Directions How to Live Well

William Perkins, et al., A Garden of Spiritual Flowers:

Directions How to Live Well

In the Morning awake with God; and before all other things, offer up unto him thy morning Sacrifice of Prayer: wherein remember, First, to give hearty thanks unto him for all his mercies bodily and spiritual; and namely, for thy late preservation: Secondly, make an humble Confession of thy sins, with earnest desire of pardon: Thirdly, ask such necessaries as are requisite for thy soul and body, with fervent request to be relieved in them: and namely, desire his blessing upon thy labours in thy calling in the day to come.

In what place soever thou art, let this persuasion abide in thine heart, that thou art before the living God: and let the remembrance hereof strike thine heart with awe & reverence, and make thee afraid to sin.

Make Conscience of idle, vain, unhonest, & ungodly thoughts: for these are the seeds and beginnings of actual sin in word and deed.

Have a special care to avoid those sins which thou findest thy Nature most prone unto; and eschew those provocations which were wont most to prevail against thee.

Follow with faithfulness and diligence thy lawful particular Calling in which thou art placed.

Think evermore thy present estate and condition to be the best estate for thee, whatsoever it be; because it is of the good providence of God.

Look well to thy carriage in company, that thou do no hurt by word or example; nor take any from others; but endeavour rather to do good.

Use civil honesty towards all men: good Conscience, and good Manners must go together.

If at any time against thy purpose thou be over-taken with any sin, lie not in it, but speedily recover thyself by repentance.

When any good motion or affection doth arise in thine heart, suffer it not to pass away, but feed it by reading, meditating, or praying.

Esteem of every present day, as of the day of thy death: and therefore live now, even as though thou wert now dying: and do those good duties every day, which thou wouldest do, if this were thy dying day.

At the end of the day, before thou lie down in thy Bed, call to mind how thou hast spent the day that is passed: thy misdoings repent, and praise God for assisting thee with his grace in the duties which thou hast performed.

Sleep not at night, before thou hast commended thyself by prayer into the hands of God: for thou knowest not whether (fallen asleep) thou shalt rise again alive.

Let prayer be the Key to open the Morning: and the Bar to shut in the Evening.

Walk as the Children of Light.

As the just live by Faith; so the just live the life of Faith. Now they live the life of Grace; one day they shall live the life of Glory.

Think So's

It is a dangerous thing to stray from the sure foundation of God's Word. To proceed on one's own course without a divine warrant is to act without faith, which is sin (Rom. 14.23), because faith is grounded not upon and good intentions and guesses and wishful thinking but upon the Word of the Lord. It is not enough, in the sphere of worship, to not take away from God's Word, but we must not add to it either (Deut. 4.2, 12.32), and so enmesh ourselves in vain will worship (Col. 2.23). While we must all confess that our faith is weak, and beseech God for greater faith, even our weak faith must take care to remain anchored upon that sure foundation of Christ and his Word. If our moorings are undone, so are our vessels. There are no "think so's" in godly divinity; that is playing with fire before the God with whom we have to do (Heb. 4.13).

John Collinges, in Matthew Poole's English Annotations on Rev. 19.10, when John fell at the Angel's feet:

And he said unto me, See thou do it not; but the angel doth not only refuse it, but with some indignation; ...Have a care you do it not. From whence we may observe, what a fig leaf they have made to cover the papists’ idolatry, in worshipping the bread in the eucharist, who (to show us their great skill in divinity) think they may be excused from idolatry in it, because they think the bread is turned into the body of Christ; idolatry is not to be excused by think so’s.

Promises of God

In Richard Baxter's The Life of Faith, found The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, Vol. 3, he speaks of the value of taking to heart the promises of God. After giving this direction ('Direct. 34. Lay up in your memory, particular, pertinent, and clear promises, for every particular use of faith') he proceeds to list particular scripture promises grouped topically in a list of 27 topics (pp. 657-664). Likewise, Samuel Clark devoted a whole book to compiling particular Scripture Promises topically for the edification and comfort of the saints. How precious are God's promises, and the benefit of keeping them in mind and thereby strengthening our faith ought not to be underestimated.

Jacobus Koelman, The Duties of Parents, p. 94:

159. Because the promises of God are special grounds for use in prayer, you must also have them read and memorize according to their ability certain special promises that God has given us in his Word concerning various matters.We must make these the content of our prayers. It would take too much space to sum them up here. There is a little book by Nicholas Byfield titled The Promises; or a Treatise Showing How a Godly Christian May Support His Heart (London, 1618) in which a large number of these promises have been included.

Nicholas Byfield, The Promises; Or, a Treatise shewing how a godly Christian may support his heart with comfort, Against all the distresses which by reason of any afflictions or temptations can befall him in this life. Containing all the most comfortable places through the whole Bible, orderly digested:

It will be profitable for us to consider briefly the worth of the promises; they are called the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:6, 8), to assure us that he is a very rich man that hath his heart stored with the promises of God well applied. The Apostle Peter saith (2 Pet. 1:3) that they are great and precious promises, which God hath given to us. Promises in our hearts are better than pearls or precious stones in our chests. They are the inheritance God gives to his people in this life, and therefore they are called the heirs of promise (Rom. 4); a greater portion than any king on earth can give to his child. The very keeping of the records of these promises was a great prerogative to the Jewish nation (Rom. 9), and it is accounted a singular happiness for the Gentiles that they may now partake of those promises (Eph. 3:6). Little do we know what wrong we do to our souls, when we keep them ignorant of the promises; and it is one of the greatest offices under the sun to dispense these promises to man (2 Tim. 1:1; Titus 1:1-3).

The Hidden Life

Hugh Martin, "The Hidden Life," in Christ For Us: Sermons of Hugh Martin, pp. 207-208:

'Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee' (Psa. 119:11). For the hidden life is a life of faith; and faith lives, and moves, and has its being in the Word of God. Faith's light is from the lamp of the Word, kindled by the Spirit; and by this lamp, faith penetrates, with unfaltering, unquailing gaze into the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor reason grasped, nor imagination bodied forth. The 'Word-and-Spirit' is a combination with whose glory we might well make all heaven ring in celebrating it. The 'Word-and-Spirit' is the life of God, and whoso has it hidden, because God is hidden, hidden not defect of light, but for excess of splendours, dwelling in light that is inaccessible and full of glory. Amen.