you be fully resolved if your resolution slows from an inward root 〈◊〉 inclination Psal 119.112 If it be bottomed on a firm assent to the truth of Scripture-revelation If it be founded on the highest reason and if it be the fruit of mature deliberation you are not far from the kingdom of God yea you have taken some steps in the way to life Quest 3. Can any of you yet think that the holy life you are exhorted to in the Text is more then needs Is it not absolutely necessary that God should be pleased and enjoyed And is not all that is called for in the Text absolutely necessary to the pleasing and enjoying of God Hath not enough been hinted already to convince you hereof And shall not such an argument as necessity and your own necessity turn the scales and fully resolve you and put you past any farther deliberation or delay Sure if this were indeed believed it were impossible but it should Ubi necessitas incumbit non ultra disputandum est fed celerrimè fortiter agendum Reason is but folly when it pleads against necessity Omni arte omni ratione efficacior est necessitas Necessity is that weapon that natural reason taketh to be unresistable Had you been one hour in Heaven would you not say there is an absolute necessity of getting thither Had you been one hour in hell would you not say there is an absolute necessity of escaping it and that there is no necessity to this And would you not thereupon without delay set in good earnest upon the use of the necessary means thereunto Verily thus it would be with you if you did indeed believe the Scripture-record for faith is the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 i. e. faith seeth that which supplieth the want of presence and visibility there is that in faith which effectively is equal to visibility and a present subsistence Do you yield that an holy life is necessary But question whether such a life as hath been exhorted to deserves only the name of an holy life Ask your souls one question Is there any more in all the particulars contained in this Exhortation then what is comprehended in the Scripture-notion of holiness Doth not holiness according to the use of the word in Scripture exclude sin uncleanness all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Thes 4.7 2 Cor. 7.1 which is a non-conformity to the will of God 1 John 3.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and include conformity to the will of God Rom. 12.1 2. Doth not legal holiness include perfect conformity unto the will and holiness of God man fested in his Law and evangelical holiness include a true conformity unto the will and holiness of God manifested in his Son as Mediator Rom. 8 29. what then can you apprehend in the Scripture-notion of that holy life that is absolutely necessary to salvation less then to see that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil Quest 4. Are any of you hindred from hearkening to this Exhortation by conceits that few yea none do yea none can live so holy a life It is indeed certain few do Christ hath told you so much Though there be many seekers yet there are but few strivers to walk in the narrow way that leads to life Mat. 7.13 14. But this is no discouragement You shall not want company in the way to heaven no not good company Prov. 12.10 nor find comfort in your company in the way to hell If you would indeed have the number of holy livers to be greater why do not you increase it by joyning with them Though Christs flock be very little yet all that be of his flock do live this holy life Doth not the Apostle tell you By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God herein it consists hereby it is evidenced that we keep his commandments and his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.2 3. Is it not hence evident that such as do sincerely love God not only may but do keep his Commandments yea that it is easie and pleasant to them to live so holy a life If you say you cannot however live thus I ask you how do you know Did you ever try what might be done in this case Did you ever set in good earnest about it Have you not only sought but strove to walk in this narrow way If you have not you have dreadfully mocked God in pretending that it is impossible for you to live so holy a life O! remember God will not be mocked Gal. 6.2 you cannot deceive his eye and he will not be put off with mocking services Quest 5. Are any of you hindred by hopes of coming to heaven in some other easier way that is not revealed in the Bible What is this but to be hindred from changing your life in hopes that Christ will be found a Deceiver and God a Lyar Hath not God by Christ John 12.49 told you not only that there is no other way revealed but that indeed there is none other neither can there be any other I say unto you saith Christ Mat. 5.20 except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case Mark in no case i. e. by no means in no way whatsoever enter into the Kingdom of heaven And can you live more holy lives than the Scribes and Pharisees who were the strictest professors of holiness among the Jews Acts 26.5 lived unless you see that ye walk thus circumspectly Sinners ask your hearts who hath given you these hopes sure not God for he cannot perswade you that his own word is false it must therefore be the Devil who will deceive you And now what will ye any longer hope to be saved whether God will or no