake me: If to gain a good estate out of nothing, and to regain a desperate debt which is as good as nothing, be the fruits and sign of a bad conscience, God help the good. Come, tell not me of griping and Oppression. The world is hard, and he that hopes to thrive must gripe as hard: What I give I give, and what I lend I lend; If the way to heaven be to turn beggar upon earth, let them take it that like it, I know not what ye call Oppression. The Law is my direction; but of the two it is more profitable to oppress then to be oppressed. If debtors would be honest and discharge, our hands were bound; but when their failing offends my bags they touch the Apple of my eye, and I must right them. BUt hah! what voice is this that whispers in mine ear, The Lord will spoil the soul of the Oppressors, Prov. 22. 23. Prov. 21. 22. Rob not the poor because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gates, for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that have spoled him. Ezek. 22. 19 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised Robbery, and have vexed the poors and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Zach. 7. 9 Execute true judgement and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother, and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, nor the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his brother. But they refused to harken; therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts. Bernard, p. 1691. We ought so to care for ourselves, as not to neglect the due regard of our neighbour. Bern. ibi●● He that is not merciful to another shall not find mercy from God; but if thou willest be merciful and compassionate, thou shalt be a ben●factor to thy own soul. IS it wisdom in thee O my soul to covet a happiness, or rather to account it so, that is sought for with a judgement, obtained with a Curse, and punished with damnation; And to neglect that good which is assured with a promise, purchased with a blessing, and rewarded with a crown of Glory? Canst thou hold a full estate, a good pennyworth, which is bought with the dear price of thy God's displeasure? Tell me, what continuance can that Inheritance promise that is raised upon the ruins of thy Brother? Or what mercy canst thou expect from heaven, that hast denied all mercy to thy Neighbour? O my hard-hearted soul consider, and relent: Build not an house whose posts are subject to be rotted with a curse: Consider what the God of truth hath threatened against thy cruelty; Relent, and turn compassionate, that thou mayst be capable of his compassion. If the desire of Gold hath hardened thy heart, let the tears of true Repentance mollify it; soften it with Aaron's ointment, until it become Wax to take the impression of that seal which must confirm thy Pardon. His Prayer. BUt will my God be now entreated? Is not my crying sin too loud for Pardon? Am I not sunk too deep into the jaws of Hell, for thy strong arm to rescue? Hath not the hardness of my heart made me uncapable of thy compassion? O if my tears might wash away my sin, my head should turn a living Spring: Lord I have heard thee speak and am afraid; the word is past, and thy judgements have found me out. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and the jaws of Hell have overwhelmed me: I have oppressed thy poor, and added affliction to the afflicted, and the voice of their misery is come before thee. They besought me with tears, and in the anguish of their souls, but I have stopped mine ears against the cry of their complaint. But Lord, thou walkest not the ways of man, and remember'st mercy in the midst of thy wrath, for thou art good and gracious, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in compassion to all that shall call upon thee. Forgive me O God my sins that are past, and deliver me from the guilt of my Oppression: Take from me O God this heart of stone, and create in my breast a heart of flesh: assuage the vehemency of my desires to the things below, and satisfy my soul with the sufficiency of thy Grace. Inflame my affections, that I may love thee with a filial love, and incline me to rely upon thy fatherly providence: Let me account godliness my greatest gain, and subdue in me my lusts after filthy lucre. Preserve me O Lord from the vanity of self-love, and plant in my affections the true love of my neighbours: Endue my heart with the bowels of compassion, and then reward me according to thy righteousness: Direct me O God in the ways of my life, and let a good Conscience be my continual comfort. Give me a willing heart to make res●itution of what I have wrongfully gotten by oppression. Grant me a lawful use of all thy Creatures, and a thankful heart for all thy benefits. Be merci●ull to all those that groan under the burden of their own wants, and give them patience to expect thy deliverance: Give me a heart that may acknowledge thy favours, and fill my tongue with praise and thanksgiving, that living here a new life I may become a new creature, and being engrafted in thee by the power of thy grace I may bring forth fruit to thy honour and glory. The drunkard's jubilee. What compliment will the severer world allow to the vacant hours of frolic-hearted youth! How shall their free, their jovial spirits entertain their time, their friends! What oil shall be infused into the lamp of dear society, if they deny the privilege of a civil rejoicing Cup? It is the life, the radical humour of united souls, whose love-digestive heat even ripens and ferments the green materials of a plighted faith; without the help whereof new married friendship falls into divorce, and joined acquaintance soon resolves into the first Elements of strangeness. What mean these strict Reformers thus to spend their hou●e-glasses, and bawl against our harmless Cups? to call our meetings Riots, and brand our civil mirth with styles of loose Intemperance? where they can sit at a fisters' Feast, devour and gourmandize beyond excess, and wipe the guilt from off their marrowed mouths, and clothe their surfeits in the long fustain Robes of a tedious Grace: Is it not much better in a fair friendly Round (since youth must have a swing) to steep our soule-afflicting sorrows in a chirping Cup, then hazard our estates upon the abuse of providence in a foolish cast at Dice? Or at a Cockpit leave our doubtful fortunes to the mercy of unmerciful contention? Or spend our wanton days in sacrificing costly presents to a fleshly idol? was not Wine given to exhilarate the drooping hearts, and raise the drowsy spirits of dejected souls? Is not the liberal Cup the Sucking-bottle of the sons of Phoebus, to solace and refresh their palates in the nights of sad Invention? Let dry-brained zealots spend their idle breaths, my cups shall be my cordials to restore my care-befeebled heart to the true Temper of a well-complexioned mirth: My solid brains are potent, and can bear enough, without the least offence to my distempered Senses, or interruption of my boon companions: My tongue can in the very Zenith of my Cups deliver the expressions of my composed thoughts with better sense, than these my grave Reformers can their best advised prayers. My Constitution is pot-proof, and strong enough to make a fierce encounter with the most stupendious vessel that ever failed upon the tides of Bacchus. My Reaso● shrinks not; my passion burns not. O But my soul, I hear a threatning voice that interrupts my language, We be to them that are mighty to drink Wine, Esay 5. 22. Prov. 20. 1. Wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Esay 5. 11. Woe be to them that rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink, that continue till night, until wine inflame them. Prov. 23. 20. Be not amongst wine-bibbers. 1. Cor. 5. 1. Now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any that is called a Brother be a drunkard, with such a one, no not to eat. Aug. in lib. pen. Whilst the drunkard swallows wine, wine swallows him; God disregards him, Angels despise him, Men deride him, virtue declines him, the devil destroys him. Aug. ad. sac. virg. Drunkenness is the mother of all evil, the matter of all mischief, the wellspring of all vices, the trouble of the senses, the tempest of the tongue, the shipwreck of chastity, the consumption of time, a voluntary madness, the corruption of manners, the distemper of the body and the destruction of the soul. MY soul, It is the voice of God, digested into a judgement: There is no kicking against Pricks, or arguing against a divine Truth; Pleadest thou custom? custom in sin multiplies it: Pleadest thou society? society in the offence, aggravates the punishment: Pleadest thou help to Invention? Woe be to that barrenness, that wants such showers: Pleadest thou strength to bear much Wine? Woe to those that are mighty to drink strong drink: My soul, thou hast sinned against thy Creator in abusing that creature he made to serve thee: Thou hast sinned against the creature, in turning it to the creator's dishonour: Thou hast sinned against thyself, in making thy comfort thy confusion. How many want that blessing thou hast turned into a curse? How many thirst whilst thou surfeitest? What satisfaction wilt thou give to the Creator, to the creature, to thyself, against all whom thou hast transgressed? To thyself, by a sober life: To the Creature, by a right use: To thy Creator, by a true Repentance: the way to all which, is Prayer and Thanksgiving. His Prayer. HOw truly then, O God, this heavy woe belongs to this my boasted sin? How many judgements are comprised● and abstracted in this woe● and all for me, even me O God, the miserable subject of thy eternal wrath; Even me O Lord, the mark whereat the shafts of thy displeasure level? Lord, I was a sinner in my first conception, and in sin hath my mother brought me forth; I was no sooner, but I was a slave to sin, and all my life is nothing but the practice and the trade of high Rebellion; I have turned thy blessings into thy dishonour, and all thy graces into wantonness: Yet hast thou been my God even from the very womb, and didst sustain me when I hung upon my mother's breast: Thou hast washed me O Lord from my pollution, but like a Swine I have returned to my mire. Thou hast glanced into my breast the blessed motions of thy holy Spirit, but I have quenched them with the springtides of my born corruption. I have vomited up my filthiness before thee, and like a dog have I returned to my vomit. Be merciful O God unto me, Have mercy on me O thou son of David; I cannot O Lord expect the children's bread, yet suffer me to lick the crumbs that fall beneath their table, I that have so oft abused the greatest of thy blessings am not worthy of the meanest of thy favours. Look, look upon me according to the goodness of thy mercy, and not according to the greatness of my offences: Give me O God a sober heart, and a lawful moderation in the enjoyment of thy Creatures. Reclaim my appetite from unseasonable delights, lest I turn thy blessings into a curse; In all my dejections, be thou my comfort, and let my rejoicing be only in thee. Propose to mine eyes the evilness of my days, and make me careful to redeem my time: wean me from the pleasure of vain society, and let my Companions be such as fear thee; Forgive all such as have been partners in my sin, and turn their hearts to the obedience of thy laws. Open their ears to the reproofs of the wise, and make them powerful in reformation. Allay that lust which my intemperance hath inflamed, and cleanse my affections with the grace of thy good spirit; make me thankful for the strength of my body, that I may for the time to come return it to the advantage of thy glory. The Swearers apology. WIll Boanarges never cease? And will these Plague-denouncers never leave to thunder judgements in my trembling ear? Nothing but plagues? Nothing but judgements? Nothing but damnation? What have I done to make my case desterate? And what have they not done to make my soul despair? Have I set up false Gods like the Egyptians? Or have I bowed before them like the Israelites? Have I violated the Sabbath like the Libertines? Or like cursed Cham have I discovered my father's nakedness? Have I embrued my hands in blood like Barabbas? Or like Absalon defiled my father's Bed? Have I like Jacob supplanted my elder brother? O like Ahab intruded into Nabott● Vineyard? Have I borne false witness like the wanton Elders? Or like David coveted Uriah's wife? Have I not given Tithes of all I have? Or hath my purse been hidebound to my hungry brother? Hath not my life been blameless before men? And my demeanour unreprovable before the world? Have I not hated Vice with a perfect hatred? and countenanced virtue with a due respect? What mean these strict observers of my life, to ransack every Action, to carp at every word, and with their sharp censorious tongues to sentence every frailty with damnation? Is there no allowance to humanity? No grains to flesh and blood? Are we all Angels? Has mortality no privilege, to supersede it from the utmost punishment of a little necessary frailty? Come, come, my soul, let not these judgement-thunderers fright thee: Let not these qualms of their exuberous zeal disturb thee. Thou hast not cursed like Shemei, nor railed like Rabshekah, nor lied like Anani●, nor slandered like thy accusers. They that censure thy Gnats swallow their own Camels. What if the luxuriant stile of thy discourse do chance to strike upon an obvious Oath, art thou straight hurried into the bosom of a Plague? What if the custom of a harmless oath should captivate thy heedless tongue, can nothing under sudden judgement seize upon thee? What if another's diffidence should force thy earnest lips into a hasty Oath, in confirmation of a suffering Truth; must thou be straightways branded with damnation? Was Joseph marked for everlasting death, for swearing by the life of Egypt's King? Was Peter when he so denied his master, straight damned for swearing, and for-swearing● O flatter not thyself my soul, nor turn thou Advocate to so high a sin: Make not the slips of Saints a precedent for thee to fall. IF the Rebukes of flesh may not prevail, hear then the threatening of the Spirit which saith, The Plague shall not depart from the house of the swearer. Exod. 20. 7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord the God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain. Zach. 5. 3. And every one that sweareth shall be cut off. Matth. 5. 34. Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's Throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool: But let your communication be Yea, yea, Nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Jer. 23. 