The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying I. OF THE GENERAL INSTRUMENTS AND MEANS SERVING TO A HOLY LIFE Introduction It is necessary that every man should consider that since God has given him an excellent nature, an understanding soul, and an immortal spirit, having made him lord over the beasts, and but a little lower than the angels; he has appointed for him a work and a service great enough to employ those abilities, and has designed him to a state of life after this, to which he can only arrive by that service and obedience. Therefore, as every man is wholly God’s own portion by the title of creation, so all our labor 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 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 labor, 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 be useful to us to any great purposes; how imperfect our discourse is made by our evil education, false principles, ill company, bad examples, and lack of experience; how many parts of our best years are wholly spent in eating and sleeping, in necessary businesses and unnecessary vanities; in learning arts and sciences, languages or trades; that little portion of hours that is left for the practice of piety and walking with God is so short, that were not the goodness of God infinitely great, it might seem unreasonable to expect of him eternal joys in heaven, even after spending well those few minutes which are left for God and God’s service. And yet the fruit that comes from the many days of vanity is very little. But from the few hours we spend in prayer and the exercises of a pious life, the return is great and profitable; and what we sow in the minutes of a few years grows up to crowns and scepters in a glorious eternity. 1. Therefore, although it cannot be enjoined that the greatest part of our time should be spent in the direct actions of devotion, yet it is not only a duty, but also a great providence, to lay aside for the services of God and the businesses of the Spirit as much as we can. Because God rewards our minutes with eternal happiness; and the greater portion of our time we give to God, the more we treasure up for ourselves. No man is a better merchant than he who lays out his time upon God, and his money upon the poor. 2. It becomes us to remember and adore God’s goodness, for God has not only permitted us to serve the necessities of our nature, but has made them parts of our duty; that if we, by directing these actions to the glory of God, intend them as instruments to continue our persons in his service, he, by adopting them into religion, may turn our nature into grace, and accept our natural actions as actions of religion. God is pleased to esteem it a part of his service for us to eat or drink, so it be done temperately, and as may best preserve our health; that our health may enable us to perform our services toward him. And there is not one minute of our lives (after we have come to the use of reason), but we are and may be doing the work of God, even then when we most of all serve ourselves. 3. To which if we add, that in these and all other actions of our lives, we always stand before God, acting, and speaking, and thinking in his presence; and that it matters not that we have our conscience sealed with secrecy, since it lies open to God; it will concern us to behave ourselves carefully, as in the presence of our Judge. These three considerations, applied to the several parts and instances of our lives, will be, like Elisha stretched upon the child, apt to put life and quickness into every part of it, and to make us live the life of grace, and do the work of God. I shall therefore, by way of introduction, reduce them to practice, and show how every Christian may improve all and each of them to the advantage of piety, in the whole course of his life. Section I The First General Instrument of Holy Living: Care of Our Time He who is choice of his time will also be choice of his company, and choice of his actions; lest the first engage him in vanity and loss, and the latter, by being criminal, be a throwing of his time and himself away, and a going back in the accounts of eternity. God has given to man a short time upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends; so that for every hour of our life (after we know good from evil), we must give an account to the great Judge of men and angels. For we must remember that we have a great work to do: many enemies to conquer, many evils to prevent, much danger to run through, many difficulties to be mastered, many necessities to serve, and much good to do; many children to provide for, or many friends to support, or many poor to relieve, or many diseases to cure; besides our private and our public cares, and duties of the world, which the providence of God has adopted into the family of religion. The life of every man may (and, indeed, must) be so ordered that it may be a perpetual serving of God. The greatest trouble and most busy trade, when they are necessary, or charitable, or profitable, in order to any of those ends which we are bound to serve, whether public or private, being a doing of God’s work. For God provides the good things of the world to serve the needs of nature, by the labors of the ploughman, the skill and pains of the artisan, and the dangers and traffic of the merchant; these men are in their callings the ministers of the divine providence, and the stewards of the creation, and servants of a great family of God, the world, in procuring necessaries for food and clothing, ornament and physic. In their proportions also, a king, a priest, a prophet, a judge, and an advocate, doing the work of their employment according to their proper rules, are doing