and to shun them as strange undesirable per-
sons; but when they come to a thorough
acquaintance with them by a nearer and familiar
converse, they see how much they were mis-
taken, and wronged by their prejudice and
belief of slanderers' misreports: even so a weak
believer that is under troubles, in the apprehen-
sion of his sin and danger, is apt to hearken to
the enemy of God, that would shew him nothing
but his wrath, and represent God as an enemy to
him : and in this case it is exceeding hard for a
poor sinner to believe that God is reconciled to
bim, or loveth him, or intends him good ; but he
5s ready to dread and shun him as an enemy, or
as he would fly from a wild beast or murderer, or
from fire or water that would destroy him : and
all these injurious thoughts of God are cherished
by strangeness and disacquaintance. But as the
soul doth fall into an understanding and serious
converse with God, and having been often with
him doth find him more merciful than he was
i2
152 Walkins, with Geyd,
*
by Satan represented to him, his experience
reconcileth his mind to God, and maketh it
much easier to him to believe that God is recon-
ciled unto him, when he hath found much better
entertainment with God than he expected, and
hath observed his benignity, and the treasures
of his bounty laid up in Christ, and by him dis-
tributed to believers, and hath foimd him ready
to hear and help, and found him the only full
and suitable felicitating good, this banisheth his
former horrid thoughts, and maketh him ashamed
that ever he should think so suspiciously, inju-
riously, and dishonorably of his dearest God
and Father.
Yet I must confess that there are many upright
troubled souls, that are much in reading, prayer,
and meditation, that still find it hard to be per-
suaded of the love of God, and that have much
more disquietment and fear since they set them-
selves to think of God than they had before:
but yet, for all this, we may well conclude-
that to walk with God is the way to consolation,,
and tendeth to acquaint us with his love. As
for those troubled souls whose experience is
objected against this, some of them are such as
are yet but in their return to God, from a life of
former sin and misery, and are yet but like the
needle in the compass that is shaken, in a trem-
bling motion towards their rest, and not in any
settled apprehensions of it. Some of them by
the straining of their imagination too high, and
Wulkive. with God. 153
'to
putting themselves upon more than their heads
can bear, and by the violence of fears or other
passions, do make themselves incapable of those
sweet consolations which else they might find in
their converse with God; as a lute when the
strings are broken with straining, is incapable of
making any melody: all of them have false
apprehensions of God, and therefore trouble
thejRselves by their own mistakes. And if some
perplex themselves by their error, doth it follow
that therefore the truth is not comfortable? Is
not a father's presence consolatory because
some children are afraid of their fathers, that
l^now them not because of some disguise? And
some of God's children walk so unevenly and
carelessly before him, that their sins provoke
him to hide his face, and to seem to reject them
and disown them, and so to trouble them that
he may bring them home : but shall the com-
forts of our father's love and family be judged
of by the fears or smart of those whom he i-s
scourging for their disobedience, or their trial?
Seek God with understanding, as knowing his
essential properties, and what he will be to thern
that sincerely and diligently seek him, and then
you will quickly have experieiice that nothing
so much tendeth to quiet and settle a doubting
troubled unstable soul, as faithfully to walk witli
God.
But the soul that estrangeth itself from God,
piiay indeed for a time have the quietness ©f
i3
154 Walking with God.
security; but (so far) it will be strange to tli-e
assurance of his love, and to true consolation.
Expect not that God should follow with his
comforts in your sinfulness and negligence, and
cast them into your hearts whilst you neither
seek nor mind them, or that he give you the
fruit of his ways in your own ways. Will he be
your joy when you forget him ? will he delight
your souls with his goodness and amiableness,
while you are taken up with other matters, and
think not of him ? can you expect to find the
comforts of his family, among his enemies, out
of doors? The experience of all the world can
tell you, that prodigals while they are straggling
from their Father's house, do never taste the
comfort of his embraces; the strangers meddle
not with his children's joys: they grow not in
the way of ambition, covetousness, vainglory, or
sensuality ; but in the way of holy obedience,
and of believing contemplations of the divine
everlasting objects of delight. For, lo, they that
are far from him shall perish : he destroyeth
them that go a whoring fro^ii him: but it is
good for us to draw nigh to God. Ps. Ixxiii,
27, 28.
