The Practice of Piety
Devotional Book Reviews
What devotional book would you say
sparked the Puritan tradition? What enables young men to become stalwart
Puritans. Would you believe it was a devotional? Would you believe it
was this book? Read it and see.
The Practice of Piety: A Puritan Devotional
Manual
by Lewis Bayly
Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Morgan, PA: 1995
343 Pages, Hardback
Dr. John Gerstner said
that this was the devotional book that started the Puritan movement
(besides the Bible). In
this volume is one of the most popular devotional manuals written by the
puritans of the 17th century.
It went through 60 editions by the end of the 17th
century. Scare in any
edition, this 19th century reprint is particularly rare.
In 44 chapters, Bayly
sets forth the Christian life and the duties required of God-glorifying
Christian. He begins his
book aright in describing God briefly; how may anyone commune with God
if they do not know Him? Then
Bayly cover meditation, and how to do this aright; how to begin the
morning with devotions; how to read the Bible with profit; examples of
morning, evening, and mealtime prayers; rules to be observed in singing;
how to conduct yourself on the Sabbath day; thoughts on fasting; the
right manner of holy feasting; how to confess sin; how to act when you
are sick; consolations on fear of death; and much more.
In my estimation, this
is one of the best devotionals I have in my library.
It is not a book to read once, but one to read once each year.
If a Christian were to master this book, or at least some of the
basic truths held within it, then he would be spiritual force to be
reckoned with, he would be closer in communion with Christ, and would a
terror for the devil. Many
Christians have poor devotional times, and most have no guidelines on
how to have proper devotions. Most
of the books on the Christian market give devotional “substance” but
not guidelines for the devotions themselves.
Bayly’s book does both. It
fills the Christian with biblical substance and guides them down a right
path of attitude and disposition towards a fruitful devotional time.
Some Quotes:
“Unless that a man
doth truly know God, he neither can nor will worship him aright: for how
can a man love him whom he knoweth not?…And forasmuch as there can be
no true piety without the knowledge of God; nor any good practice
without the knowledge of a man’s own self; we will therefore lay down
the knowledge of God’s majesty, and man’s misery, as the first and
chiefest grounds of the Practice of Piety.”
“Use not sleep a
means to satiate the foggy litherness of they flesh, but as a medicine
to refresh thy tired senses and members: sufficient sleep quickens the
mind and revives the body: but immoderate sleep dulls the one and
fattens the other.”
“By religious fasting
a man comes nearest the life of angels and to do “God’s will on
earth, as it is done in heaven…By breaking this fast, the serpent
overthrew the first Adam, so that he lost paradise.”
“As
soon as ever thou awakest in the morning, keeping the door of thy heart
fast shut, that no earthly thought may enter, before that God come in
first; and let him, before all others, have the first place there.”
|