will any of you hope for impossibilities any longer will ye hope to be saved without the one thing necessary to salvation Luke 12.4.41 42. without an heart set upon it and a life employed for it O! how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation Heb. 2 3. Quest 6. Are any of you bindred from following the Apostles Exhortation by fears lest the Devil the World and the Flesh will never suffer you to live so strict and precise a life I must indeed tell you that if all the Devil can do those principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places If all that the World can do the men of the world and the things of the world If all the flesh can do the carnal reasonings and fleshly lustings of your own corrupt hearts If all that all these together can do can hinder you you will never be perswaded to set in good earnest upon living so holy a life yet your condition is not hopeless but the more serious and hearty your fears be the
OF HOLY LIVING FIRST A Serious Exhortation thereunto SECONDLY Choice Directions therein both for every WORKING and for every LORDS-DAY Job 36.2 Suffer us a little and we will shew thee what we have yet to speak on Gods Behalf LONDON Printed for William Grantham at the Black-Bear in Westminster-Hall and are to sold by Robert Eveleigh Bookseller in Exo◠1668. A SERIOUS EXHORTATION TO HOLY LIVING By Thomas Mall Isa 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves Men. LONDON Printed for William Grantham at the Black-Bear in Westminster-Hall and are to be sold by Robert Eveleigh Bookseller in Exon. 1668. THE DEDICATION TO THE SINNERS and SAINTS IN ENGLAND especially in EXON and TIVERTON The AUTHOR'S As a publick and permanent testimony of their unfeigned desires that they may be found walking in the narrow way that leadeth unto life and that so they may be saved Devote the ensuing EXHORTATION DIRECTIONS Earnestly beseeching the God of all grace that their Patronage may be the living influences of the quickning Spirit who only is able to protect them from unprofitable reading and forgetful neglects and to make them effectual to their Desirable and Desired ends AN ADVERTISEMENT To the READER AFter the following choice directions were given me by their Author I had some thoughts of getting Mr. Thomas Wadsworth his serious Argumentative and Pathetical Exhortation to an Holy Life from Matth. 5.20 Printed by Andrew Kemb 1661. to be re-printed and prefixt before them not only because of its conciseness but because the Heartthoughts of Sinners especially against an Holy Life are therein so familiarly discovered and movingly removed But that might be injurious to the Stationer though not to the worthy Author by reason of the many Pages transplaced in that Edition so that that useful manual can scarce be used by ordinary Readers However I have now chose to shew thee how a Scholar may write after his Copy and do assure thee that in eo gaudio aliquid discere ut doceam Sen. Ep. 6. I am glad to learn that I may teach Farewel A Serious EXHORTATION TO HOLY LIVING FROM Ephes 5.15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil The Introduction THese words are both a Serious Exhortation and a Gospel-Directory to an holy life First They are a serious Exhortation to an holy life rationally inferr'd from the Exhortation verse 11. There the Apostle exhorts the Ephesians to be Christian Reprovers of others for their unholy lives Here he exhorts them even therefore 〈◊〉 signifies then or therefore to be very careful to live holy lives themselves See then or therefore that ye walk circumspectly c. q. d. Because you are to reprove others see that ye be unreprovable your selves Secondly They are a Gospel-Directory to an holy life rationally inferr'd from the Exhortation Verse 8,9 c. There the Apostle exhorts the believing Ephesians to live holy lives Here he directs them especially how to follow that Exhortation q. d. Seeing it is your duty to walk as children of the light i. e. a very holy life in all goodness and righteousness and truth as it followeth proving yea approving what is acceptable unto God and avoiding yea in word and deed reproving what is displeasing to him c. And that because your state is altered ye were darkness i. e. ye were ignorant and under the reigning and condemning power of sin But now are light in the Lord i. e. now are enlightned and justified and sanctified See therefore that ye walk circumspectly c. This is the onely way wherein you can walk as children of the light I shall at present speak to the words as a serious Exhortation to an holy life and that both to Sinners and to Saints PART I The Exhortation to Sinners FIrst To Sinners See that ye walk circumspectly c. Chap. 1. Way made to the Exhortation by six serious Questions HEre before I proceed any farther I shall ask such these six serious Questions Quest 1. Seeing it is certain 1 that you consist of mortal bodies and immortal soules Heb. 12.9 Matth. 10.28 2 that your soules and bodies must be separated for a time Heb. 9.27 3 that there shall be a resurrection of your bodies John 5.28 29. Acts 24.15 1 Cor. 15.52 53. 4 that at the resurrection there shall be a general judgment for your soules and bodies reunited as well as a particular judgment for your soules as soon as they be separated from your bodies 2 Cor. 5.10 Heb. 9.27 compared with Job 5.4 Cap. 19.28 5 that there is an Heaven and an Hell an eternity of happiness and an eternity of misery after this life to one of which places and states all shall be adjudged Matth. 