place in India where the purest gold in all the world was gotten Merchant-ships coming to the foot of the cheifest hill in Ophir waited their opportunity when the Lions and other wild beasts in it were gone to seek for prey then they went a shore and got much pretious gold Now if thou beest at peace with God God will not let thee want if thou canst eat gold thou shalt have it he thinks the gold of Ophir too little for thee thou shalt not want for the Lord Jehovah shall be thy Cator ver 25. Yea the Almighty shall be thy defence and thou shalt have plenty of silver thou needst not fear any danger whilst the Lord is thy defence verse 26. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God it s a sweet thing to solace ones soul in God and to bath ones Spirit in the streames of his love such have comfort which is not to be found in the creature verse 27. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee and thou shalt pay thy vowes This is a mercy worthy gold to pray and be heard to unlock heaven gates by the key of prayer and fetch mercies thence verse 28. Thou shalt also decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee and the light shall shine upon thy wayes God will fulfil thy desires and not frustrate thy expectation and the light of his countenance and precious providence shall shine upon thy wayes verse 29. When men are cast down thou shalt say there is lifting up and he shall save the humble person Though good men may be cast down sometime by the hand of violence yet thou by the strength of thy faith having peace with God shalt be assured of rising up again Let these golden priviledges of a Christian incite thee with all earnest care and pains to be inward with God make peace with him though you have little peace with men for this is the ground of your hope and happiness this is that will afford you the greatest security and sweetest contentment in the evill day 2. I told you in the second place that a Christian walks with God by doing all his actions as in Gods sight and presence This Use still serves to exhort us all to walk with God after this manner whatever you take in hand ever set God before your eyes his eyes are alwayes upon you let yours be alwayes upon him this will keep thee from revolting and apostatizing from him Psalm 16.18 I have set the Lord alwayes before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved as if he had said neither by Satan nor by the world but I shall stand fast against all mine enemies nothing shall draw me away from him if the most would eye God in their wayes they durst not rush into presumptuous sins so oft as they do but because they do think that God sees them not therefore they wax bold to break his Lawes in every way and work be sure to consider Gods omnipresence and his all-seeing eye and it will restrain thee from many slips 3. I told you in the third place that a Christian walks with God by referring all his actions to the glory of God This Use still serves to exhort you all to walk with God after this manner let this glory be dearer to you than your own ends then will you be more firmly united in the bond of peace for then the glorious Spirit of God will tie your hearts together in spiritual unity self-seeking is the greatest cause of most dissentions both in Church and Common-wealth let it be your chiefest study and care how to promote the glory of God and then your particular ends shall sooner be attained 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour God there promised David endeavoured to honour God so did Hezekiah Josiah Job Joseph Daniel and others and in holy Writ you may find recorded how much God honoured them with blessings spiritual and temporal this is the surest way to eternize your good names and to render your memory blessed by seeking to advance Gods glory 4. I told you in the fourth place that a Christian walks with God by a strict imitation of God according to the rules of his Word This Use still serves to exhort you all to walk with God this way nature teacheth thee to imitate thine earthly parents and hast thou not so much grace as to imitate thy heavenly Father thou hast imitated the sinners of this world too long thou hast wearied thy self to commit iniquity with them what fruit had you in those things whereof you shall be ashamed if you be not already for the end of those things is death read the Word search the Scriptures and they will teach thee what a One God is how holy merciful wise just and perfect let him be thy daily pattern and thou shalt sooner attain unto perfection the less you imitate him the more imperfect you are and the more you imitate him the more perfect you are Ephes 5.1 Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children he will not lead you to any thing hurtful and dangerous to your soules but follow and imitate him as exactly as you can and he will lead you at last into fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore 5. I told you in the fifth place that a Christian walks with God by daily observation of the passages of his providence to him This Use still serves to exhort us all to walk with God this way this is a sign of a wise man so to do Hosea 14.9 Whose is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them that is the promises and passages of his providence and love this will much confirm thy faith and comfort thy heart Much water runs by the Mill that the Miller never sees so there are many pretious passages of divine providence which pass by divers that they never take notice of look therefore at God in every mercy and correction look higher than second causes and say within thy self here is a token of my heavenly Fathers love here is a gift from heaven this mercy or this correction comes from my God so did the godly formerly Genes 48 9. Joseph said to Jacob they are my sons whom God hath given me Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Learn to say and do therefore as the godly did in Psalm 123. Vnto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens Let no passage of divine providence go by thee without diligent observation 6. I told you in the sixth place that a Christian walks with God by having his conversation in heaven This Use still serves to exhort you all to walk with God this way thy chiefest treasure is there thy best friends are there why then doest thou set thine heart here upon things beelow God hath given
