WHY the Christian should labour for an established judgment in the truth 1/2

           I shall content myself with three reasons.  The first taken from the damning nature of false doctrine; the second from the subtlety of seducers to draw into false doctrine; and the third from the universal influence that an established judgment hath on the whole man, and whole course of a Christian.

           Reason First. From the damning nature of false doctrines.  They hunt for the precious life of souls, as well as any other sin.  An imposthume in the head proves oft as deadly as one in the stomach.  A corrupt judgment in foundation-truths kills as sure as a rotten heart.  Indeed, it proceeds thence.  Jezebel’s children are threatened to be to be ‘killed with death,’ Rev. 2:23.  And who are her children, but her disciples, that drink of her cup of fornication and embrace her cor­rupt doctrines?  But sure this is not believed by some, who, though very strict in their lives, and seem as tender in matter of morality as Lot was of his guests, yet are very loose in their principles and judgements, exposing them, as he his daughters, to be defiled with any corrupt doctrine that comes to their door.  They would make us think, that here men played but at small game, and their souls were not at stake, as in other sins.  As if there were not such a question to be asked at the great day—what opinions we held? and whether we were sound in the faith?—in a word, as if false doctrines were but an innocent thing, not like the wild gourd which brought death into the prophets' pot, II Kings 4:39, 40—turning wholesome food, with which it was mingled, into baneful poison—but rather like herb-john in the pot, that does neither much good nor hurt.  Yea, there be some that speak out, and tell us a man may be saved in any religion, so he doth but follow his light.  And are not these charitable men?  Because they would have the company as few as may be that are damned, [they] make as many roads to heaven as the Scripture tells us are ways to hell?  This is contrary to the teaching of Christ, who tells us of no other way but by him to life.  ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life,’ John 14:6.  It is point blank against St. John, who tells us of but one doc­trine, and that the doctrine of Christ, and that he that holds not this to be marked out for a lost man. ‘Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doc­trine of Christ, hath not God,’ II John 9, 10.  And how far, I pray, is that man off hell that hath not God? Him that hath not God before he dies, the devil shall have when he dies.  Well, sirs, the time is coming, yea it hastens—what favour and kindness soever corrupt doctrines find here at man’s hand—wherein the obstinate heretic shall receive the same law at Christ’s hands with the impenitent drunkard.  You may see them both under the same condemnation, as they stand pinioned together for hell, Gal. 5:20, 21, ‘I tell you now,’ saith the apostle, ‘as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’  And see, I pray, if you cannot find the heretic’s name amongst them?  Ignorance in fundamentals is damning, surely then error in fun­damentals much more. If a pound weighs down the scale, there is no doubt then but a stone-weight will do it.  If the less sin presseth down to hell, how can we rationally think that the greater should escape it? Error stands at a farther distance from, yea at a fuller contrariety to, truth than ignorance.  Error is ignor­ance with a die on it.  He that eats little or nothing must needs die, much more he that eats rank poison. The apostle doth not only tell us of ‘pernicious ways,’ and ‘damnable heresies,’ but he tells us they ‘bring swift destruction’ upon those that hold them, II Peter 2:1, 2.  I pray observe what an accent he lays on the destruction that comes by these corrupt doctrines, he calls it ‘swift destruction.’  All rivers find their way at last to the sea from whence they sprang, but some return with a swifter stream, and get sooner to it, than others.  Would any make it a shorter voyage to hell than ordinary, let him throw himself but into this stream of corrupt doctrine, and he is not like to be long in going.

           Reason Second. Because impostors are so sub­tle, it therefore behoves the Christian to establish and strength­en his judgment in the truths of Christ.  They are a generation of men skilful to destroy the faith of others.  There is an erudita nequitia in the world, as one calls it, a learned kind of wickedness, that some have to corrupt the minds of men.  The Spirit of God sets them out to life, sometimes comparing them to merchants, who can set a gloss upon their false ware with fine words; they are said, II Peter 2:3, ‘with feigned words’ to ‘make merchandise’ of souls—sometimes to hucksters, that blend and dash their wine with water, II Cor. 2:17—some­times to cheating gamesters, that have a sleight of hand to cog the die, Eph. 4:14—yea, to witches themselves: ‘Who hath bewitched you?’ saith the apostle, Gal. 3:1. Strange things have been done in our days on those that God has suffered them to prac­tice their sorcery upon; and what counter-charm bet­ter than an established judgment?  It is observable that in II Tim. 3:8, where the apostle compares the seducers of that present age to those sorcerers Jannes and Jambres, that resisted Moses, and shows what kind of persons they were that fell into their snare —such as though ‘ever learning,’ yet never came ‘to the knowledge of the truth,’ ver. 7, he then turns to Timothy [with the words], ‘But thou hast fully known my doctrine,’ ver. 10.  As if he had said, I am out of fear for thee;—thou art better grounded in the doc­trine of the gospel, than to be thus cheated of it.  In­deed, those whom seducers lie in wait for, are chiefly weak unsettled ones; for as Solomon saith, ‘In vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird,’ Prov. 1:17. The devil chose rather to assault Eve than Adam, as the more likely of the two to be caught; and ever since he takes the same course.  He labours to creep over where the hedge is lowest, and the resistance likely to be weakest.

