Flavel, Fountain of Life, File 43.
( ...continued from File 42)
Consider, First, God has more obliged them to live pure and
strict lives. I know the command obliges all men to it, even those
that cast away the cords of the commands, and break Christ's bonds
asunder, are yet bound by them; and cannot plead a dispensation to
live as they do. Yea, and it is not unusual for them to feel the
obligations of the command upon their consciences, even when their
impetuous lusts hurry them on to the violation of them; but there
are special ties upon your souls, that oblige you to holiness more
than others. Many special and peculiar engagements you are under.
First, from God. Secondly, from yourselves. Thirdly, from your
brethren. Fourthly, from your enemies.
First, God has peculiarly obliged you to purity and strictness
of life. Yea, every Person in the blessed Trinity has cast his cord
over your souls, to bind up your hearts and lives to the most strict
and precise obedience of his commands. The Father has obliged you,
and that not only by the common tie of creation, which is yet of
great efficacy in itself; for, is it reasonable that God should
create and form so excellent a piece, and that it should be employed
against him? That he should plant the tree, and another eat the
fruit of it? But, besides this common engagement, he has obliged you
to holiness of life.
First, By his wise and merciful designs and counsels for your
recovery and salvation by Jesus Christ. It was he that laid the
corner-stone of your salvation with his own hands. The first motion
sprang out of his breast. If God had not designed the Redeemer for
you, the world had never seen him; he had never left that sweet
Bosom for you. It was the act of the Father to give you to the Son
to be redeemed, and then to give the Son to be a Redeemer to you.
Both of them stupendous and astonishing acts of grace. And in both
God acted as a most free Agent. When he gave you to Christ before
the beginning of time, there was nothing out of himself that could
in the least move him to it. When the Father, Son, and Spirit sat
(as I may say) at the council-table, contriving and laying the
design for the salvation of a few out of many of Adam's degenerate
offspring, there was none came before him to speak one word for
thee; but such was the divine Pleasure to insert thy name in that
catalogue of the saved. Oh how much owest thou to the Lord for this.
And what an engagement does it leave upon thy soul, to obey, please,
and glorify him?
Secondly, By his bountiful remunerations of your obedience,
which have been wonderful. What service didst thou ever perform for
him, for which he has not paid thee a thousand times more than it is
worth. Didst thou ever seek him diligently, and not find him a
bountiful rewarder? none seek him in vain, unless such only as seek
him vainly, Heb. 11: 6. Didst thou ever give a cup of cold water in
the name of a disciple, and not receive a disciple's reward? Matt.
10: 42. Hast thou not found inward peace and comfort flowing into
thy soul, upon every piece of sincere obedience! Oh what a good
Master do saints serve? You that are remiss and inconstant in your
obedience, you that are heartless and cold in duties; hear how your
God expostulates with you, Jer. 2: 31. "Have I been a wilderness to
Israel, or a land of darkness?" q. d. Have I been a hard Master to
you? Have you any reason to complain of me? To whomsoever I have
been strait handed, surely I have not been so to you. Are fruits of
sin like fruits of obedience? Do you know where to find a better
Master? Why then are you so shuffling and inconstant, so sluggish
and remiss in my work? Surely God is not behind-hand with any of
you. May you not say with David, Psal. 119: 56. "This I had, because
I kept thy precepts." There are fruits in holiness, even present
fruit. It is a high favour to be employed for God. Reward enough
that he will accept any thing thou dost. But to return every duty
thou representest to him with such comforts, such quickening, such
inward and outward blessings into thy bosom, so that thou mayest
open the treasury of thine own experiences, view the variety of
encouragements and tokens of his love, at several times received in
duties; and say, this I had, and that I had, by waiting on God, and
serving him. Oh what an engagement is this upon thee to be ever
abounding in the work of the Lord! Though thou must not work for
wages; yet God will not let thy work go unrewarded. For he is not
unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love.
Thirdly, Your Father has further obliged you to holiness and
purity of life, by signifying to you (as he has frequently done)
thee great delight and pleasure he hath therein. He hath told you,
"that such as are upright in the way are his delight," Prov. 11: 20.
