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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.

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    (2.) Art thou a godly master?  When thou takest a servant into thy house, choose for God as well as thyself.  Remember there is a work for God to be done by thy servant, as well as thyself; and shall he be fit for thy turn, that is not for his?  Thou desirest that the work should prosper thy servant takes in hand. Dost thou not? and what ground hath thou from the promise to hope, that the work should prosper in his hand that sins all the while he is doing of it?  ‘The plowing of the wicked, is sin,’ Prov. 21:4.  A godly serv­ant is a greater blessing than we think on.  He can work and set God on work also for his master’s good; ‘O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham,’ Gen. 24:12.  And sure Abraham’s servant did his master as much service by his prayer, as by his prudence in that journey.  If you were but to plant an orchard, you would get the best fruit trees, and not cumber your ground with crabs.  There is more loss in a graceless servant in the house, than a fruitless tree in the orchard.  Holy David observed, while he was at Saul's court, the mischief of having wicked and ungodly servants; for with such was that unhappy king so compassed, that David compares his court to the profane and barbarous heathens, among whom there was scare more wickedness to be found. ‘Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!’ Ps. 120:5, that is, among those who were as prodigiously wicked as any there.  And, no doubt, but that fact made this gracious man, in his banishment before he came to the crown—having seen the evil of a disordered house—to resolve what he will do, when God should make him the head of such a royal family.  ‘He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight,’ Ps. 101:7.  He instanceth those sins not as if he would spend all his zeal against them, but because he had observed them principally to abound in Saul’s court, by which he had suffered so much; as you may perceive by Ps. 120:2, 3.

           (3.) Art thou godly? show thyself so in the choice of husband or wife.  I am sure, if some, and those godly also, could bring no other testimonial for their godliness, than the care they have taken in this partic­ular, it might justly be called into question both by themselves and others.  There is no one thing that gracious persons, even those recorded in Scripture as well as others, have shown their weakness, yea, given offence and scandal, more in, than in this particular. ‘The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair,’ Gen. 6:2.  One would have thought the sons of God should have looked for grace in the heart ra­ther than for beauty in the face; but we see that even they sometimes turn in at the fairest sign, without much inquiring what grace is to be found dwelling within.  But, Christian, let not the miscarriage of any in this particular—how holy soever otherwise—make thee less careful in thy choice.  God did not leave their practice on record for thee to follow, but to shun.  He is but a slovenly Christian that will swallow all the saints do without paring their actions.  Is it not enough that the wicked break their necks over the sins of the saints; but wilt thou run upon them also to break thy shins?  Point not at this godly man, and that godly woman, saying, they can marry into such a profane family, and lie by the side of a drunkard, swearer, &c.; but look to the rule, O Christian! if thou wilt keep the power of holiness.  That is clear as a sunbeam written in the Scripture, ‘Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?’ II Cor. 6:14.  And where he give the widow leave to marry again, he still remembers to bound this liberty —‘to whom she will, only, in the Lord,’ I Cor. 7:39. Mark that, ‘in the Lord,’ that is, in the church.  All without the faith are ‘without God in the world.’  The Lord's kindred and family is in the church.  You mar­ry out of the Lord, when you marry out of the Lord’s kindred.  Or again, ‘in the Lord’ may be taken as in the fear of the Lord, with his leave and liking.  That the parents’ consent is fit to be had, we all yield; and is not thy heavenly Father’s?  And will he ever give his consent that thou shouldst bestow thyself on a beast, a sot, an earthworm?  Holy men have paid dear for such matches.  What a woful plague was Delilah to Samson? and Michal was none of the greatest com­forts to David.  Had he not better have married the poorest damsel in Israel, if godly—though no more with her than the clothes on her back—than such a fleering companion, that mocked him for his zeal to God?

         

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Fourth Instance.  The Christian must express the power of holiness in his carriage and behaviour to others, and they are either within doors, or with­out.

To those within doors—family relations.

