that by turning our feet unto God's Testimonies is meant First Our examining and judging of our ways by comparing them with God's Commandments Secondly Our amending them by making them conformable to those directions the word Turning being expressive of both these notions And indeed if we turn as God commands us to the Law and to the Testimony we shall find it a light unto our feet and a lanthorn to our paths in each of these respects for the Commandment is a lamp and the Law a light directing us to the knowledge and discovery of Sin By the help of this instruction we shall think effectually on our ways we shall see how exactly we have walked by the rule of life prescribed us or wherein we have swerved and varied from it His Testimonies will be Evidences of his pleasure and our obedience they will shew us whether we have walked Godly righteously and soberly in this present world in respect of him our neighbour and our selves or have broke loose from the restraints and over-leaped the fences of Religion in impiety injustice or intemperance And if we turn our feet unto God's Testimonies in this sense we shall quickly turn them in the other We shall make haste and not delay to keep his Commandments that is to pay an entire obedience to them for the future in doing all that they require and abstaining from whatever they forbid Now in this turning consists the whole work and business of repentance unto Salvation such a repentance as will need no repenting of for this includes Aversion and Conversion the necessary qualifications of it for Repentance as the Original word imports is a change of mind for the better such a change as prevails upon the actions to accompany it for the Greek Verb signifies to be wise after the commission of an errour upon due reflection and serious thinking on our ways as David declares he was We know repentance hath properly its operation where there hath been the habit of some sin and in a mind if not wholly yet in some sort averse to Vertue and Religion insomuch that it doth not apply it self to the practice of it nor exert it in any action but on the contrary rather gives it self up to be governed by appetite and to follow its own inventions Now when we think upon our ways and the reflection represents to our minds the evil of such doings and takes off the affection and tendency we had to them making us put on resolutions to forsake them this is properly a turning from them and the Psalmist means it as one part of the result and consequence of his thinking on his ways that he turned his feet from the evil of them This is the term from whence we are to begin our progress in the ways of Godliness the considering and turning away from all the transgressions that we have committed Ezek. 18.28 But then there must be the term to which we are to move our repentance from dead works must terminate in serving the living God and make his testimonies our delight and our Counsellors to direct our ways And when we are in this good and right way to Salvation we must go vigorously on for if we once stand still it will be in the way of sinners and we shall quickly go astray again among those whose ways are crooked and they froward in their paths Nor may we at all look back upon our former ways as Lot's Wife did on Sodom with a fondness and kind remembrance of them with concern and reluctancy for quitting them for this will be an argument that we are not truly turned unto God's Testimonies and if our thoughts and affections are not in a direct Act looking towards them our Lord will no more receive us than the Samaritans wou'd our Saviour because his face was as though he would go to Ierusalem The Word and Law of God is the Rule that must guide our ways if we desire to walk humbly and acceptably with him he hath shewn us in it what is good and revealed his whole counsel to us And if we have respect unto these his ways in the guidance and direction of our own we shall be sure not to be mistaken in them For the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul and his Testimony is sure making wise the simple The keeping his Precepts made David wiser than the aged and gave him more understanding than his Teachers And his Statutes must needs rejoice our hearts to see our selves in such a certain way to Happiness when his Commandments have enlightned our eyes to find it And if we wou'd be acquainted with all even our secret faults and keep back from the dominion of presumptuous sins and live innocent from the great Transgressions from the Testimonies of our God we shall receive these benefits we shall be warned by them from our iniquities and in keeping them we shall find great reward But because the way of man is not of himself neither is it in him to direct his steps but his goings are of the Lord. We may very well put the question How can a man then understand his own way Prov. 20.24 But the Answer is as ready that it must be by applying himself to him that giveth wisdom and out of whose mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Prov. 2.6 for the preparations of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord and he will direct his work in truth Let us beseech him therefore who knoweth all our thoughts so to direct and guide them in the knowledge and discovery of our ways that no past evil in them may escape our observation and repentance and that no inadvertency or neglect may suffer them to be corrupted by future errours but that he will please so to order our paths by the influence of his holy Word and Spirit that he may delight in our ways and we obtain Salvation by them through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS
