A Christian Directory Volume I Part 6

8. If you have not, in a deliberate covenant or resolution, devoted and given up yourselves to G.o.d as your Father and felicity, to Jesus Christ as your only Saviour, and your Lord and King, and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier, to be made holy by him, desiring that your heart and life should be perfectly conformed to the will of G.o.d, and that you might know him, and love him, and enjoy him more; you are void of G.o.dliness and true christianity; for this is the very covenant which you make in baptism, which you call your christening. Matt.

xxviii. 19, 20; 2 Cor. viii. 5; 1 Cor. vi. 17; John i. 10-12; Gal. iv.

6; Rom. viii. 14, 15.

I have now plainly showed you, and fully proved, from the word of G.o.d, by what infallible signs an unG.o.dly man may know that he is unG.o.dly, if he will. May you not know whether it be thus with you, if you are willing to know? May you not know, if you will, whether your desire and design of life be more for this world or that to come? and whether heaven or earth be preferred and sought first? and whether your fleshly prosperity and pleasure, or your souls, be princ.i.p.ally cared for and regarded? May you not know, if you will, whether you love or loathe the serious wors.h.i.+ppers of G.o.d?[28] and whether you had rather be delivered from your sins or keep them? and whether your wills be more against them, or for them? and whether you love a holy life or not? and whether you had rather be perfect in holiness and obedience to G.o.d, or be excused from it, and please the flesh? and whether you had rather be such a one as Paul, or as Caesar? a persecuted saint in poverty and contempt, or a persecuting conqueror or king? May you not know, if you will, whether you love a searching ministry, that telleth you of the worst, and would not deceive you? May you not know, whether you are resolvedly devoted and given up to G.o.d, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as your Father and felicity, your Saviour and your Sanctifier; and whether the scope, design, and business of your lives is more for G.o.d, or for the flesh, for heaven, or earth; and which it is that bears the sway, and which it is that comes behind, and hath but the leavings of the other, or only so much as it can spare?

Certainly these are things so near you, and so remarkable in your hearts, that you may come to the knowledge of them if you will. But if you will not, who can help it?

What a sottish cavil is it then of those ignorant men, that ask us, when we tell them of these things, Whether ever we were in heaven? or ever saw the book of life? and how we can tell who shall be saved, and who shall be d.a.m.ned? If it were about a May-game this jesting were more seasonable; but to talk thus distractedly about the matters of salvation and d.a.m.nation, and to make such a jest of the d.a.m.ning of souls, is a kind of foolery that hath no excuse. What though we never were in heaven? and never saw the book of life? dost thou think I never saw the Scriptures? Why, wretched sinner, dost thou not know, that Christ came down from heaven, to tell us who they be that shall come thither, and who they be that shall be shut out? And did he not know what he said? Is G.o.d the Governor of the world, and hath he not a law by which he governeth them? and can I not tell by the law, who they be that the Judge will condemn or save? What else is the law made for, but to be the rule of life, and the rule of judgment? Read Psal.

i. and xv.; Matt. v. vii. and xxv., and all the texts which I even now cited, and see in them whether G.o.d hath not told you who they be that shall be saved, and who they be that shall be condemned? nay, see whether this be not the very business of the word of G.o.d? And do you think that he hath written in vain? But some men have loved ignorance and unG.o.dliness so long, till the Spirit of grace hath cast them off, and left them to the sottishness of their carnal minds, so that "they have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not, and hearts and understand not." But those that are willing and diligent to know their sin and duty, in order to their recovery, G.o.d will not let them search in vain, nor hide the remedy from their eyes.

_Direct._ IX. When you have found yourselves in a state of sin and death, understand and consider what a state that is.

It may be you will think it a tolerable condition, and linger in it, as if you were safe; or delay your repentance, as if it were a matter of no great haste; unless you open your eyes, and look round about you, and see in how slippery a place you stand. Let me name some instances of the misery of an unregenerate, graceless state, and then judge of it as the word of G.o.d directs you.

