Cannon-shot that damps the fiercest anger CHAP. XIV Of Living in Love and Charity to all 1. LIve in Love and Charity to your Neighbour Be careful to get this grace engraven on your breast and as it were moulded into your very Nature Live in this Element of Love let the acting thereof be so natural and familiar to you that he that runs may read this New Commandment which Christ left of loving one another written in you as it were in Letters of Gold Oh how main a part of Religion and Holiness lies in this duty of Love I do not know through all the New Testament any one duty so much inculcated and prest on as this of Love no string so much beat upon as if it made the best Musick and sweetest Harmony in Christian Religion 2. You must love all even the most wicked in the World as having the natural Image of God or the marks of his Perfection in the Rational Soul David indeed profest his hatred of God's Enemies but it was according to the ordinary gloss of their sins not of their persons That effect of Lightning in breaking the Sword and not bruising the Scabbard is accounted as one of Natures great Mysteries But this heavenly flame of Love and Charity seems much more mysterious and admirable in its operations whilst it would by all means keep safe and preserve the person of our vicious Neighbour and Enemy when it hath a deadly hatred unto and a desire to destroy his Vices 3. Though you love all yet your best and choicest Love must be to the Saints in whom the Moral Image of God which consists in righteousness and true hollness and is the special Loadstone of Love doth shine and sparkle forth In the parallel Lines which are drawn from the Circumference to the Center they all draw to it and the nearer the Center the nearer they are to one another God is the Center of Love and the nearer we come to him the nearer are we to one another in spiritual Affection There 's a Consanguinity of Graces among the Saints and therefore the greatest Love as there is among persons of the same blood and kindred They are all the Children of God by Faith 4. Let this Love put you upon being ready to do all the good you can as you have opportunity but especially to those that are of the houshold of Faith Let the Errand on which Jesse sent David be your great business in the World Look how thy Brethren fare Consider the Poor so as to relieve them Deny your self Superfluities that you may supply the Poor with Necessaries The Poor are God's Wardrobe you cannot hang up your Riament in a better place CHAP. XV. How to manage your Converse in Company 1. LET that grace of Love and Charity commended to you in the former Chapter steer and influence you in your Civil Converse in all Companies Let it be as a bridle to your tongue to restrain your speaking evil of others and to curb all censuring Take him saith holy Mr. Baxter that speaks evil of another to you to be Satan's Messenger intreating you to hate your Brother or to abate your Love Let me then warn and caution you not to run upon Satans Errand or to do his Message And consider that this speaking evil of others is the great Make-bate the grand Incendiary that raiseth up flames kindles hatred and malice and damps all Love and Affection It 's the Sluce of dissention and discord the great Inlet of jarrs and animosities of quarrels and contentions in all Companies And as for censuring of others how familiar is it with those of your Sex when they come together to run division in the Censures of other persons either for their entertainments their garb and dressing their outward behaviour and gestures or some such trifles alway finding fault and often making as Coneys do holes in the Rocks where they cannot find therefore do you mind your self only look within your self within your own heart in this respect keep at home like a good Huswife be much within doors within your own bosom to spy what fault there is and go not abroad in uncharitable Censures of others In the Twilight we can see to read without doors when we cannot within We cannot see the swellings in our own hearts when we can easily spy small Pimples in another we can see the Moâ—e in anothers Eye when we cannot the Beam in our own 2. Be watchful when you are in Company that you contract no harm thereby The Bee in the midst of the Hive full of clinging stuff yet keeps her wings untoucht with it Indeed vain Company hath usually a very strong force to make us imitate their gestures words and actions we usually learn our Pronunciation our Shibâ—â—â—â—th and our Gestures and Gate by our Company You can scarce come any where but there is some white Wall or some black Hood so that you shall carry something away with you But the greatest danger is from carnal Friends and Relations these indeed are the great Impediments in the way to Heaven Many in all probability had been holy and gracious persons if they had had better Kindred and