the Lord, for no man can see thy face and live. The only way that we can
draw near unto thee in this life, is by prayer; but, O Lord, we know not
how to pray, nor what to ask for as we ought. We cannot pretend by our
supplications or prayers to turn or change thee, for thou art the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever; but the coming into thy presence, the
drawing near unto thee, is the only means to be changed ourselves, to
become like thee in holiness and purity, to be followers of thee as thy
dear children. O, therefore, turn not away thy face from us, but let us
see so much of the excellencies of thy divine nature, of thy goodness,
and justice, and mercy, and forbearance, and holiness, and purity, as
may make us hate everything in ourselves that is unlike to thee, that so
we may abhor and repent of and forsake those sins that we so often fall
into when we forget thee. Lord! We acknowledge and confess we have lived
in a course of sin, and folly, and vanity, from our youth up, forgetting
our latter end, and our great account that we must one day make, and
turning a deaf ear to thy many calls to us, either by thy holy word, by
our teachers, or by our own consciences; and even thy more severe
messages by afflictions, sicknesses, crosses, and disappointments, have
not been of force enough to turn us from the vanity and folly of our own
ways. What then can we expect in justice, when thou shalt enter into
judgment with us, but to have our portion with the hypocrites and
unbelievers? to depart for ever from the presence of the Lord; to be
turned into hell with those that forget God! But, O God, most holy! O
God, most mighty! O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into
the bitter pains of eternal death, but have mercy upon us, most merciful
Father, and forgive us our sins for thy name's sake; for thou hast
declared thyself to be a God slow to anger, full of goodness,
forbearance, and long-suffering, and forgiving iniquity, transgression,
and sin. O Lord, therefore, shew thy mercy upon us. O let it be in
pardoning our sins past, and in changing our natures, in giving us a new
heart, and a new spirit, that we may lead a new life, and walk before
thee in newness of life, that so sin may not have dominion over us for
the time to come. O let thy good Spirit, without which we can do
nothing, O let that work in us both to will and do such things as may be
well pleasing to thee. O let it change our thoughts and minds, and take
them off the vain pleasures of this world, and place them there where
only the true joys are to be found. O fill our minds every day more and
more with the happiness of that blessed state of living for ever with
thee, that we may make it our great work and business to work out our
salvation,--to improve in the knowledge of thee, whom to know is life
eternal. But, Lord, since we cannot know thee but by often drawing near
unto thee, and coming into thy presence, which in this life, we can do
only by prayer, O make us, therefore, ever sensible of these great
benefits of prayer, that we may rejoice at all opportunities of coming
into thy presence, and may ever find ourselves the better and more
heavenly minded by it, and may never wilfully neglect any opportunity of
thy worship and service. Awaken thoroughly in us a serious sense of
these things, that so to-day, while it is called to-day, we may see and
know the things that belong to our peace, before they be hid from our
eyes, before that long night cometh when no man can work. O that every
night may so effectually put us in mind of our last, that we may every
day take care so to live, as we shall then wish we had lived when we
come to die; that so when that night shall come, we may as willingly put
off these bodies, as we now put off our clothes, and may rejoice to rest
from our labours, and that our war with the world, the devil, and our
own corrupt nature, is at an end. In the meanwhile, we beseech thee to
take us, and ours, and all that belongs to us, into thy fatherly care
this night. Let thy holy angels be our guard, while we are not in a
condition to defend ourselves, that we may not be under the power of
devils or wicked men; and preserve us also, O Lord, from every evil
accident, that, after a comfortable and refreshing sleep, we may find
ourselves, and all that belongs to us, in peace and safety. And now, O
Lord, being ourselves still in the body, and compassed about with
infirmities, we can neither be ignorant nor unmindful of the sufferings
of our fellow-creatures. O Lord, we must acknowledge, that they are all
but the effects of sin; and, therefore, we beseech thee so to sanctify
their several chastisements to them, that at length they may bring forth
the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and then be thou graciously
pleased to remove thy heavy and afflicting hand from them. And O that
the rest of mankind, who are not under such trials, may, by thy
goodness, be led to repentance, that the consciences of hard-hearted
sinners may be awakened, and the understandings of poor ignorant
creatures enlightened, and that all that love and fear thee may ever
find the joy and comfort of a good conscience, beyond all the
satisfactions that this world can afford. And now, blessed Lord, from
whom every good gift comes, it is meet, right, and our bounden duty,
that we should offer up unto thee our thanks and praise for all thy
goodness towards us, for preserving peace in our land, the light of thy
Gospel, and the true religion in our churches; for giving us the fruits
of the earth in due season, and preserving us from the plague and
sickness that rages in other lands. We bless thee for that support and
maintenance, which thou art pleased to afford us, and that thou givest
us a heart to be sensible of this thy goodness, and to return our thanks
at this time for the same; and as to our persons, for that measure of
health that any of us do enjoy, which is more than any of us do deserve.
