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A Serious Call To A Devout And Holy Life |
By WILLIAM LAW
Adapted to the State and Condition of
All Orders of Christians
He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear.
St. Luke 8: 8 And behold, I
come quickly, and my reward is with me.
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CHAPTER
1 Concerning the nature and extent of Christian devotion. |
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CHAPTER 24 The
conclusion. Of the excellency and greatness of a devout spirit. |
Concerning the nature and extent of Christian devotion.
DEVOTION is
neither private nor public prayer; but prayers, whether private or public, are
particular parts or instances of devotion. Devotion signifies a life given, or
devoted, to God. He, therefore, is the devout man, who lives no longer to his
own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who
considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the
parts of his common life parts of piety, by doing everything in the Name of
God, and under such rules as are conformable to His glory. We readily
acknowledge, that God alone is to be the rule and measure of our prayers; that
in them we are to look wholly unto Him, and act wholly for Him; that we are
only to pray in such a manner, for such things, and such ends, as are suitable
to His glory. Now let any one but find out the reason why he is to be thus
strictly pious in his prayers, and he will find the same as strong a reason to
be as strictly pious in all the other parts of his life. For there is not the
least shadow of a reason why we should make God the rule and measure of our
prayers; why we should then look wholly unto Him, and pray according to His
will; but what equally proves it necessary for us to look wholly unto God, and
make Him the rule and measure of all the other actions of our life. For any
ways of life, any employment of our talents, whether of our parts, our time, or
money, that is not strictly according to the will of God, that is not for such
ends as are suitable to His glory, are as great absurdities and failings, as
prayers that are not according to the will of God. For there is no other reason
why our prayers should be according to the will of God, why they should have
nothing in them but what is wise, and holy, and heavenly; there is no other reason
for this, but that our lives may be of the same nature, full of the same
wisdom, holiness, and heavenly tempers, that we may live unto God in the same
spirit that we pray unto Him. Were it not our strict duty to live by reason, to
devote all the actions of our lives to God, were it not absolutely necessary to
walk before Him in wisdom and holiness and all heavenly conversation, doing
everything in His Name, and for His glory, there would be no excellency or
wisdom in the most heavenly prayers. Nay, such prayers would be absurdities;
they would be like prayers for wings, when it was no part of our duty to fly.
As sure, therefore, as there is any wisdom in praying for the Spirit of God, so
sure is it, that we are to make that Spirit the rule of all our actions; as
sure as it is our duty to look wholly unto God in our prayers, so sure is it
that it is our duty to live wholly unto God in our lives. But we can no more be
said to live unto God, unless we live unto Him in all the ordinary actions of
our life, unless He be the rule and measure of all our ways, than we can be
said to pray unto God, unless our prayers look wholly unto Him. So that
unreasonable and absurd ways of life, whether in labor or diversion, whether
they consume our time, or our money, are like unreasonable and absurd prayers,
and are as truly an offence unto God. It is for want of knowing, or at least
considering this, that we see such a mixture of ridicule in the lives of many
people. You see them strict as to some times and places of devotion, but when
the service of the Church is over, they are but like those that seldom or never
come there. In their way of life, their manner of spending their time and
money, in their cares and fears, in their pleasures and indulgences, in their
labor and diversions, they are like the rest of the world. This makes the loose
part of the world generally make a jest of those that are devout, because they
see their devotion goes no farther than their prayers, and that when they are
over, they live no more unto God, till the time of prayer returns again; but
live by the same humor and fancy, and in as full an enjoyment of all the
follies of life as other people. This is the reason why they are the jest and
scorn of careless and worldly people; not because they are really devoted to
God, but because they appear to have no other devotion but that of occasional
prayers. Julius is very fearful of missing prayers; all the parish supposes
Julius to be sick, if he is not at Church. But if you were to ask him why he spends
the rest of his time by humor or chance? why he is a companion of the silliest
people in their most silly pleasures? why he is ready for every impertinent
entertainment and diversion? If you were to ask him why there is no amusement
too trifling to please him? why he is busy at all balls and assemblies? why he
gives himself up to an idle, gossiping conversation? why he lives in foolish
friendships and fondness for particular persons, that neither want nor deserve
any particular kindness? why he allows himself in foolish hatreds and
resentments against particular persons without considering that he is to love
everybody as himself? If you ask him why he never puts his conversation, his
time, and fortune, under the rules of religion? Julius has no more to say for
himself than the most disorderly person. For the whole tenor of Scripture lies
as directly against such a life, as against debauchery and intemperance: he
that lives such a course of idleness and folly, lives no more according to the
religion of Jesus Christ, than he that lives in gluttony and intemperance. If a
man was to tell Julius that there was no occasion for so much constancy at
prayers, and that he might, without any harm to himself, neglect the service of
the Church, as the generality of people do, Julius would think such a one to be
no Christian, and that he ought to avoid his company. But if a person only
tells him, that he may live as the generality of the world does, that he may
enjoy himself as others do, that he may spend his time and money as people of
fashion do, that he may conform to the follies and frailties of the generality,
and gratify his tempers and passions as most people do, Julius never suspects
that man to want a Christian spirit, or that he is doing the devil's work. And
if Julius was to read all the New Testament from the beginning to the end, he
would find his course of life condemned in every page of it. And indeed there
cannot anything be imagined more absurd in itself, than wise, and sublime, and
heavenly prayers, added to a life of vanity and folly, where neither labor nor
diversions, neither time nor money, are under the direction of the wisdom and
heavenly tempers of our prayers. If we were to see a man pretending to act
wholly with regard to God in everything that he did, that would neither spend
time nor money, nor take any labor or diversion, but so far as he could act
according to strict principles of reason and piety, and yet at the same time
neglect all prayer, whether public or private, should we not be amazed at such
a man, and wonder how he could have so much folly along with so much religion?
Yet this is as reasonable as for any person to pretend to strictness in
devotion, to be careful of observing times and places of prayer, and yet
letting the rest of his life, his time and labor, his talents and money, be
disposed of without any regard to strict rules of piety and devotion. For it is
as great an absurdity to suppose holy prayers, and Divine petitions, without a
holiness of life suitable to them, as to suppose a holy and Divine life without
prayers. Let any one therefore think how easily he could confute a man that
pretended to great strictness of life without prayer, and the same arguments
will as plainly confute another, that pretends to strictness of prayer, without
carrying the same strictness into every other part of life. For to be weak and
foolish in spending our time and fortune, is no greater a mistake, than to be
weak and foolish in relation to our prayers. And to allow ourselves in any ways
of life that neither are, nor can be offered to God, is the same irreligion, as
to neglect our prayers, or use them in such a manner as make them an offering
unworthy of God. The short of the matter is this; either reason and religion
prescribe rules and ends to all the ordinary actions of our life, or they do
not: if they do, then it is as necessary to govern all our actions by those
rules, as it is necessary to worship God. For if religion teaches us anything
concerning eating and drinking, or spending our time and money; if it teaches
us how we are to use and contemn the world if it tells us what tempers we are
to have in common life, how we are to be disposed towards all people; how we
are to behave towards the sick, the poor, the old, the destitute; if it tells
us whom we are to treat with a particular love, whom we are to regard with a
particular esteem; if it tells us how we are to treat our enemies, and how we
are to mortify and deny ourselves; he must be very weak that can think these
parts of religion are not to be observed with as much exactness, as any
doctrines that relate to prayers. It is very observable, that there is not one
command in all the Gospel for public worship; and perhaps it is a duty that is
least insisted upon in Scripture of any other. The frequent attendance at it is
never so much as mentioned in all the New Testament. Whereas that religion or
devotion which is to govern the ordinary actions of our life is to be found in
almost every verse of Scripture. Our blessed Savior and His Apostles are wholly
taken up in doctrines that relate to common life. They call us to renounce the
world, and differ in every temper and way of life, from the spirit and the way
of the world: to renounce all its goods, to fear none of its evils, to reject
its joys, and have no value for its happiness: to be as new-born babes, that
are born into a new state of things: to live as pilgrims in spiritual watching,
in holy fear, and heavenly aspiring after another life: to take up our daily
cross, to deny ourselves, to profess the blessedness of mourning, to seek the
blessedness of poverty of spirit: to forsake the pride and vanity of riches, to
take no thought for the morrow, to live in the profoundest state of humility,
to rejoice in worldly sufferings: to reject the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life: to bear injuries, to forgive and bless our
enemies, and to love mankind as God loveth them: to give up our whole hearts
and affections to God, and strive to enter through the strait gate into a life
of eternal glory. This is the common devotion which our blessed Savior taught,
in order to make it the common life of all Christians. Is it not therefore
exceeding strange that people should place so much piety in the attendance upon
public worship, concerning which there is not one precept of our Lord's to be
found, and yet neglect these common duties of our ordinary life, which are
commanded in every page of the Gospel? I call these duties the devotion of our
common life, because if they are to be practiced, they must be made parts of
our common life; they can have no place anywhere else. If contempt of the world
and heavenly affection is a necessary temper of Christians, it is necessary
that this temper appear in the whole course of their lives, in their manner of
using the world, because it can have no place anywhere else. If self-denial be
a condition of salvation, all that would be saved must make it a part of their
ordinary life. If humility be a Christian duty, then the common life of a
Christian is to be a constant course of humility in all its kinds. If poverty
of spirit be necessary, it must be the spirit and temper of every day of our
lives. If we are to relieve the naked, the sick, and the prisoner, it must be
the common charity of our lives, as far as we can render ourselves able to
perform it. If we are to love our enemies, we must make our common life a
visible exercise and demonstration of that love. If content and thankfulness,
if the patient bearing of evil be duties to God, they are the duties of every
day, and in every circumstance of our life. If we are to be wise and holy as
the new-born sons of God, we can no otherwise be so, but by renouncing every
thing that is foolish and vain in every part of our common life. If we are to
be in Christ new creatures, we must show that we are so, by having new ways of
living in the world. If we are to follow Christ, it must be in our common way
of spending every day. Thus it is in all the virtues and holy tempers of
Christianity; they are not ours unless they be the virtues and tempers of our
ordinary life. So that Christianity is so far from leaving us to live in the
common ways of life, conforming to the folly of customs, and gratifying the
passions and tempers which the spirit of the world delights in, it is so far
from indulging us in any of these things, that all its virtues which it makes
necessary to salvation are only so many ways of living above and contrary to
the world, in all the common actions of our life. If our common life is not a common
course of humility, self-denial, renunciation of the world, poverty of spirit,
and heavenly affection, we do not live the lives of Christians. But yet though
it is thus plain that this, and this alone, is Christianity, a uniform, open,
and visible practice of all these virtues, yet it is as plain, that there is
little or nothing of this to be found, even amongst the better sort of people.