lived where Godliness had been encouraged and good Examples given thereunto O it is a very sad thing to be near to them whose nearness will remove you further from God! Be therefore exceeding careful to keep your spiritual Watch in your Company and labour so to live in the World as not to partake of the corrupt and sinful humours of it As Mother Pearls live in the Sea not taking in one drop of Salt Water into their Shells 3. But yet as much as possible may be avoid joyning your self with any Acquaintance except such by whom you may be made better The Royal Psalmist begins his first Psalm with the blessedness of that person who hath not walkt in the company of the ungodly Diamonds will not cement with Rubbish 4. In all Converse in any Company let some good words fall from you that may tend to make them better Let your Lips like the Spouses in the Canticles drop as the Honey-comb distil some sweetness some savoury and wholsom words A word spoken in season may thro' God's blessing tend to the eternal welfare of a Soul A good Woman riding with her Husband in a great Thunder which much affrighted him and being askt by him what the reason was why she was not at all afraid returned this sweet and holy Answer Because it is my Fathers Voice And this one seasonable word proved the occasion of his Conversion to God 5. Be sure to avoid all vain discourse and idle chatt which is the feminine malady and let your words be few and well considered before you speak Remember that astonishing speech Mat. 12.36 That of every idle word that you shall speak you shall give an account thereof at the day of Judgment CHAP. XVI How to manage Solitariness 1. VVHen you are solitary and alone
is it not pitty such ingenious youths should be lost for want of Instruction and Correction Let Parents and Governours Tremble lest the Blood of Relations Souls should lye at their Door and both be Tormented for wilful neglects Even Heathens had great care of Childrens Education it was actionable in the Law-Courts among the Romans to neglect this yea if the Son was Debauched the Father was sued since it was supposed the Sons Miscarriage was through the Fathers Default But that might be a mistake Yet God that sees all things and whose Judgment is always according to truth will Commence a Suit against and Condemn the careless Parent Lord when will Parents have as much care of their Childrens Souls as Bodies Yea express as much tenderness to a Child as to a Beast You labour hard to provide for them Food and Rayment to put them into callings that they may live like Men in the World and are their Souls of no Worth Is there not another World worth thinking of looking after Have you not many helps the Bible Catechismes good Books Ministers to Move Admonish and instruct you in training up your Children Do you not promise to do this for them at their Baptism Could you be content to see a Mastiff Dog drag away your Child pull out his Entrals feed upon him and not stir a foot speak a word to rescue him O miserable parents O Cruel Tygers Worse than Sea monsters Lam. 4â— that draw out the Breasts they give suck to their young ones and have not you a word to speak not a breath to breathe in Prayer not a Hand to reach out to them to pluck them from this Gerberus this Dog of Hell Oh where 's Grace yea where is Nature The Lord pitty these merciless Parents For shame learn your Duty and do it and take this Book for an help And you that are Children if Parents neglected their Duty do not you neglect God and your Souls They lookt no further than your Preferment in the World but do you look after an Everlasting Happiness in the other World Some commended Patricius Augustines Father for Educating his Son a Scholar who became so Famous a Father in the Church Alas said he my Father sought only to make me a Rhetorician not a Christian for he was an Heathen But whatever your Parents Trained you up for Law or Physick or a Trade Study Christianity If thy Parents were Carnal Lament it Act Faith in Christ to get Guilt taken off thy Fathers House and double thy Diligence for thy own Soul and for thy Seed If thy Parents were godly devoted thee to God set thee a good Example instructed prayed for thee O make much of the Covenant of Parents plead it embrace it and see thy Heart and Life be Squared by it Else thy Priviledges will be a Testimony against thee another Day 〈…〉 â—â—shop of Millain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in the primitive 〈…〉 or white Garâ—â—â— was put upon the party Baptized and the Minister 〈◊〉 take this white and immaculate Vestment and see thou king it forth without Spot at the Judgment Seat of Christ Withal he tells of one Elpidophorus being Baptized afterwards proving a prophane Wretch the Minister produced this Garment saying This Linnen shall 〈◊〉 thee at Christs coming which is witness of thy â—…tacy You young people make a great