Chapter 1 - Holy Living

8/6/2019 Chapter 1 - Holy Living

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rules and exercises of

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1650a work ofJeremy Taylor


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| Chapter 1

Section 1: Care of our Time

He that is choice o his time will also be choice o his company, and choice o

his actions; lest the rst engage him in vanity and loss; and the latter, by beingcriminal, be a throwing his time and himsel away, and a going back in the

accounts o eternity.

God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this

short time eternity depends: but so, that or every hour o our lie (ater we are

persons capable o laws, and know good rom evil) we must give account to the

great Judge o men and angels. And this is it which our blessed Saviour told us,

that we must account or every idle word; not meaning that every word which

is not designed to edication, or is less prudent, shall be reckoned or a sin; but

that the time which we spend in our idle talking and unprotable discoursings;

that time which might and ought to have been employed to spiritual and useul

purposes -- that is to be accounted or.

For we must remember that we have a great work to do, many enemies to

conquer, many evils to prevent, much danger to run through, many diculties to


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be mastered, many necessities to serve, and much good to do; many children

to provide or, or many riends to support, or many poor to relieve, or many

diseases to cure; besides the needs o nature and o relation, our private and

our public cares, and duties o the world, which necessity and the providence

o God have adopted into the amily o religion.

And that we need not ear this instrument to be a snare to us, or that

the duty must end in scruple, vexation, and eternal ears, we must remember,

that the lie o every man may be so ordered (and indeed must) that it may

be a perpetual serving o God: the greatest trouble and most busy trade and

worldly encumbrances, when they are necessary, or charitable, or protable

in order to any o those ends which we are bound to serve, whether public

or private, being a doing o Gods work. For God provides the good things

o the world to serve the needs o nature, by the labours o the ploughman

the skill and pains o the artisan, and the dangers and trac o the merchant:

these men are, in their callings, the ministers o the Divine Providence, and

the stewards o the creation, and servants o a great amily o God, the world,in the employment o procuring necessities or ood and clothing, ornament,

and physic. In their proportions also, a king and a priest and a prophet, a judge

and an advocate, doing the works o their employment according to their

proper rules, are doing the work o God; because they serve those necessities

which God hath made, and yet made no provisions or them, but by their

ministry. So that no man can complain that his calling takes him o rom

religion; his calling itsel, and his very worldly employment in honest trades

and oces, is a serving o God; and, i it be moderately pursued and according

to the rules o Christian prudence, will leave void spaces enough or prayers

and retirements o a more spiritual religion.

God has given every man work enough to do, that there shall be no

room or idleness; and yet hath so ordered the world, that there shall be space

or devotion. He that hath the ewest businesses o the world is called upon


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to spend more time in the dressing o the soil; and he that hath the most

aairs may so order them that they shall be a service o God; whilst at certain

periods, they are blessed with prayers and actions o religion, and all day long

are hallowed by a holy intention.

However, so long as idleness is quite shut out rom our lives, all the

sins o wantonness, sotness, and eeminacy, are prevented and there is but

little room let or temptation; and, thereore, to a busy man temptation is

ain to climb up together with his business, and sins creep upon him only by

accidents and occasions; whereas, to an idle person they come in a ull body,

and with open violence and the impudence o a restless importunity.

Idleness is called the sin o Sodom and her daughters, and indeed is the

burial o a living man; an idle person being so useless to any purpose o God

and man, that he is like one that is dead, unconcerned in the changes and

necessities o the world; and he only lives to spend his time, and to eat the

ruits o the earth; like a vermin or a wol, when their time comes they die

and perish, and in the meantime do no good; they neither plough nor carryburdens; all that they do is either unprotable or mischievous.

Idleness is the greatest prodigality in the world; it throws away that

which is invaluable in respect o its present use, and irreparable when it is

past, being to be recovered by no power o art or nature. But the way to secure

and improve our time we may practise in the ollowing rules.

rules for employing our Time

In the morning, when you awake, accustom yoursel to think rst upon1.

God, or something in order to his service; and at night, also let him close

thine eyes: and let your sleep be necessary and healthul, not idle and

expensive o time beyond the needs and conveniences o nature; and

sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes, when

he is coming orth rom his chambers o the east.


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Let every man that hath a calling be diligent in pursuance o its2.

employment, so as not lightly or without reasonable occasion to neglect

it in any o those times which are usually, and by the custom o prudent

persons and good husbands, employed in it.

Let all the intervals or void spaces o time be employed in prayers,3.

reading, meditating, works o nature, recreation, charity, riendliness

and neighbourhood, and means o spiritual and corporal health; ever

remembering so to work in our calling, as not to neglect the work o our

high calling; but to begin and end the day with God, with such orms o

devotion as shall be proper to our necessities.

Te resting days o Christians, and estivals o the church, must in no4.

sense be days o idleness; or it is better to plough upon holy days than to

do nothing, or to do viciously: but let them be spent in the works o the

day, that is, o religion and charity, according to the rules appointed.

Avoid the company o drunkards and busybodies, and all such as are5.

apt to talk much to little purpose; or no man can be provident o his

time that is not prudent in the choice o his company; and i one o the

speakers be vain, tedious, and trifing, he that hears, and he that answers

in the discourse, are equal losers o their time.

Never talk with any man, or undertake any trifing employment, merely6.

to pass the time away; or every day well spent may become a day o

salvation, and time rightly employed is an acceptable time. And

remember, that the time thou trifest away was given thee to repent in, to

pray or pardon o sins, to work out thy salvation, to do the work o grace,

to lay up against the day o judgment a treasure o good works, that thy

time may be crowned with eternity.