1. As long as you are unconverted, you must needs be loathsome and abominable to G.o.d.[29] His holy nature is unreconcilable to sin, and would be unreconcilable to sinners, if it were not that he can cleanse and purify them. Did you know what sin is, and know G.o.d's holiness, you would understand this much better. Your own averseness to G.o.d, and your dislike of the holiness of his laws and servants, might tell you what thoughts he hath of you. "He hateth all the workers of iniquity," Psal.

v. 5. Indeed he taketh you for his enemies, and as such he will handle you, if you be not converted. I know many persons that are most deeply guilty, especially men of honour and esteem in the world, would scorn to have this t.i.tle given to themselves; but verily G.o.d is not fearful of offending them, nor so tender of their defiled honour, as they are of their own, or as they expect the preacher should be. If those be the king's enemies that refuse his government and set up another, then those are the enemies of G.o.d, and of the Redeemer, and of the Holy Ghost, that set up the base concupiscence of their flesh, and the honour and prosperity of this world, and the will of man, and refuse the government of G.o.d their Creator and Redeemer, and refuse the sanctifying teachings and operations of the Holy Ghost. Read Luke xix. 27.

Some think it strange that any men should be called "haters of G.o.d;"

and I believe you will find it hard to meet with that man that will confess it by himself, till converting grace or h.e.l.l constrain him.

And indeed if G.o.d himself had not charged men with that sin, and called them by that name, we should scarce have found belief or patience when we had endeavoured to convince the world of it. Entreat but the worst of men to repent of hating G.o.d, and try how they will take it. Yet they may read that name in Scripture, Rom. i. 30; Psal.

lx.x.xi. 15; Luke xix. 14. Did not the Jews hate Christ, think you, when they murdered him? and when they hated all his followers for his sake?

Matt. x. 22; Mark xiii. 13. And doth not Christ say, "that they shall be hated for his sake, not only of the Jews, but also of all nations, and all men," Matt. xxiv. 9; x. 22; even by the "world," John xvii.

14; xv. 17-19, &c. And this was a hating "both Christ and his Father,"

John xv. 23, 24. But you will say, it is not possible that any man can hate G.o.d. I answer, how then came the devils to hate him? Yea, every unG.o.dly man hateth G.o.d: indeed no man hateth him as good, or as merciful to them; but they hate him as holy and just, as one that will not let them have the pleasure of sin, without d.a.m.ning them; as one engaged in justice to cast them into h.e.l.l, if they die without conversion; and as one that hath made so pure and precise a law to govern them, and convinceth them of sin, and calls them to that repentance and holiness which they hate. Why did the world hate Christ himself? He tells you, John vii. 7, "The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify against it, that the works thereof are evil." John iii. 19, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Nay, it is a wonder of blindness, that this G.o.d-hating world and age should not perceive that they are G.o.d-haters, while they hate his servants to the death, and implacably rage against them, and hate his holy ways and kingdom, and bend all their power and interest in most of the kingdoms of the world, against his interest and his people upon earth: while the devil fighteth his battles against Christ through the world, by their hands, they will yet confess the devil's malice against G.o.d, but deny their own; as if he used their hands without their hearts. Well! poor, wretched worms!

instead of denying your enmity to him, lament it, and know that he also taketh you for his enemies, and will prove too hard for you when you have done your worst. Read Psal. ii. and tremble, and submit. This is especially the case of persecutors and open enemies; but in their measure also of all that would not have him to reign over them. And therefore Christ came to reconcile us unto G.o.d, and G.o.d to us; and it is only the sanctified that are reconciled to him. See Col. i. 21; Phil. iii. 18; 1 Cor. xv. 25; Rom. v. 10. "The carnal mind is enmity against G.o.d; for it is not subject to the law of G.o.d; nor indeed can be," Rom. viii. 7. Mark that text well.

2. As long as you are unsanctified, you are unjustified and unpardoned: you are under the guilt of all the sins that ever you committed: every sinful thought, word, and deed, of which the least deserveth h.e.l.l, is on your score, to be answered for by yourself: and what this signifieth, the threatenings of the law will tell you. See Acts xxvi. 18; Mark iv. 12; Col. i. 14. There is no sin forgiven to an impenitent, unconverted sinner.

[Sidenote: Rom. viii. 9.]

3. And no wonder, when the unconverted have no special interest in Christ. The pardon and life that is given by G.o.d, is given in and with the Son: "G.o.d hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life," 1 John v. 10-12. Till we are members of Christ, we have no part in the pardon and salvation purchased by him: and unG.o.dly sinners are not his members. So that Jesus Christ, who is the hope and life of all his own, doth leave thee as he found thee: and that is not the worst; for,

4. It will be far worse with the impenitent rejecters of the grace of Christ, than if they had never heard of a Redeemer. For it cannot be, that G.o.d having provided so precious a remedy for sinful, miserable souls, should suffer it to be despised and rejected, without increased punishment. Was it not enough that you had disobeyed your great Creator, but you must also set light by a most gracious Redeemer, that offered you pardon, purchased by his blood, if you would but have come to G.o.d by him? Yea, the Saviour that you despised shall be himself your Judge, and the grace and mercy which you set so light by, shall be the heaviest aggravation of your sin and misery. For "how shall you escape, if you neglect so great salvation?" Heb. ii. 3. "And of how much sorer punishment" (than the despisers of Moses' law) "shall they be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of G.o.d," &c. Heb. x. 29.