You see them often at Church, and pleased with fine preachers: but look into
their lives, and you see them just the same sort of people as others are, that
make no pretences to devotion. The difference that you find betwixt them, is
only the difference of their natural tempers. They have the same taste of the
world, the same worldly cares, and fears, and joys; they have the same turn of
mind, equally vain in their desires. You see the same fondness for state and
equipage, the same pride and vanity of dress, the same self-love and
indulgence, the same foolish friendships, and groundless hatreds, the same
levity of mind, and trifling spirit, the same fondness for diversions, the same
idle dispositions, and vain ways of spending their time in visiting and
conversation, as the rest of the world, that make no pretences to devotion. I
do not mean this comparison, betwixt people seemingly good and professed rakes,
but betwixt people of sober lives. Let us take an instance in two modest women:
let it be supposed that one of them is careful of times of devotion, and
observes them through a sense of duty, and that the other has no hearty concern
about it, but is at Church seldom or often, just as it happens. Now it is a
very easy thing to see this difference betwixt these persons. But when you have
seen this, can you find any farther difference betwixt them? Can you find that
their common life is of a different kind? Are not the tempers, and customs, and
manners of the one, of the same kind as of the other? Do they live as if they
belonged to different worlds, had different views in their heads, and different
rules and measures of all their actions? Have they not the same goods and
evils? Are they not pleased and displeased in the same manner, and for the same
things? Do they not live in the same course of life? does one seem to be of
this world, looking at the things that are temporal, and the other to be of
another world, looking wholly at the things that are eternal? Does the one live
in pleasure, delighting herself in show or dress, and the other live in
self-denial and mortification, renouncing everything that looks like vanity, either
of person, dress, or carriage? Does the one follow public diversions, and
trifle away her time in idle visits, and corrupt conversation, and does the
other study all the arts of improving her time, living in prayer and watching,
and such good works as may make all her time turn to her advantage, and be
placed to her account at the last day? Is the one careless of expense, and glad
to be able to adorn herself with every costly ornament of dress, and does the
other consider her fortune as a talent given her by God, which is to be
improved religiously, and no more to be spent on vain and needless ornaments
than it is to be buried in the earth? Where must you look, to find one person
of religion differing in this manner, from another than, has none? And yet if
they do not differ in these things which are here related, can it with any
sense be said, the one is a good Christian, and the other not? Take another
instance amongst the men? Leo has a great deal of good nature, has kept what
they call good company, hates everything that is false and base, is very
generous and brave to his friends; but has concerned himself so little with
religion that he hardly knows the difference betwixt a Jew and a Christian.
Eusebius, on the other hand, has had early impressions of religion, and buys
books of devotion. He can talk of all the feasts and fasts of the Church, and
knows the names of most men that have been eminent for piety. You never hear
him swear, or make a loose jest; and when he talks of religion, he talks of it as
of a matter of the last concern. Here you see, that one person has religion
enough, according to the way of the world, to be reckoned a pious Christian,
and the other is so far from all appearance of religion, that he may fairly be
reckoned a Heathen; and yet if you look into their common life; if you examine
their chief and ruling tempers in the greatest articles of life, or the
greatest doctrines of Christianity, you will not find the least difference
imaginable. Consider them with regard to the use of the world, because that is
what everybody can see. Now to have right notions and tempers with relation to
this world, is as essential to religion as it have right notions of God. And it
is as possible for a man to worship a crocodile, and yet be a pious man, as to
have his affections set upon this world, and yet be a good Christian. But now
if you consider Leo and Eusebius in this respect, you will find them exactly
alike, seeking, using, and enjoying, all that can be got in this world in the
same manner, and for the same ends. You will find that riches, prosperity,
pleasures, indulgences, state equipages, and honor, are just as much the
happiness of Eusebius as they are of Leo. And yet if Christianity has not
changed a man's mind and temper with relation to these things, what can we say
that it has done for him? For if the doctrines of Christianity were practiced,
they would make a man as different from other people, as to all worldly
tempers, sensual pleasures, and the pride of life, as a wise man is different
from a natural; it would be as easy a thing to know a Christian by his outward
course of life, as it is now difficult to find anybody that lives it. For it is
notorious that Christians are now not only like other men in their frailties
and infirmities, this might be in some degree excusable, but the complaint is,
they are like Heathens in all the main and chief articles of their lives. They
enjoy the world, and live every day in the same tempers, and the same designs,
and the same indulgences, as they did who knew not God, nor of any happiness in
another life. Everybody that is capable of any reflection, must have observed,
that this is generally the state even of devout people, whether men or women.
You may see them different from other people, so far as to times and places of
prayer, but generally like the rest of the world in all the other parts of
their lives: that is, adding Christian devotion to a Heathen life. I have the
authority of our blessed Savior for this remark, where He says, "Take no
thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal
shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek."
[Matt. vi. 31, 32] But if to be thus affected even with the necessary things of
this life, shows that we are not yet of a Christian spirit, but are like the
Heathens, surely to enjoy the vanity and folly of the world as they did, to be
like them in the main chief tempers of our lives, in self-love and indulgence,
in sensual pleasures and diversions, in the vanity of dress, the love of show
and greatness, or any other gaudy distinctions of fortune, is a much greater
sign of an Heathen temper. And, consequently, they who add devotion to such a
life, must be said to pray as Christians, but live as Heathens.
CHAPTER 2
An inquiry into the reason, why the generality of Christians fall so far
short of the holiness and devotion of Christianity.
IT MAY now
be reasonably inquired, how it comes to pass, that the lives even of the better
sort of people are thus strangely contrary to the principles of Christianity?
But before I give a direct answer to this, I desire it may also be inquired,
how it comes to pass that swearing is so common a vice among Christians? It is
indeed not yet so common among women, as it is among men. But among men this
sin is so common that perhaps there are more than two in three that are guilty
of it through the whole course of their lives, swearing more or less, just as
it happens, some constantly, others only now and then as it were by chance. Now
I ask, how comes it, that two in three of the men are guilty of so gross and
profane a sin as this is? There is neither ignorance nor human infirmity to
plead for it; it is against an express commandment, and the most plain
doctrines of our blessed Savior. Do but now find the reason why the generality
of men live in this notorious vice, and then you will have found the reason why
the generality even of the better sort of people live so contrary to
Christianity. Now the reason of common swearing is this; it is because men have
not so much as the intention to please God in all their actions. For let a man
but have so much piety as to intend to please God in all the actions of his
life, as the happiest and best thing in the world, and then he will never swear
more. It will be as impossible for him to swear, whilst he feels this intention
within himself, as it is impossible for a man that intends to please his
prince, to go up and abuse him to his face. It seems but a small and necessary
part of piety to have such a sincere intention as this; and that he has no
reason to look upon himself as a disciple of Christ who is not thus far
advanced in piety. And yet it is purely for want of this degree of piety that
you see such a mixture of sin and folly in the lives even of the better sort of
people. It is for want of this intention that you see men that profess
religion, yet live in swearing and sensuality; that you see clergymen given to
pride, and covetousness, and worldly enjoyments. It is for want of this
intention, that you see women that profess devotion, yet living in all the
folly and vanity of dress, wasting their time in idleness and pleasures, and in
all such instances of state and equipage as their estates will reach. For let
but a woman feel her heart full of this intention, and she will find it as
impossible to patch or paint, as to curse or swear; she will no more desire to
shine at balls or assemblies, or make a figure amongst those that are most
finely dressed, than she will desire to dance upon a rope to please spectators:
she will know, that the one is as far from the wisdom and excellency of the
Christian spirit as the other. It was this general intention that made the
primitive Christians such eminent instances of piety, and made the goodly
fellowship of the saints, and all the glorious army of martyrs and confessors.
