Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

tholomew the Apostle, that he prayed a hundred times in a day, and a hundred times in the night also.

St. Jerome professeth of himself, that often on the tops of mountains, and in hollow valleys and craggy rocks, with eyes lifted up to Heaven, and flowing with tears, he poured forth his soul in holy prayers and meditations. So meditates St. Austin also, Te Domine mediter per dies sine cessatione; Te sentiam per soporem in nocte; Te alloquar- "O that I could meditate upon Thee, O Lord, through the whole day; and not cease to be affected with Thee in the night; my spirit speaking unto Thee, and my mind conversing with Thee alway, and alone: Blessed are they who think of nothing, speak of nothing but the Lord; who love nothing above Thee, desire nothing besides Thee: Blessed are they whose hope alone is the Lord, and all whose work is prayer." And several of the devout Fathers computed all that time lost, wherein God was not in their minds and memories: and there is great reason for it, as the same St. Austin meditates: "For

f S. Jerome Ep. ad Eustoc. i Hos. xii. 6.

as there is no moment of time, wherein we enjoy not the sweet influences of the Divine goodness, and stand in need also of God's protecting presence with us; so there should be no time wherein we have not God in our thoughts." "Wait on thy God continually:" "Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face evermore." Thus St. Paul, and all truly devout Christians with him, "have their conversation in Heaven"," whilst they are upon earth; and that is the way surely to have our consummation in Heaven, when we shall be taken from the earth.

This Third Part of the Practical Christian, consists of Ejaculatory Prayers and Meditations, with several Psalms paraphrased and illustrated, relating to the hours of prayer, and to other subjects, both useful and necessary to be considered by every such devout person as seriously minds the eternal salvation of his soul. It is not hereby intended magisterially to impose upon any persons, either at what hours they shall pray precisely in their closets, or that they should thus or August. Medit. August. Marc. k Psalm cv. 4. 1 Phil. iii. 20.

thus punctually meditate and pray at all such times, and upon every such subject prefixed; but,

1. To put all good Christians in mind of those hours of prayer, which the Church and people of God, and many thousands in all the parts of Christendom, do still observe as such: and therefore they are the most fitting, seasonable times, wherein to make our religious addresses to Heaven, if we desire to be true members of the Holy Catholic Church, and to practise the Communion of Saints, and to reap the fruits of those fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

and sure way of religious exercise; which was, and is still by all sound and orthodox religious, in the devout use of the Psalms of David it was thus that all the triumphing Saints in Heaven have prayed themselves thither, as far forth as their religious practices appear unto us upon record in ecclesiastical story and it is a safe way to follow their steps, rather than the fanciful conceptions of our own heads; especially remembering that it is acknowledged by all Christians, that the Psalms of David are the treasury of all devotion: it is known that they are, and ever were, the constant prayers of the Church and people of God, at all times, and upon all occasions. It cannot be denied, but that they are the immediate dictates and prayers of the Holy and True Spirit of God; and therefore it must surely follow, that they are of higher dignity, greater efficacy and acceptation with God, than the most seem

2. That the ensuing meditations may be helps of devotion to the more weak and imperfectly religious; who may have here seasonable hints to raise up their souls, to converse with Heaven at all times, and upon all occasions and the more perfect also may here meet with some notions and remembrances to excite them unto higher and more sub-ingly-zealous expressions in lime elevations. prayer, which flow from the spirit of the most learned and ready-tongued man.

3. So many Psalms are added to every chapter of Meditations, to recall, if possible, the devotion of the present times, to the ancient

It is to be lamented even to astonishment, as the madness and folly of many per

sons professing to be godly, that they do so highly extol the praying by the Spirit, and pathetical taking expressions in prayer; and yet altogether neglect the use of those "Psalms and Hymns, and spiritual Songs" commanded", and are the infallible and undeniable prayers of the Spirit of Truth and Holiness but it is the fond imaginations of their own hearts, that such do mean by the Spirit, if they blaspheme not; and it is these indigested conceptions of their own brain, which blinds their zeal, and darkens their understanding, to slight both the prayers of David, and of the Son of David also, even all the immediate dictates of Heaven, when they come in competition with the conceived notions of their own fancy, which they call a praying by the Spirit.

m

[ocr errors]

66

But that you may truly and indeed "pray by the spirit, and pray with the understanding also ;" and, which is all one, that you may sing with the spirit, and sing with the understanding also," (for the Psalms, whether said or sung, are the same prayers, when they are rightly translated,) is the great reason of many Psalms paraphrased and illustrated with notes and prayers, in the ensuing leaves and these Psalms also are not of my own choice affixed to any of the following chapters of Meditation; but such as have been so selected and disposed, either by the Church of Christ, or some of the most eminent Governors and Fathers of the Church, or by my reading observed to relate to such heads of godliness whereunto they are applied.

Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.

THE

PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN.

PART III.

CHAP. I.

OF MEDITATIONS AND PSALMS FOR THE MORNING.

"WHEN I awake up, I am present with Thee" who sleeping and waking am preserved by Thee; and it is just, and my bounden duty, to return back my first breath in praise to Him from Whom I have received it. So the Angels of Heaven, those "morning stars," being first made, even in the morning of the world's creation, no sooner received their being, but all with one accord sang with joyful acclamations, the praises of their Creator: "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy b."

a Psalm cxxxix. 18.

To excite my devotions unto God, early and betimes in the morning, besides the angelical pattern, I have many both precepts and practices, as of holy David. Above all examples, I have the practice of my blessed Lord", of His Apostles, of the Primitive Christians, (as Pliny writes to Trajan,) whose only fault was, that they arose before day to worship Christ with prayers and hymns. Say then,

As soon as you awake,

Blessed be the Holy and Undivided Trinity, now and for evermore; and thrice blessed be the great and

b Job xxxviii. 7. • Psalm lix. 16; xcii. 2; exix. 147; cxxx. 6. See also Lam. ii. 19; Wisd. xvi. 28; Ecclus. xxxix. 5.

[blocks in formation]

glorious Majesty of Heaven, Who hath preserved me in the night past, and saved me from the sleep of death: "It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, even because His compassions fail not they are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness."

[ocr errors]

II.

O Holy Jesus, the morning star, the day-spring from on high, Who camest down" to visit us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peaces:" Arise, Thou Sun of Righteousness, upon my darkened soul, with healing in Thy wings; make me a child of the light and of the day, not of the night nor of darkness:" let the light of Thy truth direct me, and the light of Thy grace support me, in the way to light and life everlasting. Amen.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

At your uprising. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, for on such the second death hath no power: but they shall be Priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years m.

O Holy Jesu, Who early Thyself from death to life in the morning didst raise up for me; raise me up, I meekly beseech Thee, from the death of sin, unto the life of righteousness.

Grant me, by the power of Thy death, and virtue of Thy Resurrection, early and betimes, "even to-day while it is called to-day," to arise out of the mire of sensuality, and out of the dust

8 Luke i. 78, 79; Mal. iv. 2. k Psalm xxxi. 18. 1 Psalm cxliii. 8.

h 1 Thess. v. 5. m Rev. xx. 6.

« EdellinenJatka »