III. Walking with God, is the only course
that can prove and make men truly wise. It
proves them wise that make so wise and good
a choice, and are disposed and skilled in any
measure for so high a work. Practical wisdom
.is the solid/ useful, profitable vvisdom : and
Walking with God. 155
practical wisdom is seen in our choice of good,
and refusal of evil, as its most immediate and
excellent effect. And no choosing or refusing
doth shew the wisdom or folly of man so much
as that which is about the greatest matters, and
which everlasting life or death depends on. He
is not thought so wise among men that can
write a volume about the orthography or ety-
mology of a word, or that can guess what wood
the Trojan horse was made of, or that can make
a chain to tie a flea in, as he that can bring
home gold and pearls, or he that can obtain and
manage governments, or he that can cure mor-
tal maladies : for as in lading we difference bulk
and value, and take not that for the best com-
modity which is of greatest quantity or weight,
but that which is most precious and of greatest
use : so there is a bulky knowledge, extended
far, to a multitude of words and things, which
are all of no great use or value ; and therefore
the knowledge of them is such as they : and
there is a precious sort of knowledge, which
fixeth upon the most precious things ; which
being of greatest use and value, do accordingly
prove the knowledge such. Nothing will prove
a man simply and properly wise, but that which
will prove or make him happy. He is wise in-
deed, that is wise to his own and others' good :
and that is indeed his good, which saveth his
soul, and maketh him for ever blessed. Though
^e yiay admire the cunning of those that can
156 Walkins: with God. '
make the most curious engines, or by deceiving
others advance themselves, or that can subtly
dispute the most curious niceties, or criticise
upon the words of several languages ; yet I will
never call them wise, that are all that while the
devil's slaves, the enemies of God, the refusers
of grace, and are making haste to endless
misery : and I think there is not one of those in
hell who were once the subtle men on earth,
that now take themselves to have been truly
wise, or glory much in the remembrance of such
wisdom.
And as this choice doth prove men wise, so
the practice of this holy walking with God doth
make them much wiser than they were. As
there must be some work of the Spirit to draw
men to believe in Christ, and yet the Spirit is
promised and given (in a special sort or mea-
sure) to them that do believe; so must there
be some special wisdom to make men choose to
walk with God ; but much more is given to
them in this holy course. As Solomon was
wiser than most of the world, before he asked,
wisdom of God, or else he would not have made
so wise a choice, and preferred wisdom before
the riches and honors of the world ; and yet it
was a more notable degree of wisdom that v^ as
afterwards given h"im in answer to his prayer :
so it is in this case.
There are many undeniable evidences to prove,
that walking with God doth do more to make
tValkins: with God. 157
men truly wise, than all other learning or policy
in the world.
1. He that walketh with God, doth begin
aright, and settle upon a sure foundation ; (and
we use to say, that a work is half finished that
is well begun.) He hath engaged himself to
the best and wisest teacher; he is a disciple to
him that knoweth all things ; he hath taken in
infallible principles, and taken them in their
proper place and order; he hath learnt those
truths which will eveiy one become a teacher
to him, and help him to that which is yet
unlearnt : whereas many that thought they were
doctors in Israel, if ever they will be wise and
happy, must become fools, (that is, such as they
have esteemed fools) if ever they will be wise,
1 Cor. iii. 18, and must be called back with
Nicodemus to learn Christ's cross, and to be
taught that that which is born of the flesh is
but flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit; and that therefore they must be born .
again (not only of water, but also of the Spirit),
if ever they will enter into the kingdom of hea-
ven. John iii. 3,5, 6. O miserable beginning!