And if you will here stop, and ask yourselves, why you are not as pious as the
primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you, that it is neither
through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly
intended it. You observe the same Sunday worship that they did; and you are
strict in it, because it is your full intention to be so. And when you as fully
intend to be like them in their ordinary common life, when you intend to please
God in all your actions, you will find it as possible, as to be strictly exact
in the service of the Church. And when you have this intention to please God in
all your actions, as the happiest and best thing in the world, you will find in
you as great an aversion to every thing that is vain and impertinent in common
life, whether of business or pleasure, as you now have to any thing that is
profane. You will be as fearful of living in any foolish way, either of
spending your time, or your fortune, as you are now fearful of neglecting the
public worship. Now, who that wants this general sincere intention, can be
reckoned a Christian? And yet if it was among Christians, it would change the
whole face of the world: true piety, and exemplary holiness, would be as common
and visible, as buying and selling, or any trade in life. Let a clergyman be
but thus pious, and he will converse as if he had been brought up by an
Apostle; he will no more think and talk of noble preferment, than of noble
eating, or a glorious chariot. He will no more complain of the frowns of the
world, or a small cure, or the want of a patron, than he will complain of the
want of a laced coat, or a running horse. Let him but intend to please God in
all his actions, as the happiest and best thing in the world, and then he will
know, that there is nothing noble in a clergyman, but a burning zeal for the
salvation of souls; nor anything poor in his profession, but idleness and a
worldly spirit. Again, let a tradesman but have this intention, and it will
make him a saint in his shop; his every-day business will be a course of wise
and reasonable actions, made holy to God, by being done in obedience to His
will and pleasure. He will buy and sell, and labor and travel, because by so doing
he can do some good to himself and others. But then, as nothing can please God
but what is wise, and reasonable, and holy, so he will neither buy nor sell,
nor labor in any other manner, nor to any other end, but such as may be shown
to be wise, and reasonable, and holy. He will therefore consider, not what
arts, or methods, or application, will soonest make him richer and greater than
his brethren, or remove him from a shop to a life of state and pleasure; but he
will consider what arts, what methods, what application can make worldly
business most acceptable to God, and make a life of trade a life of holiness,
devotion, and piety. This will be the temper and spirit of every tradesman; he
cannot stop short of these degrees of piety, whenever it is his intention to
please God in all his actions, as the best and happiest thing in the world. And
on the other hand, whoever is not of this spirit and temper in his trade and
profession, and does not carry it on only so far as is best subservient to a
wise, and holy, and heavenly life, it is certain that he has not this
intention; and yet without it, who can be shown to be a follower of Jesus
Christ? Again, let the gentleman of birth and fortune but have this intention,
and you will see how it will carry him from every appearance of evil, to every
instance of piety and goodness. He cannot live by chance, or as humor and fancy
carry him, because he knows that nothing can please God but a wise and regular
course of life. He cannot live in idleness and indulgence, in sports and
gaming, in pleasures and intemperance, in vain expenses and high living,
because these things cannot be turned into means of piety and holiness, or made
so many parts of a wise and religious life. As he thus removes from all
appearance of evil, so he hastens and aspires after every instance of goodness.
He does not ask what is allowable and pardonable, but what is commendable and
praiseworthy. He does not ask whether God will forgive the folly of our lives,
the madness of our pleasures, the vanity of our expenses, the richness of our
equipage, and the careless consumption of our time; but he asks whether God is
pleased with these things, or whether these are the appointed ways of gaining
His favor? He does not inquire, whether it be pardonable to hoard up money, to
adorn ourselves with diamonds, and gild our chariots, whilst the widow and the
orphan, the sick and the prisoner, want to be relieved; but he asks, whether
God has required these things at our hands, whether we shall be called to account
at the last day for the neglect of them; because it is not his intent to live
in such ways as, for ought we know, God may perhaps pardon; but to be diligent
in such ways, as we know that God will infallibly reward. He will not therefore
look at the lives of Christians, to learn how he ought to spend his estate, but
he will look into the Scriptures, and make every doctrine, parable, precept, or
instruction, that relates to rich men, a law to himself in the use of his
estate. He will have nothing to do with costly apparel, because the rich man in
the Gospel was clothed with purple and fine linen. He denies himself the
pleasures and indulgences which his estate could procure, because our blessed
Savior says, "Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your
consolation." [Luke vi. 24] He will have but one rule for charity, and
that will be, to spend all that he can that way, because the Judge of quick and
dead hath said, that all that is so given, is given to Him. He will have no
hospitable table for the rich and wealthy to come and feast with him, in good
eating and drinking; because our blessed Lord says, "When you makest a
dinner, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsman, nor thy
rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.
But when you makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
and you shall be blessed: for they cannot recompense thee: for you shall be
recompensed at the resurrection of the just." [Luke xiv. 12, 13, 14] He will
waste no money in gilded roofs, or costly furniture: he will not be carried
from pleasure to pleasure in expensive state and equipage, because an inspired
Apostle hath said, that "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of
the world." [1 John ii. 16] Let not any one look upon this as an imaginary
description of charity, that looks fine in the notion, but cannot be put in
practice. For it is so far from being an imaginary, impracticable form of life,
that it has been practised by great numbers of Christians in former ages, who
were glad to turn their whole estates into a constant course of charity. And it
is so far from being impossible now, that if we can find any Christians that
sincerely intend to please God in all their actions, as the best and happiest
thing in the world, whether they be young or old, single or married, men or
women, if they have but this intention, it will be impossible for them to do
otherwise. This one principle will infallibly carry them to this height of
charity, and they will find themselves unable to stop short of it. For how is
it possible for a man that intends to please God in the use of his money, and
intends it because he judges it to be his greatest happiness; how is it
possible for such a one, in such a state of mind, to bury his money in
needless, impertinent finery, in covering himself or his horses with gold,
whilst there are any works of piety and charity to be done with it, or any ways
of spending it well? This is as strictly impossible, as for a man that intends
to please God in his words, to go into company on purpose to swear and lie. For
as all waste and unreasonable expense is done designedly, and with
deliberation, so no one can be guilty of it, whose constant intention is to
please God in the use of his money. I have chosen to explain this matter, by
appealing to this intention, because it makes the case so plain, and because
every one that has a mind may see it in the clearest light, and feel it in the
strongest manner, only by looking into his own heart. For it is as easy for
every person to know whether he intends to please God in all his actions, as
for any servant to know whether this be his intention towards his master. Every
one also can as easily tell how he lays out his money, and whether he considers
how to please God in it, as he can tell where his estate is, and whether it be
in money or land. So that here is no plea left for ignorance or frailty as to
this matter; everybody is in the light, and everybody has power. And no one can
fail, but he that is not so much a Christian, as to intend to please God in the
use of his estate. You see two persons: one is regular in public and private
prayer, the other is not. Now the reason of this difference is not this, that
one has strength and power to observe prayer, and the other has not; but the
reason is this, that one intends to please God in the duties of devotion, and
the other has no intention about it. Now the case is the same, in the right or
wrong use of our time and money. You see one person throwing away his time in
sleep and idleness, in visiting and diversions, and his money in the most vain
and unreasonable expenses. You see another careful of every day, dividing his
hours by rules of reason and religion, and spending all his money in works of
charity: now the difference is not owing to this, that one has strength and
power to do thus, and the other has not; but it is owing to this, that one
intends to please God in the right use of all his time, and all his money, and
the other has no intention about it. Here, therefore, let us judge ourselves
sincerely; let us not vainly content ourselves with the common disorders of our
lives, the vanity of our expenses, the folly of our diversions, the pride of
our habits, the idleness of our lives, and the wasting of our time, fancying
that these are such imperfections as we fall into through the unavoidable
weakness and frailty of our natures; but let us be assured, that these
disorders of our common life are owing to this, that we have not so much
Christianity as to intend to please God in all the actions of our life, as the
best and happiest thing in the world. So that we must not look upon ourselves
in a state of common and pardonable imperfection, but in such a state as wants
the first and most fundamental principle of Christianity, viz., an intention to
please God in all our actions. And if any one was to ask himself, how it comes
to pass, that there are any degrees of sobriety which he neglects, any
practices of humility which he wants, any method of charity which he does not
follow, any rules of redeeming time which he does not observe, his own heart
will tell him, that it is because he never intended to be so exact in those
duties. For whenever we fully intend it, it is as possible to conform to all
this regularity of life, as it is possible for a man to observe times of
prayer. So that the fault does not lie here, that we desire to be good and
perfect, but through the weakness of our nature fall short of it; but it is,
because we have not piety enough to intend to be as good as we can, or to
please God in all the actions of our life. This we see is plainly the case of
him that spends his time in sports when he should be at Church; it is not his
want of power, but his want of intention or desire to be there. And the case is
plainly the same in every other folly of human life. She that spends her time
and money in the unreasonable ways and fashions of the world, does not do so
because she wants power to be wise and religious in the management of her time
and money, but because she has no intention or desire of being so. When she
feels this intention, she will find it as possible to act up to it, as to be
strictly sober and chaste, because it is her care and desire to be so. This
doctrine does not suppose that we have no need of Divine grace, or that it is
in our own power to make ourselves perfect. It only supposes, that through the
want of a sincere intention of pleasing God in all our actions we fall into
such irregularities of life as by the ordinary means of grace we should have
power to avoid; and that we have not that perfection, which our present state
of grace makes us capable of, because we do not so much as intend to have it.
It only teaches us that the reason why you see no real mortification or
self-denial, no eminent charity, no profound humility, no heavenly affection,
no true contempt of the world, no Christian meekness, no sincere zeal, no
eminent piety in the common lives of Christians, is this, because they do not
so much as intend to be exact and exemplary in these virtues.
CHAPTER 3
Of the great danger and folly, of not intending to be as eminent and
exemplary as we can, in the practice of all Christian virtues.
