Ten Directions to Guide Those Who Desire to Maintain the Power of Holiness 6/7

Seventh Direction.  Be sure to get some Christian friend whom thou mayest trust above others to be thy faithful monitor.  O that man hath a great help for the maintaining the power of godliness, that hath an open-hearted friend that dare speak his heart to him!  A stander-by sees more sometimes, by a man, than the actor can do by himself, and is more fit to judge of his actions than he is of his own.  Sometimes self-love blinds us in our own cause, that we see not ourselves so bad as we are; and sometimes we are over-suspicious of the worst by ourselves, which makes us appear to ourselves worse than we are.  Now that thou mayest not deprive thyself of so great help from thy friend, be sure to keep thy heart ready with meekness to receive, yea, with thankfulness to em­brace, a reproof from his mouth.  Those that cannot bear plain dealing hurt themselves most; for by this they seldom hear the truth.  He that hath not love enough to give a reproof seasonably to his brother, nor humility enough to bear a reproof from him, is not worthy to be called a Christian.  

By the first he shows himself a ‘hater of his brother,’ Lev. 19:17; by the second he proves himself ‘a scorner,’ Prov. 9:8. Holy David professed he would take it as ‘a kindness’ for the ‘righteous to smite him,’ yea, as kindly as he broke a box of precious oil upon his head, which was amongst the Jews a high expression of love, Ps. 141:5. And he made his word good.  He did not, as the Pa­pists do by their holy water, commend it highly, but turn away his face, when it comes to sprinkled on him.  No, Abigail and Nathan who reproved him —one for his bloody intentions against Nabal and his family—the other for his bloody fact upon Uriah; —they both sped well in their errand.  The first pre­vented the fact intended by her seasonable reproof; the second recovered him out of that dismal sin of murder, wherein he had lain some months without coming so far to himself as to repent of it, for aught that we read.  And it is observable that they did not only prevail in the business, but endeared themselves so unto him, by their faithfulness to his soul, that he takes Abigail to be his wife, and Nathan to be his most privy counsellor to hi dying day, I Kings 1:27, 32. Truly it is one great reason why the falls of professors are so frequent in our days, and their recoveries so rare of late, because few in these unloving times are to be found so faithful as to do this Christian office of reproof to their brethren.  They will sooner go and tattle of it to others to their disgrace, than speak of it to themselves for their recovery.  Indeed, by telling others, we obstruct our way from telling the person himself with any hope of doing him good.  It will be hard to make him believe thou comest to heal his soul when thou hast already wounded his name.

Eighth Direction.  Be often seriously think­ing how holily and righteously you will, in a dying hour, wish you had lived.  They who now think it matters not much what language drivels from them, what company they walk in, what they busy their time about, how they comport with God in his worship, and with man in their dealings, but live at large, and care not much which end goes foremost, yea wonder at the niceness and zeal of others, as if there were no pace would carry them to heaven but the gallop; when once death comes so near as to be known by its own grim face, and not to report of others, when these poor creatures see they must in earnest into another world, without any delay, and their naked souls must return to ‘God who gave them,’ to hear what interpre­tation he will put upon the course and tenor of their walking, and accordingly to pass an irrevo­cable sen­tence of life or death upon them, now their thoughts will begin to change, and take up other notions of a righteous and holy life than ever they had before. 

It is observed among the Papists that many cardinals, and other great ones, who would think that their cowl and religious habit ill become them in their health,, yet are very ambitious to die and to be buried in them, as commonly they are.  Though this be a fop­pery in itself, yet it helps us to a notion considerable.  They who live wickedly and loosely, yet like a reli­gious habit very well when to go into another world. As that young gallant said to his swaggering compan­ion—after they had visited Ambrose lying on his dy­ing bed, and saw how comfortably he lay, triumphing over death now approaching—‘O that I might live with thee, and die with Ambrose.’  Vain wish! wouldst thou, O man, not reap what thou sowest, and find what thou layest up with thy own hands?  Dost thou sow cockle and wouldst reap wheat?  Dost thou fill thy chest with dirt, and expect to find gold when thou openest it?  Cheat and gull thyself thou mayest, but thou canst not mock God, who will pay thee in the same coin at thy death which thou treasurest up in thy life.  There are few so horribly wicked, but the thoughts of death awes them.  They dare not fall up­on their wicked practices till they have got some distance from the thoughts of this.  Christian, walk in the company of it every day by serious meditation, and tell me at the week's end whether it doth not keep worse  company from thee.

