DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0104
102 zd Serious Call to
some pain to the body, yet they so lessen the power of bodily
appetites and passions, and so increase our taste of spiritual joys,
that even these severities of religion, when practised with discre-
tion, add much to the comfortable enjoyment of our lives.
If religion calleth us to a life of watching and prayer, it is be-
cause we live amongst a crowd of enemies, and are always in
need of the assistance of God. If we are to confess and bewail
our sins, it is because such confessions relieve the mind, and
restore it to ease; as burdens and weights taken off the shoulders,
relieve the body, and make it easier to itself. If we are to be
frequent and fervent in holy petitions, it is to keep us steady in
the sight of our true good, and that we may never want the hap-
piness of a lively faith, a joyful hope, and well grounded trust in
God. If we are to pray often, it is that we may be often happy
in such secret joys as only prayer can give ; in such communica-
tions of the divine presence, as will fill our minds with all the
happiness, that beings not in heaven are capable of.
Was there anything in the world more worth our care, was
there any exercise of the mind, or any conversation with men,
that turned more to our advantage than this intercourse with God,
we should not be called to such a continuance in prayer. But if
a man considers what it is that he leaves when he retires to devo-
tion, he will find it no small happiness, to be so often relieved
from doing nothing, or nothing to the purpose; from dull idleness,
unprofitable labour, or vain conversation. If he considers, that
all that is in the world, and all that is doing in it, is only for the
body, and bodily enjoyments, he will have reason to rejoice at
those hours of prayer, which carry him to higher consolations,
which raise him above these poor concerns, which open to his
mind a scene of greater things, and accustom his soul to the hope
and expectation of them.
If religion commands us to live wholly unto God, and to do all
to his glory, it is because every other way, is living wholly against
ourselves, and will end in our own shame and confusion of face.
As everything is dark, that God does not enlighten ; as every-
thing is senseless, that has not its share of knowledge from him ;
as nothing lives, but by partaking of life from him ; as nothing
exists, but because he commands it to be ; so there is no glory, or
greatness, but what is the glory or greatness of God.
We indeed may talk of human glory, as we may talk of human
life, or human knowledge; but as we are sure that human life im-
plies nothing of our own, but a dependent living in God, or enjoy-
ing so much life in God ; so human glory, whenever we find it,
must be only so much glory as we enjoy in the glory of God.
This is the state of all creatures, whether men, or angels ; as
some pain to the body, yet they so lessen the power of bodily
appetites and passions, and so increase our taste of spiritual joys,
that even these severities of religion, when practised with discre-
tion, add much to the comfortable enjoyment of our lives.
If religion calleth us to a life of watching and prayer, it is be-
cause we live amongst a crowd of enemies, and are always in
need of the assistance of God. If we are to confess and bewail
our sins, it is because such confessions relieve the mind, and
restore it to ease; as burdens and weights taken off the shoulders,
relieve the body, and make it easier to itself. If we are to be
frequent and fervent in holy petitions, it is to keep us steady in
the sight of our true good, and that we may never want the hap-
piness of a lively faith, a joyful hope, and well grounded trust in
God. If we are to pray often, it is that we may be often happy
in such secret joys as only prayer can give ; in such communica-
tions of the divine presence, as will fill our minds with all the
happiness, that beings not in heaven are capable of.
Was there anything in the world more worth our care, was
there any exercise of the mind, or any conversation with men,
that turned more to our advantage than this intercourse with God,
we should not be called to such a continuance in prayer. But if
a man considers what it is that he leaves when he retires to devo-
tion, he will find it no small happiness, to be so often relieved
from doing nothing, or nothing to the purpose; from dull idleness,
unprofitable labour, or vain conversation. If he considers, that
all that is in the world, and all that is doing in it, is only for the
body, and bodily enjoyments, he will have reason to rejoice at
those hours of prayer, which carry him to higher consolations,
which raise him above these poor concerns, which open to his
mind a scene of greater things, and accustom his soul to the hope
and expectation of them.
If religion commands us to live wholly unto God, and to do all
to his glory, it is because every other way, is living wholly against
ourselves, and will end in our own shame and confusion of face.
As everything is dark, that God does not enlighten ; as every-
thing is senseless, that has not its share of knowledge from him ;
as nothing lives, but by partaking of life from him ; as nothing
exists, but because he commands it to be ; so there is no glory, or
greatness, but what is the glory or greatness of God.
We indeed may talk of human glory, as we may talk of human
life, or human knowledge; but as we are sure that human life im-
plies nothing of our own, but a dependent living in God, or enjoy-
ing so much life in God ; so human glory, whenever we find it,
must be only so much glory as we enjoy in the glory of God.
This is the state of all creatures, whether men, or angels ; as