CHAP. XII.
Concerning that part of devotion which relates to times and hours of prayer. Of daily early prayer in the morning. How we may improve our forms of prayer, and increase the spirit of devotion.
1.HAVING in the foregoing chapters shewn the necessity of a devout spirit, in every part of our common life, in the discharge of all our business, in the use of all the gifts of God: I come now to consider that part of devotion, which relates to times and hours of prayer.
*I take it for granted, that every Christian, that is in health, is up early in the morning; for it is much more reasonable to suppose a person up early, because he is a Christian, than because he is a labourer, or a tradesman, or a servant, or has business that wants him.
*We naturally conceive some abhorrence of a man that is in bed, when he should be at his labour, or in his shop. We can’t tell how to think any thing good of him, who is such a slave to drowsiness, as to neglect his business for it.
*Let this therefore teach us to conceive, how odious we must appear in the sight of heaven, if we are in bed, shut up in sleep, when we should be praising God; and are such slaves to drowsiness, as to neglect our devotions for it.
For if he is to be blamed as a slothful drone, that rather chuses the lazy indulgence of sleep, than to perform his proper worldly business, how much more is he to be reproached, that had rather lie folded up in a bed, than be raising up his heart to God in acts of praise and adoration.
2. Prayer is the nearest approach to God, and the highest enjoyment of him, that we are capable of in this life.
It is the noblest exercise of the soul, the most exalted use of our best faculties, and the highest imitation of the blessed inhabitants of heaven.
When our hearts are full of God, sending up holy desires to the throne of grace, we are then in our highest state, we are upon the utmost height of human greatness; we are not before kings and princes, but in the presence of the Lord of all the world, and can be no higher till death is swallowed up in glory.
On the other hand, sleep is the poorest, dullest refreshment of the body; that is so far from being intended as an enjoyment, that we are forced to receive it either in a state of insensibility, or in the folly of dreams.
*Sleep, is such a dull, stupid state of existence, than even amongst mere animals, we despise them most which are most drowsy. He therefore that chuses to enlarge the slothful indolence of sleep, rather than be early at his devotions to God; chuses the dullest refreshment of the body, before the highest, noblest enjoyment of the soul; he chuses that state, which is a reproach to mere animals, rather than that exercise, which is the glory of angels.
3. *Besides, he that cannot deny himself this drowsy indulgence, but must pass away good part of the morning in it, is no more prepared for prayer when he is up, than he is prepared for fasting, or any other self-denial. He may, indeed, more easily read over a form of prayer, than he can perform those duties; but he is no more disposed for the true spirit of prayer, than he is disposed for fasting. For sleep, thus indulged, gives a softness and idleness to all our tempers, and makes us unable to relish any thing, but what suits with an idle state of mind, and gratifies our natural tempers, as sleep does. So that a person that is a slave to this idleness, is in the same temper when he is up; and tho’ he is not asleep, yet he is under the effects of it: and every thing that is idle, indulgent, or sensual, pleases him for the same reason that sleep pleases him: on the other hand, every thing that requires care, trouble, or self-denial, is hateful to him for the same reason that he hates to rise.
4. It is not possible in nature for an epicure to be truly devout; he must renounce his sensuality, before he can relish the happiness of devotion.
Now, he that turns sleep into an idle indulgence, does as much to corrupt his soul, to make it a slave to bodily appetites, as he that turns the necessity of eating into a course of indulgence.
A person that eats and drinks too much, does not feel such effects from it as those do, who live in notorious gluttony and intemperance; but yet his course of indulgence, tho’ it be not scandalous in the eyes of the world, nor such as torments his own conscience, is a great and constant hindrance to his improvement in virtue: it gives him eyes that see not, and ears that hear not; it creates a sensuality in the soul, increases the power of bodily passions, and makes him incapable of entering into the true spirit of religion.