account that you were made Christians in Baptism and indeed it stands in good stead in your Infant-State by vertue of your Parents Covenant but being grown up you stand upon your own Legs and must personally renew your Baptismal Covenant or expect no benefit by it Baptism will not save you without the Answer of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 Tit. 3. â— The lover of Regeneration will not avail to Adult Persons without the renewing of the Holy Ghost You must be born again of water and of the Spirit or you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 To which Austin Subscribes saying Nihil profuit Simoni Mago visibilis Baptismus cui Sanctificatio invisibilis desit you know Simon Magus was in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity Act. 8.13.22 though he was Baptized You are to thank God for External Priviledges and Religious Education they are Signal Mercies not common to all Bucholzer thankt God that he was Bred up under Melancthon Mr. Whately under Mr. Dod yea a Plato that he was Pupil to Socrates But rest not here be not satisfied except the unfeigned faith dwell in thee 2 Tim 1.5 also that was in thy pious Auncestors Mind their Godly Examples and do not contradict them A King of Poland was wont to carry the Picture of his Renowned Father in a â—â—ate of God about his Neck when he went about any notable Exploit kissing it he said God grant I may 〈◊〉 nothing Remissely 〈…〉 of so 〈…〉 you 〈…〉 Heb. 6.12 who through Faith and patience do now inherit the promises 〈…〉 to be â—pish imitators of their outward Acts but see you have the same Spirit of Faith Love fear of God Repentance and nâ—w Obedience Think you hear your Dying Parents charging you as Mr. Bolâ—â—â—â— did his Children that 〈◊〉 of you dare to meet them at the great Day without a Wedding Garment To this 〈◊〉 attend daily at a 〈◊〉 Ministry examine your Consciences by the Word of God pray much in Secret be Humble and Dâ—cible Disdain not to learn Catechisms watch against Occasions of Sin got into and improve Christian Society keep Conscience void of Offence towards God and Man Read Meditate on labour to and stand and practice Scripture Truths and Rules Study to do all the good you can and be useful in your Generation But I shall detain you no longre in the Porch I humbly desire you to Read and Study this ensuing Treatise which though short is yet Pithy Accurate and Sententious and will like a Clew lead thee through the Labyrinths and Meanders of the World Omit the reading of it and thou are a loser read it slightly and thou gainest no good contradict it at thy peril these Sheets will rise up in Judgment against thee another Day My earnest Prayer shall follow this and other Soul-helps that the God of all Grace would stamp his own Blessed Image on the Souls of the Rising Generation awake their Consciences inlighten their Minds renew their Natures subdue their Wills raise their Affections to Heavenly Objects that they may fill up our vacancies when our Heads are laid in the Silent Dust and may see better Ways and have better Heads to improve all Occurrences to better purpose than we that are now going off the Stage And thus good Reader I take leave wishing thee much content and Advantage in perusing this sweet Posy of Spiritual Flowers gathered out of the Scripture Garden As That Soul-Friend and Servant in Christ O. H. A PARENTS ADVICE to his CHILD How to Live well The Introduction Daughter MY hearts desire and prayer to
delight in God Musick upon the Water sounds louder and is much sweeter than upon the Land Joy upon the Waters of Godly Sorrow is most sweet and pleasant Chrysostom calls sorrow for sin the Mother of Joy I assure you God never commanded sorrow for sin barely for it self but only in order unto joy 2. God would not have any of his People lead sad drooping and melancholy Lives for thereby they would dishonour their heavenly Father and disparage his House keeping as if there were not Bread enough in their Fathers house but rather a want of Necessaries there Yea it would make the World ready to think that he were a hard Master toward them and Jesus Christ an unkind Husband If a Wife be always sad and sit puling and whining will not every one be ready to say that she hath a bad Husband This Sackcloth doth not become the Court of the King of Saints nor beseem those that live within it Spiritual Chearfulnese is that which becomes Religion sets a gloss thereon and makes it shine gloriously and look most amiably in the Eyes of the World and may cause them to fall to love with it 3. But whatsoever the Wor think of Religion it is not of a melancholy temper but of a sanguine complexion It may well say to them Call me no more Marah i. e. Bitterness but call me Naomi which signifies Pleasantness for it is of all others the most pleasant and delightsom Life i. e. in respect of inward complacency and gladness