are meerly by a frequent Repetition of her own Acts or by the interposition of the Understanding which clearly seeing that such or such things are to be done presses and prevails upon the Will to be always ready to do them These ways are both efficacious but the later the more Natural and less changeable For the will according to the designe of nature is to be led by the Understanding and indeed in some sence cannot be led otherwise there being some co-operation of the Understanding to that first Act of the Will the repetition of which afterwards produces the Habit. For unless the action had first been thought fit to be done it would not have been done at all But if the Understanding contributed but litle 't is more chance and luck than Reason that the Action haps to be good which is not connatural our nature requiring a rational proceeding in all things Again it is also less lasting for as Use produces Disuse will lose it and should the Understanding as not being first settled it self it well may come to cross the operations of the Will by contrary judgments or even doubts the Will would waver and act faintly first and after perhaps not at all But a Will produced by the Understanding cleerly seeing and conceiting practically what is to be done and out of that sight moving and indeed becoming the Will to do it cannot be changed till the Understanding change And if the Understanding be determin'd by Truth and that Truth clearly seen the Understanding cannot change because Truth can never turn into not-Truth I say clearly seen For Passion dims or blinds and so comes in Sin § 2. We shall find that in one way the Soul works upon the Body in the other the Body works upon the Soul Where the Habit is produced by repeated Acts it is caused in the Soul by the influence of the Body whose Spirits and Organs being fitted by constant use and readily concurring to such Actions carry the soul along with them In the other way the Action begins from the Soul by whose predominance over the Body those Spirits and Organs are fitted and concur with readiness and ease to her Directions yet both arrive at the same End a fitting disposition both of Soul and Body § 3. Notwithstanding since Effects must needs partake the nature of their Causes though true Devotion be an effect of both ways yet this Effect cannot but have Consequences and Operations as different as the Causes are which produce it The Devotion caus'd by Knowledg is proper for more refined Souls such as are able to penetrate into and judg of the nature of things and guide their Actions by their judgments The other for tempers less rational and who not able to go alone require to be led The former can only be lost by a wilful neglect of cultivating those Principles which caus'd it and which are not soon nor easily pluckt up where once they have taken deep root The other perishes both sooner and more easily by bare dis-use of the material actions by which it was produc'd And indeed they who have only custom from whence they can derive their Devotion generally run great hazard of a total decay in virtue upon any considerable neglect of their customary Exercises § 4. Yet in some respects this Material Way is less subject to Involuntary distraction in Prayer than the other because this way of Prayer being in a manner confused and an Elevation of the Mind to God in common as it were without distinct application of the soul to particular Motives which should advance her to new degrees of fervency it costs her by consequence little labour and obliges her not out of weariness to divert to new Objects Again this kind of Prayer having little or no height of Spirituality but being sutable to Fancy finds in the Brain Proper Species agreeable to the thoughts he has who Prays whereas the other straining after Objects purely spiritual of which we have no proper Species has by consequence less ground in Nature to fix the Attention § 5. In some respects too the Spiritual Way has the advantage in this point of Distraction For the distinct considerations to which the soul applyes her self are apt from their being Distinct to fix the Attention because they afford her a particular Entertainment to which she may attend As for Weariness when she finds that prevail and render her unfit to continue her Prayer longer she leavs it off for the present to resume it when she is better dispos'd And when some use has provided her of Spirits fit for her purpose she will seldom have cause to break off for weariness but may Pray with ease as long as is necessary or useful § 6. Hitherto we have discourst of these two kinds of Devotion as they are in their own nature If we upon look them as they are in the Subject we shall find those of the material way generally great valuers of External Acts They place all Spiritual Goodness in frequenting them think them Saints who are addicted to long Prayers and assiduously repairing to Churches and Sacraments proceeding too often to censure those as little less than