of the day be not swallowed up in the general. And of this we may the more eafily ferve our felves by rifing feasonably in the morning to private devotion, and by retiring at the leifures and spaces of the day not employed in publick Offices.

4. Fail not to be prefent at the publick hours and places of Prayer, entring early and chearfully, attending reverently and devoutly, abiding patiently during the whole Office, piously affifting at the prayers, and gladly alfo hearing the Sermon; and at no hand omitting to receive the holy Communion when it is offered, (unless fome great reafon excule it) this being the great folemnity of thanksgiving, and a proper work of the day.

5. After the folemnities are paft, and in the intervals between the morning and evening devotion, (as you shall find opportunity) vifit fick perfons, reconcile differences, do Offices of neighbourhood, enquire into the needs of the poor, efpecially houte-keepers, relieve them as they fhall need and as you are able: for then we truly rejoice in God, when we make our neighbours, the poor members of Chrift, rejoice together with us.

6. Whatsoever you are to do your felf as neceffary, you are to take care that others alfo, who are under your charge, do in their ftation and manner. Let your fervants be called to Church, and all your fami ly that can be fpared from neceflary and great houfhold Minifteries: thofe that cannot let them go by turns, and be supplyed other wife as well as they may : and provide on thefe days especially, that they be inftructed in the Articles of Faith and neceflary parts" of their duty.

7. Those who labour hard in the week must be eafed upon the Lord's Day; fuch eafe being a great charity and alms but at no hand muft they be permitted to use any unlawful Games, any thing forbidden by the Laws, any thing that is fcandalous, or any thing that is dangerous and apt to mingle fin with it; no Games prompting to wantonnefs, to drunkenness, to quarrelling, to ridiculous and fuperftitious cu

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ftoms; but let their refreshments be innocent, and charitable, and of good report, and not exclufive of the Duties of Religion.

8. Beyond thefe bounds, because neither God nor Man hath pafled any obligation upon us, we must preferve our Chriftian liberty, and not suffer our felves to be intangled with a yoke of bondage: For even a good action may become a fnare to us, if we make it an occafion of fcruple by a pretence of neceffity, binding loads upon the confcience not with the bands of God, but of men, and of fancy, or of opinion, or of tyranny. Whatfoever is laid upon us by the hands of Man, must be acted and accounted of by the measures of a Man: but our best measure is this, He keeps the Lord's Day beft, that keeps it with moft Religion and with moft Charity.

9. What the Church hath done in the Article of the Refurrection, fhe hath in fome meafure done in the other Articles of the Nativity, of the Afcenfion, and of the Defcent of the Holy Ghoft at Pentecoft: and fo great Bleffings deferve an anniversary Solemnity; fince he is a very unthankful perion that does not often record them in the whole year, and efteem them the ground of his hopes, the object of his faith, the comfort of his troubles, and the great effluxes of the Divine Mercy, greater than all the victories over our temporal enemies, for which all glad perfons ufually give thanks. And if with great reafon the memory of the Refurrection does return folemnly every week, it is but reafon the other fhould return once a year. * To which I add, That the commemoration of the Articles of our Creed in folemn Days and Offices, is a very excellent inftrument to convey and imprint the lenfe and memory of it upon the fpirits of the moit ignorant perfons. For as a picture may with more fancy convey a story to a man than a plain narrative either in word or writing: foa real reprefentment, and an office of remembrance, and a day to declare it, is far more impreffive than a picture, or any other art of making and fixing ima gery.

10. The

10. The Memories of the Saints are precious to God, and therefore they ought alfo to be fo to us; and fuch perfons who ferved God by holy Living, induftrious Preaching, and religious Dying, ought to have their Names preferved in Honour, and God be glorified in them, and their holy Doctrines and Lives publifhed and imitated: and we by fo doing give teftimony to the article of the communion of Saints. But in thele cafes as every Church is to be (paring in the number of days, fo alfo fhould fhe be temperate in her injunctions, not impofing them but upon voluntary and unbufied perfons, without inare or burthen. But the Holy day is beft kept by giving God thanks for the excellent Perfons, Apoftles or Martyrs, we then remember, and by imitating their Lives: this all may do; and they that can alfo keep the folemnity, mult do that too when it is publickly enjoyned.