           

It is the Christian’s duty to labour for an ESTABLISHED JUDGMENT in the truth

           Since Satan comes as a serpent in the persons of false teachers, and by them labours to put a cheat on us and cozen us with error for truth; to defend us against this design, it is necessary that we be girt with truth in our understanding—that we have an estab­lished judgment in the truths of Christ.  It should be the care of every Christian to get an established judg­ment in the truth.  The Bereans are highly com­mended for the inquiry they made into the Scripture, to satisfy their judgements concerning the doctrine Paul preached.  They did not believe hand over head, but their faith was the result of a judgement, upon diligent search, convinced by the scripture evidence, Acts 17:11.  It is said there that ‘they searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so.’  They carried the preacher’s doctrine to the written word, and compared it with that; and mark, ‘therefore many of them believed,’ ver. 12.  As they did not believe be­fore, so they durst not but believe now.  I remember Tertullian, speaking of some heretics as to their manner of preaching, saith persuadendo docent, non docendo persuadent—they teach by persuading, and do not by teaching persuade, that is, they woo and en­tice the affections of their hearers, without convincing their judgement about what they preach.  Indeed, it were a hard work for the adulterer to convince her he would prostitute, that the fact is lawful; no, he goes another way to work.  First by some amorous insinu­ations he inveigles her affections, and they, once bewitched, the other is not much questioned—it being easy for the affections to make the judgment of their party.  Well, though error, like a thief, comes thus in at the window; yet truth, like the true owner of the house, delights to enter at the right door of the understanding, from thence into the conscience, and so passeth into the will and affections.  Indeed, he that hits upon truth, and takes up the profession of it, before he is brought into the acquaintance of its excellency and heavenly beauty by his understanding, cannot entertain it becoming to its heavenly birth and descent. 

It is as a prince that travels in a disguise, not known, therefore not honoured.  Truth is loved and prized only of those that know it.  And not to desire to know it, is to despise it, as much as knowing it, to reject it.  It were not hard, sure, to cheat that man of truth, who knows not what he hath.  Truth and error are all one to the ignorant man, so it hath but the name of truth.  Leah and Rachel were both alike to Jacob in the dark.  Indeed it is said, ‘In the morning behold it was Leah,’ Gen. 29:25.  So in the morning, when it is day in the understanding, then the deceived person will see he hath had a false bride in his bosom; will cry out, Behold, it is an error which I took for a truth.  You have, may be, heard of the covetous man, that hugged himself in the many bags of gold he had, but never opened them or used them.  When the thief took away his gold, and left him his bags full of peb­bles in the room, he was as happy as when he had his gold, for he looked not on the one or other.  And verily an ignorant person is in a manner no better with truth than error on his side.  Both are alike to him, day and night all one to a blind man.  But to proceed, and give some more particular account.

TRUTH OF DOCTRINE AS A GIRDLE FOR THE MIND

We shall begin with truth of doctrine, or truth of the word, called ‘the word of truth,’ Eph. 1:13, because it is the word of God, who is God of truth.  It behoves every Christian to be well girt with this truth.  ‘Resist the devil,’ saith Peter, ‘steadfast in the faith,’ I Peter 5:9; that is, in the truth—faith being there put for the object of our faith, which is the truth of God, declared in the doctrine of the gospel.  This is ‘the faith which was once delivered to the saints,’ Jude 3; that is, the truth delivered to them to be believed and held fast.  And of what importance it is to be thus steadfast in the faith, the apostle Peter, in the following verse of the fore-mentioned place, shows, by his vehement and earnest praying for them, that God would ‘stablish, strengthen, and settle them.’  The heaping of words to the same purpose, implies the great danger they were in of being unsettled by Satan and his instruments, and the necessity of their standing firm and unshaken in the faith.  

Nothing is more frequently inculcated than this in the Epistles; and the more, because in those blustering times it was impossible to have kept the faith from being blown from them, without this girdle to hold it fast.  Now, as there is a double design Satan hath to rob Christians of truth, so there is a twofold girding about with this truth necessary.  first, Satan comes as a serpent in the persons of false teachers, and by them labours to put a cheat on us, and cozenus  with error for truth.  To defend us against this design, it is necessary we be girt with truth in our understanding—that we have an established judgement in the truths of Christ.  second, Satan comes sometimes as a lion in the persons of bloody persecutors, and labours to scare Christians from the truth with fire and faggot.  Now to defend us against this, we need to have truth girt about us, so that with a holy resolution we may maintain our profession in the face of death and danger.  to begin with the first.

THE SEVERAL PIECES OF THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD

a brief explanation of the words.

