DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0012
io *A Serious Call to
ness 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 an holiness
of life suitable to them, as to suppose an holy and divine life
without Prayers.
Let anyone 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 makes them an offering un-
worthy 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
and 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 attend-
ance at it is never so much as mentioned in all the New Testa-
ment. 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 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
ness 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 an holiness
of life suitable to them, as to suppose an holy and divine life
without Prayers.
Let anyone 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 makes them an offering un-
worthy 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
and 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 attend-
ance at it is never so much as mentioned in all the New Testa-
ment. 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 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