thy paths, that my footsteps slip not;' when we hear a passing bell, 'Oh, teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart to wisdom,' or, 'Lord, let me know my end, and the number of my days.'1

Thus may we dart out our holy desires to God, upon all occasions. Wherein heed must be taken that our ejaculations be not, on the one side, so rare that our hearts grow to be hard and strange to God, but that they may be held on in continual acknowledgment of him, and acquaintance with him; and, on the other side, that they be not so over-frequent in their perpetual reiteration, as that they grow to be, like that of the Romish votaries, fashionable; which, if great care be not taken, will fall out to the utter frustrating of our devotion. Shortly, let the measure of these devout glances be the preserving our hearts in a constant tenderness and godly disposition; which shall be further actuated upon all opportunities, by the exercises of our more enlarged and fixed devotion; whereof there is the same variety that there is in God's services, about which it is conversant.

1 Psalm, xix. 1; lxxiv. 16; civ. 2; xcvii. 11; xxxiii 5; xciii. 4; cxxxix. 12; cxxxix. 1, 2; li. 7; xvii. 5; xc. 12; xxxix. 4.

2 Matters of form, or custom.-Ed.

123

CHAPTER IV.

OF ACTUAL DEVOTION.

grace,

THERE are three main businesses, wherein God accounts his services here below to consist. The first is, our address to the throne of and the pouring out of our souls before him in our prayers; the second is, the reading and hearing his most holy word; the third is, the receipt of his blessed sacraments in all which there is place and use for a

SETTLED DEVOTION.

SECT. 1. Of our Address to the Throne of Grace in Prayer.

To begin with the first work of our actual and enlarged devotion.

(1.) Some things are pre-required of us, to make us capable of the comfortable peformance of so holy and heavenly a duty; namely, that the heart be clean first, and then that it be clear; clean from the defilement of any known sin, clear from all entanglements and distractions.

What do we in our prayers, but converse with the Almighty; and either carry our souls up to him, or bring him down to us. Now, it is useless to hope that we can entertain God in an impure heart. Even we men loath a foul and sluttish

lodging: how much more will the holy God abhor a habitation spiritually filthy! I find that even the unclean spirit' made that a motive of his repossession, that he found the house swept and garnished." Satan's cleanliness is pollution, and his garnishment disorder and wickedness; without this, he finds no welcome. Each spirit looks for an entertainment answerable to his nature: how much more will that God of spirits, who is purity itself, look to be harboured in a cleanly room! "Into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin."2

What friend would be pleased that we should lodge him in a lazar-house? or, who would abide to have a toad lie in his bosom? Surely it is not in the verge of created nature to yield any thing that can be so noisome and odious to the sense of man, as sin is to that absolute and essential Goodness. His pure eyes cannot endure the sight of sin; neither can he endure that the sinner should come within the sight of him. Away from me, ye wicked,' is his charge both here and hereafter.

It is the privilege and happiness of the pure in heart, that they shall see God: see him both in the end and in the way, enjoying the vision of him both in grace and in glory. This is no object for impure eyes.

Descend into thyself therefore, and ransack thy heart, whoever wouldst be a true client of devotion : search all the close windings of it with the torches of the law of God; and, if there be any iniquity found lurking in the secret corners thereof, drag it

1 Luke, xi. 25.

2 Wis. i. 4.

1

out and abandon it: and when thou hast done, that thy fingers may retain no pollution, say, with the holy Psalmist, 'I will wash my hands in innocence: so will I go to thine altar." Presume not to approach the altar of God, there to offer the sacrifice of thy devotion with unclean hands; else thine offering shall be so far from winning an acceptance for thee from the hands of God, as that thou shalt make thine offering abominable. And if a beast touch the mount, it shall die.2

As the soul must be clean from sin, so it must be clear and free from distractions. The intent of our devotion is to welcome God to our hearts now where shall we entertain him, if the rooms be full, thronged with cares and turbulent passions ? The Spirit of God will not endure to be crowded up together with the world in our strait lodgings; a holy vacuity must make way for him in our bosoms. The divine pattern of devotion, in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily, retires into the mount to pray; he that carried heaven with him, would even thus leave the world below him. Alas! how can we hope to mount up to heaven in our thoughts, if we have the clogs of earthly cares hanging at our heels?

Yea, not only must there be shutting out of all distractive cares and passions, which are professed enemies to our quiet conversing with God in our devotion, but there must be also a denudation of he mind from all those images of our phantasy, now pleasing soever, that may carry our thoughts aside from those better objects. We are like to foolish children, who, when they should be sted

1 Ps. xxvi. 6.

2 Exod. xix. 13.

fastly looking on their books, are apt to gaze after every butterfly that passeth by them. Here must be, therefore, a careful intention' of our thoughts; a restraint from all vain and idle rovings; and a holding ourselves close to our divine task. While Martha is troubled about many things, her devouter sister, having chosen the better part, plies the one thing necessary, which shall never be taken from her; and, while Martha would feast Christ with bodily fare, she is feasted of Christ with heavenly delicacies.

After the heart is thus cleansed and thus cleared, it must be in the next place decked with true humility, the cheapest, yet best ornament of the soul.

If the wise man tells us, that "pride is the beginning of sin," surely all gracious dispositions must begin in humility. The foundation of all high and stately buildings must be laid low. They are the lowly vallies that soak in the showers of heaven, which the steep hills shelve off, and prove dry and fruitless: To that man will I look,' saith God, that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."3 Hence it is that the more eminent any man is in grace, the more he is dejected in the sight of God. The father of the faithful comes to God under the style of dust and ashes; David, under the style of 'a worm and no man; Agur, the son of Jakeh, under the title of more brutish than any man; and one that hath not the understanding of a

1 Fixedness-ED.
3 Is. Ixvi. 2.

2 Ecclus. x. 13. 4 Gen. xviii. 27.

5 Ps. xx. 6.