That he would not have you forget to do good, and to communicate,
for with such sacrifices he is well pleased," Heb. 13: 16. You know
you cannot "walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, [excepts ye be
fruitful in every good word and work," Col. 1: 10. And oh what a
bond is this upon you to live holy lives! Can you please yourselves
in displeasing your Father? If you have the hearts of children in
you, sure you cannot. O you cannot grieve his Spirit by loose and
careless walking, but you must grieve your own spirits too. How many
times has God pleased you, gratified and contented you, and will you
not please and content him? This mercy you have asked of him, and he
gave it, that mercy and you were not denied; in many things the Lord
has wonderfully condescended to please you, and now there is but one
thing that he desires of you, and that most reasonable, yea,
beneficial for you, as well as pleasing to him, Phil. 1: 27. "Only
let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Jesus Christ."
This is the one thing, the great and main thing he expects from you
in this world, and will not you do it? Can you expect he should
gratify your desires, when you make no more of grieving and
displeasing him? Well, if you know what will please God, and yet
resolve not to do it, but will rather please your flesh, and gratify
the devil than him; pray pull off your wizards, fall into your own
rank among hypocrites, and appear as indeed you are.
Fourthly, The Father hath further obliged you to strictness and
purity of conversation, by his gracious promises made to such as so
walk. He has promised to do great things for you, if you will but do
this one thing for him. If you will "order your conversation
aright," Psal. 50 ult. He will be your sun and shield, if you walk
before him and be upright, Gen. 15: 1. "He will give grace and
glory, and no good thing will he withhold from him that walketh
uprightly," Psal. 84: 11. And he promises no more to you, than he
has made good to others, that have thus walked, and stands ready to
perform to you also. If you look to enjoy the good of the promise,
you are obliged by all your expectations and hopes to order your
lives purely and uprightly. This hope will set you on work to purge
your lives, as well as your hearts, from all pollutions, 2 Cor. 7:
1. "Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God."
Fifthly, Yea, He hath yet more obliged you to strict and holy
lives, by his confidence in you, that you will thus walk and please
him. He expresseth himself in scripture, as one that dares trust you
with his glory, knowing that you will be tender of it, and dare do
no otherwise. But if a man repose confidence in you, and trust you
with his concerns, it greatly obliges you to be faithful. What an
engagement was that upon Abraham to walk uprightly, when God said of
him, Gen. 18: 19. "I know him, that he will commend his children,
and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the
Lord," q. d. as for this wicked generation, whom I will speedily
consume in my wrath, I know they regard not my laws, they will
trample my commands under their feet, they care not how they provoke
me, but I expect other things from Abraham, and I am confident he
will not fail me. I know him, he is a man of another spirit, and
what I promise myself from him, he will make good. And to the like
purpose is that in Isa. 63: 7. "I will mention the loving-kindness
of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord; according to all that the
Lord has bestowed on us, and the great goodness towards the house of
Israel, which he has bestowed on them, according to his mercies, and
according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. For he said,
Surely they are my people, children that will not lie, (or fail me:)
so he was their Saviour." Here you have an ample account of the
endearing mercies of God to that people, ver. 7. and the Lord's
confident expectations of suitable returns from them, ver. 8. I
said, i.e. (speaking after the manner of men in like cases) I made a
full account, that after all these endearments and favours bestowed
upon them, they would not offer to be disloyal and false to me. I
have made them sure enough to myself, by so many bonds of love. Like
to which is that expression, Zeph. 3: 7. "I said, surely thou wilt
fear me, thou wilt receive instruction." Oh! how great are the
expectations of God from such as you! I know Abraham, there is no
doubt of him! And again, they are children that will not lie, i.e.
they will not fallere fidem datam, break their covenant with me. Or
they are my people that will not shrink, as Mr. Coverdale well
translates, filii non negantes, such as will be true to me, and
answer their covenant-engagements. And again, surely thou wilt fear
me, thou wilt receive instruction. And shall not all this engage you
to God? What! Neither the ancient and bountiful love of God, in
contriving your redemption from eternity, nor the bounty of God, in
rewarding all and every piece of service you have done for him? Nor
yet the pleasure he takes in your obedience and upright walking? nor
the encouraging promises he has made thereto, nor yet his confident
expectations of such a life from you, whom he has so many ways
obliged and endeared to himself? Will you forget your ancient
friend, condemn his rewards, take no delight or care to please him?
