A True Believer
A true believer is a high prizer and strict observer of the sabbath day. He cannot prefer gold before God, the world before godliness, earth before heaven, time before eternity, body before soul, shadows before substance, onions before manna, pottage before birthright, darkness before light, or death before life. No more can he prefer a play day, or a trading day, before the sabbath day; he counts them hogs and swine that despise holy things. As it is the sure mark of an ungodly man to be a sabbath-breaker, so it is the sure mark of a child of God to sanctify the sabbath. Ungodly men are usually careless of their thoughts and words and ways on the sabbath. They can walk in the streets or in the fields at their pleasure. They can lie upon their beds, and at their doors. They can eat and drink even to excess. Yes, they do worse than all this upon the best days, and in the best hours of the day. And though formal hypocrites may on that day abstain from their ordinary sins and labours, yet they make not the sabbath a delight. Their thoughts are upon their earthly pleasures and profits.
The godly man is careful to celebrate the sabbath to God's glory. With Ignatius, he calls it the queen of days. With the primitive Christians, he saith, "I am a Christian; how then can I choose and love the Lord's day?" The godly eunuch is described by his observing of God's sabbath (Isa. 56:3). And the prophet setteth it as a special mark upon the children of God. "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him; not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isa. 58:13-14). That special momento God hath set upon the fourth commandment, "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day," is deeply rooted in his heart. He is so much affected with it, that he makes a conscious effort to keep the sabbath day. He rises as soon (if not sooner) from his bed on that day, as on other days, and having dressed his body, endeavours by reading, praying, and meditating to dress his soul also. He carefully addresses himself to the hearing of the Word preached, to public prayers, to receiving the sacrament at the times appointed. He is much in private meditation, which was the exercise of St. John the apostle at the time he was banished into the isle of Patmos for the Word of God. "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day" (Rev. 1:10), i.e., in sweet and heavenly meditation.
The godly man loves to have his mind employed at all times, but especially on the Lord's day, in feeling meditation upon spiritual affairs, upon the examination of his former life, the state of the other world, the slights and subtleties of Satan, the work of man's redemption, the work of regeneration, the excellency of an holy life, the hour of death, the tribunal of judgment, etc. The sabbath is a jubilee to his heart, and the joy of his thoughts. It is the desire, longing, and endeavour of his soul to spend it holily and religiously in such holy exercises and employments as are fitting the feast day of the soul and the Lord's holy day. And when, at any time, he is drawn away to the profaning or careless keeping of it, his soul is cast down within him. He is greatly grieved and troubled before God, and prays earnestly to God for more zeal and care and conscience for the time to come. And since he desires and strives to keep the sabbath holy, God accepts of his desires and endeavours. Abraham's determining to offer his son was accepted of God, as if he had actually offered him up (Heb. 11:17). So the imperfect keeping of the sabbath (if sincere) is in God's computation a complete keeping of it under the covenant of grace.
A true believer is willing to know and see the worst of himself. A carnal man who lives in sin (though possibly he may pray for knowledge in some things, and would be a knowing man, yet he) hath no mind to know himself, to know his own vileness and wickedness. He loves not to see the worst of himself. He as little loves to see his sin as to have it seen but the believer never thinks he sees his sins enough. No matter how little he sins, he thinks he sins too much; and no matter how much he sees his sins, he thinks he sees them too little.
A true believer is a daily wrestler. He struggles and wrestles with many things: some outward, some inward, some carnal, some spiritual, some of one condition, some of another. By believing prayer he wrestles with God and will not let Him go except He bless him, except He grant him his desire, and refresh his soul (Gen. 32:24; Matt. 15:22). He wrestleth with devils and damned angels (Eph. 6:12). Nay, rather than lack one to wrestle with, he fights with himself. He keeps under his body, and brings it into subjection (1 Cor. 9). He wrestles against sin, not only against the outward act, but the inward motion of sin. He fights against sin when he finds it first stirring in him, before it be exposed to the view of the world. If, when he hath been helped to pray affectionately, he find any motion to pride begin to stir, he endeavors presently to crucify it, lest it spoil his prayers and turn them into sin.
