AS thou returnest home, or when thou art entered into thy house, meditate a little while upon those things which thou hast heard. And as the clean Beasts which chew the Cud, 1so must thou bring again to thy remembrance, that which thou hast heard in the Church. And then kneeling down, turn all to a prayer, beseeching God to give such a blessing to ⟨p. 278⟩those things which thou hast heard, that they may be a direction to thy life,2 and a consolation unto thy Soul. For till the Word be made thus our own, and as it were, close hidden in our hearts: we are in danger lest Satan steal it away,3 and we shall receive no profit thereby. And when thou goest to dinner, in that reverend and thankful manner before prescribed, remember according to thine ability, to have one or more poor Christians, whose hungry bowels may be refreshed with thy meat:4 imitating holy Job, who protested, that he did never eat his morsels alone, without the good company of the poor and fatherless; That is the Commandment of Christ our Master, Luke 14. 13. Or at leastwise,5 send some part of thy Dinner to the poor, who lie sick in the back-lane, without any food. For this will bring a blessing upon all thy works and labours:6 and it will one day more rejoice thy Soul, 7than it doth now refresh his Body, when Christ shall say unto thee, O blessed child of God, I was an hungered, and thou gavest me meat, &c And for as much as thou hast done it for my sake to the least of these my brethren, I take it in as good part, as if thou hadst done it to mine own self.
AS thou returnest home, or when thou art entred into thy house, meditate a little while upon those things which thou hast heard. And as the clean Beasts which chew the Cud, 1so must thou bring again to thy remembrance, that which thou hast heard in the Church. And then kneeling down, turn all to a prayer, beseeching God to give such a blessing to ⟨p. 278⟩those things which thou hast heard, that they may be a direction to thy life,2 and a consolation unto thy Soul. For till the Word be made thus our own, and as it were, close hidden in our hearts: we are in danger lest Satan steal it away,3 and we shall receive no profit thereby. And when thou goest to dinner, in that reverend and thankful manner before prescribed, remember according to thine ability, to have one or more poor Christians, whose hungry bowels may be refreshed with thy meat:4 imitating holy Job, who protested, that he did never eat his morsels alone, without the good company of the poor and fatherless; That is the Commandment of Christ our Master, Luke 14. 13. Or at leastwise,5 send some part of thy Dinner to the poor, who lie sick in the back-lane, without any food. For this will bring a blessing upon all thy works and labours:6 and it will one day more rejoyce thy Soul, 7than it doth now refresh his Body, when Christ shall say unto thee, O blessed child of God, I was an hungered, and thou gavest me meat, &c And for as much as thou hast done it for my sake to the least of these my brethren, I take it in as good part, as if thou hadst done it to mine own self.
- 1Lev. 11. 3.
- 2Psal. 119. 11.
- 3Mat. 13. 19.
- 4Job 31. 17, 18.
- 5Hest. 9. 22.
- 6Deut. 15. 10, &c.
- 7Matth. 25. 35, &c.
