peace within, it will be easy to suffer any thing
from without. Though there is no proper merit



Walking with God. 185

in our works to comfort us, yet it is an unspeak-
able consolation to a slandered persecuted mun
to be able to say, These evil sayings are spoken
falsely of me, for the sake of Christ; and I
suffer not as an evil doer, but as a christian:
and it is matter of very great peace to -a man
that is hasting unto death, to be able to say as
Hezekiah, 2 Kings xx. 3, " Remember now, O
Lord, how I have walked before thee .in truth,
and with a perfect heart, and have done that
which is good in thy sight:" and as Paul,
2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, " T have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness," &c. and as 2 Cor. i. 12, " For
our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our con-
science, that in simplicity and godly sincerity,
not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of
God, we have had our conversation in the
world:" such a testimony of conscience is a
precious coi-dial to a suffering or a dying man.
The time that we have spent in a holy and
heavenly conversation, will be exceeding sweet
in the last review, when time spent in sinful
vanity, and idleness, and in worldly and fleshly
designs, will be grievous and tormenting. The
day is coming, and is even at hand, when those
that are now the most hardened infidels, cr
obstinate presumptuous sinners, or scornful
malicious enemies of holiness, would wish and
wish a thousand times, that they had spent that

VOL, 11. L



186 WalJwig with God.

life in a serious obedient walking with Go J,
wliich they spent in seeking worldly wealth, and
laying up a treasure on earth, and feeding the
inordinate desires of their flesh. I tell you it is
walking with God, that is the only way to have
a sound and quiet conscience: and he that is
healing and settling his conscience upon the
love of God and the grace of Christ, in the
time of his prosperity, is making the wisest
preparation for adversity: and the preparation
thus made so long before (perhaps twenty, or
forty, or threescore years or more) is as truly
useful and comfortable at a dying hour, as that
part which is made immediately before. I know
that besides this general preparation, there
should be also a particular special preparation,
for sufferings and death : but yet this general
part is the chiefest and most necessary part. A
man that hath walked in his lifetime with God,
shall certainly be saved, though death surprize
him unexpectedly, without any more particular
preparation: but a particular preparation, with-
out either such a life or such a heart as would
cause it if he had recovered, is no sufficient
preparation at all, and will not serve to any
man's salvation. Alas I what a pitiful provision
doth that man make for death and for salvation,
who neglecteth his soul, despiseth the commands
of God, and disregardeth the promises of eternal
life, till he is ready to die, and then crieth out
' I repeat, I am sorry for my sin, I would I



Walking zoith God. 187

had lived better,' and this only from the con-
straint of fear, without any such love to God
and holiness which would make him walk with
God if he should recover! What if the priest
absolve this man from all bis sins ? Doth God
therefore absolve him? or shall he thus be saved?
No, it is certain that all the sacraments and
absolution in the world, will never serve to save
such a soul, without that grace which must
make it new and truly holy. The absolution of
a minister of Christ, which is pronounced in his
name, is a very great comfort to the truly peni-
tent: for such God hath first pardoned by his
general act of oblivion in the gospel, and it is
God that sendeth his messenger to them (in
sacraments and ministerial absolution) with that
pardon particularized and applied to themselves.
But where the heart is not truly penitent and
converted, that person is not pardoned by the
gospel, as being not in the covenant, or a child
of promise ; and therefore the pardon of a
minister, being upon mistake, or to an unquali-
fied person, can reach no further than to admit
him into the esteem of men, and to the commu-
nion and outward privileges of the church (which
is a poor comfort to a soul that must lie in hell) ;
but it can never admit him into the kingdom of
heaven. God indeed may approve the act of
his ministers, if they go according to his rule,
and deal in church administrations with those
that make a credible profession of faith
h 2