the work of God; because they serve those necessities that God has made, and yet made no provisions for them but by their ministry. So that no man can complain that his calling takes him off from religion, his calling itself, and his very worldly employment, is a serving of God; and if it be pursued, according to the rules of Christian prudence, will leave void spaces enough for prayers and retirements of a more spiritual religion. God has given every man work enough to do that there is no room for idleness; and yet has so ordered the world that there is space for devotion. He who has the fewest businesses of the world, is called upon to spend more time in the dressing of his soul. And he who has the most affairs, may so order them that they shall be a service to God; at certain periods, they are blessed with prayers and actions of religion, and all day long are hallowed by a holy intention. And so long as idleness is quite shut out from our lives, all the sins of wantonness, softness, and effeminacy are prevented. Therefore, to a busy man temptations are 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 restless importunity. Idleness is called “the sin of Sodom and her daughters,” and, indeed, is the burial of a living man; an idle person being so useless to any purposes of God and man that he is like one who is dead: he only lives to spend his time and eat the fruits of the earth. He is like a vermin or a wolf, when their time comes they die and perish, and in the meantime do no good; they neither plough nor carry burdens, all they do either is unprofitable or mischievous. Idleness is the greatest prodigality in the world. It throws away that which is invaluable, in respect of its present use, and irreparable when it is past. But the way to secure and improve our time we may practice in the following rules. Rules for Employing Our Time 1. In the morning, when you awake, accustom yourself to think first on God. At night also, let him close your eyes. And let your sleep be necessary and healthful, not beyond the needs of nature. 2. Let every man who has a calling be diligent in it, so as not to neglect it in any of those times which are usually and by the custom of prudent persons and good husbands employed in it. 3. Let all the intervals or void spaces of time be employed in prayers, reading, meditating, charity, and means of spiritual and corporal health; ever remembering so to work in our calling, as not to neglect the work of our high calling, but to begin and end the day with God. 4. Avoid the company of busy-bodies and all such as are apt to talk much to little purpose; for no man can be provident of his time who is not prudent in the choice of his company. And if one of the speakers is trifling, he who hears and he who answers are equal losers of their time. 5. Never talk with any man, or undertake any employment, merely to pass the time away. And remember, the time you trifle away was given you to repent in, to pray for pardon of sins, to work out your salvation, to do the work of grace, to lay up against the Day of Judgment a treasure of good works, that your time may be crowned with eternity. 6. In the midst of the works of your calling, often retire to God in short prayers and exclamations, and those may make up the lack of those larger portions of time which it may be you desire for devotion; for so you reconcile the outward and your inward calling, the church and the commonwealth, the employment of the body and the interest of your soul. 7. Let your employment be such as may become a reasonable person. There are some trades that wholly serve the ends of idle persons and fools, and such as are fit to be seized upon by the severity of laws and banished from under the sun. 8. Let our employment be such as becomes a Christian; that is, in no sense mingled with sin; for he who takes pains to serve the ends of covetousness, or ministers to another’s lust, or keeps a shop of impurities or intemperance, is idle in the worst sense; for every hour so spent runs him backward, and must be spent again in the remaining part of his life, and spent better. 9. Let all persons, of all conditions, avoid all delicacy and niceness in their clothing or diet, because such softness engages them upon great misspending of their time, while they dress and comb out all opportunities of their morning devotion, and sleep out the care and provision for their souls. 10. Let every one, of every condition, avoid curiosity, and all inquiry into things that concern them not. For all business in things that concern us not, is an employing our time to no good of ours; and therefore not in order to a happy eternity. In this account our neighbors’ necessities are not to be reckoned, for they concern us as one member is concerned in the grief of another; but going from house to house, tattlers and busy-bodies, who are the canker and rust of idleness, as idleness is the rust of time, are reproved by the apostle in severe language. 11. As much as may be, cut off all impertinent and useless employments of your life: unnecessary visits, long waiting upon great personages, where neither duty nor necessity nor charity obliges us; all vain meetings, all laborious trifles, and whatsoever spends much time to no real, religious, or charitable purpose. 12. Set apart some portions of every day for more solemn devotion, which be exact in observing; and if variety of employment press upon you, yet so order your rule that the necessary parts of it be not omitted; and though just occasions may make your prayers shorter, yet let nothing but a violent, sudden, and impatient necessity make you, upon any one day, wholly omit your morning and evening devotions. 