message of death come to him in the 38. of Isa Remember O Lord saith he how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart he turned his face to the wall and the text saith he wept it was for joy as if he should say Lord it 's true there hath been many infirmities in me but Lord I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart as if he should say I may boldly challenge and I do come now Lord to challenge the good of the Covenant that thou wouldst remember me according to the riches of thy mercy for Lord I have walked with thee as if he should say Lord was not that the thing that thou didst require of my father Abraham why Lord I have walked before thee and I have been upright in some measure therefore Lord be a God alsufficient to me Lord remember thy Covenant be a God to me be All in All to me because of this Oh my brethren Is not this worth ten thousand thousand worlds That the soul may be able to appeal to God that it hath done that which is a special thing that is requir'd in the Covenant on our parts and so upon it may have the assurance of Gods performing the Covenant on his part The Fifth Excellency And then the fifth thing is There is a blessed safety in walking with God As in the 23. Psal 4. there see the Prophet David that was a man much exercised in walking with God saith he Yea though I walk through the vally of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff doth comfort me I am walking with thee and though I be walking in the shadow of death I 'le therefore fear no evil Now is it not a blessed thing to be in safety alwaies with God And in the 138. Psal 7. saith David Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save me No matter what the trouble be so God be with the soul he that walks uprightly walks surely in the 10. of the Proverbs 9. Whereas it 's said of the wicked that they walk upon a snare continually in the 18. of Job 8. The wicked walk upon a snare The waies of wickednesse that you walk in they may seem to be pleasant and comfortable to you but certainly you are upon a snare and you may be catch'd and undone for ever though perhaps thou hast escap'd all this while yet thou art in continual dangers Every step I say thou goest on in the waies of sin thou art upon a snare and in danger to be catch'd to thy eternal destruction But he that walks uprightly he walks surely and this is a great excellency for a man to walk surely I know I am in my way for I am with God A child doth not fear what way soever it goes in if he can but see his father Now the soul may know surely I am in the right way I am with God and I am safe what ever danger comes for I am walking with God The Sixth Excellency The sixth Excellency that there is in walking with God is this From hence the soul comes to enjoy a holy boldness and a holy familiarity with God It may be when the soul comes first to God the presence of the great God strikes some fear there is some dread of the Majesty of God But when the soul hath used to converse with him there is a holy familiarity that the soul hath with God and a holy boldness it can have free liberty to say any thing to him now and this is the reason that some now that never knew what the spirit of prayer meant and what the liberty of the soul in opening its self to God meant before yet when they have come to be acquainted with the waies of God Oh what liberty have they then in their spirits to open their hearts to God yea they can open their hearts to God as one friend to another I remember it 's said of Luther that when ever he was praying he could speak to God as to his friend In Job 22. 21. Acqusint now thy self with Him and be at peace The soul comes to have an acquaintance with God Oh what a phrase is here What acquaint our selves with God that God should be our acquaintance I God is willing to be the acqaintance of the poorest Christian in the world Poor men and women and Servants and others that perhaps some rich men that is by them wil scorn their acquaintance but they account them rather as it 's spoken of some vile people fit to be set with the dogs of the flock yea perhaps though they be poor godly people yet they think it too much debasing themselves to have any kind of acquaintance with them Well but the infinite God though he is so high that he humbles himself to behold the very things that are done in Heaven yet this God thinks not much to be one of thy acquaintance to be of the acquaintance of any one that hath any godliness in them when we see a great man a man of parts and honor come to some poor man and shake him by the hand we will say Look what an humble man is this that will be so familiar with the meanest of all Oh! now acquaint thy self with God This is the blessedness of walking with God the soul comes to have a familiar converse with God and a holy boldness The seventh Excellency The seventh benefit or Excellency that there is in walking with God is this The Communication of Gods secrets He that walks with God shall come to know the mind of God It 's impossible for a man to take delight in walking with another but he must discover secrets from him there 's never any true friendship where there is a closeness of spirit But where there is true friendship they will take one another and walk together and open their hearts each to other this is comfortable walking indeed Thus it is in walking with God this is the blessing of it such souls they have the secrets of God discovered to them they come to know much of the mind of God though they are weak in their natural parts yet I say they come to know much of Gods mind because they are with God We reade in the 13. of Proverbs 20. vers saith the holy Ghost there He that walketh with wise men shall be wise Then what shall he be that walks with God Surely if there be wisdom to be learned from our walking with wise men then there is wisdom to be learn'd in walking with God 'T is from hence that men that are weak in parts they come to have such excellent knowledg in the great mysteries of the Gospel and you wonder at it you see such a mean servant that a while ago could understand
soon in the Day of Jesus Christ in his appointed time which is at hand FINIS OF WALKING VVITH GOD GENESIS 5. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him CHAP. I. TEXT OPENED IN this Chapter we have the Geneologie from Adam to Noah and it 's observable That God passeth all along and saith Adam he lived so long and begat sons and so afterwards they lived and begat sons and daughters and then died He only mentions them briefly till he comes to Enoch and there God seems to make a stop He doth not only tell you how long he lived and begat sons and daughters and died but he addeth Enoch walked with God The holy Ghost spends three verses upon Enoch He tells you how long he lived and begat Methuselah and Enoch walked with God And in the 23. verse there he speaks of him again and in the 24. vers Enoch walked with God again As if the Lord should say Oh my servant Enoch I must not pass by him he was an eminent holy man in his generation I must not pass by him without some especial testimony as if God should say Oh he was the delight of my Soul he walked with me Enoch walked with God Enoch he was a Prophet in his time he conversed much with God and God revealed much of his mind to him We find in the Epistle of Jude 14. there the holy Ghost mentions him again Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying c. Enoch prophesied he was a Prophet Where do we find Enoch's prophesie in all the Book of God we have the Prophesie of Isaiah and Jeremiah and other Prophets but where the Prophesie of Enoch Here the holy Ghost saith That Enoch prophesied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints c. Now for the prophesie that is here mentioned by the holy Ghost in this Epistle of Jude we have it not set down in words fully but yet we have somewhat set down even in a verse or two before my Text of Enoch's prophesie and that is in the very name of his son Methuselah there is that very prophesie of Enoch that the holy Ghost speaks of in the Epistle of Jude in the name I say of his son Methuselah for Methuselah signifieth thus much he dieth and then the sending out that is the floud he dieth and then comes the floud that 's the signification of the name Methuselah So that Enoch prophesied many hundred yeers before the flouds coming and that prophesie seem'd to go further for Gods dealing with people in those times were but as a type of his dealing with men in after-times That the Lord would send forth a floud against all wicked and ungodly men in due time to destroy them he dieth and then the sending forth of the floud for the floud did come in the very last yeer of Methuselah and that 's observable that this Methuselah he liv'd longer than ever any man liv'd since the world began All the daies of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixtie nine yeers and then he died Now this may be one reason of the lengthening out of his life that he might fulfil the prophesie of Enoch for Enoch prophesied that the floud should come when he died now because God had work to bring about and to defer the floud for a while after therefore Methuselah must live so long God doth lengthen out or shorten mens lives according to the work he hath to do according to the use he hath to make of them But thus much for Enoch The person who it was ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD. Now this phrase of walking with God sometimes it signifies some special ministration before the Lord as in the 1 Sam. 2. 30 35. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith I said indeed That thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me for ever And then in the 35. I will raise me up a faithfull Priest that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind and I will build him a sure house and he shall WALK before mine anointed for ever That is for a special and holy ministration so it 's taken sometimes But here we are to understand it more largely though it 's true Enoch was a Prophet and he might be said to walk with God in regard of the special ministration of his Prophetical Office that he had for walking with God in waies of righteousness and holiness so walking with God as it 's said of Noah that was his great grand-child in the 6. of Gen. 9. These are the generations of Noah Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and Noah walked with God This his great-grand-child no question hearing of his fathers walking with God was a great argument for to move him to the like and his walking with God is discribed to be in being righteous and in being perfect with God The 70. in their translation turns this that you have in your books walk with God by the word he pleased God And that 's observable that the holy Ghost in mentioning Enoch in the new Testament doth follow the translation of the Septuagent in the 11. of the Heb. there you shall find that Enoch is mentioned among the Catalogue of the Beleevers there By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God That word that you have here in Genesis rendered he walked with God in the Hebrews it is that he had this testimony That he pleased God indeed it comes to one he walked in the waies that God was pleased and delighted in He pleased God The Calde translates it he walked in the fear of God and so some Interpreters quoting the Jerusalemie Thargum he served or labored in the truth before the Lord and that 's one thing further in the explication that it 's said he walked with God after he begat Methuselab Some now think that Enoch was a wicked man before the time that he begat Methuselah in that sixty and five yeers there 's no mention of his walking with God but Enoch lived sixty five yeers and begat Methuselah and he walked with God after he begat Methuselah but that 's no sufficient ground to conclude because it 's said after that he did not before it might rather be to note the constancy of his walking with God that he continued in the constant course of his life in his walking with God I shall need to speak no further of the explication of this first part of Enoch's walking with God The point of Doctrine from it is this CHAP. II. The Doctrines raised from the Text and the Treatise devided into several parts THat 't is the great excellency and commendations of a godly man to walk with God Or That it is the highest testimony that can be given
the place where his friend is to go and is sorry that the walk is so short and still desires to converse with his friend So I say this is the difference for all the world in Professors there are some that have some touch of conscience and they see there is no way for them if they have not mercy from God but they must perish and perhaps they will be seeking of God and following of God and crying to God for mercy but if they have not comfort according as they expect they turn away from him and seek for comfort other waies But a gracious heart that is indeed turned to God it doth not only seek to God for mercy for its self that it might be delivered from misery but it sees an excellency in God and finds sweetness in Converse and Communion with God and loves the presence of God and this is the ground of the constancy of his heart in the waies of holiness Because it loves so much of the presence of God and Communion with God it is for God himself that the soul is in those waies and such a one will hold out in the waies of God Indeed one that meerly serves God in a servile way and seeks himself only in seeking of God such a one I say will be ready to turn aside but where the soul walks with God out of a sence of Communion Sweetness and Good that there is in Communion with God such a one goes on in a constant way to the end and is not tir'd in the waies of God as others are You know If you be walking from place to place if you have good company with you you are not weary you account the journy nothing why because you have good company and especially if you have good discourse all along too so it is with Christians Oh the waies of God come to be very easie to them upon this ground and so they hold out CHAP. V. Twelve several Excellencies of walking with God Opened THe next thing is The Excellency that there is in walking with God The first Excellency And this may be in the first place The walking with God Oh there is an Excellency in it If it were only this That it makes the waies of God easie All the waies of God how easie are they to the soul that knows what this means Of walking with God That hath God in his company continually Oh the easiness that there is in the waies of God! it 's that that is worth a world and it 's a very grievous and sad condition that men and women are in who have convinced consciences and dare not wilfully go out of Gods waies but are alwaies drooping and find them grievous and tedious to them But it is because they have not communion with God in them they are in them meerly upon necessity because they ought to be in them But the Saints find the waies of God more easie to them for they have alwaies good company with then When I awake I am alwaies with thee saith David The very nights are pleasant unto them when he awakes still he is with God There 's many men and women cannot lie alone those that cannot sleep when they awake if they have no company with them the nights are tedious but if they cannot sleep and yet when they awake they have some with them the nights are not so tedious to them When I awake I am ever with thee saith David concerning God That 's the first thing for the Excellency of this walking with God The second Excellency But Secondly This walking with God it is most honorable Oh 't is an honorable thing to walk with God Attendance upon Kings and Princes we know is honorable The Maids of Honor that do but attend upon a Queen it 's a great honor the attendance upon a King yea upon Noble Men But now not only attendance but free converse with Princes that 's more than meer attendance to walk with an Emperour as a friend up and down in his Galleries in his Gardens in his Orchyard So it is with the Saints Abraham is called Gods friend You are not my servants but my friends saith Christ God admits the soul to come as a friend and to have converse with him Oh! this is honorable They were accounted blessed that were in the presence of Solomon that were but his servants to wait at his Table much more to sit at his Table to see the order of Solomons Table Then to be alwaies with God and walking with him what a blessed and honourable thing is this It is the honor of Angels themselves that they do but see the face of God the Angels that are in Heaven do behold the face of God what honor is it then for Christians to be alwaies walking with God Honor 't is that that is the great honor and happiness of the Church when she shall be in her glory Mark how Christ doth expresse himself in Revel 3. 