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Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2023 14:58:39 GMT -5
Direct. XVII. Take not a doctrine of Libertinism for Free Grace Direct. XVII. 'Take heed that you receive not a doctrine of libertinism as from the Gospel; nor conceive of Christ as an encourager of sin: nor pretend free grace for your carnal security or sloth: for this is but to set up another Gospel, and another Christ, or rather the doctrine and works of the devil against Christ and the Gospel, and to turn the grace of God into wantonness.' Because the devil knoweth that you will not receive his doctrine in his own name, his usual method is, to propound and preach it in the name of Christ, which he knoweth you reverence and regard. For, if satan concealed not his own name and hand in every temptation, it would spoil his game, and the more excellent and splendid is his pretence, the more powerful the temptation is. They that gave heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, no doubt thought better of the spirits and the doctrines, especially seeming strict (for the devil hath his strictnesses), "as forbidding to marry, and abstinence from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving." But the strictnesses of the devil are always intended to make men loose. They shall be strict as the Pharisees in traditions and vain ceremonies, and building the tombs of the prophets, and garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous, that they may hate and murder the living saints that worship God in spirit and in truth. Licentiousness is the proper doctrine of the devil, which all his strictness tendeth to promote. To receive such principles is pernicious: but to father them upon Christ and the Gospel is blasphemous. The Libertines, Antinomians, and Autonomians of this age, have gathered you too many instances. The Libertine saith, "The heart is the man; therefore you may deny the truth with your tongue, you may be present at false worship, (as at the Mass,) you need not suffer to avoid the speaking of a word, or subscribing to an untruth or error, or doing some little thing; but, so long as you keep your hearts to God, and mean well, or have an honest mental reservation, and are forced to it by others, rather than suffer, you may say, or subscribe, or swear any thing which you can yourselves put a lawful sense upon in your own minds, or comply with any outward actions or customs to avoid offence and save yourselves." The Antinomians tell you, that "The moral law is abrogated, and that the Gospel is no law; (and if there be no law, there is no governor or government, no duty, no sin, no judgment, no punishment, no reward;) that the elect are justified before they are born, or repent, or believe; that their sin is pardoned before it is committed, that God took them as suffering and fulfilling all the law in Christ, as if it had been they that did it in him: that we are justified by faith only in our consciences: that justifying faith is but the believing that we are justified: that every man must believe that he is pardoned, that he may be pardoned in his conscience; and this he is to do by a Divine faith, and that this is the sense of the article, 'I believe the forgiveness of sins,' that is, that my sins are forgiven; and that all are forgiven that believe it: that it is legal and sinful to work or do any thing for salvation: that sin once pardoned need not be confessed and lamented, or at least we need not ask pardon of sin daily, or of one sin oft: that castigations are no punishments; and yet no other punishment is threatened to believers for their sins; and, consequently, that Christ hath not procured them a pardon of any sin after believing, but prevented all necessity of pardon: and therefore they must not ask pardon of them, nor do any thing to obtain it: that fear of hell must have no hand in our obedience, or restraint from sin. And some add, that he that cannot repent or believe, must comfort himself that Christ repented and believed for him: (a contradiction.)" Many such doctrines of licentiousness the abusers of grace have brought forth. And the sect which imitateth the father of pride in affecting to be from under the government of God, and to be the law-givers and rulers of themselves and all others (which I therefore call the Autonomians), are licentious and much more. They equally contend against Christ's government, and for their own. They fill the world with wars and bloodshed, oppression, and cruelty; and the ears of God with the cries of the martyrs and oppressed ones; and all that the spiritual and holy discipline of Christ may be suppressed, and seriousness in religion made odious, or banished from the earth, and that themselves may be taken for the center, and pillars, and lawgivers of the church, and the consciences of all men may be taught to cast off all scruples or fears of offending God, in comparison of offending them; and may absolutely submit to them; and never stick at any feared disobedience to Christ. They are the scorners and persecutors of strict obedience to the laws of God, and take those that fear his judgments to be men affrighted out of their wits; and that to obey him exactly (which, alas! who can do that doeth his best) is but to be hypocritical or