SPIRITUAL COUNSEL: OR, THE Father's Advice TO HIS CHILDREN.  Hear ye Children the Instruction of a Father, and attend to know Understanding, Prov. 4.1. 

Imprimatur.  
Feb. 12. 1693/ 4. Guil. Lancaster.   
LONDON, Printed for S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal-Exchange in cornhill, 1694.   

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THIS little Manual of Spiritual Counsel, was at first undertaken and composed by the Author for the Private Use of his own Children; but upon a Review, it being thought as useful to others as to them, he was induced to make it public for the Common Good. And that the rather, partly because the Contents of these Papers( tho directed to his own Children) are of general Concernment, and such as are calculated for People of all Ages and Conditions; and partly for the greater Security of the Copy, which in a private Manuscript would be in great danger of being lost; but by being Printed would be better preserved for the use of those for whom it was first designed. And as the Printing of it secures it from being lost one way, so 'tis the Author's Serious Wish and Prayer, that the Pious Care and Attention of those that peruse it, may hinder it from being lost another.   

SPIRITUAL COUNSEL: OR, THE Father's Advice TO HIS CHILDREN.  
My Dear Children,  
IF ever you live to Maturity of Age, and I happen to die before you do so, remember and consider the Words of a careful and affectionate Father, touched with a most lively Concern both for your Present and Future Welfare, but chiefly your Future, that of your precious and immortal Souls, which must be either Eternally Happy or Miserable in another World, according as you live and demean yourselves in this. And therefore,  

I.  
Be sure that you dedicate your tender Years to the Service and Glory of God, and that you remember your Creator in the days of your Youth. You will then have most need to remember him, and you will then be most apt to forget him. Set therefore a double guard upon that part of your Life, and be then especially diligent to remember and be mindful of him that made you. It will make your Duty easy, and your Lives Happy. You will have the Comfort of it when you come to Die, besides the constant Satisfaction it will afford you all your Lives long.   

II.  
And as you make Religion your First, so be sure you make it your Greatest and chiefest Care: Not a By-work( as the general manner of the World is) but your Principal Concern, the great Business and Employment of your whole Life. For indeed Religion is your Greatest Concernment, & therefore ought to be your main Business and Employment. Solomon tells you, That to Fear God and keep his Commandments is the Whole of Man: And a Greater than he, That 'tis the One thing Needful. 'tis For this that you have your Being in this World, and 'tis By this that you can hope for a Well-being in that which is to come. Your eternal Happiness depends upon it, and therefore as you tender that, see that you apply yourselves chiefly to the Fear and Love of God, and the keeping of his Commandments; and that you make Religion the great Affair and Employment of your Mind and Life.   

III.  
And as you make it your Great, so be sure you make it your Daily Employment; as you certainly will if you truly make it your Great one. Let not a Day pass over your Heads without Serious Thoughts of God, and a due Performance of Religious Homage to him; and endeavour to spend every Day as well as you can, and to make every Day a Step towards Eternity. You do so in a Natural, and therefore take care you do so also in a Spiritual Sense, making every day some Preparation for your Last; considering that you know not when that will be, that you have but a few days in all to spend, and how precioius every Portion even of the longest Life must needs be, upon which an Eternity depends. And therefore for your better Improvement of every day, I advice you,   

IV.  
To accustom yourselves upon your first waking in the Morning, to Meditate seriously upon God, to offer to him your first Thoughts, and most solemnly to dedicate to him yourselves, your Souls and Bodies, your Designs and your Undertakings, and the whole succeeding day, which in all likelihood will be the better spent for having been so happily begun. And as you thus begin the day with God, so let it end with him too, making him the last subject of your Meditations when you lye down in your Beds, and as you compose yourselves to your nightly Rest; that so you may both Wake and Sleep in God.   

V.  
The two Extremities of the day being thus secured, there will be the less danger of Mis-spending the middle parts of it. But for the better Security and Improvement of these, let me advice you in General, to accustom yourselves to make Solemn Prayers to God in Private upon your Knees, at least three times a day,( besides occasional and less solemn Ejaculations) and as much oftener as you find yourselves disposed. And if these times be fixed and stated to some certain Hours so much the better, that so the return of the Hour appointed may as a Natural Instrument, put you in mind of your Devotions.   

VI.  
To make which the more Orderly, pray take care, that the first thing that you do in the Morning, as soon as you are up and conveniently habited, be to sanctify and Hallow the day, by a solemn devotional Address of yourselves to God in Prayer. Let this be the first thing you do, I mean before you take any Secular or Worldly thing in hand. For there is one certain thing that I would advice you to do even before you say your Prayers, and that is, to red as attentively and considerately as you can a Chapter in the Bible. This I would have you do every Morning before you go to your Prayers, which you will find to be a most excellent and advantageous practise, not only as serving to inform your Understandings, and bring you acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, but also to warm and quicken your Wills and Affections, and to tune your Souls, and put them into a due Composure for your following Devotion. For which the two other more solemn Seasons are, some time about the middle of the day, and at night when you go to Bed. At which time besides your ordinary Devotion, as in the other two, you would do well to take a Review of the day past, and particularly examine how you have spent it, not only that if you have done well you may glorify God; and if ill, may humble yourselves before him, and make your Peace with him before you commit yourselves to sleep, but also that by this Exercise you may know what progress you make in Piety, what the State of your Souls is, and how accounts stand between you and God; and may also learn to spend every day the better, as you will find yourselves induced to do, by the very prospect of that returning Account which you are to render of it to yourselves at Night.   

VII.  
Besides which Nightly Review, I think it very expedient that you should set apart some certain Seasons, wherein to sit in more solemn judgement upon yourselves, to review and take account of your past Lives, to call your Sins to remembrance, to confess and bewail them, and to humble your Souls and Bodies in the Presence of God for them, and to form new Resolutions, and new Acts of Abhorrence and Detestation against them. These days I would have to be purely and entirely days of Religion, to be wholly spent in Reading, Prayer, and Divine Meditation. Sequester yourselves upon these days from all Worldly Business, retire from all Company, and let nothing be the employment of them, but what relates to the Grand Affair. And that these days may be thus strictly kept and spent, I would have their return to be but Monthly, suppose the first or last Friday in every Month. I the rather mention Friday, because it is one of the Church-Fasts, and I would have you make these days to be days of Fasting as well as of Prayer, that so both together may complete your Repentance and Humiliation. The great Advantage of thus frequently making up your Accounts in these your Nightly and Monthly Reckonings, you will find to be chiefly this, that it will greatly contribute to the present Amendment of your Lives, your Repentances thus keeping place with your Miscarriages; and to the ease of your Consciences when you come to die. At which time you will find it work enough to engage with your bodily Disorders, and to attend to the proper Duties of your present Condition, tho you have not the Course of a whole Life to unravel, nor a train of Actions long past and long forgotten to bring to remembrance. And indeed 'twill be a sad thing to have then Sums to cast up, and Reckonings to make, when you are Sick and in Pain, and have neither Understanding, nor Memory, nor Leisure, nor Will to recollect yourselves.   

VIII.  
In these and all other times of your Devotion, let me further advice you to observe this General Rule, Never to put yourselves into the Presence of God by Prayer, till you have first recollected yourselves by aweful thoughts of the Divine Majesty, and have by some short but serious Meditation, composed your Minds to a reverend and devout Performance of so Important and Divine a Duty. For besides that 'tis rude, and savours of Profaneness, to rush into the Presence of God without previous Consideration: He that approaches him so Irreverently at first, is not like to bespeak him with much greater Reverence afterwards. Therefore compose your Spirit before you begin, and be not like one that goes to play upon his Instrument before he has tuned it. 'tis the Advice of a wiser Person than I, Before thou Prayest, says the Son of sirach, prepare thyself, and be not as one that tempteth the Lord.   

