an one as is most acceptable to the rest, and like to do most good.

Direct. 11. Let prayer be suited to the case of those that join in it, and to the condition of the family:' and not a few general words spoken by rote, that serve all times and persons alike.

Direct. III. Let it neither be so short as to end before their hearts can be warm and their wants expressed (as if you had an unwilling task to slubber over, and would fain have done); nor yet so tedious as to make it an ungrateful burden to the family.'

Direct. IV. Let not the coldness and dulness of the speaker rock the family asleep :' but keep awake your own heart, that you may keep the rest awake, and force them to

attention.

Direct. v. Pray at such hours as the family may be least distracted, sleepy, tired, or out of the way.'

Direct. vi. Let other duties concur, as oft as may be, to assist in prayer:' as reading, and singing psalms.

Direct. VII.

Do all with the greatest reverence of God that possibly you can:' not seeming reverence, but real; that so more of God than of man may appear in every word you speak.

Direct. VIII. The more the hearers are concerned in it, the more regard you must have to the fitness of your expressions for before others, words must be regarded, lest they be scandalized, and God and prayer be dishonoured. And if you cannot do it competently without, use a well composed form.

Direct. Ix. Let not family prayer be used at the time of public prayer in the church,' nor preferred before it, but prefer public prayer, though the manner were more imperfect than your own.

Direct. x.

Teach your children and servants how to pray themselves,' that they may not be prayerless when they come among those that cannot pray. John and Christ taught their disciples to pray.

Tit. 4. Special Directions for Secret Prayer.

Direct. 1. Let it be in as secret a place as conveniently you can; that you may not be disturbed.' Let it be done so that others may not be witnesses of it, if you can avoid it; and yet take it not for your duty, to keep it unknown that you pray secretly at all: for that will be a snare and scandal to them.

Direct. 11. Let your voice be suited to your own help and benefit, if none else hear you.' If it be needful to the orderly proceeding of your own thoughts, or to the warming of your own affections, you may use a voice; but if others be within hearing, it is very unfit.

Direct. III. In secret let the matter of your prayers be that which is most peculiarly your own concernment, or those secret things that are not fit for public prayer, or are there passed by;' yet never forgetting the highest interest of Christ, and the Gospel, and the world and church.

Direct. IV. Be less solicitous about words in secret than with others, and lay out your care about the heart.' For that is it that God most esteemeth in your prayers.

Direct. v. Do not through carnal unwillingness grow into a neglect of secret prayer, when you have time: nor yet do not superstitiously tie yourselves to just so long time, whether you are fit, or at leisure from greater duties or not.' But be the longer when you are most fit and vacant, and the shorter when you are not. To give way to every carnal backwardness, is the sin on one side; and to resolve to spend so long time, when you do but tire yourselves, and sleep, or business, or distemper maketh it a lifeless thing, is a sin on the other side. Avoid them both.

Direct. vi. A melancholy person who is unfit for much solitariness and heart-searchings, must be much shorter, if not also seldomer in secret prayers, than other Christians that are capable of bearing it:' and they must instead of that which they cannot do, be the more in that which they can do; as in joining with others, and in shorter ejaculations, besides other duties; but not abating their piety in the main upon any pretence of curing melancholy.

1

CHAPTER XXIV.

Brief Directions for Families, about the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.

OMITTING those things which concern the public administration of this sacrament, (for the reasons before intimated Part ii.) I shall here only give you some brief Directions for your private duty herein.

Direct. 1. Understand well the proper ends to which this sacrament was instituted by Christ; and take heed that you use it not to ends, for which it never was appointed.' The true ends are these, 1. To be a solemn commemoration of the death and passion of Jesus Christ, to keep it, as it were, in the eye of the church, in his bodily absence till he come2. 2. To be a solemn renewing of the holy covenant which was first entered in baptism, between Christ and the receiver; and in that covenant it is on Christ's part, a solemn delivery of himself first, and with himself the benefits of pardon, reconciliation, adoption, and right to life eternal. And on man's part, it is our solemn acceptance of Christ with his benefits, upon his terms, and a delivering up of ourselves to him, as his redeemed ones, even to the Father, as our reconciled Father, and to the Son as our Lord and Saviour, and to the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier, with professed thankfulness for so great a benefit. 3. It is appointed to be a lively objective means, by which the Spirit of Christ should work to stir up, and exercise, and increase the repentance, faith, desire, love, hope, joy, thankfulness, and new obedience of believers; by a lively representation of the evil of sin, the infinite love of God in Christ, the firmness of the covenant or promise, the greatness and sureness of the mercy given, and the blessedness purchased and promised to us, and the great obligations that are laid upon us. And that herein believers might be solemnly called out to the most serious exercise of all these graces, and might be provoked and as

a 1 Cor. xi. 24-26.
b Matt. xxvi. 28.