           First.  The Christian must express the power of holiness in his carriage to those within doors—his family relations.  Much, though not all, of the power of godliness lies within doors, to those that God hath there related us unto.  It is in vain to talk of holiness, if we can bring no letters testimonial from our holy walking with our relations.  O it is sad, when they that have reason to know us best, by their daily converse with us, do speak least for our godliness.  Few so im­pudent as to come naked into the streets.  If men have anything to cover their naughtiness, they will put it on when they come abroad.  But what art thou within doors? what care and conscience to discharge thy duty to thy near relations?  He is a bad husband that hath money to spend among company abroad, but none to lay in provisions to keep his family at home.  And can he be a good Christian that spends all his religion abroad, and leaves none for his nearest relations at home, that is a great zealot among strang­ers, and yet hath little or nothing of God coming from him in his family?  Yea, it were well, if some that gain the reputation for Christians abroad, did not fall short of others that pretend not to profession in those moral duties which they should perform to their relations.  There are some who are great strangers to profession, who yet are loving and kind in their way to their wives.  What kind of professors then are they, who are doggish and currish to the wife of their bosoms? who by their tyrannical lording it over them, embitter their spirits, and make them ‘cover the Lord’s altar with tears and weeping?’  There are wives to be found that are not clamorous, peevish, and fro­ward to their husbands, who yet are far from a true work of grace in their hearts.  Do they then walk as becomes holiness, who trouble the whole house with their violent passions?  There are servants who, from the authority of a natural conscience, are kept from railing and reviling language, when reproved by their masters; and shall not grace keep pace with nature? Holy David knew very well how near this part of the saints’ duty lies to the very heart of godliness; and therefore, when he makes his solemn vow to walk hol­ily before God, he instanceth in this, as one stage whereon he might eminently discover the gracious­ness of his spirit.  ‘I will walk within my house with a perfect heart,’ Ps. 101:2.  But, to instance in a few par­ticulars wherein the power of holiness is to appear as to family relations.

1. The power of holiness is to appear in the choice of our relations,such, I mean, as are eligible.  Some are not in our choice.  The child cannot choose what father he will have, nor the father what child; but where God allows a liberty, he expects a care.

           (1.) Art thou godly and wantest a service?  O take heed thou showest thy holiness in the family thou choosest, and towards the governors thou put­test thyself under.  Inquire more whether it be a healthful air for thy soul within doors, than for thy body without.  The very senseless creatures groan to serve the ungodly world, and is capable of choosing, would count it their ‘liberty’ to serve the ‘children of God,’ Rom. 8:21.  And wilt thou voluntarily, when thou mayest prevent it, run thyself under the government of such as are ungodly, who art thyself a child of God? It is hard to serve two masters, though much alike in disposition; but impossible to serve those two—a holy God, and a wicked ungodly man or woman—so as long to please them both.  But, if thou beest under the roof of such a one, forget not thy duty to them, though they forget their duty to God; possibly thy faithfulness to them may bring them to inquire after thy God, for thy sake, as Nebuchadnezzar did for Daniel’s.  No doubt wicked men would take up re­ligion and the ways of God more seriously into their consideration, if there were a more heavenly luster and beauty upon Christians’ lives in their several rela­tions to invite them thereunto.  Sometimes a book is read the sooner for the fairness of the characters, which would have been not much looked in if the print had been naught.  O how oft do we hear that the thoughts of religion are thrown away with scorn, by wicked masters, when their professing servants are taken false, appear proud and undutiful, slothful or negligent!  What then follows, but ‘is this your reli­gion?  God keep me from such a religion as this.’  O commend the ways of God to thy carnal and ungodly master or mistress by a clear unblotted conversation in thy place!  But withal let me tell thee, if—doing thy utmost in thy place to promote religion in the family —thou seest that the soil is so cold that there is no visible hope of planting for God, it is time, high time, to think of transplanting thyself; for it is to be feared, the place which is so bad to plant in, will not, cannot, be very good for thee to grow and thrive in.

