DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0013
a Devout and Holy Life. 11
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 lieavenly 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 demon-
stration 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 other-
wise be so, but by renouncing everything that is foolish and
vain in every part of our common life. If we are to be in Christ
new creatures, we must show that we are so, by having new ways
of living in the world. If we are to follow Christ, it must be in
our common way of spending every day.
Thus it is in all the virtues and holy tempers of Christianity,
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 lieavenly 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 demon-
stration 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 other-
wise be so, but by renouncing everything that is foolish and
vain in every part of our common life. If we are to be in Christ
new creatures, we must show that we are so, by having new ways
of living in the world. If we are to follow Christ, it must be in
our common way of spending every day.
Thus it is in all the virtues and holy tempers of Christianity,