10. Because of swearing the land mourneth. Aug in Ser. The murderer killeth the body of his brother, but the swearer murders his own soul. August. in Psal. 88 It's well that God hath forbidden man to swear, left by custom of swearing (in as much as we are apt to mistake) we commit perjury: there's none but God can safely swear, because there's no other but may be deceived. August. de Mendacio. I say unto you, swear not at all, lest by swearing ye come to a facility of swearing, from a facility to a custom, and from a custom ye fall into perjury. O What a judgement is here! How terrible! How full of Execution! The Plague? the extract of all diseases! none so mortal; none so comfortless! It makes our house a Prison, our friends strangers; No comfort but in the expectation of the month's end: I, but this judgement excludes that comfort too; The Plague shall never depart from the house of the swearer: What never? Death will give it a Period: No, but it shall be entailed upon his house, his family: O detestable! O destructive sin! that leaves a cross upon the doors of Generations, and lays whole families upon the dust; A sin whereto neither Profit incites, nor Pleasure allures, nor necessity compels, nor Inclination of nature persuades; a mere voluntary, begun with a malignant imitation, and continued with an habitual presumption. Consider O my soul, every Oath hath been a nail to wound that Saviour, whose blood (O mercy above expression!) must save thee: be sensible of thy Actions and his sufferings: abhor thyself in dust and ashes, and magnify his Mercy that hath turned this judgement from thee go wash those wounds which thou hast made, with tears, and humble thyself with Prayer, and true repentance. His Prayer. Eternal and omnipotent God, before whose glorious name Angels, and Archangels bow, and hide their faces, to which the blessed Spirits, and Saints of thy triumphant Church sing forth perpetual Hallelujahs, I a poor Sprig of disobedient Adam do here make bold to take that holy name into my sin-polluted lips: I have heinously sinned O God against thee, and against it; I have disparaged it in my thoughts, dishonoured it in my words, profaned it in my actions, and I know thou art a jealous God, and a consuming fire, as faithful in thy promises, so fearful in thy judgements; I therefore fly from the dreadful Name of Jehovah, which I have abused, to that gracious Name of Jesus, wherein thou art well pleased; in that most sacred Name, O God, I fall before thee, and for his beloved sake O Lord I come unto thee. Cleanse thou my heart O God, and then my tongue shall praise thee: Wash thou my soul, O Lord, and then my lips shall bless thee. Work in my heart a fear of thy displeasure, and give me an awful reverence of thy Name. Set thou a Watch before my lips, that I offend not with my tongue: Let no respects entice me to be an instrument of thy dishonour, and let thy attributes be precious in mine eyes, teach me the way of thy Precepts, O Lord, and make me sensible of all my offences: Let not my sinful custom in sinning against thy Name take from my guilty soul the sense of my sin: Give me a respect unto all thy commandments, but especially preserve me from the danger of this my bosom sin. Mollify my heart at the rebukes of thy servants, and strike into my inward parts a fear of thy judgements: Let all my communication be ordered as in thy presence, and let the words of my mouth be governed by thy Spirit. Avert those judgements from me which thy Word hath threatened, and my sin hath deserved, and strengthen my resolution for the time to come; work in me a true godly sorrow, that it may bring forth in me a newness of life. Sanctify my thoughts with the continual meditation of thy Co●mandements, and mortify those passions which provoke me to offend thee. Let not the examples of others induce me to this sin, nor let the frailties of my flesh seek Fig leaves to cover it. Seal in my heart the full assurance of thy Reconciliation, and look upon me in the bowels of compassion, that crowning my weak desires with thy All-sufficient power, I may escape this judgement which thy justice hath threatened here, and obtain that happiness thy mercy hath promised hereafter. The Procrastinators Remora's. TEll me no more of fasting, prayer, and death; They fill my thoughts with dumps of Melancholy. These are no subjects for a youthful care; no contemplations for an active soul: Let them whom sullen Age hath weaned from airy pleasures, whom wayward fortune hath condemned to sighs and groans, whom sad diseases have beslaved to drugs and diets; let them consume the remnant of their wretched days in dull devotion: Let them afflict their aching souls with the untunable discourses of mortality; Let them contemplate on evil days, and read sharp Lectures of their own experience: For me, my bones are full of unctuous marrow, and my blood, of sprightly Youth: My fair and free estate secures me from the fears of fortune's frown. My strength of constitution hath the power to grapple with sorrow, sickness, nay the very pangs of death, and overcome. 'Tis true, God must be sought; What impious tongue dare be so basely bold to contradict so known a Truth? And by repentance too; What strange impiety dare deny it? Or what presumptuous lips dare disavow it? But there's a time for all things, yet none prefixed for this, no day designed, but, At what time soever: If my unseasonable heart should seek him now, the work would be too serious for so green a seeker. My thoughts are yet unsettled, my fancy yet too too gamesome, my judgement yet unsound, my Will unsanctified; To seek him with an unprepared heart is the high way not to find him; or to find him with unsettled resolution is the next way to lose him; and indeed it wants but little of profaneness, to be unseasonably religious. What is once to be done is long to be deliberated. Let the boiling pleasures of the rebellious flesh evaporate a little, and let me drain my boggy soul from those corrupted, inbred humours of collapsed nature, and when the tender blossoms of my youthful vanity shall begin to fade, my settled understanding will begin to knot, my solid judgement will begin to ripen, my rightly guided will be resolved, both what to seek, and when to find, and how to prize; till than my tender youth, in her pursuit, will be disturbed with every blast of honour, diverted with every flash of pleasure, misled by counsel, turned back with fear, puzzled with doubt, interupted by Passion, withdrawn with prosperity, and discuraged with adversity. TAke heed my soul, when thou hast lost thyself in thy journey, how wilt thou find thy God at thy journey's end? Whom thou hast lost by too long delay, thou wilt hardly find with too late ●diligence. Take time while time shall serve, that day may come wherein Thou shalt seek the Lord, but shalt not find him● Hos. 5. 6. Esay 55. 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Heb. 12. 17. He found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears carefully. Thou fool, this night will I take thy soul from thee. Revel. 2. 21. I gave her a space to repent, but she repented not; Behold therefore I will cast her. Greg. lib. Mor. Seek God whilst thou canst not see him, for when thou seest him thou canst not find him: seek him by hope and thou shalt find him by faith; In the day of grace he is invisible, but near; in the day of judgement he is visible, but far off. Ber. Ser. 24. If we would not seek God in vain, let us seek him in truth, often, and constantly; Let us not seek another thing in stead of him, nor any other thing with him, nor for any other thing, leave him. O My soul, thou hast sought wealth, and hast either not found it, or cares with it; thou hast sought for pleasure, and hast found it, but no comfort in it: Thou soughtest honour and hast found it, and perchance fallen with it: Thou soughtest friendship, and hast found it false: society, and hast found it vain; And yet thy God, the fountain of all wealth, pleasure, honour, friendship, and society, thou hast slighted as a toy not worth the finding: Be wise, my soul, and blush at thy own folly. Set thy desires on the right obj●ct: seek wisdom, and thou shalt find knowledge, and wealth, and honour, and length of days: seek heaven, and earth shall seek thee; and defer not thy Inquest, lest thou lose thy opportunity: To day thou Mayst find him, whom to morrow thou mayst seek with tears, and miss: Yesterday is too late, to morrow is uncertain, to day is only thine: I, but my soul, I fear my too long delay hath made this day too late; fear not my soul, he that has given thee his Grace to day will forget thy neglect of yesterday, seek him therefore by true repentance, and thou shalt find him in thy Prayer. His Prayer. O God, that like thy precious Word art hid to none, but who are lost, and yet art found by all that seek thee with an upright heart, cast down thy gracious eye upon a lost sheep of Israel, strayed through the vanity of his unbridled youth, and wandered in the wilderness of his own invention. Lord I have too much delighted in mine own ways, and have put the evil day too far from me; I have wallowed i● the pleasures of this deceitful world, which perish in the using, and have neglected thee my God, at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore: I have drawn on iniquity as with Cart-ropes, and have committed evil with greediness: I have quenched the motions of thy good spirit, and have delayed to seek thee by true and unfeigned repentance: In stead of seeking thee whom I have lost, I have withdrawn myself from thy presence when thou hast sought me. It were but justice therefore in thee to stop thine ears at my petitions, or turn my Prayers as sin into my bosom; But Lord, thou art a gracious God, and full of pity, and unwearied compassion, and thy loving kindness is from generation to generation: Lord, in not seeking thee I have utterly lost myself, and if-thou find me not. I am lost for ever, and if thou find me, thou canst not but find me in my sins, and then thou find'st me to my own destruction. How miserable O Lord is my condition! How necessary is my confusion! that have neglected to seek thee, and therefore am afraid to be found of thee. But Lord if thou look upon the all-sufficient merits of thy son, thy justice will be no loser in showing mercy upon a sinner; In his name therefore I present myself before thee; in his merits I make my humble approach unto thee; in his name I offer up my feeble Prayers; for his merits grant me my petitions. Call not to mind the rebellions of my flesh, and remember not O God the vanities of my youth: Inflame my heart with the love of thy presence, and reli●● my meditations with the pleasure of thy sweetness. Let not the consideration of thy justice overwhelm me in despair, nor the meditation o● thy mercy persuade me to presume. Sancti●fie my will by the wisdom of thy Spirit, tha● I may desire thee as the chiefest good. Quicke● my desires with a servant zeal, that I may seek my Creator in the days of my youth● Teach me to seek thee according to thy wil● and then be found according to thy promise that living in me here by thy grace, I may here after reign with thee in glory. The Hypocrites Prevarication. THere is no such stuff to make a cloak on as Religion: nothing so fashionable, nothing so profitable; it is a Livery, wherein a wise man may serve two masters, God and the world, and make a gainful service by either: I serve b●ah, and in both, myself, in prevaricating with both. Before man none serves his God with more severe devotion, for which among the belt of men I work my own ends, & serve myself. In private I serve the world, not with so strict devotion, but with more delight, where fulfilling of her servants lusts I work my end, and serve myself: The house of Prayer who more frequents than I? In all Christian duties who more forward than I? I fast with those that fast, that I may eat with those that eat: I mourn with those that mourn: No hand more open to the cause than mine, and in their families none prays longer and with louder zeal: Thus when the opinion of a holy life hath cried the goodness of my conscience up, my trade can lack no custom, my wares can want no price, my words can need no credit, my actions can lack no praise: If I am covetous, it is interpreted providence; if miserable, it is counted temperance; if m●lancholly, it is construed godly sorrow; if merry, it is voted spiritual joy; if I be rich, 'tis thought the blessing of a godly life; if poor, supposed the fruit of conscionable dealing; if I be well spoken of, it is the merit ●f holy conversation; if ill, it is the malice of Malignants; thus I sail with every wind, and have my end in all conditions. This cloak in Summer keeps me cool, in winter warm, and hides the nasty Bag of all my secret lusts: Under this cloak I walk in public fairly, with applause, and in private sin securely without offence, and officiate wisely without discovery; I compass Sea and land to make a Proselyte, and no sooner made but he makes me. At a Fast I cry Geneva, and at a Feast I cry Rome. If I be poor, I counterfeit abundance to save my credit; if rich, I dissemble poverty to save charges. I most frequent schismatical Lectures, which I find most profitable, from whence learning to divulge and maintain new doctrines, they maintain me in suppers thrice a week; I use the help of a lie, sometimes as a Religious Stratagem to uphold the gospel, and I colour oppression with God's judgement executed upon the wicked. Charity I hold an extraordinary duty, therefore not ordinarily to be performed. What I openly reprove abroad for my own profit, that I secretly act at home, for my own pleasure. BUt stay, I see a hand-writing in my heart lamps my soul, 'tis charactered in these sa● words, W●e he to you Hypoerites, Match 23. 13. Job 20. 5. The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. Job 15. 34. The Congregation of the hypocrites shall be desolate. Psal. 11. 9 An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour, but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. Luke 12. 1. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy. Job 36. 13. The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath, they die in their youth, and their life is amongst the unclean. Salvian. de Gubern. Dei. l. 4. The hypocrites love not those things they profess, and what they pretend in words they disclaim in practice; their sin is the more damnable, because ushered in with pretence of piety, having the greater guilt because it obtains a godly repute. Hieron. Ep. Endeavour rather to be, then to be thought holy; for what profits it thee to be thought to be what thou art not? and that man doubles his guilt, who is not so holy as the world thinks him, and counterfeits that holiness which be bathe not. HOw like a living sepulchre did I appear! without, beautified with gold and rich invention; within, nothing but a loathed corruption: So long as this fair sepulchre was closed, it passed for a curious Monument of the builder's Art, but being opened by these spiritual keys, 'tis nothing but a Receptacle of offensive putrefaction: In what a nasty dungeon hast thou my soul, so long remained unstifled? How wert thou wedded to thy own corruptions, that couldst endure thy unsavoury filthiness? The world hated me, because I seemed good; God hated me, because I only seemed good: I had no friend but myself, and this friend was my bosom enemy: O my soul, is there water enough in Jordan to cleanse thee? Hath Gilead balm enough to heal thy superannuated sores? I have sinned, I am convinced, I am convicted: God's mercy is above Dimensions, when sinners have not sinned beyond Repentance: Art thou my soul truly penitent for thy 〈◊〉 Thou hast free Interest in his mercy: fall then my soul before his Mercy seat, and he will crown thy Pemitence with his pardon. His Prayer. O God before the brightness of whose All-discerning eye the secrets of my heart appear, before whose clear omniscience the very entrails of my soul lie open, who art a God of righteousness, and truth, and lovest uprightness in the inward parts: How can I choose but fear to thrust into thy glorious presence, or move my sinful lips to call upon that Name which I so often have dishonoured, and made a cloak to hide the baseness of my close transgressions? Lord, when I look into the progress of my filthy life, my guilty conscience calls me to so strict account, and reflects to me so large an Inventory of my presumptuous sins, that I commit a greater sin in thinking them more infinite than thy mercy. But Lord thy mercies have no date, nor is thy goodness circumscribed. The gates of thy compassion are always open to a broken heart, and promise entertainment to a contrite spirit; the burden of my sins is grievous, and the remembrance of my hypocrisy