Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
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A36367
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Family devotions for Sunday evenings, throughout the year being practical discourses, with suitable prayers / by Theophilus Dorrington.
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Dorrington, Theophilus, d. 1715.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing D1938; ESTC R19123
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173,150
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313
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as Idleness and that do and must needs dwell together If we apply our selves to this accomplishment in the proper Seasons for it that is on the Lords-Days and in the Intervals of Business and necessary Refreshment on other Days we shall have of this endeavour after such Knowledge a good Employment and we shall be so long kept from Idle and Vain Thoughts And then when a man does know much especially of Sacred things his Mind will not want good and useful Objects to entertain its self with at any time when he is at leisure for thinking He needs not at any time be idle but may be meditating on the Rules of Vertue and good living he may be applying them to his Actions and examining and regulating his Course of Life encouraging himself in the good he finds and rebuking himself for his Errours He may be very profitably meditating on the perfections of the Divine Nature and thereby raising in himself all those pious and devout Dispositions of Mind which are a suitable acknowledgment of those Perfections He may be often thinking of the World to come to which all Mankind are hastning and sending his Thoughts before him into Eternity and musing upon those two different States which will hereafter divide all Mankind between them and in one or other of which we must have our longest abode even to all Eternity These are Thoughts very fit to make the Mind wise and serious and to cure the levity of it and are certainly very good and profitable employment for it when no duty requires it attendance But he that is not acquainted with subjects worthy of his Thoughts will still think too and then he must needs think for the most part very idly and vain His Thoughts will seldom be employed about that which is his Duty nor will they be such as will dispose or lead him to it 3. We should accustom our selves frequently to review and reflect upon our Thoughts to think what we have been thinking upon and in what strain and way our Thoughts have been employed Let us endeavour always to know what passes within us what we do with our own Minds how we employ their noble powers and commune with our own Hearts as the Psalmist advises If we often do thus reflect upon our selves we cannot be long idle but we shall find our selves so and so may rectify our selves we shall apprehend our wanderings and may prevent our wild Imagination from polluting us with evil Thoughts and such as would actuate and cherish evil Inclinations and without this frequent reflection 't is impossible but we shall be often drawn away Besides if we are wont to call our selves thus to account we shall come to reverence our selves as the Philosophers speak we shall become desirous to be always able to give a good account to our own Consciences of the employment of our Thoughts we shall be liable to an wholesome Shame for all the Follies and Vagaries of our Minds and so by degrees we shall easily cure and prevent the vanity of them 4. Lastly We should endeavour to accustom our selves to good and pious Ejaculations Our constant dependance upon God and Obligations to him every moment and our constant danger and proneness to fall into Sin do greatly require this and without doubt it is a rule of special Usefulness to cure the vanity and levity of the Mind and to make it always serious and wise and directed to its main End the glorifying of God That which I mean by it is this Let us accustom our selves to make little short Addresses to God upon all occasions that occur to us to which purpose the Holy Scripture affords us an abundant Supply As for instance When we awake in the Morning to say I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me When the Light of the Day comes The Heavens declare the glory of God the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work When a man goes forth about his Business Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not When we hear of any other mens Faults and Sins Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil When we see Children One Generation shall praise thy Name unto another and shall declare thy mighty Acts. Thus we shall well employ our Minds and besides thus we may set the Lord always before us as the Psalmist speaks and so be possest with such a constant Reverence of the Almighty as shall make us careful of our Duty and prevent this Idleness of Thoughts and all the Mischiefs of it Which Grace that may obtain let us earnestly seek it of Almighty God and join the constant use of this Means with all the other THE PRAYER O Lord the Infinite and Eternal Spirit and Father of Spirits who searchest the Hearts and triest the Reins of Men and from whom no secrets are hid Thou O Lord we believe knowest us altogether and thou seest our Thoughts even afar off We are ashamed to think how much vanity and folly and sin thou hast seen within us How little our Minds have attended and applied themselves to our Duty and to the main end of our Beings the living to thy Honour and Glory How seldom this comes into our Thoughts What we were made for what the Creator justly expects from us Hence are our Minds so often engaged in that which does not concern us and that which will not at all profit us and so often employed in gratifying and exercising inwardly some sinful and foolish Inclination While we neglect to set our Minds to that good Employment which our Business and Duty gives us our Adversary the Devil or our sinful Inclinations or the evil Company of the World find them very ill Employment And from hence do our Lives and Actions wretchedly and shamefully wander from the ways of thy excellent Commandments Thus we do instead of serving thee in Body Soul and Spirit most unjustly and unworthily sin against thee in all We ought to meditate on thy Law Day and Night that we might bring forth fruit in due season to study thy Law and learn thy Statutes but we have been those that care not for the Knowledge of thy ways and therefore we have not followed thy Paths This our way O Lord is our folly we condemn we abhor our selves for it and own our selves obnoxious to thy wrath and deserving that thou shouldst reject us from thy Care but since thy Goodness has yet been mindful of us even while we forgot thee we hope thy Mercy will receive us when we return unto thee Our Hope is in thy Word which tells us that to the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness tho we have rebelled against him Forgive us then O Lord we pray thee all our transgressions upon the account of that great Propitiation and Attonement which is made for us by the precious Blood of thy Son our only Saviour for his sake look mercifully upon our Infirmities and heal
