meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world jiandeth, left I make my brother to offend. 1 Cor. viii. 9, 11, 12, 13.

Now if this is the fpirit of Chriftianity; if it requires us to abstain from things thus lawful, innocent and ufeful, when there is any danger of betraying our weak brethren into any error thereby: Surely it cannot be reckon'd too nice or needles a point of confcience, for women to avoid fuch things, as are neither innocent nor ufeful, but naturally tend to corrupt their own hearts, and raife ill paffions in other people.

SURELY every woman of Chriftian piety ought to fay, in the fpirit of the Apoftle, if patching and paint, or any vain adorning of my perfon, be a natural means of making weak, unwary eyes to offend, I will renounce all these arts as long as I live, left I fhould make my fellow-creatures to offend.

I SHALL now leave this fubject of humility; having faid enough, as I hope, to recommend the neceffity of making it the conftant, chief fubject of your devotion. at this hour of prayer.

I HAVE Confider'd the nature and neceffity of hu mility, and its great importance to a religious life. I have fhewn you how many difficulties are form'd against it from our natural tempers, the spirit of the. world, and the common education of both fexes.

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THESE Confiderations will, I hope, inftruct how to form your prayers for it to the beft advantage; and teach you the neceffity of letting no day pafs, without a ferious earnest application to God, for the whole fpirit of humility. Fervently befeeching him to fill eveJy part of your foul with it, to make it the ruling, confiant habit of your mind, that you may not only feel it, but feel all your other tempers arifing from it; that you may have no thoughts, no defires, no defigns, but fuch 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 fhould have the fame opinion of you.

THAT

THAT the whole courfe of your life, your expence, your house, your dress, your manner of eating, drinking, converfing, and doing every thing, may be fo many continual proofs of the true unfeigned humility of your heart.

THAT you may look for nothing, claim nothing, refent nothing; that you may go thro' all the actions and accidents of life calmly and quietly, as in the prefence of God, looking wholly unto him, acting wholly for him; neither feeking vain applause, nor resenting neglects, or affronts, but doing and receiving every thing in the meek and lowly fpirit of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift.

CHAP. XX.

Recommending Devotion at twelve o'clock, call'd in Scrips ture the fixth hour of the day. This frequency of De votion equally defirable by all orders of people. Univerfal love is here recommended to be the fubject of prayer at this hour. Of interceffion, as an act of univerfal love.

T will perhaps be thought by fome people, that thefe hours of prayer come too thick; that they can only be obferv'd by people of great leifure, and ought not to be prefs'd upon the generality of men, who have the cares of families, trades and employments; nor up on the gentry, whole ftate and figure in the world cannot admit of this frequency of Devotion. And that it is only fit for monafteries and nunneries, or fuch people as have no more to do in the world than they have. To this it is anfwer'd,

Firft, That this method of Devotion is not press'd upon any fort of people, as abfolutely neceffary, but recommended to all people, as the beft, the happiest, and moft perfect way of life.

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AND

AND if a great and exemplary Devotion is as much the greatest happiness and perfection of a merchant, a foldier, or a man of quality, as it is the greatest happinefs and perfection of the most retir'd contemplative life, then it is as proper to recommend it without any abatements to one order of men, as to another. Because happinefs and perfection are of the fame worth and value to all people.

THE gentlemen and tradesmen may, and must spend much of their time differently from the pious monk in the clyfter, or the contemplative hermit in the defart: But then, as the monk and hermit lose the ends of retirement, unless they make it all ferviceable to devotion; fo the gentleman and merchant fail of the greatest ends of a focial life, and live to their lofs in the world, unlefs devotion be their chief and governing temper.

Ir is certainly very honest and creditable for people to engage in trades and employments; it is reasonable for gentlemen to manage well their eftates and families, and fuch recreations as are proper to their state. But then every gentleman and tradefman lofes the greatest happiness of his creation, is robb'd of fomething that is greater than all employments, diftinctions and pleafures of the world, if he does not live more to Piety and Devotion, than to any thing else in the world.

HERE are therefore no excufes made for men of bu finefs and figure in the world. First, Because it would be to excufe them from that which is the greatest end of living; and be only finding fo many reafons for making them lefs beneficial to themselves, and lefs ferviceable to God and the world.

Secondly, Because most men of business and figure engage too far in worldly matters; much farther than the reafons of human life, or the neceffities of the world require.

Merchants and tradefmen, for instance, are generally

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en times farther engag'd in business than they need; which is fo far from being a reafonable excufe for their want of time for devotion, that it is their crime, and must be cenfur'd as a blameable inftance of covetoufnefs and ambition..

THE gentry, and people of figure, either give themfelves up to State-employments, or to the gratifications of their paffions, in a life of gaiety and debauchery; and if thele things might be admitted as allowable avoca tions from devotion, devotion must be reckon'd a poor circumftance of life.

UNLESS gentlemen can fhew that they have another God, than the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift; another Nature, than that which is deriv'd from Adam; another Religion, than the Chriftian, 'tis in vain to plead their state, and dignity, and pleasures, as reafons for not preparing their fouls for God, by a ftrict and regular devotion.

FOR fince piety and devotion are the common unchangeable means of faving all the fouls in the world that fhall be faved, there is nothing left for the gentleman, the foldier, and the tradefman, but to take care that their several states be, by care and watchfulness, by meditation and prayer, made ftates of an exact and folid piety.

Ir a merchant, having forbore from too great bufinefs, that he might quietly attend on the fervice of God, fhould therefore die worth twenty, inilead of fifty thousand pounds, could any one fay that he had miftaken his calling, or gone a lofer out of the world?

If a gentleman fhould have kill'd fewer foxes, been lefs frequent at balls, gaming, and merry-meetings, becaufe ftated parts of his time had been given to retirement, to meditation and devotion, could it be thought, that when he left the world, he would regret the lofs of those hours that he had given to the care and improvement of his foul?

If a tradefman, by afpiring after Chriftian perfection, and retiring himself often from his bufineis, fhould,

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inftead of leaving his children fortunes to spend in luxury and idleness, leave them to live by their own honeft labour; could it be faid, that he had made a wrong ufe of the world, because he had fhewn his children, that he had more regard to that which is e ternal, than to this which is fo foon to be at an end?

SINCE therefore devotion is not only the best and moft defirable practice in a clyfter, but the beft and moft defirable practice of men, as men, and in every fate of life, they that defire to be excus'd from it, because they are men of figure, and estates, and buf nefs, are no wiser than thofe that should defire to be excus'd from health and happiness, because they were men of figure and eftates.

I can't fee why every gentleman, merchant, or foldier, fhould not put thefe queftions. seriously to himfelf:

What is the best thing for me to intend and drive at in all my actions? How shall I do to make the most of human life? What ways fhall I wish that I had taken, when I am leaving the world?

Now to be thus wife, and to make thus much ufe of our reason, seems to be but a small and neceffary piece of wisdom. For how can we pretend to fenfe and judgment, if we dare not seriously confider, and anfwer, and govern our lives by that which fuch queftions require of us?

SHALL a nobleman think his birth too high a dignity to condefcend to fuch questions as these? Or a tradefman think his bufinefs too great, to take any care about himself?

Now here is defir'd no more devotion in any one's life, than the answering these few queftions requires.

ANY devotion that is not to the greater advantage of him that uses it, than any thing that he can do in the room of it; any devotion that does not procure an infinitely greater good, than can be got by neglecting it, is freely yielded up, here is no demand of it.

BUT if people will live in fo much ignorance, as ne

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