voyd of all goodness whom they observe not to be still as their Beads or the like And this proceeds not from defect in Devotion on the contrary it seldom happens but where it is strong and much valu'd but from the weakness of the person who has it and who being neither us'd nor able to judge of the nature of things comprehends not how he can be Devout who does not do those Actions continually which by Experience he finds useful and necessary to Devotion in himself Those of the other Way place all their Treasure in Interiour Dispositions and for Outward Actions chuse them by Judgment and practice so many and such as they find useful to the Inward Affections They think persons more or less Saints as their Souls possess more or less of those true Spiritual Riches and hence value and endeavour so to improve their minds in the Knowledg of Spiritual things as being the connatural means to produce good Affections which the others fancy not but rather condemn as a hinderance to Devotion because they perceive no efficacy nor fruit of it in themselves § 7. The former placing much of their Devotion in performance of the External Act as going often to Confession Communion c. are not generally altogether so solicitous of due Preparation or at least aim not by their preparation to work their souls into a disposition fit to advance in true Vertue and perfection of the Interior by a connatural efficacy of the Action upon such a disposition but following Faith unexplicated by true Theology expect the fruit from a supernatural operation of Grace beyond their comprehension fixt to and accompanying the Action The later apprehending the benefit to be expected from those Actions depends after a connatural way upon the disposition with which they
Devotion is a disposition of the Will For since no Power acts but as 't is apply'd Devotion whose Nature 't is to apply both the Understanding and all other Powers to Christian Action must needs belong properly to that Power which in man is the Principle of Action that is to the Will § 4. Secondly that this state of Devotion being a constant bent and readiness to perform the best actions on the best manner is by consequence the best State the Will can possibly have in this World and next to the necessary and continual Conformity to the Divine Will which the Blessed have in Heaven § 5. Thirdly that this Promptness to put both the Understanding in act as to Prayer and the other Powers as to Acts of Virtue as it is a Disposition of the will so it is to be lookt for in the Will alone and not in the Acts either of the Understanding it self much less of the Fancy or of any other of those Powers which Devotion is to set a work Whence follows cleerly that though there happen never so much difficulty to elevate the mind actually or rather sensibly to God never so many Impediments nay even Incapacity to act feelingly or tenderly yet as long as the Will on her part preserves her self prompt to do all these and can truly say with King David Paratum cor meum Deus paratum cor meum My Heart is ready O my God my heart is ready there happens no loss nor so much as Diminution of interiour solid Devotion The Fancy without whose co-operation the understanding in this state cannot act may be restiff and backward the inferiour Faculties lame and clogg'd whether through Impotency or ill Circumstances But a pious Soul ought not in the least be discouraged at these Accidents to which in the dependence the Soul has now upon the Body we were not Men if we were not subject nor think her self a jot worse For Devotion as was said is only in the Will and the Will is not at all the worse dispos'd because the Faculties with which she would work are indispos'd and cannot obey her no more than the Hand is lame because the Pen is bad and will not write § 6. Fourthly That a Soul which has a ready Will to pray can never fail though the Fancy be never so dull or out of order to please God by praying or which is all one to have the Merit of Prayer For all Merit or Actions that please God proceed properly from the Will whence a devout that is a hearty and ready Intention which is the best Act of the Will must needs be in a high and special manner Meritorious or Rewardable Nay more a devout Soul intending and endeavouring to pray and standing bent that way that is keeping that Intention unalter'd and prosecuting her Endeavours as well as she can actually is in prayer or truly prays interiorly though for want of the Complyance of the Fancy or Inferior Part of the Soul which onely in Acts of Prayer is sensible she does not experience it even while she has it but rather suspects the contrary unless reflex Thoughts and rais'd above matter preserves her from being mistaken Yet the thing is clear both by Reason and when by reflexion we observe what passes Experience too For Prayer is nothing but an Elevation or Application of the Understanding to God and there can need no more to apply the Understanding interiorly to Objects already