too precise: but to question their domination, or break their laws (imposed on the world, even on kings and states without any authority), this must be taken for heresy, schism, or a rebellion like that of Corah and his company. This luciferian spirit of the proud Autonomians hath filled the Christian world with bloodshed, and been the greatest means of the miseries of the earth, and especially of hindering and persecuting the Gospel, and setting up a Pharisaical religion in the world: it hath fought against the Gospel, and filled with blood, the countries of France, Savoy, Rhætia, Bohemia, Belgia, Helvetia, Polonia, Hungary, Germany, and many more: that it may appear how much of the satanical nature they have, and how punctually they fulfil his will. And natural corruption containeth in it, the seeds of all these damnable heresies: nothing more natural to lapsed man, than to shake off the government of God, and to become a lawgiver to himself, and as many others as he can; and to turn the grace of God into wantonness. Therefore the profane, that never heard it from any heretics but themselves, do make themselves such a creed as this; that "God is merciful, and, therefore, we need not fear his threatenings, for he will be better than his word: it belongeth to him to save us, and not to us, and, therefore, we may cast our souls upon his care, though we care not for them ourselves. If he hath predestinated us to salvation, we shall be saved; and if he have not, we shall not, whatever we do, or how well soever we live. Christ died for sinners, and therefore, though we are sinners, he will save us. God is stronger than the devil, and, therefore, the devil shall not have the most. That which pleaseth the flesh, and doth God no harm, can never be so great a matter, or so much offend him, as to procure our damnation. What need of so much ado to be saved, or so much haste to turn to God, when any one that at last doth but repent, and cry God mercy, and believe that Christ died for him, shall be saved? Christ is the Saviour of the world, and his grace is very great and free; and, therefore, God forbid that none should be saved but those few that are of strict and holy lives, and make so much ado for heaven. No man can know who shall be saved, and who shall not; and, therefore, it is the wisest way, to do nobody any harm, and to live merrily, and trust God with our souls, and put our salvation upon the venture; nobody is saved for his own works or deservings; and, therefore, our lives may serve the turn as well, as if they were more strict and holy." This is the creed of the ungodly; by which you may see how natural it is to them, to abuse the Gospel, and plead God's grace, to quiet and strengthen them in their sin, and to embolden themselves on Christ to disobey him. But this is but to set Christ against himself: even his merits and mercies, against his government and Spirit: and to set his death, against the ends of his death: and to set our Saviour against our salvation: and to run from God and rebel against him, because Christ died to recover us to God, and to give us repentance unto life: and to sin, because he died to save his people from their sins, "and to purify a peculiar people to himself, zealous of good works." "He that committeth sin, is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
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Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2023 14:59:52 GMT -5
Direct. XVIII. Take heed lest Grace degenerate into Counterfeits, Formality, &c. Direct. XVIII. 'Watch diligently, both against the more discernible decays of grace, and against the degenerating of it into some carnal affections, or something counterfeit, and of another kind. And so also of religious duties.' We are no sooner warmed with the celestial flames, but natural corruption is inclining us to grow cold: like not water, which loseth its heat by degrees, unless the fire be continually kept under it. Who feeleth not that as soon as in a sermon, or prayer, or holy meditation, his heart hath got a little heat, as soon as it is gone, it is prone to its former earthly temper, and by a little remissness in our duty, or thoughts, or business about the world, we presently grow cold and dull again. Be watchful, therefore, lest it decline too far. Be frequent in the means that must preserve you from declining: when faintness telleth you that your stomach is emptied of the former meat, supply it with another, lest strength abate. You are rowing against the stream of fleshly interest and inclinations; and, therefore, intermit not too long, lest you go faster down by your ease, than you get up by your labour. The degenerating of grace, is a way of backsliding, very common, and too little observed. It is, when good affections do not directly cool, but turn into some carnal affections somewhat like them, but of another kind. As, if the body of a man instead of dying, should receive the life or soul of a beast, instead of the reasonable, human soul. For instance: (1.) Have you believed in God, and in Jesus Christ, and loved them accordingly? You shall seem to do so still as much as formerly, when your corrupted minds have received some false representation of them; and so it is indeed another thing that you thus corruptly believe and love.