In the midst o the works o thy calling, oten retire to God in short7.

prayers and ejaculations; and those may make up the want o those larger


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portions o time, which, it may be, thou desirest or devotion, and in

which thou thinkest other persons have advantage o thee; or so thou

reconcilest the outward work and thy inward calling, the church and the

commonwealth, the employment o the body and the interest o thy soul:

or be sure, that God is present at thy breathings and hearty sighings o

prayer, as soon as at the longer oces o less busied persons; and thy time

is as truly sanctied by a trade, and devout though short prayers, as by the

longer oces o those whose time is not lled up with labour and useul

business.

Let your employment be such as may become a reasonable person; and8.

not be a business t or children or distracted people, but t or your age

and understanding. For a man may be very idly busy, and take great pains

to so little purpose, that, in his labours and expense o time, he shall serve

no end but o olly and vanity. Tere are some trades that wholly serve the

ends o idle persons and ools, and such as are t to be seized upon by

the severity o laws and banished rom under the sun; and there are somepeople who are busy; but it is, as Domitian was, in catching fies.

Let your employment betted to your person and calling. Some there are9.

that employ their time in aairs innitely below the dignity o their person;

and being called by God or by the republic to help to bear great burdens,

and to judge a people, do eneeble their understanding and disable their

persons by sordid and brutish business. Tus Nero went up and down

Greece, and challenged the ddlers at their trade. Eropus, a Macedonian

king, made lanterns. Harcatius, the king o Parthia, was a mole-catcher;

and Biantes, the Lydian, led needles. He that is appointed to minister

to holy things must not suer secular aairs and sordid arts to eat up

great portions o his employment: a clergyman must not keep a tavern,

nor a judge be an innkeeper; and it was a great idleness in Teophylact,

the patriarch o C.P. to spend his time in the stable o horses, when he


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should have been in his study, or in the pulpit, or saying his holy oces.

Such employments are the diseases o labour, and the rust o time which

it contracts, not by lying still, but by dirty employment.

Let your employment be such as becomes a Christian; that is, in no10.

sense mingled with sin: or he that takes pains to serve the ends o

covetousness, or ministers to anothers lust, or keeps a shop o impurities

or intemperance, is idle in the worst sense; or every hour so spent runs

him backward, and must be spent again in the remaining and shorter part

o his lie, and spent better.

Persons o great quality, and o no trade, are to be most prudent and11.

curious in their employment and trac o time. Tey are miserable i

their education hath been so loose and undisciplines as to leave them

unurnished o skill to spend their time: but most miserable are they, i

such misgovernment and unskilulness make them all into vicious and

baser company, and drive on their time by the sad minutes and periods

o sin and death. Tey that are learned know the worth o time, and themanner how well to improve a day; and they are to prepare themselves or

such purposes, in which they may be most useul in order to arts or arms,

to counsel in public, or government in their country; but or others o

them, that are unlearned, let them choose good company, such as may not

tempt them to a vice, or join with them in any; but that may supply their

deects by counsel and discourse, by way o conduct and conversation.

Let them learn easy and youthul things, read history and the laws o the

land, learn the customs o their country, the condition o their own estate,

protable and charitable contrivances o it; let them study prudently to

govern their amilies, learn the burdens o their tenants, the necessities o

their neighbours, and in their proportion supply them, and reconcile their

enmities, and prevent their lawsuits, or quickly end them; and in this glut

o leisure and disemployment, let them set apart greater portions o their


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time or religion and the necessities o their souls.

Let the women o noble birth and great ortunes do the same things in12.

their proportions and capacities; nurse their children, look to the aairso the house, visit poor cottages, and relieve their necessities; be courteous

to the neighborhood, learn in silence o their husbands or their spiritual

guides, read good books, pray oten and speak little, and learn to do

good works or necessary uses; or by that phrase St. Paul expresses

the obligation o Christian women to good housewiery, and charitable

provisions or their amily and neighbourhood.

Let all persons o all conditions avoid all delicacy and niceness in13.

their clothing or diet, because such sotness engages them upon great

mispendings o their time, while they dress and comb out all their

opportunities o their morning devotion, and hal the days severity, and

sleep out the care and provision o their souls.

Let every one o every condition avoid curiosity, and all inquiry into things14.

that concern them not. For all business in things that concern us not, is

an employing our time to no good o ours, and thereore not in order

to a happy eternity. In this account our neighbours necessities are not

to be reckoned: or they concern us, as one member is concerned in the

grie o another: but going rom house to house, tattlers and busybodies,

which are the canker and rust o idleness, as idleness is the rust o time,

are reproved by the apostle in severe language, and orbidden in order tothis exercise.

As much as may be, cut o all impertinent and useless employments15.

o your lie unnecessary and antastic visits, long waitings upon great

personages, where neither duty, nor necessity, not charity, obliges us; all

vain meetings, all laborious trifes, and whatsoever spends much time to

no real, civil, religious, or charitable purpose.


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Let not your recreations be lavish spenders o your time; but choose such16.

which are healthul, short, transient, recreative, and apt to reresh you; but

at no hand dwell upon them, or make them your great employment: or

he that spends his time in sports, and calls it recreation, is like him whose

garment is all made o ringes, and his meat nothing but sauces; they

are healthless, chargeable, and useless. And thereore avoid such games,

which require much time or long attendance; or which are apt to steal

thy aections rom more severe employments. For to whatsoever thou

hast given thy aections, thou wilt not grudge to give thy time. Natural

necessity and the example o St. John, who recreated himsel with sportingwith a tame partridge, teach us, that it is lawul to relax and unbend our

bow, but not to suer it to be unready or unstrung.

