Righteousness Enoch walked with God Noah walked with God Good company will make any way pleasant how craggy or dirty soever our way may be under foot it 's pleasant to see the Sun shine over us Psal 50. 23. To him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God The Lord meets his people in his Wayes and causes all his goodness to pass on before them proclaiming his Name The Lord gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness This Vision of God makes all the labours and difficulties of this way sweet pleasant to them certainly this is a blessed way for God is in it Where is blessedness to be had but in God how is blessedness to be had in God but in beholding and enjoying of him wherein stands the blessedness of Heaven but in the Vision and Fruition of God Christians let all the ungodly world say all they can to disgrace and disparage the way of Righteousness as a wretched disconsolate and contemptible way yet till they can confute your senses and make you not to believe what you taste and see be not discouraged neither let them delude you into any better opinion of their ways of sin from any pleasure credit ease or gain that is in them God is in the way of Righteousness and there alone to be found and enjoyed and therefore this is the most blessed and excellent way 4. It is the way of the Kingdome the proper excellency of the means stands in this That it will certainly bring about its end that 's our best way that will bring us safely home This way is called the way of life Psal 16. 11. Thou wilt shew me the path of life 2 Pet. 1. 5 11. Add to your faith vertue to vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance patience godliness c. For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom If there were no other excellency of this way yet this is enough to commend it and exalt it above all other ways that it 's the way to Heaven If the way of Holiness and Righteousness were in all other respects as despicable and uncomfortable a way as the world imagine it If Godliness were in it self as great a burden and bondage as carnal men account it If all the reproaches and slanders and calumnies and lying reports that ungodly men cast upon the way of the Lord were true yet this that it 's the way to everlasting blessedness would answer all that is spoken against it If you were to go to London upon a business wherein your life and all that ever you had were concerned you would not stand reasoning thus Is not the way to York a better and more pleasant way Whatever the way to London be how long or how dirty or how dangerous or how hard to finde soever it be yet your life estate depending on your going thither leaving all other wayes disputes about them you would take the way that leads thither The way of the Lord whatever you have to say against it to discourage or make you unwilling to travel it yet 't is the only way you have to save your souls the only way to eternal blessedness when you have made all your objections and all your excuses you must take up this holy course of life or you can never come into the Kingdom of God The way of carnal Jollity and Merriment is as you think a more pleasant and delightful way But is this your way to Heaven The way of covetousness and worldliness you count a more gainful and profitable way but is this the way of life The way of sloth fulness and idleness is you think an easie way but is this the way of the Kingdom The strict and severe way of Holiness hath little carnal delight ease and worldly profit in it but is not this the way to everlasting life Heb. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see God Now if all this be so search sinners search and consider if it be not so consult the Scriptures consult your Reasons and Consciences and see if you find them not all bearing witness to this Truth and if these things be so as hath been said then come all ye foolish and vain-hearted persons and judge of the unreasonableness of these scoffing demands of the looser sort to the people of God who in scorn and derision will be often asking of them why must you be so nice Why so precise Why so strict and making so much ado about every small matterâ— Why cannot you be content to do as others and take the same liberty as others Why 't is all one as if they should demand of them Why will you keep your way the way of Life Why will you be saved Why can't you be content to be damned as well as others Is there not a great deal of wisdom and reason in such questionings and scoffing demands If you stood by a dangerous mighty Bogue through which there was one narrow tract of firm ground and should see a company of poor Creatures even sunk and almost swallowed up and choak'd in the mud and mire on the one hand and the other and yet should you see them laughing and mocking and jeering at those who keep the narrow tract of firm ground that would bring them safely over Would you not say they were all mad or bewitched This is the case of foolish Worldlings they are sunk in the Mud they are even swallowed up and choaked with their lusts and ready to perish and yet they fall a laughing and deriding of them who will keep the sure way Sinners what do you mean you are sinking you are sinking a few steps further and you will be swallowed up Why will you not come back and get into this safe way Leave your scoffing at the Saints and learn of them leave your judging and censuring and follow them in the same holy steps that they are going in before you II. They are upright and exact in the way they walk on in the straight way with a staight foot Psal 119. 1. Blessed are the undefiled in the way or the perfect or entire in the way Psal 32. 1. I said I will take heed to my wayes that I offend not It 's said of Caleb Numb 14. 24. That he followed the Lord fully Luk. 1. 6. 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience that in all simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 1 Thes 2. 20. Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and blamelesly we behaved our selves among you Observe it they lived a holy harmelesse blamelesse life and that holinesse which appeared upon them was not a cheat or juggle to ' deceive the world but was really what it appeared to be and for this they appealed to a threefold witness 1. A witness in their breasts the