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Fifth Direction.  Be sure to walk dependingly on God.  The vine is fruitful so long as it hath a pole or wall to run upon, but without such a help it would soon be trodden under foot, and come to nothing.  ‘It is not in man to direct his own way.’  ‘There are many good things that God doth in man, which man has no hand in; but there is no good and holy action that man does but God enables him to do it.’ As was said of that Grecian captain, ‘Parmenio did many ex­ploits without Alexander, but Alexander nothing with­out Parmenio.’  If thou wilt therefore maintain holi­ness in its power ‘acknowledge God in all thy ways,’ and ‘lean not unto thine own understanding,’ Prov. 3:5, 6.  He is ready to help them that engage him, but counts himself charged with the care of none but such as depend on him.  The Christian’s way to heaven is something like that in our nation called ‘the washes,’ where the sands, by reason of the sea's daily overflow­ing, do so alter, that the traveller who passed them safely a month ago, cannot without great danger ven­ture again, except he hath his guide with him.  Where then he found firm land, possibly a little after, coming, he may meet with a devouring quicksand. Truly thus, the Christian who gets over a duty at one time with some facility, his way smooth and plain before him, at another time may find a temptation in the same duty enough to set him, if he had not help from heaven to carry him safe out of the danger.  O Christian, it is not safe for thee to venture one step without thy stay, thy hand of faith leaning on thy Beloved's arm.  Trust to thy own legs, and thou fall­est; use thy legs, but trust to his arm, and thou art safe.

Sixth Direction. 

Be sure to look to thy com­pany—who they are thou consortest with.  Flee un­holy company, as baneful to the power of godliness. Be but as careful for thy soul as thou wouldst for thy body.  Durst thou drink in the same cup , or sit in the same chair, with one that hath an infectious disease? And is not sin as catching a disease as the plague itself?  Darest thou come where such ill scents are to be taken as may soon infect thy soul?  Of all trades it would not do well to have the collier and fuller live together.  What one cleanseth the other will crock and smutch. Thou canst not be long among unholy ones, but thou wilt hazard the defiling of thy soul, which the Holy Spirit hath made pure.  He did not wash thee clean to run where thou shouldest be made foul; and certainly thou shalt have no help from them to advance thy holiness.  Truly we should not choose that society where we may not hope to make them, or be made ourselves, better by them. 

 It is observable what the Spirit of God notes concerning Abraham, ‘he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise,’ Heb. 11:9.  He is not said to dwell with the natives of that land, but ‘with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.’  Abraham did not seek acquaintance with the heathen; no, he was willing to continue a stranger to them; but he lived with those that were of his own family, and God’s family also.  Christians are a com­pany of themselves, ‘being let go, they went to their own company,’ Acts 4:23.  Who should believers join themselves to but believers?  As Paul said, ‘Have you not a wise man among you, but you must go to law before unbelievers?’ so may I say to thee, Christian —Is there never a saint in all the town that thou canst be acquainted with, sit and discourse with, but you must join with the profane and ungodly amongst whom you live?  No wonder thy holiness thrives no better, when thou breathest in wicked company; it is like the east wind, under which nothing grows and prospers.

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Fourth Direction.  Be sure to look often on the perfect pattern, which Christ, in his own example, hath given thee for a holy life.  Our hand will be as the copy is we write after.  If we set low examples be­fore us, it cannot be expected we should rise high ourselves; and indeed the holiest saint on earth is too low to be our pattern, because perfection in holiness must be aimed at by the weakest Christian, II Cor. 7:1, and that is not to be found in the best of saints in this lower world.  Moses, the meekest man on earth, at a time even his spirit is ruffled; and Peter, the foreman of the apostles, doth not always ÏD2`B@*,Ã< (foot it right), according to the gospel, Gal. 2:14, and he that would follow him in then, is sure to go out of his way. The good soldier follows his file-leader, not when he runs away, but when he marches after his captain or­derly.  ‘Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ,’ I Cor. 11:1.  The comment must be followed no further than it agrees with the text.  The master doth not only rule the scholar's book for him, but writes him a copy with his own hand.  Christ’s command is our rule, his life our copy.  If thou wilt walk holily, thou must not only endeavour to do what Christ com­mands, but as Christ himself did it; thou must labour to shape every letter in thy copy—action in thy life —in a holy imitation of Christ.  By holiness we are the very image of Christ,’ Rom. 8:29.  We represent Christ and hold him forth to all that see us.