188 Walhifig with God.

AND HOLINESS, as if tliey had true faith and
holiness : but yet he will not therefore make
such ministerial acts effectual to the saving of
unbelieving or unholy souls. Nay (because I
have found many sensual ungodly people in-
clining to turn papists, because vs^ith them they
can have a quick and easy pardon of their sins^
by the pope, or by the absolution of the priest)
let me tell such, that if they understand what
they do, even this cheat is too thin to quiet
their defiled consciences : for even the papist's
school-doctors do conclude, that when the priest
absolveth an impenitent sinner, or one that is
nat qualified for pardon, such a one is not loosed
or pardoned in heaven — Leg. Martin, de llipalda
exposit. Liber. Magist. li. 4. dist. 18. /?. €54, 655,
cS' p. 663, 664. dist. 20. Aquin. Dist. 20. q. 1. a.
5. Suar. Tom. 4. in 3. p. disp. 52. Greg. Valent.
Tom. 4. disp. 7. q. 20. p. 5. Tolet. lib. 6. cap. 27.
Navar. Notab. 17. ^ 18. Cordub. de indulg. li. 5.
q. 23. they deny not the truth of those words of
Origen, Horn. 14. ad cap. 24. Levit. " Exit quis
a Jide, perexit de castris ecclesicE etiamsi episcopi
voce lion abjiciatur: sicut contru inlerdum Jit, tit
aliquis non recto judicio eorum qui prasurt ecclesicc,
for as mittatur: sed si non egit ut mcreretur exire,
nihil laditur: interdum enint quod for as mittitur,
intus est; Sf qui for is est, intus videtur retineri:"
and what he saith of excommunication, is true
of absolution : an erring key doth neither lock
oyt of heaven, nor let into heaven. A godly



Walking ivlth God 189

believer shall be saved though the priest con-
demn him : and an unbeliever or ungodly person
shall be condemned by God, though be be
absolved by the priest.

Nay, if you have not walked with God in the
spirit, but walked after the flesh, though your
repentance should be sound and true at the last,
it will yet very hardly serve to comfort you,
though it may serve to your salvation : because
you will very hardly get any assurance that it is
sincere. It is dangerous lest it should prove
but the effect of fear (which will not save) v.heu
it Cometh not till death do flight you to it. As
Augustine saith, Niillus expectct, quaitdo peccare
non potest : arbitrii eiiim lUierlateni qiKvrit Deas,
lit deleri possint commissa ; non necessltatem, sect
charitaiem, non tantuni tinwrem : quia non in solo
timore vivit homo. Therefore the same Augustine
saith, Siquis positiis in ultima necessitate voluerit
occipere panitentiam, and accipit ; fateor vohis,
lion illi negamus quod petit ; sed non prasumimus
quod bene hinc exit: si securns hinc exierit, ego
nescio : poenitentiam dare possumus, securitatem
non possumus. You see then how much it is
needful to the peace of conscience at the hour
of death, that you walk with God in the time
of life.

6. Moreover, to walk with God is an excellent
preparation for sufferings and death, because it
tendeth to acquaint the soul with God, and to
embolden it both to go to him in prayer, and to



190 Waikmg with God.

trust on him, and expect salvation from him. He
that walketh with God is so much used to holy-
prayer, that he is a man of prayer, and is skilled
in it, and hath tried what prayer can do with
God : so that in the hour of his extremity, he is
not to seek either for a God to pray to, or a
Mediator to intercede for him, or a spirit of
adoption to enable him as a child to fly for help
to his reconciled Father. And having- not only
been frequently with God, but frequently enter-
tained and accepted by him, and had his prayers
lieard and sfranted, it is a great encouragement
to an afflicted soul in the hour of distress, to go
to such a God for help. And it is a dreadful
thing when a soul is ready to go ont of the
world, to have no comfortable knowledge of
God, or skill to pray to him, or encouragement
to expect acceptance with him : to think that he
must presently appear before a God, whom he
never knew, nor heartily loved, being never ac-
quainted with that communion with him in the
way of grace, which is the way to communion
in glory, O what a terrible thought is this ! But
how comfortable is it when the soul can say — I
know v.'hora I have believed ! The God that
afflicteth me is he that loveth me, and hath
manifested his love to me by his daily attrac-
tive, assisting and accepting grace ! I am going
by death to see him intuitively, whom I have
often seen by the eye of faith, and to live with
him in heaven, with whom I lived here on earth ;



WalJdng ivith God. 191

from whom, and through whom, and to whom
was my life ! I go not to an enemy, nor an utter
stranger, but to that God who was the spring,
the ruler, the guide, the strength and the com-
fort of my life. He hath heard me so oft, that
I cannot think he will now reject me: he hatli
so often comforted my soul, that I will not
believe he will now thrust me into hell : he halh
mercifully received me so oft, that I cannot be-
lieve he will now refuse me : those that come to
him in the way of grace, I have found he will iu
no wise cast out. As strangeness to God doth
fill the soul with distrustful fears, so walking
with him doth breed that humble confidence,
which is a wonderful comfort in the hour of
distress, and a happy preparation to sufferings
and death.