ALTHOUGH
the goodness of God, and His rich mercies in Christ Jesus, are a sufficient
assurance to us, that He will be merciful to our unavoidable weakness and
infirmities, that is, to such failings as are the effects of Ignorance or
surprise; yet we have no reason to expect the same mercy towards those sins
which we have lived in, through a want of intention to avoid them. For
instance; the case of a common swearer, who dies in that guilt, seems to have
no title to the Divine mercy; for this reason, because he can no more plead any
weakness or infirmity in his excuse, than the man that hid his talent in the
earth could plead bis want of strength to keep it out of the earth. But now, if
this be right reasoning in the case of a common swearer, that his sin is not to
be reckoned a pardonable frailty, because he has no weakness to plead in its
excuse, why then do we not carry this way of reasoning to its true extent? why
do not we as much condemn every other error of life, that has no more weakness
to plead in its excuse than common swearing? For if this be so bad a thing,
because it might be avoided, if we did but sincerely intend it, must not then
all other erroneous ways of life be very guilty, if we live in them, not
through weakness and inability, but because we never sincerely intended to
avoid them? For instance; you perhaps have made no progress in the most
important Christian virtues, you have scarce gone half way in humility and
charity; now if your failure in these duties is purely owing to your want of
intention of performing them in any true degree, have you not then as little to
plead for yourself, and are you not as much without all excuse, as the common
swearer? Why, therefore, do you not press these things home upon your
conscience? Why do you not think it as dangerous for you to live in such
defects, as are in your power to amend, as it is dangerous for a common swearer
to live in the breach of that duty, which it is in his power to observe? Is not
negligence, and a want of sincere intention, as blameable in one case as in
another? You, it may be, are as far from Christian perfection, as the common
swearer is from keeping the third commandment; are you not therefore as much
condemned by the doctrines of the Gospel, as the swearer is by the third
commandment? You perhaps will say, that all people fall short of the perfection
of the Gospel, and therefore you are content with your failings. But this is
saying nothing to the purpose. For the question is not whether Gospel
perfection can be fully attained, but whether you come as near it as a sincere
intention and careful diligence can carry you. Whether you are not in a much
lower state than you might be, if you sincerely intended, and carefully
laboured, to advance yourself in all Christian virtues? If you are as forward
in the Christian life as your best endeavours can make you, then you may justly
hope that your imperfections will not be laid to your charge: but if your
defects in piety, humility, and charity, are owing to your negligence, and want
of sincere intention to be as eminent as you can in these virtues, then you
leave yourself as much without excuse as he that lives in the sin of swearing,
through the want of a sincere intention to depart from it. The salvation of our
souls is set forth in Scripture as a thing of difficulty, that requires all our
diligence, that is to be worked out with fear and trembling. [Phil. ii. 12] We
are told, that "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it." [Matt. vii. 14] That "many
are called, but few are chosen." [Matt. xxii. 14] And that many will miss
of their salvation, who seem to have taken some pains to obtain it: as in these
words, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." [Luke xiii. 24] Here our
blessed Lord commands us to strive to enter in, because many will fail, who
only seek to enter. By which we are plainly taught, that religion is a state of
labour and striving, and that many will fail of their salvation; not because
they took no pains or care about it, but because they did not take pains and
care enough; they only sought, but did not strive to enter in. Every Christian,
therefore, should as well examine his life by these doctrines as by the commandments.
For these doctrines are as plain marks of our condition, as the commandments
are plain marks of our duty. For if salvation is only given to those who strive
for it, then it is as reasonable for me to consider whether my course of life
be a course of striving to obtain it, as to consider whether I am keeping any
of the commandments. If my religion is only a formal compliance with those
modes of worship that are in fashion where I live; if it costs me no pains or
trouble; if it lays me under no rules and restraints; if I have no careful
thoughts and sober reflections about it, is it not great weakness to think that
I am striving to enter in at the strait gate? If I am seeking every thing that
can delight my senses, and regale my appetites; spending my time and fortune in
pleasures, in diversions, and worldly enjoyments; a stranger to watchings,
fastings, prayers, and mortification; how can it be said that I am working out
my salvation with fear and trembling? If there is nothing in my life and conversation
that shows me to be different from Jews and Heathens; if I use the world, and
worldly enjoyments, as the generality of people now do, and in all ages have
done; why should I think that I am amongst those few who are walking in the
narrow way to Heaven? And yet if the way is narrow, if none can walk in it but
those that strive, is it not as necessary for me to consider, whether the way I
am in be narrow enough, or the labour I take be a sufficient striving, as to
consider whether I sufficiently observe the second or third commandment? The
sum of this matter is this: From the abovementioned, and many other passages of
Scripture, it seems plain, that our salvation depends upon the sincerity and
perfection of our endeavours to obtain it. Weak and imperfect men shall,
notwithstanding their frailties and defects, be received, as having pleased
God, if they have done their utmost to please Him. The rewards of charity,
piety, and humility, will be given to those, whose lives have been a careful
labour to exercise these virtues in as high a degree as they could. We cannot
offer to God the service of Angels; we cannot obey Him as man in a state of
perfection could; but fallen men can do their best, and this is the perfection
that is required of us; it is only the perfection of our best endeavours, a
careful labour to be as perfect as we can. But if we stop short of this, for
aught we know, we stop short of the mercy of God, and leave ourselves nothing
to plead from the terms of the Gospel. For God has there made no promises of
mercy to the slothful and negligent. His mercy is only offered to our frail and
imperfect, but best endeavours, to practise all manner of righteousness. As the
law to Angels is angelical righteousness, as the law to perfect beings is strict
perfection, so the law to our imperfect natures is, the best obedience that our
frail nature is able to perform. The measure of our love to God, seems in
justice to be the measure of our love of every virtue. We are to love and
practise it with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with
all our strength. And when we cease to live with this regard to virtue, we live
below our nature, and, instead of being able to plead our infirmities, we stand
chargeable with negligence. It is for this reason that we are exhorted to work
out our salvation with fear and trembling; because unless our heart and
passions are eagerly bent upon the work of our salvation; unless holy fears
animate our endeavours, and keep our consciences strict and tender about every
part of our duty, constantly examining how we live, and how fit we are to die;
we shall in all probability fall into a state of negligence, and sit down in
such a course of life, as will never carry us to the rewards of Heaven. And he
that considers, that a just God can only make such allowances as are suitable
to His justice, that our works are all to be examined by fire, will find that
fear and trembling are proper tempers for those that are drawing near so great
a trial. And indeed there is no probability, that any one should do all the
duty that is expected from him, or make that progress in piety, which the
holiness and justice of God requires of him, but he that is constantly afraid
of falling short of it. Now this is not intended to possess people's minds with
a scrupulous anxiety, and discontent in the service of God, but to fill them
with a just fear of living in sloth and idleness, and in the neglect of such
virtues as they will want at the day of Judgment. It is to excite them to an
earnest examination of their lives, to such zeal, and care, and concern after
Christian perfection, as they use in any matter that has gained their heart and
affections. It is only desiring them to be so apprehensive of their state, so
humble in the opinion of themselves, so earnest after higher degrees of piety,
and so fearful of falling short of happiness, as the great Apostle St. Paul
was, when he thus wrote to the Philippians: "Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect: ... but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus." And then he adds, "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect,
be thus minded." [Phil. iii. 12-15] But now, if the Apostle thought it
necessary for those, who were in his state of perfection, to be "thus
minded," that is, thus labouring, pressing, and aspiring after some degree
of holiness, to which they were not then arrived, surely it is much more
necessary for us, who are born in the dregs of time, and labouring under great
imperfections, to be "thus minded," that is, thus earnest and
striving after such degrees of a holy and Divine life, as we have not yet
attained. The best way for any one to know how much he ought to aspire after
holiness, is to consider, not how much will make his present life easy, but to
ask himself, how much he thinks will make him easy at the hour of death. Now
any man that dares be so serious, as to put this question to himself, will be
forced to answer, that at death, every one will wish that he had been as
perfect as human nature can be. Is not this therefore sufficient to put us not
only upon wishing, but labouring after all that perfection, which we shall then
lament the want of? Is it not excessive folly to be content with such a course
of piety as we already know cannot content us, at a time when we shall so want
it, as to have nothing else to comfort us? How can we carry a severer condemnation
against ourselves, than to believe, that, at the hour of death, we shall want
the virtues of the Saints, and wish that we had been amongst the first servants
of God, ann yet take no methods of arriving at their height of piety, whilst we
are alive? Though this is an absurdity that we can easily pass over at present,
whilst the health of our bodies, the passions of our minds, the noise, and
hurry, and pleasures, and business of the world, lead us on with eyes that see
not, and ears that hear not; yet, at death, it will set itself before us in a
dreadful magnitude, it will haunt us like a dismal ghost, and our conscience
will never let us take our eyes from it. We see in worldly matters, what a
torment selfcondemnation is, and how hardly a man is able to forgive himself,
when he has brought himself into any calamity or disgrace, purely by his own
folly. The affliction is made doubly tormenting, because he is forced to charge
it all upon himself, as his own act and deed, against the nature and reason of
things, and contrary to the advice of all his friends. Now by this we may in
some degree guess how terrible the pain of that self-condemnation will be, when
a man shall find himself in the miseries of death under the severity of a
self-condemning conscience, charging all his distress upon his own folly and
madness, against the sense and reason of his own mind, against all the
doctrines and precepts of religion, and contrary to all the instructions,
calls, and warnings, both of God and man. Penitens was a busy, notable
tradesman, and very prosperous in his dealings, but died in the thirty-fifth
year of his age. A little before his death, when the doctors had given him
over, some of his neighbours came one evening to see him, at which time he
spake thus to them:- I see, my friends, the tender concern you have for me, by
the grief that appears in your countenances, and I know the thoughts that you
have now about me. You think how melancholy a case it is, to see so young a
man, and in such flourishing business, delivered up to death. And perhaps, had
I visited any of you in my condition, I should have had the same thoughts of
you. But now, my friends, my thoughts are no more like your thoughts than my
condition is like yours. It is no trouble to me now to think, that I am to die
young, or before I have raised an estate. These things are now sunk into such
mere nothings, that I have no name little enough to call them by. For if in a
few days or hours, I am to leave this carcass to be buried in the earth, and to
find myself either for ever happy in the favour of God, or eternally separated
from all light and peace, can any words sufficiently express the littleness of
everything else? Is there any dream like the dream of life, which amuses us
with the neglect and disregard of these things? Is there any folly like the
folly of our manly state, which is too wise and busy, to be at leisure for
these reflections? When we consider death as a misery, we only think of it as a
miserable separation from the enjoyments of this life. We seldom mourn over an
old man that dies rich, but we lament the young, that are taken away in the
progress of their fortune. You yourselves look upon me with pity, not that I am
going unprepared to meet the Judge of quick and dead, but that I am to leave a
prosperous trade in the flower of my life. This is the wisdom of our manly
thoughts. And yet what folly of the silliest children is so great as this? For
what is there miserable, or dreadful in death, but the consequences of it? When
a man is dead, what does any thing signify to him, but the state he is then in?
