_Recommending devotion at twelve o’clock, called, in scripture, the |sixth hour| of the day. This frequency of devotion, equally desirable by all orders of people. |Universal love| is recommended to be the subject of prayer at this hour. Of intercession, as an act of universal love._
1. IT will, perhaps, be thought by some, that these hours of prayer come _too thick_, and are only fit for _monasteries_, or such people as have no more to do in the world than they have.
To this it is answered, this method of devotion is not pressed upon any as _absolutely necessary_, but recommended to all people, as the _best_ and the _happiest_ way of life.
And if exemplary devotion is as much the happiness and perfection of a _merchant_, a _soldier_, or a man of _quality_, as it is the happiness and perfection of the most _retired_, _contemplative_ life, then it is as proper to recommend it without any _abatements_ to one order of men as to another.
Here is therefore no excuse for men of _business_ and _figure_. _First_, Because it would be to excuse them from that which is the end of living, to make them _less beneficial_ to themselves, and _less serviceable_ to God and the world.
*_Secondly_, Because most men of business and figure engage _too far_ in worldly matters; much farther than the reasons of human life, or the necessities of the world require.
*_Merchants_ and _tradesmen_, for instance, are generally ten times farther engaged in business than they need; which is so far from being a reasonable _excuse_ for their want of time for devotion, that it is their _crime_, and must be censured as a blameable instance of covetousness and ambition.
_Gentry_, and people of _figure_, either give themselves up to _state-employments_, or to the gratifications of their _passions_, in a life of _gaity_ and _debauchery_. And if these things might be admitted as allowable avocations from devotion, devotion must be reckoned a poor circumstance of life.
Unless _gentlemen_ can shew, that they have another God, than the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; another nature, than that which is derived from _Adam_; another religion than the Christian, it is in vain to plead their state, and dignity, as reasons for not preparing their souls for God, by a _strict_ and _regular_ devotion.
2. If a _merchant_, having forbore too great business, that he might quietly attend on the service of God, should die worth _twenty_, instead _fifty_ thousand pounds, could any one say, he had mistaken his _calling_, or gone a _loser_ out of the world?
If a _gentleman_ should have killed _fewer foxes_, been less frequent at _balls_, _gaming_, and _merry meetings_, because stated parts of his time had been given to _retirement_, to _meditation_, and _devotion_, could it be thought, that when he left the world, he would regret the loss of those hours that he had given to the improvement of his soul?
If a _tradesman_, by aspiring after Christian perfection, and retiring often from business, should, instead of leaving his children fortunes to spend in _luxury_ and _idleness_, leave them to live by their own honest labour; could it be said that he had made a _wrong use_ of the world, because he had more regard to that which is eternal, than to this which is so soon to be at an end?
Since therefore devotion is not only the best and most desirable practice in a _cloyster_, but in _every state_ of life, they that desire to be excused from it, because they are men of _figure_, and _estates_, and _business_, are no wiser than those that should desire to be excused from _health_ and _happiness_, because they were men of _figure_ and _estates_.
3. I can’t see why every _gentleman_, _merchant_, or _soldier_, should not put these questions seriously to himself;
_What is the best thing for me to aim at in all my actions? How shall I do to make the most of human life? What ways shall I wish that I had taken, when I am leaving the world?_
Now, to be thus wise, seems but a _small_ and _necessary_ piece of wisdom. For how can we pretend to sense and judgment, if we dare not seriously consider, and govern our lives by that which such questions require of us?
Shall a _nobleman_ think his birth too high, to condescend to such questions as these? Or a _tradesman_ think his business too great, to take any care about himself?
Now, here is desired no more devotion in any one’s life, than the answering these _few questions_ requires.
Any devotion that is not to the greater advantage of him that uses it, than any thing he can do in the _room_ of it; any devotion that does not procure an _infinitely greater_ good, than can be got by neglecting it, is yielded up.