IX.  
After you have thus duly disposed your Heart, then you may with decency proceed to bend your Knee. And whenever you Pray to God, be sure you do it with all that Humility and Reverence that becomes a Creature and a Sinner, speaking both to his Maker and his Judge, and with all possible affectionate Warmth and Fervour of Spirit; this being the very Life and Soul of Prayer, and the only thing that distinguishes it from pronouncing so many Words, or the going over in ones mind so many Thoughts. Let Earnestness therefore and Fervour of Affection, be constant Ingredients in all your Prayers, especially when you Pray for the Forgiveness of your Sins. Pray then yet more earnestly, as your Saviour did in the Garden, when he was about to Suffer for them. And sure one would think, that he who begs God to forgive him his Sins, and understands how great a thing he asks, and is sensible in what need he stands of it, and withall how unworthy to receive it, and considers the greatness of the Person of whom he begs it, and of the Price by which the very Possibility of it was purchased, and how much Goodness that is which bestows it, and consequently how high a Favour it must be in case he receive it, need not be further minded or admonished of being Earnest and Fervent in his Devotion.   

X.  
But that you may Pray Fervently, be sure you Pray Attentively. This is necessary to the other, as well as upon its own account, it being impossible that a Man should be moved or affencted with what he either does not at all understand, or does not consider. But indeed these mutually help one another. Warmth of Affection will make Men Attentive; and Attention will help to procure and excite Affection. Be sure therefore that you use great Attention and Fixation of Mind in your Prayers, that you attend heedfully both to the Matter of your Prayers, and to that aweful Majesty you Pray to and that your Thoughts do not wander from either of them. Always remembering, that there can hardly be a greater piece of Irreverence, than to approach God by a Bodily Movement, when our Spirits are absent from him, and engaged upon other Objects: That a Prayer so put up, is not only lost and thrown away, but profaned; and that instead of performing a Duty, we commit a Sin, by taking God's Name in vain. And let me tell you, that this is the worst way of taking God's Name in vain, because we do it so deliberately, and under a pretence of worshipping him. But that you may not be guilty of this, let me advice you,   

XI.  
Not only to that which by Spiritual Persons is commonly advised in this case, viz. to Simplifie and recollect your Spirits by Silence and Repose, to be loose and disengaged from the World, to have as little Business and as few Desires as may be; but also to accustom yourselves, whenever you happen to hear the Name of God mentioned, to make a Reverential Pause, and form within yourselves an inward Act of Adoration and Worship: Which you will find not only to be a good practise in itself, but also to tend to good, as leaving and fixing a Pious Impression upon your Spirits; whereby you will become less apt to Profane that great and venerable Name in your more solemn Addresses, which you have thus accustomend yourselves to reverence, when even occasionally mentioned.   

XII.  
And as you take care that your Spirits accompany your Bodies in your Prayers, so let it be your next care that your Bodies accompany your Spirits. I mean that you join Bodily Worship to your Spiritual, and use the most lowly and reverential Gestures and Postures that you can possibly put yourselves into. Such as Bowing the Head, Elevation of the Hands and Eyes, bending the Knees, and even Prostration itself upon more Solemn Occasions. And this not only because God has a right to his whole Creature, and consequently to the worship of the Body as well as of the Soul, but also because Bodily Worship contributes mightily to the Advantage of Spiritual; and the Soul not only signifies and expresses her Devotion by the lowly Postures of her Body, but also cherishes and helps it forward. As some Men by acting an Angry Part, and putting on the outward Air of Resentment, begin at last to enter into the Spirit of that Passion, which they intended only to personate.   

XIII.  
If you find yourselves tempted to lay aside Bodily Worship( as some have done and do) upon the Pretence of Worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth, I would have you look upon it as no other than a Suggestion of the Devil, who is willing to defraud God of one half of his due, the Service of the Body, under the Pretence of its being unnecessary( tho he would fain have had it himself, when he would have bribed our Saviour to fall down and worship him) and yourselves of that advantage which the Humiliations of your Bodies would derive upon the Disposition of your Souls. But for your Satisfaction in this Point( not to trouble you with any Critical Remarks upon the Words Spirit and Truth) you need only consider, that as God under the Ceremonial Law did not command the Worship of the Body without the Engagement of the Spirit, so neither does he now require that of the Spirit, without the Fellowship and Communion of the Body. And that as a Religion consisting in Extenrals only, is not worthy of an Intellectual Nature, so a Worship purely Mental and Intellectual, is too Abstract and Sublime for a Nature allied to Sense, and depending upon it. But our Saviour is the best Interpreter of his own Law, and his practise the best Comment. He to be sure was the most Spiritual Worshipper that ever was, and yet none more remarkable than he, for using Bodily Prostrations, from which he would not excuse himself even upon the across itself. For when he was to surrender up his Soul into the Hands of his Father, he did it in a Posture expressive of Reverence and Devotion, He bowed his Head, the Text says, and gave up the Ghost. But for this it may suffice, that God has given you a Soul and a Body in Conjunction, and you are to Serve and Worship him in the same manner as he has made you.   

XIV.  
But this composure of your Bodies into a reverential and devotional Posture, to which I advice you in your closerts, ought more especially to be regarded and observed in the public Worship of God( that in the very Nature of it, requiring visible Testimonies and outward Tokens of Veneration) which I would have you constantly to frequent in all the parts of it, especially those two so much disregarded and neglected by some of late( which yet are the only parts that properly deserve the Name of Worship) the Prayers of the Church, and the Administration of the Holy Sacrament. In all which let your outward Deportment, as well as inward Spirit, be Grave, Serious and Composed; such as becomes the Place and Presence you are in, and the Duties you are about, and that decent Respect which you owe to the Assemblies of the Saints.   

XV.  
So much may serve for your Direction, as to the Manner of your Devotion. Concerning the Matter of it, I need only mind you, that Spiritual Blessings are the things you are chiefly to Pray for; and that those are also the things for which you are chiefly to give Thanks. For which you have a plain President in that Divine Form of Prayer commended to our use by our Lord himself, in which the pference is so far given to our Spiritual Part and Concern, that there is but one Petition for the things relating to the Good of this Temporal Life. And that too no farther than is requisite to our present Sustentation, Give us this day our daily Bread. In imitation of which it has pleased the Wisdom of our Church, in that large comprehensive Office called the Litany, or general Supplication, to have but one Clause of Prayer, that directly and expressly Petitions for the good of this Life, which is, That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly Fruits of the Earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them. From which( 'tis observable) without dwelling long upon it, she immediately passes to the requesting of true Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins, with which she closes all. Wherein you may yet further observe, that tho the Church in great Wisdom, has thought requisite to have but one Prayer of this sort, and to drive off even that one among the last, yet with equal Wisdom she thought fit not to make it the last of all, lest such a Close of our Devotion should leave behind it a relish of Earthly Good upon the taste of the Soul. To prevent which she concludes with a Petition of an higher Nature, That it may please thee to give us true Repentance; to forgive us all our Sins, Negligences and Ignorances, and to due us with the Grace of thy Holy Spirit, to amend our Lives according to thy Holy Word.   

XVI.  
To the Exercise of Actual, I would in the next place advice you to join the practise of Habitual Prayer. By which I mean, that you would so accustom yourselves to the Contemplation of God in and through all his Creatures, that none of those Objects which surround you, may ever present themselves to your Senses, without awakening the Idea of God in your Minds, and admonishing you of that absolute and entire Dependence you and all Creatures have upon him. So that wherever you are, or with whomsoever you converse, or whatever your Business or Occupation be, you may always have a lively Sense of God ever returning upon you, and mixing itself with all your engagements, and Sanctifying even your most indifferent Actions; that your Hearts may be always flaming with his Love, and your Imagination fixed and stayed in his Holy Fear; your Passions being in profound Silence and aweful Repose, and you yourselves always ready and disposed to perform those more express Acts of Worship, which in their proper Seasons you owe to God. Whom however you may be truly and properly said continually to worship, and so to fulfil that Exhortation of the Apostle, of Praying without ceasing, when you have learnt thus to carry about with you a constant Habit of Divine and Religious Thoughts.   

XVII.  
This Habitual Prayer is the Perfection of Devotion, and the truest mark of a Heart thoroughly warmed and animated with the Spirit of Piety and Religion. The Images of those things which we dearly love, will frequently return upon us, and we are always disposed to give them entertainment as often as they offer themselves. And from our doing so, we may conclude how well we love them. And were the Love of God as thoroughly kindled in our Hearts, had we but the same Passion for him, that we have for some sensible Objects, we should find his great Idea upon all occasions present to our Thoughts, and that every thing would bring him to our Remembrance; our waking and our sleeping thoughts would be upon him, and he would enter in upon us at every Sense, we should see him and feel him in all things, be always under a quick and affecting Sense of him, and always in a ready Disposition for his Worship and Service. Thus would the State of our Minds be, if we had them once truly touched with the Love of God, to which also this way of Habitual Prayer is the most certain and compendious Method, it being impossible that a Man should so continually put himself in the Presence of so amiable a Being, without being taken and ravished with the Perfection of his Beauty.   

