3. Of the Exercise of Spi∣ritual life.

1. Walk close with God in your general and parti∣cular calling, and be careful that the one do not justle out the other; as there is a time for all things, so there is a time for both Page  25 those: your general calling must not thrust out your particular; that is but a temptation, and not a du∣ty: neither must your par∣ticular calling thrust out your general, for that is to love the world more than God, and to serve your self altogether, and not the Lord Christ at all. It was the sin of Cain, that he did not divide aright for God; the duties of your general calling (faithfully perfor∣med) must sanctifie all the duties of your particular calling.

2. Be oft at home com∣muning with your own heart, Psal. 4. 4. and pro∣pounding Page  26 questions to it, such as these: 1. Whose am I? am I one that belongs to God, or do I belong to Satan? 2. Whom serve I? do I serve Christ, or do I serve Sin? The blessed Apostle could answer both those questions, Act. 27. 23. [There stood by me this night the Angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve.] And 3. What am I? am I a vessel of wrath, or am I a vessel of mercy? am I a child of God, or am I a child of the devil? 4. Where am I? Adam, where art thou? as God said so to Adam, so you must say so to your own Page  27 soul, Where art thou soul? art thou in the broad way that leads to death and damnation? or art thou in the narrow way that leads to life and salvation? and if at any time you find your spirit loose and extra∣vagant in broad ways of the world, then cry to your self, as God to Elijah, What dost thou here Elijah? 1 King. 19. 13. so gird up the loyns of your mind a∣gain. Luk. 12. 35.

3. Know that your heart will be backward to this communing work, Fugitivi sumus acordibus nostris, saith Augustine; we flee from our own hearts, and Page  28 our own hearts flee as fast and as far from us. 'Tis pity we should carry hearts about with us in our bo∣soms for twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years, some more, if some less) and yet be such strangers to them, and they to us; account it therefore your great loss that you know your own heart no better, that you commune with it no oft∣ner; alas, we know not our own hearts, Am I a dog, (saith Hazael) that I should do so and so? 2 King. 8. 13. Yet such a dog was he in wickedness when he came to his opportunity; you must tremble to be left in Page  29 the hands of your own counsel; as Hezekiah was left to himself, to try him (not the strength of his grace as Abraham was, Gen. 22. 1, but his frailty and proneness to sin) and to let him know all that was in his heart, 2 Chron. 32. 31. When Satans Tem∣ptation hath an opportuni∣ty to draw out your cor∣ruption, then and there is your most eminent danger.

4. Seeing your heart will not stand to parley, do you bind it to good beha∣viour, and lay Gods charge upon it that it stir not in this parleying work, till you have made some work Page  30 of your work, and brought it to some blessed issue; know, that never did the Sacrifice (under the Law) stand more in need of bind∣ing with cords to the horns of the Altar, Psal. 118.27, than your loose & slippery heart doth with all obliga∣tions (and all little enough) unto holy duties; hence is it that self-examination is so hard a duty; no sooner are we in it, but (ere ever we be aware) we are out of it again.

5. When ye have (through grace) fixed your heart, and are able to say (with David) My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed, Page  31 Psal. 57. 7, (which un∣doubtedly is as hard to fix (to good) as quick-silver is, that hath a principle of motion in it, but not of rest) then fall upon Consi∣deration-work (which is the excellency of a man a∣bove the beast; then con∣sider and better consider the four questions afore∣said, and the tendency of all your ways, [Ponder the path of thy feet, Prov. 4.26.] to wit, by the weights of the Word of God do you oft poize them: Conside∣ration is the stay of our thoughts, which are as swift as any ship. Conside∣ration is as an Anchor to Page  32 them. God bids his people, Consider their ways, twice over, Hag. 1. 5, 7, do it once and again.

6. You may know where you are, if you seriously and throughly consider the frame of your own spirit: the way to hell is a broad way; and he that is all for elbow-room, and for a wide way to be extrava∣gant in, and likes not the strict way of Religion (which is so called from its strict binding up our hearts from loosness, a religando▪ is a broad way man, that says (with Jeroboam) 'tis too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, 1 King. 12. 28, Page  33 'tis too much for you to be so precise, and so strait-la∣ced; Let us break those bands asunder, and cast a∣way those cords from us, Psal. 2. 3. [Medice vivere, est mi∣sere vivere,] to live strictly by a Rule, is to live miser∣ably, both for soul and bo∣dy. Spiritus Religiosus est spiritus melancholicus; Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall die. Isa. 22. 12, 14. 1 Cor. 15. 32.

