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   Title: The Practice of Piety: Directing a Christian How to Walk, that
   He May Please God.
   Creator(s): Bayly, Lewis (d. 1631)
   Print Basis: London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1842
   Rights: Public Domain
   CCEL Subjects: All; Classic; Christian Life
   LC Call no: BV4647.P5
   LC Subjects:

   Practical theology

   Practical religion. The Christian life

   Moral theology

   Virtues
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                                  The Practice
                                    of Piety

  Directing a Christian How to Walk,
  that He May Please God.

  by Lewis Bayly, D.D.

    Bishop of Bangor

   (with a biographical preface by Grace Webster)

   "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life
   that now is, and of that which is to come."
   1 Timothy 4:8

Soli Deo Gloria Publications

  ...for instruction in righteousness...

   Soli Deo Gloria Publications

   P.O. Box 451, Morgan, PA 15064

   (412) 221-1901/FAX (412) 221-1902

   *

   This edition of The Practice of Piety was taken

   from the Hamilton, Adams, and Co. edition

   published in London in 1842.

   *

   ISBN 1-877611-66-2
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BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE.
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   "The Church! Am I asked again, What is the Church? The ploughman at his
   daily toil--the workman who plies the shuttle--the merchant in his
   counting-house--the scholar in his study--the lawyer in the courts of
   justice--the senator in the hall of legislature--the monarch on his
   throne--these, as well as the clergymen in the works of the material
   building which is consecrated to the honour of God--these constitute
   the Church. The Church is the whole congregation of faithful men, in
   which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly
   administered.' The Church is so constituted under its Divine Head, that
   not one of its members can suffer but the whole body feels--nay, the
   great Head himself feels in the remotest and meanest member of his
   body: not the meanest member of the body can make an exertion in faith
   and love, but the blessed effects of it are felt, to the benefit of the
   whole, which groweth by that which every joint supplieth, to the
   increase of itself in love.'"--Bishop Blomfield.
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   One who hopes to effect any good by his writings, must be so pure in
   his life, that what he proposes for instruction or imitation must be a
   transcript of his own heart. But general improvement is so little to be
   anticipated, that almost any attempt which may be made by an individual
   in his zeal to do good, seems to be lost labour. Those whose character
   has attained to the greatest perfectness, are at all times the persons
   most willing and anxious to avail themselves of any hint or suggestion
   which might tend to improve them in virtue and knowledge, so that what
   is intended for universal benefit serves but to instruct a very few,
   and those few the individuals who require it least. Serious works,
   meant to reform the careless, are read only by those who already are
   serious, and disposed to assent to what such works set forth. In that
   case their object, humanly speaking, is in a great measure defeated. It
   seems hopeless to attempt to infuse a taste for serious reading into
   the minds of the thoughtless multitude. Write down to the capacity of
   the weak and slenderly informed, or write up to the taste of the
   intellectual portion of them; give it cheap, or give it for nothing, it
   is all the same--a man will not thus be forced or induced to read what
   you put in print for his especial benefit.

   The most powerful means, therefore, of promoting what is good, is by
   example, and this means is what is in every individual's power. One man
   only in a thousand, perhaps, can write a book to instruct his
   neighbours, and his neighbours in their perversity will not read it to
   be instructed. But every man may be a pattern of living excellence to
   those around him, and it is impossible but that, in his peculiar
   sphere, it will have its own weight and efficacy; for no man is
   insignificant who tries to do his duty--and he that successfully
   performs his duty, holds, by that very circumstance, a station, and
   possesses an influence in society, superior to that which can be
   acquired by any other distinction whatever. But it is only those who
   propose to themselves the very highest standard, that attain to this
   distinction. There are many different estimates of what a Christian's
   duty is, and society is so constituted, that very false notions are
   formed of that in which true excellence and greatness consists;
   besides, many men who are theoretically right are practically
   wrong--all which detracts from the weight of Christian influence upon
   human society. But however much human opinion may vary, and however
   inconsistent human practice may be, there is but one right rule; and it
   is only he who has this rule well defined in his own mind, who can
   exhibit that preeminence in the Christian life which is the noblest
   distinction to which man can attain. It is deeply to be regretted that
   they who seek for this preeminence are a very small number compared
   with the mass of the professedly religious world. But small though the
   number be, the good which might be effected through their means is
   incalculable, if they were bound as in solemn compact to discountenance
   all those vices and habits which the usages of society have established
   into reputable virtues--thus becoming as it were a band of conspirators
   against the prince of this world and his kingdom--transfusing and
   extending their principles and influence, till they draw men off from
   their allegiance to that old tyrant by whom they have been so long
   willingly enslaved.

   It has been said of genius, that it creates an intellectual nobility,
   and that literary honours superadd a nobility to nobility. Such, in a
   supereminent degree, may be said of holiness. Holiness constitutes a
   royal family--yea, a nation of kings, whose honours shall never fade,
   and whose reign shall have no termination.

   "Happy is the man who in this life is least known of the world, so that
   he doth truly know God and himself." It is to be hoped that this
   sentiment, taken from the "Practice of Piety" was applicable to its
   learned author, about whom almost nothing is extant to furnish
   materials for the pen of the biographer.

   Lewis Bayly was born ia the ancient borough of Caermarthen, in Wales,
   about the middle, or towards the end of the 16th century; but of the
   precise date of his birth, or of his parentage, no record remains;
   neither is it known in what house he received his education, nor what
   degree he took in arts; but it is supposed that he must have been
   educated at Exeter College, Oxford, for it is recorded that as a member
   of that College he was admitted to the reading of the sentences in the
   year 1611. About that time he was minister of Evesham, in
   Worcestershire, and chaplain to Prince Henry, and afterwards minister
   of St. Matthew's Church, Friday Street, London. He took his degrees in
   divinity in 1613-14, and being much famed for his great eminence in
   preaching, he was appointed, on the decease of the amiable and pious
   Prince of Wales, to be one of the chaplains of his father, King James
   I.

   The King soon afterwards nominated him to the Bishopric of Bangor, in
   the room of Dr. H. Rowlands. It is thus recorded: "1610. Ludov. Bayly,
   A.M. Admissus ad Thesaurariam S. Pauli per resign. Egidii Fletcher,
   LL.D. Reg. London. 1616, 11 Jun. Franc. James, SS. T. P. ad eccl.
   Sancti Matth. Fryday Strete per promotionem Ludovici Bayly, SS. T. P.
   ad episcopatum Bangor."

   He was consecrated at the same time with Dr. Lake, Bishop of Bath and
   Wells, at Lambeth, on Sunday, 18th December 1616, by George Abbot,
   Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by Bishop Andrews of Ely, Dr. Neale,
   Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Overall, Bishop of Litchfield, and Dr.
   Buckeridge, Bishop of Rochester.

   It appears that Bishop Bayly on more than one occasion came under the
   royal displeasure chiefly about matters connected with the marriages of
   the royal family. It is recorded of him, that on Monday, March 9, 1619,
   Mr. Secretary Nanton, by the King's orders, called Bishop Bayly into
   the council chamber, and there gave him a severe reprimand, in the
   presence of the two clerks of council in ordinary, because, in his
   prayer before sermon the previous Sunday in Lincoln's Inn, he had
   prayed for the King's son-in-law and his daughter the Lady Elizabeth,
   under the titles of King and Queen of Bohemia, before His Majesty had
   owned the title. The Secretary aggravated the matter much, and in
   conclusion told him His Majesty was deservedly offended with him, and
   so left him under high displeasure.

   If Bishop Bayly's satisfaction at the union of the Princess Elizabeth
   with Frederick the Elector Palatine, the head of the Protestant league
   in Germany, made him, with a promptitude which gave offence to the
   chary monarch, recognise the new title of that princess when her
   consort was chosen to the crown of Bohemia, it is not to be wondered
   at, that he gave equal offence by evincing his disapprobation of the
   alliances contemplated for the Prince Charles. Happy in the one
   instance at any accession of dominion to the Prince Palatine, by which
   the interests of the great protestant cause which he headed might be
   advanced, he could not but feel, in respect of the other case, intense
   anxiety in a matter on which the future peace and prosperity of the
   Church in his native land so much depended. Actuated by that integrity
   of character which the prospects of secular advancement could not bend,
   and disdaining the compliances of the courtier where the interests of
   religion were at stake, he could not enter into the peculiar views of
   his royal patron with regard to the matches he had an eye to for Prince
   Charles, for whose spiritual welfare he was deeply concerned. The
   bright example of Prince Henry, who was immoveably attached to the
   principles of the Reformation, was fresh in every one's remembrance--
   "he who was compounded of all loveliness, the glory of the nation, the
   ornament of mankind, a glorious saint." Thus Mr. Joseph Hall [1] justly
   describes him who was illustrious for every Christian virtue; and that
   Charles might walk in the footsteps of his deceased brother, that
   pattern of princes, whom would to God all princes would imitate, was
   the earnest desire of Bishop Bayly's heart. To him he inscribed "The
   Practice of Piety," and the whole tenor of the Dedication manifests his
   faithfulness and his anxious solicitude for the establishment of the
   Gospel in the hearts both of the Prince and people.

   That any alliance below that of a great king was unworthy of a Prince
   of Wales, was the vain and characterestic notion of King James, which
   opinion made him resolve that no princess but a daughter of France or
   Spain should be united to his son. Not to coincide with this opinion,
   or to suggest any other alliance, was sure to incur the royal
   displeasure. Bishop Bayly could not coincide. What had been endured for
   the establishment of the Reformation was still in the memory of many
   living witnesses, and not a matter of remote history, as it now is, and
   accounted by certain classes out of date and out of fashion to be
   referred to, as fostering party spirit. Scarce fifty years had elapsed
   since England had enrolled her glorious division of "the noble army of
   martyrs." Their fiery tribulation, it is true, was now over, and they
   had entered into their rest; but the memory of their sufferings for the
   name of Jesus had not passed away. The eyes of some that had witnessed
   the agonies of the meek sufferer Hooper, one of the earliest martyrs of
   that period, perhaps were not yet closed in death: The ears that had
   heard his gentle voice raised aloft entreating for God's love more
   fire, that his protracted conflict should the sooner cease, were not
   yet deaf in the dreamless sleep of the grave; yea, the eyes that had
   wept to behold his mortal agony were ready to weep again at the
   remembrance of him standing immoveable in the refiner's fire, praying
   for strength, and smiting upon his breast till the arm dropped off from
   his body, and still smiting with his other hand, while his swollen
   tongue and lips, shrivelled with the flame, continued to move with
   unutterable prayer. [2]

   We who read the record of such sufferings bless ourselves that we live
   in happier times. But, in an age when religious liberty was but ill
   understood by all parties, the spectators of such scenes must have been
   indelibly impressed that the same might be enacted over again. Bishop
   Bayly could not but participate in such feelings; and in what manner he
   had expressed his dread of the match proposed for the prince with the
   Infanta of Spain, or whether he had interfered or remonstrated, is not
   known. But on account of his opinion on that subject, and other matters
   which brought upon him the displeasure of the Court, he was thrown into
   the Fleet prison; but was soon afterwards acquitted, and again set at
   liberty. In Annual Register, Jacobus I. sub Ann. 1621, this passage
   occurs (15th July 1621) "Episcopus Bangoriensis examinatur et in Le
   Fleet datur, sed paulo post liberatur."

   If one might be allowed to hazard a conjecture with regard to the other
   grounds of offence to the King, might it not have been his refusing to
   read in his church the "Book of Sports" which had been published in the
   year 1617, and which the Clergy were enjoined to read to their
   congregations, for neglect of which some of them were prosecuted in the
   Star Chamber?

   Such are the few particulars connected with this excellent man, and
   useful and faithful minister, which I have been able to collect, and
   these relate only to his public life. But those features of private
   character which render biographies interesting to curiosity, and those
   circumstances which enable one to trace the developement of the human
   mind, and the gradations whereby a man rises to eminence, are wholly
   awanting. But enough remains to warrant our identifying him with those
   men of all ages to whom mankind stands indebted, and who have justly
   earned an honoured name for their efforts to improve society.

     "Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo:

     Omnibus his nivea cinguntur tempora vitta."

   Thus the Latin poet expresses it; but we have a more sure word of
   testimony regarding them who have thrown their mite into the treasury
   of Christian usefulness, "great is their reward." Yea those whose work
   has been to convert souls "shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom
   of their Father."

   Lewis Bayly departed this life on Wednesday 26th October 1631, and was
   buried in his church at Bangor. He left four sons, Nicholas, John,
   Theodore, and Thomas. Nicholas, a military man, a major in Ireland,
   died 1689. John, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and a publisher of
   sermons entitled "The Angel Guardian," Psalm xxxiv. 7; "Light
   Enlightening," John i. 9; and several other books much esteemed in
   their time, died in the year 1633; and Theodore and Thomas were
   likewise educated for the Church. Doctor David Dolben, of St. John's
   College, Cambridge, who was Bishop Bayly's successor to the see of
   Bangor, found, at his first visitation in the year 1632, these two
   sons, Theodore and Thomas, occupying Welsh curacies. Thomas, who had
   been educated at Cambridge, was afterwards Rector of Brasteed in Kent:
   but being represented as popishly affected, he was ejected from his
   living. He suffered much in the civil wars, and brought himself into
   great trouble by his political writings. He wrote many histories of his
   travels abroad, and railed freely against all the commonwealths of
   Europe. He most desperately attacked the newly-erected one of England,
   for which injudicious and unpleasing publication he was committed to
   Newgate; but escaping from prison, he fled to the Continent, where he
   long lived in obscurity, and died in an hospital there. This
   unfortunate man, firmly attached to the Royalists, we find mentioned as
   a Commission Officer with the Marquis of Worcester, in the year 1646,
   defending Ragland Castle against the Parliamentarians. In the
   enumeration of his sufferings in the civil wars which he relates, he
   tells he had been "deprived of -L-1000 a-year, and had lost blood and
   liberty,--he who was a peer's son, and his mother a knight's daughter."
   This is the only intimation which I find of the rank of the lady to
   whom Bishop Bayly was married.