XVIII.  
But after all( my good Children) I would have you think and remember, that a just and upright Conversation is the best way of Worship, and a holy and good Life the best Prayer; and that then you serve God most acceptably, when you keep his Commandments, and live in constant Obedience to his Will. When in the Language of the Prophet you do justly, and love Mercy, and walk humbly with your God; or as the Apostle expresses it, when denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts, you live Godly, Righteously, and Soberly in this present World. You may meet with some perhaps, that will tell you by way of reproach, that this is Morality. And you may tell them again, that they could not have called it by a better name. That it is such Morality as our Saviour taught in his Sermon upon the Mount, and of which his whole Life was the most shining Example; such Morality as was taught by his great Forerunner the Holy Baptist, and by all the Prophets that went before him, and by his Apostles that came after him. In fine, such Morality as is absolutely necessary to the present order of this World, and to the Happiness of the next; to our Admission into Heaven, and to our Enjoyment of God there, whom( as we are expressly  told) without Holiness no Man shall ever see.   

XIX.  
Now in order to a Holy Life, I shall not think it necessary( at least in these Papers designed for more particular Remarks) to describe to you the several parts of it, they are so plainly and fully laid down in the Holy Scriptures, and so largely commented on and explained in those many excellent Practical Treatises, which by the good Providence of God we of this Age and Nation enjoy. To which therefore I choose rather to refer you, advising you in the first place, to be very Diligent and Constant in reading the Bible, especially the New Testament, and in that particularly our Lords Sermon upon the Mount, which you would do well to get by heart. And among Human Writings, recommending to you chiefly Bishop Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, the Whole Duty of Man, Dr. Sherlock's two Books of Death and judgement, and Thomas a Kempis of the Imitation of Christ. Which last Book, tho not of so nice and artificial a Composure as the rest, seems yet to be written in such an excellent and truly Christian Spirit, and to have such a Vein of Piety and Simplicity running through it, as is beyond all the Finenesses and embellishments that Art can give. Leaving you therefore a while with this good Company, for a full Instruction in your christian Duty, I desire, that after you have learned it, you would lend your Attention to the following Advices, which I shall suggest to you for your better Assistance in the practise and Performance of it.   

XX.  
The first great and general Instrument of a Holy Life is Consideration, by which I mean the actual Attention and Advertency of our Minds to those things, the Knowledge and Theory of which, we have already in Power and general Habit. This, in relation to Civil Action and Business, or the Management of Affairs, is called Presence of Mind; but in the Concernment of Morality and Well-living, it usually goes by the name of Consideration, and implies an actual View of those Practical Truths, whereof we have an habitual Notion or Knowledge. This, next to the Grace of God, is the great Principle of a Good Life; and the want of this is the main Cause, into which the Sin and Misery of Mankind is generally to be resolved. Infinitely more Perish through want of Consideration, than either through Ignorance or Infidelity. Ignorance, indeed, and Error, of one sort or other, I suppose to be the true Cause of all our Miscarriages,( for if we Thought rightly, we should Will and Act rightly too) but as actual Ignorance is more common than Habitual, so I suppose more Men to Miscarry through Actual than through Habitual Ignorance, that is, for want of Considering, than for want of Knowing. Let me therefore advice you in the first place, and in general, to apply yourselves, with all possible Care and Diligence, to the practise of Consideration; to have in your Minds a present and actual View of those things which you know, both concerning your Duty, and the several Motives and engagements to the Performance of it. Ever remembering that 'tis not the knowing a great deal, but the due considering of that little a Man knows, that must make him either Wise or Good.   

XXI.  
Now among the particular Objects of Consideration, I think it advisable that you should, by repeated Reflections, endeavour to fix and imprint upon your Minds, and have always in actual View this Thought, That Sin is the Greatest of all Evils. Which Sentiment, as long as you preserve a bright and clear Sense of it in your Understandings, will secure your Wills from all possibility of Error. 'tis the losing the View of this Truth, by some Cloud of Passion intervening, that makes Men Sin; and 'tis the recovering of it again, that, next to the Grace of God, leads them to Repentance. Now the same Principle that makes Men repent after they have sinned, would, if then duly attended to, have kept them from Sinning. As this will certainly do. For it being impossible that a Man should will Evil as Evil; he that commits Sin, must for that instant think it at least a Comparative Good, which he can never do, if he actually thinks it the greatest Evil( there being then no greater Evil supposed, in respect of which it may receive that Estimation) and consequently can never commit it, while he continues actually in that judgement, unless you will suppose him to will Evil formally as Evil, which is utterly impossible. Take great care therefore, to have this Principle well lodged and fixed in your Understandings, That Sin is the Greatest Evil.   

XXII.  
This Consideration will suggest to you another, as the Consequence and Improvement of it, which is, That Sin must necessary be repented of one time or other. There is an unavoidable Necessity for it. I do not mean only a conditional Necessity, if we will be pardoned, but that it is simply and absolutely necessary, that is, That the judgement of Sins beng the greatest Evil( however silenced and interrupted for a time) will infallibly return again upon us; and we must and shall one time or other repent of it, and wish we had never committed it, either in this Life( if we be so happy) in order to our Pardon and Salvation, or at least in the other, when the Powers and Faculties of our Souls shall be more awakened, and our Spiritual Eyes so opened, as to see things in their proper Colours, and in their true Dimensions. Now consider this, especially when you find yourselves tempted to any Sin. Consider then, what you are about to do, a thing that you must again undo, and wish, one time or other, that you had never done, and so whether with such Thoughts about you, you can be guilty of such a Folly.   

XXIII.  
But to render this Consideration of Sins being the greatest Evil, and an Evil consequently that must and will be repented of the more effectual, my next Advice is, That you would join to it, the Consideration of the utter Emptiness and Vanity o●… all those Pleasures and Enjoyments which tempt to the Commission of it. A thing which every Man's Reason ●ay suggest to him, and which every Man's Experience does, and yet which so few are actually, and in all Instances convinced of; that forgetting their Disappointments, they run again as greedily to their Enjoyments, as if they had never made trial of their Vanity. Insomuch that the great Wisdom of Solomon gave proof of itself in nothing, more than in having obtained at length( tho late) a through Sense, an abiding Conviction, of the Worlds Vanity, which was the top of his Wisdom, and the result of his many Experiments. Endeavour therefore to possess your Minds of the like Conviction, and to fortify your former Consideration, of Sins being the greatest Evil, with this additional persuasion, of the Vanity and Nullity of all those Pleasures which may 'allure to the Commission of it, that so having lightened this opposite Scale of the balance, as well as added weight to the other, this last, by this further advantage, may not fail to weigh down; and you may be effectually secured from transgressing your Duty, when the Evil of it appears so great, and the Pleasure so small.   

XXIV.  
Which that you may be, extend your Thoughts yet further, and consider with yourselves, at what rate, and to what degree, God hates Sin. God who is infinite Wisdom, and infinite Love, all whose Wills are governed and directed by the eternal Rules of Order and Reason, and are from all Eternity formed and laid out in Number, Weight, and Measure, who assigns to every Object its due Proportion of Love and Hatred, loving nothing but what is truly Lovely, and so far as it is such; and hating nothing but what is truly hateful, and so far as it is such. I say, consider how this great and just Dispenser of his Love and Hatred hates Sin; and let your Hatred of it take its measure from his. And if you would know how great this his Hatred of Sin is, you may measure it with the same Line wherewith St. John does his Love towards Mankind, So God loved the World, says St. John, that he gave his only begotten Son, &c. And so may we say, So God hated Sin, that he gave his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice and an Atonement for it. God's Hatred to Sin, was, it seems, so great, that he himself only could pacify his Anger for the Commission of it; which also was so great, that he choose rather that his own beloved Son should bleed and die for it, than that it should go unpunished. And now consider with your selves, whether you can conceive a greater degree of Hatred than this. How could God possibly hate Sin more, or How could he give a more sensible and convincing Demonstration of his Hatred of it? And if God thought it Just and Meet to punish Sin so severely in the Person of his own Son, who also was ready to sink under the weight and burden of it, tho but for a few hours under it; then consider yet further with yourselves, how heavy the Stroke of Divine Justice will fall upon all persevering and impenitent Sinners, when having no Interest in the Passion of their Redeemer, they shall suffer as fully for themselves, as if no Mediator had interposed; and how little they will be able to stand under the weight of God's Displeasure to all Eternity.   