and miserable progress ! when men that never
soundly learnt the mysteries of regeneration,
and faith, and love, and self-denial^ and mor-
tification, do proceed to study names and words,
and to turn over a multitude of books, to fill
their brains with airy notions, and their common-
places with such sayings as may be provision
158 Walkino; with God.
and furniture for their pride and ostentatio'-l,
and ornament to their style and language ; and
know not yet what they must do to be saved,
and indeed know nothing as they ought to
know! 1 Cor. viii. 2. As every science hath
its principles, which are supposed in all the
consequential varieties ; so hath religion as
doctrinal and practical, those truths which
must be first received before any other can be
received as it ought; and those things which
must be first done, before any other can be
done so as to attain their ends. And these
truths and duties are principally about God
himself, and are known and done effectually
by those, and only those, that walk with God,
or are devoted to him. It is a lamentable thing
to see men immersed in serious studies, even till
they grow aged, and to hear them seriously
disputing and discoursing about the contro-
versies or difficulties in theology, or inferior
sciences, before ever they had any saving know-
ledge of God, or of the work of the Holy Ghost
in the converting and sanctifying of the soul, or
how to escape everlasting misery !
2. He that walketh with God, hath fixed upon
a right end, and is renewing his estimation and
intention of it, and daily prosecuting it : and
this is the first and greatest part of practical
wisdom. When a man once knoweth his end
aright, he may the better judge of the aptitude
and seasonableness of all the means. When
Walking with God. 1^9
we know once that heaven containeth the only
felicity of man, it will direct us to heavenly
cogitations, and to such spiritual means as are
fitted to that end : if we have the rioht mark in
our eye, we are liker to level at it than if we
mistake our mark. He is the wise man, and
only he, that hath steadily fixed his eye upon
that blessedness which he was created and
redeemed for, and maketh straight towards it,
and bends the powers of soul and body, by
faithful constant diligence to obtain it. He that
hath rightly and resolvedly determined of his
end, hath virtually resolved a thousand contro-
versies that others are unsatisfied and erroneous
in. He that is resolved, that his end is to
please and glorify God, and to enjoy him for
ever, is easily resolved whether a holy life, or a
sensual and worldly, be the way : whether the
way be to be godly, or to make a mock at godli-
ness : whether covetousness and riches, ambition
and preferment, voluptuousness and fleshly plea-
sures, be the means to attain his end: whether
it will be attained rather by the studying of the
word of God, and meditating on it day and
night, and by holy conference, and fervent
prayer, and an obedient life ; or by negligence,
or worldliness, or drunkenness, or gluttony, or
cards and dice, or beastly filthiness, or injustice
and deceit. Know once but whither it is that
we are going, and it is easy to know whether the
saint, or the swine, or the swaggerer be in the
160 > Walking luith God.
way. But a man that doth mistake his end, is
out of his way at the first step ; and the further
he goes, the further he is from true felicity; and
the more he erreth, and the further he hath to
go back again, if ever he return. Every thing
that a man doth in the world, which is not for
the right end, (the heavenly felicity) is an act of
foolishness and error, how splendid soever the
matter or the name may make it appear to
ignorant men. Every word that an ungodly
person speaketh being not for a right end, is in
him but sin and folly, however materially it may
be an excellent and useful truth. While a mise-
rable soul hath his back upon God, and his face
upon the world, every step he goeth is an act of
folly, as tending unto his further misery. It
can be no act of wisdom, which tendeth to a
man's damnation. When such a wretch begins
to enquire and bethink him where he is, and
whither he is going, and ^whither he should go,
and to think of turning back to God, then and
never till then he is beginning to come to him-
self, and to be wise. Luke xv. 17. Till God and
glory be the end that he aimeth at, and seriously
bends his study, heart and hfe to seek, though a
man were searching into the mysteries of nature,
though he were studying or discussing the notions
of theology, though he were admired for his
learning and wisdom by the world, and cried up
as the oracle of the earth, he is all the while but
playing the fool, and going a cleanlier way to
Walking with God. 161
hell than the grosser sinners of the world ! For
is he wise, that knoweth not whether heaven or
earth be better? whether God or his flesh should
be obeyed? whether everlasting joys, or the
transitory pleasures of sin, should be preferred ?
or that seemeth to be convinced of the truth in
these and such like cases, and yet hath not the
wit to make his choice, and bend his life accord-
ing to his conviction ? He cannot be wise that
practically mistakes his end.
