and of its due effects p. 50 CHAP. VIII Of the Knowledge of Gods Omniscience or Infinite Wisdome with the due effects p. 57 CHAP. IX Of the Knowledge of Gods Infinite Goodness and Love and of the due impression of it on the soul. p. 65 CHAP. X. Of the Knowledge of God as the first Cause Creator and Preserver of all things All things are for God as the Ultimate End manifested How his Will is still fulfilled Whether he will de eventu that all obey him God willeth not sin Differences ended about it Whether he Decree not or will not ut evenit peccatum Whether he will de eventu that sin shall not come to pass when it doth All Gods works good None to be dishonoured no not our selves our Reason and Free-will as Natural and of God though as vitiated by us and ill disposed we must accuse it p. 76 CHAP. XI Of the Knowledge of God as our Redeemer Infants not in a state of Innocency but of Original sin fully proved The great ends of Redemption enumerated The effects it must have upon the soul. p. 86 CHAP. XII The Knowledge of God the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier and Comforter A further proof of Original sin Twenty considerations by way of Quere's to convince them that deny or extenuate the Sanctifying works of the Holy Ghost ascribing them to Nature and themselves p. 100 CHAP. XIII Of the Knowledge of God as the Absolute Owner Proprietary or Lord of all of his Jus Dominii grounded on his Creation and Redemption and the Uses p. 109 CHAP. XIV Of the Knowledge of God as our Soveraign Governour or King His Jus Imperii The grounds The exercise The uses and effects p. 115 CHAP. XV. Of the Knowledge of God as our most bountiful Benefactor or most Loving Father The Benefits founding this Relation 1. Common 2. Special to his chosen ones The necessary effects p. 124 CHAP. XVI Of the Freedome of God p. 131 CHAP. XVII Of the Justice of God what it is the effects p. 132 CHAP. XVIII Of the Knowledge of Gods Holiness What it is The necessary effects p. 133 CHAP. XIX Of Gods Veracity or Truth and Faithfulness The Uses The Dominicans doctrine of Phyfical efficient immediate predetermination at once obliterateth all Divine faith by denying the Veracity of God which is its formal Object Lying and Perjury abhominable p. 138 CHAP. XX. Of the Knowledge of Gods Mercifulness including his Patience and long suffering and the necessary uses and effects p. 144 CHAP. XXI Of the Knowledge of Gods Dreadfulness or Terribleness and the necessary uses and effects p. 148 ERRATA PAge 20. l. 1. blot out it p. 54. l. 25. r. a fly p. 58. l. 20. r. themselves p. 78. l. 35. r. Doth he not p. 82. l. 7. r. wilfully l. 29. r. he hath l. 3â— r. workers p. 106. l. â— blot out that p. 118. l. 22. r. wheele p. 127. l. 30. r. Object p. 145. l 26 for us r. it p. 146. l. 5 r. breath 's in p. 151. l 18. r. true p. 178. l. 37 blot out of p 187. l. 20. for particular r practical p. 204. l. 26. r would not be p. 219. l. 8. r. possessor p. 229. l. 33. for presumptuous r. awakened p 243 l. 22. r. unproved p. 252. l. 27 r. straining p. 259. l. 5 for do r. no. l. 12. for Hâ— r No. l. 24. after and r. his p. 266. l. 24. for what r that p. 276. l. 10. for any r an l. 21. r. preparation p. 282. l. 22. blot out not p. 306. l. 14. r. grudge and distasts p. 307. l. 4. blot out that p 310. l. 4. for serve r. seem p. 315 l. 27. for might r. wight p. 337. l. 14. for in r is p. 357. l. 16. blot out a. p. 369. l. 20. for formâ— r. found p. 371. l. 33 r. workers p. 372. l. 16. for that r. than p. 375. l. 19 blot out faithful p. 376. l. 20. for of it r. oft p. 377. l. 31. for nor r. no. JOHN 17. 3. And this is Life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent CHAP. I. GOD is the Principal Efficient the Supream Directive and the Ultimate final Cause of man For OF him and THROUGH him and TO him are all things and to him shall be the Glory for ever Rom. 11. 36. The New life or Nature in the Saints is his Image Col. 3. 10. The Principle of it is called The Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. The exercise of that principle including the principle it self is called The life of God Eph. 4. 18. from which the Gentiles are said to be alienated by their ignorance Therefore it is called Holiness which is a separation to God from common use and Gods dwelling in us and ours in him 1 John 4. 12 13. of whom we are said to be born and regenerate 1 John 4. 7. John 3. 5. And our perfection in Glory is our living with God and enjoying him for ever GODLINES then is the comprehensive name of all true Religion Jesus Christ himself came but to restore corrupted man to the Love and Obedience and Fruition of his Creator and at last will give up the Kingdom to the Father that God may be All and in all and the Son himself shall be subject to this end 1 Cor. 15. 24 28. The End of Christs Sacrifice and Intercession is to Reconcile God and man The End of his Doctrine is to teach us to know God The end of his Government is to reduce us to the perfect obedience of our Maker It is therefore the greatest Duty of a Christian to know God as revealed by his Son and it is such a Duty about our Ultimate End as is also our greatest Mercy and Felicity Therefore doth the Lord Jesus here in the Text describe that Life Eternal which he was to give to those whom the Father had given him to consist in Knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent My purpose is in this Treatise to speak only of the first part of the Text The Knowledge of God And first I shall very briefly explain the Text. THIS That is This which I am describing LIFE Life is taken sometime for the Souls abode in the Body which is the Natural Life of man or the souls continuation in its separated state which is the Natural life of the soul and sometimes for the Perfections of Natural life And that either its Natural Perfection that is Its Health and Vivacity or its moral perfection or Rectitude and that is either in the Cause and so God is our Life Christ is our Life the Holy Spirit is our Life or in it self and so Holiness is our Life in the Principle Seed or Habit. Sometime Life is taken for the Work Imployment and Exercise of Life and so a Holy Conversation is our Moral Spiritual or holy life And sometime it is taken for the Felicity of
14. To conclude Vindictive Justice will be doubly honoured upon them that are final rejecters of this grace Though conscience would have had matter enough to work upon for the torment of the sinner and the justifying of God upon the meer violation of the Law of nature or works yet nothing to what it now will have on them that are the despisers of this great salvation For of how much sorer punishment suppose yee shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the Son of God when it is willful impenitency against most excellent means and mercies that is to be charged upon sinners and when they perish because they would not be saved Justice will be most fully glorified before all and in the conscience of the sinner himself All this considered you may see that besides what reasons of the counsel of God are unknown to us there is abundant reason open to our sight from the great advantages of this way why God would rather save us by a Redeemer then in a way of Innocency as our meer Creator But for the answering of all objections against this I must desire you to observe these two things following 1. That we here suppose man a terrestrial inhabitant cloathed with flesh otherwise it is confessed that if he were perfect in heaven where he had the Beatifical Vision to confirm him many of these forementioned advantages to him would be none 2. And it is supposed that God will work on man by Moral means and where he never so infallibly produceth the good of man he doth it in a way agreeable to his nature and present state and that his work of Grace is Sapiential magnifying the contrivance and conduct of his Wisdom as well as his Power otherwise indeed God might have done all without these or any other means 3. The knowledge of God in Christ as our Redeemer must imprint upon the soul those Holy Affections which the design and nature of our Redemption do bespeak and which answer these forementioned ends As 1. It must keep the soul in a sense of the odiousness of sin that must have such a remedy to pardon and destroy it 2. It must raise us to most high and honourable thoughts of our Redeemer the Captain of our Salvation that bringeth back lâ—st sinners unto God and we must study to advance the Glory of our Lord whom the Father hath advanced and set over all 3. It must drive us out of our selves and bring us to be nothing in our own eyes and cause us to have humble penitent self condemning thoughts as men that have been our own undoers and deserved so ill of God and man 4. It must drive us to a full and constant dependance on Christ our Redeemer and on the Father by him As our life is now in the Son as its root and fountain so in him must be our faith and confidence and to him we must daily have recourse and seek to him and to the Father in his Name for all that we need for daily pardon strength protection provision and consolation 5. It must cause us the more to admire the Holiness of God which is so admirably declared in our Redemption and still be sensible how he hateth sin and loveth Purity 6. It must invite and encourage us to draw near to God who hath condescended to come so near to us and as sons we must cry Abba Father and though with reverence yet with holy confidence must set our selves continually before him 7. It must cause us to make it our daily imployment to study the Riches of the Love of God and his abundant mercy manifested in Christ so that above all books in the world we should most diligently and delightfully peruse the Son of God incarnate and in him behold the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the Father And with Paul we should desire to know nothing but Christ crucified and all things should be counted but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord Phil. 3. 8. That we may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and heighth and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God 8. Above all if we know God as our Redeemer we must Live in the Power of holy Love and Gratitude His Manifested Love must prevail with us so far that unfeigned Love to him may be the predominant affection of our souls And being free from the spirit of bondage and slavish fear we must make Love and Thankfulness the sum of our Religion and think not any thing will prove us Christians without prevailing Love to Christ nor that any duty is accepted that proceedeth not from it 9. Redemption must teach us to apply our selves to the holy Laws and Example of our Redeemer for the forming and ordering of our hearts and lives 10. And it must quicken us to Love the Lord with a redoubled vigour and to obey with double resolution and diligence because we are under a double obligation What should a people so Redeemed esteem too much or too dear for God 11. Redemption must make us a more Heavenly people as being Redeemed to the incorruptible inheritance in Heaven The blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 3. 12. Lastly Redemption must cause us to walk the more carefully and with a greater care to avoid all sin and to avoid the threatned wrath of God because sin against such unspeakable Mercy is unspeakably great and condemnation by a Redeemer for despising his grace will be a double condemnation Joh. 3. 19. 36. CHAP. XII 11. THE third Relation in which God is to be Known by us is as he is our Sanctifier and Comforter which is specially ascribed to the Holy Ghost And doubtless as the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost is the Perfecting dispensation without which Creation and Redemption would not attain their ends and as the sin against the Holy Ghost is the great and dangerous sin so our Belief in the Holy Ghost and Knowledge of God as our Sanctifier by the Spirit is not the least or lowest act of our faith or Knowledge And it implieth or containeth these things following 1. We must hence take notice of the certainty of our common original sin The necessity of sanctification proveth the corruption as the necessity of a Redeemer proveth the guilt It is not one but all that are Baptized that must be Baptized into the Name of the Son and Holy Ghost as well as of the Father which is an entering into Covenant with the Son as our Redeemer and with the
