Concerning
the nature and extent of Christian devotion.
DEVOTION
is neither private nor public prayer; but prayers, whether
private or public, are particular parts or instances of
devotion. Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to
God.
He,
therefore, is the devout man, who lives no longer to his
own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the
sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who
serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his
common life parts of piety, by doing everything in the
Name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to
His glory.
We
readily acknowledge, that God alone is to be the rule and
measure of our prayers; that in them we are to look wholly
unto Him, and act wholly for Him; that we are only to pray
in such a manner, for such things, and such ends, as are
suitable to His glory.
Now let
any one but find out the reason why he is to be thus
strictly pious in his prayers, and he will find the same
as strong a reason to be as strictly pious in all the
other parts of his life. For there is not the least shadow
of a reason why we should make God the rule and measure of
our prayers; why we should then look wholly unto Him, and
pray according to His will; but what equally proves it
necessary for us to look wholly unto God, and make Him the
rule and measure of all the other actions of our life. For
any ways of life, any employment of our talents, whether
of our parts, our time, or money, that is not strictly
according to the will of God, that is not for such ends as
are suitable to His glory, are as great absurdities and
failings, as prayers that are not according to the will of
God. For there is no other reason why our prayers should
be according to the will of God, why they should have
nothing in them but what is wise, and holy, and heavenly;
there is no other reason for this, but that our lives may
be of the same nature, full of the same wisdom, holiness,
and heavenly tempers, that we may live unto God in the
same spirit that we pray unto Him. Were it not our strict
duty to live by reason, to devote all the actions of our
lives to God, were it not absolutely necessary to walk
before Him in wisdom and holiness and all heavenly
conversation, doing everything in His Name, and for His
glory, there would be no excellency or wisdom in the most
heavenly prayers. Nay, such prayers would be absurdities;
they would be like prayers for wings, when it was no part
of our duty to fly.
As sure,
therefore, as there is any wisdom in praying for the
Spirit of God, so sure is it, that we are to make that
Spirit the rule of all our actions; as sure as it is our
duty to look wholly unto God in our prayers, so sure is it
that it is our duty to live wholly unto God in our lives.
But we can no more be said to live unto God, unless we
live unto Him in all the ordinary actions of our life,
unless He be the rule and measure of all our ways, than we
can be said to pray unto God, unless our prayers look
wholly unto Him. So that unreasonable and absurd ways of
life, whether in labour or diversion, whether they consume
our time, or our money, are like unreasonable and absurd
prayers, and are as truly an offence unto God.
It is for
want of knowing, or at least considering this, that we see
such a mixture of ridicule in the lives of many people.
You see them strict as to some times and places of
devotion, but when the service of the Church is over, they
are but like those that seldom or never come there. In
their way of life, their manner of spending their time and
money, in their cares and fears, in their pleasures and
indulgences, in their labour and diversions, they are like
the rest of the world. This makes the loose part of the
world generally make a jest of those that are devout,
because they see their devotion goes no farther than their
prayers, and that when they are over, they live no more
unto God, till the time of prayer returns again; but live
by the same humour and fancy, and in as full an enjoyment
of all the follies of life as other people. This is the
reason why they are the jest and scorn of careless and
worldly people; not because they are really devoted to
God, but because they appear to have no other devotion but
that of occasional prayers.
Julius[1]
is very fearful of missing prayers; all the parish
supposes Julius to be sick, if he is not at Church. But if
you were to ask him why he spends the rest of his time by
humour or chance? why he is a companion of the silliest
people in their most silly pleasures? why he is ready for
every impertinent[2] entertainment and diversion? If you
were to ask him why there is no amusement too trifling to
please him? why he is busy at all balls and assemblies?
why he gives himself up to an idle, gossiping
conversation? why he lives in foolish friendships and
fondness for particular persons, that neither want nor
deserve any particular kindness? why he allows himself in
foolish hatreds and resentments against particular persons
without considering that he is to love everybody as
himself? If you ask him why he never puts his
conversation, his time, and fortune, under the rules of
religion? Julius has no more to say for himself than the
most disorderly person. For the whole tenor of Scripture
lies as directly against such a life, as against
debauchery and intemperance: he that lives such a course
of idleness and folly, lives no more according to the
religion of Jesus Christ, than he that lives in gluttony
and intemperance.