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Fourth.  When the Christian is content with the portion, little or much, that God upon his endeavours allots to him; not content because he cannot have it otherwise.  Necessity was the heathen’s schoolmaster to teach content­ment; but faith must be the Chris­tian’s, whereby he acqui­esces in the dispositions of God’s providence with a sweet complacency as the will of God concerning him.  Here is godliness in triumph—when the Christian can carve contentment out of God's providence, whatever the dish is that is set before him.  If he ‘gathers little,’ he lacks not, but is satisfied with his short meal.  If he ‘gathers much,’ he hath ‘nothing over’—I mean not more than his grace can well digest and turn to good nourishment; ‘nothing over’ that turns to bad humours of pride and wantonness.  This was the pitch Paul attained unto, Php. 4:12.  He knew how ‘to abound and to suffer need.’  Take contentment from godliness, and you take one of the best jewels away she wears in her bosom.  ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain;’ not godliness with an estate, but ‘godliness with contentment,’ I Tim. 6:6.

           Fifth.  When the Christian’s particular calling doth not encroach upon his general.  Truly this re­quires a strong guard.  The world is of an encroaching nature, hard it is to converse with it, and not come into bondage to it.  As Hagar, when Abraham showed her some respect more than ordinary, began to con­test with, yea, crow over, her mistress, so will our worldly employments jostle with our heavenly, if we keep not a strict hand over them.  Now the power of holiness appears here in two things.

1. When the Christian suffers not his worldly business to eat upon his time for communion with God,but keeps it inviolable from the sacrilegious hands of the world.  The Christian may observe, that, if he will listen to it, he shall never think of setting about any religious duty, but some excuse or other, to put off, will present itself to his thoughts.  ‘This thing must be just now done; that friend spoken with, or that customer waited for;’ so that, as the wise man saith, ‘He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap,’ Ecc. 11:4. In the same way he that will regard what his own sloth, worldly interest, and fleshly part suggest, shall never pray, meditate, or hold communion with God in any other religious duty.  O it is sad! when the master must ask the man leave when to eat, and when not—when the Christian must take his orders from the world, when to wait on God and when not, where­as religion should give law to that.  Then holiness is in its power—as Samson in his strength—when it can snap asunder these excuses, that would keep him from his God, as easily as he did his cords of flax —when the Christian can make his way into the pres­ence of God, through the throng of worldly encum­brances.  ‘Behold,’ saith David, ‘I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver,’ &c, I Chr. 22:14.  He had ways enough to have disposed of his treasures, if he would have been discouraged from the work; he might have had a fair apology from the wars he was all his reign involved in—which were continually draining his exchequer—to have spared this cost.  But as Rome showed her puissance in sending succours to Spain when Hannibal was at her gates; so David would show his zeal for God and his house, by laying aside such vast sums for the building of a temple in the midst of the troubles and expenses of his kingdom.  He is the Christian, indeed, that lays aside a good portion of time daily, in the midst of all his worldly occasions, for communion with God. Whoever he compounds with and pays short, he dares not make bold with God, to serve him by halves.  He shall have his time devoted to him, though others are put off with the less; like the devout man, who, when the time for his devotions came, what company soever he was with, would take his leave of them with this fair excuse, that he had a friend that stayed to speak with him (he meant his God).
2. When his worldly employments do not turn the edge of his affections, and leave a bluntness upon his spirit as to holding communion with God.  Here is holiness in the power.  As the husband, when he hath been abroad all day in this company and that, yet none of these makes him love his wife and chil­dren the less.  When he comes home at night, he brings his affections to them as entire as when he went out, yea, he is glad he got from all others to them again.  This is a sweet frame of spirit indeed.  But alas! how hard to keep it.  Canst thou say, O Christian! after thou hast passed a day amidst thy worldly profits, and been entertained with the delight and pleasures which thy full estate affords thee, that thou bringest thy whole heart to thy God with thee, when at night thou returnest into his presence to wait on him?  Thou canst say more than many can that have some good in them.  Oh it is hard to converse with the world all day, and shake it off at night, so as to be free to enjoy privacy with God.  The world does by the Christian as the little child by the mother; if it cannot keep the mother from going out, then it will cry after her to go with her.  If the world cannot keep us from going to religious duties, then it will cry to be taken along with us, and much ado to part it and the affections.

