A Christian Directory Volume I Part 63

[Sidenote: Satan's temptations.]

_Direct._ IX. Be not a stranger to the methods, and subtleties, and diligence of Satan, in his temptations to undo thy soul, and thou wilt find matter enough to keep thy thoughts from idleness. He is thinking how to deceive thee and destroy thee; and doth it not concern thee to think how to defeat him and escape and save thyself? If the hare run not as fast as the dog, he is like to die for it. Oh that thy eyes were but opened to see the snares that are laid for thee in thy nature, in thy temperature and pa.s.sions, in thy interests, thy relations, thy friends and acquaintance, and ordinary company; in thy businesses, and possessions, thy house, and goods, and lands, and cattle, and tenants, and servants, and all that thou tradest with, or hast to do with; in thine apparel and recreations; in thy meat and drink, and sleep, and ease, in prosperity and adversity; in men's good thoughts, or bad thoughts of thee; in their praise and dispraise; in their benefits and their wrongs; their favour and their falling out; in their pleasing or displeasing thee; in thy thinking and in thy speaking, and in every thing that thou hast to do with! Didst thou but see all these temptations, and also see to what they tend, and whither they would bring thee, thou wouldst find matter to cure the idleness or impertinences of thy thoughts.

[Sidenote: The whole world.]

_Direct._ X. The world and every creature in it, which thou daily seest, and which revealeth to thee the great Creator, might be enough to keep thy thoughts from idleness. If sun, and moon, and stars; if heaven and earth, and all therein, be not enough to employ thy thoughts, let thy idleness have some excuse. I know thou wilt say, that it is upon some of these things that thou dost employ them: yea, but dost thou not first destroy, and mortify, and make nonsense of that on which thou meditatest? Dost thou not first separate it from G.o.d, who is the life, and glory, and end, and meaning of every creature? Thou killest it, and turnest out the soul, and thinkest only on the corpse; or on the creature made another thing as food for thy sensual desires! As the kite thinketh on the birds and chickens, to devour them to satisfy her greedy appet.i.te; thus you can think of all G.o.d's works, so far as they accommodate your flesh. But the world is G.o.d's book, which he set man at first to read; and every creature is a letter, or syllable, or word, or sentence, more or less, declaring the name and will of G.o.d. There you may behold his wonderful almightiness, his unsearchable wisdom, his unmeasurable goodness, mercy, and compa.s.sions; and his singular regard of the sons of men! Though the unG.o.dly, proud, and carnal wits do but play with, and study the shape, and comeliness, and order of the letters, syllables, and words, without understanding the sense and end; yet those that with holy and illuminated minds come thither to behold the footsteps of the great, and wise, and bountiful Creator, may find not only matter to employ, but to profit and delight their thoughts; they may be rapt up by the things that are seen, into the sacred admirations, reverence, love, and praise of the glorious Maker of all, who is unseen: and thus to the sanctified all things will be sanctified; and the study of common things will be to them divine and holy.

[Sidenote: Providence about the world.]

_Direct._ XI. Be not a stranger to, or neglectful disregarder of, the wonders of providence in G.o.d's administrations in the world, and thou wilt find store of matter for thy thoughts. The dreadfulness of judgments, the delightfulness of mercies, the mysteriousness of all, will be matter of daily search and admiration to thee. Think of the strange preservations of the church; of a people hated by all the world! how such a flock of lambs is kept in safety, among so many ravenous wolves. Think of G.o.d's sharp afflictions of his offending people; of his severe consuming judgments exercised sometimes upon the wicked, when he means to set up here and there a monument of his justice, for the warning of presumptuous sinners. Go see how the wicked are deceived by befooling pleasures, and how the prosperity of fools destroyeth them, Prov. i. 32; how they flourish to-day as a green bay-tree, Psal. x.x.xvii. 35, or as the flower of the field; and then go into the sanctuary and see their end, how to-morrow they are cut down and withered, and the place of their abode doth know them no more. Go see how G.o.d delighteth to abase the proud, and to "scatter them in the imagination of their hearts; to put down the mighty from their seats, and to exalt them of low degree; to fill the hungry with good things, and to send the rich empty away," Luke i. 51-53. "How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," Dan. iv. 3. "He ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will," ver. 26, 32. "For wisdom and might are his: and he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things; he knoweth what is in darkness, and the light dwelleth with him," Dan. ii. 20-22. "The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand," Psal.