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments What 's promised to them and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy There shall be a glory put upon them and they shall walk with me for they are worthy The walking with Christ that 's the greatest honor that Christ could promise unto them And so in the 14. of the Revelation it 's said of those that stood upon Mount Sion with the Lamb having harps in their hands and singing of a new song in the 4 verse These are they which were not defiled with women for they are virgins these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes these were redeemed from among men being the first fruit unto God and to the Lamb. They follow the lamb whithersoever he goes This is the honor that is put upon them Oh the walking with God it is most honorable The third Excellency Thirdly The Excellency of walking with God consists in this In the blessed satisfaction that the soul must needs have in walking with him to walk with life its self with glory with happinesse and that in a constant way this must needs satisfie the soul must I say bring inconceivable satisfaction and peace unto the soul thus walking with Him You know what Philip said Let us see the Father and it sufficeth us What would it suffice Philip to see God Oh then not only to see him but to walk and be continually with him People will run many times but to have the fight of a great man but to be admitted into the same room and to walk with him this is more in the 33. of Exod 14. And he said my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest God promised to Moses that his presence should be with him and then when the presence of God is with the soul Oh the rest that the soul hath by the presence of God! Oh the lettings out of joy that there must needs
others have Oh how happy should I be how happy are such and such men that do enjoy such earthly things at their will in their dwellings their furniture their comings in Oh these are the brave things these are the delightful things these are THE things wherein felicity and happiness doth consist When men shall promise to themselves felicity in any earthly things then they mind earthly things I remember golden mouth'd Chrysostom hath a speech of a covetous man That he looks upon his Money and he sees more beauty in his Money than in the very Sun it self that shines in the Firmament When men look upon the things of the earth as the most beautiful things in their eyes Certainly that man is in a distemper when he puts such a high esteem upon any earthly things this esteem is not according to what God and his Saints do put upon earthly things God never puts any great eminencie on any earthly thing he never made any earthly things to be any great Conduit or means of Conveyance of any great good from himsel unto his Creature If you would know what your heart are you may know it by this one sign as much as any What do you account your excellencie according to what any man or woman accounts their excellency to consist in so are their hearts their hearts are sutable in the 27. chap. of Genesis 28. 39. verses You shall find there Isaac blessing of Jacob and Esau he blesses them both but now what I would observe is this the difference in the placing of them you shall observe the blessing of Jacob in the 28. verse therefore God giveth of the dew of Heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of Corn and Wine that 's Jacob's blessing Now look to Esau's blessing for the blessing was sutable to their disposition and Jacob's father answered and said unto him behold thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of Heaven from above mark Isaac blesses them both with the dew of Heaven and fatness of the earth but now in Jacob's blessing the dew of Heaven is first and the fatness of the earth is in the second place but in Esau's blessing the fatness of the earth is first and then the dew of Heaven noting this That a godly man indeed doth stand in need of the things of the earth as Christ saith your father knows you stand in need of this things I but the great thing in the first place that a godly heart doth mind it t s The dew of Heaven and then in the second place The blessing of the erath But now a carnal heart doth think it hath some need of the things of Heaven it will acknowledge that I but in the first place it's the fatness of the earth they desire and secondly the dew of Heaven So that that 's the first thing Earthly minded men look upon these things as the high and chief things and hence it is that the choise of the thoughts of an earthly-minded man is carried out on worldly objects Secondly When the Cream and choise of the thoughts of men and women are busied about earthly things then they mind earthly things in a sinful manner You may know what your hearts are by your thoughts as much as any thing the thoughts are the immediate ebulitions or risings up of the heart as I may so call them that is the bubbles that come from the heart immediately a man cannot know what is in his heart so much by words and actions as by the thoughts because the thoughts immediately spring from the heart as thus I can tell what the water is in such a fountain better from that that bubbles up immediatly from the fountain-head than I can tell by the water that runs in the stream a mile or two off for there may many things intervene in the stream a mile or two off that never came from the fountain-head but that that immediately bubbles from the fountain-head that discovers of what nature the fountain is So the thoughts are as it were the first born of the heart and therefore the heart may be known what it is by the thoughts Prov. 23. 7. saith the holy Ghost there As he thinketh in his heart so is he That which is here spoken in a particular case may be applied in the general As a man thinks in his heart so is he as his thoughts are so is he So is the heart as the thoughts of the mind are Men may keep in words and actions out of by-respects I but if you could know what the heart is and look into the haunts of it in secret that would discover to your selves what you are as now Many of your servants when they are in your presence before you or before others they may out of divers respects carry themselves fairly but if you would find them out labour to know what they do when they are alone in their private haunts So would you know your own hearts do not so much look at them and take a scantling of them by how you behave your selves in words and actions before others but what they are in your private chambers what they are in the inward thoughts of the mind there the heart comes to be discovered most And by these thoughts I do not mean every kind of injection or suggestion for sometimes the Devil may cast in evil thoughts into the most holy but I mean such thoughts as are sweet to the soul whereby the soul comes to suck out sweetness and contentment for that 's the minding earthly things when you find the strength of your thoughts to be upon the things of the earth and they are more sutable to your hearts than any other It is not when through weakness the mind may be wandring this way or that way or through suggestions or temptations but now when men or women are most themselves when alone and free then for to examine what are the most sutable thoughts to their hearts Can you say when you are alone Oh the very thoughts of God are sweet to me immediate in his Law day and night and suck out sweetness there as from an hony comb But an unclean wretch will suck out sweetness of his unclean thoughts when he is alone and so the earthly minded man will suck out the sweetness of his earthly thoughts and so the Ambitious man the sweetness of his pride when he is alone and these are the most contentful thoughts to him he can run along if it be two or three hours together and take delight and pleasure in them here 's Earthly-mindedness The third thing is this An Earthly-minded man is one whose heart cleaves to the earth for so I told you the word was not only to mind but to savour the things of the earth his heart doth cleave to the earth The Psalmist in a far differing case said that his soul did cleave to the dust but it
things But now a spiritual man is spiritual in earthly things one of a spiritual mind is more heavenly and spiritual when he is about his calling though the meanest as hedging and ditching or when he is pulling his ropes and lines or using his Ax or hammer he is more spiritual I say then than an earthly man is when he is praying or hearing or receiving Sacraments certainly it is so and it will be found to be so at the great day of Judgment when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed that 's the sixt thing when a man seeks earthly things for himself And that that we may add as a seventh is That he is earthly in spiritual things I grant that the best of the Saints may have some earthlinesse in spirtual things but I speak of the predominancie it 's that that doth rule in the heart so that in the performance of spiritual things his very ends are but earthly and the frame of his heart is but earthly in spiritual performances The eight thing wherein we may find an earthly minded man is this That he passes through many and great difficulties in matters of the earth and they are very little to him and though he hath a great deal of toyl for the matters of the earth yet he is never weary with it because he is in his proper element and therefore let there be what difficulties there will be which to another man would be very great he makes of them as nothing and though there be much toyl and labour yet he is not weary why because he is in his own element The fish is not weary with swimming but a man is quickly weary I but the fish is in it's element and a man is not so I beseech you observe this when a mans spirit is in this kind of temper let him but be busied about earthly things wherein earthly advantage comes in no difficulties will hinder him no wind or weather he will rise in cold mornings and go abroad do any thing in the world Oh! what difficulties will men endure In storms at Sea and hazards there and troubles at land many waies for things of the earth and sit up late and rise early and toyl themselves and complain of no wearinesse nor no difficulties But now let them come but to spiritual things to soul-businesses that concern God and their spiritual estates every little difficulty puts them aside and discourages them every mole-hill is a mountain in their way I would do so and so indeed but 't is so hard and 't is tedious to rise in a morning especially in cold winters morning it is very hard and difficult to reade and pray and so he is complaining of the difficulty of these things And to watch over the heart it 's a mighty difficulty to an earthly man any spiritual thing is difficult and the difficulties doth discourage him and in spiritual things Oh how weary are they as they in the 1. of Micha 13. they cryed out What a weariness is it But in the businesse of the world they can follow it from morning to night they are never tired they can work as we say sometimes of men like a horse and yet never out of breath Oh I would but desire you try your hearts once but to endeavour to spend one Sabbath exctly and see what a wearinesse that would be to you resolve but one Sabbath to rise early in the morning to have your thoughts spiritual heavenly as much as you can and then get up pray alone in your closet then reade and hear and meditate and mark what you hear and when you go home think of it and confer about it and when you come again attend upon the word and so spend the whole day in hearing reading meditating and conference about good things Calling your family to account and praying again and see how tiresom this will be unto your hearts if they be carnal But now a spiritual heart will call the Sabbath a delight unto it And the Sabbath unto such an one is no other than that type and fore runner of that eternal day of rest it shall enjoy in the kingdom of heaven one that is spiritual accounts the Sabbath to be a day of rest but an earthly man is quickly tired in spiritual things he will give over his work and not go through it we reade in the 4. of Nehe. 6. verse Nehemiah having spoken of the great difficulties that they met withal in their work and yet saith he the work went on for they bad a mind to it So look how a mans mind is so he will be able to go through his work If a man be an earthly-minded man such a man will go through stich with his work If he take up businesse for the world he will go through with it for he hath a mind to it he is a man of an earthly mind But let him take in hand a spiritual work and he will lay it aside before it be half done he will seldom bring to perfection any spiritual work why because he hath no mind to it whereas were the heart spiritual and there were any spiritual work undertaken such a one would go through with it till all was finished Another note about the discription of an earthly-minded man is this An earthly-minded man is one that doth conceive of the most heavenly Truths that are revealed in the Word in an earthly way according to his mind his genious and disposition of his own heart And I verily think this is in a special manner meant in this place for the Apostle is speaking of those that did oppose him in his Ministery and that were enemies to the Crosse of Christ Now saith he These mind earthly things their mindes are of an earthly temper and therefore no marvell as if he should say though they do not savour those Heavenly and Spiritual Truths that we bring to them for their minds being earthly they only apprehend those things after an earthly manner As now what was the great Truth that the Apostle did bring to the Philippians It was the way of reconciling the world to God of making our peace with God and of our Justification through Jesus Christ Now there is no point of Religion more Spiritual Heavenly and Divine than the Doctrin of Reconciliation and of Justification by Jesus Christ So that one that is of an earthly disposition though he may be convinc'd of a necessity of pardon of sin and peace with God yet he apprehends the making of his peace with God and obtaining pardon of his sin but in an earthly manner he hath carnal thoughts and apprehensions about his peace with God and about obtaining pardon of sin he thinks it is the same way that one man obtains peace with another when he is fallen out and of getting pardon from another man that he hath offended he conceives it in an earthly way he looks upon his making