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      Third Instance.  The Christian must express the power of holiness in his particular calling and worldly employments—that wherein he is conversant. Holiness must be written upon those, as well as on his religious duties.  He that observes the law of building, is as exact in making a kitchen, as in making a parlour; so, by the law of Christianity, we must be as exact in our worldly business, as in duties of worship —‘Be ye holy in all manner of conversation,’ I Peter 1:15.  We must not leave our religion, as some do their Bibles, at church.  As in man, the highest faculty —which is reason—guides his lowest actions, even those which are common to beasts, such as eating, drinking, and sleeping (man doth, that is, should, if he will deserve his own name, exercise these acts as reason directs—should show himself in them a rational creature); so in a Christian, grace, that is the highest principle, is to steer and guide him in those actions that are common to man as man.  The Chris­tian is not to buy and sell, as a mere man, but as a Christian man.  Religion is not like that statesman’s gown, which, when he went to recreate himself, he would throw off, and say, ‘There lie, lord treasurer, a while.’  No, wherever the Christian is, whatever he is adorning, he must keep his religion on—I mean, do it holily.  He must not do that in which he cannot show himself a Christian.  Now the power of holiness puts itself forth in our particular callings these ways. But take them conjunctively, and ‘the beauty of holi­ness’ will appear in the symmetry of all the parts together.

           First.  When the Christian is diligent in his par­ticular calling.  When God calls us to be Christians, he calls us indeed out of the world as to our affec­tions, but not out of the world as to employment.  It is true, when Elisha was called, he left his plough, and the apostles their nets, but not as they were called to be saints, but because they were called to office in the church.  Some, however, in our days, could find in their hearts to send the officers of the church to the plough again; but upon how little reason let them­selves judge, who find one trade, if it be well followed, and managed with a full stock, enough to find them work all the week.  Surely then the minister that has to do with, yea, provide for, more souls than they bodies, may find his head and heart as full of work in his calling, from one end of the year, as any of them all.  But I am speaking to the private Christian.  Thou canst not be holy, if thou beest not diligent in a particular calling.  The law of man counts him a vagrant that hath not a particular abiding place; and the word of God counts him a disorderly person that hath not a particular calling, wherein to move and act for God's glory and the good of others.  ‘We hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all,’ II Thes. 3:11.  God would have his people profitable, like the sheep which doth the very ground good it feeds on.  Every one should be better for a Christian.  When Onesimus was converted, he became ‘profitable’ to Paul and Philemon also; to Paul as a Christian, to Philemon as a servant, Phil 11. Grace made him of a runaway, a diligent servant.  An idle professor is a scandalous professor.  An idle man does none good, and himself most hurt.

           Second.  When he is not only diligent, but for conscience’s sake.  There are many who are free enough of their pains, in their particular callings; they need no spur.  But what sets them on work?  It is conscience, because God commands it?  Oh no! then they would be diligent in their general calling also. They would pray as hard as they work.  They then would knock off, as well as fall on, at God’s command.  If conscience were the key that opened their shop on the week-day, it would shut it on the Lord's day.  When we see a man, like the hawk, fly after the world’s prey, and will not come to God’s lure, but—though conscience in God’s name bids ‘Come off, and wait on thy God in this duty in thy family, that in thy closet’—still goes on his worldly chase: he shows plain enough whose errand he goes on—not that of conscience, but that of his own lusts. But if thou wilt walk in the power of holiness, thou must be diligent in thy calling on a religious account.  That which makes thee ‘fervent in prayer,’ must make thee ‘not slothful in business.’  Thou must say, ‘This is the place God hath set me in.  I am but his servant in my own shop, and here I must serve him as I would have my prentice or child serve me; yea, much more, for they are not mine so much as I am his.’