5. The very prayers and sacrifice of the wicked are abominable to G.o.d (except such as contain their returning from their wickedness). So that terror ariseth to you from that which you expect should be your help. See Prov. xv. 8; xxi. 27; Isa. i. 13.

6. Your common mercies do but increase your sin and misery (till you return to G.o.d): your carnal hearts turn all to sin; t.i.t. i. 15, "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled, and unbelieving, is nothing pure: but even their mind and conscience is defiled."

7. While you are unsanctified, you are impotent, and dead to any holy, acceptable work: when you should redeem your time, and prepare for eternity, and try your states, or pray, or meditate, or do good to others, you have no heart to any such spiritual works: your minds are bia.s.sed against them, Rom. viii. 7. And it is not the excusable impotency of such, as would do good, but cannot: but it is the malicious impotency of the wicked, (the same with that of devils,) that cannot do good, because they will not; and will not, because they have blind, malicious, and unG.o.dly hearts, which makes their sin so much the greater, t.i.t. i. 16.

8. While you have unsanctified hearts, you have at all times the seed and disposition unto every sin; and if you commit not the worst, it is because some providence restraining the tempter hindereth you. No thanks to you that you do not daily commit idolatry, blasphemy, theft, murder, adultery, &c. It is in your hearts to do it, when you have but temptation and opportunity; and will be, till you are renewed by sanctifying grace.

9. Till you are sanctified you are heirs of death and h.e.l.l,[30] even under the curse, and condemned already in point of law, though judgment have not pa.s.sed the final sentence. See John iii. 18, 19, 36.

And nothing is more certain, than that you had been d.a.m.ned and undone for ever, if you had died before you had been renewed by the Holy Ghost; and that yet this will be your miserable portion, if you should die unsanctified. Think, then, what a life you have lived until now?

and think what it is to live any longer in such a case, in which if you die, you are certain to be d.a.m.ned. Conversion may save you, but unbelief and self-flattery will not save you from this endless misery, Heb. xii. 14; ii. 3; Matt. xxv. 46.

10. As long as you are unsanctified, you are hasting to this misery: sin is like to get more rooting; and your hearts to be more hardened, and at enmity with grace; and G.o.d more provoked; and the Spirit more grieved; and you are every day nearer to your final doom, when all these things will be more sensibly considered, and better understood, 2 Tim. iii. 13; 2 Pet. ii. 3.

Thus I have given you a brief account of the case of unrenewed souls, and but a brief one, because I have done it before more largely.

(Treatise of Conversion.)

_Direct._ X. When you have found out how sad a condition you are in, consider what there is in sin to make you amends or repair your loss, that should be any hinderance to your conversion.

Certainly you will not continue for nothing (if you know it to be nothing) in so dangerous and doleful a case as this. And yet you do it for that which is much worse than nothing, not considering what you do. Sit down sometimes, and well bethink you, what recompence the world or sin will make you, for your G.o.d, your souls, your hopes, and all, when they are lost and past recovery? Think what it will then avail or comfort you, that once you were honoured, and had a great estate; that once you fared of the best, and had your delicious cups, and merry hours, and sumptuous attire, and all such pleasures. Think whether this will abate the horrors of death, or put by the wrath of G.o.d, or the sentence of your condemnation; or whether it will ease a tormented soul in h.e.l.l? If not, think how small, and short, and silly a commodity and pleasure it is, that you buy so dear; and what a wise man can see in it, that should make it seem worth the joys of heaven, and worth your enduring everlasting torments. What is it that is supposed worth all this? Is it the snare of preferment? Is it vexing riches? Is it befooling honours? Is it distracting cares? Is it swinish luxury or l.u.s.t? Is it beastly pleasures? Or what is it else that you will buy at so wonderful dear a rate? O lamentable folly of unG.o.dly men! O foolish sinners! unworthy to see G.o.d! and worthy to be miserable! O strangely corrupted heart of man, that can sell his Maker, his Redeemer, and his salvation, at so base a price!

