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A96110 The upright mans character and crown. Preached in a sermon at Pauls before the right Honourable the Lord Major, and the aldermen of the City of London, March 29. 1657. / By Thomas Watson minister of Stephens Walbrook London. Watson, Thomas, d. 1686. 1657 (1657) Wing W1146; Thomason E1610_3; ESTC R204062 19,344 63

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of poverty XII The upright man is progressive in holinesse he pursues after further degrees of sanctity Job 17. 9. He that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger Uprightnesse is in the heart as seed in the earth which will increase Col. 2. 9. unsound Christians rest in some faint desires and formalities it is with hypocrites as with the body in an Atrophy which though it receives food yet thrives not The upright Christian follows on to know the Lord Hosea 6. 3. It was Charles the fifths Motto plus ultra on further They say of the Crocodile it hath never done growing * Hierom writes of Paulinus that in the first part of his life he excelled others in the latter part he excelled himself * The upright man is not like Hezekiahs Sunne which went backward nor like Joshuahs Sunne which stood still but like Davids Sunne which goes forward and as a champion doth runne his race * Obj. But may a child of God say I fear I am not upright for I do not perceive that I wax stronger Answ. Thou mayest thrive in grace though thou doest not perceive it The plant grows but not alwayes in one place Sometimes it grows in the branches sometimes secretly in the root so an upright soul still grows but not alwayes in the same grace sometimes higher in the branches in knowledge sometimes he thrives in the root in humility which is as needful as any other growth If thou art not more tall yet if thou art more lowly Here is a progresse and this progresse evidenceth the vitals of sincerity XIII The upright man orders his conversation aright Psal. 50. 23. To him that orders his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God The upright man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a pattern of holinesse he treads evenly be walks as Christ did 1 Joh. 2. 8. Though the maine work of Religion lies within yet our light must so shine that others may behold it The foundation of sincerity is in the heart yet its beautiful frontispiece appears in the conversation The Saints are called jewels because they cast a sparkling lustre in the eyes of others An upright Christian is like Solomons Temple gold within and without sincerity is a holy leaven which if it be in the heart will work it self into the life and make it swell and rise as high as heaven Phil. 3. 20. Some brag they have good hearts but their lives are crooked They hope to go to heaven but their steps take hold of hell Prov. 5. 5. an upright Christian is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he sets a Crown of honour upon the head of Religion he doth not only professe the Gospel but adorne it he labours to walk so regularly and holily that if we could suppose the Bible to be lost it might be found again in his life XIV The upright man will be good in bad times The Lawrel keeps its freshnesse and greennesse in the Winter-season Job 27. 6. My righteousnesse I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live Uprightnesse is a complexion which will not alter The upright mans zeale is like the fire which the vestal Virgins kept in Rome alwayes burning * The hypocrite seemes upright till times of trial come The chrystal looks like pearl till it comes to the hammering The hypocrite is good only in Sun-shine he cannot sail in a storme but retreats to the shore Naturalists report of the Chelydonian stone that it will retaine its vertue no longer then it is enclosed in gold An embleme of hypocrites who are good only while they are inclosed in golden prosperity take them out of the gold and they lose that vertue they did seem to have descinit in piscem mulier formosa superne Unsound professours like green timber shrink in the hot Sunne of persecution The heat of the fiery trial cooles their zeale An upright man whatever he loseth he holds fast his integrity he is like wine full of spirits which is good to the last drawing The three children or rather the three champions were invincisible in their courage Dan. 3. 18. neither Nebuchadnezzars musick could flatter them nor his furnace scare them out of their Religion * Paul glories in his sufferings Rom. 5. 3. he shakes his chaine and displays it as an ensigne of honour Ignatius calls his fetters his spiritual pearles they were as precious to him as a neck-lace of pearle Thus the upright man though death be in the way spurs on to the end of the race he is most swift towards the centre Of him it may be said Thou hast kept the best wine till now XV An upright man endeavours to make others upright 't is his work to make crooked things streight * Where there is life there is a power of propagation 1 Cor. 4. 14. In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel a good man labours to make others good as fire doth assimilate and turn every thing into its own nature Luke 22. 32. When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren The upright man is in the place of God to his brother he increaseth his knowledge confirmes his faith enflames his love if he sees his brother declining he labours to reduce him when the house begins to leane you put under a strait piece of timber to support it Another begining to lean to errour the upright Christian as strait timber doth underprop and support him And thus I have set before you the upright man he is worth a marking and beholding I have drawn the upright mans picture and the use I would make of all is this that you would fall in love with this picture and that you would endeavour to resemble it And there is a great Motive in the text to make you fall in love with uprightnesse See what a badge of honour is put upon the upright man God calls him perfect {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Mark the perfect man Quest But can any man be perfect in this life Who can say I have made my heart cleane I am pure from my sin Prov. 20. 9. Answ. Far be it from me to hold with the Katharists and Familists that a Christian is pure from sinne in this life If there were no Bible to confute that opinion a Christians own experience might do it We finde the continual ebullitions and motions of sinne working in our members Paul cries out of a body of death Rom. 7. 24. The Saints though they are comely yet black Grace in this life is like gold in the oare full of mixture but yet in an evangelical sense the upright man is said to be perfect and that five manner of wayes 1. An upright man is perfect with a perfection of parts though not of degrees There is no part of him but is embroidered