within her but the Will to do so Now supposing as the case does the Will applying as far as she can the Understanding of necessity the Understanding must be apply'd interiorly that is Prayer is actually exercis'd Again however outward Objects striking the Senses or inward Fancies irregularly stirr'd up and fluttering in a perpetual motion cause in a manner continual Distractions yet we may observe the Soul when by reflexion it comes to perceive them rejects those Distractions and reapplies it self after that seeming dull manner which the Understanding un-assisted with serviceable Fancies can practise to what it was employ'd about before Nay there would be no such thing as Distraction in Prayer nothing for those Words to signifie in case the Understanding had not been acting about some other Object before and attending to it The being diverted from which and attending to a new Object we call Distraction and this former Object can be nothing but the Object of Prayer God § 7. A parallel instance to this case is that of Saint Paul speaking of praying in an unknown Tongue Nam si orem linguâ spiritus meus orat mens autem mea sine fructuest For if I pray with my Tongue my Spirit prayeth but my Understanding is without Fruit that is he reaps not the Benefit of stirring up the Mind by new Motives or Discourses which those Prayers distinctly and perfectly understood and penetrated were apt to suggest Yet still his Spirit or Superior Part of the Soul is in common and confusedly elevated to God still Spiritus or at the Spirit truly prayes So in our case in this dull state of praying when the Fancy playes not nor co-operates as is fit the Understanding advances not in gaining those sights which by Extension of former Knowledges into new Conclusions through attentive discoursing of its Object it might have attain'd But still the superior part of the Soul is by the Will fixt to something which is not Temporal all such Thoughts suggested by the dis-order of the Fancy being held Distractions She is then truly apply'd to her Eternal Good and truly praying all the while till Intention altering all she frankly and unconcernedly relinquishes the Circumstances proper for Prayer and applyes her self to new Objects without scruple or strugling any longer to keep out the Thoughts of them which before she avoyded or repin'd at as Distractions but now admits and pursues voluntarily as her Business Duty or End SECT II. Of Sloth § 1. I Hope the Nature of Devotion in common may sufficiently be understood by what has been already said But yet because Contraries help exceedingly to illustrate one another I will make some short Reflexions upon its opposit Sloth This Vice is a certain lumpishness and unweildiness in the Soul through which she yeilds her self to be sway'd down-wards by the weight of Original Sin inclining her to Temporal Objects and so rendering her un-active and unable without difficulty to apply and raise her self to such Thoughts and Actions as dispose her for Heaven I say In the Soul for in her alone Vertue and Vice properly taken and as they import Merit and Demerit are lodged The indisposition and disorder of the Fancy and other matterial Powers belong to the Body and are not Vice though they dispose and incline to it and if care be not taken will cause it Again by these Words In the Soul I mean in that Power which we call Will or in the Soul as she is Will. For Philosophy which indeed is
nothing but true deliberate or reflecting Reason teaches that Contraries belong still to the same Subject and therefore Devotion being an Affection of the Will Sloth must needs be so too And besides 't is evident that all Intellectual Vices are defects of the Understanding-Power that is Error or Ignorance as on the contrary all its Perfections are Knowledges of Truths But there is no kind of shew that Sloth should formally consist in Ignorance or Error or Devotion in Knowledge since they who have much Knowledge may withall be very Slothful and those who have very little may be very Devout very ready and very constant in the performance of all Christian Duties to their Power § 2. Hence follows in confirmation of the former Doctrine that as long as the Intention to pray persevers sincere there can be no sin of Sloth nor ground of scruple of not having pray'd as one ought For so long the Will is not faulty and so there is no moral defect nor sin at all in a Prayer no better performed but all the imperfection in it springs either from Nature or circumstances indisposing the Fancy or perhaps from want of skill or information in the Understanding Power how to go about one's Prayer which is so far a fault as there is negligence in the will to use due means to attain so requisit a Knowledg Wherfore in case any one doubts whether he have behav'd himself negligently carelesly or distractedly in his prayer he must consider well whether he intended that carelesness or those distractions For if he did not 't is evident it happen'd besides his