(2.) Have you been fervent in prayer? You shall be fervent still. If satan can but corrupt your prayers, by corrupting your judgments or affections, and get you to think that to be the cause of God which is against him, and that to be against him, which he commandeth; and those to be the troublers of the church, which are its best and faithful members: turn but your prayers against the cause and people of God, by your mistake, and you may pray as fervently against them as you will. The same I may say of preaching, and conference, and zeal: corrupt them once, and turn them against God, and satan will join with you for zealous and frequent preaching, or conference, or disputes. (3.) Have you a confidence in Christ and his promise, for your salvation? Take heed lest it turn into carnal security, and a persuasion of your good estate, upon ill grounds, or you know not why. (4.) Have you the hope of glory? Take heed lest it turn into a careless venturousness of your soul, or the mere laying aside of fear, and cautious suspicion of yourselves.
(5.) Have you a love to them that fear the Lord? Watch your hearts, lest it degenerate into a carnal, or a partial love. Many unheedful young persons, of different sexes, at first love each other with an honest, chaste, and pious love; but imprudently using too much familiarity, before they were well aware, it hath turned into a fleshly love, which hath proved their snare, and drawn them further into sin and trouble. Many have honoured them that fear the Lord, who insensibly have declined to honour only those of them that were eminent in wealth and worldly honour, or that were esteemed for their parts, or places by others, and little honoured the humble, poor, obscure Christians, who were at least as good as they. Forgetting that the "things that are highly esteemed among men, are abomination in the sight of God;" and that God valueth not men by their places and dignities in the world; but by their graces and holiness of life. Abundance that at first did seem to love all Christians, as such, as far as any thing of Christ appeared in them, have first fallen into some sect, and over-admiring their party, and have set light by others as good as they, and censured them as unsound, and then withdrawn their special love, and confined it to their party, or to some few; and yet thought that they loved the godly as much as ever, when it was degenerate into a factious love.
(6.) Are you zealous for God, and truth, and holiness, and against the sins and errors of others? Take heed lest you lose it, while you think it doth increase in you. Nothing is more apt to degenerate than zeal. In how many thousands hath it turned from an innocent, charitable, peaceable, tractable, healing, profitable, heavenly zeal, into a partial zeal for some party or opinions of their own? and into a fierce, censorious, uncharitable, scandalous, turbulent, disobedient, unruly, hurting and destroying zeal, ready to wish for fire from heaven, and kindling contention, confusion, and every evil work. Read well James 3.
