Advice to an Only Child, Chapter 3 – Chapter 4
CHAP. III. Of the Life of Holineſs.
LIve the Life of Holineſs. This directly follows the Life of Faith: for all holineſs ſprings from Faith, and the more you live the Life of Faith, the more you will live the Life of holineſs. Now if you would live this Holy Life, you muſt do theſe five things.
1. Get a principle of holineſs; you cannot live a Life of holineſs, unleſs there be firſt a principle of holineſs within. Can the Body ſtir or move without a principle of Life? how can there be actual holineſs in the Life, where there is not firſt habitual holineſs in the Heart?
2. Make holineſs the very work of your Life, or devote your ſelf to the work of holineſs: he lives a Students life, or the life of a Scholar, who devotes himſelf to his Studies. You do then live a Holy Life, when you make holineſs the very buſineſs of your Life; when the Courſe and Tenor and main Imployment of your Life is Holineſs, when you make a Trade of it. Do you only perform Holy Duties by fits and ſtarts? do you make ſtops and pauſes? are you off and on, and act holily only occaſionally? or in ſome certain good moods, or on ſome Holy days? this is not to live a Life of Holineſs. You muſt conſtantly imploy your ſelf therein, and follow after it in the whole courſe of your Life. And therefore let me now beſpeak you in the words of a Holy Man, now with the Lord. Let Holineſs ſit in your Lips, and ſeaſon all your Speech with Grace, let it dwell in your Heart, let it be your companion in your Cloſet, let it Travel with you in your Journey, let it lye down and riſe up with you, let it cloſe your Eyes in the Evening, and call you out of your Bed in the Morning.
3. Make holineſs the main deſign and end of your Life: Then indeed you live the Life of Holineſs, when holineſs, which is the main deſign of Chriſtianity, is the great deſign of your Life, when the very drift, purport and intent of your Life is to live to God.
4. Spend all the time of your Life that you can redeem from other occaſions in the duties of holineſs, while others ſteal time from holy duties for their Worldly buſineſs and pleaſures, do you borrow all the time that you can from thoſe things, yea from your ſleep for holy duties.
5. Put forth your Vital Power, your Life, your Vigor and Strength in Exerciſes of Holineſs. Summon in all the powers of your ſoul, let none be wanting. Whatſoever your Heart findeth to do in the Work of Religion, do it with all your might; ply your Oars, hoiſe up your Sails, put forward with all your power and ſtrength, with might and main, in your courſe toward Heaven. By thus doing you will certainly live the Life of Holineſs.
It may be you may meet with ſome ſcoffs, amongſt ſome Iſhmaels, for ſuch a Holy Life; bat yet let not this diſcourage, or take you off from following the ways of holineſs and uprightneſs. What if a Lame Man ſhould laugh at your upright walking, would you therefore go lamely? But for your better encouragement I ſhall propound to you one Motive.
Conſider that unleſs you live the Life of holineſs, you can never live the Life of glory: Ʋnleſs you be Regenerated and Born again, you can never enter into the Kingdom of God, John 3.3. It's only the New Creature that muſt be admitted into the New Jeruſalem. You will never be a Flower in the Paradiſe of Heaven, unleſs you firſt be Tranſplanted out of the common field of Nature into Chriſt's holy Garden. Without Holineſs no one ſhall ever ſee the Lord. Heb. 12.14. It's this that fits the very Angels for Heaven; and therefore without it how can you ever think to come there? It's not the Angelical Nature, but their Holineſs, that makes them fit for Heaven, and therefore it's more excellent than the very Nature of the Angels conſidered in it ſelf: for it is the Image of God, as a bright beam of the Divine Nature, and ſo makes us capable of Heaven. My Heart therefore yearns for you, my Bowels rowl within me, out of tender affection to your Soul, leſt you ſhould come ſhort of Holineſs, and thereby come ſhort of Heaven. Moral Virtues without Holineſs will never be a Jacobs Ladder to reach Heaven, how near ſoever they may come to it. O what pity is it that an Ingenuous Nature, ſhould by ſome Moral accompliſhments, come near to Heaven, and yet never come there? that Rachel ſhould dye, when it was but a little way to come to Ephrath! Be ſure therefore to add the practice and power of Godlineſs, as a full figure to your Cyphers: For unleſs you do this, I ſhall never have hope to ſee your Face in Heaven, which is an undefiled Inheritance.
CHAP. IV. Of Living as in Gods Preſence.
1. LIve always as in the preſence of God, and as under his jealouſie. Thus did good Elizabeth in the Goſpel, of whom it is ſaid, That ſhe was Righteous before God, or in the Eyes of the Lord, (as the Vulgar Latin reads it.) Luke 1.6. It was good counſel of one of the Rabbins, that we ſhould always think, that there was an Eye that ſaw all, an Ear hearing all, and an Hand writing all. Often repeat the 1…9. Pſalm to your ſelf, and ſeriouſly conſider that God is in all places, and not only in the place where you are, but within you, in your very Breaſt and Boſom, viewing all your thoughts and intentions, not with a bare beholding, but with a critical Eye, and as a Judge to cenſure them, to approve or Condemn them. Whereupon his eye-lids are ſaid to try the Children of Men, Pſal. 11.4. You cannot ſhut the Heart ſo cloſe, but he hath a Key to unlock it, he draws the Curtain and ſees what is within, he ſpies out what is Cabinetted and lock'd up in the moſt ſecret Corner and private Drawer there. The bright and piercing Eye of Omniſcience ſees the very inward Conceptions before they come to the Birth, the firſt eruptions and ebullitions of a Thought or Intention.
2. If you do all things, as believing that this Eye is upon you, it will have a great influence on your Life. What a holy trembling and quivering diſpoſition would this create in you, leſt you ſhould offend ſo Glorious an Eye? What a Curb and Bridle would it be to reſtrain from all Sin even from ſecret Hypocriſie? What a ſharp Goad and Spur to all Uprightneſs? The Maſters Eye makes the Servant work. Do but ſerve God faithfully while he ſees you, and it is enough. I have read of one that committing a foul Sin, ſaid to himſelf, No Eye ſees me, but preſently there appear'd an Eye on the Wall with this Inſcription, But this Eye ſees thee. If you did always keep within you freſh apprehenſions of God as preſent, you would not admit a diſhonourable thought of him in your Heart, nor let an evil word have paſſage through the door of your Lips.
3. Know for your encouragement that if you thus live, as in Gods awful Preſence, you ſhall enjoy very much his gracious Preſence here, and his Glorious Preſence hereafter to all Eternity.