           First Inquiry. What is truth here?  Some by truth understand Christ, who indeed elsewhere is called ‘the truth.’  Yet in this place I conceive it is not properly so understood, because the apostle instanceth in here several pieces and parts of armour, one distinct from another, and Christ cannot so well be said to be a single piece to defend this or that part, as the whole in whom we are complete, compared therefore, Rom. 13:14, to the whole suit of armour, ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus;’ that is, be clothed and harnessed with Christ as a soldier with his armour cap-à-pie.  Some by truth mean truth of doctrine; others will have it truth of heart, sincerity.  Those I think right that comprise both; and so I shall handle it.  Both indeed are required to make the girdle complete.  One will not do without the other.  It is possible to find good meanings and a kind of sincerity without, yea against the truth.  Many follow an error as they Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts.  Such do ill while they mean well.  Good intentions do not more make a good action, than a fair mark makes a good shot by an unskilful archer.  God did not like Saul’s zeal when he persecuted the Christian church, though he thought, no question, he did him good service therein.  Neither is it enough to have the truth on our side, if we have not truth in our hearts.  Jehu was a great stickler against idolatry, but kicked down all again by his hypocrisy.  Both then are necessary; sincerity to propound a right end, and knowledge of the word of truth to direct us in the right way to that end.

           Second Inquiry. What is meant here by loins that are to be girt with this girdle of truth?  The loins must be like the girdle.  This is spiritual, and therefore they must be so.  Peter will help to interpret Paul; ‘Gird up the loins of your mind,’ I Peter 1:13.  They are our spirits and minds which must wear this girdle, and very fitly may our spirits and minds be compared to the loins.  The loins are the chief seat of bodily strength.  Of behemoth it is said, ‘His strength is in his loins,’ Job 40:16.  The loins are to the body as carina navi—the keel to the ship.  The whole ship is knit to that, and sustained by it.  And the body is knit to the loins; if the loins fail, the whole body sinks, hence to ‘smite through the loins’ is a phrase to express destruction and ruin, Deut. 33:11; weak loins and a weak man.  If we be but a little weary, nature directs us to lay our hands on our loins to sustain them, as our chief strength.  Thus as the actings of our minds and spirits are in their faculties and powers, so we are weak or strong Christians.  If the understanding be clear in its apprehensions of truth, and the will sincere, vigorous, and fixed in its purposes for that which is holy and good, then he is a strong Christian; but if the understanding be dark or uncertain in its notions, as a distempered eye that cannot well discern its object—not able to bring its thoughts to an issue, which to close with, and the will be wavering and unsteady, like a needle that trembles between two lodestones—here the man is weak, and all he doth will be so.  Feeble spirits cause an intermitting false pulse; so want of strength in the mind to know truth and want of resolution in the will to pursue that which he knows to be holy and good, causeth a man to falter in his course.

           The use therefore of these two, FIRST. Truth of doctrine for the mind, and SECOND. Truth of heart or sincerity for the will, is to unite and establish both these facilities.  This they do when they are clasped and girt about the soul, as the girdle about the loins of the body.  Though the loins be the strength of the body, yet they need an auxiliary to their strength from the girdle to keep those parts close, and unite their force; without which, men, when they would strain themselves, and put forth their strength in any work, find a trembling and looseness in their loins.  Hence the ‘shaking of the loins,’ is a phrase to express weakness, Ps. 69:23.  Thus our minds and spirits need this girdle to strengthen them in every work we do, or else we shall act nothing vigorously.

HOW the Christian is to STAND AND WATCH

Question. But how must the Christian stand upon his watch?

Answer First. Watch constantly.  ‘The lamp’ of God in the tabernacle was to ‘burn always,’ Ex. 27:20; 30:8; that is, always in the night, which sense is favoured by several other places.  And I pray, what is our life in this world but a dark night of temptation?  Take heed, Christian, that thy watch-candle go not out in any part of this darksome time, lest thy enemy come upon thee in that hour.  He can find thee, but thou canst not resist him in the dark.  If once thy eye be shut in a spiritual slumber, thou art a fair mark for his wrath; and know thou canst not be long off thy watch but the devil will hear on it.  The devil knew the apostles’ sleeping time, and then he desires leave to ‘winnow’ them, Luke 22.  He saw they were in some disorder, the eye of their soul began ‘to be heavy.’  The thief riseth when honest men go to bed.  The devil, I am sure, begins to tempt when saints cease to watch.  When the staff is thrown away, then the wolf appears.  

When the soul puts her danger farthest off, and lies most secure, then it is nearest. Therefore labour to be constant in thy holy care; the want of this spoils all.  Some you shall have, that after a great fall into a sin that hath bruised them sorely, will seem very careful for a time where they set their foot, how they walk, and what company they come in; but as soon as the soreness of their consciences wears off, their watch is broken up, and they are as careless as ever; like one that is very careful to shut up his shop strongly, and may be sits up late to watch it also for two or three nights after it hath been robbed, but then minds it no more.  Others in an affliction, or newly come out of the furnace, O how nice and scrupulous are they while the smell of fire is about them, and memory of their distress fresh!  They are as tender of sinning, as one that comes out of a hot close room is of the air.  They shrink at every breath of temptation stirring.  But alas, how soon are they hardened to commit those sins without remorse, the bare motion of which, but a little before, did so trouble and afflict them?  Josephus, in his Antiq­uities, tells us that the sons of Noah, for some years after the flood, dwelt on the tops of high mountains, not daring to take up their habitation in the lower ground for fear of being drowned by another flood; yet in process of time, seeing no flood came, they ventured down into the plain of Shinar, where their former fear, we see, ended in one of the boldest, proudest attempts against God, that the sun was ever witness to—the building I mean of a tower whose top should reach heaven, Gen 11:2-4.  They who at first were so maidenly and fearful, as not to venture down their hills for fear of drowning, now have a design to secure themselves against all future attempts from the God of heaven himself.  Thus oft we see God’s judgements leave such an impression on men’s spirits, that for a while they stand aloof from their sins—as these on their hills—afraid to come down to them; but when they see fair weather continue, and no clouds gather towards another storm, then they can descend to their old wicked practices, and grow more bold and heaven-daring than ever.  But if thou wilt be a Christian indeed, keep on thy watch still, remit not in thy care.  Thou hast well run hitherto.  O lie not down, like some lazy traveller, by the wayside to sleep, but reserve thy resting time till thou gettest home out of all danger.  Thy God rested not till the last day’s work in the creation was finished, neither do thou cease to wake or work till thou canst say thy salvation work is finished.