them Vouchsafe to direct sanctifie and govern both our Hearts and Bodies in the way of thy Law and in the works of thy Commandments Cleanse thou the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may sincerely love thee and duly magnify thy Holy Name truly serving thee with Soul and Body which are thine Lord have mercy upon us and write all thy Laws in our Hearts we beseech thee Enlighten our Darkness cure our Ignorance with all necessary Knowledge of thee and of thy Christ Change our Wills and turn the biass of them from this World towards thy Self from empty and vain Goods to full and Substantial ones from the pleasures of Sense to the accomplishments of the Mind Make us more indifferent about our outward Circumstances and more concern'd about the inward State and Disposition of our Souls and to account it our greatest Felicity to do well to please thee and approve our selves unto thee Make our vain and light Minds serious and wise furnish us with the Gifts of thy good Spirit for every good work for thou alone art the Giver of every Good and every perfect Gift it is by thee alone O Lord that we can be inabled to please thee we alas are not able of our selves to think a good Thought Help us to set thee always before us in the frequent Thoughts of thee and an habitual reverence and fear of thee that a sense of thy continual presence and observance may restrain us from all evil and encourage and quicken us to mind and do our Duty We humbly implore thy Mercy upon all Men Convert unto thy Self all Jews Turks and Heathens bring them from their several Ways of Vanity to know and worship thee the only true God by Jesus the true Christ and Mediator Give the Heathen for an Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for a Possession to thy well-beloved Son Give unto thy Church all that is necessary to it to amend and purge away what is amiss and to supply what is defective in it and to make it fruitful in all good Works and that all who profess and call themselves Christians may have their Conversation such as become the Gospel Bless we pray thee and defend these Nations in which we live Bless us with a continuance of wise and kind and righteous Governours and of loyal peaceable and obedient Subjects Give peace in our Days we humbly beseech thee for there is none we rely upon to fight for us but only thou O God Establish Truth among us for all Generations bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived Remember in Mercy all that are dear and related to us Give them things necessary for Life and Godliness Guide them O Lord by thy Counsel through this world and bring them at last unto thy Glory Sanctify us by thy word which has been this day spoken to us and promote in us thereby all Vertue and Godliness of living Forgive the wandring of our Minds in our attendance upon thee and all other defects in our Duty and comfort us with the light of thy Countenance Be thou our gracious Protector this Night for in thee alone do we put our Trust And if it please thee to allow another Day and yet a longer time on Earth Grant that it may be spent in thy fear and in a diligent and unwearied application to all that which is our Duty This we humbly ask and whatever thou seest to be most expedient for us committing and resigning our selves entirely to thy Conduct and disposal and hoping in thy Mercy through Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost we desire to ascribe all Praise and Glory and Domihion for ever and ever Our Father c. OF True Happiness Wherein it lies DEMONSTRATED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Psalm 4. 6 7. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased IT is the natural and common desire of Mankind to be happy and is the End which they aim at and propose to themselves in their several Pursuits and Endeavours But as the Psalmist speaks here There be many that say who will shew us good The Many the most of men are at a great loss in this Matter and do not know where their true Happiness lies nor in what course or way to attain it Their uncertainty in this Matter is represented by these words of the Psalmist and is too evidently seen in the common Practice of the World The Human Nature is the same in all Mankind we have all of us reasonable immortal Souls we have all the same Capacities And our Happiness rightly and truly considered must be to all the same The same Object must make all men Happy and they must obtain that in the same way But alas how is the World distracted and divided in the pursuit of Happiness Some of them running one way after it and some another and the most of them neglecting and diverting from the true Object With some there is no Felicity like the heaping up of Wealth like the sight of full Bags or great purchases and they delight in nothing so much as in gainful Bargains With others there is nothing so pleasant as to spend and they delight in this as much as the others do in getting The Pleasures of this World are their beloved Felicity to eat and drink and rise up to play With others there is no Heaven like Honour and Command the having Authority and Power among Men the being courted and sought to respected and obeyed With some how great a Felicity is it to be fine and to have all things about them so To have Themselves their Houses their Entertainments and all that belongs to them gaudy and pompous and much adorned Thus are Mankind disperst thus they wander in the pursuit of Happiness And thus the Many are taken up and employed in this great Concern Having exprest the Uncertainty and intimated the wandering of the Generality in this Affair The Psalmist next expresses what he sought as the Object of Happiness in these words Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Which is as much as to say Lord let us have an Interest in thy Favour regard us with kindness and Love let us enjoy the Exercises and Benefits of thy peculiar Favour and Mercy It might be shewn you by the use of this Phrase in other places of Scripture that this is the sense and meaning of it When he had made this Request he adds