Slight his promises, and deceive and fail his expectations? "Be
astonished, O ye heavens, at this! and be horribly afraid." Consider
how God the Father has fastened this fivefold cord upon your souls,
and show yourselves Christians; yea, to use the prophet's words,
Isa. 46: 8. "Remember this, and show yourselves men."
Secondly, You are further engaged to this precise and holy
life, by what the Son has done for you; is not this pure and holy
life the very aim, and next end of his death? Did he not shed his
blood to "redeem you from your vain conversations?" 1 Pet. 1: 18.
Was not this the design of all his sufferings? "That being delivered
out of the hands of your enemies, you might serve him in
righteousness and holiness all the days of your life," Luke 1: 74,
75. And is not the apostle's inference, 2 Cor. 5: 14, 15. highly
reasonable? "If one died for all, then were all dead, and that he
died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live to
themselves, but to him that died for them." Did Christ only buy your
persons, and not your services also? No, whoever has thy time, thy
strength, or any part of either, I can assure thee, Christian, that
Christ has paid for it, and thou givest away what is none of thine
own to give. Every moment of thy time is his, every talent, whether
of grace or nature, is his; and dost thou defraud him of his own? O
how liberal are you of your precious words and hours, as if Christ
had never made a purchase of them! O think of this, when thy life
runs muddy and foul. When the fountain of corruption flows out at
thy tongue, in idle frothy discourses; or at thy hand, in sinful
unwarrantable actions? Does this become the redeemed of the Lord?
Did Christ come from the bosom of his Father for this? Did he groan,
sweat, bleed, endure the cross, and lay down his life for this? Was
he so well pleased with all his sorrows and sufferings, his pangs
and agonies, upon the account of that satisfaction he should have in
seeing the travail of his soul? Isa. 53: 11. as if he had said,
"Welcome death, welcome agonies, welcome the bitter cup and heavy
burden; I cheerfully submit to all this. These are travailing pangs
indeed, but I shall see the beautiful birth at last. These throws
and agonies shall bring forth many lovely children to God; I shall
have joy in them, and glory from them, to all eternity. This blood
of mine, these sufferings of mine, shall purchase to me the persons,
duties, services, and obedience of many thousands that will love me,
and honour me, serve me, and obey me, with their souls and bodies
which are mine." And does not this engage you to look to your lives,
and keep them pure? Is not every one of Christ's wounds a mouth open
to plead for more holiness, more service, and more fruit from you?
Oh! what will engage you if this will not? But,
Thirdly, This is not all; as a man when he weigheth a thing,
casteth in weight after weight, till the scales are counterpoised;
so does God cast in engagement after engagement, and argument upon
argument, till thy heart, Christian, be weighed up and won to this
heavenly light. And therefore, as Elihu said to Job, chap. 36: 22.
"Suffer me a little, and I will show thee what I have yet to speak
on God's behalf." Some arguments have already been urged on the
behalf of the Father and Son, for purity and cleanness of life; and
next I have something to plead on the behalf of the Spirit. I plead
now on his behalf, who has so many times helped you to plead for
yourselves with God. He that has so often refreshed, quickened, and
comforted you, he will be quenched, grieved, and displeased by an
impure, loose, and careless conversation; and what will you do then?
