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I. THat you fail not (un∣less some extraor∣dinary or unavoidable acci∣dents hinder you) to allot some part of the Afternoon or toward the Evening, for the advantage of your soul; when freeing your self from business and company: you may retire into your Closet, or private Oratory, and there direct your thoughts without disturbance, upon God alone.
II. That being thus reti∣red, you constantly make it your business to read some part of the Holy Scripture, (especially in the Psalms, which if all other Books of Devotion were lost, are suf∣ficient to supply us in that kind;) having begun there, go on to the reading of some part of the New-Testament, not carelesly or in haste, as if you had a mind to have done, but so attentively, as to be able to give some account of what you have read, or to single at least some one pas∣sage or more out of it, to be laid up in your Memory, and to be made use of in the pra∣ctice of an holy life.
III. That in this time of
retirement, you lay all things aside, that may divert you from Holy and Heavenly thoughts, considering that you set your self in the pre∣sence of God, & that you are to give him an account of what you are doing, wch that you may the better do, you may begin with this Prayer.