the name! “Some are gone so far, and I am yet to begin my course! hath begun a good work will perform (or finish) it until the day of Jesus Christ. He is not of that light and uncertain temper, as having begun such an undertaking as 4. We hence see how great a perfection is lacking unto this, about which he hath expressed so much concern, and unrenewed souls; how great a perfection properly apperwherein it did appear his heart was so much engaged, to taining unto the spirit and nature of a man, and which throw it off. Indeed the lubricity of a man's spirit makes ought to be found in it and with it. Why, there is a whole him very susceptible of such a thing as this, to begin a state of life yet lacking to them. A dismal thing to think design, and then be sick of it, grow weary, neglect it, and of! It might fill a man with astonishment to think that throw away all thoughts and concern about it, and divert he should be so far short of what a man ought to be, beto somewhat else: but it is most repugnant to the natural, cause he is not yet so much as alive towards God. You essential perfection of the blessed God to be capable of have at large heard what that life is by which we are said such a change. He will not forsake his people, (as Samuel to live spiritually, and that it is not to be understood in a speaks to the mourning Israelites in 1 Sam. xii. 22.) be-natural but in a moral sense. For admit that the spirit of a cause it hath pleased him to make them his people. man is of itself naturally and essentially a self-acting thing, Though he sometimes seems, for the awakening of us out yet it were not to be imagined that God would make such of our security, and the engaging of us unto that care and a creature, and turn it loose into this world to act at randiligence which the case requires, to represent himself, as dom: life therefore in this moral sense is a principle of if he were contesting with himself about this matter, acting regularly and duly towards God. And though there whether he should continue the relation, and the care that be the natural powers and faculties that belong unto the belongs to it, yea or no; yet we see how he answers him- soul of a man, as it is such a creature in such a place and self in Jer. iii. 19. How shall I put thee among the child- order of the creation, yet while they are destitute of that ren, &c.? I said, "Thou shalt (yet) call me, My Father; rectitude by which they are inclined to God, or apt to act and shalt not turn away from me.' He resolves that he and move towards him by rule and according to prescripwould, with the relation, continue in them an instinct tion, such a soul may as truly and fitly be said to be dead, always to look towards him as their Father. "Thou shalt or those powers and faculties of it to have a death in them, look to me as thy Father, and shalt not turn away from as the hand of a man's body, supposing it to retain its me, and so will I preserve all things entire between thee natural shape and figure, but to be altogether useless unto and me." the ends and purposes, for which such an organ was made: if it be raised up, it falls down a dead weight; he can't move it this way, or that: you'll say, this is a dead thing; yet it hath its shape still. These considerations taken together are sufficient to ascertain to a regenerate soul that may be solicitous about the state of its own case, that the influence shall be continued, which is necessary for the continued maintenance of that life whereof the Spirit of God hath been the Author. The use that we shall make of this at present shall only be in some few practical inferences, reserving the further use till after we have considered and opened the other doctrine from the latter part of the verse. We have already (so far preventing ourselves) inferred, 1. That there is such a life as that which we are wont to call the life spiritual, distinct from, and to be superadded to, the natural life of men. I insisted upon this before, and therefore do but mention it now. 2. We may further infer, that this life is of a most ex-fortably, or joyfully, is to feel oneself to do so, or to feel cellent and noble kind. Of this we are taught to make a Judgment by the way of its being maintained. What is it maintained upon? They that live this life, live in the Spirit; certainly this is a very high way of living, and speaks the life that is to be maintained so, and only maintainable so, to be a life of a most excellent and noble kind. The excellency of any life is to be measured and judged by the objects which are suitable to it, and nutritive of it, or, out of which it has its sustenance and support. They that do live this life, as they do so, can breathe no other but this pure and sacred breath. They "live in the Spirit." They live no where but in a region of vitality, filled with vital influence even by the eternal Spirit. This is to live at a very high rate. Think therefore how excellent a life that is which the blessed God doth distinguish his own children by from other men. 3. Since this life is here spoken of as in this way to be continue-we learn, that it must certainly at some time or other begin. And therefore methinks this should be a rousing and awakening thought unto those who, when they hear of the ways and methods of maintaining and improving the spiritual life, have yet cause to suspect or doubt, whether as yet they have