and bespangled with grace though he be sanctified but in part yet in every part therefore grace in a beleever is call'd the new man Col. 3. 10. The work of the Spirit in the heart is a thorow work Psalme 51. 2. wash me thorowly from my iniquity Grace in the heart is like aire in the twilight there is no part of the aire but hath some light in it and in this sense the upright man is perfect 2. The upright man is perfect comparatively in regard of others Thus Noah was perfect in his generation Gen. 6. 9. Noah compared with the prophane world was a perfect man gold in the oare compared with lead or brasse is perfect a field of wheat though it may have some thistles growing in it yet compar'd with a field of tares is perfect 3. The upright man is perfect in regard of his aimes he doth collimare level at the mark of perfection The upright man breaths after perfection and therefore he is said not to sinne 1 John 3. 9. because though he be not without sinne yet his will is against sinne * he hath voted sinne down though this bosome traitour rebels When he failes he weeps and this is a Gospel-perfection 4. The upright man is perfect through the righteousness of Christ he is perfectly justified Col. 2. 10. ye are compleat in him through the redglasse every thing appears red so through the glass of Christs blood the soule is look'd upon as beautiful and glorious He that hath on Christs seamlesse coat is perfect He that hath the righteousnesse of God is perfect 2 Cor. 5. 21. 5. God calls the upright man perfect because he intends to make him so Christ calls his Spouse his undesiled Cant. 5. 2. Open to me my dove my undefiled or as the original word is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} my perfect not that the Spouse is so she hath her {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} her spots and blemishes but yet undefiled because Christ intends to make her so God hath chosen us to perfection * Eph. 1. 4. a limner that hath begun the rude draught of a picture he looks upon it what he intends to make it he intends to lay it in its own orient colours in this life there is but the first draught the imperfect lineaments of grace drawn in our soules yet God calls us perfect because he intends by the pensil of the holy Ghost to draw us out in our orient beauty and lay the Virmillion colour of glory upon us Thus the upright man is perfect it is as sure to be done as if it were done already And so much for the first part of my text The upright mans Character I proceed now briefly to the second which is the upright mans Crown in these words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The end of that man is peace as the upright is honorable while he lives he is perfect so he is happy when he dies His end is peace The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} peace incircles all blessednesse in it The end of that man is peace a wise man looks to the end of a thing Eccles. 7. 8. better is the end of a thing then the beginning So peaceable is the end of an upright man that Balaam desired it Numb. 23. 10. Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Now the upright man goes off the stage of this world wearing a tripple Crown of peace 1. He hath peace with God * God saith to him be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee I have nothing against thee thou hast laid thy sins to heart and I will not lay them to they charge The Jewish Rabbins say that Moses died with a kisse from Gods mouth the upright man dies embracing Christ and kissing the promises 2. He hath peace with conscience 1 John 5. 10. He that beleeves hath the witnesse in himself his end must needs be peace that hath a smiling God and a smiling conscience Austin * calls it the Paradise of a good conscience a godly man is in this Paradise before he dies What sweet musick doth the bird of conscience make in the breast of a beleever be of good comfort saith conscience thou hast walk'd uprightly in a crooked generation fear not death This is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the fore-taste of heaven here is Manna in the golden pot he that dies with peace of conscience flies to heaven as Noahs Dove to the Ark with an Olive-branch in his mouth 3. The upright man hath peace with the Saints he hath their good word they embalme his memory and erect for him monuments of honour in their hearts Thus the upright mans end is peace he is renoun'd among the people of God he inherits not their censure but their praise he is carried to his grave with a shoure of tears Use 1. See a great difference between the godly and the wicked in their end The end of the upright man is peace but the end of the wicked is to be cut off Psal. 37. 38. a wicked mans end is shame and horrour he dies with convulsion-fits of conscience he lives in a calme but dies in a storme Job 27. 20. a tempest steals him away in the night like those fish Pliny speaks of which swim along pleasantly till they fall into the mare mortuum or dead sea to every sinner I say as Abner to Joab 2 Sam. 2. 26. knowest thou not that it will be bitternesse in the latter end What is the end of hypocrites Iob 8. 13. Their hope shall be cut off What is the end of Apostates 2 Pet. 2. 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome their latter end is worse with them Peter Castellon Bishop of Marsten having gotten a great estate began to inveigh in his Sermons at Orleands against the profession of Religion sitting at a time in his chaire he fell into a strange disease which no Physician had ever seen one part of his body was extream hot and burned like fire the other part cold and frozen like yce and thus with cries and groanes finished his life The end of the wicked is to be cut off when they are at their lives end they are at their wits end Psal. 107. 27. Obj. But do we not see the worst men go out of the world as quietly and smoothly as any do not they die in peace Answ. 1. If a wicked man seemes to have peace at death it is not from the knowledge of his happinesse but from the ignorance of his danger Haman went merrily to the banquet but little did he think what a second course was to be serv'd in and that his life must pay the shot Answ.