   These few facts are all that remain of his family history and domestic
   relations. Of his public capacity as a minister of Christ, it may again
   be repeated that he was a powerful preacher of the Gospel. "The
   Practice of Piety" remains a durable monument of the soundness of his
   faith, the purity of his doctrines, and the practically useful way and
   method whereby he exercised that most valuable gift of preaching with
   which he was endowed. That book was the substance of several sermons
   which he preached while he was minister of Evesham. He threw these
   discourses into that form as a manual for the use of his people, and it
   soon became the most popular book in England. Year by year, edition
   after edition issued from the press; copies of it were multiplied
   throughout the whole of England, till it was in every man's house, and
   in the hands of every one that could read. Nor was its circulation
   confined to Britain alone; it was equally well esteemed abroad. In what
   year it was first published I am not able to state; but the eleventh
   edition of it was published at London in the year 1619 (Bodl. 8vo. B.
   185 Th.;) and when Bishop Lloyd was nominated to the see of Bangor in
   the year 1673, it had been printed above fifty times in English,
   besides many times in the Welsh tongue, the French, Hungarian, Polish,
   and various other continental languages. It was held in such high
   estimation in France by the protestants there, that John Despagne, a
   French writer and preacher in Somerset House Chapel, made a complaint
   of its popularity (1656), and said the common people looked upon its
   authority as almost equal to that of the Scriptures. Indeed it was so
   universally read by all classes, that the authorities in England took
   cognizance of the matter, and though the order of the day was for every
   man to have a Bible in his pocket, yet, with that unaccountable
   distortion of judgment which often attends human deliberations, and
   seeming to forget that its use and tendency is to draw men to study
   more and more the Divine will, and to seek a more intimate acquaintance
   with the Word of God, the Parliament brought it under consideration, in
   order to prohibit the reading of it, and to suppress its future
   publication.

   About that same period, a lying report concerning its authorship was
   raised by some of the prejudiced narrow-minded factious sectarians of
   those times, who were not willing that a book so highly esteemed should
   be written by a bishop. Some said it was written by Price, Archdeacon
   of Bangor, and that Bishop Bayly had taken the credit of it to himself;
   and an author, who takes all advantages of calumniating the clergy and
   speaking against the Established Church, said that it was written by a
   puritan minister. (Ludov. Molinaeus in lib. suo cui lit. est, Patronus
   bonae Fidei, &c., edit in oct. ann. 1672, in cap. continent specimen
   contra Durellum, p. 48.) "Nevertheless," he observes, "whoever be the
   author, it has been very serviceable to persons of all ranks in
   England, and was equally purchased by both parties (viz. the Episcopal
   party and the Puritans), and those of the Episcopal party by reading it
   became better."

   An attempt was afterwards made to suppress the Bishop's name upon the
   title-page; and when a new edition was printed in the Welsh language, a
   person of the name of Gouge caused the title-page to be torn out of the
   whole impression, and a new title-page to be wrought off without the
   author's name. This disrespect to the Bishop's memory, particularly to
   this edition set forth in his native language, was found great fault
   with by the gentlemen in the country, and Bishop Lloyd, of Bangor,
   caused the author's name to be written on the title-pages of all the
   copies that were to be distributed in that neighbourhood, many of which
   the Bishop wrote with his own hand, and Dr. Humphreys wrote the rest by
   his order. Many of Bishop Bayly's contemporaries, clergymen who had
   been intimate with him, and also several old men, his parishioners, who
   were alive when Dr. Humphreys was appointed to the see of Bangor, and
   who knew well that he was the author of it, spoke with great veneration
   of his memory, and with regard to his book assured Bishop Humphreys,
   from whose original papers, in the possession of Dr. White Kennet,
   Bishop of Peterborough, these facts were derived, that highly esteemed
   as the "Practice of Piety" was, Bishop Bayly had learning for a greater
   work than that.

   To enumerate the editions through which it has gone would be
   impossible. Scarcely any work ever had such a prodigious circulation;
   by reason that it is not the book of a sect or party, but is a general
   book, acceptable to all who agree in the grand doctrinal and practical
   truths of the Gospel. From the testimony of various writers, it appears
   to have been remarkably beneficial; and during the period of its
   amazing popularity, it was equally sought for by churchmen and
   nonconformists, and was equally valued by both.

   Peter Pindar characterizes Mr. Whitebread as bribing voters with

     "Bunyans, and Practices of Piety."

   instead of the more substantial douceurs usual on these occasions.
   Whether this be a mere figure of speech used by that scurrilous
   lampooner, or whether it indicates that the work was circulated by the
   religious professors of that period, I cannot determine. Certain it is,
   that of the many manuals which have been written to direct the
   Christian in his religious duties, this is the most valuable. It may
   have been supplanted in popularity by the multitude of ephemeral
   productions of modern times, but as it holds a priority in the date of
   its composition, so it will maintain its rank in the scale of standard
   religious literature as an original English work, when their name and
   place are known no more.

   A book which the blessing of God has accompanied in one period of the
   Church, may be alike blessed on its revival now. It pertains to
   subjects of unchanging interest. The science of religion, as derived
   from God's revealed will, is the same yesterday, to-day, and tomorrow.
   No change of human affairs, effected by human advancement in other
   sciences, can alter its truths or diminish their importance. It was
   written at a time when a peculiar lustre adorned the ministers of
   religion. It was an age of eminence in divinity such as the world had
   not witnessed since the primitive days of Christianity, and which the
   world has not witnessed again. The Church had come out of its bloody
   conflicts "fair as the sun, and clear as the moon." The ministers of
   religion had not settled down into deadness and mediocrity, which
   become the characteristics of the clergy when the Church is at her
   ease, and when they lose sight of what their spiritual forefathers have
   suffered for the truth, and the free course of the Gospel which they
   are privileged to enjoy. They forget what the defence of the truth cost
   others, because it costs themselves nothing. Religion, as it now
   exists, is to them honourable, fashionable, and advantageous in a
   worldly sense, therefore they take it easily.

   Lukewarmness is the besetting sin of the present day. If there be any
   zeal about doctrines, it is not for essential truths, but about
   doubtful questions. If there be any zeal about duties, it is not for
   the promotion of piety and personal holiness, but for some particular
   duties, which leading characters, or the force and influence of public
   opinion, have brought into fashion. Make a virtue popular, and all
   other virtues are lost sight of in that one. The characteristics of the
   genuine diciples of Jesus are lost in the Christian's anxiety to
   conform himself to the world. He constantly betrays his dread of losing
   his grasp of present advantages; and no improvement can be expected
   until men professing to fear God divest themselves of this worldly
   spirit, and selfishness, and the desire to increase in this world's
   goods, and to advance their families in this world's distinctions.
   Women, also, who possess such influence in society, would require to
   exalt the Christian character from the lamentably low standard to which
   it is reduced, that they may become "as the polished corners of the
   Temple." But this cannot be, until they aim at something better than to
   be smatterers in superficial learning, or until the sum of their
   existence be something more than "embroidery, small scandal, prayers,
   and vacancy." Above all, until they cease to be busy bodies in the
   affairs of others, and indulgers in evil surmisings, or indeed in
   surmisings of any kind--that source of unspeakable evil in society,
   whereby are sacrificed the peace and respectability of individuals and
   families, and of which Satan, the father of lies, is the busy promoter;
   and it rejoices his malignant nature to see the constant agitation in
   which it keeps the world, and the heart-burnings which it occasions.

   Human plans of education and improvement may do much towards refining
   mankind, and adding to the adornments of life, until society become
   like a fair monument of polished marble, "beautiful indeed oustide,"
   and which might be mistaken for a temple consecrated to purity and
   virtue, but in reality a habitation of death and cavern of moral
   putrefaction. The Gospel is the axe which must be laid to the tree of
   human corruption. The ministers of God, those men who have the inward
   call, as well as the outward commission, are the labourers sent forth
   to this work. If they tire in their work, and lie down to rest, or
   execute it feebly, can they wonder to see roots of bitterness springing
   up everywhere, and flourishing and occupying the good ground which they
   have neglected.

   A martyr for religious liberty, after receiving sentence of death,
   protested before going to the scaffold that he was "not so much
   cumbered how to die as he many a time had been how to preach a sermon."
   And another minister, Mr. Thomas Shepard, whose watchfulness to
   discharge the duties of the ministry is worthy of imitation, exhorted
   some young ministers who were about him on his death-bed to remember
   "that their work was great, and called for great seriousness. For his
   own part he told them three things:--First, that the studying of every
   sermon cost him tears; he wept in the studying of every sermon.
   Secondly, before he preached any sermon he got good by it himself.
   Thirdly, he always went up into the pulpit as if he were going to give
   up his accounts to his Master."

   It was the opinion and experience of one [3] whose preaching, and
   writings on the Christian faith and life were the means of awakening
   many millions of souls from a lifeless formality to an inward sense of
   religion, that "one of the principal expedients for reviving the
   evangelical spirit in the churches when under a decay, is to call to
   the people to live up to the plainest precepts of Christ; such as
   self-denial, mortification, contrition, resignation, and the like;
   instead of filling their minds with the niceties of controversial and
   speculative matters, which seemed to him rather to nourish, than to
   abate pride and self-love, those springs of corruption."

   "The Practice Of Piety" has been superseded by innumerable treatises on
   the same subject, but not excelled; while it retains its claim to
   originality in that department of religious literature. Its power to
   awaken the conscience, there is reason to believe, has been, by the
   blessing of God, most effectual. Two notable instances may be recorded.
   When John Bunyan was married, he and his wife were in extreme poverty,
   being totally destitute of any provision, and they had not one article
   of household stuff between them. But Mrs. Bunyan possessed for her
   portion a copy of "Bayly's Practice of Piety," which she had received
   from her father on his death-bed; and she being a well-disposed woman,
   sprung of godly parents, induced her husband to read it from time to
   time. This begot in him a desire to reform his vicious life, and he
   forthwith began. But it seemed to proceed all in self-righteousness and
   formality, and it was a considerable time before he felt the freeness
   of the grace of God. But a thing begun is half finished; therefore we
   must value the beginning of all good works. "God is at much pains with
   sinners, ordinarily, ere he draw them fully, wholly, and effectually to
   himself." Many and varied are the means and instruments which he
   employs, but all tend towards the one great point, the conversion of
   the soul to himself. Another eminent person whose awakening may be
   traced to the effects of that book, was Mr. James Frazer of Brea,
   minister of Culross in Fife, born 1639, who suffered much in the cause
   of religious liberty. He himself states, after describing a youth spent
   in carelessness and sinful conformity to the world like other young men
   of rank and fashion, that he began seriously to think of his
   responsibility as an accountable and immortal being, and determined to
   reform his life. He thereupon "made a conscience of all duties. The
   occasion," says he, "of this reformation and great change was this. One
   Sabbath-day afternoon I read on a book called The Practice of Piety'
   concerning the misery of a natural man, the torments of hell, and the
   blessedness of a godly man, and some directions for a godly life. The
   Lord so wrought, and my heart was therewith so affected and drawn, that
   without more ado I thenceforth resolved to become a new man, and to
   live not only a harmless life, but a godly and devout life; and to turn
   my back upon all my old ways, and utterly to forsake them." Farther on
   in his Christian experience, when he had attained to the blessed hope
   of the Gospel, he states, "this hope produced a cheerful endeavour to
   seek the Lord, which I did, and was labouring to do good unto others,
   and to spread the knowledge of Christ; by which means I daily grew in
   the knowledge and love of God. One of the books I most read was The
   Practice of Piety,' which God did bless to me. And thus," he adds,
   "Grace makes a great, wonderful, and universal change; changing the
   outward life and inward frame; All things are new,'--new prayers, new
   love, new company, new opinions, and new principles."

   Among all the rises and downfalls of kingdoms--from those of which
   history has preserved almost nothing save the name, to those whose
   greatness and power seemed constituted to last till the end of
   time--one kingdom, one nation alone, viz. the kingdom of God, the
   Church, has stood immoveable, surviving shocks and vicissitudes that
   would have cast down temporal dominions, and obliterated them from the
   earth. And however varied it may have appeared--whatever alternations
   of lustre and obscurity may have passed over it--whatever designations
   it may have assumed--whatever storms nigh to destruction may have
   shaken it--whether its subjects were few or many--whether it consisted
   of one simple patriarchal family, or was spread over the empires of the
   civilized world, comprising different kindreds, and nations, and
   tongues,--yet by distinctive marks it can be always recognised as the
   one peculiar nation destined to outstand all temporal kingdoms--the one
   peculiar people distinguished by internal characteristics, as well as
   marked by the special dealings and dispensations of its Almighty Ruler
   through the successive ages of time.

   No community but itself could have outlasted what it has endured from
   the internal divisions and animosities of persons struggling for
   opposite interests, as well as the assaults from without of hostile
   powers thirsting for its destruction; but with a singular,
   preternatural, unconquerable energy, it survives every shock, waxing
   stronger and stronger after each attack--shewing that it is upheld and
   invigorated by a power that cannot be subdued, nor finally overthrown.
   Security, blindness, and ease, belong to the kingdom of the wicked one,
   but nowhere characterize the kingdom of God. The Church on earth is
   called sons or children, because it needs continual care, discipline,
   chastisement, and teaching. The Church in heaven is called the bride,
   no longer to be corrected and kept in awe as a child, but to reign and
   rejoice in the full possession of that peace and security, which, in
   its militant state, it never could possess. Those who form their
   judgment of Christianity from the Holy Scriptures, must see that too
   much ease and worldly prosperity injure the Church as well as the
   individual Christian. These, instead of promoting the real interests of
   a kingdom which is not of this world, accelerate its corruption. And
   when Christianity is propagated merely by human authority and worldly
   inducements, what it gains in numbers and earthly glory, it loses in
   purity, soundness, and spirituality.