leave these evil fruits to grow only on evil trees where we can expect nothing else Whilst we cannot look to gather Grapes of Thorns or Olive-berries of Thistles let not the fruit of the Bramble or the â—rickles of the Thistle be found sprouting out of â—he root of the Olive Let the Saints still be found what they were of old Doves Lambs Lillies â—mong Thorns Let there be nothing that hurts or â—ffends in all the Mountain of the Lord. Let the â—ricking briar and grieving thorn be rather in our sides than in our mouths Let blessing and praising and praying and intreating take up all the room that there be no place left for wrath and contention And whilst we take this care about our words let us take as great a care about our works Let there be no virulence in our â—ongues nor violence in our hands Let there be no deceit in our Lips nor falshood in our dealings Let us speak the words of truth and sobernesse and let us keep the way oâ— righteousnesse and peace Let us walk humbly with God and let us do justly and love mercy and live peaceably with men Let good words and good works meet together let Religion and Righteousnesse kiss each other let peace spring up out of the Earth as Grace hath looked down from them Let us add to our Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godlinesse to Godliness brotherly Kindnesse to brotberly Kindnesse Charity Finally whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely what so ever things are of good report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things Brethren so speak ye and so walk these things do live in peace and love and the God-peace shall be with you 2. In special Carry your selues well in anâ— towards your Families You that are Governour of Families you have more souls than your own to look to You have curam animarum the chargâ— of souls lying upon you You are not only to look to your Families in matters civil but in matters of Religion In the Law the Master of the Family was by the appointment of God to circumcise all the males in his house In the fourth Commandment the Master of the Family is charged not only to keep the Sabbath himself but to see that his whole Family kept it Thou shalt do no work therein and no only so but neither thy Son nor thy Daughter c. Parents are required Ephes 6. 4. To bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord to nurse them up for God to nourish them up in the words of Faith and good Doctrine to suckle their souls with the milk of the Word as well as their bodies with the Milk of the breasts Now where there is a charge of Souls there must be an account given of Souls When there is a Child brought forth or a Servant brought into thy Family God sayes to thee as the man in the Prophets parable 1 King 20. 39. Keep this man look to this man if he be lost Thy Life shall go for his Life If any in the house perish through thy neglect thy Life shall go for his life thy Soul shall go for his Soul This is thy charge and if thou be not faithful so shall thy Judgment be But what must we do for the right ordering and governing our Families Why 1. Instruct your Families teach them the way of the Lord dwell in your Houses as men of knowledge and make God known to all yours by reading and acquainting them with the Scriptures which are able to make them wise unto Salvation by Catechizing them c. 2. Endeavour their Conversation to God by speaking often to them of the faithfulnesse and misery of their natural state of the nature and necessity of conversion by enquiring often into the state of their Souls 3. Bring them into Covenant with God as you have already done it vertually in bringing thâ—m to be baptized so when they are grown up and well instructed in the principles of Christianity and made sensible of their baptismal Engagement endeavour to bring them to an express dedicating and engaging themselves to the Lord according to those directions that have been formerly given to Christians in general 4. Teach them to pray and call upon them often and see to it that they neglect it not 5. Pray for them and pray with them 6. Dispense your favours and frowns your corrections and encouragements not only as they are more or less towardly to you-ward but as they are more or less tractable and careful in the matters of God 5. In your disposal of them either to callings or in marriage have a special regard to the advantage of their Souls I can now but name these particulars which I have formerly more largely insisted on and pressed upon you 8. Be examples of holinesse to them walk in the midst of your house with a perfect heart do not unteach them by your practice what they have learned from your instructions do not teach them to slight your words by the unsuitableness of your wayes to them For a conclusion of the whole observe farther these four general directions 1. Be Sincere 2. Be Steady 3. Be fruitful 4. Be Stedfast I. In your whole course and all the particular actions of it be sincere Sincerity is not a distinct grace but notes the truth of every grace and gracious aicton There is a sincerity of Our State Our Actions 1. There is a sincerity of our state That notes the uprightness of our hearts in the main and hath been already desoribed in the directions I have given in the duty of self-examination 2. There is a sincerity of our actions This is two-fold either such as respects particular and single actions or the series of our actions our whole course 2 Cor. 11. 12. This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience that in all simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the world in all simplicity and godly sincerity There is a natural sincerity and a godly sincerity natural sincerity imports no more but simplicity or plain-heartedness when there is no guile or deceit in any action no purpose to deceive no pretence of what is not intended no Conscience of any evil in what we do nor any evil intent in it In this sense God bears witnesse of Abimelecks integrity Gen. 20. 6. Testifying concerning his taking Abrahams Wife that he did it in the integrity of his heart that is he knew no evil in it He knew not that she was another Mans Wife nor intended any wrong to her Husband in it Then there is also a godly sincerity this supposes the sincerity of our state He cannot have his conversation in godly sincerity that is not first a godly man It concludes in