Set apart some portions o every day or more solemn devotion and17.

religious employment, which be severe in observing: and i variety o

employment, or prudent aairs, or civil society, press upon you, yet so

order thy rule, that the necessary parts o it be not omitted; and thoughjust occasions may make our prayers shorter, yet let nothing but a violent,

sudden, and impatient necessity, make thee, upon any one day, wholly to

omit thy morning and evening devotions; which i you be orced to make

very short, you may supply and lengthen with ejaculations and short

retirements in the day-time, in the midst o your employment or o your

company.

Do not the work o God negligently and idly: let not thy heart be upon18.

the world when thy hand is lit up in prayer; and be sure to preer an

action o religion, in its place and proper season, beore all worldly

pleasure, letting secular things, that may be dispensed with in themselves,

in these circumstances wait upon the other; not like the patriarch, who

ran rom the alter in St. Sophia to his stable, in all his ponticals, and

in the midst o his oce, to see a colt newly allen rom his beloved


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and much-valued mare Phorbante. More prudent and severe was that

o Sir Tomas More, who, being sent or by the king when he was at his

prayers in public, returned answer, he would attend him when he had

rst perormed his service to the King o kings. And it did honour to

Rusticus, that, when letters rom Caesar were given to him, he reused

to open them till the philosopher had done his lecture. In honouring

God and doing his work, put orth all thy strength; or o that time only

thou mayest be most condent that it is gained, which is prudently and

zealously spent in Gods service.

When the clock strikes, or however else you shall measure the day, it19.

is good to say a short ejaculation every hour, that the parts and returns

o devotion may be the measure o your time; and do so also in all the

breaches o thy sleep; that those spaces, which have in them no direct

business o the world, may be lled with religion.

I, by thus doing, you have not secured your time by an early and ore-20.

handed care, yet be sure by a timely diligence to redeem the time; thatis, to be pious and religious in such instances in which ormerly you

have sinned, and to bestow your time especially upon such graces, the

contrary whereo you have ormerly practised, doing actions o chastity

and temperance with as great a zeal and earnestness as you did once act

your uncleanness; and then, by all arts, to watch against your present and

uture dangers, rom day to day securing your standing: this is properly

to redeem your time, that is, to buy your security o it at the rate o any

labour and honest acts.

Let him that is most busied set apart some solemn time every year, in21.

which, or the time, quitting all worldly business, he may attend wholly to

asting and prayer, and the dressing o his soul by conessions, meditations,

and attendances upon God; that he may make up his accounts, renew his

vows, make amends or his carelessness, and retire back again, rom whence


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levity and the vanities o the world, or the opportunity o temptations, or

the distraction o secular aairs, have carried him.

In this we shall be much assisted, and we shall nd the work more easy,22.i, beore we sleep, every night we examine the actions o the past day

with a particular scrutiny, i there have been any accident extraordinary;

as long discourse, a east, much business, a variety o company. I nothing

but common hath happened, the less examination will suce; only let us

take care that we sleep not without such a recollection o the actions o

the day, as may represent any thing that is remarkable and great, either to

be the matter o sorrow or thanksgiving: or other things a general care

is proportionable.

Let all these things be done prudently and moderately, not with scruple23.

and vexation. For these are good advantages, but the particulars are not

Divine commandments; and thereore are to be used as shall be ound

expedient to every ones condition. For provided that our duty be secured,

or the degrees and or the instruments every man is permitted to himseland the conduct o such who shall be appointed to him. He is happy

that can secure every hour to a sober or a pious employment: but the

duty consists not scrupulously in minutes and hal hours, but in greater

portions o time; provided that no minute be employed in sin, and the

great portions o our time be spent in sober employment, and all the

appointed days, and some portions o every day, be allowed or religion.

In all the lesser parts o time, we are let to our own elections and prudent

management, and to the consideration o the great degrees and dierences

o glory that are laid up in heaven or us, according to the degrees o our

care, and piety, and diligence.

The BenefiTs of This exerCise

Tis exercise, besides that it hath infuence upon our whole lives, it hath


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a special ecacy or the preventing o, 1. beggarly sins, that is, those sins

which idleness and beggary usually betray men to; such as are lying, fattery,

stealing, and dissimulation. 2. It is a proper antidote against carnal sins, and

such as proceed rom ulness o bread and emptiness o employment. 3. It is a

great instrument o preventing the smallest sins and irregularities o our lie,

which usually creep upon idle, disemployed, and curious persons. 4. It not

only teaches us to avoid evil, but engages us upon doing good, as the proper

business o all our days. 5. It prepares us so against sudden changes that we

shall not easily be surprised at the sudden coming o the day o the Lord: or

he that is curious o his time will not easily be unready and unurnished.

Section 2: puriTy of inTenTion

Tat we should intend and design Gods glory in every action we do, whether

it be natural or chosen, is expressed by St. Paul, Whether ye eat or drink, do

all to the glory o God. Which rule, when we observe, every action o nature

becomes religious, and every meal is an act o worship, and shall have itsreward in its proportion, as well as an act o prayer. Blessed be that grace and

goodness o God, which, out o innite desire to gloriy and save mankind,

would make the very works o nature capable o becoming acts o virtue, that

all our lie-time we may do him service.

Tis grace is so excellent that it sancties the most common action o our

lie; and yet so necessary that, without it, the very best actions o our devotion

are imperect and vicious. For he that prays out o custom, or gives alms or

praise, or asts to be accounted religious, is but a pharisee hypocrite in his ast.