   Though the whole earth were but one vast area overspread with temples
   for the service of God, and you could not plant the sole of your foot
   but where it might be said this is consecrated to God's glory, yet as
   little true worship might ascend to him as there does now from the
   desolate places of the world where his name was never heard. Extent of
   territory is nothing unless the corrupt soil of the human heart have
   been subdued. Nations may throw off the yoke of superstition, and a
   corrupt religion and Satan's kingdom lose nothing by the change. "Men
   judge of the outside chiefly, but God values least of all that part
   which shines brightest in the eyes of men." [4]

   A pious and prayerful life persevered in by the individual Christian is
   one of the truest means of extending the Church of God. Many think they
   are extending the Redeemer's kingdom when they are but extending their
   own name and fame. The Church of God is the meek, the pure, the
   peacemakers, the humble, the stedfast, the just. These are the living
   stones which compose the spiritual edifice, and this spiritual edifice,
   this Church of God, comprises all that is excellent on earth, and that
   only of earth which shall endure through the eternal ages of Heaven.

   All else--men's honours and achievements, men's inventions, men's
   vanities, is doomed to everlasting perdition. To think of wicked doers
   and their works being doomed to destruction is comparatively nothing,
   but it is an appalling consideration to know that the reputable things,
   the honourable things of the world--the highly esteemed, shall pass
   away into everlasting contempt.

   If personal holiness be a true means of extending and establishing the
   Church of God, union among Christians, as it is a chief token of
   Christ's presence among his people, is also a powerful means of
   advancing the Gospel and the spiritual interests of mankind. But when
   the disciples of Jesus dispute by the way about the preference due to
   themselves and their opinions, they are seeking their own preeminence
   and not their master's glory. Mankind are represented as sojourners and
   travellers. This analogy implies sociality and companionship. Where
   many are travelling the same road they must of necessity converse as
   they journey. The wicked go in company together to the place of
   destruction though the ways are broad and various, how much more the
   righteous, when to their destination there is but one road, and that a
   narrow one.

   Activity is another essential mark of the Christian character, and a
   means by which the kingdom of God is promoted. The kingdom of Satan and
   the kingdom of Christ we all know are the two grand divisions of the
   human race. All other divisions are trifling and of transient duration.
   The distinctions of blood and kindred, nation and language, sect,
   party, and opinion are among those fashions of the world which shall
   pass away. But these two divisions are permanent, yea eternally
   permanent. The righteous all are one in Christ Jesus. The wicked, the
   slothful Christians, the fearful, the unbelieving, all are one with
   Satan. He leaves no means untried to keep souls out of Christ's
   kingdom. He hates an awakened frame of spirit. Those who do no good,
   though they do no harm, promote by their sloth the spread of Satan's
   reign. They who are of the kingdom and habitation of the wicked one,
   may be slothful if they will. They are characterized as sluggards,
   slumberers, and sleepers; but they who are of the kingdom of Christ
   have all their appointed work. Satan's bramble-field will grow without
   dressing. The weeds, thorns, briars, and evil fruit which are his
   harvest, flourish well in their native soil, the world. But the vine
   which is the Lord's planting is not indigenous to earth, but is of
   celestial growth, and must be tended by the vine-dressers, and pruned,
   and sheltered, and watered with the dews of heaven.

   Satan's followers may be idle, but there is no time of idleness for the
   Christian. He is a soldier at continual warfare. He is an husbandman
   sowing and reaping, a merchantman seeking great gain, a traveller on a
   far Journey with but short time to accomplish it, a secant with his
   appointed work and stipulated wages, a child at school with his task to
   learn. He is an invited guest to a banquet where all things are ready,
   and if he hasten not to it, the company will be all assembled and the
   doors shut.

   There is nothing so humbling to human nature as a view of the
   incompleteness of all that one is able to perform in this life. A man
   may live long enough in the world in a reputable way, and never find
   out till the last that he has been living to very little purpose. The
   extreme difficulty of knowing in many cases whether we are seeking
   God's glory or our own, should make the Christian abide more steadily
   by those duties and pursuits which he is sure will stand the test of
   the judgment day, and then the certainty of ultimate success in such
   undertakings, assisted by divine aids and encouragements, enables him
   to persevere in his course. The human mind must be sustained by
   encouragements, otherwise it will relax in its exertions, and finally
   fail. The countenance which a man zealous about religious enterprises
   receives from his fellow-men helps him on wonderfully, though, at the
   same time, if he would have the honesty to confess it, he may be
   receiving very little encouragement from God, and may be making no
   progress himself in the divine life. But when God's secret assistance
   and counsel to a man are combined together with his gracious disposal
   of the hearts of others to aid his exertions, then it is that great
   things may be achieved for the advancement of God's glory on the earth.
   But one has much need to beware that he mistake not outward prosperity
   for heavenly sanctions. Religious professors go on generally with great
   eclat while many a faithful servant of God toils on his way with very
   little human approbation. But he needs not to be discouraged; for in
   this respect he is the more like his divine master.

   "I have meat to eat which ye know not of," was Jesus Christ's
   acknowledgment to his friends when they thought he stood in need of
   bodily refreshment. Such in a certain degree is the experience of every
   follower of Jesus. And when the world is pitying, and Satan assaulting,
   and nature failing, there is a divine nourishment imparted to the soul
   that carnal minds cannot be made to participate in nor to discern.
   There is no redeemed soul but what has experienced this refreshing from
   on high, and he estimates it above all other supports. It is the food
   with which the Psalmist's table was furnished in the presence of his
   enemies. In despite of all those evils that conspired against him, he
   was sustained and nourished, and constrained to exult in the
   loving-kindness of the great Shepherd of Israel that had refreshed his
   soul and anointed his head.

   If the believer were to give utterance to the feelings of his heart
   when he is rejoicing in the Lord's goodness, he would be called a
   foolish enthusiast. But he has divine prudence imparted to him as well
   as divine joy, and he restrains himself. He avoids every appearance of
   evil--everything by which his good could be evil spoken of, and he
   moderates his feelings with the remembrance that this is a vale of
   tears--a strange country not seemly to sing God's songs in, and he
   reserves them for that land where every heart shall be attuned with
   melody like his own.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [1] Bishop of Norwich.

   [2] See Fox's Martyrs.

   [3] John Arndt, general superintendent or principal minister in the
   Duke of Zell's dominions, who died 1621.

   [4] Fenelon.
     __________________________________________________________________

THE

PRACTICE OF PIETY.
     __________________________________________________________________

  CONTENTS.
     __________________________________________________________________

     The Epistle Dedicatory, page xxxi
     Address to the Devout Reader, xxxvii
   1. A Plain Description of God, in respect of his Essence, Persons, and
   Attributes, so far as every Christian should competently endeavour to
   learn and know, with sundry sweet Observations and Meditations
   thereupon, 3
   2. Meditations setting forth the Miseries of a Man in his Life and
   Death, that is not reconciled to God in Christ, 28
   3. Meditations of the Blessed State, both in Life and Death, of a Man
   that is reconciled to God in Christ; wherein thou shalt find not a few
   things worthy the reading and observation, 45
   4. Meditations on Seven Hindrances which keep back a Sinner from the
   Practice of Piety; necessary to be read of all, but especially of
   carnal Gospellers in these times, 76
   5. How to begin the Morning with pious Meditations and Prayer, 102
   6. How to read the Bible with profit and ease once over every year, 105
   7. A Morning Prayer, 108
     Another shorter Prayer for the Morning, 115
     Another brief Morning Prayer, 118
   8. Meditations how to walk with God all the Day, 119
     Especially how to guide thy Thoughts, ib.
     ? ?  " ? ? " ? ?    ? thy Words, 123
     ? ?  " ? ? " ? ?    ? thy Actions, 126
   9. Meditations for the Evening, 133
   10. An Evening Prayer. 135
     Another shorter Evening Prayer, 140
   11. Meditations as thou art going to Bed, 142
   12. Meditations for a Godly Householder, 143
   13. A Morning Prayer for a Family, 145
   14. Holy Meditations and Graces before and after Dinner and Supper, 149
   15. Rules to be observed in singing of Psalms, 154
   16. An Evening Prayer for a Family. 155
   17. A Religious Discourse of the Sabbath day, wherein is proved, that
   the Sabbath was altered from the seventh to the first day of the week,
   not by human ordinance, but by Christ himself and his Apostles--that
   the fourth commandment is perpetual and moral under the New Testament,
   as well as under the Old. And the true manner of sanctifying the
   Sabbath day is described out of the Word of God, 159
   18. A Morning Prayer for the Sabbath day, 193
   19. An Evening Prayer for the Sabbath day, 204
   20. Meditations of the true manner of Fasting, and giving of Alms, out
   of the Word of God, 207
   21. The right manner of Holy Feasting, 219
   22. Holy and Devout Meditations of the worthy and reverent receiving of
   the Lord's Supper, 220
   23. An Humble Confession of Sins before the Holy Communion, 237
   24. A Sweet Soliloquy to be said a little before the receiving of the
   Holy Sacrament, 250
   25. A Prayer to be said after the receiving of the Holy Sacrament, 257
   26. Meditations how to behave thyself in the time of Sickness, 263
   27. A Prayer when one begins to be sick, 264
   28. Directions for making thy Will, and setting thy house in order, 268
   29. A Prayer before taking Medicine, 271
   30. Meditations for the Sick, 272
   31. Meditations for one that is recovered from Sickness, 279
     And a Thanksgiving, 280
   32. Meditations for one that is like to die, 283
   33. A Prayer to be said of one that is like to die, 288
   34. Comfortable Meditations against Despair, 290
   35. Directions for those who come to visit the Sick, 301
   36. A Prayer to be said for the Sick by those who visit him, 303
     And choice Scriptures to be read unto him, 305
   37. Consolations against Impatience in Sickness, 306
   38. Consolations against the Fear of Death, 309
   39. Seven Sanctified Thoughts, and so many Spiritual Sighs, fit for a
   sick man ready to die, 312
   40. Of the Comfortable Assurance of God's Forgiveness of Sins, and
   receiving of the Lord's Supper, to the faithful and penitent, before
   they depart this life, if it may conveniently be had, 316
   41. The Speech of a Godly Man dying, 323
   42. Meditations of Martyrdom, wherein is proved that those who die for
   Popery cannot be Christ's Martyrs, 324
   43. A Divine Colloquy between Christ and the Soul concerning the virtue
   and efficacy of his dolorous passion, 330
   44. The Soul's Soliloquy unto Christ her Saviour, 339
     __________________________________________________________________

    TO THE

  HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE

CHARLES, PRINCE OF WALES.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Tolle malos, extolle pios, cognosce teipsum:

   Sacra tene, paci consule, disce pati.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Christ Jesus, the Prince of princes, bless your Highness with length of
   days, and an increase of all graces, which may make you truly
   prosperous in this life, and eternally happy in that which is to come.

   Jonathan shot three arrows to drive David further off from Saul's fury;
   and this is the third epistle which I have written, to draw your
   Highness nearer to God's favour, by directing your heart to begin, like
   Josiah, in your youth to seek after the God of David, and of Jacob,
   your father. Not but that I know that your Highness does this without
   my admonition, but because I would, with the apostle, have you to
   abound in every grace, [5] in faith and knowledge, and in all
   diligence, and in your love to God's service and true religion. Never
   was there more need of plain and unfeigned admonition; for the Comick
   in that saying, seems but to have prophesied of our times, "Obsequium
   amicos, veritas odium parit." And no marvel; seeing that we are fallen
   into the dregs of time, which being the last, must needs be the worst
   days. And how can there be worse, seeing vanity knows not how to be
   vainer, nor wickedness how to be more wicked? And whereas heretofore
   those have been counted most holy, who have shewed themselves most
   zealous in their religion (Matt. xv. 1), they are now reputed most
   discreet, who can make the least profession of their faith. And that
   these are the last days, appears evidently (2 Tim. ii. 4), because the
   security of men's eternal state hath so overwhelmed all sorts (as
   Christ foretold it should), that most who now live are become lovers of
   pleasures more than lovers of God; and of those who pretend to love
   God, O God! what sanctified heart cannot but bleed, to behold how
   seldom they come to prayers! how irreverently they hear God's word!
   what strangers they are at the Lord's table! What assiduous spectators
   they are at stage-plays; where, being Christians, they can sport
   themselves to hear the vassals of the devil scoffing religion, [6] and
   blasphemously abusing phrases of holy scripture on their stages, as
   familiarly ag they use their tobacco-pipes in their bibbing-houses! So
   that he who would now-a-days seek in most Christians for the power,
   shall scarce almost find the very shew of godliness. Never was there
   more sinning, never less remorse for sin. Never was the Judge nearer to
   come, never was there so little preparation for his coming: and if the
   bridegroom should now come, how many who think themselves wise enough,
   and full of all knowledge, would be found foolish virgins, without one
   drop of the oil of saving faith in their lamps? for the greatest wisdom
   of most men in this age consists in being wise, first, to deceive
   others, aud in the end to deceive themselves. And if sometimes some
   good book haps into their hands, or some good motion cometh into their
   heads, whereby they are put in mind to consider the uncertainty of this
   life present, or how weak assurance they have of eternal life if this
   were ended, and how they have some secret sins, for which they must
   needs repent here, or be punished for them in hell hereafter, security
   then forthwith whispers the hypocrite in the ear, that though it be fit
   to think of these things, yet, it is not yet time, and that he is yet
   young enough, though he cannot but know, that many millions as young as
   himself are already in hell for want of timely repentance. Presumption
   warranteth him in the other ear, that he may have time hereafter, at
   his leisure, to repent, and that howsoever others die, yet he is far
   enough from death, and therefore may boldly take yet a longer time to
   enjoy his sweet pleasures, and to increase his wealth and greatness;
   and hereupon, like Solomon's sluggard, he yields himself to a little
   more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands
   to sleep in his former sin, till at last, despair (security's ugly
   handmaid) comes in unlooked for, and shews him his hourglass, dolefully
   telling him that his time is past, and that nothing now remains but to
   die, and be damned. Let not this seem strange to any, for too many have
   found it too true; and more, without more grace, are like to he thus
   soothed to their end, and in the end, snared to their endless
   perdition.

