your own eyes, and seek not the honour that is of men, but say, ,"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name be the glory;" and are content that your honour decrease and be trodden into the dirt, that his may increase, and his name be magnified; this is the glorifying of God. So when you shew the world, that you are above the impotent passions of men, not to be insensible, but to be "angry and sin not," and to "give place to wrath," and not to resist and "avenge yourselves" and to be "meek and lowly in heart." It will appear that you have the wisdom which is "from above," if you be "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and hypocrisy.' "But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth," as if this were the wisdom from above which glorifieth God: for this "wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish.". "A meek and

quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God ":" an ornament commended to women by the Scripture; which is amiable in the eyes of all.

Direct. VIII. It honoureth God and your profession, when you abound in love and in good works: loving the godly with a special love, but all men with so much love, as makes you earnestly desirous of their welfare, and to love your enemies, and put up wrongs, and to study to do good to all, and hurt to none.'-To be abundant in love, is to be like to God, who is LovE itself'; and sheweth that God dwelleth in us*. "All men may know that we are Christ's disciples, if we love one another." This is the "new" and the "great commandment; the fulfilling of the law "." You will be known to be the "children of your heavenly Father, if you love your enemies, and bless them that curse you, and pray for them that hate and persecute you, and despitefully use you "." Do all the good that possibly you can, if you would be like him that doth good to the evil, and whose mercies are over all his works. Shew the world that you" are his workmanship, created to good works in Christ

e Pɛal. cxv. 1.

f James iii. 17.

i 1 John iv. 7. 11.

d Rom. xii. 19.

8 Ver. 14, 15.

* Ver. 12.

in Rom. xiii. 10. John xv 12. 17.

xiii. 34.

• Matt. xi. 29.
h 1 Pet. iii. 4.

John xiii. 35.
"Matt. y. 44.

“Here

Jesus, which he hath ordained for you to walk in"." in is your Father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit P." "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven "." "Honour God with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thy increase"." And those that honour him he will honour." When barren, worldly hypocrites, that honour God only with their lips, and flattering words, shall be used as those that really dishonour him.

66

Direct. 1x. The unity, concord, and peace of Christians, do glorify God and their profession: when their divisions, contentions, and malicious persecutions of one another, do heinously dishonour him.'-Men reverence that faith and practice which they see us unanimously accord in. And the same men will despise both it and us, when they see us together by the ears about it, and hear us in a Babel of confusion, one saying, This is the way,' and another, 'That is it' one saying, Lo here is the true church and worship,' and another saying, Lo it is there.' Not that one man or a few must make a shoe meet for his own foot, and then say, All that will not dishonour God by discord, must wear this shoe think as I think, and say as I say, or else you are schismatics.' But we must all agree in believing and obeying God, and "walking by the same rule so far as we have attained "." "The strong must bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please themselves; but every one of us please his neighbour for good to edification; and be likeminded one towards another, according to Christ Jesus, that we may with one mind, and one mouth glorify God: receiving one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God "."

Direct. x. Justice commutative and distributive, private and public, in bargainings, and in government, and judgment, doth honour God and our profession in the eyes of all: when we do no wrong, but do to all men as we would they should do to us*: that no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter: for the Lord is the avenger of all such '.'-That a man's word be his master, and that we lie not one to another, nor equivocate or deal subtilly and de

ceitfully, but in plainness and singleness of heart, and in simplicity and godly sincerity have our conversation in the world. Perjured persons and covenant-breakers, that dissolve the bonds of human society, and take the name of God in vain, shall find by his vengeance that he holdeth them not guiltless.