Now two things go to make a thing the image of another.  First, likeness; secondly, derivation.  It must not only be like it, but this likeness must be deduced and derived from it.  Snow and milk are both alike white; yet we cannot say that they are the image one of another, because that likeness they have is not derived either from the other.  But the picture which is drawn every line by the face of a man, this may be called the image of that man after whose like­ness it is made.  Thus true holiness is that which is derived from Christ, when the soul sets Christ in his word and Christ in his example before him—as one would the person whose picture he intends to draw —and labours to draw every line in his life by these.  O this is a sweet way indeed to maintain the power of holiness.  When thou art tempted to any vanity, set Christ before thy eye in his holy walking; ask thy soul, ‘Am I in this speech, action, company I consort with, like Christ?  Did he, or would he, if again to live on earth, do as I do? would not he be more choice of his words than I am? did ever such a vain speech drop from his lips? would he delight in such company as I do? spend his time upon such trifles and impertin­ences as I do? would he bestow so much cost in pam­pering of his body, and swallow down his throat at one meal what would feed many poor creatures ready to starve for want? would he be in every fashion that comes up, though never so ridiculous and offensive? should cards and dice ever have been found in his hands to drive time away?  And shall I indulge myself in anything that would make me unlike Christ?  God forbid!  We think it enough if we can quote such a good man, or great professor, to countenance our practice, and so are led into temptation. 

But Chris­tian, if thy conscience tells thee Christ likes not such doings, away with them, though thou couldst produce the example of the most eminent saint in the country to favour them.  Thou knowest some, possibly, of great name for profession, that have cast off duties in their families.  But did not Christ show an especial care of the apostles, which lived under him, and were of his family?—often praying with them, repeating to them, and further opening to them what he preached in public; keeping also the passover with them as his household, according to the law of that ordinance, Ex. 12.  Thou seest some turn their back on the public as­semblies, under a pretence of sinful mixtures there that would defile them.  Did our Lord Jesus do thus? was not he in the temple and in the synagogues hold­ing communion with them in the service of God, which was for the substance there preserved, though not without some corruptions crept in among them?  O Christian, study Christ's life more, and thou wilt soon learn to mend thy own!  Summa religionis est imitari, quem colis—it is the very sum and top of religion, to be as, like the God we worship as may be.

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Third. Use not the true rule partially.  To be partial in practicing is as bad as to be partial in hand­ling of the law; this made the priests contemptible, Mal. 2:9, and so will that the professor, to God and man.  Square the whole frame of thy life by rule, or all is to no purpose.  ‘Divers measures, are an abomina­tion to the Lord,’ Prov. 20:10.  He is the honest man in his dealings with men that hath but one measure, and that according to law, which he useth in his trade. And he is the holy man that useth but one rule for all his actions, and that no other than the word of God. O how fulsome was the Jews' hypocrisy to God that durst not go into the judgment hall, for fear of render­ing themselves unclean, John 18, but made no scruple of embruing their hands in Christ’s blood! and the Pharisees, who observed the rule of the law strictly in ‘tithing anise and cummin,’ but dispensed with them­selves in ‘the weightier matters of the law!’  O beware of this, as thou lovest thy soul's life!  You would not thank that customer, who comes into your shop, and buys a pennyworth of you, but steals from you what is worth a pound; or him that is very punctual in paying a small debt he owes, only that he may get deeper into your book, and at last cheat you of a greater sum. This is horrid wickedness, to comply with the word in little matters, on a design that you may more covertly wrong God in greater.