   In my desire, therefore, of the common salvation, but especially of
   your Highness's everlasting welfare, I have endeavoured to extract out
   of the chaos of endless controversies the old practice of true piety,
   which flourished before those controversies were hatched; which my poor
   labours, in a short while, now come forth again under the gracious
   protection of your Highness's favour, and by their entertainment seem
   not to be altogether unwelcome to the church of Christ. If to be pious
   has in all ages been held the truest honour, how much more honourable
   is it, in so impious an age, to be the true patron and pattern of
   piety? Piety made David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Hezechias, Josias,
   Zerubbabel, Constantine, Theodosius, Edward the VI., Queen Elizabeth,
   Prince Henry, and other religious princes, to be so honoured, that
   their names, since their deaths, smell in the church of God like a
   precious ointment, and their remembrances are sweet as honey in all
   mouths, and as music at a banquet of wine; whereas the lives of others,
   who have been godless and irreligious princes, do rot and stink in the
   memory of God's people--and what honour is it for great men to have
   great titles on earth, when God counts their names unworthy to be
   written in his book of life in heaven?

   It is piety that embalms a prince's good name, and makes his face to
   shine before men, and glorifies his soul among angels. For as the face
   of Moses, by often talking with God, shined in the eyes of the people,
   so by frequent praying, which is our talking with God, and hearing the
   word, which is God speaking unto us, we shall be changed from glory to
   glory, by the Spirit of the Lord, to the image of the Lord. And seeing
   this life is uncertain to all, especially to princes, what argument is
   more fit both for princes and people to study, than that which teacheth
   sinful man to deny himself by mortifying his corruptions, that he may
   enjoy Christ, the author of his salvation--to renounce these false and
   momentary pleasures of the world, that he may attain to the true and
   eternal joys of heaven--and to make them truly honourable before God in
   piety, who are now only honourable before men in vanity? What charges
   soever we spend in earthly vanities, for the most part they either die
   before us, or we shortly die after them; but what we spend, like Mary,
   in the practice of piety, shall remain our true memorial for ever. For
   piety hath the promise of this life, and of that which shall never end;
   but without piety there is no internal comfort to be found in
   conscience, [7] nor external peace to be looked for in the world, nor
   any eternal happiness to be hoped for in heaven. How can piety but
   promise to herself a zealous patron of your Highness, being the sole
   son and heir of so gracious and great a monarch, who is not only the
   defender of the faith by title, but also a defender of the faith in
   truth, as the Christian world hath taken notice, by his learned
   confuting of Bellarmine's overspreading heresies, and his suppressing
   in the blade of Vorstius's Athean blasphemies? And how easy it is for
   your Highness to equal, if not exceed, all that were before you, in
   grace and greatness, if you do but set your heart to seek and to serve
   God, considering how religiously your Highness hath been educated by
   godly and virtuous governors and tutors; [8] as also that you live in
   such a time, wherein God's providence, and the King's religious care,
   hath placed over this church, to the unspeakable comfort thereof,
   another venerable Jehoiada, that doth good in our Israel both towards
   God and towards his house; of whom your Highness at all times, in all
   doubts, may learn the sincerity of religion, for the salvation of your
   inward soul, and the wisest counsel for the direction of your outward
   state. And to excite you the rather to the zealous practice of divine
   piety, often suppose with yourself, that your Highness hears your
   religious father James speaking unto you, as sometimes holy David spake
   to his son Solomon: and thou Charles my son know thou the God of thy
   father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind;
   for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the
   imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of
   thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

   To help you the better to seek and serve this God Almighty, who must be
   your chief protector in life, and only protector in death, I here once
   again, on my bended knees, offer my old mite new stamped into your
   Highness's hands; daily, for your Highness, offering up unto the Most
   High my humblest prayers, that as you grow in age and stature, so you
   may, like your master Christ, increase in wisdom and favour with God
   and all good men. This suit will I never cease. In all other matters I
   will ever rest,

   Your Highness's humble servant,

   during life to be commanded,

   LEWIS BAYLY.
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________

   [5] Qui monet ut facias, quod jam facis, ipse monendo Laudat, et
   hortatu comprobat acta suo.--2 Cor. viii. 7.

   [6] Exemplum accidit, mulieris, domino teste, quae theatrum adiit, et
   inde cum daemonio rediit. Itaque in exorcismo cum oneraretur immundus
   spiritus quod ausus est fidelem aggredi: constanter justissime quidem
   (inquit) feci: In meo eam inveni.--Tertul. de Spect. lib. cap. 26.
   Therefore Tertullian, in cap. 26, calls the stage Diaboli Ecclesiam,
   and Cathedram pestilentiarum.

   [7] Principibus ad salutem sola satis vera est pietas, absque illa
   vero, nihil est vel exercitus vel imperatoris fortitudo, vel apparatus
   reliquus.--Zozom. Eccles. Hist. lib. 9, cap. 1.

   [8] The Honourable Sir Robert Cary, Knight, and the religious Lady
   Gary, his wife. Mr. Thomas Murray. Sir James Fullerton. The gracious
   Archbishop of Canterbury, G. A.
     __________________________________________________________________

  TO THE DEVOUT READER.
     __________________________________________________________________

   I had not purposed to enlarge the last Edition, save that the
   importunity of many devoutly disposed prevailed with me to add some
   points, and to amplify others. To satisfy whose godly requests I have
   done my best endeavour, and withal finished all that I intend in this
   argument. If thou shalt hereby reap any more profit, give God the more
   praise; and remember him in thy prayers who hath vowed both his life
   and his labours to further thy salvation as his own.

   Farewell in the Lord Jesus,

   Lewis Bayly.
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________

    THE

PRACTICE OF PIETY;

  DIRECTING A CHRISTIAN HOW TO WALK
  THAT HE MAY PLEASE GOD.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Whoever thou art that lookest into this book, never undertake to read
   it, unless thou first resolvest to become from thine heart an unfeigned
   Practitioner of Piety. Yet read it, and that speedily, lest, before
   thou hast read it over, God, by some unexpected death, cut thee off for
   thine inveterate impiety.

   The Practice of Piety consists--

   First, In knowing the essence of God, and that in respect of, (I.) The
   diverse manner of being therein, which are three persons--Father, Son,
   and Holy Ghost. (II.) The Attributes thereof; which are either Nominal
   or Real,--(1.) Absolute, as, Simpleness, Infiniteness,--(2.) Relative,
   as, Life, Understanding, Will, Power, Majesty.

   Second, In knowing thy own self, in respect of thy state of Corruption
   and Renovation.

   Third, In glorifying God aright, (I.) By thy life, in dedicating
   thyself devoutly to serve him,--both privately, in thine own person;
   and publicly, with thy family, every day; and with the Church, on the
   Sabbath-day;--and extraordinarily, by fasting and by feasting. (II.) By
   thy death, in dying in the Lord, and for the Lord.

   Unless that a man doth truly know God, he neither can nor will worship
   him aright: for how can a man love him whom he knoweth not? and who
   will worship him whose help a man thinks he needeth not? and how shall
   a man seek remedy by grace, who never understood his misery by nature?
   Therefore, saith the Apostle, "He that cometh to God, must believe that
   God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him," Heb. xi. 6.

   And forasmuch as there can be no true piety without the knowledge of
   God; nor any good practice without the knowledge of a man's own self;
   we will therefore lay down the knowledge of God's majesty, and man's
   misery, as the first and chiefest grounds of the Practice of Piety.
     __________________________________________________________________

  A PLAIN DESCRIPTION OF THE ESSENCE
  AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD,

    OUT OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE,

   SO FAR AS EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST COMPETENTLY KNOW, AND
   NECESSARILY BELIEVE, THAT WILL BE SAVES.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Although no creature can define what God is, because he is
   incomprehensible (Psal. cxliii. 3) and dwelling in inaccessible light
   (1 Tim. vi. 16); yet it has pleased his majesty to reveal himself to us
   in his word, so far as our weak capacity can best conceive him. Thus:

   God is that one spiritual and infinitely perfect essence, whose being
   is of himself eternally (Deut. i. 4; iv. 35; xxxii. 39; vi. 4; Isa.
   xlv. 5-8; 1 Cor. viii. 4; Eph. iv. 5, 6; 1 Tim. ii. 5; John iv. 24; 2
   Cor. iii. 17; 1 Kings viii. 17; Psal. cxlvii. 5; Deut. xxxii. 4; Exod.
   iii. 14; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Acts xvii. 25; Rom. xi. 36.)

   In the Divine Essence we are to consider two things: First, The diverse
   manner of being therein; secondly, The attributes thereof.

   The diverse manner of being therein, are called Persons (Heb. i. 3.)

   A person is a distinct subsistence of the whole Godhead (John i. 1; v.
   31, 37; xiv. 16; Col. ii. 9; John xiv. 9.)

   There are Three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
   (Gen. i. 26; iii. 22; xi. 7; Exod. xx. 2; Hos. i. 4, 7; Isa. lxiii. 9,
   10; Zech. iii. 2; Hag. ii. 5, 6; 1 John v. 7; Matt. iii. 16, 17;
   xxviii. 19; John xiv. 26; 2 Cor. xiii. 13.) These three persons are not
   three several substances, but three distinct subsistences; or three
   diverse manner of beings, of one and the same substance and divine
   essence. So that a person in the Godhead is an individual Understanding
   and incommunicable subsistence, living of itself, and not sustained by
   another.

   In the unity of the Godhead there is a plurality which is not
   accidental (Gen. i. 26; iii. 22; xi. 7; Isa. vi. 8), for God is a most
   pure act, and admits no accidents; nor essential, for God is one
   essence only--but personal.

   The persons in this one essence are but three. In this mystery there is
   alius et alius, another and another; but not aliud et aliud, another
   thing and another thing.

   The Divine Essence in itself is neither divided nor distinguished, but
   the three Persons in the Divine Essence are distinguished amongst
   themselves three manner of ways:

   1. By their Names. 2. By their Order. 3. By their Actions.

   1. By their Names, thus:

   The first Person is named the Father; first, in respect of his natural
   son, Christ (Matt. xi. 27; iii. 17;) secondly, in respect of the elect,
   his adopted sons (Isa. lxiii. 16; Eph. iii. 14, 15;) that is, those
   who, being not his sons by nature, are made his sons by grace.

   The second Person is named the Son, because he is begotten of his
   Father's substance, or nature (Prov. xxx. 4; Psal. ii. 7; Heb. i. 3;
   Phil. ii. 6;) and he is called the Word--First, because the conception
   of a word in man's mind is the nearest thing that, in some sort, can
   shadow to us the manner how he is eternally begotten of his Father's
   substance; and in this respect he is also called the Wisdom of his
   Father (Prov. viii. 12.) Secondly, because that by him the Father has
   from the beginning declared his will for our salvation (John i. 18);
   hence he is called logos quasi legon, the person speaking with or by
   the Father. Thirdly, because he is the chief argument of all the word
   of God (Acts x. 43; Heb. i. 1; Luke xxiv. 27; John v. 45; Acts iii. 22,
   23, 24), or that Word whereof God spake when he promised the blessed
   seed to the fathers under the Old Testament.

   The third Person is named the Holy Ghost (Isa. lxiii. 10; 2 Cor. xiii.
   14)--First, because he is spiritual, without a body (1 John iv. 13; 2
   Cor. iii. 17.) Secondly, because he is spired, and as it were breathed
   from both the Father and the Son (John xx. 21, 22; Gal. iv. 6), that
   is, proceedeth from them both; and he is called Holy, both because he
   is holy in his own nature (1 Pet. i. 15, 16), and also the immediate
   sanctifier of all God's elect people (2 Cor. iii. 18; 1 Thess. v. 23; 1
   Pet. i. 2.)

   2. By their Order, thus:

   The Persons of the Godhead are either the Father, or those which are of
   the Father. [9] The Father is the first Person (Mat. xxviii. 19; 1 John
   v. 7) in the glorious Trinity, [10] having neither his being nor
   beginning of any other but of himself; begetting his Son, and together
   with his Son sending forth the Holy Ghost from everlasting. The persons
   which are of the Father are those who, in respect of their personal
   existence, have the whole divine essence eternally communicated unto
   them from the Father. And those are either from the Father alone, as
   the Son; or from the Father and the Son, as the Holy Ghost.

   The Son is the second Person of the glorious Trinity, and the only
   begotten Son of his Father, not by grace, but by nature; having his
   being of the Father alone, and the whole being of his Father by an
   eternal and incomprehensible generation; and with the Father sendeth
   forth the Holy Ghost. [11] In respect of his absolute essence, he is of
   himself; but in respect of his person he is, by an eternal generation,
   of his Father. For the essence doth not beget an essence, but the
   person of the Father begetteth the person of the Son, and so he is God
   of God, and hath from his Father the beginning of his person and order,
   but not of essence and time.

   The Holy Ghost is the third Person of the blessed Trinity, proceeding
   and sent forth equally from both the Father and the Son (John xv. 26;
   xvi. 15) [12] by an eternal and incomprehensible spiration. For as the
   Son receiveth the whole divine essence by generation, so the Holy Ghost
   receiveth it wholly by spiration. [14]

   This order betwixt the three persons appears in that the Father
   begetting must in order be before the Son begotten; and the Father and
   Son, before the Holy Ghost proceeding from both.

   This order serves to set forth to us two things--First, the manner how
   the Trinity worketh in their external actions; as, that the Father
   worketh of himself, by the Son and the Holy Ghost; the Son from the
   Father by the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son.
   Secondly, to distinguish the first and immediate beginning from which
   those external and common actions flow. Hence it is, that forasmuch as
   the Father is the fountain and original of the Trinity, the beginning
   of all external working, the name of God in relation, and the title of
   Creator in the creed, are given in a special manner to the Father; our
   redemption to the Son, and our sanctification to the person of the Holy
   Ghost, as the immediate agents of those actions. And this also is the
   cause why the Son, as he is mediator, referreth all things to the
   Father, not to the Holy Ghost (Matt. xi. 25, 26, 27; John v. 19-23; xi.
   41, 42; xii. 49), and that the Scripture so often saith that we are
   reconciled to the Father (2 Cor. v. 18, &c.)

