you be fully resolved if your resolution slows from an inward root 〈◊〉 inclination Psal 119.112 If it be bottomed on a firm assent to the truth of Scripture-revelation If it be founded on the highest reason and if it be the fruit of mature deliberation you are not far from the kingdom of God yea you have taken some steps in the way to life Quest 3. Can any of you yet think that the holy life you are exhorted to in the Text is more then needs Is it not absolutely necessary that God should be pleased and enjoyed And is not all that is called for in the Text absolutely necessary to the pleasing and enjoying of God Hath not enough been hinted already to convince you hereof And shall not such an argument as necessity and your own necessity turn the scales and fully resolve you and put you past any farther deliberation or delay Sure if this were indeed believed it were impossible but it should Ubi necessitas incumbit non ultra disputandum est fed celerrimè fortiter agendum Reason is but folly when it pleads against necessity Omni arte omni ratione efficacior est necessitas Necessity is that weapon that natural reason taketh to be unresistable Had you been one hour in Heaven would you not say there is an absolute necessity of getting thither Had you been one hour in hell would you not say there is an absolute necessity of escaping it and that there is no necessity to this And would you not thereupon without delay set in good earnest upon the use of the necessary means thereunto Verily thus it would be with you if you did indeed believe the Scripture-record for faith is the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 i. e. faith seeth that which supplieth the want of presence and visibility there is that in faith which effectively is equal to visibility and a present subsistence Do you yield that an holy life is necessary But question whether such a life as hath been exhorted to deserves only the name of an holy life Ask your souls one question Is there any more in all the particulars contained in this Exhortation then what is comprehended in the Scripture-notion of holiness Doth not holiness according to the use of the word in Scripture exclude sin uncleanness all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Thes 4.7 2 Cor. 7.1 which is a non-conformity to the will of God 1 John 3.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and include conformity to the will of God Rom. 12.1 2. Doth not legal holiness include perfect conformity unto the will and holiness of God man fested in his Law and evangelical holiness include a true conformity unto the will and holiness of God manifested in his Son as Mediator Rom. 8 29. what then can you apprehend in the Scripture-notion of that holy life that is absolutely necessary to salvation less then to see that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil Quest 4. Are any of you hindred from hearkening to this Exhortation by conceits that few yea none do yea none can live so holy a life It is indeed certain few do Christ hath told you so much Though there be many seekers yet there are but few strivers to walk in the narrow way that leads to life Mat. 7.13 14. But this is no discouragement You shall not want company in the way to heaven no not good company Prov. 12.10 nor find comfort in your company in the way to hell If you would indeed have the number of holy livers to be greater why do not you increase it by joyning with them Though Christs flock be very little yet all that be of his flock do live this holy life Doth not the Apostle tell you By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God herein it consists hereby it is evidenced that we keep his commandments and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.2 3. Is it not hence evident that such as do sincerely love God not only may but do keep his Commandments yea that it is easie and pleasant to them to live so holy a life If you say you cannot however live thus I ask you how do you know Did you ever try what might be done in this case Did you ever set in good earnest about it Have you not only sought but strove to walk in this narrow way If you have not you have dreadfully mocked God in pretending that it is impossible for you to live so holy a life O! remember God will not be mocked Gal. 6.2 you cannot deceive his eye and he will not be put off with mocking services Quest 5. Are any of you hindred by hopes of coming to heaven in some other easier way that is not revealed in the Bible What is this but to be hindred from changing your life in hopes that Christ will be found a Deceiver and God a Lyar Hath not God by Christ John 12.49 told you not only that there is no other way revealed but that indeed there is none other neither can there be any other I say unto you saith Christ Mat. 5.20 except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case Mark in no case i. e. by no means in no way whatsoever enter into the Kingdom of heaven And can you live more holy lives than the Scribes and Pharisees who were the strictest professors of holiness among the Jews Acts 26.5 lived unless you see that ye walk thus circumspectly Sinners ask your hearts who hath given you these hopes sure not God for he cannot perswade you that his own word is false it must therefore be the Devil who will deceive you And now what will ye any longer hope to be saved whether God will or no will any of you hope for impossibilities any longer will ye hope to be saved without the one thing necessary to salvation Luke 12.4.41 42. without an heart set upon it and a life employed for it O! how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation Heb. 2 3. Quest 6. Are any of you bindred from following the Apostles Exhortation by fears lest the Devil the World and the Flesh will never suffer you to live so strict and precise a life I must indeed tell you that if all the Devil can do those principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places If all that the World can do the men of the world and the things of the world If all the flesh can do the carnal reasonings and fleshly lustings of your own corrupt hearts If all that all these together can do can hinder you you will never be perswaded to set in good earnest upon living so holy a life yet your condition is not hopeless but the more serious and hearty your fears be the