of iniquity They therefore who look for such a Heaven must be diligent that they may be found without spot and blameless the only qualification for it 2 Pet. 3.4 It is our duty if we would entertain a reasonable hope to partake of God's illustrious purity in Heaven to make as near approaches to it as we can on Earth by purging our selves from sin and extirpating our vices and impurities that so we may become Vessels of Honour sanctified and meet for the Master's use Nor will it suffice us to be transformed into the resemblance of our Lord only in what relates to his more exalted State but we must be assimilated to him in his humiliation and abasement upon all occasions for it If we would receive a Crown of Glory from his hands we must submit our heads to be crowned like his with thorns and not startle at his Cross when it is laid upon our shoulders but bear the burden as chearfully for his sake as he carried it for ours We must despise the shame and ignominy of it for the joy that is set before us or else we must not hope to sit down with him at the right hand of the Throne of God For if we refuse to endure the hardships to which his service sometimes exposes us we have no pretence to its rewards for the way to accompany him in his triumphs is to follow him in his sufferings and when we have thus born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly St. Paul tells us that only when tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope that is the certain hope which maketh not ashamed Rom. 5.3 4 5. for it is a well grounded hope and shall not be disappointed but what ever hope we entertain which is not the consequence of that Climax which is not begot by those degrees is the hope of Hypocrites which shall perish We come now to consider the Fourth thing to be thought on in our Ways and that is safety of them By which is intended their being such in which we may acquiesce and think our selves secure and be willing to be found in them at that day when we must pass an examination of them We know that we must all appear before the Iudgment Seat of Christ to give an account of all things done in the Body whether good or evil Now doubtless it imports us to consider whether our ways are such as will endure this Test whether we have supplyed our selves with Oyl and trimmed our Lamps against the coming of the Bridegroom or like the foolish Virgins in the Parable lose the opportunity of going in with him into the Marriage-Chamber while we are seeking in vain to buy and whether we have got on such a Wedding Garment as will priviledge us to sit at the table with the other guests or have neglected to provide one and for that reason shall be excluded thence and cast into outer darkness St. Paul who had declared of himself that he was touching the righteousness which is in the Law blameless Phil. 3.6 yet desires to be found at the last day in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ. He was able to challenge the World as our Saviour did to convince him of Sin in the breach of the letter of the Law and yet durst not rely on his own righteousness to be found in it at the day of Accounts He knew that God doth not see as Man seeth that men are too superficial in their expositions of the Law and more in their obedience to it and would overlook many failings and infirmities which could not escape the sight and sentence of that discerning God whose Eyes are on the Ways of Man and to whom both his inward thoughts and heart be they never so deep are open He knew that no man how good how innocent soever could escape condemnation in that Judgment if he should be called to a strict account for the most inoffensive day of his whole life without the Merits and Righteousness of Jesus Christ to plead for and excuse him And if this great Apostle found in his very righteousness in his whitest innocency and most unerring state something which he durst not stand to what confidence shall weaker Christians have in their own performances and if the Righteous scarcely be saved where then shall the Vngodly and the Sinner appear What shall become of them who from their tender infancy have been imployed in the drudgeries of Satan and bending their course to Hell whose unrepented sins shall at that day attend them in their crimson liveries and be rendered heinous indeed by all the aggravating circumstances whereby sin is capable of being made exceeding sinful What then shall the Adulterer do who durst not venture on his darling sin without the favourable shelter of the twylight or the kind concealment of a disguise when his deeds of darkness shall be brought to light and his nakedness made a spectacle to Men and Angels If the morning was to him as the shadow of death and a discovery bred strange confusion in him then what guilty blushes shall overspread his face what anxious apprehensions shall terrifie his Soul when he sees his secret filthiness which he took such care to hide made publick and Hell fire prepared as a suitable punishment for his burning lust What then shall the prodigious Swearer do who bids defiance to Heaven with horrid Oaths and Blasphemies and treats his Creator more contemptibly than he would use one of his inferiours when he finds that God will not hold him guiltless for takeing his name in vain In vain indeed since it redounds so much to the dishonour of his Maker so much to the prejudice of his Soul without any the least procurement nay prospect of advantage even in his temporal interests What refuge shall they find who avowedly declare against all religion denying God with the very breath he gave them and employ that reason by which he exalted them above all earthly creatures to represent him lower than the meanest Would the Drunkard be found sitting at his Cups with his understanding drowned in his liquor when the woe denounced against them that are mighty to drink Wine shall be ready to be put in execution Would he who hath greedily gained of his neighbour by extortion be taken with the spoyle of the poor in his house when the Lord comes to enter into judgment with him Would the Perjurer be surprised with a false Oath in his mouth and the reward of wickedness in his hands when a severer curse than that represented by the flying Roll Zech. 5.2 3. shall be sent to consume not his house alone but himself for ever Or would the Murderer be caught in the inhumane act with the stains of reeking gore upon him in that day when God shall make inquisition for blood Let the Hypocrite who embraces