Our poor friend Lepidus died, you know, as he was dressing himself for a feast:
do you think it is now part of his trouble, that he did not live till that
entertainment was over? Feasts, and business, and pleasures, and enjoyments,
seem great things to us, whilst we think of nothing else; but as soon as we add
death to them, they all sink into an equal littleness; and the soul that is
separated from the body no more laments the loss of business, than the losing
of a feast. If I am now going into the joys of God, could there be any reason
to grieve, that this happened to me before I was forty years of age? Could it
be a sad thing to go to Heaven, before I had made a few more bargains, or stood
a little longer behind a counter? And if I am to go amongst lost spirits, could
there be any reason to be content, that this did not happen to me till I was
old, and full of riches? If good Angels were ready to receive my soul, could it
be any grief to me, that I was dying upon a poor bed in a garret? And if God
has delivered me up to evil spirits, to be dragged by them to places of
torments, could it be any comfort to me, that they found me upon a bed of
state? When you are as near death as I am, you will know that all the different
states of life, whether of youth or age, riches or poverty, greatness or
meanness, signify no more to you, than whether you die in a poor or stately
apartment. The greatness of those things which follow death makes all that goes
before it sink into nothing. Now that judgment is the next thing that I look
for, and everlasting happiness or misery is come so near me, all the enjoyments
and prosperities of life seem as vain and insignificant, and to have no more to
do with my happiness, than the clothes that I wore before I could speak. But,
my friends, how am I surprised that I have not always had these thoughts? for
what is there in the terrors of death, in the vanities of life, or the
necessities of piety, but what I might have as easily and fully seen in any
part of my life? What a strange thing is it, that a little health, or the poor
business of a shop, should keep us so senseless of these great things, that are
coming so fast upon us! Just as you came in my chamber, I was thinking with
myself, what numbers of souls there are now in the world, in my condition at
this very time, surprised with a summons to the other world; some taken from
their shops and farms, others from their sports and pleasures, these at suits
of law, those at gaming tables, some on the road, others at their own
firesides, and all seized at an hour when they thought nothing of it;
frightened at the approach of death, confounded at the vanity of all their
labours, designs, and projects, astonished at the folly of their past lives,
and not knowing which way to turn their thoughts, to find any comfort. Their
consciences flying in their faces, bringing all their sins to their
remembrance, tormenting them with deepest convictions of their own folly,
presenting them with the sight of the angry Judge, the worm that never dies,
the fire that is never quenched, the gates of hell, the powers of darkness, and
the bitter pains of eternal death. Oh, my friends! bless God that you are not
of this number, that you have time and strength to employ yourselves in such
works of piety, as may bring you peace at the last. And take this along with
you, that there is nothing but a life of great piety, or a death of great
stupidity, that can keep off these apprehensions. Had I now a thousand worlds,
I would give them all for one year more, that I might present unto God one year
of such devotion and good works, as I never before so much as intended. You,
perhaps, when you consider that I have lived free from scandal and debauchery,
and in the communion of the Church, wonder to see me so full of remorse and
self-condemnation at the approach of death. But, alas! what a poor thing is it,
to have lived only free from murder, theft, and adultery, which is all that I
can say of myself. You know, indeed, that I have never been reckoned a sot, but
you are, at the same time, witnesses, and have been frequent companions of my
intemperance, sensuality, and great indulgence. And if I am now going to a
judgment, where nothing will be rewarded but good works, I may well be
concerned, that though I am no sot, yet I have no Christian sobriety to plead
for me. It is true, I have lived in the communion of the Church, and generally
frequented its worship and service on Sundays, when I was neither too idle, or
not otherwise disposed of by my business and pleasures. But, then, my
conformity to the public worship has been rather a thing of course, than any
real intention of doing that which the service of the Church supposes: had it
not been so, I had been oftener at Church, more devout when there, and more
fearful of ever neglecting it. But the thing that now surprises me above all
wonders is this, that I never had so much as a general intention of living up
to the piety of the Gospel. This never so much as entered into my head or my
heart. I never once in my life considered whether I was living as the laws of
religion direct, or whether my way of life was such, as would procure me the
mercy of God at this hour. And can it be thought that I have kept the Gospel
terms of salvation, without ever so much as intending, in any serious and
deliberate manner, either to know them, or keep them? Can it be thought that I
have pleased God with such a life as He requires, though I have lived without
ever considering what He requires, or how much I have performed? How easy a
thing would salvation be, if it could fall into my careless hands, who have
never had so much serious thought about it, as about any one common bargain
that I have made? In the business of life I have used prudence and reflection.
I have done everything by rules and methods. I have been glad to converse with
men of experience and judgment, to find out the reasons why some fail and
others succeed in any business. I have taken no step in trade but with great
care and caution, considering every advantage or danger that attended it. I
have always had my eye upon the main end of business, and have studied all the
ways and means of being a gainer by all that I undertook. But what is the
reason that I have brought none of these tempers to religion? What is the
reason that I, who have so often talked of the necessity of rules, and methods,
and diligence, in worldly business, have all this while never once thought of
any rules, or methods, or managements, to carry me on in a life of piety? Do
you think anything can astonish and confound a dying man like this? What pain
do you think a man must feel, when his conscience lays all this folly to his
charge, when it shall show him how regular, exact, and wise he has been in
small matters, that are passed away like a dream, and how stupid and senseless
he has lived, without any reflection, without any rules, in things of such
eternal moment, as no heart can sufficiently conceive them? Had I only my
frailties and imperfections to lament at this time, I should lie here humbly
trusting in the mercies of God. But, alas! how can I call a general disregard,
and a thorough neglect of all religious improvement, a frailty or imperfection,
when it was as much in my power to have been exact, and careful, and diligent
in a course of piety, as in the business of my trade? I could have called in as
many helps, have practised as many rules, and been taught as many certain
methods of holy living, as of thriving in my shop, had I but so intended, and desired
it. Oh, my friends! a careless life, unconcerned and unattentive to the duties
of religion, is so without all excuse, so unworthy of the mercy of God, such a
shame to the sense and reason of our minds, that I can hardly conceive a
greater punishment, than for a man to be thrown into the state that I am in, to
reflect upon it. Penitens was here going on, but had his mouth stopped by a
convulsion, which never suffered him to speak any more. He lay convulsed about
twelve hours, and then gave up the ghost. Now if every reader would imagine
this Penitens to have been some particular acquaintance or relation of his, and
fancy that he saw and heard all that is here described; that he stood by his
bedside when his poor friend lay in such distress and agony, lamenting the
folly of his past life, it would, in all probability, teach him such wisdom as
never entered into his heart before. If to this he should consider how often he
himself might have been surprised in the same state of negligence, and made an
example to the rest of the world, this double reflection, both upon the
distress of his friend, and the goodness of that God, who had preserved him
from it, would in all likelihood soften his heart into holy tempers, and make
him turn the remainder of his life into a regular course of piety. This
therefore being so useful a meditation, I shall here leave the reader, as I
hope, seriously engaged in it.
CHAPTER 4
We can please God in no state or employment of life, but by intending and
devoting it all to His honour and glory.
HAVING in
the first chapter stated the general nature of devotion, and shown that it
implies not any form of prayer, but a certain form of life, that is offered to
God, not at any particular times or places, but everywhere and in every thing; I
shall now descend to some particulars, and show how we are to devote our labour
and employment, our time and fortunes, unto God. As a good Christian should
consider every place as holy, because God is there, so he should look upon
every part of his life as a matter of holiness, because it is to be offered
unto God. The profession of a clergyman is an holy profession, because it is a
ministration in holy things, an attendance at the altar. But worldly business
is to be made holy unto the Lord, by being done as a service to Him, and in
conformity to His Divine will. For as all men, and all things in the world, as
truly belong unto God, as any places, things, or persons, that are devoted to
Divine service, so all things are to be used, and all persons are to act in
their several states and employments, for the glory of God. Men of worldly
business, therefore, must not look upon themselves as at liberty to live to
themselves, to sacrifice to their own humours and tempers, because their
employment is of a worldly nature. But they must consider, that, as the world
and all worldly professions as truly belong to God, as persons and things that
are devoted to the altar, so it is as much the duty of men in worldly business
to live wholly unto God, as it is the duty of those who are devoted to Divine
service. As the whole world is God's, so the whole world is to act for God. As
all men have the same relation to God, as all men have all their powers and
faculties from God, so all men are obliged to act for God, with all their
powers and faculties. As all things are God's, so all things are to be used and
regarded as the things of God. For men to abuse things on earth, and live to
themselves, is the same rebellion against God, as for angels to abuse things in
Heaven; because God is just the same Lord of all on earth, as He is the Lord of
all in Heaven. Things may, and must differ in their use, but yet they are all
to be used according to the will of God. Men may, and must differ in their
employments, but yet they must all act for the same ends, as dutiful servants
of God, in the right and pious performance of their several callings. Clergymen
must live wholly unto God in one particular way, that is, in the exercise of
holy offices, in the ministration of prayers and Sacraments, and a zealous
distribution of spiritual goods. But men of other employments are, in their
particular ways, as much obliged to act as the servants of God, and live wholly
unto Him in their several callings. This is the only difference between
clergymen and people of other callings. When it can be shown, that men might be
vain, covetous, sensual, worldly-minded, or proud in the exercise of their
worldly business, then it will be allowable for clergymen to indulge the same
tempers in their sacred profession. For though these tempers are most odious
and most criminal in clergymen, who besides their baptismal vow, have a second
time devoted themselves to God, to be His servants, not in the common offices
of human life, but in the spiritual service of the most holy sacred things, and
who are therefore to keep themselves as separate and different from the common
life of other men, as a church or an altar is to be kept separate from houses
and tables of common use; yet as all Christians are by their Baptism devoted to
God, and made professors of holiness, so are they all in their several callings
to live as holy and heavenly persons; doing every thing in their common life
only in such a manner, as it may be received by God, as a service done to Him.