spent your time in youth and in your riper age and how many sinful thoughts and words and deeds you have been guilty of how oft you have sinfully pleased your appetites and gratified your flesh and yeilded to temptations and abused mercy and lost your time how oft you have neglected your duty and betrayed your souls how long you have lived in forgetfulness of God and your salvation minding only the things of the flesh and of the world how oft you have sinned ignorantly and against knowledge through carelesness and through rashness through negligence and through presumption in passion and upon deliberation against convictions purposes and promises how oft you have sinned against the precepts of piety to God and of justice and charity to men Think how your sins are multiplied and aggravated more in number then the hours of your lives Aggravated by a world of mercies by the clearest teachings and the lowdest calls and sharpest reproofs and seasonable warnings and by the long and urgent importunities of grace Think of all these and then consider whether you have nothing now to do with God whether it be not a business to be followed with all possible speed and diligence to procure the pardon of all these sins you have no such businesses as these to transact with men you may have business with them which your estates depend upon or which touch your credit commodity or lives but you have no business with men unless in subordination to God which your salvation doth depend upon your eternal happiness is not in their hands They may kill your bodies if God permit them but not your souls You need not sollicite them to pardon your sins against God It is a small matter how you are judged of by man you have one that judgeth you even the Lord 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. No man can forgive sin but God only O then how early how earnestly should you cry to him for mercy Pardon must be obtained now or never There is no Justification for that man at the day of Judgement that is not forgiven and iustified now Blessed then is the man whose iniquity is forgiven whose sin is covered and to whom it is not imputed by the Lord Rom. 4. 7 8. And wo to that man that ever he was born that is then found without the pardon of his sins Think of this as the case deserves and then think if you can that your daily business with God is small 5. Moreover you have Peace of Conscience to obtain and that dependeth upon your Peace with God Conscience will be your accuser condemner and tormenter if you make it not your friend by making God your friend Consider what Conscience hath to say against you and how certainly it will speak home when you would be loth to hear it and bethink you how to answer all its accusations and what will be necessary to make it a messenger of Peace and then think your business with God to be but small if you are able It is no easie matter to get assurance that God is reconciled to you and that he hath forgiven all your sins 6. In order to all this you must be united to Jesus Christ and be made his members that you may have part in him and that he may wash you by his blood and that he may answer for you to his Father woe to you if he be not your righteousness and if you have not him to plead your cause and take upon him your final justification None else can save you from the wrath of God And he is the Saviour only of his body Eph. 5. 23. He hath dyed for you without your own consent and he hath made an universal conditional grant of pardon and salvation before you consented to it But he will not be united to you nor actually forgive and justifie and save you without your own consent And therefore that the Father may draw you to the Son and may give you Christ and Life in him 1 Joh. 5. 9 10 11. when all your hope dependeth on it you may see that you have more to do with God then your senseless hearts have hitherto understood 7. And that you may have a saving interest in Jesus Christ you must have sound Repentance for all your former life of wickedness and a lively effectual faith in Christ Neither sin nor Christ must be made light of Repentance must tell you to the very heart that you have done foolishly in sining and that it is an evil and a bitter thing that you forsook the Lord and that his fear was not in you and thus your wickedness shall correct you and reprove you Jer. 2. 19. And Faith must tell you that Christ is more necessary to you then food or life and that there is no other name given under heaven by which you can be saved Act. 4. 12. And it is not so easie nor so common a thing to Repent and Believe as ignorant presumptuous sinners do imagine It is a greater matter to have a truly humbled contrite heart and to loath your selves for all your sins and to loath those sins and resolvedly give up your selves to Christ and to his Spirit for a holy life then heartlesly and hypocritically to say I am sorry or I Repent without any true Contrition or Renovation And it is a greater matter to betake your selves to Jesus Christ as your only hope to save you both from sin and from damnation then barely through custom and the benefit of education to say I do believe in Christ. I tell you it is so great a work to bring you to sound Repentance and Faith that it must be done by the power of God himself Act. 5. 31. 2 Tim. 2. 25. They are the Gift of God Eph. 2. 8. you must have his spirit to illuminate you Eph. 1. 18. and shew you the odiousness of fin the intolerableness of the wrath of God the necessity and sufficiency the power and willingness of Christ and to overcome all your prejudice and save you from your false opinions and deceits and to repulse the temptations of Satan the world and the flesh which will all rise up against you All this must be done to bring you home to Jesus Christ or else you will have no part in him his righteousness and grace And can you think that you have not most important business with God who must do all this upon you or else you are undone for ever 8. Moreover you must have all the corruptions of your natures healed and your sins subdued and your hearts made new by sanctifying grace and the Image of God implanted in you and your lives made holy and sincerely conformable to the will of God All this must be done or you cannot be acceptable to God nor ever will be saved Though your carnal interest rise against it though your old corrupted natures be against it though your custome and pleasure and worldly gain and honour be against it
the living And so it containeth all the former in their highest perfection that is both Natural Life and Moral-Spiritual Life and the holy exercise thereof together with the full attainment and fruition of God in Glory the End of all ETERNAL That is simply eternal objectively as to God the principal object and Eternal ex parte post subjectively that is Everlasting THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL Not Natural life in it self considered as the Devils and wicked men shall have it But 1. It is the same Moral-Spiritual Life which shall have no End but endure to Eternity It is a Living to God in Love But only initial and very imperfect here in comparison of what it will be in Heaven 2. It is the Eternal felicity 1. Seminally for Grace is as it were a seed of Glory 2. As it is the Necessary way or means of attaining it and that preparation which infallibly procureth it The Perfect Holiness of the Saints in Heaven will be one part of their perfect happiness And this Holiness imperfect they have here in this life It is the same God that we know and love here and there and with a Knowledge and Love that is of the same nature seminally As the egg is of the nature of the Bird Whether it may be properly said to be formally and specifically the same quoad actum as well as quoad objectum yea whether the Objectum clare visum and the objectum in speculo vel aenigmate visum make not the act specifically differ I shall not trouble you to dispute And this imperfect Holiness hath the promise of Perfect Holiness and Happiness in the full fruition of God hereafter So it is the Seed and Prognostick of Life Eternal TO KNOW Non semper ubique eodem modo vel gradu Not to know God here and hereafter in the same manner or degree But to know him here as in a glass and hereafter in his Glory as face to face To know him by an Affective Practical knowledge There is no Text of Scripture of which the rule is more clearly true and necessary than of this that Words of Knowledge do imply affection It is the closure of the whole soul with God which is here called the knowing of God And because it is not meet to name every particular act of the soul when ever this duty is mentioned it is all denominated from Knowledge as the first Act which inferreth all the rest 1. Knowledge of God in the Habit is Spiritual Life as a Principle 2. Knowledge of God in the exercise is Spiritaal Life as an employment 3. The Knowledge of God in perfection with its effects is Life Eternal as it signifieth full felicity What it containeth I shall further shew anon THEE That is The Father called by some Divines Fons vel fundamentum Trinitatis the fountain or foundation of the Trinity and oft used in the same sense as the word GOD to signifie the pure Deity THE ONLY He that believeth that there is more Gods than One believeth not in any For though he may give many the Name yet the description of the true God can agree to none of them He is not God indeed if he be not One only This doth not at all exclude Jesus Christ as the second person in Trinity but only distinguisheth the pure Deity or the Only true God as such from Jesus Christ as Mediator between God and man TRUE There are many that falsly and Metaphorically are called Gods If we think of God but as one of these it is not to know him but deny him GOD The word GOD doth not only signifie the Divine perfections in himself but also his Relation to the Creatures To be a God to us is to be one to whom we must ascribe all that we are or have and one whom we must Love and obey and honour with all the powers of soul and body and one on whom we totally depend and from whom we expect our judgement and reward in whom alone we can be perfectly blessed AND JESUS CHRIST That is As Mediator in his Natures God and man and in his Office and Grace WHOM THOU HAST SENT That is whom thy Love and Wisdom designed and commissioned to this undertaking and performance The Knowledge of the Holy Ghost seemeth here left out as if it were no part of life Eternal But 1. At that time the Holy Ghost in that Eminent sort as sent by the Father and Son on the Apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was not yet so manifested as afterwards and therefore not so necessarily to be distinctly known and believed in as after The having of the Spirit being of more necessity than the distinct knowledge of him Certain it is that the Disciples were at first very dark in this article of faith And Scripture more fully revealeth the necessity to salvation of believing in the Father and Son than in the Holy Ghost distinctly yet telling us that if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. 2. But presently after when the Spirit was to be sent the necessity of believing in him is expressed especially in the Apostles Commission to Baptize all Nations that were made Disciples in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Doct. THe Knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ the Mediator is the Life of Grace and the necessary way to the life of Glory As James distinguisheth between such a dead faith as Devils and wicked men had and such a living and working faith as was proper to the justified so must we here of the Knowledge of God Many profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. There is a form of knowledge which the unbelievers had Rom. 2. 22. and a knowledge which puffeth up and is void of Love which hypocrites have 1 Cor. 8. 1. 13. But no man spiritually knoweth the things of God but by the spirit And they that rightly know his name will put their trust in him Psal. 9 10. Thus he giveth the regenerate a heart to know him Jer. 24. 7. and the new creature is renewed in knowledge Col. 3. 10. And vengeance shall be poured out on them that know not God 2 Thes. 1. 8. This saving Knowledge of God which is Eternal Life containeth and implyeth in it all these acts 1. The understandings apprehesion of God according to the necessary articles of faith 2. A Belief of the truth of these articles that God is and is such as he is therein described 3. An high estimation of God accordingly 4. A Volition complacency or Love to him as God the chiefest Good 5. A Desiring after him 6. A Choosing him with the rejection of all competitors 7. A Consent that he be our God and a giving up our selves to him as his people 8. An intending him as our Ultimate End in
