SEED-GRAIN

FOR

THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION.

HOLY LIVING.

CONSIDERATIONS OF THE GENERAL INSTRUMENTS AND MEANS SERVING TO A HOLY LIFE.

Ir is necessary that every man should consider, that since God hath given him an excellent nature, wisdom, and choice, an understanding soul, and an immortal spirit; having made him lord over the beasts, and but a little lower than the angels; he hath also appointed for him a work and a service great enough to employ those abilities, and hath also designed him to a state of life after this, to which he can only arrive by that service and obedience. And, therefore, as every man is wholly God's own portion by the title of creation, so all our labours and care, all our powers and faculties, must be wholly employed in the service of God, even all the days of our life, that, this life being ended, we may live with Him forever.

Neither is it sufficient that we think of the service of

God as a work of the least necessity, or of small employment, but that it be done by us as God intended it; that it be done with great earnestness and passion, with much zeal and desire; that we refuse no labour, that we bestow upon it much time, that we use the best guides, and arrive at the end of glory by all the ways of grace, of prudence, and religion.

And, indeed, if we consider how much of our lives is taken up by the needs of nature, how many years are wholly spent before we come to any use of reason, how many years more before that reason is useful to us to any great purposes, how imperfect our discourse is made by our evil education, false principles, ill company, bad examples, and want of experience, how many parts of our wisest and best years are spent in eating and sleeping, in necessary businesses and unnecessary vanities, in worldly civilities and less useful circumstances, in the learning arts and sciences, languages or trades; that little portion of hours that is left for the practices of piety and religious walking with God is so short and trifling, that, were not the goodness of God infinitely great, it might seem unreasonable or impossible for us to expect of Him eternal joys in Heaven, even after the well spending those few minutes which are left for God and God's service, after we have served ourselves and our own occasions. Jeremy Taylor.

The First General Instrument of Holy Living. Care of our Time.—God hath given every man work enough to do, that there shall be no room for idleness; and yet hath so

ordered the world, that there shall be space for devotion. He that hath the fewest businesses of the world, is called upon to spend more time in the dressing of his soul; and he that hath the most affairs, may so order them that they shall be a service of God; whilst at certain periods they are blessed with prayers and actions of religion, and all day long are hallowed by a holy intention.

However, so long as idleness is quite shut out from our lives, all the sins of wantonness, softness, and effeminacy are prevented, and there is but little room left for temptation; and, therefore, to a busy man temptation is fain 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 full body, and with open violence, and the impudence of a restless importunity. ib.

In the morning, when you awake, accustom yourself to think first upon God, or something in order to his service; and at night also let Him close thine eyes, and let your sleep be necessary and healthful, not idle and expensive of time, beyond the needs and conveniences of nature; and sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes, when he is coming forth from his chambers of the east. ib.

Never talk with any man, or undertake any trifling employment, merely to pass the time away; for every day well spent may become a day of salvation, and time rightly employed is an acceptable time. ib.

Let your employment be such as may become a reasonable person, and not be a business fit for children or distracted people, but fit for 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 of time he shall serve no end but of folly and vanity. ib.

Persons of great quality, and of no trade, are to be most prudent and curious in their employment and traffic of time. They are miserable, if their education hath been so loose and undisciplined as to leave them unfurnished of skill to spend their time; but most miserable are they, if such misgovernment and unskilfulness make them fall into vicious and baser company, and drive on their time by the sad minutes and periods of sin and death. ib.

Let all persons of all conditions avoid all delicacy and niceness in their clothing or diet, because such softness engages them upon great misspendings of their time, while they dress and comb out all their opportunities of their morning devotion, and half the day's severity, and sleep out the care and provision for their souls.

Let every one, of every condition, avoid curiosity, and all inquiry into things that concern them not. ib.

As much as may be, cut off all impertinent and useless employments of your life, unnecessary and fantastic visits, long waitings upon great personages, where neither duty, nor necessity, nor charity, obliges us; all vain meet

ings, all laborious trifles, and whatsoever spends much time to no real, civil, religious, or charitable purpose.

Let not your recreations be lavish spenders of your time, but choose such which are healthful, short, transient, recreative, and apt to refresh you; but at no hand dwell upon them, or make them your great employment; for he that spends his time in sports, and calls it recreation, is like him whose garment is all made of fringes, and his meat nothing but sauces; they are healthless, chargeable, and useless. ib.

The Second General Instrument of Holy Living. Purity of Intention. Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or form to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain to a river, or the base to a pillar; for 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 flatness and ruin; and the action is sinful, or unprofitable and vain. ib.

Have a care, that while the altar thus sends up a holy flame, thou dost not suffer the birds to come and carry away the sacrifice; that is, let not that which began well, and was intended for God's glory, decline, and end in thy own praise, or temporal satisfaction, or sin. ib.

If

any accidental event, which was not first intended by thee, come to pass, let it not be taken into thy purposes,