For things spiritual and temporal, sacred and common, must, like men and
angels, like Heaven and earth, all conspire in the glory of God. As there is
but one God and Father of us all, whose glory gives light and life to
everything that lives, whose presence fills all places, whose power supports
all beings, whose providence ruleth all events; so everything that lives,
whether in Heaven or earth, whether they be thrones or principalities, men or
angels, they must all, with one spirit, live wholly to the praise and glory of
this one God and Father of them all. Angels as angels, in their heavenly
ministrations; but men as men, women as women, bishops as bishops, priests as
priests, and deacons as deacons; some with things spiritual, and some with
things temporal, offering to God the daily sacrifice of a reasonable life, wise
actions, purity of heart, and heavenly affections. This is the common business
of all persons in this world. It is not left to any women in the world to
trifle away their time in the follies and impertinences of a fashionable life,
nor to any men to resign themselves up to worldly cares and concerns; it is not
left to the rich to gratify their passions in the indulgences and pride of
life, nor to the poor, to vex and torment their hearts with the poverty of
their state; but men and women, rich and poor, must, with bishops and priests,
walk before God in the same wise and holy spirit, in the same denial of all
vain tempers, and in the same discipline and care of their souls; not only
because they have all the same rational nature, and are servants of the same
God, but because they all want the same holiness, to make them fit for the same
happiness, to which they are all called. It is therefore absolutely necessary
for all Christians, whether men or women, to consider themselves as persons
that are devoted to holiness, and so order their common ways of life, by such
rules of reason and piety, as may turn it into continual service unto Almighty
God. Now to make our labour, or employment, an acceptable service unto God, we
must carry it on with the same spirit and temper, that is required in giving of
alms, or any work of piety. For, if "whether we eat or drink, or
whatsoever we do," we must "do all to the glory of God"; [1 Cor.
x. 31] if "we are to use this world as if we used it not"; if we are
to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God";
[Rom. xii. 1] if "we are to live by faith, and not by sight," and to
"have our conversation in heaven"; [2 Cor. v. 7; Phil. iii. 20] then
it is necessary that the common way of our life, in every state, be made to
glorify God by such tempers as make our prayers and adorations acceptable to
Him. For if we are worldly or earthly-minded in our employments, if they are
carried on with vain desires, and covetous tempers, only to satisfy ourselves,
we can no more be said to live to the glory of God, than gluttons and drunkards
can be said to eat and drink to the glory of God. As the glory of God is one
and the same thing, so whatever we do suitable to it must be done with one and
the same spirit. That same state and temper of mind which makes our alms and
devotions acceptable, must also make our labour, or employment, a proper
offering unto God. If a man labours to be rich, and pursues his business, that
he may raise himself to a state of figure and glory in the world, he is no
longer serving God in his employment; he is acting under other masters, and has
no more title to a reward from God, than he that gives alms, that he may be
seen, or prays, that he may be heard of men. For vain and earthly desires are
no more allowable in our employments, than in our alms and devotions. For these
tempers of worldly pride, and vain-glory, are not only evil, when they mix with
our good works, but they have the same evil nature, and make us odious to God,
when they enter into the common business of our employment. If it were
allowable to indulge covetous or vain passions in our worldly employments, it
would then be allowable to be vain-glorious in our devotions. But as our alms and
devotions are not an acceptable service, but when they proceed from a heart
truly devoted to God, so our common employment cannot be reckoned a service to
Him, but when it is performed with the same temper and piety of heart. Most of
the employments of life are in their own nature lawful; and all those that are
so may be made a substantial part of our duty to God, if we engage in them only
so far, and for such ends, as are suitable to beings that are to live above the
world, all the time that they live in the world. This is the only measure of
our application to any worldly business, let it be what it will, where it will;
it must have no more of our hands, our hearts, or our time, than is consistent
with a hearty, daily, careful preparation of ourselves for another life. For as
all Christians, as such have renounced this world, to prepare themselves by
daily devotion, and universal holiness, for an eternal state of quite another
nature, they must look upon worldly employments, as upon worldly wants, and bodily
infirmities; things not to be desired but only to be endured and suffered, till
death and the resurrection have carried us to an eternal state of real
happiness. Now he that does not look at the things of this life in this degree
of littleness, cannot be said either to feel or believe the greatest truths of
Christianity. For if he thinks anything great or important in human business,
can he be said to feel or believe those Scriptures, which represent this life,
and the greatest things of life, as bubbles, vapours, dreams, and shadows? If
he thinks figure, and show, and worldly glory, to be any proper happiness of a
Christian, how can he be said to feel or believe this doctrine, "Blessed
are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their
company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of
man's sake"? [Luke vi. 22] For surely, if there was any real happiness in
figure, and show, and worldly glory; if these things deserved our thoughts and
care; it could not be matter of the highest joy, when we are torn from them by
persecutions and sufferings. If, therefore, a man will so live, as to show that
he feels and believes the most fundamental doctrines of Christianity, he must
live above the world; this is the temper that must enable him to do the
business of life, and yet live wholly unto God, and to go through some worldly
employment with a heavenly mind. And it is as necessary that people live in
their employments with this temper, as it is necessary that their employment
itself be lawful. The husbandman that tilleth the ground is employed in an
honest business, that is necessary in life and very capable of being made an
acceptable service unto God. But if he labours and toils, not to serve any
reasonable ends of life, but in order to have his plough made of silver, and to
have his horses harnessed in gold, the honesty of his employment is lost as to
him, and his labour becomes his folly. A tradesman may justly think that it is
agreeable to the will of God, for him to sell such things as are innocent and
useful in life, such as help both himself, and others, to a reasonable support,
and enable them to assist those that want to be assisted. But if, instead of
this, he trades only with regard to himself, without any other rule than that
of his own temper; if it be his chief end in it to grow rich, that he may live
in figure and indulgence, and to be able to retire from business to idleness
and luxury; his trade, as to him, loses all its innocency, and is so far from
being an acceptable service to God that it is only a more plausible course of
covetousness, self-love, and ambition. For such a one turns the necessities of
employment into pride and covetousness, just as the sot and epicure turn the
necessities of eating and drinking into gluttony and drunkenness. Now he that
is up early and late, that sweats and labours for these ends, that he may be
some time or other rich, and live in pleasure and indulgence, lives no more to
the glory of God, than he that plays and games for the same ends. For though
there is a great difference between trading and gaming, yet most of that
difference is lost, when men once trade with the same desires and tempers, and
for the same ends, that others game. Charity, and fine dressing, are things
very different; but if men give alms for the same reasons that others dress
fine, only to be seen and admired, charity is then but like the vanity of fine
clothes. In like manner, if the same motives make some people painful and
industrious in their trades, which make others constant at gaming, such pains
are but like the pains of gaming. Calidus has traded above thirty years in the
greatest city of the kingdom; he has been so many years constantly increasing
his trade and his fortune. Every hour of the day is with him an hour of
business; and though he eats and drinks very heartily, yet every meal seems to
be in a hurry, and he would say grace if he had time. Calidus ends every day at
the tavern, but has not leisure to be there till near nine o'clock. He is
always forced to drink a good hearty glass, to drive thoughts of business out
of his head, and make his spirits drowsy enough for sleep. He does business all
the time that he is rising, and has settled several matters before he can get
to his counting-room. His prayers are a short ejaculation or two, which he
never misses in stormy, tempestuous weather, because he has always something or
other at sea. Calidus will tell you, with great pleasure, that he has been in
this hurry for so many years, and that it must have killed him long ago, but
that it has been a rule with him to get out of the town every Saturday, and
make the Sunday a day of quiet, and good refreshment in the country. He is now
so rich, that he would leave off his business, and amuse his old age with
building, and furnishing a fine house in the country, but that he is afraid he
should grow melancholy if he was to quit his business. He will tell you, with
great gravity, that it is a dangerous thing for a man that has been used to get
money, ever to leave it off. If thoughts of religion happen at any time to
steal into his head, Calidus contents himself with thinking, that he never was
a friend to heretics, and infidels, that he has always been civil to the
minister of his parish, and very often given something to the charity schools.
Now this way of life is at such a distance from all the doctrine and discipline
of Christianity, that no one can live in it through ignorance or frailty.
Calidus can no more imagine that he is "born again of the Spirit";
[St. John iii] that he is "in Christ a new creature"; that he lives
here as a stranger and a pilgrim, [1 Pet. ii. 11] setting his affections on
things above, and laying up treasures in heaven, [Col. iii. 1] - he can no more
imagine this, than he can think that he has been all his life an Apostle
working miracles, and preaching the Gospel. It must also be owned, that the
generality of trading people, especially in great towns, are too much like
Calidus. You see them all the week buried in business, unable to think of any
thing else; and then spending the Sunday in idleness and refreshment, in
wandering into the country, in such visits and jovial meetings, as make it
often the worst day of the week. Now they do not live thus, because they cannot
support themselves with less care and application to business; but they live
thus because they want to grow rich in their trades, and to maintain their
families in some such figure and degree of finery, as a reasonable Christian
life has no occasion for. Take away but this temper, and then people of all
trades will find themselves at leisure to live every day like Christians, to be
careful of every duty of the Gospel, to live in a visible course of religion,
and be every day strict observers both of private and public prayer. Now the
only way to do this, is for people to consider their trade as something that
they are obliged to devote to the glory of God, something that they are to do
only in such a manner as that they may make it a duty to Him. Nothing can be
right in business, that is not under these rules. - The Apostle commands
servants to be obedient to their masters "in singleness of heart, as unto
Christ. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as unto the
Lord, and not to men." [Eph. vi. 5; Col. iii. 22, 23] This passage
sufficiently shows, that all Christians are to live wholly unto God in every
state and condition, doing the work of their common calling in such a manner,
and for such ends, as to make it a part of their devotion or service to God.
