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as so walk. He hath promised to do great things for you, if you "order your conversation aright." Psa. 50:23. He will be your sun and shield, if you walk softly before him. Gen. 15: 1. "He will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from him that walketh uprightly." Psa. 84:11 And he promises no more to you than he hath made good to others that have thus walked. If you look to enjoy the good of the promise, you are obliged by all your expectations and hopes to order your life purely and uprightly. This hope will compel you to purge your life, as well as your heart, from all pollution: "Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Cor. 7: 1.

Yea, he hath yet more obliged you to strict and holy lives, by his confidence in you, that you thus walk and please him. He expresseth himself in Seripture, as one that dares trust you with his glory, knowing that you will be tender of it. But if a man repose confidence in you, and trust you with his concerns, it lays great obligation on you to be faithful. What obligations were laid upon Abraham to walk uprightly, when God said of him, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." Gen. 18: 19. As for this wicked generation, whom I will speedily consume in my wrath, they regard not my laws, they trample my commands under their feet, they care not how they provoke me, but I expect other things from Abraham. I know him, he is a man of another spirit, and what I promise myself from him, he will make good. And of like import is Isa. 63:7, 8, "I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them, ac cording to his mercies, and according to the multitude

of his loving-kindnesses. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour." Here you have the endearing mercies of God to that people, ver. 7, and the Lord's confident expectations of suitable returns from them, ver. 8. As if he had said, I made a full account, that after all these endearments and favors bestowed upon them, they would not offer to be disloyal and false to me. I have made them sure to myself by so many bonds of love. "Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction." Zeph. 3:7. Oh how great are the expectations of God from such as you!

You are further bound to a holy life, by what the Son hath done for you. Is not this pure and holy life the very aim and end of his death? Did he not shed his blood to "redeem you from your vain conversation?" 1 Pet. 1:18. Was it not the design of all his sufferings, that "being delivered out of the hands of your enemies, you might serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life?" Luke, 1:74, 75. And is not the apostle's inference, 2 Cor. 5: 14, 15, highly reasonable? "If one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them?" Did Christ only buy your person, and not your services also? No, whoever hath thy time, thy strength, or any part of either, I can assure thee, christian, that Christ hath paid for it, and thou givest away what is not thine own. Every moment of thy time is his; every talent, whether of grace or nature, is his; and dost thou defraud him of his own? Oh how liberal are you of your precious words and hours, as if Christ had never made a purchase of them! Oh think of this, when the fountain of corruption flows out at thy tongue in idle discourse; or at thy hand, in sinful, unwarrantable actions; doth this become the redeemed of the Lord? Did Christ come from the

Did he endure the cross,

bosom of his Father for this? and lay down his life for this? Was he so well pleased with all his sorrows and sufferings, his pangs and agonies, for the joy he should have in seeing the travail of his soul; and doth not this constrain you to guard your own life, and keep it pure? Oh! what will constrain you if this will not? But,

This is not all; as the weigher casts in weight af ter weight till the scales are counterpoised; so doth God cast in obligation after obligation, and argument upon argument, till thy heart, christian, be won to this heavenly life. And therefore, as Elihu said to Job, "Suffer me a little, and I will show thee what I have yet to speak on God's behalf." Chap. 36: 22. I now plead on behalf of the Holy Spirit, who hath so many times helped you to plead for yourselves with God. He that hath so often refreshed, quickened, and comforted you, he will be quenched, grieved, and displeased by an impure, loose, and careless conversation; and what will you do then? Who shall comfort you when the Comforter is departed from you; when he that should relieve your soul is far off? Oh "grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are scaled to the day of redemption." Eph. 4:30. There is nothing grieves him more than an ungodly life, for he is a holy Spirit. As water damps and quenches the fire, so doth sin quench the Spirit. 1 Thess. 5: 19. Will you quench the warm affections and burning desires which he hath kindled in your bosom? If you do, it is a question whether you ever recover them again to your dying day. The Spirit is grieved when thy corruptions within are stirred by temptations, and break out to the defiling of thy life; then is the Holy Spirit of God, as it were, made sad and heavy within thee, as that expression, un λuste, (Grieve not,) Eph. 4:30, may be rendered. For thus thou resistest his motions, whereby as a loving constraint he would

lead and guide thee in the way of thy duty; yea, thou not only resistest his motions, but crossest his grand design, which is to purge and sanctify thee wholly, and build thee up more and more to the perfection of holiness. And when thou thus forsakest him, and crossest his design in thy soul, then doth he usually withdraw as a man that is grieved by the unkindness of his friend.

This is the fruit of a careless life. To this sad issue it will bring thee at last; and when it is come to this, thou shalt go to ordinances and duties, and find no good in them, no life-quickening comfort. When thy heart, which was wont to be enlarged and flowing, shall be withered and dry; when, like Samson, thou shalt go forth and shake thyself, as at other times, but thy strength is gone; then tell me, what are the awful results of resisting, quenching, and grieving the Holy Spirit of God by an impure and ungodly life?

2. You are under great obligations to your own souls, as well as to God, to keep your lives pure. As God hath bound you to purity of conversation, so you have bound yourselves. There are several things in you, and done by you, which wonderfully increase and strengthen your obligations to practical holiness.

Your clearer illumination is a strong bond upon your souls: "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light." Eph. 5:8. You cannot plead ignorance. You stand convinced in your own consciences before God, that this is your unquestionable duty. Christians, will you not all yield to this? I know you readily yield. We live, indeed, in a contentious, disputing age. In other things our opinions are different. One christian is of this judgment, another of that; but in this we all meet, in one mind and judgment, that it is our indisputable duty to live pure, strict, and holy lives. The grace of God, which hath appeared to you, hath taught you this truth clearly and convinc

ingly. Tit. 2: 11, 12. "You have received how you ought to walk, and to please God." 1 Thess. 4:1. The inference, then, is plain and undeniable, that you cannot walk as others, in the vanity of their mind, without offering violence to your own light. You cannot suffer the corruptions of your heart to break forth into practice, without wounding your own conscience: "He that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin," James, 4 17; yea, aggravated sin; sin beyond that of the heathen; sin that sadly wastes and violates conscience. Certainly you have no cloak for your sin. Besides, what pleasure in sin can you have? Indeed, those who for want of light know not what they do, or whose consciences are seared and past feeling, may seek a little pleasure (such as it is) in sin; but what pleasure can you have, so long as light is ever breaking in upon you, and smiting you for what you do?

Again, you are a professor of holiness; you have given in your name to Christ, to be his disciple; and by this your engagements to a holy life are yet further strengthened: Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." 2 Tim. 2:19. The name of Christ is called upon you, and it is a worthy name. James, 2:7. You bear his name as his spouse, or his child; and will you not live suitably to it? Oh how will that worthy name of Christ be blasphemed through you, if you adorn it not with a becoming deportment? Better you had never professed his name, than to pour contempt on Jesus Christ, by your scandalous conversation, before the eyes of the world. Oh, that is a heavy charge, "Through you is the name of God blasphemed among the heathen." Rom. 2:24. Unhappy man! that ever thou shouldst be a reproach to Christ! The mass of wicked men may sin, and sin again, and the world take little notice of it; but the faults of professors are like a blazing comet, or an eclipsed sun, on which all men gaze, and make their

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