Answer Second. Watch universally.

1. Watch thy whole man.  The honest watchman walks the rounds, and compasseth the whole town.  He doth not limit his care to this house or that.  So do thou watch over thy whole man.  A pore in the body is a door wide enough to let in a disease if God command, and any one faculty of thy soul, or member of thy body to let in an enemy that may endanger thy spiritual welfare. Alas, how few set the watch round? some one faculty is not guarded, or member of the body not regarded. He that is scrupulous in one, you shall find him secure in another.  May be thou settest a watch at the door of thy lips, that no impure communication offends the ears of men; but how is the Lord’s watch kept at the temple door of thy heart? II Chr. 23:6.  Is not that defiled with lust?  Thou, may be, keepest thy hand out of thy neighbour’s purse, and thy foot from going on a thievish errand to thy neighbour's house; but does not thy envious heart grudge him what God allows him?  When thou prayest, thou art very careful thy outward posture be reverent; but what eye hast thou on thy soul that it performs its part in the duty?
2. Watch in everything.  If the apostle bids, ‘in everything give thanks,’ then it behoves us in everything to watch, that God may not lose his praise, which he doth in most for want of watching.  No action so little, almost, but we may in it do God or the devil some service, and therefore none too little for our care to be bestowed on.  He was a holy man indeed, of whom it was said, that ‘he ate and drank eternal life.’  The meaning is, he kept such a holy watch over himself in these things, that he was in heaven while doing them.  There is no creature so little among all God's works but his providence watcheth over it, even to a sparrow and a hair.  Let there be no word or work of thine over which thou art not watchful.  Thou shalt be judged by them even to thy idle words and thoughts, and wilt thou not have care of them?

Answer Third. Watch wisely.  This thou shalt do if thou knowest where thou shouldst keep strictest watch, and that must be first in the weightiest duty of the command.  ‘Tithing of cummin and anise’ must not be neglected; but take heed thou dost not neglect the weightiest things of the law, ‘judgment, mercy, and faith,’ making your preciseness in the less a blind for your horrible wickedness in the greater, Matt. 23:23.

1. Begin at the right end of your work,Christian, by placing your chief care about these main duties to God and man, in his law and gospel, in his worship, and in thy daily course; which when thou hast done, neglect not the circumstantials.  Should a master before he goes forth, charge his servant to look to his child, and trim his house up handsomely against he comes home, when he returns will he thank his servant for sweeping his house, and making it trim, if he finds his child through his negligence fallen into the fire, and by it killed or crippled?  No sure, he left his child with him as his chief charge, to which the other should have yielded, if both could not be done.  There hath been a great zeal of late among us about some circumstantials of worship; but who looks to the little child—the main duties of Christianity, I mean?  Was there ever less love, charity, self-denial, heavenly-mindedness, or the power of holiness in any of its several walks, than in this sad age of ours?  Alas, these, like the child, are in great danger of perishing in the fire of contention and division, which a perverse zeal in less things hath kindled among us.
2. Be sure thou beest watchful more than ordinary over thyself, in those things where thou findest thyself weakest,and hast been oftenest foiled.  The weakest part of the city needs the strongest guard, and in our bodies the tenderest part is most observed and kept warmest.  And I should think it were strange, if thy fabric of grace stands so strong and even, that thou shouldst not soon perceive which side needs the shore most, by some inclination of it one way more than another.  Thy body is not so firm, but thou findest this humour overabound, and that part craze faster than another; and so mayest thou in thy soul.  Well, take counsel in the thing, and what thou findest weakest, watch more carefully.  Is it thy head is weak—thy judgment I mean? watch thyself, and come not among those that drink no wine but that which thy weak parts cannot bear —seraphic notions and high-flown opinions—and do not think thyself much wronged to be forbidden their cup.  Such strong wine is more heady than hearty, and they that trade most with it are not found of the healthiest tempers of their souls, no more than they that live most of strong water are for their bodies.  Is thy impotency in thy passions?  Indeed we are weak as they are strong and violent.  Now watch over them as one that dwells in a thatched house would do of every spark that flies out of his chimney, lest it should light on it and set all on fire.  O take heed what speeches come from thy mouth, or from any thou conversest with.  This is the little instrument sets the whole course of nature on flame. When our neighbour's house is on fire we cast water on our roof, or cover it with a wet sheet.  When the flame breaks out at another’s mouth, now look thou throwest water on thy own hot spirit.  Some cooling, wrath-quenching scriptures and arguments ever carry with thee for that purpose.  And so in any other particular as thou findest thy weakness.

