Practice of Piety 21 - Another short Morning Prayer.
O most gracious God, and merciful Father! I thine unworthy servant do here acknowledge that as I have been born in sin, so I have lived in iniquity, and broken every one of thy commandments, in thought, word, and deed; following the desires of mine own will, and lusts of my flesh, not caring to be governed by thy holy word and Spirit; and therefore ...read
Practice of Piety 22 - Farther Meditations to stir up to Prayer in the Morning.
Think not any business or haste, though never so great, a sufficient excuse to omit prayer in the morning: But meditate-
1. That the greater thy business is, by so much the more need thou hast to pray for God's good speed and blessing upon it, seeing it is certain that nothing can prosper without his blessing.
2. That many a man, when he thou ...read
Practice of Piety 23 - A brief Prayer for the Morning.
O merciful Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, I beseech thee forgive me all my known and secret sins which in thought, word, or deed, I have committed against thy Divine Majesty, and deliver me from all those judgments which are due to me for them, and sanctify my heart with thy Holy Spirit, that I may henceforth lead a more godly and religious life! ...read
Practice of Piety 24 - Meditations Directing a Christian How To Walk All the Day with God
Having thus begun, keep all the day after as diligent a watch as thou canst over all thy thoughts, words, and actions, which thou mayest easily do, by craving the assistance of God's Holy Spirit, and observing these few rules:-
First, For Thy Thoughts.
1. Be careful to suppress every sin in the first motion; dash Babylon's children, whilst th ...read
Practice of Piety 25 - Secondly, for thy Words.
1. Remember, that thou must answer for every idle word, that in multiloquy, the wisest man shall overshoot himself. Avoid, therefore, all tedious and idle talk, from which seldom arises comfort, many times repentance: especially beware of rash answers, when the tongue outruns the mind. The word was thine whilst thou didst keep it in; it is another' ...read
Practice of Piety 26 - Thirdly, for thy Actions.
1. Do no evil, though thou mightest; for God will not suffer the least sin, without bitter repentance, to escape unpunished. Leave not undone any good that thou canst. But do nothing without a calling, nor anything in thy calling, till thou hast first taken counsel at God's word (1 Sam. xxx. 8) of its lawfulness, and pray for his blessings upon thy ...read
Practice of Piety 27 - Meditations for the Evening.
At evening, when thou preparest thyself to take thy rest, meditate on these few points:-
1. That seeing thy days are numbered (Psal. xc.; Job xiv. 5), there is one more of thy number spent, and thou art now the nearer to thy end by a day.
2. Sit down a while before thou goest to bed, and consider with thyself what memorable thing thou hast se ...read
Practice of Piety 28 - A Prayer for the Evening.
O most gracious God and loving Father, who art about my bed and knowest my down-lying and my uprising, and art near unto all that call upon thee in truth and sincerity, I, wretched sinner, do beseech thee to look upon me with the eyes of thy mercy, and not to behold me as I am in myself; for then thou shalt see but an unclean and defiled creature, ...read
Practice of Piety 29 - Another shorter Evening Prayer.
O eternal God and heavenly Father, if I were not taught and assured by the promises of thy gospel, and the examples of Peter, Mary Magdalene, the publican, the prodigal child, and many other penitent sinners, that thou art so full of compassion, and so ready to forgive the greatest sinners, who are heaviest laden with sin, at what time soever they ...read
Practice of Piety 30 - Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him tha ...read
Practice of Piety 31 - Morning Prayer for a Family.
O Lord our God and heavenly Father, who art the only Creator and Governor of heaven and earth, and all things contained therein, we confess that we are unworthy to appear in thy sight and presence, considering our manifold sins which we have committed against Heaven and before thee; and that we have been born in sin, and daily break thy holy laws a ...read
Practice of Piety 32 - The Practice of Piety at Meals, and the Manner of Eating.
Before dinner and supper, when the table is covered, ponder with thyself upon these meditations; to work a deeper impression in thy heart of God's fatherly providence and goodness towards thee.
Meditations before Dinner and Supper.
Meditate that hunger is like the sickness called a wolf; which, if thou dost not feed, will devour thee, and eat ...read
Practice of Piety 33 - Grace before Meat.
O most gracious God, and loving Father, who feedest all creatures living, which depend upon thy divine providence, we beseech thee, sanctify these creatures, which thou hast ordained for us; give them virtue to nourish our bodies in life and health; and give us grace to receive them soberly and thankfully, as from thy hands; that so, in the strengt ...read
Practice of Piety 34 - The Practice of Piety at Evening.
At evening when the due time of repairing to rest approaches, call together again all thy family; read a chapter in the same manner that was prescribed in the morning; then, in a holy imitation of our Lord and his disciples, sing a psalm: but in singing of psalms, either after supper, or at any other time, observe these rules:
Rules to be observ ...read
Practice of Piety 35 - Evening Prayer for a Family.
O eternal God and most gracious Father, we thine unworthy servants here assembled, do cast down ourselves at the footstool of thy grace, acknowledging that we have inherited our fathers' corruption, and actually in thought, word, and deed, transgressed all thy holy commandments, so that in us naturally there dwelleth nothing that is good; for our h ...read
Practice of Piety 36 - Meditations of the True Manner of Practising Piety on the Sabbath-Day.
Almighty God will have himself worshipped, not only in a private manner by private persons and families, but also in a more public sort, of all the godly joined together in a visible church; that by this means he may be known not only to be the God and Lord of every Singular person, but also of the creatures of the whole universal world.
Questio ...read
Practice of Piety 37 - Ten Reasons demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to be moral.
1. Because all the reasons of this commandment are moral and perpetual; and God has bound us to the obedience of this commandment with more forcible reasons than to any of the rest-First, because he foresaw that irreligious men would either more carelessly neglect, or more boldly break this commandment than any other; secondly, because that in the ...read
Practice of Piety 38 - The True Manner of Keeping Holy the Lord's Day.
Consecration of the Sabbath's Rest
Now the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things-First, In resting from all servile and common business pertaining to our natural life; Secondly, In consecrating that rest wholly to the service of God, and the use of those holy means which belong to our spiritual life.
For the First.
1. The servi ...read
Practice of Piety 39 - A Morning Prayer for the Sabbath-day.
O Lord most high, O God eternal, all whose works are glorious, and whose thoughts are very deep: there can be no better thing, than to praise thy name, and to declare thy loving-kindness in the morning, on thy holy and blessed Sabbath day! For it is thy will and commandment, that we should sanctify this day in thy service and praise: and in the tha ...read
Practice of Piety 40 - Duties in the Holy Assembly.
Things to be meditated on as thou goest to the Church.
1. That thou art going to the court of the Lord, and to speak with the great God by prayer; and to hear his majesty speak unto thee by his word; and to receive his blessing on thy soul, and thy honest labour, in the six days past.
2. Say with thyself by the way-"As the hart brayeth for th ...read
Lewis Bayly