_Direct._ XI. And when you are casting up your account, as you put all that sin and the world will do for you in the one end of the scales, so put into the other the comforts both of this life, and of that to come, which you must part with for your sins.

Search the Scriptures, and consider how happy the saints of G.o.d are there described. Think what it is, to have a purified, cleansed soul; to be free from the slavery of the flesh and its concupiscence; to have the sensitive appet.i.te in subjection unto reason, and reason illuminated and rectified by faith; to be alive to G.o.d, and disposed and enabled to love and serve him; to have access to him in prayer, with boldness and a.s.surance to be heard; to have a sealed pardon of all our sins, and an interest in Christ, who will answer for them all and justify us; to be the children of G.o.d, and the heirs of heaven; to have peace of conscience, and the joyful hopes of endless joys; to have communion with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, and to have that Spirit dwelling in us, and working to our further holiness and joy; to have communion with the saints; and the help and comfort of all G.o.d's ordinances, and to be under his many precious promises, and under his protection and provision in his family, and to cast all our care upon him; to delight ourselves daily in the remembrance and renewed experiences of his love, and in our too little knowledge of him, and love to him, and in the knowledge of his Son, and of the mysteries of the gospel; to have all things work together for our good, and to be able with joy to welcome death, and to live as in heaven in the foresight of our everlasting happiness. I would have orderly here given you a particular account of the privileges of renewed souls, but that I have done so much in that already in my "Treatise of Conversion," and "Saints' Rest." This taste may help you to see what you lose, while you abide in an unconverted state.

_Direct._ XII. When you have thus considered of the condition you are in, consider also whether it be a condition to be rested in one day.

If you die unconverted, you are past all hope; for out of h.e.l.l there is no redemption:[31] and certain you are to die ere long; and uncertain whether it will be this night, Luke xii. 20. You never lay down with a.s.surance that you should rise again; you never went out of doors with a.s.surance to return; you never heard a sermon with a.s.surance that you should hear another; you never drew one breath with a.s.surance that you should draw another: a thousand accidents and diseases are ready to stop your breath, and end your time, when G.o.d will have it so. And if you die this night in an unregenerate state, there is no more time, or help, or hope. And is this a case then for a wise man to continue in a day, that can do any thing towards his own recovery? Should you delay another day or hour, before you fall down at the feet of Christ, and cry for mercy, and return to G.o.d, and resolve upon a better course? May I not well say to thee, as the angels unto Lot, Gen. xix. 15, 17, 22, "Arise, lest thou be consumed: escape for thy life; look not behind thee."

_Direct._ XIII. 'When thou art resolved, past thy waverings and delays, give up thyself entirely and unreservedly to G.o.d the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as thy happiness, thy Saviour, and thy Sanctifier, in a hearty consent to the covenant of grace.'

This is thy christianity; thy espousals with Christ. It is sacramentally done in baptism; but till it be personally owned, and heartily renewed by men at age, they have no reason to be numbered with adult believers, nor to dream of a part in the blessings of the covenant. It is pity it is not made a more serious, solemn work, for men thus to renew their covenant with G.o.d. (For which I have written in a "Treatise of Confirmation," but hitherto in vain.) However, do it seriously thyself: it is the greatest and weightiest action of thy life.

To this end, peruse well the covenant of grace which is offered thee in the gospel: understand it well. In it G.o.d offereth, notwithstanding thy sins, to be thy reconciled G.o.d and Father in Christ, and to accept thee as a son, and an heir of heaven.

The Son offereth to be thy Saviour, to justify thee by his blood and grace, and teach thee, and govern thee as thy Head, in order to thy everlasting happiness. The Holy Spirit offereth to be thy Sanctifier, Comforter, and Guide, to overcome all the enmity of the devil, the world, and the flesh, in order to the full accomplishment of thy salvation; nothing is expected of thee, in order to thy t.i.tle to the benefits of this covenant, but deliberately, unfeignedly, entirely to consent to it, and to continue that consent, and perform what thou consentest to perform, and that by the help of the grace which will be given thee. See, therefore, that thou well deliberate of the matter, but without delays; and count what thou shalt gain or lose by it. And if thou find that thou art like to be a loser in the end, and knowest of any better way, even take it, and boast of it, when thou hast tried the end; but if thou art past doubt, that there is no way but this, despatch it resolutely and seriously.