WHY the Christian is to STAND AND WATCH

      

First. The Christian’s work is too curious to be done well between sleeping and waking, and too important to be done ill and slubbered over no matter how.  He had need be awake that walks upon the brim of a deep river, or the brow of a steep hill.  The Christian’s path is so narrow, and the danger is so great, that it calls for a nimble eye to discern and a steady eye to direct; but a sleepy eye can do neither.  Look upon any duty or grace, and you will find it lie between Sylla and Carybdis —two extremes alike dangerous.  Faith, the great work of God, cuts its way between the mountain of presumption and gulf of despair.  Patience [is] a grace so necessary that we cannot be without it a day, except we would be all that while beside ourselves.  This keeps us that we fall neither into the sleepy apoplexy of a blockish stupidity, which deprives the creature of its senses; nor into a raging fit of discontent, which hath sense enough, and too much, to feel the hand of God, but deprives the man of his reason, that he turns again upon God, and shoots back the Almighty’s arrows on his very face in the fury of his froward spirit.  The like we might say of the rest.  No truth but hath some error next door to it.  No duty can be performed without approaching very near the enemy’s quarters, who soon takes the alarm, and comes out to oppose the Christian.  And ought he not then to have always his heart on the watch?

Second. The trouble of watching is not comparable to the advantage it brings.

1. By this, thou frustratest the designs Satan hath upon thee.It is worth watching to keep the house from robbing, much more the heart from rifling by the devil.  ‘Watch, that ye enter not into temptation,’ Matt. 26:41. He buys his sleep dear that pays his throat-cutting for it; yea, though the wound be not so deep but may be cured at last.  Thy not watching one night may keep thee awake many a night upon a more uncomfortable occasion.  And hadst thou not better wake with care, to keep thyself from a mischief, than afterward to have thine eyes held open, whether thou wilt or not, with pain and anguish of the wound given thee in thy sleep? You know how sadly David was bruised by a fall got in his spiritual slumber;—for what else was he when in the eventide he rose from his bed, and walked upon the roof of his house, like a man walking in his sleep? II Sam. 11:2-6.  And how many restless nights this brought over this holy man’s head you may perceive by his own mournful complaints of this sin, which is the foot and sad burden of several mournful psalms.
2. By thy watchfulness thou shalt best learn the evil of a sleepy state.One asleep is not sensible of his own snorting, how uncomely and troublesome to others it is, but he that is awake is apprehensive of both.  The man asleep is not sensible if laid naked by some that would abuse him, but he that is awake observes, is ashamed, and covers himself.  Thus while you are in a spiritual sense awake, thou canst not but observe many uncomely passages in the lives of those professors who do not watch their hearts, which will fill thy heart with pity to them—to see how they are abused by Satan and their own passions, which like rude servants, take this their own time to play their pranks in, when they have made sure of their mistress—grace I mean now laid asleep—that should keep them in better rule.  Yea, it will make the blood come into thy face for shame, to see how by their nakedness, profession itself is flouted at by those that pass by, and to see how it is with them. Well, what thou blushest to see, and pitiest to find in another, take heed it befall not thyself.  If thou sufferest a spiritual slumber to grow upon thee, thou wilt be the man thyself that all this may come upon; and what not besides?  Sleep levels all; the wise man is then no wiser than a fool to project for his safety; nor the strong man better than the weak to defend himself.  If slumber falls once upon thine eye, it is night with thee, and thou art, though the best of saints, but as other men, so far as this sleep prevails on thee.

3. By thy watchfulness thou shalt invite such company in unto thee as will make the time short and sweet;and that is thy dear Saviour, whose sweet communication and discourse about the things of thy Father’s kingdom, will make that thou shalt not grudge the ease sleepy Christians get, with the loss of such an heavenly enter­tainment as thou enjoyest.  Who, that loves his soul better than his body, had not rather have David’s songs, than David's sleep in the night?  And who had not rather have Christ’s comforting presence with a waking soul, than his absence with a sleepy slothful one?  It is the watchful soul that Christ delights to be with, and open his heart unto.  We do not choose that for the time of giving our friends a visit, when they are asleep in their beds.  Nay, if we be with them and perceive they grow sleepy, we think it is time we leave them to their pillow; and verily Christ doth so too.  Christ withdraws from the spouse till she be better awake, as a fitter to receive his loves.  Put the sweetest wine into a sleepy man’s hand and you are like to have it all spilled; yea, put a purse of gold into his hand, and the man will hardly remember in the morning what you gave him over night. Thus in the sleepy state of a soul, both the Christian loseth the benefit, and Christ the praise of his mercy; and therefore Christ will stay to give out his choice favours when the soul is more wakeful, that he may both do the creature good, and his creature may speak good of him for it.