Who shall comfort you when the Comforter is departed from you? When
he that should relieve your souls is far off? O grieve not the holy
Spirit of God by which you are sealed, to the day of redemption,
Eph. 4: 30. There is nothing grieves him more than impure practices,
for he is a holy Spirit. And look, as water damps and quenches the
fire, so does sin quench the Spirit, 1 Thess. 5: 19. Will you quench
the warm affections and burning desires which he has kindled in your
bosoms? If you do, it is a question whether ever you may recover
them again to your dying day. The Spirit has a delicate sense. It is
the most tender thing in the whole world. He feels the least touch
of sin, and is grieved when thy corruptions within are stirred by
temptations, and break out to the defiling of thy life; then is the
holy Spirit of God, as it were, made sad and heavy within thee. As
that word "me lukeite", Eph. 4: 30. may be rendered. For thereby
thou resistest his motions, whereby in the way of a loving
constraint he would lead and guide thee in the way of thy duty; yea,
thou not only resistest his motions, but crossest his grand design,
which is to purge and sanctify thee wholly, and build thee up more
and more to the perfection of holiness. And when thou thus forsakes
his conduct, and crossest his design in thy soul, then does he
usually withdraw as a man that is grieved by the unkindness of his
friend. He draws in the beams of his evidencing and quickening
grace, withholds all his divine cordials, and saith, as it were, to
the unkind and disingenuous soul,
"Hast thou thus requited me, for all the favours and kindnesses
thou hast received from me? Have Iquickened thee, when thou was dead
in transgressions? Did I descend upon thee in the preaching of the
gospel, and communicate careless life, even the life of God, to
thee; leaving others in the state of the dead? Have I shed forth
such rich influences of grace and comfort upon thee? Comforting thee
in all thy troubles, helping thee in all thy duties; satisfying thee
in all thy doubts and perplexities of soul; saving thee, and pulling
thee back from so many destructive temptations and dangers? What had
been thy condition, if I had not come unto thee? Could the world
have converted thee without me? Could ministers, could angels, have
done that for thee which I did? And when I had quickened thee, and
made thee a living soul, what couldst thou have done, without my
exciting and assisting grace? Couldst thou go on in the way of duty,
if I had not led thee? How wouldst thou have waded through the deeps
of spiritual troubles, if I had not borne thee up? Whither had the
temptations of Satan and thine own corruptions carried thee before
this day, if I had not stood thy Friend, and come in for thy rescue
in the time of need? Did I ever fail thee in thy extremities? Did I
ever leave thee in thy dangers? Have I not been tender over thee,
and faithful to thee? And now, for which of all these kindnesses,
dost thou thus wrong and abuse me? Why hast thou wounded me thus by
thy unkindness? Ah! thou hast ill requited my love! And now thou
shalt eat the fruit of thy doings. Let thy light now be darkness;
thy songs turned into cowlings; the joy of thine heart, the light of
thine eyes, the health of thy countenance, even the face of thy God,
and the joy of salvation, be hid from thee."
This is the fruit of careless and loose walking. To this sad
issue it will bring thee at last, and when it is come to this, thou
shalt go to ordinances, and duties, and find no good in them; no
life-quickening comfort there. When thy heart which was wont to be
enlarged, and flowing, shall be clung up and dry; when thou shalt
kneel down before the Lord, and cry, as Elisha, when with the mantle
of Elijah, he smote the water, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" So
thou, where is the God of prayer? Where is the God of duties? But
there is no answer: when like Samson, thou shalt go forth and shake
thyself, as at other times; but thy strength is gone; then tell me,
what thou hast done in resisting, quenching, and grieving the Holy
Spirit of God by impure and offensive practices? And thus you see
what engagements lie upon you from the Spirit also to walk
uprightly, and keep the issues of life pure. I could willingly have
enlarged myself upon this last branch, but that a judicious hand has
lately improved this argument, to which I shall refer the reader.
Thus God has obliged you to circumspect and holy lives.
Secondly, You are under great engagements to keep your lives
pure; even from yourselves, as well as from your God. As God has
bound you to purity of conversation, so you have bound yourselves.
And there are several things in you, and done by you, which
wonderfully increase, and strengthen your obligations to practical
holiness.
First, Your clearer illumination is a strong bond upon your
souls, Eph. 5: 8. "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are light
in the Lord; walk as children of the light." You cannot pretend, or
plead ignorance of your duty. You stand convinced in your own
consciences before God, that this is your unquestionable duty.
Christians, will you not all yield to this? I know you readily
yield. We live, indeed, in a contentious, disputing age. In other
things, our opinions are different. One Christian is of this
judgement, another of that: but does he deserve the name of a
Christian that dare once question this truth? In this we all meet
and close in oneness of mind and judgement, that it is our
indisputable duty to live pure, strict, and clean lives. "The grace
of God, which has appeared to you, has taught you this truth
clearly, and convincingly," Tit. 2: 11, 12. "You have received how
you ought to walk, and to please God," 1 Thess. 4: 1. Well then,
this being yielded, the inference is plain and undeniable, that you
cannot walk as others, in the vanity of their mind; but you must
offer violence to your own light. You cannot suffer the corruptions
of your hearts to break forth into practice, but you must slight,
and put by the notices and rebukes of your own consciences, Jam. 4:
17. "He that knoweth to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin."