For certainly if poor slaves are not to comply with their business as
men-pleasers, if they are to look wholly unto God in all their actions, and
serve in singleness of heart, as unto the Lord, surely men of other employments
and conditions must be as much obliged to go through their business with the
same singleness of heart; not as pleasing the vanity of their own minds, not as
gratifying their own selfish worldly passions, but as the servants of God in
all that they have to do. For surely no one will say, that a slave is to devote
his state of life unto God, and make the will of God the sole rule and end of
his service, but that a tradesman need not act with the same spirit of devotion
in his business. For this is as absurd, as to make it necessary for one man to
be more just or faithful than another. It is therefore absolutely certain that
no Christian is to enter any farther into business, nor for any other ends,
than such as he can in singleness of heart offer unto God, as a reasonable
service. For the Son of God has redeemed us for this only end, that we should,
by a life of reason and piety, live to the glory of God; this is the only rule
and measure for every order and state of life. Without this rule, the most
lawful employment becomes a sinful state of life. Take away this from the life
of a clergyman, and his holy profession serves only to expose him to a greater
damnation. Take away this from tradesmen, and shops are but so many houses of
greediness and filthy lucre. Take away this from gentlemen, and the course of
their life becomes a course of sensuality, pride, and wantonness. Take away
this rule from our tables, and all falls into gluttony and drunkenness. Take
away this measure from our dress and habits, and all is turned into such paint,
and glitter, and ridiculous ornaments, as are a real shame to the wearer. Take
away this from the use of our fortunes, and you will find people sparing in
nothing but charity. Take away this from our diversions, and you will find no
sports too silly, nor any entertainments too vain and corrupt, to be the
pleasure of Christians. If, therefore, we desire to live unto God, it is
necessary to bring our whole life under this law, to make His glory the sole
rule and measure of our acting in every employment of life. For there is no
other true devotion, but this of living devoted to God in the common business
of our lives. So that men must not content themselves with the lawfulness of
their employments, but must consider whether they use them, as they are to use
every thing as strangers and pilgrims, that are baptized into the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, that are to follow Him in a wise and heavenly course of life,
in the mortification of all worldly desires, and in purifying and preparing
their souls for the blessed enjoyment of God. [Col. iii. 1; 1 Pet. i. 15, 16;
Eph. v. 26, 27] For to be vain, or proud, or covetous, or ambitious, in the
common course of our business, is as contrary to these holy tempers of
Christianity, as cheating and dishonesty. If a glutton was to say, in excuse of
his gluttony, that he only eats such things as it is lawful to eat, he would
make as good an excuse for himself, as the greedy, covetous, ambitious
tradesman, that should say, he only deals in lawful business. For as a
Christian is not only required to be honest, but to be of a Christian spirit,
and make his life an exercise of humility, repentance, and heavenly affection,
so all tempers that are contrary to these are as contrary to Christianity, as
cheating is contrary to honesty. So that the matter plainly comes to this; all
irregular tempers in trade and business are but like irregular tempers in
eating and drinking. Proud views, and vain desires, in our worldly employments,
are as truly vices and corruptions, as hypocrisy in prayer, or vanity in alms.
And there can be no reason given, why vanity in our alms should make us odious
to God, but what will prove any other kind of pride to be equally odious. He
that labours and toils in a calling, that he may make a figure in the world and
draw the eyes of people upon the splendour of his condition, is as far from the
pious humility of a Christian, as he that gives alms that he may be seen of
men. For the reason why pride and vanity in our prayers and alms renders them
an unacceptable service to God, is not because there is anything particular in
prayers and alms, that cannot allow of pride, but because pride is in no
respect, nor in anything, made for man; it destroys the piety of our prayers
and alms, because it destroys the piety of every thing that it touches, and
renders every action that it governs incapable of being offered unto God. So
that if we could so divide ourselves, as to be humble in some respects, and
proud in others, such humility would be of no service to us, because God
requires us as truly to be humble in all our actions and designs, as to be true
and honest in all our actions and designs. And as a man is not honest and true,
because he is so to a great many people, or upon several occasions, but because
truth and honesty is the measure of all his dealings with everybody; so the
case is the same in humility, or any other temper; it must be the general
ruling habit of our minds, and extend itself to all our actions and designs,
before it can be imputed to us. We indeed sometimes talk, as if a man might be
humble in some things, and proud in others; humble in his dress, but proud of
his learning; humble in his person, but proud in his views and designs. But
though this may pass in common discourse, where few things are said according
to strict truth, it cannot be allowed, when we examine into the nature of our
actions. It is very possible for a man that lives by cheating, to be very punctual
in paying for what he buys; but then every one is assured, that he does not do
so out of any principle of true honesty. In like manner it is very possible for
a man that is proud of his estate, ambitious in his views, or vain of his
learning, to disregard his dress and person in such a manner as a truly humble
man would do; but to suppose that he does so out of a true principle of
religious humility, is full as absurd as to suppose that a cheat pays for what
he buys out of a principle of religious honesty. As, therefore, all kinds of
dishonesty destroy our pretences to an honest principle of mind, so all kinds
of pride destroy our pretences to an humble spirit. No one wonders that those
prayers and alms, which proceed from pride and ostentation, are odious to God;
but yet it is as easy to show, that pride is as pardonable there as anywhere
else. If we could suppose that God rejects pride in our prayers and alms, but
bears with pride in our dress, our persons, or estates, it would be the same
thing as to suppose, that God condemns falsehood in some actions, but allows it
in others. For pride, in one thing, differs from pride in another thing, as the
robbing of one man differs from the robbing of another. Again, if pride and
ostentation is so odious that it destroys the merit and worth of the most
reasonable actions, surely it must be equally odious in those actions which are
only founded in the weakness and infirmity of our nature. As thus, alms are
commanded by God, as excellent in themselves, as true instances of a divine
temper, but clothes are only allowed to cover our shame; surely, therefore, it
must at least be as odious a degree of pride, to be vain in our clothes, as to
be vain in our alms. Again, we are commanded to "pray without ceasing,"
[1 Thess. v. 17] as a means of rendering our souls more exalted and divine, but
we are forbidden to lay up treasures upon earth; [Matt. vi. 19] and can we
think that it is not as bad to be vain of those treasures which we are
forbidden to lay up, as to be vain of those prayers which we are commanded to
make? Women are required to have their heads covered, and to adorn themselves
with shamefacedness: [1 Cor. xi. 13; 1 Tim. ii. 9] if, therefore, they are vain
in those things which are expressly forbidden, if they patch and paint that
part, which can only be adorned by shamefacedness, surely they have as much to
repent of for such a pride, as they have, whose pride is the motive to their
prayers and charity. This must be granted; unless we will say, that it is more
pardonable to glory in our shame, than to glory in our virtue. All these
instances are only to show us the great necessity of such a regular and uniform
piety, as extends itself to all the actions of our common life. That we must
eat and drink, and dress and discourse, according to the sobriety of the
Christian spirit, engage in no employments but such as we can truly devote unto
God, nor pursue them any farther than so far as conduces to the reasonable ends
of a holy, devout life. - That we must be honest, not only on particular
occasions, and in such instances as are applauded in the world, easy to be
performed, and free from danger, or loss, but from such a living principle of
justice, as makes us love truth and integrity in all its instances, follow it
through all dangers, and against all opposition; as knowing that the more we
pay for any truth, the better is our bargain, and that then our integrity
becomes a pearl, when we have parted with all to keep it.-That we must be
humble, not only in such instances as are expected in the world, or suitable to
our tempers, or confined to particular occasions; but in such a humility of
spirit, as renders us meek and lowly in the whole course of our lives, as shows
itself in our dress, our person, our conversation, our enjoyment of the world,
the tranquillity of our minds, patience under injuries, submission to
superiors, and condescensions to those that are below us, and in all the
outward actions of our lives.-That we must devote, not only times and places to
prayer, but be everywhere in the spirit of devotion; with hearts always set
towards Heaven, looking up to God in all our actions, and doing every. thing as
His servants; living in the world as in a holy temple of God, and always
worshipping Him, though not with our lips, yet with the thankfulness of our
hearts, the holiness of our actions, and the pious and charitable use of all
His gifts.-That we must not only send up petitions and thoughts to Heaven, but
must go through all our worldly business with a heavenly spirit, as members of
Christ's mystical body; that, with new hearts and new minds, we may turn an
earthly life into a preparation for a life of greatness and glory in the
kingdom of Heaven. Now the only way to arrive at this piety of spirit, is to
bring all your actions to the same rule as your devotions and alms. You very
well know what it is, that makes the piety of your alms or devotions; now the
same rules, the same regard to God, must render everything else that you do, a
fit and acceptable service unto God. Enough, I hope, has been said, to show you
the necessity of thus introducing religion into all the actions of your common
life, and of living and acting with the same regard to God, in all that you do,
as in your prayers and alms. Eating is one of the lowest actions of our lives;
it is common to us with mere animals; yet we see that the piety of all ages of
the world has turned this ordinary action of an animal life into a piety to
God, by making every meal to begin and end with devotion. We see yet some remains
of this custom in most Christian families, some such little formality as shows
you, that people used to call upon God at the beginning and end of their meals.