Intention and so was no moral fault § 3. But yet this word Intention is equivoral and may be mistaken There are who think they do great matters if for Example they make as they call it an Intention in the morning of spending the following day in vertue and the service of God when perhaps they never think of God or vertue after This is but deceipt and 't would be no better to use the formality of making an act fancy'd to be an Intention of praying before Prayer and then spend the time of Prayer in a free and uncheckt entertainment of distractive suggestions § 4. To understand the business we must remember that every Action has a Finall as well as an Efficient or Material and Formal cause and that a man can no more act without a Why then a What. This End when we know what we do is foreseen and the Actor means or intends it So that the Intention is woven into the Action and a kind of part of it as if I go down or up stairs I intend to be at the bottom or top nor can it happen otherwise if the action be rational and accompany'd with Knowledg And if any action be done otherwise as when people walk or do other things in their Sleep or with a perfect Inadvertence it is not counted a Human Action In this sence as no Action can be without an Intention no more then without an End so neither can the Intention be without the Action For 't is as I said before a kind of part of it and we should laugh at him who would perswade us he had an Actual Intention of being at the bottom of the stairs yet voluntarily stay'd at the top But as the understanding sees things to come as well as past and present it may see what is like to follow from an Action before the Action it self and from that sight resolve or reject it and may resolve for the future as well as present time and so intend before she acts And in this sence Intention may be both before and without Action which before it come to be executed the Intention may possibly change Intention is taken in this notion by those who amuse themselves with making artificial Intentions before hand For plainly they intend for the future and when the time comes do nothing often-times of what they intended and remain deluded Now I understand Intention in the former sence that is for such an Intention as accompanies the Action and needs no formal endeavours on our part to make it Since nature will joyn it to the Action though we should endeavour never so much the contrary For it is altogether as idle to imagin he who knows what he does can have a not-Intention to go down Stairs who actually goes down as that he has one I mean for the present who stays above Wherfore since this kind of Intention cannot be sever'd from the Action 't is cleer that who thus intends to pray truly prays though never so many distractive thoughts interrupt and confound his Action Neither are they unless he voluntarily admit and mean to think of such things properly Actions of his but rather Passions or Sufferings For as the Eye cannot chuse but see what is represented to it nor hinder it self from transmitting to the soul what it sees nor the soul from perceiving what is transmitted so neither can the soul hinder her self from receiving the impressions made by the inward stroaks of fluttering Fancies nor those impressions from having their Effect but is in both cases more passive than active and doth not so much do any thing as hath somthing done upon her SECT 3. Remedies against Sloth § 1. TO return to the matter in hand All that can be said of this dryness and disgustfulness in Prayer caused by the not complying of the inferior part of the Soul with the superior is this that 't is a Disposition and indeed Temptation to the sin of Sloth § 2. By that Tediousness It first tires then discourages and after frights us till at last it gains so much upon us as to make us yeild our selves over to a neglect sometimes omission of customary decent or ohligatory Prayers and the same may be said in some proportion of our yeilding to those Difficulties which oppose our exercising other devout Acts. Here then it is that a devout Christian soul must faithfully fight Gods Battel and never consent for want of gust or for feeling disgust to omit her Devotitions § 3. One of the best weapons she has to defend her self is upon consideration of what has been and more what will be said to settle a firm judgment that this state of Distraction is no ways faulty This judgment would be made not at the instant of Prayer for then 't is to be put in practise and the Prayer exercised by it and so is needful to be had already not then to be gotten but at some fit season before hand when the Fancies are most calm ' and the soul can act with most cleernes and force And when 't is once made let the soul be sure to act steadily according to it and pray on how strongly soever Disgust or Dryness or whatever Engin the Devil chuses to imploy may tempt her to the contrary A little Resolution will compass this assisted with the Reflexion how unreasonable it is to
