Imatges de pàgina
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great piety amongst them; and where they are not so, your good example may amend them.

Rejoice at every opportunity of doing an humble action, and exercising the meekness of your minds; whether it be, as the scripture expresses it, in washing the saints' feet, that is, in waiting upon, and serving those that are below you; or in bearing with the haughtiness and ill manners of those that are your equals, or above you. For there is nothing better than humility; it is the fruitful soil of all virtues; and every -thing that is kind and good, naturally grows from it.

Therefore, my children, pray for, and practise humility, and reject every thing in dress, or carriage, or conversation, that has any appearance of pride.

Strive to do every thing that is praiseworthy, but do nothing in order to be praised; nor think of any reward for all your labours of love and virtue, till Christ cometh with all his holy angels.

And above all, my children, have a care of vain and proud thoughts of your own virtues. For as soon as ever people live different from the common way of the world, and despise its vanities, the devil represents to their minds the heights of their own perfection; and is content they should excel in good works, provided that he can but make them proud of them.

Therefore watch over your virtues with a jealous eye, and reject every vain thought, as you would reject the most wicked imaginations; and think what a loss it would be to you, to have the fruit of all your good works devoured by the vanity of your own minds.

Never therefore, allow yourselves to despise those who do not follow your rules of life; but force your hearts to love them, and pray to God for them; and let humility be always whispering it into your ears, that you yourselves will fall from those rules to-morrow, if God should leave you to your own strength and wisdom.

When therefore you have spent days and weeks well, do not suffer your hearts to contemplate any thing as your own, but give all the glory to the goodness of

God, who has carried you through such rules of holy living, as you were not able to observe by your own strength; and take care to begin the next day, not as proficients in virtue, that can do great matters, but as poor beginners, that want the daily assistance of God to save you from the grossest sins.

Your dear father was an humble, watchful, pious, wise man. Whilst his sickness would suffer him to talk with me, his discourse was chiefly about your education. He knew the benefits of humility, he saw the ruins which pride made in our sex; and therefore he conjured me with the tenderest expressions, to renounce the fashionable way of educating daughters in pride and softness, in the care of their beauty and dress; and to bring you all up in the plainest, simplest instances of an humble, holy, and industrious life.

He taught me an admirable rule of humility, which he practised all the days of his life; which was this; to let no morning pass, without thinking upon some frailty and infirmity of our own, that may put us to confusion, make us blush inwardly, and entertain a mean opinion of ourselves.

Think, therefore, my children, that the soul of your good father, who is now with God, speaks to you through my mouth; and let the double desire of your father, who is gone, and I, who am with you, prevail upon you to love God, to study your own perfection, to practise humility, and with innocent labour and charity, to do all the good that you can to all your fellow-creatures, till God calls you to another life.

Thus did the pious widow educate her daughters.

The spirit of this education speaks so plainly for itself, that, I hope, I need say nothing in its justification. If we could see it in life, as well as read of it in books, the world would soon find the happy effects of it.

A daughter thus educated, would be a blessing to any family that she came into; a fit companion for a wise man, and make him happy in the government of his fam ily, and the education of his children.

And she that either was not inclined, or could not dispose of herself well in marriage, would know how to live to great and excellent ends in a state of virginity.

A very ordinary knowledge of the spirit of Christianity, seems to be enough to convince us, that no education can be of true advantage to young women, but that which trains them up in humble industry, in great plainness of life, in exact modesty of dress, manners, and carriage, and in strict devotion. For what should a Christian woman be but a plain, unaffected, modest, humble, creature, averse to every thing in her dress and carriage, that can draw the eyes of beholders, or gratify the pas sions of lewd and amorous persons?

How great a stranger must he be to the Gospel, who does not know that it requires this to be the spirit of a pious woman?

Our blessed Saviour saith, Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. St. Matt. v. 28.

