The Practice of Piety

About this book

Lewis Bayly's manual of godly living, first published in the early seventeenth century, was one of the most widely read devotional books of its age. Bayly directs the whole of life — prayer, meditation, family worship, the Lord's Day, sickness, and death — toward practical holiness. It stood by John Bunyan's bedside and helped shape the piety of generations of English Christians.

Contents

1. Biographical Preface
2. The Epistle Dedicatory
3. To the Devout Reader
4. The Practice of Piety: Directing a Christian How to Walk, that He May Please God.
5. A Plain Description of the Essence and Attributes of God 🔒
6. Meditations of the Misery of a Man Not Reconciled to God in Christ. 🔒
7. Blessedness of the Regenerate 🔒
8. Meditations of the Blessed State of a Regenerate Man in His Death 🔒
9. Meditations of the Blessed State of the Regenerate Man After Death. 🔒
10. Meditations of the blessed state of a Regenerate Man in Heaven. 🔒
11. Of the Prerogatives which the Elect shall enjoy in Heaven. 🔒
12. Of the Effects of those Prerogatives. 🔒
13. Meditations directing a Christian how to apply to himself, without delay, the foresaid knowledge of God and himself. 🔒
14. Meditations on the Hindrances which Keep Back a Sinner from the Practice of Piety. 🔒
15. How a Private Man Must Begin the Morning with Piety. 🔒
16. Meditations for the Morning 🔒
17. Brief Directions How to Read the Holy Scriptures Once Every Year Over, with Ease, Profit, and Reverence. 🔒
18. A Prayer for the Morning. 🔒
19. Meditations to Stir Us Up to Morning Prayer. 🔒
20. Another Short Morning Prayer. 🔒
21. Farther Meditations to Stir Up to Prayer in the Morning. 🔒
22. A Brief Prayer for the Morning. 🔒
23. First, For Thy Thoughts. 🔒
24. Secondly, for Thy Words. 🔒
25. Thirdly, for Thy Actions. 🔒
26. Meditations for the Evening. 🔒
27. A Prayer for the Evening. 🔒
28. Another Shorter Evening Prayer. 🔒
29. Meditations for Household Piety. 🔒
30. Morning Prayer for a Family. 🔒
31. Meditations before Dinner and Supper. 🔒
32. Grace before Meat. 🔒
33. The Practice of Piety at Evening. 🔒
34. Rules to be Observed in Singing of Psalms. 🔒
35. Evening Prayer for a Family. 🔒
36. Meditations of the True Manner of Practising Piety on the Sabbath-Day. 🔒
37. Ten Reasons demonstrating the Commandment of the Sabbath to Be Moral. 🔒
38. Consecration of the Sabbath’s Rest 🔒
39. A Morning Prayer for the Sabbath-day. 🔒
40. Duties in the Holy Assembly. 🔒
41. A Private Evening Prayer for the Lord’s Day. 🔒
42. Of the Practice of Piety in Fasting. 🔒
43. I. Of a Private Fast. 🔒
44. II. Of the Public Fast. 🔒
45. Of the Practice of Piety in Holy Feasting. 🔒
46. I. Of Preparation. 🔒
47. Duties After Communion. 🔒
48. The Practice of Piety in Glorifying God in the Time of Sickness, and When Thou Art Called to Die in the Lord 🔒
49. A Prayer When One Begins to Be Sick. 🔒
50. A Prayer Before Taking of Medicine. 🔒
51. Meditations for the Sick. 🔒
52. Meditations for One That Is Like to Die. 🔒
53. A Prayer to Be Said of One That Is Like to Die. 🔒
54. Meditations against Despair, or doubting of God’s Mercy. 🔒
55. An Admonition to them who come to visit the Sick. 🔒
56. A Prayer to Be Said for the Sick by Them Who Visit Him. 🔒
57. Consolations Against Impatience in Sickness. 🔒
58. Consolations Against the Fear of Death 🔒
59. Seven Sanctified Thoughts and Mournful Sighs of a Sick Man Ready to Die. 🔒
60. Of the Comfortable Assurance of God’s Forgiveness of Sins. 🔒
61. Meditations of Martyrdom. 🔒
62. A Divine Colloquy Between the Soul and Her Savior Upon the Effectual Merits of His Dolorous Passion. 🔒