the use of means in the course of our Conversations 9. A seeking him in the choise and use of means 10. An obeying him as our Soveraign Governour 11. An honouring and praising him as God 12. And an enjoying him and delighting in him in some small foretasts here as he is seen by saith but perfectly hereafter as beheld in Glory The affective practical Knowing of God which is Life eternal containeth or implyeth all these parts And every Christian that hath any of this Knowledge desireth more It is his great desire to Know more of God and to know him with a more affecting powerful knowledge He that groweth in grace doth accordingly grow in this knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. The vigour and alacrity of our souls lieth in it The rectitude of our actions and the holiness of them floweth from it God is the excellency of our Hearts and lives Our advancement and our joy is here only to be found All other knowledge is so far desirable as it conduceth to the knowledge of God or to the several duties which that knowledge doth require All knowledge of words or things of causes and effects of any creatures actions customes Laws or whatsoever may be known is so far valuable as it is useful and so far useful as it is Holy subserving the knowledge of God in Christ. What the sun is to all mens eyes that God is to their souls and more It is to Know him that we have understandings given us And our understandings enjoy him but so far as they know him as the eye enjoyeth the Light of the sun by seeing it The ignorance of God is the blindness and part of the atheism of the soul and inferreth the rest They that know him not desire not heartily to know him nor can they Love him Trust him fear him serve him or call upon him whom they do not Know How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 14. The heart of the Ungodly saith to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes what is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him Job 21. 14 15. 22. 17. All wickedness hath admission into that heart or land where the knowledge of God is not the watch to keep it out Abraham inferred that the men of Gerar would kill him for his wife when he saw that the fear of God was not in that place Gen. 20. 11. It was Gods controversie with Israel because there was no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land but by swearing and lying and killing and stealing they brake out and blood touched blood Hos. 4. 1 2. They are called by God a foolish people sottish children of no understanding that knew not God though they were wise to do evil Jer. 4. 22. He will pour out his fury upon the heathen that know him not and the families that call not on his name Jer. 10. 25. As the day differeth from the night by the light of the sun so the Church differeth from the world by the Knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. Psal. 76. 1 2. In Judah is God known his name is great in Israel In Salem also is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion The Love and Unity and peace which shall succeed persecution and malice in the blessed times shall be because the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Isa. 11. 6 7 8 9. Hypocrites shall know him superficially and uneffectually and his holy ones shall know him so as to Love him fear him trust him and obey him with a knowledge effectual upon heart and life And he will continue his loving kindness to them that know him Psal. 36. 10. He is the best Christian that hath the fullest impression made upon his soul by the Knowledge of God in all his Attributes Thus it is our Life eternal to Know God in Christ. It is to reveal the Father that the Son was sent and it is to reveal the Father and the Son that the Holy spirit is sent God is the light and the life and felicity of the soul. The work of its salvation is but the restoring it to him and putting it in possession of him The beginning of this is Regeneration and Reconciliation the perfection oâ— it is Glorification beatifical Vision and Fruition The Mind that hath least of God is the darkest and most deluded Mind And the mind that hath most of him is the most lucide pure and serene And how is God in the Mind but as the Light and other visible objects are in the eye and as pleasant melodie is in the ear and as delightful meats and drinks are in the tast But that God maketh a more deep and durable impress on the soul and such as is suitable to its spiritual immaterial nature As your seal is to make a full impression on the wax of the whole figure that is upon it self so hath God been pleased in divers seals to engrave his Image and these must make their Impress upon us 1. There is the seal of the Creation sor the world hath much of the Image of God It is engraven also on the seal of Providential disposals though there we are uncapable of reading it yet so fully as in the rest 2. It is engraven on the seal of the holy Scriptures 3. And on the Person of Jesus Christ who is the purest clearest Image of the Father as also on the holy example of his life 4. And by the means of all these applyed to the soul in our sober consideration by the working of the Holy Ghost the Image of God is made upon us Here note 1. That All the revealed Image of God must be made on the soul and not a part only and all is wrought where any is truly wrought 2. That to the compleatness of his Image on us it is necessary that each part of Gods Description be orderly made and orderly make the Impress on us and that each part keep its proper place For it is a monster that hath feet where the head should be or the backside forward or where there is any gross misplacing of the parts 3. Note also that all the three forementioned seals contain all Gods Image on them but yet not all alike but the first part is more clearly engraven upon the first of them and the second part upon the second of them and the third part most clearly on the third and last To open this more plainly to you Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity is the sum of our holy faith In the Deity there is revealed to us One God in three persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost The Essence is but one the subsistences are three And as we must conceive and speak of the Divine Nature according to its Image while we see it but in a glass so
Ignorant of God nor to know so little as I know nor to be short of the measure that I am capable of but it satisfieth me to be uncapable of comprehending him or else I must be unsatisfied because I am not God O the presumptuous arrogancy of those men if I may call them men that dare prate about the Infinite God such things as never were revealed to them in his works or word and dare pretend to measure him by their shallow understandings and question if not deny and censure that of God which they cannot reach and sooner suspect the word that doth reveal him then their muddy brains that should better conceive of him Saith Elihu Job 36. 26. Behold God is Great and we know him not neither can the number of his years be searched out Though the Knowledge of him be our Life Eternal yet we know him not by any full and adequate conception We know an Infinite God and therefore with an Excellent Knowledge objectively considered but with a poor degree and kind of Knowledge next to none as to the act and it is a thousand thousand fold more that we know not of him then that we know For ineeed there is no comparison to be here made 3. The immensity of God as it proveth him incomprehensible so it containeth his Omnipresence And therefore should continually affect us as men that believe that God stands by them As we would compose our thoughts and minds and passions if we saw were it possible the Lord stand over us so should we now labour to compose them As we would restrain and use our tongues and order our behaviour if we saw his Majesty so should we do now when we know that he is with us An eye servant will work hard in his masters presence what ever he doth behind his back Bestir thee then Christian for God stands by In him we live and move and have our Being Act. 17. 28. Loyter not till thou canst truly say that God is gone or absent from thee sin not by wilfulness or negligence till thou canst say thou art behind his back Alass that we should have no more awakened serious souls and no more fervent lively prayers and no more serious holy speech and no more careful heavenly lives when we stand before the living God and do all in his sight and speak all in his hearing O why should sense so much affect us and faith and Knowledge work no more we can be awed with the presence of a man and would not do before a Prince what most men do before the Lord. Yea other things affect us when we see them not and shall not God But of this more anon 4. The Immensity of God assureth us much of his Alsufficiency He that is everywhere is easily able to hear all prayers to help us in all straits to supply all wants to punish all sins A Blasphemous conceit of God as Finite and as absent from us is one of the causes of our distrust He that doth distrust an absent friend as thinking he may forget him or neglect him will trust him when he is with him cannot he hear thee and pitty thee and help thee that is still with thee O what an awe is this to the careless what a support to faith what a quickener to duty what a comfort to the afflicted troubled soul God is in thy poor cottage Christian and well acquainted with thy wants God is at thy bedside when thou are sick and nearer thee then the nearest of thy friends What wouldst thou do in want or pain if God stood by wouldst thou not Pray and Trust him if thou sawest him so do though thou see him not for he is surely there 5. The Immensity and Infinite Greatness of God assureth us of his Particular Providence Some blasphemous Infidels imagine that he hath only a General Providence and hath left all to some inferiour powers and medleth not with particular things himself They think that as he hath left it to the Sun to illuminate the world so hath he left all other inferiour things and events to nature or inferior causes and that he doth not himself regard observe reward or punish the thoughts and words and wayes of men And all this is because they consider not the Immensity or Infinite Greatness of the Lord. It s true that God hath framed the Nature of all things and delighteth to maintain and use the frame of second causes which he hath made and will not easily and ordinarily work against or without this order of causes But it is as true and certain both that sometimes he maketh use of Miracles and that in the very course of natural causes he is able to exercise a particular Providence as well as without them by himself alone The Creature doth nothing but by him All things move as he