And this is the case of those who waste their time in sleep; it does not disorder their lives, or wound their consciences, as notorious acts of intemperance do; but, like any other more moderate course of indulgence, it silently, and by smaller degrees, wears away the spirit of religion, and sinks the soul into a state of dulness and sensuality.
5. If you consider devotion only as a time of so much prayer, you may perhaps perform it, tho’ you live in this daily indulgence; but if you consider it as a state of the heart, that is deeply affected with a sense of its own misery and infirmities, and desires the Spirit of God more than all things in the world, you will find the spirit of indulgence, and the spirit of prayer, cannot subsist together. Self-denial, of all kinds, is the very life and soul of piety; but he that has not so small a degree of it, as to be able to be early at his prayers, can have no reason to think that he has taken up his cross, and is following Christ.
*What conquest has he got over himself? What right-hand has he cut off? What trials is he prepared for? What sacrifice is he ready to offer to God, who cannot be so cruel to himself, as to rise to prayer at such a time, as the drudging part of the world are content to rise to their labour?
6. *Some people will not scruple to tell you, that they indulge themselves in sleep, because they have nothing to do: and that if they had either business or pleasure to rise to, they would not lose so much of their time in sleep. But such people must be told, that they mistake the matter; that they have a great deal of business to do; they have a hardened heart to change; they have the whole spirit of religion to get. For surely, he that thinks devotion to be of less moment than business or pleasure; or that he has nothing to do, because nothing but his prayers want him, may be justly said to have the whole spirit of religion to seek.
You must not therefore consider how small a crime it is to rise late; but you must consider how great a misery it is to want the spirit of religion; to have a heart not rightly affected with prayer, and to live in such softness and idleness, as makes you incapable of the most fundamental duties of a Christian life.
When you read the scriptures, you see a religion that is all life, and spirit, and joy in God; that supposes our souls risen from earthly desires and bodily indulgences, to prepare for another body, another world, and other enjoyments. You see Christians represented as temples of the Holy Ghost, as children of the day, as candidates for an eternal crown, as watchful virgins, that have their lamps always burning in expectation of the bridegroom. But can he be thought to have this joy in God, this care of eternity, this watchful spirit, who has not zeal enough to rise to his prayers?
7. If I was to desire you not to study the gratification of your palate, in the niceties of meats and drinks, I would not insist upon the crime of wasting your money in such a way, tho’ it be a great one; but I would desire you to renounce such a way of life, because it supports you in such a state of sensuality and indulgence, as renders you incapable of relishing the most essential doctrines of religion.
For the same reason, I don’t insist much upon the crime of wasting your time in sleep, tho’ it be a great one; but I desire you to renounce this indulgence, because it gives a softness and idleness to your soul, and is so contrary to that lively, zealous, watchful, self-denying spirit, which was not only the Spirit of Christ and his apostles, and the spirit of all the saints and martyrs which have ever been among men, but must be the spirit of those who would not sink in the common corruption of the world.
*Here therefore we must fix our charge against this practice; we must blame it not as having this or that particular evil, but as a general habit, that extends itself thro’ our whole spirit, and supports a state of mind that is wholly wrong.
It is contrary to piety; not as accidental slips and mistakes in life are contrary to it, but in such a manner, as an ill habit of body is contrary to health.
On the other hand, if you was to rise early every morning, as an instance of self-denial, as a method of renouncing indulgence, as a means of redeeming your time, and fitting your spirit for prayer, you would find mighty advantages from it. This method, tho’ it seems such a small circumstance, would in all probability, be a means of great piety. It would keep it constantly in your head, that softness and idleness were to be avoided; that self-denial was a part of Christianity. It would teach you to exercise power over yourself, and make you able to renounce other pleasures and tempers that war against the soul.
But above all, what is so planted and watered, will certainly have an increase from God. You will then speak from your heart, your soul will be awake, your prayers will refresh you like meat and drink, you will feel what you say, and begin to know what saints and holy men have meant by fervour in devotion.
8. Hoping therefore that you are now convinced of the necessity of rising early to your prayers, I shall proceed to lay before you a method of daily prayer.
