my meat,' saith he, 'to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.'1 This was all the riches, honours, and pleasures which he sought for in the world, even to do the will of him that sent him thither, to finish the work which he came about; and so he did before he went away: Father, I have glorified thee on earth, I have finished the work which thou sentest me to do." If, therefore, we would be Christ's disciples, so as to follow him, we see what we must do, and how we must behave and carry ourselves whilst we are here below; we must not spend our time, nor throw away our precious and short-lived days upon the trifles and impertinencies of this transient world, as if we came hither for nothing else but to take and scrape up a little dust and dirt together, or to wallow ourselves like swine in the mire of carnal pleasures and delights. No, we may assure ourselves we have greater things to do, and far more noble designs to carry on whilst we continue in this vale of tears, even 'to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and to make our calling and election sure,' and to serve God here, so as to enjoy him for ever. This is the work we came about, and which we must not only do, but do it too with pleasure and delight, and never leave until we have accomplished it; we must make it our only pleasure to please God, account it our only honour to honour him, and esteem his love and favour to be the only wealth and riches that we can enjoy; we must think ourselves no further happy, than we find ourselves to be truly holy, and therefore devote our lives wholly to him, in whom we live. This is to live as Christ lived, and by consequence as Christians ought to do. I might here instance in several other acts of piety and devotion, which our Saviour was not only eminent for, but continually exercised himself in, as his humble and perfect submission and resignation of his own will to God's, his most ardent love unto him, and zeal for him, as also his firm and steadfast trust and confidence in him; so that nothing could ever disquiet or discompose his mind, but still his heart was fixed trusting in the Lord. In all which, it is both our duty and interest to follow him; our happiness as well as holiness consisting in our dependence upon God, and inclinations to him. But we should do well to observe withal, that our Saviour performed external as well as inward worship and devotion unto God; particularly we often find him praising God and praying unto him; and that with his eyes lift up to heaven in a most humble and reverential posture; yea, when he was to choose and ordain some of his disciples to the work of the ministry, and to succeed him after his departure, under the name of apostles, he spent the night before in prayer to God. I confess the words there used, ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ του θεῦ, will scarce admit of that interpretation or exposition, signifying rather in a strict sense, that he went into a place appointed for prayer, which was usually called роσεʊx, a place of prayer, which kind of places were very frequent in Judea, and some of them continued till Epiphanius's time, as himself asserts; and they were only plots of 2 1 John, xvii. 1; Luke, xxii. 41; Matt. xxvi. 39. ground inclosed with a wall, and open above, and were ordinarily, if not always, upon mountains, whither the Jews used to resort to pray together in great multitudes. And this seems to be the proper meaning of these words, where our Saviour is said to go into a mountain, and to continue all night, ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ τῶν θεῶ, ‘in one of these proseuchas of God, a place dedicated to his service.' Yet, howsoever, we cannot suppose but that he went thither to do what the place whither he went was designed for, even to pray and by consequence, that seeing he stayed there all night, questionless he spent the whole night in prayer and meditation, in order to so great a work as the ordaining his apostles was. Here, therefore, is another copy which our master Christ hath set us to write after; a lesson that all must learn and practise that would be his disciples. Though we ordinarily converse with nothing but dirt and clay, and with our fellow-worms on earth, yet as Christ did, so should we often retire from the tumults and bustles of the world to converse with him that made us; both to praise him for the mercies we have received, and to pray unto him for what we want; only we shall do well to have a care that we do not perform so solemn a duty as this is, after a careless and perfunctory manner, because none sees but God; for his seeing us is infinitely more than if all the world besides should see us; and we must still remember that prayer is the greatest work that a creature can be engaged in, and therefore to be performed with the greatest seriousness, reverence, and earnestness that possibly we can raise up our spirits to. And besides our daily devotions which we owe and ought to pay to God, whensoever we set upon any great and weighty business, we must be sure to follow our Saviour's steps in setting some time apart proportionably to the business we undertake, wherein to ask God's counsel, and desire his direction and blessing in the most serious and solemn manner that possibly we can. I need not tell the reader what benefit we shall receive by this means, none of us that shall try it, but will soon find it by experience. I shall observe only one thing more concerning our Saviour's devotion, and that is, that although he took all occasions to instruct and admonish his disciples and followers, whether in the fields or upon the mountains, in private houses, even wheresoever he could find an opportunity to do it; yet upon sabbath-days he always frequented the public worship of God; he went into the synagogues, places appointed for public prayers, and reading and hearing the word, a thing which I fear many amongst us do not think of, or at least not rightly consider it; for if they did, they would not dare methinks to walk so directly contrary to our blessed Saviour in this particular; for St. Luke tells us, that when he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day." From whence none of us but may easily observe that our Saviour did not go into a synagogue or church by the by, to see what they were doing there, neither did he happen to go in by chance upon the sabbathday, but it was his custom and constant practice to do so, even to go each sabbath-day to the public 1 Luke, iv. 16. 1 ordinances, there to join with the congregation in performing their service and devotions to Almighty God. And here I must take leave to say, that was there no other law, nor any other obligations upon us (as there be many) to frequent the public worship of God, this practice and example of our blessed Saviour doth sufficiently and effectually oblige us all to a constant attendance upon the public ordinances. For as we are Christians, and profess ourselves to be his disciples, we are all bound to follow him, he commands us here and elsewhere to do it; and certainly there is nothing that we can be obliged to follow him in, more than in the manner of his worshipping God. And therefore, whosoever out of any humour, fancy, or slothfulness, shall presume to neglect the public worship of God, he doth not only act contrary to Christ's example, but transgresses also his command, that enjoins him to follow that example. What they who are guilty of this will have to answer for themselves, when they come to stand before Christ's tribunal, I know not. But this I know, that all those who profess themselves to be Christians, should follow Christ in all things that they can, and by consequence in this particular; and that they sin who do not. But in whatsoever other things we may fail, I know the generality of us do herein follow our Saviour's steps, that we are usually present at the public worship of God; but then I hope this is not all that we follow him in, but that as we follow him to the public ordinances, so we do likewise in our private devotions, yea, and in our behaviour both to God and man; which that we may the |