first moveth them in their natural agency His wisdom guideth his will intendeth and commandeth his Power moveth and disposeth all The Sun would not shine if he were not the light of it and he is no less himself the Light of the world then if he did illuminate it without a Sun God is never the further off because the Creatures are near us nor never the less in the effect because he useth a second cause then if there were no second cause at all What influence second causes have upon the souls of men he hath for the most part kept unknown to us But that himself disposeth of us and all things after the counsel of his own will is beyond all question Can he that is most neerly present with thy thoughts be regardless of them can he be regardless of thy words and wayes that is with thee and seeth and heareth all If thou believe not that he is as verily with thee as thou art there thy self thou art then an Atheist If thou believe him not to be Infinite thou believest him not to be God It is not God that can be absent limited or finite And if thou be not such a senseless Atheist but knowest that God is everywhere how is it possible thou shouldst doubt of his care or observance or particular providence about every thing No child is scarce so foolish that will think his Father cares not what he saith or doth when he stands before him Wouldst thou doubt of Gods particular providence whether he regard thy heart and talke and practice if thou didst see him with thee sure it is scarce possible Why then dost thou question it when thou knowest that he is with thee If thou be an Atheist and knowest not look about thee on the world and bethink thee whether stones and trees and earth whether beasts or birds or men do make themselves If they do thou were best uphold thy self and be not sick and do not die If thou madest thy self thou canst sure preserve thy self But if any thing else made thee and all these lower things either it was somewhat greater or
they Know not what they do Men could not go so quietly or merrily to Hell with their eyes open as they do when they are shut by Ignorance Whence is it that such Multitudes are still ungodly under all the Teachings and warnings of the Lord but because they have their understandings darkened being alienated from the life of God by the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart and therefore many being past feeling have given them over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with grâ—ediness Eph. 4. 18 19. Sin is the fruit of folly and the greatest folly They are fools that make a jest of it Prov. 14. 9. And it is for want of wisdom that they die Prov. 10. 21. 1. 32. The ignorant are prisoners to the Prince of darkness Eph. 6. 12. 5. 8. Knowledge is despised by none but fools Prov. 1. 7 22. The conquest of so many subtil enemies the performance of so many spiritual duties which we must go through if we will be saved are works too hard for fools to do The saving of a mans soul is a work that requireth the greatest wisdom And therefore the Illumination of the mind is Gods first work in the Conversion of a sinner Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18. If Infinite wisdom communicate to you but the smallest beam of heavenly light it will change your minds and make you other men then before and set you on another course Wisdom will be your guide and keep you in safe paths It will cause you to refuse the evil and to choose the good It will shew you true Happiness and the way to obtain it It will cause you to foresee the evil and escape it when fools go on and are destroyed Prov. 22. 3. Wisdom will teach you to know the season and Redeem your Time and walk exactly when folly will leave you to too late repentance Eph. 5. 15. There is not a soul in Hell but was brought thither by sinful folly Nor is there a soul in Heaven of them at age but by heavenly wisdom was conducted thither In worldly matters the wicked may seem wisest and many a Saint may be very ignorant But when you see the end you will all consess that those were the wise men that had wisdom to repell temptations and to refuse the entising baits of sin and to make sure of everlasting Joyes O therefore apply your hearts to Wisdom Go to Christ for it who is the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. and is appointed by him to be our Wisdom 1 Cor. 1. 30. He will teach it you who is the best Master in the world so you will but keep in his School that is his Church and will humbly learn as little Children and apply your selves submissively to his spirit word and Ministers Ask Wisdom of God that giveth liberally and upbraideth not with former ignorance Jam. 1. 5. Think not any pains in holy means too much to get it Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. If thou wilt receive the words of God and hide his Commandments with thee and encline thy heart to wisdom and apply it to understanding yea if thou cryest after Knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth is Knowledge and understanding And fear not being a loser by thy cost or labour For Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth undestanding For the merchandise of it is better then silver and the gain thereof then of fine gold she is more precious then Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3. 13. to 18. 2 The Infinite Wisdom of God must resolve you to take him for your principal Teacher Counseller and director in all your undertakings Who would go seek the advice of a fool when he may have Infallible wisdom to direct him In a work of so great difficulty and concernment a work that Hell and Earth and Flesh opposeth a work that our Everlasting state dependeth on I think it behoveth us to take the best advice that we can get And who knoweth the will of God like God or who knoweth the certain means of salvation like him that is 〈…〉 ver of salvation would you know whether it 〈…〉 a â—ortified holy life Who shall be your coun 〈…〉 you advise with your Flesh you know that it would 〈…〉 If you advise with the World of wicked men you know that they would be imitated and judge as they are and are not like to be wise for you that are so foolish for themselves as to part with Heaven for a merry dream If you advise with the Devil you know he would be obeyed and have company in his misery You can advise with none but God but such as are your Enemies And will you ask an enemy a deadly enemy what course you should take to make you happy Will you ask the Devil how you may be saved Or will you ask the blind ungodly world what course you should take to please the Lord Or will you ask the Flesh by what means you may subdue it and become spiritual If you take advice of Scripture of the spirit of a holy well informed Minister or Christian or of a renewed well informed Conscience I take this for your advising with the Lord But besides these that are his mouth you can ask advice of none but enemies But if they were never so much your friends and wanted wisdom they could but ignorantly seduce you And do you think that any of them all is as wise as God It is the constant course of a worldly man to advise with the world and of carnal men to advise with the flesh and therefore it is that they are hurried to perdition The flesh is brutish and will lead you to a brutish life and if you live after it undoubtedly you shall die Rom. 8. 13. and if you sow to it you shall but reap Corruption Gal. 6. 6 7. If you are tempted to Lust will you ask the flesh that tempteth you whether you should yield If the cup of excess be offered to you or flesh-pleasing feasts prepared for you will you ask the flesh whether you should take them or refuse them You may easily know what counsel it will give you The Counsel of God and of your flesh are contrary and therefore the lives of the carnal and spiritual man are contrary And will you venture on the advice of a brutish appetite and refuse the counsel of the all knowing God such as is your Guide and Counsellor such will be your End Never mâ—n miscarried by obeying God and never man â—ped well by obeying the flesh God leadeth no man to perdition
Tertullian in the Churches Creed speaks misit vicariam vim spiritus sancti qui credentes agat O that men knew how much of their well-fare dependeth on a faithful obeying of the Holy Ghost CHAP. XIII 12. THe next part of our Knowledge of God is to know him in those great consequent Relations to which he is entitled by Creation and Redemption viz. as he is Our Absolute Lord or Owner our most Righteous Governour and ou most Bountiful or Gracious Father or Benefactor 1. God both as our Creator and Redeemer hath Jus Dominii an Absolute Dominion of the world that is He is our Owner or Proprietary and we are his Own For we take not the term Lordship or Dominion here in the looser sense as it signifieth a Ruler but in the stricter sense as it signifieth an Owner Of this Relation I have already spoken in a Sermon of Christs Dominion and therefore shall say the less in this place The Knowledge of Gods Dominion or Propriety must comprehend 1. The certain truth of this his right 2. The fulness of it 3. The effects that it must have on us I. And the Truth of it is beyond dispute even among Infidels that know there is a God He that made us of his own materials or of nothing must needs be the Owner of us And so must he that Bought us from destruction Ezek. 18. 4. Behold all souls are Mine Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Joh. 16. 14 15. All things that the Father hath are Mine The Father then hath this Propriety by Creation and the son by Redemption and the Father also by communication with the Son in Redemption and the Son by communication with the Father in Creation II. And it must be the most Absolute Plenary Dominion because the very Being of all the Creatures is from God and therefore no one can be co-ordinate with him or his corrival nor any thing limit his Interest in us III. And the effects that this must have upon us are these following 1. Hence we must conclude and reverently and willingly consess that further then he voluntarily doth oblige himself to us it is impossible that God should be our Debtor and consequently that upon terms of commutative Justice we should Merit any thing of God For what can we render to him but his Own And how should he properly and Antecedently be indebted to and for his Own 2. And we must conclude that antecedently to his Laws and promise it is impossible that God can do us any wrong or any thing that he can do can be guilty of injustice For Justice giveth to all their Own and therefore it giveth Nothing to us from God but what he voluntarily giveth us himself which therefore is first a gift of Bounty and but secondarily a Due in Justice 3. And therefore we must hence learn that God may do with his own as he list And therefore we must take heed that we repine not at any of his Decrees or Providences or any passages concerning them in his word Much may be above us because our blindness cannot reach the reasons of his wayes but nothing is unreasonable or evil For all proceedeth from Infinite Wisdom and Goodness as well as from Omnipotency As no man must feign any thing of God and say This is his Decree or Word or Providence and therefore it is good when there is no such thing revealed to us so when we find that it is indeed Revealed our Reason must presently submit and undoubtedly conclude it reasonable and good Yet is there no cause from hence to fear lest God should condemn the innocent or break his promises and deny us the reward nor is there any hope to wicked men that he should violate his peremptory threatnings or as they call it in their selfish language be better then his word Because though God have an Absolute Propriety and therefore in regard of his interest or Power may do what he Will yet he is essentially also most Wise and Good and accordingly hath fitted all things to their use and taken upon him the Relation of our Governour and as it were obliged himself by his Laws and Covenants and declared himself to