I don’t take upon me to prescribe to you the use of any particular forms of prayer, but you will here find some helps, how to furnish yourself with such as may be useful. And if your heart is ready to pray in its own language, I press no necessity of borrowed forms.
For tho’ I think a form of prayer very necessary to public worship, yet if any one can find a better way of raising his heart unto God in private, I have nothing to object against it; my design being only to assist and direct such as stand in need of this assistance.
It seems right for such an one to begin with a form of prayer; and if, in the midst of it he finds his heart ready to break forth into other words, he may leave his form, and follow those fervours of his heart, till it again want the assistance of his usual petitions.
*This seems to be the true liberty of private devotion: it may be under the direction of some form; yet not so tied down to it, but that it may be free to take such new expressions as its present fervours furnish it with, which sometimes carry the soul more powerfully to God, than any expressions that were ever used before.
9. Most people are changeable in regard to devotion. Sometimes our hearts have such strong apprehensions of the divine presence, and are so full of compunction, that we cannot speak in any language but that of tears.
Sometimes the light of God’s countenance shines so bright, we see so far into the invisible world, we are so affected with the wonders of the goodness of God, that our hearts worship in a language higher than that of words, and we feel transports of devotion, which only can be felt.
On the other hand, sometimes we are so sunk into our bodies, so dull and unaffected with that which concerns our souls, that we cannot keep pace with our forms of confession, or feel half of that in our hearts, which we have in our mouths; we thank and praise God with forms of words, but our hearts have little or no share in them.
We may provide against this inconstancy of our hearts, by having at hand such forms of prayer, as may best suit us when our hearts are in their best state, and also be most likely to stir them up, when they are sunk into dulness.
10. The first thing you are to do, when you are upon your knees, is, with a short silence, let your soul place itself in the presence of God; use this, or some other method, to separate yourself from all common thoughts, and make your heart as sensible as you can of the divine presence.
Now, if this recollection of spirit is necessary, as who can say it is not? How poorly must they perform their devotions, who are always in a hurry; who begin them in haste, and hardly allow themselves time to repeat their very form, with attention? Theirs is properly saying prayers, instead of praying.
If you was to use yourself, as far as you can, to pray always in the same place; if you was to reserve that place for devotion, and not allow yourself to do any thing common in it; if you was never to be there yourself, but in times of devotion; if any little room, or, if that cannot be, if any particular part of a room was thus used, this kind of consecration of it, as a place holy unto God, would much assist your devotion.
11. It may be of use to you to observe this farther rule: when at any time, either in reading the scripture, or any book of piety, you meet with a passage, that more than ordinarily affects your mind, turn it into the form of a petition, and give it a place in your prayers.
At all the stated hours of prayer, it may be of benefit to you, to have something fixed, and something at liberty, in your devotions.
You may have some fixed subject to be the chief matter of your prayer at that particular time; and yet have liberty to add such other petitions, as your condition may then require.
For instance; as the morning is to you the beginning of a new life; as God has then given you a new enjoyment of yourself, and a fresh entrance into the world, it is highly proper that your first devotions should be praise and thanksgiving to God, as for a new creation; and that you should devote body and soul, all you are, and all you have, to his service and glory.
Receive therefore every day, as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God’s goodness, as if you had seen it, and all things, new created upon your account; and under the sense of so great a blessing, let your heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.
Therefore praise and thanksgiving, and oblation of yourself to God, may be the fixed subject of your first prayers in the morning; and then take the liberty of adding such other devotions, as the accidental difference of your state, or the accidental difference of your heart, shall direct.
12. *One of the greatest benefits of private devotion, consists in adapting our prayers to the difference of our state, and the difference of our hearts.
*By the difference of our state, is meant the difference of our external state, as of sickness, health, pains, losses, disappointments, troubles, particular mercies or judgments from God, and all sorts of kindnesses, injuries, or reproaches from other people.