13. Do not the work of God negligently and idly. Let not your heart be upon the world, when your hand is lifted up in prayer; and be sure to prefer an action of religion in its place, before all worldly pleasure; letting secular things (that may be dispensed within themselves) in these circumstances wait upon the other. In honoring God and doing his work, put forth all your strength, for of that time only you may be most confident that it is gained which is prudently and zealously spent in God’s service. 14. When the clock strikes, it is good to say a short prayer every hour, that the parts and returns of devotion may be the measure of your time; and do so also in all the breaches of your sleep, that those spaces which have in them no direct business of the world may be filled with religion. 15. Let him who is most busied set apart some solemn time every year, in which, quitting all worldly business, he may attend wholly to fasting and prayer, and the dressing of his soul by confessions, meditations, and attendance upon God; that he may make up his accounts, renew his vows, make amends for his carelessness, and retire back again from whence levity and the vanities of the world, or the opportunity of temptation, or the distraction of secular affairs have carried him. 16. We shall find the work easier if, before we sleep every night, we examine the actions of the past day with a particular scrutiny. Let us take care that we sleep not without such a recollection of the actions of the day. 17. Let all these things be done prudently and moderately, not with scruple and vexation. For these are good advantages, but the particulars are not divine commandments, and therefore are to be used as shall be found expedient to every one’s condition. Section II The Second General Instrument of Holy Living: Purity of Intention That we should intend God’s glory in every action we do, is expressed by St. Paul, “Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). This rule when we observe, is that every action of nature becomes religious, and every meal is an act of worship, and shall have its reward in its proportion, as well as an act of prayer. Blessed be that goodness and grace of God, which, out of infinite desire to glorify mankind, would make the very works of nature capable of becoming acts of virtue, that all our lifetime we may do him service. This grace is so excellent, that it sanctifies the most common action of our life; and yet, so necessary, that without it the very best actions of our devotion are vicious. For he who prays out of custom, or gives alms for praise, or fasts to be accounted religious, is but a Pharisee in his devotion, and a beggar of his alms, and a hypocrite in his fasts; but a holy end sanctifies all these and all other actions which can be made holy. For, as to know the end distinguishes a man from a beast; so to choose a good end distinguishes him from an evil man. Hezekiah repeated his good deeds upon his sick bed and obtained favor of God; but the Pharisee was accounted insolent for doing the same thing, because this man did it to upbraid his brother, the other to obtain a mercy of God. Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world; for without these the body is a dead trunk, the tree is a block, the world is darkness, and the action is sinful. Rules for Our Intentions 1. In every action reflect upon the end; and in your undertaking of it, consider why you do it, and what you propound to yourself for a reward, and to your action as its end. 2. Begin every action in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; the meaning of which is (a) that we be careful that we do not do the action without the permission or warrant of God; (b) that we design it for the glory of God, if not in the direct action, yet at least in its consequence; and (c) that it may be so blessed that what we intend for innocent and holy purposes may not, by any abuse, be turned into evil, or made the occasion of sin. 3. Let every action of importance begin with prayer, that God would not only bless the action, but also sanctify your purpose, and make an offering of the action to God; holy and well-intended actions being the best offerings we can make to God. 4. In the execution of the action, renew and rekindle your purpose by short prayers, to these purposes, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto your name let all praise be given” (Ps. 115:1), and consider, “Now I am working the work of God, I am his servant, I am in a happy employment, I am doing my Master’s business, I am not at my own disposal, I am using his talents, and all the gain must be his.” For then be sure, as the glory is his, so the reward shall be yours. If you bring his goods home with increase, he will make you ruler over cities. 5. Take care, that while the altar thus sends up a holy fume, you do 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 your own praise or temporal satisfaction. 6. In every more solemn action of religion, join together many good ends, that the consideration of them may entertain all your affections; and that when any one ceases, the purity of your intention may be supported by another supply. He who fasts only to tame a rebellious body, when he is provided of a remedy, may be tempted to leave off his fasting. But he who in his fast intends the mortification of every unruly appetite, and to accustom himself to bear the yoke of the Lord, seeking a contempt of the pleasures of meat and drink, humiliation of all wilder thoughts, obedience and humility, austerity and charity, and the convenience and assistance to devotion; whatever happens, will have reason enough to make him to continue his purpose. 