Third Direction.  Be sure to propound a right end to thyself in thy righteous holy walking, and here be sure thou standest clear off a legal end.  Do not think, by thy righteousness, to purchase anything at God's hand.  Heaven stands not upon sale to any. ‘The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,’ Rom. 6:23. What God sold to Christ he gives to us.  Christ was the purchaser, believers are but heirs to what he hath bought, and must claim nothing but in his right.  By claiming anything of God for our righteousness, we shut ourselves out from having anything of his.  We cannot be in two places at the same time.  If we be found leaning on our own house, we cannot also be found in Christ.  Paul knew this, and therefore re­nounceth the one, that he may be entitled to the other, Php. 3:8, 9.  It is Satan’s policy to crack the breastplate of thy own righteousness, by beating it out further than the metal will bear.  Indeed, by trusting in it, thou destroyest the very nature of it—thy righ­teousness becomes unrighteousness, and thy holiness degenerates into wickedness.  What greater impiety than pride?—such a pride as rants it over Christ, and alters the method which God himself hath set for saving souls!  O soul! if thou wouldst be holy, learn to be humble.  They are clasped together, ‘What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’ Micah 6:8. And how that he that trusts in his own holiness should be said to walk humbly, it cannot enter into our heart to conceive.  God does not set thee to earn heaven by thy holiness; but thereby, to show thy love and thankfulness to Christ that hath earned it for thee.  Hence the great argument Christ useth to pro­voke his disciples to holiness, is love: 

‘If ye love me, keep my commandments,’ John 14:15.  As if he had said, ‘You know what I came into the world, and am now going out of the world for.  I do both upon your service, for whom I lay down my life, and take it up again, that I may live in heaven, to intercede for you. If these, then, and the blessed fruits you reap from these, be valued by you, love me, and if you love me, testify it in keeping my commandments.’  That is gos­pel holiness which is bred and fed by this love, when all the Christian doth is by him offered up as a thanksgiving sacrifice to Christ, ‘that loved us unto death.’  Thus the spouse to Christ, ‘I will give thee my loves,’ Song 7:12.  What she means by her loves she expresseth, ‘All manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved,’ ver. 13.  In verse 18 she had professed her faith on Christ, and drunk deep of his love; and now to rebound his love in thankfulness, she bestirs herself to entertain him with the pleasant fruits of his own graces, as gathered from a holy conversa­tion, which she doth not lay up to feed her pride and self‑confi­dence with, but reserves for her Beloved, that he may have the entire praise of them.

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Second Direction.  Be sure to keep thine eye on the right rule thou art to walk by.  Every calling hath a rule to go by, peculiar to itself, which requires some study to get an insight into, without which a man will but bungle in his work.  No calling hath such a sure rule and perfect law to go by, as the Christian’s. Therefore, in earthly professions and worldly callings, men vary in their way and method, though of some trade, because there is no such perfect rule, but another may superadd to it.  But the Christian hath one standing rule, the word of God, able to make the man of God perfect.  Now, he that would excel in the power of holiness must study this.  The physician consults with his Galen, the lawyer with his Littleton, and the philosopher with his Aristotle—the masters of these arts; how much more should the Christian consult with the word, so as to be determined by that, and drawn by that more than by a whole team of argu­ments from men!  ‘We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth,’ II Cor. 13:8.  O Christian! when credit votes this way, friends and relatives that way; when profit bids thee do this, and pleasure that; say, as Jehoshaphat concerning Micaiah, ‘Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might enquire of him?’ I Kings 22:7.  Is there not the word of God, that I may be concluded by it, rather than by any of these lying prophets?  Now there are three ways that men go contrary to this direction—all of them destructive to the power of holiness.  Some walk by no rule; some by a false rule; and some by the true rule, but partially.  The first is the antinomist and libertine, the second is the superstitious zealot, the third is the hypocrite.  Beware of all these, except thou meanest to lay the knife to the throat of holiness.

First. Take heed thou dost not take away the rule God sets before thee, with the antinomist and libertine, who say the law is not a rule to the Christian.  These must needs make crooked lines in their lives that live by rote and not by rule.  I had thought Christ had baptized the law and gospellized it, both by preaching it as a rule of holiness in his ser­mons, Matt 5:27, and by walking in his life by the rule of it, I Peter 2:21, 22.  That principle therefore may be indicted for a murderer of a righteous and holy life, which takes away the rule by which it should be led. This is a subtle way indeed of Satan to surprise the poor creature.  If he make the Christian traveller weary of his guide, and once send him away, then it will not be long before he wander out of heaven way and fall into hell roads.  The apostle tells us of a gen­eration of men who, ‘While they promise themselves liberty, they themselves are the servants of corrup­tion,’ II Peter 2:19.  Truly these, methinks, look like the men who slip off the yoke of the command under a pretence of liberty, that soon have a worse yoke on in its room, even the yoke of sin.