Direct. xI. It much glorifieth God to worship him rationally and purely, in spirit and in truth, according to the glory of his wisdom and goodness, and it dishonoureth,him to be worshipped ignorantly and carnally, with spells and mimical, irrational actions, as if he were less wise than serious, grave, understanding men.'-The worshippers of -God have great cause to take heed how they behave themselves lest they meet with the reward of Nadab and Abihu, and God tell them by his judgments, "that he will be sanctified in all them that come nigh him, and before all the people he will be glorified"." The second commandment is enforced by the jealousy of God about his worship. Ignorant, rude, unseemly words, or unhandsome gestures, which tend to raise contempt in the auditors; or levity of speech, which makes men laugh, is abominable in a preacher of the Gos pel. And so is it to pray irrationally, incoherently, confusedly, with vain repetitions and tautologies, as if men thought to be heard for their babbling over so many words, while there is not so much as an appearance of a well composed, serious, rational, and reverent address of a fervent soul to God. To worship God as the Papists do, with images, Agnus Dei's, crucifixes, crossings, spittle, oil, candles, holy water, kissing the pax, dropping beads, praying to the Virgin Mary, and to other saints, repeating over the name of Jesus nine times in a breath, and saying such and such sentences so oft, praying to God in an unknown tongue, and saying to him they know not what, adoring the consecrated bread as no bread, but the very flesh of Christ himself, choosing the titular saint whose name they will invocate, fasting by feasting upon fish instead of flesh, saying so many masses a day, and offering sacrifice for the quick and the dead, praying for souls in purgatory, purchasing indulgences for their deliverance out of purgatory from the pope, carrying the pretended bones or other relics of their saints,

Lev. x. 1-3.

the pope's canonizing now and then one for a saint, pretending miracles to delude the people, going on pilgrimages to images, shrines, or relics, offering before the images, with a multitude more of such parcels of devotion, do most heinously dishonour God, and, as the apostle truly saith, do make unbelievers say, " They are mad ;" and that they are "children in understanding," and not "men "." Insomuch as it seemeth one of the greatest impediments to the conversion of the heathen and Mahometan world, and the chiefest means of confirming them in their infidelity, and making them hate and scorn Christianity, that the Romish, and the Eastern, and Southern churches, within their view, do worship God so dishonourably as they do: as if God were like a little child that must have pretty toys bought him in the fair, and brought home to please him. Whereas, if the unreformed churches in the East, West, and South were reformed, and had a learned, pious, able ministry, that clearly preached and seriously applied the word of God, and worshipped God with understanding, gravity, reverence, and 'serious spirituality, and lived a holy, heavenly, mortified, self-denying conversation, this would be the way to propagate Christianity, and win the infidel world to Christ.

Direct. x11. If you will glorify God in your lives, you must be above a selfish, private, narrow mind, and must be chiefly intent upon the public good, and the spreading of the Gospel through the world.'-A selfish, private, narrow soul brings little honour to the cause of God: it is always taken up about itself, or imprisoned in a corner, in the dark, to the interest of some sect or party, and seeth not how things go in the world: its desires and prayers, and endeavours go no further than they can see or travel. But a larger soul beholdeth all the earth, and is desirous to know how it goeth with the cause and servants of the Lord, and how the Gospel gets ground upon the unbelieving nations; and such are affected with the state of the church a thousand miles off, almost as if it were at hand, as being members of the whole body of Christ, and not only of a sect. They pray for the "hallowing of God's name," and the "coming of his kingdom," and the "doing of his will throughout the earth, as it is in heaven," before they come to their own necessities,

at least in order of esteem and desire. The prosperity of themselves, or their party or country satisfieth them not, while the church abroad is in distress. They live as those that know the honour of God is more concerned in the welfare of the whole, than in the success of any party against the rest. They pray that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified abroad, as it is with them, and the preachers of it be" delivered from unreasonable and wicked men c." The silencing the ministers, and suppressing the interest of Christ and souls, are the most grievous tidings to them: therefore they "pray for kings, and all in authority," not for any carnal ends, but that "we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honestyd." Thus God must be glorified by our lives.

Grand Direct. XVI. Let your life on earth be a conversation in heaven, by the constant work of faith and love: even such a faith as maketh things future as now present, and the unseen world as if it were continually open to your sight and such a love as makes you long to see the glorious face of God, and the glory of your dear Redeemer, and to be taken up with blessed spirits in his perfect, endless love and praise.'

My Treatise of "The Life of Faith," and the fourth part of "The Saints' Rest," being written wholly or mostly to this use, I must refer the reader to them, and say no more of it in this Direction.

Grand Direct. XVII. As the soul must be carried up to God, and devoted to him, according to all the foregoing Directions, so must it be delivered from carnal selfishness, or flesh-pleasing, which is the grand enemy to God and godliness in the world: and from the three great branches of this idolatry, viz. the love of sensual pleasures, the love of worldly wealth, and the proud desire and love of worldly honour and esteem: and the mortifying of these must be much of the labour of your lives.'

Of this also I have written so much in a "Treatise of Self-denial," and in another called "The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ," that I shall now pass by all,

C 2 Thess. iii. 1, 2.

d 1 Tim. ii. 1-3.