XXV.  
To these Thoughts, concerning the Nature of Sin, and the Consequences of it, you may yet add a further Improvement, By considering that this is the only Evil which was thought worthy of the Undertaking of the Son of God to deliver us from. In the height of all that Love and Affection which the Compassionate Saviour of the World had for Perishing Mankind, he did not think it worth his while to rescue them from Pain, Sickness, Poverty, Disgrace, or any of the common Afflictions and Uneasinesses of Human Life, no not even from Death itself. All these he seems to have overlooked, as beneath his Notice, and unworthy his Regard; however we are apt to think them the only Evils. Only Sin and Damnation appeared to him to be Evils of such a Magnitude, that he could not endure the thought of our being subjected to them; and to deliver us from these, was indeed thought an Undertaking worthy of a Redeemer from Heaven, and from the very Bosom of God. Consider this, till the Consideration of it has given you some Idea and Apprehension of the Evil of Sin; if not such as our Saviour had in the Garden, when he was about to suffer for it; yet at least such as may serve to deter you from the Commission of it. And do not voluntarily plunge yourselves into such a State of Misery, for the Prevention of which, and only for the Prevention of which, the Lord of Life was content to Die.   

XXVI.  
After you have thus armed and fortified your Minds, by the Consideration of the great Evil of Sin, turn your Glass upon the contrary side, and let your next Prospect be, of the Beauty and Excellency of Goodness and virtue, of Righteousness and true Holiness. Consider how highly reasonable it is in itself, and how becoming of you, as rational Creatures; how suitable to the order and end of your Beings; and how truly perfective of your Natures; how it conduces to the enlargement of your Understandings, to the true Freedom and Redemption of your Wills( for if the Son shall make you Free, you shall be Free indeed) and to the Calm of your Passions; and indeed to the general Health, Pleasure, Satisfaction, tranquillity, and Repose of your Souls, which then enjoy most Content, when in due Frame and Temper, when their Thoughts are best governed, and their Wills and Movements are most Conformable to Order. Consider that Goodness is the Natural State of the Soul, and how much she is at ease, and how well she feels her self when in that State; as on the contrary, how restless and uneasy she is, how full of Pain and rational Displacency, when otherwise affencted and disposed, than by the Law of God, and that of her own Being, she ought to be. Consider what a Natural Relation and Connexion there is between Holiness and Happiness, that the latter is the necessary Effect and Result of the former; which procures and produces it as a Natural and Physical Cause; insomuch, that the very inward Reason and Moral Distinction of Good and Evil, is taken from its Natural Aptness, or Unaptness, to the Interest and Happiness of Human Life. Consider, how of its own proper Nature, it tends to the true Advantage and Benefit of Man, in all his Capacities, both as a Solitary, and as a Sociable Creature; how it procures our Happiness on Earth, and what a necessary Preparative and Disposition it is( not only as a Positive, but as a Natural Condition) to qualify us for that of Heaven, the Fruition of God, into whose Likeness we must first awake before we can be satisfied with his Beauty, and be partakers of the Divine Nature before we can enjoy it. Consider how pleasant and full of Satisfaction a Holy Life is, in the present Exercise and actual Discharge of it;( there being no Joys like the Joys of Religion, and no Peace like the Peace of God) and how pleasant and ravishing upon the Review, especially the last, when we come to look back upon a Life well spent upon our Death-beds, and can thence also with Comfort and Satisfaction look forward into the unconceivable as well as unspeakable Joys of Eternity, the last Crown and Reward of a Holy and well-ordered Life.   

XXVII.  
As a Corollary to this Consideration, let me suggest to you another: Whenever you are tempted to Sin by Pleasure( for that's the great bait and Allurement to Sin) consider that the Pleasures of Innocence are much greater, even at present, setting aside all regard to After-Happiness, much more if that be also taken into the account. And that therefore the true Question or Competition does not lye here, whether you will do your Duty or enjoy Pleasure( for you may do both;) nor whether you will choose to Sin or want Pleasure( for you may do neither;) but whether you will enjoy the Pleasures of Sin, or the Pleasures of Innocence and a Holy Life; the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a Season, or the Pleasures of Righteousness that endure for ever. This you will find( if you well attend to it) to be the true State of the Question, whenever you are tempted to Sin; and by putting it into these Terms, you will quickly perceive the Absurdity of the strongest Temptation wherewith the Devil can assault you. Therefore consider it well.   

XXVIII.  
And when you have let your Thoughts sufficiently expatiate upon this great and double Prospect of the Evil of Sin, and the Reason and Advantage of a Holy Life, let them transport you for a while into the other World, among separate and departed Spirits, those whose Season and opportunity of Action is over, upon whom the Sun of Grace as well as of Natural Life is gone down; and that Night come in which no Man can work; and who are either in actual Happiness and actual Misery, or at least in a certain and unalterable Order and Designation to those respective States. Consider with yourselves seriously the Condition of these Spirits, and what Thoughts and Sentiments they have of things. What they think of a sinful, and what Sense they have of a holy and religious Life. What inward rejoicings, and raptures of Spirit those have, who were so Wise and Happy, as to apply themselves to the latter; and how they do now justify and approve their Conduct, blessing and admiring the Grace of God. And with what Anguish, Rage, Self-condemnation and Regret, those return upon themselves, who lived and indulged themselves in the former. What Retractations! What Repentances! How do they unwish their Thoughts and their Actions, their Designs and their Undertakings, their Business and Employments, their Leagues and their Friendships, their Conversations and their merry Meetings, their Jests upon Religion and upon good Men, yea and their very Being! How do they unwish all these things; and how passionately do they wish again for those Opportunities which they once had; and what a value do they set upon that Time which they can never again recover, and which you perhaps mis spend and trifle away!   

XXIX.  
But that you may no longer do so, consider that Eternity is the only considerable State of Man, and that therefore the great and proper Business and work of time ought to be, to make Preparation for it. Consider, that after a Man has lived so long in the World, as to come to the Use and Exercise of his Reason, it will be high time to think of going out of it again, and to prepare for that World which is to last, and wherein he is to continue for ever. For 'tis so late before we come to the Use of our Reason; and the rest of the time we have to spend here afterwards is so short, and withall so very uncertain, that the longest liver had not need to mis-employ any part of his Time, but rather Study all the possible ways of improving it. Especially if it be further considered, that the Time of this Life is the only Opportunity for transacting the great Affair of Eternity. You have it now in your Power to be Happy, to make your great Fortune, and to secure your Final State; but it will not be always so. Your Day will end, and your Night will come, and God will not give you another turn of Probation, a second Trial; and therefore it highly concerns you to make the most of this; and to work while 'tis Day, before the Night come, when no Man can work.   

XXX.  
If you are not yet sufficiently moved and affencted with a Sense of these things, Consider what sentiments and apprehensions of them, you will have when you come to Die, what your Notion and Sense of things will then be; what you will then think of a good and of a wicked Life, of yourselves and of the World you live in, and are going from; what your thoughts will then be of all this show and Pageantry, which now so strikes the Senses, and engages the Hearts and Affections of Worldly Men: With what Contempt and Disdain will you now look, now you are going out of the World, upon all those Pomps and Vanities which you renounced at your coming into it; and how will you wonder at yourselves and all other Men, for having been so often in love with them, and so long captivated and enslaved by them; and for having so lately discovered their utter emptiness and deceit. Consider how vain and insignificant will then appear to you all those little Great things which the World is now so eager upon, and runs so mad after, Honours, Riches, Pleasures, State and Grandeur, Birth and Quality, Dignities and Preferments; nay, even Wit and Learning, every thing but a good Life and a satisfied Conscience; and how well you will then wish you had lived. These will then be your Thoughts, and this will then be your great wish. Endeavour therefore to have the same Thoughts now that you will have then; and to live now, as you will wish you had lived, when you come to Die.   

