CHAPTER III.
_Of the subordinate means that serve to assist us in keeping the commandments of God._
1. WE have seen that the immediate means to happiness are the commandments of God. We come now to consider the subordinate means to it, which serve to assist us in the keeping of those commandments. And these are of two sorts: either such as are appointed and commanded by God, or such as are recommended by human prudence.
2. Of the first sort is prayer. This is a glorious means, to withdraw our thoughts, and affections from sensible objects, and to fix them upon God and the things of heaven: to stir up in us a sense of our wants and infirmities, and to quicken our desires of what we pray for: to maintain a religious warmth in our minds, and to keep up there a spirit of devotion, the flame of which would soon be extinct without the breathings of prayer to fan it, and give it motion: to nourish our communion with God, and make us continually mindful of him, _in whom we live, move, and have our being_. It is also a key to open the store-houses of God’s treasures to us, whereby we may obtain a supply of all our wants, and particularly _grace to help in time of need_, to enable us to resist all temptations.
3. A prudent Christian will therefore pray often: for temporal things conditionally, as not knowing whether, or how far these may be for his good, or serve as means to his end. But for spiritual, such as pardon of sin, and grace to leave it, he will pray not only with greater earnestness, but also absolutely, and without any condition, because he knows that God _would have all men to be saved_, to attain the happiness for which he made them; and that those (if he be not wanting to himself) are certain means to his salvation.
4. Reading of the scriptures is the next means which God has ordained to assist us in keeping his commandments. And an excellent means it is, both to enlighten our understanding, and to compose our minds into a religious temper. _All scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works._ And therefore every prudent Christian gives all attendance to reading it. And that not out of curiosity, or for speculation only, but with a practical design, to learn and do the whole will of God. And accordingly he will not lay them aside, when he thinks he understands them, but will renew and continue his perusal of them, for his constant and greater edification. His delight will ever be in the law of the Lord, and in his law will he meditate day and night.
5. A third means of religion appointed by God, is the hearing the word preached. This is a standing provision which God has made for the edification of his church; therefore a prudent Christian, who never thinks himself too wise to learn, or too good to be better, and who never omits any means that may bring him nearer his end, is careful to pay his due attendance to it, humbly waiting for the grace and blessing of God in the use of his own ordinance.
6. Neither will the sacraments, fourthly, be ever undervalued or neglected by a prudent Christian, who never thinks himself either too wise or too good for any institution of God. As to the Lord’s _supper_ in particular, he never omits any opportunity of receiving it, knowing the excellent ends for which it serves, and its great usefulness to serve them. It serves as a sensible image of the death of Christ, and of our spiritual communion with him; as a memorial of his atonement for our sins, actually applying it to ourselves. In short, it serves as a channel to convey all the blessings of God to us, and as a pledge to assure us of them. And in all this he admires the wisdom and goodness of God, in making this merciful provision for his church, who, considering our frame, and how large a share sense has in our composition, was pleased, in condescension to our infirmity, to address himself to us by that weaker side of our nature; and lest, in such a croud of sensible objects, as we daily converse with, we should (as we are too apt) be tempted to forget him, was pleased, by those very objects, to bring us to himself, by making use of some of them as his _remembrancers_, and as steps whereby we might ascend to the contemplation of the most spiritual and heavenly mysteries.
7. _Church-communion_, in the last place, is an excellent means for the mutual edification of Christians; for the preservation of the Christian faith and doctrine, and for the encouragement of Christian practice. And since for these and the like reasons, God, by his Son Jesus Christ, has erected and constituted that spiritual society call’d _a church_, whereof the same Jesus Christ is the head, as that is his body, according to the apostle; Christian prudence obliges every man not to look upon himself only as a private or independent Christian, that is at liberty to serve God as he pleases, in his own solitary way, but as a member of this one church, whereof Christ is the head, and consequently bound to hold communion with it. This therefore, a prudent Christian will be sure to do, and think it a great happiness and privilege to have such a help, to enjoy the communion of saints, and worship God in the assemblies of his people. From these he will by no means _excommunicate_ himself: but as he is in spirit united to the whole Christian church, so he actually communicates with that particular branch of it, whereof he is a member: and hereby he shews his union with the whole, in which he will be careful to make no schism; lest, by dividing from that church whereof Christ is the head, he be divided from Christ, his end as well as his way.