ix. 16. Mark how the upright are afflicted daily, and how the feet of violence trample on them; and yet how they rejoice, and adhere to that G.o.d who doth afflict them, and pity and pray for their miserable persecutors and oppressors; and how "all things do work together for their good," Rom. viii. 28. "Wonderful are all the works of G.o.d, sought out of them that have pleasure therein," Psal. cxi. 2. The histories of former ages, and the observation of the present, may show thee a world of matter for thy thought.[306]

[Sidenote: G.o.d's image.]

_Direct._ XII. Understand all the lineaments and beauty of G.o.d's image upon a holy soul, the excellency and use of every grace, and the harmony of all; and thou wilt have store of profitable matter for thy thoughts. Know the nature of every grace, and the place and order of it, and the office, use, and exercise of it; and the means and motives, the opposites, dangers, and preservatives of it: know it as G.o.d's image, and see and love thy Maker, and Redeemer, and Regenerator in it: know how G.o.d loveth it, and how useful it is to our serving and honouring him in the world; and how deformed and vile a thing the soul is, that is without it: know well what faith is; what wisdom and prudence are; what repentance, and humility, and mortification are; what hope, and fear, and desire, and obedience, and meekness, and temperance, and sobriety, and chast.i.ty, and contentation, and justice, and self-denial are; especially know the nature and force of love to G.o.d, and to his servants, and to neighbours, and to enemies: know what a holy resignation and devotedness to G.o.d are; and what are watchfulness, diligence, zeal, fort.i.tude, and perseverance, patience, submission, and peace: know what the worth, and use, the helps, and hinderances of all these are, and then your thoughts will not be idle.

[Sidenote: The daily motions of the Spirit.]

_Direct._ XIII. If thou be not a stranger to the Spirit of grace, or a neglecter of his daily motions, and persuasions, and operations on thy heart, the attendance and improvement of them will keep thy thoughts from rusty idleness and a vagrant course. It is not a small matter to be daily entertaining so n.o.ble a guest, and daily observing the offers and motions of so great a Benefactor; and daily receiving the gifts of so bountiful a Lord, and daily accepting his necessary helps; and daily obeying the saving precepts of so great and beneficent a G.o.d. If you know how insufficient you are without him, to will or to do, to perform, or to think, or purpose any good, and that all your sufficiency is of him.[307] If you knew that it is the great skill and diligence requisite in all that will sail successively to the desired land of rest, to know the winds of the Spirit's helps, and to set all your sails to the right improvement of them, and to bestir you while such gales continue, you would find greater work than wandering for your thoughts.

[Sidenote: All our duty to G.o.d and man.]

_Direct._ XIV. Be not ignorant or neglective of that frame and course of holy duty to G.o.d and man, in which all your lives should be employed; and you cannot want matter to employ your thoughts upon.

Your pulse, and breath, and natural motions, will hold on whether you think of them or not; but so will not moral, holy motion, for that must be rational and voluntary. You have all the powers of soul and body, to exercise either upon G.o.d or for G.o.d. You must know him, fear him, love him, obey him, trust him, wors.h.i.+p him, pray to him, praise him, give thanks to him, bewail your sins, and hear his word, and reverently use his name and day. And is not the understanding and learning how to do all this, and the seasonable, serious practice of it all, sufficient to keep the thoughts from idleness? Oh what a deal of work doth a serious christian find for his thoughts, about some one of these! about praying aright, or hearing, or receiving the sacrament of Christ's body and blood aright! But besides all these, what a deal of duty have you to perform, to magistrates, pastors, parents, masters, and other superiors; to subjects, people, children, servants, and other inferiors; to every neighbour, for his soul, his body, his estate, and name; and to do to all as you would be done by. And besides all this, how much have you to do directly for yourselves; for your souls, and bodies, and families, and estates! against your ignorance, infidelity, pride, selfishness, sensuality, worldliness, pa.s.sion, sloth, intemperance, cowardice, l.u.s.t, uncharitableness, &c.

Is not here matter for your thoughts?

[Sidenote: All our particular mercies.]