But a holy end sancties all these and all other actions, which can be made

holy, and gives distinction to them, and procures acceptance.

For, as to know the end distinguishes a man rom a beast, so to choose

a good end distinguishes him rom an evil man. Hezekiah repeated his good

deeds upon his sick-bed, and obtained avour o God, but the pharisee was


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accounted insolent or doing the same thing: because this man did it to

upbraid his brother, the other to obtain a mercy o God. Zacharias questioned

with the angel about his message, and was made speechless or his incredulity;

but the blessed Virgin Mary questioned too, and was blameless; or she did it

to inquire ater the manner o the thing, but he did not believe the thing itsel;

he doubted o Gods power, or the truth o the messenger; but she only o her

own incapacity. Tis was it which distinguished the mourning o David rom

the exclamation o Saul; the conession o Pharaoh rom that o Manasses;

the tears o Peter rom the repentance o Judas: or the praise is not in the

deed done, but in the manner o its doing. I a man visits his sick riend, andwatches at his pillow or charitys sake, and because o his old aection, we

approve it; but i he does it in hope o legacy, he is a vulture, and only watches

or the carcass. Te same things are honest and dishonest: the manner o

doing them, and the end o the design, makes the separation.

Holy intention is to the actions o a man that which the soul is to the

body, or orm to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, orthe ountain to a river, or the base to a pillar: or, without these, the body is a

dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree is a block, the world is darkness,

the river is quickly dry, the pillar rushes into fatness and a ruin; and the action

is sinul, or unprotable and vain. Te poor armer that gave a dish o cold

water to Artaxerxes was rewarded with a golden goblet; and he that gives the

same to a disciple in the name o a disciple, shall have a crown; but i he gives

water in dispute, when the disciple needs wine or a cordial, his reward shall be

to want that water to cool his tongue.

rules for our inTenTions

In every action refect upon the end; and in your undertaking it, consider1.

why you do it, and why you propound to yoursel or a reward, and to your

actions as its end.


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2. Begin every action in the name o the Father, o the Son, and o the2.

Holy Ghost; the meaning o which is, 1, that we be careul that we do

not the action without the permission or warrant o God; 2, that we

design it to the glory o God, i not in the direct action, yet at least in

its consequence; i not in the particular, yet at least in the whole order o

things and accidents; 3, that it may be so blessed that what you intend

or innocent and holy purposes, may not, by any chance, or abuse, or

misunderstanding o men, be turned into evil, or made the occasion o

sin.

3. Let every action o concernment be begun with prayer, that God would3.

not only bless the action, but sanctiy your purpose; and made an oblation

o the action to God: holy and well intended actions being the best

oblations and presents we can make to God; and, when God is entitled to

them, he will the rather keep the re upon the altar bright and shining.

4. In the prosecution o the action, renew and re-enkindle your purpose4.

by short ejaculations to these purposes: Not unto us, O Lord, not untous, but unto thy name, let all praise be given; and consider: Now I am

working the work o God; I am his servant, I am in a happy employment,

I am doing my masters business, I am not at my own dispose, I am using

his talents, and all the gain must be his: or then be sure, as the glory is

his, so the reward shall be thine. I thou bringest his goods home with

increase, he will make thee ruler over cities.

5. Have a care, that, while the altar thus sends up a holy rame, thou dost5.

not suer the birds to come and carry away the sacrice: that is, let not

that which began well, and was intended or Gods glory, decline and

end in thy own praise, or temporal satisaction, or a sin. A story, told to

represent the vileness o unchastity, is well begun; but i thy emale auditor

be pleased with thy language, and begins rather to like thy person or thy

story than to dislike the crime, be watchul, lest this goodly head o gold


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descend in silver and brass, and end in iron and clay, like Nebuchadnezzars

image; or rom the end it shall have its name and reward.

I any accidental event, which was not rst intended by thee, can come6.to pass, let it not be taken into thy purposes, not at all be made use o;

as i, by telling a true story, you can do an ill turn to your enemy, by no

means do it; but, when the temptation is ound out, turn all thy enmity

upon that.

In every more solemn action o religion join together many good ends,7.

that the consideration o them may entertain all your aections; and that,

when any one ceases, the purity o your intention may be supported by

another supply. He that asts only to tame a rebellious body, when he

is provided o a remedy either in grace or nature, may be tempted to

leave o his asting. But be that in his ast intends the mortication o

every unruly appetite, and accustoming himsel to bear the yoke o the

Lord, a contempt o the pleasures o meat and drink, humiliation o all

wilder thoughts, obedience and humility, austerity and charity, and theconvenience and assistance to devotion, and to do an act o repentance;

whatever happens, will have reason enough to make him to continue his

purpose, and to sanctiy it. And certain it is, the more good ends are

designed in an action the more degrees o excellency the man obtains.

I any temptation to spoil your purpose happens in a religious duty, do not8.

presently omit the action, but rather strive to rectiy your intention, andto mortiy the temptation. St. Bernard taught us this rule: or when the

devil, observing him to preach excellently and to do much benet to his

hearers, tempted him to vain-glory, hoping that the good man, to avoid

that, would cease preaching, he gave this answer only, I neither began or

thee, neither or thee will I make an end.

In all actions which are o long continuance, deliberation, and abode, let9.your holy and pious intention be actual; that is, that it be, by a special


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prayer or action, by a peculiar act o resignation or oblation, given to

God; but in smaller actions a pious habitual intention; that is, that it be

included within your general care that no action have an ill end; and that

it be comprehended in your general prayers, whereby you oer yoursel

and all you do to Gods glory.