though not in respect of passionate joy or mirth All her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3.17 Thus the way of Religion is strawed with Roses with inward peace and tranquillity Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost are claspt and laid together Acts 9.31 Christians have meat to eat that the World knows not of What means this Musick said the Elder Brother of the returning Prodigal There 's the White-Stone and the New Name that none know but they that have it Rev. 2.17 There 's hidden Mannah for their Souls to feast upon 4. And indeed how can a believing Soul that walks closely with God chuse but rejoyce when it is always in the presence of God and Christ Can the Children of the Bride-chamber mourn while the Bridegroom is with them Matth. 9.15 It is reported that our Saviour when he was on the Earth had such a chearful Countenance that the Jews that lived in his days when they found themselves sad and melancholy would say to one another Come let us go and look upon Mary 's Son that we may be chearful How true that is I know not but this I am sure that looking upon Jesus Christ by an Eye of Faith will make a Soul rejoyce abundantly Tho' now you see him not yet believing you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 Joy comes in by believing Actings of Faith will cause Jesus Christ to set abroach this Royal Wine of Joy for you which will never be a-tilt but alway run fresh while you act Faith to draw A believing Soul hath a Bird in its own bosom that makes most sweet and pleasant Melody Faith spies out God's Love in all things sees all providential Dispensations come from God as a Token of Love and so rejoyceth in all When a Wife receiveth but a small thing from her Husband abroad as a Token of Love she rejoyceth more in it than in forty times more which she had at home before But most of all Faith sees Love of God shine forth in the Gifts of Grace and Priviledges of Heaven Hath God given you the rich Jewel of Grace a Patent for Heaven a Grant of the Priviledges of his Court the Right of Adoption to the being a Daughter of God You have abundant cause to rejoyce and triumph in him and to glory in the God of your Salvation 5. You see what kind of joy and delight it is that I have here commended to you It is not an Enthusiastick joy or delight through irrational raptures which reason can give no account of but it 's a rational solid complacency of the Soul in God nor is it a meer sensual joy It 's not the joy of those merry ones of the Age that spend their Life in vain and sinful pleasures whose mirth is madness as the Wise man calls it Eccles 2.2 Mad men will laugh and hoop and hollow as if they were full of joy but who knows not that their condition is very sad In the midst of laughter the heart is sad and the end of that mirth is heaviness Prov. 14.13 Do not the jolliest sinners find a damp after all their mirth and alas their mirth will last but a while their feast will be soon over the cloth will be shortly drawn the musick shall cease to play at their doors and then nothing shall be heard but lamentable out-cries bitter wailing and gnashing of the Teeth for ever I have been the longer on this that I might keep you from that prejudice against Religion which is in the hearts of most as if it were a sad and a melancholy life as if the bitter herb of Grace would poison the flower of all their Mirth And for the same reason I shall add another Advice a-kin to this CHAP. XI Of Praise and Thankfulness to God 1. LIve a Life of Praise and Thankfulness to God This inclines the Soul to a holy rejoycing in God Let him have your admiring Praises continually O steep your thoughts in the Love and Mercies of God! Say often with your self O what hath God done for me what great Mercies hath he offered and tendred to my Soul what a mercy is it that I am alive that he hath bore with me thus long and waited for my Repentance what astonishing riches of Love and Free Grace is it that I am on this side Hell and that there is an Alsufficient Saviour provided for me I 'll therefore live to the praise of his Glory and bear witness to his transcendent Excellency 2. Give God both tongue and heart to praise him Anatomists observe that the tongue of man is tyed to the heart by a double string May not this intimate that God would have the tongue as well as the heart a stringed Instrument of his Praise But yet he regards not the Praises of the tongue at all if you do not make melody in your heart unto him What doth God require of you for all his mercies and loving-kindnesses but only praise Some hold their Lands by paying the Rent of a Pepper-corn or the like We hold all that we have from God who requires only that we should pay this poor Quiâ— rent a Pepper-corn of Thankfulness which if we pay daily to him he will give in more mercies Trumpeters delight to sound where they may have an Eccho and God to give where he may have an Eccho of Prase God is