performance of Prayer § 8. Freedome of Spirit is another great help in this case Distractedness for the most part proceeding from worldly matters which our too great concern in them is perpetually suggesting to our thoughts He that can contrive himself into circumstances which free him from having any thing to do with the World more then to make use of the means it affords him to gain Heaven is in the happiest condition and likely to find least disturbance in Prayer He that cannot free himself from business let him free himself from all unnecessary concerns for it and settle this judgment firmly in his Soul That reason permits him not to be farther concern'd cern'd for worldly affairs let their importance be what it will than as they depend on him That success is out of his power and depends not on him but Providence to which he should contentedly resign it and must whether he be content or no That his part and all the share he has in any Action is to use his endeavours according to the best of his skill That when he has allotted the time which is necessary for this and imploy'd it as well as he can he has done all he has to do or can do in these matters and ought to be concern'd no farther but is now at liberty to employ the time allotted for Prayer in the Best manner Likewise That there is no business which takes up so much time as not to leave sufficient for Prayer if negligence more than business do not hinder and the like But above all let him still remember that whatever other business he have or can have and I do not except any not love to Parents care of Children the strongest and most rational tyes to the nearest and most dearest Relations nay the pursuit of things most necessary even of Livelyhood of Cloths and Meat is of no importance in comparison of this If this succeed not he is undone and that Eternally however he thrive in others And if this succeed no miscarriage in any or all the rest can hinder him from being Eternally Happy He that lives gloriously and with full Satisfaction of all his desires is wretched if he go at last into Hell and after his short dream of Happiness wake into a horrid and never ending real misery And he who lives despised and scorn'd and dyes starved with cold or hunger is happy if he go to heaven and find his short and now ended suffrings swallowed up in infinite Bliss So that in truth to amuse our selves with what happens in this life to the prejudice of what is to come hereafter is a folly infinitly more senceless then what we can fancy most ridiculous § 9. This Freedom of Spirit is a Disposition so highly conducive to Devotion that it ought to be preserv'd even in the immediate means to it I mean in our Prayers and reading devout Books in case they be not obligagory or that after a deliberate consideration with the assistance and advice of our Spiritual Director it appears not that we have already made choice of the best and see that others are improper or less beneficial For there are many good Souls so strangely fixt by a habituated Custome of saying such and such Prayers that they fall into Scruples if upon occasion they hap to omit or change them and yet let them examin their own thoughts to the bottom they can discover no reason or ground of such a Scruple but the aukwardness of breaking a longinur'd Custom And to such persons it seems very advisable in my judgment that they omit them in very good occasions or with good advice change them that so freeing themselves thus from the tyrannous slavery of Custome and the biggottery of irrational fears they may inure themselves still to follow Right Reason in what they do and no other motives of which they can give no account which is indeed to assert and preserve the just Liberty of Spirit due by the Laws of Nature and Grace where no contrary Duty or Obligation does restrain it § 10. There are divers reasons why we should not always use the same Prayers and run still in one track One is because a perpetual custom hinders our attention to the sense and due penetration of the words in which chiefly consists the Fruit or spiritual advance by Prayer Another is the irrational scruple as was said of leaving off what meer Custom has addicted one to which is a fault or imperfection and so ought to be amended A third because it is not to be expected in this state that our Spirit should be always in one humour or disposition and 't is best that every thing be wrought upon according as it is dispos'd to have the Effect produc't in it A fourth and principal reason is because our Soul every day grows or should grow in spirituality at least at every competent distance season or stage of our Lifes Race she must needs by the very practise of a vertuous Christian Life have gain'd a considerable advance though perhaps she discern it not especially while 't is growing and 't is as irrational to think the same thoughts are apt to fit her in all states as to think that our Bodies ought always to be fed with Milk because