is intolerable; I have sinned against thy Majesty with a high hand, but I repent me from the bottom of an humble heart: As thou hast therefore given me sorrow for my sins, so crown that gift in the freeness of remission: be fully reconciled to me, through the all-sufficient merits of thy son my Saviour, and seal in my afflicted heart the full assurance of thy gracious favour: be thou exalted O God above the heavens, and let me praise thee with a single heart; cleanse thou my inward parts O God, and purify the closet of my polluted soul: Fix thou my heart O thou searcher of all secrets, and keep my affections wholly to thee. Remove from me all by and base respects that I may serve thee with an upright spirit. Take not the word of truth out of my mouth, nor give me over to deceitful lips; Give me an inward reverence of thy majesty, that I might openly confess thee in the truth of my sincerity. Be thou the only object, and end of all my actions, and let thy honour be my great r●ward: Let not the hopes of filthy lucre, or the praise of men incline me to thee, neither let the pleasures of the world nor the fears of any loss entice me from thee. Keep from me those judgements my hypocrisy hath deserved, and strengthen my resolution to abhor my former life: Give me strength O God to serve thee with a perfect heart in the newness of life, that I may be delivered from the old man, and the snares of death. Then shall I praise thee with my entire affections, and glorify thy name for ever and ever● The Ignorant man's faltering. YOu tell me, and you tell me that I must be a good man, and serve God, and do his will; and so I do for aught I know: I am sure I am as good as God has made me, and I can make myself no better, so I cannot: And as for serving God, I am sure I go to Church as well as the best in the Parish, though I be not so fine; and I make no question, if I had better clothes, but I should do God as much credit as another man, though I say it: And as for doing God's will, I beshrew me, I leave that to them that are book-learned, and can do it more wisely: I believe the Vicar of our Parish can do it, and has done it too, as well as any within five miles of his head, and what need I trouble myself to do what is so well done already? I hope he being so good a Churchm●n, and so great a scholar, and can speak Lati●e too, would not leave that to so simple man as I. It is enough for me to know, that God is a good man; and that the ten commandments are the best prayers in all the book, unless it be the creed. And that I must love my neighbour as well as he loves me, and for all other Quilicoms, they shall never trouble my brains, an grac● a God. Let me go a sundays and serve God, obey the King, (God bless him) do no man no wrong, say the Lord's Prayer every morning and evening, follow my work, give a Noble to the poor at my death, and then say Lord have mercy upon me, and go away like a lamb, I make no question but I shall deserve heaven as well as he that wears a gayer coat: But yet I am not so ingrate neither, nor have not gone so often to Church, but I know Christ died for me too, as well as for any other man: I'd be sorry else; and that, next to our Vicar, I shall go to heaven when I am dead as soon as another; nay more, I know there be two Sacraments, bread and wine, and but two, (though the Papists say there be six or seven) and that I verily believe I shall be saved by those Sacraments, & that I love God above all, or else 'twere pity of my life, and that when I am dead and rotten, (as our Vicar told me) I shall rise again and be the same man I was. But for that, he must excuse me, till I have better satisfaction; for all his learning, he cannot make me such a fool, unless he show me a better reason for't, than yet he has done. BUt one thing he told me, now I think on't, troubles me woundly, namely that God is my Master, all which I confess; and that I must do his will (whether I know how to do it or nor) or else it will go ill with me; I'll read it (he said) out of God's Bible, and I shall remember the words so long as I have a day to live, which are these, He that knoweth not his masters will and doth things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes, Luke 12. 48. 1 Cor. 14. 20. Brethren be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. 1 Cor. 15. 34. Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not ●the knowledge of God, I speak it to your shame. Ephes. 4. 18. Walk not in the vanity of your minds, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the Ignorance which is in you, because of the blindness of your hearts. Levit. 5. 17. And if a soul sin and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. 2 Thes. 1. 7. 8. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty Angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. Greg. Mag. Moral. It is good to know much, and to live well; but if we cannot attain both, it is better to desire piety then wisdom, for knowledge makes no man happy, nor doth blessedness consist in intellectuals. The only brave thing is a religious life. To sin against knowledge is so much the greater offence than an ignorant trespass, by how much the crime which is capable of no excuse, is more heinous than the fault which admits a tolerable plea. Justin, Mart. Resp. ad orthod. HOw well it had been for thee O my soul, if I had bookelarnd; Alas I cannot read, and what I hear, I cannot understand; I cannot profit as I should, and therefore cannot be as good as I would, for which I am right sorry: That I cannot serve as well as my betters, hath been often a great grief to me, and that I have been so ingran● in good things, hath been a great heart-breaking to me: I can say no prayers for want of knowledge to read, but Our Father and the creed: But the comfort is, God knows my heart, but ● trust in God Our Father, being made by Christ himself, will be enough for me that know not how to make a better. I endeavour to do all our Vicar bids me, and when I receive the Communion I truly forgive all the world for a fortnight after or such a matter, but then some old injury makes me forget myself, but I cannot help it, an my life should lie on't. O my ingrate soul, what shall I do to be saved? All that I can say is, Lord have mercy upon me, and all that I can do is but to do my good will, and that I'll do with all my heart, and say my prayers too as well as God will give me leave, an grace a God. His Prayer. O God the Father of heaven have mercy upon me miserable sinner; I am as I must needs confes●e a sinful man, as my forefathers were before me: I have heard many Sermons and have had many good lessons from the mouths of painful Ministers, but through the dulness of my understanding, and for want of learning I have not profited ●o much as else I should have done, spare me therefore O God, spare me whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood, and be not angry for ever; I must confess the painfulness of my calling, and the heaviness of my own nature hath taken from me the delight of hearing thy Word, and the ignorance of learning which I was never brought upto, hath kept me from reading it, that insomuch, in stead of growing better, I fear I have grown worse and worse, and have been so far from doing thy will, that I do not understand what thy will is, very well. But thou O merciful God that didst reveal thyself to poor Shepherds and Fishermen that had no more learning than I, have mercy upon me for Jesus Christ his sake. Thou that hast promised to instruct the simple, and to lead the ignorant into thy way, be● good and merciful to me I beseech thee; Thou that drawest the needy out of the dust, and the poor out of the dunghill, give me the knowledge of thy will, and teach me how to serve thee: Take from me the drowsiness of my heart, open mine eyes that I may see the truth, and mine ears that I may understand thy Word, and strengthen my memory that I may lay it up in my heart, and show it in my life and vocation to thy glory and my comfort, and the comfort of my friends. Lord write thy will in my heart, that when I know it I may do it willingly: O teach me what thy pleasure is that I may do my best to perform it: Give me faith to lay hold of Christ Jesus who died for me, that after I am dead I may ri●e again and live with him: Give me a good heart that I may deal honestly with all men, and do as I would be done to. Bless me in my calling, and prosper the labour of my hands, that I may have enough to feed me and clothe me, and to give to the poor: Mend all that is amiss in me, and expect from me according to the measure thou hast given me. Forgive me all my sins, and make me willing to please thee, that living a good life I may make a gracious death, and so at last I may come to heaven and live for ever, for Jesus Christ his sake, Amen. The slothful man's slumber. O What a world of Curses, the eating of the forbidden fruit hath brought upon mankind! and unavoidably entailed upon the sons of men! Among all which no one appears to me more terrible and full of sorrow, and bewraying greater wrath, than that insufferable, that horrible punishment of labour, and to purchase Bread with so extreme a price as sweat: But O what hap, what happiness have they, whose dying Parents have procured a quie● fortune for their unmolested Children, and conveyed descended Rents to their succeeding heirs, whose easy and contented lives may sit and suck the sweetness of their cumberlesse estates, and with their folded hands enjoy the delicates of this toilsome world! How blessed, how delicious are those easy morsels, that can find the way to my soft palate, and then attend upon the wanton leisure of my silken slumbers, without the painful practice of my bosom folded hands or sad contrivement of my studious and contracted brows! Why should I tire my tender youth, and ●orture out my groaning days in ●oyle and travel? and discompose the happy peace of my harmonious thoughts with painful grinding in the common mill of dull mortality? Why should I rob my craving eyelids of their delightful Rest, to cark and care, and purvey for that Bread which every work-abhorring vagabo●d can find of alms at every good man's door? Why should I leave the warm protection of my care-beguiling down, to play the droyling drudge for daily food, when the young empty R●vens (that have no hands to work, nor providence, but heaven) can call and be supplied? The pale faced lily and the blushing Rose, neither spins nor s●wes, yet princely Solomon was never robed with so much glory. And shall I then afflict my body and beslave my heaven-born soul to purchase, Rags to clothe my nakedness? Is my condition worse than sheep, ordained for slaughter, that crop the springing grass, clothed warm in soft Arrayment, purchaced without their Providence or pains? Or shall the pampered Beast that shines with fatness, and grows wanton through his careful groom's indulgence find better measure at the worlds too partial hands than I? Come, come, let those take pains that love to leave their names enroled in memorable monuments of Parchment; The day has grief enough without my help; and let Tomorrow●● shoulders bear tomorrow's burdens. BUt stay my soul, O stay thy rash resolves, take heed whilst thou avoid the punishment of sin, labour, thou meet not the reward of idleness, a judgement; The idle soul shall suffer hunger, Prov. 19 15. Eccles. 10. 18. By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands, the house droppeth thorough. Exod. 16. 49. Behold this was the iniquity of thy s●ster Sodom, pride, fullness of Bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the band of the poor and needy. Prov. 6. 6, 7, 8. Go to the Pismire O sluggard, behold her ways and be wise. For she having no guide, governor, nor ruler, prepareth her meat in Summer, and gathereth her food in harvest. Nilus in Paraenes. Idleness is the womb or fountain of all wickedness: for it consumes and wastes the riches and vermes which we have already, and disenables us to get those we have not. Nilus in Paraen. Was be to the idle soul●, for he shall hunger after that which his riot consumed. HOw presumptuously hast thou my soul, transgressed the express commandment of thy God How hast thou dashed thyself against his judgements! How hath thy undeserving hand usurped thy diet and wearest on thy back the wages of the painful soul! Art thou not condemned to Rags, to Famine, by him whose Law commanded thee to labour? And yet thou pamper'st up thy sides with stolen food, and yet thou deckest thy wanton body with unearned ornaments? whiles they that spend their daily strength in their commanded callings (whose labour gives them interest in them) want Bread to feed, and Rags to clothe them. Thou art no young Rav●n my soul, no lily: Where ability to labour is, there Providence meets action, and crownes it: he that forbids to cark for to morrow, denies Bread to the idleness of to day: Consider, O my soul thy own delinquency, and let employment make thee capable of thy God's protection: The Bird that sits is a fair mark for the Fowler, while they that use the wing escape the danger; follow thy calling, and heaven will follow thee with his Blessing: What thou hast formerly omitted, present repentance may redeem, and what judgements God hath threatened, early Pe●itions may avert. His Prayer MOst great and most glorious God, who for the sin of our first parents hast condemned our frail bodies to the punishment of labour, and hast commanded every one a Calling and a Trade of life, that hatest idleness as the root of evil, and threatnest poverty to the slothful hand; I thy poor suppliant convicted by thy judgements and conscious of my own transgression, fly from myself to Thee, and humbly appeal from the high tribunal of thy Justice, and seek for refuge in the Sanctuary of thy Mercy: Lord, I have led a life displeasing to thee, and have been a scandal to my profession; I have slighted those Blessings which thy goodness hath promised to a conscionable calling, and have swallowed down the Bread of idleness; I have impaired the talon thou gavest me, and have lost the opportunity of doing much good: I have filled my heart with idle imaginations, and have laid my felse open to the lusts of the flesh: I have abused thy favours in the misexpending of my precious time, and have taken no delight in thy Sabbaths; I have doted too much on the pleasures of this world, and like a drone have fed upon the honey of Bees. If thou O God shouldst be extreme to search my ways with too severe an eye, thou couldst not choose but whe● thy indignation, and pour the vials of thy wrath upon me; look therefore not upon my sins, O Lord, but through the merits of my Saviour, who hath made a full satisfaction for all my sins: What through my weakness I have failed to do, the fullness of his sufferings hath most exactly done: In Him O God in whom thou art well pleased, and for his sake be gracious to my fin; Alter my heart and make it willing to please thee, that in my life I may adorn my profession: Give me a care and a conscience in my calling, and grant thy blessing to the lawful labours of my hand; Let the fidelity of my vocation improve my talon, that I may enter into my Master's joy: rouse up the dulness and deadness of my heart, and quench those flames of lust within me. Assist me O God in the redemption of my time, and deliver my soul from the evilness of my days; Let thy providence accompany my moderate endeavours, and let all my employments depend upon thy providence, that when the labours of this sinful world shall cease, I may feel and enjoy the benefit of a good conscience, and obtain the rest of new Jerusalem in the Eternity of glory. The proud man's Ostentation. I' Le make him feel the weight of