25.34 41. To which eternity would you be adjudged Would you have the eternal love of God or the eternal wrath of God for your portion in the other world If you are and resolve to continue Gallio's in this matter I should be sorry you should read farther because the following exhortation will undoubtedly be the savour of death unto death unto you Quest 2. Is it not plainly revealed in the Bible that they onely that live an holy life here shall live an happy life hereafter If you doubt of this take your Bibles and turn to the Chapters and Verses How read you in Matth. 5.20 Do not you there find these words of Christ I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven How read you in Luke 13.3 5 Do not you there find these words twice Except you repent i. e. except your life be changed from an unholy to an holy life you shall all likewise perish How read you in Heb. 12.14 Doth not the Apostle Paul there require you to follow after holiness i. e. to live an holy life even upon this very account because without holiness no man shall see God i.e. no man shall have the beatifical vision and fruition of God Quest 3. Is this assertion that is so plainly revealed in the Bible true or false What think you Do not you own the Bible to contain the word of God and dare you be guilty of such blasphemy as to give the God of truth the lye Q. 4. If you do believe that you can never be happy hereafter unless you live an holy life here and that because the Scripture saith it Must not you also believe that that holy life which you must live here must be such a life as the Scripture calls for Can you any other ways know what that holy life is that is of absolute necessity unto salvation then by the Scripture the Word of God And is not that holy life called for in the Text under these expressions See that ye walk circumspectly c Is not this evident both in that the Apostle before he lays down the Exhortation in
the Text premiseth verse 6. that the wrath of God will come upon all the children of disobedience i. e. upon all that will not be perswaded to hearken to the and therefore to this Word of God And in that the Apostle backs this Exhortation in the Text from the folly of not living so holy a life as he therein exhorts unto Doth not he clearly imply if not expresly assert that there is no other way to secure the everlasting happiness of the other world Quest 5. Will you give it under your hands that you do verily believe that unless you see to it that you live as holy a life as you are exhorted to in the Text you shall have no inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ but the wrath of God will come upon you for your folly and madness in neglecting your main interest If you indeed believe thus I have but one question more to ask you before I shew you what an holy life is called for from you in the Text. Quest 6. Will you solemnly engage that you will heartily endeavour to live so holy a life as shall be plainly made known unto you to be called for from you by God in this Word of his And why should you not What do you verily believe that you cannot possibly enjoy love and avoid his wrath unless you live the life you are exhorted to in the Text and yet will ye not promise to see to it that ye live that life Are ye resolved to sit down short of Gods love and to continue under his wrath This is wilfully and not ignorantly to destroy your selves Be not afraid that I would engage you to live a holier life then the Apostle calls for in the Text If it be not demonstrated even to your own consciences that all the following particulars are rationally inferr'd from the Apostles words your promise doth not bind you thereunto I desire you only to promise that you will heartily endeavour to live such a life as shall be rationally evinced from these words to be the will of God and your duty I shall therefore take your promise for granted and no longer delay acquainting you what an holy life you are exhorted to in the Text. Chap. 2. The particulars contained in the Exhortation 1. THe holy life that you are exhorted to in the Text is a provident life it is a thoughtful careful life in living this we must be considerate and forecasting souls the eyes of our souls must be much yea continually employed This I gather from the first word in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See c. He that followeth this exhortation hath his eyes in his head as in a Watch-tower Eccl. 2.14 His eyes are useful for guiding and ordering his wayes that he may not erre wander stumble fall mistake miscarry c. 2. It is an active life you are exhorted to walking See that ye walk c. walking is opposed to sitting yea standing still he that walks is in motion walking doing are the same 1 King 11.38 The whole life you are exhorted to is a busielife not only the eye but every faculty of the soul and every member of the body must be in motion There is no sitting still yea there is no standing still in living this holy life 3. It is a voluntary life it is such a life as you may choose or refuse to live not such a life as you must live whether you will or no. No motion is more voluntary then walking You are not only exhorted to move in the wayes of holiness but to move therein willingly yea to delight in