Yea, sin with a witness. Aggravated sin. Sin of a deeper tincture
than that of Heathens. Sin that sadly wastes and violates
conscience. Certainly, whoever has, you have no cloak for your sin.
Light and lust struggling together, great light and strong lusts:
these make the soul a troubled sea that cannot rest. O but when
masterless lusts overbear conscience, this impresses horror upon the
soul. This brake David's heart, Psal. 51: 6. "Thou hast put
knowledge in my inner part", q. d. Ah, Lord! I went against the
rebukes of conscience, to the commission of this sin. I had a
watchful light set up within me. I knew it was sin. My light
endeavoured lovingly to restrain me, and I thrust it aside. Besides,
what pleasure in sin can you have? Indeed, such as for want of light
know not what they do, or such, whose consciences are seared, and
past feeling; they may seek a little pleasure (such as it is) out of
sin: but what content or pleasure can you have, so long as your
light is ever breaking in upon you, and smiting you for what you do?
This greatly increases your obligation to a precise, holy life.
Again,
Secondly, You are professors of holiness. You have given in
your names to Christ, to be his disciples; and by this your
engagements to a life of holiness, are yet further strengthened, 2
Tim. 2: 19. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart
from iniquity." The name of Christ is called upon you, and it is a
worthy name, Jam. 2: 7. It is called upon you, as the name of the
husband is called upon his wife, Isa. 4: 1. "Let thy name be called
upon us." Or, as the name of a Father is called upon his child, Gen.
48: 16. "Let my name be called on them, and the name of my fathers.
Well then, you bear the name of Christ as his spouse or children;
and will you not live suitably to your name? Every place and
relation, every title of honour and dignity has its decorum and
becomingness. O how will that worthy name of Christ be blasphemed
through you, if you adorn it not with becoming deportment? Better
you had never professed any thing, than to set yourselves by your
profession in the eye and observation of the world; and then to pour
contempt on Jesus Christ, by your scandalous conversations, before
the eyes of the world, who will laugh at it. I remember it was a
momento given to one of his name by Alexander, recordare nominis
Alexandri. Remember (said he) thy name Alexander, and do nothing
unworthy of that name. O, that is a heavy charge, Rom. 2: 24.
"Through you is the name of God blasphemed among the Heathens."
Unhappy man that ever thou shouldst be a reproach to Christ: The
herd of wicked men are ignota capita, men of no note or observation.
They may sin, and sin again; drink, swear, and tumble in all
uncleanness; and it passes away silently; the world takes little
notice of it. Their wicked actions make but little noise in the
world; but the miscarriages of professors, are like a blazing comet,
or an eclipsed sun, which all men gaze at, and make their
observations upon; oh then, what manner of persons ought you to be,
who bear the worthy name of Christ upon you!
Thirdly, But more than this, You have obliged yourselves to
this life of holiness by your own prayers. How many times have you
lifted up your hands to heaven, and cried with David, Psal. 119: 5.
"O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. Order my steps
in thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me," ver. 133.
Were you in earnest with God, when you thus prayed? did you mean as
you said? Or did you only compliment with God? If your hearts and
tongues agreed in this request, doubtless it is as much your duty to
endeavour, as to desire those mercies and, if not, yet do all these
prayers stand on record before the Lord, and will be produced
against you as witnesses to condemn you, for your hypocrisy and
vanity. How often also have you in your prayers lamented, and
bewailed your careless and uneven walkings? You have said with Ezra,
chap. 9: 6. "O my God, I am ashamed, and even blush to look up unto
thee." And do not your confessions oblige you to greater
circumspection and care for time to come? Will you confess, and sin?
And sin, and confess? Go to God and bewail your evils, and when you
have bewailed them, return again to the commission of them? God
forbid you should thus dissemble with God, play with sin, and dye
your iniquities with a deeper tincture.
Fourthly, and lastly, to add no more, You have often reproved
or censured others for their miscarriages and falls, which adds to
your own obligation, to walk accurately, and evenly. Have you not
often reproved your erring brethren? or at least privately censured
them, if not duty reproved them, (for to these left-handed blows of
secret censurings, we are more apt, than to the fair and open
strokes of just and due reproofs (and will you practice the same
things you criminals and censure others for? "Thou that teachest
another, saith the apostle) teachest thou not thyself?" Rom. 2: 21.