_Direct._ XV. Overlook not that life full of particular mercies, which G.o.d hath bestowed on yourselves, and you will find pleasant and profitable matter for your thoughts. To spare me the labour of repeating them, look back to chap. iii. direct. xiv. Think of that mercy which brought you into the world, and chose your parents, your place, and your condition; which brought you up, and bore with you patiently in all your sins, and closely warned you of every danger: which seasonably afflicted you, and seasonably delivered you, and heard your prayers in many a distress: which hath yet kept the worst of you from death and h.e.l.l; and hath regenerated, justified, adopted, and sanctified those that he hath fitted for eternal life. How many sins he hath forgiven! How many he hath in part subdued! How many and suitable helps he hath vouchsafed you! From how many enemies he hath saved you! How oft he hath delighted you by his word and grace! What comforts you have had in his servants and ordinances, in your relations and callings! His mercies are innumerable, and yet do your meditations want matter to supply them? If I should but recite the words of David in many thankful psalms, you would think mercy found his thoughts employment.

[Sidenote: The account at judgment.]

_Direct._ XVI. Foresee that exact and righteous judgment, which shortly you have to undergo; and it will do much to find you employment for your thoughts. A man that must give an account to G.o.d of all that he hath done, both good and evil, and knoweth not how soon, for aught he knows before to-morrow, methinks should find himself something better than vanity to think on! Is it nothing to be ready for so great a day? To have your justification ready? your accounts made up? your consciences cleansed and quieted on good grounds? To know what answer to make for yourselves against the accuser? To be clear and sure that you are indeed regenerate, and have a part in Christ, and are washed in his blood, and reconciled to G.o.d, and shall not prove hypocrites and self-deceivers in that trying day!

when it is a sentence that must finally decide the question, whether we shall be saved or d.a.m.ned; and must determine us to heaven or h.e.l.l for ever; and you have so short and uncertain a time for your preparation: will not this administer matter to your thoughts? If you were going to a judgment for your lives, or all your estates, you would think it sufficient to provide you matter for your thoughts by the way. How much more this final, dreadful judgment!

[Sidenote: Our afflictions.]

_Direct._ XVII. If all this will not serve the turn, it is strange if G.o.d call not home your thoughts, by sharp afflictions: and methinks the improvement of them, and the removal of them, should find some employment for your thoughts. It is time then to "search and try your ways, and turn again unto the Lord," Lam. iii. 4. To find out the Achan that troubleth your peace, and know the voice of the rod, and what G.o.d is angry at, and what it is that he calleth you to mind! To know what root it is that beareth these bitter fruits; and how they may be sanctified to make you conformable to Christ, and "partakers of his holiness," Heb. xii. 10. Besides the exercise of holy patience and submission, there is a great deal of work to be done in sufferings; to exercise faith, to honour G.o.d, and the good cause of our suffering, and to humble ourselves for the evil cause, and to get the benefit. And if you will not meditate of the duty, you shall meditate of the pain, whether you will or not; and say, as Lam. iii. 17-20, "I forgat prosperity: and I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord: remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall: my soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me." Put not G.o.d to remember you by his spur, and help your meditations by so sharp a means! "Therefore did he consume their days in vanity, and their years in trouble: when he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after G.o.d: and they remembered that G.o.d was their rock, and the high G.o.d their Redeemer," Psal. lxxviii. 33-35.

[Sidenote: The business of your callings.]

_Direct._ XVIII. Be diligent in your callings, and spend no time in idleness, and perform your labours with holy minds, to the glory of G.o.d, and in obedience to his commands, and then your thoughts will have the less leisure and liberty for vanity or idleness. Employments of the body will employ the thoughts: they that have much to do have much to think on; for they must do it prudently, and skilfully, and carefully, that they may do it successfully; and therefore must think how to do it. And the urgency and necessity of business will almost necessitate the thoughts, and so carry them on and find them work (though some employments more than others). And let none think that these thoughts are bad or vain because they are about worldly things; for if our labours themselves be not bad or vain, then neither are those thoughts which are needful to the well-doing of our work. Nor let any worldling please himself with this, and say, My thoughts are taken up about my calling; for his calling itself is perverted by him, and made a carnal work to carnal ends, when it should be sanctified.