(7.) So, if you are meek or patient, take heed lest it degenerate into stupidity or contempt of those you suffer by. To be patient is not to be merely insensible of the affliction; but by the power of faith to bear the sense of it, as overruled by things of greater moment. How apt men are to corrupt and debase all duties of religion, is too visible in the face of the far greatest part of the Christian world. Throughout both the Eastern and the Western churches, the Papists, the Greeks, the Armenians, the Abassines, and too many others, (though the essentials of religion through God's mercy are retained, yet) how much is the face of religion altered, from what it was in the days of the apostles! The ancient simplicity of doctrine, is turned into abundance of new or private opinions, introduced as necessary articles of religion, and alas, how many of them false! So that Christians being too proud to accept of the ancient test of Christianity, cannot now agree among themselves what a Christian is, and who is to be esteemed a Christian; and so they deny one another to be Christians, and destroy their charity to each other, and divide the church, and make themselves a scorn by their divisions, to the infidel world; and thus the primitive unity, charity and peace, is partly destroyed, and partly degenerate into the unity, charity, and peace, of several sects among themselves. The primitive simplicity in government and discipline, is with most, turned into a forcible, secular government, exercised to advance one man above others, and to satisfy his will and lusts, and make him the rule of other men's lives, and to suppress the power and spirituality of religion in the world. The primitive simplicity of worship, is turned into such a mask of ceremony, and such a task of formalities and bodily exercise, that, if one of the apostolical Christians should come among them, he would scarce think that this is the same employment which formerly the church was exercised in, or scarce know religion, in this antic dress. So that the amiable, glorious face of Christianity, is so spotted and defiled, that it is hidden from the unbelieving world, and they laugh at it, as irrational, or think it to be but like their own. And the principal hindrance of the conversion of heathens, Mahometans, and other unbelievers is, the corruption and deformity of the churches that are near them, or should be the instruments of their conversion. And the most probable way to the conversion of those nations is, the true reformation of the churches both in East and West: which, if they were restored to the ancient spirituality, rationality, and simplicity of doctrine, discipline, and worship, and lived in charity, humility, and holiness, as those, whose hearts and conversations are in heaven, with all worldly glory and honour as under their feet; they would then be so illustrious and amiable in the eyes, even of heathens and other infidels, that many would flock into the church of Christ, and desire to be such as they: and their light would so shine before these men, that they would see their good works, and glorify their heavenly Father, and embrace their faith. The commonest way of the degenerating of all religious duties, is into this dead formality, or lifeless image of religion. If the devil can but get you to cast off the spirituality and life of duty, he will give you leave to seem very devout, and make much ado with outward actions, words and beads; and you shall have as much zeal for a dead religion, or the corpse of worship as will make you think that it is indeed alive. By all means take heed of this turning the worship of God into lipservice. The commonest cause of it is, a carnality of mind (fleshly men will think best of the most fleshly religion): or else a slothfulness in duty, which will make you sit down with the easiest part: it is the work of a saint, and a diligent saint, to keep the soul itself both regularly and vigorously employed with God. But to say over certain words by rote, and to lift up the hands and eyes is easy: and hypocrites that are conscious that they are void of the life and spirituality of worship, do think to make all up with this formality, and quiet their consciences and delude their souls with a handsome image. Of this I have spoken more largely, in a book called, "The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite." Yet run not here into the contrary extreme, as to think that the body must not worship God as well as the soul, or that the decent and edifying determination of the outward circumstances of religion, and the right ordering of worship, is a needless thing, or sinful; or that a form of prayer in itself, or when imposed, is unlawful; but let the soul and body of religion go together, and the alterable adjuncts be used, as things alterable, while the life of holiness is still kept up.
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Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2023 15:03:43 GMT -5
Direct. XIX. Reckon not on Prosperity or long life; but live as dying Direct. XIX. 'Promise not yourselves long life, or prosperity and great matters in the world, lest it entangle your hearts with transitory things, and engage you in ambitious or covetous designs, and steal away your hearts from God, and destroy all your serious apprehensions of eternity.' Our own experience, and the alterations which the approach of death makes upon the most, do sensibly prove that the expectation of a speedy change, and reckoning upon a short life, do greatly help us in all our preparation, and in all the work of holiness through our lives. Come to a man that lieth on his death-bed, or a prisoner that is to die to-morrow, and try him with discourse of riches, or honours, or temptations to lust, or drunkenness, or excess; and he will think you are mad, or very impertinent, to tell him of such things. If he be but a man of common reason, you shall see that he will more easily vilify such temptations, than many religious persons will do, in their prosperity and health. O how serious are we in repenting and perusing our former lives, and casting up our accounts, and asking, what we shall do to be