SERM. consequently engaged his protection and assistance IX. for us, will dispose us to do things with a courageous alacrity and comfortable satisfaction; will fill us with a good hope of prospering; will prepare us however to be satisfied with the event, whatever it shall be; will in effect procure a blessing and happy success, such as we may truly rejoice and triumph in, as conferred by God in favour to us. Whereas neglecting these duties, we can have no solid content or savoury complacence in any thing we undertake: reflecting on such misbehaviour (if we be not downright infidels, or obdurate reprobates in impiety) will quash or damp our courage: having thence forfeited all pretence to God's succour, and provoked him to cross us, we must needs suspect disappointment: as we have no reasonable ground to hope for success; so we cannot, if success arriveth, be heartily satisfied therein, or take it for a blessing. He therefore that is such a niggard of his time, that he grudgeth to withhold any part thereof from his worldly occasions, deeming all time cast away that is laid out in waiting upon God, is really most unthrifty and prodigal thereof: by not sparing a little, he wasteth all his time to no purpose; by so eagerly pursuing, he effectually setteth back his designs; by preposterously affecting to despatch his affairs, he rendereth them endless, or which is the same, altogether unprofitable. In fine, we may be sure that no time is spent even so prudently and politicly, with so great advantage and so real fruit to ourselves, as that which is employed upon devotion. In sacrificing his time, his pains, his substance, any thing he hath or can do, to God's service, no man can be a SERM. loser. 72. I ; IX. Ixi. 4. We have also many examples plainly demonstrating the consistency of this practice with all other business. Who ever had more or greater affairs to manage, and who ever managed them with greater success, than David; upon whom did lie the burden of a royal estate, and the care over a most populous nation; the which He fed with a Ps. lxxviii. faithful and true heart, and ruled prudently with all his power; who waged great wars, vanquished mighty enemies, achieved many glorious exploits, underwent many grievous troubles? Yet could not such engagements distract or depress his mind from a constant attendance on devotion. I will Ps. xxxiv. bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be con- ixxi. 6; tinually in my mouth. My mouth shall shew forth cxlv. 2 ; thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. I xxxv. 28; will abide in thy tabernacle for ever. So he declareth his resolution and his practice. Who is more pressingly employed than was Daniel, first president over so vast a kingdom, chief minister of state to the greatest monarch on earth? yet constantly Thrice a day did he pray and give thanks Dan. vi. unto his God. Who can be more entangled in varieties and intricacies of care, of pains, of trouble, than was he that prescribeth unto us this rule of praying continually? Upon him did lie The care of all 2 Cor. xi. the churches; Night and day with labour and toil 2 Thess. iii. did he work for the sustenance of his life, that he might not (to the disparagement of the Gospel) burden any man; perpetually he was engaged in all sorts of labour and travail, ever conflicting with perils, with wants, with inconveniences numberless: IO. 28. 8. IX. SERM. yet did he exactly conform his practice to his rule, being no less indefatigable and incessant in his devotion than he was in his business. Who ever managed a greater empire than Constantine? Yet Every day, as Eusebius reporteth, at stated times, shutting himself up, he alone privately did converse with his God'. The most pious men indeed have never been idle or careless men, but always most busy and active, most industrious in their callings, most provident for their families, most officious toward their friends, most ready to serve their country, most abundant in all good works; yet have they always been most constant in devotion. So that experience clearly doth evidence, how reconcileable much devotion is to much business; and that consequently the prosecution of the one cannot well palliate the neglect of the other. II. No better can any man ward himself from blame, by imputing the neglect of devotion to some indisposition within him thereto. For this is only to cover one fault with another, or to lay on a patch more ugly than the sore. It is, in effect, to say we may sin, because we have a mind to it, or care not to do otherwise. Our indisposition itself is criminal; and, as signifying somewhat habitual or settled, is worse than a single omission: it ought therefore to be corrected and cured; and the way to do it is, by setting presently upon the practice of the duty, and persisting resolutely therein: otherwise how is it possible that it should ever be removed? The longer we forbear it, the f 1 Καιροῖς ἑκάστης ἡμέρας τακτοῖς ἑαυτὸν ἐγκλείων, μόνος μόνῳ τῷ avrâ πрoσwμidei Oe.-Euseb. de Vita Const. IV. 22. [Tom. 1. p. 637.] IX. more seldom we perform it, the stronger surely SERM. will our indisposition grow, and the more difficult it will be to remove it. But if (with any degree of seriousness and good intention) we come indisposed to prayer, we may thereby be formed into better disposition, and by continual attendance thereon, we shall (God's grace cooperating, which never is wanting to serious and honest intentions) grow toward a perfect fitness for it: prayer by degrees will become natural and delightful to us. 22 B. S. VOL. I. SERMON X.a OF THE DUTY OF THANKSGIVING. SERM. X. EPHES. V. 20. Giving thanks always for all things unto God. TH doth immediately discover) they bear a relation to, and have a fit coherence with, those that precede, may yet, (especially considering St Paul's style and manner of expression in the preceptive [St Mary's, Aug. 17, 1662. MS.] a *It is the usual manner of St Paul, (who, out of a good heart inflamed with devout piety towards God, and cordial charity to men, is wont to pour forth abundance of excellent precepts and seasonable admonitions) by a special artifice so to order his discourses, that those duties, which have a near affinity between themselves, springing from the same root, grounded on the same reason, or tending to the same end, may not be dissevered from each other by becom ing the matter of different exhortations; but coupled rather and connected together by a common relation to some one more general or more principal duty, wherein they are included, or upon which by some causality or consequence they depend; which general or principal duties expressing in the imperative mood, the others he subjoins as accessories to them, and parts of their train by means of participles, or of adjectives equivalent. I shall not need to spend time in exemplifying that, which to him, who with competent |