displeasure, and teach him to repent his saucy boldness: How dare his baseness once presume to breathe so near my person, much more to take my name into his dunghill mouth? methinks the lustre of my sparkling eye might have had the power to astonish him into good manners, and sent him back to cast his mind into a fair Petition, humbly presented with his trembling hand. But thus to press into my presence, to press so near my face, and then to sp●ake, and speak to me, as if I were his equal, is more than sufferable: The way to be contemned is to digest contempt; but he that would be honoured by the vulgar sort must wisely keep a distance: A countenance that's reserved, breeds fear and observation: but aff●bility and too easy an access makes fools too bold, and reputation cheap: What price I set upon my own deserts, instructs opinion how to prize me: That which base ignorance miscalls thy pride, is but a conscious knowledge of thy meri●s: dejected souls, cravened with their own dis●rusts, are the world's Footballs to be kicked & spurned, but brave and true heroic spirits that know the strength of their own worth, shall baffold baseness, and presumption into a reverential silence, and spite of envy flourish in an honourable repute. Come then my soul, advance thy noble, thy sublimer thoughts, and prize thyself according to those parts, which all may wonder at, few imitate, but none can equal: Let not the insolent affronts of vassals interrupt thy Peace, nor seem one s●ruple less than what thou art: be thou thyself, Respect thyself, receive thou honour from thyself; rejoice thyself in thyself, and prize thyself for thyself; Like Caesar admit no equal, and like Pompey, acknowledge no superior. Be covetous of thine own Honour, and hold another's glory as thy injury. Renounce humility as an heresy in reputation, and meekness as the worst disease of a true-bred noble Spirit; Disparage worth in all but in thyself, and make another's infamy a foil to magnify thy glory. Let such as have no reason to be proud, be humbled of necessity, and let them that have no parts to value, be despondent. But as for thee, thy Cards are good, and having skill enough to play thy hopeful Game, vie boldly, conquer and triumph. BUt stay my soul, the Trump is yet unturned, boast not too soon, nor call it a fair day till night, the turning of a hand may make such alterations, in thy flattering fortunes, that all thy glorious expectations may chance to end in loss, and unsuspected ruin. That God which thrust that Babylonian Prince from his imperial Throne, to graze with beasts, hath said, The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, Prov. Prov. 11. When pride cometh, than cometh shame, but with the lowly is wisdom. Jer. 11. 15. Hear ye, and give ear, and be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken. Esay 2. 12. The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. Prov. 16. 5. Every one that is proud in heart is abomination to the Lord. St. James. God rejecteth the proud, and giveth grace to the simple. Isidor. Hispal. Pride m●de Satan fall from the highest heaven, therefore they that pride themselves in their virtues, imitate the devil; and fa●l more dangerously, because they aspire and climb to the highest pitch, from whence is the greatest fall. Greg. Mor. Pride grows stronger in the root whilst it braves itself with presumptuous advances, yet the higher it climbs the lower it falls: for he that heightens himself by his own pride, is always destroyed by the judgement of God. HOw wert thou muffled O my soul! How were thine eyes blinded with the corruption of thine own heart! When I beheld myself by my own light, I seemed a glorious thing; My sanne knew no eclipse, and all my imperfections were gilded over with vainglory: But now the dayspring from above hath shined upon my heart, and the diviner light hath driven away those foggy mists; I find myself another thing: My Diamonds are all turned Pebbles, and my glory is turned to shame. O my deceived foul, how great a darkness was thy light? The thing that seemed so glorious, and sparkled in the night, by day appears but rotten wood: and that bright Gh●-worme, that in darkness out-shined the Chrysolite, is by this new-found light no better than a crawling worm: How inseparable O my soul is pride and folly! which like Hippocrates ●winnes still live and die together? It blinds the eye, befools the judgement, knows no superiors, hates equals, disdains inferiors, the wise man's scorn, and the fool's Idol; Renounce it O my soul, lest thy God renounce thee; he that hath threatened to resist the proud, hath promised to give Grace to the humble, and what true Repentance speaks, free mercy hears and crowns. His Prayer. O God the fountain of all true Glory, and the griver of all free grace, whose Name is only honourable, and whose works are only glorious, that showest thy ways to be meek, and takest compassion upon an humble spirit, that hatest the presence of a lofty eye, and destroyest the proud in the imaginations of their hearts, vouchsafe, O Lord, thy gracious ear, and hear the sighing of a contrite heart: I know O God, the quality of my sin can look for nothing but the extremity of thy wrath: I know, the crookedness of my condition can expect nothing but the furnace of thy indignation; I know, the insolence of my corrupted nature can hope for nothing but the execution of thy judgements; Yet Lord, know withal, thou art a gracious God, of evil repenting thee, and slow to wrath; I know thy nature and property is to show compa●●ion, apt to conceive, but readier to forgive: I know thou takest no pleasure in destruction of a sinner, but rather that he should repent and live: In confidence, and full assurance whereof I am here prostrate on my bended knees, and with an humble heart: Nor do I press into thy holy presence, tru●ing in my own merits, le●t thou shouldest deal by me, as I have dealt by others, but being encouraged by thy gracious invitation, and heavy laden with the burden of my sins, I come to thee O God, who art the refuge of a wounded soul, and the Sanctuary of a broken spirit: Forgive, O God, forgive me, what is past recalling, and make me circumspect for the time to come: Open mine eyes that I may see how vain a thing I am, and how polluted from my very birth: Give me an insight of my own corruptions, that I may truly know, and loathe myself. Take from me all vainglory, and self-love, and make me careless of the world's applause: Endue me with an humble heart, and take this haughty spirit from me; Give me a true discovery of my own merits, that I may truly fear and tremble at thy judgements. Let not the world's contempt deject me, nor the disrespects of man dismay me. Take from me O God a scornful eye, and curb my tongue that speaks presumptuous things: Plant in my heart a brotherly love, and cherish in me a charitable affection; possess my soul with patience O God, and establish my heart in the fear of thy name, that being humbled before thee in the meekness of my spirit, I may be exalted by thee through the freeness of thy Grace, and crowned with thee in the kingdom of glory. The covetous man's care. Believe me, the Times are hard and dangerous: charity is grown cold, and friends uncomfortable; an empty Purse is full of sorrow, and hollow bags make a heavy heart: poverty is a civil Pestilence, which frights away both friends and kindred, and leaves us to a Lord have mercy upon us: It is a sickness very catching and infectious, and more commonly abhorred then cured: The best Antidote against it is Angelic●, and Providence, and the best cordial is Aurumpotabile. Gold-taking fasting is an approved sovereign. Debts are ill humours, and turn at last to dangerous obstructions: Lending is a mere consumption of the radical humour, and if consumed, brings a patient to nothing. Let others trust to Courtiers promises, to friends performances, to Prince's favours; Give me a Toy called Gold, give me a thing called money. O blessed Mammon, how extremely sweet is thy all-commanding presence to my thriving soul! In banishment thou art my dear companion; In captivity, thou art my precious ransom. In trouble and vexation thou art my dainty rest. In sickness, thou art my health; in grief, my only joy; in all extremity, my only trust: virtue must veil to thee; Nay Grace itself not relished with thy sweetness would even displease the righteous palates of the sons of men, Come then my soul, advise, contrive, project: go, compass Sea, and Land: leave no exploit untried, no path untrod, no time unspent; afford thine eyes no sleep, thy head no re●t: Neglect thy ravenous belly, uncloathe thy back; deceive, betray, swear and forswear to compass such a friend: If thou be base in birth, 'twill make thee honourable; If weak in power, it will make thee formidable: Are thy friends few? 'Twill make them numerous. Is thy cause bad? 'Twill make thee Advocates. True, wisdom is an excellent help, in case it bend this way; and learning is a gentile Ornament, if not too chargeable: yet by your leave, they are but estates for ●earme of life: But everlasting Gold, if well advantaged, will not only bless thy days, but thy surviving children from generation to generation. Come, come, let others fill their brains with dear bought wit, turn their pence into expenseful chari●e, and store their bosoms with unprofitable piety; let them lose all to save their imaginary consciences, and beggar themselves at home to be thought honest abroad; Fill thou thy bags and barns, and lay up for many years and take thy rest. BUt O my soul, what follows, wounds my heart and strikes me on my knees. Thou fool this night will I take thy so●k from thee, Luk. 12. 20. St. Matth. 6. 24. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. Job 20. 15. He● hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. Prov. 15. 17. He that is greedy of gain troubles his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall live. 2 Pet. 2. 3. Through covetousness they shall with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgement now of a long time lingreth not, and whose damnation slumbreth not. Nilus in Paraenes. W●e to the covetous, for his riches forsake him, and hell fire takes him. S. August. O thou covetous man, why dost thou treasure up such hidden mischief? why dost thou dote on the Image of the King stamped on coin, and hate●t the Image of God that shines in men? August. The riches which thou treasurest up are lost, those thou charitably besto●est is truly thine. What think'st thou now my soul? If the judgement of holy men may not inform thee, let the judgements of thy angry God enforce thee: Weigh thy own carnal affections with the sacred Oracles of heaven, and light and darkness are not more contrary. What thou approvest, thy God condemns; What thou desirest, thy God forbids: Now my soul, if Mammon be God, follow him, if God be God, adher● to him; Thou canst not serve God and Mammon, If thy conscience feel the hook, nibble no longer. Many sins leave thee in the way, this follows thee to thy lives end; the root of evil, the canker of all goodness: It blinds Justice, poison's Charity, strangles Conscience, be slaves the affections, betrays friendship, breaks all relations: It is a root of the devils own planting: Pluck it up: think not that a pleasure which God hath threatened; nor that a blessing which heaven hath cursed: devour not that which thou or thy heir must vomit up: be no longer posse● with such a devil, but cast him out: and if he be too strong, weaken him by Fasting, and exorcise him by Prayer. His Prayer. O God that art the fullness of all riches and the Magazeen of all treasure, in the enjoyment of whose favour the smallest morsel is a rich inheritance and the coursest Pulse is a large portion; without whose blessing, the greatest plenty enriches not, and the highest diet nourishes not; how have I (an earthworm, and no man) fixed my whole heart upon this trasitory world, and neglected thee the only desiderable good! I blush O Lord to confess the baseness of my life, and am utterly ashamed of mine own foolishness: I have placed my affections upon the nasty Rubbish of this world, and have slighted the inestimable pearl of my salvation; I have wallowed in the mire of my inordinate desires, and refused to be washed in the streams of thy compassion; I have put my confidence into the faithfulness of my servant, and have doubted the providence of thee my gracious Father; I have served unrighteous Mammon with greediness, and have preferred dross and dung before the Pearly gates of New Jerusalem; Thou hast promised to be all in all to those that fear thee, and not to fail the soul that trusts in thee; but I refused thy gracious offer, and put my confidence in the vanity of the Creature: But gracious God to whom Repentance never comes unseasonable, that find' ●t an ●are when sins find a tongue, regard the con●rition of a bleeding heart, and withdraw not thy mercy from a pensive soul. Give me new thoughts O God, and with thy holy Spirit new mould my desires: inform my will and sanctify my affections, that they may relish thy sweetness with a full delight. Create in me O God a spiritual sense, that I may take pleasure in things that are above. Give me a contented thankfulness for what I have, that I may neither in poverty forsake thee, nor in plenty forget thee; arm me with a continual patience, that I may cheerfully put my trust in thy providence. Moderate my care for momentary things, that I may use the world as if I used it not. Let not the loss of any earthly good too much deject me, lest I should sin with my lips and charge thee foolishly. Give me a charitable hand O God, and fill my heart with brotherly compassion, that I may cheerfully exchange the corruptible treasure of this world into the incorruptible riches of the world to come, and proving a faithful steward in thy spiritual household, I may give up my account with joy, and be made partaker of thy eternal joy in the kingdom of thy glory. The Self-lovers Self-fraud. GOd hath required my heart and he shall have it: God hath commanded truth in the inword parts, and he shall be obeyed: My soul shall praise the Lord, and all that is within me, and I will serve him in the strength of my desires. And in common cases the tongues profession of his name is no less than necessary: But when it lies upon a life, upon the saving of a livelihood, upon the flat undoing of a reputation, the case is altered: My life is dear, my fair possessions precious, and my reputation is the very Apple of mine eye. To save so great a slake, methinks equivocation is but venial, if a sin. If the true loyalty of mine heart stands sound to my Religion and my God; my well-informed Conscience tells me that in such extremities my frighted tongue may take the privilege of a S●●●● or a mental reservation, if not in the expression of a fair compliances What? shall the real breach of a holy Sabbath, dedicated to God's highest glory be tolerated for the welfare of an ox? May that breach be set upon the score of m●rcy, and commended above sacrifice for the safeguard of an ass? And may I not dispense with a bare lip denial of my urged Religion for the necessary preservation of the threatened life of a man? for the saving of the whole livelihood and subsistence of a Christian? What? shall I perish for the want of food, and die a Mart●● to that foolish conscience which forbids me to rub the ears of a little standing corn? Iaco● could purchase his sick father's blessing with a down-right lie, and may I not di●semble for a life? The young man's great possessions taught his timorous tongue to shrink from an decline his heart's profession, and who could blame him? Come, if thou freely give thy house, canst thou in conscience be denied a hiding-room for thy protection? The Syrian captain (He whose heart was fixed on his now firm resolved, and true devotion) reserved the house of Rimm●n for his necessary attendance, and yet went in peace. Peter (upon the rock of whose confession, the Church was grounded) to save his liberty, with a false, nay with a perjured tongue; nay more, at such a time when as the Lord of life (in whose behalf he drew his Sword) was questioned for his innocent life, denied his Master; and shall I be so great an unthrist of my blood, my life, to lose it for a mere lip-denial of that Religion which now is settled and needs no blood to seal it? BUt stay! my Conscience checks me, there's a judgement thunders. Hark; He that denies me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven, Match. 