Eighteen Directions for Saving Conversion Unto God, Tract 2
Directions for Daily Holy Living, by D. Burgeſs Miniſter of the Goſpel.
D. 1. LImit your ſleeping hours. Let them not be as many as brutiſh Senſe demandeth. Let Reaſon fit their number to your Health and Labour. Your Motion is not by the Rule of Religion, if your Reſt be not ſo, Pſal. 139.18. I awake, that I may be ſtill with thee. So, ſome Learned read it.
D. 2. Conſecrate your waking thoughts. Let your God have thoſe firſt Fruits. He always Loved the firſt of all things. The firſt Fruits, and firſt Born, under the Law, were his. Preſent Him with theſe, every morning. Thoughts are inward Speeches. Let God hear Himſelf firſt ſpoken of by you, ſtill. It will argue that He is your Beloved, and it will make Him more ſo Love makes Thoughtful; and Thoughtfulneſs makes Love. A Potter is known by his Veſſels, and a Heart by its Thoughts; and of all Thoughts, by its firſt in the morning, and laſt at night. My voice ſhalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord! Pſal. 5.3.
D. 3. Regulate your Bodily Dreſſes. Long Dreſſes bewray large Conſciences, if no worſe. He that duly prefers his Soul above his Body, would rather go like the wild Indians, than dreſs like ſome Londoners. The Hebrew word Beged, ſignifies Cloathing and Covenant-breaking. God ſeems to have taught thereby, that the Cloaths on our backs ſhould humble us for the ſin of our firſt Parents and Perſons. But if they do not ſo; and if outward Adorning be that which employs our early hours, and ſevere thoughts, it will be dearly paid for in our dying hours, with tormenting thoughts, 1 Pet. 3.3. Whoſe adorning let it not be that outward adorning.
D. 4. Time well your Cloſet and Family Worſhip. They be not the ſame things in ſeaſon, and out of ſeaſon. Let the Word be read; one verſe rather than none; and Prayer be made; the ſhorteſt, rather than none; both by your ſelves alone, and with your Families. If it may be, worſhip firſt by your ſelves. But, needleſly tie not your ſelves, being God hath not bound you unto ſuch and ſuch hours. Still do, as you verily think is moſt for Edification, Mat. 6.6. Enter into thy cloſet, and when thou haſt ſhut the door, pray to thy Father. Joſh. 24.15. As for me and my Houſe, we will ſerve the Lord.
D. 5. Sanctifie your worldly Buſineſs. Nothing is your buſineſs but that which God your Maſter ſets you about. Dare not then do any thing, but that whereto you can entitle Him. Nor dare you to do it for any other chief end, but to pleaſe Him. When you do WHAT He ſets you, and ſupremely BECAUSE He ſets it, and wills that you do it; knowing and hoping for his Direction in it, and Bleſſing of it; you then ſanctifie it: Then HOLINESS TO THE LORD is written upon it, whatever it be, 1 Cor. 10.31. Whether ye Eat or Drink, or WHATSOEVER ye do, do all to the glory of God.
D. 6. Moderate your Pains in your Callings. Pains muſt be; Sweat, is required. But by Reaſon and Religion they muſt be meaſured. God's Laws be all Juſt and Good. Drones that will not work muſt not eat. He that is a ſluggard in his work, is branded as Brother of the Prodigal waſter, Prov. 18.9. Drudges, of whoſe Labour there is no end, and who bereave their Souls of good; who uſe themſelves worſe than God allows Oxen to be uſed; Treading out the Corn, and muzzling themſelves; theſe are branded by the Spirit of God, as inconſiderate, abſurd, and ſelf-deſtroying fools, Eccleſ. 4.8. Diligent hands have the promiſe of being made rich: That is, Hands that be neither Drones nor Drudges, Prov. 10.4. The hand of the diligent maketh rich.
D. 7. Strengthen your guards againſt your ſtrongeſt Enemies. Sin, is our Enemy; even One and All. God hates nothing but ſin; and man can be hurt by nothing but ſin. Sin's name is Legion; for it is many. And of the many, there is ſome one or other in every man, that has more power than all the reſt. That gives ſtrength unto all the reſt. And, being mortified, all the reſt are mortified. There be alſo beſide that KING-ſin in the Souls, ſome kind of PEER-ſins, which, of all, next unto the KING-ſin, are by far the moſt dangerous. The KING-ſin is (alway or moſtly) your Temperamental ſin; the ſin of your Conſtitution. The PEER-ſins, be the Radical ones, of Senſuality, Unbelief, Hypocriſie; and the way-laying ones, whereunto Temptations will every day meet us in our Company and Buſineſs. You can never have any but a falſe Peace, till you can ſay, as Pſal. 18.23. I am upright before the Lord; I keep my ſelf from my own iniquity. Doctor Bates, his little Book upon that Text is a Light and a Lamp, a Rod and a Staff.
