CHAP. VIII. A Form of Confession of Sin, fitted to the Rules of Page Meditations and Prayers to be Partakers of the Merits Of the two general Christian duties required, in order The Form of Prayer used by our Lord upon the Cross, viz. the twenty-second Psalm Paraphrased CHAP. VIII. 139 Meditations and Prayers preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament, on Saturday night, or Sunday morning before ib. 148 CHAP. IX. Meditations upon your going to Church; with some short Directions for your demeanour in the House and in the Service of God CHAP. X. 153 Meditations and Prayers at the Blessed Sacrament CHAP. XI. Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving after the Holy Communion 159 . 168 173 Meditations upon the Dwelling of God in the Hearts of Meditations III. Holy Breathings of the Soul after 175 182 Meditations upon Unity in the Public worship of God THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN. PART I. CHAP. I. OF THE GREAT NECESSITY OF SELF-EXAMINATION. WHOSOEVER believes as a Christian his soul to be immortal, being either entitled to everlasting joy through faith and obedience to the Gospel of Christ, or liable to eternal woea through disobedience and misbelief, must be very stupid and sottish, if he do not frequently examine himself," whether he may reasonably conclude he is in the state of grace and salvation; or of sin, and of death the " wages thereofc." and damnation of each particular person: but yet each man's conscience, impartially examined, will acquaint him with very much of his condition, whether of wisdom or folly, of righteousness or sin, of life or of death to all eternity. "All the works of the righteous and of the wise are in the hand of God: and no man knoweth either love or hatred, by all that is before him." God hath kept secret to Himself His decrees of eternal salvation 2. That every man should know himself, is such a fundamental principle of true wisdom, that wise men of old affirmed Nosce teipsum, to be a command immediately derived to the from Heaven, as being absons of men, by a voice solutely necessary to the right guidance of all the actions of human life upare invented (saith Bern.) or earth. "Many sciences by the sons of men; but there is none greater, none John v. 28, 29. b Psalm iv. 4; 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Gal. vi. 4. Rom vi. 23. d Eccles. ix. 1. B more profitable, than each man's knowledge of himself. There is not a more compendious way to the knowledge of God, than the knowledge of a man's selfe." He who knows every thing, and knows not himself aright, knows in effect as much as comes to nothing. 3. The reasonable scul, were it not debauched by the sensual appetite, and distracted by the hurry of exorbitant desires, could not but often remember herself, examine and call to mind the Author and End of her being; the immortality and dignity of her nature; what is her errand into this world, and how she shall subsist in the world to come; what is her chiefest good, and wherein her perfection and felicity consists which cannot be merely to eat and drink and sleep, purchase lands, build houses, satisfy the lusts of the flesh, swell with pride of life. She would consider that she is stamped after the image of God, and her happiness consists in the knowledge, love, and enjoyment, of the Divine Majesty, and in the imitation and representation (according to her Bern. de Interiori Domo, c. 12. model) of the perfections of the Godhead. It is peculiar to God alone, to be essentially blessed in Himself, even in the contemplation and fruition of His own perfections from everlasting to everlasting. And yet so great is the goodness of God, that He hath made man capable of the same blessedness with Himself; to enjoy not another, but the same felicity which God Himself enjoys in the enjoyment of Himself. That is the great end and perfection of man's being in nature, even through all the degrees of grace, to see the fair beauty of God in glory, and to love Him and praise Him for ever. But, alas! vain "man being in honour, hath no understanding," considers not the honour of his being after the image of his Maker; but receives his divine immortal soul in vain, whilst he follows the sway of his sensual irrational appetite, and "is compared to the beasts that perish." 4. And well it were for all such inconsiderate and imprudent persons, if their souls were as perishing and mortal as those which f Psalm xlix. 12. |