meekness The Apostle Peter having said Ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd of your Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 He immediately adds in the next words Ye Wives be in subjection to your own Husbands Wives are Christs Sheep and must not be the Devils Shrews 4. Is God calling you to be a Mother having formed a work in you unseen to any other Eye but his take great care that you give up and seriously devote and dedicate the fruit of your womb to God to be his Servants so that all the Children that God shall give you may be as Bathsheba called Solomon Children of your Vows And in the educating of them see that you be continually instilling and dropping into them the Milk of wholsom Instructions that so it may be said of you as of Solomon's virtuous Woman her Children rise up and call her blessed Prov. 31.28 How careful have holy Women been in these cases While Monica the Mother of Saint Austin was with Child with him she did often devote him to the Christian Religion and the Service of the great God and afterwards in his Education she so affectionately tendred the good of his Soul that he was called the Child of her Prayers and Tears It was Timothy's happiness that he had a good Mother and a good Grand-mother for so he learned the Scriptures from a Child And the Mother of holy Bernard as soon as her Children were born gave them up to the Lord Jesus to be his Servants And no less careful was she of of their Instructions as soon as they came to be capable thereof and the success was happy in that all of them became holy Children of God Children while young are most with the Mother and in her company and usually have the most love to her and therefore are the most likely to take her Instructions therefore be you careful to improve that advantage And begin betimes with them so soon as you see the first buddings of reason Gardiners begin to graft at the first rising of the Sap in the Spring and when the Bud of the Stock first begins to swell and enlarge The Wax while it is soft and tender will easily take Impression Labour by all means to imprint upon the Children that God shall give you a stamp of Holiness Philip King of Macedon gave to one a piece of Metal without any stamp who after returned it again to the King with his Son Alexander's Picture engraven on it which very much pleased the King You will receive your Children from God unpolisht without any form see that you return them back to him with his Son Christs Image on them which is the Image of Holiness 5. How sadly accented an account have those Mothers to give to God who neglect giving of good Instructions to their Children betimes What a terrible speech was that of a dying Lady to her ungodly Mother It 's too late now to speak of God to me I am going to Hell before and you will certainly follow after CHAP. XX. How to manage all Natural and Civil actions religiously 1. MAnage all your Natural and Civil actions by the Rules of Religion making the very drift and scope of them all to be the pleasing and glorifying of God Let the Needle in the Compass of your Soul stand directly and steddily to this Pole God's Glory and then you will steer your course aright Mind this end not only in acts of Devotion and the direct duties of Religion but in the course of your civil conversation 2. And do not satisfie your self with making God your end in the general course of your life but mind this end actually and expresly in every solemn action of every day If you eat or drink do it not to gratifie your carnal sense or appetite but to preserve your health that by your health and strength you may be better enabled to do God service And so in all your domestick affairs level your Arrow at the same mark aim at this White chiefly and ultimately the Glory of God Thus you will make both your Natural and Civil actions to slide into Religion and become parts of God's service Thus you will serve God in your lying down and in your rising up in your eating drinking sleeping visiting journeying and all other your lawful actions 3. But I do not here bid you to mind this end actually in every ordinary action throughout the whole day or in every bit of Bread that you put in your mouth this cannot be done but yet you may do it in every solemn action of the day you may at every meal when you sit down actually and observedly mind this end though not in every bit you eat Or in a morning when you rise you may have a resolved intention to do all that day in the Name of God and for his Glory and you may by a ready unobserved act of a strong habit order all particulars that day to the same end which you did actually propound to your self at first rising in the morning and still all the day do propound to your self in the general habitual disposition frame and purpose of the heart Thus