lessons, learn the old better. Watch over your hearts, lest, through unbelief, they draw back from any thing of God or Christ that once you have received; or, through the deceitfulness of sin in them, they turn you aside to any crooked path. Acquaint yourselves well with the state of your own souls, especially, whether they grow or decline in their esteem of, love to, and delight in Christ and holiness; in their hatred of sin and vanity; as also in their weanedness from the world, and preparedness for the cross. Let every defect you find in yourselves still lead you to a more naked dependance on Christ, and be as a fresh incentive to lift your souls with more earnestness to God in prayer. In your addresses to him, forget not, Your fellow-servant and brother, who desires so to be found with you waiting for the gracious JOHN EVANS. APPENDIX, No. XV. ANOTHER which was delivered not long after, shall be added more at length. The text was, Jeremiah, vi. 16. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest, &c. The first words,-Thus saith the Lord, should be sufficient to engage attention; for, wherever God has a mouth to speak, we should have an ear to hear. Here he looks upon the children of men as a company of travellers out of the way, he calls after them, come to me, I will put you in a better way. The way is Christ, John, xiv. 4, 5, 6. The ways of religion, like others, have an entrance,-the strait gate. They are hedged in with the commandments of God. They are tracked by others who have gone before; and, they have an end,-life and salvation. The way of godliness is the old way, and it is the will of God that we should walk in it. It is also a good way, and those who walk in it shall find rest. Many look upon these ways to be upstart, and the way of sin to be old. It is true, the way of sin has been of long standing, and in it we all set out; but the way of godliness is older. The devil was not up so soon, but God was up before him, Ecclesiastes, vii. 29. There are four remarkable periods of time,-two concerning the old world, and two concerning the new; but in both, godliness had the start. The first edition of the old world was when Adam was created. He was made upright, and walked in uprightness. The way of religion was the first way. The second edition was in Noah's time, 1600 years after. The old world was filthy and vile, and it was drowned; eight persons were saved, to be the seed of the new. Then godliness got the ascendancy. Noah walked with God; so did Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. The first edition of the new world, was in the days of the incarnation; called, in the Old Testament, the world to come. Jesus was the great exemplar. There were also his apostles, divers holy men and holy women. Inquire how they walked. The second edition may be dated at the Reformation. Between the apostles' time and Luther's there was a great apostacy, but God raised him up, and the Spirit was then working. Many were eminent for piety, and strict and holy walking. This was the way of the blessed martyrs in the days of Queen Mary; and of the good old Puritans* in the days of Queen Elizabeth and King James. Some of whom some of us have known. Oh, walk in their way. Nay, it may be, you may be sent to your own old ways,-not your first: they were wicked; but, ask, What were my ways when first converted? Most Christians have their first love, and too many leave it. The way of doctrinal faith is a good old way. The Papists ask us in scorn, Where our religion was before Luther? We answer, It was where their's was not, before or since; namely, in the word of God. We must try all doctrines by the scripture. Those doctrines are likely to be according to truth, and not error, which abase men, and lift up God. The way of divine worship, in all the ordinances, is a good old way. The way of sabbath religion, Genesis, ii. 1, 2, is as old as paradise. Adam kept the sabbath. The disciples kept the sabbath, and Christ appeared to them again and again, Acts, xx. 6. They remained till midnight, praying and preaching. John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. This was the way of the old Puritans; *In the preface, a like phrase was introduced from the pen of Mr. Matthew Henry, and it is gratifying to observe the representation as the joint testimony of two such witnesses. Though the idea conveyed is opposed to that which, for reasons best known to the promulgers, the persons called Puritans commonly receive, it appears in full consistence with truth; indeed, it seems to the writer, as the result of diligent investigation, that due allowance being made for defects, incidental to the times, and otherwise, without invidious distinctions easily accounted for, it would be difficult to find a body of men more loyal, useful, or devout. "Be not ashamed," said the pious Rector of Weston Favell, "of the name of Puritan; they were the soundest preachers, and I believe, the truest followers of Jesus Christ; I esteem them as some of the most zealous Christians that ever appeared in our land." See Mr. Brown's Memoirs of Mr. Hervey. pp. 223, 224, ut supra. It may be remarked, that, in proportion as contemporary authorities, distinguished by their religious excellence, or attention to the simple verity, are consulted, and the assertions so frequently reiterated, watchfully scrutinized, the more wariness of observation will be discerned in the description given of a Puritan by Dr. Watts, a separatist from the vain and dangerous courses of a vicious world. Works. v. 7. p. 565. ut supra; the more candid and favourable also, commonly, will be the judgment. The following extract from an original relick, is a satisfactory corroboration of many others. "The Puritanes, whose fantastical zeal I mislike, thoughe they differ in ceremonies and accidents, yet they agree with us in substance of religion, and I think all, or most of them, love his Matic." Letter from Archbishop Hutton, to Lord Cranborne, 18 Dec. 1604. Printed in Dr. Whitaker's History of Richmondshire, vol. 2. p. 315. See the "Character of an old English Puritane, or Nonconformist," by John Geree, M. A. 4to. 1646. + It is an excellent thing, and very desirable, and to be laboured after, that we be in the Spirit on the Lord's day; and that is, not to be,-either in the world, or in the flesh, or in the devil. Sabbath time must not be spent in worldly employments, they were up early on the sabbath morning, diligent in the ways of God, and went far in denying lawful liberties. Many suffered much against the proclamation for sports on that day.