           Third.  When he expects the success of his la­bour from God, and accordingly, if he speeds, gives his humble thanks to God.  Indeed, they go together; he that doeth not the one, will not the other.  The worldling that goes not through his closet by prayer into his shop in the morning when he enters upon his business, no wonder if he returns not at night by his closet, in thankfulness to God.  He began without God; it were strange if he should end in him.  The spider that spins her web out of her own bowels, dwells in it when she hath done, Job 8:14; and men that carry on their enterprises by their own wit and care, entitle themselves to what they think they have done.  They will sooner sacrifice—as they to their ‘net’ and ‘drag,’ Hab. 1:15—to their own wisdom and industry than to God.  Such a wretch I have lately heard of in our days, who, being by a neighbour ex­cited to thank God for a rich crop of corn he had standing on his ground, atheistically replied, ‘Thank God! nay, rather thank my dung-cart’—the speech of a dung-hill spirit, more filthy than the muck in his cart.  But if thou wilt be a Christian, thou must ac­knowledge God ‘in all thy ways,’ not ‘leaning to thy own understanding;’ and this will direct thee to him, when success crowns thy labours, to crown God with the praise.  Jacob laboured as diligently, and took as much pains for the estate he had at last, as another, yet laying the foundation of all in prayer, and ex­pecting the blessing from heaven, Gen. 28:20; he as­cribes all that fair estate he at last was possessed of, to the mercy and truth of God, whom he had, in his poor state—when with his pil­grim staff he was travel­ling to Padan-aram—engaged by a solemn vow to provide for him, Gen 32:10.

    

The Power of Holiness is Expressed in the Duties of God’s Worship 3/3

2. The second end God hath appointed divine ordin­ances and religious duties for, is to be a means whereby he may let out himself to his people, and communi­cate the choicest of his blessings into their bosoms.‘There,’ saith the psalmist, speaking of the mountain of Zion, where the temple stood, the place of God's worship, ‘the Lord com­manded the blessing, even life for evermore,’ Ps. 133:3; that is, he hath ap­pointed the blessing of life spiritual, grace, and com­fort, which at last shall swell into life eternal, to issue and stream thence.  The saints ever drew their water out of these wells.  ‘Your heart shall live that seek God,’ Ps. 69:32.  And their souls must needs die that seek not God here.  The husbandman may as well expect a crop where he never plowed and sowed; and the tradesman to grow rich, who never opens his shop-doors to let customers in; as he to thrive in grace, or comfort, that converseth not with the duties of religion.  The great things God doth for his people are got in communion with him.  Now here appears the power of holiness—when a soul makes this his business, which he follows close, and attends to, in duties of religion, viz. to receive some spiritual ad­vantage from God by them.  As a scholar knowing he is sent to the university to get learning himself, gives up to pursue this, and neglects other things (it is not riches, or pleasures he looks after, but learning); thus, too, the gracious soul bestirs him, and flees from one duty to another, as the bee from flower to flower, to store itself with more and more grace.  It is not credit and reputation to be thought a great saint, but to be indeed such, that he takes all this pains for.  The Christian is compared to a merchantman that trades for rich pearls; he is to go to ordinances, as the mer­chant that sails from port to port, not to see places, but to take in his lading, some here, some there.  A Christian should be as much ashamed to return empty from his traffic with ordinances, as the mer­chant to come home without his lading.  But, alas! how little is this looked after by many that pass for great professors, who are like some idle persons that come to the market, not to buy provision, and carry home what they want, but to gaze and look upon what is there to be sold, to no purpose.  O my brethren, take heed of this!  Idleness is bad anywhere, but worst in the market-place, where so many are at work before thy eyes, whose care for their souls both adds to thy sin, and will, another day, to thy shame.  Dost thou not see others grow rich in grace and comfort, by their trading with those ordinances, from which thou comest away poor and beggarly? and canst thou see it without blushing?  If thou hadst but a heart to pro­pound the same end to thy soul, when thou comest, thou mightest speed as well as they.  God allows a free trade to all that value Christ and his grace, according to their preciousness.  ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price,’ Isa. 55:1. The Spirit of God seems, in the judgment of some, to allude to a certain custom in maritime towns.  When a ship comes with commodities to be sold, they use to cry them about the town.  ‘Oh, all that would have such and such commodities, let them come to the waterside, where they are to be had at such a price.’ Thus Christ calls every one that sees his need of him; and of his graces, to the ordinances, where these are to be freely had of all that come to them, for this very end.