A true believer is no stranger at the throne of grace. The ungodly are described by this, "that they seek not God" (Ps. 10:4); "Do not call upon the Lord" (Ps. 14:4). They love their ease too well to take the pains to seek God. Their pleasures are more to them than God's presence, but the godly man is often with God upon his knees. Prayer is a sweet diversion to his soul, it is a spiritual feast to him to enjoy God in private, and therefore he says with David in Psalm 73:28, "It is good for me to draw near to God." He comes cheerfully and unbosoms himself to God as a man would do to his friend. He is not dragged into His presence, as into the presence of a judge, but comes freely to Him, as a child to his Father. He preserves a constant acquaintance with God, and keeps a daily course of communion with Him in prayer because he loves Him and His service. He is out of his element, except when he is either praying to God, or speaking of God, or thinking of God, as it is said of Bradford, that preaching, reading, and praying, was his whole life. It is said of St. James that he had knees as hard as camels knees with continual kneeling. Hilarian was found dead in his oratory with knees bent and eyes and hands lifted up. Bishop Latimer was wont to pray so fervently and oftentimes continued kneeling so long, that for feebleness he was not able to rise without help. Greg Naz reports of his sister Gorgonia that her knees seemed to cleave to the earth, by reason of her often kneeling. And the same Greg reports of his Aunt Priscilla that her elbows were as hard as an horn by her often leaning upon a desk when she prayed. The hypocrite doth not delight himself in the Almighty, and therefore will not always call upon God (Job 27:10). But the true believer delights in God as his only portion and happiness, and therefore continues instant in prayer. He looks on prayer as a part, a great part of every day's work, as his duty in all times and conditions, and finds much ease and refreshment by conversing with God in it. I have read of a gentlewoman, that in her parlour, at meditation and prayer, that she cried out, "Oh, that I might ever enjoy this sweet communion with God!" And one reports of Joachim, that he used to say " Prayer is my meat and drink." Such, therefore, as wholly omit prayer or pray but seldom are not true believers, whatever they may pretend. He that hath obtained favour to find grace prays daily for grace, but he who prays not, never received grace to this day.
A true believer seeks to enjoy God in His ordinances. It is not the empty formality in ordinances which he prizes, but to meet with God (Ps. 63:2). The profane, blind world neither careth for ordinances, nor God in ordinances. The formal hypocritical part of the world rests satisfied with the bare ordinances, but the sincere Christian seeks to find God, and His lively operations upon his heart there. It is Christ in a sermon that the spiritual soul feeds on. Some are taken with rich, magnificent, painted, and pompous words, with that art, learning, and elegancy of style with which sermons are compounded, but yet they neglect Christ. This is like children feeding on ashes. As a morsel of gold will not satisfy an hungry stomach, no notion in a sermon will (unless accompanied with the power and Spirit of Christ) stay the appetite of the soul. Oh, but Christ is savoury meat, such as the gracious soul loves to feed upon. Nothing without this can give contentment. Absalom thought it a small thing that he lived at Jerusalem. Nay, he esteemed his life as nothing, unless he might see the king's face. So the true believer esteems it a small thing to live at Jerusalem, that is, to enjoy all God's ordinances, unless he enjoys the face of Christ.with them. His very life without this seems but a burden. When the face of God shines, there is exceeding joy and rejoicing, but when the face of God is hid there is a cry with much mourning and lamentation.
A true believer is a constant peripatetic. He sits not still, but walks. He walks not in by-ways, but in the King's highway, not in the broad way, but in the strait and narrow way that leadeth unto life. He straitens and hems up his desires. He afflicts his flesh and unrenewed part by refusing and rejecting unruly desires. He rows against wind and stream, against the current of examples in the world. He presses forward in his way, through good report, and evil report, in want, in abundance, in every state and condition. His way pleases him all the more, because there is no elbow room for his lusts in it. He would have nothing allowed which corruption and lust craveth. And if at any time his heart look back to sin, as Lot's wife did to Sodom, he afflicts his spirit with godly sorrow for every step he hath again taken towards the broad way.
A true believer is a public mercy; wicked men are a public judgment. They are as thorns in the bosom of a land. They are the troublers of Israel, the fire-brands of a nation, the evening wolves that suck the blood of the people's joy. But believers are the chariots and horsemen of Israel, the props and pillars of a nation, the very store-houses and granaries of much good to others, the only excellent ones of the earth. The lips of the righteous feedeth many, and disperseth wisdom and knowledge. By his counsel and direction, he is as eyes to the blind. By his example, he is as feet to the lame; by his holy life and gracious deportment, he puts a check to the overspreading wickedness of the place where he lives. And by his earnest and importunate prayers, he staves off God's judgments from it. He is a blessing everywhere, for wherever he is God is with him, and others are saved for his sake. He is a Lot to save Zoar, and a Joseph for whose sake Potiphar's house is blessed. He is a Moses standing in the gap, that a murmuring and rebellious people be not destroyed. He is an Aaron running with his censer, and standing between the dead and the living, and making atonement for others when wrath is gone out from the Lord against them. His prayers are like a strong wall against the rage of the enemy. In a word, he is good and doth good, and therefore, every one that hath an interest in heaven begs his life. When his work is done, and he is gathered to his fathers, every godly man's eye doth lament him, as one taken away to the great loss of others, though it is to his own unspeakable gain.
