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and patient devotion; fo that it shall never want good SERM. fuccefs.

Without this practice we cannot indeed hope to obtain those precious things; they will not come at an easy rate, or be given for a song; a lazy wish or two cannot fetch them down from heaven. God will not bestow them at first asking, or deal them out in one lump: but it is upon affiduous foliciting, and by gradual communication, that he dispenseth them. So his wife good-will, for many special reasons, disposeth him to proceed: that we may (as it becometh and behoveth us) abide under a continual fenfe of our natural impotency and penury; of our dependance upon God, and obligation to him for the free collation of those best gifts: that by some difficulty of procuring them we may be minded of their worth, and induced the more to prize them: that by earnestly seeking them we may improve our spiritual appetites, and excite holy affections: that by much converfing with heaven our minds may be raised above earthly things, and our hearts purified from fordid defires that we may have a conftant employment answerable to the beft capacities of our fouls, worthy our care and pain, yielding most folid profit and pure delight unto us: that, in fine, by our greater endeavour in religious practice we may obtain a more ample reward thereof.

VI.

For the fame reason indeed that we pray at all, we should pray thus with continued inftance. We do not pray to inftruct or advise God; not to tell him news, or inform him of our wants: (He knows them, as our Sa- Matt. vi. 8 viour. telleth us, before we afk:) nor do we pray by dint of argument to persuade God, and bring him to our bent; nor that by fair speech we may cajole him or move his affections toward us by pathetical orations: not for any fuch purpose are we obliged to pray. But for that it becometh and behoveth us fo to do, because it is a proper inftrument of bettering, ennobling, and perfecting our fouls; because it breedeth most holy affections, and pure fatisfactions, and worthy refolutions; because it fitteth us for the enjoyment of happiness, and leadeth us

VI.

SERM. thither: for fuch ends devotion is prescribed; and conftant perfeverance therein being needful to those purposes, (praying by fits and starts not fufficing to accomplish them,) therefore fuch perfeverance is required of us. Farther,

v. 19.

V. Praying inceffantly may import, that we do with all our occupations and all occurrences interlace devout ejaculations of prayer and praise; lifting up our hearts to God, and breathing forth expreffions of devotion, fuitable to the objects and occafions which prefent themselves. This as it nearly doth approach to the punctual accomplishment of what our text prefcribeth, fo it feemeth reEph. vi. 18. quired by St. Paul, when he biddeth us pray always v Col. iii. 16. @veúμati, in fpirit, and to fing v rỹ xapdía, in the heart: that is, with very frequent elevations of spirit in holy thoughts and defires toward heaven; with opportune refentments of heart, directing thanks and praise to God. We cannot ever be framing or venting long prayers with our lips, but almost ever our mind can throw pious glances, our heart may dart good wishes upwards; fo that hardly any moment (any confiderable space of time) fhall pass without fome lightsome flashes of devotion3. As bodily respiration, without intermiffion or impediment, doth concur with all our actions; fo may that breathing of foul, which preserveth our spiritual life, and ventilateth that holy flame within us, well confpire with all other occupations b. For devotion is of a nature fo fpiritual, fo fubtile, and penetrant, that no matter can exclude or obftru&t it. Our minds are fo exceedingly nimble and active, that no business can hold pace with them, or exhauft their attention and activity. We can never be fo fully poffeffed by any employment, but that divers vacuities of time do intercur, wherein our thoughts and affections will be diverted to other matters. As a covetous man, what

Sed non fatis perfpiciunt quantum natura humani ingenii valeat, quæ ita eft agilis et velox, fic in omnem partem (ut ita dixerim) fpectat, ut ne poffit quidem aliquid agere tantum unum; in plura vero non eodem die modo, fed eodem temporis momento, vim fuam impendat. Quint. i. 12.

• Μνημονευτέον γὰρ Θεοῦ μᾶλλον ἢ ἀναπνευσίον· καὶ εἰ οἷόν τε τοῦτο εἰπεῖν, μηδὲ ἄλλο τι ἢ τότο πρακτέον. Naz. Οr. 33.

VI.