XXXI.  
And to make you the more sensible of this, that you may the better imagine to yourselves that sense of things which you will have when you come to Die, it would be a very advantageous practise, frequently to recollect with yourselves what your thoughts and apprehensions of things really were; and what Sentiments you actually had, when at any time under a great and dangerous state of Sickness. Recollect and consider( which you may the more easily do, because 'tis a thing of actual Experiment) what you then thought of yourselves, and of your Condition; of the Life that you had lead, of the Time that you had mis-spent, of the infinite Vanities and Follies you had been guilty of, of the Duties you had neglected, or but carelessly and imperfectly performed; and of the World of Sins you had committed, and it may be till then, had lived in without Repentance; and of the Hell which you had deserved, and which for ought that you knew, you were then to be plunged into, and for ever after to suffer in. Consider I say, what thoughts you then actually had of these things; and withall, what strong Resolutions, Promises, and Vows, you then made to amend and reform your Lives in case it should please God to Reprieve you a little longer from the Sentence of Death, by restoring you again to your Health. Well, he has done so; you have recovered your Health, and you have lost your Thoughts and Convictions. But what a strange thing is this! Do you think that your Health makes any real Change in the nature and truth of Things? Those things that were true in your Sickness, are they not as true now; and will they not be as true for ever? Or do you give greater Credit to your Well than to your Sick judgement? But consider that you would have the same thoughts when you are well, as you had in your sickness, if you did but afford the same Attention, and had your spiritual Senses equally awake, and your outward Senses equally disengaged from worldly Objects. Consider therefore, that those Sick thoughts are most likely to be true, and according to the right Ideas of things; and that therefore they will certainly return again when you shall be in the same Condition, and things shall be placed to you in the same Light. They will return again whenever you return to yourselves, whenever you dare think; or if you should by Arts of Diversion Ward them off for a while, yet you will be sure to meet with them again when within View of Death; for they are part of her Train and Retinue. But 'tis best to have them before, and to live in the full Sense, and under the constant direction and government of them. And indeed I cannot give you better instruction in order to a holy Life, than, in one word, so to led your Lives, as you shall wish when you come to Die, and as you have already wished when you were Sick. And that you may do so,   

XXXII.  
I further advice you, to be much in the Contemplation of the shortness and uncertainty of Life, and of the Day of Gods Grace; whose limits are equally uncertain, and perhaps, of a shorter and narrower compass than those of your Natural Life. Be as much also in the Contemplation of the four last things, Heaven, Hell, Death and judgement. Place yourselves frequently upon your Deathbeds, in your Coffins, and in your Graves. Act over frequently in your Minds, the Solemnity of your own Funerals; and entertain your imaginations with all the lively Scenes of Mortality. Meditate much upon the Places, and upon the Days of Darkness, and upon the Fewness of those that shall be saved; and be always with your Hour-glass in your hands, measuring out your own little Span, and comparing it with the endless circled of Eternity. These are great& engaging Thoughts, and such as will lessen, contract, nay, even annihilate any thing that shall be placed together, and compared with them.   

XXXIII.  
There is indeed nothing that can diminish the ideas of these things to a Mind assured of the Truth of them, but only that which represents every thing little, Distance and Futurity. The greatest Objects when a great way off, appear but little to the Eye; and Futurity represents things after the same manner to the Mind. Even Heaven and Hell, and Eternity itself, when eyed through this end of the Prospective, lose their just and native Dimensions, and draw up into so many little Points, while in the mean time, this World of ours which really is so, by this one single advantage of being Present, makes a very bulky Figure, and appears as Great as it is Near. There is something in the very Name of the World to come, that even to those who are persuaded of its future Existence, lessons the Idea of it. But you are to consider, that this is a mere Fallacy of our Imaginations, as the other is of our Senses. For distance of time can make no more real Change in the true and natural dimensions of things, than Distance of Place can; and things Future, if of a certain and infallible event, ought to have the same Power and Moment with us as if they were present; for that they will be one time or other, or else they are not now truly Future. This therefore I say, is a mere Fallacy of our Imaginations, to make the Futurity of a thing diminutive of its greatness. And tho it be a good Remedy against it, to remember that it is so, yet I think it would be a better, if in your Contemplations of these great Objects, you would no longer represent them to your Mind as Futurities, and things at a distance, but consider them as Present Realities, as Objects that bear hard upon, and almost touch your very Eyes. Lay therefore the great and last Scenes of the Divine Drama often before you; place them in your very next View; and imagine every part of the dreadful Solemnity, as in present Transaction. imagine to yourselves, that you now hear the archangels Trump sounding to judgement, and calling you and all the Sons of Adam out of your Graves to meet your Judge, and receive from him your final Doom. imagine that you see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory, with his angelic Attendance about him, and the Standard of the across carried before him. That you see his Throne erected, the judgement set, and the Books opened. That you behold all Nations gathered together before him, and the Dead, both Small and Great, standing at the Bar of his Justice, and, with trembling, waiting for the great deciding Sentence. imagine that you see him making his Preparatory Division, separating them one from another, as a Shepherd divides his Sheep from the Goats; placing the Sheep upon his Right Hand, and the Goats upon the Left. And here stand a while and make a Pause, and imagine if you can, what Passions of Joy and Horror respectively, this preparatory Distinction will raise in the Parties concerned, what a Deluge of Grief, Consternation and Despair, must overflow the Spirits of them, whose Lot is to be placed on the Left hand! And what Tides and Inundations of Joy and Consolation must break in upon those Happy Souls, whom their smiling Judge, as an Omen of his following Favour, places on his Right Hand. Who can imagine the Sentiments that will follow upon such a Signal, such a Fatal Difference! But if you would have some Notion of it, try it upon yourselves, fancy yourselves now placed on the Right Hand, now on the Left, and see with what different Sentiments you will be affencted. But to go on, imagine now after this visible Distinction made of all Men, that you hear and see the Judge proceed to that which shall separate them for ever, the last and irrepealable Sentence, saying to those on his Right Hand, Come ye Blessed, &c. and then to those on his Left, Depart from me ye Cursed, &c. imagine, if you can, how differently these two Sentences will be pronounced, and how differently they will be received. Then let your Imagination go on and attend the Blessed into Heaven, and the Damned into Hell, where both enter upon their respective Portions, the greatest Happiness and the greatest Misery, and that not for a few Months, Years, or Ages, but for a whole Eternity, without the least Hope or Fear of any End. Make all these things as present to your Minds, as the things of this World are to your Senses, lay them out thus before you, contemplate them at hand, and when by this Anticipation of thought you have thus Ante-dated the great things of Eternity, and have by that Faith, which is the Substance of things hoped for, and the Evidence of things not seen, given the next World the same Advantage that this has, that of being Present, you may then( as no longer living by Sense but by Faith) securely trample upon all those Temptations of the World, to which you see others, for want of this intellectual view, yield every day; and may make the World itself, with all its Pomp and Glory, vanish and disappear when you please. But for your further Security,   

XXXIV.  
Whenever you undertake any Set and Deliberate Action( for as for those that are done by a sudden prevention of Instinct, and as it were Mechanical Impulse, as spreading out ones Hands when one is like to fall, they come under no moral Estimation) I would have you sit down and consider, whether you can any way refer that Action to the Glory of God; whether you can truly and sincerely say, Lord, I do this Action for thee, and in regard to thy Honour and Glory. And in case the Nature and Quality of the Action be such, that it will not admit of an Affirmative Answer to that demand, I advice you not to meddle with that Action. For as that Action which has no end at all, but is done by the more force of Mechanism, is no Human Action, so that which has an ultimate end, short of the Glory of God, and that does not terminate in him, can be no good Action. For God ought to be the End as well as the Beginning of all our ways; and even our most indifferent Actions ought to have a reference to his Glory, according to that general advice of the Apostle, Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the Glory of God.   

