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.