Call not every temporal end a deling o thy intention, but only, 1, when10.

it contradicts any o the ends o God; or 2, when it is principally intended

in an action o religion. For sometimes a temporal end is part o our duty;

and such are all the actions o our calling, whether our employment be

religious or civil. We are commanded to provide or our amily; but i the

minister o divine oces shall take upon him that holy calling or covetous

or ambitious ends, or shall not design the glory o God principally and

especially, he hath polluted his hands and his heart; and the re o the

altar is quenched, or it sends orth nothing but the smoke o mushrooms

or unpleasant gums. And it is a great unworthiness to preer the interest

o a creature beore the ends o God, the Almighty Creator.But because many cases may happen in which a mans heart may deceive

him, and he may not well know what is in his own spirit; thereore, by these

ollowing signs, we shall best make a judgment whether our intentions be

pure and our purposes holy.

signs of our puriTy of inTenTions.

It is probable our hearts are right with God, and our intentions innocent1.

and pious, i we set upon actions o religion or civil lie with an aection

proportionate to the quality o the work; that we act our temporal aairs

with a desire no greater than our necessity; and that in actions o religion

we be zealous, active, and operative, so ar as prudence will permit; but, in

all cases, that we value a religious design beore a temporal, when otherwise

they are in equal order to their several ends: that is, that whatsoever is


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necessary in order to our souls health be higher esteemed than what is or

bodily; and the necessities, the indispensable necessities o the spirit, be

served beore the needs o nature, when they are required in their several

circumstances; or plainer yet, when we choose any temporal inconvenience,

rather than to commit a sin, and when we choose to do a duty, rather than

to get gain. But he that does his recreation or his merchandise cheerully,

promptly, readily, and busily, and the works o religion slowly, fatly, and

without appetite; and the spirit moves like Pharaohs chariots when the

wheels were o; it is a sign that his heart is not right with God, but it

cleaves too much to the world.

It is likely our hearts are pure and our intentions spotless, when we are2.

not solicitous o the opinion and censures o men: but only that we do our

duty, and be accepted o God. For our eyes will certainly be xed there

rom whence we expect our reward: and i we desire that God should

approve us, it is a sign we do his work, and expect him our paymaster.

He that does as well in private, between God and his own soul, as in3.public, in pulpits, in theaters, and market-places, hath given himsel

a good testimony that his purposes are ull o honesty, nobleness, and

integrity. For what Helkanah said to the mother o Samuel, Am I not

better to thee than ten sons? is most certainly veried concerning God;

that he, who is to be our judge, is better than ten thousand witnesses. But

he that would have his virtue published, studies not virtue, but glory. He

is not just that will not be just without praise: but he is a righteous man

that does justice, when to do so is made inamous; and he is a wise man

who is delighted with an ill name that is well gotten. And indeed that

man hath a strange covetousness, or olly, that is not contented with this

reward, that he hath pleased God. And see what he gets by it. He that

does good works or praise or secular ends, sells an inestimable jewel or

a trife; and that which would purchase heaven or him, he parts with


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or the breath o the people; which, at best, is but air, and that not oten

wholesome.

It is well, also, when we are not solicitous or troubled concerning the eect4.and event o all our actions; but that being rst by prayer recommended

to him, is let at his dispose: or then, in case the event be not answerable

to our desires, or to the ecacy o the instrument, we have nothing let to

rest in but the honesty o our purposes; which it is the more likely we have

secured, by how much more we are indierent concerning the success.

St. James converted but eight persons, when he preached in Spain; and

our blessed Saviour converted ewer than his own disciples did; and i

thy labours prove unprosperous, i thou beset much troubled at that, it is

certain thou didst not think thysel secure o a reward or thine intention;

which thou mightst have done i it had been pure and just.

He loves virtue or Gods sake and its own that loves and honours it5.

wherever it is to be seen; but he that is envious or angry at a virtue that

is not his own, at the perection or excellency o his neighbour, is notcovetous o the virtue, but o its reward and reputation; and then his

intentions are polluted. It was a great ingenuity in Moses that wished all

the people might be prophets; but i he had designed his own honour,

he would have prophesied alone. But he that desires only that the work

o God and religion shall go on, is pleased with it whosoever is the

instrument.

He that despises the world, and all its appendant vanities, is the best6.

judge, and the most secured o his intentions; because he is the arthest

removed rom temptation. Every degree o mortication is a testimony

o the purity o our purposes; and in what degree we despise sensual

pleasure, or secular honours, or worldly reputation, in the same degree we

shall conclude our heart right to religion and spiritual designs.

When we are not solicitous concerning the instruments and means o7.


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our actions, but use those means which God hath laid beore us, with

resignation, indierency, and thankulness, it is a good sign that we are

rather intent upon the end o Gods glory than our own conveniency,

or temporal satisaction. He that is indierent whether he serve God in

riches or in poverty, is rather a seeker o God than o himsel; and he that

will throw away a good book because it is not curiously gilded, is more

curious to please his eye than to inorm his understanding.

When a temporal end consisting with a spiritual, and pretended to be8.

subordinate to it, happens to ail and be deeated i we can rejoice in that,

so Gods glory may be secured, and the interests o religion, it is a great

sign our hearts are right, and our ends prudently designed and ordered.

When our intentions are thus balanced, regulated, and discerned, we may

consider that this exercise is o so universal ecacy in the whole course o a

holy lie that it is like the soul to every holy action, and must be provided or

in every undertaking; and is, o itsel alone, sucient to make all natural and

indierent actions to be adopted into the amily o religion.