   This divine order or economy excepted, there is neither first nor last,
   neither superiority nor inferiority, among the three persons; but for
   nature they are co-essential, for dignity co-equal, for time
   co-eternal.

   The whole divine essence is in every one of the three persons; but it
   was incarnated only in the second person of the Word, and not in the
   person of the Father, or of the Holy Ghost, for three reasons:--

   First, That God the Father might the rather set forth the greatness of
   his love to mankind, in giving his first and only-begotten Son to be
   incarnated, and to suffer death for man's salvation.

   Secondly, That he who was in his divinity the Son of God, should be in
   his humanity the Son of man: lest the name of Son should pass to
   another, who by his eternal nativity was not the Son.

   Thirdly, Because it was meetest that that person, who is the
   substantial image of his eternal Father, should restore in us the
   spiritual image of God, which we had lost. In the incarnation, the
   Godhead was not turned into the manhood, nor the manhood into the
   Godhead; but the Godhead, as it is the second person or Word, assumed
   unto it the manhood, that is, the whole nature of man, body and soul;
   and all the natural properties and infirmities thereof, sin excepted
   [15] (Heb. iii. 17, 18; .)

   The second person took not upon him the person of man, but the nature
   of man. [16] So that the human nature has no personal subsistence of
   its own (for then there should be two persons in Christ), but it
   subsisteth in the Word, the second person: for as the soul and body
   make but one person of man, so the Godhead and manhood make but one
   person of Christ.

   The two natures of the Godhead and manhood are so really united by a
   personal union, that as they can never be separated asunder, so are
   they never confounded; but remain still distinguished by their several
   and essential properties which they had before they were united. As for
   example, the infiniteness of the divine is not communicated to the
   human nature, nor the finiteness of the human to the divine nature.

   Yet by reason of this personal union, there is such a communion of the
   properties of both natures, that that which is proper to the one is
   sometimes attributed to the other nature. As, that God purchased the
   church with his own blood (Acts xx. 28); and that he will judge the
   world by that man whom he hath appointed (Acts xvii. 31.) Hence also it
   is, that though the humanity of Christ be a created, and therefore a
   finite and limited nature, and cannot be everywhere present by actual
   position, or local extension, according to his natural being; yet
   because he hath communicated unto it the personal subsistence of the
   Son of God, which is infinite, and without limitation,, and is so
   united with God, that it is nowhere severed from God, the body of
   Christ, in respect of his personal being, may rightly be said to be
   everywhere.

   3. The Actions by which the Three Persons are distinguished.

   The actions are of two sorts: either external, respecting the
   creatures; and those are after a sort common to every one of the three
   persons: or internal, respecting the persons only amongst themselves,
   and are altogether incommunicable.

   The external and communicable actions of the three persons are these:

   The creation of the world, peculiarly belonging to God the Father; the
   redemption of the church, to God the Son; and the sanctification of the
   elect, to God the Holy Ghost. But because the Father created (Rom. xi.
   36) and still governeth the world by the Son in the Holy Ghost,
   therefore these external actions are indifferently, in Scripture, often
   ascribed to each of the three persons, and therefore called
   communicable and divided actions. [17]

   The internal and incommunicable actions or properties of the three
   persons are these:

   1. To beget; and that belongeth only to the Father, who is neither
   made, created, nor begotten of any.

   2. To be begotten; and that belongeth only to the Son, who is of the
   Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.

   3. To proceed from both; and that belongeth only to the Holy Ghost, who
   is of the Father and the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten,
   but proceeding.

   So that when we say, that the divine essence is in the Father
   unbegotten, in the Son begotten, and in the Holy Ghost proceeding, we
   make not three essences, but only shew the diverse manners of
   subsisting, by which the same most simple, eternal, and unbegotten
   essence subsisteth in each person: namely, that it is not in the Father
   by generation; that it is in the Son communicated from the Father by
   generation; and in the Holy Ghost communicated from both the Father and
   the Son by proceeding.

   These are incommunicable actions, and make not an essential,
   accidental, or rational, but a real distinction betwixt the three
   persons: so that he who is the Father in the Trinity, is not the Son;
   he who is the Son in the Trinity, is not the Father; he who is the Holy
   Ghost in the Trinity, is neither the Son nor the Father, but the Spirit
   proceeding from both; though there is but one and the same essence
   common to all three. As therefore we believe that the Father is God,
   the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, so we likewise believe that
   God is the Father, God is the Son, and God is the Holy Ghost. But by
   reason of this real distinction, the person of the one is not, nor ever
   can be, the person of the other. The three persons, therefore, of the
   Godhead, do not differ from the essence but formally; but they differ
   really one from another, and so are distinguished by their hypostatical
   proprieties. As the Father is God, begetting God the Son; the Son is
   God, begotten of God the Father; and the Holy Ghost is God, proceeding
   from both God the Father and God the Son.

   Hence it is that the Scriptures use the name of God two manner of ways:
   either essentially, and then it signifieth the three persons
   conjointly; or personally, and then by a synecdoche it signifieth but
   one of the three persons in the Godhead; as the Father (1 Tim. ii. 5),
   or the Son (Acts xx. 28; 1 Tim. iii. 16), or the Holy Ghost (Acts v. 4;
   2 Cor. vi. 16.)

   And because the divine essence (common to all the three persons) is but
   one, we call the same Unity. But because there be three distinct
   persons in this one indivisible essence, we call the same Trinity. So
   that this unity in trinity, and trinity in unity, is a holy mystery,
   rather to be religiously adored by faith, than curiously searched by
   reason, further than God has revealed in his word.

   Thus far of the diverse Manner of being in the Divine Essence; now of
   the Attributes thereof.

   Attributes are certain descriptions of the Divine Essence, delivered in
   the Scriptures according to the weakness of our capacity, to help us
   the better to understand the nature of God's essence, and to discern it
   from all other essences.

   The attributes of God are of two sorts, either nominal or real.

   The nominal attributes are of three sorts: 1. Those which signify God's
   essence. 2. The persons in the essence. 3. Those which signify his
   essential works.

   Of the first sort is the name Jehovah (Exod. xv. 3), or rather Jehueh,
   [18] which signifieth the eternal being of himself, in whom, being
   without all beginning and end, all other beings both begin and end
   (Isa. xlii. 8; Psalm lxxxiii. 18.)

   God tells Moses (Exod. vi. 3) that he was not known to Abraham, Isaac,
   and Jacob, by his name Jehovah. Not but that they knew this to be the
   name of God, for they used it in all their prayers, but because they
   lived not to see God effecting in deed (Exod. vi. 3) that which he
   promised them in graciously delivering their seed out of Egypt, and in
   giving them the real possession of Canaan's land, and so to be not only
   God Almighty, by whom all things were made, but also performing in deed
   to the children that which he promised in his word to the fathers,
   which this name Jehovah especially signifieth. And for this cause Moses
   calls God first Jehovah, when the universal creation had its absolute
   being (Gen. ii. 4.) And this admirable name is graven on the
   decalogue's forehead, which was pronounced upon the Israelites'
   deliverance, to be the rule of righteousness, after which they should
   serve their Deliverer in the promised land.

   This name is so full of divine mysteries, that the Jews hold it a sin
   to pronounce it; but if it be no sin to write it, why should it be
   unlawful to pronounce it?

   This holy name of God teacheth us--

   First, what God is in himself; namely, an eternal being of himself.

   Secondly, how he is unto others, because that from him all other
   creatures have received their being.

   Thirdly, that we may confidently believe his promises, for he is named
   Jehovah, not only in respect of being, and causing all things to be,
   but especially in respect of his gracious promises, which without fail
   he will fulfil in his appointed time, and so cause that to be which was
   not before. And so this name is a golden pledge unto us, that because
   he hath promised, he will surely, upon our repentance, forgive us all
   our sins (Isa. lv. 7; John xi. 5; xii. 26; xiv. 2, 3; Job vi. 40;) at
   the time of death receive our souls, and in the resurrection raise up
   our bodies in glory to life everlasting.

   The second name denoting God's essence is Ehejeh; but once read (Exod.
   iii. 14) of the same root that Jehovah is, and signifieth I am, or I
   will be; for when Moses asked God by what name he should call him, God
   then named himself Ehejeh, Asher Ehejeh, I am that I am, or I will be
   that I will be, signifying, that he is an eternal, unchangeable being:
   for seeing every creature is temporary and mutable, no creature can
   say, ero qui ero, I will be that I will be. This name in the New
   Testament is given to our Lord Christ, when he is called Alpha and
   Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, which was, and which is
   to come, the Almighty (Rev. i. 8.) For all time, past and to come, is
   always present before God. And to this name Christ himself alludeth,
   John viii. 58, "Before Abraham was, I am."

   This name should teach us likewise to have always present in our minds
   our first creation, present corruption, and future glorification; and
   not content ourselves with, I was good, or, I will be good, but to be
   good presently, that whenever God sends for us, he may find us prepared
   for him.

   The third name is Jah, which, as it comes of the same root, so is it
   the contract of Jehovah, and signifieth Lord, because he is the
   beginning and being of beings. [19] It is a name for the most part
   ascribed unto God (Psal. lxviii. 19; ci. 18; cvi. 1, 48; cxi. 1, &c;
   cxii. 1, &c; cxiii. 1, 9; cxv. 17, 18; cxvi. 19; cxviii. 5, 14; cxxv.
   34), when some notable deliverance or benefit comes to pass according
   to his former promise; and therefore all creatures in heaven and earth
   are commanded to celebrate and praise God in this name Jah.

   The fourth is Kurios, Lord, used often in the New Testament: for kuro,
   or kureo, signifieth I am. Hence kuros signifieth the first essence of
   a thing, or authority. When it is absolutely given to God, it answereth
   to the Hebrew name Jehovah, and is so translated by the seventy
   interpreters: for God is so a Lord, that he is of himself Lord of all.
   This name should always put us in remembrance to obey his commandments,
   and to fear his judgments, and submit ourselves to his blessed will and
   pleasure, saying with Eli, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him
   good," 1 Sam. iii. 18.

   The fifth is Theos, God, six hundred times used in the New Testament,
   and the profane writers commonly. It is derived apo tou thein, because
   he runs through and compasseth all things; or apo tou aithein, which
   signifieth to burn and kindle--for God is light, and the author both of
   heat, light, and life in all creatures, either immediately of himself,
   or mediately by secondary causes. This name is used either improperly,
   or properly. Improperly, when it is given either figuratively to
   magistrates, or falsely to idols. But when it is properly and
   absolutely taken, it signifieth the eternal essence of God, being above
   all things, and through all things; giving life and light to all
   creatures, and preserving and governing them in their wonderful frame
   and order. God seeth all in all places; let us therefore everywhere
   take heed what we do in his sight.

   Thus far of the names which signify God's essence. The name which
   signifieth the persons in the essence, is chiefly one, Elohim.

   Elohim signifieth the mighty Judges; it is a name of the plural number,
   to express the trinity of persons in unity of essence. And to this
   purpose the Holy Ghost beginneth the holy Bible with this plural name
   of God, joined with a verb of the singular number, as Elohim Bara, Dii
   creavit, the mighty Gods, or all the three persons in the Godhead
   created. The Jews also note in the verb vr', consisting of three
   letters, the mystery of the Trinity, by v beth, ben, the Son; by r
   resch, rouach, the Spirit; by ' aleph, ab, the Father. But this holy
   mystery is more clearly taught by Moses, Gen. iii. 23. And Jehovah
   Elohim said, "Behold the man is become as one of us." And Gen. xix. 24,
   "Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from
   Jehovah out of heaven;" that is, God the Son, from God the Father, who
   hath committed all judgment unto the Son (John v. 22; see Psal. xxxiii.
   6; Isa. vi. 8, 9, 10.) The singular number of Elohim is Eloah, derived
   of Alah, he swore; because that in all weighty causes, when necessity
   requireth an oath to decide the truth, we are only to swear by the name
   of God, who is the great and righteous Judge of heaven and earth.

   This name Eloah is but seldom used, as Habak. iii. 3; Job iv. 9; xii.
   4; xv. 2, 8, 36; Psal. xviii. 32; cxiv. 7. Once it has a noun plural
   joined to it, Job xxxv. 10, "None saith, where is Eloah Gosai, the
   Almighty my Maker?" to note the mystery of the eternal Trinity. Many
   times also Elohim, the plural number, is joined with a verb singular,
   to express more emphatically, this mystery (Gen. xxxv. 7; 2 Sam. vii.
   23; Josh. xxiv. 19; Jer. x. 10.) Elohim is also sometimes tropically
   given to magistrates, because they are God's vicegerents; as to Moses
   (Exod. vii. 1), Jehovah said unto Moses, I have made thee Elohim to
   Pharaoh; that is, I have appointed thee an ambassador to represent the
   person of the true three-one God, and to deliver his message and will
   unto Pharaoh; as oft, therefore, as we read, or hear this name Elohim,
   it should put us is mind to consider, that in one divine essence there
   are three distinct Persons, and that God is Jehovah Elohim.

   Now follow the Names which signify God's essential Works, which are
   these five especially:--

   1. El, which is as much as the strong God, [20] and teacheth us, that
   God is not only most strong, and fortitude itself in his own essence,
   but also that it is he that giveth all strength and power to all other
   creatures. Therefore Christ is called (Isa. ix. 6) El Gibbor, the
   strong most mighty God. Let not God's children fear the power of
   enemies, for El, our God, is stronger than they.

   2. Shaddai, [21] that is, Omnipotent. By this name God usually styled
   himself to the patriarchs, I am El Shaddai, the strong God Almighty;
   because he is perfectly able to defend his servants from all evil, to
   bless them with all spiritual and temporal blessings, and to perform
   all his promises which he hath made to them for this life, and that
   which is to come. This name belongeth only to the Godhead, and to no
   creature, no not to the humanity of Christ. This may teach us with the
   patriarchs, to put our whole confidence in God, and not to doubt of the
   true performance of his promises.

