this hurts the soul. Let the order of this sentence teach us, that sin is the greatest evil in the world; and if it cannot be avoided but we must fall into one of these, we must choose danger rather than sin: for if by avoiding of iniquity we are cast upon the suffering any evil, or losing any good; in that case we must account reproach our honour, poverty our riches, and loss our truest gain, and we shall be eternally rewarded for it. This may be our case sometimes, but commonly 162 the flying of sin doth not involve us in danger, but secure us from it; and wickedness is the highway to mischief. Drunkenness and lust, pride and malice, injustice and deceit, do naturally lead those who follow them, into many perils, and as well these as all other sins do cause God to take away his protecting hand from us, and then we are not many steps from ruin, although his justice should not inflict any positive evils for these offences: and therefore if we would be safe, we must be holy. We are apt to be more sensible and fearful of sickness than sin, of the danger to our outward, rather than to our inward man; but since they are productive of one another, we must pray against both. And if we fear diseases or want, reproach or wrong, violence or death, let those very fears quicken our petitions against sin, which is the gate that lets them all in upon us. We may fall into calamities by

the immediate hand of Providence, but when by acts of wickedness we bring them upon ourselves, we are said to run into danger; and this we chiefly pray against here, that we may not by our own folly and iniquity become accessary to our own misery; for such afflictions will not be so likely to be sanctified, so easy to be borne, nor so possible to be removed. If we lead holy lives, though the condition of our nature make us liable to more dangers than can easily be recounted, we

shall either escape them, or receive no considerable prejudice by them. And therefore, when a good man beholds his body liable to wounds, maims, and diseases; his mind to the impairing of any or all its faculties; his estate to losses, wrongs, and injuries; his whole life exposed to all the misery that can come upon him, by the unkindness or loss of friends, the malice of enemies, or the more public disturbances to church or state;-all these do only teach him to walk more humbly with God, and pray every day more heartily to him to deliver him from them; and to be more thankful, if by the divine mercy he do escape them.

XI. BUT THAT ALL OUR DOINGS MAY BE ORDERED BY THY GOVERNANCE, TO DO ALWAYS THAT WHICH IS RIGHTEOUS IN THY SIGHT, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN] If by all that hath been said, and our own sad experience, we are become so wise as to see we are insufficient for our own conduct; I hope we shall in this petition most humbly commit our ways to the Lord, that he may direct our paths, and that he may (as David speaks" Psalm xxxvii.) order all our goings and make them acceptable to himself, and then they shall be prosperous. If his good Spirit be our guide, we shall seldom fall into danger, never into sin. O let us earnestly beseech him, that his grace may direct our hearts, and his providence order our lives, that we may be blest in our going out and coming in, in our studies and labours, commerce and society, eating and recreations, in our prayers and praises; that in all our actions, natural, civil, and religious, we may design his glory, and be successful. The proud man thinks his doings

good enough if they are pleasing in his own sights; but alas! evil ways do frequently appear fair to us, and so we deceive ourselves into an unexpected ruin by absolving ourselves even when God condemns us. The hypocrite believes his actions excellent, if the world commend them; if the complying and fashionable outsides of religion present him righteous in the eyes of men, he supposes his ways prudently ordered. But we must remember we are not judges of our own, nor of one another's works; but must all stand before the judgment seat of God; wherefore it is his approbation that we desire. It is not the opinion of the malefactor, nor the vote of his fellow-prisoners, but the sentence of the judge that must save or condemn. Having therefore such a tribunal to appear before, let us beg large measures of God's grace to lead us; for he will approve of no ways, but what his Spirit directs us into, and that had need be excellent indeed, that appears so to an all-seeing eye. Our lives must not be guided by the loose rules of custom, if we expect they should be accounted righteous in his sight. But they must be ordered by the exact rule of his holy word; and then though all the world condemn us, we shall be prosperous here, and finally acquitted hereafter. Perhaps we judge it impossible our ways should ever appear 163 righteous in his sight, but we are mistaken; for if we take him for our Guide, he will not be strict to mark unavoidable defects. And it is not our performance, but the effects of his own grace that he approves of. Nor yet doth he count them righteous for any merit that is in the works, or in the persons doing them, but through the merits and obedience of the holy Jesus, in whose name we therefore make this prayer, not ex

y Prov. xvi. 2. et xxi. 2. Prov. xiv. 12. Quicquid volunt homines, se bene velle putant.

pecting our supplications can be heard, or our actions justified for their own worth, but through Jesus Christ our Lord; desiring he will please by his intercession and merits, so to recommend our actions and devotions, that we may be accepted by his grace, justified by his mercy, and finally may be for ever glorified with him and for his sake. Amen.

The Paraphrase of the Collect for Grace.

O LORD, we thy poor finite creatures upon this earth do daily remember with much comfort, that thou art OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, and hast pity on us, and being an ALMIGHTY AND EVERLASTING GOD art all-sufficient and always able to help us. The remembrance of the dangers of the last night doth engage us most heartily to praise thee WHO HAST SAFELY kept our souls and bodies therein, and BROUGHT US entire in both To THE BEGINNING OF THIS DAY. And this thy providence doth encourage us to beseech thee graciously to DEFEND us from all kinds of evil which this day's occasions may expose us to; and to keep us IN THE SAME BY THY MIGHTY POWER, which alone can make us safe. Consider our frailty, O Lord, AND GRANT, THAT THIS DAY we may discover and overcome all the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the Devil; so that WE FALL INTO NO SIN. Let us not by any iniquity, great or small, displease thee, hurt our souls, NOR RUN, by our own folly, INTO ANY KIND OF DANGER to harm our bodies; and that we may avoid all the mischiefs with which we are environed, we pray that we may not be left to ourselves, BUT THAT ALL OUR DOINGS and undertakings in spiritual or temporal concerns MAY BE this day and ever guided by thy Spirit, and ORDERED BY THY wise and faithful GOVERNANCE; for while we follow thy direction, thy grace will enable us TO DO ALWAYS that which is most profitable to us, and best pleasing to thee, even THAT WHICH IS (though imperfect in itself) accounted RIGHTEOUS IN THY SIGHT, O most merciful Judge, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST his merits and intercession; for whose sake accept and hear us, for he is OUR LORD and only Saviour. AMEN.

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SECTION XXII.

OF THE TWO COLLECTS PECULIAR TO THE EVENING PRAYER.

§. I. We have chosen this place to insert these parts of the evening service, because all the following Collects are the same in both parts of the day; and the hymns with these two prayers being all the difference, it is not necessary in our method to separate the offices; and this way, every thing comes in its proper place, only omitting what is peculiar to the other part of the day.

The Analysis of the Second Collect for Peace in the Evening
Prayer.

A Practical Discourse on the Evening Collect for Peace. §. III. O GOD, FROM WHOM ALL HOLY DESIRES, all GOOD COUNSELS, AND ALL JUST WORKS DO PROCEED] This Collect hath the same title, and seems to have the same subject with that in the morning-office. And indeed peace is so desirable a blessing, that we cannot pray for it too often, especially for different kinds of peace, as it is in the present case, if we well observe it.