Second. Take heed thou walkest not by a false rule.  There is but one true rule—the word of God —and therefore we may know which is false.  ‘To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,’ Isa. 8:20.  Pretend not to more strictness than the word will vouch.  This is to be ‘righteous overmuch’ indeed, Ecc. 7:16.  Excess makes a monster as well as a defect; not only he that hath but one hand, but he that hath three, is one.  There is a curse scored up for him  that ‘adds to,’ as well as for him that ‘takes from the words of this book,’ Rev. 22:18.  The devil hath had of old a design to undermine scriptural holiness, by crying up an apocryphal holiness.  He knows too well that, as the pot by seething over puts out the fire, and so comes in a while not to seethe at all; thus, by making men’s zeal to boil over into a false pretended holi­ness, he is sure to quench all true holiness, and bring them at last to have no zeal, but prove key-cold athe­ists.  The Pharisee must eke out the commands of God with the traditions of men; the Papist, his true son and heir, hath his unwritten verities, holy orders, and rules for a more austere life than ever came into God’s heart to require; and of late the Quakers have borrowed many of their shreds from both, with which they are very busy to patch up a ridiculous kind of re­ligion, which a man cannot possibly take up, till he hath first fore-done his own understanding, and renounced all subjection to the word of God.  O be­ware of a will-holiness and a will-worship.  It is a heavy charge God puts in against Israel, ‘Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples!’ Hosea 8:14. This may seem strange—to forget God, and yet be so devout as to build temples!  Yes, she built them with­out warrant from God.  God counts himself forgotten when we forget his word, and keep not close to that. It is laid at Jeroboam's door as a great sin, that ‘he of­fered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel...in the month which he had devised of his heart,’ I Kings 12:33.  He took counsel of his own heart, not of God, when and where to offer.  A holi­ness which is the device of our heart, is not the holiness after God’s heart.  The curse which falls upon such bold men, is, that while they seek to establish holiness of their own, they submit not to the true holiness which God re­quires in his word.  God justly gives them over to real unholiness, for pretending to a further holiness than they should.  Witness those sinks and common-shores of all abominations—religious houses, I mean, as they are called by the Papists —which being the institutions of men, for want of the salt of a divine warrant to keep them sweet, have run into filthiness and corruption.  God will not endure that his creature should be a self-mover.  It is a greater sin to do what we are not commanded, than not to do what we are commanded by God; as it is in a subject to presume to make laws of his own head, than not to obey the law his prince enacts.  By setting up a holiness of our own, we take God’s mint as it were out of his hand, to whom alone it belongs to stamp what is holy and what not.

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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.

TO THOSE WITHOUT DOORS—our Neighbours 2/2

 

 In a word, dost thou think to commute with God, so as, by a greater semblance of outward zeal to God in the first table, to obtain a dispensation in point of righteousness to man in the second?  Will thy pretended love to God excuse the malice and ran­cour which thy heart swells with against thy neigh­bour?—thy devotion to God, disoblige thee from pay­ing thy debts to man?  God forbid thou shouldst think so.  But if thou dost, Peter’s counsel to Simon Magus is mine to thee.  ‘Repent of this thy wicked­ness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee,’ Acts 8:22.  In the name of God I charge every one that wears Christ’s livery, to make conscience of this piece of righteousness, as you would not bring upon your heads the vengeance of God for all those blasphemies, which the nakedness of some professors in this particular—yea, the base practices of some hypocrites—have given occasion to be belched out by the ungodly world against Christ and the good ways of holiness.  Now the power of holiness, as to this particular, will be preserved, when these two things are looked to.