If a man
was to tell Julius that there was no occasion for so much
constancy at prayers, and that he might, without any harm
to himself, neglect the service of the Church, as the
generality of people do, Julius would think such a one to
be no Christian, and that he ought to avoid his company.
But if a person only tells him, that he may live as the
generality of the world does, that he may enjoy himself as
others do, that he may spend his time and money as people
of fashion do, that he may conform to the follies and
frailties of the generality, and gratify his tempers and
passions as most people do, Julius never suspects that man
to want a Christian spirit, or that he is doing the
devil's work. And if Julius was to read all the New
Testament from the beginning to the end, he would find his
course of life condemned in every page of it.
And
indeed there cannot anything be imagined more absurd in
itself, than wise, and sublime, and heavenly prayers,
added to a life of vanity and folly, where neither labour
nor diversions, neither time nor money, are under the
direction of the wisdom and heavenly tempers of our
prayers. If we were to see a man pretending to act wholly
with regard to God in everything that he did, that would
neither spend time nor money, nor take any labour or
diversion, but so far as he could act according to strict
principles of reason and piety, and yet at the same time
neglect all prayer, whether public or private, should we
not be amazed at such a man, and wonder how he could have
so much folly along with so much religion?
Yet this
is as reasonable as for any person to pretend to
strictness in devotion, to be careful of observing times
and places of prayer, and yet letting the rest of his
life, his time and labour, his talents and money, be
disposed of without any regard to strict rules of piety
and devotion. For it is as great an absurdity to suppose
holy prayers, and Divine petitions, without a holiness of
life suitable to them, as to suppose a holy and Divine
life without prayers.
Let any
one therefore think how easily he could confute a man that
pretended to great strictness of life without prayer, and
the same arguments will as plainly confute another, that
pretends to strictness of prayer, without carrying the
same strictness into every other part of life. For to be
weak and foolish in spending our time and fortune, is no
greater a mistake, than to be weak and foolish in relation
to our prayers. And to allow ourselves in any ways of life
that neither are, nor can be offered to God, is the same
irreligion, as to neglect our prayers, or use them in such
a manner as make them an offering unworthy of God.
The short
of the matter is this; either reason and religion
prescribe rules and ends to all the ordinary actions of
our life, or they do not: if they do, then it is as
necessary to govern all our actions by those rules, as it
is necessary to worship God. For if religion teaches us
anything concerning eating and drinking, or spending our
time and money; if it teaches us how we are to use and
contemn the world; if it tells us what tempers we are to
have in common life, how we are to be disposed towards all
people; how we are to behave towards the sick, the poor,
the old, the destitute; if it tells us whom we are to
treat with a particular love, whom we are to regard with a
particular esteem; if it tells us how we are to treat our
enemies, and how we are to mortify and deny ourselves; he
must be very weak that can think these parts of religion
are not to be observed with as much exactness, as any
doctrines that relate to prayers.
It is
very observable, that there is not one command in all the
Gospel for public worship; and perhaps it is a duty that
is least insisted upon in Scripture of any other. The
frequent attendance at it is never so much as mentioned in
all the New Testament. Whereas that religion or devotion
which is to govern the ordinary actions of our life is to
be found in almost every verse of Scripture. Our blessed
Saviour and His Apostles are wholly taken up in doctrines
that relate to common life. They call us to renounce the
world, and differ in every temper and way of life, from
the spirit and the way of the world: to renounce all its
goods, to fear none of its evils, to reject its joys, and
have no value for its happiness: to be as new-born babes,
that are born into a new state of things: to live as
pilgrims in spiritual watching, in holy fear, and heavenly
aspiring after another life: to take up our daily cross,
to deny ourselves, to profess the blessedness of mourning,
to seek the blessedness of poverty of spirit: to forsake
the pride and vanity of riches, to take no thought for the
morrow, to live in the profoundest state of humility, to
rejoice in worldly sufferings: to reject the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life: to
bear injuries, to forgive and bless our enemies, and to
love mankind as God loveth them: to give up our whole
hearts and affections to God, and strive to enter through
the strait gate into a life of eternal glory.