the very beginnings of it. Methinks it should be a chilling thought unto such a heart, "How much do I hear (may such a one say) of mighty things, things of very great and vast importance, which are all impertinencies to me, they signify nothing, nor have any suitableness in them to my case! How great things do fall beside me!" So it must be with every one that hath not yet begun to live this life. What! not yet begun? Do we find so many things so industriously inserted into the Scripture, to instruct and direct us concerning the ways of exercising, maintaining, and improving this life, and I not yet feel the very beginnings of it! O how much behind are men unto the whole order of Christians, of those that are so in deed and in truth, and may deservedly admit | It is strange to see how far some have gone in the appre hensions of this matter by merely natural light. You know we spake of this life comprehending, with the principles of grace, the consolations, and pleasures, and joys which are apt to result and spring from thence. Alone to have such a life, is not enough to denominate a person to be a living person, but to be well; to be healthful, and vigorous, and strong. I remember Socrates I find to speak thus (as Xenophon reports of him) among his dying discourses concerning life in this moral sense, "Do you ask (says he) what it is to live? I'll tell you what it is. To live truly is to endeavour to excel in goodness; and to live comoneself growing better and better." He calls those, persons that lived pleasantly, who felt themselves improving in respect of the good temper of their spirits. And I remember Philo-Judæus (though he had opportunity for much more light than the other) giving the notion of a man, as that which he would have commonly to obtain, says, that "no one ought to be reckoned a partaker of the rational nature, that has not in him hope towards God." So he speaks of religion; and says plainly, that “he who hath this hope in him, he only is to be called a man, and that the other is to be looked upon as no man." That was his notion. We may so far comport with it as to say, that there is certainly a great perfection belonging to the nature of man, wanting to them that are yet not come to live this life. And it is amazing to think that such a perfection is wanting by privation, in the proper sense, and not by nega tion only. As how dismal a thing were it, should we suppose all the rational powers and faculties to be on a sudden cut off from the nature of a man, so that he is be come a mere brute, he can't think a thought, every thing of reason and discourse is become alien to him! And we should suppose next the faculties of the sensitive nature to be cut off, and he, who was before a rational man, had the power of reason and speech, and could move to and fro and converse as a man, turned into a tree; life he has. but no better life than that: and if you would suppose that life gone too, and he at last turned into a stone; these were most dismal degenerations. It is no disparagement at all to what was orignally a brute, to be a brute, or to a tree, to be a tree, or to a stone, to be a stone; for it has all the perfection that belongeth to such a creature, or to the order whereof it is in the creation of God. But when this life is lacking to the soul of man, there is a perfection lacking which did originally belong unto this order of creatures. For what! Do you think that ever God made man to disaffect himself? that he ever made a reasonable creature that should not be capable of loving its own original, and the supreme good? And whereas we find now that men do universally make themselves the centre of their own loves, do we think that ever God made man to do so? Why, it is a dreadful transformation then, that is come upon the nature of man, and a most amazing degeneracy. It would startle us, if we would but admit serious thoughts of it, that there should be an entire state of life so generally lacking among men. And especially, if any of us upon reflection, laying our hands upon our hearts, do feel no movings of such a life, no beatings of a pulse God-ward and heaven-ward that may bespeak and be an indication of it. To think that I have such a thing lacking in me, that doth belong originally unto the nature of man; not so light and trivial a thing that, if I had it, it would add some kind of perfection to me which might conveniently enough be spared; but a whole orb and order is lacking to me which belongs to such a creature as I. Certainly it should put such a person mightily out of conceit with himself, and make him think, "What a monster am I in the creation of God! I am no way suited to the order of creatures in which my Creator hath set me; for that was an order of intelligent creatures all formed to the loving, adoring, and praising, and serving the great Author of their beings, with open eyes beholding and adoring his excellencies and glory: and I have no disposition thereto." 