So say I, thou that censures or rebukes another, condemnest thou not
thyself? Will your rebukes ever do good to others, whilst you allow
in yourselves what you condemn in them? And as these reproofs and
censures can do them no good, so they do you much evil, by reason of
them you are "autokatakritoi", self-condemned persons; and out of
your own mouths God will judge you. For you need no other witness
than yourselves in this case. Your own tongues will fall upon you.
Your censures and reproofs of others will leave you without plea or
apology, if you look not to your lives with greater care. And yet
will you be careless still? Fear you not the displeasure of God? Nor
the wounding and disquieting your own consciences? Surely, these
things are of no light value with you, if you be Christians indeed.
Thirdly, You are yet further engaged to practical holiness upon
the account of your brethren, who are not a little concerned and
interested therein. For if, through the neglect of your hearts your
lives be defiled and polluted, this will be thrown in their faces,
and many innocent and upright ones both reproached and grieved upon
your account. This mischievous effect holy David earnestly
deprecated, Psal. 69: 5, 6. "O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and
my sins are not hid from thee; let not them that wait on thee, O
Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not them that seek
thee, be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel," q. d. Lord, thou
knowest what a weak and foolish creature I am. And how apt to
miscarry, if left to myself, and should I, through my foolishness,
act unbecoming a saint; how would this shame the faces, and sadden
the hearts of thy people! They will be as men confounded at the
report of my fall. The fall of one Christian is matter of trouble
and shame to all the rest; and, when they shall hear the sad and
unwelcome news of your scandalous miscarriages, (which will
certainly be the effect of a neglected heart and life) they will say
as David concerning Saul and Jonathan, "Tell it not in Gath, publish
it not in the streets of Askelon," &c. Or as Tamar concerning Amnon,
"And we, whither shall we cause our shame to go?" And for them, they
shall be as fools in Israel. Thy loose and careless life will cause
them to estrange themselves from thee, and look shy upon thee, as
being ashamed to own thee, and canst thou bear that; will it not
grieve and pierce your very hearts to see a cloud of strangeness and
trouble over the countenances of your brethren? To see yourselves
disowned and lightly esteemed by them? This very consideration
struck a great favourite in the Persian court to the very heart. It
was Ustazanes, who had been governor to Sapores in his minority. And
this man for fear denied the Christian faith, and complied with the
idolatrous worship of the king. And one Day (saith the historian)
sitting at the court-gate, he saw Simon, the aged archbishop of
Seleucia, drawn along to prison, for his constancy in the Christian
faith; and, though he durst not openly own the Christian faith he
had so basely denied, and confess himself a Christian, yet he could
not chuse but rise, and express his reverence to this holy man, in a
respective and honourable salutation; but the zealous good man
frowned upon him, and turned away his face from him, as thinking
such an apostate unworthy of the least respect from him This
presently struck Ustazanes to the heart, and drew from him many
tears and groans, and thus he reasoned with himself: Simon will not
own me, and can I think but that God will disclaim me, when I appear
before his tribunal? Simon will not speak unto me, will not so much
as look upon me, and can I look for so much as a good word or look
from Jesus Christ, whom I leave so shamefully betrayed and denied?
Hereupon he threw off his rich courtly robes, and put on mourning,
apparel, and professed himself a Christian, and died a martyr O it
is a piercing thing to an honest heart, to be cast out of the favour
of God's people. If you walk loosely, neither God nor his people
look in kindly upon you.