Need an education which turns women's minds to the arts and ornaments of dress and beauty, be more strongly condemned, than by these words? For surely, if the eye is so easily and dangerously betrayed, every art and ornament is sufficiently condemned, and naturally tends to betray it.

And how can a woman of piety more justly abhor and avoid any thing, than that which makes her person more a snare and temptation to other people? If lust and wanton eyes are the death of the soul, can any women think themselves innocent, who with naked breasts, patched faces, and every ornament of dress, invite the eye to offend?

And as there is no pretence for innocence in such a behaviour, so neither can they tell how to set any bounds to their guilt. For as they can never know how much, or how often they have occasioned sin in other people, so they can never know how much guilt will be placed to their own account.

This, one would think, should sufficiently deter every pious woman from every thing that might render her the occasion of loose passions in other people.

St. Paul, speaking of a thing entirely innocent, reasons after this manner: But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to those that are weak. And through thy knowledge thy weak brother

perish, for whom Christ died. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to of fend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. 1 Cor. viii. 9—13.

Now if this is the spirit of Christianity; if it requires us to abstain from things thus lawful, innocent, and useful, when there is any danger of betraying our weak brethren into an error thereby, surely it cannot be reckoned too nice or needless a point of conscience, for women to avoid such things, as are neither innocent nor useful, but naturally tend to corrupt their own hearts, and raise ill passions in other people.

Surely every woman of Christian piety ought to say, in the spirit of the apostle, if patching and paint, or any vain adorning of my person, be a natural means of making weak, unwary eyes to offend, I will renounce all these arts as long as I live, lest I should make my fellowcreatures to offend.

I shall now leave this subject of humility; having said enough, as I hope, to recommend the necessity of making it the constant, chief subject of your devotion at this hour of prayer.

I have considered the nature and necessity of humility, and its great importance to a religious life. I have shewn you how many difficulties are formed against it from our natural tempers, the spirit of the world, and the common education of both sexes.

These considerations will, I hope, instruct you how to form your prayers for it to the best advantage; and teach you the necessity of letting no day pass, without a serious, earnest application to God, for the whole spirit of humility. Fervently beseeching him to fill every part of your soul with it, to make it the ruling, constant habit of your mind, that you may not only feel it, but feel all your other tempers arising from it; that you may have no thoughts, no desires, no designs, but such as are the true fruits of an humble, meek, and lowly heart.

That you may always appear poor, and little, and mean in your own eyes, and fully content that others should have the same opinion of you.

That the whole course of your life, your expense, your

house, your dress, your manner of eating, drinking, conversing, and doing every thing, may be so many continual proofs of the true unfeigned humility of your heart; that you may look for nothing, claim nothing, resent nothing; that you may go through all the actions and accidents of life calmly and quietly, as in the presence of God, looking wholly unto him, acting wholly for him; neither seeking vain applause, nor resenting neglects, or affronts, but doing and receiving every thing in the meek and lowly spirit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

CHAP. XX.

Recommending devotion at twelve o'clock, called in Scripture the Sixth hour of the day. The frequency of devotion equally desirable by all orders of people. Universal love is here recommended to be the subject of prayer at this hour. Of intercession, as an act of universal love.

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IT will perhaps be thought by some people, that these hours of prayer come too thick; that they can only be observed by people of great leisure, and ought not to be pressed upon the generality of men, who have the cares of families, trades and employments; nor upon the gentry, whose state and figure in the world cannot admit of this frequency of devotion. And that it is only fit for monasteries and nunneries, or such people as have no more to do in the world than they have.

To this it is answered,

First, That this method of devotion is not pressed upon any sort of people, as absolutely necessary, but recommended to all people, as the best, the happiest, and most perfect way of life.

And if a great and exemplary devotion is as much the greatest happiness and perfection of a merchant, a soldier or a man of quality, as it is the greatest happiness, and perfection of the most retired contemplative life, then it is as proper to recommend it without any abatements to one order of men as to another. Because happiness and 'perfection are of the same worth and value to all people. The gentleman and tradesman may, and must spend

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