5. We may further infer how great a misery is consequent, when persons have not begun to live this life; there is a great perfection lacking in this life itself, but it infers a further consequent misery, i. e. a being cut off from all conversing with God, a kind of exile out of that region, which is within the management of the Spirit, the region in which it rules, and which it replenishes with life, and with vital influence: for being dead towards God they can have no converse with him. If a person be dead, you know what is usual, "Bury my dead out of my sight." They are not fit to come into God's sight, or to have to do with him. Would we like it well to converse among the dead; or endure to have carcasses lying with us in our houses, and in our beds, and to be found at our tables? Why, the case speaks itself; they who are destitute of this life, are quite cut off from God, and from all his converse; they are as it were exiles from the world and region of spirit and spirituality. O the strength and vigour, the joys and pleasures, the purity and peace, of that blessed region! But these are excluded by their want of this life. The Spirit can only statedly converse with those that are alive. It steps out of its region (the case were otherwise sad with us) to make men alive, and to draw them within the circle, as it were, that they may be within the reach, of its continual ordinary converse. But they are in no way of converse with the Spirit, as yet, that have not the principles of this life as yet planted in them. So that they are to look upon themselves as cut off from God, and as those with whom his Spirit hath no converse in a stated way. What it may do, what it will do in a way of sovereign grace, is more than they know; but it is their great concern to implore it, that it would come and move upon them, and attemper to the region of life. They are otherwise cut off as from the land of the living, and have no place nor fellowship there. 6. Let us see the wonderful grace of this blessed Spirit. Well may it be called the Spirit of grace: Who hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace, Heb. x. 29. We should frame our apprehensions accordingly of this blessed Spirit, as the light of such a Scripture would dictate, and account it the Spirit of all love, and goodness, and benignity, and sweetness, that admits such souls to have a livelihood in it. "If ye live in the Spirit;" O strange goodness this! Such Impure creatures, so lost in darkness and death, now brought within those blessed confines! That the Spirit of the living God should have taken them into such association with itself! q. d. "Come, you shall live with me: here is safe living, comfortable living." The communion which God holds with such souls is called the communion of the Holy Ghost in 2 Cor. xiii. 14. That it should come and lead souls out of death and darkness into the Divine presence, and say to them, "Dwell here, in the secret of the Almighty, and under the shadow of his wing. His feathers shall cover you, and his continual influence cherish you and maintain your life: here you shall spend your days!" This is a wonderful vouchsafement. How should we magnify to ourselves the grace of the Spirit upon this account! And yet further, 7. We see the great hazard of withdrawing ourselves from under the tutelage and influence of this Spirit. It is done by neglect, done by self-confidence, done by remitting our dependance, done by resistance, by our disobedience, our little obsequiousness to the Spirit: and you see the hazard of it. Step out of this region of life, and there is nothing but impure and desolate darkness. We languish and die, if we retire, or recede and step without these sacred boundaries. To be confined and kept within them, how great a vouchsafement is it! and, that it is undertaken that it shall be so! But though it shall be so, we are not to expect that this should be done without our care. We showed you, in speaking of that influence, that it is an assisting and co-operative influence, among many other particulars. Lastly, We may infer, that is a most weighty and important charge that lies upon every renewed soul. For think, how precious and excellent a life is to be maintained in them; that spiritual, divine life, a thing which both requires and justifies their utmost care requires it; for what would a person think of it, if he should be intrusted with the care of the life of a prince, the child of a great monarch? If any of us had such a charge committed to us, "I charge you with the life of this child, and to use your best care and endeavour for the nourishing of its life, and for the cultivating of it, and fitting it to the best purposes whereof it may be capable." How would this engage one's utmost diligence, that it is a very important life that is committed to my care. We have every one of us the care incumbent upon us of the life of a divine thing produced and brought forth in us, and which we are to apply the name first to, when we call ourselves the sons or children of God. There the name falls first; it is that divine thing that is his son, and we are only his sons or children upon the account of that. To have a divine life to maintain and cherish in my soul, as I may have a subordinate agency, under the Spirit, in order thereto, how should it engage my utmost solicitude and care, that nothing be done offensive to this life, that every thing be done that may tend to preserve and improve it! And as it requires our care, so it finally justifies it. A great many are apt to think, yea, and do often speak, reproachfully concerning those who do any thing to discover and hold forth the power and efficacy of such an inbeing life in them. To what purpose do these persons take so much more care than other men about their souls, and about their spiritual