Now, as these are great parts of our state of life, as they make great difference in it, by continually changing; so our devotion will be made doubly beneficial to us, when it watches to receive and sanctify all these changes of our state, and turns them all into so many occasions of a more particular application to God, of such thanksgivings, such resignation, such petitions, as our present state more especially requires.
*And he that makes every change in his state, a reason of presenting unto God some particular petitions suitable to that change, will soon find, that he has taken an excellent means, not only of praying with fervour, but of living as he prays.
13. *We are likewise always to adapt some part of our prayers to the difference of our hearts; by which is meant the different tempers of our hearts, as of love, joy, peace, tranquility, dulness and dryness of spirit, anxiety, discontent, motions of envy and ambition, dark and disconsolate thoughts, resentments, fretfulness, and peevish tempers.
If we are in the delightful calm of sweet and easy passions, of love and joy in God, we should then offer the tribute of thanksgiving.
If, on the other hand, we feel ourselves laden with heavy passions, with dulness of spirit, anxiety and uneasiness, we must then look up to God in acts of humility, confessing our unworthiness, opening our troubles to him, beseeching him in his good time to lessen our infirmities, and to deliver us from these passions.
By this wise application of our prayers, we shall get all the relief from them that is possible; and the very changeableness of our hearts, will prove a means of exercising a greater variety of holy tempers.
You will perceive by this, that persons ought to have a great share in composing their own devotions.
As to that part of their prayers, which is always fixed, they may use forms composed by other persons; but in that part which they are to suit to the present state of their life, and the present state of their heart, they must let the sense of their own condition help them to such kinds of petition, thanksgiving, or resignation, as their present state requires.
14. But it is amazing to see how ♦eagerly men employ their parts, their study, application, and exercise; how all helps are called to their assistance, when any thing is intended in worldly matters; and how little they use their parts, sagacity, and abilities, to raise and increase their devotion.
♦ ‘eargerly’ replaced with ‘eagerly’
*Mandanus is a man of excellent parts, and clear apprehension. He is well advanced in age, and has made a great figure in his business. Every part of trade that has fallen in his way, has had some improvement from him; and he is always contriving to carry every method of doing any thing well to its greatest height. Mandanus aims at the greatest perfection in every thing. The strength of his mind, and his just way of thinking, make him intent upon removing all imperfections.
He can tell you all the defects and errors in all the common methods, whether of trade, building, or improving land or manufactures. The clearness and strength of his understanding, which he is constantly improving, by continual exercise in these matters, by often digesting his thoughts in writing, and trying every thing every way, has rendered him a great master in most concerns in human life.
Thus has Mandanus gone on, increasing his knowledge and judgment, as fast as his years came upon him.
The one thing which has not fallen under his improvement, nor received any benefit from his judicious mind, is his devotion: this is just in the same poor state it was, when he was only six years of age; and the old man prays now in that little form of words which his mother used to hear him repeat night and morning.
This Mandanus, that hardly ever saw the poorest utensil, or ever took the meanest trifle into his hand, without considering how it might be made, or used to better advantage, has gone all his life-long praying in the same manner as when he was a child; without ever considering how much better or oftner he might pray.
If Mandanus sees a book of devotion, he passes it by, as he does a spelling-book; because he remembers that he learned to pray so many years ago under his mother, when he learnt to spell.
Now, how poor and pitiable is the conduct of this man of sense, who has so much judgment in every thing, but that which is the whole wisdom of man?
And how miserably do many people, more or less, imitate this conduct?
15. *Classicus is a man of learning, and well versed in all the best authors of antiquity. He has read them so much, that he has entered into their spirit, and can imitate the manner of any of them. All their thoughts are his thoughts, and he can express himself in their language. He is so great a friend to this improvement of the mind, that if he lights on a young scholar, he never fails to advise him concerning his studies.
Classicus tells his young man, he must not think he has done enough, when he has only learnt languages; but that he must be daily conversant with the best authors, read them again and again, catch their spirit by living with them; and that there is no other way of becoming like them, or of making himself a man of taste and judgment.