Tat there are some actions, which are usually reckoned as parts o our

religion, which yet, o themselves, are so relative and imperect, that, without

the purity o intention, they degenerate: and unless they be directed and

proceed on to those purposes which God designed them to, they return into

the amily o common secular, or sinul actions. Tus, alms are or charity,

asting or temperance, prayer is or religion, humiliation is or humility,austerity or suerance is in order to the virtue o patience; and when these

actions ail o their several ends, or are not directed to their own purposes,

alms are misspent, asting is an impertinent trouble, prayer is but lip-labour,

humiliation is but hypocisy, suerance is but vexation; or such were the alms

o the pharisee, the ast o Jezebel, the prayer o Judah reproved by the prophet

Isaiah, the humiliation o Ahab, the martyrdom o heretics; in which nothing

is given to God but the body, or the orms o religion; but the soul and the


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power o godliness is wholly wanting.

We are to consider that no intention can sanctiy an unholy or unlawul

action. Saul, the king, disobeyed Gods commandment, and spared the cattleo Amalek to reserve the best or sacrice; and Saul, the pharisee, persecuted

the church o God with a design to do God service; and they that killed the

apostles had also good purposes, but they had unhallowed actions. When

there be both truth in election, and charity in the intention; when we go to

God in ways o his own choosing or approving, then our eye is single, and our

hands are clean, and our hearts are pure. But when a man does evil that good

may come o it, or good to an evil purpose, that man does like him that rolls

himsel in thorns that he may sleep easily; he roasts himsel in the re that he

may quench his thirst with his own sweat; he turns his ace to the east that

he may go to bed with the sun. I end this with the saying o a wise heathen:

He is to be called evil that is good only or his own sake. Regard not how ull

hands you bring to God, but how pure. Many cease rom sin out o ear alone,

not out o innocence or love o virtue; and they, as yet, are not to be calledinnocent but timorous

seCTion 3: The praCTiCe of The presenCe of

goD

Tat God is present in all places, that he sees every action, hears all discourses

and understands every thought, is no strange thing to a Christian ear who

hath been taught this doctrine, not only by right reason and the consent o all

the wise men in the world, but also by God himsel in holy Scripture. Am I

a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God aar o? Can any hide himsel

in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I ll heaven

and earth? Neither is there any creature that is not maniest in his sight; but

all things are naked and open to the eyes o him with whom we have to do.

For in him we live and move and have our being. God is wholly in every


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place; included in no place; not bound with cords, except those o love; not

divided into parts, nor changeable into several shapes; lling heaven and earth

with his present power and with his never absent nature. So St. Augustine

expresses this article. So that we may imagine God to be as the air and the sea,

and we all enclosed in his circle, wrapped up in the lap o his innite nature;

or as inants in the wombs o their pregnant mothers: and we can no more be

removed rom the presence o God than rom our own being.

several manners of The Divine presenCe

Te presence o God is understood by us in several manners, and to several

purposes.

God is present by his essence; which, because it is innite, cannot be1.

contained within the limits o any place; and, because he is o an essential

purity and spiritual nature, he cannot be undervalued by being supposed

present in the places o unnatural uncleanness; because as the sun,

refecting upon the mud o strands and shores, is unpolluted in its beams,so is God not dishonoured when we suppose him in every o his creatures,

and in every part o every one o them; and is still as unmixed with any

unhandsome adherence as is the soul in the bowels o the body.

God is everywhere present by his power. He rolls the orbs o heaven2.

with his hands; he xes the earth with his oot; he guides all the creatures

with his eye, and rereshes them with his infuence: he makes the powerso hell to shake with his terrors, and binds the devils with his word, and

throws them out with his command, and sends the angels on embassies

with his decrees: he hardens the joints o inants, and conrms the bones,

when they are ashioned beneath secretly in the earth. he it is that assists

at the numerous productions o shes; and there is not one hollowness in

the bottom o the sea, but he shows himsel to be Lord o it by sustaining

there the creatures that come to dwell in it: and in the wilderness, the


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bittern and the stork, the dragon and the satyr, the unicorn and the elk,

live upon his provisions, and revere his power, and eel the orce o his

almightiness.

God is more specially present, in some places, but the several and more3.

special maniestations o himsel to extraordinary purposes. First, by

glory. Tus, his seat is in heaven, because there he sits encircled with all

the outward demonstrations o his glory, which he is pleased to show

to all the inhabitants o those his inward and secret courts. And thus

they that die in the Lord, may be properly said to be gone to God; with

whom although they were beore, yet now they enter into his courts, into

the secret o his tabernacle, into the retinue and splendour o his glory.

Tat is called walking with God, but this is dwelling or being with him.

I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ; so said St. Paul. But this

manner o Divine Presence is reserved or the elect people o God, and

or their portion in their country.

God is, by grace and benediction, specially present in holy places, and4.in the solemn assemblies o his servants. I holy people meet in grots

and dens o the earth when persecution or a public necessity disturbs

the public order, circumstance, and convenience, God ails not to come

thither to them; but God is also, by the same or a greater reason, present

there where they meet ordinarily by order and public authority; there

God is present ordinarily, that is, at every such meeting. God will go out

o his way to meet his saints when themselves are orced out o their

way o order by a sad necessity; but else, Gods usual way is to be present

in those places where his servants are appointed ordinarily to meet.