state, as they are wont to call it ? Why, they have a life more than you to be solicitous about; a life that you know nothing of; a noble, a divine life, which is incumbent upon them to care for. They wonder that this race of men don't run with them into the same excess of riot, when they never consider these are things that would be noxious to my life. It may be you find nothing in you, unto which such things would be an offence: they would hurt my very life. This hath the holy soul to say to justify all that care and concern which he hath about the maintaining and preserving his spiritual life. And would not he be thought to talk very unreasonably that should say; Why should such and such men, who are observed to be much addicted to study, and retirement, and contemplation, why should they inure themselves to more thoughts than the beasts do? They, who apply themselves to a course of praying, meditation, &c. why should they do so more than the beasts, who, say they, do but eat and drink, and what is given them that they gather, and no more ado? The answer would be obvious from such persons; "I have a thing called reason in me, which I am to cultivate, and improve, and make my best of, which beasts have not." And is not that a sufficient answer; "I have a life more in me than other men have, which I am to tend, and take all possible care of; a life capable of great improvements, a life of great hopes, a life put into me upon high accounts, and for the greatest and most noble designs." And therefore if any of us be tempted by the licentious persons of the age to run their course, and do as they do, pray let us learn to distinguish our cases. The matter is not with us as it is with them. We have somewhat else in us; a divine thing, which hath a sacred life belonging to it, implanted in our natures; which hath given us hope, and which is in us the earnest and pledge, of a blessed eternity, an immortal state of life. And what! shall we be prodigal of this? Is this a thing to be exposed, and ventured, and thrown away, merely to comply with the humour of a sensual wretch, who knows nothing of the matter, and is a stranger to all such affairs? SERMON XII.* You have heard of a twofold work of the Holy Spirit upon such souls as it hath regenerated, or put a principle of spiritual life into; viz.-the maintaining of that life, which is mentioned in the former part of this verse, "If we live in the Spirit;" and-the causing, and conducting, and governing the motions which are agreeable to that life, in the latter part, "Let us also walk in the Spirit."-We have spoken of the former of these, and are now to proceed unto the latter, that is, to treat of that part or hand which the Holy Spirit hath about the motions and actions of renewed souls; and those must be considered in a reference unto that life unto which they are connatural, as you see they are mentioned in that reference in the text, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.' Therefore the latter truth which we have to note to you from this Scripture you may take thus ;-That it belongs to their state, who live in the Spirit, to walk also in the Spirit. In speaking to which we shall, I. Show, what it is to walk in the spirit. II. How it belongs unto the state of such persons so to walk. I. What walking in the Spirit imports. This we may understand by inquiring severally into, and then joining together, these two notions; i. e. what walking doth import; and then, what it imports to do any thing in the Spirit. These being explained and put together, will give us the full and true import of walking in the Spirit. Walking in the general, you know, is an expression that signifies action or motion; and sometimes it is taken in a natural sense, and then you know what it signifies; | sometimes it is taken in a moral sense, a sense borrowed from the natural, because of some analogy and agreement between the one and the other; and then it plainly signifies the course of a man's conversation. So it must necessarily be understood to signify here, according to the transumed or borrowed sense. And nothing is more ordinary in Scripture than to express the course of a man's conversation, whether it be good or whether it be bad, by the phrase of walking; as you can't but have taken notice, such of you as have been conversant with the Scriptures, how often it is said concerning the kings of Israel and Judah, that they walked so and so; such and such a one in the way of his fathers, and the like: where the series of his actions, morally considered, is most expressly intended to be signified. But that we may speak more distinctly unto the notion of walking, because it will give much light unto the matter which we have before us; as, in general, walking doth signify action or motion, so it also carries with it some specification of that action or motion, and so doth import action or motion of some special kind. For, though all walking is motion, yet all motion is not walking; and therefore it is an expression that serves to be some way restrictive of the general notion of action or motion. And that we may speak more clearly hereunto, we must take notice of something that walking doth expressly denote, or that is more formally included in the notion of it; and somewhat that it doth connote or import of a kind of collateral signification thereof. 