The godly man is careful to celebrate the sabbath to God's glory. With Ignatius, he calls it the queen of days. With the primitive Christians, he saith, "I am a Christian; how then can I choose and love the Lord's day?" The godly eunuch is described by his observing of God's sabbath (Isa. 56:3). And the prophet setteth it as a special mark upon the children of God. "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him; not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Isa. 58:13-14). That special momento God hath set upon the fourth commandment, "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day," is deeply rooted in his heart. He is so much affected with it, that he makes a conscious effort to keep the sabbath day. He rises as soon (if not sooner) from his bed on that day, as on other days, and having dressed his body, endeavours by reading, praying, and meditating to dress his soul also. He carefully addresses himself to the hearing of the Word preached, to public prayers, to receiving the sacrament at the times appointed. He is much in private meditation, which was the exercise of St. John the apostle at the time he was banished into the isle of Patmos for the Word of God. "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day" (Rev. 1:10), i.e., in sweet and heavenly meditation.
The godly man loves to have his mind employed at all times, but especially on the Lord's day, in feeling meditation upon spiritual affairs, upon the examination of his former life, the state of the other world, the slights and subtleties of Satan, the work of man's redemption, the work of regeneration, the excellency of an holy life, the hour of death, the tribunal of judgment, etc. The sabbath is a jubilee to his heart, and the joy of his thoughts. It is the desire, longing, and endeavour of his soul to spend it holily and religiously in such holy exercises and employments as are fitting the feast day of the soul and the Lord's holy day. And when, at any time, he is drawn away to the profaning or careless keeping of it, his soul is cast down within him. He is greatly grieved and troubled before God, and prays earnestly to God for more zeal and care and conscience for the time to come. And since he desires and strives to keep the sabbath holy, God accepts of his desires and endeavours. Abraham's determining to offer his son was accepted of God, as if he had actually offered him up (Heb. 11:17). So the imperfect keeping of the sabbath (if sincere) is in God's computation a complete keeping of it under the covenant of grace.
A true believer is willing to know and see the worst of himself. A carnal man who lives in sin (though possibly he may pray for knowledge in some things, and would be a knowing man, yet he) hath no mind to know himself, to know his own vileness and wickedness. He loves not to see the worst of himself. He as little loves to see his sin as to have it seen but the believer never thinks he sees his sins enough. No matter how little he sins, he thinks he sins too much; and no matter how much he sees his sins, he thinks he sees them too little.
A true believer is a daily wrestler. He struggles and wrestles with many things: some outward, some inward, some carnal, some spiritual, some of one condition, some of another. By believing prayer he wrestles with God and will not let Him go except He bless him, except He grant him his desire, and refresh his soul (Gen. 32:24; Matt. 15:22). He wrestleth with devils and damned angels (Eph. 6:12). Nay, rather than lack one to wrestle with, he fights with himself. He keeps under his body, and brings it into subjection (1 Cor. 9). He wrestles against sin, not only against the outward act, but the inward motion of sin. He fights against sin when he finds it first stirring in him, before it be exposed to the view of the world. If, when he hath been helped to pray affectionately, he find any motion to pride begin to stir, he endeavors presently to crucify it, lest it spoil his prayers and turn them into sin.