be most Just and shewed us hereby that he Will do nothing contrary to these As there is no contradiction but most perfect Unity in Gods Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness his Dominion or Propriety his Kingdom and Paternity so shall there be no contradiction but a perfect Concord of all these in the exercise He therefore that as our King or Governour hath undertaken to advance the Godly and destroy the wicked will not by the exercise of his Absolute Dominion deny himself nor be unfaithful to his people or to his rules of Government If you ask me in what cases then this Dominion is exercised I answer 1. In laying the Foundations of laws and Right 2. In the Disposal of the unreasonable Creatures 3. In abundance of things about his Rational Creatures wherein as Rector he is not engaged nor hath in his Laws declared his will As about the various constitutions and complexions of men their ranks and dignities in the world their riches or poverty their health or sickness their gifts and parts both natural and acquired the first giving of the Gospel and of special Grace to such as had forfeited them and had no promise of them the degrees of outward means and mercies the degrees of inward grace more then what is promised c. From hence also we must learn not to repine at the providences of God about his Church which are strange to us and past our reach and seem to make against it wellfare Remember that as he may do with his own as he list so we have no reason to think that he will be lavish or disregardful of his own The Church is not ours but Gods and therefore he is fitter then we to be trusted with it And so in our own distresses by affliction when flesh repineth let us remember that we are his Own and he may do with us as he please If we be poor despised sick and miserable in the world let us remember that as it is no injury to the beasts that they are not men or to the worms that they are not beasts or to the plants that they have not sense or to the stars that they are not suns so it is no wrong to the subjects that they are not Princes or to the poor that they are not rich or to the sick that they are not healthful May not God do with his own as he list shall a Beggar grudge that you give not all that he desireth when you are not bound to give him any thing 4. Yea hence we must learn to be the more Thankful for all our mercies because they proceed from the Absolute Lord that was not obliged to us He might have made
in those that undertake the place of Pastors cruelty to mens souls is a far greater sin than in any others To starve those that they undertake to feed and to seduce those whom they undertake to Guide and be Wolves to those whose Shepherds they pretend to be and to prefer their worldly honours and commodity and ease before the souls of many thousands to be so cruel to souls when Christ hath been so merciful to them as to come down on earth to seek and save them and to give his life a ransome for them this will one day be so heavy a charge that the man that must stand as guilty under it will a thousand times wish that a milstoâ—â— had been hanged about his neck and he had been cast into the bottome of the Sea before he had betrayed or murdered souls or offended one of the little ones of Christ. Be merciful to mens souls and bodies as ever you would find mercy with a merciful God in the hour of your necessity and distress CHAP. XXI 20. THE last of Gods Attributes which I shall now mention is his Dreadfulness or Terribleness to those that are the objects of his wrath This is the result of his other Attributes especially of his Holiness and Governing Justice and Truth in his commiâ—ations He is a Great and Dreadful God Dan. 9 4. A mighty God and terrible Deut. 7. 21. A great and terrible God Nah. 1. 5. With God is terrible Majesty Job 37. 22. The Lord most high is terrible Psal. 47. 22. 1. His Children therefore must be kept in a holy awe God is never to be approached or mentioned but with the greatest reverence We must sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and he must be our fear and dread Isa. 8. 13. Even they that receive the unmoveable Kingdom must have grace in their hearts to serve him acceptably with Reverence and godly fear because our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. When we come to worship in the holy Assemblies we should think as Jacob Gen. 28. 17. How dreadful is this place This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven Especially when God seemeth to frown upon the soul his servants must humble themselves before him and deprecate his wrath as Jeremiah did Jer. 17. 17. Be not a terrour to mee It ill becometh the best of men to make light of the frowns and threatnings of God Also when he dealeth with us in Judgement and we feel the smart of his chastisements though we must remember that he is a Father yet withall we must consider that he sheweth himself an offended Father And therefore true and deep Humiliation hath ever been the course of afflicted Saints to turn away the wrath of a terrible God 2. But above all what cause have the Ungodly to tremble at the Dreadfulness of that God who is engaged in Justice except they be converted to use them everlastingly as his unpardoned enemies As there is no felicity like the favour of God and no joy comparable to his childrens joyes so is there no misery like the sense of his Displeasure nor any terrours to be compared to those which his wrath inflicteth everlastingly on the ungodly O wretched sinner what hast thou done to make God thine enemy what could hire thee to offend him by thy willful sin and to do that which thou knewest he forbad and condemned in his Word What madness caused thee to make a mock at sin and hell and to play with the vengeance of the Almighty what gain did hire thee to cast thy soul into the danger of damnation canst thou save by the match if thou win the world and lose thy soul Didst thou not know who it was thou hadst to do with It had been better for thee that all the world had been offended with thee even men and Angels great and small than the most Dreadful God Didst thou not believe him when he told thee how he was resolved to judge and punish the ungodly Read it 2 Thes. 2. 7 8 9 10. and 2. 10 11. Matth. 25. Jud. 15. Psal. 1. c. what caused thee to venture upon the consuming fire Didst thou not know that as he is Merciful so he is Jealous Holy Just and Terrible In the Name of God I require and intreat thee fly to his Mercy in Jesus Christ and hearken speedily to his Grace and turn at his reproof and warning To day while it is called to day harden not thy heart but hear his voice lest he resolve in his wrath that thou shalt never enter into his rest There is no enduring there is no overcoming there is no contending with an angry dreadful holy God Repent therefore and turn to him and obey the voice of Mercy that thy soul may live 3. The Dreadfulness of God doth tell both good and bad the great necessity of a Mediator What an unspeakable mercy is it that God hath given us his Son and that by Jesus Christ we may come with boldness and confidence into the presence of the Dreadful God that else would have been to us a greater terror than all the world yea than Satan himself The more we are apprehensive of our distance from God and of his Terrible Majesty and his more Terrible justice against such sinners as we have been the more we shall understand the mysterie of Redemption and highly value the Mediation of Christ. 4. Lastly let the Dreadfulness of God prevail with every believing soul to pitty the ungodly that pitty not themselves O pray for them O warn them exhort them intreat them as men that know the Terrours of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. If they knew as well as you do what sin is and what it is to be children of wrath and what it is to be unpardoned unjustified and unsanctified they would pitty themselves and cry for mercy mercy mercy from day to day till they were recovered into a state of life and turned from the power of Satan unto God Alas they know not what it is to die and to see the world to come and to appear before a dreadful God They know not what it is to be in Hell fire nor what it is to be glorified in Heaven They never saw or tryed these things and they want the Faith by which they must be foreseen by those that are yet short of nearer knowledge you therefore that have Faith to foreknow these things and are enlightned by the Spirit of God O pitty and warn and help the miserable Tell them how much easier it is to escape Hell than to endure it and how much easier a Holy life on earth is than the endless wrath of the most Dreadful God Tell them that unbelief presumption and security are the certain means to bring their misery but will do nothing to keep it off though they may keep off the present knowledge and sense of it which would have droven them to seek a cure
Tell them that death and judgement are at hand and that when they laugh or sport or scorn and jeast at the Displeasure of the Dreadful God it is posting toward them and will be upon them before they are aware and when they slumber their damnation slumbereth not but while unbelieving sinners say Peace Peace sudden destruction will come upon them as unexpected travail on a woman with child and they shall not escape O tell them how dreadful a thing it is for a soul that is unregenerate and unsanctified to go from that body which it pampered and sold its salvation to pleasure and to appear at the tribunal of God and how dreadful it is for such a soul to fall into the hands of the living God At least save your own souls by the faithful discharge of so great a duty and if they will take no warning let them at last remember when it is too late that they were told in time what they should see and feel at last and what the later end would prove and that God and man did warn them in compassion though they perish because they would have no compassion or mercy upon themselves Thus let the Terribleness of God provoke you to do your duty with speed and zeal for the converting and saving of miserable souls AND thus I have briefly set before you the Glass in which you may see the Lord and told you how he must be known and how he must be conceived of in our apprehensions and how the knowledge of God must be improved and what impressions it must make upon the heart and what effect it must have upon our lives Blessed and for ever blessed are those souls that have the truly and lively Image of this God and all these his Attributes imprinted on them as to the Creature they are communicable And O that the veil were taken from our hearts that we all with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Loord may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. and may increase and live in the knowledge of the true and only God and of Jesus Christ which is Eternal Life Amen THE DESCRIPTION Reasons Reward OF THE BELIEVERS Walking with God On Gen. 5. 24. By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed for Francis Tyton at the three Daggers in Fleet-street and Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1664. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Text explained what it is to Walk with God what it containeth both for Matter and Manner Page 159 CHAP. II. The first Use A Lamentation of the practical Atheisme of the world Motives to change your inordinate creature-converse into converse with God How much sinners have to do with God more than with all the world besides shewedin 14 instances p. 185 CHAP. III. An answer to them that think God doth us good by necessity of Nature as the sun doth illuminate and warm us and therefore though he have much to do for us yet much is not required from us towards him And to them that think he is above our converse and unsuitable to us Ten Quere's to evince the necessity of our own holy diligence in godliness Especially of exercising our Thoughts upon God Ten mischiefs that befall them who have not God in all their Thoughts p. 205 CHAP. IV. Practical Atheism further detected An answer to them that think it unfit for ignorant men or poor men to think so much of God and that it will make men melancholy and mad Ten propositions shewing how far it is our duty to Think of God by way of explication p. 220 CHAP. V. An answer to them that say God regardeth not Thoughts but Deeds Twelve evidences of the regardableness of our Thoughts p. 230 CHAP. VI. The application to the Godly The Benefits of walking with God I. It is suitable to humane Nature Hoâ— it is Natural No middle life between the sensual and the Holy Of them that delight in Knowledge and moral vertue Nature in its first constitution was not only Innocent but Holy Proved II. To walk with God is the highest and noblest life III. It is the only course to prove and make men truly wise Proved by ten evidences IV. It maketh men good as well as wise and advanceth to the greatest holiness and rectitude Proved by five evidences V. It is the best preparation for sufferings and death shewed by seven advantages to that end p. 235 CHAP. VII Five special obligations on true believers to walk with God and to avoid inordinate Creature-converse p. 277 CHAP. I. Gen. 5. 24. And Henoch walked with God and he was not for God took him BEeing to speak of our Converse with God in Solitude I think it will not be unsuitable nor unserviceable to the Ends of that Discourse if I here premise a short description of the General Duty of practical godliness as it is called in Scripture a Walking with God It is here commended to us in the example of Holy Henoch whose excellency is recorded in this signal character that he walked with God and his special Reward expressed in the words following and he was not for God took him I shall speak most of his Character and then somewhat of his Reward The Samaritan and vulgar-Latine versions do strictly translate the Hebrew as we read it but the interpretation of the Septuagint the Syriack the Chaldee and the Arabick are rather good expositions all set together of the meaning of the word than strict translations The Septuagint and Syriack read it Henoch pleased God The Chaldee hath Henoch walked in the fear of God And the Arabick he walked in obedience to God And indeed to walk in the fear and obedience of God and thereby to please him is the principal thing in our Walking with God The same Character is given of Noah in Gen. 6. 19. and the extraordinary Reward annexed He and his family were saved in the Deluge And the holy life which God commanded Abraham is called a walking before God Gen. 17. 1. Walk before me and be thou perfect And in the New Testament the Christian Conversation is ordinarily called by the name of Walking Sometime a Walking in Christ as Col. 2. 6. Sometime a Walking in the spirit in which we live Gal. 5. 25. And a Walking after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Sometime a Walking in the Light as God is in the Light 1 Joh. 1. 7. Those that abide in Christ must so walk even as he hath walked 1 Joh. 2. 6. These phrases set together tell us what it is to Walk with God But I think it not unprofitable somewhat more particularly to shew you what this Walking with God doth contain As Atheism is the sum of wickedness so all true Religiousness is called by the name of Godliness or Holiness which is nothing else but our Devotedness to God and Living to Him and our Relation to Him as thus Devoted in Heart and Life
be alwaies actually upon God but he that doth manage his calling in Holiness doth all in obedience to Gods commands and sees that his work be the work of God and he intendeth all to the glory of God or the pleasing of his blessed will and he oft reneweth these actual intentions and oft interposeth thoughts of the presence or power or love or interest of him whom he is serving He often lifteth up his soul in some holy desire or ejaculatory request to God He oft taketh occasion from what he seeth or heareth or is doing for some more spiritual meditation or discourse so that still it is God that his mind is principally employed on or for even in his ordinary work while he liveth as a Christian And it is not enough to think of God but we must think of him as God with such respect and reverence and love and trust and submission in our measure as is due from the Creature to his Creator For as some kind of speaking of him is but a taking his Name in vain so some kind of thinking of him is but a dishonouring of him by contemptuous or false unworthy thoughts Most of our walking with God consisteth in such affectionate apprehensions of him as are suitable to his blessed Attributes and Relations All the day long our thoughts should be working either on God or for God either upon some work of obedience which he hath imposed on us and in which we desire to please and honour him or else directly upon himself Our hearts must be taken up in contemplating and admiring him in magnifying his Name his Word and Works and in pleasant contentful thoughts of his benignity and of his Glory and the Glory which he conferreth on his Saints He that is unskilful or unable to manage his own thoughts with some activity seriousness and order will be a stranger to much of the holy converse which believers have with God They that have given up the Government of their thoughts and turned them loose to go which way phantasie pleaseth and present sensitive objects do invite them and to run up and down the world as masterless unruly vagrants can hardly expect to keep them in any constant attendance upon God or readiness for any sacred work And the sudden thoughts which they have of God will be rude and stupid savouring more of prophane contempt than of holiness when they should be reverent serious affectionate and practical and such as conduce to a holy composure of their hearts and lives And as we must walk with God 1. In our communion with his servants 2. And in our affectionate Meditations so also 3 In all the ordinances which he hath appointed for our Edification and his Worship 1. The Reading of the Word of God and the explication and application of it in good Books is a means to possess the mind with sound and orderly and working apprehensions of God and of his holy Truths So that in such Reading our understandings are oft illustrated with a heavenly Light and our hearts are touched with a special delightful rellish of that truth and they are secretly attracted and engaged unto God and all the powers of our souls are excited and animated to a holy obedient life 2. The same Word preached with a lively voice with clearness and affection hath a greater advantage for the same illumination and excitation of the soul. When a Minister of Christ that is truly a Divine being filled with the Knowledge and Love of God shall copiously and affectionately open to his hearers the excellencies which he hath seen and the happiness which he hath foreseen and tasted of himself it frequently through the co-operation of the Spirit of Christ doth wrap up the hearers hearts to God and bring them into a more lively knowledge of him actuating their graces and enflaming their hearts with a heavenly Love and such desires as God hath promised to satisfie Christ doth not only send his Ministers furnished with Authority from him but also furnished with his Spirit to speak of spiritual things in a spiritual manner so that in both respects he might say He that heareth you heareth mee and also by the same Spirit doth open and excite the hearts of the hearers so that it is God himself that a serious Christian is principally employed with in the hearing of his heavenly transforming Word And therefore he is affected with reverence and holy fear with some taste of heavenly delight with obediential subjection and resignation of himself to God The Word of God is powerful not only in pulling down all high exalting thoughts that rise up against God but also in lifting up depressed souls that are unable to rise unto heavenly knowledge or communion with God If some Christians could but alwaies finde as much of God upon their hearts at other times as they finde sometimes under a spiritual powerful Ministry they would not so complain that they seem forsaken and strangers to all communion with God as many of them do While God by his Messengers and Spirit is speaking and man is hearing him while God is treating with man about his reconciliation and everlasting happiness and man is seriously attending to the treaty and motions of his Lord surely this is a very considerable part of our walking and converse with God 3. Also in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ we are called to a familiar converse with God He there appeareth to us by a wonderful condescension in the representing communicating signs of the flesh and blood of his Son in which he hath most conspicuously revealed his Love and Goodness to Believers There Christ himself with his Covenant-gifts are all delivered to us by these Investing signs of his own institution even as Knighthood is given by a sword and as a House is delivered by a Key or Land by a Twig and Turf Nowhere is God so near to man as in Jesus Christ and nowhere is Christ so familiarly represented to us as in this holy Sacrament Here we are called to sit with him at his Table as his invited welcome guests to commemorate his sacrifice to feed upon his very flesh and blood that is with our mouths upon his Representative flesh and blood and with our applying Faith upon his real flesh and blood by such a feeding as belongs to Faith The Marriage-Covenant betwixt God â—ncarnate and his espoused ones is there publickly sealed celebrated and solemnized There we are entertained by God as friends and not as servants only and that at the most precious costly feast If ever a believer may on earth expect his kindest entertainment and near access and a humble intimacy with his Lord it is in the participation of this sacrifice-feast which is called The Communion because it is appointed as well for our special Communion with Christ as with one another It is here that we have the fullest intimation expression and communication of the wondrous Love of God
what it is to be Godly and to walk with God and what it is to be an Atheist or Ungodly you may easily see that Godliness is more rare and Atheism more common than many that themselves are Atheists will believe It is not that which a man calls his God that is taken by him for his God indeed It is not the Tongue but the Heart that is the man Pilate called Christ the King of the Jews when he crucified him The Jews called God their Father when Christ telleth them they were of their father the Devil and proveth it because what ever they said they would do his lusts Joh. 8. 