we eat nothing else when we were Infants I for my part know no one Devotion suting all sorts all states all times and every pitch but that which was made by the Wisdom of the Eternal Father who fully comprehended them all I mean the Lords Prayer § 11. But the best help of all is a good Director For as in the Body the same diseases proceed somtimes from different causes and require different ways of cure so it is in the Mind too It may happen that the same indisposition which in some proceed from the Impersection of Nature may be caused by the Perfection of Nature in others A Soul fitted for higher Operations than these in which she is imploy'd and straining at them by a natural propension and yet not reaching them for want of Instruction may fall into the same unsatisfactory condition which happens to other Souls from other causes A good Director is as necessary in such cases as a good Doctor where diseases spring from not usual and not easily perceived causes However our conduct is sure to be so much the wiser as he has more Wisdom than our selves In this particular there are but two things to be observed to chuse one who is truly fit and then to treat freely with him They are both of great importance but need not be farther dilated SECT IV. Of the two chief kinds of Devotion § 1. BEcause Devotion is a steady bent of the Will to Spiritual Operations and there be two ways by which the Will may come to this disposition those two different Methods make two sorts or Kinds of Devotion For the Will may be wrought to this temper either by a Habit got as other Habits
frequent use of them bring us to a careless indifference in performing them and take off our conceit of them they will become little beneficial and perhaps harmful § 2. But these inconveniences avoyded these Devotes are to be advised to pray as often and as long as they can and such prayers as they please To frequent the Sacraments the oftner the better so it be with serious preparations and such as may preserve the Reverence due to them To be present at all Solemnities of the Church and there where things are performed with most Majesty and becomingness If any Extraordinary Occasion of Devotion happen as in Jubilees and the like by all means to lay hold of it Often to read good Books of which the Affective are more for their purpose than the Instructive and in a word to omit nothing proper to strengthen and increase the Habit of Devotion In general the conceit they frame in common and confusedly of the Benefit of these things should be kept up at the height and Increas'd if it may be and for particulars because they penetrate not into the nature of things nor consider which way they work it matters not much what they be so they be good and apt to move them For this Reason and because they are through their weakness easily scandaliz'd peo ple should in charity be wary of maintaining and even discovering contrary sentiments before them For these ways whatever they be in themselves the best or no are best for them and will make them Saints if they pursue them sincerely and faithfully and we must beware Nè pereat in scientiâ tuâ infirmus frater Lest a weak Brother perish by thy Knowledg § 3. The way of Knowledg must needs be pursu'd by such means as improve Knowledg and he advances in it best who most deeply penetrates into Christian Duties and most clearly sees their agreeableness to right Reason I do not mean with such a sight as is meerly speculative nor such a sight as can pierce into the Mysteries themselves and look upon them with that kind of Evidence which we have of other Truths whose terms we see connected For this would take away Faith and is impossible here and only to be hoped in the Country of Blissful light where we shall see Face to Face But I mean such a sight as presupposes Faith and renders it lively or operative which if once we can attain it is impossible not to be Devout For knowledg of any Good when 't is express and lively becomes a Principle of acting for it or to obtain it that is Will as by reflexion we may easily discover in the whole course of our lives and experience of our daily Actions § 4. Now this Knowledge is renderd express and Faith by consequence lively two manner of ways By Supernatural and by Natural means Supernatural means are either apt to affect all Mankind or some few chosen by God's providence and design'd and fitted for great ends Of the first sort are Miracles in general For the common course of Nature is practically evident to all and so what ever evidently crosses it must needs be conceiv'd to spring from the Author of Nature who can control it as he pleases Wherefore as on the one side this evidence makes it stick firmly in the soul that God has a hand in it so on the other side the Astonishment by reason of the Unusualness of the effect makes it sink deep and both together render Faith as to the point it testifies exceeding lively and prompt to Action Of the other sort are the rushing Wind the fiery