251 The righteous doth fing and rejoyce. But it is a monftrous folly and ftupidity in any, Young, Middle-aged, or Old, to be merry, or eafy, that live in the Neglect of this Sacrament, and of the due Obfervation of the whole Lord's day, and of daily Morningsand Evening-Reading, and Praying, and of other Chriftian Duties. 1 Thes. 5. 3. For when they shall fay, Peace and fafety; then fudden deftruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a Woman with child; and they shall not escape. And is is an unaccountable thing to me, how fuch can bear up under the Croffes, and Loffes of the world, or ever expect to be free from Diftrefles. Prob. 18. 14. The Lunwounded] Spirit of a man will sustain his infir mity, but a wounded fpirit who can bear? ch. 11. 8. The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his ftead. ch. 1 26 to 28. I will laugh at your calamity, I I will mock when your fear comesh. When your fear cometh as defolation, and your deftruction cometh as a whirl-wind; when diftrefs and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall feek Me early, but they shall not find Me. Pf. 119. 92. Unless thy law had beent my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

§. 6. XIII Excufe for abfenting from the Lord's Supper, I was that day to vifit a Friend; or a Friend came to Dine with me; or I made a Feaft the day before; orwas Treated by a Friend at a noble Entertainment. Answ. IF the Entertainment was friendly in the Defign, Temperate at the Table, and every way harmless, and charitable, hurting no man's Fame, nor disturbing any man's Quiet in the Conversation, your Lord was not offended, nor your foul unfitted for this holy Sacrament thereby. The primitive Chriftans receiv'd it at a friendly Treat : for in thofe daies their Lore-Feafts always went along with it. So that an hospitable Entertainment the day before, yea, or even the fame day, does not unfit you to communicate, if in all things elfe you are duly qualified. But how comes it to pafs that of all the days in the Month, you fix upon that for Vifiting, or Entertaining your Friend, when your Bleffed Lord invites you to his Table, there to entertain you? would you do fo if your King, or Burger. Mafter had invited you, why muft that detain you, when Chrift calls you? is it any Point of friendship to make you disobey your Lord? or to put you by imbracing this high

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wonderful! I could not have thought it poffible; but that Thou haft moft graciously reveal'd it to me. I Believe, Lord, help my unbelief. Behold I am thy fervant,the fon [daughter] of thy Handmaid, be it unto me according to thy word;! accept of thy Offer, I count my felf happy that I may be ad mitted into Covenant with Thee, I renounce the devil and all his works; Thou shalt be my Matter, my Father, my Guide, my Director, my King, and my God: my Mafter to Command me; my Father to Counfel me; my Guide to Lead me; my Director to conduct me; my King to Rule me, my God to difpofe of me as Thou pleafeft. I will know no Will but thy Will; By the Bloud of the Covenant unite my Will to thy Will, grant me to defire what Thou delight eft in, defiring to fearch after it, fearching to know it, and knowing it, to fulfill it. Make me, O Lord, for Thou alone canft do it, make me Obedient without contradiction, Holy without defection, Chaft without corruption, Patien: with our murmuring, Humble without diffimulation, Cheartul without licentiousness. Sorrowful without dejection, Grave without affectation, Nimble in religion without lightness, Fearful without defpair, Upright without hypocrify, and Fruitfel in good works without prefumption. Give me a Watchful Heart, a heart not eafily drawn away by vain, imaginations, a heart unbroken by afflictions, unaffected with the vanities of the World, that may not fwell with prof perity, nor fink in adverfity. Grant me Understanding to know Thee, Diligence to feek Thee, Wisdom to find Thee, a Readiness to pleafe Thee, Perfeverance to wait for Thee, and Confidence at laft to imbrace Thee. O Holy and eternal Spirit! I depend upon thy Affiftance. Make me faithful to my God; faithful in my Calling, faithful in the discharge of my Duty, faithful iu my Promifes, faithful in my Converfation, faithful in my Love, faithful in my Obedience, faithful in thy Houfe, faithful in my own, faithful unto Death that I may obtain a Crown of Life, thro' the Merits, and Interceffion of Jefus Chrift. Amen.

I have laft.. O Holy &c, as Part 2, ch. 3. §. 12. CHAP. III.

WEDNESDAY, or the 3d. day after this Sacrifice of Praife, §. 1. III Direction. IN the bleffed Sacrament I not only feek a Pardon for what is past, but also vow and promife A

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mendment for the future; and all myholy Vows and Promises there must be made good afterwards; It must be my care, always whilft I live, to verify and fulfill’em. And to do this I must think often of 'em for fome time after for the Sacrament does not better me without my own care, but by help. ing and ingaging me to good Indeavors after it is over. It works not as a Natural, but as a Moral Means; and improves none, but fuch as Remember what they did thereat, and abor after their own Improvements. To fet my Vows before my eyes, and call to mind my own Ingagements, will give hem force, and make 'em have their Effect upon me, and render it an Ordinance full of Grace and heavenly Benefits, and will fet me on mightily in my Vertuous attainments. I must prefently begin to do thefe good works, and to perform my Vows, while my heart is warm with thefe flames: for if I delay, I fhall be the lefs able, and perhaps the lefs willing, and if I go not forward, Ifhalgo backward; but by denying my Defires one Week, I fhall perceive how much ea fier and fweeter it is to deny a Luft, than to fatisfy it. And by the Success of these first Attemps I fhall both give experiment of the Grace receiv'd, and have fomewhat wherewith 10 upbraid my foul afterwards if I grow remifs. I muft spend some time in ftrengthening of my furpofes, and confirming my Refolutions of a more holy Obedience; that fo there may be fome Fruit feen of that Day, till the Solemnity fhall return again; and then I fhall have the lefs labor to prepare for it,

§. 2. falm 81.