1. There are some things which walking doth more directly and formally denote. As, Preached March 6th, 1678, at Cordwainer's Hall. 1. It denotes a self-motion. A motion which proceeds from an internal principle in the thing that moves; though not originally; for that cannot be supposed concerning it in a creature, but subordinately only. If one rolls a stone to and fro upon the ground, it would be very improper to say, that stone walks. It signifies motion from an internal principle, a kind of self-motion. 2. It doth most properly signify a voluntary motion. There may be motion from an internal principle, which is not voluntary, as there are many things that have a principle of motion in themselves, which have not the power of will; which belongs only unto intellectual agents, unto free creatures. Now if a man be dragged this way or that, he is not said to walk, though he make use of his own motive power too. 3. It imports an orderly motion. For he is not said to walk who only wildly skips and fetches freaks this way and that. And that signification is especially carried that is used for walking here, soytw; a word from whence that word si comes, which signifies military order, the orderly motion of any army in rank and file: so the word is noted to signify. Yea, and from the same word comes a word that signifies the order which is observed in verse, when the composition is most exact and accurate, of so many feet, or making up such or such a form of metre; disxos. A metrical kind of order is signified by this word; so as that one's motions are measured by a strict kind of rule all along. 4. It imports a pleasurable motion. For you know we are wont to walk for our recreation. If persons go a journey, or the like, that is toilsome, we express that more usually by another word, travelling; but if a person be gone forth to exercise himself in order to his recreation and health, then we usually say, he is gone a walking. 5. It is a continued motion. For he that fetches a skip and jump now and then, this way and that, is not said to walk; but walking is a course of motion continued for such a time. 6. It is a progressive motion. There may be continued motion which is not progressive. One may continue moving to and fro, in the same place, for a long time together: but walking is a going forward. These things (as is obvious unto a common understanding) are carried in the notion of walking most expressly, and so it may be said to denote these things more formally. But, 2. There are also some things which it doth connote. And they are especially these two, viz.-(1.) an end, and—(2.) a way. ↑ It connotes an end; for walking is a tendency some whither, or unto some term. And it connotes a way; for a man can't walk, but it must be in some way or other, whether it be better or worse. These things are considerable concerning the notion of walking. And as walking doth import a specification of motion, or is a more special kind of motion; so the addtion of "in the Spirit" plainly imports a specification of walking, so as to denote a more special sort and kind of walking. We shall consider, more at large, what it is to do ary thing in the Spirit, before we come to sum up all in joining these notions together. To do any thing in the Spirit, is to do it in the light, and in the power of the Spirit. 1. In the light of the Spirit. For whenever it comes to deal with the spirits of men, it is in that way, by creating a light to them, which is directive of their motions. LA us walk in the light of the Lord, Isa. ii. 5. that is walking in the Spirit. To do any thing in the Spirit, is to do it the light, not blindly and darkly, as those that now na what they do. 2. In the power of the Spirit. I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteous ness, even of thine only, Ps. lxxi. 16. These things thus laid before you will make it plain :0 us what is carried "in walking in the Spirit." We are w put together the notions of walking, and doing any thing in the Spirit. And an account of the result and sum of what has been said may be given you in these several particulars. 1. To walk in the Spirit is to intend and tend towards an end which is suitable to the Spirit. It is most proper to begin there; and that is, in short, walking in the Spirit imports a continual tendency towards God, as the great end and mark at which one aims. And this is an end agreeable to the Spirit; and this, and no other, as the last and ultimate end. The soul that is acted by the Spirit of God is acted towards God. Do but observe how these things are connected in that passage, Ps. lxiii. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee. How comes it to do so? Thy right hand holds me up. And what is that right hand? Why, it can signify nothing else but the power of God, that is, his Spirit, which we are taught to look upon as the great active principle of all the motions and operations of the creatures, whereof it can be said to be directly determinative. Then we may conclude that a person is acted by the Spirit, or walks in the Spirit, when he aims at God through his whole course. While men are under the power and rule of another, that is, a fleshly and corrupt principle, it is all for self that their designs lie, and the course of their actions run; they are confined wholly (as hath been said upon an occasion) within a circle of acting from self to self: but when once the Spirit of God comes to have