Tongues and other concomitant causes which produc't that prodigious liveliness of Faith and sublime height of ardent Devotion in the first Planters of the Church by which they were renderd so strongly and readily dispos'd for those duties which Christ had order'd them that they cheerfully embrac'd all Inconveniencies Torments nay Death it self to perform them These causes were not apt to affect all Mankind as they did those few particularly fitted by long conversation with Christ himself and expectation of the effects of the Promise he made them at his departure which was still working in their minds and raising them to look for some strange Supernatural effect of it These are the two manners of External and more ordinary supernatural means for of the Inward workings of God's Spirit which blows where it lists and whose Operation and the Circumstances of it depend upon a Series of causes unknowable by us 't is not my Intention to speak in this Discourse § 5. Natural and Ordinary means to make this Knowledge express and Faith lively are also two-fold viz. penetrating well either the Grounds on which Faith is built that is the Certainty of the Authority which recommends it or else the Agreeableness of the things to be believed and of the Actions to be practis'd to the Maxims of true Reason It is the proper business of Controversy to teach the one and Scholastick Divinity the other and 't is by reading and attentively considering the discourses made by Masters in both kinds that we may attain the Knowledge we desire in these matmatters Only let us provide the Author we chuse be truly Solid for every one who writes is not so and that the Point we chuse be to our purpose It is neither necessary always nor convenient that every one who is capable of Knowledge should read all the Controversies that concern each point of Faith even though they be good and solid much less amuse himself with solving all Objections rais'd and raisable without end by Adversaries It will be sufficient to peruse and understand one or two good Books which solidly treat and firmly establish the Grounds of Faith or if leasure and opportunity serve to hear some Oral discourses of that subject In fine by any way we can to weigh attentively the Nature of the Authority on which Faith is built and what perfect Certainty the same and less Authority begets in us on other Occasions This done with that care and concern which the thing requires it will naturally breed in a Soul these and the like reflexions § 6. I believe and that with a most firm assurance that there was a King Henry 8th a William the Conqueror a Julius Caesar and many Actions perform'd by them as altering Religion in England Conquering this Nation gaining many Victories and the like The same I believe of less men and less universally-known Actions provided they were sufficiently notorious to great Multitudes and by these multitudes openly and seriously attested and without any imaginable ground of suspicion of Fear or Hope or any Interest which might move them to ly in the case I find this writ in my heart in such characters that I can as well doubt whither I am as whither such things were I find all Mankind judge the same and I can no more think it possible that Humor or Interest should beget this perswaon
both and at once instruct and enlighten the Understanding and inflame the Will I would therefore advise to chuse such as contain solid Christian Doctrin and express it both rationally and affectively Of this kind of Prayers the number is not great few being fitly qualifi'd to compose them For there is requisit in the Author both skill in true Divinity to make the conformity of Christian Doctrin to Reason appear and ardent Devotion he being very unlikely to warm another who is cold himself And besides a great mastery in Language to chuse expressions clear and affective and both easy I recommend for this purpose the meditations of St. Augustin and the Devotions of our learned Pious and judicious County-Man Mr. John Austen in the way of Offices § 19. The Lives of Saints also are of great efficacy to stir up Devotion by way of Imitation and Example But they would be well writ that is with more care to relate their Heroick Vertues which made them Saints and estimable and imitable by us then to huddle multitude of Miraculous and if but flightly attested incredible actions which neither were the causes of their Sanctity nor are imitable They affect the Vulgar indeed with Admiration and Esteem But work not so much upon the wiser sort who only seek their own Improvement and how they may come to Vertue themselves of which these things were no Cause though they may be Signs Yet when they are duly attested and accompany'd with the Saints Vertuous Life they become a kind of Testimony to the Church of God's particular favour to those who give themselves up to his Service and an encouragement for others to serve so good a Master who thus honours those that honours him But as I said they ought