Satan’s Stratagems to Disarm the Christian of his Breastplate Defeated 4/4

2. It is a life with God.A gracious soul, he walks in God’s presence, and keeps communion with him. If you would meet a saint, you know his haunt, what company he keeps.  ‘That ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ,’ I John 1:3.  See the ingenuity of a holy soul, ‘truly our fellowship’ is with God, we tell you no lie.  An unholy heart dares not be thus free, I warrant you, and tell what company his soul walks with from day to day.  We see there is no danger of going among holy men; they will bring you acquainted with no ill company; they will carry you to God where their greatest resource lies.  And tell me now, must not that man live a pleasant life that walks with God?  Let it be but a man you ride with in a journey, one that loves you well, and is able to enter­tain you with good and cheerful discourse; doth not the delight you take in his company, strangely, yet sweetly, beguile you of the tediousness of the way?  O what joy must God bring with him then to that soul he walks with!  ‘Blessed is the people,’ saith the psalmist, ‘that know that joyful sound, they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance; in thy name shall they rejoice all day.’  The sound of the trumpet, which called them to their religious assem­blies, is called there ‘the joyful sound,’ because in his worship God sis especially manifest himself to his people.  The heaven of heavens is to be where the Lord is; surely then, that which the saint hath of God's presence here is enough to make the Chris­tian’s life joyous.  O Christians, is it not sweet to walk with God, to God!—to walk with God here below, by his assisting, comforting presence, to God manifesting himself in all his glory above in heaven!  O all you that are for pleasant prospects in your walks, and out of your windows, see here one that the world cannot match—the prospect that a gracious soul hath, walking in the paths of righteousness.  He may see God walking with him, as a friend with his friend, and manifesting himself to him; yea, he hath not only the sweetness of God’s present company with him, but he hath the goodly prospect of heaven before him, where God is leading him, and in this way of holiness will certainly bring him at last.  Whereas the unholy wretch, walking in the company of his lusts, though they sweeten his mouth with a little frothy pleasure at present, that soon is melted off his tongue, and the taste forgotten, yet they show him the region of dark­ness before him, whither they will bring him, and where they will leave him, to repent of his dear-bought pleasures in torments easeless and endless.
3. It is the life of God himself.  Read the expres­sion, ‘being alienated from the life of God,’ Eph. 4:18.  That is the life of godliness.  A holy life is the life of God.  But how?  Not only as God is the author of it; so he is of the beast's life.  Thus the wicked are not alienated from the life of God, for they have a natural life which God gave them.  But the expression carries more in it, and that is this.  The life of God is as much as a life which God himself lives.  He is a living God, and his life is a holy life.  Holiness is the life of his life.  Now, I pray, friends, do you not think God himself lives a life of pleasure?  And what is the pleasure of his life but holiness?  He takes pleasure in the graces of his saints, Ps. 149:4; how much more in his own essential holiness, from whence those beams which shine so beautifully to his eye in his children were first shot!  Thou, whoever thou beest, hast an art above God himself, if thou canst fetch any true pleas­ure out of unholiness and unrighteousness.  And let me tell thee also, it is not the lowest of blasphemies for thee to charge the way of righteousness and holi­ness, to be an enemy to true pleasure, for in that thou chargest God himself to want true joy and pleasure: who has no pleasure if holiness will not yield it.  But away with such putrid stuff as this is.  The devils and damned souls themselves, that hate God with the most perfect hatred of any other, yet dare not say, they cannot say so.  They know God to be glorious and happy, yea, ‘glorious in holiness,’ and the crea­ture’s bliss and glory to consist in a participation of that holiness which makes God himself so blessed and glorious.  This, Christian, is the utmost that can be said of thy happiness, either here or in heaven hereafter.  That makes thee glorious which makes God glorious.  Thy joy and pleasure is of the same kind with the pleasure God delights himself in. ‘Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures,’ Ps. 36:8.  Mark that phrase, ‘the river of thy pleasures.’  God hath his pleasures, and God gives his saints to drink of his pleasures.  This is the sweet accent of his saints’ pleasures.  When a prince bids his servants carry such a man down into the cellar, and let him drink of their beer or wine, this is a kindness from so great a personage to be valued highly.  But for the prince to set him at his own table, and let him drink of his own wine, this I hope is far more.  When God gives a man estate, corn, and wine, and oil—the com­forts of the creature—he entertains the man but in the common cellar.  Such as have none but carnal enjoyments, they do but sit with the servants, and in some sensual pleasures they are but fellow-com­moners with the beasts.  But when he bestows his grace, beautifies a soul with holiness, then he prefers the creature the highest it is capable of.  He never sends this rich clothing to any, but he means to set such by them, at his own table with him, in heaven’s glory.