A Treatise of Earthly-Mindedness and Walking with God

…who mind earthly things. (Phil 3:19)

This precious Scripture clearly sets out the different dispositions of wicked and of godly men, and especially of such wicked men as set themselves against the gospel. For it concerns those who were professed enemies to the cross of Christ, who labored all they could to hinder the success of Paul’s ministry. If you look back a few verses, you will find that it is meant of that kind of men especially, for he tells us that many walked in such a way that they were enemies to the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18). They were the ones who opposed Paul’s preaching and his ministry.

He describes what these men were by several marks, but I will treat of none but this one: Who mind earthly things. Who mind earthly things: who savor or relish earthly things, for you may just as well translate the word that way. It is a general word that takes in the actions and workings both of the understanding and of the will. Scripture applies it to both, but most commonly to the actions of the will and the affections, and here we take it particularly of the actions of the will.

Earthly things: the things that are upon the earth, whatever they are; the beauty, the glory, and the pageantry of the earth; earthly profits, and the pleasures and honors of the world. These are the people who inordinately mind anything that belongs to the comforts of this world below. But we carry and conduct ourselves as free citizens of the city of heaven, for that is what the words in the original say, if we read them like this: Our city, of which we are citizens and to which we have a right, is heaven.

But our conversation, our life as citizens, is taken up with things above the earth. When the apostle wants people to follow his example and that of those with him, and not the example of others (Phil 3:17), he uses this as an argument. He says: Such and such men are enemies to the cross of Christ. They make their belly their god, and they mind earthly things. Do not follow them. Do not listen to what they say to you. They go up and down from house to house, whispering this and that to you, and they would draw you away from the ways of God. God has begun to enlighten you and to stir your consciences; do not let the precious affections of your souls run to waste on them. But be followers of us, as we are of Christ, for our way of life is in heaven with our Lord and Master. That is where the argument comes in, in the twentieth verse (Phil 3:20). Since that is the whole scope and meaning of the words, take this doctrinal truth.

Doctrine. This is the great difference between a wicked man and a godly man: one minds earthly things, and the other has his conversation, his whole way of life, in heaven. I intend to handle both of these in order.

One of them minds earthly things. We have a parallel Scripture in Romans 8:5: “For they that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh.” In “do mind” there is the same word, only here it is a participle and there it is a verb; but the meaning is the same. As those who are after the earth mind earthly things, so those who are after the flesh savor fleshly things.

The first part of this point is the description of wicked men who are enemies to the cross of Christ and to the ways of godliness: they are men who mind earthly things. The grosser sort of them are described just before as having their bellies for their god. Some of them are very sensual, drunken and unclean, wholly given over to satisfying the flesh in fleshly lusts. But there are others who do not appear so brutish; yet they are men of earthly minds, who savor only earthly things. These are the men who are secret enemies to the cross of Christ. Yes, and many times they will appear to be so; it will break out at last. A man whose spirit has been earthly for a long time will at last show himself an enemy to Christ’s cross. Now in handling this point, I will set out these five things to treat of.

1. What it is to mind earthly things in a sinful way; or, to put it another way, when a person may be said to be an earthly-minded man. We need to know when someone is an earthly-minded man, and what it is to mind earthly things, since the apostle here uses this to describe a wicked man. Without opening this, all that I say afterward will be to little purpose.

2. The great evil there is in minding earthly things. I will show you a greater evil in it than you are aware of.

3. To lay down some arguments to convince those men and women who perhaps think they are clear of this sin, so that it may yet be brought home to their consciences that they are the very men and women who mind earthly things.

4. I will search into the reason why the hearts of men and women are so much set on earthly things.

5. I will labor to draw your hearts away from earthly things.

These are the five things to be done in the first part of the point, that is, in the mark of wicked men laid down here: who mind earthly things.

To begin with the first: who are the people who mind earthly things? Certainly, they are not all those who enjoy earthly things. All who make use of earthly things must not be condemned for minding earthly things. Paul himself, in this very letter he wrote to these Philippians, says that though he knew how to want, yet he also knew how to abound (Phil 4:12). He knew how to make use of earthly things. Yes, and he gives charge that all who are instructed should make those who instructed them partakers of all their goods. Perhaps some would have said, “Is this not minding earthly things, to require those who are instructed to make their instructors partakers of all their goods?” Yet Paul charges this.

Yes, and Christ himself, even in that Scripture where he labors most to take people’s thoughts off the earth, telling them not to take any thought what they should eat or drink, still says, “Your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of these things” (Matt 6:32). And in Galatians 6:6: “Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.” And in case anyone pretends anything against it, he still says, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7).

So then, it is not charged here as a mark of an evil man to have earthly things, or justly to require what is due to him, as Paul does here. The Galatians could not charge him with breaking his own rule, the one he wrote to the Philippians. Therefore we must find out something else that is meant here by minding earthly things. When does a man or woman mind earthly things in a sinful way? For that, there are several particulars to consider.

1. The first is this: when a man looks upon earthly things as the greatest things of all, when he has a high esteem of earthly things as the things. For example: “Oh, if I had such and such things as others have, how happy I would be! How happy are such and such people who enjoy earthly things at their will, in their houses, their furnishings, their income! Oh, these are the fine things, these are the delightful things, these are the things in which happiness and blessedness consist.” When people promise themselves happiness in any earthly things, then they mind earthly things. I remember that golden-mouthed Chrysostom has a saying about a covetous man: that he looks upon his money and sees more beauty in his money than in the very sun itself that shines in the sky. When a person looks upon the things of the earth as the most beautiful things in his eyes, that person is certainly in a diseased state. When he puts such a high esteem on any earthly things, his esteem does not agree with what God and his saints put upon earthly things. God never puts any great eminence on any earthly thing. He never made any earthly thing to be a great conduit, or a means of conveying any great good from himself to his creature.

If you want to know what your hearts are, you may know it by this one sign as well as by any: What do you count your excellence? Whatever any man or woman counts their excellence to consist in, such are their hearts; their hearts are suited to it. In Genesis 27:28, 39 you find Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau. He blesses them both, but what I want you to notice is the difference in the order. Observe the blessing of Jacob in verse 28: “Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.” That is Jacob’s blessing. Now look at Esau’s blessing, for each blessing was suited to the man’s disposition: “And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.”

Mark this: Isaac blesses them both with the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth. But in Jacob’s blessing the dew of heaven comes first, and the fatness of the earth in the second place; while in Esau’s blessing the fatness of the earth comes first, and then the dew of heaven. This shows us that a godly man really does stand in need of the things of the earth; as Christ says, your Father knows that you need these things. Yes, but the great thing that a godly heart minds in the first place is the dew of heaven, and then, in the second place, the blessing of the earth. A carnal heart, on the other hand, thinks it has some need of the things of heaven; it will acknowledge that. Yes, but what such people desire in the first place is the fatness of the earth, and secondly the dew of heaven. So that is the first thing: earthly-minded people look upon these things as the high and chief things. And this is why the choicest of an earthly-minded man’s thoughts are carried out toward worldly objects.

2. Second, when the cream and choicest of the thoughts of men and women are busy about earthly things, then they mind earthly things in a sinful manner. You may know what your hearts are by your thoughts as well as by anything. The thoughts are the immediate boilings or risings up of the heart (if I may call them that), that is, the bubbles that come straight from the heart. A man cannot know what is in his heart so well by his words and actions as by his thoughts, because the thoughts spring immediately from the heart. For example, I can tell what the water in a fountain is like better from what bubbles up right at the fountainhead than from the water that runs in the stream a mile or two away. For many things may get into the stream a mile or two off that never came from the fountainhead; but what bubbles up right at the fountainhead shows what kind of fountain it is. So the thoughts are, as it were, the firstborn of the heart, and therefore what the heart is may be known by the thoughts. The Holy Spirit says in Proverbs 23:7, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” What is spoken there in a particular case may be applied in general: as a man thinks in his heart, so is he; as his thoughts are, so is he. As the thoughts of the mind are, so is the heart.

People may keep their words and actions in check out of ulterior motives. Yes, but if you could know what the heart is, and look into its haunts in secret, that would show you what you are. For example, many of your servants, when they are in your presence or before others, may behave themselves well for various reasons. But if you want to find them out, try to learn what they do when they are alone in their private haunts. So, do you want to know your own hearts? Do not look so much at them, or take their measure, by how you behave yourselves in words and actions before others, but by what they are in your private rooms, what they are in the inward thoughts of the mind. That is where the heart is most discovered.

And by these thoughts I do not mean every kind of injection or suggestion, for sometimes the devil may cast evil thoughts into the holiest people. I mean such thoughts as are sweet to the soul, from which the soul sucks out sweetness and contentment. For that is minding earthly things: when you find the strength of your thoughts to be on the things of the earth, and they suit your hearts better than any others. It is not when the mind wanders this way or that through weakness, or through suggestions or temptations. But when men or women are most themselves, when they are alone and free, then examine which thoughts suit their hearts best. Can you say, when you are alone, “Oh, the very thoughts of God are sweet to me”? Do you meditate in his law day and night, and suck out sweetness there as from a honeycomb? An unclean wretch will suck sweetness out of his unclean thoughts when he is alone. In the same way, the earthly-minded man will suck out the sweetness of his earthly thoughts, and the ambitious man the sweetness of his pride, when he is alone. These are the thoughts that give him the most contentment; he can run on in them for two or three hours together and take delight and pleasure in them. Here is earthly-mindedness.

3. The third thing is this: an earthly-minded man is one whose heart cleaves to the earth. For, as I told you, the word means not only to mind the things of the earth, but to savor them. His heart cleaves to the earth. The psalmist, in a very different case, said that his soul cleaved to the dust (Ps 119:25). But it is true of many people in the case I am speaking of that their very souls cleave to the dust. Their spirits are mixed with the earth, and therefore they are full of dross. Though they may have some good common gifts, some good natural abilities, and some workings of the Holy Spirit upon them, yet their spirits are full of dross, because they are mixed with the earth. Talk to these people as much as you like about the vanity of the things of the earth, and they will give you a hearing; but when you have done all, their souls cleave to the earth. And talk to them as much as you like about the excellence of heavenly things, and they will hear you; but when you have done all, their souls still cleave to the earth. It is like a man whose soul cleaves in love to a woman (as it is said of Samson, that his soul cleaved to Delilah): say what you will against that woman, or about the excellence of any other woman, his soul still cleaves to that woman. So it is with an earthly-minded man. Let anything be said against the things of the earth, or whatever can be said to set forth the excellence of the things of heaven, his soul still cleaves to the earth, as the serpent’s belly did to the dust of the ground. That is an earthly-minded man.

4. Fourth, an earthly-minded man is one whose heart is filled with distracting cares about the earth: what he will eat and drink, and what he will put on, how he will provide for himself and his family, and what will become of him at such a time; though he is well now, what may become of him later. When the heart is filled with distracting cares about the things of the earth, then so far as these cares prevail over the heart, so far such a man may be judged to be earthly.

There are two things that cause distracting cares about any business.

(1) The first is an apprehension of some very great evil in case I am disappointed. I look upon my disappointment in such a thing as a most intolerable evil to me: “If I am disappointed, I do not know what in the world to do.” That is the first.

(2) The second is uncertainty in the means of preventing this disappointment. As I look upon disappointment as a very great evil, so I cannot trust the means that should prevent it and help me against it. I look upon them as too weak to help me; in spite of all such means, I may still be disappointed. This causes distracting thoughts. So it is in the things of the earth: an earthly-minded man or woman has his thoughts filled with distracting cares about the world. It works like this.

First, because they look upon the things of the world as such great things, they imagine that if they were disappointed they would be ruined. They look upon it as such a fearful, unbearable evil to be deprived of their estate and outward comforts in this world.

Second, they do not look upon the means of providing for themselves and their families as having any certainty in them, which is a main thing to be considered. As for outward things in the world, they find by experience that there is uncertainty in them. And then as for any promise in Scripture that God will provide for them and their families, alas, they dare not trust that. Of all means, that is the one they think the weakest. “Lord have mercy on us,” they say, “if we have nothing else to trust to but a word in Scripture!” They think themselves most miserable and wretched in that case.

But it would be otherwise with the soul if it were not earthly-minded. It would not be greatly troubled about how things turn out here in the matters of the world. “It is true,” it would say, “perhaps I may fail in such a business, and my estate may be taken from me by the Chaldeans or Sabeans, as Job’s was; but I will not be ruined. My happiness is not gone. I will have what will comfort me when all that is gone. Suppose the worst, yet this will not ruin me.” Indeed, a man who sends his whole estate abroad in a trading venture is very anxious, because if bad news comes about it he is ruined. But another man, who has a great deal of riches, houses, and lands, and a stock at home to maintain him and his family, thinks, “If such bad news comes, I have a stock to live on,” and therefore he is not so anxious. So a worldly man has all his stock in the earth. That is his only portion, and if he fails there he is ruined. But a godly man, though he has the things of the earth, has something else as well, treasures in heaven to rest on besides the earth, and therefore he is not so anxious.

And then as for the second, the uncertainty of means and help: if a godly man looks at outward causes, he sees that everything is uncertain. But he has a promise to rest on: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5); cast your care upon me, for I care for you (1 Pet 5:7). He looks on this as a certain means and help. Whatever happens, here is a promise he can build on, and therefore this takes away his anxious cares. But an earthly-minded man or woman has a heart filled with distracting cares, because he looks on himself as undone if he fails here, and has nothing but created things to rest on for his provision in this world.

5. An earthly-minded man or woman is one whose heart’s great business and whose life’s endeavors are about the things of the earth. He makes these his great business, and the strong endeavors of his spirit are exercised in the things of the earth. He works eagerly and greedily, with the utmost intensity, about these things. His whole soul, the whole man, is laid out on the world; it is the adequate object of his soul.

You will say, “Other people are busy in their callings just as much as those you count earthly-minded.” Yes, but notice: they are busy about their callings in obedience to God. Set aside their obedience to God, and I say that none of the outward things they busy themselves about in the world would be adequate objects for their souls, were it not that they are obeying God in them. By an adequate object I mean something sufficient to take up the whole strength of the soul, so that the soul lays itself out fully on it.

I will give you this comparison to express my meaning further and to show you what I mean by an adequate object. You have a little child who is playing a game. Now this game has as much in it as there is in his spirit; there is a kind of equality between his spirit and the game. The child thinks there is benefit enough in it that it is worth laying out all his strength and might on it. Now perhaps a man or woman will sometimes play with their child; they will do as the child does in order to play with him. But the game is not an adequate object for them. That is, for the time being the man or woman wants to please themselves with the child, but not as though there were as much good in this as would fill their souls, so that they would lay out all their mind and might on it as something fully adequate to the desires of their soul.

The game is fully adequate to the desires of the child’s soul. But though a man or woman plays this way with the child, such things are not fully adequate to the desires of a man or woman; they have other matters in their heads besides these, and business of a higher nature. And so it is with those who are not earthly-minded. Though they may be busy about the things of this world, yet they use the world as if they used it not. The things of the world are not adequate objects for their hearts; a spiritual heart reserves its chief strength for higher things. Such a person says, “I follow these things in the world, but only in such a way that I reserve my chief strength for a more desirable good.”

It is like a man who has various friends coming to see him. Perhaps some of an ordinary rank come first, and he makes ordinary provision for them; but if he has any choice things for entertaining, he reserves them for some choice friends who are still to come. So a man who is not of the world, though he may be busy in earthly things, still reserves the choicest part of his heart for things of a higher nature.

I remember Tertullian has a saying about the Christians and how they ate and drank. When they had supper, “they ate and drank,” he says, “so as they remembered they were to pray that night before they slept.” So a man with a gracious, spiritual heart follows his outward business in the world, but in such a way that he remembers he is to converse with God that night before he sleeps; and so he reserves the strength of his spirit for communion with God. But the other lays out all his strength as though he had nothing to do afterward. In this, then, an earthly heart and a spiritual heart are complete opposites.

The apostle, you know, would have godly men use the world as if they used it not. In just the opposite way, an earthly-minded man uses spiritual things as if he used them not. As an earthly-minded man’s heart is in spiritual things, so a spiritual mind is in earthly things. An earthly-minded man will do some spiritual things. He will come and hear the Word; perhaps he will pray with his family and read a chapter. Yes, but his heart is not much in it. He does it as if he did not do it: he comes and hears as if he heard not, and prays as if he prayed not. He does not make it his business to pray or hear. In the same way a spiritual-minded man does the things of the world, but as if he did them not. I mean this in comparison with how busy he is in spiritual things; there he works with all his might.

An earthly-minded man is like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. We read that they were swallowed up by the earth. And the truth is that the things of the earth, its comforts and the provision of earthly things for themselves and their families, do, as it were, open up and swallow the very hearts of earthly-minded men. That is the fifth thing in the description of earthly-mindedness.

6. But suppose a man does not seem so strongly intent on laying out his whole strength and heart on earthly things. Still, when any man or woman seeks any earthly thing for its own sake (observe this), and not in subordination to some higher good, that person is earthly-minded, so far as this prevails. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 our apostle Paul speaks of the things that are seen, which are only temporal: “While we look not at the things that are seen, for the things that are seen are earthly and temporal.” The word he uses is as much as to say, “while we do not look at temporal and earthly things that are seen as our scope.” That is, we do not make them our end, but seek them in subordination; there is something higher that we look at in all these things.

For instance, a godly man follows his business as other men do, but what is it he wants? It is this: “I show my obedience to God, and I want to provide the things that may help me to serve God in my generation. That is my end. I can appeal to God in this: even in following my business and all outward things, my aim is to follow God in the use of means, providing such things as may enable me to serve him all the more in my generation. This is my scope in what I do.”

On the other hand, an earthly-minded man makes this his scope: he will follow his business and look after the business of his calling so that he may gain. He would get so that he might get; he would have more so that he might have more, and so that he and his children might be somebody in the world; and perhaps so that he might have enough to have his will and his lusts. So he follows his business very intently, merely so that he may get, to satisfy the flesh. Yes, indeed, all the good things he does, he brings into subordination to earthly things.

You may put it this way: a spiritual man does not seek earthly things for their own sake, but an earthly man does. Or, more fully (you may make it a distinct head if you will): an earthly man is earthly in all he does, both in earthly and in spiritual things, and a spiritual-minded man is spiritual in all he does, both in spiritual and in earthly things.

When an earthly man is in earthly things, he is altogether earthly. He does not look to obedience to God in what he does. He does not reason, “I will follow my calling because God has required it”; the earthly man thinks, “I will follow it because I see gain coming in by it.” This is earth. The things may be lawful, and it is your duty to follow your calling; but to follow it merely for gain is earthly. To follow it because it is your duty and the place God has set you in, that is spiritualness in earthly things.

An earthly man is earthly in earthly things, and he is even more earthly in spiritual things. When he performs spiritual duties he has an earthly end in them: either to gain esteem from men, or to cover some evil, or merely for form and fashion. He does it in an earthly way, and perhaps the most he does it for is merely his own quiet, to satisfy his own conscience. He is earthly in spiritual things.

But a spiritual man is spiritual in earthly things. One of a spiritual mind is more heavenly and spiritual when he is about his calling, even the lowliest, such as hedging and ditching, or pulling his ropes and lines, or using his ax or hammer, than an earthly man is when he is praying, or hearing, or receiving the sacraments. I say he is more spiritual then. Certainly it is so, and it will be found to be so at the great day of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. That is the sixth thing: when a man seeks earthly things for their own sake.

7. What we may add as a seventh is this: he is earthly in spiritual things. I grant that the best of the saints may have some earthliness in spiritual things, but I am speaking of what predominates, of what rules in the heart, so that in performing spiritual things his very ends are only earthly, and the frame of his heart in spiritual duties is only earthly.

8. We may also find out an earthly-minded man by this: he passes through many great difficulties in matters of the earth, and they are very little to him. Though he has a great deal of toil for the matters of the earth, he is never weary of it, because he is in his proper element. So let there be whatever difficulties there may be, which to another man would be very great; he makes nothing of them. And though there is much toil and labor, he is not weary. Why? Because he is in his own element. The fish is not weary of swimming, but a man quickly grows weary. Yes, but the fish is in its element, and the man is not.

So, I beg you, observe this. When a man’s spirit is in this kind of temper, only let him be busy about earthly things where earthly advantage comes in, and no difficulties will hinder him. No wind or weather will stop him; he will rise on cold mornings and go out, and do anything in the world. Oh, what difficulties men will endure for the things of the earth: storms at sea and dangers there, and troubles on land in many ways! They will sit up late, and rise early, and wear themselves out, and complain of no weariness and no difficulties. But let them come to spiritual things, to the business of their souls that concerns God and their spiritual condition, and every little difficulty turns them aside and discourages them. Every molehill is a mountain in their way. “I would do this and that, indeed,” one says, “but it is so hard. It is tedious to rise in the morning, especially on a cold winter morning. It is very hard and difficult to read and pray.” And so he goes on complaining of the difficulty of these things. And watching over the heart, oh, that is a mighty difficulty!

To an earthly man any spiritual thing is difficult, and the difficulties discourage him. And how weary such people are in spiritual things! They are like those in Malachi 1:13 who cried out, “What a weariness is it.” But in the business of the world they can keep at it from morning to night and never tire. They can work, as we sometimes say of people, like a horse and never be out of breath.

Oh, I only wish you would try your hearts once. Just endeavor to spend one Sabbath strictly, and see what a weariness it would be to you. Resolve, for just one Sabbath, to rise early in the morning and to keep your thoughts as spiritual and heavenly as you can. Then get up and pray alone in your private room; then read, and hear, and meditate, and mark what you hear. When you go home, think about it and talk it over, and when you come again, attend to the Word. So spend the whole day in hearing, reading, meditating, and conversation about good things, calling your family to give an account, and praying again. See how tiresome this will be to your hearts if they are carnal.

But a spiritual heart will call the Sabbath a delight. To such a heart the Sabbath is nothing other than a type and forerunner of that eternal day of rest it shall enjoy in the kingdom of heaven. One who is spiritual counts the Sabbath a day of rest. But an earthly man quickly tires in spiritual things; he will give up his work and not go through with it.

We read in Nehemiah 4:6 that Nehemiah, having spoken of the great difficulties they met with in their work, still says that the work went on, for they had a mind to it. So as a man’s mind is, so will he be able to go through with his work. If a man is earthly-minded, he will see his work through to the end. If he takes up business for the world, he will go through with it, for he has a mind to it; he is a man of an earthly mind. But let him take a spiritual work in hand, and he will lay it aside before it is half done. He will seldom bring any spiritual work to completion. Why? Because he has no mind to it. Whereas if the heart were spiritual, and any spiritual work were undertaken, such a person would go through with it until it was all finished.

Another mark in the description of an earthly-minded man is this: an earthly-minded man is one who conceives of the most heavenly truths revealed in the Word in an earthly way, according to his own mind, his natural bent, and the disposition of his own heart. And I truly think this is especially meant in this place. For the apostle is speaking of those who opposed him in his ministry and who were enemies to the cross of Christ. These, he says, “mind earthly things.” Their minds are of an earthly temper. So it is no wonder (as if he should say) that they do not savor the heavenly and spiritual truths we bring them; for since their minds are earthly, they grasp those things only after an earthly manner.

For example, what was the great truth the apostle brought to the Philippians? It was the way of reconciling the world to God, of making our peace with God, and of our justification through Jesus Christ. Now there is no point of religion more spiritual, heavenly, and divine than the doctrine of reconciliation and of justification by Jesus Christ. So one who has an earthly disposition, though he may be convinced that he needs pardon of sin and peace with God, still grasps the making of his peace with God and the obtaining of pardon for his sin only in an earthly manner. He has carnal thoughts and notions about his peace with God and about obtaining pardon of sin. He thinks it is the same way by which one man obtains peace with another when they have fallen out, and gets pardon from another man he has offended. He conceives of it in an earthly way: he looks on his making peace with God as coming by something he himself must perform. But the point of free justification by the grace of God in Christ is too divine, spiritual, and heavenly for an earthly-minded man to grasp in its spiritual nature.