But, indeed, it is now generally performed, as to look more like a mockery upon
devotion, than any solemn application of the mind unto God. In one house you
may perhaps see the head of the family just pulling off his hat; in another,
half getting up from his seat; another shall, it may be, proceed so far as to
make as if he said something; but, however, these little attempts are the
remains of some devotion that was formerly used at such times, and are proofs
that religion has formerly belonged to this part of common life. But to such a
pass are we now come, that though the custom is yet preserved, yet we can
hardly bear with him that seems to perform it, with any degree of seriousness,
and look upon it as a sign of a fanatical temper, if a man has not done as soon
as he begins. I would not be thought to plead for the necessity of long prayers
at these times; but thus much I think may be said, that if prayer is proper at
these times, we ought to oblige ourselves to use such a form of words, as
should show that we solemnly appeal to God for such graces and blessings as are
then proper to the occasion. Otherwise the mock ceremony, instead of blessing
our victuals, does but accustom us to trifle with devotion, and give us a habit
of being unaffected with our prayers. If every head of a family was, at the
return of every meal, to oblige himself to make a solemn adoration of God, in
such a decent manner as becomes a devout mind, it would be very likely to teach
him that swearing, sensuality, gluttony, and loose discourse, were very
improper at those meals, which were to begin and end with devotion. And if in
these days of general corruption, this part of devotion is fallen into a mock
ceremony, it must be imputed to this cause, that sensuality and intemperance
have got too great a power over us, to suffer us to add any devotion to our
meals. But thus much must be said, that when we are as pious as Jews and
Heathens of all ages have been, we shall think it proper to pray at the
beginning and end of our meals. I have appealed to this pious custom of all
ages of the world, as a proof of the reasonableness of the doctrine of this and
the foregoing chapters; that is, as a proof that religion is to be the rule and
measure of all the actions of ordinary life. For surely, if we are not to eat,
but under such rules of devotion, it must plainly appear, that whatever else we
do, must, in its proper way, be done with the same regard to the glory of God,
and agreeably to the principles of a devout and pious mind.
CHAPTER 5
Persons that are free from the necessity of labour and employments, are
to consider themselves as devoted to God in a higher degree.
A GREAT part of the world are free from the necessities of labour and employments, and have their time and fortunes in their own disposal. But as no one is to live in his employment according to his own humour, or for such ends as please his own fancy, but is to do all his business in such a manner as to make it a service unto God; so those who have no particular employment are so far from being left at greater liberty to live to themselves, to pursue their own humours, and spend their time and fortunes as they please, that they are under greater obligations of living wholly unto God in all their actions. The freedom of their state lays them under a greater necessity of always choosing, and doing, the best things. They are those, of whom much will be required, because much is given unto them. A slave can only live unto God in one particular way, that is, by religious patience and submission in his state of slavery. But all ways of holy living, all instances, and all kinds of virtue, lie open to those who are masters of themselves, their time, and their fortune. It is as much the duty, therefore, of such persons. to make a wise use of their liberty, to devote themselves to all kinds of virtue, to aspire after every thing that is holy and pious, to endeavour to be eminent in all good works, and to please God in the highest and most perfect manner; it is as much their duty to be thus wise in the conduct of themselves, and thus extensive in their endeavours after holiness, as it is the duty of a slave to be resigned unto God in his state of slavery. You are no labourer, or tradesman, you are neither merchant nor soldier; consider yourself, therefore, as placed in a state in some degree like that of good Angels who are sent into the world as ministering spirits, for the general good of mankind, to assist, protect, and minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. For the more you are free from the common necessities of men, the more you are to imitate the higher perfections of Angels. Had you, Serena, been obliged, by the necessities of life, to wash clothes for your maintenance, or to wait upon some mistress that demanded all your labour, it would then be your duty to serve and glorify God, by such humility, obedience, and faithfulness, as might adorn that state of life. It would then be recommended to your care, to improve that one talent to its greatest height. That when the time came, that mankind were to be rewarded for their labours by the great Judge of quick and dead, you might be received with a "Well done, good and faithful servant: enter you into the joy of thy Lord." [Matt. xxv. 21] But as God has given you five talents, as He has placed you above the necessities of life, as He has left you in the hands of yourself, in the happy liberty of choosing the most exalted ways of virtue; as He has enriched you with many gifts of fortune, and left you nothing to do, but to make the best use of a variety of blessings, to make the most of a short life, to study your own perfection, the honour of God, and the good of your neighbour; so it is now your duty to imitate the greatest servants of God, to inquire how the most eminent saints have lived, to study all the arts and methods of perfection, and to set no bounds to your love and gratitude to the bountiful Author of so many blessings. It is now your duty to turn your five talents into five more, and to consider how your time, and leisure, and health, and fortune, may be made so many happy means of purifying your own soul, improving your fellow-creatures in the ways of virtue, and of carrying you at last to the greatest heights of eternal glory. As you have no mistress to serve, so let your own soul be the object of your daily care and attendance. Be sorry for its impurities, its spots, and imperfections, and study all the holy arts of restoring it to its natural and primitive purity. Delight in its service, and beg of God to adorn it with every grace and perfection. Nourish it with good works, give it peace in solitude, get it strength in prayer, make it wise with reading, enlighten it by meditation, make it tender with love, sweeten it with humility, humble it with penance, enliven it with psalms and hymns, and comfort it with frequent reflections upon future glory. Keep it in the presence of God, and teach it to imitate those guardian Angels, which, though they attend on human affairs, and the lowest of mankind, yet "always behold the face of our Father which is in heaven." [Matt. xviii. 10] This, Serena, is your profession. For as sure as God is one God, so sure it is, that He has but one command to all mankind, whether they be bond or free, rich or poor; and that is, to act up to the excellency of that nature which He has given them, to live by reason, to walk in the light of religion, to use every thing as wisdom directs, to glorify God in all His gifts, and dedicate every condition of life to His service. This is the one common command of God to all mankind. If you have an employment, you are to be thus reasonable, and pious, and holy, in the exercise of it; if you have time and a fortune in your own power, you are obliged to be thus reasonable, and holy, and pious, in the use of all your time, and all your fortune. The right religious use of every thing and every talent, is the indispensable duty of every being that is capable of knowing right and wrong. For the reason why we are to do any thing as unto God, and with regard to our duty, and relation to Him, is the same reason why we are to do every thing as unto God, and with regard to our duty, and relation to Him. That which is a reason for our being wise and holy in the discharge of all our business, is the same reason for our being wise and holy in the use of all our money. As we have always the same natures, and are everywhere the servants of the same God, as every place is equally full of His presence, and every thing is equally His gift, so we must always act according to the reason of our nature; we must do every thing as the servants of God; we must live in every place, as in His presence; we must use every thing, as that ought to be used which belongs to God. Either this piety, and wisdom, and devotion is to go through every way of life, and to extend to the use of everything, or it is to go through no part of life. If we might forget ourselves, or forget God, if we might disregard our reason, and live by humour and fancy, in any thing, or at any time, or in any place, it would be as lawful to do the same in every thing, at fancy, at every time, and every place. If therefore some people fancy that they must be grave and solemn at Church, but may be silly and frantic at home; that they must live by some rule on the Sunday, but may spend other days by chance; that they must have some times of prayer, but may waste the rest of their time as they please; that they must give some money in charity, but may squander away the rest as they have a mind; such people have not enough considered the nature of religion, or the true reasons of piety. For he that upon principles of reason can tell why it is good to be wise and heavenly-minded at Church, can tell that it is always desirable to have the same tempers in all other places. He that truly knows why he should spend any time well, knows that it is never allowable to throw any time away. He that rightly understands the reasonableness and excellency of charity, will know that it can never be excusable to waste any of our money in pride and folly, or in any needless expenses. For every argument that shows the wisdom and excellency of charity, proves the wisdom of spending all our fortune well. Every argument that proves the wisdom and reasonableness of having times of prayer, shows the wisdom and reasonableness of losing none of our time. If any one could show that we need not always act as in the Divine presence, that we need not consider and use everything as the gift of God, that we need not always live by reason, and make religion the rule of all our actions; the same arguments would show that we need never act as in the presence of God, nor make religion and reason the measure of any of our actions. If, therefore, we are to live unto God at any time, or in any place, we are to live unto Him at all times, and in all places. If we are to use any thing as the gift of God, we are to use every thing as His gift. If we are to do any thing by strict rules of reason and piety, we are to do every thing in the same manner. Because reason, and wisdom, and piety, are as much the best things at all times, and in all places, as they are the best things at any time or in any place. If it is our glory and happiness to have a rational nature, that is endued with wisdom and reason, that is capable of imitating the Divine nature, then it must be our glory and happiness to improve our reason and wisdom, to act up to the excellency of our rational nature, and to imitate God in all our actions, to the utmost of our power. They therefore who confine religion to times and places, and some little rules of retirement, who think that it is being too strict and rigid to introduce religion into common life, and make it give laws to all their actions and ways of living, they who think thus, not only mistake, but they mistake the whole nature of religion. For surely they mistake the whole nature of religion, who can think any part of their life is made more easy, for being free from it. They may well be said to mistake the whole nature of wisdom, who do not think it desirable to be always wise. He has not learnt the nature of piety, who thinks it too much to be pious in all his actions. He does not sufficiently understand what reason is, who does not earnestly desire to live in every thing according to it. If we had a religion that consisted in absurd superstitions, that had no regard to the perfection of our nature, people might well be glad to have some part of their life excused from it. But as the religion of the Gospel is only the refinement and exaltation of our best faculties, as it only requires a life of the highest reason, as it only requires us to use this world as in reason it ought to be used, to live in such tempers as are the glory of intelligent beings, to walk in such wisdom as exalts our nature, and to practise such piety as will raise us to God; who can think it grievous to live always in the spirit of such