peace with God by some thing that he himself must perform but for the point of Free justification by the grace of God in Christ it 's too Divine Spiritual and Heavenly for an earthly-minded man to apprehend in the Spiritualnesse of it an earthly-minded man his apprehensions of God are but in a carnal earthly way as the Prophet speaks in the 1 of Isa The Ox knows his owner and the Ass his masters crib Even after that manner doth an earthly-minded man know God as an Ox his owner and the Ass his masters crib as thus the ox knows his owner because he brings him fodder daily so an earthly-minded man hath no other apprehensions of God but this he thinks God gives him good things in this world God makes his corn to grow or Prospers his voyage An earthly-minded man may rise so high to have apprehensions of God as bringing good things unto him here on earth But one that is spiritual and heavenly doth apprehend God as God doth not look upon God meerly as good in respect of the benefit he receives from God here but he looks upon God as he is in himself he sees the face of God as there 's a great deal of difference between a man that knows another man and a beast that knows a man The ox knows his owner the ox knows the man that brings hay or provender to him but a man knows a man in another way knows what the nature of a man is knows what it is to be a rational creature so one that is spiritual knows what God is in himself he sees the face of God and understands what God is in another way than others do the difference between the knowledge of God that a spiritual soul hath one that is pure in heart and the knowledge of God that an earthly heart hath is just so much difference as comes to this As the ox knows the man that drives him to fat pastures so doth an earthly man know God that gives him good things but a spiritual heart knows God as one man knows another not in his full excellency I mean not so but there is such a kind of difference in some degree between the apprehensions of God in a spiritual heart and the apprehensions of God in an earthly heart And so we might mention in many other Spiritual and Divine Truths that an earthly mind doth apprehend but in an earthly way consider of Heaven its self how doth an earthly mind apprehend that he apprehends that he shall be delivered from pain and shall have some kind of glory but knows not what it is conceives it according to the way of the earth some pompous glotious thing that he shall live in pleasures and not in pain and so apprehends all the glory of Heaven but in sensuality whereas a spiritual heart looks at Heaven in another kind of notion he looks upon the enjoyment of Communion with God and Jesus Christ in Heaven and living of the life of God in Heaven that 's a thing that an earthly heart hath no skill at all in neither doth such an heart so much as savour it Thus I have in these several particulars discovered what an earthly-minded man is Oh that you would lay your hands upon your hearts and every one consider how far these things do reach you But I have besides these divers other convincements to convince the consciences of men and women that yet there is much earthlinesse in them but of them we shall treat of in their order afterwards The Second head to consider is this The great evill that there is in earthly-mindedness They mind earthly things Is that any such great matter you will say indeed we cannot imagine the transcendency of the evil that there is in this We think there 's a great deal of evil in swearing whoring drinking and such kind of scandalous sins and indeed there is But to have an earthly mind we do not think this to be so exceeding evil yet you will find that the Scripture doth speak most dreadful things against this and if God please to set them home upon your hearts I hope there is much glory may come to God by it and much good unto you in particular CHAP. III. Fourteen Evils of Earthly-mindedness The First EVIL Fâ—â—â—â— The Scripture cals it Adultery it is spiritual Adultery in Jude 4. vers Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God They were Adulterers and Adulteresses in respect of their love to the world you that would abhor the thought of a temptation to Adultery yet you may commit spiritual Adultery a man or a woman may be an Adulterer or an Adulteresse before the Lord though they never commit the act of uncleannesse with another yet if their hearts be towards another they be guilty of uncleannesse for Christ saith whosoever doth but look after a woman to lust after her in his heart he hath committed adultery already that is hath sinned against that command that forbids adultery Is it so that if a man do but let his heart go after another woman more than his wife and a wife after another man more than her husband this is adultery before the Lord. So if our hearts be after any things more than the Lord Jesus Christ that we profess our selves married to and he to be our husband this is adultery in Scripture phrase The Second EVIL Yea further A worldly or an earthly-mind in Scripture phrase is called Idolatry in Ephes 5. 5. speaking of divers sins that should not be so much as named among them as it became Saints he hath Covetousness among the rest and he ads this And Covetousness which is Idolatry Now what is Earthly-mindednesse but Covetousnesse which is Idolaitry A man or woman is an Idolater that is of an Earthly mind Now Idolatry which is a worshiping of stocks and stones you all account to be a great sin but do you and al others take heed of another Idolatry that may be as bad that is To have your hearts to make the god of this world to be your God the cursed Mammon of unrighteousnesse to make the things of the earth to be your Christ to fall down and worship the golden-Calfe of the world It 's certain that that thing a mans heart is most taken with and set upon that 's his God and therefore here in this verse out of which my Text is it 's said They made earthly things their bellies their God The Voluptuous and Drunkard makes their Belly their God and the Unclean person makes his Strumpet to be his goddesse and worshppeth that whatsoever thy heart is most upon that 's thy God therefore that you must know to be the meaning of the Commandement Thou shalt have no other Gods before me That is thou shalt give me the strength of thy soul and nothing else So I am a God to my Creature when I have its strength exercised
about me to lift up me as the highest good but if there be any thing else that thy soul is set upon as thy highest good that 's thy God and it 's worse than bowing the knee thou bowest thy soul to that thing now the meaner any thing is that we make a God of to our selves the more vile is the Idolatry as when the Egyptians worshiped divers sorts of gods they were accounted the most vile Idolaters whereas other Heathens worshipped more excellent things the Sun Moon and Stars the Egyptians worshiped Dogs Cats Onions and vile things and therefore their Idolatry was vile So the viler any thing is that a man or woman sets their hearts upon the more vile is their Idolatry as for a man that should set his heart upon unclean lusts now to make that to be a god the satisfying of those lusts that 's abominable and to make any earthly thing to be a god to us that 's most vile for of all the things of the works of creation that God hath made the Earth is the meanest 't is the basest and lowest thing and hath the least beauty in it in it's self and it is the most dul and meanest element of all and to make earthly things to be a God to you this is most vile Object You will say for this Idolatry What is there in it Answ There is Two particulars to open the Evil of Idolatry or Earthly-mindednesse First The Evil of your Idolatry it is in this You do depart from God in letting out of your hearts to these things you do as it were go off from God and renounce the protection of God the goodnesse and mercy of God you leave it all by this In the 4. chap. of Hofea 12. verse They are said To go a whoring from under their God It 's a notable phrase that is by going to Idols they did go off from the protection of God whereas while they were worshiping the true God they then were under the protection of God but when they went to Idols they went from under their God from under his protection So when thou settest thy heart upon God and liftest up the infinite First being of all things as the chief good to thy soul thou art under the influence of this Grace and Mercy but when thou doest depart from him and makest other things to be thy Cheef good thou goest from under his protection and from his good and mercy Secondly God is slighted and contemn'd in this When thou choosest rather to make the earth to be thy God than the infinit blessed first-being of all things As a man that doth dispise his wife and it were abominable sin if he should choose to go to a Queen though the most beautifullest woman in the world and forsake his wife but to leave a Queen or Empress that were the beautifullest woman upon the earth and to have the heart cleave to a base dunghil-raker were not this a great contempt to the Queen that were so beautiful Yet so it is when thou doest forsake the blessed eternal God as thy chief good and choosest the things of the earth for the truth is the earth is the fink of all the creatures of Gods making and for thee to leave the most blessed and Eternal One and to make that thy god it must needs be a very vile and abominable thing and therefore the Prophet Jeremiah in speaking of this Idolatry he cals the Heavens and the Earth to be amazed at it Jeremiah 2. 12. Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horrible afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord Why what 's the matter For my people have committed two evils They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water So 't is here thou forsakest the fountain of living waters the blessed God and thy heart cleaves to the dust and seekest thy contentment and happinesse in cisterns that can hold no water let the Heavens be astonished at this horrible wickedness The Third EVIL Thirdly Earthly-mindedness it's enmity against God Thou wouldst be loth to be found an enemy against God certainly it 's a truth and it will be found another day That an earthly-minded man or woman is an enemy to God yea the Scripture makes it to be enmity in the very Abstract James 4. 4. Know ye not that the love of the world is enmity to God Observe this for there 's very much in it if God would be pleased to make us to lay it to heart you will find it by experience that earthly-mindednesse doth make men to be enemies to that that is spiritually good therefore well might the holy-Ghost say 't is enmity to God for whatsoever is enmity to any thing that is spiritually good it is enmity to God so much as my heart or any of your hearts are against any thing that is spiritual so much mine or any of your hearts are enemies to God Now here in the very Text these earthly-minded men are made enemies to the Crosse of Christ that is enemies to the spiritual preaching of Christ and holding forth Christ Indeed If they would have mixt Christ and Circumcision together then they would have been content with it but now this spiritual way of preaching Christ and being justified by faith alone and Christian Religion in the purity of it was that that was not sutable to their carnal hearts and therefore they were enemies to it Oh! earthly-mindednesse doth make us enemies to spiritual things where have you greater enemies unto the things of God unto spiritual things unto the Ministry of the word as we had occasion to hint and to the work of Gods grace upon the hearts of men and women no greater enemies unto these things than earthly minded men men that savour the things of the earth that can go up and down and care not if they can but load themselves with thick clay grow rich in the world and fare deliciously every day with Dives make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof there is an antipathy in their spirits against Jesus Christ and al goodnesse The Fourth EVILL Then Fourthly There is scarce any disposition more opposite more contrary to the work of grace to the work of godlinesse in a mans own heart than earthly-mindednesse 't is so exceeding crosse to the nature of grace that it may as well put men or women to be at a stand and put them upon examination whether there be any grace or no in their hearts if earthly-mindednesse prevail as almost any other thing if God should suffer your corruptions to prevail over you so as you should break forth into some outward notorious sins then it may be you would begin to think can this stand with grace and how can that stand with such workings as I have had before have not I cause to fear that I am but an Hypocrite a rotten professor But now this