An earthly-minded man’s notions of God are only carnal and earthly. As the prophet says in Isaiah 1:3, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.” That is just how an earthly-minded man knows God: as an ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib. That is, the ox knows its owner because he brings it fodder every day. So an earthly-minded man has no other notion of God than this: he thinks God gives him good things in this world, God makes his grain grow or prospers his voyage. An earthly-minded man may rise so high as to think of God as bringing good things to him here on earth.

But one who is spiritual and heavenly apprehends God as God. He does not look on God merely as good in respect of the benefit he receives from God here; he looks on God as he is in himself; he sees the face of God. There is a great deal of difference between a man who knows another man and a beast that knows a man. The ox knows its owner; the ox knows the man who brings it hay or feed. But a man knows a man in another way: he knows what the nature of a man is, what it is to be a rational creature. So one who is spiritual knows what God is in himself; he sees the face of God and understands what God is in a different way than others do.

The difference between the knowledge of God that a spiritual soul has (one who is pure in heart) and the knowledge of God that an earthly heart has comes to just this. As the ox knows the man who drives it to rich pastures, so an earthly man knows God, who gives him good things; but a spiritual heart knows God as one man knows another. I do not mean that it knows him in his full excellency; but there is this kind of difference, in some degree, between the way a spiritual heart apprehends God and the way an earthly heart apprehends him.

And so we might mention many other spiritual and divine truths that an earthly mind grasps only in an earthly way. Consider heaven itself: how does an earthly mind apprehend that? He thinks he shall be delivered from pain and shall have some kind of glory, but he does not know what it is. He conceives of it after the manner of the earth, as some splendid, glorious thing where he shall live in pleasures and not in pain. And so he apprehends all the glory of heaven only as pleasure to the senses. But a spiritual heart looks at heaven in quite another light. He looks on the enjoyment of communion with God and Jesus Christ in heaven, and on living the life of God in heaven. That is something in which an earthly heart has no skill at all; such a heart does not so much as savor it.

Thus in these several particulars I have shown what an earthly-minded man is. Oh, that you would lay your hands on your hearts, and each one consider how far these things reach you! But besides these, I have various other convincing proofs to convince the consciences of men and women that there is still much earthliness in them; but we shall treat of them in their order later.

The second head to consider is this: the great evil there is in earthly-mindedness. “They mind earthly things.” “Is that such a great matter?” you will say. Indeed, we cannot imagine how surpassingly great the evil in this is. We think there is a great deal of evil in swearing, whoring, drinking, and such scandalous sins, and indeed there is. But we do not think having an earthly mind is so exceedingly evil. Yet you will find that Scripture speaks most dreadful things against it. And if God is pleased to drive them home to your hearts, I hope much glory may come to God by it, and much good to you in particular.

The First Evil: Spiritual Adultery

First, the Scripture calls it adultery. It is spiritual adultery: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” (Jas 4:4). They were adulterers and adulteresses in respect of their love for the world. You who would abhor the very thought of a temptation to adultery may still commit spiritual adultery. A man or a woman may be an adulterer or an adulteress before the Lord though they never commit the act of uncleanness with another. If their hearts go out toward another, they are guilty of uncleanness. For Christ says that whoever so much as looks at a woman to lust after her in his heart has already committed adultery (Matt 5:28); that is, he has sinned against the commandment that forbids adultery.

Is it not so? If a man only lets his heart go after another woman more than after his wife, or a wife after another man more than after her husband, this is adultery before the Lord. So too, if our hearts go after anything more than after the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we profess ourselves married and whom we profess to be our husband, this is adultery in the language of Scripture.

The Second Evil: Idolatry

Yes, further, a worldly or earthly mind is called idolatry in the language of Scripture. In Ephesians 5:5, speaking of various sins that should not so much as be named among them, as is fitting for saints, the apostle lists covetousness among the rest, and he adds this: “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5). Now what is earthly-mindedness but covetousness, which is idolatry? A man or woman of an earthly mind is an idolater. You all count idolatry, the worshiping of stocks and stones, to be a great sin. But you, and all others, take heed of another idolatry that may be just as bad: letting your hearts make the god of this world your God, the cursed mammon of unrighteousness; making the things of the earth your Christ; falling down and worshiping the golden calf of the world.

It is certain that whatever a man’s heart is most taken with and set upon, that is his god. And therefore here, in this verse from which my text is taken, it is said that they made earthly things (their bellies) their god (Phil 3:19). The pleasure-lover and the drunkard make their belly their god, and the unclean person makes his harlot his goddess and worships her. Whatever your heart is most set upon, that is your god. Therefore you must understand this to be the meaning of the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exod 20:3). That is, it is as if God said, “You shall give me the strength of your soul, and nothing else. I am a God to my creature when I have its strength exercised about me, to lift me up as the highest good.” But if there is anything else that your soul is set upon as your highest good, that is your god. And this is worse than bowing the knee: you bow your soul to that thing.

Now the baser the thing we make a god of for ourselves, the viler the idolatry. When the Egyptians worshiped various sorts of gods, they were counted the vilest idolaters. Other heathens worshiped more excellent things, the sun, moon, and stars; but the Egyptians worshiped dogs, cats, onions, and other vile things, and therefore their idolatry was vile. So the viler the thing a man or woman sets their heart upon, the viler their idolatry. For a man to set his heart upon unclean lusts, and to make the satisfying of those lusts a god, is abominable. And to make any earthly thing a god to us is most vile. For of all the works of creation that God has made, the earth is the meanest. It is the basest and lowest thing, and has the least beauty in itself; it is the dullest and meanest element of all. To make earthly things a god to you is most vile.

Objection. You will say, “As for this idolatry, what is there in it?”

Answer. There are two particulars that open the evil of idolatry, or earthly-mindedness.

1. The evil of your idolatry lies in this: you depart from God. In letting your hearts out to these things you go off from God, as it were, and renounce the protection of God, the goodness and mercy of God. You leave all of it by this. In Hosea 4:12 they are said “to go a whoring from under their God.” It is a remarkable phrase. That is, by going to idols they went out from the protection of God. While they were worshiping the true God, they were under the protection of God; but when they went to idols, they went out from under their God, from under his protection. So when you set your heart upon God, and lift up the infinite First Being of all things as the chief good of your soul, you are under the influence of his grace and mercy. But when you depart from him and make other things your chief good, you go out from under his protection, and from his goodness and mercy.

2. God is slighted and despised in this, when you choose to make the earth your god rather than the infinite, blessed First Being of all things. Think of a man who despises his wife. It would be an abominable sin if he chose to go to a queen, even the most beautiful woman in the world, and forsake his wife. But for a man to leave a queen or an empress who was the most beautiful woman on earth, and to have his heart cling to a base dunghill-raker, would that not be great contempt of so beautiful a queen? Yet so it is when you forsake the blessed eternal God as your chief good and choose the things of the earth.

For the truth is, the earth is the sink of all the creatures God has made, and for you to leave the most blessed and Eternal One and make that your god must be a very vile and abominable thing. And therefore the prophet Jeremiah, speaking of this idolatry, calls the heavens and the earth to be amazed at it: “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horrible afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord” (Jer 2:12). Why? What is the matter? “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13). So it is here. You forsake the fountain of living waters, the blessed God; your heart clings to the dust, and you seek your contentment and happiness in cisterns that can hold no water. Let the heavens be astonished at this horrible wickedness!

The Third Evil: Enmity Against God

Third, earthly-mindedness is enmity against God. You would hate to be found an enemy of God. But it is certainly true, and it will be found so another day, that an earthly-minded man or woman is an enemy of God. Indeed, the Scripture calls it enmity itself, in the very abstract: “Know ye not that the love of the world is enmity to God?” (Jas 4:4). Observe this, for there is a great deal in it, if God would be pleased to make us lay it to heart. You will find by experience that earthly-mindedness makes men enemies of whatever is spiritually good. Well might the Holy Spirit say, therefore, that it is enmity to God; for whatever is enmity to anything spiritually good is enmity to God. As far as my heart or any of your hearts is against anything spiritual, so far my heart or any of yours is an enemy of God.

Now here in the very text, these earthly-minded men are made enemies of the cross of Christ; that is, enemies of the spiritual preaching of Christ and the holding forth of Christ. Indeed, if they could have mixed Christ and circumcision together, they would have been content with it. But this spiritual way of preaching Christ, of being justified by faith alone, and the Christian religion in its purity, did not suit their carnal hearts, and therefore they were enemies of it.

Oh, earthly-mindedness makes us enemies of spiritual things! Where do you find greater enemies of the things of God, of spiritual things, of the ministry of the Word (as we had occasion to hint), and of the work of God’s grace on the hearts of men and women? There are no greater enemies of these things than earthly-minded men: men who relish the things of the earth, who can go up and down caring for nothing so long as they can load themselves with thick clay, grow rich in the world, fare deliciously every day like Dives, and make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. There is an antipathy in their spirits against Jesus Christ and all goodness.

The Fourth Evil: Contrary to the Work of Grace

Then fourth, there is scarcely any disposition more opposed, more contrary, to the work of grace, the work of godliness in a man’s own heart, than earthly-mindedness. It runs so exceedingly against the nature of grace that, if earthly-mindedness prevails, it may bring men or women to a stand, and set them examining whether there is any grace in their hearts or not, as much as almost anything else may. If God should allow your corruptions to prevail over you so that you broke out into some notorious outward sins, then perhaps you would begin to think, “Can this stand with grace? How can it stand with such workings as I have had before? Do I not have reason to fear that I am only a hypocrite, a rotten professor of religion?” But this earthly-mindedness is as much opposed to the nature of grace and the power of godliness in the heart as almost any sin you can name. It is quite contrary to the very beginning of the work of grace: not contrary to its degrees only, but to its very beginning.

The main work of God at the very first, in working grace in the soul, is to disengage the soul from the creature, to take it off from the earth and from all creatures here below. For it is true that naturally, as we are of the earth, so we are earthly, and our spirits are engaged to the things of this earth. But then the work of grace comes upon the soul, takes it off, and releases the heart from the earth. And therefore you find that Christ lays this down as the first lesson: “He that will be my disciple must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” It is as if he said, “Never think of being a Christian unless you will deny yourselves.” Self: what is that? All natural contentment, both natural self and sinful self. To deny yourselves is to be wholly emptied of yourselves, and of creature comforts and contentments. And to take up his cross is to be willing to suffer anything with regard to earthly comforts, to be willing to lay down everything at his feet, to give up your interest in all of it, and so to take up his cross. This is the very first beginning of Christ’s bringing disciples to himself.

Then the soul says, “Let me have my sin pardoned, and farewell, earth! It is heaven, holiness, the renewing of the image of God, communion and union with God, and living to the eternal praise of his name in Christ that my heart is set upon.” I say, this is at the beginning of God’s working the heart to himself.

When the work of grace is first wrought, it bears the name of vocation, that is, calling. What is it for a man to be called? “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Pet 1:10). To be called is this: whereas before you were wholly digging and delving in the earth and seeking your happiness in the world, now it pleases God to make you hear a voice behind you, calling you and telling you, “O poor soul, your happiness is not here. There are other things in which your chief good consists. You are made for higher and better things than these. God has nobler thoughts about mankind than merely to let man have a few contentments here on the earth. O soul, come away and look after higher things!” Here is the first work of grace. And the soul answers this call of God and says, “Lord, I come,” and so gives itself up to God for him to dispose of it. This is at the beginning of the work of grace. Now, how contrary is earthly-mindedness to the work of God in bringing grace into the heart? Consider it in these three things.

1. The very work of conversion is set out in Scripture as God’s calling the soul out of the world: “Whom he hath predestinated, him he hath called” (Rom 8:30). When God effectually begins to work upon the heart of a sinner, he causes a voice to be heard in the soul: “O soul, you have been busying yourself about many things, but there is one thing necessary. Oh, come out of that way you are in! You can never be happy otherwise; you will be undone in it.” The Lord calls the soul out of the world, and that (I say) is the very work of conversion: the soul’s answering God’s call. Now for someone still to be earthly, and to have a heart clinging to these things, surely such a one is not yet effectually called out of the world.

2. And then from this follows, upon the soul’s answer to this call, that the Lord disengages the heart from all creature comforts, and teaches the first lesson: to deny oneself and to take up Christ’s cross. Now what is more opposed to self-denial and the taking up of the cross of Christ than earthly-mindedness? The text says here, “They are enemies to the cross of Christ” (Phil 3:18).

3. And then a third thing in conversion is the resigning up of the soul to God as the chief good. Upon God’s call the soul learns the lesson of self-denial and of taking up the cross; and so, being disengaged from the creature, it now resigns itself up to God as an infinite, soul-satisfying good forever. You cannot help seeing, in the very naming of this, how opposed earthly-mindedness is to it.

And then consider the work of grace upon the heart after the heart is converted and turned to God.

1. Grace brings a new light into the soul. A spiritual and divine light is set up in the soul upon the conversion of a sinner to God. But now the earth, you know, is the dark part of the world, and earthly-mindedness brings darkness upon the spirit. When the earth comes between us and the sun, it hinders our sight of the sun; and so the earthliness that comes between God and the soul of man hinders the soul’s sight of God. There is a divine light set up in the soul when God works grace, and that light reveals things of a higher, more excellent, and more glorious nature than the things the heart clung to so much before.

2. The Scripture sets forth the work of grace as the new creature. In the soul all things are made new; old things are past; he that is in Christ is a new creature (2 Cor 5:17). Now earthly-mindedness is opposed to the new creation in the soul. It is the old man that is of the earth: “the first man is of the earth earthly” (1 Cor 15:47). And so it is plain that you who are an earthly-minded man are still only in the stock of the first man, of the earth, earthly. But the second man is “the Lord from heaven.” You who are an earthly-minded man or woman are still only a child of Adam, the first man, and so you are of the earth, earthly. This is opposed to grace; grace works a new creation in the soul.

3. And grace is of an elevating nature. It raises the heart above itself and above the creature, yes, above the world; in some respect above the angels themselves, above principalities and powers, above all created things. Grace is of a raising nature; but an earthly-minded man sinks down to low and base things.

4. And grace is of an enlarging nature. It enlarges the heart so that it cannot be satisfied with any earthly thing. Though God should give the whole world to a heart that has grace, this would not satisfy that heart. Why? Because it is so enlarged by the work of grace. The work of grace is the divine nature, the image of God in the soul, and therefore it makes the soul like God. And it is said of God in Isaiah 40 that all the nations of the earth are to him only “as the drop of the bucket, and as the small dust in the balance.” Now grace makes the soul like God, so that it counts all the things of the earth as the drop of a bucket and the dust of the balance: as nothing, less than nothing.

5. And then, grace sanctifies the soul. What is it to sanctify, but to take a thing off from all common uses and dedicate it to God, as the highest act of all things? And so the Greek word for holy is taken, according to the usual etymology given of it, which Bede gives, from a particle that negates and a word that means earth. It is as much as to say, “not earthly,” apart from the earth; a holy one in the Greek language is one who is not earthly. Now grace makes the soul holy. It sanctifies the soul, sets it apart for God, and dedicates and consecrates it to God. And therefore you see that earthly-mindedness is opposite to the work of God in bringing grace into the soul, and to the work of grace and the power of godliness in the soul of man. This is the great evil of earthly-mindedness.

The Fifth Evil: Great Temptations and Snares

Fifth, to show further the great evil there is in earthly-mindedness: it puts people in the way of very great temptations. For this we need no other Scripture than 1 Timothy 6:9, where the apostle says, “But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare.” Note what this means. It speaks of those who have set their hearts so much on the things of the earth that they are resolved they must have them, whatever comes of it. Observe the phrase: they that will be rich. They imagine a necessity of having the things of the earth. They do not only wish and desire, “Oh, if only we had riches and these things of the earth!” They resolve that they must have them, on any terms.

Now if the heart goes on in obedience to God in the duties of its calling, and God sends in riches and an estate, it thankfully accepts them from God. Such people do not meet with the kind of temptations and snare the apostle speaks of here. But when the heart is set on it, that it simply must have an estate whatever comes of it, then those who will be rich, says the apostle, fall into temptations and a snare.

There are dangerous temptations in following after the things of the earth, and there is a snare in them that you do not think of. You think only of the splendor of earthly things: how lavishly you might live, and how fine you might be in your house and clothes, and what table you might keep. You think only of the things that may give the flesh contentment, but you do not think of the temptation and the snare that is in them. And those whose hearts are set on these things fall into the snare, yes, into temptation. Those who are earthly-minded have great temptations to shift this way and that, and to strain their consciences for the things of the earth.

For so it is: while we live in this world, God has made the things of the earth to be like thorns (and so they are compared in Scripture), and it is hard for anyone to handle thorns without pricking his fingers. They are like briars, and it is hard for a sheep to get in among them without losing some of her wool. So it is hard for the heart to be busy about the things of the earth without being pricked and losing some of its fleece. It will fall into temptation and a snare and be caught.

Oh, how many men and women there are who have enlightened consciences, and who sometimes think they would not for all the world do anything against their consciences, even if they could gain all the glory and riches under heaven! Well, yet because their hearts are earthly, when it comes to some particular case, how ready they are, at least, to strain their conscience, to pay no attention to its voice, and to be willing that conscience should have its mouth stopped for the time! Indeed, if their consciences plainly told them that this thing is absolutely a sin against God, perhaps they would not do it. But that would not be the snare. It is no snare when I see the danger in front of me: here is a deep pit, and if I take one step further I will fall into it. That is no snare.

But there are some who are not caught that way, by an open pit. Instead the devil lays some green grass, perhaps, over the pit, so that they do not perceive the danger, or perceive it only with great difficulty. In this way those who have earthly hearts fall into a snare and temptation. They are driven to strain their conscience and wring it as far as it will go, and to resort to many expedients. Oh, once a man has got into some earthly business, he does not know how in the world to bear it if he is crossed in it. “It may be I have gone this far, and I have very great hopes that I will succeed in it; there is only one obstacle.” Now for him to think that for this one obstacle he is likely to lose everything, oh, it goes to his heart. But then the thought comes: if you would only strain your conscience a little, you could get past it at once. An earthly man will strain hard, but he will get past it.

By contrast, if the heart were drawn off from the earth, then however far such a man had gone in a business, if an obstacle came in a matter of conscience, yes, even if it were only a doubt that the thing was sin, that would be enough to stop him. A mere doubt lest he should sin would be enough to make him say, “Let the business fall if it will. There may be a snare in this, and I see some cause to doubt.” If the heart were spiritual, it would be drawn off. But an earthly mind will go through very many dreadful things and not trouble itself much about them, and so it ensnares itself exceedingly in order to get an estate, or to preserve it once it has got it. That is the fifth thing.

The Sixth Evil: A Hindrance to Profiting by the Word

The sixth thing in which the danger of earthly-mindedness consists is this: it is one of the greatest hindrances in the world to profiting by the ministry of the Word. Oh, many of you cannot help being convinced in your consciences that you have not profited by the Word, and sometimes you complain that you profit so little under the means of grace. Oh, if only you had hearts to look into the cause, to see where it comes from that you profit so little! It will be found to come from your earthly-mindedness. You bring a heart full of the world, full of dross, along with you. No wonder you do not see the spiritual and heavenly things that are in the Word, when there is so much dross in your eyes. You know that travelers in summer, traveling in the middle of the dust and in company, do not have the free use of their eyes to see things as they do at other times. Oh, many people come to the Word with their thick clay and a great deal of filth that clogs up their very eyes and deadens their hearts while they hear the Word.

You know what Christ said to Martha, when Mary was sitting at Christ’s feet and hearing his word, but Martha was burdened about many things (Luke 10:39-41). So it often is with those who come to hear the Word. Though they are in the presence of Christ and have the sound of the Word in their ears, yet their hearts are burdened about many things. There is a great noise in their hearts; they are busy in the world even while they are hearing the Word.

You find this in Ezekiel 33:31. There is a notable description there, and I fear it may describe many of you: “And they come unto thee,” says the Lord to the prophet, “as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words; but they will not do them, for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.”

They sit before the prophet as God’s people, and they hear his words, and (note this) they show much love with their mouth. They will commend the sermon. Perhaps they will say, “He is an excellent preacher; that was a very good sermon we heard today.” They will show love with their mouth, but for all that their hearts go after their covetousness. They heard a man speak fine things and bring excellent expressions to set forth the matter he had in hand, yet their hearts were after the things of the earth, after their covetousness. They had carnal, earthly, drossy hearts, and that is why no good came to them by the ministry of the Word.

And there is that famous place which shows this clearly, Matthew 13:22. You know the several sorts of ground that had the seed of the Word sown in them. Only one of them was good and faithful, and among the others was the thorny ground: “He also that received seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches chokes the Word and it becometh unfruitful.” I beg you to observe that those our Savior speaks of here in this parable, who get no benefit by the Word, are not people who live lewdly, your drunkards, swearers, and fornicators, but those who have earthly hearts. It speaks of “the deceitfulness of riches.” The things of the earth do not hinder in an open way, for thousands of people who have earthly hearts do not know that they have earthly hearts. No, it is the deceitfulness of riches, and it chokes the Word.

Perhaps just while they are hearing the Word it affects them. Oh, they think it is sweet, and they will remember it. But the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world choke the Word. When they come away, they have their business about the world, and their houses and gardens, their income and full tables, and all the delights they have in the world, and these come and take possession of the heart, so that the Word is choked. It cannot get down into the soul to sink in there, and so prevail in the soul to bring forth fruit. Oh, the Word is choked! Oh, many of you come here three times on the Lord’s Day and have precious seed sown all those times, and yet, oh, how it is choked through the cares of this world and through the deceitfulness of the things of this world! You bring earthly minds with you, keep them with you, and carry them along with you, and that is why the Word does not prevail with your hearts.

Oh, what do you lose through this earthliness? You lose the fruit of the Word that should save your souls. A spiritual heart, having received some one truth into it, afterward blesses God for it, and would not for ten thousand worlds have missed having that truth preached to his heart at such a time. Oh, he has cause to bless God for such a morning, for such a day, when such a goodly pearl of great price was presented to him and took root in his heart. I say, it is more to him than if God had given him thousands of worlds to possess. But many of you have your thoughts and hearts on some petty thing of this world, and so all those blessed truths you hear from time to time, things the very angels desire to look into, are choked and become unfruitful.

What was the reason the young man who came to Christ, to know what he should do to have eternal life, got no good? The text says, “he had great possessions” (Matt 19:22). No question, a man may be a rich man and yet a godly man, a holy man. But when the heart is in the estate, mixed with the earth, oh, this was what hindered the young man from embracing Jesus Christ even when he came to him. Young men for the most part are more guilty of fleshliness than of seeking after the riches of the world. Yet sometimes this has been the bane of some young men when they first set up in business. They were very zealous while they were still apprentices; oh, how precious the Word was to them! But when they had got into the world and found the sweetness of it coming in, oh, then the Word was choked to them. They have lost the savor they had in the Word; they have lost the relish of it; it is not sweet to them now as it was before. Oh, there have been many examples of this.