The Christian must STAND AND WATCH

Third. To  stand, here, is opposed to sleep and sloth.  Standing is a waking, watching posture.  When the captain sees his soldiers lying secure upon the ground asleep, he bids ‘Stand to your arms,’ that is, stand and watch.  In some cases it is death for a soldier to be found asleep, as when he is appointed to stand sentinel, or the like.  Now to sleep, deserves death; because he is to keep awake that the whole army may sleep; and his sleep may cost them their lives.  Therefore a great captain thought he gave that soldier but his due, whom he run through with his sword, because he found him asleep when he should have stood sentinel, excusing his severity with this, that he left him but as he found him, mortuum imveni et mortuum reliqui—I found him dead in sleep, and left him but asleep in death.  Watchfulness is more needful for the Christian soldier than any other, because other soldiers fight with men that need sleep as well as themselves; but the Christian’s grand enemy, Satan, is ever awake and walking his rounds, seeking whom he may surprise. 

And if Satan be always awake, it is dangerous for the Christian at any time to be spiritually asleep, that is secure and careless.  The Christian is seldom worsted by this his enemy, but there is either treachery or negligence in the business.  Either the unre­generate part betrays him, or grace is not wakeful to make a timely discovery of him, so as to prepare for the encounter.  The enemy is upon him before he is thoroughly awake to draw his sword.  The saint’s sleeping time is Satan’s tempting time.  Every fly dares to creep on a sleeping lion.  No temptation so weak, but is strong enough to foil a Christian that is napping in security.  Samson asleep, and Delilah cuts his locks.  Saul asleep, and his spear is taken away from his very side, and he never the wiser.  Noah asleep, and his graceless son has a fit time to discover his father’s nakedness.  Eutychus asleep, nods, and falls from the third loft, and is taken up for dead.  Thus the Christian asleep in security may soon be surprised, so as to lose much of his spiritual strength—‘the joy of the Lord,’ which is his ‘strength;’ be robbed of his spear, his armour—graces, I mean—at least in the present use of them, and his nakedness discovered by graceless men, to the shame of his profession. 

As, when bloody Joab could take notice of David’s vainglory in numbering the people, was not David’s grace asleep? Yea, the Christian may fall from a high loft of profession, so low into such scandalous practices, that others may question whether there be any life of grace indeed in him.  And therefore it behoves the Christian to stand wakefully.  Sleep steals as insensibly on the soul, as it doth on the body.  The wise virgins fell asleep as well as the foolish, though not so soundly.  Take heed thou dost not indulge thyself in thy lazy distemper, but stir up thyself to action, as we bid one that is drowsy stand up or walk.  Yield to it by idleness and sloth, and it will grow upon thee.  Bestir thyself in this duty, and that, and it will over.  David first awakes his tongue to sing, his hand to play on his harp, and then David’s heart wakes also, Ps. 62:8.  The lion, it is said, when he first wakes, lashes himself with his tail, thereby to stir and rouse up his courage, and then away he goes after his prey.  We have enough to excite and provoke us to use all the care and diligence possible.

Five Considerations to persuade all to STAND 3/3

(2.) It is pride and discontent that makes persons go out of their place.  Some men are in this very unhappy.  Their spirits are too big and haughty for the place God hath set them in.  Their calling is may be mean and low, but their spirits high and towering, and whereas they should labour to bring their hearts to their condition, they project how they may bring their condition to their proud hearts.  They think themselves very unhappy while they are shut up in such strait limits.  Indeed the whole world is too narrow a walk for a proud heart, œstuat infœlix angusto limite mundi—it tosses unhappy within the narrow boundary of the world.  The world was but a little ease to Alexander.  Shall they be hid in a crowd, lie in an obscure corner, and die before they let the world know their worth?  No, they cannot brook it, and therefore they must get on the stage, and put forth themselves one way or other.  It was not the priest’s work that Korah and his accomplices were so in love with him, but the priest’s honour which attended the work.  This they desired to share, and liked not to see others run away with it from them.  Nor was it the zeal that Absalom had to do justice which made his teeth water so after his father's crown, though this must silver over his ambi­tion.  These places of church and state are such fair flowers, that proud spirits in all ages have been ambitious to have them set in their own garden, though they never thrive so well as in their proper soil.

(3.) In a third it is unbelief.  This made Uzzah stretch forth his hand unadvisedly to stay the ark that shook; which being but a Levite, he was not to touch, see Num. 4:15.  Alas! good man, it was his faith shook more dangerously than the ark.  By fearing the fall of this, he fell to the ground himself.  God needs not our sin to shoar up his glory, truth, or church.