7. Lastly, to walk with God, doth increase
that love of God in the soul, which is the hea-
venly tincture, and inclineth it to look upward,
and being weary of a sinful flesh and world, to
desire to be perfected with God. How happy a
preparation for death is this, when it is but the
passage to that God with whom \ye desire to be,
and to that place where we fain v.'ould dwell for
ever! To love the state and place that we are
going to, being made connatural and suitable
thereto, will much overcome the fears of death.
But for a soul that is acquainted with nothing
but this life, and savoreth nothing but earth and
flesh, and hath no connaturality with the things



192 Walkhis with God.



b



above, for such a soul to be surprised with the
tidings of death, alas, how dreadful must it be !

And thus 1 have shewed you the benefits that
come by walking with God, which if you love
yourselves with a rational love, methinks should
resolve every impartial considerate reader, to
give up himself without delay, to so desirable a
course of life ! or, if he have begun it, to follow
it more cheerfully and faithfully than he had
done.



CHAPTER VIL

I am next to shew you that believers have
special obligations to this holy course of life,
and therefore are doubly faulty if they neglect
it ; though indeed, to neglect it totally, or in
the main drift of their lives, is a thing incon-
sistent with a living faith.

Consider, I. If you are true christians, your
relations engage you to walk with God. Is he
net your reconciled Father, and you his children
in a special sense? and whom should children
dwell with, but with their father? You Avere
glad when he received you into his covenant
that he would enter into so near a relation to
you, as he expresseth, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, " I will
receive you, and will be a Father to you, and
ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the



Walking icith God. 193

Lord Almighty." And do you draw back, as
if you repented of your covenant, and were not
only weary of the duty, but of the privileges
and benefits of your relation ? You may have
access to God, \\\\e\\ others are shut out; your
prayers may be heard, when the prayers of the
wicked are abominable ; you may be welcome,
when the worldhng, and ambitious, and carnal
are despised. He that dwelleth in the highest
heave^i, is willing to look to you with respect,
and dwell with you, when he beholdeth the
proud afar off; Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2, and Ivii. 15, 16.
and yet will you not come that may be welcome ?
Doth he put such a difference between you and
others, as to feed you as his children at his
table, while others are called dogs and are with-
out the doors, and have but your crumbs and
leavings; and yet will you be so foolish and
unthankful as to run out of your father's pre-
sence, and choose to be without, among the
dogs? How came your father's presence to be
so grievous to you, and the privileges of his
family to seem so vile ? Is it not some unchild-
like carriage ; the guilt of some disobedience or
contempt that hath first caused this? or have
you fallen again in love with fleshly pleasures,
and some vanity of the world ? or have you had
enough of God and godliness, till you begin to
grow weary of him? if so, you never tr\dy
knew him. However it be, if you grow indif-
ferent as to God, do not wonder if shortly you
l3



194 Walking with God.

find him set as light by you : and believe it, the
day is not far off, in which the fatherly relation
of God, and the privileges of children, will be
more esteemed by you : when all things else
forsake you in your last distress, you will be
loath that God should then forsake you, or seem
as a stranger to hide his face : then you will cry
out, as the afflicted church, Isa. Ixiii. 15, 16.
" Look down from heaven, and behold from the
habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory :
where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding
of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me?
are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our
father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and
Israel acknowledge us not: thou O Lord art our
father, our redeemer; thy name is from ever-«
lasting." Nothing but God, and his fatherly
relation, will then support you : attend him
therefore, and with reverent, obedient cheerful-
ness and delight, converse with him as with
your dearest father. For since the beginning
of the world, men have not known by sensible
evidence, either the ear or the eye, besides God
himself, what he hath prepared for him that
waiteth for him. Isa. Ixiv. 4. Though he be
wroth with us because we have sinned, yet doth
he meet him that rejoice th and worketh righte-
ousness, that remembereth him in his ways,
ver. 5, Say not, I have played abroad so long-
that I dare not now go home ; I have sinned so
greatly, that I dare not speak to him, or look