mans nature upon him and died for man Surely there must be some other manner of things that are the fruit of the purchase of the blood of Christ than the things of the earth Oh my brethren had you but this setled upon you that certainly God hath great glorious high and wonderful thoughts about man-kind this would be a mighty means to take off your hearts from the things of this earth when thou hast thy heart grovelling here Oh but are these the things that God made man for had not God higher thoughts in making of the children of men do not I find in the word that when man was made there was a kind of Divine consultation with the Trinity Come let Vs make man according to our own Image God had other thoughts of man than of other things And if man were made for nothing else but meerly to dig in the earth Certainly the thoughts of God about man have been but very low and mean as I may so speak with holy reverence for these are but low and mean things here that men enjoy in the earth The Fourth Consideration As God hath higher thoughts concerning man so the dignity of mans Nature the rational soul of man is of too high a birth for to have the strength of it spent about the things of the earth God breathed into man his soul It 's I may say a kind of a Divine spark the soul of man it is of the same nature with Angels a spirit as Angels are the thoughts of the minds the Faculties and Powers of the soul are more precious things than to be powred out as water upon the ground If a man have a Golden Mill he would not use it only to grind dirt straws and rotten sticks in The mind of man the thinking faculty is too high to be exercised in the things of this earth the mind of man it is of a most excellent capacious Nature it is fit to converse not only with Angels but with the eternal God Himself with Father Son and Holy Ghost and to bestow the strength of such a faculty that God hath put into the soul of man upon such dirtie drossie low base mean things as earthly-minded men and women do bestow it upon this must needs be a great evil Know the dignity of your Nature the excellencie of your Mind the Soul of man it is of a transcendent being Put all the world into the Ballance with it it 's nothing Therefore you know what Christ saith What shall it profit a man to gain the whol world and lose his soul The soul of the meanest gally-slave is more precious than Heaven and Earth Sun Moon Stars and all the host of them Let me add then all the Silver and Golden mines under ground and al the unsearchable Riches of the great and wide Sea yea put all these together and the Soul of the most contemptible beggar that cries for a crust of bread at thy door is unexpressibly more worth than all these Now if mans soul be of such an high-born Nature if God hath put such a Spirit which is a spark of Heaven into the bosom for man of him to imploy it in no other use and service but meerly to be an earth-worm to creep in and upon the ground this must needs be a very great evil The fifth Consideration The fifth Consideration is The Vncertainty of all these things Vncertain Riches How may any Causuality come and take away from thee al the things of the earth that thy mind is upon God sends but a little too much heat into the body and puts thee into a feavour and where 's thy delight then thy body being either too much heated or too much coold what 's become of all thy comfort here in this earth Thou goest abroad and art dangerously wounded by an enemy what refreshing then doest thou receive from all these things Let me tell thee thou art in the midst of a thousand thosand Casualities here every moment ready to take away all the Comforts of the earth and usually at that time observe it when the minds of men and women are most fixed upon the earth that 's the time that God hath to strike them in those things they be then neerest to be depriv'd of the Comforts of the earth when their thoughts and minds be most set upon them As you know it was with the Rich man in the Gospel when he was blessing himself and crying to his soul Soul Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years even that night the text saith this message came so him Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken away from thee and then whose shall al these things be And at that time that Nebuchadnezzer was blessing himself in the pallace that he had built for His Honor then there comes a message to him from Heaven so that he was presently outed of all his Court-vanities to graze among the beasts of the field So you may find it in your own experience that God hath many times then most crost you in the things of the earth when your minds and hearts have been most glued to them and it may be in mercy yea it 's a greater mercy to be crost of these things at such a time than to prosper in the midst of them for it may be a good argument that God intends good to a soul to crosse him at that time when he is most earthly Oh! many that have been godly indeed but yet have bin earthly minded and have found God coming at such a time and crossing them in some earthly Contentment have seen cause to blesse God for thus dealing with them Whither was I going I was going altogether to the earth and minding such things my heart was set upon them and God came in in a seasonable time to shew me the vanity of my heart and of those things that my mind was busied about Oh it was a happy crosse that I had at such a season there was much of Christ that did hang upon it And that 's the fift Consideration The sixth Consideration Do but consider what 's become of those that have been earthly heretofore that injoyed the greatest accomodations of the earth what 's become of those men in former ages of the world that lived here and vapour'd so much in their generation who but they at Court and in Citie and had all the earth according to their desires what 's become of Agrippa and Bernice with al their pagentry greatness now they have acted their parts and are gone off the common stage of the world all their vanity is buried with them in one grave What difference is there between the poor and rich when they die they go all the same way only they were for a little time and flourished in the things of the earth and now are gone but have left a great deal of guiltiness behind them look but to their example and what
thing or to have any delight in any thing in this world when there is a sutable object to the facultie that 's his Communion with the Creature As now a Drunkard there is a kind of Communion that he hath meerly with lude company and with the creature to please his sence for a while there 's all the communion that he hath But what a different Conversation is this for one meerly to please his sence in meat and drink a little while and another to have communion with Father Son and holy Ghost The Saints here in this world have not an Imaginary but a Real Communion with the Father Son and holy Ghost Communion you will say what 's that By Communion with God we mean this The acting of the soul upon God and the receiving in the influence of the goodness and love and mercy of God into the soul When there is a mutual acting of the soul upon God and God upon the soul again as when friends have Communion one with another that is that one acts for the Comfort of the other there is a mutual imbracing and opening of hearts one upon another for the satisfying of the Spirits one of another So communion with God is the mutual actings of the soul upon God and God upon the soul again The Saints they see the face of God and God delights in the face of the Saints And they let out their hearts to God and God lets out his heart to them We cannot expresse this to strangers a stranger shall not meddle with this joy this is a mystery a riddle to the carnal world Do but you consider this that what Communion you have with your lude company to sit and eat and drink and play and tell stories all day long this you think is a brave life but now that the communion of the Saints is raised higher and the comfort of the Saints is not in such poor low base things as thine is the Saints have comfort in God the Father Son and holy Ghost in an infinite higher way and in that respect their Conversations are said to be in Heaven And especially when they are with God in his Ordinances they cannot be content except they have Communion with God there it 's notenough for them to call upon the Name of God to kneel down and to use some humble broken hearted expressions Oh but what communion have I with God and Jesus Christ and the holy Ghost in my duties at this time I come to the Word and other Ordinances Oh! but what communion have I with God in them I cannot be satisfied except I tast and see how good the Lord is I cannot go abroad about my businesse but with a heavy heart except I hear some thing from Heaven this morning all the comfort of their lives do depend upon this in having communion with Father Son and holy Ghost Fourthly Their Conversation may be said to be in Heaven Because they do live according to the Laws of Heaven They do not here in this world live according to the Laws of men the lusts of men but they look for their direction from Heaven What rule is there from Heaven to guide me There must be some word from the God of Heaven to order and guide them in their waies or else they cannot tell how to sute with them Indeed while they live in the Cities of the world they must obey the Laws of men but still it is in order to the Laws of Heaven the main thing that they submit to is the Statute Laws of Jesus Christ the great Law giver because there is a Law of Heaven that doth require them for to obey the Laws of men that are according to those Laws of Heaven therefore they do obey them but the Laws of Heaven are those that the Saints look after for their direction in all their waies such and such a thing I have a mind to but will the Law of Heaven justifie me in this have I any word from Jesus Christ to guide me in such a way I dare not do otherwise than according to the Will and Scepter of Christ they must be my rule in all my waies whereas before thy lust was thy rule and thy own ends thy rule and the common course of the world thy rule but now the Laws of Heaven are thy rule and therfore their Conversations are in Heaven because they are guided by the Laws of Heaven Heaven is their aim They are acted by heavenly Principles They converse with the God of heaven And then fourthly They live according to the Laws of heaven Fiftly Their thoughts and hearts are set upon heaven as he saith The soul is where it loves rather than where it lives where the heart is there 's the soul there the man may be said to be Now the Saints have their hearts in heaven their thoughts in heaven their meditations in heaven working there When I awake I am alwaies with thee saith David And Oh how sweet are the thoughts of heaven unto the Saints While thou art mudling in the world and plodding for thy self in the things of this world If God should come to thee and say Where art thou as he said to Adam yea sometimes while thou art at prayer and hearing the Word Where are thy thoughts and about what even as we say in the proverb are running about a Wool-gathering But now come to one whose Conversation is in Heaven he keeps his thoughts and meditations there continually meditating on the glorious things that are reserved in Heaven As I remember I have read of that holy man Mr. Ward that being in the midst of a dinner and people wondering what he was a musing about he presently breaks out For ever for ever for ever for almost half a quarter of an hour he could not be still'd but he cries for ever for ever for ever So far as any man or woman hath their Conversation in Heaven their thoughts are there thinking Oh eternity eternitie to be for ever in Heaven to live for ever with Christ and God and Oh the Crown of glory that is there when will that blessed day come when I shall come to enjoy those good things that are there his thoughts will be there and he is longing to be there his love and desires and affections will be working there It 's said of the people of Israel Acts 7. 39. That their hearts turned back again to Egypt they never returned in their bodies to Egypt but their hearts were there they would fain have the Onions and Flesh-pots that were in Egypt their hearts were there So it may be said of many that though they come and hear the Word yet their hearts are in their shops their hearts are after their covetousness but it 's contrary with the Saints Though they live here in this world yet their hearts are in Heaven As I remember it 's written of Queen Mary that she said If they rip'd her open
meat for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Luther that accounted the whol Turkish Empire but a Crumb that the great Master of the Family casts to his dog surely here 's an argument that the Saints have their Conversations in Heaven that can look upon the things of the earth as so mean and so little as indeed they are A second Evidence is this That they can be content with so little in this world and can live such comfortable lives in the enjoyment of so little perhaps you cannot tell how to have comfortable lives except you have so much coming in by the yeer and so much provision but now one that is heavenly a godly man or woman can tell how to live a joyful and happie life in the want of the things of this world though they have but little though but bread and water though but mean habitations mean cloathes though but of mean esteem in the world yet can go through the world with a joyful heart blessing God all his daies nothing but admiring praising and magnifying God for his rich mercie and blessing himself in God and accounting his portion to be a goodly portion and his lot to be fallen into a fair ground I verily beleeve that there are very many poor mean people in this world yet their houses are more fill'd with blessings of God in one day than many Rich Great Noble men have their houses in twenty or fourty yeers now this argues that they have their Conversations in Heaven that though they want comfort never so much in this world yet they can live comfortable lives surely it is somthing that doth rejoyce them when they can so rejoyce in the want of these outward things when their joy depend◠〈◊〉 upon the things of this world men that have earthly hearts if they lose but their outward comforts they cry our Oh we are undone And you may see mightie alteractions in their very countenances they have nothing to joy their hearts when they lose the things of the world but it is no◠so with the Saints whatsoever crosses they meet withal here in this world yet still they rejoyce in Christ blessing God the course of their lives is nothing elle but a continual magnifying and praising God for his mercie and goodness to them surely they have their Conversations in Heaven Thirdly Not onlie can live joyfullie in the want of manie comforts but they can suffer the loss of all yea suffer hard things suffer afflictions suffer torments and tortures with joyful hearts reade but that 11. of the Heb. at your leisure 13 14 verses They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for they that see such things declare plainly that they seek a Country this Scripture is to be annexed to the second evidence Mark They that seek such things declare plainly that they seek a Countrie surelie there is somthing else that they seek after when they set so light by the things of this world For the Saints