_Direct._ X. Account the world and all its pleasures, wealth, and honours, no better than indeed they are, and then Satan will find no bait to catch you.--Esteem all as dung with Paul, Phil. iii. 8; and no man will sin, and sell his soul, for that which he accounteth but as dung.
_Direct._ XI. Keep up above in a heavenly conversation, and then your souls will be always in the light, and as in the sight of God, and taken up with those businesses and delights which put them out of relish with the baits of sin.
_Direct._ XII. Let christian watchfulness be your daily work; and cherish a preserving, though not a distracting and discouraging fear.
_Direct._ XIII. Take heed of the first approaches and beginnings of sin. Oh how great a matter doth a little of this fire kindle! And if you fall, rise quickly by sound repentance, whatever it may cost you.
_Direct._ XIV. Make God's word your only rule; and labour diligently to understand it.
_Direct._ XV. And in doubtful cases, do not easily depart from the unanimous judgment of the generality of the most wise and godly of all ages.
_Direct._ XVI. In doubtful cases be not passionate or rash, but proceed deliberately, and prove things well, before you fasten on them.
_Direct._ XVII. Be acquainted with your bodily temperature, and what sin it most inclineth you to, and what sin also your calling or converse doth lay you most open to, that there your watch may be the stricter. (Of all which I shall speak more fully under the next Grand Direction.)
_Direct._ XVIII. Keep in a life of holy order, such as God hath appointed you to walk in. For there is no preservation for stragglers that keep not rank and file, but forsake the order which God commandeth them.--And this order lieth principally in these points: 1. That you keep in union with the universal church. Separate not from Christ's body upon any pretence whatever. With the church as regenerate, hold spiritual communion, in faith, love, and holiness: with the church as congregate and visible, hold outward communion, in profession and worship. 2. If you are not teachers, live under your particular, faithful pastors, as obedient disciples of Christ. 3. Let the most godly, if possible, be your familiars. 4. Be laborious in an outward calling.
_Direct._ XIX. Turn all God's providences, whether of prosperity or adversity, against your sins.--If he give you health and wealth, remember he thereby obligeth you to obedience, and calls for special service from you. If he afflict you, remember that it is sin that he is offended at, and searcheth after; and therefore take it as his physic, and see that you hinder not, but help on its work, that it may purge away your sin.
_Direct._ XX. Wait patiently on Christ till he have finished the cure, which will not be till this trying life be finished.--Persevere in attendance on his Spirit and means; for he will come in season, and will not tarry. "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain: as the latter and former rain upon the earth," Hos. vi. 3. Though you have oft said, "There is no healing," Jer. xiv. 19; "he will heal your backslidings, and love you freely," Hos. xiv. 4. "Unto you that fear his name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings," Mal. iv. 2: "and blessed are all they that wait for him," Isa. xxx. 18.
Thus I have given such directions as may help for humiliation under sin, or hatred of it, and deliverance from it.
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[Sidenote: Our warfare under Christ against the tempter.]
_Grand Direct._ IX. Spend all your days in a skilful, vigilant, resolute, and valiant war against the flesh, the world, and the devil, as those that have covenanted to follow Christ the Captain of your salvation.
The flesh is the end of temptation,[104] for all is to please it, Rom. xiii. 14, and therefore is the greatest enemy; the world is the matter of temptation; and the devil is the first mover, or efficient of it: and this is the trinity of enemies to Christ and us, which we renounce in baptism, and must constantly resist. Of the world and flesh I shall speak chap. 4. Here I shall open the methods of the devil. And first I shall prepare your understanding, by opening some presupposed truths.
1. It is presupposed, that there is a devil. He that believeth not this, doth prove it to others, by showing how grossly the devil can befool him. Apparitions, witchcrafts, and temptations are full proofs of it to sense; besides what Scripture saith.