That is the great evil of earthly-mindedness: it hinders the great benefit of the Word, and there is much evil in this. If you had hearts to receive what is delivered, your hearts would tremble at the thought of it: “O Lord, what, shall I be hindered from profiting by this Word? It is God’s great blessing to the world; it is what must save my soul; there is more worth in it than ten thousand worlds. Whatever would hinder my profiting by your Word, I need to beware of it.” Beware of earthly-mindedness. Many of your consciences cannot help telling you this: sometimes any business at all will keep an earthly-minded man from coming to the Word, and when he does come, there is earth in his heart and ears that keeps him from attending to the Word. And when your thoughts are on earthly things while you hear a sermon, perhaps some truth passes by your soul that might have saved you eternally, and you have lost that opportunity, which perhaps you will never have again.

The Seventh Evil: Many Foolish Lusts

Further, in the seventh place, earthly-mindedness causes many foolish lusts in the heart. That is a great evil. For this you have the same Scripture as before for the temptations and snare: “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts” (1 Tim 6:9). These are lusts that are very foolish and simple.

1. For example, it causes people to follow after things that are very vile and mean. It causes them to spend the strength of their immortal souls on things that have no worth in them at all. That is a foolish lust, to spend the strength of an immortal soul on vanities. If you saw men of excellent abilities spending their time on trifles and toys, such as catching flies and chasing feathers, you would say, “Surely they are beginning to be besotted.” So it is with the soul of man, which is capable of such excellence as communion with God, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For such a soul to have its strength spent on such poor, trifling things, which cannot profit in the evil day, oh, this is a foolish lust.

2. These are foolish lusts because earthly-mindedness makes you a servant to your servants. You would count a man a fool who made himself a servant to his servants. Now God has made the things of the earth to be servants to you, and yet you come and put your neck under your servants’ yoke, and become a servant to your servant. Yes, would it not be great folly for a man to expect all his honor and respect to come from his servant rather than from any excellence in himself? Suppose a man were traveling, and respect was indeed shown to him, but for his servant’s sake rather than his own. If he came to know this, he would count it a great dishonor to himself. But an earthly heart, I say, puts itself in just such a condition, for it makes its greatest honor to be the honor it has from its estate and riches.

So people do not respect rich men for any worth in themselves or any excellence of their own, but only for their riches. That is as much as to say that a man is respected not for himself but for his servant. Take some men who have had estates but have now been deprived of them, and have become as poor as any almsmen or beggars among us: who regards them then? But let a man have grace and holiness, and even if he were stripped of everything and made as poor as Job, he would still be one whom the angels of heaven would look upon with honor and would glory in attending. This is the difference between the carnal, earthly heart and the spiritual heart. It is a foolish lust for a man to make himself a servant to his servant.

3. It brings people into foolish lusts, because a man might have as much of the earth (perhaps more) if he did not mind it as much as he does. Now for a man to mind the earth and endanger himself in minding it, when he might have it just as well without so much minding, surely this is a foolish thing. A man who spends a great deal of labor on a thing when he might have it with less labor is surely a fool. Certainly, if you are among those who belong to God, you especially might expect God to bless you more if you kept your hearts more spiritual. You might expect God to grant you more of the good things of this world if you were less earthly-minded than you are, and it is your earthly-mindedness that makes God cut you short of these things.

I am truly persuaded that there are many men who have poor success in their earthly affairs, and it is a fruit of God’s displeasure on them, because their hearts are so much on worldly business. If you went on in your work in obedience to God, and committed it to God for success, you might be crowned with more success than you have had. Now what a foolish thing this is!

4. Yes, further, it is great folly for any of you to go and buy a thing and pay more for it than it is worth. If you send a servant to buy goods, and when he comes home you ask him what they cost, and he tells you a price ten times more than they are worth, you will say, “This is what comes of sending a fool to market.” In the same way an earthly-minded man shows himself to God, to his angels, and to all the saints to be a fool. Why? You spend on this world what is worth a thousand times more than the things of the world, for you spend on the world what might bring you to heaven. I may say to an earthly-minded man: those thoughts and cares and affections and endeavors that you spend on the things of the world might have saved your soul for all eternity, if they had been spent on the things of God. You might have gained Christ and heaven and eternity; the Lord would have gone along with you.

And you may come to see it hereafter, at the great day when all things will be laid open before men and angels: “If only I had spent those thoughts and cares and endeavors on understanding the ways and things of God and eternal life, my soul might have been saved forever!” Not that our works will do it, but God would have gone along with you in such ways as those. Now for you to spend your thoughts and cares on what perhaps you will never have (for many men and women spend their souls on the things of the world and never get them), this is a sad thing. Oh, will this not be folly? Will you not curse yourselves hereafter for your folly? “Oh, that I should spend myself and be spent on what I have not even got, and must be damned for it! Whereas if I had spent my time on things that concerned my soul and eternal life, it is more likely that I would have gained those things.”

For God does not fail people in spiritual things as he does in earthly things. A man may be as diligent as anyone could possibly be in the business of the earth, and yet he may miscarry. But show me any man or woman who was ever diligent in seeking the things of God and eternal life who ever miscarried! I truly believe that at the day of judgment not one person will be found who will be able to say, “Lord, I used the talents you gave me to the utmost to save my soul; but Lord, because I was not able to do any more without your grace, you denied your grace to me, and therefore now I must be damned.” I believe there will not be any soul able to say that. But in the matters of the world people do say that they have done what they could, and labored and toiled, and yet for all that they miscarry. Oh, what a foolish thing this is, then, for you to toil and labor for what is so uncertain! For would it not be foolish for a man to spend his whole estate on buying pebbles, and on what will bring him no benefit of any kind? This folly is in the heart of man.

Let me just put this case to you. Suppose two of you went to the Indies, where precious stones are found. One buys a cargo of precious stones and other rich goods. The other, who carried as much money with him, lays out all his money on baubles and trifles. They both come home laden. Both went out with the same stock, both come home laden; and one comes home with precious stones that make him rich and his descendants great men, while the other brings home nothing but a load of pebbles, which makes him scorned and jeered at by all his neighbors. Oh, how ready he would be to tear his flesh for his folly! This will be the difference between men and women at the day of judgment.

For the truth is, what is this world but a sea voyage? We are sailing here in this world, and here we have the market for pearls, or else for what has no worth in it at all. When you live in the times of the gospel, I say, there is a market for pearls, for the things that may enrich you for all eternity. Now here is one man who spends the strength of his thoughts and heart on things for which he will be blessing God in the highest heavens for all eternity. And here is another man who spends his thoughts and heart only on the things of the earth, and loads himself with thick clay, as the Scripture phrase is (Hab 2:6).

And at the day of judgment it will appear: here is a man or woman who will be blessed for all eternity, who will join with angels and saints in the highest heavens to magnify the free grace of God in Christ. And here is another who, if he had only spent his thoughts and heart on the same things, might have been blessed in the same way forever; but because he minded the things of the earth, he is a cursed fool, the scorn and contempt of men and angels for all eternity. Earthly-mindedness brings people into foolish lusts, as the Scripture says. Oh, people of earthly minds may think themselves the only blessed ones: “I applaud myself at home, let people say what they will.” But the Holy Spirit says that the lusts caused by earthly-mindedness are foolish lusts.

5. It is folly for a man to do what he must undo again. This applies especially to those earthly-minded men in whom earthliness prevails so far that they get anything of the earth by false ways: they must certainly undo all they have done. You have got so much of the earth by some cunning, cheating method, and you congratulate yourselves that you have found out such a mystery of iniquity. This is a foolish lust. Why foolish? Because it must be undone again. Either you must be eternally damned, or else you must make restitution, as Zacchaeus did (Luke 19:8), if you are able, even if it impoverishes you. It must come out again. All the sorrow and repentance there can be will not be enough. You cannot be pardoned for all your sorrow and repentance if you do not restore what you have wrongly gotten, if you are able.

I do not know that there was ever any minister of the gospel on the face of the earth who did not hold that restitution is absolutely necessary to salvation. And this one reason cannot fail to satisfy anyone’s conscience: a man cannot truly repent of a sin and yet willfully continue in it. Now unless you make restitution, you willfully continue in it. Why? You did not only wrong the man in the first hour; as long as you keep anything that is his, you are wronging him. And if you are able to restore it and do not, because you are reluctant to part with so much money or so many goods, you willfully continue in the sin. Now no man or woman can truly repent of a sin and yet willfully persist in that sin.

What a foolish lust this is, for a man or woman to get the things of this world in such a way that he must undo it all again, even to his shame! Oh, consider what folly it is. You deceitful servants, who spend on your lusts what you cheat and swindle your master out of: afterward, when you come to set up for yourselves, you must restore what you have pilfered, and perhaps a great part of your estate must be repaid by way of restitution. It must be done; there is no denying it. And therefore what a foolish lust it is to be so set on the things of the earth as to get them in an earthly way.

6. And then it is foolish (observe this one note) because by earthly-mindedness people lose the comfort of earthly things before they have them. I prove it this way. A man or woman has fretting thoughts about the things of the earth, and perhaps by their inordinate thoughts and cares and affections after some earthly thing they bring much guilt on their own spirits. Yet after this, perhaps, God does give them that earthly thing. Now when they have got it, if they have any light in their consciences, their convinced consciences will turn back on them like this: “I have got this indeed, but oh, do I have it with the blessing of God? I have it in my keeping, but I got it dearly. It cost me such thoughts and cares and affections before I had it, and now that I have it, I cannot say it comes from God’s love. I rather fear that God has given it to me in his wrath, because I got it in such a way.” Now all the comfort is gone and lost.

Whereas, if it had come in God’s way, if you had given yourself up to God and then providence had brought such a comfort to you, you might have enjoyed much of God in it and blessed God for it: “The Lord has blessed me in my trade; oh, I have it from the love of God.” But now, because your heart was earthly before it came, when it does come you have no comfort in it. The comfort of it all is lost before it comes; you have spent so much on it. It is as if a man has got something, and after he has got it he thinks, “What has this cost me? It has cost me a great deal more than it is worth.” Now the comfort of it has vanished.

The Eighth Evil: The Root of Apostasy

Earthly-mindedness is the root of apostasy. I will give you just one Scripture and compare it with another. There is a notable text in 2 Timothy 4:10 that shows how earthly-mindedness breeds apostasy. It is the example of Demas: “For Demas,” says the apostle, “hath forsaken me.” What was the matter? “Having loved this present world.” That was what made Demas an apostate. Why, what was Demas before? Compare this Scripture with the one you have in the Epistle to the Colossians, and you will see what he was before this time. He was a zealous disciple of Paul, and the apostle had a good esteem of him, as Colossians 4:14 shows. Note it there in that epistle, where Paul was directed by the Holy Spirit: “Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.” Paul ranks Demas here among the well-known professing believers. Writing to the Colossians, the apostle says that Demas greets them along with the rest. When we send word to our friends and say, “So-and-so sends his regards to you,” we do not usually name people unless they are close friends.

So it appears; and I find that various interpreters think it was the same Demas, and the word gives us some ground for this, for in Timothy you find that he names Luke there too. It seems that Demas and Luke were two great associates, and Paul mentions them together. When Demas had forsaken him, Luke still stayed with him; and when Paul sends greetings from Luke, the beloved physician, he sends the greetings of Demas too. But one was truly godly, and whatever sufferings Paul met with, he clung to him and would not forsake him. But when Paul began to suffer, Demas thought, “There is no thriving for me if I follow this persecuted apostle.” Now Demas would have no more of Paul. He thanked him for his company and politely departed from him: “He hath forsaken me.” And what was the root of it? He had embraced this present world.

And here is another point to note. Though Demas was a zealous professing believer, yet Paul’s heart was not so much for him, for he says, “Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.” He does not say “the beloved Demas.” It is true that Demas was zealous in his profession and seemed to wear a cloak of religion; yet Paul was directed by the Holy Spirit to speak of him only as one who professed religion. The Holy Spirit directs him to speak of two together who were companions, and gives one the epithet beloved and the other only his name. From this we may gather that those who have discerning spirits may show some sign of it toward those who are earthly: at least, it darkens their esteem of them and makes them somewhat wary of them.

For example, here are two men, both very zealous, and companions together; yet those who are godly, the old disciples, can savor one more than the other. Indeed, both profess religion, and both have excellent abilities and gifts, and yet there is more spirituality and deeper experience in one than in the other. So it appears there was in Luke rather than in Demas. And indeed, your earthly-minded men who afterward prove to be apostates usually show some deadness and waywardness of spirit toward what is good before their great apostasy. Yes, their spirits reveal themselves beforehand to be earthly spirits; they smell of the earth. Before a man dies, his breath will smell very earthy, and you will say, “Oh, he cannot live; his breath is so earthy.” So it is with those who make a very great profession of religion: those who have intimate acquaintance with them can smell, before they apostatize, that their breath is earthly in their duties and in their conversations about spiritual things. Oh, beware of earthly-mindedness, lest it be the root of apostasy. This may be written on many an apostate’s grave: This was an earthly-minded man or woman in the midst of their profession. And that is why they fell away from the truth in times of danger. When they were brought to the trial, they proved base backsliders from God and his truth.

The Ninth Evil: Deadness in Prayer

Earthly-mindedness wonderfully deadens the heart in prayer. It sinks people’s spirits and cramps them in spiritual duties; yes, and indeed it defiles every duty of religion. In Psalm 119:37 you will find David praying to God that he would turn his eyes away from beholding vanity, and that he would revive him in his law. Certainly by the vanity he speaks of there he means the things of the world, and by his eyes he means the eyes of his mind, chiefly the working of the thoughts of his heart after earthly things. For if you cast your eyes back to the verse before, he says there, “Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness” (Ps 119:36): O Lord, do not let my heart be inclined to covetousness. And afterward, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,” to the end that my heart may not be inclined to covetousness: Lord, do not let my thoughts be busy about such vain things, but revive me in your law.

It is as if he said, “Lord, while my mind is turned to vanity, or my heart to covetousness after the things of this earth, I always find my spirit dull and heavy in any holy duties. I have no liveliness at all in my inner self when I come into your presence. And by experience I find that this is why my heart is so full of dross: because my thoughts and mind are set on earthly things that are only vanity. Therefore, Lord, do not let my heart be inclined to covetousness, nor my eyes look after vanity, but turn my eyes away from these things and revive me in your law.”

If you want your hearts revived in God’s law, in the duties God sets you about, take heed to your eyes, that they do not look after vanity, and to your hearts, that they do not follow after covetousness. For an earthly spirit will be a dead spirit. As the element of earth is the most sluggish and deadest element of all, so earthliness in the heart makes the heart sluggish, dead, and listless toward any holy and spiritual duty.

I appeal to your consciences in this. When you have let your hearts out after the things of this earth, and been busy in the world with an abundance of business, and then have come to enjoy communion with God, oh, how dead you have found your hearts! A heart full of dross must be a dead and cramped heart in heavenly exercises. You often complain of your vain thoughts in the performance of holy duties; you cry out then about your dead spirits. But there lies the cause: you have given your hearts up so much to the things of the earth at other times, and so when you come to converse with God your hearts are as dead and dull and cramped as they are. Look on this as the ground of it. This is the great root of it all; it lies here, in your earthly-mindedness.

Oh, how many prayers have been utterly spoiled by an earthly heart! Those who have had spiritual hearts have enjoyed blessed communion with God at the throne of his grace, and have been sweetly refreshed, like a giant with wine. Meanwhile you have gone with a dead heart, and stayed so there, and come away with just as dead a heart, without any liveliness or life. And this is what comes from your earthly-mindedness, which is such a drag and pullback on your duties.

The Tenth Evil: A Name Written in the Earth

Earthly-mindedness is so great an evil wherever it prevails that it would be just for God to have your name, you who are so earthly-minded, written in the earth. I say, those who are earthly-minded, who have this sin prevailing on their hearts and are not aware of it, have cause to fear that God may write their names in the dust; yes, that God has already written their names in the earth. In Jeremiah 17:13 we read of such an expression: “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from thee shall be written in the earth: because they have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living waters.”

It is plain that he is speaking of earthly spirits here, for a little earlier he says, “As the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool” (Jer 17:11). Then he goes on to describe the excellence of God and his sanctuary: “A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary” (Jer 17:12).

It is as if he said, “There are a company of foolish, vain people who seek after nothing but getting riches and the things of the earth; ‘but a glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.’ O Lord, we see an excellence in you, and in your ordinances, and in your sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel, in whom there is such excellence: are there any who forsake you, who have so much excellence in you, who are the hope of Israel? O Lord, it would be just that their names should be written in the earth, that they should never come to share in the good things that are in you, the excellent things that are in your ordinances and in your gospel. Lord, let their names be written in the earth.”

An earthly spirit, I say, may fear that its name is written in the earth: that God may write this concerning such a man or such a woman, that earth shall be their portion, that their mouths shall one day be filled with earth, and that this is all the good they shall have from the Almighty. Oh, those who have known God and the things of eternal life cannot but see this as a sad and grievous evil, to have their names written in the earth.

The Eleventh Evil: The Curse of the Serpent

An earthly-minded man has the curse of the serpent upon him. What was that curse? “Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat” (Gen 3:14). You have the curse of the serpent. You grovel on the earth, as it were on your belly; your soul clings to the ground in a sinful way, and you feed on dust. While the saints are feeding on Jesus Christ, on the very flesh and blood of Christ, while they are refreshing themselves with the hidden manna, angels’ bread, grain from heaven, you are glutting yourself with the earth. That is your food, and that is the very curse of the serpent. It is a sign of a serpent’s brood, the brood of the old serpent, to grovel on the earth and feed on it.

The Twelfth Evil: A Dishonor to God and a Scandal to Religion

Earthly-mindedness is a dishonor to God and a scandal to religion. What! Will you profess an interest in Christ? And are there no higher things to be had in God than such base things as your heart is set on? What! Do you hold out the everlasting gospel in your hand to others, and openly profess a nearness to God beyond others, and is there no difference between the workings of your heart and the workings of others after the things of this world? Oh, how this darkens the excellence of grace, if there is any grace there at all! It clouds it greatly. As mixing earth and drossy stuff with pure metal takes away the excellence of the pure metal, so mixing earth with the profession of religion blemishes the beauty and splendor of that profession.

You will never be the man or woman likely to convince anyone by your conduct. You are never likely to be a means of drawing anyone to love the ways of godliness, because there is so much darkness and earthliness in your conduct. Oh, they will say, “Indeed, he (or she) makes a great show in the world, and talks much of religion and ordinances and such things, but is as worldly as anyone, and grovels in the earth as much as anyone.” People who stand by will think that profession is merely a matter of words, or a mock show, when they see as much earthliness in your conduct as in the conduct of those who are outside. You bring an evil report on the things of God, as the spies did on the land of Canaan.

Everyone who professes religion should endeavor to put a luster on religion, and to make the ways of God beautiful, lovely, and glorious in the eyes of all who see them. But to give the lie to your gospel profession by your earthly conduct is a very great scandal to the name of Christ that is upon you, and to his gospel that you seem to stand up for. Oh, there is a great evil in this, and a very bad report comes upon the ways of religion by this means. Many who have had little religion in them still have a kind of generosity of spirit, so that they scorn such base sordidness as some sorts of professing Christians are given to. Oh, for shame! Do not let those who have only the common gifts of nature and education outstrip you who seem to be the followers of Christ. Away with that base, muddy, earthly, miserly, pinching disposition! It befits no one but Judas, who carried the bag and betrayed his Lord and Master for eighteen shillings and fourpence.

Let me reason with you who have dealings with friends or neighbors who, you still fear, do not have the power of godliness in them as you could wish, but in whom you see much nobleness, generosity, and public-spiritedness for the public good. Take heed of scandalizing such people. For certainly, if such people could be brought to love religion in its power and strictness, if they had the work of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts to humble them for sin and to show them the excellence of Jesus Christ, they would be glorious instruments in the church of God and in the commonwealth. Therefore it is a very great evil to scandalize such people as these. No, you should labor to walk so that they may see a beauty and excellence in the ways of religion by your conduct. Oh, it is better, a thousand times better, that you be cut short in these things of the world than that you should scandalize the ways of God and the profession of the name and gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Thirteenth Evil: A Hindrance to Preparation for Death

Earthly-mindedness greatly hinders preparation for death, and it is likely to make death very grievous and terrible when it comes to those who are like the rich fool in the Gospel. I have this from Scripture, in Luke 21:34: “Take heed to yourselves” (Christ is speaking here to his disciples) “lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life.” He puts them together.

You will say it is very strange that Christ should speak this to his disciples, to forewarn them of this. We do not think they were drunkards in the sense of haunting taverns and alehouses or reeling in the streets. But by this drunkenness he means any excess in the use of the creatures in food or drink, and those who profess religion may be subject to that, giving themselves up too much to sensual delights and excess in the use of the creature. But besides that, though there are many who would abhor gluttony and drunkenness, yet the cares of this life take up their hearts. Therefore Christ says, “Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with the cares of this life.” Why? What evil would this overcharging of the heart, which the cares of this life bring, do? Mark what the text says: “And so that day come upon you unawares, for as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth, watch ye therefore and pray always…” (Luke 21:34-36).

I may apply this to death, though the Scripture is speaking of Christ’s coming; for at the time of death Christ comes in a particular way. There is a particular day of judgment at the day of death. It may likewise be applied to the time of any affliction, and then it may be enlarged thus: the evil of earthly-mindedness appears in this, that it hinders the preparation of the soul for afflictions. Oh, earthly-mindedness will make your affliction grievous and heavy to you! An affliction is a very grievous thing to an earthly spirit. If God comes to take away any comforts of this world, then, because your heart cleaves so close to them, there must be a tearing of them away from you, and that will put you to pain.

A man who has his clothes loose about him can easily take them off when he goes to bed at night. But if a man has a sore on his body, and his undergarments stick to the sore, then pulling them off puts him to a great deal of pain; oh, then he cries out with the pain! Truly, this earthly-mindedness comes from a distempered spirit, and the things of the earth cling to the hearts of earthly men and women as an undergarment would cling to a sore on a man’s body. And so when afflictions or death come to take the things of the earth from them, or them from the things of the earth, oh, it is painful to them; it is grievous to them.

And for one who has an earthly spirit, if he has any light of conscience left in him, it is a hundred to one that his conscience will trouble him in time of sickness, and tell him then how he has spent his time and the strength of his spirit about the things of the earth, when they should have been spent about more excellent things. And when he comes to die, his spirit will be troubled: “I am now to leave all these things that I have spent my care and thoughts on and let my heart out after. And what good is it to me now that I shall leave so much more than my neighbor does? What great contentment is this to me when I am on my sickbed and deathbed? What comfort can I have in all the good things I have enjoyed? Indeed, perhaps through the earthliness of my spirit I have enjoyed but little of them, but I have had anxious thoughts about them. But now death is likely to be to me like a strainer, which strains out the good and leaves the dross and the dirt behind. And so all the good of the things of this world is gone; but the guilt I have contracted on my spirit by my immoderate care, and by the affections I have let out on the world, is now upon my spirit.”

Oh, death has been very grievous to worldly spirits! I remember one who lived not far from the place where I formerly lived, a covetous, earthly spirit. When he was dying, he called for his money and fell to swearing: “Must I leave you now?” (speaking to his bags and hugging them). “What! Must I leave you now?” Here was an earthly man who had spent his spirits and strength on these things, and indeed had let his heart out to them as his portion; and then he sees that he must be stripped of everything, must bid an eternal farewell to it all: no more houses, no more lands, no more income, no more money. Oh, death is grievous to such a one!

Now what should the life of a Christian be but a continual preparation for death? Many of the heathen said of philosophy that it was only a preparation for death. A special excellence of Christianity consists in this, that it is a preparation for death. Therefore you should let your hearts out to the things of this world in such a way as to be continually thinking of death, so that when God calls you to depart from these things you may do it with ease, with as much ease as a man casts off the loose clothes about him when he is going to bed. For the grave is like a bed to the saints, where they fall asleep when they die; and so they may lay down all things and go to their sleep with ease and peace.