7. If any temptation should happen in a religious duty, do not presently omit the action, but rather strive to rectify your intention and to mortify the temptation. Saint Bernard taught us this rule. For when the devil, observing him to preach excellently, tempted him to vainglory, hoping that the good man, to avoid that, would cease preaching, he gave this answer, “I neither began for you, neither for you will I make an end.” Section III The Third General Instrument of Holy Living: The Practice of the Presence of God That God is present in all places; that he sees every action, hears all discourses, and understands every thought; is no strange thing to the ear of a Christian, who has been taught this doctrine not only by right reason, and the consent of all the wise men in the world, but also by God himself in Holy Scripture. “‘Am I a God at hand,’ says the Lord, ‘and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?’ says the Lord. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’” (Jer. 23:23–24). “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. . . . For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Heb. 4:13; Acts 17:28). God is wholly in every place, included in no place, not bound with cords (except those of love); not divided into parts, not changeable into several shapes; filling heaven and earth with his present power, and with his never absent nature. We understand the presence of God in several manners, and to several purposes: 1. God is present by his essence, which, because it is infinite, cannot be contained within the limits of any place. 2. God is everywhere present, by his power. He rolls the orbs of heaven with his hand; he fixes the earth with his foot; he guides all the creatures with his eye, and refreshes them with his influence. He makes the powers of hell to shake with his terrors, and binds the devils with his word, and throws them out with his command, and sends the angels on embassies with his decrees. He hardens the joints of infants, and confirms the bones when they are fashioned beneath secretly in the earth. It is he who assists at the numerous productions of fish; and there is no hollowness in the bottom of the sea, but he shows himself to be Lord of it, by sustaining there the creatures that dwell in it. 3. God is more especially present in some places by the more special manifestations of himself to extraordinary purposes by glory. Thus his seat is in heaven, because there he sits encircled with all the outward demonstrations of his glory, which he is pleased to show to all the inhabitants of his inward and secret courts. 4. God is, by grace and benediction, especially present in holy places, and in the solemn assemblies of his servants. If holy people meet in caves and dens of the earth, when persecution disturbs the public order, God fails not to come there to them. 5. God is especially present in the hearts of his people by his Holy Spirit; and, indeed, the hearts of holy men are temples in the truth of things, and in type and shadow they are heaven itself. For God reigns in the hearts of his servants; there is his kingdom. The power of grace has subdued all his enemies; there is his power. They serve him night and day, and give him thanks and praise; that is his glory. This is the religion and worship of God in the temple. The temple itself is the heart of man. Christ is the High Priest, who from there sends up the incense of prayers, and joins them to his own intercession, and presents all together to his Father; and the Holy Spirit, by his dwelling there, has also consecrated it into a temple; and God dwells in our hearts by faith, and Christ by his Spirit, so that we are also cabinets of the mysterious Trinity; and what is this short of heaven itself, but as infancy is short of manhood? The same state of life it is, but not the same age. It is heaven in a looking glass—dark, but yet true—representing the beauties of the soul, and the graces of God, and the images of his eternal glory by the reality of a special presence. 6. God is especially present in the consciences of all persons, good and bad, by way of testimony and judgment. That is, he is there a reminder to call our actions to mind, a witness to bring them to judgment, and a judge to acquit or to condemn. And although this manner of presence is in this life after the manner of this life; that is, imperfect, and we forget many actions of our lives; yet the greatest changes of our state of grace or sin, our most considerable actions are always present, like capital letters to an aged and dim eye. And at the Day of Judgment God will draw aside the cloud, and manifest this manner of his presence more notoriously, and make it appear that he was an observer of our very thoughts; and that he only laid those things by, which because we were covered with dust and negligence, were not then discerned. But when we have risen from our dust and imperfection, they will all appear plain and legible. The consideration of this great truth is of a universal use in the whole life of a Christian. He who remembers that God stands as a witness and a judge, beholding every secrecy, besides his impiety, must have put on impudence, if he is not much restrained in his temptation to sin. For the greatest part of sin is taken away if a man has a witness of his conversation. And he is a great despiser of God who sends a boy away when he is going to commit fornication, and yet will dare to do it, though he knows God is present, and cannot be sent off. As if the eye of a little boy were more awful than the all-seeing eye of God. He is to be feared in public; he is to be feared in private. If you go forth, he spies you; if you go in, he sees you. When you light the candle, he observes you; when you put it out, then also