the enjoying these Earthly things when as for Souls and the things of another World little or no care is taken about them and as little pleasure taken in them Direct 1. Consider what the Scripture speakâ— concerning the vanity and misery of such a life Psal 30. 6. Surely man walketh in a vain shew he is disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them Matth. 16. 26. For what is man profited if he should gain the whole World and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Jam. 5. 1. 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat you as it were fire ye have heaped up treasures together for the last dayes Luke 12. 16 17 18 19 20. And he spake a parable unto them concerning a certain rich man whose ground brought forth very plenteously and he thought within himself saying What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits And he said this I will do I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry But God said to him Thou fool this night shall thy soul â—e required of thee then whose shall those things be that thou hast provided So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Direct 2. Ask thy heart Quest 1. Is not my life a worldly life What have I done for hereafter What have I laid up for the World to come Have I been trading for Heaven have I been trading in faith repentance prayer have I been sowing in righteteousness and mercy following of holiness and purity What labour and pains have I taken in seeeking Knowledge Grace an interest in Christ reconciliation with God c. that it might be well with my soule hereafter My body is cared for I have enough laid up for that my Wife and Children are all cared for I have made sufficient provision for them but is not my poor soul uncared for Quest 2. How long will this life and the comforts of it last My soul is immortal and must never die I must have a being some where or other to all Eternity Is the happiness which I have chosen and pursued an everlasting happiness Are my Money and my Corn and my Land everlasting Quest 3. What shall become of me when this life and the comforts of it fail Will this golden or silveâ—â—â—ey open the gate of Heaven to me Will my money buy me an inheritance in the Land of Promise will my thriftiness and good husbandry for this world plead for me before my Judge or excuse my neglect of my soul Will the memory of my plenty or my pleasure or my ease in which I have lived here be a comfort and refreshing to my soul hereafter Can all my carnal friends and companions with whom I have lived so merrily and spent so many a jolly hour can their good word stand me in stead then Will God own me or Christ plead for me then Is not this he whom I have despised and refused to hearken to and will he not then say to me Go to the Gods whom thou hast chosen Go to thy Money and thy pleasures and thy companions let these save thee if they can Oh what shall I do and where shall I dwell for ever if I continue in this vain course Quest 4. Shall I now set upon a better course Shall I in earnest wilt thou oh my Soul wilt thou now in earnest become an adventurer for another World A Traveller to the holy City which is above Wilt thou cast in thy lot with Christ and the everlasting Gospel Wilt thou at last fall to labour for the true Riches and enduring substance Wilt thou provide the bags that wax not old a treasure in Heaven that faileth not Shall I take this course or shall I continue as I am V. Head concerning the excellency blessednesse and necessity of a Godly Life Direct 1. COnsider what the Scriptures speak concerning The Entrance Nature Blessedness Necessity of a godly Life 1. Concerning the Entrance of a godly Life or the way by which we come to be godly that is exprest by being born of God John 3. by being converted to God Acts 3. 19. Repent therefore and be converted by having Christ formed upon our hearts Gal. 4. 19 My little children of whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you A new birth must go before a new life conversion before an holy conversation 2. Concerning the Nature of a Godly Life which the Scripture sets forth in these and such like expressions Walking with God walking in the fear of God and the Comforts of the Holy Ghost living by Faith having our Conversation in Heaven and as it becometh the Gospel being holy harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked Generation shining forth as lights in the world denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts living righteously soberly and godly keeping our selves unspotted from the world walking circumspectly keeping a good Conscience c. By all which expressions and many such like it appears that there is more required to a true godly life than is ordinarily imagined 3. Of the Blessedness of a Godly life Psal 1. 1 2. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the way of sinners but his delight is in the Law of the Lord Psal 4. 4. The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself hath taken him out from the rest of the world to be his own peculiar possession his Favourite his Servant his Child on whom he intends to bestow himself for an Inheritance Direct 2. Ask thy heart Quest 1. Am I converted to God Is there any supernatural change wrought upon me Is this change a thorough change Conversion is not a slight but a great and marvellous change Am I become a new Creature Is there a new light set up in me a new life begotten in my heart Am I become a man of quite another constitution temper disposition then formerly I was Am I born from above and is my heart now set upon things above Quest 2. Is my life a godly life Do I think in my Conscience that the course of life which I live is that which the Scriptures mean by walking with God living by Faith having the conversation in Heaven keeping a good Conscience walking circumspectly c. Can this fleshly idle easie trifling life which I live be possibly accounted a truly godly life Quest 3. Is a godly life necessary Can I be saved without it Do not the Scriptures entail everlasting blessedness in