such motions as you do in walking and Christ did John 4.24 such motions should be your recreation 4. It is an habitual life In walking steps are reiterated and multiplied A motion or two accidentally or occasionally in the ways of holiness will not evidence that you live this holy life your motions must be frequently iterated and become customary yea evidenced to be I do not say become habitual that you are habitually ready to every good work Tit. 3.1 God esteems none a Saint for some particular carriages but for a general course 5. It is an everlasting life Walking is a constant motion If at any time there be no moving there is no walking for that time In walking you are still going forward till you come to your journeys end Your motions in the ways of holiness must be constant as you must not stand still so you must not turn back your hearts must be still enclined to perform Gods statutes always even to the end Psal 119.112 It is twice said of Enoch he walked with God Gen. 5.22.24 to intimate that as he began betimes so he persevered therein unto the end It is the End crowns all antecedent acts 6. It is a growing life walking is a progressive motion wherein we are still getting ground and getting nearer and nearer to our journeys end Your motions in the ways of holiness must be progressive your obedience must be more and more you must still get nearer Heaven Non progredi est regredi not to go forward is to go backward not to grow better is to grow worse They that live this holy life go from strength to strength Psal 84.4 shining brighter and brighter till perfect day Prov. 4.18 7. It is not a life absolutely perfect in holiness You are exhorted to walking not to resting not to be perfect but to be walking towards perfection Perfection of holiness will be your life at your journeys end but is not your life in your walk Here your attainments cannot be greater then Pauls were and his highest attainment was to be still moving onwards Brethren saith he I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forth to those things that are before I press toward the mark Phil. 3.13 14. you are followers of the Apostles Exhortation in the Text if you be still going onwards though you be not come to a full rest There remains a rest for the people of God 8. Though it be not a perfect yet it is a very regular life You are exhorted not only to walk but to walk exactly by line and by rule as it were in a frame See look how ye walk yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See how circumspectly how strictly how precisely how accurately how regularly you walk See that you be Peripateticks that you walk round and round in the whole circle of good works See that you keep all Gods Commandments and how you keep all The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimates not only that this holy life is a very strict and precise life but wherein its strictness and preciseness doth consist It is translated accurately It seemed good unto me when I had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accurately or exactly searched all things Luke 1.3 It comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go to the
should be the more careful to live this holy life because the days are evil Both because the customs and manners of most are so wicked that they have even tainted time it self and corrupted the very days And because the days are very dangerous by reason of temptation and persecution That so the times may be bettered by your means and that you your selves may be secured from the dangers and snares thereof and that you hearts may be born up under the persecution you meet with therein See therefore that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil 2 Your light cannot but be urging what you know to be your duty upon your conscience It cannot but be putting you upon doing what you ought it cannot but be a spur in your sides to make you go yea run the wayes of Gods commandments 3 Hereby it becomes harder for you then for others not to be perswaded to follow this exhortation It is far easier to sin without light then against light It is not easie for you to put by the motions of your own knowledge and keep down your own light But it is harder to go contrary thereunto Yea 4 If your knowledge be indeed saving it hath a very great power in it Both a transforming power 2 Cor. 3.18 and a fructifying power Rom. 12.2 Col. 19.10 Teaching and therefore knowledge is the means whereby Christ as a Prophet helpeth souls to live this life Hence he is said to speak life into his People John 6.63 and his words are called The words of life John 6.68 Motive 4. If you will not be perswaded to see to it that you live this life you cannot have assurance that you are children of the light yea you may on Scripture-grounds conclude you are not If your light were indeed saving you would be very careful that your life be holy Give me understanding saith David Psal 119.34 and what then why I shall keep thy Law yea I shall observe it with my whole heart Would you not be glad to have assurance that your knowledge is such as accompanieth salvation i. e. such as cannot be separated from salvation See then that ye walk circumspectly c. Hereby we know we do not only think or hope but know assuredly that we know him i. e. savingly if we keep his commandments 1 John 2 3. It as but a form of knowledge that brings forth