the government and the motions of the soul, as all those motions do immediately spring from God, so they tend to him, and centre in him. The soul designs him, and none but him, in its whole course. And therefore, it being the great work of the Redeemer to reduce and bring back souls to God, what part or hand the Spirit of God hath in this matter, is in pursuance of the Redeemer's design. Therefore we are said to "have access, or come to God through him by the Spirit;" this is the common course stated for all men; for Jew and Gentile both, for with such reference it is said, Through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father, (Eph. ii. 18.) implying that none would ever come at God, aim at God, or tend towards him, but as, by the motive power, and in the directive light of the blessed Spirit, they are acted and carried towards him through Christ. 2. Walking in the Spirit implies a constant adherence unto Christ by dependence and subjection. Which it must needs do upon the account that all walking, as I have said, connotes a way, and Christ is expressly represented to us as the way leading unto God. I am the way; no man cometh unto the Father but by me, John xiv. 6. And hence, as we have this phrase of "walking in the Spirit," so we have that too of walking in Christ, Col. ii. 6. And the apostle Peter directs such a course of walking as might put them to shame who should falsely accuse their good conversation in Christ, 1 Pet. iii. 16. And certainly it is one great part of the work of the Holy Ghost upon the spirits of men, so as to attemper and frame them unto the way of access to God, or the way wherein God can be come at, that it may become even spiritually natural unto the soul to walk in that way. While they walk in Christ, they walk in the Spirit. It is the business of the Spirit to engage the soul in this way of tending and moving towards God, and to keep it on therein. that life was the light of men, John i. 4. It is therefore a region of living light which the Spirit doth create unto souls, in which they converse and walk: then are they said to walk in the Spirit, by that work and office of the Holy Ghost, which our Saviour calls "its leading persons into all truth." He promises in those consolatory, valedictory discourses of his to his disciples, (in xiv. xv. and xvi. chapters of John's Gospel,) again and again the Spirit, and for this purpose, "to lead them into truth;" that, you know, is the part of directive light. But then it is one thing to direct only by telling, so and so you must do; and another thing by way of instinct, or by an inward prompting; by which too a person does not go in that case blindfold, but with an inclination, with spontaneity, and seeing his way all the way he goes. He walks in the light; and such a light as is directive and active to him at once. 4. It imports acting by a divine power all along through our whole course. The Spirit, where it is, is the Spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind, 2 Tim. i. 7. They are said to be in the Spirit, who are under the power and dominion of it, as John says of himself, that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, in Rev. i. 10. Under the influence of its Almighty power, its captivating dominion. According as when persons are said to be in the flesh, (an expression frequently used in Scripture,) it notes their being under the power and dominion of a fleshly principle. So to walk in the Spirit, is to act on all along under the power and governing influence of the Spirit. I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and down in his name, Zech. x. 12. That one attribute belonging to the Divine nature, viz. the power of God, is more especially pointed at there. There is a strict connexion between this and the last mentioned thing, that light and this power; that light being a vital, a living thing. Though we may have distinct notions of them, yet they are in themselves connected and most inseparable. Come ye, let us walk in the light of the Lord, Isa. ii. 5. Even in the form of expression, though light is the thing which is directly spoken of, there is implied and involved therewith a certain active power, the being moved to go and walk in that light, which, as such, was to guide them in their way. See what is referred to in ver. 3. He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. This signifies that their spirits were acted by a certain power which did incline them unto this thing; and not that they were merely enlightened. And whereas in this very chapter, the expression, "led by the Spirit," is made use of in ver. 18. "If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law;" as also in Rom. viii. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God; the word which is rendered led is yovra, and signifies acted or moved by a certain power. As many as are acted by the Spirit of God; and they that are acted by the Spirit of God are not under the law, they are not cursed and condemned by it. 5. It imports acting from spiritual habitual principles that are fixed and settled in the soul; and therefore in3. It imports walking in the divine light, whereof the cludes in it the exercise of all the several graces of the Spirit is the continual Author unto renewed souls. And I Spirit. For you must know that when we say, walking in do not now mean only that external light which it affords the Spirit implies walking in the Divine light, and by the by the Scripture revelation, but an inward vital light which Divine power; it is not to be understood as if there were it sets up and continues in the soul itself, having caused nothing else but a temporary, present ray of light, and "a day-spring, a day-star to arise there, and made a day effort of power from the Spirit; and so that there comes within." The Spirit creates unto the soul a region of light, to be any thing habitually fixed in the soul itself. But wherein it converses, while it is said to converse in the though it is very true indeed that habitual light, &c. in the Spirit. They unto whom it hath not created such a light, soul from the Spirit must be maintained and continued by are said "to walk in darkness;" and whatsoever there is the Spirit, it is nevertheless to be looked upon as an of external light shining round about them, their darkness habitual principle which is in the soul itself. And the comprehends it not, as in John i. 5. But where this bless- case is here but as it is in nature; for there can be no sort ed Spirit is, it makes those that were darkness to be light of life in all the creation, whereof God is not the Author; in the Lord." "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are nor any action done, but the power of doing it is received ye light in the Lord." Well, and what then? Walk as from him; though there are many actions which he doth children of the light, Eph. v. 8. 'Tis true that light doth not make creatures do, yet there is no action in which he here, as well as elsewhere, signify holiness, but not with- does not enable, or not give them sufficient power. But out reference unto intellectual light; only it imports that yet notwithstanding this, we know that the natures of intellectual light to be a practical, refining, transforming, creatures are distinct from one another; and to say, that vital light, so as that the same thing is capable of a two- the Divine power must do all, is to take away the distincfold denomination, of light, and of life too; as St. John, tion of natures wholly, and then a stone might reason as speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteous-well as a man, and a tree might walk to and fro as well as ness, speaks of him as under the notion of life, and saith, | a sensitive living creature: but God's way of dealing with creatures in the natural creation, ordinarily, is to act them according to, and co-work with that peculiar nature which he hath put into this, and that, and the other creature. So it is here: there is a divine nature, consisting of many gracious, holy, vital principles which God puts into the soul when he renews it; and which are so many several parts of the new creature, and with these several principles or with this divine nature, he concurs or co-works; though the exigency of the case is such, there being a corrupt nature joined therewith in the same subject, that here he must continually over-power unto every action that is done and it is not enough to give, or maintain, the principle, but he must work the very act itself, because of a reluctant principle, which would otherwise strangle the act, and never let it be brought forth at all. But then we must not suppose that the power by which the work is done, is a thing only at this time given, and that there is no principle in the soul itself which it acts from; for there is a principle implanted and fixed in the soul, and though that requires to be acted, it is the way and method of the Spirit to act in and by that principle, or put that principle upon action. So that walking in the Spirit is walking in the exercise of the implanted principles of grace, and not without them, or not having any such work wrought or done in us; as if a person should be habitually inclined one way, and yet act another; believe, without a principle of faith; or love God, without a principle of love; or fear, without a principle of fear; by having these actions erected in him by the Spirit, without the habits from whence they are to proceed, and to which they are connatural. This is not to be supposed. And therefore whensoever any walk in the actual exercise of grace, they walk in the Spirit. And it is very observable to this purpose that you have several fruits of the Spirit, or gracious principles, ennumerated immediately before the text, ver. 22, 23. You are there told what the fruits of the Spirit are; or what the principles are which the Spirit is the productive cause of; and then it is afterwards subjoined, "If we live in the Spirit," or have all these principles, "let us also walk in the Spirit," i. e. in acting and exercising these principles. Hence therefore we read of walking by faith, (2 Cor. v. 7.) and walking in the fear of the Lord, (Acts ix. 31,) and walking with God, (Mic. vi. 8.) and of walking in love, Eph. v. 2. To walk in the exercise of these several graces of the Spirit, is walking in the Spirit. 6. It implies walking in the way of the Lord with freedom of choice, and from a spontaneous inclination; from both the notion of walking, which is voluntary, and the addition, in the Spirit, which is the great Author of all liberty wheresoever it is; Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, 2 Cor. iii. 17. A person is not the less, but the more, free by being impelled and moved by the Spirit; for it is the Spirit that makes him free and enlarges him: I will walk at liberty, says the Psalmist, for I keep thy precepts, Psalm cxix. 45. And, I will run the ways of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart, ver. 32. 