Walkins. with God. 195

him in the face: come yet but with a penitent
returning heart, and thou mayest be accepted
through the Prince of Peace : prodigals find
better entertainment than they did expect, when
once they do but resolve for home. If he allow
us to begin with " Our Father which art in
heaven" we may boldly proceed to ask forgive-
ness of our trespasses, and whatever else is
truly good for us. But alas, as our iniquities
seduce us away from God, so the guilt of them
aftVighteth some from returning to him, and the
love of them corrupteth the hearts of others,
and makes them too indifferent as to their com-
munion with him ; so that too many of his
children live as if they did not knov*' their
father, or had forgotten him. We may say as
Isa. Ixiv. 6 — 9, " But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
ras:s; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
And there is none that calleth upon thy name,
that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee :
for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast
consumed us because of our iniquities. But
now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the
clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the
work of thy hand. Be not wroth, very sore,
O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever :
behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy
people." O do not provoke your father to
disown you, or to withdraw his help, or hi^le



196 Walking to'ith God.

his face, or to send the rod to call you home !
for if you do, you will wish you had known the
privileges of his presence, and had kept nearer
to him! Be not so unnatural, so unthankful,
so unkind, as to be weary of your father's pre-
sence (and such a father's too) and to take more
delight in any others.

Moreover, you are related to God in Christ,
as a wife unto a husband, as to covenant union,
and nearness and dearness of affection, and as
to his tender care of you for your good: and is
it seemly, is it wisely or gratefully done of you,
to desire rather the company of others, and
delight in creatures more than him? Isa. liv. 5,
6. How affectionately doth thy maker call him-
self the husband of his people! And can thy
heart commit adultery, and forsake him ? " My
covenant they brake, though I was an husband
to thee, saith the Lord." Jer. xxxi. 32. O put
not God to exercise his jealousy. It is one of
liis terrible attributes, to be " a jealous God."
And can he be otherwise to thee, when thou
lovest not his converse or company, and carest
not how long thou art from him in the world ?
Woe to thee if he once say, as Hos. ii. 2. " She
is nut my wife, neither am I her husband."

Nay, more than this, if you are christians, you
are members of the body of Christ: and there-
fore how can you withdraw yourselves from him
and not feel the pain and torment of so sore a
wound or dislocation? You cannot live witliout



Walking with God, 197

a constant dependance on him, and communica-
tion from him. John xv. 1, 4, 5, 7. " I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Abide in me, and I in you. 1 am tlie vine, ye
are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for
without me ye can do nothing. If ye abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."

So near are you to Christ, that he delighteth
to acquaint you with his secrets. O how many
mysteries doth he reveal to those that walk with
him, which carnal strangers never know! mys-
teries of wisdom! mysteries of love and saving
grace ! mysteries of scripture, and mysteries of
providence ! mysteries felt by inward experience,
and mysteries revealed, foreseen by faith ! Not
only the strangers that pass by the doors, but
even the common servants of the family are
unacquainted with the secret operations of the
Spirit, and entertainments of grace, and joy in
believing, which those that walk with God either
do or may possess. Therefore Christ calleth
you friends as being more than servants. John
XV. 14, 15. " Ye are my friends if ye do what-
soever I command you : henceforth I call you
not servants ; for the servant knoweth not what
the Lord doth: but I have called you friends-
for all things that I have heard of my Father I
have made known unto you." It is true, for all
this, that every true christian hath reason (and



