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A51703
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Of holy living first a serious exhortation thereunto : secondly choice directions therein, both for every working and for every Lords-day.
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Mall, Thomas, b. 1629 or 30.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing M335; ESTC R6533
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19,287
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67
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should be the more careful to live this holy life because the days are evil Both because the customs and manners of most are so wicked that they have even tainted time it self and corrupted the very days And because the days are very dangerous by reason of temptation and persecution That so the times may be bettered by your means and that you your selves may be secured from the dangers and snares thereof and that you hearts may be born up under the persecution you meet with therein See therefore that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil 2 Your light cannot but be urging what you know to be your duty upon your conscience It cannot but be putting you upon doing what you ought it cannot but be a spur in your sides to make you go yea run the wayes of Gods commandments 3 Hereby it becomes harder for you then for others not to be perswaded to follow this exhortation It is far easier to sin without light then against light It is not easie for you to put by the motions of your own knowledge and keep down your own light But it is harder to go contrary thereunto Yea 4 If your knowledge be indeed saving it hath a very great power in it Both a transforming power 2 Cor. 3.18 and a fructifying power Rom. 12.2 Col. 19.10 Teaching and therefore knowledge is the means whereby Christ as a Prophet helpeth souls to live this life Hence he is said to speak life into his People John 6.63 and his words are called The words of life John 6.68 Motive 4. If you will not be perswaded to see to it that you live this life you cannot have assurance that you are children of the light yea you may on Scripture-grounds conclude you are not If your light were indeed saving you would be very careful that your life be holy Give me understanding saith David Psal 119.34 and what then why I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Would you not be glad to have assurance that your knowledge is such as accompanieth salvation i. e. such as cannot be separated from salvation See then that ye walk circumspectly c. Hereby we know we do not only think or hope but know assuredly that we know him i. e. savingly if we keep his commandments 1 John 2 3. It as but a form of knowledge that brings forth but a form of godliness Motive 5. If you will not be perswaded to follow this exhortation your knowledge will be an aggravation of your sin and an heightner of your condemnation Verily you can have no cloake for your sin John 15.22 Others think that their ignorance is some excuse or extenuation of their sin though most are therein mistaken because their ignorance is a supine and an affected ignorance and such ignorance is one of the highest aggravations of sin But to be sure you cannot so much as think that you have any such excuse or extenuation of your sin That servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not himself nor did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes though he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required Luke 12.47 48. If you neglect your known duty your light cannot but break in upon you and smite you both here and hereafter But so much for the Motives from your being children of the light as it signifies your being enlightned with saving knowledge Chap. 2. Motives from their Justification SEcondly See that ye walk circumspectly c. seeing you are enlivened with saving grace In Scripture light is often taken for life Job 33.28 30. Psal 36.9 49.19 Thus here Ye are light in the Lord i. e. ye are not only enlightned but enlivened made partakers of a double life the life of justification and the life of sanctification See then that ye walk circumspectly c. First You are made partakers of the life of righteousness In Scripture life and righteousness are taken for the same 2 Cor. 3.6 7 9. Rom. 5.17 21. Because sin by reason of its guilt doth immediately make a man dead in law John 3.18 And when a capital offender is pardoned we say his life is given him Thus are you made alive in your justification the sentence of condemnation is reversed John 3.18 you enjoy peace and reconciliation with God and his love and favour Rom. 5.1 And in Scripture light upon the account of its diffusiveness and communicativeness and comfortableness signifies sometimes peace sometimes love and favour I form the light and create darkness is explained in the next words I make peace and create evil Jer. 13.16 The light of the Kings countenance and his favour are equivalent expressions Prov. 16.15 See then that ye walk circumspectly c. And good reason there is why you should even upon the account of the pardon of your sins and the justification of your persons For Motive 1. Hereby another great hinderance of your living this life is removed and that is guilt Sins binding over the Soul to the wrath of God No wonder that others do not live this life which is a walking with God Gen. 5.24 Can two walk together except they be agreed Amos 3.3 No wonder that they fly from God so our first Parents did Gen. 3.8 10. as an enemy So he is to their souls and they are children of his wrath Ephes 2.3 But your guilt is taken away and God of an enemy is become your friend Col. 1.20 21 22. You can indeed find no pleasure in the company of an enemy and if an enemy employ you about any thing you will not go about it if you can choose and if you do you go about it grudgingly But what Will not you walk with your best friend Shall it not be the delight of your souls to be employed by him Motive 2. You are upon this account more bound to live this life then others are For 1 The way of your justification doth strongly bind you hereunto for this holy life is the end of justification by faith and therefore this way of Justification is appointed to continue onely till you are brought to live perfectly holy lives in Heaven for then there will be another way for your acceptation though the glory and honour of all will be given to Christ 2 Your discharge from the Covenant of Works in your Justification doth also strongly bind you hereunto When you are justified you are not bound to a personal perfect and perpetual keeping of the Law as the condition of life Gal. 4.21 22. But yea therefore you are bound to be the more careful sincerely to observe the Law as a Rule of life So long as you were under the Covenant of Works you might indeeed be discouraged from endeavouring to obey the Law because that Covenant accepteth of nothing but