We bless thee, more particularly, for thy protection over us the day
past; that thy good spirit has kept us from falling into even the
greatest sins, which, by our wicked and corrupt nature, we should
greedily have been hurried into; and that, by the guard of thy holy
angels, we have been kept safe from any of those evils that might have
befallen us, and which many are now groaning under, who rose up in the
morning in safety and peace as well as we. But above all, for that great
mercy of contriving and effecting our redemption, by the death of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, whom, of thy great love to mankind, thou didst
send into this world, to take upon him our flesh, to teach us thy will,
and to bear the guilt of our transgressions, to die for our sins, and to
rise again for our justification; and for enabling us to lay hold of
that salvation, by the gracious assistances of thy Holy Spirit. Lord,
grant that the sense of this wonderful love of thine to us, may
effectually encourage us to walk in thy fear, and live to thy glory,
that so when we shall put off this mortal state, we may be made
partakers of that glory that shall then be revealed, which we beg of
thee, for the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ, who died to procure it for
us, and in whose name and words we do offer up the desires of our souls
unto thee, saying,
"Our Father," &c.
OBSERVATIONS
ON
HEYLIN'S HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIANS.[1]
[Footnote 1: Written by the Dean in the beginning of the book, on one of
the blank leaves. [Note in vol. ix. 1775 edition of Swift's Works.]]
This book, by some errors and neglects in the style, seems not to have
received the author's[2] last correction. It is written with some
vehemence, very pardonable in one who had been an observer and a
sufferer, in England, under that diabolical fanatic sect which then
destroyed Church and State. But, by comparing in my memory what I have
read in other histories, he neither aggravates nor falsifies any facts.
His partiality appears chiefly in setting the actions of the Calvinists
in the strongest light, without equally dwelling on those of the other
side; which, however, to say the truth, was not his proper business. And
yet he might have spent some more words on the inhuman massacre of Paris
and other parts of France, which no provocation (and yet the King had
the greatest possible) could excuse, or much extenuate. The author,
according to the current opinion of the age he lived in, had too high
notions of regal power; led by the common mistake of the term Supreme
Magistrate, and not rightly distinguishing between the legislature and
administration: into which mistake the clergy fell, or continued, in the
reign of Charles II., as I have shewn and explained in a treatise, &c.
J. SWIFT. March 6, 1727-8.
[Footnote 2: Peter Heylin, D.D. (1600-1662) was born at Burford,
Oxfordshire. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and became in
succession, chaplain to Charles I., rector of Hemmingford, rector of
Islip, and a prebendary of Westminster. He wrote the weekly paper,
"Mercurius Auhcus," and lost his estates during the Civil War. He was
reinstated at the Restoration into all his preferments. His works are
voluminous, consisting of a "Cosmography," "A Help to English History,"
a "Life of Charles I.," a "History of the Reformation," a "History of
Presbyterians," a "Life of Archbishop Laud," and a few theological
works. The work on the Presbyterians, here referred to by Swift, was
published in 1670. [T.S.]]
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