that hath not grudged us ought in earth or heaven, no, not the Dear Son of his Love and Eternal Essence, but hath sent him out of his bosom for our redemption: we cannot think all our little enough, to consecrate to his blessed name and service; and shall hold that evil eye worthy to be pulled out, which shall grudge the fattest of his flocks and herds to the altar of the Almighty.

Now the Application of this whole Discourse I leave to the thoughts of every reader; who cannot but easily find, how too much need there is of a monitor in this kind; while the examples of a profane indecency so abound every where, to the great shame of the Gospel, and scandal of all ingenuous minds. I forbear to particularize. A volume would be too strait, for this complaint.

It is not the blushing of my nation, the derision of foreigners, the advantage of adversaries, that I drive at, in these seasonable lines: it is the reformation of these foul abuses, gross neglects, outward indignities, notorious pollutions, which have helped to expose the face of this famous Church, late the glory of Christendom, to the scorn of the nations round about us; who now change their former envy at her unmatchable beauty, into a kind of insulting pity of her miserable deformity. Return, Dear Brethren, return to that comely order and decency, which won honour and reverence to your goodly forefathers.

After the main care of the substance of divine worship, which must be ever holy, spiritual, answerable to the unfailing and exact rule of the eternal word of God; let the outward carriage of God's sacred affairs be, what may be, suitable to that pure and dreadful Majesty, whose they are. Let his nowneglected houses be decently repaired, neatly kept, reverently regarded, for the Owner's sake; and inviolably reserved for those sacred uses, to which they are dedicated. Let his holy table be comely spread; and attended with awful devotion. Let them be clean, both within and without, that bear the vessels of the Lord. Let the maintenance of his altar be free, liberal, cheerful. Let God's chair, the pulpit, be climbed into by his chosen servants, with trembling and gravity. Briefly, let his whole service and worship be celebrated, with all holy reverence. This is the way, to the acceptation of God, and to honour with men.

Ne quid profanum Templo Dei inferatur; ne, offensus, sedem, quam inhabitat, derelinquat. Cyprian de Habitu. Virg.

THE

DEVOUT SOUL:

OR,

RULES OF HEAVENLY DEVOTION.

BY JOSEPH, BISHOP OF NORWICH.

TO ALL CHRISTIAN READERS,

GRACE AND PEACE.

That in a time, when we hear no noise but of drums and trumpets, and talk of nothing but arms and sieges and battles, I should write of Devotion, may seem to some of you strange and unseasonable: to me, contrarily, it seems most fit and opportune: for, when can it be more proper to direct our address to the Throne of Grace, than when we are in the very jaws of death? or, when should we go to seek the face of our God, rather than in the needful time of trouble?

Blessed be my God, who, in the midst of these woeful tumults, hath vouchsafed to give me these calm and holy thoughts: which I justly suppose, he meant not to suggest, that they should be smothered in the breast wherein they were conceived; but with a purpose to have the benefit communicated

unto many.

Who is there, that needs not vehement excitations and helps to Devotion? and when, more than now? In a tempest, the mariners themselves do not only cry every man to his God, but awaken Jonah, that is fast asleep under the hatches, and chide him to his prayers.

Surely, had we not been failing in our Devotions, we could not have been thus universally miserable. That duty, the neglect whereof is guilty of our calamity, must, in the effectual performance of it, be the means of our recovery. Be but devout, and we cannot miscarry under judgments. Woe is me! the tears of penitence were more fit to quench the public flame, than blood. How soon would it clear up abovehead, if we were but holily affected within! Could we send our zealous ambassadors up to heaven, we could not fail of a happy peace. I direct the way: God bring us to the end.

For my own particular practice, God is witness to my soul, that, as one the sense of whose private affliction is swallowed up of the public, I cease not daily to ply the Father of Mercies with my fervent prayers, that he would, at last, be pleased, after so many streams of blood, to pass an Act of Pacification in heaven.

And what good heart can do otherwise? Brethren, all ye, that love God, and his Church, and his Truth, and his Anointed, and your country, and yourselves, and yours, join your forces with mine; and let us, by a holy violence, make way to the gates of heaven, with our petition for mercy and peace; and not suffer ourselves to be beaten off from the threshold of grace, till we be answered with a condescent. He, whose goodness is wont to prevent our desires, will not give denials to our importunities.

NORWICH, Mar. 10, 1643.

Pray and farewell.

THE

DEVOUT SOUL.

CHAP. I.

WHAT DEVOTION IS-HABITUAL, THAT GOES THROUGH THE HEART AND LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN;-ACTUAL, OR A SPECIAL AND FIXED EXERCISE OF DEVOTION.

DEVOTION is the life of religion; the very soul of piety; the highest employment of grace; and no other, than the pre-possession of heaven by the Saints of God, here upon earth: every improvement whereof is of more advantage and value to the Christian soul, than all the profit and contentments which this world can afford it.

There is a kind of Art of Devotion, if we can attain unto it, whereby the practice thereof may be much advanced. We have known, indeed, some holy souls, which, out of the general precepts of piety, and their own happy experiments of God's mercy, have, through the grace of God, grown to a great measure of perfection this way; which yet might have been much expedited and completed, by those helps, which the greater illumination and experience of others might have afforded them. Like as we see it, in other faculties: there are those, who, out of a natural dexterity and their own frequent practice, have got into a safe posture of defence, and have handled their weapon with commendable skill, whom yet the fence-school might have raised to a higher pitch of cunning. As nature is perfected, so grace is not a little furthered, by art: since it pleaseth the wisdom of God, to work ordinarily upon the soul, not by the immediate power of miracle; but, in such methods, and by such means, as may most conduce to his blessed ends. It is true, that all our good motions come from the Spirit of God; neither is it less true, that all the good counsels of others proceed from the same Spirit; and that good Spirit cannot be cross to itself: he, therefore, that infuses good thoughts into us, suggests also such directions, as may render us apt both to receive and improve them. If God be bounteous, we may not be idle, and neglective of our spiritual aids.

If you tell me, by way of instance in a particular act of De