perfect obedience Gal. 3.10 gives no power at all to obey and therefore called the Letter 2 Cor. 3.6 yea causeth accidentally the abounding of disobedience Rom. 5.10 and therefore compared to an husband and a sinful heart to a wife Rom. 7.4 5. But now being under the Covenant of Grace God is engaged to forgive your transgressions Jer. 31.34 and to accept your imperfect obedience Mal. 3.17 yea to give you power and strength to do what is required and to abstain from what is forbidden 2 Cor. 3.6 Mica 7.19 O! What an obligation is this upon you to see to circumspect walking Verily Gods promising in the Covenant of Grace to enable you to walk in his Statutes doth not shut out your endeavour but engage you to endeavour for God only promiseth to help you if you endeavour in the use of the means whereof Prayer is one Ezek. 36.27 compared with Verse 37. 3 The grace of God in your justification bindeth you hereunto Tit. 2.11 12. Rom. 6.12 13 14. Hereby God hath done more for you then others and therefore you should do more for him then others Matth. 5.47 Considering how great things he hath done for you 1 Sam. 12.24 4 Your relations upon your Justification bind you hereunto Being justified you are Christs and Gods and therefore should see to it that you live to God and Christ 1 Cor. 6.20 Others are not under your bonds they may indeed be more under the bond of slavish fear but you are more under the bond of love and the bond of love is stronger then that of fear Motive 3. You have upon this account more encouragements then others to live this life For 1 There are some motives more cogent upon you then upon others To instance onely in two That the grace of God teacheth souls to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly Tit. 2.11 12. And that not to live this life is to turn the grace of God into wantonness Jude 4. cannot but have greater influence upon your souls then upon others 2 You are more assured of help to live this life then others and that upon a double account Both because the more a man doth forsake any thing of his own for Christ the more Christ is engaged to give of his good things to that man And therefore seeing when you become justified by faith you lay down all your own righteousness Christ is engaged to give you his righteousness that righteousness which he worketh in souls And because upon your believing for Justification you are estated in the Covenant of Grace and so God is engaged to enable you to live this holy life as you heard under the former particular Motive 4. If you will not be perswaded to follow this exhortation your sin is upon this account greater then the sin of others For 1 Hereby you cross Gods grand design in his decree of election in his sending his Son into the World in Justification in all his Ordinances and Providences more then others What ever others are if you be indeed justified you are predestinated to live this life Rom. 8.29 30. Christ came not only to redeem you from the guilt of all iniquity but to purifie you from the filth of sin and to make you peculiar people to himself zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 In your Justification you are therefore delivered out of the hands of all your enemies that you might serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all your days Luke 1.74 75. The design of God in all his Ordinances and Providences is your good that you may live better and better Rom. 8.28 And what Is it nothing to you even to you to cross Gods grand design in the World 2 Hereby you gratifie the Devil more then others Though he is against holiness in any yet he is not so much rejoyced that others will not live this holy life as he is if he can but perswade a Justified person to be unwilling thereunto and that appears in his rage against such as will not be perswaded by him he will by some means or other stir up sharp Persecution against them 2 Tim. 3.12 3 Hereby you turn the grace of God into wantonness more then others Jude 4. Others turn the Doctrine of Free-grace in â—ustification into wantonness but you turn the Grace of Justification it self into wantonness and therefore your sin is against more mercy and by consequence doth more grieve the Spirit then others unperswadableness 4 Hereby your unperswadableness becomes more inexcusable It is not indeed unpardonable for you are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 But yet it is altogether unexcusable even because you are under Grace and by consequence if you would be perswaded to set upon living this life you should find God coming in to your help according to his Promise in the Covenant of Grace Motive 5. If you will not be perswaded to live this holy life you cannot have assurance that you are indeed justified And is that nothing to you yea you cannot but conclude that you are mistaken in thinking that you are justified Are not the Apostles words plain If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth 1 John 1.6 Chap. 3. Motives from their Sanctification SEcondly See that ye walk circumspectly seeing ye are children of the light i. e. Seeing ye are made partakers not only of the life of righteousness but of the life of holiness You partake of the Divine nature Christ is formed in your hearts you are made habitually holy all the Commandements of God are writ in your inward parts the Holy Ghost dwells within you is an abiding principle of holiness See therefore that you walk circumspectly c. And good reason there is why you should even upon this account upon the account of your Regeneration Conversion Sanctification Being made new creatures c. For Motive 1. Hereby another great hinderance of this holy life is removed and that is the want of an inward principle We cannot live a natural life without an inward principle without a natural heat with the fountain thereof by which the body is made operative Hence in living creatures the heart first liveth because it is the forge of spirits and the fountain of heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist de respir c. 8. No more possible is it to live this spiritual life without an inward principle If the watch be not of the right make it will never go true Till you were converted the Flesh was predominant and therefore it was impossible for you to live any other then a flesbly life for every thing will act according to its predominant principle But now the Spirit is the predominant principle within you Should not you therefore live a spiritual life Should not the Law of God written in your hearts be legible in your lives Should not your lives be according to