are not fools but there is some reason for what they do surely there is somthing in it for they have the same nature as you have and they have need of comfort as well as you and had they not some other comfort besides outward comforts they could not live so comfortably in the want of outward comforts but they that are content with a little as pilgrims and strangers they declare plainly that they seek a Country that is the second Evidence And then For the suffering of tortures and pains for the sake of Christ This is another Evidence and so you have in the 10. Heb. 32. But call to remembrance the former daies in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used and then in the 34. verse And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods Why knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a better and enduring substance This made them take joyfully the spoiling of their goods What when their goods were spoil'd did they take that joyfully what were they mad men to rejoyce at the plundering of their estates No it was no madness It was because they knew in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance and that made them be willing to wander about in sheeps skins and goats skins in leather cloathes as in the latter end of the 11. of Heb. reade but from the 36. verse to the end this argued their Conversations to be in Heaven If you reade in the storie of the Martyrs you shall find verie often when they came to the stake still their thoughts were in Heaven and their hearts there and encouraging one another what they should have in Heaven and of the glorie that they should have there that being willing to suffer such hard things for Christ and that being able to undergo all with so much joy is an evidence that there have been Christians in the world that have had their Conversations in Heaven A Fourth Evidence of Christians having their Conversations in Heaven is this That their hearts are so fill'd with Heavenly riches It is an Argument of a man that trades much unto such a place when he hath his Warehouse stor'd with the Commodities of such a Countrie As now though no man should tell me which way his trading lies that such a man were a Spanish or Turkish Merchant yet if I come into his Warehouse find that constantlie his Warehouse is fill'd with those Commodities I may conclude that certainlie this man is a Spanish or Turkish Merchant he hath the Commodities of the Countrie continuallie in his warehouse So the Saints have much of the riches of Heaven in their hearts continuallie they have much grace much holinesse much of the Image of God much spiritual life there is there in a Christian and you may see in his Conversation he doth manifest I say much of the Excellencie of Heaven much of the Glorie of Heaven shines in his face surelie his Conversation is in Heaven who hath so much of the riches of Heaven in his heart The heart of the wicked saith the holy Ghost is little worth Look into the heart of a wicked man or woman what is there thy heart that should be thy storehouse what is it fill'd withal it's fill'd with dirt and drosse and filth and uncleanness the hearts of wicked men are stored with those things but now look into the hearts of the Saints they are fill'd with God with Christ with the holie Ghost with Grace that shews that they have traded much in Heaven in a constant way you shal find their hearts fild with grace and manifesting much in their lives and therefore surelie their Conversation is in Heaven A fifth Evidence is this That they are willing to purchase the Priviledges of Heaven at so dear
priviledg of the redeemed ones Now this way of walking up unto the Land of Canaan from their captivity it 's typical to typifie the walk of the soul with the Lord. Sixthly For the souls walking with God there is this further done by God Christ the Son of God he takes the soul and brings it unto God the Father as the Spirit leads so Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus Christ he brings the soul unto the Father to render God and the soul familier together In Ephes 2. 18. Through him we have an acccess by one Spirit unto the Father We have an access through him we have a manuduction He brings us unto the Father we have access through Jesus Christ As if a Prince should take a Traytor that is reconciled to his Father having his pardon and his Father being passified towards him the Prince comes takes him by the hand and saith Come I 'le bring you unto my Father and I will walk along with you unto my Father So it is None that ever hath been a sinner can walk with God but Christ must walk together with him Christ walks along with him and so God is ever more rendred sweet aimable and lovely why Because Christ hath him by the hand as I may so say God the Father hath him in one hand and Christ hath him by the other hand and so the soul walks in this blessed walk between the hands of God the Father and the Son and the holy Ghost leads and guides him too CHAP. IV. Walking with God what it is Opened in Nine Particulars BUt now The way of the soul in this walk with God When the soul is thus brought to God and by this means enabled to walk with him Then what 's the way of the soul in walking thus with God Walking with God causes the soul to eye God In the first place Now the soul being come thus to God in all the waies of God it ey 's God and sets God before it Enoch walked with God that is Enoch in the waies of his life set God before him and did eye God in his waies First beholding the infinite beauty there is in God Secondly God being the fountain of al good to the soul Thirdly the soul apprehending God infinitly worthy of all honor These three things causes the eye to be upon God continually The Lord hath infinit excellency and beauty in him The Lord is the fountain of all good to me The Lord is infinitly worthy of all honor and service and a soul walking with God eyes God thus continually In the 26. Psal 3. For thy loving kindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Oh Lord I see thee aimable lovely and gracious and the fountain of all good and Lord I have walked in thy truth setting God before me so in Psal 16. 8. I have set the Lord alwaies before me that I might not fall A soul that walks with God scarce ey 's any thing but God when it enjoyes the creature yet the eye is upon God as the little child walking with the father looks up to the father every soul that walks with God hath his eye upon him for there 's no such lovely drawing object to the soul as God himself is whereas wicked men they do not find God to be such a lovely object sees no such excellency in him and therfore they rather turn their eyes away from him they look another way Psal 86. 14. They do not set God before them men that walk according to the lusts of their own hearts in their wicked sinful waies the Lord is not in all their thoughts as in the 10. Psalm That 's the first thing in the way of the souls walking with God he eyes God and sees God before him Walking with God causeth a man to carry himself as in Gods Presence Secondly The soul behaves its self as in Gods Presence I see my self in Gods presence and my eye is upon God Oh let me then look to my self that the carriage of my soul be as beseems one who is in the presence of so holy so great so glorious and blessed a God as the Lord is in the 2 Cor. 2. 17. As of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ saith the Apostle when we come to do any thing we do it as of God in the sight of God knowing that we are allwayes before God Augustine speaking concerning Noah's walking with God he hath this expression Noah walked with God that is he had God alwaies present before his eyes walking so holily and so reverenced God This is to walk in the fear of God when the soul upon the apprehention of Gods presence shall labor to compose its self as beseeming the presence before whom it is and this indeed is the walk that you shall find the Saints of God in all day long would you know where to find a Saint you may know his walk you shall all the day long find him walking in the fear of the Lord Preverbs 23. 17. saith the text there Let not thy heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long He doth not say do thou fear the Lord all the day long but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long Oh the walk of a Christian should be so from morning to night to walk in the fear of the Lord and nothing in this world should put him out of this walk no temptations should call him out of it but in the fear of the Lord all the day long This is the walk of a Christian when he labors to behave himself as beseems the presence of God Walking with God is when we make Gods Will the Rule of our will Thirdly The soul may be said to walk with God When the way of it is the same way that God himself goes the soul doth that that God doth What 's the way of God but the way of holiness and righteousness when the soul makes the Will of God to be the rule of it I will not be acted by my own will I will not be acted by any thing but by the Will of God what is it that God wills I will the same thing then the soul walks that way God walks when it doth sute its self with God sets the Lord as an example before it as the Scripture saith Be ye holy as your Heavenly Father is holy I see the holy and the righteous waies of God and I labor as a deer child to follow him and to go in the very same steps that God doth how doth God carry businesses I will labor to carry things so as God doth that my life shall hold forth a resemblance of God himself this is to walk with God to do as God doth to imitate God that 's a third thing in a souls walking with God Walking with God is when a Soul hath the same Ends that God hath The Fourth is this
Not only to do the same thing to make the will of God to be the rule of it But to have the same ends that God hath What 's the end that God hath in all his waies Surely it is that his blessed Name may be magnified that his glory may be set forth I 'le drive on the same design that shall be the great design of my life it 's that that my soul shall aim at as the highest end of all things and all things shall be subordinate to this end even The glory and honor of God it 's that that God aims at and therefore that which I 'le aim at thus the soul goes along with God as now A man may be said to go along with another man when they do both drive on the same designs Oh! this is a blessed thing indeed We shall speak to that hereafter but the very opening what it is shews much of the excellency of it and I beseech you as you go along examine your own hearts see whether by the very mentioning of these things you be not strangers to God examine by the workings of God in bringing your souls to walk with him or otherwise by the way of the soul in eying God in behaving its self as in the presence of God in making the Will of God to be its rule and in driving on the design that God doth Walking with God is the observing the administrations of God and suting the soul to them Fifthly It is the observing of the several administrations of God and the suting of the soule to the several administrations of God in the world I open that thus God sometimes seems to work in one way sometimes in another way now the soul that walks with God observes which are the several waies and administrations of God in the world and let me saith the soul labor to sute my heart with them that 's thus sometimes the Lord is in a way of judgments in the world heavie and dreadful afflictions yea sometimes against his own Saints and People then let me sute my heart according to this Oh Lord we will wait upon thee in the waies of thy judgments saith the Church in Isa Are we under Gods way of judgments in a way of afflictions Lord we will sute our selves to honor thee there according to that way we will labor to exercise those graces that are sutable to these administrations of thine And Lord art thou in a way of mercy we will sute our selves accordingly and labor to draw forth and exercise our graces that are sutable to those waies of thine And art thou in a way of affliction in my family or in a way of mercy Lord I will labor to exercise those graces that are sutable to those waies of thine This is to walk with God As when we walk with a man if he turn this way then I set my self to go with him and if he turns another way then I sute my self to go with him that way so though the waies of God be never so variōus yet the soul that walks with God is sutable to those waies of God Oh this is a great Art a great Mystery to sute a mans self to these several administrations of God in the world You shall have some that if God go in a way of mercy Oh there they can bless praise God and they think that this is to walk with God but if God turns his back upon thee and takes away thy choisestearthly comfort it may be thy deerest yoke-fellow so comes in a way of affictions how canst thou sute with Gods waies then When God was in a way of mercy then my exercise was in joy and thanksgiving and speaking good of his Name but now the Lord is in a way of afflictions now I exercise faith on God now I exercise patience now I exercise Christian wisdom to know what good I can get out of this hand of God that what courses soever God takes yet still a Christian hath several graces to exercise in several conditions and that not only while God is in a smooth path the soul can exercise Joy and Thanksgiving speaking good of his Name But let God go into a rugged path of very great afflictions yet the soul doth sute it's self unto God according to his several administrations this is to walk with God Walking with God is To have a Holy Dependance upon God Opened in Four Particulars Sixthly Walking with God it is To have a holy dependance upon God in all his waies For one to live in a holy dependance upon God for these Four things First In a holy dependance upon God for Direction Oh lead me in the way of thy truth When a Christian looks up to God and depends upon him in the constant course of his life depends upon him for direction Oh Lord teach me thy way Lord lead me in the way of everlasting life Lord send forth thy light and thy truth to guide me Thou shalt be my guide even unto death when the soul dare not go one step further then it sees God going before it and therefore it saith Lord lead me guide me I beseech you examine as you go along can you say that in the course of your lives this you find That you walk in a holy dependance upon God for guidance and direction in every step whatsoever you meddle with yet your walk is thus in a holy dependance upon God for direction in your bufiness and according as the business is of lesse or greater conscequence the heart works more after God for guidance and direction for that business But now the men of the world they are afraid that God should lead them into hard paths into ttoublesom waies and therefore they are shy of Gods Guidance this is the way of wicked hearts I say they are shy of the guidance and direction of God but a gracious heart saith let God lead me and let the way be what it will The wicked are guided by their own thoughts by their own counsels by the examples of other men what 's most sutable to their own ends but the way of the Saints is this Lord guide me Secondly Their holy dependance upon God it is for protection to protect them in what they do Lord I am in the way that thou hast guided me into I may meet with much trouble and affliction but Lord do thou protect me do thou defend me in this way of thine As the child walking with the father if he hears any noise that doth scare him he looks up to the father and depends upon his father to be protected So when a child of God shall in all his waies walk in a holy dependance upon God for protection this is to walk with God Thirdly The soul depends upon God for assistance in any thing that it undertakes Lord this is the work that thou callest me to Oh let me have strength from thy self in