   3. Adonai, [22] my Lord. This name, as theMassorets note, is found one
   hundred and thirty-four times in the Old Testament; and logically it is
   given to creatures, but properly it belongeth to God alone. It is used
   (Mal. i. 6) in the plural number to note the mystery of the holy
   Trinity. If I be Adonim, Lords, where is my fear? Adoni, the singular;
   Adonim, the plural number. This name is given to Christ, Dan. ix. 16,
   "Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for Adoni
   (the Lord Christ) his sake."

   The hearing of this holy name may teach every man to obey God's
   commandments, to fear him alone, to suffer none besides him to reign in
   his conscience, to lay hold (by a particular hand of faith) upon his
   word and promise, and to challenge God in Christ to be his God, that he
   may say with Thomas, "Thou art my Lord and my God."

   4. Helion, that is, Most High (Psal. ix. 2; xci. 9; xcii. 9; Dan. iv.
   17, 24, 25, 34; Acts vii. 48.) This name Gabriel gives to God, telling
   the Virgin Mary that the child which should be born of her, should be
   the Son of the Most High [23] (Luke i. 32.) This teacheth, that God in
   his essence and glory exceedeth infinitely all creatures in heaven and
   earth; secondly, that no man should be proud of any earthly honour or
   greatness; thirdly, if we desire true dignity, to labour to have
   communion with God in grace and glory.

   5. Abba, a Syriac name, signifying Father (Rom. viii. 15.) This is
   sometimes used essentially, as in the Lord's prayer; secondly,
   personally (as Matt. xi. 25.) For God is the Father of Christ by
   nature, and of Christians by adoption and grace. Christ is called the
   everlasting Father (Isa. ix. 6), because he regenerates us under the
   New Testament. God is also called the Father of lights (Jam. i. 17),
   because God dwelleth in inaccessible light (1 Tim. vi. 16), and is the
   author not only of the sun's light, but also of all the light, both of
   natural reason, and of supernatural grace, which lighteneth every man
   that cometh into the world. This name teacheth us, that all the gifts
   which we receive from God proceed from his mere fatherly love;
   secondly, that we should love him again as dear children; thirdly, that
   we may, in all our needs and troubles, be bold to call upon him as a
   father for his help and succour. Thus should we not hear of the sacred
   names of God, but we should thereby be put in mind of his goodness to
   us, and of our duties to him. And then should we find how comfortable a
   thing it is to do everything in the name of God,--a phrase usual in
   every man's tongue, but the true comfort of it, through ignorance,
   known to few men's hearts.

   It is a great wisdom, and an unspeakable matter for the strengthening
   of a Christian's faith, to know how, in the mediation of Christ, to
   invocate God by such a name, as whereby he hath manifested himself to
   be most willing, and best able, to help and succour him in his present
   need or adversity. The ardent desire of knowing God, is the surest
   testimony of our love to God, and of God's favour to us. "Because he
   hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him
   on high, because he hath known my name: He shall call upon me, and I
   will answer him," &c. Psal. xci. 14, 15. And it is a great
   strengthening of faith with understanding to begin every action in the
   name of God.

   Thus far of the nominal attributes.

   The real attributes are of two sorts; either absolute or relative.

   The absolute attributes are such, which cannot in any sort agree to any
   creature, but to God alone.

   These are two, Simpleness and Infiniteness.

   Si'mpleness is that whereby God is void of all composition, division,
   multiplication, accidents, or parts compounding, either sensible or
   intelligible; so that what ever he is, he is the same essentially.

   It hinders not God's simpleness that he is three, because God is three,
   not by composition of parts, but by co-existence of persons.

   Infiniteness is that whereby all things in God are void of all measure,
   limitation, and bounds above and beneath, before and after.

   From these two do necessarily flow three other absolute attributes.

   1. Unmeasureableness or ubiquity, whereby he is of infinite extension,
   filling heaven and earth (Acts vii. 48; Psal clxv; Job xi. 7, &c.; 2
   Chron. ii. 5, 6; , &c.; Jer. xxiii. 23, 24), containing all places, and
   not contained of any space, place, or bounds, and being nowhere absent,
   is everywhere present.

   There are four degrees of God's presence: The first is universal, by
   which God is repletively everywhere, inclusively nowhere; secondly,
   special, by which God is said to be in heaven, because that there his
   power, wisdom, and goodness is in a more excellent manner seen and
   enjoyed (Psal. xix. 1; Hos. ii. 21); as also because that usually he
   doth from thence pour forth his blessings and Judgments; thirdly, more
   special, by which God dwelleth in his saints (1 Cor. iii. 16; ; 2 Cor.
   vi. 16); fourthly, most special, and altogether singular, by which the
   whole fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily (Col. ii. 8.)

   2. Unchangeableness, whereby God is void of all change, both in respect
   of his essence and will [24] (Rom. i. 23; Isa. xl. 28; Psal. cii. 27,
   &c.; Rev. i. 8; 1 Sam. xv. 29; Numb. xxiii. 19; Mal. iii. 6; Rom. xi.
   29; James i. 18.)

   3. Eternity, whereby God is without beginning of days, or end of time,
   and without all bounds of precession or succession. [25] (Isa. xliv. 6;
   James v. 19; Dan. vi. 26; Heb. xii; Rev. iv. 8.)

   Thus far of the absolute attributes; now of the relative, or such which
   have reference to the creatures.

   Those are five:--1. Life; 2. Understanding; 3. Will; 4. Power; 5.
   Majesty;

   1. The life of God is that by which, as by a most pure and perpetual
   act, he not only liveth of himself, but is also that ever and
   overflowing fountain of life, from which all creatures derive their
   lives (Acts xvii. 25, 28; xiv. 15; Psal. xlii. 2; xxxvi. 19; John v.
   26; Heb. iii. 12); so as that in him they live, move, breathe, and have
   their being. And because only his life differs not from his essence;
   [26] therefore God is said only to have immortality (1 Tim. vi. 16.)

   2. The understanding, or knowledge of God, is that whereby, by one pure
   act, he most perfectly knoweth in himself all things that ever were,
   are, or shall be; yea, the thoughts and imaginations of men's hearts (1
   Kings viii. 39; Psal. lxiv. 21; cxxxix. 1, &c.; Jer. xvii. 10; xx. 12;
   Luke xvi. 15; Acts i. 24; Heb. iv. 12; Rom. xi. 33; xvi. 17; 1 Tim. ii.
   19; Matt. vii. 13.)

   This knowledge of God is either general, by which God knoweth simply
   all things eternally, the good by himself, the evil by the good
   opposite to it, imposing to things contingent the lot of contingency,
   and to things necessary the law of necessity. And thus knowing all
   things in and of himself, he is the cause of all the knowledge that is
   in all, both men and angels. Or, secondly, special, called the
   knowledge of approbation, by which he particularly knoweth, and
   graciously acknowledged, only his elect or his own.

   Understanding also contains the wisdom of God, by which he most wisely
   created all things of nothing, in number, measure; and weight, and
   still ruleth and disposeth them to serve his own most holy purpose and
   glory. [27]

   3. The will of God is that whereby of necessity he willeth himself as
   the sovereign good (1 Tim. ii. 5; Rom. ix. 19; Eph. i. 5); and (by
   willing himself) willeth most freely all other good things which are
   out of himself.

   The will of God, though in itself it be but one, as is his essence, yet
   in respect of the diversity of objects and effects, it is called in the
   Scriptures by diverse names; as,

   (1.) Love, whereby is meant God's eternal good-will (1 John iii. 1),
   whereby he ordaineth his elect to be freely saved through Christ, and
   bestoweth on them all necessary graces for this life (Psal. xlv. 7) and
   that to come, taking pleasure in their persons and services (Gen. iv.
   4.)

   (2.) Justice is God's constant will (Rom. ii. 5; 2 Thess. i. 6, &c.; 2
   Tim. iv. 8; Deut. vii. 9, 10), whereby he recompenseth men and angels,
   according to their works; punishing the impenitent according to their
   deserts, called the justice of his wrath; and rewarding the faithful
   according to his promises, called the justice of his grace (Rom. ix.
   15, 16; Ezek. xvi. 6.)

   (3.) Mercy, which is God's mere good will (Psal. ciii. 8, &c.; Tit.
   iii. 4) and ready affection to forgive a penitent sinner,
   notwithstanding all his sins and ill deserts.

   (4.) Goodness, whereby God willingly communicates his good with his
   creatures [28] (Psal. cxlv. 7, 9, 16; Matt. xvi. 17); and because he
   communicates it freely, it is termed grace.

   (5.) Truth, whereby God willeth constantly those things which he
   willeth (Josh. xiii. 14; Psal. cxlix. 6; Numb. xxiii. 19); [29]
   effecting and performing all things which he hath spoken in his
   appointed time.

   (6.) Patience, whereby God willingly forbeareth to punish the wicked,
   so long as it may stand with his justice, and until their sins be
   ripened (2 Pet. iii. 9; Rom. ii. 4; Gen. v. 16.)

     Ad poenam tardus Deus est, ad praemia velox;

     Sed pensare solet vi graviore moram.

   (7.) Holiness, whereby God's nature is separated from all profaneness,
   and abhorreth all filthiness (1 Pet. i. 5; 1 Thess. iv. 3; Heb. xii.
   14; Mark xv. 9); and so being wholly pure in himself, delighteth in the
   inward and outward purity of his servants, which he infuseth into them.

   (8.) Anger, whereby is meant God's most certain and just will in
   chastening the elect [30] (Psal. cvi. 23, 29, 40, 41; Numb. xxv. 11);
   and in revenging and punishing the reprobate, for the injuries they
   offer to him and his chosen; and when God will punish with rigour and
   severity, then it is termed wrath, temporal to the elect, eternal to
   the reprobates (1 Cor. xix. 2; 1 Thess. i. 10.)

   4. The Power of God is that whereby he can simply and freely do
   whatsoever he will [31] (Gen. xvii. 1; Psal. cxv. 3; Matt. viii. 2; xi.
   26; Eph. i. 11), that is agreeable to his nature; and whereby, as he
   hath made, so he still ruleth heaven and earth, and all things therein.
   This almighty power of God is either absolute, by which he can will,
   and do more than he willeth or doth (Matt. iii. 9; xx. 53; Rom. ix.
   18); or actual, by which God doth indeed whatsoever he will, and
   hindereth whatsoever he will not have done (Psal. cxv. 3.)

   5. Majesty is that by which God, of his own absolute and free
   authority, reigneth and ruleth as Lord and King over all creatures
   visible, and invisible (1 Chron. xxix. 11, 12; 2 Sam. vii. 22; Rev. v.
   12, 13); having both the right and propriety in all things [32] (1
   Chron. xxix. 14); as also such a plenitude of power, that he can pardon
   the offences of all whom he will have spared (Rom. ix. 15; John iv.
   11); and subdue all his enemies, whom he will have plagued and
   destroyed without being bound to render to any creature a reason of his
   doing (Luke xix. 17; Psal. ii. 9; cx. 1); but making his own most holy
   and just will his only most perfect and eternal law.

   From all these attributes ariseth one, which is God's sovereign
   blessedness or perfection.

   Blessedness is that perfect and unmeasurable possession of joy and
   glory, which God hath in himself for ever; [33] and is the cause of all
   the bliss and perfection that every creature enjoys in its measure.

   There are other attributes figuratively and improperly ascribed to God,
   in the holy scriptures, as by an anthropomorphosis, the members of a
   man, eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, hands, feet, &c.; or the senses and
   actions of a man, as, seeing, hearing, smelling, working, walking,
   striking, &c.: by an anthropopatheia, the affections and passions of a
   man, as, gladness, grief, joy, sorrow, love, hatred, &c.; or by an
   analogy, as when he is named, a Lion, a Rock, a Tower, a Buckler, &c.,
   whose signification every commentary will express.

   Of all these attributes we must hold these general rules:--No
   attributes can sufficiently express the essence of God, because it is
   infinite and ineffable.

   Whatsoever, therefore, is spoken of God, is not God; but serves rather
   to help our weak understanding, to conceive in our reason, and to utter
   in our speech, the majesty of his divine nature, so far as he hath
   vouchsafed to reveal himself to us in his word.

   1. All the attributes of God belong to every of the three Persons, as
   well as to the essence itself, with the limitation of a personal
   propriety. As the mercy of the Father is mercy begetting, the mercy of
   the Son is mercy begotten, the mercy of the Holy Ghost is mercy
   proceeding: and so of the rest.

   2. The essential attributes of God differ not from his essence; because
   they are so in the essence, that they are the very essence itself. In
   God, therefore, there is nothing which is not either his essence or
   person.

   3. The essential attributes of God differ not essentially or really one
   from another, because whatsoever is in God, is one most simple essence,
   and admits no division, but only in our reason and understanding, which
   being not able to know earthly things by one simple act, without the
   help of many distinct acts, must of necessity have the help of many
   distinct acts to know the incomprehensible God. Therefore, to speak
   properly, there are not in God many attributes, but one only, which is
   nothing else but the Divine Essence itself, by what attribute soever
   you call it. But in respect of our reason, they are said to be so many
   different attributes; for our understanding conceives by the name of
   mercy, a thing different from that which is called justice. The
   essential attributes of God are not therefore really separate.

   4. The essential attributes of God are not parts or qualities of the
   divine essence, nor accidents in the essence, nor a subject, but the
   very whole and entire essence of God; so that every such attribute is
   not aliud et aliud, another and another thing, but one and the same
   thing. There are therefore no quantities in God, by which he may be
   said to be so much and so much; nor qualities, by which he may be said
   to be such and such; but whatsoever God is, he is such and the same by
   his essence. By his essence he is wise, and therefore wisdom itself; by
   his essence he is good, and therefore goodness itself; by his essence
   he is merciful, aud therefore mercy itself; by his essence he is just,
   and therefore justice itself, &c. In a word, God is great, without
   quantity; good, true, and just, without quality; merciful, without
   passion; an act, without motion; everywhere present, without sight;
   without time, the first and the last; the Lord of all creatures, from
   whom all receive themselves, and all the good they have, yet neither
   needeth nor receiveth he any increase of goodness or happiness from any
   other. [34]

   This is the plain description of God, so far as he hath revealed
   himself to us in his word.