44. The same Jews pretended to honour the name of the Messiah and expect him while they killed him The question is not what men call themselves but what they are Not whether you say you take God for your God but whether you do so indeed Not whether you profess your selves to be Atheists but whether you are Atheists indeed or not If you are not look over what I have here said and tell your consciences Do you walk with God who is it that you submit your selves willingly to be disposed of by To whom are you most subject and whose commands have the most effectual authority with you who is the Chief Governour of your hearts and lives whom is it that you principally desire to please whom do you most fear and whose displeasure do you principally avoid from whom is it that you expect your greaetest reward and in whom and with whom do you place and expect your happiness whose work is it that you do as the greatest business of your lives Is it the goodness of God in himself and unto you that draweth up your hearts to him in Love Is he the ultimate End of the main intentions design and industry of your lives Do you trust upon his Word as your security for your everlasting hopes and happiness Do you study and observe him in his works Do you really live as in his presence Do you delight in his Word and meditate on it Do you love the Communion of Saints and to be most frequent and familiar with them that are most frequent and familiar with Christ Do you favour more the particular affectionate discourse about his Nature Will and Kingdom than the frothy talk of empty wits or the common discourse of carnal worldlings Do you love to be employed in thanking him for his Mercies and in praising him and declaring the glory of his attributes and works Is your dependence on him as your great benefactor and do you receive your mercies as his gifts If thus your principal observation be of God and your chief desire after God and your chiefest confidence in God and your chiefest business in the world be with God and for God and your chifest joy be in the favour of God when you can apprehend it and in the prosperity of his Church and your hopes of glory and your chiefest grief and trouble be your sinful distance from him and your backwardness and disability in his love and service and the fear of his displeasure and the injuries done to his Gospel and honour in the world then I must needs say you are savingly delivered from your Atheism and Ungodliness you do not only talk of God but walk with God you are then acquainted with that spiritual life and work which the sensual world is unacquainted with and with those invisible everlasting excellencies which if worldlings knew they would change their minds and choice and pleasures You are then acquainted with that rational manly saintly life which ungodly men are strangers to and you are in the way of that well grounded Hope and Peace to which all the Pleasures and Crowns on earth if compared are but cheats and misery But if you were never yet brought to walk with God do not think that you have a sound belief in God nor that you acknowledge him sincerely nor that you are saved from heart atheism Nor is it Piety in the Opinion and the Tongue that will save him that is an Atheist or ungodly in heart and life Divinity is an affective-practical science Knowing is not the ultimate or perfective act of man but a means to holy Love and Joy and service Nor is it clear and solid knowledge if it do not somewhat affect the heart and engage and actuate the life according to the nature and use of the thing known The soundness of Knowledge and Belief is not best discerned in the intellectual acts themselves but in their powerful free and pleasant efficacy upon our choice and practice By these therefore you must judge whether you are Godly or Atheistical The question is not what your Tongues say of God nor what complemental ceremonious observances you allow him but what your Hearts and your endeavours say of him and whether you glorifie him as God when you say you know him Otherwise you will find that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who held the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18 21. And now alas what matter of lamentation is here before us To see how seriously men converse with one another and how God is overlookt or neglected by the most How men live together as if there were more that is considerable and regardable in these particles of animated dust then in the Lord Almighty and in all his graces service and rewards To see how God is cast aside and his interest made to give place to the interest of the flesh and his services must stay till men have done their service to their lusts or to worldly men that can do them hurt or shew them favour And his will must not be done when it crosseth the will of sinful man How little do all the commands and promises and threatnings of God signifie with these Atheistical men in comparison of their lusts or the laws of men or any thing that concerneth their temporal prosperity O how is the world revolted from their Maker How have they lost the knowledge of themselves and forgotten their natures capacities and obligations and what it is to be indeed a man O hearken sinners to the call of your Redeemer Return O seduced wandering souls and know at last your resting place why is not God in all your thoughts or why is he thought on with so much remisness unwillingness and contempt and with so little pleasure seriousness or regard Do you understand your selves in this Do you deal worthily with God Or wisely for your selves Do you take more pleasure with the Prodigal to feed swine and to feed with swine then to dwell at home with your heavenly Father and to walk before him and serve him in the world Did you but know how dangerous a way you have been in and how unreasonably you have dealt to forsake God in your hearts and follow that which cannot profit you what haste would you make
of Justice or Charity principally to please God and in true obedience to his Will and a desire to be conformed thereto doth that which is formally a Moral Good and Holy though there may be abhorred mixtures of worse respects So that there are but two states of life here One of those that walk after the flesh and the other of those that walk after the spirit However the flesh hath several materials and waies of pleasure And even the Rational actings that have a carnal end are carnal finally and morally though they are acts of Reason For they are but the errours of Reason and defectiveness of true Rationality and being but the acts of erroneous Reason as captivated by the flesh and subservient to the carnal Interest they are themselves to be denominated carnal And so even the Reasonable soul as byassed by sensuality and captivated thereto is included in the name of Flesh in Scripture How much Moral Good is in that course of Piety or Obedience to God which proceedeth only from the Fear of Gods Judgements without any Love to him I shall not now discuss because I have too far digrest already All that I have last said is to shew you the Reasonableness of Living unto God as being indeed the proper and just employment of the superiour faculties of the soul and their Government of the lower faculties For if any other called Moralists do seem to subject the Sensual life to the Rational either they do but seem to do so the sensual interest being indeed predominant and their rational operations subjected thereto or at the best it is but some poor and erroneous employment of the Rational faculties which they exercise or some weak approaches towards that high and holy life which is indeed the life which the Rational nature was created for and which is the right improvement of it 4. Moreover nothing is more beseeming the nature of man than to aspire after the highest and noblest improvement of it self and to live the most excellent life that it is capable of For every nature tendeth to its own perfection But it is most evident that to Walk with God in Holiness is a thing that humane nature is capable of and that is the highest life that we are capable of on earth And therefore it is the life most suitable to our natures 5. And what can be more Rational and beseeming a Created Nature than to live to those ends which our Creatour intended in the fabrication of our Natures It is His Ends that are principally to be served But the very composure of our faculties plainly prove that His End was that we should be fitted for His Service He gave us no powers or capacity in vain And therefore to serve him and walk with him is most suitable to our natures Obj. That is Natural which is first and born with us But our enmity to Holiness is first and not our Holiness Answ. It may be called Natural indeed because it is first and born with us And in that respect we confess that sin and not Holiness is Natural to us But Holiness is called Natural to us in a higher respect because it was the Primitive Natural constitution of man and was before sin and is the perfection or health of nature and the right employment and improvement of it and tends to its happiness An hereditary leprosie may be called Natural as it is first and before health in that person But health and soundness is Natural as being the well-being of Nature when the Leprosie is unnatural as being but its desease and tending to its destruction Obj. But Nature in its first constitution was not Holy but Innocent only and it was by a superadded gift of Grace that it became Holy as some Schoolmen think and as others think Adam had no Holiness till his restoration Answ. These are Popish improved fancies and contrary to Nature and the Word of God 1. They are nowhere written nor have no evidence in Nature and therefore are the groundless dreams of men 2. The work of our recovery to God is called in Scripture a Redemption Renovation Restoration which imply that Nature was once in that Holy estate before the fall And it is expresly said that the New man which we put on is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Col. 3. 10. And after Gods Image Adam was created 3. If it belong to the soundness and integrity of Nature to be Holy that is disposed and addicted to live to God then it is an abusive temerity for men out of their own imagination to feign that God first made Nature defective and then mended it by superadded Grace But if it belong not to the soundness and integrity of humane Nature to be Holy then why did God give him Grace to make him so Nay then it would follow that when God sanctified Adam or any since he made him specifically another thing another creature of another nature and did not only cure the diseases of his nature 4. It is yet apparent in the very Nature of mans faculties that their very usefulness and tendency is to live to God and to enjoy him And that God should make a Nature apt for such a use and give it no disposedness to its proper use is an unnatural conceit We see to this day that it is but an unreasonable abuse of Reason when it is not used Holily for God and it is a very disease of nature to be otherwise disposed Therefore Primitive Nature had such a Holy inclination 5. The contrary opinion tendeth to Infidelity and to brutifie humane Nature For if no man can believe that he must be Holy and live to God and enjoy him hereafter in Heaven but he that also believeth that Primitive Nature was never disposed or qualified for such a life and that God must first make a man another creature in specie of another nature and consequently not a man this is not only so improbable but so contrary to Scripture and Reason that few considerate persons would believe it As if we must believe that God would turn brutes into men God healeth elevateth and perfecteth Nature but doth not specificially change it at least in this life Obj. But let it be granted that he giveth not man specifically another Nature yet he may give him such higher gifts as may be like another Nature to him so far Answ. No doubt he may and doth give him such gifts as actuate and perfect Nature but some Disposition to our ultimate end is essential to our Nature and therefore to assign man another ultimate end and to give a Disposition to it of which he had no seed or part or principle before is to make him another creature I confess that in lapsed man the Holy Disposition is so far dead as that the change maketh a man a New Creature in a Moral sense as be is a New Man that changeth his mind and manners But still