198 Walldrw with God.

is apt) to complain of his darkness and distance
from God. Alas, they know so little of him, and
of the mysteries of his love and kingdom, that
sometimes they are apt to think that they are
indeed but utter strangers to him: but this is
because there is infinitely more still unknown to
them than they know! What! can the silly shal-
low cveatui-e comprehend his infinite Creator ?
or shall we know all that is to be known in
heaven, before we enjoy all that is to be enjoyed
in heaven? It is no more wonder to hear a
believer pant and mourn after a fuller knowledge
of God, and nearer access to him, than to seek
after heaven, where this will be his happiness.
But yet, though his knowledge of God be
small, compared with his ignorance, that little
knowledge of God which he hath attained, is
more mysterious, sublime, and excellent, than
all the learning of the greatest unsanctified,
scholars in the world. Walk with him according
to the nearness of your relations to him, and
you shall have this excellent knowledge of his
inysteries, which no books or teachers alone can
give. You shall be effectually touched at the
heart with the truths which others do ineffec-
tually hear. You shall be powerfully moved,
when they are but ineffectually exhorted. When
they only hear the voice without them, you shall
hear the voice within you, and as it were behind
you, saying, This is the way, walk in it. O that
you could duly value such a friend, to watch



Walking with God. 199

over you, and for you, and dwell in you, and tell
you faithfully of every danger, and of every
duty, and teach you to know good and evil,
and what to choose, and what to refuse ! How
closely and delightfully would you converse wit|i
such a blessed friend, if you rightly valued him!
II. Moreover, you that are the servants of
God, have by your covenant and profession, re-
nounced and forsaken all things else (as they
stand in any opposition to him, or competition
with him) and have resigned yourselves wholly
unto him alone : and therefore with him must
you converse, and be employed, unless you will
forsake your covenant. You knew first that it
was your interest to forsake the world and turn
to God : you knew the world would not serve
your turn, nor be instead of God to you either
in life, or at death : and upon this knowledge
it was that you changed your master, and
changed your minds, and changed your way,
your work, your hopes : and do you dream now
that you were mistaken ? do you begin to think
that the world is fitter to be your God or hap-
piness ? if not, you must still confess that both
your interest and your covenant do oblige you
to turn your hearts and minds from the things
which you have renounced, and to walk with
him that you have taken for your God, and to
obey him whom you have taken for your king
and judge, and to keep close to him with purest
love, whom you have taken for your everlasting



200 Walking with God.

portion. Mark what you are minding all the
dayj while you are neglecting God. — Is it not
something that you have renounced ? And did
you not renounce it upon sufficient cause? Was
it not a work of your most serious deliberation?
and of as great wisdom, as any that ever you
performed? if it were, turn not back in your
hearts ao-ain from God unto the renounced
creature. You have had many a lightning from
heaven into your understandings, to bring you
to see the difference betv,'een them : you have
had many a teaching, and many a warning, and
many a striving of the spirit, before you were
prevailed with to renounce the world, the flesh
and the devil, and to give up yourself entirely
and absolutely to God. Nay, did it not cost
you the smart of some afflictions, before you
would be made so wise ? And did it not cost
you many a gripe of conscience, and many a
terrible thought of hell, and of the wrath of
God, before you would be heartily engaged to
hinr, in his covenant? And will you now live as
strangely and neglectfully towards him, as if
those days were quite forgotten ? and as if you
Ijad never felt such things ? and as if you had
never been so convinced, or resolved ? O chris-
tians, take heed of forgetting your former case i
your former thoughts ! your former convictions
and complaints and covenants ! God did not
work all that upon your hearts to be forgotten :
he intended not only your present change, but



Walking with God. 201

your after remembrance of it, for your close
adhering to him while you live, and for your
quickening and constant perseverance to the
end. The forgetting of their former miseries,
and the workings of God upon their hearts in
their conversion, is a great cause of mutability
and revolting, and of unspeakable hurt to many
a soul.

Nay, may you not remember also what sorrow
you had in the day of your repentance, for your
forsakino- and neo;lectin<r God so Ions; ? And
'will you grow again neglective of him ? Was it
then so heinous a sin in your eyes ; and is it
now grown less? Could you then aggravate it
so many ways (and justly) and now do you jus-
tify or extenuate it ? Were you then ready to
sink under the burden of it, and were so hardly
persuaded that it would be forgiven you ; and
now do you make so small a matter of it ? Did
you theo so much wonder at your folly, that
could so long let out your thoughts and affec-
tions upon the creature, while you neglected
God and heaven ! and do you begin to look that