A SERIOUS CALL TO A DEVOUT AND HOLY LIFE

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.

<$IJulius>Julius 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 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 every thing 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 than, 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 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, 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.