this work I can do nothing without thee Lord and let me have assistance from thee Whereas the wicked they make flesh their arm and therefore there 's a curse pronounc'd against them in Jer. 17. 5. verse they are strangers to any such work as this of dependance upon God for assistance Now and then at a spurt they will say that God must help them and they can do nothing without God I but to have a holy gracious frame of spirit to walk in a holy dependance upon God for assistance in every businesse this is far from the wicked and ungodly Fourthly The soul walks in a holy dependance upon God for a blessing upon all it doth Walk before me and be upright I am thine exceeding great reward As if God should say to Abraham Walk in dependance upon me I am thy reward though thou hast little encouragment in the world yet look up to me for thy reward so when the soul turneth from men and the world and minds not so much what encouragement it hath from the world but looks up to God Lord I depend upon thee for a blessing and how ever things seem to go yet Lord I look up to thee for the bringing all to a good issue here 's now a soul walking with God Walking with God makes a man free and ready in the waies of God Seventhly One that walks with God in all his waies of Holiness and Obedience his heart is free in him he comes off readily to every good work he is not hall'd and pull'd to God but he walks with him There 's a great deal of differenet between one that is dragged after another as if you should drag a prisoner that hath no mind to go that way and another that walks up and down with delight and pleasure with you 'T is not enough to walk with God for to be in the way that God would have you to be or to do the things that God would have you to do except your hearts do come off freely in the waies of obidience except there be a cheerfulness in the waies of obedience except you choose the waies of holiness as the waies that are most sutable to you this is the walking with God In the 119. Psal 45. I will walk at liberty saith David for I seek thy precepts It 's a notable Scripture The men of the world they think that there is no walking at liberty but for them to satisfie their defires to the uttermost to walk after their lusts which is the Scripture phrase No but saith David my liberty is this I seek thy precepts A carnal heart thinks it is the greatest bondage in the world for to seek the precepts of God and to conform to Gods precepts that I must walk according to rule that 's a bondage No I 'le walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts It 's an excellent argument of grace in the heart to account the precepts of God to be the greatest liberty to the soul When I am in the waies of sin I am in the waies of bondage I am a slave to Satan but when I seek thy precepts I am at liberty As a man when he is walking up and down in the fields he is at liberty So when the soul is walking with God it is at liberty but when the soul is walking without God it is in a dungeon a prison but I say when it walks with God it is at liberty it comes off freely in all the waies of obedience Walking with God consists in Communion with God Eighthly Walking with God consists in the Converse and Communion that the soul hath with him in holy duties There are the special walks of the soul with God and of God with the soul in the duties of holy Worship In the 18. of Levit. 4. saith the Lord there Ye shall do my Judgments and keep mine Ordinances to WALK therein I am the Lord your God You must Walk in Gods Ordinances the Ordinances of God they are the Walks of a gracious soul and there the soul meets with God in the 26. of Levit. 11 12. It 's a notable Scripture to shew that in Gods Ordinances there the soul meets with God And I will set my tabernacle amongst you and my soul shall not abhor you that is shall delight in you And I will WALK among you and will be your God and ye shall be my people I will set my Tabernacle amongst you What 's that That is mine Ordinances you shall enjoy mine Ordinances you shall have the duties of my Worship and I will Walk among you then God walks among us when we enjoy his Ordinances So that you see in the 18. of Levit. there God saith You shall walk in mine Ordinances the Ordinances are the godly mans walk then in the 26. of Levit. the Ordinances are Gods walk so that we see they walk the same way and there God and a gracious heart meet together The Churches enjoying Ordinances are the Candlesticks that we reade of in the 1 of Revel 13. In the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks was one like unto the son of man cloathed with a garment down to the feet and gird about the paps with a golden girdle The Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of the Candlesticks that is in the midst of the Churches where there are the Ordinances of God there he is and if you would walk with him you must find him there in the 68. Psal 24. there likewise you may see what the way of a gracious heart is in walking with God They have seen thy goings O God even the going of my God my King where in the Sanctuary If you would walk with another you must know where his goings are observe where he uses to walk and be going there They have seen thy going O God even the goings of my God my King in the Sanctuary there 's the goings of God if you would meet with God and walk with him it must be in the Sanctuary it must be in his Ordinances In the 7. of Cant. 5. verse it is said That the King speaking of Christ is held in the galleries now what 's that but in the Ordinances that 's as it were the galleries of the great King of Heaven and Earth And you know Princes and great men they have their sumptuous galleries wherein they use to walk and only chief favourites are permitted and suffered to be there to walk up and down The King is HELD in his galleries that is when Jesus Christ is in Communion with his Saints in his Ordinances in the duties of Worship Oh 't is the most pleasant galleries to walk in that he hath it 's as pleasant a gallery as he hath in Heaven it's self Oh! he loves to be there The King is Held there Oh! many a sweet and comfortable turn hath a gracious heart in these galleries that is in the Ordinances and Duties of Worship in walking with Jesus Christ When
walk after their own imaginations and in the vanity of their minds they walk in lies and their hearts walk after the sight of their own eyes and they walk after their covetousness We might mention neer twenty such kind of expressions in Scripture and these are the walks of sinners But the waies of the Saints they are to walk with God but those that walk in the way of sinners that is in the vanity of their minds according to the fight of their own eyes after their covetousness and after the flesh and their lusts and lasiviousness and vanity and such kind of expression as we have in Scripture Certainly they shall have the end of their walk to be no other but destruction and eternal misery The Third Vse Thirdly What vile hearts are ours that are so backward to walk with God seeing God is pleased to admit of his Saints to walk with him even those that are godly are to be rebuk'd from hence that they should be so backward to come in to walk with God It is our glory That is that that would make our lives comfortable it would make this wilderness of ours to be a paradice it would make our Gardens to be Edens it would make our Houses to be Churches and make the Church to be a Heaven unto us and yet we are backward unto this Oh that we would but consider of this when we are in our walk there have vain thoughts As ordinarily men that are walking in their pleasant Gardens or it may be pleasant Rooms Oh the vanity and folly of their thoughts I may speak to you who do you walk withal all this while when you are a walking in your Galleries or Parlours or Gardens or alone in the fields who are you parlying withal who are you conversing withal are not you walking many times with the Devil and making provision for the flesh you should be walking with God what are you the Saints of God doth God offer himself to walk and converse with you and will you walk with the flesh and converse with the Devil and be rouling of sin and wickedness up and down in your thoughts Oh what a vile and sinful thing is this The Lord humble you for your sinful walks humble you that are Saints you sometimes have had some walks with God why is it that you walk no more close with God you complain sometimes of your great business in the world and occasions to converse with the world that you have no time for your Communion with God and yet when you are off from the world and when you have time alone wherein you might converse with God and when you have walks to the Citie and from the Citie again what Communion might you have with God! But Oh! how backward are our hearts even unto this that is our happinesse and our glory That 's a third Use by way of reproof even to the Saints which is raised from the consideration of the excellency that there is in our walking with God The Fourth Vse Fourthly By way of exhortation Oh let us keep close to God in our walking with him We reade of Peter that he saw Christ walking upon the water and he would leap to him to walk with him there though it were in afflictions to walk with Christ it should be comfortable to us We reade of Idolators that they would have their children pâ—sse through the fire to get to their Idols Oh let us be willing to pass through any difficulties to get to God the Lord is willing we should coÌ„municate our selves to him and he is willing to communicate himself to us the Lord would communicate word for word promise for promise imbrace for imbrace if we would speak to him he would speak to us if we would let out our hearts to him he would let out his heart to us if we would promise to him he would promise to us The Lord doth often call us to walk with him As sometimes familiar friends will call one another Come let us walk out together and those that are very familiar and loving though they may have some business yet they will lay it aside seeing their deer friends calls them to walk they take so much delight in it many times God our deer friend cals us Come let us walk out together When God at any time doth dart in a Heavenly thought into your minds he doth as it were call you to walk with him there and would have you follow that thought The following that Heavenly thought that 's darted into your minds that 's the answering of Gods call to walk with him Consider of this one note Oh do not refuse this you do not know how your lives may be comforted this way and your hearts may be strengthened The Fifth Vse And then the last thing that I shall name by way of Use is this If there be so much Excellency in our walking with God here what will there be in Heaven then If our converse with him in this world be so sweet Oh how sweet shall our converse with him in Heaven be when we shall walk with him in white when we shall have our garments glorious indeed and our souls fit to converse with God Now the truth is we are very unfit to converse with the Lord because of our blindness and darknesse we do not know God As now let an ignorant man come to converse with a learned man he gets but very little good for he is not able to put a question to him nor able to understand what the man saith especially if he speaks any depth of learning to him So many that are very weak when they are in discourse with those that are strong and godly they are not able to make that use for their discourse as others can and it 's a great excellency for one to be able to improve his converse with some men that have abilities and strength to be able I say to improve their Converse it 's a great excellency Alas we are not able to improve our converse with God here but in Heaven we shall be able to improve our converse with God We shall know as we are known we shall understand God if God doth but communicate himself we shall be fit to receive all the beams of his glory that he shal be pleased to let out Oh! that wil be an excellent thing indeed when we shall be alwaies walking with God and conversing with him continually Saith Bernard in the gracious visitations of the Spirit of God to his soul How sweet if it were not so little but then it shall be constant we shall then follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes and walk with him in white according as he speaks Now the Church cries out and saith Oh draw us and we will run ofter thee The Spirit of God had need to draw us here but then we shall have no such need of drawing but we shall of our selves from the inclination