Take a man or woman whose conscience can tell them, “I have been diligent in my calling, but God knows it was out of faithfulness to him rather than love for the world. I have kept my heart close to God and faithful to him. I can bid the world farewell now; as the world has done with me, so I have done with it. As long as my time was to work for God, God continued those things that this frail nature of mine needed; and now my work is done, farewell to the comforts of this world. I expect other kinds of comforts, which I am now going to.” Such a one, being spiritual, may die with comfort. But those who have their hearts overcharged with the cares of this life will have the day of Christ come upon them unawares.

The Fourteenth Evil: Destruction at Last

Earthly-mindedness is what will bring destruction at last; it will drown your soul in perdition. There are two texts for this. The first is here in the very Scripture where my text is. The apostle says here, speaking of those who mind earthly things, “Whose end is destruction” (Phil 3:19). The two are joined together: earthly-mindedness will bring destruction at last. The second is the passage named before, which we have used for other purposes, 1 Timothy 6:9, where the apostle speaks of people being brought into snares and foolish lusts, “which drown men in destruction and perdition,” he says.

Some who bathe in the Thames go in a little way at first, and then venture a little further, and further, until at length they are over head and ears; and there they are drowned and cannot recover themselves. So it will be with your hearts if you do not look to them. You think you may venture so far into the things of this world. Why not? Are they not good, and lawful in themselves? “I do not get my estate by wrongdoing, by cheating and swindling.” And so by degrees your hearts are stolen away from God and captivated by these earthly things, and you get deeper and deeper into the world, until at length you are plunged over head and ears before you are aware, and you cannot recover yourselves.

If any man or woman will give their hearts to the things of this world, thinking they will go no further than just so far, it is a hundred to one that once these things have taken up their hearts, the things will gain more and more advantage over them, until they are drowned in destruction and perdition. A man or woman may be undone by earthliness, and be damned and perish eternally, as well as by adultery or drunkenness or murder or any notorious sin. As for many who make a great profession of religion, it is very likely that this will be the sin by which they will perish to all eternity: the earthliness of their minds.

Do not please yourselves with this: that because you keep from the gross and notorious sins others live in, you therefore hope to be saved. Your earthliness may damn you as well as anything else. On dunghills you throw not only filthy carrion and such nasty stuff, but also the dust swept out of your houses. I may compare hell, the place where God casts the damned out of his presence, to the common dunghill, as it were, on which filthy creatures are thrown. On that dunghill there will be not only carrion, filthy blasphemers and whoremongers and thieves (these are, as it were, the dead dogs’ carrion), but dust will be cast on that dunghill too; the dust and scrapings from your houses will be cast from the presence of God onto the dunghill of hell. Therefore do not satisfy yourselves with this, that you do not live in such filthy, abominable lusts as others do. If you have foul, earthy hearts, you may be cast on the dunghill as well as those who have lived most notoriously wicked lives. Therefore take heed of earthly-mindedness.

You will say, “By all these particulars you have laid open to us, there is a great deal of evil and danger in earthly-mindedness. Well, the Lord keep us from earthly-mindedness!” But you will say, “We hope we are not those earthly-minded people spoken to here, though we do follow our business and our callings. We must attend to what God sets us about. But we hope we are not among these earthly-minded people spoken of here in this Scripture.”

Now, besides what we said when opening what earthly-mindedness is, which might show the hearts of men and women as in a mirror, I will enlarge my meditations on this subject by opening a few convincements, to convince men and women further that there is a great deal of earthly-mindedness in them.

And by way of preparation I will lay down this. First, a man or woman may be earthly-minded and yet little think so themselves, and not know that they are; yes, and they may even perish eternally through their earthly-mindedness and not know it themselves.

Six things may be at work in a person who is still earthly-minded.

1. A man may have his judgment convinced that there is vanity in all things in this world, and yet be an earthly-minded man for all that. Many think they are not earthly-minded. Why? Because they are convinced that all these things are vanity. Come and speak to them about the things of this world, and they will acknowledge that there is vanity in all these things, that they are “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccl 1:2).

2. A man may have some kind of contentment with his estate and yet have an earthly mind. In Genesis 33:9, Esau, who was a man of the earth, yet said he had enough; and yet he was certainly of an earthly spirit, and his portion was in the earth. How many of you go as far as Esau did, to say of your estates that you have enough? Oh, it is a shame for those who profess religion, and would seem to be of the seed of Jacob, that they can never say they have enough, when an Esau can say he has enough: “I have enough, my brother.”

3. Men and women may speak very great words about the vanity of all the things of this world. When you come to discourse, you may, I say, discourse much about them, and yet have a very earthly spirit.

4. A man may be free from getting anything of this world by false ways, by deceit, by injustice, and the like, and yet be earthly for all that.

5. Through some predominant lust in another direction, a man may seem to despise some earthly thing. Many who have a lust of ambition will seem to despise money, as will those who have a lust to show themselves generous; and those who have a lust of sensuality will seem to despise the things of the world. Many a man, through one lust, will seem as if he hated another, though the truth is that he does not hate it as a sin. His heart is against the practice of it, not, I say, from any dislike of it as a sin against God, but because it runs against some other lust that he has. Take your prodigals, your young spendthrifts: they will speak against covetousness as if they hated that sin. The truth is, no wicked man hates any sin further than one sin crosses another. To that extent he may hate it, but not as a sin. In Isaiah 13:17, “Behold,” says the text, “I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver, and as for gold they shall not delight in it.” The Medes were heathen, wicked people who had no grace in them at all, and yet, the text says, they would not regard silver, and they would not delight in gold. Some men think it is through the work of grace. Because they find that they are above the base covetousness they see in other men, they do not regard silver and gold, or care about getting everything for themselves. They despise men who go that base, covetous way, and on that basis they think their condition is good, because they think they have risen above that lust. But you see it is no more than a Mede may attain. A heathen may disregard silver and gold. But how? It is because his spirit is set on another lust; that is the ground of it.

Can you say this? (Consider what I am now dealing with.) You who seem to scorn covetousness and hate the base sordidness you see in some men, can you say that it comes from here: “The Lord has made me see the excellent things of the gospel, the treasures of grace that are stored up as in a fountain in Jesus Christ. The Lord has made me know what communion with himself in Jesus Christ means. Since that time, I bless God, my heart has been above all these earthly things. And this is the ground that makes me look on all these earthly things as vanity: the Lord has revealed to me those excellent and glorious things that are infinitely above them”? Yes, that is something indeed. If you can be above earthliness on this ground, that is a good argument. Therefore examine on what ground your spirit is against such things. If it is from the sight and experience of better things, then it is right. But certainly men and women may go far in seeming to be above earthly things, as far as the sin of covetousness goes, and yet still have an earthly mind. Therefore, to give you some convincements besides the things that have already been hinted at:

How does a man value himself and value others? Is it not because others, or you yourselves, have much of the things of the earth? Can you value a poor man who is godly above the richest man who is wicked? And can you value yourselves for the least work of grace on your hearts, as making you more excellent, more than for the greatest income from your estates? (But these things we have already hinted at.)

And then, where do the chief joy and the chief sorrow of men’s hearts lie? What is it that troubles your hearts most? Is it the loss of the light of God’s face, or the loss of an estate, the loss of a trading voyage, or the commission of a sin? So too, what is your chief joy: your profiting by the Word, or your gaining by your bargains? You have come to the Word, and sometimes God has revealed some truth to you there, and you have profited. Can you go away rejoicing because God has made you know his law? “The Lord has darted some truth into my soul this morning! Oh, I go away rejoicing, with my heart filled with more joy than I have ever had over any bargain, however much of the world I gained by it.” These are two convincements we did not hint at before.

Nine Convincements of Earthly-Mindedness

1. For the further convincing of an earthly-minded man, seriously consider this: when a man rests on earthly props, on worldly helps, for the good he expects. If he can have those things, his heart seems to be on the wing and very cheerful; but nothing else can revive his heart, and a promise cannot keep his spirit up. Now whatever a man or woman trusts in most, that they certainly make their god. For it properly belongs to God that we put our trust in him; we make God our God when we roll ourselves on him. Now consider trusting in earthly things, even if it is only for the comforts of your life. You will say, “I could never trust in earthly things to bring me to God.” No, but to trust in them for the comforts of your life while you are here in this world is a sign of an earthly spirit. For the truth is, the comfort of a man’s life does not consist in any earthly thing he enjoys.

Objection. You will say, “Do these things not comfort our lives?”

Answer. Yes, so far as God is pleased to let himself out through them. But if your heart rests on these for comfort, and does not look higher than these for comfort, even for your outward support, you certainly have an earthly heart. And so it is when you are about any business and have some earthly means to further you.

Objection. You will say, “God would have us use all outward means to help us.”

Answer. Yes, but not to trust in anything. “If riches increase, set not your hearts upon them” (Ps 62:10). So too, if friends increase, do not set your hearts on them, but trust in the living God. Let it be the living God that you rest on, even for all outward things in this world.

2. A second convincement is this: when men make most provision for the things of this world, both for themselves and for their children. Are these not your thoughts? “I do not know what I may lack later on. I see many who lived finely when they were young, yet afterward they lived very miserably. Therefore I must make provision for times to come.” So it goes for the earth.

But now, do you reason this way about the things of heaven? “Do I not see many who made a great blaze of religion, and yet afterward came to nothing? They went out in a snuff, like a spent candle, as men whom God had forsaken, and they died in horror of conscience. Therefore let me lay up provision now against an evil time, so that I may not miscarry in the matters of my soul as others have done.” This would be a sign that your minds were not earthly.

And as for your children: God has sent you children, and oh, how you toil and labor! Your thoughts run on in the night, and as soon as you wake in the morning, about what you will get for their portions and for an estate for them. Now I appeal to your conscience before God, the searcher of all hearts: have your cares been to provide in a suitable way for their souls, for their spiritual and eternal estates? No question, it is lawful for parents to provide for their children in a provident way, and those who do not are worse than infidels. But what is your chief provision for? Are your thoughts more anxious to provide portions for them than that they should be instructed in the fear of God, than that they should have an interest in Christ, than that they should have grace worked in their hearts?

You are unwilling to die before you can get your estate clear enough to leave it to your children. Oh, are you not unwilling to die before you see some work of grace worked in the hearts of your children? Oh, these would be your thoughts if you were spiritual: “Oh, if I could only discern some seeds of grace sown in them before I am dissolved, I could rejoice abundantly!” As it is told of Augustine’s mother, the great thing she desired to live for was to see her son converted. God granted her desire, and then she found herself willing to die. Nothing will make the spiritual heart of a father or mother more willing to depart from this world than to find grace worked in their children: “Oh, that before I die I may see my child left under the promise, in covenant with God!” Yes, this would be something indeed. But as for those whose cares and thoughts are mostly for these earthly things, in providing for themselves and their children, that is a convincement that their hearts are earthly.

3. A third convincement is a very notable one, and I beg you all to lay it to heart and consider it seriously. Because this evil of earthly-mindedness is a very secret and hidden sin, I am the fuller on this point. The convincement is this: the man who can be content with a slight assurance in the matters of heaven, but in the matters of earth never thinks himself sure enough. He is very careful to make everything so infallible that there is no way he can be deceived, but may surely build on what he has in the things of this earth. This is a sign of an earthly mind.

Go to men who are earthly and talk with them about matters that concern their souls. “What assurance do you have that you have gone beyond any formal professor of religion, that you are better than the stony or thorny ground we read of in Scripture? What evidence do you have that the saving work of grace is worked in you? That you have gotten safely past the gulf? That you are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ? That your sins are pardoned and your souls justified? That you are at peace with God? What evidence do you have of peace made between God and your souls?” This is the answer they would give: “I hope I am converted. I trust in God’s mercy. Surely I have grace. I will be saved. God is merciful.” “But what evidence can you show?” They scarcely know what that means. Indeed, many of them, because they do not know what assurance means, will think nobody can be assured: “We may hope well, but we cannot come to be assured of it.” No! A heart that is truly gracious and godly would not want that to be true for a thousand worlds. Such people would not lose their share in the blessing of assurance, even if God would make them kings or queens of the earth.

But you have an earthly, drossy heart. You do not look much after assurance in the matters of your soul and eternal estate. You will risk those matters and leave them to a “perhaps.” But when it comes to the matters of the earth, there you will make everything sure. You will go from this lawyer to another lawyer to ask counsel and to see whether the deeds are good, and you will have them registered. And if anything can be done to make it more sure (if it is some great sum on which your estate rests), you will do it. I appeal to you: if you heard of any of your neighbors who had done something to make such a thing more certain than you have done, you would scarcely rest until you had done as they have done. Is it so in the matters of your eternal estate? Do you not hear of many saints of God who walk comfortably in the midst of all afflictions, on the assurance of God’s love? Some will be able to say, “Yes, and it is this Scripture I build on. Through God’s mercy, such and such has been the work of God on my soul in revealing himself to me, and from such a promise I have sucked abundance of honey.”

But generally, go to people on their sickbeds, and all they say is this: they hope in God’s mercy. But as for the ground of their hope, for showing how God has been pleased to bring their hearts and the Word together, and what real effects the Word has had on their spirits, they can show nothing of that. You have not, then, gotten the assurance for your soul and eternal estate that others have gotten, and yet you can go on quietly! Oh, it concerns you who are so busy making all sure for your outward estate to spend more thought and care on the matters of your soul and eternal estate than you ever have. Here is an earthly-minded man: he can be content with slight assurance for the matters of his soul, yet he is satisfied with no kind of assurance in the matters of the world, but would gladly make those things more and more sure continually.

4. Further, an earthly-minded man may be convinced of his earthliness in this: he is content with a small degree of sanctification, but in the matters of the world he would still gladly have more and more. He looks at the most eminent of those in his rank, and he would gladly rise as high as they in the things of this life. But in matters of religion he looks at the lowest Christians and is content to be as low as they. Take an earthly-minded man of some trade. If anyone of his profession or calling had as little to begin with as he did, and has thrived better, he would gladly rise as high as that man, and he is troubled that he is not as rich. So it is in the world.

But now take them in the matters of God. There are men who began after you began and had as few means for the good of their souls as you have had; they have thrived and gotten far beyond you in the matters of God. Does this trouble you? Are your thoughts anxious about this? “Oh, that I could attain the degree of grace such a one has reached! He has a spiritual mind, and is full of the joy of the Holy Spirit and full of faith. He is able to depend on God when all outward comforts are lacking, and he certainly enjoys much communion with God. But I am far beneath such people.” Do these thoughts trouble you? It is common for earthly spirits, if they can only look at someone who professes religion and is low in his profession, to say, “I do as such a one does; I have as much as they have,” and that satisfies them. They look at the meanest Christians and are satisfied that they are like them. But in the matters of the world they look at the highest, and are not satisfied unless they attain what those attain. That is a fourth evidence.

5. Then a fifth is this: earthly-minded men are very wise in the matters of the world, but in spiritual matters they are very weak and simple. You will find many men (I have sometimes wondered to see it) who are very ignorant in matters of religion. If they speak at all on points of saving knowledge, they speak like children, so that one would wonder where their understanding was. Now turn such men to the matters of the world, and oh, how wise they are in their generation! Oh, how subtle and crafty they are! They can see an objection there and know how to answer it. They can discern anything that would hinder their profit many miles off, and can prevent it where others cannot. But in the things that hinder their souls, they cannot foresee anything. They are wise in their generation. They have memories for the matters of the world; they can understand things and remember things, and they can meditate there. But put them to meditate on a point of religion, and they are at a standstill at once.

Let me appeal to you: do your consciences not tell you that in the matters of the world, when you are walking from here to London, you can run in your thoughts on one business all the way you walk? You can plot this and contrive that, foresee this objection and that, and answer it this way in your own thoughts. But I put this to you: when you walk over the fields, settle on just one meditation concerning Christ, and see whether you are able to draw it out while you walk over a single field. Yet you can spin out an earthly meditation for many miles. When you wake in the night, your thoughts are immediately on the things of the world, and you can draw them out and work there with understanding. But in the things of God, oh, how barren and simple and weak you are! Scarcely anyone can outwit you in the things of the world, but in the matters of religion you are outwitted at once; every slight temptation overcomes you there.

6. Besides, you may know it by men’s talk and words: “They are of the world; therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them” (1 John 4:5). Their breath is earthly. Oh, that is a bad sign (as you sometimes say of your friends when you come to their bedside): “Oh, I am afraid they will die; their breath smells so of the earth.” It is a symptom of the death of the body. So your hearts smell so of the earth. It would be somewhat tolerable if it were on other days, when your callings require you to talk of business. But even in the time God has set apart for himself, you are sometimes talking in your own thoughts about the business of the world while you are praying and hearing. Instead, men’s conversation and talk should savor of what they have heard out of the Word, not go off at once to talk about some earthly news from the Exchange, and so lose everything.

Oh, this is what has lost many precious truths! It may be that while you were hearing, God darted some beam of gospel light into your souls, and you lost it before you got home, and so came to lose the impression of the truth you heard. Oh, how fitting it would be for those who come to hear the Word to have no talk, when they leave, but what tends that way! Oh, how often you are in company and never leave anything to refresh one another’s spirits, or to further one another in the way to eternal life! Though God allows you to speak about your business, still, if you are spiritual and heavenly, he would have you say something about heaven or eternal life before you part.

7. A further convincement is this: when spiritual things must give way to earthliness on every little business. Prayer must pay for it: “If I have any business, I will take it out of the time of prayer, or spend less time in the Word, or hear less.” When, I say, earthly things are so high that spiritual things must give way, and heaven must stand by, as it were, till earth is served, this is an evil sign of an earthly spirit. If your spirit were heavenly, the very first thing you would do when you wake in the morning, or get up, would be to season your heart with something spiritual. In Psalm 139:17-18: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the sum of them? If I count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake I am still with thee.” Oh, that would be a sign of a spiritual mind, to be with God immediately upon waking: “When I awake I am still with thee.” But now, I appeal to you: who are you with when you wake? Can you say, “Lord, when I awake I am still with thee. I find an inclination in my spirit to be on the matters of heaven, and when I am up, I would rather my worldly business gave way than my spiritual duties”?

8. When a man or woman does not care much how things go with the church, with the kingdom of Jesus Christ, as long as it goes well with them in the matters of the world. When things are stirring abroad in the world (for we live in stirring times, in which God is shaking the heavens and the earth), such a person does not inquire much how things stand regarding the privileges of the saints, the ark of the church, as long as his own cabin is safe. Truly, nothing more is needed than to examine how your hearts have been during these last years of Jacob’s troubles. We find that Eli, in the time of war, sat trembling because of the ark of God. He did not sit trembling because, if the Philistines prevailed, he would be put out of his place and his estate taken away. No, it was because of the ark of God, and that was a sign of the spirituality of Eli’s mind.

So too it may be a sign of very great comfort to you in these dangerous times if our consciences tell us this: “God, who knows all things, knows that the great thing my heart was anxious about in these evil days was, ‘What will become of your great name? Lord, what will become of religion? What will become of your gospel?’ Lord, these were the things that took up my heart, not so much what would become of my estate, my outward comforts, and my relations in this world.” Oh, examine your hearts in this: is the care of your spirits more for the furtherance of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, or for the furtherance of your estates? But as for the man or woman who is most anxious about business that concerns their outward estate, and does not much care how religion goes or how the way of the kingdom of Christ is maintained, God at this time speaks to that soul: “You are an earthly-minded man or woman.” Therefore take heed lest what has been spoken about the great evil there is in earthly-mindedness befall you, and especially the last of all, that you be among those “whose end is destruction” (Phil 3:19), and be drowned in perdition. Take heed lest hereafter this be the thing you lie crying out about and cursing yourself for: “Oh, I had a base and earthly heart! I sought the things of the earth and made my portion there, and in the meantime the blessed God was forsaken. And I have lost my portion in the Holy Land, for I had my portion in Egypt among the Egyptians, just as I chose for myself.”

9. The more spiritual any truth that is revealed, the less it takes hold of the earthly-minded man’s heart. Perhaps he is moved by some truths of religion, but these spiritual ones are mere side matters to him; he does not mind them at all. The more spiritual an ordinance that is delivered, the less his spirit is moved by it. If indeed he comes to the Word and there is mingled in it some earthly, natural excellence (for so I may call it), such as natural gifts, wisdom, wit, eloquence, and learning, he is moved by that. It may be that some fine story pleases him more than the goodly pearls of truth revealed in the Word. Take such truths as these: the enjoyment of communion with God, the longing for Jesus Christ’s coming, the living by faith on a bare promise, the excellence there is in suffering for Jesus Christ. These truths are spiritual. The mortifying of inward lusts, self-denial: these things are little savored by an earthly-minded man. Tell him of the privileges of the saints, the mysteries of the gospel, anything that is spiritual, and it is but a notion to him.

It is as with men on the earth: they look up to heaven and see the things of heaven only as little. Why do the stars seem so small to us here, except because we are on the earth? The earth seems a vast body to us, but the stars seem small to us, though they are far bigger than the earth. If we were in heaven, the heavenly bodies would seem vast to us, and the earthly bodies would scarcely be discerned by us. If men’s hearts were heavenly, all the things of the earth would seem little to them; but because they are earthly, the things of heaven and spiritual mysteries are very small in their eyes.

I shall now go on to the reasons for this point: why is it that people’s hearts are so much set on the earth, to mind earthly things? I will give you these reasons for it briefly.

1. The things of the earth seem real to them, but spiritual and heavenly things are merely a notion. Now whatever has reality in it takes hold of the heart most. Yet people are deceived in this, for the Scripture speaks of spiritual things as the only real things, and of earthly things as having no being at all. Speaking of the riches of the world, it says, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?” (Prov 23:5). Riches have no reality in them at all. But in Proverbs 8:20-21 we read, “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance.” That is, to inherit what is, what has a being; other things are not. The honors of the earth are only a fantasy and a vain show. You have read of Bernice and Agrippa, that they came with much pomp (Acts 25:23); in the original, they came with great “fancy.” But to an earthly man these earthly things are real things, and therefore he minds them; and wisdom is a lie to a fool.

2. They look on these things as the present, necessary things. The Scripture tells us of but one thing that is necessary (Luke 10:42), yet they think that these are the things needed now, and that they may have need of heavenly things hereafter. They may have need of reconciliation with God, pardon of sin, peace of conscience, and such things; they may need them, that is, when they depart out of this life. Oh, the infinite folly of most hearts, to think that there is no present necessity of spiritual and heavenly things! In truth, our life consists in them for the present: “This is eternal life” (John 17:3). We may come to enjoy eternal life here in this world. But people generally look on all spiritual things only as our good for the future, when we go from here and are seen no more.

3. These things are most suited to people’s hearts. It is no wonder that they mind earthly things. They are of the earth and from the earth; they have nothing in them but the first Adam, and the first man was of the earth, earthly (1 Cor 15:47). The truth is that the happiness of man’s state even in innocence, in the morning of the day of his creation, was only earthly in comparison with the things now revealed by the gospel. Take man when he was in paradise: that paradise was only earthly. But take man in his fallen and corrupt state, and then he cannot help but be earthly. Everything embraces what is suited to it. Comfort does not come so much from the goodness of a thing as from the suitability of the object to the faculty. Now the things of the earth are suited to people who are of the earth, and therefore they mind them. The heart will run out abundantly upon what is suited to it.