This is
the common devotion which our blessed Saviour taught, in
order to make it the common life of all Christians. Is it
not therefore exceeding strange that people should place
so much piety in the attendance upon public worship,
concerning which there is not one precept of our Lord's to
be found, and yet neglect these common duties of our
ordinary life, which are commanded in every page of the
Gospel? I call these duties the devotion of our common
life, because if they are to be practised, they must be
made parts of our common life; they can have no place
anywhere else.
If
contempt of the world and heavenly affection is a
necessary temper of Christians, it is necessary that this
temper appear in the whole course of their lives, in their
manner of using the world, because it can have no place
anywhere else. If self-denial be a condition of salvation,
all that would be saved must make it a part of their
ordinary life. If humility be a Christian duty, then the
common life of a Christian is to be a constant course of
humility in all its kinds. If poverty of spirit be
necessary, it must be the spirit and temper of every day
of our lives. If we are to relieve the naked, the sick,
and the prisoner, it must be the common charity of our
lives, as far as we can render ourselves able to perform
it. If we are to love our enemies, we must make our common
life a visible exercise and demonstration of that love. If
content and thankfulness, if the patient bearing of evil
be duties to God, they are the duties of every day, and in
every circumstance of our life. If we are to be wise and
holy as the new-born sons of God, we can no otherwise be
so, but by renouncing everything that is foolish and vain
in every part of our common life. If we are to be in
Christ new creatures, we must show that we are so, by
having new ways of living in the world. If we are to
follow Christ, it must be in our common way of spending
every day.
Thus it
is in all the virtues and holy tempers of Christianity;
they are not ours unless they be the virtues and tempers
of our ordinary life. So that Christianity is so far from
leaving us to live in the common ways of life, conforming
to the folly of customs, and gratifying the passions and
tempers which the spirit of the world delights in, it is
so far from indulging us in any of these things, that all
its virtues which it makes necessary to salvation are only
so many ways of living above and contrary to the world, in
all the common actions of our life. If our common life is
not a common course of humility, self-denial, renunciation
of the world, poverty of spirit, and heavenly affection,
we do not live the lives of Christians.
But yet
though it is thus plain that this, and this alone, is
Christianity, a uniform, open, and visible practice of all
these virtues, yet it is as plain, that there is little or
nothing of this to be found, even amongst the better sort
of people. You see them often at Church, and pleased with
fine preachers: but look into their lives, and you see
them just the same sort of people as others are, that make
no pretences to devotion. The difference that you find
betwixt them, is only the difference of their natural
tempers. They have the same taste of the world, the same
worldly cares, and fears, and joys; they have the same
turn of mind, equally vain in their desires. You see the
same fondness for state and equipage, the same pride and
vanity of dress, the same self-love and indulgence, the
same foolish friendships, and groundless hatreds, the same
levity of mind, and trifling spirit, the same fondness for
diversions, the same idle dispositions, and vain ways of
spending their time in visiting and conversation, as the
rest of the world, that make no pretences to devotion.
I do not
mean this comparison, betwixt people seemingly good and
professed rakes, but betwixt people of sober lives. Let us
take an instance in two modest women: let it be supposed
that one of them is careful of times of devotion, and
observes them through a sense of duty, and that the other
has no hearty concern about it, but is at Church seldom or
often, just as it happens. Now it is a very easy thing to
see this difference betwixt these persons. But when you
have seen this, can you find any farther difference
betwixt them? Can you find that their common life is of a
different kind? Are not the tempers, and customs, and
manners of the one, of the same kind as of the other? Do
they live as if they belonged to different worlds, had
different views in their heads, and different rules and
measures of all their actions? Have they not the same
goods and evils? Are they not pleased and displeased in
the same manner, and for the same things? Do they not live
in the same course of life? does one seem to be of this
world, looking at the things that are temporal, and the
other to be of another world, looking wholly at the things
that are eternal? Does the one live in pleasure,
delighting herself in show or dress, and the other live in
self-denial and mortification, renouncing everything that
looks like vanity, either of person, dress, or carriage?