saved, when we see that death is indeed at hand, and time is at an end, and we must away! Every sentence of Scripture hath then some life and power in it; every word of exhortation is savoury to us; every reproof of our negligence and sin, is then well taken; every thought of sin, or Christ, or grace, or eternity, goes then to the quick. Then time seems precious, and if you ask a man whether it be better spent in cards, and dice, and plays, and feastings, and needless recreations, and idleness, or in prayer, and holy conference, and reading and meditating on the Word of God and the life to come, and the holy use of our lawful labours! how easily will he be satisfied of the truth, and confute the cavils of voluptuous time-wasters! Then his judgment will more easily be in the right, than learning or arguments before could make it. In a word, the expectation of the speedy approach of the soul into the presence of the eternal God, and of our entering into an unchangeable, endless life of joy or torment, hath so much in it to awaken all the powers of the soul, that if ever we will be serious, it will make us serious, in every thought, and speech, and duty. And therefore as it is a great mercy of God, that this life, which is so short, should be as uncertain, and that frequent dangers and sicknesses call to us to look about us, and be ready for our change; so, usually, the sickly that look for death, are most considerate: and it is a great part of the duty of those that are in youth and health, to consider their frailty, and the shortness and uncertainty of their lives, and always live as those that wait for the coming of their Lord. And we have great reason for it, when we are certain it will be ere long; and when we have so many perils and weaknesses to warn us; and when we are never sure to see another hour; and when time is so swift, so quickly gone, so unrecoverable, and nothing when it is past. Common reason requireth such to live in a constant readiness to die. But, if youth or health do once make you reckon of living long, and make you put away the day of your departure, as if it were far off; this will do much, to deceive and dull the best, and take away the power of every truth, and the life of every good thought and duty, and all will be apt to dwindle into customariness and form. You will hardly keep the faculties of the soul awake, if you do not think still of death and judgment, as near at hand. The greatest certainty of thy greatest change, and the greatest joy or misery for ever, will not keep our stupid hearts awake, unless we look at all as near, as well as certain! This is plain, in the common difference that we find among all men, between their thoughts of death, in health, and when they see indeed that they must presently die. They that in health could think and talk of death with laughter, or lightly, without any awakening of soul, when they come to die are oftentimes as much altered, as if they had never heard before that they are mortal. By which it is plain, that to live in the house of mirth is more dangerous, than to live in the house of mourning; and that the expectation of long life, is a grievous enemy to the operations of grace, and the safety of the soul. And it is one of the greatest strengtheners of your temptations to luxury, ambition, worldliness, and almost every sin. When men think that they shall have many years leisure to repent, they are apt the more boldly to transgress: when they think that they have yet many years to live, it tempteth them to pass away time in idleness, and to loiter in their race, and trifle in all their work, and to overvalue all the pleasures, and honours, and shadows of felicity that are here below. He that hath his life in his house or land, or hath it for inheritance, will set more by it, and bestow more upon it, than if he thought he must go out of it the next year. To a man that thinks of living many years, the favour of great ones, the raising of his estate, and name, and family, and the accommodations and pleasings of his flesh, will seem great matters to him, and will do much with him, and will make self-denial a very hard work. Therefore, though health be a wonderful great mercy, as enabling him to duty that hath a heart to use it to that end; yet it is by accident a very great danger and snare to the heart itself, to turn it from the way of duty. The best life for the soul is, that which least endangereth it by being over-pleasing to the body, and in which the flesh hath the smallest interest to set up and plead against the Spirit. Not but that the largest stock must be accepted, and used for God, when he trusteth us with it; for when he setteth us the hardest work, we may expect his greatest help. But a dwelling as in tents, in a constant unsettledness, in a moveable condition, having little, and needing little, never feeling any thing in the creature to tempt us to say, "Soul take thy rest;" this is, to most, the safest life, which giveth us the freest advantages for heaven. Take heed, therefore, as you love your souls, of falling into the snare of worldly hopes, and laying designs for rising, and riches, and pleasing yourselves in the thoughts and prosecution of these things, for then you are in the readiest way to perdition; even to idolatrous worldliness, and apostasy of heart from God, and opening a door to every sin, that seems but necessary to your worldly ends; and to odious hypocrisy for a cloak to all this, and to quiet your guilty minds with something that is like religion. When once you are saying with worldly security, as he, Luke 12:18, 19. "I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry:" you are then befooling yourselves, and near being called away, as fools, by death, verses 20, 21. And when, without a sense of the uncertainty of your lives, you are saying, as those in James 4:13, 14. "To-day, or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain; whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow:" You forget what your lives are, that they are "a vapour, appearing a little while, and then vanishing away," verse 14. "Boast not thyself therefore of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."