* But now there is a new way. Many look upon family worship as an upstart. But it was in Adam's family, in Noah's, in Abraham's, Isaac's, and Jacob's. Abraham catechised his family, Genesis, xviii. 18. In the New Testament we read of the church in the house; of families walking together, hand in hand, in heaven's way. As for publick worship. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, Genesis, iv. 26,-that is publickly,-before, it was in families. Or; Then men began to be called by it-to make profession. In the New Testament, we read that they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers, Acts, ii. 42. The old Puritans saw many corruptions in worship, yet they waited upon God in it. The way of holiness and close walking is a good old way; as old as Adam, before he fell; as Enoch, as Noah. The primitive Christians so walked; not only in ways of worship, but in all manner of obedience, Hebrews, xi. 5. The way to please God is to walk with him. The way of heavenly-mindedness, and contempt of the world, is a good old way. The patriarchs lived like pilgrims,-here to day, and gone to-morrow. So the primitive Christians, Acts, iv. 37. How many professors now carry it otherwise, as if they had a mind to have the world for their portion. The way of plainness and simplicity is a good old way. In it Jacob walked, and Nathaniel, and the old Protestants, and Puritans. The way of peaceableness and patience under the cross, is a good old way. The martyrs prayed for the Queen. The old Christians took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. This is according to rule; let every soul be subject to the higher powers. -no manner of work, except necessity and mercy. It is a good rule to defer what may as well have been done before, or be left alone till after. Neither must we be in the flesh, in recreations. There should not be feasting on the Lord's-day; nor in the devil, in wrath and malice, in strife and envy. But we should be in the Spirit, that is, in a spiritual frame of heart, as walking, living in the Spirit; worshipping God in holy ordinances, -publick, private, secret; and also we should be spiritual in them; that is, sincere and serious. When we are out of actual worship, we must be spiritual in our thoughts and words. If we are doing works of necessity, or mercy, eating, drinking, travelling to and fro to ordinances, attending sick people, taking care of cattle, we must not do it as at other times. The day is holy, and must be sanctified. Learn to keep sabbaths better. Christian resolution, care, and watchfulness, over ourselves, and one another, will do something. Let us so act for the command's sake,—an easy, sweet, command; for the consequents' sake; the promise and threatening sake, wherewith the command is backed; for the conversation sake the week following, for the Redeemer's sake, whose day it is. The King's friends are known by keeping the King's holiday; for religion's sake, which is adorned by it; for the reckoning-account's sake hereafter. It is supposed that Christ will come to judgment on the Lord's-day. Remember the sabbath, and prepare for it before-hand. Set out well; the Lord is risen. Look up for the Spirit's help. Do what you can. See to your families. P. Henry. Orig. MS. * A striking instance is recorded by Mr. Baxter in his Divine Appointment of the Lord's-day, p. 116, oct. 1671. The way of brokenness and tenderness of heart is a good old way, the way of godly sorrow for sin. I have heard an old Christian say, I think Christians do not come in at the same door that we did, for we were long under terrors of conscience, sound humiliation, before we tasted joy,*-but now it is otherwise. I fear, lightly come, lightly go. This made them more watchful. The way of brotherly-kindness, and love, one to another, is a good old way. The way of unity and unanimity. See how they love one another, was the old remark. But now; see how they hate one another; what strangeness and distance. There is no telling one another's experience; but jealousies and heart-burnings, Acts, ii. 46, 47. The way of love is called the old commandment and the new, 1 John, ii. 7;-old, because from the beginning; new, because a new edition of it, a new example in Christ and the apostles, and a new argument to enforce it. Oh, love this old religion; strive to excel one another in good ways. You have a cloud of witnesses. You have Jesus Christ, who was a traveller in this way. Endeavour to make this new bad world like the old good one. There is a promise of a new heaven, and a new earth. Be earnest with God to hasten it, and endeavour, in your own practice, to hasten its coming.+ * In connexion with the above passage, the following observations by Dr. Doddridge may have their use. "Some sense of sin, and some serious and humbling apprehension of our danger and misery in consequence of it, must indeed be necessary to dispose us to receive the grace of the gospel, and the Saviour who is there exhibited to our faith. But God is pleased, sometimes, to begin the work of his grace in the heart, almost from the first dawning of reason, and to carry it on by such gentle and insensible degrees, that very excellent persons, who have made the most eminent attainments in the divine life, have been unable to recount any remarkable history of their conversion; and so far as I can learn, this is most frequently the case with those of them who have enjoyed the benefits of a pious education, when it has not been succeeded by a vicious and licentious youth." Preface to the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Works. v. 1. p. 215, ut supra. + P. Henry. From Mr. Matthew Henry's MS. |