1. When our care is uniform,and equally distrib­uted to endeavour the performing of one duty we owe to our neighbour as well as another.  For we must know, there is a righteousness that, as one saith, runs through every precept, as it were the veins of every law in the second table; and calls for obedience due to parents natural, civil, ecclesiastical, in the fifth command; our care to preserve our neighbour's life in the sixth; chastity in the seventh; estate in the eighth; good name in the ninth; and the keeping of our de­sires in their due bounds, against coveting what is our neighbour’s, in the tenth.  Now, as health in the body is preserved by keeping the passages of life open, for the spirits freely to move from one part to another —which once obstructed from doing their office in any part, the health of the body is presently in danger —so here the spirit and life of holiness is preserved in the Christian, by a holy care and endeavour to keep the heart free and ready to pass from doing one duty he owes his neighbour to another, according to the several walks that are in every command for him to move in.
2. As our care must be uniform, so the motive and spring within that sets us at work, and makes all these wheels move, must be evangelical.  The com­mand is a road in which both heathen, Jew, and Christian may be found travelling.  How now shall we know the Christian from the other, when heathen and Jew also walk along with him in the same duty—seem as dutiful children, obedient wives, loyal subjects, loving neighbours, as the Christian himself?  Truly, if it be not in the motive from which and end to which he acts, nothing else can do it.  Look therefore well to this, or else thou art out of thy way while thou seemest to be in thy road.  It is very ordinary for men to wrong Christ when they do their neighbour right, and this is done when Christ is not interested in the action, and love to him doth not move us thereunto. Without this thou mayest go for an honest heathen, but canst not be a good Christian.  Suppose a servant were intrusted by his master to go and pay such a man a sum of money, which he doth, yet not out of any dutiful respect to the command, or love to the person of his master, but for shame of being taken for a thief; in this case the man should have his due, but the master a great deal of wrong.  Such wrong do all mere civil persons do the Lord Jesus.  They are very exact and righteous in their dealings with their neighbours, but very injurious at the same time to Christ, because they do not this upon his account.  This makes love to our neighbour evangeli­cal, and, as Christ calls it, ‘a new commandment,’ John 13:34, when our love to our brother tales fire from his love to us.  We cannot, in a gospel sense, be said to do the duty of any com­mandment, except we first love Christ, and then for his sake do it.  ‘If ye love me, keep my command­ments,’ John 14:15.  Where, observe, that as God pre­fixes his name before the deca­logue, so Christ for the same reason doth before the Chris­tian’s obedience to any of them, that so they may keep them, both as his commandments, and out of love to him who hath brought us out of a worse house of bondage than Egypt was to Israel.

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Second. The power of holiness is to appear to others, must not stay within doors, but walk out into the streets, and visit thy neighbours round.  Thy be­haviour to and con­versation with them, must be holy and righteous.  In Scrip­ture, ‘righteousness,’ and ‘living righteously,’ do oft import the whole duty of the Christian to his neighbour; and so, these terms stand distinguished from ‘piety,’ which hath God for its immediate object, and from ‘sobriety’ or ‘tem­perance,’ which immediately respects ourselves.  See them all together, Titus 2:12, where ‘the grace of God that bringeth salvation,’ is said to teach us to ‘live soberly righteously, and godly in this present world.’ He that would be the death of all these three, needs do no more, but stab one of them, no matter which, the life of holiness will run out at any one door, here or there, wherever the wound is given.  It is true indeed that there is a moral righteousness, which leaves us short of true holiness; but there is no true holiness that leaves us short of moral righteousness. Though the sensitive soul be found in a beast without the rational, yet the rational soul is not found in man without the sensitive.  

Grace and evangelical holiness being the higher principle, includes and comprehends the other within itself.  This is the dignity and honour due to Christianity, and the principle it lays down in the gospel—its enemies being judges—that though some who profess it, are none of the best, yet they learn not their unrighteousness of it.  Most true it is what one saith, ‘No Christian can be bad, except he be a hypocrite.’  Either therefore renounce thy bap­tism, or abominate the thoughts of all unrighteous­ness.  To be sure thou mightest escape better, if thou wouldst let the world know thou didst claim no kin­dred with Christ, before thou practised such wicked­ness.  Some are unresolved where to find Aristides, Socrates, Cato, and some few other heathens eminent for their moral righteousness—whether in heaven or hell; but, were there ever any that doubted what would become of the unrighteous Christian in the other world?  Hell gapes for these above all others.  ‘Know ye not,’ saith the apostle, ‘that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?’ I Cor. 6:9; as if he had said, ‘Sure you have not so far lost the use of your reason as to think that there is any room for such cattle as these in heaven.’  And if not the unrigh­teous, what crevice of hope is left for their salvation, whose unrighteousness hath a thousand time more malignity in it, than any other’s in the world is capable of?        

