Ten Directions to Guide Those Who Desire to Maintain the Power of Holiness 1/7

The third thing propounded in handling the point calls now for one despatch; and that is, to lay down some directions by way of counsel and help to all those that desire to maintain the power of holiness and righteous­ness in their daily walking.

First Direction.  Be sure thou gettest a good foundation laid, on which may be reared the beautiful structure of a holy righteous conversation; and that can be no less than the change of thy heart by the powerful work of God's sanctifying Spirit in thee. Thou must be righteous and holy before thou canst live righteously and holily.  If the ship hath not its right make at first, be not equally poised according to the law of that art, it will never sail trim; and if the heart be not moulded anew by the workmanship of the Spirit, and fashioned according to the law of ‘the new creature,’ in which ‘old things pass away, and all things become new,’ the creature will never walk hol­ily, II Cor. 5:17.  It is solid grace in the vessel of the heart that feeds profession in the lamp—holiness in the life, Matt. 25:4.  Now this thorough change of thy heart is especially to be looked at in these two things.

First. Look that there be a change made in thy judgment of and disposition of heart to sin.  Thou hast formerly had such a notion of sin, as hath made it desirable; thou hast looked upon it as Eve did on the forbidden fruit; thou hast thought it ‘pleasant to the eye, good for food,’ and worth thy choice, ‘to be desired of thee;’ and if thou continuest of the same mind, thy teeth will be watering and heart continually hankering after it.  Thou mayest possibly be kept from expressing and venting the inward thought of thy heart for a while; but, as two lovers kept asunder by their friends, will one time or another make an escape to each other, so long as their affection is the same it was; so wilt thou to thy lust, and therefore never rest till thou canst say thou dost as heartily loathe and hate sin as ever thou lovedst it before.

Second. Look that there be such a change in thy judgment and heart, as makes thee take an inward complacency and delight in Christ and his holy com­mands.  There is then little fear of thy degenerating, when thou art tied to him and his service by the heart-strings of love and complacency  The devil finds it no hard work to part him and his duty that never joyed nor took true content in doing of it.  He whose calling doth not like him, nor ‘fit his genius,’ as we say, will never excel in it.  A scholar learns more in week, when he comes to relish learning, and is pleased with its sweet taste, than he did in a month when he went to school to please his master, whom he feared, not himself.  Observe any person in the thing wherein he takes high content, and he is more careful and curious, about that than any other.  If his heart be on his garden, oh how neatly it is kept!  It shall lie, as we say, in print.  All the rare roots and slips that can be got for love and money shall be sought for.  Is it beauty that one delights in?  How curious and nice is such a one in dressing herself! she hardly knows when she is fine enough.  Truly thus it is here; a soul that truly loves Christ delights in holi­ness, all his strength is laid out upon it.  May he but excel in this one thing—be more holy, more heavenly —he will give others leave to run before him in anything else.