But his presence there signies nothing but a readiness to hear their

prayers, to bless their persons, to accept their oces, and to like even the

circumstance o orderly and public meeting. For thither the prayers o

consecration, the public authority separating it, and Gods love o order,


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and the reasonable customs o religion, have in ordinary, and in a certain

degree, xed this manner o his presence, and he loves to have it so.

God is especially present in the hearts o his people by his Holy Spirit;5.and indeed the hearts o holy men are temples in the truth o things, and,

in type and shadow, they are heaven itsel. For God reigns in the hearts

o his servants; there is his kingdom. Te power o grace hath subdued

all his enemies: there is his power. Tey serve him night and day, and give

him thanks and praise; that is his glory. Tis is the religion and worship

o God in the temple. Te temple itsel is the heart o man; Christ is the

high-priest, who rom thence sends up the incense o prayers, and joins

them to his own intercession, and presents all together to his Father; and

the Holy Ghost, by his dwelling there, hath also consecrated it into a

temple; and God dwells in our hearts by aith and Christ by his Spirit,

and the Spirit by his purities: so that we are also cabinets o the mysterious

rinity; and what is this short o heaven itsel, but as inancy is short o

manhood, and letters o words? Te same state o lie it is, but not thesame age. It is heaven in a looking-glass, dark, but yet true, representing

the beauties o the soul, and the graces o God, and the images o his

eternal glory, by the reality o a special presence.

God is especially present in the consciences o all persons, good and bad,6.

by way o testimony and judgment; that is, he is there a remembrance to

call our actions to mind, a witness to bring them to judgment, and a judge

to acquit or to condemn. And although this manner o presence is, in this

lie, ater the manner o this lie, that is imperect, and we orget many

actions o our lives; yet the greatest changes o our state o grace or sin,

our most considerable actions, are always present, like capital letters to

an aged and dim eye; and, at the day o judgment, God shall draw aside

the cloud, and maniest this manner o his presence more notoriously,

and make it appear that he was an observer o our very thoughts, and


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that he only laid those things by which, because we covered with dust

and negligence, were not then discerned. But when we are risen rom our

dust and imperection they all appear plain and legible.

Now the consideration o this great truth is o a very universal use in

the whole course o the lie o a Christian. All the consequents and eects o

it are universal. He that remembers that God stands a witness and a judge,

beholding every secresy, besides his impiety, must have put on impudence,

i he be not much restrained in his temptation to sin. For the greatest part

o sin is taken away, i a man have a witness o his conversation: and he is

a great despiser o God who sends a boy away when he is going to commit

ornication, and yet will dare to do it, though he knows God is present, and

cannot be sent o; as i the eye o a little boy were more awul than the all-

seeing eye o God. He is to be eared in public; he is to be eared in private: i

you go orth, he spies you; i you go in, he sees you: when you light the candle,

he observes you; when you put it out, then also God marks you. Be sure, that

while you are in his sight, you behave yoursel as becomes so holy a presence.But i you will sin, retire yoursel wisely, and go where God cannot see, or

nowhere else can you be sae. And certainly, i men would always actually

consider, and really esteem this truth, that God is the great eye o the world,

always watching over our actions, and an ever-open ear to hear all our words,

and an unwearied arm ever lited up to crush a sinner into ruin, it would be

the readiest way in the world to make sin to cease rom amongst the children

o men, and or men to approach to the blessed estate o the saints in heaven,

who cannot sin, or they always walk in the presence and behold the ace o

God. Tis instrument is to be reduced to practice, according to the ollowing

rules.

rules of exerCising This ConsiDeraTion

Let this actual thought oten return, that God is omnipresent, lling1.


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every place; and say with David, Whither shall I go rom thy Spirit, or

whither shall I fee rom thy presence? I I ascend up into heaven, thou

art there: i I make my bed in hell, thou art there, etc. Tis thought, by

being requent, will make an habitual dread and reverence towards God,

and ear in all thy actions. For it is a great necessity and engagement to

do unblamably when we act beore the Judge, who is inallible in his

sentence, all-knowing in his inormation, severe in his anger, powerul in

his providence, and intolerable in his wrath and indignation.

In the beginning o actions o religion, make an act o adoration, that is,2.

solemnly worship God, and place thysel in Gods presence, and behold

him with the eye o aith; and let thy desires actually x on him as the

object o thy worship, and the reason o thy hope, and the ountain o thy

blessing. For when thou hast placed thysel beore him, and kneelest in

his presence, it is most likely all the ollowing parts o thy devotion will

be answerable to the wisdom o such an apprehension, and the glory o

such a presence.Let everything you see represent to your spirit the presence, the excellency,3.

and the power o God; and let your conversation with the creatures lead

you unto the Creator; or so shall your actions be done more requently,

with an actual eye to Gods presence, by your oten seeing him in the

glass o the creation. In the ace o the sun you may see Gods beauty;

in the re you may eel his heat warming; in the water, his gentleness

to reresh you: he it is that comorts your spirit when you have taken

cordials; it is the dew o heaven that makes your eld give you bread; and

the breasts o God are the bottles that minister drink to your necessities.

Tis philosophy, which is obvious to every mans experience, is a good

advantage to our piety; and, by this act o understanding, our wills are

checked rom violence and misdemeanour.

In your retirement, make requent colloquies, or short discoursings,4.


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between God and thy soul. Seven times a-day do I praise thee: and

in the night season also I thought upon thee, while I was waking. So

did David; and every act o complaint or thanksgiving, every act o

rejoicing or o mourning, every petition and every return o the heart in

these intercourses, is a going to God, an appearing in his presence, and

a representing him present to thy spirit and to thy necessity. And this

was long since by a spiritual person called, a building to God a chapel

in our heart. It reconciles Marthas employment with Marys devotion,

charity and religion, the necessities o our calling, and the employments

o devotion. For thus, in the midst o the works o your trade, you mayretire into your chapel, your heart, and converse with God by requent

addresses and returns.