   The heathen shall, for their unrighteousness, be indicted, and condemned as rebels to the law.  So shall the unrighteous Christian also; and that more deeply.  But the charge which is incomparably heavi­est, and which will lay weight upon him far above the other, is that which the gospel brings in, viz. that, by his unrighteousness, he hath been an ‘enemy to the cross of Christ,’ Php. 3:18.  Indeed, if a man had a mind to show his despite to the height against Christ and his cross, the devil himself could not help him to express it more fully, than to clothe himself with a gaudy profession of the gospel, and with this wrapped about him, to roule himself in the kennel of sordid, base practices of unrighteousness.  O how it makes the profane world blaspheme the name of Christ, and abhor the very profession of him, when they see any of this filth upon the face of their conversation, who take to themselves the name of saints more than others do.  What! shall that tongue lie to man, that even now prayed so earnestly to God?—those eyes be sent on lust’s or envy’s errand, that a few moments past thou tookest off the Bible from reading those sacred oracles?—those hands in thy neighbour’s pocket to rob him of his estate, which were not long ago stretched forth so devoutly to heaven?—those legs carry thee to-day into thy shop or market to cheat and cozen, which yesterday thou wentest with to worship God in public?

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4. The power of holiness appears as to our rela­tions, when the Christian is careful to improve the graces of his relations, and get what good from them he can while they are with him.  May be thou hast a holy father, a gracious husband or wife—let it be but a servant in a family that is godly—there is good to be got by his gracious conversa­tion, speeches, and holi­ness, which, like ointment, will betray itself wherever it stays awhile.  O Christian! if any such holy person be with thee in the family, observe what such a one in his speeches, duties of worship, behaviour under af­fliction, receipt of mercies, returns of Sabbaths, and ordinances, and such like, affords for thy instruction, quickening, and promoting in the ways of holiness. The prophet bade the widow bring all the vessels she had, or could borrow, to catch what should fall from the pot of oil that she had in the house, and therewith pay her debts, II Kings 4:3.  Truly, I think it were good counsel to some that complain—or may justly, if they do not—how poor and beggarly they are in grace, to make an improvement of that holy oil of grace which drops from the lips and lives of their godly relations. Set you memories, consciences, hearts, and affec­tions, as vessels to receive all the expressions of holi­ness that come from them.  Thy memory—let that keep and retain the instructions, reproofs, comforts drawn by them out of the word; thy conscience—let that apply these to thy soul, till from thence they distil into thy affections, and thou becomest in love more and more with holiness thy own self, from their recommendation of it to thee.  It is a sad thing to consider what a different use a naughty heart makes of the gifts and graces of the godly with whom they live, as they sparkle forth, to what a humble sincere one doth.  A naughty heart does but envy and malign such a one the more, and, instead of getting good, is made worse; whereas the sincere soul, he labours to treasure up all for his good.

When Joseph told his prophetic dream to his brethren, their envy, which before lay smoldering in their breasts, took fire presently, and a while after flamed forth into that unnatural cruelty practised upon him by them.  There was all the use they made of it.  But of good Jacob, it is said, by way of opposition to them, Gen. 37:11, ‘His brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying’—he laid it up for future use, as that which had something of God in it.  Thus, Christian, do thou by the holy breathings of the Spirit in those thou livest with.  Note the remark­able passages of their gracious conversations, as thou wouldst do the notions of some excellent book, which is not thine own, but lent thee for a time to peruse. Indeed, upon these terms, and no surer, do we enjoy our gracious friends and relations.  They are but lent us for a while; and, improve them, or not improve them, they will be called for ere long.  And will it be for thy comfort to part with them, before thou hast had a heart to get good by them?  It was a solemn speech of that reverend, holy man of God, Mr. Bol­ton, to his children, when on his death-bed, ‘I charge you, O my children, not to meet me at the great day before Christ’s tribunal in a Christless graceless con­dition.’  God keeps an exact account of the means he affords us for our salvation; and the lives of his holy servants are not of the lowest rank.  You shall observe that God is very particular in Scripture to record the time, how long his faithful servants lived on earth; and sure, among other reasons, he would have us know that he means to reckon with those that lived with them, for every year, yea, day and hour, they had them among them.  They shall know they had a prophet, a father, a husband, that were godly, and that they had them so long, and God will know of them what use they made of them.