4. These things of the earth make a very fair show in the flesh. They have a kind of goodly appearance in the eye of sense, yes, and in the eye of reason as it is now corrupted by sin. We have a most elegant expression of these earthly things, and of earthly-minded men having their hearts set on them, in Galatians 6:12: “As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh,” says the Scripture. The words describe a man who looks smart and neat, as you see some men dress themselves elaborately, and, having handsome bodies, they look so trim, fine, handsome and splendid to the eye of all who see them. So, he says, these men, the false teachers, desire to make a fair show in the flesh. That is, they look on the things of the flesh as very splendid to the eye, and they love to have everything about them so perfect that they may look smart and carry themselves with such beauty before the world. Oh, this is their happiness; in this they take contentment. They seem to have fine estates and splendid clothing and all elegant things about them. This looks so splendid in the eyes of the world, and that is why their hearts are on these things. Here they are enemies of the cross of Christ. They think suffering for Christ, poverty and disgrace look only unsightly. But those who desire to make a fair show in the flesh, who would have their faces well washed, fair and beautiful wherever they go, and be somebody in the world, these do thus and thus: they forsake the truths of God and seek to provide for themselves in the things of the flesh.

5. By nature people never knew better things than the things of the earth, and so it is no wonder that they mind earthly things so much. Children born in a dungeon, who never knew any better place, can play up and down in the dungeon. So it is with those who never knew what the things of heaven and eternal life meant: they can mind earthly things better than those. But once the Lord opens the eyes of their understanding to see into the reality, excellence and glory of spiritual things, then they wonder at their former blindness in minding such poor, low, mean, foolish rattles as the things of the earth are.

6. Earthly principles are continually dropped into people through their dealings with others who are people of the earth. “Their inward thoughts is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling place to all generations, they call their lands after their own names” (Ps 49:11). Their hearts are set on these things. Then it follows, “This their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings” (Ps 49:13). They are applauded by others; they see that everybody applauds them in these ways. When they talk with one another, they talk about the things of the earth. And the common example of people also inclines their minds to the things of the earth: they see everybody following the things of the earth and greedy after these toys.

7. Lastly, there is the experience their senses have had of the sweetness in the things of the earth. This is what draws their minds away from spiritual things and makes them mind the things of the earth.

These are the reasons why people mind the things of the earth this way. An earthly-minded man blesses himself in his way and thinks he has good reason for what he does. He thinks everyone a fool who does not grovel in the ground like a mole as he does, and he looks on the matter of religion as mere words and talk: “Let them do what they will, I find contentment here.” Yet, for all that, this way of his will certainly prove folly in the end, as the Holy Spirit says in Psalm 49:13, “This their way it is but their folly.” In the end the wise men of the earth, those who have sought the things of the earth and bless themselves in their way, will prove to be the greatest fools. The Holy Spirit counts them so in Jeremiah 17:11: “As the partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.” He applauds himself for the present in what he has gotten, but at the end he shall be a fool.

Now the main thing that still remains in this point is to try to draw the minds of men and women away from the things of this earth, so that by this I may prepare the way for the next point, which is of infinite concern: having our way of life in heaven. But people’s way of life cannot be in heaven until their minds are drawn off from the earth, until the disease of earthly-mindedness is cured. Therefore we must now set before you those things that may help to draw men’s minds away from the earth.

1. First, consider this: all the things of the earth that your mind and heart are set upon, even if you could possess them all as your own, do not have so much good in them as would outweigh the evil of the least sin, not even of the least sin of thought. Your heart is muddling about among the things of the earth, and you think you would be blessed if you had this and that, as others have. Let me tell you, if you have but one sinful thought, there is more evil in that than there is good in all that you will ever get in the world all the days of your life. And if this is so, that there is more evil in the least sin than there is good in all the things of the earth, then it concerns you rather to set your mind on how to avoid sin, or how to have the evil of sin removed, and how to have your sin mortified. That concerns you more than minding and plodding about the things of the earth. That is one consideration.

2. A second consideration that may draw men’s hearts away from the things of the earth is this: the chief things in the earth (yes, name whatever earthly excellence a man could possibly be crowned with under heaven) have been the portion of reprobates in the past, are so to this day, and shall be the portion of multitudes whom God hates and has set apart to glorify his infinite justice upon them eternally. Shall your mind and heart be set on things that are the portion of reprobates? Will a reprobate’s portion content you? Will it serve you? Are you satisfied with dogs’ food? If it will not content you, why is your mind so much on the things of the earth?

It may be that you are poor and lowly in the world, and your mind is on some little matter. You can never expect to have any great things in the world, and yet you mind that little matter as if your portion and your happiness lay there: some small pittance to furnish your house, to provide for yourself and your poor family. Oh, friend! If it were possible for you to get the empire of the whole world under your foot, you would still get no more than has been the portion of those whom God has hated. And if kingdoms and empires have been the portion of reprobates, why do you mind things that are far lower, and let the strength of your heart flow out on such things as these?

3. A third consideration is this: surely God has made man for higher things than the things of this earth. Oh, if only your thoughts were often working this way! “What, in my conscience, do I think God made the children of men for? For what end? Why has he sent them here into the world?” Of all the creatures God has here on the earth, he has none capable of knowing him, the infinite First Being of all things, except the children of men. And God has given them a nature capable of some fellowship with him. Surely, then, God made man for other things than to have food and drink and clothes, and to live here a while only to enjoy the creatures. Do we not often read that Jesus Christ was God and man, took man’s nature upon himself, and died for man? Surely the fruit of what the blood of Christ purchased must be some other kind of things than the things of the earth.

Oh, my brothers and sisters, if only this were settled in you, that God certainly has great, glorious, high and wonderful thoughts about mankind! This would be a mighty means to draw your hearts away from the things of this earth. When you find your heart groveling here, think: “Oh, but are these the things God made man for? Did not God have higher thoughts in making the children of men? Do I not find in the Word that when man was made there was a kind of divine consultation within the Trinity, ‘Come, let us make man’ according to our own image (Gen 1:26)?” God had other thoughts of man than of other things. And if man were made for nothing else but merely to dig in the earth, then certainly God’s thoughts about man would have been very low and mean (if I may speak so, with holy reverence), for the things men enjoy here on earth are only low and mean things.

4. As God has higher thoughts concerning man, so the dignity of man’s nature, the rational soul of man, is of too high a birth to have its strength spent on the things of the earth. God breathed into man his soul. It is (I may say) a kind of divine spark. The soul of man is of the same nature as the angels, a spirit as the angels are. The thoughts of the mind, the faculties and powers of the soul, are more precious things than to be poured out like water on the ground. If a man had a golden mill, he would not use it only to grind dirt, straw and rotten sticks. The mind of man, the thinking faculty, is too high to be exercised in the things of this earth. The mind of man is of a most excellent and spacious nature. It is fit to converse not only with angels but with the eternal God himself, with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And to spend the strength of such a faculty, which God has put into the soul of man, on such dirty, drossy, low, base, mean things as earthly-minded men and women spend it on must be a great evil.

Know the dignity of your nature, the excellence of your mind. The soul of man is a being of transcendent worth. Put all the world into the balance with it, and the world is nothing. Therefore you know what Christ says: “What shall it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?” (Mark 8:36). The soul of the lowest galley slave is more precious than heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars, and all their host. Let me add, then, all the silver and gold mines underground, and all the unsearchable riches of the great and wide sea. Yes, put all these together, and the soul of the most despised beggar who cries for a crust of bread at your door is worth inexpressibly more than all of them. Now, if man’s soul is of such a high-born nature, if God has put such a spirit, which is a spark of heaven, into his bosom, then for man to employ it in no other use and service than merely to be an earthworm creeping in and upon the ground must be a very great evil.

5. The fifth consideration is the uncertainty of all these things: “uncertain riches” (1 Tim 6:17). How easily some mishap may come and take away from you all the earthly things your mind is set on! God sends just a little too much heat into the body and puts you into a fever, and where is your delight then? With your body either too much heated or too much cooled, what has become of all your comfort here on earth? You go out and are dangerously wounded by an enemy; what refreshment do you receive from all these things then? Let me tell you, you are here in the midst of thousands upon thousands of mishaps, every moment ready to take away all the comforts of the earth. And usually (observe it) the time when men’s and women’s minds are most fixed on the earth is the time God takes to strike them in those things. They are nearest to being deprived of the comforts of the earth when their thoughts and minds are most set on them.

You know how it was with the rich man in the Gospel. When he was blessing himself and crying to his soul, “Soul, soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years” (Luke 12:19), that very night (the text says) this message came to him: “Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be taken away from thee, and then, whose shall all these things be?” (Luke 12:20). And at the very time when Nebuchadnezzar was blessing himself in the palace he had built for his own honor, a message came to him from heaven, so that he was immediately turned out of all his court vanities to graze among the beasts of the field.

So you may find in your own experience that God has often crossed you most in the things of the earth when your minds and hearts have been most glued to them. And it may be in mercy. Yes, it is a greater mercy to be crossed in these things at such a time than to prosper in the midst of them, for it may be a good sign that God intends good to a soul when he crosses him at the time he is most earthly. Oh, many who have been truly godly, but still earthly-minded, have found God coming at such a time and crossing them in some earthly contentment, and have seen cause to bless God for dealing with them so: “Where was I going? I was going altogether to the earth, minding such things; my heart was set on them. And God came in at a seasonable time to show me the vanity of my heart and of the things my mind was busy about. Oh, it was a happy cross I had at such a season; much of Christ hung upon it.” And that is the fifth consideration.

6. Just consider what has become of those who were earthly in the past, who enjoyed the greatest comforts of the earth. What has become of those men in former ages of the world who lived here and swaggered so much in their generation, who were everything at court and in the city, and had all the earth they desired? What has become of Agrippa and Bernice with all their pageantry and greatness? Now they have acted their parts and gone off the common stage of the world, and all their vanity is buried with them in one grave. What difference is there between the poor and the rich when they die? They all go the same way. Only, these were here for a little time and flourished in the things of the earth, and now they are gone, but have left a great deal of guilt behind them. Just look at their example: what has become of them? And consider that your case must be like theirs within a while. The wheel is turning round that will bring you as low as they are, so that before long you must be numbered among the dead. Oh, this is a mighty means to draw our hearts away from the things of this earth!

7. Consider further how short is the time you have here in this world. That is the apostle’s argument: because the time is short, therefore let us use the world as if we used it not (1 Cor 7:29-31); therefore let our hearts be drawn away from these things. We have only a little time and a great deal of work. In this short winter’s day of life we have to provide for eternity. Now, considering the great weight of the work that depends on us here in this world, this may be a mighty reason for us to bid farewell to all the things of this world. Indeed, if we had time enough for our work, and were sure of our time, then we might spend it on trifles. If a man comes into the city to do business of great weight and consequence, and has only a little time to spend on it, he never pays attention to anything he sees in the city. He never notices anybody who passes him, or any displays in the shops, or what finery is there, but goes up and down the streets minding only his own business.

Oh, so it should be with us, my brothers and sisters! Consider the great work we have to do and the little time we have to accomplish it in. On our little, short, uncertain inch of time hang matters of more consequence than ten thousand thousand worlds are worth. And if we miscarry in this little time of our lives, we are lost and undone forever. It would have been better for us never to have been born, or to have been made toads or serpents or the vilest beasts of all, than reasonable creatures. Oh, do you have so much time that you can spend the very spirits of your souls on the things of this earth? Can you spare so many hours? Certainly, if God would only make known to you what eternity means, if the Lord would only cause the fear of eternity to fall upon you, you would not misspend so much time as you do. Though you often complain that you lack time for spiritual things, oh, how much time you spend letting out your thoughts and affections on the things of the earth, more than you need to!

8. Consider, therefore, in the next place, that a little will serve to carry us through this world. We are here only on our pilgrimage, or on our voyage, and a little will serve here to carry us through this world. Men will not take more on a journey than may help them. Suppose a man setting out on a journey got a whole bundle of staffs and laid them on his shoulder, and you asked him why he was carrying that bundle. “Why,” he says, “I am going on a long journey, and I do not know what need I may have of staffs to help me.” It is true, carrying a staff in his hand will help a man; so Jacob was helped by his staff over the Jordan. But carrying a bundle on his shoulder will hinder him.

Now, a little will serve your turn. If you have only meat and drink, “food and raiment,” says the apostle, be content (1 Tim 6:8). And the servants of God in former times passed through this world with very little; and with many of them, the less they had, the more peace and comfort they had in God, and the fitter they were to die. I remember that Oecolampadius, when he was dying and very poor, declared that he did not wish to have been richer than he was, for he saw what a hindrance riches were, and so he could pass out of the world with a great deal more ease and quiet. Certainly a little will serve here. We say that nature is content with a little; and if there were grace, it would be content with less. And therefore let not our minds be on the things of the earth; we do not have as much need of the things of the earth as we think.

9. Further, consider that even if, by minding the things of the earth, we should enjoy ever so much, yet there is no comfort, no good to be had in them any further than God is pleased to let himself through them. They are only channels to convey the blessing and goodness of God to us. Man does not live by bread, or food, alone. You are deceived to think that if you had such and such things you would certainly have a comfortable life. I say you may be deceived in this, for it is God in these things who comforts the heart. There is a notable Scripture for this in Psalm 62:10, where the Holy Spirit says, “Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery, if riches increase, set not your hearts upon them.” Do not mind them. Why? Verse 11 gives the reason: “God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God” (Ps 62:11). “If riches increase, set not thy heart upon them”: let not your hearts and minds be upon riches, or anything in this earth. Why? God has spoken once, twice have I heard; that is, again and again. God has spoken effectually to me that all power to do any good belongs to him. It is not in riches; there is no power there to make you happy, but it all belongs to him.

This, I confess, is a spiritual meditation in which earthly-minded men will have but little skill. Yet where earthly-mindedness prevails in any one of the saints, this may do him good: “The truth is, it is not in the creature; creature comforts cannot do me good. If I had a thousand times more than I have, I might be miserable on the earth and have as little comfort as those who have least. And therefore let me set my affections on things above, and not on things on the earth.”

10. Moreover, lay this to heart: if you are godly, God promises to take care of you in the things of this earth. And to that end, so that he might ease you of the burden of your care, cast your care upon God, “for he careth for you” (1 Pet 5:7); and take no anxious thought for these things, for your heavenly Father knows you have need of them (Matt 6:31-32). Your heavenly Father takes care: see how he clothes the lilies, and are not you much better than they? (Matt 6:28-30). Now children do not much mind the things of the earth so as to provide for themselves, because they know they have their father to provide for them. A child who has his father and friends to make provision for him is greatly eased by it. Indeed, those who are left fatherless and friendless seem to have some excuse: “I need to take care of myself, for I have nobody to provide for me.” Yes, but the saints cannot say so. They have a Father to provide for them, and all the earth is the Lord’s as well as heaven, and the fullness of them both. Now, since the earth is the Lord’s as well as heaven, since the earth is your Father’s, why should your care be so much on the things of the earth? Let your care be to do your duty to your Father, to walk as a child; but let it not be for the things of the earth. If it is, you as good as disavow your Father’s care for you.

And can you believe that God will give his Son to you and not give you all things else? Does not godliness have the promises of this life as well as of the life to come? Oh, you unworthy child, who profess an interest in such a Father! Or you unworthy Christian, who profess an interest in such promises, and hope that God has done such things for you as he has done, and yet have your heart in the things of this earth, as if the Lord had settled you only here and left you to shift for yourself here from door to door! No, certainly, God’s care is over his people in the things of the earth as truly as it is over them in spiritual and eternal things. Some men can think that they trust God for their souls (at least they trust that they do), but they cannot trust him so well for their bodies. But surely faith will teach you to trust God for your body as well as your soul, for God takes care of both, and both were redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And he has told you that he who fears the Lord shall never lack anything that is good for him. Now these considerations may mightily prevail to draw men’s hearts away from the things of this earth.

11. The last that I shall name is this: all who profess religion are dead to the world, or should be. Indeed, if you are truly religious, you are dead to it; by your profession you declare yourselves to be dead to the world. The Scripture uses this argument to draw men’s hearts away from the things of this world in Colossians 3:2-3: “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” Why? “For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” You are dead, the apostle writes to the Colossians, and yet he was writing to the living when he told them they were dead. The Scripture speaks much of the death of the saints. As it is said in Timothy of women who lived in pleasures, that they were dead while they lived (1 Tim 5:6), so it may be said of Christians that they are dead while they live: dead to the world. “I am crucified to the world,” says the apostle (Gal 6:14), and we are dead with Christ.

I find that some interpret the Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15:29, “Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead?” in this way: all those who came in from among the heathen, were converted to Christianity and were baptized, were baptized for dead men. That is, by their baptism they made a profession that from that time on, forever, they declared themselves dead men to the world: “baptized for the dead.” In some of your books you have it “over the dead,” but the word is “for,” and so it is translated in this latest translation, “for dead men.” Your baptism is administered to you as a sign of your profession to be as dead men to the world. So I find some take it. This is the profession of Christians: to be as dead men to the world. Oh, do not dishonor your profession of religion! For indeed it is a greater evil (as we said) for those who profess religion to be earthly-minded than for anyone else; and yet how many are guilty of it!

It is an observation of Luther’s that when God revealed himself to Abraham and told him that he would multiply his seed, he used two similitudes. One was that he would make his seed as the stars of heaven; and at another time God says that he would make his seed as the sand on the seashore. Now, says Luther, by these two expressions two sorts of Abraham’s seed are signified. There are some who are as the stars of heaven, who are heavenly-minded; there are others who are as the sand of the sea. That is, there are some who profess themselves to be Abraham’s seed but are of earthly spirits. Oh, now, my brothers and sisters, we should labor to have such minds and hearts that we appear to be the seed of Abraham as the stars of heaven, to be of the number of those who are as the stars of heaven, that is, through heavenly-mindedness. But we shall come to that when we come to speak of how the way of life of Christians ought to be in heaven.

But now, suppose someone says, “May we not mind earthly things and heavenly things too?”

Know that there is a great mistake here. You cannot serve two masters, God and mammon (Matt 6:24). And that text of Scripture in Colossians 3:2 is very notable. Mark the opposition: “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” They are there set in opposition to one another. “Set your affections,” or minds; for I think it is the same word as that in my text, “who mind earthly things” (Phil 3:19). A man cannot look up to heaven and down to the earth both at the same time. There is an opposition between these two: between the earthly-mindedness that has been opened to you and the minding of heavenly things.

Yes, but you will say, “We need these things while we are on the earth; how can we do otherwise than mind them? When we come to heaven, we shall have dispositions suited to heaven there, but surely not until then?”

To that I answer: though Christians live on the earth, yet they are not of the earth. There is a great deal of difference between one who is of the earth and one who lives on the earth. Christ says of himself that he was not of the earth. It is true that though he lived a while on the earth, yet he was not of it. In John 3:31: “He that cometh from above, is above all, he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth.” Now Christ was on the earth when he spoke these words, but he was not of the earth. And so it is with Christians: they are on the earth, but they are not of the earth; they are a people redeemed from the earth. Therefore that plea is not enough.

It is true that these are things we need; even so, we must not mind them. For so it is in Matthew 6:31-32, where Christ speaks against taking anxious thought about what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or what we shall put on. He says, “Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things.” You have some need of them; yes, but you have need of other things, and greater need of other things than of these. What need is there for you to live on the earth at all, except in order to provide for eternity and to live to the honor of Christ and the praise of his gospel? I say you have no need of anything on the earth except in subordination to higher things. There is no need for you to live except for some other end. And therefore do not let that be any argument to plead for earthliness, as indeed an earthly spirit is very clever at pleading for itself.

I shall close this point with some exhortation to you, and directions about this point of earthly-mindedness.

Oh, considering what has been said, I beg you to lay it seriously to heart, especially you who are young beginners in the way of religion. Otherwise it may go with you as it does with many who dig for veins of gold and silver underground. While they are digging in those mines for riches, the earth many times falls on them and buries them, so that they never come up out of the mine again. And so it is with many who are beginning in the way of religion, who are digging in the mines of salvation for unsearchable riches, for what is abundantly better than gold and silver.

Now, while you are seeking grace and godliness in this way, oh, take heed that you are not covered with the earth while you are digging in the world. Keep some place wide open to heaven. Otherwise, if you dig too deep, foul air will come up. Even if the earth does not fall on you, yet I say, foul air will rise from the earth that may choke you, unless there is a wide space open to let the air that comes from heaven in to you. Those who dig in mines are very careful to leave the place open for fresh air to come in. So too, though you may follow your calling and do the work God has set you here for, as others do, and be as diligent in your calling as anyone, yet still keep a passage open to heaven, so that fresh breezes of grace may come into your soul. If at any time you have gotten caught up in the world, if you spend one day without some spiritual air from heaven, take heed: foul air is coming up that will choke you. Oh, that Christians would consider this while they are here below!

I remember reading what Augustine says in his commentary on the Psalms. The text says, “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust” (Ps 72:9). In a witty way he applied it to earthly-minded men. “If you lick the dust in this way,” he says, “you will come to be counted one of the enemies of God by it.” It is true that the scope of that passage is different. But take heed that, in this metaphorical sense, you do not lick the dust and so come to be counted an enemy of God. You who want to be counted as friends, and who seek reconciliation with God, oh, do not lick the dust, always here like moles in the earth. They say that moles, though they are blind, have their eyes opened when they are out of the earth, and then they shake and tremble. And so, though the earth may close the eyes of men here for a while, yet certainly a day will come when their eyes will be opened to see how they have fooled and deceived themselves.

And now, too, it is worse to be earthly-minded in the time of the gospel than at other times. It was not so evil a thing to be an earthly-minded man in the time of the law, when all God’s promises were conveyed in a kind of earthly way. I do not say that all the promises made to them under the law were merely earthly, but they were conveyed in an earthly way. Therefore you will find that when God promises his people in the time of the law what great mercies they will have, he does it in earthly expressions, such as gold and silver and things of that kind. And their promises of heaven went under the expression of living in the land of Canaan, since Canaan was a type of heaven.

Now, though they were taken with earthly things when God revealed himself to them in an earthly manner, yet now, in the time of the gospel, lift up your hearts, for your calling is from above. Now heavenly things are revealed. He who is from above has come among us, the heavens are broken open, and heaven’s glory shines upon the churches in a far brighter manner than it did before. And therefore gospel light makes the sin of earthly-mindedness all the heavier, and therefore now, above all times, the hearts of men and women should be set free from the things of the earth.

1. To that end, be watchful over your thoughts. Do not take the liberty of letting your hearts run too far in the things of the earth. Whatever time you have for meditation, reserve as much of it as you can for spiritual things. Most men and women think they may take liberty in their thoughts. “Why,” they say, “the thing in itself is not unlawful.” Yes, but your thoughts will steal upon you and affect your hearts very much. Therefore watch closely over your thoughts, and keep them within Scripture bounds.

2. Be much humbled for sin. That will draw the heart far away from earthly-mindedness. Earthly-minded men, who have earthly hearts full of dross, have never known what the weight and burden of sin means. Let God only lay the weight and burden of sin upon the soul, and it will quickly draw the soul away from earthly things. Oh, those men who have gone on in the world in a complacent condition, and never knew what trouble of conscience for sin meant, grow seared in those earthly contentments! But those who have once had the weight of sin lying on them know what it is to have to deal with an infinite God, and to bear the burden of the wrath of an angered Deity. Such people know that they have other things to look after than the things of the earth. If God would only humble your hearts, the humbling of your spirits would quicken you. It would take away the dullness and deadness of your spirits, and stir you up to look after other things than the things of this life.

3. Further, set before you the example of the saints who were the most precious servants of God in former times, and see how they counted themselves pilgrims and strangers here on the earth. Read at your leisure the Scripture in Hebrews 11:13: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” And mark, then, how it follows in Hebrews 11:37: “They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.” Who were these? They were those of whom the world was not worthy. “They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb 11:38). And yet they were such precious saints of God that the world was not worthy of them. Now when we set before us how joyfully these servants of the Most High went through their whole wilderness condition, this should make us ashamed of our earthly-mindedness, and it would be a mighty help to us.