Represent and oer to God acts o love and ear, which are the proper5.

eects o this apprehension, and the proper exercise o this consideration.

For, as God is everywhere present by his power, he calls or reverence and

godly ear; as he is present to thee in all thy needs, and relieves them,he deserves thy love; and since, in every accident o our lives, we nd

one or other o these apparent, and in most things we see both, it is a

proper and proportionate return, that, to every such demonstration o

God, we express ourselves sensible o it by admiring the Divine goodness,

or trembling at his presence; ever obeying him because we love him, and

ever obeying him because we ear to oend him. Tis is that which Enoch

did, who thus walked with God.

Let us remember that God is in us, and that we are in him: we are his6.

workmanship, let us not deace it; we are in his presence, let us not pollute

it by unholy and impure actions. God hath also wrought all our works in

us: and because he rejoices in his own works, i we dele them, and make

them unpleasant to him, we walk perversely with God, and he will walk

crookedly towards us.


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God is in the bowels o thy brother; reresh them, when he needs it, and7.

then you give your alms in the presence o God, and to God; and he eels

the relie which thou providest or thy brother.

God is in every place; suppose it, thereore, to be a church: and that8.

decency o deportment and piety o carriage, which you are taught by

religion, or by custom, or by civility and public manners, to use in churches,

the same use in all places; with this dierence only, that in churches let

your deportment be religious in external orms and circumstances also;

but there and everywhere let it be religious in abstaining rom spiritual

indecencies, and in readiness to do good actions, that it may not be said

o us, as God once complained o his people, Why hath my beloved done

wickedness in my house?

God is in every creature: be cruel towards none, neither abuse any by9.

intemperance. Remember, that the creatures and every member o thy

own body, is one o the lesser cabinets and receptacles o God. Tey are

such which God hath blessed with his presence, hallowed by his touch, andseparated rom unholy use, by making them to belong to his dwelling.

He walks as in the presence o God that converses with him in requent10.

prayer and requent communion; that runs to him in all his necessities;

that asks counsel o him in all his doubtings; that opens all his wants to

him; that weeps beore him or his sins; that asks remedy and support or

his weakness; that ears him as a judge; reverences him as a lord; obeyshim as a ather; and loves him as a patron.

The BenefiTs of This exerCise

Te benets o this consideration and exercise being universal upon all the

parts o piety, I shall less need to speciy any particulars; but yet, most properly,

this exercise o considering the Divine presence is:

An excellent help to prayer, producing in us reverence and awulness to1.


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the Divine Majesty o God, and actual devotion in our oces.

It produces a condence in God and earlessness o our enemies, patience2.

in trouble and hope o remedy; since God is so nigh in all our sadaccidents, he is a disposer o the hearts o men and the events o things,

he proportions out our trials, and supplies us with remedy, and, where his

rod strikes us, his sta supports us. o which we may add this, that God,

who is always with us, is especially, by promise, with us in tribulation, to

turn the misery into a mercy, and that our greatest trouble may become

our advantage, by entitling us to a new manner o the Divine presence.

I is apt to produce joy and rejoicing in God, we being more apt to delight3.

in the partners and witnesses o our conversation, every degree o mutual

abiding and conversing being a relation and an endearment: we are o

the same household with God; he is with us in our natural actions, to

preserve us; in our recreations, to restrain us; in our public actions, to

applaud or reprove us; in our private, to observe us; in our sleeps, to watch

by us; in our watchings, to reresh us; and i we walk with God in all hisways, as he walks with us in all ours, we shall nd perpetual reasons to

enable us to keep that rule o God, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again

I say rejoice. And this put me in mind o a saying o an old religious

person, Tere is one way o overcoming our ghostly enemies; spiritual

mirth, and a perpetual bearing o God in our minds. Tis eectively

resists the devil, and suers us to receive no hurt rom him.

Tis exercise is apt also to enkindle holy desires o the enjoyment o God,4.

because it produces joy when we do enjoy him; the same desires that a

weak man hath or a deender; the sick man or a physician; the poor or

a patron; the child or his ather; the espoused lover or her betroths. 5.

From the same ountain are apt to issue humility o spirit, apprehensions

o our great distance and our great needs, our daily wants and hourly

supplies, admiration o Gods unspeakable mercies: it is the cause o great


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modesty and decency in our actions; it helps to recollection o mind,

and restrains the scatterings and looseness o wandering thoughts; it

establishes the heart in good purposes, and leadeth on to perseverance; it

gains purity and perection, (according to the saying o God to Abraham,

walk beore me and be perect,) holy ear, and holy love, and indeed

everything that pertains to holy living: when we see ourselves placed in

the eye o God, who sets us on work and will reward us plenteously, to

serve him with an eye-service is very unpleasing, or he also sees the

heart; and the want o this consideration was declared to be the cause

why Israel sinned so grievously, or they say, Te Lord hath orsaken theearth, and the Lord seeth not: thereore the land is ull o blood, and the

city ull o perverseness. What a child would do in the eye o his ather,

and a pupil beore his tutor, and a wie in the presence o her husband,

and a servant in the sight o his master, let us always do the same, or we

are made a spectacle to God, to angels, and to men; we are always in the

sight and presence o the all-seeing and almighty God, who also is to us

a ather and a guardian, a husband and a lord.

Documents

Chapter 1 - Holy Living