then though the Glory of God and good of the Soul cannot be distinctly and actually intended in every single action of the day yet a sincere habitual intention of God's Glory well fixed and rivetted within will be sufficient to steer and influence all the particulars of that day into that end As a man that sets forward in a Journey with a full intention to go to London though he do not actually think of London in every step that he takes yet by virtue of the first settled intention every particular step is ordered to that end CHAP. XXI Of spending of Time 1. NEver do any thing meerly to pass the time away Neither make any Visits nor set upon any thing called Recreation barely on that account Time is too precious a Jewel too valuable a Treasure to study how to get rid of it as some do of an old Commodity that lies on their hands that they cannot tell what to do with God never gave us the least pittance or moment of good to trifle away but that we might do some time therein What can you have any time to pass away when many would give all they are worth but to draw out their breath one hour longer As a great Lady that cryed out on her Death-bed All too late a world of wealth for an inch of time 2. Avoid all such occasions whatsoever as are expensive of much time to no good purpose as vain trickings and trimmings tirings and dressings too long needless visits perusal of idle Books or Treatises of vanity and folly vain thoughts fruitless discourse unnecessary sleep useless Recreations and idle Games But it may be askt Are not these things lawful This one Question sends many to Hell May I not do this For we are most of all in danger by the use of
13. ult Put on the New Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4.24 Be you cloathed with humility foâ— God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5.5 This Garment is very neat but how much more comely and glorious is the Wedding Garment of Souls the Robe of Christ's Righteousness which is put on by Faith Oh what a blessed time will that be when I shall be arrayed with the perfect beauty of Holiness with the white Garments of perfect Light and Glory then shall be the Marriage of the Lamb. Am I not now garnishing a Body which may in a few days turn to rottenness O what shall this vile Body be deckt as a dead Body stuck with flowers and the precious Soul be neglected 3. When you have got your cloaths on then solemnly retire into your Closet for Devotion if no other necessary business call you unto something else before which may often happen when you have a Family which when you have then if occasion be first settle affairs therein for the fore-noon work and then having sounded a retreat in your heart to temporal affairs you may after retire into your Closet with more freedom from domestick cares and without fear of interruption whereas if you went to your private Devotion before you would be forced to cut it shorter to curt and clip that duty 4. Manage your domestick affairs with prudence and diligence but not with sollicitous eagerness and vexing care Solomon's virtuous Woman looketh well to the affairs of her houshold and eateth not the bread of idleness Prov. 31.27 A wise woman buildeth her house Prov. 14.2 she studies in every business how to set every thing in order as the Carpenter studies how to set every part of the frame in joynt But yet herein be not like Martha while she played the good huswife cumbred about many things And if many things fall out together dispatch them in a prudent order and not with too much haste and eagerness Those things are seldom well done that are done over-hastily The Drones flie about more hastily than the Bees but they make no Honey but Combs only 5. At your meals reflect upon God turn your eyes to see his mercies towards you Thus will you enjoy God in all A carnal heart regards no more than the bare enjoyment of these outward mercies but looks not to the spring from whence they come as a gracious heart doth who finds the greatest sweetness of them to be their coming from the Love of God Besides you may then reflect on God by raising up your thoughts to the delights in him think seriously in your heart if this meat be so sweet to my tast how much more sweet is Christ and hidden Mannah Here you may take occasion like him that sate at meat with Christ Luk. 14.15 to raise up your thoughts to the blessedness of him that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God Thus you will feast your Soul while you are feeding your Body Thus you may so sweeten your Meat and spice your Cup with the rellishes of the Love of God as may make your Table better and more pleasant to you than the Tables of the greatest Ladies in the World 6. In the midst of all your domestick over-sight of affairs when you shall have any eye Gods Providence casting all your care upon him and so he will bless your endeavours And