3. He that walketh with God, doth know those
things, with a deep, effectual, heart-changing
knowledge, which other men know but super-
ficially, by the halves, and as in a dream. And
true wisdom consisteth in the intensiveness of
the knowledge subjectively, as much as in the
extensiveness of it objectively. To see a few
things in a narrow room perspicuously and
clearly, doth shew a better eye-sight, than in
the open air to see many things obscurely so as
scarce to discern any of them aright; (like him
that saw men walk like trees). The clearness
and depth of knowledge, which makes it effec-
tual to its proper use, is the greatness and
excellency of it: therefore it is that unlearned
men that love and fear the Lord, may well be
said to be incomparably more wise and knowing
men, than the most learned that are ungodly.
As he hath more riches that hath a little gojd or
jeviels, than he that hath many load of stones :
so he that hath a deep effectual knowledge of
VOL. n. K
162 Walkinrr with God.
to
God the Father, and the Redeemer, and of the
life to come, is wiser and more knowing than he
that hath only a notional knowledge of the same
things, and of a thousand more. A wicked
man hath so much knowledge as teacheth him
to speak the same words of God, and Christ,
and heaven, which a true believer speaks; but
not so much as to work in him the same affec-
tions and choice, nor so much as to cause him
to do the same work. As it is a far more excel-
lent kind of knowledge which a man hath of
any country by travel and habitation there, tliau
that which cometh but by reading or report; or
which a man hath of meat, of fruits, of wine, by
eating and drinking, than that which another
hath by hearsay ; so is the inward heart-affect-
ing knowledge of a true believer more excellent
than the flashy notions of the ungodly. Truth,
simply as truth, is not the highest and most
excellent object of the mind : but good, as good,
must be apprehended by the understanding, and
commended to the will, which entertaineth it
with complacency, adhereth to it with choice
and resolution, prosecuteth it with desire and
endeavour, and enjoyeth it with delight: and
though it be the understanding which appre-
hendeth it, yet it is the heart or will that
relisheth it, and tasteth the greatest sweetness in
it, working upon it with some mixture of internal
sense (which hath made some ascribe a know-
ledge of good as such unto the will) ; and it is.
Walking with God. 163
tlie will's intention that causeth the understand-
ing to be denominated practical : and therefore
1 may well say that it is wisdom indeed when it
reacheth to the heart. No man.knoweth the
truth of God so well as he that most firmly
believeth him; and no man knoweth the good-
ness of God so well as he that loveth him most :
no man knoweth his power and mercy so well
as he that doth most confidently trust him; and
no man knoweth his justice and dreadfulness so
well as he that feareth him: no man knoweth or
belie veth the glory of heaven so well as he that
most esteemeth, desireth, and seeketh it, and
hath the most heavenly heart and conversation :
no man believeth in Jesus Christ so well as he
that giveth up himself unto him, with the greatest
love and thankfulness, and trust and obedience.
As James saith, — Shew me thy faith by thy
works, so say I, Let me know the measure and
value of my knowledge by my heart and life.
That is wisdom indeed which conformeth a man
to God, and saveth his soul: this only will l)e
owned as wisdom to eternity, when dreaming
notions will prove but folly.
4. He that walketh with God hath an infal-
lible rule, and taketh the right course to have
the best acquaintance with it, and skill to use
it. The doctrine that informeth him is divine :
it is from heaven, and not of men : and therefore
if God be wiser than man, he is able to make
his disciples wisest; and his teaching will
k2
164 V/alkuig with God.
more certainly and powerfully illuminate. Many
among men have pretended to infallibility, that
never could justify their pretensions, but have
confuted them by their own mistakes and
crimes : but none can deny the infallibility of
God. He never yet was deceived, or did de-
ceive : he erreth not, nor teacheth error. Nico-
demus knew Christ was to be believed, when he
knew that he was a teacher come from God.