10. 33. 2 Tim. 3. 1, 2. Know that in the latter days perilous times shall come: For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Esay 45. 23. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousn●sse, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear. Rom. 10. 10. with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. Luke 9 26. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in Glory. August. The love of God and the world are two different things: if the love of this world dwell in thee, the love of God forsakes thee; renounce that, and receive this, it's fit the more nobler love should have the best place and acceptance. Theoph. It is not enough only to believe with the heart, for God will have us confess with our mouth; every one that confesses that Christ is God, shall find Christ professing to the Father that that man is a faithful servant; but those that deny Christ shall receive (th●● fearful doom Nescio vos) I know you 〈◊〉. MY soul, in such a time as this when the civil Sword is warm with slaughter, and the wasting kingdom welters in her blood, wouldst thou not give thy life to ransom her from ruin? Is not the God of heaven and earth worth many kingdoms? Is thy welfare more considerable than his glory? dar'st thou deny him for thy own ends, that denied thee nothing for thy good? Is a poor clod of earth we call Inheritance, prizable with his greatness? Or a puff of breath we call life, valuable with his honour, in comparison of whom the very Angels are impure? Blush O my soul at thy own guilt: he that accounted his blood, his life not worth the keeping to ransom thee a wretch, lost by thy own rebellion, deserves he not the abatement of a lust, to keep him from a new crueifying? My soul, if Religion bind thee not, if judgements terrify thee not, if natural affection in●line thee not, yet let common reason persuade thee to love him above a trifle, that loved thee above his life: And thou that hast so often denied him, deny thyself for ever, and he will own thee; repent and he'll pardon thee, pray to him and he will hear thee. His Prayer. O God, whose glory is the end of my creation, and whose free mercy is the cause of my redemption, that gavest thy son, thy only son to die for me, who else had perished in the common deluge of thy wrath; What shall I render for so great a mercy? What thankfulness shall I return for so infinite a love? Alas, the most that I can do is nothing, the best that I can present is worse than nothing, sin: Lord, if I yield my body for a sacrifice, I offer nothing but a lump of filth, and loathsome putrefaction; or if I give my soul in contribution, I yield thee nothing but thy Image quite defaced and polluted with my lusts; or if I spend the strength of the whole man, and with both heart and tongue confess and magnify thy Name; how can the praises of my sinful lips, that breath from such a sink, be pleasing to thee? But Lord, since thou art pleased in thy well-pleasing son to accept the poverty of my weak endeavours, send down thy holy Spirit into my heart, cleanse it from the filth of my corruptions, and make it fit to praise thee: Lord open thou my mouth, and my lips shall show forth thy praise. Put a new song into my mouth, and I will praise thee and confess thee all day long; I will not hide thy goodness in my mouth, but will be showing forth thy truth, and thy salvation; Let thy praises be ●y honour, and let thy goodness be the subject of my undaunted Song. Let neither reputation, wealth, nor life been precious to me in comparison with thee: Let not the world's derision daunt me, nor examples of infirmity deject me Give me courage and wisdom to stand for thy honour; O make me worthy, able and willing to suffer for thy Name. Lord teach me to deny myself, and to resist the motions of my own corruptions; create in me O God a single heart, that I may love the Lord Jesus in sincerity; remember not O Lord the sins of my fear, and pardon the hypocrisy of my self-love. Wash me from the stains and guilt of this my heinous offence, and deliver me from this fearful judgement thou hast threatened in thy Word: Convince all the Arguments of my unsanctified wit, whereby I have become an advocate to my sin. Grant that my life may adorn my profession, and make my tongue an instrument of thy glory. Assist me O God that I may praise thy goodness, and declare thy wonders among the children of men: Strengthen my faith that it may trust Thee; and let my works so shine, that men may praise thee; That my heart believing unto righteousness, and my tongue confessing to salvation, I may be acknowledged by thee here, and glorified by thee in the kingdom of glory. The worldly man's Verdour. FOr aught I see the case is even the same with him that prays, and him that does not pray; with● him that swears and him that fears an oath: I see no difference; if any; those that they call the wicked have the advantage. Their crops are even as fair, their flocks as numerous as theirs, that wear the ground with their religious knees, and fast their bodies to a skeleton; nay in the use of blessings (which only makes them so) they far exceed; they term me reprobate, and style me unregenerate: 'Tis true, I ●ate my labours with a jolly heart; drink frolic cups; sweeten my pains with time-beguiling sports, make the best advantage of my own, pray when I think on't, swear when they urge me, hear Sermons at my leisure; follow the lusts of my own eyes, and take the pleasure of my own ways; and yet, God be thanked, my barns are furnished, my sheep stand sound, my Cattle strong for labour, my pastures rich and flourishing, my body healthful, and my bags are full, whilst they that are so pure, and make such conscience of their ways, that run to Sermons, ●igge to Lectures, pray thrice a day by the hour, hold faith and troth profane, and drinking healths a sin, do often find lean harvests, easy flocks, and empty purses: Let them be godly that can live on air and Faith; and eaten up by zeal, can whine themselves into an hospital, or bless their lips with charitable scraps. If godliness have this reward, to have short meals for long prayers; weak estates, for strong faiths, and good consciences upon such bad conditions, let them boast of their pennyworths, and let me be wicked● still, and take my chance as falls. Let me have judgement to discover a profitable farm, and wit to take it at an easy Rent, and Gold to stock it in a liberal manner, and skill to manage it to my best advantage, and luck to find a good increase, and providence to husband wisely what I gain, I seek no further, and I wish no more. Husbandry and Religion are two several occupations, and look two several ways, and he is the only wise man can reconcile them. BUt stay, my soul, I fear thy reckoning fails thee; If thou hast judgement to discover; wit, to bargain; Gold, to employ; skill, to manage; providence, to dispose; canst thou command the Clouds to drop? or if a wet season meet thy Harvest and with open sluices overwhelm thy hopes; canst thou let down the floodgates, and stop the watery Flux? Canst thou command the sun to shine? Canst thou forbid the mildews, or control the breath of the malignant East? Is not this God's sole Prerogative? And hath not that God said, When the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is the● that shall be destroyed for ever, Psal. 92. 12. Job 21. 7. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea are mighty in power? 8. Their seed is established in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes. 9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the wrath of God upon them. 10. Their Bull gendereth, and faileth not, their Cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. 11. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. 12. They take the timbrel, and the Harp and rejoice at the sound of the Organ. 13. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to the Grave. Nil. in Paraenes. Woe be to him that pursues empty and fading pleasures: because in a short time he fats, and pampers himself as a calf to the slaughter. Bernard. There's no misery more true and real, then false and counterfeit pleasure. Hierom. It's not only difficult, but impossible, to have heaven here and hereafter: To live in sensual lusts, and to attain spiritual bliss; to pass from one paradise to another, to be a mirror of felicity in both worlds, to shine with glorious rays both in this globe of earth, and the orb of heaven. HOw sweet a feast is, till the reckoning come! A fair day ends often in a cold night, and the road that's pleasant ends in Hell: If worldly pleasures had the promise of continuance, prosperity were some comfort; but in this necessary vieissitude of good and evil, the prolonging of adversity sharpens it: It is no common thing, my soul, to enjoy two heavens: Dives found it in the present, Lazarus in the future: Hath thy increase met with no damage? thy reputation, with no scandal? thy pleasure, with no cross? thy prosperity, with no adversity? Presume not: God's checks are symptoms of his mercy: but his silence is the Harbinger of a judgement. Be circumspect, and provident my soul: Hast thou a fair Summer? provide for a hard Winter: The world's River ebbs alone; it flows not: he that goes merrily with the stream, must hale up: Flatter thyself therefore no longer in thy prosperous sin, O my deluded soul, but be truly sensible of thy own presumption: Look seriously into thy approaching danger, and humble thyself with true contrition: If thou procure sour herbs, God will provide his Passeover. His Prayer. HOw weak is man O God, when thou forsakest him! How foolish are his Counsels, when he plots without thee! How wild his progress, when he wanders from thee! How miserable till he return unto thee! How his wit fails! How his wisdom falters! How his wealth melts! How his providence is befooled! and how his soul beslaved! Thou strik'st off the Chariot wheels of his Inventions, and he is perplexed: Thou confoundest the Babel of his imaginations, and he is troubled: Thou crossest his designs that he may fear thee, and thou stop'st him in his ways that he may know thee. How merciful art thou O God, and in thy very judgements Lord how gracious! Thou mightst have struck me into the lowest pit as easily as on these bended knees, and yet been justified in my confusion: But thou hast threatened like a gentle father, as loath to punish thy ungracious child. Thou knowest the crooked thoughts of man are vain, still turning point to their contrivers ruin; Thou saw'st me wandering in the maze of death, whilst I with violence pursued my own destruction: But thou hast warned me by thy sacred Word, and took me off that I might live to praise the●. Thou art my confidence O God; Thou art the rock, the rock of my salvation. Thy Word shall be my guide, for all thy paths are Mercy and Truth: Lord when I look upon my former worldliness, I utterly abhor my conversation: strengthen me with thy assistance, that I may lead a new life, make me more and more sensible of my own condition, and perfect thou the good work thou hast begun in me: In all my designs be thou my counsellor, that I may prosper in my undertakings. In all my actions be thou my guide, that I may keep the path of thy commandments. Let all my own devices come to nought, lest I presume upon the arm of flesh; let not my wealth increase without thy blessing, lest I be fatted up against the day of slaughter; Have thou a hand in all my just employments, then prosper thou the work of my hands, O prosper thou my handiwork: That little I enjoy, confirm it to me, and make it mine, who have no interest in it till thou own me as thy Child: Then shall my soul rejoice in thy favours, and magnify thy name for all thy mercies: Then shall my lips proclaim thy loving kindness, and sing thy praises for ever and for ever. The Lascivious man's Heaven. CAn flesh and blood be so unnatural to forget the laws of Nature? Can blowing youth immure itself within the Icey walls of vestal chastity? Can lusty diet, and mollicious rest bring forth no other fruits, but faint desires, rigid thoughts, and Pblegmatick, conceits? should we be stock● and stones, and (having active souls) turn altogether passives? Must we turn Anch●rites and spend our days in Caves, and Hermitages, and smother up our precious hours in cloysterd folly, and recluse devotion? Can rosy cheeks, can Ruby lips, can snowy breasts and sparkling eyes, prescut their beauties and perfections to the sprightly view of young mortality, and must we stand like Statues without sense or motion? Can strict Religion impose such cruel tasks, and even impossible commands upon the raging thoughts of her unhappy votaries, as to withstand and contradict the instinct, and very principles of Nature? Can faire-pretending piety be so barbarous to condemn us to the flames of our affections, and make us Martyrs to our own desires? Is't not enough to conquer the rebellious Actions of imperious flesh, but must we manacle her hands, darken her eyes, nay worse, restrain the freedom of her very thoughts? Can full perfection be expected here? Or can our work be perfect in this vale of imperfection? This were a life for Angels, but a task too hard for frail, for transitory man. Come, come, we are but men, but flesh and bl●od, and our born frailties cannot grapple with such potent tyranny. What nature and necessity requires us to do, is venial, being done. Come, strive no more against so strong a stream, but take thy fill of beauty; solace thy wanton heart with amorous contemplations, clothe all thy words with courtly rhetoric, and soften thy lips with dialects of love; surfeit thyself with pleasure, and 〈◊〉 thy passion into warm delights; walk into nature's universal Bower, and pick what flower does most surprise thine eye; drink of all waters, but be tied to none. Spare neither cost nor pains, to compass thy desires. Enjoy varieties; Emparadise thy soul in fresh delights. The change of pleasure makes thy pleasure double. Ravish thy senses with perpetual choice, and glut thy soul with all the delicates of love. BUt hold! There is a voice that whispers in my troubled ear, a voice that blanks my thoughts, and stops the course of my resolves; A voice that chills the bosom of my soul and fills me with amazement: hark, They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, Gal. 5. 21. Exod. 20. 14. Thou shalt not commit Adultery. Matth. 5. 28. Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart. Rom. 13. 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting, nor in drunkenness, nor in chambering, nor in wantonness. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Nilus in Paraen. Woe be to the fornicator and adulterer, for his garment is defiled and spotted, and the heavenly bridegroom casts him out from his chaste nuptials. A world of presumptuous and heinous offences do arise and spring from the filthy fountain of adulterous lust, whereby the gate of heaven is shut, and poor man excluded from God. S. Gregor. Mor. Hence the flesh lives in sensual delights for a moment, but the immortal soul perisheth for ever. LUst is a Brand of original fire, raked up in the Embers of flesh and blood; uncovered by a natural inclination, blown by corrupt communication, quenched with fasting and humiliation: It is raked up in the best, uncovered in the most, and blown in thee O my lustful soul; O turn thine ear from the pleadings of Nature, and make a Covenant with thine eyes: Let not the language of Delilah enchant thee, left the hands of the Philis●ims surprise thee: Review thy past pleasures, with the charge and pains thou hadst to compass them, and show me, where's thy pennyworth? Foresee what punishments are prepa'rd to meet thee, and tell me, what's thy purchase? Thou hast bartered away thy God for a lust; sold thy eternity for a trifle; If this bargain may not be recalled by tears, dissolve thee O my soul into a Spring of waters; if not to be reversed with price, reduce thy whole estate into a Sackcloth, and an Ashtub. Thou whose Liver hath scorched in the flames of lust, humble thy heart in the Ashes of repentance: And as with Esau thou hast sold thy Birthright for Broth, so with Jacob wrestle by Prayer till thou get a blessing. His Prayer. O God, before whose face the Angels are impure; before whose clear omniscience all Actions appear, to whom the very secrets of the hearts are open; I here acknowledge to thy glory and my shame, the filthiness and vile impurity of my Nature; Lord, I was filthy in my very conception, and in filthiness my mother's womb enclosed me, brought forth in filthiness, and filthy in my very innocency, filthy in the motions of my flesh, and filthy in the apprehensions of my soul: my words all clothed with filthiness, and in all my actions filthy and unclean, in my inclination filthy, and in the whole course of my life nothing but a continued filthiness. Wash me O God, and make me clean, cleanse me from the filthiness of my corruption; Purge me O Lord with Hyssop and create a clean heart within me: Correct the vagrant motions of my flesh, and quench the fiery darts of Satan; Let not the Law of my corrupted members rule me; O let concupiscence have no dominion over me: Give me courage to fight against my lusts, and give my weakness strength to overcome; make sharp my sword against this body of sin, but most against my Delilah, my bosom sin. Deliver me from the tyranny of temptation, or give me power to subdue it: Confine the liberty of my wanton appetite, and give me temperance in a sober diet; Grant me a heart to strive with thee in Prayer, and hopeful patience to attend thy leisure; keep me from the habit of an idle life, and close mine ears against corrupt communication; Set thou a watch before my lips, that all my words may savour of sobriety: Preserve me from the vanity and pride of life, that I may walk blameless in my conversation; Protect me from the fellowship of the unclean, and from all such as are of evil report. Let thy Grace O God be sufficient for me, to protect my soul from the buffetings of Satan; Make me industrious and diligent in my calling, left the enemy get advantage over me: In all my temptations let me have recourse to thee. Be thou my refuge when I call upon thee; Forgive O God the sins of my youth, O pardon the multitudes of my secret sins: increase my hatred to my former life, and strengthen my resolution for the time future: hear me O God, and let the words of my mouth be always acceptable to ●hee, O God my strength and my Redeemer. The Sabbath-breakers profanation. THe glittering Prince that sits upon his regal, and imperial Throne, and the ignoble P●sant that sleeps within his sordid house of Thatch are both alike to God: An Ivory Temple and a Church of Clay are prized alike by him: The flesh of Bulls, and the perfumes of Merrh and Cassia smoke his Altars with an equal pleasure: And does he make such difference of days?' Is he that was so weary of the new-moons, so taken with the sun to tie his Sabbath to that only day? The tenth in tithes is any one in ten, and why the seventh day not any one in seven? We sanctify the day, the day not us: But are we Jews? Are we still bound to keep a legal Sabbath in the strictness of the Letter? Have the Gentiles no privilege, by the virtue of Messia●s coming, or has the Evangelical Sabbath no immunities? The service done, the day's discharged, my liberty restored; And if I meet my profits, or my pleasures then, I'll give them entertainment. If business call me to account, I dare afford a careful care. Or if my sports invite me, I'll entertain them with a cheerful heart: I'll go to matins with as much devotion as my neighbour, I'll make as low obeisance, and as just responds as any; but soon as Evensong's ended, my Church-devotion and my Psalter shall sanctify my pew till the next Sabbath call; Were it no more for an old custom sake, then for the good I find in Sabbaths, that Ceremony might as well be spared. It is a day of Rest: And what's a Rest? A relaxation from the toil of labour: And what is labour but a painful exercise of the frail body? But where the exercise admits no toil, there Relaxation makes no Rest: What labour is it for the worldly man to compass Sea and Land to accomplish his desires? What labour is it for the impatient lover to measure Hellespont with his widened arms to hasten his delight? What labour for the youth to number mu●ick with their sprightly paces? Where pleasure's reconciled to labour, labour is but an active rest; Why should the Sabbath then, a day of rest, divorce thee from those delights that make thy Rest? Afflict their souls that please, my rest shall be what most conduces to my heart's delight. Two hours will vent more prayers than I shall need, the rest remains for pleasure. COnscience, why start'st thou? A judgement strikes me from the mouth of heaven, and saith, Whosoever doth any work on my Sabbath, his soul shall be cut off, Exod. 31. 14. Exod. 20. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day, six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do, but the seventh day, &c. Exod. 31. 14. Ye shall keep my Sabbath, for it is holy unto you. Exod. 31. 13. Verily my Sabbaths thou shalt keep, for this is a sign betwixt me and you, throughout your Generations. Luke 23. 56. And they returned and prepared spices, and ointments, and rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Gregor. We ought upon the Lord's day to rest from bodily labour, and wholly to addict ourselves to prayers, that what soever hath been done amiss, the week before, may upon the day of our Lord's resurrection be expiated and purged by fervent prayers. Cyr. Alex. Sin is the storehouse of death and misery, it kindles flames for it's dearest friends. Therefore whosoever when he should rest from sin, busieth himself in the dead and fruitless works of wickedness, and renouncing all piety, lusts after such things as will bring him into eternal destruction, and everlasting flames, justly deserves to die & perish with the damned; because when he might have enjoyed a pious rest, he laboured to run headlong to his own destruction. MY soul, how hast thou profaned that day thy God hath sanctified! How hast thou encroached on that which heaven hath set apart! If thy impatience cannot act a Sabbath twelve hours, what happiness canst thou expect in a perpetual Sabbath? Is six days too little for thyself, and two hours too much for thy God? O my soul, how dost thou prize temporals beyond eternals? Is it equal that God, who gave thee a body, and six days to provide for it, should demand one day of thee, and be denied it? How liberal a receiver art thou, and how miserable a Requiter! But know my soul, his Sabbaths are the Apple of his eye: he that hath power to vindicate the breach of it, hath threatened judgements to the breaker of it. The God of mercy that hath mitigated the rigor of it for charity sake, will not diminish the honour of it for profaneness sake: forget not then my soul to remember his Sabbaths, and remember not to forget his judgements, lest he forget to remember thee in Mercy: What thou hast neglected, bewail with contrition, and what thou hast repented, forsake with resolution, and what thou hast resolved strengthen with devotion. His Prayer. O eternal, just, and all-discerning Judge; in thyself, glorious; in thy son, gracious; who tryest without a witness, and condemnest without a Jury; O! I confess my very actions have betrayed me, thy word hath brought in evidence against me, my own conscience hath witnessed against me, and thy judgement hath past sentence against me: And what have I now to plead but mine own misery, and whither should that misery flee but to the God of mercy? And since O Lord the way to mercy is to leave myself, I here disclaim all interest in myself, and utterly renounce myself: I that was created for thy glory, have dishonoured thy Name; I that was made for thy service, have profaned thy Sabbaths; I have slighted thy Ordinances, & turned my back upon thy Sanctuary; I have neglected thy Sacraments, abused thy Word, despised thy Ministers and despised their ministry; I have come into thy Courts with an unprovided heart, and have drawn near with uncircumcised lips; And Lord I know thou art a jealous God, and most severe against all such as violate thy ●est; The glory of thy Name is precious to thee, and thine honour is as the Apple of thine eye; But thou O God that art the God of Hosts, hast published and declared thyself the Lord of mercy; The constitution of thy Sabbath was a work of time, but Lord thy mercy is from all eternity; I that have broke thy Sabbaths, do here present thee with a broken heart; thy hand is not shortened that thou canst not heal, nor thy ear deafened that thou canst not hear; Stretch forth thy hand O God and heal my wounds. Bow down thine ear O Lord● and hear my Prayers; Alter the fabric of my sinful heart, and make it tender of thy glory; Make me ambitious of thy service, and let thy Sabbaths be my whole delight; Give me a holy reverence of thy Word, that it may prove a light to my steps and a lantern to my feet. Endue my heart with Charity and Faith that I may find a comfort in thy Sacraments. Bless thou the Ministers of thy sacred Word, and make them holy in their lives, sound in their doctrine and laborious in their callings. Preserve the universal Church in these distracted times; give her peace, unity, and uniformity, purge her of all schism, error and superstition; Let the King's daughter be all glorious within, and let thine eyes take pleasure in her beauty, that being honoured here to be a member of her Militant, I may be glorified with her triumphant. The censorious man's Crimination. I Know there is much of the seed of the Serpent in him by his very looks, if his words betrayed him not; He hath eaten the egg of the Cockatrice, and surely he remaineth in the state of perdition; He is not within the Covenant, and abideth in the Gall of bitterness; His studied Prayers show him to be a high Malignant, and his jesu-worship concludes him popishly affected; he comes not to our private meetings, nor contributes a penny to the cause: he cries up learning, and the book of commonprayer, and takes no arms to hasten Reformation; he fears God for his own ends, for the spirit of Antichrist is in him. His eyes are full of Adulteries, and goes a-whoring after his own inventions: he can hear an oath from his superiors without reproof, and the heathenish Gods named without spitting in his face: Wherefore my soul detesteth him, and I will have no conversation with him; for what fellowship hath light with darkness, or the pure in heart with the unclean? Sometimes he is a Publican, sometimes a Pharisee, and always an Hypocrite; he rails against the Altar as loud as we, and yet he cringes and makes an Idol of the name of Jesus; he is quick-sighted to the infirmities of the Saints, and in his heart rejoiceth at our failings; he honours not a preaching ministry, and too much leans to a Church-government; he paints devotion on his face, whilst pride is stamped within his heart: he places sanctity in the walls of a steeplehouse, and adores the Sacrament with his popish knee; His Religion is a Weathercock, and turns breast to every blast of wind. With the pure he seems pure, and with the wicked he will join in fellowship; A sober language is in his mouth, but the poison of asps is under his tongue: His works conduce not to edification, nor are the motions of his heart sanctified; he adores great ones for preferment, and speaks too partially of authority: he is a La●dicean in his faith, a Nicolaitane in his works, a Pharisee in his disguise, a rank Papist in his heart, and I thank my God I am not as this man. BUt stay my soul, take heed whilst thou judgest another, lest God judge thee; how com'st thou so expert in another's heart, being so often deceived in thy own? A S●ul to day may prove a Paul to morrow; Take heed whilst thou wouldst seem religious thou appear not uncharitable; and whilst thou judgest man, thou be not judged of God, who saith Judge not, lest ye be judged, Matth. 7. 1. John 7. 24. Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgement. Rom. 14. 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? We shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. 1 Cor. 4. 5. Huge nothing before the time, until the Lord, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsel of the heart. Rom. 14. 13. Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block, or an accusation to fall in his brother's way. Psal. 50. 