or which we might have omitted without sin. 5. That it be done with prudence, that is, that it be safe in all the circumstances of person, lest we beg a blessing, and fall into a snare. 6. That every vow of a new action be also accompanied with a new degree and enforcement of our essential and unalterable duty: such as was Jacob's vow, that (besides the payment of a tithe) God should be his God: that so he might strengthen his duty to him; first in essentials and precepts, and then in additionals and accidentals. For it is but an ill tree that spends more in leaves and suckers and gums than in fruit: and that thankfulness and religion is best that first secures duty, and then enlarges in counsels. Therefore let every great prayer, and great need, and great danger, draw us nearer to God by the approach of a pious purpose to live more strictly; and let every mercy of God answering that prayer produce a real performance of it. 7. Let not young beginners in religion enlarge their hearts and strengthen their liberty by vows of long continuance *: nor (indeed) any one else, without a great experience of himself, and of all accidental dangers. Vows of single actions are safest, and proportionable to those single blessings ever begged in such cases of sudden and transient importunities. 8. Let no action which is matter of question and dispute in religion ever become the matter of a vow. He

* Angustum annulum non gesta, dixit Pythag. id est, Vitæ genus liberum sectare, nec vinculo temetipsum obstringere. Plutarch. Sic Novatus novitios suos compulit ad jurandum nè unquam ad Catholicos Episcopos redirent. Euseb. 1. 2. Eccl. Hist.

vows foolishly that promises to God to live and die in such an opinion, in an article not necessary, nor certain; or that, upon confidence of his present guide, binds himself for ever to the profession of what he may afterwards more reasonably contradict, or may find not to be useful, or not profitable, but of some danger, or of no necessity.

If we observe the former rules, we shall pray piously and effectually but because even this duty hath in it some special temptations, it is necessary that we be armed by special remedies against them. The dangers are, 1. Wandering thoughts. 2. Tediousness of spirit. Against the first these advices are profitable.

Remedies against wandering Thoughts in Prayer. If we feel our spirits apt to wander in our prayers, and to retire into the world, or to things unprofitable, or vain and impertinent:

1. Use prayer to be assisted in prayer: pray for the spirit of supplication, for a sober, fixed, and recollected spirit and when to this you add a moral industry to be steady in your thoughts, whatsoever wanderings after this do return irremediably, are a misery of nature and an imperfection, but no sin, while it is not cherished and indulged too.

2. In private it is not amiss to attempt the cure by reducing your prayers into collects and short forms of prayer, making voluntary interruptions, and beginning again, that the want of spirit and breath may be supplied by the short stages and periods.

any

3. When you have observed considerable wandering of your thoughts, bind yourself to repeat that

prayer again with actual attention, or else revolve the full sense of it in your spirit, and repeat it in all the effects and desires of it: and possibly the tempter may be driven away with his own art, and may cease to interpose his trifles, when he perceives they do but vex the person into carefulness and piety; and yet he loses nothing of his devotion, but doubles the earnestness of his care.

4. If this be not seasonable or opportune, or apt to any man's circumstances, yet be sure with actual attention to say a hearty Amen to the whole prayer with one united desire, earnestly begging the graces mentioned in the prayer: for that desire does the great work of the prayer, and secures the blessing, if the wandering thoughts were against our will, and disclaimed by contending against them.

5. Avoid multiplicity of businesses of the world; and in those that are unavoidable, labour for an evenness and tranquillity of spirit, that you may be untroubled and smooth in all tempests of fortune: for so we shall better tend religion, when we are not torn in pieces with the cares of the world, and seized upon with low affections, passions, and interest.

6. It helps much to attention and actual advertisement in our prayers, if we say our prayers silently without the voice, only by the spirit. For in mental prayer, if our thoughts wander, we only stand still; when our minds return we go on again; there is none of the prayer lost, as it is if our mouths speak and our hearts wander.

7. To incite you to the use of these or any other counsels you shall meet with, remember that it is a

great indecency to desire of God to hear those prayers, a great part whereof we do not hear ourselves. If they be not worthy of our attention, they are far more unworthy of God's.

Signs of Tediousness of Spirit in our Prayers and all Actions of Religion.

The second temptation in our prayer is a tediousness of spirit, or weariness of the employment: like that of the Jews, who complained that they were weary of the new moons, and their souls loathed the frequent returns of their sabbath: so do very many Christians, who first pray without fervour and earnestness of spirit; and secondly, meditate but seldom, and that without fruit, or sense, or affection; or thirdly, who seldom examine their consciences, and when they do it, they do it but sleepily, slightly, without compunction, or hearty purpose, or fruits of amendment. 4. They enlarge themselves in the thoughts and fruition of temporal things, running for comfort to them only in any sadness and misfortune. 5. They love not to frequent the sacraments, nor any of the instruments of religion, as sermons, confessions, prayers in public, fastings: but love ease, and a loose undisciplined life, 6. They obey not their superiors, but follow their own judgment, when their judgment follows their affections, and their affections follow sense and worldly pleasures. 7. They neglect or dissemble, or defer, or do not attend to the motions and inclinations, to virtue which the Spirit of God puts into their soul. 8. They repent them of their vows and holy purposes, not because they discover

any indiscretion in them, or intolerable inconvenience, but because they have within them labour, (as the case now stands) to them displeasure. 9. They content themselves with the first degrees and necessary parts of virtue; and when they are arrived thither, they sit down, as if they were come to the mountain of the Lord, and care not to proceed on toward perfection. 10. They inquire into all cases in which it may be lawful to omit a duty; and though they will not do less than they are bound to, yet they will do no more than needs must; for they do out of fear and self-love, not out of the love of God, or the spirit of holiness and zeal. The event of which will be this: he that will do no more than needs must, will soon be brought to omit something of his duty, and will be apt to believe less to be necessary than is.

Remedies against Tediousness of Spirit.

The remedies against this temptation are these: 1. Order your private devotions so that they become not arguments and causes of tediousness by their indiscreet length; but reduce your words into a narrow compass, still keeping all the matter, and what is cut off in the length of your prayers, supply in the earnestness of your spirit: for so nothing is lost, while the words are changed into matter, and length of time into fervency of devotion. The forms are made not the less perfect, and the spirit is more, and the scruple is removed.

2. It is not imprudent if we provide variety of forms of prayer to the same purposes, that the change,