4. And then, if we would consider the great account that we must give for all earthly things, it would be a means to take the heart off earthly-mindedness. You look only at the comfort of them; but consider the account you must give for them. And consider: what if you were to die now, and go the way of all flesh? Ask yourself, “What good would it do me to remember what contentments and pleasures I had on the earth?”

5. But above all, setting Jesus Christ before you and meditating on the death of Jesus Christ: that, I say, is the great thing that will take the heart off the things of the earth. Look upon Christ crucified! See how he who was the Lord of heaven and earth put himself into so low a condition, merely to redeem us! Much converse with the death of Jesus Christ makes the heart dead to the world. In the third chapter of Philippians we have a notable text for this in the example of Paul, who counted all things as dung and dross for Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3:8 he says, “I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” And then he adds, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Phil 3:10). Paul desired so much to be conformed to the very death of Christ that he counted all things in the world as only dung and dross in comparison with that. Paul had the death of Christ before his eyes and meditated much on it, and that meditation made a great impression on his spirit. It made him count all these things as dross, as food for dogs by comparison, so that he might have fellowship with the death of Christ. Perhaps some of you may think of the glory of Christ in heaven, and that may make you less worldly for the present. But let me entreat you to meditate on the death of Christ, and know that there is an excellency in being conformed even to the death of Christ, such an excellency as may draw your hearts away from the things of the world. It is said of the King of France that once, asking someone about an eclipse, he said, “I have so much business on the earth that I take little notice of the things of heaven.”

Oh, my brothers and sisters, to close everything, I beg you, do not let this be said of any of you: that you have such and such worldly employments that you cannot inquire after Jesus Christ. Do not plead that you have such great business, that you have so much to do on this earth, that you take little notice of the things of heaven. No, surely the saints of God have their business in heaven (as, God willing, we shall see hereafter). Their city business, their trading, their aims, their bent, are higher than the things of this earth. There are things to which a man may let out his thoughts and affections as much as he will. This shows the vanity of the things of this world: a man needs to be very wary how much he sets his mind on them, and he cannot enjoy the comforts of this earth without some fear. But when he comes to converse with heaven, there he may let himself out to the uttermost, and that shows the excellency of those things. And you who are poor and lowly in the things of this earth, do not be discouraged, for there is a charge from God that people should not set their minds on these things. Surely there is no great matter in them, since God charges us not to set our minds on them. Oh, the excellency lies in things above, which are heavenly and spiritual, where the saints have their way of life! But more of this at large in the treatise that follows, Of Conversing in Heaven.

For our conversation is in heaven (Phil 3:20).

Some read this particle for as but: “But our conversation is in heaven.” Our way of life is not like theirs. Certainly the apostle does intend this: to make a distinction, a difference, between the ways of the saints and the ways of those who were enemies to the cross of Christ. “They mind earthly things: but our conversation is in heaven.”

But because of the particle for, “for our conversation,” I think the verse refers back to verse 17, since verses 18 and 19 are in a parenthesis. So if you want to know the apostle’s scope here, and what this verse relates to, the for points to verse 17: “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an ensample; for our conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:17; Phil 3:20). This verse is joined to that one and follows on from it. He made a little digression when he said, Make us your example. Then he speaks of others: there are many who walk in such and such a way and are enemies to the cross of Christ, “whose belly is their god, whose glory is their shame, whose end is destruction, who mind earthly things; but our (or, for our) conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:19-20). It is as if he were saying, “Beware of following those whose belly is their god, who mind earthly things, for their end is destruction. Rather follow those whose way of life is in heaven, for their end is salvation.” That is the scope of the words.

Now then, from the scope and connection of the words, they are to be joined together this way: follow us as an example, “for our conversation is in heaven.” From this, first of all, before we come to speak of the heavenly life the apostle mentions, we have this point: The examples of people whose lives are heavenly are to be followed. Follow us as an example, “for our conversation is in heaven.” Such people are guided by the Spirit of God, and the end of their way of life is good, and therefore it is safe to follow them. In Proverbs 2:20 the wise man gives this as an argument for why we should embrace wisdom: because it would “teach you to walk in the way of good men, and to keep the paths of the righteous.” We should observe the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

It is true that the examples of the best people, however holy, are not a sufficient rule for any action. If a man or woman does anything merely on the example of another person, however good the thing is, what they do will still prove to be sin to them. I say, though the thing is good, and you do it on the example of other good people, yet if that is your whole rule, the action will be sin to you. For this is the rule of Christ to us: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom 14:23). Now no example can be a sufficient ground for faith; therefore example alone is not a good rule. Yes, and sometimes, as we know, Satan himself may transform himself into an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14), and in order to make some evil prevail he may put on a great show of holiness. And so many gross hypocrites have for a time had much seeming holiness in their lives. Therefore it must be taken as a certain truth that the examples of people, however holy, are not a sufficient rule. But still, the examples of holy people should prevail with us this far.

1. They should prevail with us more than other examples: more than the examples of the most learned men. Be they ever so great rabbis, the example of one holy person whose way of life is in heaven should count for more with us than the example of many scholars. For many learned men may be very corrupt; they may go against their own consciences, as many certainly do.

(1) It should prevail against the example of great rich men who have goods laid up for many years. You should rather follow the example of those who appear to be holy than the example of the richest and greatest people in the places where you live.

(2) It should count for more than the example of the multitude. In Joel 3:14 you have a notable scripture against following multitudes of people. You may see there that multitudes go to destruction: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.”

(3) It should count for more than the example of those who are merely related to us. Children, for instance, should look to the example of godly men and women, even though they are strangers, rather than to the example of father or mother, uncle or aunt, or their nearest kin. Though the examples of the godly are not rules for our faith, yet they should count for more than the examples of anyone else.

2. Though they should not be rules or grounds of faith, yet they should be enough to remove the prejudices that come from people’s accusations. If people accuse the ways of godliness, and if any prejudices are taken up without ground against the paths of Zion, the example of godly people should be enough to make us stand firm against them. It may be you hear many crying out bitterly against a certain way of worship, and many false aspersions are cast upon it because it is not a national way of worship, for few follow it. Now just observe what kind of people worship God in that way which some call heresy. Are they not people of holy and blameless lives according to the gospel, the strictest Puritans? Now though you must not do as they do merely because of their example, yet their example should have a great deal of power and influence on you, to remove prejudices, to answer accusations, and to calm and sweeten your angry and bitter spirits.

3. Though examples are not a sufficient ground and rule for faith, yet they should be enough to make us inquire into those ways, and to examine and test whether they have any footing in the Word, because those who follow them are very upright and circumspect in their way. Let me at least inquire into these ways; let me examine them by the light of the gospel. Surely there is some probability that these ways are the very paths of Zion and lead to the gate of heaven, because those who profess them are such friends of Jesus Christ. It is likely that those who keep company with God most, who lie in his bosom as the beloved disciple lay in Christ’s, should know the mind of God. Is it not more likely that a familiar friend, who keeps company daily with someone, should know that person’s secrets and will, rather than a stranger? So all people in the world are strangers to God except the saints. They keep company with God; they are the people of his counsel and of his heart. Therefore, of all people in the world, it is most likely that they should have the whole will of God revealed to them. All learning and natural wisdom cannot show the mind of God as much as keeping company with God, and a holy, humble familiarity with him, can. God loves to open his bosom to his hidden ones, to reveal his mind to them.

And therefore, when we see that godly people, whose way of life is in heaven, have walked in such and such ways, it should make us think: “It is likely there is more good in these ways than I am aware of at present. It is likely that those God smiles upon should know the mind of God better than other people. Therefore, though I will not immediately conclude that it is the mind of God, and do it merely because they do it, yet I will examine and search whether it is the mind of God or not, according to the Scriptures.”

4. The example of godly people should prevail this far: to make us take heed that we do not oppose those ways unless we have very clear grounds to the contrary. Then we may oppose them, as Paul opposed Peter and resisted him to the face because he was not walking in the right way (Gal 2:11). Let people be ever so holy and godly, yet they may be opposed in their way. But it must be that upon examination you see clearly, “This is not the way of God; I find it to be otherwise.” Not, “Others think it is not the way of God, and such and such people are of a contrary mind.” No, but, “I have been examining it by the Word of God, laying the rule to my conscience and my conscience to the rule, and I find it disagrees with the mind of God.” Then you may speak or write against it, but do not do so otherwise. If you see that people are holy, people whose lives are in heaven, do not oppose their way just because others do. If you do oppose it, be sure your ground is good and that you are clear in it; otherwise you may be in danger of fighting against God when you oppose them. Therefore make this much use of the example of godly, holy people: do not oppose their way except upon clear Scripture evidence to the contrary.

5. The example of godly people should prevail with us this far: to prepare us to let in any truth that they profess and practice. When we come to examine what is in the ways of God and of heaven, let us come to that examination with prepared hearts, ready to let in the truths God shall reveal to us, all the more because we see that such holy and godly people have embraced those truths before us. When precious gospel truths are delivered to us by the hands of the servants of Jesus Christ, then in our eyes those very truths are “like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Prov 25:11), as beautiful as golden fruit in silver dishes.

6. The example of godly people should prevail this far: after we have examined their way and found it to be truly according to the truth, then their example should confirm us in the truth. It should help settle us more firmly in the truth, and should comfort and encourage us in such and such holy courses. For we find not only that we ourselves are convinced of it, see it to be the way of God, and have experience of it, but that others see it and are convinced of it too, others so godly that they find much communion with God in it. Now this should mightily strengthen and further us, that we are going on in the same way the saints of God go on in.

And indeed, it should be a very great grief to any godly person to differ from other godly people. Yet it cannot be but that we will differ sometimes, because we are imperfect here. Yes, and sometimes a weak Christian knows something that a strong Christian may be ignorant of. It happens so sometimes, I say: in some things God reveals himself to those who are weak and hides himself from those who are strong. So here in this world nothing else can be expected for the present, until the time when the New Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven. Then the saints will all be of one mind and all walk in one way. But until then, it cannot be expected but that the saints will go different ways. Yet, I say, it should be a very great heart-trouble to godly people to see that they are compelled to go different ways from other godly people. And on the other hand, it should be a great encouragement and strengthening when the saints go on together in one way with their faces toward heaven.

But you may say, “What should we do when we have contrary examples, with godly people on both sides? Yes, very godly people whose way of life is in heaven: some go one way, and others just as godly as they go another way. What shall people do then, when they see holy people going either way?”

To that I answer only these two things.

1. By this means God puts you to a stricter examination of things. By it he teaches you that every Christian, however weak, should have a foundation and ground for their faith and practice out of the Word for themselves. And God never taught this lesson more strongly than he does now: that none of us should satisfy ourselves in any point of religion, or in any practice of religion, except what we can find and feel footing for out of the Word ourselves.

In former times Christians were very much led by examples. A few exemplary godly people who professed religion would carry all the well-disposed people in those places along with them. All who laid any claim to godliness would be very unwilling to go a different way from some eminent godly people. Perhaps their affections were good, and God may accept their good affections; yet certainly they were not as grounded and established in the truth as God would have them.

But now the Lord seems to deal with his people another way. He puts everyone, the weakest, the lowliest servant, to search out and find the truth for themselves, and to have the knowledge of it themselves. And we hope the time is at hand for the fulfilling of that promise that all the people shall be taught of God: that they shall be taught to understand for themselves the reasons and grounds of the practice of religion, and of the tenets and opinions they hold. And when people come to understand the grounds themselves, they have a great deal more strength, and they will come to be more established than they have been before. This good will come of it.

2. When you see examples on both sides going contrary to one another, and both godly, just examine this: which way has the most earthly inducements? For the way that has the most earthly inducements to draw or bias the heart lies under the most suspicion. People who are godly are still godly only in part. Though they may be as godly as others in other things, there may yet be a temptation here. If the temptation of earthly contentment lies more one way than the other, you are to be more wary of that way than of the other.

But so that we may move past this point, since it arises only from the connection of the text, I will add only a word or two by way of application.

If the example of those whose way of life is in heaven is to be followed, then this rebukes those who would rather follow the example of wicked and ungodly people if they are great or learned, or the example of the multitude. They will follow anyone’s example rather than the example of those whose way of life is in heaven. You do this and that, and then you say, “Do not others do the same?” But who are they that do so? Can you say in your conscience that you think those who do so have their way of life in heaven, so that you will do as they do? If there is any example you will follow, it should be the example of people of whom you can say upon your conscience, “These are the ones whose lives are above.” You will do as others do in drinking, swearing, Sabbath-breaking, and every kind of profaneness. Do these people have their lives in heaven? Certainly, you who do so are following the example of those whose lives are in hell.

But it may be that you have some neighbors living near you whose lives are blameless; yes, they are heavenly. When you are in your good moods, your conscience bears witness for them, and you could wish that you might die the death of the righteous. Are there not some who live in the same households, streets or towns where you live, of whom this is true? Though sometimes your hearts are set against them, and you oppose them, scorn them, and speak against them, yet when you are in a good frame, or afraid of death, you could wish that you were as they are and might die their death. And now will you not follow their example, but rather the example of others, whose examples lie in such things as suit your vile, sinful, and base lusts?

We know that these examples of holy people will rise up in judgment against you another day. The Lord will condemn you by their example. He will say, “Did not such and such live in the household and place where you lived? Did you not see their holy and gracious way of life? And shall the example of such and such vile wretches be followed rather than the example of my saints?” This, I say, will stop your mouths and make your condemnation heavier on the great day of reckoning.

There are some who are so far from following the example of those whose lives are in heaven that they rage and fret against them, and do what they can to darken the glory of their holy lives. If they can get hold of any bad report about them, they will spread it as far as they possibly can, so that they may eclipse the holiness of these people’s lives and so quiet their own consciences. For if there were nothing to darken the luster and beauty of the saints’ lives, people’s hearts would certainly condemn them for walking in ways contrary to the saints. And therefore, to relieve their consciences, so that their hearts may not condemn them for walking in ways contrary to the saints, they do what they can to spew upon their glory. They are glad if they can hear any bad report of them, and they will pursue them to the uttermost. And all this is because their corrupt hearts are set against the holiness of the saints’ lives and conduct.

And then lastly, let those who profess religion labor to walk so that their example may convince others. Is there such power in holy examples to prevail with people? You who profess religion, make this an argument to work upon your hearts, so that your way of life may be more in heaven, and your example may do the more good in the place where you live. You who profess religion and yet have earthly spirits, and live scandalously and vilely, oh, know this! You live to do almost as much mischief as anyone can do in this world. There is no greater mischief than for someone to profess religion and yet for his way of life to be wicked and ungodly, and so to give the lie to his profession. But we spoke to that earlier, when we treated that Scripture, “Only let your conversation be as becomes the gospel” (Phil 1:27).

So we come now to the principal doctrinal truths in the words “For our conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). That is, our city conduct, our citizen-like behavior, our standing as freemen of a city (for that is what the word signifies), our bearing as free citizens, is in heaven. From this you have two truths: first, that the saints are the citizens of heaven; second, that their behavior and conduct, even while they are in this world, is in heaven.

For the first (and I will be brief, to make way for the second): The saints of God are the citizens of heaven. They are all free citizens, freemen of heaven. In Ephesians 2:19 you may see how God has gathered all the saints together to be fellow citizens of heaven: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” They have a heavenly city here in the church. The church is a heaven to the saints, and a type of that heaven which they shall come into hereafter, to live forever with both the saints and the angels.

And in Hebrews 11:9-10 it is said of Abraham, “He sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” It seems, then, that all the cities in the world have no foundations compared with this city. Abraham looked for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. The builders and makers of these cities here are men. The founders of the most famous cities in this world have been men, and many times wicked and ungodly men have been their builders. The first city we read of was built by Cain. The builders and makers of these cities, I say, are men, laboring men. But Abraham looked for a city that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

And in Hebrews 12:22 we read, “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”; and mark this, “and to an innumerable company of angels.” So you are to have the angels as your fellow citizens. “The heavenly Jerusalem” is here in the church; it is called the heavenly Jerusalem in comparison with the Jerusalem that was in Canaan. So the saints are citizens of heaven even as they are members of the church. The saints of God here in the church are said to dwell in heaven. But in that city of theirs there is also an innumerable company of angels, and that plainly shows that it refers to the glorious heaven of the saints, the heaven of which they are citizens. The saints are the citizens of heaven; there they dwell.

Revelation 13:6-7 will serve as proof of this point, and also of the other point that remains, that their conduct is in heaven: “And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.” Now these saints were not in heaven; that is, in their bodies they were not in heaven at that time. But they are said to dwell in heaven because they belong to the church here, and because they are free citizens of heaven too, of that heaven of the saints in which they shall live hereafter in a more glorious way. They are citizens of it now. And they may be said to dwell in heaven, as we shall see afterward when we open what it means for their conduct to be in heaven.

1. Now, the saints are citizens of heaven, first, because their names are all enrolled in heaven. They are written in heaven: “Rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). In heaven is the book of life, where all the names of the saints are written. “Whose names,” he says, “are written in the book of life” (Phil 4:3).

2. The saints are the citizens of heaven because they have Christ their head gone before to take possession of heaven in their names; therefore they have a right to heaven. A man may be a citizen even though he travels in another country. Since his name is enrolled in his city and he has possession there, he may be called a citizen, even though for the present he is in a strange land in his body. So the saints have their names enrolled in heaven, and they have Jesus Christ their head, who has gone before in their names to take possession for them and to provide mansions for them, as we read in John 14.

3. Whenever they actually believe, they take up their freedom. Their names were enrolled there from all eternity, and so Christ at his ascension went and took possession. But when they actually believe, they take up, as it were, their freedom in that city. Many men are born free, yet there is a time when they take up that freedom. And others have served for their freedom, yet it may be a long time before they are made free. So the saints, when they actually believe, come to take up their freedom in the city of heaven and are made free burgesses of heaven.

4. And from this it follows that they are no longer like slaves. They are not bond-slaves as they were before; they are delivered from bondage, being made freemen of heaven. Suppose foreigners, or people who are slaves, should come to be enfranchised. Then they have the same freedom that others have, they are admitted to the same city privileges, and they are no longer to be counted as slaves. So it is with those who are by nature bond-slaves to sin and Satan, yes, and those who are under the bondage of the law. When they come to believe, they are enfranchised in heaven and delivered from the bondage of the law, sin, and Satan, and they are said to be freemen of the city of heaven.

5. All the saints have a right to all the common stock, treasury, and riches of heaven. Whatever privileges belong to the charter of heaven, the saints have right and title to them all. In great cities there is a common stock and treasury for public occasions, and every citizen has some interest in it. So the saints, I say, have an interest in all the common stock and treasury, and in all the riches there are in heaven.

6. The saints are the citizens of heaven, and so even now they have the same confirmation of their happy estate that the angels and the blessed souls who reside in heaven have. I say, they have this privilege now by being citizens of heaven: though their bodies are not in the highest heavens, yet they have their happiness confirmed as surely as the angels in heaven have theirs, and as any blessed souls in Abraham’s bosom have theirs. Just as those are confirmed in a happy estate, so that they cannot be made miserable, so is every believer. Though he lives in this world, he has this privilege in being a citizen of heaven: he is confirmed in a happy estate, so that all the powers in hell and in the world can never make this soul miserable. And this is a mighty privilege of being a citizen of heaven. Such a person is more privileged than Adam in paradise. For Adam was not confirmed and established when he was made in the state of innocence, but every believer is confirmed and established as the angels in heaven are.

7. They have this privilege: by being citizens, they have the privilege of free trade with heaven. You know that freemen in the city have privileges of trade beyond what foreigners have. Foreigners are forced to pay customs and double taxes beyond what the free citizens pay. So the saints have the privilege of free trade in heaven for anything that concerns them. They have free dealings with heaven that others do not have.

8. Even now they have communion with the angels of heaven. There is communion and commerce between the saints here and the angels on this ground: they are fellow citizens. As that place in Hebrews quoted before says, “We are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable company of angels” (Heb 12:22). There are a great many dealings between the saints and the angels here on earth. The angels look on the saints as their fellow citizens, and they are ministering spirits for the good of the elect. They do very great services for the members of the church here in this world on this ground, because they look on them as their fellow citizens.

9. They have the protection of heaven, being the citizens of heaven. I say, they have heaven’s protection. A citizen has the protection of the law of the city, and of the power of the city, to defend him. So we read of Paul that because he was a Roman, it was dangerous to meddle with him. In Acts 22:25, as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?” It was as if he were saying, “Watch what you do; I am a free citizen of Rome.” And mark what the Scripture says: when the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, “Take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman” (Acts 22:26). Paul had the protection of the city. So too the saints are citizens of heaven. They are not citizens of Rome but of the heavenly Jerusalem. When anyone is about to wrong one of them, they had better watch what they do, for he is a citizen of heaven. The King of heaven is his King, to protect him, and that King sits and laughs at the enemies of the church. And the very angels themselves are their guard, to guard all these citizens and protect them. This is the comforting estate of all the people of God: they are the citizens of heaven.

Our city conduct: all this I draw from the meaning of the word in the original. Without understanding the proper force of the language and of the word, we would not have understood this truth.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since this is so, it should teach all the people of God to walk as becomes citizens and not to be rude in their behavior. It is a dishonor to citizens to be rude in their behavior. Leave rudeness to country people who never had any education. But certainly the saints of God have the education of heaven (this may be added as a tenth particular). They have the Holy Spirit as their instructor, to bring them up in holy and good manners suited to heaven. This the saints have; so show it in your conduct. Do not be rude in your ways. Prize your privilege of being a citizen of heaven. It cost Jesus Christ dearly to purchase this enfranchisement and liberty for you.

We read in Acts 22:27 that the chief captain, when he heard that Paul was a Roman, came and said to him, “Tell me, art thou a Roman?” He said, “Yea.” And the chief captain answered, “With a great sum obtained I this freedom.” And Paul answered, “I was free-born” (Acts 22:28). People used to give great sums to purchase the freedom of the city. Oh, this city we are speaking of here has privileges beyond any city in the world! And no man or woman can come to have the freedom of this city except by a great purchase. No one can say, as Paul did here, that he was born free. No; if anyone has come to have the freedom of heaven, it was by a great purchase. It was with the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ, which was worth more than all the world. And if the Son makes you free, then you shall be free indeed (John 8:36).

Therefore prize this as a great mercy. While you live here in this world, count it a great mercy that you are a citizen of heaven, and count your happiness to consist there. It is more than having house and lands here. For a man to have the freedom of some city is more than having house and land in the wilderness. What if the Lord orders things so that, while you live in the wilderness of this world, you have no dwelling of your own? Yet certainly the Lord has given you the freedom of heaven; it was purchased for you by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, by the price it cost, you may conclude that there is some great thing in this, that you are a free citizen of heaven.

But now, our way of life should correspond to our citizenship. And now we come more fully up to the apostle’s purpose: “But our conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:20).

The way of life of the saints, who are free citizens of heaven, ought to correspond to that citizenship. Though they dwell in this world, their way of life should be in heaven. In Daniel 7:18 you read of the excellent estate of the saints: “But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever.” The words translated here “the saints of the most High” are not meant only of the Most High God. Some translate them “the saints of the high places,” for the saints are the saints of the high places, in regard of their interest in heaven, and in regard of their way of life, which is suited to the place. In Ephesians 2:6 we read, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” The saints are set in heavenly places: heavenly dignity, heavenly privileges, heavenly prerogatives. Yes, and they themselves may be said to be in heavenly places. Though their bodies are on the earth, their souls are in heavenly places; their way of life is in heaven. They are the saints of the High God, and they are set in high places.

