dutiful children, obedient wives, loyal subjects, loving neighboiu'S, as the Chi'istian himself? Truly, if it be not in the motive from which, and end to which, he acts, nothing else can do it. Look, therefore, well to this, or else thou art out of the way, while thou seemest to be in the road. It is very ordi- nary for men to wrong Christ when they do their neighbour right ; and this is done when Christ is not interested in the action, and love to him doth not move us thereunto ; without this, thou mayest go for an honest heathen, but canst not be a good Christian. Suppose a servant were entrusted by his master to go and pay such a man a sum of money, which he doth, not out of any duti- ful respect to the command, or love to the person of his master, but for shame of being taken for a thief; in this case the man should have his due, but his master a great deal of wrong. Such wrong do all mere civil persons do the Lord Jesus ; they are very exact and righteous in their dealings with their neighbours, but very injurious, at the same time, to Christ, because they do not this upon his account. This makes love to our neighbour evangelical, and, as Christ calls it, 'a new commandment,' John xiii., when our love to our bro- ther takes fire from his love to us. We cannot, in a gospel sense, be said to do the duty of any commandment, except we first love Christ, and then for his sake do it : ' If you love me, keep my commandments,' John xiv. 15. Where observe, that as God prefixed his name before the Decalogue, so Christ, for the same reason, doth his before the Christian's obedience to any of them, that so they may keep them both as his commandments, and out of love to him, who hath brought us out of a worse house of bondage than Egypt was to Israel.
CHAPTER XL
CONTAINS NINE OR TEN DIRECTIONS TOWARDS THE HELPING THOSE THAT DESIRE TO MAINTAIN THE POWER OF A HOLY, RIGHTEOUS CONVERSATION.
3. The third thing propounded in handling the point calls now for our de- spatch ; and that is, to lay down some direction by way of counsel, and to help all those that desire to maintain the power of holiness and righteousness in their daily walking.
Section I. — First, Be sure thou gettest a good foundation laid, on which may be- reared the beautiful structure of a holy, righteous conversation ; and that can be no less than the change of thy heart by the powerful working of God's sanc- tifying Spirit in thee. Thou must be righteous and holy before thou canst live righteously and holily. If the ship hath not its right make at first, be not equally poised according to the law of that art, it will never sail trim ; and if the heart be not moulded anew by the workmanship of the Spirit, and fashioned according to the law of the new creature, in which ' old things pass away, and all things become new,' 2 Cor. v. 17, the creature will never walk holily. It is solid grace in the vessel of the heart that feeds profession in the lamp ; holi- ness is in the life, Matt. xxv. 4. Now this thorough change of thy heart is especially to be looked at in these two things :
First, That there be a change made in thy judgment of, and disposition ot heart to sin. Thou hast formerly had such a notion of sin as hath made it desirable ; thou hast looked upon it as Eve did on the forbidden fruit ; thou hast thought it ' pleasant to the eye, good for food,' and worth thy choice to be desired of thee : if thou continuest of the same mind, thy teeth will be watering, and heart continually hankering after it. Thou mayest possibly be kept from expressing and venting the inward thought of thy heart for awhile ; but as two lovers kept asunder by their friends will one time or other make an escape to each other, so long as their affection is the same as it was, so wilt thou to thy lust ; and therefore never rest till thou canst say, thou dost as heartily loathe and hate sin as ever thou lovedst it before.
Secondly, Lookthat there be suchachangeinthyjudgmentandheartasmakes thee take an inward complacency and delight in Christ and his holy commands. Then there is little fear of tliy degenerating when thou art tied to him and his service by the heart-strings of love and complacency. The devil finds it no hard work to part him and his duty, that never joyed nor took true content in doing of it. He whose calling doth not like him, nor fit his genius, as we say, will never excel in it. A scholar learns more in a week, when he comes to
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