That the thoughts about your labours may be good, 1. Your labours themselves must be good, performed in obedience to G.o.d, and for the good of others, and to his glory. 2. Your labours and thoughts must keep their bounds, and the higher things must be still preferred, and sought, and thought on in the first place. And your labours must so far employ your thoughts as is needful to the well-doing of them; but better things must be thought on, in such labours as leave a vacancy to the thoughts. But diligence in your calling is a very great help to keep out sinful thoughts, and to furnish us with thoughts which in their place are good.

[Sidenote: All ordinances and means of grace.]

_Direct._ XIX. You have all G.o.d's spiritual helps and holy ordinances to feed your meditations, and to quicken them, which should be used when your minds grow dull or barren. When your minds are empty, and you cannot pump up plentiful matter for holy thoughts, the reading of a seasonable book, or conference with a full experienced christian, will furnish you with matter: so will the hearing of a profitable sermon: and sometimes prayer will do more than meditation. And weak-headed persons, of small knowledge and shallow memories, must fetch the matter of their meditations thus more frequently from reading and conference than others need to do: as they can hold but little at a time, so they must go the ofter; as he that goeth to the water with a spoon or a dish, must go ofter than they that go with a more capacious vessel. Others can carry a storehouse of meditation still about them; but persons of very small knowledge and memory, must have their meditations fed by others, as infants by the spoon.

Therefore a little and often is the best way, both for their reading or hearing, and for their holy thoughts. How great a mercy is it, that weak christians have such store of helps; that when their heads are empty, they have books and friends that are not empty, from whence they may fetch help as they want it; and that their hearts are not empty of the love of G.o.d, which inclineth them to do more, than their parts enable them to do.

[Sidenote: The miserable sinful world.]

_Direct._ XX. If all these do not sufficiently furnish your meditations, look through the world, and see what a mult.i.tude of miserable souls do call for your compa.s.sion and daily prayers for their relief. Think on the many nations that lie in the darkness of idolatry and infidelity! It is not past the sixth part of the world that are christians of any sort. The other five parts are heathens, and Mahometans, and some few Jews. And of this sixth part, it is but a small part that are reformed from popery, and such corruptions as the eastern and southern christians also are too much defiled with. And in the reformed churches, how common are profaneness and worldliness, and how few are acquainted with the power of G.o.dliness! What abundance of ignorant and unG.o.dly persons are there, who hate the power and practice of that religion, which they profess themselves they hope to be saved by (as if they hoped to be saved for hating, persecuting, and disobeying it). And among those that seem more serious and obedient, how many are hypocrites! And how many are possessed with pride and self-conceitedness, which break forth into unruliness, contentions, and uncharitableness, factions, and divisions in the church! How many christians are ignorant, pa.s.sionate, weak, unprofitable, and too many scandalous! And how few are judicious, prudent, heavenly, charitable, peaceable, humble, meek, laborious, and fruitful, who set themselves wholly to be good and to do good! And of these few, how few are there that are not exercised under heavy afflictions from G.o.d, or cruel persecutions from unG.o.dly men! What tyranny is exercised by the Turk without, and the pope within, upon the sincerest followers of Christ!

Set all this together, and tell me whether thy compa.s.sionate thoughts or thy prayers do need to go out for want of fuel or matter to feed upon from day to day?

_t.i.t._ 3. _Directions how to make good Thoughts effectual: or, General Directions for Meditation._

Here some directions are preparatory, and some about the work itself.

_Direct._ I. Be sure that reason maintain its authority in the command and government of your thoughts; and that they be not left masterless to fancy, and pa.s.sion, and objects, to carry them which way they please. Diseased, melancholy, and crazed persons have almost no power over their own thoughts. They cannot command them to what they would have them exercised about, nor call them off from any thing they run out upon; but they are like an unruly horse, that hath a weak rider, or hath cast the rider; or like a masterless dog, that will not go or come at your command. Whereas our thoughts should be at the direction of our reason, and the command of the will, to go and come off as soon as they are bid. As you see a student can rule his thoughts all day; he can appoint them what they shall meditate on, and in what order, and how long; so can a lawyer, a physician, and all sorts of men about the matters of their arts and callings. And so it should be with a christian about the matters of his soul. All rules of direction are to little purpose with them, whose reason hath lost its power in governing their thoughts. If I tell a man that is deeply melancholy, Thus and thus you must order your thoughts, he will tell me that he cannot; his thoughts are not in his power. If you would give never so much he is not able to forbear thinking of that which is his disturbance, nor to command his thoughts to that which you direct him, nor to think, but as he doth, even as his disease and trouble moveth him. And what good will precepts do to such? Grace, and doctrine, and exhortation work by reason and the commanding will. If a holy person could manage his practical, heart-raising meditations, but as orderly, and constantly, and easily as a carnal, covetous preacher can manage his thoughts in studying the same things, for carnal ends, (to make a gain of them or to win applause,) how happily would our work go on!