XXXV.  
But in case the Action be of a doubtful and uncertain Nature, and carry in it a double Appearance, so that you have some Diffidence and suspense in your Resolutions about it, I would then advice you for the greater Security of your Innocence, to consider, what you think Jesus Christ, if he were now upon Earth, according to the Idea you have of him from the account of his Life in the Gospels, would do in such a case. Whether he who sought the Glory, and was conformable to the Will of God in all things, would do such an Action or no. If you think upon a due Estimation and Collation of things that he would not, neither by my advice should you. For to be sure that which would not become Christ to do, can never be fit for a Christian.   

XXXVI.  
To exemplify these two Rules, by an Instance applicable to both: Suppose you were invited or otherwise disposed to go to a Ball or a Play; before you adventure to do so, I would advice you to pause a while, and consider, whether you can possibly make any reference of such an Action as that is, to the Glory of God; whether you can in any true Sense or real meaning say thus, Lord I do this thing, I go to this Play or this Ball, for thee and for thy sake; in the force of thy Love, and in pursuance of thy Glory. If your Conscience answers no, I would by no means advice you to go. But if it answers doubtfully, and with Hesitation and suspense, I would then have you put yourselves to this Question, Whether or no you do in your Conscience really think, that the Holy and Blessed Jesus, according to that Character and Representation you have of him, and his way of living, in the Gospel, would, if now again upon Earth, do such an Action? Whether you do verily think, that it would consist with that Grave, Serious and recollected Spirit, and that constant Air of Devotion and Religious Severity, which appeared in our Saviour's ordinary Life, and the general way of his Conversation, to go to a Play or a Ball, and whether you think he would do it? If upon a serious Consideration you think he would not, whatever plausible Arguments you may hear from others, or suggest to yourselves for the Lawfulness of it, I would by no means advice you to venture upon such an Action, to do that which you yourselves at the same time think your Lord and Master would not do; and yet, which considering the strength of his virtue, and that Force and Power he had to withstand the greatest Temptations, he might more safely do than you.   

XXXVII.  
To the foregoing Considerations I shall only add one more, and which I shall recommend to you as a general and very compendious Instrument for your assistance towards a Holy and Religious Life, and that is, That you would bring yourselves to an Habitual Sense and Consideration of the Omnipresence and Omniscience of God, that by reason of the Infinity both of his Essence and Knowledge, he is present in every Place, and privy to every Thought, that you cannot go where he is not, or do what he does not see; that you have your Life, Motion, and Being in him, and that you are always under his Eye; that he is about your Path, and about your Bed, and spies out all your ways, which are better known to him than they are to yourselves; that be is an Essence without Bounds, and a Light without Darkness; that he sees and knows every thing, and is every where; and that you cannot Sin against him, but you must Sin in him. Consider this, and stand in awe, and Sin not; Commune with your own Hearts, and in your Chamber( in your most secret Retirements) and be still, having your Thoughts and Passions so quiet and composed, and in such decent Silence and Repose, as becomes that aweful Presence you are in, even when most alone. Habituate yourselves to set God always before you, as you are always before him; and let every Place be to you as a Temple, as an Holy of Holies, yea, even as Heaven itself; that so being always in his Light, and having your Eye fixed upon his, you may not dare to commit any Indecency, lest you be found guilty of that most astonishing Impudence of the Apostate Angels, of Sinning in the very Face and Presence of God.   

XXXVIII.  
This is all that I have to offer you by way of rational Reflection and Consideration, for your Incitement to a Holy Life, and your Assistance in it. I shall now only commend to you some few things by way of practise and Exercise, in order to the same End, and so conclude all I have to say to you upon this occasion.   

XXXIX.  
If therefore you would be truly Good and Religious, Holy in all manner of Conversation, and govern your Lives and Actions well, let it be your first and great Care to govern your Thoughts, to look to the Springs and Wheels of your Intellectual Frame; and as the Wise Man advices, To keep your Hearts with all Diligence, to keep them Pure and Undefiled, since out of them are the Issues both of Life and Death: Which the a certain and necessary Duty, as being one of those particular Improvements whereby the Christian has advanced the Jewish Law, I would not have you look upon so much as a New Commandment of itself, as a more easy Method and Expedient of performing all the rest.   

XL.  
Further, Be advised in all that you do, to set yourselves at the greatest distance from Evil, to abstain from all Appearances of it, and from all Beginnings and Approaches towards it. From all Appearances of it chiefly upon the account of others, and that you may avoid giving Scandal and Offence. From all Beginnings and Approaches towards it chiefly for your own sakes, as gaining a threefold Advantage by such a Distance, in that you will thereby enjoy a greater Innocence, greater Ease, and greater Safety. Greater Innocence, as being by this means entirely and wholly free from the Guilt of those Sins which you forbear; not so much as being within the first Degrees, or touching upon the edges and borders of them. Greater ease, because 'tis easier to abstain from the first Beginnings of Sin, than from a further Progress in it after you have once begun. As 'tis easier to prevent your first Motions down a Hill, than to stop your descent when once in motion. Nor is there so much difficulty in not admitting, as in ejecting a Temptation after 'tis once lodged, and has been kindly entertained. And lastly, by this practise you will enjoy greater Safety, because greater Ease; there being not so much danger of yielding to what you can so easily forbear, as to that whose forbearance is more painful and uneasy. For the danger of choosing Sin, increases according to the greatness of the Evil which you avoid by choosing it; and he that would suffer four degrees of Pain rather than Sin, would yet perhaps rather Sin than suffer five degrees of Pain. For which reason,   

XLI.  
I advice you again, to lessen as much as you can, the natural weight of your Concupiscence, by a Privation of Pleasure, and by a continual Denial and Mortification of your Senses and Passions. For the more you indulge yourselves in the Enjoyment of Pleasure, the more you inflame your natural Thirst after it, and the more you make yourselves Slaves to it. And the less you indulge it, and the more Sparing and Abstemious you are in it, the more could and indifferent you will grow towards it. Your Desires will contract themselves for want of being gratified( as Men by much Fasting lose their Stomacks) and after many repeated Denials, will at length cease to crave, and so your natural Concupiscence will decrease and abate much of its weight. Which you will find to be a thing of vast Advantage and Importance in order to a good Life. For by this means you will be the more fixed and steady in adhering to your Duty, as having the less Temptation to transgress it; and not only so, but you will also make such degrees of Gods Grace become Successful and Efficacious upon you, which otherwise would not be so, since a less measure of Grace will suffice, where there is less Concupiscence to resist it. For it is clear and certain, that the Efficacy of Divine Grace does ordinarily depend upon the Disposition in which it finds us, in relation to sensible Good, as the action of a Weight in a balance does depend, as to its effect, upon the power and force of the Weight that is opposite. And let me tell you, that this is the only certain way that you have in your power, to render the Grace of God Prevalent and Effectual. For 'tis with the Will of Man as with a balance, both whose Scales are charged with their respective Weights; in which, if you would have this or that determinate Scale weigh down, there are but two possible ways of doing it, either by adding more weight to that which you would have predominant, or by lessening the weight that is in the other. But now we cannot make the Grace of God Efficacious the first way, by adding more weight to that Scale of the Will,( for we have not the Grace of God in our power or disposal, so as to distribute what we please of it to ourselves.) All therefore that we can do towards it, is only to lessen the weight of Concupiscence that is in the other Scale, which indeed amounts to the same, as if more degrees of Grace were added; and by this means we may contribute to make the Grace of God Successful and Victorious. Which I take to be the true Reason and Usefulness of Mortification and Self-denial, which by Privation of sensible Pleasure, lessons the Desire or Concupiscence of it, and so serves to further the Prevalency and Efficacy of Grace: Upon which is grounded that remarkable Counsel given by our Saviour( the very same that I now give you,) He that will come after me, let him deny himself.   