   This doctrine, of all other, every true practitioner of piety must
   competently know, and necessarily believe, for four special uses:--

   1. That we may discern our true and only God from all false gods and
   idols; for the description of God is properly known only to his church,
   in whom he hath thus graciously manifested himself (Psal. clxvii. 19,
   20; Jer. x. 25.)

   2. To possess our hearts with a greater awe of his majesty, whilst we
   admire him for his simpleness and infiniteness; adore him for his
   unmeasurableness, unchangeableness, and eternity; seek wisdom from his
   understanding and knowledge; submit ourselves to his blessed will and
   pleasure; love him, his love, mercy, goodness, and patience; trust to
   his word, because of his truth; fear him for his power, justice, and
   anger; reverence him for his holiness; and praise him for his
   blessedness: and to depend all our life on him, who is the only author
   of our life, being, and all the good things we have.

   3. To stir us up to imitate the Divine Spirit in his holy attributes,
   and to bear, in some measure, the image of his wisdom, love, goodness,
   justice, mercy, truth, patience, zeal, and anger against sin; that we
   may be wise, loving, just, merciful, true, patient, and zealous, as our
   God is.

   4. Lastly, that we may in our prayers and meditations conceive aright
   of his divine majesty, and not according to those gross and blasphemous
   imaginations which naturally arise in men's brains, as when they
   conceive God to be like an old man sitting in a chair; and the blessed
   Trinity to be like that tripartite idol which papists have painted in
   their church windows.

   When, therefore, thou art to pray to God, let thine heart speak to him
   as to that eternal, infinite, almighty, holy, wise, just, merciful
   Spirit, and most perfect, indivisible essence of three several persons,
   Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; who being present in all places, ruleth
   heaven and earth, understandeth all men's hearts, knoweth all men's
   miseries, and is only able to bestow on us all graces which we want,
   and to deliver all penitent sinners who with faithful hearts seek, for
   Christ's sake, his help out of all their afflictions and troubles
   (Psal. xc. 2; 1 Kings viii. 27, 30; Gen. xvii. 1; Job xv. 25; Isa. vi.
   3; Rev. iv. 8; xv. 4; Rom. xi. 33; xvi. 17; Deut. xxxii. 4; Psal. cxlv.
   8, 9, 17; ciii. 11; John iv. 24; 1 John v. 7; Matt. iii. 16; xxviii.
   19; 2 Cor. xiii. 14; Jer. xxiii. 24; Dan. iv. 32; Jer. xvii. 10; Acts
   i. 24.)

   The ignorance of this true knowledge of God makes many to make an idol
   of the true God, and is the only cause why so many profess all other
   parts of God's worship and religion with so much irreverence and
   hypocrisy;--whereas, if they did truly know God, they durst not but
   come to his holy service; and coming, serve him with fear and
   reverence: for so far doth a man fear God as he knoweth him; and then
   doth a man truly know, God, when he joins practice to speculation: and
   that is,

   First, when a man doth so acknowledge and celebrate God's majesty, as
   he hath revealed himself in his word.

   Secondly, when, from the true and lively sense of God's attributes,
   there is bred in a man's heart a love, awe, and confidence in God; for
   saith God himself, "If I be a Father, where is my honour? if I be a
   Lord, where is my fear?" "O taste and see that the Lord is good!" saith
   David, Psal. xxxiv. 9. He that hath not by experience tasted his
   goodness, knows not how good he is. "He" (saith John) "that saith he
   knoweth God, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth
   is not in him," 1 John ii. 4. So far, therefore, as we imitate God in
   his goodness, love, justice, mercy, patience, and other attributes, so
   far do we know him.

   Thirdly, when with inward groans, and the serious desires of our
   hearts, we long to attain to the perfect and plenary knowledge of his
   majesty, in the life which is to come.

   Lastly, this discovers how few there are who do truly know God; for no
   man knoweth God, but he that loveth him; and how can a man choose but
   love him, being the sovereign good, if he know him, seeing the nature
   of God is to enamour with the love of his goodness? and whosoever
   loveth anything more than God, is not worthy of God; and such is every
   one who settles the love and rest of his heart upon anything besides
   God. If, therefore, thou dost believe that God is almighty, why dost
   thou fear devils and enemies, and not confidently trust in God, and
   crave his help in all thy troubles and dangers?--if thou believest that
   God is infinite, how darest thou provoke him to anger?--if thou
   believest that God is simple, with what heart canst thou dissemble and
   play the hypocrite?--if thou believest that God is the sovereign good,
   why is not thy heart more settled upon him than on all worldly
   good?--if thou dost indeed believe that God is a just Judge, how darest
   thou live so securely in sin without repentance?--if thou dost truly
   believe that God is most wise, why dost not thou refer the events of
   crosses and disgraces to him who knoweth how to turn all things to the
   best unto them that love him? (Rom. viii. 28)--if thou art persuaded
   that God is true, why dost thou doubt of his promises?--and if thou
   believest that God is beauty and perfection itself, why dost not thou
   make him alone the chief end of all thine affections and desires? for
   if thou lovest beauty, he is most fair; if thou desirest riches, he is
   most wealthy; if thou seekest wisdom, he is most wise. Whatsoever
   excellency thou hast seen in any creature, it is nothing but a sparkle
   of that which is in infinite perfection in God: and when in heaven we
   shall have an immediate communion with God, we shall have them all
   perfectly in him communicated to us. Briefly, in all goodness, he is
   all in all. Love that one good God, and thou shalt love him in whom all
   the good of goodness consisteth. He that would therefore attain to the
   saving-knowledge of God, must learn to know him by love: for God is
   love, and the knowledge of the love of God passeth all knowledge (Eph.
   iii. 19; 1 John iv.) For all knowledge besides to know how to love God,
   and to serve him only, is nothing, upon Solomon's credit, but vanity of
   vanities, and vexation of spirit (Eccles. i. 17.)

   Kindle therefore, O Lord, the love of thyself in my soul especially,
   seeing it was thy good pleasure that, being reconciled by the blood of
   Christ (Rom. v. 9, 10; John xvii. 3, 22; 1 Cor. xv. 8), I should be
   brought, by the knowledge of thy grace, to the communion of thy glory,
   wherein only consists my sovereign good and happiness for ever.

   Thus, by the light of his own word, we have seen the back parts of
   Jehovah Elohim, the Eternal Trinity; whom to believe is saving faith
   and verity; and unto whom from all creatures in heaven and earth, be
   all praise, dominion, and glory for ever. Amen.

   Thus far of the knowledge of God. Now of the knowledge of a man's self.
   And first of the state of his misery and corruption without renovation
   by Christ.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [9] Origo essentiae in divinis nulla est, origo personarum locum habet
   in Filio, et Spiritu Sancto; Pater enim est prior Filio, non tempore,
   sed ordine--Alsted.

   [10] Ideo dicitur pater anarchos et agennetos.

   [11] Films Dei hologos, quoad essentiam absolutam, est quidem `a seipso
   et autotheos, sed ratione tropou hupraxeos, sive esse personalis per
   aeternam generationem `a Patre existit: ideoque non est autousios (John
   vi. 38; v. 19; Mic. v. 1; John i. 1.)

   [12] Therefore (Rom. viii. 9) the Holy Ghost i>> called the Spirit of
   Christ.

   [14] Spiritus S. `a Patre, et `a Filio procedit, tanquam ab uno et
   eodem principio, in duabus tantum personis subsidente, non autem
   tamquam `a duobus ac diversis principis.

   [15] Infirmitates merae privationes non pravae dispositionis.

   [16] Humana natura est distinctum individuum `a natura divina, etsi non
   sit distincta persona.--Keck. Syst. Theol. lib. iii. page 119.

   [17] As Redemption (Acts xx. 28) and Sanctification (1 Pet. i. 2) to
   the Father; Creation (1 John iii.) and Sanctification (1 Cor. i. 2) to
   the Son; Creation (Psal. xxxiii. 6) and Redemption (Eph. iv. 30) to the
   Holy Ghost; jointly all to each (1 Cor. vi. 11.) Opera Trinitatis ad
   extra indivisa, ad intus divisa.

   [18] Jehovah non habet plurale, et in scripturis soli vero Deo
   tribuitur.

   [19] Deus est causa causarum et ens entium.

   [20] Hence Eli in Hebrew (as Matth. xxvii. 46), and Eloi in Syriac (as
   Mark xv. 31), doth signify my God (2 Chron. xxxii. 8.)

   [21] (The LXX. turns it paetokrator.) It is derived of Dai,
   sufficiency, and the relative s, the same as autarkes, self-sufficient,
   (autos and arkeo.)

   [22] A name compounded of ai, my, and Adon, Lord. Adon derivatur ab
   Eden, basis, quia Deus est fundamentum et sustentator omnium
   creaturarum. Hinc Adon, Dominus, cui rei domesticae cura incumbit, et
   ei tanquam columnae innititur. Quando de creaturis usurpatur Adonai,
   est Jod cum patach: Sed de Creatore cum cametz. Ab Adonai manasse
   videtur Ethnicorum Athena.

   [23] So the Devil styled Christ, The most High (Luke viii. 28.)

   [24] Poenitentia cum de Deo enunciatur, non affectum in Deo, sed
   effectum Dei in hominibus significat.--Alsttd.

   [25] Creaturae quaedam aeternae sunt a posteriori: a priori solus Deus
   est aeternus.--Alsted. Lex, Theol. cap. 2.

   [26] Hence it is that God is called of the Hebrews Eheje, so likewise
   Echeje; and as of the Grecians, ho on, so also ho zon; and as of the
   Latins, primum ens, so also primum vivens; for, to be, and to live, is
   all one and the same in God.

   [27] Intellectus scientia et sapientia in Deo non
   distinguuntur.--Tilen. Nam sapientia in homine est habitus intellectui
   impressus, qui de Deo dici non debet, cujus intellectus est ipsa
   sapientia.--Keckerm. Panta idon Dmos ophthalmos kai panta noesas. Hes.
   ib. erga kai hemir. Sap. Hence the Platonics term God ephopten,
   all-eye, seeing all.

   [28] In creaturis multa inveniuntur bona, ergo Creator multo magis est
   bonus. Imo autagathon, ipsum bonum.

   [29] Veritas est harmonia tum intellectus et verborum cum rebus, tum
   etiam rerum ipsarum cum Ideis in mente divina.--Keckerm. Veritas Dei in
   verbis, fides Dei dicitur, quod certo fiant, quae ab ipso dicta sunt.
   Item constantia, quia sententiam non mutat.--Polan.

   [30] Ira Dei non est aliud quam voluntas puniendi.--Aug. 15, de Civit.
   Dei, c. 15. Ansel, lib. vii. cap. 6. Cur Deus Hom. furor et ira in Deo,
   non passionem mentis, sed ultionis acerbitatem notant.--Carth. in Apoc.
   19.

   [31] Deus potest omnia quae contradictionem non implicant.--Aqu. i. qu.
   25, art 3, 4. Omnia potentia excludit omnes defectus, qui sunt
   impotentia, seu, posse mentiri, mori, peccare, &c.

   [32] Hinc Deus dicitur, autokrator.

   [33] Deus est Sharldi, sive autarkes, non solum quia Ipse nihil
   desiderat, sed etiam quia nihil in eo desiderari potest. Creaturas
   fecit perfectas in suo quasque genere, ergo ipse perfectissimus est in
   se et per se.--Scal. Exerc. 146, sect. 2. (Mark xiv. 61; Acts xvii. 25;
   Rom. xi. 35, 36; 1 Tim. vi. 15; Matt. xxv. 36; James i. 17.)

   [34] Exhibet omnia, accipit nihil; ipsum igitur bonum, est Deus ipse
   semper.--Trisnaey. serm. ii. Plin.
     __________________________________________________________________

  MEDITATIONS OF THE MISERY OF A MAN NOT RECONCILED TO GOD IN CHRIST.

   O wretched Man! where shall I begin to describe thine endless misery,
   who art condemned as soon as conceived; and adjudged to eternal death,
   before thou wast born to a temporal life? A beginning indeed, I find,
   but no end of thy miseries. For when Adam and Eve, being created after
   God's own image, and placed in Paradise, that they and their posterity
   might live in a blessed state of life immortal, having dominion over
   all earthly creatures, and only restrained from the fruit of one tree,
   as a sign of their subjection to the almighty Creator; though God
   forbade them this one small thing, under the penalty of eternal death;
   yet they believed the devil's word before the word of God, making God,
   as much as in them lay, a liar. And so being unthankful for all the
   benefits which God bestowed on them, they became malcontent with their
   present state, as if God had dealt enviously or niggardly with them;
   and believed that the devil would make them partakers of far more
   glorious things than ever God had bestowed upon them; and in their
   pride they fell into high-treason against the Most High; and disdaining
   to be God's subjects, they affected blasphemously to be gods
   themselves, equals to God. Hence, till they repented (losing God's
   image) they became like the devil; and so all their posterity, as a
   traitorous brood (whilst they remain impenitent, like thee) are subject
   in this life to all cursed miseries, and, in the life to come, to the
   everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

   Lay then aside for a while thy doting vanities, and take the view with
   me of thy doleful miseries; which duly surveyed, I doubt not but that
   thou wilt conclude, that it is far better never to have nature's being,
   than not to be by grace a practitioner of religious piety.

   Consider therefore thy misery--

   1. In thy life. 2. In thy death. 3. After death.

   In thy life, 1. The miseries accompanying thy body; 2. The miseries
   which deform thy soul.

   In thy death, The miseries which shall oppress thy body and soul.

   After death, The miseries which overwhelm both body and soul together
   in hell.

