THE GENERAL GRAND DIRECTIONS FOR WALKING WITH GOD, IN A LIFE OF FAITH AND HOLINESS: CONTAINING THE ESSENTIALS OF GODLINESS AND CHRISTIANITY.
I am next to direct you in that exercise of grace, which is common to all christians. Habits are for use: grace is given you, not only that you may have it, but also that you may use it. And it is fit that we direct you how to use it, before we direct you how to know that you have it; because it is grace in exercise that you must discern; and habits are not perceived in themselves, but by their acts; and the more lively and powerful the exercise is, the more easily is grace perceived: so that this is the nearest and surest way to a certainty of our own sincerity:--he that useth grace most and best, hath most grace; and he that hath most, and useth it most, may most easily be assured that he hath it in sincerity and truth.
In these directions, I shall begin with those great internal duties, in which the very life of all religion doth consist; and the general practice of these principles and graces: and all these generals shall be briefly set together, for the easiness of understanding and remembering them. And then I shall give you such particular directions, as are needful, in subordination to those generals.
[Sidenote: For a well-grounded faith.]
_Grand Direct._ I. Labour to understand well the nature, grounds, reason, and order of faith and godliness; and to believe upon such grounds, so well understood, as will not suffer you to stagger, or entertain a contrary belief.
Ignorance and ungrounded or ill-grounded persuasions in matters of religion, are the cause that abundance of people delude themselves, with the empty name and dead profession of a faith and religion which they never were indeed possessors of. I know there are low degrees of knowledge, comparatively, in many that are true believers; and that there may be much love and holiness, where knowledge is very small or narrow, as to the objective extent of it; and that there is a knowledge that puffeth up, while charity edifieth; and that in many that have the narrower knowledge, there may be the fastest faith and adherence to the truth, which will conquer in the time of trial. But yet I must tell you, that the religion which you profess, is not, indeed, your own religion, if you know not what it is, and know not in some measure the true grounds and reasons why you should be of that religion. If you have only learned to say your creed, or repeat the words of christian doctrine, while you do not truly understand the sense; or if you have no better reasons why you profess the christian faith, than the custom of the country, or the command of princes or governors, or the opinion of your teachers, or the example of your parents, friends, or neighbours; you are not christians indeed. You have a human belief or opinion, which objectively is true; but subjectively in yourselves, you have no true, divine belief. I confess, there may be some insufficient, yea, and erroneous reasons, which a true believer may mistakingly make use of, for the proof of certain fundamental truths; but then that same man hath some other reason for his reception of that truth, which is more sound: and his faith is sound, because of those sound, infallible principles, though there be a mixture of some other reasons that are unsound. The true believer buildeth on the rock, and giveth deep rooting to the holy seed, Matt. vii. 24; xiii. 5-8. Though some deluded men may tell you, that faith and reason are such enemies, that they exclude each other as to the same object; and that the less reason you have to prove the truth of the things believed, the stronger and more laudable is your faith; yet, when it cometh to the trial, you will find, that faith is no unreasonable thing; and that God requireth you to believe no more, than you have sufficient reason for, to warrant you, and bear you out; and that your faith can be no more, than is your perception of the reasons why you should believe; and that God doth suppose reason, when he infuseth faith, and useth reason in the use of faith. They that believe, and know not why, or know no sufficient reason to warrant their belief, do take a fancy, an opinion, or a dream, for faith. I know that many honest-hearted christians are unable to dispute for their religion, or to give to others a satisfactory account of the reasons of their faith or hope; but yet they have the true apprehension of some solid reasons in themselves; and they are not christians they know not why: and though their knowledge be small as to the number of propositions known, yet it doth always extend to all that is essential to Christianity and godliness, and they do not believe they know not what; and their knowledge is greater intensively, and in its value and operation, than the knowledge of the learnedst ungodly man in the world.