The Power of Holiness is Expressed in the Duties of God’s Worship 2/2

           

Second. In a close and vigorous pursuance of those ends for which God hath appointed them.  Now there is a double end which God chiefly aims at in duties of his worship.  1. God intends that by them we should do our homage to him as our sovereign Lord. 2. He intends them to be as means through which he may let out himself into the bosoms of his children, and communicate the choicest of his blessings to them.  Now here the power of holiness puts forth it­self, when the Christian attends narrowly to reach these ends in every duty he performs.

1. God appoints them for this end, that we may do our homage to him as our sovereign Lord.Were there not a worship paid to God, how should we de­clare and make it appear that we hold our life and being on him?  One of the first things that God taught Adam, and Adam his children, was in divine worship.  Now if we will do this holily, we must make it our chief care so to perform every duty, that by it we may sanctify his name in it, and give him the glory due unto him.  A subject may offer a present after such a ridiculous fashion to his prince, that he may count himself rather scorned than honoured by him.  The soldiers bowed the knee to Christ, but they ‘mocked him,’ Matt. 27:29, and so does God reckon that many do by him, even while they worship him. By the carriage and behaviour of ourselves in religious duties, we speak what our thoughts are of God him­self.  He that performs them with a holy awe upon his spirit, and comes to them filled with faith and fear, with joy and trembling—he declares plainly that he believes God to be a great God and a good God—a glorious majesty and a gracious.  But he that is care­less and slovenly in them, tells God himself to his face that he hath mean and low thoughts of him.  The misbehaviour of a person in religious duties, ariseth from his misapprehensions of God whom he wor­ships.  What is engraven on the seal, you shall surely see printed on the wax.  And what thoughts the heart hath of God, are stamped on the duties the man per­forms.  Abel showed himself to be a holy man, and Cain appeared a wicked wretch, in their sacrifice. And how? but in this—that Abel aimed at that end which God intends in his worship—the sanctifying {of} his name—but which, Cain minded not at all.  This may appear by comparing Abel’s sacrifice with his, in two particulars.

           (1.) Abel is very choice in the matter of his sac­ri­fice—not any of the flock that comes first to hand, but ‘the firstlings;’ nor does he offer the lean of them to God, and save the fat for himself, but gives God the best of the best.  But of Cain’s offering no such care is recorded to be taken by him.  It is only said, that he, ‘brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto the Lord,’ but not a word that it was the first fruit or the best fruit, Gen. 4:3, 4.  Again,

           (2.) Abel did not put God off with a beast or two for a sacrifice; but with them give his heart also.  ‘By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,’ Heb. 11:4.  He gave God the inward wor­ship of his soul; and this was it that God took so kindly at his hands, for which he obtained a testi­mony from God himself that he was ‘righteous.’ Whereas Cain thought it enough—if not too much —to give him a little of the fruit of the ground.  Had the wretch but considered who God was, and what was his end in requiring an offering at his hands, he could not have thought rationally that a handful or two of corn was that which he prized or looked at, any further than to be a sign of that inward and spiritual worship which he expected to come along with the outward ceremony.  But he showed what base and un­worthy thoughts he had of God, and accordingly he dealt with him.  O Christians! remember when you engage in any duty of religion, that you go to do your homage to God, who will be worshipped like himself.  ‘Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen,’ Mal. 1:14.  This made David so curious about the temple which he had in his heart to build, ‘because this palace is not for man, but for the Lord God,’ I Chr. 29:1; therefore he saith, he ‘prepared with all my might for the house of his God,’ ver. 2.  Thus should the gracious soul say, when going to any duty of religion, ‘It is not man, but the Lord God, I am going to minister unto, and therefore I must be serious and solemn, holy and humble,’ &c.