And is it not sad to think that carnal ends should do so much more than spiritual, about the same things?

_Direct._ II. Carefully avoid the disease of melancholy; for that dethroneth reason, and disableth it to rule the thoughts. Distraction wholly disableth; but melancholy disableth only in part, according to the measure of its prevalency; and therefore leaveth some room for advice.

_Direct._ III. Take heed of sloth and negligence of the will, whereby the directions of reason will be unexecuted, for want of resolution and command; and so every temptation will carry away the thoughts. A lazy coachman will let the horses go which way they list, because he will not strive with them; and will break his neck to save his labour.

If, when you feel unclean or worldly thoughts invade your minds, you will not give your wills the alarm, and rise up against them, and resolutely command them out; you will be like a lazy person that lieth in bed while he seeth thieves robbing his house, and will let all go rather than he will rise and make resistance (a sign that he hath no great riches to lose, or else he would stir for it). And if you see your duty, on what your thoughts should be employed, and will not resolutely call them up, and command them to their work, you will be like a sluggard that will let all his servants lie in bed, as well as he, because he will not speak to call them. You see by daily experience, that a man's thoughts are much in the power of his will, and made to obey it. If money and honour, or the delight of knowing, can cause a wicked preacher to command his own thoughts on good things, as aforesaid; you may command yours to the same things, if you will but as resolutely exercise your authority over them.

_Direct._ IV. Use not your thoughts to take their liberty and be ungoverned; for use will make them headstrong, and not regard the voice of reason; and it will make reason careless and remiss. Use and custom have great power on our minds; where we use to go, our path is plain; but where there is no use, there is no way. Where the water useth to run there is a channel. It is hard ruling those that are used to be unruly. If use will do so much with the tongue, (as we find in some that use to curse, and swear, and speak vainly, and in others that use to speak soberly and religiously; in some that by use can speak well in conference, preaching or praying many hours together, when others that use it not can do almost nothing that way,) why may it not much prevail with the thoughts?

_Direct._ V. Take heed lest the senses and appet.i.te grow too strong, and master reason; for if they do, they will at once dispossess it of the government of the thoughts, and will brutishly usurp the power themselves. As, when a rebellious army deposeth a king, they do not only cast off the yoke of subjection themselves, but dissolve the government as to all other subjects, and usually usurp it themselves, and make themselves governors. If once you be servants to your fleshly appet.i.tes and sense, your thoughts will have other work to do, and another way to go, when you call them to holy and necessary things; especially when the enticing objects are at hand. You may as well expect a clod to ascend like fire, or a swine to delight in temperance, as a glutton, or drunkard, or fornicator, to delight in holy contemplation. Reason and flesh cannot both be the governors.

_Direct._ VI. Keep under pa.s.sions, that they depose not reason from the government of your thoughts. I told you before how they cause evil thoughts; and as much will they hinder good. Four pa.s.sions are especial enemies to meditation: 1. Anger. 2. Perplexing grief. 3. Disturbing fear. 4. But above all, excess of pleasure in any worldly, fleshly thing. Who can think that the mind is fit for holy contemplation, when it flames with wrath, or is distracted with grief and care, or trembleth with fear, or is drunk with pleasure? Grief and fear are the most harmless of the four; yet all hinder reason from governing the thoughts.

_Direct._ VII. Evil habits are another great hinderance of reason's command over our thoughts; labour therefore diligently for the cure of this disease. Though habits do not necessitate, they strongly incline; and when every good thought must go against a strong and constant inclination, it will weary reason to drive on the soul, and you can expect but small success.