of our own hearts be alwaies walking and conversing with God we shall have nothing else to do but to walk continually with the Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy Name Psal 86. 11. It 's an excellent Scripture I will walk in thy Truth saith the Prophet Oh unite my heart to the fear of thy Name As if he should say I find much sweetnesse and good in walking in thy Truth here Oh Lord unite my heart to the fear of thy Name Lord keep me alwaies here it 's good being here as Peter said when Christ was transfigured in his glory So when the soul is walking with God it saith it is good being here Well when thou comest to Heaven thou shalt alwaies be with the Lord as the Scripture speaks and therefore from the excellency that thou findest here learn to long after Heaven where thou shalt be continually with the Lord and take only this one note for the setting out of the excellency of Heaven and I confesse only such as have had much sweetness in walking with God here will understand what I mean by this As suppose that all those sweet manifestations of God to thy soul here and all the dartings in of the Spirit of God all those soul ravishing joys that thou hast had suppose they were put all together that thou hadst them all over again at this instant what a comfortable time would it be At such a time may some soul that knows what the meaning of this point is say Oh the sweet communion I had with God! I would give a world to have it again Well thou hadst it once but it was quickly gone and thou hast had it a second and a third time yea many times when I have been with God I have had wonderful gracious lettings out of God to my soul Oh that I had them again Well suppose thou hadst now in this one quarter of an hour all the comfort and joy that ever thou hadst in all thy life put all the times together what a comfortable quarter of an hour would this be Now in Heaven to all eternity thou shalt have that in a kind infinitely more than that for milions of yeers even for ever Oh! what will Heaven be If I should set out Heaven to a carnal man I must tell him of Crowns of glory And there he shall see glorious sights he shall be freed from all kind of sorrows and there he shall have a Kingdom But if I would set out Heaven to a Saint I must tell him this He shall have communion with God and all those soul-ravishing comforts that he hath had in the presence of God in this world he shall have them all together and infinitly more than them Oh this is that that will make their souls long after Heaven and set prize upon it CHAP. VIII Ten Several Evidences of a mans Walking with God BUt having set out unto you the excellency of walking with God you will say Who is it that doth walk with Him I shall further set out to you the Evidences of those men and women that do walk with God The first Evidence One that walks with God Is one that depends not much upon sence or reason in the course of his life I say one that is above the waies of Sence and Reason in his course he hath received a principle to go higher Most men in the world they walk according to sence and therefore the Scripture saith They walk according to the pleasure of their eyes But now one that walks with God his walk lies beyond Sence and above Reason though things of Sence seem to go this way or that way quite crosse to him yea though Reason seem to go quite crosse to him yet still his heart is not in a hurry but he hath that that can quiet his heart though Sence and Reason seem to be contrary 2 Cor. 5. 7. there you shal see the walk of a godly man For we walk by faith and not by sight saith the Apostle beyond our sight either beyond our sight of sence or the sight of Reason we walk by faith But now this is a great point a Christian walking by faith and therefore I intend to speak to that by its self from this very text God willing in another Treatise The second Evidence One that walks with God you shall find him in private the same that he is in publick what ever holiness doth appear in such a one before others in his walking in the world if you trace him and follow him in his private course you shall find him the same man as you do in publik why because he hath not to deal with man so much he hath to deal with God in all his waies when he hath any thing to do before others he walks with God and when he is alone he is the same man still In the 101. Psal see what David saith there concerning his walk in private in his family I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way saith he Oh when wilt thou come unto me I will walk within my house with a perfect heart As if he should say I will not walk when I am abroad only with a perfect heart but I wil walk within my house with a perfect heart There are many people that when they are abroad in the world they seem to be very strict in their way but follow such men to their houses and there you shall see a great deal of difference You will find many times as much difference between the course of men when they are abroad and in their houses as you find in their cloaths you shall have many men and women when they go abroad they wil be very neat and though they have but little means yet they wil lay it upon their backs so that they may be fine abroad but come to them in their families and they care not what cloaths they wear there It is just so in regard of their lives their lives have as much difference as their cloaths When they are abroad then they put a good face on things and seem to be very fair in their conversations and speak good things but at home there they are froward and perverse and perhaps in their passions will swear there they are prophane and ungodly and vent their corruptions in a most ungodly manner doest thou walk with God If thou hadst to deal with God thou wouldst be the same in thy family that thou art abroad that thy wife children and servants in thy family might give as good a testimony of thee as when thou art abroad with others Yea and if ye could retire with them into their very closets you should find them the same there in any duties of Religion You shall have many when they come abroad and joyn with others Oh how enlarged are they yet dead and dull when they are at home either in family or closet yea their own consciences
tells them so Those that walk with God wil be as spiritual in the one as in the other it may be when they are with others because they are to be the mouth of others they wil sure themselves according to those they pray with yet when they are alone and in their families their hearts are as spiritual and as holy in their duties as when they are with others why because they have to deal with God in all and that 's another Evidence of one that walks with God that he is the same in private as he is in publick The third Evidence A man that walks with God hath a serious spirit walking with God will compose the spirits of men and women will take off that loosness and vanity of spirit Therefore walking in the vanity of the mind that 's quite crosse to walking with God as in the 4. of the Ephe. 17. there it 's spoken of wicked men it 's said that they walk in the vanity of their minds All wicked men they walk in the vanity of their minds then all those that walk with God walk in the seriousness of their minds It must needs be that they must have a seriousness of spirit in all their waies for it 's with God that they have to deal withal they take not that liberty to run this way or that way as others do If servants be walking one with another they can take liberty to go out of their way and talk with this or the other body as they please But if a servant walk with his Master or Mistris he must not take that liberty but must go as they go So many that walk only with the creature they take liberty to run up and down as they please but those that walk with God they must have composed spirits and walk seriously and though they may walk seriously yet cheerfully I beseech you consider of this For that Christian knows not the way of Christian-rejoycing that doth not know how to mix it with seriousness yea Senecha that was a Heathen could say Joy it is a serious thing there is a kind of seriousness in true joy for the joy of a Christian is not frothy it is a composed joy As thus now It 's serious First A Christian in his joy he is able to command himself he can let out his joy so far and yet at a beck he can command himself to the most spiritual duty in the world from his joy he doth not profusely let out his heart so as he cannot call it in again Certainly thou dost not joy as a Christian if thou canst not take off thy heart from creature joyes God gives thee liberty to be merry but so as to have it under thy command as thou shalt be able to call thy heart off from it to the most serious duty in the world Secondly He cannot only command himself to holy duties in the midst of his joy but he finds himself the fitter for holy duties by it now this is a serious joy if it be no other than I can command my self off from it and that that fits me for that which is holy Christians had need take heed of frothinesse slightnesse and vanity for certainly the walking with God cannot but make them serious and those that are slight and vain surely they do not converse with God for God is such a serious object that it 's impossible but it must work a seriousnesse in the spirits of men The Fourth Evidence Those that walk with God they walk in newness of life For this is not our walk naturally our walking with God is that that comes upon a mighty converting that God gives to our spirits our walk naturally it is with our lusts and with the Devil and in the way to Hell but one that walks with God walks in newnesse of life as the Scripture speaks in the 6. Rom. 4. He walk according to the Rule of the new Creature In the 6. Gal. 16. And as many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them and mercy You will say What Rule doth the Apostle mean here I confesse ordinarily you have it applied to this The walk according to the Scriptures I grant it that 's a truth That the Word of God should be the Rule of our walk and of our lives and those that walk according to that Rule shall have peace But I do not think that to be the meaning of this text but the scope is to be taken from the words of the former verse for saith he in the 15. verse In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature And as many as walk according to this rule that is According to the rule of the new Creature not standing so much upon external things either Circumcision or Uncircumcision not standing so much upon outward duties though in their kind they must be stood upon But the main thing that is to be stood upon it is The walk of the new Creature and those that walk according to the rule of the new Creature those that act the new Creature in their walk peace be unto them And that 's the fourth thing in the Evidences of a Walker with God He walks in newness of life and so according to the rule of the new Creature The Fifth Evidence When he hath to deal with the Creature be doth quickly passe through the Creature unto God Any one I say that is acquainted with this mystery of godliness in walking with God though while he is in this world he hath to deal as other men have with the creatures yet he will not stick in the creatures but soon passes from the creatures to God As thus he receives sweetness from the creatures as well as others but when he hath received or is in receiving the sweetness of the creatures his heart is upon God Oh the sweetness there is in God! Is the creature so sweet how sweet is God then When he is in company with friends is it so sweet to have society with men how sweet is it to have society with God then And when he hath comforts in a wife Oh what comfort is there in the comforts of my Husband Jesus Christ And when he hath comfort in a sweet habitation Oh what comfort is there in God our habitation he is not musling in the world in the creature but he relies upon God in al that he doth injoy Now those that when they have any thing in the Creature there they stick these are not acquainted with this way of walking with God The sixth Evidence A man that walks with God he loves to be much retir'd from the world It 's true he must follow his occasions in the world he doth that in obedience unto God but except he may have his retired times he knows not how to live it 's true when he is in his calling he walks with God there he carries his heart Heavenly There 's
before God walking in all the Commandements and Ordinances of the Lord blameless here 's a walking with God not only to walk in some one thing but in all Commandements and Ordinances of God and not only so but blameless before men too though it 's true the chief work that he hath it is in converse with God yet he is careful so as to be blameless before men because it concerns much the honor of God that he should be blameless before men Zacharias and Elizabeth they were walkers with God and their lives are described so that they were conscionable in all the Commands of God and walked blameless before men Now as we go along apply it Can you say Lord Thou that knowest al things knowest that there 's no command of thine nor no Ordinance of thine but my soul closes with and I desire to spend my life in them and to walk blamelesly before men There 's a great many that speak much of walking before God and of the Ordinances of God and yet come to them before men and they are careless and negligent do but hearken to what the Lord speaks this day to thee Certainly thou never knewest what it was to walk with God except thou doest walk blamelesly before men too The Tenth Evidence Opened in five Particulars See but how the Scripture describes the walk of the Saints with God there are some four or five particulars that I shal infist upon wherein I shal open some Scriptures describing the Saints walk with God As first Their walk it is a walk of Humility a way very humble The heart that walks with God must needs be very humble in the presence of God you know the place in the 6. of Micah He hath shewn thee O man what he would have thee to do To walk humbly with thy God that 's more than the offering of thousands of Lambs or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl To walk humbly with thy God A proud man or woman never knows what it is to walk with God But the walking with God causes much humility there 's no such thing in the world to humble the heart of a man as to have converse with God do you see a man proud and haughty and high in his carriage surely you may conclude this man hath little converse with God saith Job I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now have mine eyes seen thee what then I abhor my self in dust and ashes Secondly Another thing that the Scripture speaks of the walk of a Christian with God it is Vprightness Walk before me and he upright I might give you twenty Scriptures for that how uprightness is the walk of a Christian with God I 'le give you only one about this and that is in the 3 Epist of John 3. verse there it is exprest in the new Testament by walking in the truth and so sometimes in the Old the walking in Vprightness and walking in the Truth is somewhat the same I rejoyced greatly saith the Apostle when the Brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee even as thou walkest in the truth So that this surely hath reference unto walking according to the truth of the Gospel in the truth and sincerity of our hearts They testified of the truth that is in thee That is The Word of the Gospel that did prevail in thy heart and prevailing in thy heart thou didst walk-in the strength and power of that Truth and according to the truth here 's a walking with God And no marvel though the soul of this man was in so good a condition as indeed it was for you find in the 2. verse of this Epistle a very strange expression of John concerning this Gaius what doth he say of him I wish saith he above al things that then mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth It seems this Gaius had but a poor weak sickly body but a very good soul he was and saith John I wish that thou mayest prosper even as thy soul prospereth Oh! that thou hadst but as good a body as a soul It 's a