364 HOLINESS NECESSARY FROJ( be so: but what if we are not so? Why, as sure as God is holy and powerful, we shall eternally perish; for, with the threatening of that condition, is his command accompanied, in case of disobedience. What, if we do comply with the command, and become holy? Upon the same ground of assurance, we shall bebrought unto everlasting felicity. And this is greatly to be considered in the authority of the commandment. Some, perhaps, will say, that to yield holy obedience unto God with respect unto rewards and punishments, is servile, and becomes not the free spirit of the children of God. But these are vain imaginations: the bondage of our own spirits may make every thing we do servile. But a due respect unto God's promises and threatenings is a prin- cipal part of our liberty. And thus doth the necessity of holiness, which we are engaged in the demonstration of, depend on the command of God, because of that authority from whence it doth proceed, and wherewith it is accompanied. It is therefore certainly our duty, if vve would be found walking in a course of obedience, and the practice of holiness, to keep a sense hereofcon - sandy fixed on our minds. This is that which, in the first place, God intends in that great injunction ofobe- dience, Gen. xvii. I. I ass God Almighty, walk before nee, and be thou perfect. The way to walk uprightly, to be sincere or perfect in obedience, is always to con - sider, that he who requires it of as is God Almighty, accompanied with all the authority and power before. mentioned, and under whose eye we are continually. And, in particular, we may apply this unto persons and occasions. Sect. 16, (l.) As to persons; let them in an espe- cial manner have a continual regard hereunto, who, on any account, are great, or high, or noble, in theworld, and that because their especial temptation is to be lifted are a sort of poor incorrigible sinners, whose impeni. tency ariseth much out of their ignorance, blindness, and folly, which they please themselves in, although they differ but little from the beasts that, perish. And such do we abound withal, who will take no pains for, who will admit of no means of instruction. But there. is another sort of sinners to whom the prophet makes his application, and discovers the ground of their incor- rigible impenitencyalso; Iwill get me to the great men, andwill speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God, ver. 5. Great men, by reason of their education, and otherad- vantages, do attain unto aknowledge of thewill of God,. or, at least, may be thought so to. have done, and would be esteemed to excel therein. They therefore are not likely to beobstinate in sin, merely from stupid ignorance and folly. No, saith the prophet, they take another course: They havealtogether broken the yoke, andburst . the bonds. They are like a, company of rude beasts of the fields, who having broken their yokes and cords, do run up and down the fields, treading down the corn, . breaking up the fences, pushing- with the horn, and trampling on all before them. This is the course of men in the pursuit of their lusts, when.they have broken the yoke ofthe Lord. And this the prophet declares to be the especial evil of great men, the rich, the mighty,. the honourable in theworld.. Now, this breakingofthe yolce, is the neglecting and despising of the authority of God in the command. Seeing thereforethat this.is the. especial temptation of that sort of persons, and things innumerable there are of all sorts, that concur to ren- der that temptationprevalent upon them; let all those who are of that condition, and have. the least sincere- desire after holiness, watch diligently, as they love and value their souls, to keep always, and in all up unto a forgetfulness or regardlessness of this autho- things, a clue sense of the authority of God in. city of God. The prophet distributes incorrigible sin- his commands upon their minds and consciences. ners into two sorts, and gives the different grounds of their impenitency respectively: the first are the poor; and it is their folly, stupidity, and sensual lusts, that keep them off from attending to the command, Jer. v. S, 4. « They have refused to receive correction; they « have made their faces harder than a rock; they have « refused to return; therefore, I said, surely these are <c poor, they are sottish; for they know not the way of I< the Lord, nor thejudgment of their God," There When you are in the height of your greatness, in the fulness of your enjoyments, in the most urgent of your avocations by the things or societies of the world and those who belong unto it, when the variety of public appearances and attendencies are about you,, where you are uppermost in the words of others, and it may be in your own thoughts, remember him- who is. over all, and consider that you are subject, and obnoxi- ous unto his authority, equallywith the poorest creature
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