heart Vse 2. I told you the second reason was because every godly man sets his heart upon God The Uses arising out of this Reason serve first for information to let us see the reason why Gods children enjoy such precious peace of conscience and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory namely because they set their hearts on God and their entire love to him will assure them of his eternal love to them Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me now this is the principal ground of true peace and joy worldly favour makes carnal people merry outwardly and feeds them with vain hopes it makes them build Castles in the air and puts them into a fooles paradise but the assurance of Gods love fills the heart of the upright with such joy as no man can take from them John 16.22 wicked men may take their lives from them their estates from them their liberty from them but true peace and joy they cannot take from them for they set their hearts on the God of hope who fills them with joy and peace 2. It may inform us one reason why Gods children will not be drawn away from him and his wayes because their hearts are set upon God and they account it their best way to draw near to God all the wealth and honour of Egypt could not draw Moses from God and his People the King of Babylon with all his power terrour and pollicy could not make the three Children worship his Idol nor restrain Daniel from praying to God 3. It serves to exhort you all to get your hearts fixed on God let out all your love to him in as ample a manner as you can let your love be so hot as many waters cannot never quench it nor flouds drown it To move you to it consider first how infinitely amiable and perfect God is when you understand that from everlasting to everlasting he is God without beginning mutation and end strive to love this eternal God when you consider that God fils heaven and earth yea inhabiteth eternity no place can comprehend his incomprehensible essence set your selves to love this omni-present God when you see how easily powerfully and wisely God made heaven and earth with all things else strive to love this omnipotent God when you see how God pitties releives and succours his people in their misery and gives them help in their time of need O set your heartiest love upon this merciful God 2. Consider how eternally and unchangeably he hath loved thee Jerem. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love before thou wast born he loved thee yea when thou wast his enemy he loved thee and he will love thee for ever nothing in this world nor in the world to come shall separate thee from his love 3. Consider what comfort thou shalt have by loving God 1 John 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him happy is that soul that hath such a guest for God will make any place a heaven to it Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me thy true love to him will assure thee of his love to thee which worldly wealth and honour cannot do Psalm 91.14 Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him God will be thy defence against danger he will be a wall of fire about thee Rom. 8.28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God nothing shall fall out amiss to thee but God by his wisdom and power will give thee an holy comfortable use of all mercies with an holy use of and a comfortable issue out of all miseries Vse 3 I told you the third Reason was because the godly man indeavours to do every thing that God commands him The Uses springing out of this reason serve first to inform us the reason why the godly man is a man after Gods own heart namely because he sets himself to do all Gods will for this cause David was so called Acts 13.22 I have found David the son of Jesse a man after mine own heart which shall fulfil all my will O that every one of us had an heart to do all Gods will then we should be such as God would have us to be a hypocrite doth but some part of Gods commands therefore he is not a man after Gods own heart 2. It informes us one Reason is why God so willingly heares and grants the prayers of his people that is because they indeavour to do all Gods commands 1 John 3.22 And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandement and do those things which are pleasing in his sight Humanity teacheth friends to grant one anothers suits when they please one another much more will the God of nature grace and glory graciously answer the prayers of his people that study to please him 2. It serves to exhort us to endeavour to do all that God requires us to do Motives 1. All his commands are holy just and good Rom. 7.12 Prov. 30 5. Every word of God is pure though carnal nature may cavil against some of Gods commands because they crosse it yet there is no defect in them but the Law of the Lord is perfect 2. To do all Gods will is the ready way to prosperity Job 36.11 If they obey and serve him they shall spend their dayes in prosperity and their yeares in pleasures God is the best Master to serve his work is the best and his pay is the best And above all Gods commandements I exhort you all to keep the Lords day holy because he in the fourth Commandement bids us remember to keep it holy 2. Because in Isaiah 58.13 14. he makes it an excellent way of honouring him and promiseth spiritual and temporal prosperity to such as do it but if that place be meant of an extraordinary Sabbath that is a fast appointed by man then doubtless the Lord would have us much more keep holy the ordinary Sabbath appointed by God If any object Col. 2.16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath dayes verse 17. which are a shadow of things to come c. I answer he meanes he would not have them observe the Jewish ceremonial Sabbaths of dayes as the three great feasts Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles and the feast of blowing the trumpets and the feast of expiation he would not have them observe the Sabbath of yeares which was every seventh year Levit. 25,4 5 6. nor the Sabbath of sevens of years the Jubile verse 8 9 10 11. which returned every fiftieth year but he speaks not here of the Sabbath day that is morall 1. Because the word is in the plural number Sabbaths 2. If he had meant the moral Sabbath and consequently the Lords day now observed then it would follow that it is unlawful to observe the