Now, lest this so strict observance of the Lord's day in spending the whole day in holy meditation, holy exercises, and works of mercy, excepting only necessary repasts, should be thought, as it is by some, to be merely Jewish, or only the private opinion of some zealots, more nice than wise,-know, that as the fourth commandment is of moral obligation, there is the same reason for the strict observance of it, as any other divine precept, as against idolatry, murder, fornication, &c. And the taking away of the morality of the fourth commandment, and unloosing the conscience from the immediate bonds of God's command to observe a day for his solemn worship, doth overthrow true religion, and the power of godliness, and opens a wide gap to atheism, profaneness, and all licentiousness; as daily experience proves in those persons and places, by whom, and where, the Lord's day is not holily and duly observed.

CHAPTER VI.

Directions how to End the Day with God.

WHEN you have walked with God from morning until night, whether on a common day, a day of fasting, or on the Lord's day, according to the former directions, it remaineth that you conclude the day well, when you would give yourself to rest at night. Wherefore,

First, Look back and take a strict view of your

whole carriage that day past. Reform what you

find amiss; and rejoice, or be grieved, as you find you have done well or ill, as you have advanced or declined in grace that day.

Secondly, Since you cannot sleep in safety, if God, who is your keeper, do not wake, and watch for you; and though you have God to watch when you sleep, you cannot be safe, if he that watcheth be your enemy; wherefore it is very convenient, that at night, you not only conclude the day with your family, by reading some scripture, and by prayer, but you must alone renew and confirm your peace with God by faith and prayer, and with like preparations thereto, as you received directions for the morning: commending and committing yourself to God's tuition by prayer, with thanksgiving, before you go to bed. Then shall you lie down in safety.

All this being done, yet while you are putting off your apparel, when you are lying down, and when you are in bed before you sleep, it is good that you commune with your own heart. If other good and fit meditations offer not themselves, some of these will be seasonable:

1. When you see yourself without your apparel, consider what you were at your birth, and what you shall be at your death, when you put of this earthly tabernacle, (if not in the meantime, as concerning your outward estates):-how that you brought nothing into this world, nor shall carry any thing out: naked you came from your mother's womb, and naked shall you return. This will be an excellent means to give you sweet content in any thing you have, though never so little; and in the loss of what you have had, though never so much.

2. When you lie down, you may think of lying down in your winding-sheet, and in your grave. For besides that sleep, 1 Cor xi. 30. and the bed do aptly resemble death and the grave, who knoweth, when he sleepeth, that ever he shall awake again to this life?

3. You may think thus also: If the sun must not go down upon my wrath, lest it become hatred, and so be worse ere morning, then it is not safe for me to lie down in the allowance of any sin, lest I sleep not only the sleep of natural death, but of that death. which is eternal; for who knoweth what a night will bring forth? Now, it is a high point of holy wisdom, upon all opportunities, to think of, and to prepare for, your latter end.

4. Consider, likewise, that if you walk with God in uprightness, your death unto you is but to fall into a sweet sleep, an entering into rest, a resting on your bed for a night, until the glorious morning of your happy resurrection.

5. If possibly you can, fall asleep with some heavenly meditation. Then will your sleep be more sweet, and more secure; your dreams fewer, or more comfortable; your head will be fuller of good thoughts; and your heart will be in a better frame when you awake, whether in the night, or in the morning.

Thirdly, Being thus prepared to sleep, you should sleep only so much as the present state of your body requireth; you must not be like the sluggard, to love sleep; neither must you sleep too much: for if you do, that, which being taken in its due measure, is a restorer of vigour and strength to your body, and a quickener of the spirits, will make the spirits dull,

the brain sottish, and the whole body inactive and unhealthy and that which God hath ordained for a furtherance, through your sin, shall become an enemy to your bodily and spiritual welfare. Thus much of walking with God in all things, at all times.

CHAPTER VII.

How to walk with God Alone.

I. Rules concerning Solitude.

THERE is no time wherein you will not be either alone or in company, in either of which you must walk in all well-pleasing, as in the sight of God. 1. Affect not too much solitude. Be not alone except you have just cause; namely, when you separate yourself for holy duties, and when your needful occasions do withdraw you from society, for, in 66 cases, two are better than one," saith Soloand " wo be to him that is alone."

other

mon,

2. When you are alone, you must be very watchful, and stand upon your guard, lest you fall into manifold temptations of the devil: for solitariness is Satan's opportunity, which he will not lose, as manifold examples in scripture, and our daily experience do witness. Wherefore, you must have a ready eye to observe, and a heart ready bent to resist, all his assaults. And it will now the more concern you to keep close to God, and not lose his company, that through the weapons of your Chris

tian warfare, you may, by the power of God's might, quit yourself, and stand fast.

3. Take special heed, lest, when you be alone, you yourself conceive, devise, or indulge any evil, to which your nature is then most prone.

And beware, in particular, lest you commit alone, by yourself, contemplative wickedness; which is, when by feeding your fancy, and pleasing yourself, in covetous, lustful, revengeful, ambitious, or other wicked thoughts, you act that in your mind and fancy, which, either for fear or shame, you dare not, or for want of opportunity or means, you cannot act otherwise.

4. When you are alone, be sure that you are well and fully exercised about something that is good, either in the works of your calling, or in reading, or in holy meditation or prayer. For whensoever Satan doth find you idle, and out of employment in some or other of those works which God hath appointed, he will take that as an opportunity to use you for himself, and to employ you in some of his works. But if you keep always in your place, and to some or other good work of your place, you are under God's special protection, as the bird in the law was, while she sat upon her eggs or young ones, keeping her own nest, in which case no man might hurt her.

I have already showed how you should behave yourself as in God's sight, both in prayer, and in the works of your calling, I will say something for your direction concerning reading and meditation.