The Communicant's Companion (continued)
just and fair in all my dealings, and spoken the truth from my heart? Or have I not sometimes dealt deceitfully in bargaining, and said that which bordered upon a lie? Has not fleshly wisdom governed me more than that simplicity and godly sincerity which becomes an Israelite indeed? Have I no wealth got by vanity, no unjust gain, no blot of that kind cleaving to my hand?
7. How have I received my daily food?—Have I never transgressed the law of temperance in meat and drink, and so made my table my snare?
Have not God's good gifts been abused to luxury and sensuality, and the body, which, by the sober use of them, should have been fitted, by the excessive use of them, unfitted to serve the soul in the service of God?
Have I not eaten to myself; and drunk to myself, when I should have eaten and drunk to the glory of God?
8. How have I done the duty of my particular relations?—The word of God has expressly taught me my duty as a husband, a wife, a parent, a child, a master, a servant; but have I not in many things failed of my duty?
Have not I carried myself disrespectfully to my superiors, disdainfully to my inferiors, and disingenuously to my equals? Have I given to each that which is just and right, and rendered to all their dues? Have I been a comfort to my relations, or have I not caused grief?
9. How have I performed my secret worship?—Have I been constant to it, morning and evening; or have I not sometimes omitted it, and put it by with some frivolous excuse? Have I been conscientious in it, and done it with an eye to God; or have I not kept it up merely as a custom, and suffered it to degenerate into a formality? Have I been lively and serious in secret prayer and reading; or have I not rested in the outside of the performance, without any close application and intention of mind in it?