How wise might Classicus have been, if he had but thought as justly of devotion, as he does of learning?
He never, indeed, says any thing shocking or offensive about devotion, because he never thinks or talks about it. It suffers nothing from him, but neglect and disregard.
The two testaments would not have had so much as a place amongst his books, but that they are both to be had in Greek.
16. Classicus thinks, he sufficiently shews his regard for the holy scripture, when he tells you, that he has no other books of piety besides them.
It is very well, Classicus, that you prefer the bible to all other books of piety; he has no judgment, that is not thus far of your opinion.
But if you will have no other book of piety besides the bible, because it is the best, how comes it, Classicus, that you don’t content yourself with one of the best books among the Greeks and Romans? How comes it that you are so eager after all of them? How comes it that you think the knowledge of one is a necessary help to the knowledge of the other? How comes it that you are so earnest, so laborious, so expensive of your time and money, to restore broken periods, and scraps of the ancients?
How comes it that you tell your young scholar, he must not content himself with barely understanding his authors, but must be continually reading them all, as the only means of entering into their spirit, and forming his own judgment according to them?
Why then must the bible lie alone in your study? Is not the spirit of the saints, the piety of the holy followers of Jesus Christ, as good and necessary a means of entering into the spirit and taste of the gospel, as the reading of the ancients is of entering into the spirit of antiquity?
Is your young poet to search after every line, that may give new wings to his fancy, or direct his imagination? And is it not as reasonable for him, who desires to improve in the divine life, to search after every strain of devotion, that may move, kindle, and inflame the holy ardour of his soul?
Do you advise your orator to translate the best orations, to commit much of them to memory, to be frequently exercising his talent in this manner, that habits of thinking and speaking justly may be formed in his mind? And is there not the same advantage to be made by books of devotion? Should not a man use them in the same way, that habits of devotion, and aspiring to God in holy thoughts, may be well formed in his soul?
Now the reason why Classicus does not think and judge thus reasonably of devotion, is owing to his never thinking of it in any other manner, than as the repeating a form of words. It never in his life entered into his head, to think of devotion as a state of the heart, as a temper that is to grow and increase like our reason and judgment, and to be formed in us by such a diligent use of proper means, as are necessary to form any other wise habit of mind.
And it is for want of this, that he has been content all his life with the bare letter of prayer, and eagerly bent upon entering into the spirit of Heathen poets and orators.
And it is much to be lamented, that numbers of scholars are more or less chargeable with this excessive folly; so negligent of improving their devotion, and so desirous of other poor accomplishments, as if they thought it a nobler talent, to be able to write an epigram in the turn of Martial, than to live, and think, and pray to God, in the spirit of St. Austin.
And yet if you was to ask Mandanus and Classicus, or any man of business or learning, whether piety is not the highest perfection of man, or devotion the greatest attainment in the world, they must both be forced to answer in the affirmative, or else give up the truth of the gospel.
17. Devotion is nothing else but right apprehensions and right affections towards God.
All practices therefore that improve our true apprehensions of God, all ways of life that tend to nourish, raise, and fix our affections upon him, are to be reckoned so many helps and means of devotion.
As prayer is the proper fuel of this holy flame, so we must use all our care to give prayer its full power; as by alms, self-denial, frequent retirements, and holy readings, composing forms for ourselves, or using the best we can get, adding length of time, and observing hours of prayer; changing, improving, and suiting our devotions to the condition of our lives, and the state of our hearts.
Those who have most leisure, seem more especially called to a more eminent observance of this; and they, who by the necessity of their state, have but little time to employ thus, must make the best use of that little they have.
18. There is one thing more I would advise; and that is, to begin your prayers with a psalm.
I don’t mean, that you should read over a psalm, but that you should chant or sing one.
The difference between singing and reading a psalm, will be easily understood, if you consider the difference between reading and singing a common song that you like. Whilst you only read it, you only like it; but as soon as you sing it, you feel the same spirit within you, that there seems to be in the words.