in-come and success of all thy Duties What is all my praying reading hearing c. come to What is brought forth Is the work done for which all these are Are my Sins and my Soul parted Are my Companions in sin abandoned Is Christ and my Soul united Beware you never make Praying and Hearing to serve you instead of believing and Repenâ—ing But to help you on to it Remember these seaven Words when I am gone 1. Get a sense of thy dreadful state 2. Abandon presently every sin 3. Let not thy hope in Christ lessen thy fear of sin 4. Shake off every sinful Companion 5. Baffle not Conscience once more 6. Make a present close with Christ 7. Fall close to Duties and keep close to Ordinances These things do and the God of peace shall be with you But remember There 's no peace saith my God to the wicked 2. There are others that are near the Kingdome of God Thou art not far from the Kingdome of God There are some that are like Ephraâ—m Hosea 7 8. Cakes half baked like Agrippa almost Christians Acts 26. 29. Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast brought me within a little of Christianity They are come to the threshold of saving Faith within a step of sincere Godliness They have been professing and praying and hoping and wishing themselves in and yet are short of it They have been enlightned in the knowledge of Christ have tasted of the heavenly gift have felt somthing of the sweetness of Christ have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost of many excellent and useful gifts have tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come They have set out after Christ have left the blind and prophane VVorld much behind them have escaped much of the pollutions of this VVorld left many sins taken up with many duties have a name among the Saints have suffered many things for the Name of Christ and notwithstanding all this here they stick they cannot give themselves up fully to Christ somthing or other either the VVorld or their Companions or their pleasures or their ease or their sloth hath such hold on them that they cannot unreservedly resolvedly give themselvs up to the dominion of Jesus Christ nay it may be they cannot tell why yet they cannot do it Though they can say I would be yet they cannot say I will be the Lord's These are near the Kingdome of God but yet short of it He that cannot say I will be can less say I am the Lords But here I must distinguish of two sorts of almost Christians 1. There are some that have reached to almost and are still reaching forwards the state of such is hopeful though it be not safe Oh that we could see more such almost Christians 2. There are others that have reached to and rest in almost who mistaking almost for altogether do there take up their stand These are far from the Kingdome of God Brethren I much fear that among the number of Professors there are more of these almost Christians than we are aware of Oh it would make our hearts shake to consider how far many go to what degree of resignation resolution affection action submission to sufferings they attain and yet fall off at last and thereby shew they were still short of Christ They went out from us because they were not of us I particularly pityâ— many of the more sober Gentry who have a good will to Religion and a faiâ— respect for the Professors of it countenancing holiness doing many worthy things for the Name and Servants of God refraining from the viciousness and vanity of many of their Rank and Quality who yet dwelling in temptations being entangled in carnal correspondencies entertained with an affluence of carnal delights and pleasures and finding hereby a strict self-denying and mortified life to be of greater difficulty to them than to men of lower rank are apt to think it not of such necessity who may possibly upon a narrow enquiry discern after all their good hopes of themselves and the great opinions of others concerning them that they are yet short of that simplicity and godly sincerity which alone will prove them Christians indeed Blessed be God there are amongst us such those who have broken through all temptations have adventured upon the disobliging all the World have laid down their honours pleasures friends and all their carnal interests whatsoever at the feet of Christ and preferring a close Communion with God the peace of a good Conscience the joyes of Religion yea the very reproach of Christ above all their worldly Honours and fleshly pleasures have given themselves up to the power of the Gospel and an exemplary Spiritual and Heavenly life But it is to be feared lest there be also such who have deservedly gam'd great respect among the Saints and gone far along with them who yet are come but to the threshold of Christianity and being afraid to put in there they are in danger to perish everlastingly Quod fere fit non fit He that is but almost saved is damned for altogether Oh Friends what do you mean will you lose all the ground you have gotten all the things you have wrought shall all your sufferings for the name of Christ be lost and in vain after you have tasted the bitterness of the Croâ—s will you not go one step farther and take the joyes of the Cross Is the work of Regeneration brought to the Birth and shall it at last miscarry and prove an abortion would one step more land your Soules in the Kingdom of God are you gotten so near a shore and will you perish in the Harbour Are you gotten off from the tents of the Edomites and gotten even to the borders of Canaan and will you not enter Are you gotten to Pisgah and have a view of the Land of Promise and see that it is a good Land are you come so near as to see that true holiness is such a beautiful State such a blessed State and do you wish your selves in and will you yet die on the other side Jordan you have prayed put on a little more prayer may do it you have laboured and reasoned with and perswaded your hearts give not over a little more labour may prevail Oh that I knew what to say more that might bring you on Oh that the Lord would yet put one word or other in my mouth that might overcome you thâ—t I might shoot one Arrow more that might strike home use one Argument more that might be cogent and gain your full consent to Christ that I might see you safely landed ere I be parted from you Oh think think what a dreadful disappointment this will be for you that are come so near to godliness as that you verily think you have attained it if after all the joys pleasures and hopes the little Religion you have had hath fed you withal you should