7. It implies a continued reference to a rule. To walk in the Spirit is not to walk extravagantly, as those that know no measures or limits in their walking, and are as the wild ass used to the wilderness, Jer. ii. 24. It is opposed to walking after lust, or the inclinations of corrupt nature, which you know is the only principle of all extravagancy. This I say, says the apostle in the 16th verse of this chapter, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." The apostolical authority and majesty, which is imported in that solemn preface, is of very great remark and note. This I say, this I determine, this is one of the sacred effala and dictates which I pronounce to you in the name of the great God and Redeemer, whose office and authority I bear; "This I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." That Spirit will be a principle of holy order and regularity to you in all your walking: so the great promise of it implies, in Ezek. xxxvi. 27. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You shall then be willing to walk in a prescribed way, the way that I line and rule out unto you all along. 8. It implies a complacential course of walking on in * Preached March 13th, 1678, at Cordwainer's Hall. religion. Walking in the Spirit is walking cheerfully; it belongs to it, it is comprehended within the compass of it. Whenever any have the Spirit, this lies within their walk; it is part of that spiritual walk to be conversant, amidst consolations and joys and pleasures, and it is part of the signification of that expression, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord." Light doth many times signify (besides knowledge, and holiness) joy, delight, pleasure. Walking is a motion for recreation, as you have heard; spiritual walking is a motion, if it be entirely in itself, amidst spiritual joys and comforts. The churches walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied, in the before-mentioned Acts ix. 31. That sure was walking in the Spirit. "Tis suitable to the way in which Christians are to walk, which is throughout in every part of it, a way of pleasantness, and a path of peace, Prov. iii. 17. It is the Spirit that causes holy ones to walk in this way, and then sure it works ir them a disposition suitable to the way. And if the way is pleasant, and the heart is suitably disposed thereunto, it cannot but be pleasant walking, so far as that disposition is in that pleasant way. 9. It is a continuing in the course and practice of religion. For walking is a continued motion: and therefore they that are said to walk in the Spirit, don't begin in the Spírit, and then think to be made perfect by the flesh, (as the expression is in Gal. iii. 3.) but they continue in a course of spiritual motion. 10. Lastly, It imports a progress in spirituality. As was said before, there may be a continued motion that is not progressive; but walking in the Spirit imports a progressive motion in a course of spirituality. When persons make still nearer and nearer approaches unto their end, the term of their course; draw nearer and nearer to God, and as they draw nearer to him, find a gradual influence of divine light, and life, and power, more discernible impressions of the Divine image, grow more and more into a suitableness to him; are more acquainted with him, are brought unto higher delectation, and to take more complacency in him: this is walking in the Spirit; when a man's path, as it is said concerning the righteous man, is as the shining light, that shines more and more, brighter and brighter, unto the perfect day, Prov. iv. 18. As you know the nearer approach we make unto the light of a glorious lucid object, the more light we have, still all along as we go, our way grows more and more lightsome. And strength grows and increases too with the light, The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger, Job xvii. 9. There is an increase with the increase of God. They don't walk in the Spirit therefore who keep moving, but move in a circle, or in a round of empty sapless duties, keep up the formalities of religion, and no more; but they walk in the Spirit who make a progress, who go forward, who draw nearer and nearer unto God, and become more suitable and like him, and fit for his eternal converse, and for all the present service whereto he calls them. SERMON XIII.* Ir is the latter part of the verse that we are upon, from which, considered in that reference which it carries to the former, we have observed-That it belongs to the state of them, who are made alive by the Spirit of God, to walk in the Spirit. We have proposed in speaking to this, to show you,-1. What walking in the Spirit imports,-2. How E belongs unto the state of living Christians thus to walkThe former we have already spoken to, and now go on to the other, viz. To evince to you, that it belongs to the state of those. that live in the Spirit, thus to walk in it. Now we are show you, that it belongs to the state of such as a privilege; and therein, the part of the Holy Ghost to cause and ecoduct all the holy motions of renewed souls: and also, that it belongs to their state as a duty, and therein we are to |