(4.) In some it is misinformed zeal.  Many think they may do a thing, because they can do it.  They can preach, and therefore they may.  Wherefore else have they gifts?  Certainly the gifts of the saints need not be lost, any of them, though be not be laid out in the minister’s work.  The private Christian hath a large field wherein he may be serviceable to his brethren.  He need not break the hedge which God hath set, and thereby occasion such disorder as we see to be the consequences of this.  We read in the Jewish law, Ex. 22, that he who set a hedge on fire, and that fire burned the corn standing in a field, was to make restitution, though he only fired the hedge—may be not intending to hurt the corn; and the reason was, because his firing the hedge was an occasion of the corn’s being burned, though he meant it not.  I dare not say, that every private Christian who hath in these times taken upon him the minister’s work, did intend to make such a combustion in the church, as hath been, and still sadly is, among us.  God forbid I should think so.  But, O that I could clear them from being accessory to it.  In that they have fired the hedge which God hath set between the minister’s calling and people’s.  If we will acknowledge the ministry a particular office in the church of Christ—and this I think the word will compel us to do—then we must also confess it is not any one's work, though never so able, except called to the office.  There are many in a kingdom to be found that could do the prince’s errand, it is like, as well as his ambassador, but none takes the place but he that is sent, and can show his letters credential.  Those that are not sent and commissionated by God’s call for ministerial work, they may speak truths as well as they that are, yet of him that acts by virtue of his calling, we may say that he preacheth with authority, and not like those that can show no commission, but what the opinion themselves have of their own abilities gives them.  Dost thou like the minister's work? why shouldst thou not desire the office, that thou mayest do the work acceptably? Thou dost find thyself gifted, as thou thinkest, for the work, but were not the church more fit to judge so, than thyself?  and if thou shouldst be found so by them appointed for the trial, who would not give thee the right hand of fellowship?  There are not so many labourers in Christ’s field, but thy help, if able, would be accepted. But as thou now actest, thou bringest thyself into suspicion in the thoughts of sober Christians; as he would justly do, who comes into the field where his prince hath an army, and gives out he comes to do his sovereign service against the common enemy, yet stands by himself at the head of a troop he hath got together, and refuseth to take any commission from his prince’s officers or join himself with them.  I question whether the service such a one can perform—should he mean as he say, which is to be feared—would do so much good, as the distraction which this his carriage might cause in the army would do hurt.

Five Considerations to persuade all to STAND 2/3

4. Consideration.There is poor comfort in suffering for doing that which was not the work of our place and calling.  Before we launch out into any undertaking, it behoves us to ask ourselves, and that seriously, what our tackling is, if a storm should overtake us in our voyage.  It is folly to engage in that enterprise which will not bear us out, and pay the charge of all the loss and trouble it can put us to.  Now no comfort or countenance from God can be expected from any suffering, except we can entitle him to the business we suffer for.  ‘For thy sake are we killed all the day long,’ Ps. 44:22, saith the church. But if suffering finds us out of our calling and place, we cannot say, ‘for thy sake’ we are thus and thus afflicted, but ‘for our own sakes;’ and you know the proverb, ‘self-do, self-have.’  The apostle makes a vast difference between suffering ‘as a busy-body,’ and suffering ‘as a Christian,’ I Peter 4:15,16.  It is to the latter he saith, ‘Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.’  As for the busy-body, he mates him with thieves and murderers, and those, I trow, have reason both to be ashamed and afraid.  The carpenter that gets a cut or wound on his leg from his axe, as he is at work in his calling, may bear it more patiently and comfortably, than one that is wantonly meddling with his tools, and hath nothing to do with such work.  When affliction or persecution overtakes the Christian travelling in the way God hath set him in, he may show the Bible, as that holy man suffering for Christ, did, and say, ‘This hath made me poor, this hath brought me to prison,’ that is, his faith on the truths and obedience to the com­mands in it; and therefore may confidently expect to suffer at God’s cost, as the soldier [expects] to be kept and maintained by the prince in whose service he hath lost his limbs.  But the other that runs out of his place and so meets with sufferings, he hath this to embitter them, that he can look for nothing from God but to be soundly chidden for his pains—as the child is served that gets some hurt while he is gadding abroad, and when he comes home at night with his battered face, meets with a whipping from his father in the bargain for being from home.  This lay heavy on the spirit of that learned German Johannis Funccius, who of a minister of the gospel in his prince’s court, turned minister of state to his prince, and was at last for some evil counsel at least so judged, condemned to die.  Before he suffered he much lamented the leaving of his calling, and to warn others left this distich—

Disce meo exemplo mandato munere fungi, Et fuge ceu pestem πoλυπραγμoσυvηv.

To keep thy place and calling learn of me; Flee as the plague a meddler for to be.

5. Consideration.It is an erratic spirit that usually carries men out of their place and calling.  I confess there is an heroicus impetus, an impulse which some of the servants of God have had from heaven, to do things extraordinary, as we read in Scripture of Moses, Gideon, Phinehas, and others.  But it is dangerous to pretend to the like, and unlawful to expect such immediate com­missions from heaven now, when he issueth them out in a more ordinary way, and gives rules for the same in his word.  We may as well expect to be taught extra­ordinarily, without using the ordinary means, as to be called so.  When I see any miraculously gifted, as the prophets and apostles, then I shall think the immediate calling they pretend to is authentic.  To be sure we find in the word that extraordinary calling and extraordinary teaching go together.  Well, let us see what that erratic spirit is which carries many out of their place and calling. It is not always the same.