The Power of Holiness is Expressed in the Duties of God’s Worship

Second Instance.  The Christian must exert the power of holiness in the duties of God’s worship.  The same light that shows us a God, convinceth us he is to be worshipped, and not only so, but that he will be worshipped in a holy manner also.  God was very choice in all that belonged to his worship under the law.  If he hath a tabernacle—the place of worship—it must be made of the choicest materials; the workmen employed to make it must be rarely gifted for the pur­pose; the sacrifices to be offered up, the best in every kind, the males of the flock, the best of the beasts, the fat of the inwards, not the offals.  The persons that at­tend upon the Lord, and minister unto him, they must be peculiarly holy.  What is the gospel of all this? but that God is very wonderful in his worship.  If in any action of our lives we be more holy than in others, sure it is to be, when we have to do with God immediately.  Now this holiness in duties of worship should appear in these particulars.

           First. In making conscience of one duty as well as another.  The Christian must encompass all within his religious walk.  It is dangerous to perform one duty, that we may dispense with ourselves in the neglect of another.  Partiality is hateful to God, espec­ially in the duties of religion—which have all a divine stamp upon them.  There is no ordinance of God’s appointment which he doth not bless to his people; and we must not reject what God owns.  Yea, God communicates himself with great variety to his saints, now in this, anon in that, on purpose to keep up the esteem of all in our hearts.  The spouse seeks her Beloved in secret duty at home, and finds him not; then she goes to the public, and meets ‘him whom her soul loveth,’ Song 3:4.  Daniel, no doubt, had often vis­ited the throne of grace, and been a long trader in that duty; but God reserved the fuller manifestation of his love, and the opening of some secrets to him, till he did, to ordinary prayer, join extraordinary fasting and prayer.  Then the commandment came forth, and a messenger from heaven was despatched to acquaint him with God's mind and heart, Dan. 9:3 compared with ver. 23.  There is no duty, but the saints, at one time or another, find the Spirit of God breath­ing sweetly in, and filling their souls from it, with more than ordinary refreshing. 

Sometimes the child sucks its milk from this breast, sometimes from that.  David, in meditation, while he was ‘musing,’ Ps. 39:3, finds a heavenly heat kindling in his bosom, till at last the fire breaks out.  To the eunuch in ‘reading’ of the word, Acts 8:27, 28, is sent Philip to join his chariot; to the apostles, Christ ‘makes known himself in breaking of bread,’ Luke 24:35; the disciples walking to Emmaus, and conferring together, presently have Christ fall in with them, Luke 24:15, who helps them to untie those knots which they were posed with; Cor­nelius, at duty in his house, has ‘a vision,’ Acts 10:3 from heaven, to direct him in the way he should walk. Take heed, Christian, therefore that thou neglectest not any one duty.  How knowest thou, but that is the door at which Christ stands waiting to enter at into thy soul?  The Spirit is free.  Do not bind him to this or that duty, but wait on him in all.  It is not wisdom to let any water run past thy mill, which may be useful to set thy soul a-going heavenward. 

May be, Chris­tian, thou findest little in those duties thou per­formest; they are empty breasts to thy soul.  It is worth thy inquiry, whether there be not some other thou neglectest?  Thou hearest the word with little profit, may be?  I pray, tell me, dost thou not neglect sacraments?  I am sure too many do, and that upon weak grounds, God knows.  And wilt thou have God meet thee in one ordinance, who dost not meet him in another?  Or, if thou frequentest all public ordin­ances, is not God a great stranger to thee at home, in thy house and closet?  What communion dost thou hold with him in private duties?  Here is a hole wide enough to lose all thou gettest in public, if not timely mended.  Samuel would not sit down to the feast with Jesse and his sons, till David, though the youngest son, was fetched, who was also the only son what was wanting, I Sam. 16:11.  If thou wouldst have God’s company in any ordinance, thou must wait on him in all; he will not have any willingly neglected.  Oh fetch back that duty which thou hast sent away; though least in thy eye, yet, it may be, it is that which God means to crown with his choicest blessing to thy soul.