SING ye merrily unto God our ftrength: make a chear ful noife unto the God of Jacob. Take the Pfalm, bring hither the tabret: the merry harp with the lute. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon: even in the time appointed, and upon our folemn feaft-day. For this was made a ftatute for Ifrael: and a law of the God of Jacob. This He ordained in Jofeph for a teftimony: when he came out of the land of E gypt, and had heard a ftrange language. I eafed his shoulder from the burden: and his hands were delivered from making the pots. Thou calledft vpon Me in Troubles, and I delive red thee and heard thee what time as the ftorm fell upon thee. I proved thee alfo: at the waters of ftrife. Hear, O my people, and I will affure thee, O Ifrael: If thou wilt hearken unto me, There fhall no ftrange god be in thee: neither fhal

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Part. III. fhalt thou worship any other god. I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I fhall fill it. But my people would not hear my voice: and Ifrael would not obey me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts lufts: and let them follow their own im aginations. Othat my people would have hearkened unto Me: for if Ifrael had walked in my ways, I fhould foon have put down their enemies: and turned my hand against their adverfaries. The haters of the LORD fhould have been found liars: but their time fhould have indured for ever. He fhould have fed them alfo with the finest wheat-flour: aud with ho ny out of the ftony rock should I have fatisfied thee. Glory be &c.

§. 3. XV Impediment from coming to the holy Communion. I Meet with fo many afflictions, Indifpofition of body, Sick nefs in my Family, Loffes, Croffes, and Cares in the World, that I can't fettlejmy mind as I ought for this facred Ordinance, Answer. IF thefe provoke you to Impatience, murmuring, or repining againft God's Providence, it ishard for thee to kick against the prick. Acts 9.5. that is, to fight against God, and it may, and muft, as all other fins, be repented of, and the beft Remedy is felf Refignation. Part 1.ch.8. §.4. But if it only fo difcompofes your mind, as that you can't keep your thoughts from wandring when you are at your Devotions, you must use your utmost indeavors to compofe and fix your thoughts, and to keep your mind from going aftray, and to reduce it when it has fwerved, as ch. 1. §. 1.at th' end: and if, after all, idle and impertinent, and wicked Imaginations do, against your Will, crowd themselves upon you, and, like flies, the continually beaten off, yet ftill return again and moleft you? God, who is Gracious and Mercifull, will nev er impute that to you as a fin, which.with all your indeavors, you cannot help but it fhall only be reckon'd upon the fcore of your infirmities, against which, indeed, you must ever ftrive, but it may be will never be able wholly to conquer them as long as you live. But the best help I know for those Circumstances (befides as above) is to comprife your Prayers in as few words as conveniently you can, and to make amends for your brevity, by offering up frequent devout Ejaculation; to God; and these coming from a truly pious foui, and a fincere, honeft heart, like the Publican's God be merciful to me a finner, S. Luke 18. 13. Will undoubtedly effectu

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257 lly prevail at the Throne of Grace, when, by reafon of Your natural frailty and Infirmity, you are not able to make onger Addrefles for our Savior has intimated, S. Mat. 5. 7. that we must not lengthen out our Prayers upon this pprehenfion that we fhall be the fooner heard for much peaking and thereupon prefcribed us that most excellent, Comprehenfive, plain, and fhort Form, which, as a Badge of the Disciples of this Lord, we are by Him commanded conftantly to ufe. Vide §. 6.

§. 4. XVI. Impediment. I Am poor, and can't afford money to buy Books neceffary to inform, and quality my felf for it, nor to give at the Altar, nor time to Read and Pray fo much as I ought; or tho' I'm not poor yet by my Circumstances in the World, I can't find Leifure enough to prepare for it; or I can't read, fo know not how to Mafter fuch Difficulties. Answ. HE only 'is poor whom God hates: Others areHeirs to aKingdom, Crown,and Sceptre everlasting The Library I propofe at th' end, as fufficient for the Poor, will coft very little, which may by laboring people be foon fpared out of their daily, or weekly Expences; And thofe others who can get nothing, but live upon Charity, if(as › they have nothing to hinder) they give conftant attendance on the publick worship at all other times, as well as Sundays, I've the Charity to think they may be gladly furnished by their neighboring pious Gentry; or at leaft by the Minifter, Wardens, and Overfeers, if apply themselves to 'em. And for the Time to compafs the daily Reading and Praying I advife to, it will not ordinarily be much above half an hour in a day, and about as much more the Week before and after the Communion, and that may very well be redeem'd by moft out of their idle hours, and by all out of their fleep, orwork: for f. 127. 3. It is but loft Labor that ye hafte to rife up early, and fo late take reft, without God's 'bleffing; and S. Bat. 16. 26, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul? If you can't Read, you must be the more Zealous and careful never to neglect any opportunity of going to Church, and as it's very rare but one in a family can read, fo he, orfhe muft do it, as above; but if none, you may go to your next good Neighbors, and hear and joyn with them. Or elfe (being of fuch vaft Confequence both to Body and foul) you must get (every fuch time at least) a man, woman, boy, or girle of

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