(1.) Sometimes it is idleness.  Men neglect what they should do, and then are easily persuaded to meddle with what they have nothing to do.  The apostle intimates this plainly, ‘They learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busy-bodies, I Tim. 5:13.  An idle person is a gadder. He hath his foot on the threshold—easily drawn from his own place—and as soon into another’s diocese.  He is at leisure for to hear the devil's chat.  He that will not serve God in his own place, the devil, rather than he shall stand out, will send him off his errand, and get him to put his sickle into another's corn.

Five Considerations to persuade all to STAND 1/3

1. Consideration.Consider what thou doest out of thy place is not acceptable to God, because thou canst not do it in ‘faith,’ without which ‘it is impossible to please God;’ and it cannot be in faith, because thou hast no call.  God will not thank thee for doing that which he did not set thee about.  Possibly thou hast good intentions.  So had Uzzah in staying the ark, yet how well God liked his zeal, see II Sam. 6:7.  Saul himself could make a fair story of his sacrificing, but that served not his turn.  It concerns us not only to ask ourselves what the thing is we do, but also who requireth this at our hands?  To be sure, God will at last put us upon that question, and it will go ill with us if we cannot show our commission.  So long must we needs neglect what is our duty, as we are busy about that which is not.  The spouse confesseth this, ‘They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept,’ Song. 1:6.  She could not mind their [vineyards] and her own too—our own iron will cool while we are beating another’s.  And this must needs be displeasing to God—to leave the work God sets us about, to do to do what he never commanded.  When a master calls a truantly scholar to account, that hath been missing some days from school, would this be a good plea for him to tell his master, that he was all the while in such a man’s shop at work with his tools?  No, sure his business lay at school, not in that shop.

2. Consideration.By going out of our proper place and calling, we put ourselves from under God’s protection.  The promise is, he will ‘keep us in all our ways,’ Ps. 91:11.  When we go out of our way, we go from under his wing. We have an excellent place for this, ‘Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God,’ I Cor. 7:24. Mark that phrase, abide with God.  As we love to walk in God's company, we must abide in our place and calling.  Every step from that is a departure from God; and better to stay at home, in a mean place and low calling, wherein we may enjoy God’s sweet presence, than go to court and there live without him.  It is likely you have heard of that holy bishop, that in a journey fell into an inn, and by some discourse with the host, finding him to be an atheist, or very atheistical, presently calls for his servant to bring him his horse, saying he would not lodge there, for God was not in that place.  Truly when thou art in any place, or about any work to which thou art not called, we may safely say, ‘God is not in that place or enterprise.’  And what a bold adventure it is to stay there where you cannot expect his presence to assist or protect!  ‘As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place,’ Prov. 27:8. God took special care that the bird sitting over her eggs in her nest should not be hurt; Deut. 22:6, but we find nothing to secure her if found abroad.  In doing the duty of our place, we have heaven’s word for our security; but upon our own peril be it if we wander.  Then we are like Shimei out of his precincts, and lay ourselves open to some judgment or other.  It is alike dangerous to do what we are not called to, and to neglect or leave undone the duty of our place.  As the earth could not bear the usurpation by Korah and his company of what belonged not to them, but swallowed them up, so the sea could not but bear witness against Jonah the runaway prophet, disdaining to waft him that fled from the place and work that God called him to.  Nay, heaven itself would not harbour the angels, when once they left their own place and office that their Maker had appointed; so these words ‘left their own habitation,’ Jude 6, I find most probably interpreted.  The ruin of many souls breaks in upon them at this door.  First they break their ranks, and then they are led farther into temptation.  Absalom first looks over the hedge in his ambitious thoughts. A king he would be, and this wandering desire beyond his place, lets in those bloody sins, rebellion, incest, and murder, and these ripened him for, and at last delivered him up into, the hands of divine vengeance. The apostle joins order and steadfastness together,’I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith,’ Col. 2:5.  If an army stands in close order, every one in his place attend­ing his duty, content with his work, it is impregnable in a manner.  How came many in our days to fall from their steadfastness, but by breaking their order?
3. Consideration.We shall never be charged for not doing another’s work.  ‘Give an account of thy stew­ardship,’ Luke 16:2, that is, what by thy place thou wert intrusted with.  We may indeed be accessory to another’s sin and miscarriage in his place.  ‘Be not partakers with them,’ saith the apostle, Eph. 5:7.  There is a partnership, if not very watchful, that we have with other’s sins, and therefore we may all say ‘Amen’ to that holy man’s prayer, ‘Lord, forgive me my other sins.’  Merchants can trade in bottoms that are not their own, and we may sin with other man’s hands many ways; and one especially is, when we do not lend our brother that assistance in his work and duty, which our place and relation obligeth to.  But it is not our sin that we do not supply another’s negligence, by doing that which belongs not to our place. We are to pray for magistrates that they may rule in the fear of God, but if they do not, we may not step upon the bench and do his work for him.  God requires no more than faithfulness in our place.  We do not find fault with an apple-tree if it be laden with apples—which is the fruit of its own kind—though we can find no figs or grapes growing on it.  We expect these only from their proper root and stock.  He is a fruitful tree in God’s orchard that ‘bringeth forth his fruit in his season,’ Ps. 1:3.