XLII.  
To this Mortification of your Senses and Passions, and Privation of sensible Pleasures, I would have you in the next place( as far as the Circumstances of your Life will allow) to join Retreat and Solitude; to Converse as much with yourselves, and as little with the World as you can. Were the World never so much better than we find it is, or can hope it will, this would be very expedient Counsel; but as it now is, it is plainly necessary. For the present Corruption of the World is such, that 'tis danger enough to live in it, tho a Man be not very intimate, or much Conversant with it. But as for those that are so, their Condition is extremely Hazardous; and they had need have a much greater Measure of Grace than other Men, to make it Secure. For if the Friendship of the World be( as St. James tells us) Enmity with God, sure even to have familiar Commerce and intimate Conversation with it, cannot but greatly endanger our Interest in his Love. The truth is, there is little to be got, and a great deal to be lost by being much abroad, and by using much the Conversation of Men; especially in public Places, and promiscuous Companies. Their Hearts are generally Corrupt, and that makes their Discourse so; which even when most Civil and best governed, serves for little else, but to raise false ideas in the Minds of the Hearers, to confirm them in their Prejudices, to renew upon them them their ill Impressions; and to insinuate into them the Love of sensible Objects. The Language of the World is generally that of Concupiscence; which being the leading and governing Principle in Mens Hearts, becomes the Spring that gives Motion to their Tongues; and is the Seisin and leaven that mixes and diffuses itself with all all their Communications; which therefore for the most part carry a poisonous Breath, a Spirit of Malignity with them; and at best, are impertinent and fallacious, full of illusion and deceit; misrepresenting, confounding, and transposing the Natures of things; putting Evil for Good, and Good for Evil; Darkness for Light, and Light for Darkness; and teaching Men to apprehended things either quiter otherwise, or at least much greater or less than they really are; and so utterly deceiving them either in the Nature, or in the Proportion of Things. But after all, the Examples of the World are by much, more dangerous than its Discoursings; and good Manners are more corrupted by its ill Presidents, than by its ill Communications. For besides that, generally Mens way of living is less Conformable to Order and Reason than their Discourse,( it being more easy to talk well, than to act well) there is also this further difference, that their Example is a breathing and living Language, a Language that enters and persuades those to whom it is addressed, a Language that every body understands; and( such is the force of imitation) which very few find it in their power to resist. We can lend an Ear to what People talk, without being presently, or very much disposed to Act it; but there is a sort of Sympathy in us that inclines us, even before we think of it, and as it were Mechanically to do what we see others do. And besides we think ourselves in a manner obliged to do it, upon a mistaken Notion of Civility and Complaisance; and to avoid the unpardonable Offence of being singular, and of Condemning the general by our own private Conduct. And therefore, since upon both these Accounts, there is so much danger in Society,( I speak of Common Society; for I am not conversing with a few well-chosen Friends;) and, considering the malignity of popular Discourses, and popular Examples, you can hardly Converse much in the World without partaking of its Spirit, and being seized by its Infection, I would advice you to retire from it as much as conveniently you can; and declining all unnecessary engagements and Alliances, to betake yourselves to the safe Harbour of Solitude and Retreat; where you may breath a purer Air, live to God and yourselves; attend with less Distraction upon the Grand Concern; and withall, Pray for those who are out abroad, and passing the Waves of this troublesone World.   

XLIII.  
And that you may employ your Solitude the better, I would have you retire much within yourselves, as well as from the Noise and Tumult of the World: Converse much with your own Thoughts,( which when all is done, you will find to be the best and most instructive Company) observe narrowly the Movements of your Wills and Affections; examine your Lives, make frequent Reflections upon the State of your Souls, and endeavour to improve the Perfection both of your Intellectual and Moral Part, by meditating upon the best Subjects, and by reading the best Books. And those I call so, which savour most of the Life and Spirit of Religion; and are most apt to transfuse it into the Hearts and Minds of their Readers. As for Plays and Romances, I would have you wholly decline the use of them. For thats to defeat the Ends of your Retirement by bringing the World into your Closet. And for ought I know, you were better be abroad and public in the World, than to have the World with you thus in private. Not that I think the reading such Books absolutely unlawful; but only that there is a great deal of Danger and Corruption in them: And that as to the Wit, Language, and other Embellishments that they pretend to, and for which the Admirers of them recommend their Use, the same may be met with in better Books; which have all the Beauty and Sweetness, without the Poison. Nor would I have you bestow much time in reading Books of controversy, and Disputes about Religion: 'tis a thing of great Labour, and but little profit, there being not so much Truth gained by it as will Compensate for the Loss of Charity. For that which the World is pleased to call controversy, is generally little else than a Litigious Wrangle, proceeding upon Darkness and Obscurity, Fallacies and Equivocations, double Acceptation of Words, and Confusion of ideas; from Mens mistaking and mis-stating the thing in Question; from mis-understanding of the Point, of themselves, and of one another. And while Men do so, they may dispute for ever, without knowing when they agree, or when they differ. Leave therefore these Wranglers to enjoy the Dust which they raise, and while they Dispute, do you learn to Live. Only Philosophy I would not have you neglect; but, if you have Education and Opportunity for it, to make a considerable part of your Study. For that will open and enlarge your Minds, give you true through Views and ideas of things, bring you acquainted with yourselves as well as with External Nature, and lay an excellent Ground and Foundation for Morality and Religion. But when I speak of Philosophy, I mean true Philosophy; not that which reigns in the Schools,( which after a great deal of Time and Pains spent in it, I think to be a more fantastic Amusement, made up of insignificant Terms, and a company of loose indeterminate Maxims, all built upon dark unintelligible Principles; and therefore to be as great a Corruption of the Understanding, as some of those things but now mentioned are of the Will and Manners) but the Cartesian and the Experimental Philosophy. But because the latter of these will require a greater Stock of Wealth and Temporal Estate, for the due Prosecution of it, than you are ever like to receive from me, I mention it only for order's sake, advising you chiefly to employ what vacant Hours you have from things of an higher Importance, in the through Study and repeated Perusal of Descartes his Philosophy: Which notwithstanding the Imputation of Atheism, which some are pleased to throw upon it( a Silly Charge, and such as nothing but their Ignorance of him can excuse) I take to be the only intelligible Frame of Natural Science that has yet appeared in the World, and the only entire System that deserves the name of Philosophy. And tho perhaps every thing be not exactly true in it, yet I think there is nothing in it but what is truly intelligible; and withall, that there is so much of real Truth in it, as, if well pursued, will led you into a great deal more; and such Truths too, as are of the greatest Importance in order to a well-principled Theory of Morality and Religion. But if you would have a general Instrument of Knowledge, an universal Key, a Book that will thoroughly regulate, order, and form your Understandings, and teach you how to use your Intellectual Powers for the avoiding of Error; and conduct you in the Search of Truth,( a Search almost as Unsuccessful as that of Happiness) that will instruct you in the most Fundamental Theories, and prepare you for all that is further intelligible, that will purify and refine your Minds, and brighten, clear up and enlarge your Thoughts; that will rid you of all your Prejudices and Sensible Prepossessions, give you clear and distinct ideas of things, and furnish you with true and solid Principles of Science, and with the most necessary and important Conclusions. In fine, If you would have a Book that is alone a Library, and an ever-rising and flowing Spring of Knowledge, that ought never to be out of your Hands, but always to be red, studied, dwelled and fed upon till it be digested, made your own, and converted as it were into the very Substance of your Souls, let me recommend to you M. Malebranche de la Recherche de la verity, a Book( tho for some considerable while extant) but little known, and whose worth is less understood, which the falsely Learned hate, because they cannot endure its Light, and yet of such excellent and universal Use, that 'tis great pity any Study should be without it, or any Person ignorant of it, that is capable of understanding it. For indeed, to speak out freely what I think( tho it be a more nice and hazardous thing to give Characters of Books than of Men) I take it to be upon all accounts one of the best Books that is in the World; and that of all Human Composures, there is none that does better serve the Interests of Truth, and of true Religion. I say Religion, for that ought to be the End of all, and thither I must again return, advising you to employ your Solitude and Retirement chiefly in the Religious and Devotional part, in Prayer and Divine Meditations, and in reading the Holy Scriptures, and other good and profitable Books, and ever to remember, that in the greatest Solitude you are not alone.   