Fourthly, and lastly; Your very enemies engage you to this pure
and holy life upon a double ground. You are obliged by them two
ways, viz. as they are your bold censurers, and your watchful
observers. They censure you as hypocrites, and will you give them
ground and matter for such a charge? They say, only your tongues are
more holy than other men's, and shall they prove it from your
practice? They also observe you diligently; lie at catch, and are
highly gratified by your miscarriages. If your lives be loose and
defiled, you will not only be a shame to your friends, but the song
of your enemies. You will make mirth in hell; and gratify all the
enemies of God. This is that they watch for. They are curious
observers of your goings And that which makes them triumph at your
falls and miscarriages, is not only that deep rooted enmity betwixt
the two seeds, but because all your miscarriages and evils are so
many absolutions to their consciences, and justifications (as they
think) of their ways and practices. For look, as your strictness and
holiness does, as it were, cast and condemn them, as Noah, Heb. 11:
7. by his practice, condemned the world, their consciences fly in
their faces, when they see your holy and pure conversations. It lays
a damp upon them. It works upon their consciences, and causes many
smart reflections. So when you fall, you, as it were, absolve their
consciences, loose the bonds of conviction you had made fast upon
them, and now there is matter of joy put before them.
Oh, say they, whatever these men talk, we see they are no
better than we. They can do as we do. They can cozen and cheat for
adventure. They can comply with any thing for their own ends; it is
not conscience, as we once thought, but mere stomach and humour,
that made them so precise. And oh! what a sad thing is this! hereby
you shed soul-blood. You fasten the bands of death upon their souls.
you kill those convictions, which, for any thing you know, might
have made way to their conversion. When you fall, you may rise
again; but they may fall at your example, and never rise more. Never
have a good opinion of the ways of God, or of his people any more.
Upon this consideration, David begs of God, Psal. 5: 8. "Lead me, O
Lord, in thy righteousness, because of mine enemies;" (or, as the
Hebrew;) my observers, make thy way straight before my face. And
thus you see how your very enemies oblige you to this holy and pure
conversation also.
Now put all this together, and see to what these particulars
will amount. You have heard how God the Father has engaged you to
this purity of conversations by his designment of your salvation;
rewarded your obedience; his pleasure in it; his promises to it; and
his great confidence in you, that you will thus walk before him. The
Lord Jesus has also engaged you thereunto by his death and
sufferings, whereby you were redeemed from your vain conversations.
The Spirit has engaged you, by telling you plainly how much you will
grieve and wrong him, resist and quench him, if you do not keep
yourselves pure. Yea, you are obliged further, by yourselves; your
clear illumination; your high profession; your many prayers and
confessions; your many censures and reprehensions of others; do all
strengthen your obligation to holiness. Yea, you are obliged further
to this holy life by the shame, grief, and trouble your loose
walking will bring upon your friends; and the mirth it will make
for, and mischief it will do to your enemies; who, thereby, may be
made utterly to fall, where, it may be, you only have stumbled: who
are justified and absolved, (as before yell heard), by your
miscarriages. And now, what think you of all this? Are you obliged
or not, to this purity of life? Are all these bonds so tied, that
you can set loose, and free yourselves at pleasure from them? If all
these things are of no force with you, if none of these bonds can
hold you, may it not be questioned, (notwithstanding your
profession), whether any spiritual principle, any fear of God, o;
love to Christ, be in your souls or no? O, you could not play fast
and loose with God? if so, you could not, as Samson, snap these
bonds asunder at your pleasure.
Consid. 2. Secondly, As you are more obliged to keep the issues
of life pure than others are, so God has given you greater
assitances and advantages for it than others have. God has not been
wanting to any in helps and means. Even the Heathen, who are without
the gospel, will be yet speechless and inexcusable before God; but
how much more will you be so? Who, besides the light of nature, and
the general light of the gospel, have, First, Such a principle put
within you. Secondly, Such patterns set before you. Thirdly, Such an
assistant ready to help you. Fourthly, So many rods to quicken you
and prevent your wandering: if notwithstanding all these helps, your
life be still unholy.
First, Shall men of such principles walk as others do? Shall we
lament for you, as David once did for Saul, saying, "There the
shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, the shield of Saul; as
though he had not been anointed with oil." There the honour of a
Christian was vilely cast away, as though he had not been anointed
with the Spirit? "You have received an unction from the holy One,
which teaches you all things", 1 John 2:20. Another Spirit, far
above that which is in other men, 1 Cor. 2:12. And as this spirit
which is in you, is fitted for this life of holiness "(for you are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works", Eph. 2:10.)
so this holy spirit of principle, infused into your souls, has such
a natural tendency to this holy life, that if you life not purely
and strictly, you must offer violence to your own principles and new
nature. A twofold help this principle affords you for a life of
holiness.
(continued in file 44...)
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