7. You have this exem∣plified in Noah's Raven and Dove, Gen. 8.7, 9, 11. you may not be as the Raven that was accustom'd to live at large, becomes wea∣ry of being caged up in the Page  34 Ark, and likes not such strait limits any longer, therefore she flutters about the Ark, but went not in, as not willing to be confi∣ned to the ark either for diet or lodging any more, but chuses rather to fly a∣broad and to feed upon the carcases of the drowned.

8. You must be like the Dove, which did not dislike her consinement, nor the diet and lodging of the ark, and therefore returns to it as the place of her rest, and best repose, not finding bet∣ter repast any where else. Thus those are unclean Ra∣vens, that are all for fleshly liberty and licentiousness, Page  35 and can feed upon stinking carrion of wickedness; but you must be Christs Dove, Cant. 2. 14, that can find no rest for the soles of your feet but in him; you must (with others) flock to the windows of the Temple, Isa. 60. 8. Christ your Noah, your Comforter, will put forth his hand to take you in; and there think his service your wages (as well as your work) and not your weariness.

9. Thus must you be se∣rious in inquiring of your self, whose you are, and whom you serve, yea and what you are, as well as where? whether in the Page  36 broad or narrow way: If consideration be needful in all our undertakings, how much more in that for E∣ternity! oh be not sleight herein, but dwell with your thoughts upon it. You know, he that rides post through a Country, can never draw a distinct Map of that Countrey, which requires many pauses for viewing every particular boundary, &c. So if you ride post with your swift thoughts in your circuit thorough the Isle of Man, you cannot take a distinct account of your self in or∣der to those four grand Questions. You must walk Page  37 round about your self, and go round that little world, as they did about Sion, Ps. 48. 12, 13, that they might tell the towers thereof, and mark well her bulwarks, yea and [consider] her palaces, &c.

10. Then hath your Spi∣ritual consideration a bles∣sed issue, when you dwell upon it with your fixed thoughts, until Christ ap∣pear your chiefest good, and sin your chiefest evil: David did turn [his] ways upside down, (as the Hebrew word [chishabli deraki] sig∣nifies, Psal. 119. 59.) in his own secret thoughts and consideration. The Noun of Page  38 which Verb, to wit, chesheb, signifies, opus phrygionicum, an embroider'd garment, which is the same on both sides; they that work them, must often turn them, first on one side, and then on the other. Thus David would turn [his] way every way, and must have them both sides alike, both that side towards God, and that side towards man; for the ways of many men have a shining outside towards man, and yet their inside is rugged, uneven, and un∣comely towards God. Sor∣det in conspectu judicis, quod fulget in conspectu operan∣tis; (saith the Father) but Page  39 Christ saith better, That which is highly esteemed a∣mongst men, is an abominati∣on in the sight of God, Luk. 16. 15.

11. As you must turn [your] ways every way, and upside down according to the Hebrew reading of that, Psal. 119. 59. So must you make a Dialogue with your self according to the Greek reading. The Septuagint reads it, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] I made a dia∣logue with my self about my own ways; I argued this point to an issue, whe∣ther the ways of God, or the ways of sin were bet∣ter; and when I understood Page  40 that the paths of sin go down to death; I turned my feet from the ways of sin to the ways of God. Thus must you upon sound consideration and delibera∣tion find out sin to be the way to Gods curse, but Christ the way to Gods blessing. He is [the] way, Joh. 14. 6. Walk in him, Col. 2. 6.

12. When sin appears to you the greatest evil (as Christ the greatest good) then you cannot let any sin live peaceably in you, no nor come peaceably to you, (be it little or great) you must have tenderness of spirit: Josiah had a tender Page  41 heart, 2 King. 22. 19. 2 Chron. 34. 27. Such as are of tender Constituti∣ons cannot endure the least cold wind to blow upon them, therefore they cry [shut the casement, and bolt the door,] I shall catch cold; thus to a tender heart, the least cold air of sin is irksome: the door of your heart must be shut a∣gainst sin (the greatest evil), yet open for Christ (the chiefest good), Ezek. 44. 2, 3, That door is for the Prince, the Prince of life, no other guest must enter in.