XLIV.  
But whether you be in Solitude or in Company, let this be your general Rule and practise, To study the Imitation of Christ, to form yourselves upon his Model, and to comform your inward Spirit, and your outward Conversation, to his Divine Example, who spent his Solitudes in Devotion, and his more public Converses in Works of Mercy and Charity, doing good both to the Bodies and to the Souls of Men. Jesus Christ is proposed to us as our great Pattern and Example, as well as Law-giver and Teacher; and he would not have been a complete Teacher without it, his Example being one( and perhaps the most powerful) way whereby he teaches us. One great reason of our Saviour's leading such an excellent and exact Life was, that we might take a Copy of it, and use it as a Pattern and Model upon all Occasions; and it may be this is the only reason of its being recorded and transmitted to Posterity, that among the infinite ill Examples we continually meet with in the World, we might have one standing and never-failing President, both for our Direction and our Encouragement in the ways of Holiness. And indeed 'tis the best Pattern we have, and the only one which we can entirely follow, and which alone will led us to Heaven. Christ is a sure and safe Guide, and such as may be followed without Doubt or Danger. For so he himself tells us, that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that he that follows him walks not in Darkness; as indeed how should he, having the true Light of the World before him. Let me therefore conclude all my Spiritual Instructions with this general Advice, To form to yourselves in the first place, from frequent reading of the Gospel, as true an Idea of the Spirit and Life of Christ, as possibly you can. And then to form your own Spirits and Lives upon this Divine Model, consulting this great Idea in all Accidents and Emergencies, having it always before you, and your Eye steadily fixed upon it, that so you may draw as near the Life as may be, and may as far as the Condition of Human Infirmity will permit, be Followers of God as Dear Children. Consider him therefore in his Retirements, when conversing with God; and consider him in Company, when conversing with the World. Place him to your Eye in both Lights, and study to imitate his Devotion in the former, and his great Charity in the latter, that so joining the Excellencies of his Active and Contemplative Life together, and endeavouring to transcribe his Obedience to both the Tables of the Law, you may complete and fill up your measure of Righteousness, ever remembering that he is the Best Christian, not that knows most, or believes most, or that can talk most of Christianity, but, who is in Heart and Life the nearest Follower of Christ.   

XLV.  
These( my Children) are the most Material and Fundamental Instances of Spiritual Counsel I have to bequeath to you, being the Results of my own Reason and Experience, which I advice you to consider and to follow, and if you find( as I hope you will) benefit by them, be the more diligent in the use and observation of them, and the more Thankful to God for his Grace, upon all your Endeavours begging his Blessing. To whose especial Care and good Providence I commit you, beseeching him to bestow both upon you and me such a measure of his gracious Assistance, that we may all so live in his Fear, as to die in his Favour, and at last meet together in the Blessed Enjoyment of his Eternal Glory. Amen.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
THere are two Advices more that I should have commended to you, and which you shall now have in the same order as they occur to my Thoughts. One of them is by way of Consideration and the other is by way of practise. That by way of Consideration is this, That you would consider that there can be no true Enjoyment of Life, till you are got above the Fear of Death, that alone being enough to strike a Damp into all your Pleasures and Enjoyments. And that the only thing that can put you above the Fear of Death, is a Good Life. And that therefore even upon this account there is an absolute Necessity of living well, that you may live with any tolerable Comfort or Satisfaction, that you may enjoy your Lives while you have them. The other by way of practise is this, That you would have such a continual Watch& Guard upon your Thoughts and Actions, as never to tolerate yourselves in such a State of Life as you would be afraid to Die in. Because, considering the uncertainty of Death, there is no assignable part of the time you live in, but what you may die in.   

A General Prayer.  
I Adore thee, O thou infinitely Great and Good God, Maker and Lord of Heaven and Earth: Worthy art thou, O Lord, to receive all Honour and Power; for thou hast Created all things, and for thy Pleasure they are and were Created.  
sand down thy holy Spirit, O most merciful Father, upon me thy Servant; and so fill me with thy Heavenly Grace and Benediction, that I may become a Living Temple, sanctified and devoted to thy Honour and Service; and such wherein thou mayst delight to dwell, and make the place of thy rest and abode both now and for ever.  
And to this end, grant me seriously to consider what thou art, what I myself am, and what I ought to be. That thou art a God greatly to be feared for thy Power and Justice, greatly to be loved for thy infinite Perfection and Goodness, and greatly to be praised for thy liberal. Bounty and Loving-kindness. That thou art both the Author and the End of my Being, my true and only Good, the Cause of all my Joy and Happiness; and the great Centre and Stay of thy whole Creation.  
Grant me also seriously to consider what I myself am, that I am a Creature; One that once was not, and is now a poor, empty, weak and imperfect Being. That I have nothing but what I receive from thee, that I can do nothing but what I do by thee, that I can know nothing but what I know in thee and in thy Light; and that in thee I have my Life, my Motion, my Being, my Happiness, and my all.  
Grant me also seriously to consider, that I am not only thy Creature, but my Own; not only a Creature, but a sinful Creature; a Creature acting against the End of his Creation; against the Law of his Creator; against the Dignity of his Nature, and against his true and best Interest, both here and hereafter. That I have not loved thee as in strictness I ought; with my whole Heart, Soul, and Mind and Strength, nor as I might, according to the Measures of thy Grace, and my present Abilities; nor indeed as I have loved this World, and the Vanities of it, having been a lover of Pleasure more than a lover of God.  
Grant me also lastly, thy Grace seriously to consider what I should be both towards Thee, my Neighbour, and myself. That I ought to be Holy, Just, Charitable, and Temperate. That I ought not to live carelessly and at random, as those that have no Sense of thee, nor of their Duty; and that believe neither Heaven nor Hell, but as one that now lives in thy Presence, and must hereafter give thee an Account, and be Eternally Happy or Eternally Miserable, according as he demeans himself in this short time of Trial. And that therefore denying all ungodliness and Worldly Lusts, I should live Godly, Righteously, and Soberly in this present World; looking for that blessed Hope, and the Glorious appearing of the Great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Fix O Lord, these Considerations in my Mind, and let them sink down so deep into my Heart, that they may bring forth in me the Fruits of good Living; that so my Spirit may be Pure and Right within me, my Life may be Holy, my Death Comfortable, my Resurrection Joyful, and my Eternal State Happy and Glorious with thee my God for ever.  
Amen.    


Books written by John Norris, M. A. Rector of Bemerton near Sarum.  
A Collection of Miscellanies, consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses and Letters; in large Octavo.  
Theory and Regulation of Love; a Moral Essay, in Two Parts: To which are added Letters Philosophical and Moral, between the Author and D. More; in Octavo.  
Reason and Religion, or the Grounds and Measures of Devotion, considered from the Nature of God, and the Nature of Man, in several Contemplations, with Exercises of Devotion applied to every Contemplation; in Octavo.  
Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life, with Reference to the Study of Learning and Knowledge; in a Letter to the Excellent Lady, the Lady Masham. To which is annexed a Visitation Sermon by the same Author. The Second Edition, with large Additions; in Octavo.  
Practical Discourses upon the Beatitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, V.I. To which are added Reflections upon a late Essay concerning Human Understanding; in large Octavo.  
Practical Discourses upon several Divine Subjects, Vol. II. and Vol. III. In large Octavo.  
The Charge of Schism continued, being a Justification of the Author of Christian Blessedness, for his charging the Separatists with Schism, notwithstanding the Toleration: In a Letter to a City Friend: in Twelves.  
Two Treatises concerning the Divine Light: The First being an Answer to a Letter of a Learned Quaker, which he is pleased to call, A Just Reprehension to John Norris, for his Unjust Reflections on the Quakers; in his Book entitled, Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life. The Second being a Discourse concerning the Grossness of the Quakers Notion of the Light Within; with their Confusion and Inconsistency in explaining it. These ten by John Norris Rector of Bemerton near Sarum: And sold by S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal-Exchange in cornhill.   

SEneca's Morals by way of Abstract: By Sir Roger L'Estrange.  
Practical Discourses on the Parables of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; in large Octavo.  
A Sermon concerning the Excellency and Usefulness of the Common Prayer. preached by W. Beveridge D. D. The Ninth Edition. Where the same may be had in Welsh.  
The Christian Monitor; the Seventeenth Edition: Price 3 d. having already been sold 75 thousand; and those that are Charitably disposed may have them for 20 s. the Hundred.  
Human Understanding: By Mr. Lock: The Second Edition with large Additions, is now in the Press, and will suddenly be published. Printed for S. Manship at the Ship near the Royal-Exchange in cornhill.   
FINIS.