also. Cliristiaiis are a company of theiiisflves : Acts iv. 23, ' Being let go, they went to their own company.' Who should helieversjoin themselves to but believers ! As Paul said, ' Have you not a wise man among you, but you must go to law before unbelievers V so may I say to thee, Christian, Is there never a saint in all the town that thou canst be acquainted with, sit and discourse with, but you must join with the profane and ungodly, amongst whom you live? No wonder thy holiness thri\es no better, when thou breatliest in wicked company, that is like the east wind, under which nothing grows and prospers.
Section VII. — Seventhly, Get some Christian friend, whom thou mayest trust above others, to be thy faithful monitor. O, that man hath a great help for the maintaining the power of godliness, that has an open-hearted friend that dare speak his heart to him ! A stander-by sees more sometimes by a man, than the actor can do by himself, and is more fit to jndge of his actions than he of his own. Sometimes self-love blinds us in our own cause, that we see not ourselves so bad as we are ; and sometimes we are over-suspi- cious of the worst by oiu-selves, which makes us appear to ourselves worse than we arc. Now, that thou mayest not deprive thyself of so great a help from thy friend, be sure to keep thy heart ready with meekness to receive, yen, with thankfulness embrace, a reproof from his mouth. Those that cannot bear plain dealing hurt themselves most ; for by this they seldom hear the truth. He that hath not love enough to give a reproof seasonably to his brother, nor humility enough to bear a reproof from him, is not worthy to be called a Christian : by the first he shews himself a ' hater of his brother,' Lev. xix. 17; by the second he proves himself a scorner, Prov. ix. Holy David professed he would take it as a kindness for the righteous to smite him ; yea, as kindly as if he broke a box of precious oil upon his head, which was amongst the Jews a high expression of love, Psa. cxli. 5. And he made his word good; he did not, as the Papists do by their holy water, commend it highly, but turn away his face when it comes to be sprinkled on him. No, Abigail and Nathan, who reproved him, one for his bloody intention against Nabal and his family, the other for his bloody act upon Uriah, they both sped well in their errand. The first prevented the fact intended by her seasonable reproof; the second recovered him out of that dismal sin of murder wherein he had lai)i some months without coming so far to himself as to repent of it, for aught that we read; and, which is observable, they did not only prevail in the business, but endeared themselves, by this tlieir faithfulness to his soul, so unto him, that he takes her to be his wife, and him to be of his most privy council to his dying day, 1 Kings i. 27^ — 32. Truly it is one great reason why the falls of pro- fessors ai'e so frequent in our days, and their recovery so rare or late, because few in these unloving times are to be foinid so faithful as to do this Cliristian office of reproof to their brethren ; they will sooner go and tattle of it to others to their disgrace, than speak of it to themselves for their recovery. Indeed, by telling others, we obstruct our way from telling the person himself, with any hope of doing him good. It will be hard to make him believe thou comest to heal his soul, who hast already wounded his name.
Sf.ction V^III. — Eighthly, Be often seriously thinking how holilyand right- eously you will, in a dying hour, wish you had lived. They who now think it matters not much what language drivels from them, what company they walk in, what they busy their time about, how they comport with God in his worship, and with man in their dealings, but live at large, and care not much which end goes foremost ; yea, wonder at the niceness and zeal of others, as if there were no pace would carry them to heaven but the gallop ; when once death conies so near as to be known by its own grim face, and not by report of others, when these poor creatures see they must in earnest go into another world without any delay, and their naked souls must return to 'fJod tliat gave them,' to hear whatinterpretation he will put upon the course and and tenour of their walking, and, ac;cordiiigly, to ])ass an irrevocable sentence of life or death u])on them ; now tlieir thouglits will begin to change, and take up other notions of a righteous and holy life than ever they had before. It is observed amongst the Papists, that many cardinals, and other great ones, who would think their cowl and religious habit ill become tlum in their health, yet are very ambitious to die and be buried in tliem, as commonly they are. Though this be a foppery
22Q AND HAVING ON