6. God is judge himself. St. August. Apparent and notorious iniquities ought both to be reproved and condemned, but we should never judge such things as we understand not, nor can certainly know whether they be done with a good or evil intent. S. August. When thou knowest not apparently, judge charitably; because it's better to think● well of the wicked, then by frequent censuring to suspect an innocent man guilty of an offence. S. Aug. The unrighteous judge shall be justly condemned. HAs thy brother, O my soul, a beam in his eye? And ha●t thou no m●●te in thine? Clear thine own, and thou wilt see the better to cleanse his: I● a these be in his Candle, blow it not out, le●t thou wrong, the flame, but if thy snuffers be of Gold, snuff it: Has he offended thee? Forgive him: Hath he srespassed against the Congregation? Reprove him: Hath he sinned against God? Pray for him. O my soul, how uncharitable hast thou been? How Pharisaically hast thou judged? Being sick of the jaundice, how hast thou censured another yellow? And with blotted fingers made his blur the greater? How has the pride of thy own heart blinded thee toward thyself? How quick-sighted to another! Thy brother has slipped, but thou hast fallen, and hast blanched thy own impiety with the publishing his sin: Like a fly, thou stingest his sores, and feedest on his corruptions; Jesus came eating and drinking, and was judged a glutton; John came fasting, and was challenged with a devil; Judge not my soul, lest thou be judged; malign not thy brother, lest God laugh at thy destruction: Wouldst thou escape the punishment! judge thyself: Wouldst thou avoid the sin? humble thyself. His Prayer. O God that art the only searcher of the reins, to whom the secrets of the heart of man are only known, to whom alone the judgement of our thoughts, our words and deeds belong, and to whose sentence we must stand or fall, I a presumptuous sinner that have thrust into thy place and boldly have presumed to execute thy office, do here as humbly confess the insolence of mine attempt, and with a sorrowful heart repent me of my doings; and though my convinced conscience can look for nothing from thy wrathful hand but the same measure which I measured to another, yet in the confidence of that mercy which thou hast promised to all those that truly and unfeignedly believe, I am become an humble suitor for thy gracious pardon: Lord, if thou search me but with a favourable eye, I shall appear much more unrighteous in thy sight, than this my uncharitably condemned brother did in mine; O look not therefore, Lord, upon me as I am, lest thou abhor me; but through the merits of my blessed Saviour cast a gracious eye upon me; Let his humility satisfy for my presumption, and let his meritorious sufferings answer for my vile uncharitableness; let not the voice of my offence provoke thee with a stronger cry, than the language of his Intercession. Remove from me O God all spiritual pride, and make me little in my own conceit; Lord light me to myself, that by thy light I may discern how dark I am; Lighten that darkness by thy holy Spirit, that I may search into my own corruptions: And since O God all gifts and graces are but nothing, and nothing can be acceptable in thy sight without charity; quicken the dulness of my faint affections, that I may love my brother as I ought: Soften my marble heart that it may melt at his infirmities; Make me careful in the examination of my own ways, and most severe against my own offences: Pull out the beam out of mine own eye, that I may see clearly, and reprove wisely. Take from me O Lord all grudging, envy, and malice, that my seasonable reproofs may win my brother. Preserve my heart from all censorious thoughts, and keep my tongue from striking at his name: Grant that I make right use of his Infirmities, and read good Lessons in his failings, that loving him in thee, and thee in him according to thy command, we may both be united in thee as members of thee, that thou mayst receive honour from our communion here, and we eternal glory from thee hereafter in the world to come. The Liars Fallacies. NAy if Religion be so strict a Law to bind my tongue to the necessity of a truth on all occasions, at all times, and in all places, the gate ●●too straight for me to enter: Or if the general ●●les of downright truth will admit no few ex●●ptions, farewell all honest mirth, farewell all trading, farewell the whole converse betwixt man and man: If always to speak punctual truth be the true symptoms of a blessed soul; Tom Tell troth has a happy time, and fools & children are the only men. If truth sit Regent, in what faithful breast shall secrets find repose? What kingdom can be safe? What Commonwealth can be secure? What war can be successful? What Stra●●● can prosper? if bloody times should force Religion to sh●oud itself beneath my roof; upon demand, shall my false truth betr●y it? Or shall my brother's life, or shall my own be seized upon through the cruel truth of my down-right confession? or rather not be secured by a fair officious life? shall the righteous favourite of Egypt's Tyrant, by virtue of a loud lie, sweeten out his joy and heighten up his soft affection with the Antiperistas●s of tears, and may I not prevari●●ate with a sullen truth to save a brother's life, from a bloodthirsty hand? Shall Jacob and his ●●oo indulgent mother conspire in a lie to purchase a paternal blessing in the false name, and habit of a supplanted brother, and shall I questi●●ion to preserve the granted blessing of a life, or livelihood, with a harmless lie? Come, come, my soul, let not thy timorous conscien●e check at such poor things as these: So long as thy officious tongue aims at a just end, a lie is no offence: So long as thy perjurious lips confirm not thy untruth with an audacious b●ow, thou needst not fear: The weight of the cause relieves the burden of the Crime: Is thy centre good? No matter how crooked the lines of the circumference be: Policy allows it: If thy journey's end be heaven, it matters not how full of Hell thy journey be; divinity allows it: Wi●t thou condemn the Egyptian Midwives for saving the infant Israelites by so merciful a lie? When martial execution is to be done, wilt thou fear to kill? When hunger drives thee to the gates of death, wilt thou be afraid to steal? When civil wars divide a kingdom, will Mercuries decline a lie? No, circumstances excuse, as well as make the lie; Had Caesar, S●ioio, or Alexander been regulated by such strict divinity, their names had been as silent as their dust: A lie is but a fair put-off, the s●nctuary of a secret, the riddle of a lover, the stragem of a soldier, the policy of a Statesman, and a salve for many desperate sores. BUt, hark, my soul, there's something rounds mine ear, and calls my language to a recantation; The Lord hath spoken it, Liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with ●ire and brimstone, Revel. 2 1. 8. Exod. 20. Thou shalt not raise a false report. Levit. 19 11. ●e shall not deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Prov. 12. 22. Lying lips are abomination to the Lord; but they that deal truly are his delight. Prov. 19 5. He that speaketh lies shall not escape. Ephes. 4. 25. Put away lying, and every one speak truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. Revel. There shall in no wise enter into the new Jerusalem any thing that worketh abomination, or that maketh a lie. St. August. Whosoever thinks, there's any kind of lie that is not a sin, shamefully deceives himself, mistaking a lying or c●usening knave for a square or honest man. Gregor. Eschew and avoid all falsehood, though sometime certain kind of untruths are less sinful, as to tell a lie to save a man's life; yet because the Scripture saith, The liar slayeth his own soul, and God will destroy them that tell a lie; therefore, religious and honest men should always avoid even the best sort of lies, neither ought another man's life be secured by our falsehood or lying, lest we destroy our own soul, in labouring to secure another man's life. What a child O my soul hath thy false bosom harboured! And what reward can thy indulgence expect from such a father? What blessing canst thou hope from heaven, that pleadest for the son of the devil, and crucifyest the son of God? God is the Father of truth; To secure thy estate thou deniest the truth by framing of a lie: To save thy brother's life thou opposest the truth in justifying a lie: Now tell me O my soul, art thou worthy the name of a Christian, that deniest and opposest the nature of Christ? Art thou worthy of Christ that preferrest thy estate, or thy brother's life before him? O my unrighteous soul, canst thou hold thy brother worthy of death for giving thee the lie, and thyself guiltless that makest a lie? ay, but in some cases truth destroys thy life; a lie preserves it: My soul, was God thy Creator? then make not the devil thy preserver: Wilt thou despair to trust him with thy life that gave it, and make him thy Protector that seeks to destroy it? Reform thee and repent thee; O my soul; hold not thy life on such conditions, but trust thee to the hands that made thee. His Prayer. O God, that art the God of truth, whose word is truth, that hatest lying lips, and abominatest the deceitful tongue, that banishest thy presence all such as love or make a lie, and lovest truth, and requirest uprightness in the inward parts, I the most wretched of the sons of men, and most unworthy to be called thy son, make bold to cast my sinful eyes to heaven; Lord I have sinned against heaven and against truth, and have turned thy grace into a lie; I have renounced the ways of righteousness, and have harboured much iniquity within me, which hath turned thy wrath against me; I have transgressed against the checks of my own conscience, and have vaunted of my transgression: which way soever I turn mine eye, I see no object but ●hame and confusion: Lord, when I look upon myself, I find nothing there, but fuel for thy wrath, and matter for thine indignation, and my condemnation. And when I cast mine eyes to heaven, I there behold an angry God, and a severe revenger; But Lord at thy right hand I see a Saviour, and a sweet redeemer; I see thy wounded son clothed in my flesh, and bearing mine infirmities, and interceding for my numerous transgressions; for which my soul doth magnify thee O God, and my spirit rejoiceth in him my Saviour; Lord, when thou lookest upon the vast score of my offences, turn thine eyes upon the infinite merits of his satisfaction; O when thy justice calls to mind my sins, let not thy mercy forget his sufferings; Wash me, O wash me in his blood, and thou shalt see me clothed in his righteousness: Let him that is all in all to me, be all in all for me; make him to me sanctification justification & redemption: Inspire my heart with the spirit of thy truth, and preserve me from the deceitfulness of double tongue: Give me an inward confidence to rely upon thy fatherly providence, that neither fear may deter me, nor any advantage may turn me from the ways of thy truth: Let not the specious goodness of the end encourage me to the unlawfulness of the means, but let thy Word be the warrant to all my actions; Guide my footsteps that I may walk uprightly, and quicken my conscience, that it may reprove my failings: Cause me to feel the burden of this my habitual sin, that coming to thee by a true and serious repentance, my sins may obtain a full and a gracious forgiveness: Give me a heart to make a Covenant with my lips, that both my heart and and tongue being sanctified by thy Spirit, may be both united in truth by thy mercy, and magnify thy name for ever, and for ever. The revengeful man's rage. O What a Iul●p to my scorching soul is the delicious blood of my offender! and how it cools the burning Fever of my boiling veins! It is the Quintessenee of pleasures, the height of satisfaction, and the very marrow of all delight, to bathe and paddle in the blood of such, whose bold affronts have turned my wounded patience into fury? How full of sweetness was his death, who dying was revenged upon three thous●nd enemies? How sweetly did the younger brother's blood allay the soul-consuming flames of the elder, who took more pleasure in his last breath then heaven did in his first Sacrifice? Yet had not heaven condemned his action, nature had found an Advocate for his passion: What sturdy spirit hath the power to rule his suffering thoughts, or curb the headstrong fury of his Irascible affections? Or who but fools (that cannot taste an injury) can moderate their highbred spirits, and stop their passion in her full carreire? Let heavy cynics, they whose leaden souls are taught by stupid reason to stand bent at every wrong, that can digest an injury more easily than a compliment, that can protest against the laws of nature, and cry all natural affection down, let them be Andirons for the injurious world to work a heat upon: let them find shoulders to receive the painful s●ripes of peevish mortals, and to bear the wrongs of daring insolence: Let them be drawn like Calves prepared for slaughter, and bow their servile necks to sharp destruction: let them submit their slavish bosoms to be trod and trampled under foot for every pleasure: My Eagle spiri● flies a higher pitch, and like ambitious Phaeton climbs into the fiery Chariot, and drawn with fury, scorn, revenge, and honour, rambles through all the spheres, and brings with it confusion and combustion; my reeking sword shall vindicate my reputation, and rectify the injuries of my honourable name, and quench itself in plenteous streams of blood. Come tell not me of charity, conscience, or transgression; My charity reflects upon myself, begins at home, and guided by the justice of my passion, is bound to labour for an honourable satisfaction: My conscience is blood-proof, and I can broach a life with my illustrious weapon with as little reluctation, as kill a Flea that sucks my blood without Commission, and I can drink a health in blood upon my bended knee to reputation. BUt hark my soul, I hear a languishing, a dying voice cry up to heaven for vengeance; It cries aloud, and thunders in my startling ear, I tremble and my shivering bones are filled w●●●h horror; It cries against me, and hear what ●●eaven replies, All that take up the sword shall perish by the sword, Matth. 26. 52. Levit. 19 18. Thou shall not avenge, or bear any grudge, against the Children of my people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord. Deut. 32. 35. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Ezek. 25. 12, 13. Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah, by taking vengeance, and bathe greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them: Therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it. Matth. 5. 39 Resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Tertull. What's the difference between one that doth an injury, and another that outrageously suffers it, except that the one is fi●st and the other second in the offence? but both are guilty of mutual injury in the sight of God; who forbids every sin and condemns the offender. Tertull. How can we honou● God if we revenge ourselves? Gloss. Every man is a murderer, and shall be punished as Cain was if he do, (as Caindid) either ass●ult his brother with violence, or pursue him with hatred. REvenge is an Act of the Irascible affections, deliberated with malice, and executed without mercy: How often O my soul hast thou cursed thyself in the perfectest of Prayers? How often hast thou turned the spiritual b●dy of thy Saviour into thy d●mnation? Can the sun rise to thy comfort, that hath so often set in thy wrath? So long as thy wrath is kindled against thy brother, so long is the wrath of God burning against thee? O, wouldst thou offer a pleasing sacrifice to heaven? Go first and be reconciled to thy brother. Ay, but who shall right thy honour then? Is thy honour wronged? Forgive, and it is vindicated. Ay, but this kind of heart-swelling, can brook no poultice but revenge. Take heed, my soul, the remedy is worse than the disease: If thy intricate distemper transcend thy power, make choice of a physician that can purge that humour that foments thy malady: Rely upon him; submit thy will to his directions; he hath a tender heart, a skilful hand, a watchful eye, that makes thy welfare the price of all thy pain●s, expecting no reward, no fee, but praises, and Thanksgiving. His Prayer. O God, that art the God of peace, and the lover of unity and concord, that dost command all those that seek forgiveness, to forgive; that hatest the f●oward heart, but showest mercy to the mecke in spirit: With what a face can I appear before thy mercy-seat, or with what countenance can I lift up these hands thus stained with my brother's blood? How can my ●ippes, that daily breath revenge against my brother, presume to own thee as my father, or expect from thee thy blessing, as thy child? If thou forgive my trespasses O God, as I forgive my trespassers, in what a miserable estate am I, that in my very prayers condemn myself, and do not only limit thy compassion by my uncharitableness, but draw thy judgements on my head for my rebellion? That heart O God which thou requirest as a holy present, is become a spring of malice; These hands which I advance, are ready instruments of base revenge. My thoughts, that should be sanctified, are full of blood, and how to compass evil against my brother is my continual meditation: The course of all my life is wilful disobedience, and my whole pleasure, Lord, is to displease thee: My conscience hath accused me, and the voice of blood hath cried against me: But Lord, the blood of Jesus cries louder than the blood of Abel, and thy mercy is far more infinite than my sin. The blood that was shed by me cries. for vengeance, but the blood that was shed for me sues for mercy; Lord hear the language of this