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The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, &c.
CHAP. I. Consideration of the general instru∣ments and means serving to a holy Life: by way of Introduction.
IT is necessary that every Man should consider, that since God hath given him an excellent na∣ture, wisdom and choice, an un∣derstanding soul, and an immor∣tal spirit, having made him Lord over the Beasts, and but a little lower then the Angels; he hath also appointed for him a work and a service great enough to imploy those a∣bilities, and hath also designed him to a state of life after this, to which he can onely arrive by that service and obedience. And therefore as every man is wholly Gods own portion by the title of creation: so all our labours and care, all our powers and faculties must be wholly im∣ployed in the service of God, even all the dayes of our life, that this life being ended, we may live with him for ever.
Neither is it sufficient that we think of the service of God as a work of the least necessity,