but a form of godliness Motive 5. If you will not be perswaded to follow this exhortation your knowledge will be an aggravation of your sin and an heightner of your condemnation Verily you can have no cloake for your sin John 15.22 Others think that their ignorance is some excuse or extenuation of their sin though most are therein mistaken because their ignorance is a supine and an affected ignorance and such ignorance is one of the highest aggravations of sin But to be sure you cannot so much as think that you have any such excuse or extenuation of your sin That servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not himself nor did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes though he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required Luke 12.47 48. If you neglect your known duty your light cannot but break in upon you and smite you both here and hereafter But so much for the Motives from your being children of the light as it signifies your being enlightned with saving knowledge Chap. 2. Motives from their Justification SEcondly See that ye walk circumspectly c. seeing you are enlivened with saving grace In Scripture light is often taken for life Job 33.28 30. Psal 36.9 49.19 Thus here Ye are light in the Lord i. e. ye are not only enlightned but enlivened made partakers of a double life the life of justification and the life of sanctification See then that ye walk circumspectly c. First You are made partakers of the life of righteousness In Scripture life and righteousness are taken for the same 2 Cor. 3.6 7 9. Rom. 5.17 21. Because sin by reason of its guilt doth immediately make a man dead in law John 3.18 And when a capital offender is pardoned we say his life is given him Thus are you made alive in your justification the sentence of condemnation is reversed John 3.18 you enjoy peace and reconciliation with God and his love and favour Rom. 5.1 And in Scripture light upon the account of its diffusiveness and communicativeness and comfortableness signifies sometimes peace sometimes love and favour I form the light and create darkness is explained in the next words I make peace and create evil Jer. 13.16 The light of the Kings countenance and his favour are equivalent expressions Prov. 16.15 See then that ye walk circumspectly c. And good reason there is why you should even upon the account of the pardon of your sins and the justification of your persons For Motive 1. Hereby another great hinderance of your living this life is removed and that is guilt Sins binding over the Soul to the wrath of God No wonder that others do not live this life which is a walking with God Gen. 5.24 Can two walk together except they be agreed Amos 3.3 No wonder that they fly from God so our first Parents did Gen. 3.8 10. as an enemy So he is to their souls and they are children of his wrath Ephes 2.3 But your guilt is taken away and God of an enemy is become your friend Col. 1.20 21 22. You can indeed find no pleasure in the company of an enemy and if an enemy employ you about any thing you will not go about it if you can choose and if you do you go about it grudgingly But what Will not you walk with your best friend Shall it not be the delight of your souls to be employed by him Motive 2. You are upon this account more bound to live this life then others are For 1 The way of your justification doth strongly bind you hereunto for this holy life is the end of justification by faith and therefore this way of Justification is appointed to continue onely till you are brought to live perfectly holy lives in Heaven for then there will be another way for your acceptation though the glory and honour of all will be given to Christ 2 Your discharge from the Covenant of Works in your Justification doth also strongly bind you hereunto When you are justified you are not bound to a personal perfect and perpetual keeping of the Law as the condition of life Gal. 4.21 22. But yea therefore you are bound to be the more careful sincerely to observe the Law as a Rule of life So long as you were under the Covenant of Works you might indeeed be discouraged from endeavouring to obey the Law because that Covenant accepteth of nothing but
perfect obedience Gal. 3.10 gives no power at all to obey and therefore called the Letter 2 Cor. 3.6 yea causeth accidentally the abounding of disobedience Rom. 5.10 and therefore compared to an husband and a sinful heart to a wife Rom. 7.4 5. But now being under the Covenant of Grace God is engaged to forgive your transgressions Jer. 31.34 and to accept your imperfect obedience Mal. 3.17 yea to give you power and strength to do what is required and to abstain from what is forbidden 2 Cor. 3.6 Mica 7.19 O! What an obligation is this upon you to see to circumspect walking Verily Gods promising in the Covenant of Grace to enable you to walk in his Statutes doth not shut out your endeavour but engage you to endeavour for God only promiseth to help you if you endeavour in the use of the means whereof Prayer is one Ezek. 36.27 compared with Verse 37. 3 The grace of God in your justification bindeth you hereunto Tit. 2.11 12. Rom. 6.12 13 14. Hereby God hath done more for you then others and therefore you should do more for him then others Matth. 