You will perhaps say, you cannot sing.
This objection might be of weight, if you was desired to sing to entertain other people; but it is not to be admitted in the present case, where you are only advised to sing the praises of God in private.
Do but so live, that your heart may truly rejoice in God, that it may feel itself affected with the praises of God; and then you will find, that this state of your heart will neither want a voice, nor ear, to find a tune for a psalm.
19. *The union of soul and body, is not a mixture of their substances, as we see bodies united and mixed together, but consists solely in the mutual power that they have of acting upon one another.
*If two persons were in such a state of dependance upon one another, that neither of them could act, or move, or think, or feel, or suffer, or desire any thing, without putting the other into the same condition, one might properly say, that they were in a state of strict union, altho’ their substances were not united together.
*Now this is the union of the soul and body; the substance of the one cannot be mixed or united with the other; but they are held together in such a state of union, that all the actions and sufferings of the one, are at the same time the actions and sufferings of the other. The soul has no thought or passion, but the body is concerned in it; the body has no action or motion, but what, in some degree, affects the soul.
Now, as it is the sole will of God, that is the cause of all the powers and effects which you see in the world; as the sun gives light and heat, not because it has any natural power of so doing; as it is fixed in a certain place, and other bodies moving about it; not because it is in the nature of the sun to stand still, and in the nature of other bodies to move about it; but merely because it is the will of God, that they should be in such a state: as the eye is the organ, or instrument of seeing, not because the skins, and coats, and humours of the eye, have a natural power of giving sight: as the ears are the organs, or instruments of hearing, not because the make of the ear has any natural power over sounds, but merely because it is the will of God, that seeing and hearing should be thus received; so it is the sole will of God, that is the cause of this union betwixt the soul and the body.
20. If you rightly apprehend this short account of the union of the soul and body, you will see a great deal into the reason of all the outward parts of religion.
This union of our souls and bodies, is the reason both why we have so little and so much power over ourselves. It is owing to this, that we have so little power over our souls: for as we cannot prevent the effects of external objects upon our bodies; as we cannot command outward causes; so we cannot always command the inward state of our minds; because, as outward objects act upon our bodies without our leave, so our bodies act upon our minds by the laws of the union vital. And thus you see it is owing to this union, that we have so little power over ourselves.
On the other hand, it is owing to this union, that we have so much power over ourselves. For as our souls in a great measure depend upon our bodies; and as we have great power over these; as we can mortify our bodies, and remove ourselves from objects that inflame our passions; so we have a great power over the inward state of our souls. Again, as the outward acts of reading, praying, singing, and the like, have an effect upon the soul; so by being masters of these outward, bodily actions, we have great power over the inward state of the heart.
And thus it is owing to this union, that we have so much power over ourselves.
Now from this you may see the benefit of singing psalms, and of all the outward acts of religion; for if the body has so much power over the soul, all such bodily actions as affect the soul, are of great weight in religion, because they are proper to support that spirit, which is the true worship of God.
21. This doctrine may be easily carried too far; for by calling in too many outward means of worship, it may degenerate into superstition. But some have fallen into the contrary extreme. Because religion is justly placed in the heart, they renounce vocal prayer, and other outward acts of worship, and resolve all religion into a quietism, or mystic intercourse with God in silence.
But since we are neither all soul, nor all body; seeing none of our actions are either separately of the soul, or separately of the body; if we would truly prostrate ourselves before God, we must use our bodies to postures of lowliness. If we desire true fervours of devotion, we must make prayer the frequent labour of our lips. If we would feel inward joy and delight in God, we must practise all the outward acts of it, and make our voices call upon our hearts.
Now therefore, you may plainly see the reason of singing of psalms; it is because outward actions are necessary to support inward tempers.
22. I have been the longer upon this head, because of its importance to true religion. For there is no state of mind so excellent, as that of thankfulness to God; and consequently, nothing is of more importance than that which exercises and improves this habit of mind.