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Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2023 15:34:24 GMT -5
Direct. XX. See that your Religion be purely Divine. That God be your First, and Last, and All: Man nothing Direct. XX. 'See that your religion be purely divine, and animated all by God, as the beginning, the way and the end; and that first upon thy soul, and then upon all that thou hast or dost, there be written "HOLINESS TO THE LORD:" and that thou corrupt not all with an inordinate, hypocritical respect to man.' To be holy, is to be divine, or devoted to God, and appropriated to him, and his will, and use; and that our hearts and lives be not common and unclean. To be godly, is to live to God; as those that from their hearts believe, that he is God indeed, and that "he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him," that he is "our God all sufficient, our shield and exceeding great reward." "And that of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things," that all may give the glory for ever unto him. As God is infinitely above all creatures, so living upon God and unto God, must needs advance us above the highest sensual life: and therefore religion is transcendently above all sciences or arts. So much of God as is in you and upon you, so much you are more excellent than the highest worldly perfection can advance you to. God should be the first, and last, and all in the mind, and mouth, and life of a believer. God must be the principal matter of your religion. The understanding and will must be exercised upon him. When you awake you should be still with him. Your meditations of him should be sweet, and you should be glad in the Lord. Yet, creatures under him, may be the frequent, less principal matter of your religion; but still as referred unto him. God must be the author of your religion: God must institute it, if you expect he should accept it and reward it. God must be the rule of your religion, as revealing his will concerning it in his Word. God must be the ultimate end of your religion: it must be intended to please and glorify him. God must be the continual motive and reason of your religion, and of all you do: you must be able truly to fetch your reason from heaven, and to say, 'I do it because it is his will; I do it to please, and glorify, and enjoy him.' God must be taken as the sovereign Judge of your religion, and of you, and of all you do: and you must wholly look to his justification and approbation, and avoid whatever he condemneth. Can you take God for your Owner, your Sovereign, your Saviour, your sufficient Protector, your Portion, your all? If not, you cannot be godly, nor be saved. If his authority have not more power upon you, than the authority of the greatest upon earth, you are atheistical hypocrites, and not truly religious, whatever you pretend. If "HOLINESS TO THE LORD," be written upon you, and all that is your's, you are devoted to him, as his own peculiar ones. If your names be set upon your sheep, or plate, or clothes, you will say, if another should take them, 'They are mine; do you not see my mark upon them?' Slavery to the flesh, the world, and the devil, is the mark that is written upon the ungodly (upon the foreheads of the profane, and upon the hearts of hypocrites and all): and satan, the world, and the flesh have their service. If you are consecrated to God, and bear his name and mark upon you, tell every one that would lay claim to you, that you are his, and resolved to live to him, to love him, to trust him, and to stand or fall to him alone. Let God be the very life, and sense, and end of all you do. When once man hath too much of your regard and observation, that you set too much by his favour and esteem, or eye him too much in your profession and practice; when man's approbation too much comforteth you, and man's displeasure or dispraise doth too much trouble you; when your fear, and love, and care, and obedience are too much taken up for man; you so far withdraw yourselves from God, and are becoming the servants of men, and friends of the world, and turning back to bondage, and forsaking your Rock and Portion, and your excellency: the soul of religion is departing from you, and it is dying and returning to the dust. And if once man get the preeminence of God, and be preferred and set above him, in your hearts or lives, and feared, trusted, and obeyed before him, you are then dead to God, and alive to the world; and, as men are taken for your gods, you must take up with such a salvation as they can give you. If your alms and prayers are done to be seen of men, and to procure their good thoughts and words; if you get them, make your best of them; "for, verily," your Judge hath "said unto you, you have your reward." Not that man is absolutely to be