DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0210
208 \A Serious Call to
Chapter XX.
Recommending Devotion at twelve o'Clock,
called in Scripture the sixth hour of the day.
'This frequency of Devotion equally desirable
by all orders of people. Universal love is
here recommended to be the subject of prayer
at this hour. Of intercession, as an act of
universal love.
IT will perhaps be thought by some people, that these hours
of prayer come too thick ; that they can only be observed
by people of great leisure, and ought not to be pressed'upon
the generality of men, who have the cares of families, trades
and employments; nor upon the gentry, whose state and
figure in the world cannot admit of this frequency of Devotion.
And that it is only fit for Monasteries and Nunneries, or such
people as have no more to do in the world than they have.
To this it is answered,
First, that this method of Devotion is not pressed upon any
sort of people, as absolutely necessary, but recommended to all
people, as the best, the happiest, and most perfect way of life.
And if a great and exemplary Devotion, is as much the greatest
happiness and perfection of a Merchant, a Soldier, or a man of
Quality, as it is the greatest happiness and perfection of the most
retired contemplative life, then it is as proper to recommend it
without any abatements to one order of men, as to another. Be-
cause happiness and perfection are of the same worth and value
to all people.
The Gentleman and Tradesman may, and must spend much of
their time differently from the pious Monk in the cloister, or the
contemplative Hermit in the desert: But then, as the Monk and
Hermit lose the ends of retirement, unless they make it all
serviceable to Devotion ; so the Gentleman and Merchant fail of
the greatest ends of a social life, and live to their loss in the
world, unless Devotion be their chief and. governing temper.
It is certainly very honest and creditable for people to engage
in trades and employments; it is reasonable for Gentlemen to
manage well their estates and families, and take such recreations
Chapter XX.
Recommending Devotion at twelve o'Clock,
called in Scripture the sixth hour of the day.
'This frequency of Devotion equally desirable
by all orders of people. Universal love is
here recommended to be the subject of prayer
at this hour. Of intercession, as an act of
universal love.
IT will perhaps be thought by some people, that these hours
of prayer come too thick ; that they can only be observed
by people of great leisure, and ought not to be pressed'upon
the generality of men, who have the cares of families, trades
and employments; nor upon the gentry, whose state and
figure in the world cannot admit of this frequency of Devotion.
And that it is only fit for Monasteries and Nunneries, or such
people as have no more to do in the world than they have.
To this it is answered,
First, that this method of Devotion is not pressed upon any
sort of people, as absolutely necessary, but recommended to all
people, as the best, the happiest, and most perfect way of life.
And if a great and exemplary Devotion, is as much the greatest
happiness and perfection of a Merchant, a Soldier, or a man of
Quality, as it is the greatest happiness and perfection of the most
retired contemplative life, then it is as proper to recommend it
without any abatements to one order of men, as to another. Be-
cause happiness and perfection are of the same worth and value
to all people.
The Gentleman and Tradesman may, and must spend much of
their time differently from the pious Monk in the cloister, or the
contemplative Hermit in the desert: But then, as the Monk and
Hermit lose the ends of retirement, unless they make it all
serviceable to Devotion ; so the Gentleman and Merchant fail of
the greatest ends of a social life, and live to their loss in the
world, unless Devotion be their chief and. governing temper.
It is certainly very honest and creditable for people to engage
in trades and employments; it is reasonable for Gentlemen to
manage well their estates and families, and take such recreations