OF HOLY LIVING FIRST A Serious Exhortation thereunto SECONDLY Choice Directions therein both for every WORKING and for every LORDS-DAY Job 36.2 Suffer us a little and we will shew thee what we have yet to speak on Gods Behalf LONDON Printed for William Grantham at the Black-Bear in Westminster-Hall and are to sold by Robert Eveleigh Bookseller in Exo◠1668. A SERIOUS EXHORTATION TO HOLY LIVING By Thomas Mall Isa 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves Men. LONDON Printed for William Grantham at the Black-Bear in Westminster-Hall and are to be sold by Robert Eveleigh Bookseller in Exon. 1668. THE DEDICATION TO THE SINNERS and SAINTS IN ENGLAND especially in EXON and TIVERTON The AUTHOR'S As a publick and permanent testimony of their unfeigned desires that they may be found walking in the narrow way that leadeth unto life and that so they may be saved Devote the ensuing EXHORTATION DIRECTIONS Earnestly beseeching the God of all grace that their Patronage may be the living influences of the quickning Spirit who only is able to protect them from unprofitable reading and forgetful neglects and to make them effectual to their Desirable and Desired ends AN ADVERTISEMENT To the READER AFter the following choice directions were given me by their Author I had some thoughts of getting Mr. Thomas Wadsworth his serious Argumentative and Pathetical Exhortation to an Holy Life from Matth. 5.20 Printed by Andrew Kemb 1661. to be re-printed and prefixt before them not only because of its conciseness but because the Heartthoughts of Sinners especially against an Holy Life are therein so familiarly discovered and movingly removed But that might be injurious to the Stationer though not to the worthy Author by reason of the many Pages transplaced in that Edition so that that useful manual can scarce be used by ordinary Readers However I have now chose to shew thee how a Scholar may write after his Copy and do assure thee that in eo gaudio aliquid discere ut doceam Sen. Ep. 6. I am glad to learn that I may teach Farewel A Serious EXHORTATION TO HOLY LIVING FROM Ephes 5.15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil The Introduction THese words are both a Serious Exhortation and a Gospel-Directory to an holy life First They are a serious Exhortation to an holy life rationally inferr'd from the Exhortation verse 11. There the Apostle exhorts the Ephesians to be Christian Reprovers of others for their unholy lives Here he exhorts them even therefore 〈◊〉 signifies then or therefore to be very careful to live holy lives themselves See then or therefore that ye walk circumspectly c. q. d. Because you are to reprove others see that ye be unreprovable your selves Secondly They are a Gospel-Directory to an holy life rationally inferr'd from the Exhortation Verse 8,9 c. There the Apostle exhorts the believing Ephesians to live holy lives Here he directs them especially how to follow that Exhortation q. d. Seeing it is your duty to walk as children of the light i. e. a very holy life in all goodness and righteousness and truth as it followeth proving yea approving what is acceptable unto God and avoiding yea in word and deed reproving what is displeasing to him c. And that because your state is altered ye were darkness i. e. ye were ignorant and under the reigning and condemning power of sin But now are light in the Lord i. e. now are enlightned and justified and sanctified See therefore that ye walk circumspectly c. This is the onely way wherein you can walk as children of the light I shall at present speak to the words as a serious Exhortation to an holy life and that both to Sinners and to Saints PART I The Exhortation to Sinners FIrst To Sinners See that ye walk circumspectly c. Chap. 1. Way made to the Exhortation by six serious Questions HEre before I proceed any farther I shall ask such these six serious Questions Quest 1. Seeing it is certain 1 that you consist of mortal bodies and immortal soules Heb. 12.9 Matth. 10.28 2 that your soules and bodies must be separated for a time Heb. 9.27 3 that there shall be a resurrection of your bodies John 5.28 29. Acts 24.15 1 Cor. 15.52 53. 4 that at the resurrection there shall be a general judgment for your soules and bodies reunited as well as a particular judgment for your soules as soon as they be separated from your bodies 2 Cor. 5.10 Heb. 9.27 compared with Job 5.4 Cap. 19.28 5 that there is an Heaven and an Hell an eternity of happiness and an eternity of misery after this life to one of which places and states all shall be adjudged Matth. 25.34 41. To which eternity would you be adjudged Would you have the eternal love of God or the eternal wrath of God for your portion in the other world If you are and resolve to continue Gallio's in this matter I should be sorry you should read farther because the following exhortation will undoubtedly be the savour of death unto death unto you Quest 2. Is it not plainly revealed in the Bible that they onely that live an holy life here shall live an happy life hereafter If you doubt of this take your Bibles and turn to the Chapters and Verses How read you in Matth. 5.20 Do not you there find these words of Christ I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven How read you in Luke 13.3 5 Do not you there find these words twice Except you repent i. e. except your life be changed from an unholy to an holy life you shall all likewise perish How read you in Heb. 12.14 Doth not the Apostle Paul there require you to follow after holiness i. e. to live an holy life even upon this very account because without holiness no man shall see God i.e. no man shall have the beatifical vision and fruition of God Quest 3. Is this assertion that is so plainly revealed in the Bible true or false What think you Do not you own the Bible to contain the word of God and dare you be guilty of such blasphemy as to give the God of truth the lye Q. 4. If you do believe that you can never be happy hereafter unless you live an holy life here and that because the Scripture saith it Must not you also believe that that holy life which you must live here must be such a life as the Scripture calls for Can you any other ways know what that holy life is that is of absolute necessity unto salvation then by the Scripture the Word of God And is not that holy life called for in the Text under these expressions See that ye walk circumspectly c Is not this evident both in that the Apostle before he lays down the Exhortation in