You will say, “What is this way of life in heaven that is spoken of here?” I will open it in these particulars.

1. The first is this: the aim and purpose of their hearts is heavenward. Heaven is what the saints look at; their aim and purpose is heaven. They look on themselves in this world as pilgrims and strangers. Heaven is their home, and their eye is there; it is their end, their purpose. Whatever they do, it is for heaven in one way or another: to fit them for heaven, and to lay up a store for heaven against the time when they come to live there. Therefore their way of life is in heaven. In all that they do, eating, drinking, going about their business, still, I say, their aim is heaven. I remember it is reported of Anaxagoras, a philosopher, that when he was asked why he lived, he said he was born to contemplate the heavens. He made contemplating heaven the end of his life, the thing for which he was born. Being a philosopher, with an understanding of the motions of the heavens, he took such delight in it that he counted it the end for which he was born. So the saints look at heaven as the center they aim at; that is their purpose. “We,” says the apostle, “do not look at things that are seen, but at things that are not seen” (2 Cor 4:18). Nothing on earth is our aim, but heaven is our aim. And so their way of life may be said to be in heaven in that respect.

2. Their way of life is in heaven because they are moved by heavenly principles in all their ways.

“Heavenly principles,” you will say; “what are they?”

This is a heavenly principle: that God is all in all. That is a principle the saints are guided by. In heaven they look on God as all in all to them, and so do the saints here. In what they do, in what they are, in what they enjoy, they act on this principle, that it is God who is all in all: “Whatever I see in the creature, it is still God who is all in all to me. I act by virtue of this principle.”

This is a heavenly principle: that God, the infinite First Being, is infinitely worthy of all love for his own sake. The saints in heaven look on the infinite excellence and glory of God. They look on him as the First Being of all things, having all excellence, and glory enough to satisfy all creatures forever, and they look on him as infinitely worthy of all love and service for his own sake. Know that this is a heavenly principle. So the saints’ way of life is in heaven: they are moved by heavenly principles. If I look on this or that thing in the world as a means of getting credit, increase or comfort, that is an earthly principle. But when my heart is so set on God that it looks on him as infinitely excellent, and worthy of all love, service, fear, honor and worship for himself alone, so that, whatever becomes of the creature, God is worthy of all for that infinite excellence in himself, this is a heavenly principle. And for a person to be moved in their life by such a principle as this is to be moved by heavenly principles: not by such low and base principles as the people of the world are moved by, but by heavenly principles.

3. Their way of life is in heaven because here, though they live in the world, they have communion with the God of heaven, who is above, in the whole course of their lives. John’s first epistle, in its first chapter, has various excellent expressions about our communion with God. In the third verse we read, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). And in another Scripture we read of “the communion of the Holy Ghost” (2 Cor 13:14). There is communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now, what makes heaven but God? We say, “Where the king is, there is the court.” Where God is, there is heaven, wherever God may be. There is some controversy among some about where the saints will be after the resurrection; some think it will still be here, and yet with all the glory that the Scripture speaks of. Now, it is no great matter where it is, so long as it is where God is. Those who have communion with God are in heaven; their way of life is in heaven.

Now this communion with God is the very life of the saints. Your life is to have communion with the creature, that is, to close with what the creature holds out to you. When the faculty in a man for tasting anything, or for taking delight in anything in this world, meets an object suited to it, that is his communion with the creature. Take a drunkard: there is a kind of communion he has, merely with lewd company and with the creature, to please his senses for a while, and that is all the communion he has. But what a different way of life it is, for one merely to please his senses with meat and drink for a little while, and for another to have communion with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost! The saints here in this world have not an imaginary but a real communion with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

“Communion,” you will say; “what is that?”

By communion with God we mean this: the acting of the soul upon God, and the receiving of the influence of God’s goodness and love and mercy into the soul. It is when there is a mutual acting of the soul upon God, and of God upon the soul again. When friends have communion with one another, one acts for the comfort of the other; there is a mutual embracing and opening of hearts to one another, to satisfy each other’s spirits. So communion with God is the mutual acting of the soul upon God, and of God upon the soul again. The saints see the face of God, and God delights in the face of the saints. They let out their hearts to God, and God lets out his heart to them. We cannot express this to strangers; a stranger shall not meddle with this joy. This is a mystery, a riddle to the carnal world.

Only consider this. The communion you have with your lewd company, sitting and eating and drinking and playing and telling stories all day long, you think is a fine life. But the communion of the saints is raised higher. The comfort of the saints is not in such poor, low, base things as yours is. The saints have comfort in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in an infinitely higher way, and in that respect their way of life is said to be in heaven. And especially when they are with God in his ordinances, they cannot be content unless they have communion with God there. It is not enough for them to call on the name of God, to kneel down and use some humble, brokenhearted expressions. “Oh, but what communion have I with God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost in my duties this time? I come to the Word and the other ordinances; oh, but what communion have I with God in them? I cannot be satisfied unless I taste and see how good the Lord is. I cannot go out about my business except with a heavy heart, unless I hear something from heaven this morning.” All the comfort of their lives depends on this: on having communion with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

4. Their way of life may be said to be in heaven because they live according to the laws of heaven. Here in this world they do not live according to the laws of men and the lusts of men, but they look for their direction from heaven: “What rule is there from heaven to guide me?” There must be some word from the God of heaven to order and guide them in their ways, or else they do not know how to carry themselves in them. Indeed, while they live in the cities of the world they must obey the laws of men, but still it is in subordination to the laws of heaven. The main thing they submit to is the statute law of Jesus Christ, the great Lawgiver. Because there is a law of heaven that requires them to obey those laws of men that agree with the laws of heaven, therefore they obey them. But the laws of heaven are what the saints look to for their direction in all their ways: “I have a mind to do this or that, but will the law of heaven justify me in it? Have I any word from Jesus Christ to guide me in such a way? I dare not do otherwise than according to the will and scepter of Christ; they must be my rule in all my ways.” Before, your lust was your rule, your own ends were your rule, and the common course of the world was your rule; but now the laws of heaven are your rule. And therefore their way of life is in heaven, because they are guided by the laws of heaven. Heaven is their aim; they are moved by heavenly principles; they converse with the God of heaven; and then, fourth, they live according to the laws of heaven.

5. Their thoughts and hearts are set on heaven. As one says, “The soul is where it loves rather than where it lives.” Where the heart is, there is the soul; there the man may be said to be. Now the saints have their hearts in heaven, their thoughts in heaven, their meditations in heaven, working there. “When I awake I am always with thee,” says David (Ps 139:18). And oh, how sweet the thoughts of heaven are to the saints! While you are muddling in the world and plodding for yourself in the things of this world, suppose God should come to you and say, “Where art thou?” as he said to Adam (Gen 3:9). Yes, sometimes even while you are at prayer and hearing the Word, where are your thoughts, and what are they about? Even, as we say in the proverb, running about woolgathering.

But now come to one whose way of life is in heaven. He keeps his thoughts and meditations there continually, meditating on the glorious things that are reserved in heaven. I remember I have read of that holy man Mr. Ward, that in the middle of a dinner, while people were wondering what he was musing about, he suddenly broke out, “Forever, forever, forever!” For almost half a quarter of an hour he could not be quieted, but kept crying, “Forever, forever, forever!” So far as any man or woman has their way of life in heaven, their thoughts are there, thinking, “Oh, eternity, eternity! To be forever in heaven, to live forever with Christ and God! And oh, the crown of glory that is there! When will that blessed day come when I shall enjoy the good things that are there?” His thoughts will be there, and he is longing to be there; his love and desires and affections will be working there.

It is said of the people of Israel that their hearts turned back again to Egypt (Acts 7:39). They never returned to Egypt in their bodies, but their hearts were there. They would gladly have had the onions and the fleshpots of Egypt; their hearts were there. So it may be said of many that though they come and hear the Word, their hearts are in their shops; their hearts go after their covetousness. But it is the opposite with the saints: though they live here in this world, their hearts are in heaven. I remember it is written of Queen Mary that she said, if they cut her open, they would find Calais in her heart. And so it may be said of the saints whose way of life is in heaven. I do not speak of all professors of religion. When Paul speaks of the resurrection, he says of bodies that there are celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies (1 Cor 15:40); so I may say there are celestial professors and terrestrial professors. But as for those whose way of life is in heaven, who walk with God and live the life of heaven here on earth, if they were ripped open, you would find heaven in their hearts.

Rip open many people’s hearts, and there is nothing but earth, uncleanness and baseness. Suppose God should come this moment and rip open all your hearts, and lay them open to all the people of the world: what a deal of filthy stuff would be found in many of your hearts! But those whose way of life is in heaven would be ready to have God rip open their hearts whenever he pleases: “Lord, try me; Lord, search me; Lord, examine and see what is in my heart.” I will put this to you now as in the name of God, and let conscience answer: what do you think would be found in your hearts if they were ripped open now? Perhaps your consciences tell you, “O Lord, if my heart were ripped open now, there would be a filthy deal of ugly and abominable stuff there. Surely I have not had my way of life in heaven; my heart has been sinking down to low and base things.” But for those whom this text concerns, it will be an exceeding comfort. And I hope there are many of you who may be able to say, “If the Lord should at this present moment rip open our hearts and show them to all the world, I hope the world would see that heaven is stamped on our hearts.”

We count it sad weather when we cannot see the heavens for many days, when many times we cannot see the sky for a week together. And we count it a poor dwelling where people live in narrow lanes in the city, so that they can scarcely see the heavens unless they go out into the fields. My brothers and sisters, surely it is a sad time with a gracious heart when any one day passes without converse with heaven, without the sight of heaven and meditations on heaven, and without having the heart there. Thus it should be with Christians whose way of life is in heaven: they should never love such dwellings, where they cannot see the beams of the sun. It is a most comfortable thing to see the light. For a man who lives in some dark house, it is very comfortable to walk out into the open air and behold the heavens. Oh, my brothers and sisters, our souls dwell in dark houses, every one of us, for our bodies are to our souls like a dark, low cellar. But the Lord gives us liberty to go out, and to converse with the things of heaven that he has revealed in his Word and in his ordinances.

Many citizens live in dark rooms and keep close to their work for a long time; yet at the times they call days of recreation, they walk out in the fields and take the fresh air, and oh, how delightful it is to them! The same should be true of a gracious heart. Indeed, he has a great many business affairs in the world, yes; but on the Lord’s day, oh, that he may now enjoy God in his ordinances more than before! His thoughts are on those ways in which he may come to have more of heaven: “Oh, that I may converse more with God now than at other times!” And upon this, the Sabbaths are the joy of his soul, his delight. He longs for the Sabbath, he thirsts for the ordinances, for indeed his heart is in them, because he finds more of heaven in them than in other things. And in that regard, with his thoughts and heart in heaven like the rest of the saints, he proves to have his way of life in heaven.

Moses never came into Canaan, and yet God gave Moses a sight of it and carried him up to Mount Nebo. Heavenly meditations are, as it were, Mount Nebo: when the heart is raised a little upon the mount, it is able to see heaven and behold the glorious things there. The Scripture speaks of Lucifer, that he had his nest among the stars. A saint has, as it were, his nest, his dwelling, among the stars, yes, above the stars, in the highest heavens. With wicked men, when they seem to draw near to God, their hearts are still far from him; they are in their shops, they are among their ships, when they seem to be worshiping God. So when the saints seem, in regard of their bodies, to be far from God, their hearts are in heaven all the while.

6. To open a heavenly way of life further, it consists in this: when, in the course of their lives, people converse with and delight in the same things that are done in heaven; when they make their happiness the same happiness that is in heaven, and their exercise the same exercise that is in heaven. For instance:

What is there in heaven? There is the sight of the face of God: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8). And the angels “always behold the face of God” (Matt 18:10). So the saints may be said to have their way of life in heaven, because their exercise while they live here is beholding the face of God, standing before God and seeing his face. The greatest delight and contentment of their souls is that they can see something of God.

What more is done there? The work of heaven is praising and blessing God. What do the saints and angels of heaven do but continually bless and magnify and praise the name of that God whom they see to be so infinitely worthy of all praise and honor from his creatures? A man’s way of life is in heaven when he does the same things, when he joins with angels and saints in doing the same work of magnifying and blessing and praising God.

What is done in heaven but the keeping of a perpetual Sabbath? Our way of life is in heaven when we delight in God’s Sabbath, yes, and indeed when we keep a constant Sabbath to God. Though we are busied about earthly things, still we keep a Sabbath to God, in resting from sin and being spiritually employed. And that is a sixth thing.

7. Our way of life is in heaven when we are heavenly even in earthly employments: when we use earthly things in a heavenly manner. It is not so much the place where his saints are that God looks at, but what they do. Though while we live on the earth we use earthly things, yet when we can use them in a heavenly manner, our way of life may be in heaven though we are on earth.

(1) For example, when in the use of earthly things we pass quickly through them to God. We make use of them, but we do not stick in them; we make them the means of passing through to God, and we get through quickly. A carnal heart sticks in the things of the earth and mingles with the earth. But a spiritual and heavenly heart makes earthly things only conduits to convey it to heaven. Here we carry the flesh about with us, and because we have so much earth in us, we have need of these earthly things; yes, but they are means of conveying us to spiritual and heavenly things.

(2) And then, when we use earthly things as heavenly: that is, we take occasion from earthly things to rise to meditations of heaven. Upon enjoying anything on this earth, we raise our thoughts to the things of heaven. When we see the light, we remember the glorious light of heaven, and the inheritance of the saints in light. When we taste any sweetness in the creature, we say, “If these things are so sweet, oh, what then is heaven, and God, who is the fountain of all good things!” Thus to make all earthly things only steps by which we rise to heaven: that is a heavenly way of life, one that in the use of earthly things passes quickly through to God, and makes spiritual and heavenly steps out of earthly things.

8. Our way of life is heavenly when the saints are heavenly in their converse together: when in their converse the saints look on themselves as citizens of heaven, and converse as befits people of such a country. When countrymen are abroad in foreign parts and meet together, they will be talking about the state of their country in their own language, and about their friends, and what is going on among them there. And they will say to one another (as Englishmen do), “I feel as if we were in England now; our talk is as if we were in England.” So when the saints meet, they do not meet to jangle and wrangle, but to talk of heaven and confer about their country, each one telling news of heaven. All the saints who walk closely with God, when they meet together, can tell one another some tidings of salvation from above. When countrymen meet together anywhere, commonly the first question is, “What news is there from our country, from England?” So when the saints meet together, if their way of life is heavenly, they will be talking somewhat of heaven before they go: “What news of our country? What news from heaven?” Though they may be allowed, being poor earthly creatures here, to refresh themselves with something of the earth, yet they will have some talk of heaven before they part from one another. This is a heavenly way of life, when the communion of the saints of heaven is in heavenly things.

9. The ninth and last thing in which the saints’ way of life in heaven consists is this: that their great trade while they are on the earth is for heaven. Though they are not there in their bodies, their trading is there, and that is the special thing that seems to be noted in the very word used in the text. Their chief trade is in heaven. The saints who live heavenly lives do not trade for trifles as other men do, but they trade for great things, for high things. The apostle says in Colossians 3:1-2, “If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God: set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth.” They seek the things of God, even those things where Christ sits at the right hand of God. “Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth”: they seek after these things; they trade like merchants for those goodly pearls.

Now in the saints’ trading for heaven there are these several things to consider.

1. In trading, as you know, those who are tradesmen to any country must have skill in the commodity they trade for. So the saints have skill in heavenly things. There are many poor Christians who have little skill in the matters of the world. Speak to them about those things, and they understand but little; but speak to them about heaven, and you may quickly see that they have skill in heavenly commodities. They have a skill from God; they are wise merchants.

2. A tradesman must have a stock to trade with. Now the saints have a stock to trade with for heaven: they have grace in their hearts, and grace in the heart is a stock for a trade. If you leave your children no lands, yet if you leave them a good trade and a stock, you think you leave them a plentiful portion. Now the saints, though they have but little in the world, yet have skill in the commodities of heaven. They have a good trade and a good stock too. They have a stock of grace that shall never be lost. They may perhaps not always have the income they desire, yet they shall never lose their stock, their portion. And it should be their care to put their stock to work for heaven. Indeed, their way of life truly is in heaven when they put to work and lay out all their stock in that direction, on heavenly commodities.

3. And then a third thing in trading is to take advantage of the market for commodities. Great bargains may be had at one time that cannot be had at another. So the trade of a Christian for heaven lies in observing the advantages he has for heavenly things, and those whose way of life is in heaven are very wise and understanding in this. They are able to know their times and seasons. Other men, who have no skill in the matters of heaven, do not know their times and seasons. And so, having neglected their markets, it may be that on their sickbed and deathbed they begin to think of heaven. And then, oh, if only they might know that their souls would go to heaven when they leave their bodies! Yes, but you are unskilled in heavenly commodities. You did not know your time. You should have had your way of life in heaven while you lived, and so have observed what advantages God gave you for trading for heaven.

Oh, that we were all wise in this way, to make it appear that our way of life is in heaven in this respect, namely, that we are wise to observe our advantages! Oh, the advantages God has given us all, at one time or another, for heaven! There is not one of you to whom God has not given much advantage for heaven, if only you had taken it. If you will reflect on your own hearts and the course of your lives in former times, your consciences may tell you, “Oh, what fair advantages I sometimes had for heaven! How the Spirit of God began to stir in me! What truths were darted into me at such a season! What motions flowed in on me at such a time! Oh, how happy I would have been if I had taken such an advantage for heaven; I would have been in heaven already!”

Now those who keep company with heaven watch for those advantages. They never come to hear the Word without watching for the time when God stirs in their hearts, and they follow that advantage. They watch for the time when their spirits are softened and their souls enlivened, and they follow hard after those advantages. And so they trade for heaven and grow rich in heavenly commodities.

4. Where there is a trade from one country to another, there is much dealing back and forth. A man who trades to such a town or country has much dealing with those who live there. So a Christian’s trading for heaven lies in this: there is a great deal of dealing between heaven and his soul. Every day he sends up to heaven, and every day he has something sent down from heaven to his soul! Oh, just examine what dealings there have been between heaven and you. How is it with many of you? Is it just as if there were no heaven at all? To men who do not trade to the Indies, it is as if there were no such place at all. So it is with many who live even in the bosom of the church: there is very little dealing between heaven and them. But a trader for heaven has much dealing with heaven.

5. A man who trades to any place, if he trades for great matters, has the chief part of his stock where he trades. Though he is not there in body, yet the chief part of his estate is there. If a man is a Spanish or a Turkish merchant and trades there, the chief part of his estate lies there, in Spain or Turkey, more than here. So it is with one who trades for heaven: the chief part of his estate lies there. He counts his riches as lying in heaven. Indeed, he has something to live on here in this world for a while, but his riches are there. He looks on heaven as the place where his greatest treasure lies.

6. A man who trades is willing to part with something where he is, so that he may receive an advantage in the place where he trades. So it is with the saints who trade for heaven: they are willing to part with much so that they may receive afterward in heaven. They are willing, I say, to part with anything here in this world, so that they may receive it when they come home. A man who is abroad, and is going to his own country, and is trading there for commodities, is very willing to part with all his money where he is in order to receive commodities in his trade. Or think of those who pay out their money here so that they may receive commodities in another place where they are trading.

A carnal heart, which does not know the certainty or the excellence of the commodities of heaven, is willing to part with nothing but will keep everything. Such people think to themselves, “What we have here, we are sure of. But as for this heaven they talk about, we do not know what it is; it may turn out to be nothing but imagination. So we will keep what we have and be sure of that.” Oh, you are no trader for heaven! If you were, you would be willing to part with anything here so that you might receive commodities there. You would be content to live poorly and humbly in this world, provided that you might have your riches when you come into your mansion of glory.

7. Tradesmen who trade for great matters must trust a great deal; they cannot expect to be paid great sums on the spot. It is true that men who trade in little matters, who sell by retail, usually take in their pennies and twopences as their goods go out. But it is not so with merchants who trade for great things wholesale. So it is with traders for heaven: they trust a great deal. And indeed, the grace of faith is the great grace that helps in trading for heaven. They have a small down payment for the present.

You who are traders, and go to the Exchange and sell bargains worth many thousands, perhaps receive no more than twelve pence or a crown for the present; it may be only a promise. But you expect the great sums afterward. So those who are traders for heaven have some down payment. They are content with a little for the present, the firstfruits of the Spirit or a bare promise from Christ. This is what binds the whole bargain, and they expect to have full payment hereafter, when they come to heaven.

It is a happy thing when God gives men and women hearts willing to trust God for eternity. If they have only a little comfort and grace now, yet they look on that as a down payment on all the glory that Jesus Christ has purchased by his blood and that God has promised in his Word. You are not fit to be a tradesman for heaven if you cannot trust, if you cannot be content that great bargains should be sealed with a small down payment. But this is the soul that trades in heaven: the soul that can be content to wait for the fulfilling of promises, and to take what it has from God for the present, though it is only a very little, as a down payment that binds all those glorious things God has promised in his Word.

Here you see a trader for heaven in these seven things. Now put all the things you have heard before together with these, and you may see what it is to have our way of life in heaven.

Now then, there are some evidences that Christians have their way of life in heaven. As we showed you some evidences of an earthly life, so we will also show you some evidences of a heavenly life: that is, some demonstrations that plainly show that the way of life of Christians is in heaven.

1. In the first place, it is certainly plain that there are Christians whose lives are in heaven, because there are Christians who can count all the things of this earth as vile. Surely, unless their lives were set higher than the earth, they could not think so little of the things of the earth. It is evidence that a man has been lifted up very high, to the height of heaven, when he looks upon the whole globe of the earth as a mere dot, as a little thing. So it is evidence that the hearts of the saints are on high when they can look upon the things of the earth as small. It is true that we who are on the earth look upon the stars as small and the earth as great; but if we were in heaven, we would look upon the stars as great and the earth as small. So Paul did, who counted all things but as dung and dross, dogs’ food, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ (Phil 3:8). So did Luther, who counted the whole Turkish Empire but a crumb that the great Master of the family throws to his dog. Surely here is an argument that the saints have their lives in heaven, when they can look upon the things of the earth as being as mean and as little as they really are.

2. A second evidence is this: that they can be content with so little in this world, and can live such comfortable lives in the enjoyment of so little. Perhaps you do not know how to live a comfortable life unless you have so much coming in by the year and so much provision. But one who is heavenly, a godly man or woman, knows how to live a joyful and happy life in the want of the things of this world. Though they have but little, though only bread and water, though only poor houses and poor clothes, though they are held in low esteem in the world, yet they can go through the world with a joyful heart. Such a one blesses God all his days, doing nothing but admiring, praising and magnifying God for his rich mercy, blessing himself in God, and counting his portion a goodly portion and his lot fallen in fair ground. I truly believe that there are very many poor, lowly people in this world whose houses are more filled with the blessings of God in one day than the houses of many rich, great and noble men are in twenty or forty years.

Now this shows that their lives are in heaven: though they lack comfort ever so much in this world, yet they can live comfortable lives. Surely there is something that makes them rejoice, when they can rejoice like this in the want of these outward things, since their joy does not depend on the things of this world. Men who have earthly hearts, if they lose only their outward comforts, cry out, “Oh, we are undone!” And you may see mighty changes in their very faces; they have nothing to gladden their hearts when they lose the things of the world. But it is not so with the saints. Whatever crosses they meet with here in this world, they still rejoice in Christ and bless God. The course of their lives is nothing else but a continual magnifying and praising of God for his mercy and goodness to them. Surely their lives are in heaven.

