quests; and the glory of our praises and thanksgiv. ings for thy bounty and goodness in accepting and answering them; which though it cannot benefit Thee, yet it is all thy poor creatures can return unto Thee, and thou hast declared thyself well pleased with it. He that offereth praise, glorifieth Thee.

Amen.

Blessed Lord, therefore be it according to these our petitions and desires: and so much the rather, because these our requests are not the product of our own imagination and weak judgments; but that Son of thine, who best knew thy will, and what thou wouldst grant, hath taught us to pray: When ye pray, say, Our Father, &c.

LETTERS

TO HIS CHILDREN.

Directions touching the keeping of the Lord's Day.

CHILDREN,

WHEN I last lodged in this place, in my journey up to London, I sent you from hence divers instructions concerning your speech, and how you should manage it, and required you to take copies of it, and to direct your practice according to it. I forgot to enquire of you, whether you had taken copies of it, but I hope you have; and I do again require you to be careful in observing those and my former directions given to you, some in writing, and many more by word of mouth. I have been careful that my example might be a visible direction to you; but if that hath been defective, or not so full and clear a pattern of your imitation, especially in respect of my different condi. tion from yours, yet I am certain that those rules and directions which I have at several times given you, both in writing, and by word of mouth, have been sound, and wholesome, and seasonable; and therefore I do expect that you should remember and prac

tice them; and though your young years cannot yet, perchance, see the reason and use of them, yet assure yourselves time and experience will make you know the benefit of them. In advice given to young people, it fares with them as it doth with young children that are taught to read, or with young school. boys that learn their grammar rules; they learn their letters, and then they learn to spell a syllable, and then they learn to put together several syllables to make up a word; or they learn to decline a noun, or to form a verb; and all this while they understand not to what end all this trouble is, nor what it means. But when they come to be able to read English, or to make a piece of Latin, or to construe a Latin author, then they find all these rudiments were very necessary, and to good purpose; for by this means they come to understand what others have written, and to know what they knew and wrote, and thereby improve their own knowledge and understanding. Just so it is with young people, in respect of counsel and instruction, when the father, or the minister, or some wise and understanding man doth sometimes admonish, sometimes chide and reprove, sometimes in. struct, they are apt to wonder why so much ado, and what they mean, and it is troublesome and tedious, and seems impertinent; and they are ready to say within themselves, that the time were better spent in riding, and hunting, or merriment, or gaming; but when they come to riper years, then they begin to find that those instructions of the ancients are of ex

cellent use to manage the conversation, and to direct the actions, and to avoid inconveniences, and mischiefs, and miscarriages, to which they are subject without the help of these counsels. And therefore it hath been my practice to give you line upon line, and precept upon precept, to enable you to steer and order your course of life through an evil and dangerous world; and to require you to be frequent in reading the Scriptures with due observation and understanding, which will make you wise for this life, and that which is to come.

I am now come well to F., from whence I wrote to you my former instructions concerning your words and speech; and I now intend to write something to you of another subject, viz. your observation of the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday; and this 1 do for these reasons:

1. Because it hath pleased God to cast my lot so, that I am to rest at this place upon that day; and the consideration, therefore, of that duty, is proper for me and for you; it is opus diei in die suo, 'the work fit and proper for that day.'

2. Because I have, by long and sound experience, found that the due observance of this day, and of the duties of it, has been of singular comfort and advantage to me; and I doubt not but it will prove so to you. God Almighty is the Lord of our time, and lends it to us; and as it is but just we should consecrate this part of that time to him, so I have found, by a strict and diligent observation, that a due obser

vation of the duty of this day hath ever had joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time; and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed and prosperous to me: and, on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week has been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own secular employments; so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes in my own secular employments the week following, by the manner of my passing of this day; and this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately, but upon a long and sound observation and experience.

3. Because I find in the world much looseness and apostacy from this duty. People begin to be cold and careless in it, allowing themselves sports, and recreations, and secular employments in it, without any necessity, which is a sad spectacle, and an ill presage. It concerns me, therefore, (that am your father,) as much as I may, to rescue you from that sin which the examples of others, and the inclina. tion and inconsiderateness of youth are otherwise apt to lead you into.

I shall therefore set down unto you particularly (and not in generals only) these things: 1. What is the reason and ground of your observation of this day. 2. What things ought not to be done upon this day, which possibly may be lawful upon another day. 3. What things may be done upon this day. 4. What things are either fit or necessary to be done in order to the sanctification of this day.