D. 8. Govern your Thoughts and your Words. Let not your Minds or Tongues be unbridled, and run whither they will. You are in your Shops and your Buſineſs very often, alone; Reverence your Conſcience, and dare not in the preſence of God's Vicegerent to ſuffer a ſinful or uſeleſs ſelf-diſcourſe. But talk with your ſelves of great and good Subjects, and with deſigns of great and good Effects upon your hearts by them. When you are in company, conſider your Tongue's need of Government: All its words be Meat or Poiſon to your Hearers, and your ſelves: They do ſtill holily make for Edification, or ſubſerviently for Recreation, or contrarily for Corruption, Prov. 24.9. The THOUGHT of fooliſhneſs is ſin, Mat. 12.36. Of every idle WORD that men ſhall ſpeak, they ſhall give account in the day of Judgment.
D. 9. Preſerve the Prerogative of your King. I mean, of your Love. Your Love of God, of Angels, of Men: That is your Principal Grace; your Prince. Keep that Prince on horſe-back; let that ride, and reign, and rule you in all you do. Let not any thing lower, move and ſway you more, in any of your ways. Remember ſtill, it is Love that is the higheſt improvement of our Faculties, the End of all other Graces, the Excellency in all other Graces. For this is the Word of God given, for this is the Spirit given, for this was his Son given, that we might Love! Never pleaſe your ſelves therefore with any Quality, or any external Duty, without Love, internal Love, animating, enlivening, exalting it, Rom. 13.10. Love is the fulfilling of the Law.
D. 10. Value highly your Time. Do ſo really, in more than empty pretence. And do ſo apparently alſo. Apparently unto your own Conſcience, Family, Friends, Neighbours. Tell all in the Language of Practice, you account them as the worſt of Thieves, who rob you of your Time. Say as Mr. Fowler, My Time and Strength is God's, and he ſhall have it. And as Mr. Calvin, Chriſt ſhall not find me idle. Eſteem every ſmall moity of Time, as you do of Gold. Expend none at all, of it, but in mowing and whetting your Sythe; in very Duty, and neceſſary Recreation. Buy a great deal of it; I mean, part with much vain pleaſure, ſecular profit, fools favour and kindneſs, and good men's too ſometimes, to ſave your Time. To ſave it from doing of evil, and from doing of leſſer good, when you may do greater. That is indeed, as we are bid, Eph. 5.16. To Redeem the Time.
D. 11. Exerciſe Chriſtian Temperance in all your Meals. Brutes, are more temperate in uſe of food, than many men. And, may I not ſay, that ſome unregenerate men are more temperate, than here and there a well reputed Chriſtian appears? This is a ſhame. Exceſs in Meat and Drink, is not the leaſt fruitful ſin againſt Body or Soul. To be abſtemious and ſparing for Health's ſake, is to be as wiſe as Brute creatures, and ſome men graceleſs. Abſtinence, for Conſcience ſake; of love to God and Chriſt, to our own Souls and others; of faithfulneſs unto our Baptiſmal Engagement; this is Chriſtian Temperance, Ezek. 16.49. Behold this was the ſin of Sodom, Pride, FULNESS of BREAD, and abundance of IDLENESS was in her. Sin came in by eating; remember then Prov. 23.2. Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to Appetite. And, Be not deſirous of Dainties; for they are deceitful meat, Rom. 8.13. If ye live after the fleſh, ye ſhall die.
D. 12. Haſten your Recoveries out of your wilful ſins. For, ſins of unavoidable Infirmity, God threatens not Eternal Plagues, or Temporal Judgments on you. Sincere and conſtant Humiliation for them, is indeed neceſſary and natural, to Lovers of God and Chriſt. But ſins that are not of common and inſuperable Infirmity, they make fearful breaches of your Peace with God, and ſore wounds in your Souls. They ſadly leſſen God's Love of Complacence in you, and your Love and all graces towards God. When you fall into theſe, dare not to lie one minute in them; Lament them preſently; Confeſs them preſently to God, and (if need be) unto man alſo. Repent, rent your hearts for them, and rent them alſo from them, without delay. Cry for the Balm of Chriſt's Blood to be preſently dropt into your wounds; and for the clean Water of his Spirit to be preſently poured on you. Cry mightily for Pardon of them, and Aſſiſtance againſt them. Every minutes delay may coſt you ſo many days, weeks and months dolor and anguiſh. Choſen delays may make ſo many Spira's of you, for ought I know, Pſal. 32.3. While I kept ſilence, i. e. would not confeſs my ſin, my bones waxed old, i. e. I ſuffered dearly.