Mark xiv. 24. Luke xxii. 20. 1 Cor. xi. 25. Heb. ix. 15-18. 1 Cor. x. 16, 24. John vi. 32. 35. 51. 58.

sisted to stir up themselves to this communion with God in Christ, and to pray for more as through a sacrificed Christ. 4. It is appointed to be the solemn profession of believers, of their faith, and love, and gratitude, and obedience to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of continuing firm in the Christian religion. And a badge of the church before the world. 5. And it is appointed to be a sign and means of the unity, love, and communion of saints, and their readiness to communicate to each other.

The false, mistaken ends which you must avoid are these. 1. You must not with the Papists, think that the end of it is to turn bread into no bread, and wine into no wine, and to make them really the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. For if sense (which telleth all men that it is still bread and wine,) be not to be believed, then we cannot believe that ever there was a Gospel, or an apostle, or a pope, or a man, or any thing in the world. And the apostle expressly calleth it bread three times, in three verses together, after the consecration. And he telleth us, that the use of it is (not to make the Lord's body really present, but) "to shew the Lord's death till he come ;" that is, as a visible representing and commemorating sign, to be instead of his bodily presence till he come.

2. Nor must you with the Papists use this sacrament to sacrifice Christ again really unto the Father, to propitiate him for the quick and dead, and ease souls in purgatory, and deliver them out of it. For Christ having died once dieth no more, and without killing him, there is no sacrificing him. By once offering up himself, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, and now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin: having finished the sacrificing work on earth, he is now passed into the heavens, to appear before God for his redeemed, ones.

3. Nor is it any better than odious impiety to receive the sacrament, to confirm some confederacies or oaths of secresy, for rebellions or other unlawful designs; as the powder-plotters in England did.

c 1 Cor. xi. 27-29. 31. x. 16, 17. 21. xi. 25, 26. vi. 14. Acts ii. 42. 46. xx. 7.

d 1 Cor. xi. 26--28.

e Rom. vi. 9. 1 Cor. xv. 3. 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Heb. ix. 16. x. 12. 26. ix. 24.

4. Nor is it any other than impious profanation of these sacred mysteries, for the priest to constrain or suffer notoriously ignorant, and ungodly persons, to receive themf; either to make themselves believe that they are indeed the children of God, or to be a means which ungodly men should use to make them godly, or which infidels or impenitent persons must use to help them to repentance and faith in Christ. For though there is that in it which may become a means of their conversion, (as a thief that stealeth a bible or sermon book, may be converted by it,) yet is it not to be used by the receiver to that end. For that were to tell God a lie, as the means of their conversion; for whosoever cometh to receive a sealed pardon, doth thereby profess repentance, as also by the words adjoined he must do; and whosoever taketh, and eateth, and drinketh the bread and wine, doth actually profess thereby, that he taketh and applieth Christ himself by faith: and therefore, if he do neither of these, he lieth openly to God; and lies and false covenants are not the appointed means of conversion. that the minister is a liar in his delivery of it: for he doth but conditionally seal and deliver. God's covenant and benefits to the receiver, to be his, if he truly repent and believe: but the receiver himself lieth, if he do not actually repent and believe, as he there professeth to do.

Not

5. Also it is an impious profanation of the sacrament, if any priest for the love of filthy lucre, shall give it to those that ought not to receive it, that he may have his fees or offerings; or, that the priest may have so much money that is bequeathed for saying a mass for such or such a soul.

6. And it is an odious profanation of the sacrament, to use it as a league or bond of faction, to gather persons into the party, and tie them fast to it, that they may depend upon the priest, and his faction and interest may thereby be strengthened, and he may seem to have many followers.

f Non absque probatione et examine panem illum præbendum esse neque novis neque veteribus Christianis. Quod siquis est fornicator, aut ebriosus, aut idolis serviens, cum ejusmodi etiam communem cibum capere vetat apostolus, nedum cœlesti mensa communicare, saith a Jesuit, Acosta, lib. vi. cap. 10. And after, Neque enim ubi perspecta est superstitionis antiquæ aut ebriositatis, aut fœdæ consuetudinis mácula, ad altare Indus debet admitti, nisi contraria opera illam manifeste et diligenter eluerit.- -Christianis concedatur; sed Non-Christiano, dignis moribus subtrahatur. Pag. 549.