contemned or disregarded. No; under God, your superiors must be obeyed; you must do wrong to none, and do good to all, as far as in you lieth; you must avoid offence, and give good example, and, under God, have so much regard to men, as to "become all things to all men, for their salvation." But if once you set them above their rank, and turn yourselves to an inordinate dependance on them, and make too great a matter of their opinion or words concerning you, you are losing your godliness or divine disposition; and turning it into man pleasing and hypocrisy. When man stands in competition with God, for your first and chief regard, or in opposition to him, or a sharer in co-ordination with him, and not purely in subordination to him, he is to be numbered with things to be forsaken. Even good men, whom you must love and honour, and whose communion and help you must highly value, yet may be made the object of your sin; and may become your snare. Your honouring of them, or love to them, must not entice you to desire inordinately to be honoured by them, nor cause you to set too much by their approbation. If you do, you will find that, while you are too much eyeing man, you are losing God, and corrupting your religion at the very heart. And you may fall among those, that, how holy soever, may have great mistakes in matters of religion, tending to much sin, and may be somewhat censorious against those that are not of their mind; and so the retaining of their esteem, and the avoiding of their censures, may become one of the greatest temptations of your lives. And you will find, that man-pleasing is a very difficult, and yet unprofitable task. Love Christ, as he appeareth in any of his servants, and be followers of them, as they are followers of Christ, and regard their approbation as it agreeth with Christ's: but O! see that you are able to live upon the favour of God alone, and to be quieted in his acceptance, though man despise you; and to be pleased, so far as God is pleased, though man be displeased with you; and to rejoice in his justification, though men condemn you with the most odious slanders, and the greatest infamy, and cast out your names as evil doers. See that God be taken as enough for you, or else you take him not as God: even as enough without man, and enough against man; that you may be able to say, "If God be for us, who can be against us? Who is he that condemneth? it is God that justifieth." "Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christo." "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh.— Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted ofq?" Having given you these Directions, I must tell you in the conclusion, that they are like food, that will not nourish you by standing on your table; or, like physic, that will not cure you by standing in the box: they must be taken and digested, or you will find none of the benefit. It is not the reading of them, that will serve the turn to so great use, as the safe proceeding and confirmation of beginners, or novices in religion: it will require humility to perceive the need of them; and labour to learn, digest, and practice them. Those slothful souls, that will refuse the labour, must bear the sad effects of their negligence: there is not one of all these Directions, as to the matter of them, which can be spared. Study them, understand them, and remember them, as things that must be done. If either a senselessness of your necessity, or a conceit that the Spirit must do it, without so much labour and diligence of your own, do prevail with you, to put off all these with a mere approbation, the consequent may be sadder than you can yet foresee. Though I suppose you to have some beginnings of grace; I must tell you, that it will be, comparatively, a sad kind of life, to be erroneous, and scandalous, and troublesome to the church, or full of doubts, and fears, and passions, and to be burdensome to others and yourselves! Yea, it is reason that you be very suspicious of your sincerity, if you desire not to increase in grace, and be not willing to use the means, which are necessary to your increase. He is not sincere, that desireth not to be perfect: and he desireth not sincerely, who is not willing to be at the labour and cost, which is necessary to the obtaining of the thing desired. I beseech you, therefore, as you love the happiness of prudent, strong, and comfortable Christians, and would escape the misery of those grievous diseases, which would turn your lives into languishing, unserviceableness, and pain; that you seriously study these Directions, and get them into your minds, and memories, and hearts; and let the faithful, practice of them be your greatest care, and the constant employment of your lives
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