INTRODUCTION
Here, good reader, thou seest a Paradise open to all. But as it is not my wish that any should go into it rashly, I am desirous, at the entrance, to offer thee a word of advice.
It is a very common mistake to place or to have in books the devotion which ought to be sought for in the heart. Many imagine themselves, or others imagine them, to have devotion, if they steadily observe a fixed rule of saying out of good books a number of long prayers as a daily task.
This practice I admit to have a semblance of piety, and I should be loth to condemn it altogether. Yet is it not true that such devotion justly merits suspicion where it is meantime attended with no change or amendment of life, and where, while no value is set upon inward goodness and solid virtue, repose is found in adherence to the repetition of the favourite prayers? For here is an absence of the very root and sap from which true piety draws all its vigour.
The special claim which earnestness in prayer possesses to commendation lies in the aid and advancement which it procures to holiness of life. St. Augustine says, that he who knows how to pray rightly , knows how to lead a good life . This is true. A good life and good prayer mutually aid each other; and neither can subsist without the other. A good life is the recommendation of prayer; and prayer preserves and promotes a good life.
Dost thou, then, ask, who is to be looked upon as devout? One, I answer, who is not only attracted with prompt affection to divine things, as prayer and the offices of devotion, but also endeavours to lead a life worthy of the service of God. Wouldst thou, then, dear Christian, be good, or assuredly become so? This is accomplished, not by words, however good and holy, but deeds. Therefore, when reading good, devout, and holy prayers, join to them a corresponding affection of piety, and endeavour earnestly to give expression to holy feelings in thyself. For even a bad man may easily