God marks you. Be sure that while you are in his sight, you behave yourself as becomes so holy a presence. But if you will sin, retire yourself wisely, and go where God cannot see; for nowhere else can you be safe. If men would always consider this, that God is the great eye of the world, always watching over our actions, and an ever-open ear to hear all our words, and an unwearied arm ever lifted up to crush a sinner into ruin; it would be the readiest way in the world to make sin cease from amongst the children of men, and for men to approach to the blessed estate of the saints in heaven, who cannot sin, for they always walk in the presence and behold the face of God. Rules for Exercising This Consideration 1. Let this actual thought often return, that God is omnipresent, filling every place, and say with David, “Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, you are there” (Ps. 139:7–8). It is a great inducement to act faultlessly, when we act before the Judge, who is infallible in his sentence, all knowing in his information, severe in his anger, powerful in his providence, and intolerable in his wrath and indignation. 2. In the beginning of actions of religion, make an act of adoration; that is, solemnly worship God, and place yourself in God’s presence, and behold him with the eye of faith, and let your desires actually fix on him as the object of your worship, and the reason of your hope, and the fountain of your blessing. For when you have placed yourself before him and knelt in his presence, it is most likely that all the following parts of your devotion will be answerable to the wisdom of such an apprehension and the glory of such a presence. 3. Let everything you see represent to your spirit the presence, the excellency, and the power of God, and let your conversation with the creatures lead you unto the Creator; for so shall your actions be done more frequently with an actual eye to God’s presence, by your often seeing him in the glass of the creation. In the face of the sun you may see God’s beauty; in the fire you may feel his heat warming; in the water his gentleness to refresh you. He it is who comforts your spirits when you have taken cordials. It is the dew of heaven that makes your field give you bread; and the breasts of God are the bottles that minister drink to your necessities. This philosophy, which is obvious to every man’s experience, is a good advantage to our piety; and by this act of understanding, our wills are checked from violence and misdemeanor. 4. In your retirement make frequent colloquies or short discourses between God and your own soul. “Seven times a day do I praise you: and in the night season also I thought upon you while I was waking.” So did David. And every act of complaint or thanksgiving, every act of rejoicing or of mourning, every petition and every return of the heart in these interactions, is a going to God, an appearing in his presence, and a representing him present to your spirit and to your necessity. And this was long since by a spiritual person called, “a building to God, a chapel in our heart.” It reconciles Martha’s employment with Mary’s devotion, charity, and religion; the necessities of our calling and the employments of devotion. For thus in the midst of the works of your trade, you may retire into your chapel (your heart), and converse with God. 5. Represent and offer to God acts of love and fear, which are the proper effects of this apprehension, and the proper exercise of this consideration. For as God is everywhere present by his power, he calls for reverence and godly fear. As he is present to you in all your needs, and relieves them, he deserves your love; and since in every circumstance of our lives we find one or other of these apparent, and in most things we see both, it is a proper return, that to every such demonstration of God, we express, ourselves sensible of it, by admiring the divine goodness, or trembling at his presence, ever obeying him because we fear to offend him. This is that which Enoch did, who thus walked with God. 6. Let us remember that God is in us, and that we are in him. We are his workmanship, let us not deface it; we are in his presence, let us not pollute it by unholy actions. God has also “wrought all our works in us” (Isa. 26:12), and because he rejoices in his own works, if we defile them and make them unpleasant to him, we walk perversely with God, and he will walk crookedly toward us. 7. God is in the heart of your brother; refresh him when he needs it, and then you give your alms in the presence of God, and to God, and he feels the relief which you provide for your brother. 8. God is in every place; suppose it therefore to be a church. And that decency of behavior, which you are taught to use in churches, the same use in all places with this difference only: in churches let your actions be religious in external forms also; but there and everywhere let it be religious in abstaining from spiritual indecencies, and in readiness to do good. 9. God is in every creature. Be cruel toward none, neither use any by intemperance. Remember that the creatures and every member of your own body is one of the lesser cabinets and receptacles of God. They are such that God has blessed with his presence, hallowed by his touch, and separated from unholy use by making them belong to his dwelling. 10. He walks as in the presence of God who converses with him in frequent prayer, who runs to him in all his necessities, who asks counsel of him in all his doubts, who opens all his wants to him, who weeps before him for his sins, who asks support for his weakness, who fears him as a Judge, reverences him as a Lord, obeys him as a Father, and loves him as a Patron.