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2. The power of holiness is to appear in labour­ing to interest God in our relations.The Christian cannot indeed propagate grace to his child, nor join­ture his wife in his holiness, as he may in his lands, yet he must do his utmost to entitle God to them. Why did God command Abraham that all his house should be circumcised? surely he would have him go as far as he could, to draw them into affinity with and relation to God.  Near relations call for dear affec­tions.  Grace doth not teach us to love them less than we did, but to love them better.  It turns our love into a spiritual channel, and makes chiefly desire their eternal good.  What singular thing else is in the Christian’s love above others?  Do not the heathens lay up estates for their children here? are not they careful for their servants' backs and bellies as well as others?  Yes, sure, but your care must exceed theirs. I remember Augustine, speaking how highly some commended his father’s cost and care to educate him, even above his estate, makes this sad com­plaint: ‘whereas,’ saith he, ‘my father's drift in all was not to train me up for thee.  His project was that I might be eloquent, an orator, not a Christian.’  O my brethren! if God be worth your acquaintance, is he not worth theirs also that are so near and dear to you?  One house now holds you; would you not have one heaven receive you?  Can you think, without trembling, that those who live together in one family, should, when the house is broken up by death, go, one to hell, another to heaven?  Surely you are like to have little joy from them on earth, who you fear shall not meet you in heaven.  By the law of Lycurgus, the father that gave no learning to his child when young, was to lose that succour that was due from his child to him in his old age.  The righteousness of that law though I dare not assert, yet this I may say—what he unjustly commanded, God doth most righteously suffer—that those who do not teach their children their duty to God, lose the honour and reverence which should be paid them by their children; and so of other relations also

3. The power of holiness is to appear in your taking heed that thy relations be not a snare to thee, or thou to them.  There are such sad families to be found, who do nothing else but lead one another into temptation, by drawing forth each other’s corruption, from one end of the year to the other.  What can we call such families, but so many hells above ground?  A man may live with as much safety to his body in a pest-house, as he can there to his soul.  And truly the godly are not so far out of danger, but that the devil may make use of their passions to roil and defile one another.  I am sure he is very ambitious to do them a mischief this way, and too often prevails.  Abraham’s fear laid the snare for Sarah his wife, who was easily persuaded to dissemble for him she loved so dearly, Gen 12:13.  And Rebekah’s vehement affection to Ja­cob, together with the reverence, both her place and grace in Jacob’s heart, made him, of a plain man, be­come the subtle man, to deceive his father and broth­er; which, though it was too broad a sin for him at first proposal to swallow, as appears, ‘I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing,’ Gen. 27:12; yet with a little art-using by his mother, we see the passage was widened, and down it went, for all his straining at it; and yet both were godly persons.  Look therefore to thyself, that thou dost not bring sin upon thy relations.  It would be a heavy affliction to thee to see thy wife, child, or servant sick of the plague, which thou broughtest home to them, or bleeding by a wound which thou unawares gavest them.  Alas! better thus than that they should be infected with sin, wounded with guilt, by thy means.  And be as careful to anti­dote thy soul against receiving infection from them, as to take heed of breathing it on them.  Thy love is great to thy wife.  O let it not make the apple of temptation the more fair or desirable, when offered to thee by her hand!  Thou lovest thyself, yea thy God too little, if her so much as to sin for her sake.  Thou art a dutiful wife, but obey ‘in the Lord;’ take heed of turning the tables of the commandments, by setting the seventh before the first.  Be sure to save God’s stake, before thou payest thy obedience to thy husband.  Say to thy soul, ‘Can I keep God’s com­mand in obeying my husband’s?’  In paying of debts those should be first discharged which are due by the most, and those the greatest obligations.  And to whom thou art deepliest bound—God or thy husband —is easy to resolve.  Thus too in all other relations. Go as far with thy relations as thou canst travel in God’s company, and no farther, as thou wouldst not leave thy holiness and righteousness behind thee; the loss of which is too great, that thou shouldst expect they can recompense unto thee.