5.47 Considering how great things he hath done for you 1 Sam. 12.24 4 Your relations upon your Justification bind you hereunto Being justified you are Christs and Gods and therefore should see to it that you live to God and Christ 1 Cor. 6.20 Others are not under your bonds they may indeed be more under the bond of slavish fear but you are more under the bond of love and the bond of love is stronger then that of fear Motive 3. You have upon this account more encouragements then others to live this life For 1 There are some motives more cogent upon you then upon others To instance onely in two That the grace of God teacheth souls to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly Tit. 2.11 12. And that not to live this life is to turn the grace of God into wantonness Jude 4. cannot but have greater influence upon your souls then upon others 2 You are more assured of help to live this life then others and that upon a double account Both because the more a man doth forsake any thing of his own for Christ the more Christ is engaged to give of his good things to that man And therefore seeing when you become justified by faith you lay down all your own righteousness Christ is engaged to give you his righteousness that righteousness which he worketh in souls And because upon your believing for Justification you are estated in the Covenant of Grace and so God is engaged to enable you to live this holy life as you heard under the former particular Motive 4. If you will not be perswaded to follow this exhortation your sin is upon this account greater then the sin of others For 1 Hereby you cross Gods grand design in his decree of election in his sending his Son into the World in Justification in all his Ordinances and Providences more then others What ever others are if you be indeed justified you are predestinated to live this life Rom. 8.29 30. Christ came not only to redeem you from the guilt of all iniquity but to purifie you from the filth of sin and to make you peculiar people to himself zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 In your Justification you are therefore delivered out of the hands of all your enemies that you might serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all your days Luke 1.74 75. The design of God in all his Ordinances and Providences is your good that you may live better and better Rom. 8.28 And what Is it nothing to you even to you to cross Gods grand design in the World 2 Hereby you gratifie the Devil more then others Though he is against holiness in any yet he is not so much rejoyced that others will not live this holy life as he is if he can but perswade a Justified person to be unwilling thereunto and that appears in his rage against such as will not be perswaded by him he will by some means or other stir up sharp Persecution against them 2 Tim. 3.12 3 Hereby you turn the grace of God into wantonness more then others Jude 4. Others turn the Doctrine of Free-grace in â—ustification into wantonness but you turn the Grace of Justification it self into wantonness and therefore your sin is against more mercy and by consequence doth more grieve the Spirit then others unperswadableness 4 Hereby your unperswadableness becomes more inexcusable It is not indeed unpardonable for you are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 But yet it is altogether unexcusable even because you are under Grace and by consequence if you would be perswaded to set upon living this life you should find God coming in to your help according to his Promise in the Covenant of Grace Motive 5. If you will not be perswaded to live this holy life you cannot have assurance that you are indeed justified And is that nothing to you yea you cannot but conclude that you are mistaken in thinking that you are justified Are not the Apostles words plain If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth 1 John 1.6 Chap. 3. Motives from their Sanctification SEcondly See that ye walk circumspectly seeing ye are children of the light i. e. Seeing ye are made partakers not only of the life of righteousness but of the life of holiness You partake of the Divine nature Christ is formed in your hearts you are made habitually holy all the Commandements of God are writ in your inward parts the Holy Ghost dwells within you is an abiding principle of holiness See therefore that you walk circumspectly c. And good reason there is why you should even upon this account upon the account of your Regeneration Conversion Sanctification Being made new creatures c. For Motive 1. Hereby another great hinderance of this holy life is removed and that is the want of an inward principle We cannot live a natural life without an inward principle without a natural heat with the fountain thereof by which the body is made operative Hence in living creatures the heart first liveth because it is the forge of spirits and the fountain of heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist de respir c. 8. No more possible is it to live this spiritual life without an inward principle If the watch be not of the right make it will never go true Till you were converted the Flesh was predominant and therefore it was impossible for you to live any other then a flesbly life for every thing will act according to its predominant principle But now the Spirit is the predominant principle within you Should not you therefore live a spiritual life Should not the Law of God written in your hearts be legible in your lives Should not your lives be according to