Does the one follow public diversions, and trifle away her
time in idle visits, and corrupt conversation, and does
the other study all the arts of improving her time, living
in prayer and watching, and such good works as may make
all her time turn to her advantage, and be placed to her
account at the last day? Is the one careless of expense,
and glad to be able to adorn herself with every costly
ornament of dress, and does the other consider her fortune
as a talent given her by God, which is to be improved
religiously, and no more to be spent on vain and needless
ornaments than it is to be buried in the earth? Where must
you look, to find one person of religion differing in this
manner, from another that has none? And yet if they do not
differ in these things which are here related, can it with
any sense be said, the one is a good Christian, and the
other not?
Take
another instance amongst the men? Leo[3] has a great deal
of good nature, has kept what they call good company,
hates everything that is false and base, is very generous
and brave to his friends; but has concerned himself so
little with religion that he hardly knows the difference
betwixt a Jew and a Christian.
Eusebius,[4]
on the other hand, has had early impressions of religion,
and buys books of devotion. He can talk of all the feasts
and fasts of the Church, and knows the names of most men
that have been eminent for piety. You never hear him
swear, or make a loose jest; and when he talks of
religion, he talks of it as of a matter of the last
concern.
Here you
see, that one person has religion enough, according to the
way of the world, to be reckoned a pious Christian, and
the other is so far from all appearance of religion, that
he may fairly be reckoned a Heathen; and yet if you look
into their common life; if you examine their chief and
ruling tempers in the greatest articles of life, or the
greatest doctrines of Christianity, you will not find the
least difference imaginable.
Consider
them with regard to the use of the world, because that is
what everybody can see.
Now to
have right notions and tempers with relation to this
world, is as essential to religion as it have right
notions of God. And it is as possible for a man to worship
a crocodile, and yet be a pious man, as to have his
affections set upon this world, and yet be a good
Christian.
But now
if you consider Leo and Eusebius in this respect, you will
find them exactly alike, seeking, using, and enjoying, all
that can be got in this world in the same manner, and for
the same ends. You will find that riches, prosperity,
pleasures, indulgences, state equipages, and honour, are
just as much the happiness of Eusebius as they are of Leo.
And yet if Christianity has not changed a man's mind and
temper with relation to these things, what can we say that
it has done for him? For if the doctrines of Christianity
were practised, they would make a man as different from
other people, as to all worldly tempers, sensual
pleasures, and the pride of life, as a wise man is
different from a natural; it would be as easy a thing to
know a Christian by his outward course of life, as it is
now difficult to find anybody that lives it. For it is
notorious that Christians are now not only like other men
in their frailties and infirmities, this might be in some
degree excusable, but the complaint is, they are like
Heathens in all the main and chief articles of their
lives. They enjoy the world, and live every day in the
same tempers, and the same designs, and the same
indulgences, as they did who knew not God, nor of any
happiness in another life. Everybody that is capable of
any reflection, must have observed, that this is generally
the state even of devout people, whether men or women. You
may see them different from other people, so far as to
times and places of prayer, but generally like the rest of
the world in all the other parts of their lives: that is,
adding Christian devotion to a Heathen life. I have the
authority of our blessed Saviour for this remark, where He
says, "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?
or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek." [Matt. vi. 31, 32] But if to be thus affected
even with the necessary things of this life, shows that we
are not yet of a Christian spirit, but are like the
Heathens, surely to enjoy the vanity and folly of the
world as they did, to be like them in the main chief
tempers of our lives, in self-love and indulgence, in
sensual pleasures and diversions, in the vanity of dress,
the love of show and greatness, or any other gaudy
distinctions of fortune, is a much greater sign of an
Heathen temper. And, consequently, they who add devotion
to such a life, must be said to pray as Christians, but
live as Heathens.
