a

of ministry, worship, or people, to be yours, for then I would join with no church in the world. Know, that as the mystical church consisteth of heart covenanters, so doth the church, as visible, consist of verbal covenanters, which make a credible profession of consent. And that nature and Scripture teach us to take every man's word as credible, till perfidiousness forfeit his credit; which forfeiture must be proved, before any sober profession can be taken for an insufficient title. Grudge not, then, at the communion of any professed Christian in the church visible; though we must do our part to cast out the obstinately impenitent by discipline, which, if we cannot do, the fault is not ours. The presence of hypocrites is no hurt, but oft a mercy to the sincere how small else would the church seem in the world. Outward privileges belong to outward covenanters, and inward mercies to the sincere. Division is wounding, and tends to death. Abhor it, as you love the church's welfare, or your own. The wisdom from above is first pure, and then peaceable: never separate what God conjoineth. It is the earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom, which causeth bitter envying, and strife, and confusion, and every evil work. "Blessed are the peace-makers."

b

XIV. Take heed of pride and self-conceitedness in religion. If once you overvalue your own understandings, your crude conceptions and gross mistakes will delight you as some supernal light; and, instead of having compassion on the weak, you will be unruly, and despisers of your guides, and censorious contemners of all that differ from you; and persecutors of them, if you have power; and will think all intolerable, that take you not as oracles, and your words as law. Forget not, that the church hath always suffered by censorious, unruly professors on the one hand, (and O what divisions and scandals have they caused!) as well as by the profane and persecutors on the other: take heed of both. And when contentions are afoot, be quiet and silent, and not too forward, and keep up a zeal for love and peace.

d

XV. Be faithful and conscionable in all your relations. Honour and obey your parents, and other superiors. Despise not, and resist not, government. If you suffer unjustly by them, be humbled for those sins which cause God to turn your protectors into afflicters; and, instead of murmuring and rebelling

Matt. xiii. 29, 41.

b John xvi. 2; 1 Cor. i. 10; Rom. xvi. 17; Jam. iii. 14-18.

1 Tim. iii. 6, and vi. 4; Col. ii. 18; 1 Cor. viii. 1, and iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5; Jam. iii. 1, 17.

a Eph. v., and vi.; Col. iii., and iv.; Rom. xiii. 1, 7; 1 Pet. ii. 13, 15

against them, reform yourselves, and then commit yourselves to God. Princes and pastors I will not speak to: subjects, and servants, and children, must obey their superiors as the officers of God.

e

XVI. Keep up the government of God in your families : holy families must be the chief preservers of the interest of religion in the world. Let not the world turn God's service into a customary, lifeless form. Read the Scripture and edifying books to them; talk with them seriously about the state of their souls and everlasting life; pray with them fervently; watch over them diligently; be angry against sin, and meek in your own cause; be examples of wisdom, holiness, and patience; and see that the Lord's day be spent in holy preparation for eternity.

XVII. Let your callings be managed in holiness and laboriousness. Live not in idleness: be not slothful in your work. Whether you be bound or free, in the sweat of your brow you must eat your bread, and labour the six days, that you may have to give to him that needeth. Slothfulness is sen. suality, as well as filthier sins. The body (that is able) must have fit employments as well as the soul; or else body and soul will fare the worse. But let all be but as the labour of a traveller, and aim at God and heaven in all.

g

XVIII. Deprive not yourselves of the benefit of an able, faithful pastor, to whom you may open your case in secret; or at least of a holy, faithful friend; and be not displeased at their free reproofs. Wo to him that is alone! how blind and partial are we in our own cause! and how hard is it to know ourselves without an able, faithful helper! you forfeit this great mercy, when you love a flatterer, and angrily defend your sin.

k

XIX. Prepare for sickness, sufferings, and death. Overvalue not prosperity, nor the favour of man! if selfish men prove false and cruel to you, even those of whom you have deserved best, marvel not at it, but pray for your enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, that God would turn their hearts, and pardon them. What a mercy is it to be driven from the world to God, when the love of the world is the greatest danger of the soul! Be ready to die, and you are ready for any thing: ask

e Command. iv.; Jos. xxiv. 15; Dent. vi. 6-8; Dən. vi. f Heb. xiii. 5; Command. iv.; 2 Thess. iii. 10, 12; v. 13; Prov. xxxi.; 1 Cor. vii. 29.

Eccl. iv. 10, 11.

Thess. iv. 7; 1 Tim.

5 Mal. ii. 7.

Prov. xii. 1, and xv. 5, 10, 31; Heb. iii. 13.