*An uneasy, complaining spirit, which is sometimes the spirit of those that seem careful of religion, is yet of all tempers the most contrary to religion; for it disowns that God which it pretends to adore. For he sufficiently disowns God, who does not adore him as a being of infinite goodness.
*If a man does not believe that all the world is as God’s family, where nothing happens by chance, but all is guided and directed by the care and providence of a being that is all love and goodness to all his creatures; if a man does not believe this from his heart, he cannot be said to believe in God. And yet he that has this faith, has faith enough to be always thankful to God. For he that believes every thing happens to him for the best, cannot complain for the want of something that is better.
If therefore you live in murmurings and complaints, it is not because you are a weak, infirm creature, but it is because you want the first principle of religion, a right belief in God. For as thankfulness is an express acknowledgement of the goodness of God towards you; so repinings and complaints are as plain accusations of God’s want of goodness towards you.
*On the other hand, would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most, or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills every thing that God willeth, who receives every thing as an instance of God’s goodness, and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.
All prayer and devotion, fastings and repentance, meditation and retirement, all sacraments and ordinances, are but so many means to render the soul thus conformable to the will of God, and to fill it with thankfulness and praise for every thing that comes from God. This is the perfection of all virtues; and all virtues that do not tend to it, or proceed from it, are but so many false ornaments of a soul not converted unto God.
23. If any one would tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness, he must tell you to thank and praise God for every thing that happens to you. For whatever seeming calamity happens, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. Could you therefore work miracles, you could not do more for yourself, than by this thankful spirit; for it heals with a word speaking, and turns all that it touches into happiness.
If therefore you would be so true to your interest, as to propose this thankfulness as the end of all your religion; if you would but settle it in your mind, that this was the state that you was to aim at by all your devotions, you would then have something plain and visible to walk by, and might judge of your improvement in piety. For so far as you renounce all motions of your own will, and seek for no other happiness, but in the thankful reception of every thing that happens to you, so far you have advanced in piety.
And altho’ this be the highest temper that you can aim at; yet it is not tied to any time, or place, or great occasion, but is always in your power, and may be the exercise of every day. For the common events of every day are sufficient to discover and exercise this temper, and may plainly shew you how far you are governed in all your actions by this thankful spirit.
24. It may perhaps be objected, that tho’ the benefit of this practice is apparent; yet it seems not so fit for private devotions, since it can hardly be performed without making our devotions public.
It is answered, first, that great numbers of people have it in their power to be as private as they please; such persons therefore are excluded from this excuse.
Secondly, Numbers of people are by the necessity of their state, as servants, apprentices, prisoners, and families in small houses, forced to be continually in the presence of somebody or other.
Now are such persons to neglect their prayers, because they cannot pray without being seen? Are they not rather obliged to be more exact in them, that others may not be witnesses of their neglect, and so corrupted by their example?
And what is here said of devotion, may surely be said of singing a psalm.
The rule is this: Don’t pray that you may be seen of men; but if your confinement obliges you to be always in the sight of others, be more afraid of being seen to neglect, than of being seen to have recourse to prayer.
Thirdly, Either people can use such privacy in this practice, as to have no hearers, or they cannot. If they can, then this objection vanishes as to them; and if they cannot, they should consider their confinement, and the necessities of their state, as the confinement of a prison; and then have an excellent pattern to follow: they may imitate St. Paul and Silas, who sang praises to God in prison, tho’ we are expresly told, that the prisoners heard them. They did not refrain this kind of devotion, for fear of being heard by others. If therefore any one is in the same necessity, either in prison or out of prison, what can he do better, than to follow this example?
Fourthly, The privacy of our prayers is not destroyed by our having, but by our seeking witnesses of them.
If therefore nobody hears you but those you cannot separate yourself from, you are as much in secret, and your Father who seeth in secret, will as truly reward your secrecy, as if you was seen by him alone.