_Direct._ VIII. Urgent and oppressing business doth almost necessitate the thoughts; therefore avoid as much as you can such urgencies, when you would be free for meditation. Let your thoughts have as little diverting matter as may be, at those times when you would have them entire and free for G.o.d.

_Direct._ IX. Crowds and ill company are no friends to meditation; choose therefore the quietness of solitude when you would do much in this. As it is ill studying in a crowd, and unseasonable before a mult.i.tude to be at secret prayer (except some short e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns); so is it as unmeet a season for holy meditation. The mind that is fixedly employed with G.o.d, or about things spiritual, had need of all possible freedom and peace, to retire into itself, and abstract itself from alien things, and seriously intend its greater work.

_Direct._ X. Above all, take heed of sinful interests and designs; for these are the garrison of Satan, and must be battered down before any holy cogitations can take place. He that is set upon a design of rising, or of growing rich, hath something else to do than to entertain those sober thoughts of things eternal, which are destructive of his carnal design.

_Direct._ XI. The impediments of reason's authority being thus removed, distinguish between your occasional and your stated, ordinary course of thoughts. And as your hands have their ordinary, stated course of labour, and every day hath its employment which you fore-expect, so let your thoughts know where is their proper channel, and their every day's work; and let holy prudence appoint out proportionable time and service for them. What a life will that man live, that hath no known course of labour, but only such as he is accidentally called to! His work must needs be uncertain, various, unprofitable, and uncomfortable, and next to none. And he that hath not a stated course of employment for his thoughts, will have them to do him little service. Consider first how much of the day is usually to be spent in common business; and then consider, whether it be such as taketh up your thoughts as well as your hands, or such as leaveth your thoughts at liberty: as a lawyer, a physician, a merchant, and most tradesmen, must employ their thoughts to the well-doing of their work; and these must be the more desirous of a seasonable, vacant hour for meditation, because their thoughts must be otherwise employed all the rest of the day. But a weaver, a tailor, and some other tradesmen, and day-labourers, may do their work well, and yet have their thoughts free for better things a great part of the day; these must contrive an ordinary way of employment for their thoughts, when their work doth not require them; and they need no other time for meditation. The rest must entertain some short, occasional meditations, intermixed with their business; but they cannot then have time for more solemn meditation (which differeth from the other, as a set prayer from a short e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n; or a sermon from an occasional short discourse).

They that have more time for their thoughts, must beforehand prudently consider, how much time it is best to spend in meditation, for the increase of knowledge, and how much for the exercise of holy affections, and on what subject, and in what order; and so to know their ordinary work.

_Direct._ XII. Lay yourselves under the urgency of necessity, and the power of those motives which should most effectually engage your thoughts. In the aforesaid instance, what is it that makes a wicked preacher that he can study divine things orderly from year to year, but that he is still under the power of his carnal motives, profit and honour, and some delight? And if you will put yourselves habitually and statedly also under the sense and power of your far greater motives, as always perceiving how much it doth concern you, for yourselves, and others, and the honour of G.o.d; this would be a constant poise and spring, which being duly wound up, would keep the wheels in equal motion.

_Direct._ XIII. Thus you must make the service of your Master, and the saving of yourselves and others, your business in the world, which you follow daily as your ordinary calling, and then it will carry on your thoughts. Whereas he that serveth G.o.d but on the by, with some occasional service, will think on him or his work but on the by, with some occasional thoughts. A close and diligent course of holy living, is the best help to keep a constant, profitable course of holy thinking.

_Direct._ XIV. The chief point of skill and holy wisdom, for this and other religious duties, is, to take that course which tends to make religion pleasant, and to draw your souls to delight in G.o.d, and to take heed of that which would make all grievous to you. It will be easy and sweet to think of that which you take pleasure in. But if Satan can make all irksome and unpleasant to you, your thoughts will avoid it as you do a carrion when you stop your nose and haste away.

Psal. civ. 34, saith the psalmist, "My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord."

_Directions about the work itself._

_Direct._ I. As you must never be unfurnished of holy store, so you must prudently make choice of your particular subject. As the choice of a fit text is half a good sermon; so the choice of the fittest matter for you is much of a good meditation. Which requireth some good acquaintance both with the truth, and with yourselves.

[Sidenote: The order of subjects to be meditated on, as to their excellency.]