God has set over you (in all lawful unforbidden things) to be a necessary and indispensible duty.. In such cases, it is not for men of private capacity to dispute, but to obey.

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CHAP. III.

Containing particular Advices for the well managing of every Day.

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EGIN and end every day with God: In the morning when you awake, accustom yourself to think first upon God, and let him have your first awaking thoughts; lift up your hearts to God reverently and thankfully for the rest in the night past, and let your first discourse be agreeable to your thoughts. Psal. cxxxix. 18. "When I awake, I am still with thee."

2 Spend that time which must necessarily be allowed for the dressing of yourselves, in fruitful meditation on the great mercy of a night's rest, and of your renewed time. Think how many spent that night in hell, how many in a prison, how many worried out that night in tormenting pain, languishing distempers, weary of their beds and their lives together: think also how many souls were the last night summoned from their bodies to appear before the dreadful God, and how soon your last night may come.

3 Let secret prayer, by yourself alone, be constantly performed, before the work of the day be undertak

en: It is much better to go from prayer to business, than from business to prayer, in regard of the mind's freedom from distracting thoughts; because also, if the world gets the start of religion in the morning, it is hard for religion to overtake the world all the day after.

4. Let family worship be performed constantly and seasonably, at that house which is freest in regard of interruption; and look that it be reverently and spiritually performed: Call not then for the cushion, when there is more need of the pillow.

5. Then set about and follow the labour of your calling with diligence and industry: He that says, "Be fervent in prayer," says also, "Be not slothful in business," Rom. xii. 11. and let the day be spent in your calling watchfully, watching the company you converse with, and the corruption which you find stirring in you; but especially watch against those temptations which the company you are with, the place you are in, or the work and calling you are about, may expose you to, or lay you under.

6. When about your calling, if alone, improve the time in fruitful meditation and holy ejaculation, or short prayers, which are no hindrance at all to your worldly business; if in company, in such profitable discourse as may tend to make thyself and others both wiser and better.

7. In doing your duty in the labours of your calling, humbly depend upon God's fatherly care for a comfortable subsistence for thyself and family, and compose thy mind in all conditions of life, to a quiet and steady dependance on divine Providence, being anxiously careful for nothing, but "casting all your care upon him that careth for you."

8. Heedfully observe all the passages of divine providence daily, both towards thyself and others; and

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those providential dispensations which thou canst not thoroughly understand, endeavour awfully to admire.

9. In all places and in all companies remember the presence of God, and walk continually as under the view of his all-seeing and observing eye. Often consider that God is every where present, and then you will study to be every where holy.

10. Walk every day with an high esteem of the presciousness, swiftness, and irrecoverableness of your time; and resolve to spend it in nothing which you dare not ask for a blessing upon, in nothing which you know must be repented of before you die, in nothing which it would be dangerous to be found doing if death should surprise you in the doing of it.

11. Look every day to the faithful discharge of the respective duties of your several relations, as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants; and remember that much of life and power of religion consists in the conscientious practice of relative duties.

12. In the evening retire and take a view of your actions the day past, examine what good you have either done or received, and bewail it as a day lost, in which you have not either profited others or advantaged yourself.

CHAP. IV.

Of glorifying God in our natural Actions, namely, Eating, Drinking, and Sleeping.

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is the advice of the Holy Apostle, 1 Cor. x. 31. "That whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God;" plainly implying,

that a christian ought to perform his natural actions to spiritual purposes, and whilst he is feeding his body, must have an eye at his serving of God; eating and drinking to the satisfying of our nature, and not to the gratifying of our lusts. Our lawful comforts, without watchfulness, become our greatest snares: The first sin that ever was committed, entered the world by eating. Our first Parents pleased their appetites to their ruin, which ought to make their posterity afraid of all sinful excesses; to prevent which, let the following rules be remembered and observed.

1. Raise not any perplexing scruples about what you are to eat and drink; which serve to no purpose, but only to your own vexation: Remember, Christ hath taken away that distinction of meats (Clean and unclean) which was of old among the Jews, and has given us a liberty of feeding upon all the good creatures of God with temperance and sobriety. 1 Tim. iv. 4. "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.' Which hints a second rule;

2. Look that your meat and drink be blessed and sanctified to you by prayer and thanksgiving: Sit not down to your food as a beast to his fodder, without taking any notice of the hand that provides it for you. Our meat doth not nourish us by its own power, but by divine appointment; and therefore our blessed Saviour, though he was Lord of the creatures, yet did not sit down to feed on them before he looked up to heaven for a blessing upon them, St. Mark vi. 41. Remember that the creatures on your table are God's creatures, and if you convert them to your own use without asking God's leave, you are bold usurpers.

3. Eat and drink as in the presence and view of God: we are most apt to forget God at our meals, feeding ourselves without fear. Now the remem

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brance of God's eye upon us will remedy this: It is a memorable expression which you have in Exod. xviii. 12. "And Aaron, and all the elders of Israel, came to eat bread with Moses's father-in-law before God." Where observe, (1) The greatness of their courtesy. (2) The graciousness of their carriage. Their courtesy was great; though Jethro was a stranger, and no Israelite. yet the elders of Israel honoured him with their company; and their carriage was gracious, they came to eat Bread with him before God; that is, in gloriam & honorem Dei, says one, to the honour and glory of God: They received their sustenance as in God's sight, and caused their provision to tend to God's praise.

4. Remember that reason, and not appetite, is to be our guide and rule both for the quantity and quality of our meat and drink: Not what appetite likes best, but what reason and judgment tells us is best, ought to be received by us. Meat and drink have destroyed more thousands than ever poison did; because persons are not so fearful of these as they are of that. What an abominable shame is it for a man, instead of being governed by reason, to be enslaved by his lusts, and to have his sensitive appetite command his rational faculty!

5. Take heed of making thy table a snare, either to thyself or others. This is done two ways; (1) When our meals are incentives to sin, and our food is made fuel for our lusts; the flesh is frequently an enemy too strong for us when we take away its armour, and fight against it; but much more so, when we ourselves put weapons into its hand, and provide it ammunition to fight against us. Rom.. xiii. 14. "Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." (2) We make our table a snare, when by our importunities we urge others to eat and