very strange speech It were a curse to many of you I am afraid But John could say concerning Gaius Oh that this man Gaius had as good a body as he hath a soul And how came he to have his soul to prosper He walked in the truth and according to the truth and al that he did was in the truth and sincerity of his heart hence his soul came to prosper and those that have but very weak parts yet if they walk in the truth their souls will prosper The Third thing is Walking in the fear of God And indeed these two are very neer a kin one to another so you have it in the 5. of Nehe. 9. verse Also I said it is not good that ye do Ought ye not to WALK in the fear of our God and he gives an argument there Because of the reproach of the Heathen So may I say to all Christians that would professe themselves Christians and godly ought not ye to walk in the fear of our God whatsoever other men do they do thus and thus and seek to follow their own ends and waies but ought not YE to walk in the fear of our God that 's the walk of a Christian the fear of God it is continually upon him And observe we reade in the 9. of the Acts of the walk of the Christians in the Primitive times upon which they came so to grow up in the waies of godliness as they did at the 31. verse the text saith Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Gallilee and Samaira and were edified and what then They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the holy Ghost and so came to be multiplied It 's an excellent Scripture would you be built up in godliness let the fear of God be upon you and if you walk in the fear of God you will walk in the joy of the holy Ghost Obj. You will say Fear that may hinder our Joy Ans No But the way to have true joy in the holy Ghost it is To walk in the fear of God and though you have a company of vain and wanton spirits that are nothing but for Jolity and Mirth they cannot admit of any kind of seriousness that we spake to before But certainly their Jolity it 's but frothy and carnal but those have the best Joy in their hearts that walk most in the fear of God When I see a Christian have the fear of God upon him and that in the whol course of his life then he will have much of the comfort of the holy Ghost Fourthly The comfort of the holy Ghost it 's joyned with the fear of God and if you see any that talk never so much of the joy that they have it 's but a frothy carnal joy except the fear of God be upon them Oh
that is meant the several graces of the Spirit of God that puts a beauty upon the soul as there is a variety in needle-work that causes a beauty upon the work and so she shall be brought to the King So you must have that that may make you aimable and lovely in the eyes of the King The Fifth Rule or Direction Take heed of halting When you walk with him you must not halt between two but give up your self fully to God you must give up your selves wholly to him in walking with him not to have a distracted heart or a divied heart between two Why halt ye between two opinions saith the Prophet If God be God worship him if Baal worship him So when the heart is not divided up and down and is resolved in the way of God that 's the thing that I mean here that is If I cannot be happy here I am content to be miserable here when the soul is so resolved and doth not halt in Gods way when the soul knows that here is the way that there is happiness to be had in and whatsoever seems to the contrary to flesh and blood yet I know that in these waies there 's happiness to be had there 's enough to blesse my soul for ever and therefore whatsoever becoms of me I am resolved upon these waies this is one that is fit to walk with God he will not halt but will treat strait steps in the waies of God and that the Apostle requires of us in Heb. 12. 13. Make streight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way Make streight paths go on in a streight way not having the heart longing after something else There are some that have some convictions of conscience that have their hearts inclinable to the waies of God and are going on in some of the waies of God yet they have longings of spirit after something else but when the heart indeed walks with God it gives up its self wholly to him and is resolv'd in these waies you have had some good thoughts but if your hearts be divided between God and the world you will turn to be Apostats in time that which is lame will be turn'd out of the way the waies of God will be tedious to you when you do not give up your selves wholly to them and this is the reason of the Apostafie that there is in the world they seem to go on in Gods waies but they go on but lamely because they do not give up themselves wholly to the waies of God The sixth Rule or Direction If you would walk with God Take heed of formality in all holy duties be laborious in holy duties take pains with your hearts in them labor for the power of godliness in holy duties you must strive to get up to God in them It were well if when we perform holie duties we did but keep close to the Duty its self few go so far But it 's one thing to keep close to the Duty and another thing to keep close to God in the Duty we must labor not only to mind what we are about but to keep close to God in the Duty to find God in all duties that we perform and in the use of all ordinances to take pains to find God there and not to satisfie quiet our hearts except we find God in the duties that we do perform we have a notable Scripture for this in Exod. 20. 24. In all places where I record my Name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee That is where ever there is any Ordinance or any holy Duty to be perform'd there 's a recording of Gods Name And saith he I will come unto thee and there I wil bless thee If you would walk with God you must go where God is and be in those places where God uses to come now the walk where God uses to walk it is in his Ordinances in his Worship therefore you must be very spiritual in worship and sanctifie the Name of God there according to that that we have treated upon at large you must take pains there stir up your hearts and all that is within you to walk with God there and not be satisfied except you have something of God there It 's a notable speech of Bernard I never go from thee without thee when ever I come to any holy duty and leave it I never leave it but I have thee with it we must not be satisfied except we meet with God in holy duties The Seventh Rule or Direction Take heed of secret declinings or slidings away from the paths of God into any by paths For those that professe their desires to walk with God they will not in an open way forsake God and his waies but if you be not very watchful over your hearts you will have them secretly decline away from the waies of God from those paths wherein you have had heretofore communion with God Oh take heed of turning out of the paths of God of any allurements from the flesh of any temptations and especially such temptations as are sutable to your corruptions they will be alluring you to lead you aside out of the waies of God and seem to promise waies of contentment to the flesh Oh take heed of any such thing take heed of being allur'd through the deceitfulness of the flesh as the Apostle speaks in the 2 Epist of Peter 2. 18. there he speaks of some false teachers When they speak great swelling words of vanity they allure through the lusts of the flesh through much wantonness those that were clean escaped from them who live in error There were some that were escaped from the waies o error from sinful ungodly waies and really escaped that is in their kind they were not hypocrites that is to make shew of one thing and do another but what they did they did according to the light of their consciences but yet it was not through the sanctifying saving work of God but through the strength of a natural conscience and so they were allur'd through the lusts of the flesh and through wantonness by those that taught false Doctrine but they together with their false Doctrine came to that that was sutable to the flesh I beseech you observe it some that have been walking with God and then met with these that come with fair shews with that which is false and you may know it in this that it gives liberty to the flesh they think here 's a fine even and smooth way that I may have content to the flesh in observe it there 's no such way to allure such as have by the power of the Word escaped from the waies of sin in a great measure no such way I say to allure them as to come and shew them how they may make a profession of godliness and yet have liberty to the flesh too Oh the Lord deliver yong beginners from the
a Lyon but for the Saints it shal not be terrible to them And how much is it worth that when God shall appear in death and at judgment here and hereafter the terrour of God shall be taken away My brethren God appears at death and at the times of Judgment ordinarily in another manner than he doth in the time of prosperity you see no terror in Gods presence now but beware of it when death is approaching wicked men when they lie upon their death-beds how terrible is the presence of God to them then but those that walk with God shall not find it so when they come to die then God appears to them Now am I going to stand before the great God to have my eternal estate determined one way or other But what God is this He is great indeed but he is my friend I have had converse with him all the daies of my life And so when I must come to Judgment here comes Jesus Christ with his thousands of Angels in glory but it is Christ that I have conversed with all the daies of my life this Christ hath been my friend before whom I am This will be the comfort in walking with God The twelfth Excellency And then The end of the walk that makes it belssed indeed Oh! how blessed will that make it It 's a blessed thing to walk with God now but when you come to the End of this walk you shall find it blessed indeed If a man did come to enjoy God at last though it was through never so many difficulties yet he had cause to blesse God If one were going to possess a Kingdom though his way were never such a difficult way and hard yet the end of his way would make it comfortable because it is to go and take a Kingdom But now you that are walking with God you have comfort in your walk but the end of your walk oh that will be glorious indeed it is to possesse a Kingdom it is to have the crown of glory set upon your heads your communion that you have with God here it is but as the forerunner of that glorious Communion that you shall enjoy with him together with the Saints and Angels to all eternity And thus we have given you the heads at least of the Excellency that there is in Walking with God No marvel though the holy Ghost sets such a commendations upon Enoch Above al things That he walked with God seeing there is so much good in it I confesse I had thought not to have left this Head without applying of it and warming it upon your hearts that you might walk so with God that you might not lose the comfort and blessing and sweet Excellency that you have had opened to you in walking with God only let me say thus much Be in love with it Know there is no such good in any other path the Devil doth but gul you and your own hearts and the world doth but deceive you if it promise any good in any other way that will counter vail this Oh no the walking with God it is the good of a Christian it 's his happinesse his glory his commendations Oh that this may be recorded of you as it was of Enoch And Enoch walked with God CHAP. VII Five Vses of Exhortation in walking with God Now we proceed Some Use I shall make of this briefly before I go to the third head about Evidences of walking with God The First Vse First Bless God that he will be pleased to walk thus with his poor creatures bless the Lord for his goodness to us Happy are the Angels that stand before the Lord How happy are we then that may have this free converse with God! What we that were not only strangers but enemies to God a while since now to walk with him Oh! a blessed thing it is Let God be magnified for this his goodness to us even He that humbleth Himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven do but look upon the things that are done in Heaven Psalm 113. and yet he will condescend fo far to His poor creatures even here on earth as to walk with them were we indeed wholly freed from sin it were somewhat but while we are not only so mean in our selves but so sinful and yet that God wiâ—l so walk with us this we have cause to bless God for if we should see his face hereafter though we should never see him in this world but that God should not only grant unto us this That we should hereafter after a wearisome and tedious pilgrimage here in this world come to see His face but that we should have so much converse with Him here Oh magnified and blessed be the Name of God for this The second Vse Secondly What strangers are the most part of the world to this that I am speaking of That which I am speaking of it's a riddle to most men in the world This walking with God is but an empty sound to most men yea for the greatest part of the world they walk as the Scripture speaks after their own counsels you shall find divers notable expressions in Scripture of the walk of sinners of wicked men They walk according to their own counsels They walk after the flesh They walk after their lusts They walk after the course of this world They walk in the vanity of their minds They walk contrary unto God They walk according to men Yea That 's observable unto this That the holy Ghost condemns not only walking according to the course of the world and as men But to walk in the way of Kings is condemn'd in Scripture In 2 Chron. 28. 2. If to follow the course of any men one would think it might be most coÌ„mendable the following of the King but here 's a charge against Ahaz that he walked in the waies of the Kings of Israel and the 2 Kings 17. 8. They walked in the Statutes of the Heathen here 's to walk as Kings walk and then to walk in the Laws of Kings God would not have any men walk in them any further than they are according to his own Statutes Not to say it 's according to Law and I must walk according to Law No this is charged to walk according to the practice of Kings or their Laws being evil And there 's another Scripiure in the I Kings 15. 26. He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the waies of his father and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin There 's to walk in the way of great men and that 's condemned Secondly to walk in the way of the Laws of the places where we live Thirdly to walk according to our fathers that 's condemned And then lastly to walk according to the common course of the world that 's condemned and yet this is the walk of sinners And further The Scripture saith That wicked men they walk in darkness and they