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THE

RULE AND EXERCISES

OF

HOLY LIVING.

CHAP. I.

CONSIDERATIONS OF THE GENERAL INSTRUMENTS AND MEANS SERVING TO A HOLY LIFE,

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION.

It is necessary that every man should consider, that, since God hath given him an excellent nature, wisdom, and choice, an understanding soul, and an immortal spirit, having made him Lord over the beasts, and but a little lower than the angels; he hath also appointed for him a work and a service great enough to employ those abilities, and hath also designed him to a state of life after this, to which he can only arrive by that service and obedience. And therefore as every man is wholly God's own portion by the title of Creation, so all our labours and care, all our powers and faculties, must be wholly employed in the service of God, even all the days of our life, that this life being ended, we may live with him for ever.

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Neither is it sufficient that we think of the service of God as a work of the least necessity, or of small employment, but that it be done by us as God intended it; that it be done with great earnestness and passion, with much zeal and desire; that we refuse no labour, that we bestow upon it much time, that we use the best guides, and arrive at the end of glory by all the ways of grace, of prudence, and religion.

And, indeed, if we consider how much of our lives is taken up by the needs of nature, how many years are wholly spent before we come to any use of reason, how many years more before that reason is useful to us to any great purposes, how imperfect our discourse is made by our evil education, false principles, ill company, bad examples, and want of experience, how many parts of our wisest and best years are spent in eating and sleeping, in necessary businesses and unnecessary vanities, in worldly civilities and less useful circumstances, in the learning arts and sciences, languages or trades; that little portion of hours that is left for the practices of piety and religious walking with God is so short and trifling, that, were not the goodness of God infinitely great, it might seem unreasonable or impossible for us to expect of him eternal joys in Heaven, even after the well spending those few minutes, which are left for God and God's service, after we have served ourselves and our own occasions.cai

And yet it is considerable, that the fruit which comes from the many days of recreation and vanity

is very little, and although we scatter much, yet we gather up but little profit: but from the few hours we spend in prayer and the exercises of a pious life, the return is great and profitable; and what we sow in the minutes and spare portions of a few years, grows up to crowns and sceptres in a happy and glorious eternity.

1. Therefore although it cannot be enjoined, that the greatest part of our time be spent in the direct actions of devotion and religion, yet it will become, not only a duty, but also a great providence, to lay aside for the services of God and the businesses of the Spirit as much as we can: because God rewards our minutes with long and eternal happiness; and, the greater portion of our time we give to God, the more we treasure up for ourselves; and no man is a better merchant than he that lays out his time upon God, and his money upon the poor.

2. Only it becometh us to remember and to adore God's goodness for it, that God hath not only permitted us to serve the necessities of our nature, but hath made them to become parts of our duty; that if we by directing these actions to the glory of God intend them as instruments to continue our persons in his service, he by adopting them into religion may turn our nature into grace, and accept our natural actions as actions of religion. God is pleased to esteem it for a part of his service, if we eat or drink; so it be done temperately, and as may best preserve our health, that our health may enable our services towards him: and there is no one minute of our lives,

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