   And, first, let us take a view of those miseries which accompany the
   body in the four ages of life, viz. infancy, youth, manhood, and old
   age.

   Meditations of the Miseries of Man from Infancy to Old Age.

   What wast thou, being an infant, but an helpless unconscious creature,
   having the human form, but without speech or reason? Thou wast born in
   the stain of original sin, and cast naked upon the earth. What cause
   then hast thou to boast of thy birth, which was pain and anguish to thy
   mother, and to thyself the entrance into a troublesome life? the
   greatness of which miseries, because thou couldst not utter in words,
   thou didst express as well as thou couldst in weeping tears.

   What is youth, but an untamed beast? all whose actions are rash and
   rude, not capable of good counsel, when it is given; and, ape-like,
   delighting in nothing but in toys and babies? therefore thou no sooner
   beganst to have a little strength and discretion, but forthwith thou
   wast kept under the rod, and fear of parents and masters; as if thou
   hadst been born to live under the discipline of others, rather than at
   the disposition of thine own will. No tired horse was ever more willing
   to be rid of his burden, than thou wast to get out of the servile state
   of this bondage--a state not worthy the description.

   What is man's estate but a sea, wherein, as waves, one trouble arises
   in the neck of another--the latter worse than the former? No sooner
   didst thou enter into the affairs of this world, but thou wast
   enwrapped about with a cloud of miseries. Thy flesh provokes thee to
   lust, the world allures thee to pleasures, and the devil tempts thee to
   all kinds of sins; fears of enemies affright thee, suits in law vex
   thee, wrongs of ill neighbours oppress thee, cares for wife and
   children consume thee, and disquietness betwixt open foes and false
   friends do in a manner confound thee; sin stings thee within; Satan
   lays snares before thee; conscience of sins past doggeth behind thee.
   Now adversity on the left hand frets thee; anon, prosperity on thy
   right hand flatters thee; over thy head God's vengeance due to thy sin
   is ready to fall upon thee; and under thy feet, hell's mouth is ready
   to swallow thee up. And in this miserable estate whither wilt thou go
   for rest and comfort? The house is full of cares, the field full of
   toil, the country of rudeness, the city of factions, the court of envy,
   the church of sects, the sea of pirates, the land of robbers. Or in
   what state wilt thou live, seeing wealth is envied and poverty
   contemned; wit is distrusted, and simplicity is derided; superstition
   is mocked, and religion is suspected; vice is advanced, and virtue is
   disgraced? Oh, with what a body of sin art thou compassed about in a
   world of wickedness! What are thine eyes, but windows to behold
   vanities? What are thine ears but flood-gates to let in the streams of
   iniquity? What are thy senses, but matches to give fire to thy lusts?
   What is thine heart, but the anvil whereon Satan hath forged the ugly
   shape of all lewd affections? Art thou nobly descended? thou must put
   thyself in peril of foreign wars to get the reputation of earthly
   honour; oft-times hazard thy life in a desperate combat to avoid the
   aspersion of a coward. Art thou born in a mean estate? Lord! what pains
   and drudgery must thou endure at home and abroad to get maintenance;
   and all perhaps scarce sufficient to serve thy necessity. And when,
   after much service and labour, a man has got something, how little
   certainty is there in that which is gotten? seeing thou seest by daily
   experience, that he who was rich yesterday, is to-day a beggar; he that
   yesterday was in health, to-day is sick; he that yesterday was merry
   and laughed, has cause to-day to mourn and weep; he that yesterday was
   in favour, to-day is in disgrace; and he who yesterday was alive,
   to-day is dead; and thou knowest not how soon, nor in what manner thou
   shalt die thyself. And who can enumerate the losses, crosses, griefs,
   disgraces, sicknesses, and calamities, which are incident to sinful
   man? to speak nothing of the death of friends and children, which
   oft-times seems to us far more bitter than present death itself.

   What is old age, but the receptacle of all maladies? For if thy lot be
   to draw thy days to a long date, in comes old bald-headed age, stooping
   under dotage, with his wrinkled face, decaying teeth, and offensive
   breath; testy with choler, withered with dryness, dimmed with
   blindness, obsurded with deafness, overwhelmed with, sickness, and
   bowed together with weakness; having no use of any sense, but of the
   sense of pain, which so racks every member of his body, that it never
   eases him of grief, till it has thrown him down to his grave.

   Thus far of the miseries which accompany the body. Now of the miseries
   which accompany chiefly the soul in this life.

   Meditations of the Misery of the Soul in this Life.

   The misery of thy soul will more evidently appear, if thou wilt but
   consider--1st, The felicity she has lost; 2d, The misery which she has
   brought upon herself by sin.

   1. The felicity lost was, first, the fruition of the image of God,
   whereby the soul was like God in knowledge, enabling her perfectly to
   understand the revealed will of God (Col. iii. 10; Rom. xii. 2);
   secondly, true holiness, by which she was free from all profane error;
   thirdly, righteousness, whereby she was able to incline all her natural
   powers, and to frame uprightly all her actions, proceeding from those
   powers. With the loss of this divine image, she lost the love of God,
   and the blessed communion which she had with Him, wherein consists her
   life and happiness. If the loss of earthly riches vex thee so much, how
   should not the loss of this divine treasure perplex thee much more?

   2. The misery which she drew upon herself, consists in two
   things:--1st, Sinfulness; 2d, Cursedness.

   1. Sinfulness is an universal corruption both of her nature and
   actions: for her nature is infected with a proneness to every sin
   continually (Eph. ii. 3; Gen. vi. 5); the mind is stuffed with vanity
   (Rom. xii. 2; Eph. iv. 17); the understanding is darkened with
   ignorance (1 Cor. ii. 14); the will affects nothing but vile and vain
   things (Phil. ii. 3); all her actions are evil (Rom. iii. 12); yea,
   this deformity is so violent, that often in the regenerate soul, the
   appetite will not obey the government of reason, and the will wanders
   after, and yields consent to sinful motions. How great, then, is the
   violence of the appetite and will in the reprobate soul, which still
   remains in her natural corruption! hence it is that thy wretched soul
   is so deformed with sin, denied with lust, polluted with filthiness,
   outraged with passions, overcarried with affections, pining with envy,
   overcharged with gluttony, surfeited with drunkenness, boiling with
   revenge, transported with rage, and the glorious image of God
   transformed into the ugly shape of the devil (John viii. 44), so far as
   it once "repented the Lord, that ever he made man," Gen. vi. 6.

   From the former flows the other part of the soul's miseries, called
   Cursedness (Deut. xxvii. 26; Gal. iii. 10; Psal. cxix. 21); whereof
   there are two degrees--1st, In part; 2d, In the fulness thereof.

   1. Cursedness in part is that which is inflicted upon the soul in life
   and death, and is common to her with the body.

   2. The cursedness of the soul in life, is the wrath of God, which lies
   upon such a creature so far, as that all things, not only calamities,
   but also very blessings and graces turn to ruin (Rom. ii. 4, 5; Jer.
   xxviii. 13; Isa. xxviii. 13); terror of conscience drives him from God
   and his service, that he dares not come to his presence and ordinances
   (Gen. iii. 8, 10; iv. 14; Heb. ii. 15), but is given up to the slavery
   of Satan, and to his own lusts and vile affections (Rom. i. 21, 24, 26;
   Eph. ii. 2; Col. i. 13). This is the cursedness of the soul in life.
   Now follow the cursedness of the soul and body in death.

   Meditations of the Misery of the Body and Soul in Death.

   After that the aged man has conflicted with long sickness, and having
   endured the brunt of pain, should now expect some ease, in comes death,
   nature's slaughterman, God's curse, and hell's purveyor, and looks the
   old man grim and black in the face; and neither pitying his age, nor
   regarding his long-endured dolours, will not be hired to forbear either
   for silver or gold; nay, he will not take to spare his life, skin for
   skin (Job i.), and all that the old man hath; but batters all the
   principal parts of his body, and arrests him to appear before the
   terrible Judge. And as thinking that the old man will not despatch to
   go with him fast enough, Lord! how many darts of calamities doth he
   shoot through him, stitches, aches, cramps, fevers, obstructions,
   rheums, phlegm, colic, stone, wind, &c. Oh, what a ghastly sight it is,
   to see him then in his bed, when death has given him his mortal wound
   what a cold sweat over-runs all his body--what a trembling possesses
   all his members!--the head shoots, the face waxeth pale, the nose
   black, the nether jaw-bone hangs down, the eye-strings break, the
   tongue falters, the breath shortens and smells earthy, and at every
   gasp the heart-strings are ready to break asunder. Now the miserable
   soul sensibly perceives her earthly body to begin to die; for as
   towards the dissolution of the universal frame of the great world, the
   sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, and the stars
   shall fall from heaven, the air shall be full of storms and flashing
   meteors, the earth shall tremble, and the sea shall roar, and men's
   hearts shall fail for fear, expecting the end of such sorrowful
   beginnings; so, towards the dissolution of man, which is the little
   world, his eyes, which are as the sun and moon, lose their light, and
   see nothing but blood-guiltiness of sin; the rest of the senses, as
   lesser stars, do one after another fail and fall--his mind, reason, and
   memory, as heavenly powers of his soul, are shaken with fearful storms
   of despair, and fierce flashings of hell fire--his earthly body begins
   to shake and tremble, and the humours. like an overflowing sea, roar
   and rattle in his throat, still expecting the Woful end of these
   dreadful beginnings.

   Whilst he is thus summoned to appear at the great assizes of God's
   judgment, behold, a quarter-sessions and jail-delivery is held within
   himself; where reason sits as judge, the devil puts in a bill of
   indictment, as large as that book of Zachary (Zech. v. 2; Ezek. ii.
   10); wherein is alleged all thy evil deeds that ever thou hast
   committed, and all the good deeds that ever thou hast omitted, and all
   the curses and judgments that are due to every sin. Thine own
   conscience shall accuse thee, and thy memory shall give bitter
   evidence, and death stands at the bar ready, as a cruel executioner, to
   dispatch thee. If thou shalt thus condemn thyself, how shalt thou
   escape the just condemnation of God, who knows all thy misdeeds better
   than thyself? (1 John iii. 20.) Fain wouldest thou put out of thy mind
   the remembrance of thy wicked deeds that trouble thee; but they flow
   faster into thy remembrance, and they will not be put away, but cry
   unto thee, We are thy works, and we will follow thee! and whilst thy
   soul is thus within, out of peace and order, thy children, wife, and
   friends trouble thee as fast, to have thee put thy goods in order; some
   crying, some craving, some pitying, some cheering; all, like
   flesh-flies, helping to make thy sorrows more sorrowful (Luke xii. 20.)
   Now the devils, who are come from hell to fetch away thy soul, begin to
   appear to her; and wait, as soon as she comes forth, to take her, and
   carry her away. Stay she would within, but that she feels the body
   begin by degrees to die, and ready, like a ruinous house, to fall upon
   her head. Fearful she is to come forth, because of those hell-hounds
   which wait for her coming. Oh, she that spent so many days and nights
   in vain and idle pastimes, would now give the whole world, if she had
   it, for one hour's delay, that she might have space to repent, and
   reconcile herself unto God! But it cannot be, because her body, which
   joined with her in the actions of sin, is altogether now unfit to join
   with her in the exercise of repentance: and repentance must be of the
   whole man.

   Now she sees that all her pleasures are gone, as if they had never
   been; and that but only torments remain, which never shall have end of
   being. Who can sufficiently express her remorse for her sins past, her
   anguish for her present misery, and her terror for her torments to
   come?

   In this extremity she looks everywhere for help, and she finds herself
   every way helpless. Thus in her greatest misery, desirous to hear the
   least word of comfort, she directs this or the like speech to her eyes:
   O eyes, who in times past were so quick-sighted, can ye spy no comfort,
   nor any way how I might escape this dreadful danger? But the
   eye-strings are broken, they cannot see the candle that burns before
   them, nor discern whether it be day or night.

   The soul, finding no comfort in the eyes, speaks to the ears: O ears,
   who were wont to recreate yourselves with hearing new pleasant
   discourses, and music's sweetest harmony, can you hear any news or
   tidings of the least comfort for me? The ears are either so deaf, that
   they cannot hear at all, or the sense of hearing is grown so weak, that
   it cannot endure to hear his dearest friends speak. And why should
   those ears hear any tidings of joy in death, who could never abide to
   hear the glad tidings of the gospel in this life? The ear can minister
   no comfort.

   Then she intimates her grief to the tongue: O tongue, who wast wont to
   brag it out with the bravest, where are now thy big and daring words?
   Now, in my greatest need, canst thou speak nothing in my defence? Canst
   thou neither daunt these enemies with threatening words, nor entreat
   them with fair speeches? Alas! the tongue two days ago lay speechless:
   it cannot, in his greatest extremity, either call for a little drink,
   or desire a friend to take away with his finger the phlegm that is
   ready to choke him.

   Finding here no hope of help, she speaks to the feet: Where are ye, O
   feet, which sometime were so nimble in running? Can you carry me
   nowhere out of this dangerous place? The feet are stone-dead already:
   if they be not stirred, they cannot stir.

   Then she directs her speech to her hands: O hands, who have been so
   often approved for manhood, in peace and war, and wherewith I have so
   often defended myself, and offended my foes, never had I more need than
   now. Death looks me grim in the face, and kills me--hellish fiends wait
   about my bed to devour me: help now, or I perish for ever. Alas! the
   hands are so weak, and do so tremble, that they cannot reach to the
   mouth a spoonful of liquid, to relieve languishing nature.

   The wretched soul, seeing herself thus desolate, and altogether
   destitute of friends, help, and comfort, and knowing that within an
   hour she must be in everlasting pains, retires herself to the heart
   (which of all members is primum vivens, and ultimum moriens), from
   whence she makes this doleful lamentation with herself.

   O miserable caitiff that I am! how do the sorrows of death compass me!
   how do the floods of Belial make me afraid! (2 Sam. xxii. 5.) Now have,
   indeed, the snares both of the first and second death overtaken me at
   once