Annam,

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ever befide he is doing, will be carking about his bags SERM. and treasures; an ambitious man will be devifing on his plots and projects; a voluptuous man will have his mind in his dishes; a lafcivious man will be doting on his amours; a ftudious man will be mufing on his notions; every man, according to his particular inclination, will Vid. Chryf. lard his business and befprinkle all his actions with cares Orat. v. in and wishes tending to the enjoyment of what he moft tom. v. p. efteemeth and affecteth: so may a good Chriftian, through all his undertakings, wind in devout reflections and pious motions of foul toward the chief object of his mind and affection. Moft bufineffes have wide gaps, all have some chinks, at which devotion may flip in. Be we never fo urgently fet or closely intent upon any work, (be we feeding, be we travelling, be we trading, be we studying,) nothing yet can forbid, but that we may together wedge in a thought concerning God's goodnefs, and bolt forth a word of praise for it; but that we may reflect on our fins, and spend a penitential figh on them; but that we may defcry our need of God's help, and dispatch a brief petition for it: a God be praifed, a Lord have mercy, a God blefs, or God help me, will nowise interrupt or disturb our proceedings. As worldly cares and defires do often intrude and creep into our devotions, diftracting and defiling them; fo may fpiritual thoughts and holy affections infinuate themselves into, and hallow our fecular tranfactions. This practice is very poffible, and it is no less expedient: for that if our employments be not thus feafoned, they can have no true life or favour in them; they will in themselves be dead and putrid, they will be foul and noisome, or at least flat and infipid unto us.

There are fome other good meanings of this precept, according to which holy Scripture (backed with good reafon) obligeth us to obferve it: but thofe, (together with the general inducements to the practice of this duty,) that I may not farther now trespass on your patience, I fhall referve to another opportunity.

• Εἰπὶ κατὰ διάνοιαν, Ελέησόν με, ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἀπήρτισαί σε ἡ εὐχή. Chry/. ibid.

SERMON VII.

OF THE DUTY OF PRAYER.

I THESS. V. 17.

Pray without ceafing.

SERM. WHAT the prayer here enjoined by St. Paul doth imVII. port, and how by it univerfally all forts of devotion should be understood, we did formerly difcourfe. How also according to divers fenfes (grounded in holy Scripture, and enforced by good reason) we may perform this duty inceffantly, we did then declare; five fuch fenfes we did mention and profecute: I fhall now add two or three more, and prefs them.

VI. Praying then incessantly may imply, that we do appoint certain times conveniently distant for the practice of devotion, and carefully obferve them. To keep the Jews in a conftant exercise of divine worship, God did Dan. viii. conftitute a facrifice, which was called Tamidh, ( dianavròS vola) the continual facrifice. And as that facrifice, being Neh. x. 33. conftantly offered at fet times, was thence denominated continual; fo may we, by punctually observing fit returns of devotion, be faid to pray inceffantly.

11.

Heb. xiii. 5.

And great reafon there is that we should do fo. For we know that all perfons, who would not lead a loose and flattering life, but defign with good affurance and advantage to profecute an orderly courfe of action, are wont to distribute their time into feveral parcels; affigning fome part thereof to the neceffary refection of their bodies, fome to the convenient relaxation of their minds,

fome to the dispatch of their ordinary affairs, fome alfo SERM. to familiar converfation, and interchanging good offices VII. with their friends d; confidering, that otherwise they thall be uncertain, and unftable in all their ways. And in this diftribution of time devotion furely fhould not lack its fhare: it rather justly claimeth the choiceft portion to be allotted thereto, as being incomparably the noblest part of our duty, and mainest concernment of our lives. The feeding our fouls and nourishing our fpiritual life, the refreshing our spirits with those no less pleasant than wholefome exercises, the driving on our correfpondence and commerce with heaven, the improving our friendship and intereft with God, are affairs which above all others do best deserve, and most need being fecured. They must not therefore be left at random, to be done by the by, as it hitteth by chance, or as the fancy taketh us. If we do not depute vacant seasons, and fix periodical returns for devotion, engaging ourselves by firm refolution, and inuring our minds by conftant ufage to the ftrict obfervance of them, fecluding from them, as from facred enclosures, all other bufineffes; we shall often be dangerously tempted to neglect it, we fhall be commonly liftless to it, prone to defer it, eafily feduced from it by the encroachment of other affairs, or enticement of other pleafures. It is requifite that our fouls alfo (no less than our bodies) should have their meals, fettled at fuch intervals as the maintenance of their life, their health, their strength and vigour do require; that they may not perish or languish for want of timely repafts; that a good appetite may duly spring up, prompting and inftigating to them; that a found temper and robust constitution of foul may be preserved by them.

Prayers are the bulwarks of piety and good conscience, the which ought to be placed fo as to flank and relieve one another, together with the interjacent spaces of our

d Cur ipfi aliquid forenfibus negotiis, aliquid defideriis amicorum, aliquid rationibus domefticis, aliquid curæ corporis, nonnihil voluptati quotidie damus? Quint. i. 12.

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