And take heed of one thing, lest thou say, Why, this is no more than every body knoweth, and than I have done a hundred times, to give up myself in covenant to G.o.d the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Dost thou know it, and yet hast thou not done it? Or hast thou done it with thy lips, and not unfeignedly with thy heart? Lament it as one of thy greatest sins, that thou hast thus provokingly dallied with G.o.d; and admire his mercy, that he will yet vouchsafe to enter into covenant with one, that hath hypocritically profaned his covenant. If thou hadst ever seriously thus covenanted and given up thyself to G.o.d, thou wouldst not have neglected him by an unG.o.dly life, nor lived after to the devil, the world, and the flesh, which were renounced. I tell you, the making of this christian vow and covenant with G.o.d in Christ, is the act of greatest consequence of any in all thy life, and to be done with the greatest judgment, and reverence, and sincerity, and foresight, and firm resolution, of any thing that ever thou dost. And if it were done sincerely, by all that do it ignorantly, for fas.h.i.+on, only with the lips, then all professed christians would be saved; whereas now, the abusers of that holy name and covenant will have the deepest place in h.e.l.l. Write it out on thy heart, and put thy heart and hand to it resolvedly, and stand to thy consent, and all is thine own: conversion is wrought when this is done.

_Direct._ XIV. In present performance of thy covenant with G.o.d, away with thy former sinful life; and see that thou sin wilfully no more; but as far as thou art able, avoid the temptations which have deceived thee.

G.o.d will never be reconciled to thy sins: if he be reconciled to thy person, it is as thou art justified by Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit: he entertaineth thee as one that turneth with repentance from sin to him. If thou wilfully or negligently go on in thy former course of sin, thou showest that thou wast not sincerely resolved in thy covenant with G.o.d.

I know infirmities and imperfections will not be so easily cast off, but will cleave to thee in thy best obedience, till the day of thy perfection come. But I speak of gross and wilful sin; such as thou canst forbear, if thou be but sincerely, though imperfectly, willing.[32]

Hast thou been a profane swearer or curser, or used to take G.o.d's name in vain, or used to backbiting, slandering, lying, or to ribald, filthy talk? It is in thy power to forbear these sins, if thou be but willing. Say not, I fall into them through custom before I am aware; for that is a sign that thou art not sincerely willing to forsake them. If thou wert truly penitent, and thy will sincerely opposite to these sins, thou wouldst be more tender and fearful to offend, and resolved against them, and make a greater matter of them, and abhor them, and not commit them, and say, I did it before I was aware; no more than thou wouldst spit in the face of thy father, or curse thy mother, or slander thy dearest friend, or speak treason against the king, and say, I did it through custom before I was aware. Sin will not be so played with by those that have been soundly humbled for it, and resolved against it.

Hast thou been a drunkard, or tippler, spending thy precious hours in an ale-house, prating over a pot, in the company of foolish, tempting sinners? It is in thy power, if thou be truly willing, to do so no more. If thou love and choose such company, and places, and actions, and discourse, how canst thou say thou art willing to forsake them, or that thy heart is changed? If thou do not love and choose them, how canst thou commit them, when none compels thee? No one carrieth thee to the place; no one forceth thee to sin; if thou do it, it is because thou wilt do it, and lovest it. If thou be in good earnest with G.o.d, and wilt be saved indeed, and art not content to part with heaven for thy cups and company, away with them presently, without delay.

Hast thou lived in wantonness, fornication, uncleanness, gluttony, gaming, pastimes, sensuality, to the pleasing of thy flesh, while thou hast displeased G.o.d? O bless the patience and mercy of the Lord, that thou wast not cut off all this while, and d.a.m.ned for thy sin before thou didst repent! And, as thou lovest thy soul, delay no longer; but make a stand, and go no further, not one step further in the way which thou knowest leads to h.e.l.l. If thou knowest that this is the way to thy d.a.m.nation, and yet wilt go on, what pity dost thou deserve from G.o.d or man?

If thou have been a covetous worldling, or an ambitious seeker of honour or preferment in the world, so that thy gain, or rising, or reputation, hath been the game which thou hast followed, and hath taken thee up instead of G.o.d and life eternal; away now with these known deceits, and hunt not after vanity and vexation. Thou knowest beforehand what it will prove when thou hast overtaken it, and hast enjoyed all that it can yield thee; and how useless it will be as to thy comfort or happiness at last.