John iii. 2. Christ knew that the Jews them-
s Dives durst not deny the truths of John's doc-
trine, if he could but convince them that it was
" from heaven, and not of men." It is impossible
for God to lie: it is the devil that was a liar
from the beginning, and is yet the father of lies :
no wonder if they believe lies that follow such
a teacher. And those that follow the flesh and
the world, do follow the devil : they that will
believe what their fleshly interest and lusts per-
suade them to believe, do believe what the devil
persuadeth them to believe ; for he persuadeth
them by these, and for these. What marvel
then if there be found men in the world, that
can believe that holiness is hypocrisy, or a
needless thing ; that those are the worst men
that are most careful to please God; that the
world is more worthy of their care and labor,
than their salvation is ; that the pleasures of sin
for a season are more desirable, than the ever-
lasting happiness of the saints; that cards and
dice, and mirth and lust, and wealth and honor^
Walkhw with God. 165
o
are matters more delectable, than prayer, aiid
meditating on the word of God, and loving him,
and obeying him, and waiting in the hopes of
life eternal ; that gluttons and drunkards, and
whoremongers, and covetous persons, may enter
into the kingdom of God, &c. What wonder if
a thousand such damnable lies, are believed by
the disciples of the father of lies! what wonder
if there are so many saint-haters, and God-
haters in the world, as to fill the earth with per-
secutions and cruelties, or make a scorn of that
which God most highly valueth ; and all this
under pretences of order, or unity, or justice, or
something that is good, and therefore fit to pal-
liate their sin! Is there any thing so false, or
foul, or wicked, that Satan will not teach his
followers? Is he grown modest, or moderate, or
holy, or just ? Is he reconciled to Christ, to
scripture, to godliness, or to the godly? Or is
liis kingdom of darkness at an end ? and hath
he lost the earth ? Or are men therefore none of
the servants of the devil, because they were
baptised (as Simon Magus was) and call and
think themselves the servants of Christ ? As if
still it were not the art by which he gets and
keeps disciples, to suffer them to wear the livery
of Christ, and to use his name, that he may
thus keep possession of them in peace, who else
would be frighted from him, and fly to Christ I
He will give them leave to study arts and sci-
ences, and to understand things excellent of
166 Walking tvith God.
inferior use, so be it they will be deceived by
hira in the matters of God and their salvation:
he can allow them to be learned lawyers, excel-
lent physicians, philosophers, politicians, to be
skilful artists, so be it they will follow him in
sin to their damnation, and will overlook the
truth that should set them free: John viii. 32.
yea, he will permit them (when there is no
remedy) to study the holy scriptures, if he may
but be the expounder and applier of it; yea, he
will permit them notionally to understand it, if
they will not learn by it to be converted, to be
lioly, and to be saved : he can suffer them to
be eminent divines, so they will not be serious
christians. Thus is the world by the grand
deceiver hurried in darkness to perdition, being
taken captive by him at his will. 2 Tim. ii. 26.
But the sanctified are all illuminated by the Holy
Ghost, by whom their eyes are so effectually
opened, that they are turned from darkness unto
light, and from the power of Satan unto God.
Acts xxvi. 18. The Father of glory hath given
them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the
knowledge of Christ, that the eyes of their
understanding being enlightened, they may know
what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints. Eph. i. 17, 18. Certainly that illumi-
nation of the Holy Ghost which is so often
mentioned in scripture as given to all true
believers, is not a fancy, nor an insignificant
Walkincr with God. 167
«ame : and if it signify any thing, it signifieth
somewhat that is much above the teaching of
man. All that walk with God are taught of
God ! And can man teach like God ? God hath
access unto the heart, and there he doth tran-
scribe his laws, and put them into our inward
parts : and they that v/alk with him have not
only his word to read, but his Spirit to help
them to understand it; and being with him in
his family (yea, he dwelleth in them and they in
him) he is ready at hand to resolve their doubts !
When he gave them his fear, he gave them the
beofinnino- of wisdom, Ps. cxi. 10. He causeth
them to incline their ear to wisdom, Prov. ii. 2j
and to apply their hearts unto it, Ps. xc. 12,
and maketh them to know it in the hidden parts.
Ps. li. 6.
It is his law that they have determined to
make their rule: they live as under his autho-
rity : they are more observant of his will and
government, than of any laws or government
of man: and as they obey man in and for the
Lord, so they do it in subordination to him, and
therefore not against him and his laws, which
being the standard of justice, and the rule of
rulers, and of subjects both, they are in the
safest way of unerring wisdom, who walk with
God according to that rule, and refuse to turn
aside, though commanded by man, or enticed by
Satan, the world, or flesh.
5. He that walketh with God is the most
168 TValking with God.
considerate person, and therefore hath great
advantage to be wise : the frequent and serious