* Luke xii. 40; 2 Pet. i. 10; Phil. i. 21, 23; Jer. ix. 4,5; Matt. vii. 4, 5; 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, 4, 8.

your hearts seriously, what is it that I shall need at a dying hour? and let it speedily be got ready, and not be to seek in the time of your extremity.

n

m

:

Understand the true method of peace of conscience, and judge not of the state of your souls upon deceitful grounds. As presumptuous hopes do keep men from conversion, and embolden them in sin; so causeless fears do hinder our love and praise of God, by obscuring his loveliness and they destroy our thankfulness, and our delight in God, and make us a burden to ourselves, and a grievous stumbling-block to others. The general grounds of all your comfort, are, 1. The1 gracious nature of God. 2. The sufficiency of Christ, and, 3. The truth, and " universality of the promise, which giveth Christ and life to all, if they will accept him: but this acceptance is the proof of your particular title; without which, these do but aggravate your sin. Consent to God's covenant is the true condition and proof of your title to God as your Father, Saviour, and Sanctifier, and so to the saving blessings of the covenant. Which consent, if you survive, must produce the duties which you consent to. He that heartily consenteth that God be his God, his Saviour, and Sanctifier, is in a state of life. But this includeth the rejection of the world. Much knowledge, and memory, and utterance, and lively affections, are all very desirable but you must judge your state by none of these; for they are all uncertain. But, 1. If God, and holiness, and heaven, have the highest estimation of your practical judgment, as being esteemed best for you; 2. And be preferred in the choice and resolution of your wills, and that habitually, before all the pleasures of the world; 3. And the first and chiefly sought in your endeavours; this is the infallible proof of your sanctification.

Christian; upon long and serious study and experience, I dare boldly commend these directions to thee, as the way of God, which will end in blessedness. The Lord resolve and strengthen thee to obey them.

This is the true constitution of Christianity: this is true godliness; and this is to be religious indeed; and all this is no more than to be seriously such, as all among us, in general words, profess to be. This is the religion which must differ

1 Exod. xxxiv. 6.

m Heb. vii. 25.

» John iii. 16, and iv, 42; 1 Tim. iv. 10, and ii. 4; Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; Rev. xxii. 17; Isa. lv. 1-3, 6, 7.

• Luke xiv. 26, 33; 1 John ii. 15; Matt. vi. 19–21, 33; Col. iii. 1, 2; Rom. viii. 1, 13.

VOL. XIX.

ence you from hypocrites; which must settle you in peace, and make you an honour to your profession, and a blessing to those that dwell about you! Happy is the land, the church, the family, which doth consist of such as these! These are not they that either persecute or divide the church; or that make their religion servant to their policy, to their ambitious designs, or fleshly lusts; nor that make it the bellows of sedition, or rebellion, or of an envious, hurtful zeal; or a snare for the innocent; or a pistol to shoot at the upright in heart; these are not they that have been the shame of their profession, the hardening of ungodly men and infidels, and that have caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. If any man will make a religion of or for his lusts, of papal tyranny, or pharisaical formality, or of his private opinions, or of proud censoriousness, and contempt of others, and of faction, and unwarrantable separatious and divisions, and of standing at a more observable distance from common professors of Christianity than God would have them; or of pulling up the hedge of discipline, and laying Christ's vineyard common to the wilderness. The storm is coming, when this religion, founded on the sand, will fall, and great will be the fall thereof. When the religion, which consisteth in faith and love to God and man, in mortifying the flesh, and crucifying the world, in self-denial, humility, and patience, in sincere obedience and faithfulness in all relations, in watchful self-government, in doing good, and in a divine and heavenly life, though it will be hated by the ungodly world, shall never be a dishonour to your Lord, nor deceive or disappoint your souls.

THE SEVENTH DAY'S CONFERENCE.

Of a Holy Family; and how to govern it, and perform the duty of all Family Relations, and others.

Speakers.-Paul, a teacher; and Saul, a learner.

PAUL. Welcome, Neighbour; how do you like the new life which you have begun? You have taken home instructions already which will find you work: but what do you find in the practising of them?

SAUL. I find that I have foolishly long neglected a necessary, noble, joyful life; and thereby lost my time, and made myself both unskilful and undisposed to the practice of it: I find that the things which you have prescribed me are high and excellent, and doubtless must be very sweet to them that have a suitable skill and disposition; and some pleasure I find in my weak beginnings: but the greatness of the work, and the great untowardness and strangeness of my mind, doth much abate the sweetness of it, by many doubts, and fears, and difficulties: and when I fail, I find it hard both to repent aright, and, by faith, to fly to Christ for pardon. And if you had not forewarned me of this temptation, I should have thought by these troubles, that my case is worse in point of ease (though not of safety) than it was before. But I foresee that better things may yet be hoped for and I hope I am in the way.

P. Where is your great difficulty that requireth counsel ?

S. I find a great deal of work to do in my family, to govern them in the fear of God, to do my duty to them all; especially to educate my children, and daily to worship God among them. And I am so unable for it, that I am ready to omit all. I pray you help me with your advice.

P. My first advice to you is, that you resolve, by God's help, to perform your duty as well as you can: and that you P devote your family to God, and take him for the Lord and Master of it, and use it as a society sanctified to him. these reasons fix your resolution.

And I pray you let

1. If God be not master of your family, the devil will; and if God be not first served in it, the flesh and the world will. And I hope I need not tell you how bad a master, work, and wages, they will then have.

2. If you devote your family to God, God will be the Protector of it. He will take care of it for safety and provision as his own. Do you not need such a Protector; and can you have a better, or better take care for the welfare and safety of you and your's? And if your family be not God's, they are his enemies, and under his curse as rebels. Instead of his blessings of health, peace, provision, and success, you may look for sickness, dangers, crosses, distresses, unquietness, and death; or, which is worse, that your prosperity shall be a curse and snare to you and your's.

See the Dispute for Family Worship, in my Christian Directory, part 21.