powerfully illuminate Many among men have pretended to Infallibility that never could justifie their pretensions but have confuted them by their own mistakes and crimes But none can deny the Infallibility of God He never yet was deceived or did deceive He erreth not nor teacheth errour Nicodemus knew Christ was to believed when he knew that he was a Teacher come from God Joh. 3. 2. Christ knew that the Jews themselves durst not deny the truths of John's Doctrine if he could but convince them that it was from Heaven and not of men It is impossible for God to lye It is the Devil that was a Lyar from the beginning and is yet the Father of lyes No wonder if they believe lyes that follow such a Teacher And those that follow the flesh and the world do follow the Devil They that will believe what their fleshly interest and lusts perswade them to believe do believe what the Devil perswadeth them to believe For he perswadeth them by these and for these What marvel then if there be found men in the world that can believe that Holiness is Hypocrisie or a needless thing that those are the worst men that are most careful to please God that the world is more worthy of their care and labour than their salvation is that the pleasures of sin for a season are more desirable than the everlasting happiness of the Saints that cards and dice and mirth and lust and wealth and honour are matters more delectable than Prayer and meditating on the Word of God and loving him and obeying him and waiting in the hopes of life eternal that gluttons and drunkards and whoremongers and covetous persons may enter into the Kingdom of God c. What wonder if a thousand such damnable lyes are believed by the Disciples of the Father of lyes what wonder if there are so many Saint-haters and God-haters in the world as to fill the earth with persecutions and cruelties or make a scorn of that which God most highly valueth and all this under pretences of Order or Unity or Justice or something that is good and therefore fit to palliate their sin Is there any thing so false or foul or wicked that Satan will not teach his followers Is he grown modest or moderate or holy or just Is he reconciled to Christ to Scripture to Godliness or to the Godly Or is his Kingdom of darkness at an end and hath he lost the earth Or are men therefore none of the servants of the Devil because they were baptized as Simon Magus was and call and think themselves the servants of Christ As if still it were not the art by which he gets and keeps Disciples to suffer them to wear the livery of Christ and to use his name that he may thus keep possession of them in peace who else would be frighted from him and fly to Christ He will give them leave to study Arts and Sciences and to understand things excellent of inferiour use so be it they will be deceived by him in the matters of God and their salvation He can allow them to be learned Lawyers excellent Physicians Philosophers Politicians to be skilful Artists so be it they will follow him in sin to their damnation and will overlook the Truth that should set them free Joh. 8. 32. Yea he will permit them when there 's no remedy to study the holy Scriptures if he may but be the expounder and applyer of it Yea he will permit them notionally to understand it if they will not learn by it to be converted to be holy and to be saved He can suffer them to be eminent Divines so they will not be serious Christians Thus is the world by the grand Deceiver hurried in darkness to perdition being taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 26. But the Sanctified are all illuminated by the Holy Ghost by whom their eyes are so effectually opened that they are turned from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. The Father of Glory hath given them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the Glory of his inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 17 18. Certainly that illumination of the Holy Ghost which is so often mentioned in Scripture as given to all true believers is not a fansie nor an insignificant name And if it signifie any thing it signifieth somewhat that is much above the teaching of man All that walk with God are taught of God! And can man teach like God God hath accesse unto the heart and there he doth transcribe his Laws and put them into our inward parts And they that walk with him have not only his Word to read but his Spirit to help them to understand it and being with him in his family yea he dwelleth in them and they in him he is ready at hand to resolve their doubts when he gave them his fear he gave them the beginning of wisdom Psal. 111. 10. He causeth them to incline their ear to wisdom Prov. 2. 2 6. and to apply their hearts unto it Psal. 90. 12. and maketh them to know it in the hidden parts Psal. 51. 6. It is his Law that they have determined to make their rule They live as under his authority They are more observant of his Will and Government than of any Laws or Government of man And as they obey man in and for the Lord so they do it in subordination to him and therefore not against him and his Laws which being the standard of Justice and the Rule of Rulers and of subjects both they are in the safest way of unerring wisdom who walk with God according to that Rule and refuse to turn aside though commanded by man or enticed by Satan the world or flesh 5. He that walketh with God is the most considerate person and therefore hath great advantage to be wise The frequent and serious thoughts of God do awaken all the powers of the soul so that drowsiness doth not hinder the understanding and so occasion its deceit There is scarce a more common and powerful cause of mens folly and delusion and perdition in all the world than that sleepiness and stupidity which hindereth Reason from the vigorous performance of its office In this sensless case though a man both know and consider of the same Truths which in their nature are most powerful to cleanse and govern and save his soul yet sluggishness doth enervate them He knoweth them as if he knew them not and considereth them as if he never thought of them They work little more upon him then if he believed them not or had never heard of them even as a dream of the greatest matters moveth not the sleeper from his pillow In this senslesse state the Devil can do almost any thing with a sinner He can
make him sin against his knowledge And when Conscience hath frighted him into some kind of Penitence and made him cry out I have sinned and done foolishly and caused him to promise to do so no more yet doth the Devil prevail with him to go on and to break his promises as if he had never been convinced of his sins or confessed them or seen any reason or necessity to amend He doth but imprison the truth in unrighteousness and bury it in a senseless heart whereas if you could but awaken all the powers of his soul to give this same truth its due entertainment and take it deeper into his heart it would make him even scorn the baits of sin and see that the ungodly are beside themselves and make him presently resolve and set upon a holy life And hence it is that sickness which causeth men to receive the sentence of death doth usually make men bewail their former sinful lives and marvail that they could be before so sottish as to resist such known and weighty truths and it makes them purpose and promise reformation and wish themselves in the case of those that they were wont before to deride and scorn Because now the Truth is deeplier received and digested by their awakened souls and appeareth in its proper evidence and strength There is no man but must acknowledge that the same truth doth at one time command his soul which at another time seems of little force It is a wonder to observe how differently the same consideration worketh with a man when he is awakened and when he is in a secure stupid case Now this is his advantage that walks with God He is much more frequently then others awakened to a serious apprehension of the things which he understandeth The thoughts of the presence of the most Holy God will not suffer him to be as secure and senseless as others are or as he is himself when he turneth aside from this Heavenly conversation He hath in God such exceeding transcendent excellencies such Greatness such Goodness continually to behold that it keepeth his soul in a much more serious lively state than any other means could keep it in so that when ever any truth or duty is presented to him all his saculties are awake and ready to observe it and improve it A Sermon or a good book or godly conference or a mercy when a man hath been with God in prayer or contemplation will relish better with him and sink much deeper then at another time Nay one serious thought of God himself will do more to make a man truly and solidly wise then all the reading and learning in the world which shuts him out 6. Walking with God doth fix the mind and keep it from diversions and vagaries and consequently much helpeth to make men wise A stragling mind is empty and unfurnished He that hath no dwelling for the most part hath no wealth Wandering is the beggars life Men do but bewilder and lose themselves and not grow wise whose thoughts are ranging in the corners of the earth and are like masterlesse dogs that run up and down according to their fansie and may go any whether but have business nowhere The creature will not fix the soul But God is the center of all our cogitations In him only they may unite and fix and rest He is the only loadstone that can effectually attract and hold it steadfast to himself Therefore he that walks with God is the most constant and unmoveable of men Let prosperity or adversity come let the world be turned upside-down and the mountains be hurled into the sea yet he changeth not Let men allure or threat let them scorn or rage let laws and customs and governments and interest change he is still the same For he knoweth that God is still the same and that his Word changeth not Let that be death one year which was the way to reputation another and let the giddy world turn about as the seasons of the year this changeth not his mind and life though in things lawful he is of a yeilding temper For he knoweth that the interest of his soul doth not change with the humours or interests of men He still feareth sinning for he knoweth that Judgement is still drawing on in all changes and seasons whatsoever He is still set upon the pleasing of the most Holy God whoever be uppermost among men as knowing that the God whom he serveth is able to deliver him from man but man is not able to deliver him from God He still goeth on in the Holy path as knowing that Heaven is as sure and as desirable as ever it was Psal. 112. 6 7. Surely he shall not be moved for ever the Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance He shall not be afraid of evil tydings His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord His heart is established he shall not be afraid 7. He that walketh with God hath the great master-truths upon his heart which are the standard of the rest and the stock as it were out of which they spring The great truths about God and Grace and Glory have a greater power then many hundred truths of an inferiour nature And moreover such a one is sure that he shall be wise in the greatest and most necessary points He is guilty of no ignorance or errour that shall keep him out of heaven or hinder his acceptance with his God And if he be wise enough to please God and to be saved he is wise indeed as before was â—inted 8. Walking with God doth take off the vizar of deluding things and keepeth us out of the reach and power of those objects and arguments which are the instruments of deceit When a man hath been believingly and seriously with God how easily can he see through the sophistry of the tempting world How easily can he practically consute the reasonings of the flesh and discern the dotage of the seeming subtilties of wicked men that will needs think they have reason for that which is displeasing to their Maker and tends to the damning of their souls so far as a man is conversant with God so far he is sensible that all things are nothing which can be offered as a price to hire him to sin and that the name of preferment and honour and wealth or of disgrace and imprisonment and death are words almost of no signification as to the tempters ends to draw the soul from God and duty It is men that know not God and know not what it is to walk with him that think these words so big and powerful to whom wealth and honour signifie more then God and Heaven and poverty disgrace and death do signifie more then Gods displeasure and everlasting punishment in hell As it is easie to cheat a man that is far from the light so is it easie to deceive the learnedst man that is far from God 9. Walking with God doth greatly help us against the deceitfulness