often retire to God by Ejaculations short Addresses and holy Breathings of Soul after him By these you may sanctifie both your walking riding and journeying which are usually vainly spent in multitudes of idle thoughts that signifie nothing and all your affairs also whatsoever This was Nehemiah's practice when he was before the King he then prayed to the God of Heaven Chap. 2.4 I do not believe that he then went into some place by himself to pray no he sent up only some short Ejaculations to God while he was in the King's presence It 's reported of holy Mr. Dod that he never got up upon his Horse but he prayed before he alighted off In every corner there is a Throne of Grace therefore often every day improve this priviledge be often looking up to God and casting your eyes to Heaven and so you may bring down Heaven to you As often as you want direction in any sudden case and affair or relief in any need by one lift or sudden glance of the Eye of Faith to Jesus Christ you may have it And in such cases you may use as an Ejaculatory Prayer that of honourable Jabez O that thou wouldst bless me indeed and that thy hand may be with me and that thou wouldst keep me from evil that it may not grieve me 1 Chron. 4.10 which was so pleasing to God that it 's added there and God granted him that which he requested 7. Besides those short Ejaculations now mentioned you must make solemn Addresses to God twice a day at least The Soul must have her set meals or a set service to God twice every day at least Twice every day the Clock must necessarily be wound up Aaron lighted the Lamps and burned Incense evening and morning Exod. 30.7 8. Reading of Scripture is to us as his burning the Lamps and praying is as his burning Incense these two must go both together like eating and drinking If you do solemnly address your self to God in the morning you shall be in a better frame and temper of heart all the day after and if you do it at night you will find a better appetite to it again next morning But I do not limit you to twice a day it will be best to do it as often as with any conveniency you can Holy David did it thrice a day evening and morning and at noon Psal 55.17 so did Daniel ch 6. v. 10. 8. Fill up all the intervals and vacancies of your time every day those Parentheses or breathing times betwixt one employment and another with reading some good and profitable Books necessary Recreations for your health charitable Visits of the Poor friendly Courtesies neighbourly Civilities or some profitable Discourse or Recourses to God in Prayer beside your evening and morning Addresses 9 Every night before you go to Bed retire your self and call your self seriously to an account in an impartial survey of all the remarkable actions and also of the mercies of the past day And for your better direction therein you may ask your self these following questions 1. What time have I lost or trifled away this day 2. What particular duties have I omitted 3. What sins have I committed this day 4. Out of what principle have I performed my duties whether out of an inward byass of Love to God or from some outward Poises and Motives Have not the wheels been oiled by some sinister orespects in duty Hath not my perfâ—rmance of duties been more out of custom or to stop the mouth of natural Conscience than out
some circumstances in Worship which they like not 4. When you come home from the Publick be careful to spend your time in Religious Exercises Meditate on what you have heard and having like a diligent Bee gathered abroad in the Publick Assembly the sweet of heavenly Flowers work your Honey-comb within your own Hive Digest well by private Meditation that spiritual meat which was set before you in the Dishes of the Publick Ordinances Meditate also on the Attributes of God the Works of God and especially the Mercies of God that you may be stirred up to holy rejoycings praises and thanksgivings which are the most proper work of the day which is a day of thanksgiving and commemoration of the Mercies of God especially of the Resurrection of Christ and the great work of Redemption 5. Be careful that your Servants do not prophane or mis-spend this day as being tender of their Souls as well as your own Solomon's virtuous Woman gave a portion of holy Instructions as well as of Food to her Servants and Maidens Prov 31.15 26. CHAP. XXIV Of Holy Duties in general 1. BEfore you go to any Duty address your self to Jesus Christ for a supply of grace for the performance thereof If you be to go to a new act of praying or hearing or receiving the Sacraments you must eye Jesus Christ again put forth a new act of Faith towards him and labour for new Influences and a fresh supply of Spirit from him 2. Do not only number your Duties but weigh your Duties how many how many look only how oft they go to Duties but never seriously how or in what manner they perform