Surely, if men were willing, they are able to forbear such sins, and to make a stand, and look before them, to prevent their misery: therefore G.o.d thus pleads with them, Isa. i. 16-18, "Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well," &c. Isa. lv. 2, 3, "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you." Ver. 6, 7, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our G.o.d, for he will abundantly pardon." Christ supposeth that the foresight of judgment may restrain men from sin, when he saith, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee," John v. 14, and viii. 11.

Can the presence of men restrain a fornicator; and the presence of the judge restrain a thief, yea, or the foresight of the a.s.sizes? And shall not the presence of G.o.d, with the foresight of judgment and d.a.m.nation, restrain thee? Remember, that impenitent sin and d.a.m.nation are conjoined. If you will cause one, G.o.d will cause the other. Choose one, and you shall not choose whether you shall have the other. If you will have the serpent, you shall have the sting.

_Direct._ XV. If thou have sincerely given up thyself to G.o.d, and consented to his covenant, show it, by turning the face of thy endeavours and conversation quite another way, and by seeking heaven more fervently and diligently than ever thou soughtest the world, or fleshly pleasures.

Holiness consisteth not in a mere forbearance of a sensual life, but princ.i.p.ally in living unto G.o.d. The principle or heart of holiness is within, and consisteth in the love of G.o.d, and of his word, and ways, and servants, and honour, and interest in the world, and in the soul's delight in G.o.d, and the word and ways of G.o.d, and in its inclination towards him, and desire after him, and care to please him, and lothness to offend him. The expression of it in our lives, consisteth in the constant, diligent exercise of this internal life, according to the directions of the word of G.o.d. If thou be a believer, and hast subjected thyself to G.o.d, as thy absolute Sovereign, King, and Judge, it will then be thy work to obey and please him, as a child his father, or a servant his master, Mal. i. 6. Do you think that G.o.d will have servants, and have nothing for them to do? Will one of you commend or reward your servant for doing nothing, and take it at the year's end for a satisfactory answer or account, if he say, I have done no harm? G.o.d calleth you not only to do no harm, but to love and serve him with all your heart, and soul, and might. If you have a better master than you had before, you should do more work than you did before. Will you not serve G.o.d more zealously than you served the devil? Will you not labour harder to save your souls than you did to d.a.m.n them? Will you not be more zealous in good, than you were in evil? "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to G.o.d, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life," Rom. vi. 21, 22. If you are true believers, you have now laid up your hopes in heaven, and therefore will set yourselves to seek it, as worldlings set themselves to seek the world. And a sluggish wish, with heartless, lazy, dull endeavours, is no fit seeking of eternal joys. A creeping pace beseemeth not a man that is in the way to heaven; especially who went faster in the way to h.e.l.l. This is not running as for our lives. You may well be diligent and make haste, where you have so great encouragement and help, and where you may expect so good an end, and where you are sure you shall never, in life or death, have cause to repent of any of your just endeavours; and where every step of your way is pure, and clean, and delectable, and paved with mercies, and fortified and secured by divine protection; and where Christ is your conductor, and so many have sped so well before you, and the wisest and best in the world are your companions. Live then as men that have changed their master, their end, their hopes, their way, and work.

Religion layeth not men to sleep, though it be the only way to rest.

It awakeneth the sleepy soul to higher thoughts, and hopes, and labours, than ever it was well acquainted with before. "He that is in Christ, is a new creature; old things are pa.s.sed away; behold, all things are become new," 2 Cor. v. 17. You never sought that which would pay for all your cost and diligence till now; you never were in a way that you might make haste in, without repenting of your haste, till now. How glad should you be that mercy hath brought you into the right way, after the wanderings of such a sinful life![33] And your gladness and thankfulness should now be showed, by your cheerful diligence and zeal. As Christ did not raise up Lazarus from the dead, to do nothing, or live to little purpose (though the Scripture giveth us not the history of his life); so did he not raise you from the death of sin, to live idly, or to be unprofitable in the world. He that giveth you his Spirit, to be a principle of heavenly life within you, expecteth that you stir up the gift that he hath given you, and live according to that heavenly principle.

_Direct._ XVI. Engage thyself in the cheerful, constant use of the means and helps appointed by G.o.d, for thy confirmation and salvation.

He can never expect to attain the end, that will not be persuaded to use the means. Of yourselves you can do nothing. G.o.d giveth his help, by the means which he hath appointed and fitted to your help. Of the use of these, I shall treat more fully afterwards; I am now only to name them to thee, that thou mayst know what it is that thou hast to do.[34]