to be well attested lest the credulity of the vulgar embracing so many uncertain stories for assured Truths and the easiness of some Pastors in permitting them without distinction to be Printed do not as much or more harm to those without the Church as good to those within her The best way is to chuse such Lives as were written by Authors who were also Saints themselves and withal Learned and Prudent and so less apt to be imposed upon by false Relations or byast by Interest or Affection Such as is the Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure of St. Hilarion and St. Paul the Hermite by St. Hierom of St. Anthony the Great by St. Athanasius and the like CHAP. II. Of the Chief Act of Devotion PRAYER SECT I. Of the Nature of Prayer and its Excellency as it includes in it self the Exercise of all Virtues THE First or Principal Act of Devotion being Prayer it seems proper that in a Treatise of Devotion I should say something more particularly of it's Nature and excellencies than I have done hitherto and thence enkindle in the Hearts of my Readers a great desire to frequent it All which I cannot do without hinting at the same time the best Manner how to perform it though it ought not to be expected in so short a discourse as I intend I should much enlarge my self or descend to every particular manner of it § 2. Prayer then as was said is defin'd an Elevation or raising of the mind to God which being a kind of Action and every Action as Philosophy tells us having two Terms or Ends the one that from which the Action goes the other that to which it tends as for Example the Action of Heating goes from Coldness and tends to Heat it follows that the benefit of Prayer must be rated from both these It raises us to Heaven and therefore it lifts us from Earth its opposit or Antartick That is it sets us above that from whence our misery springs and approaches us to that where all our Happiness is treasur'd up § 3. Some ancient Heathens such as Diogenes seem'd to have attain'd the former without the Help of Prayer and to be great Contemners of the World But alas they did but seem so for all their mock-holy-day pretences For had they been indeed and truly rais'd above Earth they must of force have been rais'd towards Heaven that is they must have been addicted to address themselves by Prayer to the true God of which kind of Devotion their Earth-clogg'd minds were utterly ignorant They were not then rais'd above their affections to Earth but their whole pursuit was still the World though under a different consideration They were above it as it was able to give them Riches and Honorable Titles but still deeply plung'd in it as it gave them Esteem Nay far more deeply even for this regard that for this Esteem's sake they contemn'd the other For they thought it more Honorable to seem to contemn Riches and Dignities then to seek them and therefore aym'd at a greater worldly honour by refusing that which in their Apprehensions was a less So that the Progress of their vain and proud Souls was not an advance from Earthliness to Heavenliness but a foolish leaving Earthly Riches and Dignities to acquire an aiery and perhaps a more empty Earthly Esteem and Admiration Nay they contemn'd the other comparatively onely that is would have lov'd it and perhaps heartily too but that they doted more upon this As the forenam'd Cynick trampled on Plato's Pride as he call'd his gay cloths with a greater Pride perhaps than Plato wore them Of which kind of Contemners of the World we have too many examples in England amongst our deepest Fanaticks With this difference that their Pride is more spiritual that is worse nay being a corruption of right Christianity the worst of all that can be § 4. Prayer then being the best means to elevate the mind from Earth to Heaven or rather this very Elevation it self and the best or readiest way to effect this or raise our selves upwards being Flying it follows that if we pursue the Metaphor we must say the Soul has wings by which she is enabl'd to take this flight that is her Thoughts and Affections which how swift they are and how far they reach at one View and Effort of the Soul a litle Reflexion will teach us Moreover she must move and stir these Wings that is meditate and consider whence we experience that those who are given to run over their private Prayers without considering what they say are sluggishly indeed moving towards Heaven for they cannot but think of it at times sleightly and still intend well but they seldom advance by it to any high pitch They climb a little upward by the help of Characters and Sounds and the lame Activity of Fancy lifts them into the Air where they see after a duskish manner far distant glances of Heaven but scarce one constant Ray of true Light dawns to allure and affect them strongly Lastly there must be a calm and clear medium to fly thorow such as is our Air in material Flights not disturb'd with ruffling Passions or clogg'd with clouds of Sorrow and worldly