them and so cheat themselves everlastingly concluding themselves to be in a state of Grace because of their constancy in Duties but miscarry everlastingly for want of a right manner of performing them as out of a right spring and principle and to a right end and with sincerity and fervency of affection Though the Tree bear many large and fair fruits yet it is not much valued unless they have a good rellish If the fruits that your Soul brings forth have not a good tast through the sincerity and right ends thereof or tast not of the Love of God they will not be acceptable unto God Let all your works be done in Love 1 Cor. 16.14 3. Do not only perform holy duties but love holy duties so they will be more acceptable to the God of Love An ungodly Man or Woman may often go to prayer but they love it not they may hear the Word but they receive not the Truth in the love of it But a good heart loves duties So long as you cannot find any rellish in Ordinances or private Duties but are in an indifferency whether you perform them or no or have your frequent intermissions of these meals so that sometimes you take them and sometimes you let them alone it is a sign you are not sound within or if you do constantly take them if it be without an appetite and perform holy duties only to stop the mouth of Conscience it s an argument your Soul is not in health Till you find sweetness in Ordinances the case is not well with you as it should be the Soul is out of frame If once you love duties they will be a delight and refreshment to you All the ways of Christ are Beds of Spices and Roses and can you walk on such and not be requited for it with sweet and fragrant smells Those that carry bundles of Spices from Arabia have their Spirits refresht with the sweet Odours that breathe from them A good Christian is refresht in duty the Soul can sing at her work Love turns all pains into pleasures Though the Mother take a great deal of pains in tending the Child yet she finds a sweet delight in it because of her love to it A good Christian can say with David O how I love thy Law Psal 119.97 And I delight to do thy Will O my God! Psal 40.8 CHAP. XXV Of Prayer 1. DO not rush on Prayer presently without some serious consideration before Read therefore some portion of Scripture before you pray This will afford you matter of meditation which will furnish you with matter for Prayer for so you may turn what you have read into Prayer A good Heart is by one Duty quickned and prepared for another as the Wild Bores by whetting their Tusks with their other Teeth make them sharp and so every Tooth mutually sets an edge on another If therefore you be to read Pray before by some short Address to God if to Pray read before Yea Pray also before Prayer that God would Assist you in Prayer and deliver you from the Evil Infirmities of your Prayer Holy David Prays for his own Prayers Psal 141.1 2. 2. Look not upon Prayer as a task but as a priviledge O! what a great and glorious priviledge is it that the poorest Saint may with boldness have access to God! Eph. 3.18 Rom. 5.1 2. Is it not a Royal Priviledge to have a Key in our keeping that opens Heaven Gates and lets into the Presence Chamber of the King of Glory To speak with him at any time If you would thus look upon it I should not need to perswade you to go to Prayer constantly Morning and Evening This would be in stead of a hundred Arguments that Prayer is so High and so Royal a Priviledge that you may thereby go boldly to the Throne of Grace draw near to God himself and lay your Petition in his Bosom and plead your Cause before him and fill your Mouth with Arguments and Reason out your great Concernments with him and receive his Answers 3. Pray Earnestly Lazy Devotion and Key-cold Prayers will never prevail You must wrestle with God in Prayer like Holy Jacob that you may prevail In wrestling one single Person strives with another so the Devout Soul with God they go to it singly as it were Hand to Hand and have as it were a single Combat in private The Devout Saint loves to wrestle with God in the Closet when no Body is present the Door being shut he loves not to have Spectators of it he then comes up close to God and gets within him takes hold of his Everlasting Arms. Thus the Woman of Canaan Wrestled with Christ she stands to it though she had many Repulses from him The Soul thus Wrestles with God as a Child with the Father who is much delighted and pleased to let it get the better on him to encourage it and after takes it up from its Knees into his Arms when you go to Prayer you must set all your faculties on work you must open and spread the Sails open and spread forth your Affections as wide as you can that they may gather wind enough to waft you over to the Land of Promise 4. See that your Prayers be followed with Diligent and Serious Endeavours for effecting of that which you have Prayed for