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there is no more needful but so to walk as that they may be mem bers in the church, and give no offence to the church ; some, who have already attained a good reputation in their profession, may not think it incumbent on them to do any more but to keep up their place and station, not to decay. Our duty is quite otherwise; we are to " abound more and more."
Now, because I do intend, if I live, and God will and permit, to go over all the especial duties of our relation, to show in them all how we may so walk as to please God, I shall lay a little general foundation at present out of these words, and that in this rule or proposition, — That there is a peculiar walking with God in fruitful holiness re quired of all who are admitted into the fellowship of the gospel, the communion of the saints, and the order of the churches.
This is the first general rule, and I would build all that ensues upon it. There is a peculiar walking with God, so as to please God, and a progress therein, abounding more and more in it, required of all who are admitted to the privileges of the gospel in church-order and society, and the communion of the saints.
A walking with God ; — in the Scripture our obedience to God is not so frequently expressed, in general, by any one word as- by this of walking: to walk with God; to walk in his law; to walk in his statutes ; to walk in the fear of the Lord.
Now, this walk we speak of is the whole course of our conversa tion, and our exercise therein with respect unto God. That is a man's walk. As is the course of a man's conversation, and his exercise therein with respect unto God, so is his walk : which may be either straight or crooked ; it may be either close or loose ; it may be either with God or contrary to him. l If ye walk contrary to me/ saith God, ' I will walk contrary to you/ And it is variously expressed in Scripture. Sometimes it is called walking with God : Gen. v. 24, " Enoch walked with God ;" — sometimes it is called walking before God: Gen. xvii. 1, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect ;" — some times it is called a walking after God : 2 Kings xxiii. 3, " The king made a covenant to walk after the LORD;" — sometimes it is called a "walking worthy of the Lord," Col. i. 10 ; — and sometimes it is termed a " humbling ourselves to walk with God," Mic. vi. 8. We render it to "walk humbly with God;" but it is so in the original. And all this is to show that God ought to be all and in all in our walk ; that we ought so to walk as those who have all from him, as those who do all for him, as those who design conformity to him, and as those that wait for the enjoyment of him. It is every way expressed, that we may know that God ought to be all in our whole walk,— that is, in all we do in this world.
Answerable hereunto, God's gracious actings towards us are called
540 THE OBLIGATION TO INCREASE IN GODLINESS.
his walking with us. Lev. xxvi. 11, 12, "And I will walk among you/' saith God. Two cannot walk together unless they are agreed. When God and we walk together in peace, upon the agreement made between us by Christ, by the blood of the cross, then are we in our places, and then is God exalted.
Now, this walking with God, without which, as I shall manifest afterwards to you, all our privileges and all our enjoyments are use less, are dangerous, are present means and will be future aggravations of our eternal ruin (without it, I say, that which we lay such weight upon, that which we suffer for, that which we rejoice in, if there be not this walking with God, so as to please him, it is useless and dangerous, — it is a present means of destruction, and will be a future aggravation of it), I say this walking with God may be considered two ways: 1. With respect unto the covenant of grace in general; and, 2. With respect unto the particular church covenant, or holy agreement that is among us in the fellowship of the gospel, which the apostle hath here a particular respect unto: " How ye ought to walk;" — 'Ye church of Thessalonica, which is in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus Christ; how ye ought to walk/
First, It is our obedience in general according to the tenor of the covenant of grace; for so it is expressed. All covenant-obedience is expressed in that word, " Walk before me," Gen. xvii. 1. " I am the Almighty God," saith he : " walk before me, and be thou upright/' And so, when God promises his Spirit to fulfil in all believers, in all the elect, the grace of the covenant, he saith, " I will write my law in their hearts, and cause them to walk in my statutes."