The mixt Actions of Religion are, i. Prayer, 2. Alms, 3. Repentance, 4. Receiving the blessed Sacrament.

SECT. VII.

Of Prayer.

There is no greater argument in the world of our fpiritual danger and unwillingnets to Religion, than the backwardnefs which moft men have always, and all men have fometimes, to fay their Prayers; fo weary of their length, fo glad when they are done, fo witty to excufe and fruftrate an opportunity and yet all is nothing, but a defiring of God to give us the greatest and the beft things we can need, and which can make us happy: it is a work fo eafie, fo honourable, and to fo great purpose, that in all the inftances of Religion and Providence (except only the incarnation of his Son) God hath not given us a greater argument of his willingness to have us faved,

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and of our unwillingness to accept it, his goodness and our gracelessness, his infinite condefcenfion and our carelefnefs and folly, than by rewarding fo eafie a duty with fo great bleffings.

Motives to Prayer.

I cannot fay any thing beyond this very confide ration and its appendages to invite Chriftian people to pray often. But we may confider that, 1. It is a duty commanded by God and his holy Son. 2. It is an act of grace and highest honour, that we dust and afhes are admitted to speak to the eternal God, to run to him as to a Farher, to lay open our wants, to complain of our burthens, to explicate our fcruples, to beg remedy and ease, support and counsel, health and fafety, deliverance and falvation. And 3. God hath invited us to it by many gracious promifes of hearing us. 4. He hath appointed his most glorious Son to be the Precedent of Frayer, and to make continual interceffion for us to the throne of Grace. 4. He hath appointed an Angel to prefent the Prayers of his fervants. And, 6. Christ unites them to his own, and fanctifies them, and makes them effective and prevalent; and, 7. Hath put it into the hands of men to refcind or alter all the decrees of God which are of one kind (that is,. conditional, and concerning our felves and our final eftate, and many inftances of our intermedial or temporal) by the power of prayers. 8. And the prayers of men have faved Cities and Kingdoms from ruine: Prayer hath raifed dead men to life, hath ftopped the violence of fire, fhut the mouths of wild beasts, hath altered the courte of Nature, caufed rain in Egypt, and drought in the fea; it made the Sun to go from Weft to Eaft, and the Moon to stand still, and rocks and mountains to walk; and it cures diseases without phyfick, and makes phyfick to do the work of nature, and nature to do the work of grace, and grace to do the work of God, and it does miracles of accident and event; and yet Prayer, that does!

all

all this, is of it felf nothing but an afcent of the mind to God, a defirir g things fit to be desired, and an expreffion of this defire to God as we can, and as becomes us. And our unwillingness to pray is nothing else but a not defiring what we ought paffionately to long for; or if we do defire it, it is a chufing rather to mifs our fatisfaction and felicity, than to ask for it.

There is no more to be faid in this affair, but that we reduce it to practice according to the following Rules.

Rules for the Practice of Prayer.

1. We must be careful that we never ask any thing of God that is finful, or that directly minifters to fin for that is to ask of God to difhonour himdelf, and to undo us. We had need confider what we pray; for before it returns in bleffing it must be join'd with Chrift's interceffion, and prefented to God. Let us principally ask of God power and affiftances to do our duty, to glorifie God, to do good works, to live a good lite, to die in the fear and favour of God, and eternal life: these things God delights to give, and commands that we shall ask, and we may with confidence expect to be antwered graciously: for thefe things are promifed without any refervation of a fecret condition; if we ask them and do our duty towards the obtaining them, we are fure never to mifs them.

2: We may lawfully pray to God for the gifts of the Spirit that minifter to holy ends, fuch as are the gift of preaching, the fpirit of prayer, good expreffion, a ready and unloofed tongue, good understanding, learning, opportunities to publish them, &c. with thefe only restraints. 1. That we cannot be fo confident of the event of thofe prayers as of the former. 2. That we must be curious to fecure our intention in thefe defires, that we may not ask them to ferve our own ends, but only for God's glory; and then we fhall have them, or a bleffing for defiring them. In Q3 order