in him we live and move and have our being And thirdly That he is every where by his Providence that care which he continually manifests for the Welfare and Preservation of his Creatures in filling them with plenteousness which makes the Eyes of all things wait upon him But how little soever we may think our selves concern'd in these respects of God's Omnipresence there is another which we must consider and that is his being every where and always present with us as a Witness of our Actions He sees our Ways and counts all our Steps if we have walked in vanity or our Feet have hasted to deceit if our steps have turned out of the way and our hearts rambled after our eyes he weighs us in an even balance and there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves or their wicked deeds from him For he is concerned to have his Laws obeyed and to do an impartial Justice by rewarding all the Observers and punishing all the Transgressors of them and therefore is present with every one and strictly notes his Actions whether good or bad that he may know his Integrity and not fail to give him a suitable Recompence Now the Judgment that is made of any Action depends chiefly upon the Actor's design and intention in it the sincerity or insincerity of which is not easily discernable by Man since by subtle Reserves we keep our little World incognito and free from the Discoveries of Men and therefore it is requisite that as we have nothing but what we have received from God so we should have nothing but what should be liable to his Observation that we may be punished and rewarded by him not according to the appearance but the reality of our Deserts which can never be truly understood by Men or recompensed by humane Laws but can as little escape his fight and animadversion to whom all Hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hid And since no place of retirement can conceal us no cunning disguise us from his knowledge and since he is a Judge to punish as well as a Witness to remark our Ways how ought this Consideration to put a restraint upon us from entertaining wicked thoughts which are an abomination to him from uttering idle words for every one of which we shall give an account in the Day of Judgment and from working Iniquity which will be our ruine in so agust and terrible a Presence How shall we dare to attempt or design any thing that is ill if we will give our selves leave to think that how private soever we are how closely soever secured from the Eyes of Men yet an avenging God stands by and sees us a God who will bring every work to judgment with every secret thing He must be a bold Thief who would venture to steal before a Judge and there are no Men so prostigate and rude into whom the Presence of an earthly Prince would not strike an awe and deter them from the violation of his Precepts to his Face Nay the company of some grave serious Person to whom an unwilling deference is paid shall restrain the lewdest and profanest Wretches and confine them within the bounds of Modesty and good Manners And shall we have a greater Dread and Reverence for a temporal and momentany Authority and respect frail man meerly on the account of his God-like Power and Qualities more than him who is the Author of that Power and the Original of those Perfections If we are afraid to have our Fellow-creatures conscious of our Crimes why do not we stand more in awe of the most effectual Witness God himself Is it because we think he will keep our Counsel and never publish or divulge our Secrets Let not that unhappy Mistake abuse us it would be well for us indeed if the reason of God's continual Presence with us were only to be informed of our Doings and to satisfie his Curiosity and that he would be content with making Remarks upon our Actions without giving us any farther trouble but we may be sure the end of his Presence with us and Knowledge of us is that he may do us justice which he doth not always defer till the Great Day of General Accounts when the secret of all hearts shall be disclosed For we see often the closest Sinners who have committed their Wickedness with the greatest secrecy imaginable and thought themselves secure because no mortal Eye cou'd detect or â—â—cuse them have been discovered purely by Providence And the most exquisite Hypocrites have in time had their Vizards taken off by the hand of an over-ruling Power whose Wise Disposal is never more conspicuous than in giving such Dissemblers and Triflers their due reward But if none of these extraordinary events should happen yet is not the Vengeance of that Day in which he will judge the world with righteousness to be at all rever'd and dreaded Is not that shame and confusion of face which will then come on all especially secret Sinners over and above the sentence of Eternal Punishment to be regarded in the least when our secret Sins shall be laid as open in the presence of Angels Men and Devils as they were to God before When whatsoever hath been done in secret shall be proclaimed upon the house-top and we shall find too late that all our dissimulation served only to expose us the more at last If then we would gain Esteem and Credit in the World if we would escape Contempt and Ignominy both here and before the Great Tribunal if we would prove our selves true and faithful Servants of our Master the only way is to have this Thought always in our Minds that whether we are allured and tempted to any Evil by privacy and opportunity or whether we are moved to any Good whether publick or private we are in God's sight who sees in secret and will reward us openly It is certain we do not neglect to think upon our Ways on this account for want of being reminded of it for God complains of our little regard to his taking notice of our Ways that we consider not in our Hearts that he considers all our Wickedness that they are before his Face Hos. 7.2 He cannot but admire that we should forget what he remembers especially when our remembring our Sins is the most effectual means to make him think on them no more or that we should never look back to that which is still before his Face as if that which will expose us to his Fury were not worth our concern or regard If then our Ways are considered by him who raised us out of the Dust and can with a Frown reduce us to our primitive Nothing Nay if he who cannot only kill the Body but cast both Body and Soul into Hell-fire eternally sets our Misdeeds before him and our secret Sins in the light of his Countenance Sure this is reason enough to prevail with us to stay