blood, and by the merits of this voice be reconciled unto me. That time which cannot be recalled, O give me power to redeem, and in the mean time a settled resolution to reform. Suppress the violence of my headstrong passion, and establish a meek spirit within me. Let the sight of my own vileness take from me the sense of all disgrace, and let the crown of my reputation be thy honour; possess my heart with a desire of unity and concord, and give me patience to endure what my impenitence hath deserved: Breath into my soul the spirit of love, and direct my affections to their right object; turn all my anger against that sin that hath provoked thee, and give me holy revenge, that I may exercise it against myself. Grant that I may love thee for thyself, myself in thee and my neighbour as myself; Assist me O God, that I may subdue all evil in myself, and suffer patiently all evil as a punishment from thee. Give me a merciful heart, O God; make it slow to wrath, and ready to forgive; Preserve me from the act of evil, that I may be delivered from the fear of evil; that living here in charity with men, I may receive that sentence of, Come ye blessed, in the kingdom of glory. The secure man's Triumph. SO, now my soul thy happiness is entailed, and thy illustrious name shall live in thy succeeding Generations; Thy dwelling is established in the fat of all the land: thou hast what mortal heart can wish, and wantest nothing but immortality: The best of all the land is thine, and thou art planted in the best of Lands: A land whose Constitutions make the best of Government, which Government is strengthened with the best of ●aws, which laws are executed by the best of Princes, whose Prin●e, whose laws, whose Government, whose land makes us the happiest of all subjects, makes us the happiest of all people. A land of strength, of plenty, and a land of peace, where every soul may sit beneath his Vine, unfrighted at the horrid language of the hoarse Trumpet, unstartled at the warlike summons of the roaring Cannon. A land whose beauty hath surprised the ambitious hearts of foreign Princes, and taught them by their martial Oratory to make their vain attempts. A land whose strength reads vanity in the deceived hopes of conquerors, and crownes their erterprises with a shameful overthrow. A land whose native plenty makes her the world's Exchange, supplying others, able to subsist without supply from foreign kingdoms; in itself happy; and abroad, honourable. A land that hath no vanity, but what by accident proceeds and issues from the sweetest of all blessings, peace, and plenty; that hath no mi●ery but what is propagated from that blindness which cannot see her own felicity. A land that flows with milk and honey, and in brief wants nothing to deserve the title of a Paradise. The curb of Spain, the pride of Germany, the ●yde of Belgia, the scourge of France, the Empress of the world, and Queen of Nations: She is begirt with walls, whose builder was the hand of heaven, whereon there daily rides a Navy● royal, whose unconquerable power proclaims her Prince invincible, and whispers sad despair into the fainting hearts of forraig●e Majesty: She is compact within herself, in unity, not apt to civil discords or intestine broils; The envy of all nations; the ambition of all Princes; the terror of all enemies, the security of all neighbouring States. Let timorous Pulpits threaten ruin, let prophesying churchmen dote, till I believe: How often, and how long have these loud sons of Thunder false prophesied her desolation? and yet she stands the glory of the world: Can Pride demolish the Towers that defend her? Can drunkenness dry up the Sea that walls her? Can flames of lust dissolve the Ordnance that protect her? Be well advised my soul; there is a voy●● from heaven roars louder than those Ordinance, which saith, Thus saith the Lord, The whole land shall be desolate, Jer. 4. 27. Esay 14. 7. The whole earth is at rest, and at quiet, they break forth into singing. Yea the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the Cedars of Lebanon sing, &c. Yet shalt thou be brought down to hell, to the sides of the Pit. Jer. 5. 12. They have b●lied the Lord, and said, It is not he, neither shall evil come upon us, neither shall we see sword, or famine. 1 Cor. 10. 12. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. Luke 17. 26. They did eat and drink, and they married wives and were given in marriage, until the flood came and destroyed them all. Gregor. Mor. A man may as some build a Castle upon the rolling waves, as ground a solid comfort upon the uncertain ebbs and fluxes of transient pleasures. S. August. Whilst Lot was exercised in suffering reproach and vilence, he continued holy and pure, even in the filth of Sodom: but in the mount being in peace and safety, he was surprised by sensual security, and defiled himself with his own daughters. 〈◊〉 prosperous and happy state is often the occasion of more miserable ruin, a long peace hath made many men both careless and cowardly; and that's the most fatal blow when an ●●●xpected enemy surprises us in a deep sleep of peace and security. Greg. Mag. Security is an improvident carelessness, casting out all fear of approaching danger; It is like a great calm at Sea, that foreruns a storm: How is this verified O my sad soul in this our bleeding nation! Were't thou not but now for many years even nuzzled in the bosom of habitual peace? Didst thou foresee this danger? Or couldst thou have contrived a way to be thus miserable? Didst thou not laugh invasion to scorn? or didst thou not less fear a civil warre● Was not the Title of the crown unquestionable? And was not our mixed government unapt to fall into diseases? Did we want good laws? or did our laws want execution? Did not our Prophets give lawful warning? or were we moved at the sound of judgements? How hast thou lived O my uncareful soul to see these prophecies fulfilled, and to behold the vials of thy angry God poured forth! Since mercies O my soul could not allure thee, yet let these judgements now at length enforce thee to a true Repentance. Quench the Firebrand which thou hast kindled; turn thy mirth to a right mourning, and thy feasts of joy to humiliation. His Prayer. O God by whom King's reign, and kingdoms flourish, that settest up where none can batter down, and pullest down where none can countermand, I a most humble suitor at the Throne of Grace acknowledge myself unworthy of the least of all thy mercies, nay worthy of the greatest of all thy judgements: I have sinned against thee the Author of my being, I have sinned against my conscience, which thou hast made my accuser, I have sinned against the peace of this kingdom, whereof thou hast made me a member: If all should do O God as I have done, Sodom would appear as righteous, and Gomorra● would be a precedent to thy wrat● upon this sinful nation. But Lord thy mercy is inscrutable, or else my misery were unspeakable, for that mercy sake be gracious to me in the free pardoning of all my offences. Blot them out of thy remembrance for his sake in whom thou art well pleased: Make my head a fountain of tears to quench that brand my sins have kind●ed towards the destruction of this flourishing kingdom: bless this kingdom O God; Establish it in piety, honour, peace, and plenty. Forgive all her crying sins, and remove thy judgements far from her. Bless her governor, thy servant, our dread sovereign: Endue his soul with all religious, civil and princely virtues; Preserve his royal person in health, safety and prosperity, prolong his days in honour, peace or victory, and crown his death with everlasting glory. Bless him in his royal Consort; unite their hearts in love and true Religion. Bless him in his Princely issue; Season their youth with the fear of thy Name. Direct thy Church in doctrine and in discipline, and let her enemies be converted, or confounded; Purge her of all superstition and heresy, and root out from her, whatsoever thy hand hath not planted: bless the nobility of this land, endue their hearts with truth, loyalty, and true policy. Bless the Tribe of Levi, with piety, learning, and humility. Bless the Magistrates of this kingdom; give them religious and upright hearts, hating covetousness. Bless the Gentry with sincerity, charity, and a good conscience. Bless the commonalty with loyal hearts, painful hands, and plentiful increase. Bless the two great Seminaries of this kingdom, make them fruitful and faithful nurseries both to the Church and commonwealth. Bless all thy Saints everywhere, especially those that have stood in the gap betwixt this kingdom, and thy judgements, that being all members of that Body, whereof thou Christ art head, we may all join in humiliation for our sins, and in the propagation of thy honour here, and be made partakers of thy glory in the kingdom of glory. The Presumptuous man's Felicities. TEll bawling Babes of bugbears, to fright them into quietness, or terrify youth with old wives sables, to keep their wild affections in owe; Such toys may work upon their timorous apprehensions, when wholesome precepts fail, and find no audience in their youthful ears: Tell not me of Hell, devils, or of damned souls to enforce me from those pleasures which they nickname sin: What tell ye me of Law? My soul is sensible of Evangelical precepts without the needless, and uncorrected thunder of the killiug Letter, or the terrible periphrase of roaring Boanarges, the tediousness of whose language still determines in damnation; wherein I apprehend God far more merciful than his Ministers. 'tis true, I have not led my life according to the pharisaical squire of their opinions, neither have I found judgements according to their prophecies, whereby I must conclude that God is wonderfully merciful, or they wonderfully mistaken. How often have they thundered ●orment against my voluptuous life: And yet I feel no pain: How bitterly have they threatened shame against the vaunts of my vainglory? Yet find I honour. How fiercely have they preached destruction, against my cruelty? and yet I live. What Plagues against my swearing? yet not infected: What diseases against my drunkenness? and yet sound; What danger against procrastination? yet how often hath God been found upon the deathbed? What damnation to Hypocrites? yet who more safe? What stripes to the ignorant? yet who more scotfree? What poverty to the slothful? yet themselves prosper: what falls to the proud? yet stand they surest. What curses to the Covetous? yet who richer? What judgements to the lascivious? yet who more pleasure? What vengeance to the profane, the censorious, the revengeful? yet none live more unscourged: who deeper branded then the Lyer●● yet who more favoured? Who more threatened then the presumptuous? yet who less punished? Thus are we fooled and kept in awe with the strict fancies of those Pulpit-men, whose opinions have no ground but what they gain from popularity: Thus are we frighted from the liberty of Nature by the politic chimaeras of Religion; whereby we are necessitated to the observing of those Laws, whereof we find a greater necessity of breaking. BUt stay, my soul, there is a voice that darts into my troubled thoughts, which saith, Because thou hast not kept my laws, all the curses in this book shall overtake thee, till thou be destraoed, Deut. 29. Deut. 29. 27. And the anger of the Lord was kind●ed against the land, to bring upon it all the Curses that are written in this book. 2 Chron. 34. 24. Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring will upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book. Deut. 28. 15. But if thou wilt not harken unto the v●yee of the Lord thy God to observe and do all his commandments, and his statutes which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. Bernard. It is certain thou must die, and uncertain when, how or where; seeing death is always at thy 〈◊〉 Thou must (if thou be wise) ●lwayes be ready to die. Bernard. To commit a sin is an human frailty, to persist in it is a devilish obstinacy. Bernard. There are some who hope in the Lord, but yet in vain, because they only smooth and flatter themselves, that God is merciful, but repent not of their sin; such confidence is vain and foolish, and leads to destruction. PResumption is a sin, whereby we depend upon God's mercies without any warrant from God's Word: It is as great a sin, O my soul, to hope for God's mercy, without Repentance, as to distrust God's mercy upon Repentance; In the first thou wrong'st his justice; In the last, his mercy: O my presumptuous soul; let not thy prosperity in sinning encourage thee to sin; lest, climbing without Warrant into his mercy, thou fall without mercy into his judgement: Be not deceived; a long Peace makes a bloody war, and the abuse of continued mercies makes a sharp judgement: Patience, when slighted, turns to fury, but ill-requited, starts to vengeance: think not, that thy unpunished sin is hidden from the eye of heaven, or that God's judgements will delay for ever: The stalled ox that wallows in his plenty, and waxes wanton with ease, is not far from slaughter: The Ephod O my desperate soul, is long a filling, but once being full, the leaden cover must go on; and then, it hurries on the wings of the wind: Advise thee then, and whilst the lamp of thy prosperity lasts, provide thee for the evil day, which being come repentance will be out of date, and all thy prayers will find no ear. His Prayer. Gracious God, whose mercy is unsearchable and whose goodness is unspeakable, I the unthankful object of thy continued favours, and therefore the miserable subject of thy continual wrath, humbly present my self-made misery before thy sacred majesty; Lord when I look upon the horridness of my sin, shame strikes me dumb: But when I turn mine eye upon the infiniteness of thy mercy, I am emboldened to pour forth my soul before thee; as in the one, finding matter for confusion; so in the other, Arguments for compassion: Lord I have sinned grievously, but my Saviour hath satisfied abundantly; I have trespassed continually, but he hath suffered once for all: Thou hast numbered my transgressions by the hairs of my head, but his mercies are innumerable like the stars of the sky: My sins in greatness are like the mountains of the earth, 〈◊〉 his mercy is greater than the heavens: Oh if his mercy were not greater than my sins, my sins were impardonable; for his therefore and ●●y mercy's sake cover my sins, and pardon my transgressions; make my head a fountain of ●●eares, and accept my contrition O thou Well-●●ring of all mercy: strengthen my resolution, ●●at for the time to come I may detest all sin: ●●crease a holy anger in me that I may revenge myself upon myself for displeasing so gracious a Father; Fill my heart with a fear of thy judgements, and sweeten my thoughts with the meditation of thy mercies: go forwards O my God, and perfect thy own work in me, and take the glory of thy own free goodness, furnish my mouth with the praises of thy name, and replenish my tongue with continual thanksgiving; Thou ha●● promised pardon to those that repent; behold I repent; Lord quicken my Repentance. Thou mightst have made me a terrible example of thy justice, and struck ●●ee into hell in the height of my presumption; but thou hast made me capable of thy mercies, and an object of thy 〈◊〉, for thou art a gracious God, of long-suffering and ●low to anger, thy name is wonderful, and thy mercies incomprehensible: Thou art only worthy to be praised: Let all the people praise thee O God: O let all the people praise thee; Let Angels and Archangels praise thee, Let the Congregations of Saints praise thee, Let thy works praise thee, Let every thing that breathes praise thee for ever, and for ever, Amen. FINIS.