D. 13. Examine ſtrictly your Relative Duty. Often ſay, What Subject am I? What Fellow-Subject? What Obſerver of Magiſtrates and Miniſters? What Friend am I? How do I carry it toward my Enemies? For a Chriſtian can be no one's Enemy! as far as he is a Chriſtian, he cannot. What Huſband or Wife am I? What Parent or Child am I? What Maſter or Servant am I? What Superior, what Inferior, what Equal am I? Sincerity or Hypocriſie, is, for the moſt part ſpecially ſeen in theſe things, 2 Pet. 3.11. What manner of perſons ought ye to be in all holy Converſations and Godlineſſes? Pſal. 119.6. Then ſhall I not be aſhamed, when I have reſpect unto all thy Commandments.
D. 14. Repeat every Evening your double uſe of the WORD and PRAYER. I mean, in your Cloſet and Family. Dare not for the gain of a Kingdom to omit it, of choice. Nor to perform it without greateſt Seriouſneſs, Willingneſs & Thankfulneſs, Pſa. 55.17. Evening and Morning, and at Noon, will I pray and cry aloud, and he ſhall hear my voice.
D. 15. Repair every days Loſſes, and be chary of every days Gains. I mean your extraordinary ones. The Womb of ſome days doth bring you forth huge Hindrances of Duty to God, to your ſelves, and to your Families. III Perſons or Things obſtruct your Solemnities. When they do ſo, conſider and conſult, and ſtrain hard to make it up the next day. Read, Pray, Meditate, &c. ſo much the more. Another day brings forth huge Helps. A Lecture, a Faſt, or Publick Thankſgiving, a Funeral Sermon, a meeting with ſome Servants of God of extraordinary Talents; apt to Teach, and forward ſo to do. When ſuch a day comes, lay up, and lock up your Spiritual Gains. Roſt what you take, as Solomon ſpeaks; keep, feed on it, enjoy it. Eph. 5. v. 16. Redeeming the time, becauſe the days are evil. John ſecond Epiſtle, verſe 8. Look to your ſelves that we loſe not thoſe things that we have wrought, but may receive a full reward.
D. 16. Improve both of the holy Sacraments. Moſt lamentably theſe are neglected among us! The God of all Grace, that hath condeſcended to extremity in the ordaining of them, awaken Miniſters and People to better uſe of them! On God's part they are Signs and Seals, on our part they are Bonds and Badges. Baptiſm and the Lords Supper, are the utmoſt confirmations God giveth us of his Promiſe to be our God; and the utmoſt we give of our Engagement to be his. Forget not this, nor vainly remember it. Plead with God for your Souls, his Signed, Sealed Promiſes unto you; to the expulſion of Diſtruſt. And plead with your Souls for God, your Sacramental Bonds given unto him, and Badges of being his put upon you; to the Conqueſt of Diſobedience. Sacramental Obligation is the chief Storehouſe and Magazine to draw Armour from, in an Hour of Temptation. There is none like it. Rom. 6.1, 2, 3. What ſhall we ſay then? ſhall we continue in ſin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How ſhall we that are dead to ſin live any longer therein? Know ye not, that ſo many of us as were Baptized into Jeſus Chriſt, were Baptized into his death? 1 Pet. 3.21. The like figure whereunto, even Baptiſm, doth alſo now ſave us, (not the putting away of the filth of the fleſh; but the anſwer of a good Conſcience toward God) by the Reſurrection of Jeſus Chriſt. 1 Cor. 10.16, and 21. The Cup of Bleſſing which we bleſs, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Chriſt? The Bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Chriſt? Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord, and the Cup of Devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table, and of the Table of Devils.
D. 17. Hear your ſelves daily your Catechiſm. I mean, the Summary of Religion, unto which you have attained. There be ſeveral ſet down in my Three Queſtions Reſolved long ago Printed, I adviſe all, once a day, to go over that which they have Learned, and can Remember. Let grown Chriſtians ask and anſwer themſelves, how they do in their Hearts BELIEVE each Article of the Apoſtles Creed; how they PRAY each Petition of the Lords Prayer; how they PRACTISE each Commandment of both Tables; how they are ENCOURAGED and ENGAGED unto all three; unto the Life of Holy Faith, Prayer and Practice; I mean, by their Holy Baptiſm and the Lords Table. Rom. 2.21. Thou which teacheſt another, teacheſt thou not thy ſelf? Pſal. 4.4. Commune with your own Heart. Pſal. 16.7. My Reins inſtruct me.
D. 18. Command your laſt Thoughts to be fit to be your laſt. When you compoſe you to ſleep, ſuppoſe that you may die in that ſleep. And if ſo, the God unto whom you muſt go in that death, is fit to be thought of in the entrance to it. If not, it will be ſweet in the Morning to review laſt thoughts of him at Night. Yea, and thoſe thoughts of Faith and Love, and Truſt, at Night, will be generative of more of the ſame Spirit and Goodneſs in the Morning. Pſal. 63.6. I remember thee on my Bed, and meditate of thee in the Night Watches.
He that in theſe things ſerveth Chriſt, is acceptable to God, and approved of Men, Rom. 14.18.