A27107:1132
The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please…
The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please God / amplified by the author
A27107:1132
The practice of piety directing a Christian how to walk, that he may please God / amplified by the author
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
O Gracious God, and merciful Father, who art our refuge and strength, 1and a very present help in trouble; lift up the light of thy favourable countenance at this Instant upon thy servant,2 that now cometh to appear in thy presence: wash away, good Lord,3 all his sins, by the merits of Christ Jesus's blood, that they may never be laid to his charge. Increase his faith, preserve and keep safe his soul from the danger of the Devil and his Wicked Angels. Comfort him with thy Holy Spirit, cause him now to ⟨p. 445⟩feel that thou art his loving Father, and that he is thy child by Adoption and Grace. Save, O Christ, the price of thine own blood; and suffer him not to be lost, whom thou hast bought so dearly. Receive his soul, as thou didst the penitent thief, into thy heavenly Paradise. Let thy blessed Angels conduct him thither, as they carried the soul of Lazarus; and grant unto him a joyful resurrection at the last day. O Father, hear us for him, and hear thine own Son, our only Mediator, that sits at thy right hand, 4for him and us all; even for the merits of that bitter death and passion which he hath suffered for us. In confidence whereof, we now recommend his soul into thy fatherly hands, in that blessed Prayer, which our Saviour hath taught us in all times of our troubles to say unto thee: Our Father, &c.5
O Gracious God, and merciful Father, who art our refuge and strength, 1and a very present help in trouble; lift up the light of thy favourable countenance at this Instant upon thy servant,2 that now cometh to appear in thy presence: wash away, good Lord,3 all his sins, by the merits of Christ Jesus's blood, that they may never be laid to his charge. Increase his faith, preserve and keep safe his soul from the danger of the Devil and his Wicked Angels. Comfort him with thy Holy Spirit, cause him now to ⟨p. 445⟩feel that thou art his loving Father, and that he is thy child by Adoption and Grace. Save, O Christ, the price of thine own blood; and suffer him not to be lost, whom thou hast bought so dearly. Receive his soul, as thou didst the penitent thief, into thy heavenly Paradise. Let thy blessed Angels conduct him thither, as they carried the soul of La•arus; and grant unto him a joyful resurrection at the last day. O Father, hear us for him, and hear thine own Son, our only Mediator, that sits at thy right hand, 4for him and us all; even for the merits of that bitter death and passion which he hath suffered for us. In confidence whereof, we now recommend his soul into thy fatherly hands, in that blessed Prayer, which our Saviour hath taught us in all times of our troubles to say unto thee: Our Father, &c.5
Thus far of the Practice of Piety in dying in the Lord.
THE Practice of Piety in dying for the Lord, is termed Martyrdom.
Martyrdom is the testimony which a Christian beareth to the Doctrine of the Gospel, by enduring any kind of death: to invite many, and to confirm all, to embrace the truth thereof. To this kind of death, Christ hath promised a Crown: aBe thou faithful unto the death, 2and I will give thee the Crown of life. Which promise the Church so firmly believed, that they termed martyrdom ⟨p. 446⟩it self a Crown. And God to animate Christians to this excellent prize, would, by a prediction, thatb Stephen, the first Christian Martyr, should have his name of a Crown.
Of Martyrdom there are Three kinds.
1. Solâ voluntate, in will only, as John the Evangelist, who (being boiled in a Cauldron of Oil) came out rather anointed than sod: and died of old age at Ephesus.
1. Solâ voluntate, in will only, as John the Evangelist, who (being boiled in a Cauldron of Oil) came out rather annointed than sod: and died of old age at Ephesus.
2. Solo opere, in deed only: as the Innocents ofc Bethlehem.
3. Voluntate & opere, both in will and deed, as in the Primitive Church, Stephen, Polycarpus, Ignatius, Laurentius, Romanus, Antiochianus, and thousands. And in our days, Cranmer, Latimer, Hooper, Ridley, Farrar, Bradford, Philpot, Sanders, Glover, Taylor, and others innumerable, whose fiery zeal to God's Truth, brought them to the flames of Martyrdom; to seal Christ's Faith. It is not the cruelty of the death, but the innocency and holiness of the cause, that maketh a Martyr. Neither is an erroneous Conscience a sufficient warrant to suffer Martyrdom: because Science in God's Word, must direct Conscience in man's heart. For they who killed the Apostles, in their erroneous Consciences, thought they did God good service: 1and Paul of zeal breathed out* slaughters against the Lord's Saints. Now whether the cause of our Seminary Priests and Jesuits be so holy, true, and innocent, as that it may ⟨p. 447⟩warrant their Conscience to suffer death, and to hazard their eternal salvation thereon,3 let Paul's Epistle written to the ancient Christian Romans (but against our new Antichristian Romans) be judge. And it will plainly appear, that the Doctrine which St. Paul taught to the ancient Church of Rome, is ex diametro opposite in 26 fundamental points of true Religion, to that which the new Church of Rome teacheth and maintaineth. For St. Paul taught the Primitive Church of Rome,
1. That our Election is of God's free Grace, and not ex operibus praevisis, Rom. 9. 11. Rom. 11. 5, 6.
2. That we are justified before God by faith only, without good works, Rom. 3. 20, 28. Rom. 4. 2, &c. Rom. 1. 17.
3. That the good works of the regenerate, are not of their own condignity meritorious, nor such as can deserve Heaven, Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 11. 6. Rom. 6. 23.