A true believer is no stranger at the throne of grace. The ungodly are described by this, "that they seek not God" (Ps. 10:4); "Do not call upon the Lord" (Ps. 14:4). They love their ease too well to take the pains to seek God. Their pleasures are more to them than God's presence, but the godly man is often with God upon his knees. Prayer is a sweet diversion to his soul, it is a spiritual feast to him to enjoy God in private, and therefore he says with David in Psalm 73:28, "It is good for me to draw near to God." He comes cheerfully and unbosoms himself to God as a man would do to his friend. He is not dragged into His presence, as into the presence of a judge, but comes freely to Him, as a child to his Father. He preserves a constant acquaintance with God, and keeps a daily course of communion with Him in prayer because he loves Him and His service. He is out of his element, except when he is either praying to God, or speaking of God, or thinking of God, as it is said of Bradford, that preaching, reading, and praying, was his whole life. It is said of St. James that he had knees as hard as camels knees with continual kneeling. Hilarian was found dead in his oratory with knees bent and eyes and hands lifted up. Bishop Latimer was wont to pray so fervently and oftentimes continued kneeling so long, that for feebleness he was not able to rise without help. Greg Naz reports of his sister Gorgonia that her knees seemed to cleave to the earth, by reason of her often kneeling. And the same Greg reports of his Aunt Priscilla that her elbows were as hard as an horn by her often leaning upon a desk when she prayed. The hypocrite doth not delight himself in the Almighty, and therefore will not always call upon God (Job 27:10). But the true believer delights in God as his only portion and happiness, and therefore continues instant in prayer. He looks on prayer as a part, a great part of every day's work, as his duty in all times and conditions, and finds much ease and refreshment by conversing with God in it. I have read of a gentlewoman, that in her parlour, at meditation and prayer, that she cried out, "Oh, that I might ever enjoy this sweet communion with God!" And one reports of Joachim, that he used to say " Prayer is my meat and drink." Such, therefore, as wholly omit prayer or pray but seldom are not true believers, whatever they may pretend. He that hath obtained favour to find grace prays daily for grace, but he who prays not, never received grace to this day.
A true believer seeks to enjoy God in His ordinances. It is not the empty formality in ordinances which he prizes, but to meet with God (Ps. 63:2). The profane, blind world neither careth for ordinances, nor God in ordinances. The formal hypocritical part of the world rests satisfied with the bare ordinances, but the sincere Christian seeks to find God, and His lively operations upon his heart there. It is Christ in a sermon that the spiritual soul feeds on. Some are taken with rich, magnificent, painted, and pompous words, with that art, learning, and elegancy of style with which sermons are compounded, but yet they neglect Christ. This is like children feeding on ashes. As a morsel of gold will not satisfy an hungry stomach, no notion in a sermon will (unless accompanied with the power and Spirit of Christ) stay the appetite of the soul. Oh, but Christ is savoury meat, such as the gracious soul loves to feed upon. Nothing without this can give contentment. Absalom thought it a small thing that he lived at Jerusalem. Nay, he esteemed his life as nothing, unless he might see the king's face. So the true believer esteems it a small thing to live at Jerusalem, that is, to enjoy all God's ordinances, unless he enjoys the face of Christ.with them. His very life without this seems but a burden. When the face of God shines, there is exceeding joy and rejoicing, but when the face of God is hid there is a cry with much mourning and lamentation.
A true believer is a constant peripatetic. He sits not still, but walks. He walks not in by-ways, but in the King's highway, not in the broad way, but in the strait and narrow way that leadeth unto life. He straitens and hems up his desires. He afflicts his flesh and unrenewed part by refusing and rejecting unruly desires. He rows against wind and stream, against the current of examples in the world. He presses forward in his way, through good report, and evil report, in want, in abundance, in every state and condition. His way pleases him all the more, because there is no elbow room for his lusts in it. He would have nothing allowed which corruption and lust craveth. And if at any time his heart look back to sin, as Lot's wife did to Sodom, he afflicts his spirit with godly sorrow for every step he hath again taken towards the broad way.
A true believer is a public mercy; wicked men are a public judgment. They are as thorns in the bosom of a land. They are the troublers of Israel, the fire-brands of a nation, the evening wolves that suck the blood of the people's joy. But believers are the chariots and horsemen of Israel, the props and pillars of a nation, the very store-houses and granaries of much good to others, the only excellent ones of the earth. The lips of the righteous feedeth many, and disperseth wisdom and knowledge. By his counsel and direction, he is as eyes to the blind. By his example, he is as feet to the lame; by his holy life and gracious deportment, he puts a check to the overspreading wickedness of the place where he lives. And by his earnest and importunate prayers, he staves off God's judgments from it. He is a blessing everywhere, for wherever he is God is with him, and others are saved for his sake. He is a Lot to save Zoar, and a Joseph for whose sake Potiphar's house is blessed. He is a Moses standing in the gap, that a murmuring and rebellious people be not destroyed. He is an Aaron running with his censer, and standing between the dead and the living, and making atonement for others when wrath is gone out from the Lord against them. His prayers are like a strong wall against the rage of the enemy. In a word, he is good and doth good, and therefore, every one that hath an interest in heaven begs his life. When his work is done, and he is gathered to his fathers, every godly man's eye doth lament him, as one taken away to the great loss of others, though it is to his own unspeakable gain.
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