3. Third, not only can they live joyfully in the want of many comforts, but they can suffer the loss of all; yes, they can suffer hard things, suffer afflictions, suffer torments and tortures, with joyful hearts.

Read at your leisure Hebrews 11:13-14: “They confessed that they were strangers, and pilgrims on the earth, for they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country.” (This Scripture should be joined to the second evidence.) Mark it: “They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.” Surely there is something else they are seeking after when they think so little of the things of this world. For the saints are not fools; there is some reason for what they do. Surely there is something in it, for they have the same nature as you have, and they need comfort as much as you do. Had they no other comfort besides outward comforts, they could not live so comfortably in the want of outward comforts. But those who are content with a little, as pilgrims and strangers, declare plainly that they seek a country. That is the second evidence.

Then there is the suffering of tortures and pains for the sake of Christ. This is another evidence. So you have it in Hebrews 10:32-33: “But call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.” And then it goes on, “And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.” Why? “Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance” (Heb 10:34). This is what made them take the spoiling of their goods joyfully. What? When their goods were plundered, did they take that joyfully? Were they madmen, to rejoice at the plundering of their estates? No, it was no madness. It was because they knew in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance. That is what made them willing to wander about in sheepskins and goatskins, in leather clothes, as at the end of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews; just read from verse 36 to the end (Heb 11:36-40). This showed that their lives were in heaven.

If you read the story of the martyrs, you will find very often that when they came to the stake, their thoughts were still in heaven and their hearts were there, and they were encouraging one another with what they would have in heaven and the glory they would have there. Their being willing to suffer such hard things for Christ, and their being able to undergo it all with so much joy, is evidence that there have been Christians in the world whose lives were in heaven.

4. A fourth evidence that Christians have their lives in heaven is this: that their hearts are so filled with heavenly riches. It is a sign that a man trades much to a certain place when his warehouse is stocked with the goods of that country. For example, though no one should tell me which way his trade lies, that he is a Spanish or Turkish merchant, yet if I come into his warehouse and find it constantly filled with those goods, I may conclude that this man is certainly a Spanish or Turkish merchant: he has the goods of that country continually in his warehouse. So the saints have much of the riches of heaven in their hearts continually. They have much grace, much holiness, much of the image of God; there is much spiritual life in a Christian. And you may see in his conduct that he shows, I say, much of the excellency of heaven; much of the glory of heaven shines in his face. Surely his life is in heaven who has so much of the riches of heaven in his heart. “The heart of the wicked,” says the Holy Spirit, “is little worth” (Prov 10:20). Look into the heart of a wicked man or woman: what is there? Your heart, which should be your storehouse, what is it filled with? It is filled with dirt and dross and filth and uncleanness; the hearts of wicked men are stocked with such things. But look into the hearts of the saints: they are filled with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, with grace. That shows that they have traded much in heaven. You will constantly find their hearts filled with grace and showing much of it in their lives; and therefore surely their lives are in heaven.

5. A fifth evidence is this: that they are willing to purchase the privileges of heaven at so dear a price; namely, the ordinances, which are part of the privileges of the kingdom of heaven. The ordinances are the means by which they come to enjoy so much of heaven, and they are willing to purchase them at a dear price. “Oh,” they say, “however I live, let me live where I may enjoy the ordinances of God, the wells of salvation. My life cannot be comfortable in the enjoyment of everything in this world if I am deprived of the breasts of consolation.” Surely, when people are willing to purchase heavenly goods at so dear a price as the saints will, this plainly shows that their lives are in heaven.

6. Sixth, when they are so sensitive to the stoppages between heaven and their own souls. If there were a general stoppage of the ships that are in France, Turkey or Spain, your country people would not feel it at all; but your merchants, I guarantee you, would feel it keenly enough, and when they came together on the Exchange, all their talk would be of it. So it is with those whose lives are in heaven. And here is a great difference between them and those who are earthly-minded. Tell the earthly-minded of any stoppage in the traffic between them and heaven, and they do not know what you mean; they think you are fools and madmen. But the saints feel it; oh, it is a sore and sad evil to them. I mean, when at any time God hides his face from them, when at any time they go into the presence of God and can hear nothing from him, and can receive no letters from heaven, so to speak. If the post does not come from a certain country, the merchants are troubled by it. So when the saints send up their prayers to heaven, by which they trade there, and can hear nothing back from God, and when they cannot feel those influences from heaven let into their souls as they sometimes have before, oh, they bewail this as a great evil upon them, above any evil in the world: that the influences of heaven are stopped, and that God seems to be a stranger to them. Oh, they complain of these things to one another, and they make their moan when they feel the stoppages of heaven. This plainly shows that they are traders for heaven and that their lives are there.

7. The last evidence of a saint’s having his life in heaven is his willingness to die, to depart this world: the going out of this world with so much comfort, joy, peace and triumph as many of the saints have shown. We might give you the sayings of many of the saints when they were ready to die, rejoicing in the hope of eternal life as they went out of the world. Surely, had they not had their dealings in heaven while they lived here, their souls would not have been so willing to depart from their bodies. A man who has no business in another country, and perhaps will be like a dead man there, goes there with little joy. But take a man who has traded to another country, and has great riches there, and has so thrived there that, whatever he seems to be here, he is a great man there. Oh, how comfortably that man goes to that country! How glad he is when he takes ship and sees a fair gale and a prosperous wind to carry him there! And so it is with the saints whose lives are in heaven. Because they have so much riches there, when they come to die they die with joy, and bless God for that day as the most blessed day they have ever seen; for they are now going to the country they have been trading to all their days, where their riches lie. These are the evidences and demonstrations that the saints have their lives in heaven.

But now, if you ask the reason why the saints have their conduct in heaven, I answer briefly in this way.

Reason 1. Because their souls, which are their better part, are from heaven. You know that when God made man, he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7). The soul of man is, as it were, the breath of God. God did not say of man’s soul as he did of the other creatures, “Let it be made; let there be a soul in man’s body.” No, when he had formed the body, he breathed the soul into him. This was to show that the soul of man had a more heavenly and divine origin than any of the other creatures here in this world. And because its origin is so divine and heavenly, when the soul is (as it were) itself again and set at liberty, it longs to be back at its origin.

Indeed, though man’s soul is of a divine and heavenly nature, yet through the fall of man the soul of man has almost turned into flesh, and is so mingled with unclean, drossy things that it is as if it had no such divine and heavenly origin. That is why a natural man is called flesh, “That that is born of the flesh, is flesh” (John 3:6), as if he had no soul at all. For I say, through man’s fall the very nature of the soul seemed to be changed; at the least, it is pressed down to such vile things that it is as if it had never had such a divine and heavenly origin.

But now, when God works grace in the soul, the soul of man begins to return to itself and to know itself, and begins to return to the nature it had in its first creation. And as soon as ever the soul begins to know itself, it immediately looks on all the things here below as vile and contemptible by comparison. For indeed, all the things in this world are infinitely beneath the soul of a man. When I say “infinitely,” I mean by comparison: we may even call it an infinite distance between man’s soul and all the things here below in the world. The soul of man is near to God himself. Therefore, when the soul returns to itself, it longs to be somewhere other than where it is, and to converse with the things that suit its origin.

It is as with a man of noble birth. Suppose a prince has ended up in another country, and while he is a child there he is used like a slave, set to rake out gutters and other such lowly work. Now all the while he is there and does not know his origin, he minds nothing but getting his food and doing the work he is set to. But if once he comes to know where he came from, namely, that he was born the heir of some great prince or emperor who lives in such glory in such a country, then he who lived like a slave has his thoughts, his mind, and his longings set on being in the country where his birth was so high. Oh, if only he might be there, he would be happy then! And it does him good to hear anyone speak of that country.

Truly, so it is with the souls of men. They are the offspring (if I may speak so) of the high God, the great King of heaven and earth, having been breathed in this way into the nostrils of man. Now through man’s fall the soul has become a slave to the devil and is set to drudgery, providing for the flesh. But when God is pleased to convert the soul, the Lord comes and declares to a man or woman: “O man, O woman! You are born from on high. Your soul is (as it were) a spark of the Divinity (if I may say so). Your Father is God, by creation; and not only by creation, as he is the Creator of all creatures, but by a more special work of his, a more special work (I say) than the first creation of other things. Your soul is from God and of a divine nature, and is therefore capable of communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Surely you were never given such a divine and excellent being merely so that you would delight in the flesh and serve your body in eating and drinking here for a while. Oh, consider the country you came from at first!”

Here is one work of grace: to know the excellence of our souls and where they came from. Surely, if grace does this, it must turn the heart of one who is converted to God so that his conduct is in heaven. That is the first reason.

Reason 2. But it is not only that the soul had a heavenly origin and therefore will not be content with a portion here in this world. Second, when grace comes there, the soul has a divine nature put into it, beyond the excellence it had in its first creation. I say, there is a divine nature higher than mere natural excellence. So we read in 2 Peter 1:3-4: “According,” he says, “as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature.” Certainly the apostle did not mean here merely what Adam had in innocence. I never read that this is called “the divine nature.” It is true that there is a renewing of the image of God in man when he is converted. Yes, but there is something more in the soul of man than the repairing of this: the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in the soul in a higher way than he dwelt in the soul of Adam at the first.

Before, indeed, the soul was a creature, but a creature that related to God only as Creator, with man as the creature. But now it relates to God as being made one with the Second Person of the Trinity, and so one with the Father. Therefore it is of a higher nature than man was in the state of innocence. And you know what is said of Adam in paradise: he was “of the earth, earthly” (1 Cor 15:47). He was of the earth in comparison with the second Adam. (Take Adam in innocence and compare him with the second Adam, and he was only of the earth, earthly.) And so his descendants, even if Adam had stood, would have been only of the earth, earthly, and their portion, it is likely, would have been only a happiness in this world. We never read in Scripture of a heavenly condition that Adam would have been in, even if he had stood. But the second Adam is from heaven, heavenly. And the descendants of the second Adam, that is, those who by regeneration are made the children of the everlasting Father, who by faith are made the offspring of Jesus Christ, are from heaven, heavenly. Therefore their souls are endowed with a divine nature, with such high principles of grace that it must carry their souls up to heaven.

If a lump of earth were so changed as to have a spirit and a life put into it, and to be made of such an airy nature as any of the birds have, this lump of earth would immediately fly in the air. So it is in the work of conversion. All men and women are earthly, and therefore they sink down to the earth, and the earth is their proper center. But once they are converted, a spirit is put into them by which they mount up aloft. It is no more natural for earth to fall low than for fire and air to rise high, because every creature moves toward its center. Heavy things fall down because their proper place is below; light things rise up because their proper place is above. And so the conduct of the saints must be in heaven, because their center is there; there is what suits the divine nature that is put into them.

Reason 3. Their conduct must be in heaven because the things that are most precious to them are in heaven. I could have named a great many particulars here to show what the precious things are that concern the saints, and how they are all in heaven.

Their Father, God, is in heaven: “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matt 6:9). Jesus Christ is in heaven: “Seek the things above where Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father” (Col 3:1). Jesus Christ, their Head, is in heaven. Their Husband is in heaven. Their elder Brother is in heaven. Their King is in heaven. Their treasure is in heaven. Their inheritance is in heaven. Their hope is in heaven. Their mansion is in heaven. Their chief friends are in heaven. Their substance is in heaven. Their reward is in heaven. Their wages are in heaven. Since all these things are in heaven, no wonder their conduct is in heaven.

And they are going to heaven. Since they are going that way, traveling toward heaven, they must be there in their hearts. Heaven is the place they will come to before long. They will be there, and they know that they are to be here in this world only a while, but there forever: “We shall be caught up into the clouds and be for ever with him” (1 Thess 4:17).

Yes, their conduct must be in heaven, for they have much of heaven already. There is much of heaven in the saints; the kingdom of heaven is within them, the Scripture says (Luke 17:21). Since they have so much of heaven for the present, their conduct must be there. And so we read that Scripture in Hebrews 10:34: “Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance.” You may read it this way: “Knowing you have heaven, a better, enduring substance, in yourselves.” So the words “knowing in yourselves” do not refer only to what they know by hearsay. It is true, too, that they may know heaven by hearsay: they hear ministers speak of heaven and read of it in the Word of God. But they know it in themselves; they know it by what God has revealed in their own hearts. Yes, though there were no more books for them ever to see, though they are not book-learned and cannot read a letter in the book, though they should hear no more sermons, yet by what is revealed in themselves they know in themselves that they have a better and enduring substance. That is a truth. But the words may be read more closely to the original in this way: “Knowing that you have heaven in yourselves, a better and enduring substance.” Eternal life is already begun in the hearts of the saints; there is heaven already in the saints. And therefore no wonder their conduct is in heaven.

Reason 4. God has ordered things in this world on purpose, that he might wean the hearts of the saints from the world. The Lord loves to have the hearts of his saints in heaven, where he has treasured up such glorious things for them. And because the saints, while they are here in the world and have so much of the world in them, would gladly go on living here in the world, God orders things so that they meet with little contentment in this world, that they may grow weary of it and be wearied away from it. And indeed, here is the reason why God’s people have met with such crosses in the world, and why the Lord has kept his saints so low and poor in the world.

It may be that you are ready to draw bad conclusions from this, and to think, “I am afraid God does not love me, since he keeps me so low and poor, and I meet with such crosses when others do not.” Oh, do not draw such bad conclusions as these! It is because he would gather your hearts to heaven and wean you from the world, so that you might long to be with him in heaven. For you are absent from him here in this world, and the Lord would have the full stream of your affections run after the things you will have with him in heaven. This is the use you are to make of the afflictions you meet with and the crosses that befall you in this world.

And so we have gone through the doctrinal point of the saints having their conduct in heaven.

We have dwelt a long time on the point of a heavenly life. We have opened to you what that heavenly life is and the many particulars in which it consists. But now we shall proceed to the application of it all. As I have gone along, I have tried to speak not only to your heads but to your hearts, and to give life to what I said in a way that might quicken your hearts. Yet from the consideration of the whole, there are various uses that may be profitable to you.

The first is this. If the saints live such a heavenly life as has been opened to you, oh, how far are they from being saints, from being godly, who are so far from having their lives in heaven that they have their lives in hell! There is a generation of people who profess themselves to be Christians and say that they hope to go to heaven, and yet if you look at their way of life, it is nothing other than the life of hell. Certainly, it is not what people say but how they live that will decide their case on the day to come. Whoever is of heaven, or for heaven, has his life in heaven; and whoever is for hell, his life is hellish.

Now that is a life in hell which is like what is done in hell. What is there in hell but blaspheming and cursing? What is there in hell but hatred and malice? What is there in hell but raging and filthiness? These things make up the lives of many people who are even devils incarnate. In many families the name of God is blasphemed; there is cursing and railing, and malice and wrath and pride. So though they are here in this world, they show what place they belong to.

So as the saints have their lives in heaven, and when they die they go to their own place, that is, to heaven, where their lives were, so on the contrary the wicked, having their lives in hell, go to their own place when they die. As was said of Judas, he went to his own place (Acts 1:25). So a wicked man who had his life in hell while he lived, when he dies (I say), goes to his own place. That is his own proper place. He took contentment and delight in the things that are done there, and so when he dies, there he shall go. “As the tree falls, so it lies.” As your way of life is, and as the bent of your heart is, so it must lie for all eternity.

This point also rebukes hypocrites, just as it rebukes the wicked and profane who have their way of living in hell. For there is another kind of people, unsound professors of religion, hypocrites, and their way of living is between heaven and earth. It is not in heaven, nor in hell, nor altogether on the earth, but somewhere between earth, and heaven, and hell. Sometimes they seem to be aloft, up above. Sometimes they are very forward and zealous in professing religion, and sometimes greatly enlarged in duties. At other times they are as base and earthly in spirit as anyone. Yes, sometimes there is much of hell in their hearts and in their ways.

They profess themselves to be the seed of Abraham, but they are not like the stars of heaven. They are like meteors that hang between heaven and earth. We call them blazing stars, but they are not as bright as the stars, nor are they of such a heavenly nature as the stars. They are made of nothing but a few unclean vapors that come out of the earth, and once these have gotten up near the heavens, they make a show as if they were some star in heaven. But you find a great deal of difference between the stars and them in this: within a little while they fall, and vanish, and come to nothing.

And so it is with many hypocrites. The Word raises them up a little for the present, and they seem to be above the stars. They have a glittering show, as if they had something heavenly in them, just like the stars of heaven, and they seem to have gotten above others. Take your blazing star: a child would think it a great deal bigger than one of the stars, though that star is a hundred times bigger than it is. So it is with many hypocrites. They have a greater show of religion than many who have the truth of godliness and are truly gracious, and those people look on them, wondering at the excellent gifts they have, their excellent abilities. Perhaps they will sometimes talk in an excellent manner about heavenly things. You will find some who have no soundness at all, and yet they will speak excellently. They speak the very language of Canaan, but it is in the kind of company where they may gain respect by it. Still, they are only like meteors that hang between heaven and earth.

The truth is that while they seem to be so high above others, and so heavenly, their hearts are groveling on the earth. Many times, while they have the most excellent expressions in prayer, God sees their hearts basely cleaving to some earthly thing. There is some base earthly contentment their hearts are set on while they seem so heavenly. They are much like the kite, which flies high as if it were an eagle. But while it is up in the air, its eye is fixed on some carrion, on some prey it has on the earth. As soon as it sees a fit opportunity to seize the prey, it comes down to seize it. That is the place the kite wants to be; that is the place it delights in most, to be on its prey.

And so it is with a hypocrite. Though he rises high in some actions, the truth is that his eye is on some earthly prey. When he sees his opportunity, off he goes and sinks down to those things. That is his most proper place. There he takes the most delight and contentment in his way of living, though his actions may seem heavenly. And therefore he will fall down and never reach the highest heavens, where the saints will go, but will go to hell at the last.

The third use is this: since the saints’ way of life is in heaven, for shame, let us not find fault with strictness in the ways of God. Let no one speak against the ways of God as being too strict, saying, “What need is there for us to be so circumspect, so precise, and so pure? What need is there for us to labor to do so much?” What! Can you reach a stricter and holier life than a heavenly life?

It is a very carnal saying that some have: “Why, we cannot be saints! We are not saints.” Yes, the Holy Spirit calls all believers, all who have even the very least degree of true grace; he calls them saints. “When we come to heaven,” they say, “then we will live better, but while we are in this world we cannot.” Yes, even while you are in this world, your life is to be in heaven. Surely people are either unacquainted with the Word, or else they shut their eyes and will not see and consider what the Word says about a strict life.

In one place in Scripture you find that we are commanded “to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48). It is a strange saying, and yet it is the saying of Christ himself. And we must walk as Christ walked (1 John 2:6); and “he that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:3); and then, “our conversation is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). Put these together: be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect; walk as Christ walked; purge ourselves as he is pure; our way of life is in heaven. What do all these things tend toward? Surely they tend toward a great deal of strictness and holiness of life.

And these things show that the work of a Christian here in this world is busy work, and that the Christian life is not an idle, dull, heavy, or sluggish life. You who are Christians need to quicken yourselves and awaken those drowsy spirits of yours, if this is required of you: that you should be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, walk as Christ walked, purify yourselves as he is pure, be holy as he is holy (1 Pet 1:15-16), and have your way of life in heaven. Surely there needs to be a great deal of quickness and life in the hearts of Christians. And you are not to content yourselves with a mere profession, with doing some little thing in the way of religion, or with being somewhat better than others. You are to aim at heaven, look up there, and make that your pattern.

This point also rebukes even those who are truly godly, many of whom still fail exceedingly in this very thing. Oh, their lives are too low, too earthly! If they examined their hearts strictly, they could not say that their way of life is in heaven. “I am a stranger upon earth,” says David (Ps 119:19). But many may say that they are strangers in heaven. Earth should be the place of our pilgrimage and heaven our home, but with them it is quite otherwise. Heaven is rather the place where most professing Christians are strangers, and earth is the place where they dwell. They cast a thought up to heaven now and then, just as people will now and then cast up their eyes and look at the sky. But where is your heart? Where are the great workings of your spirit?

It is a saying of the Lord’s: “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool” (Isa 66:1). Spiritual things are to be looked upon as the good things, as the throne of God, and earthly things only as the things of God’s footstool. But how many there are who make earth their throne and heaven their footstool! That is, they make heavenly things subordinate to earthly things. Oh, this should not be found in any who profess themselves to be Christians. None of the saints should be satisfied with any life but this: to be able to say, “I bless God, my way of life is in heaven. Though God lets me live upon the earth, yet my way of life is in heaven.”

What an unworthy thing it is for someone who professes to have his portion and his inheritance in heaven to have his heart so mingled with the earth here! In Genesis 45:20 Joseph, when sending for his father, says, “Regard not your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.” Do not regard the stuff. Do not let it grieve you to leave your stuff behind. Leave all your old clutter behind you, for all the good things of Egypt are yours. Oh, what a shameful thing it is that Christians should regard their stuff as much as they do, when they hope to have as their own the good things not of Egypt but of heaven itself!

Surely, if we have seen the things of heaven, one would think that all the things of the earth would be darkened in our eyes. “That which was glorious,” says the text, “had no glory in comparison of the greater glory” (2 Cor 3:10). I confess that this Scripture is spoken in comparing the law and the gospel. There was a glory in the giving of the law, but it had no glory in comparison with the greater glory, that is, in comparison with the gospel. For in the gospel we behold the glory of God with open face, as in a mirror, and are changed into the same image, from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18).

But we may apply it this way. The things of the earth that were glorious in your eyes before should not be glorious at all in comparison with the greater glory. Before conversion these things were glorious to you. And grant that there is some kind of glory upon the things of this world, that they are gilded and varnished over; still, in comparison with the greater glory they are not glorious at all. Those who never saw anything glorious except the things of the world may count them glorious, but you who have seen the greater glory should not count these things glorious.

Oh, therefore, Christians, lift up your hearts to heaven, and let your way of life be in heaven, even though God has so ordered it that you must live here a while and must be content to do so. For indeed, to some Christians whose lives are in heaven, it is a great part of their self-denial and of their subjection to God to be willing to live upon the earth and to stay away from heaven until God’s time comes. This is a riddle and a mystery to many: that being willing to stay here should be part of our salvation, of our obedience, yes, of our self-denial, and that it should be so even for people who had crowns of glory, even for those who were kings and princes here in this world. We might come to attain this if our lives were in heaven and our hearts were there.

We read of Daniel that, though God so ordered it that he could not live at Jerusalem, where the temple was, yet he would open his window toward Jerusalem (Dan 6:10). He would always be looking that way. And so, though God has so ordered it that we cannot yet come to live in this heavenly Jerusalem bodily, in that full way we expect to hereafter, yet we should open our window, our eyes; and the doors of our hearts should stand open toward heaven. I remember reading of Edward the First, King of England, who had a mighty desire to go to Jerusalem. But because he could not go, for death prevented him, he charged his son to carry his heart there. And so it should be with us. We should endeavor to have our hearts there, and to have as much of heaven as we can, though we cannot be there ourselves in body.

Every creature has been given by the God of nature an instinct to move to its proper place. For example, because the proper place of fire is above, there is a natural instinct in fire to rise to its proper place. And the proper place of earth is below, and therefore it will fall down to the center. A heavy thing that has much earth in it will fall down toward its center, even though it breaks itself to pieces. And so it will be with a Christian. Though he breaks himself to pieces, whatever he suffers, yet he has an instinct to carry him to his proper place.

Because fire’s proper place is above, if it is kept down by force, what a mighty power there is in fire to make way for itself so that it may get up! That is the very reason for the mighty force there is in guns: there is fire kept in the powder. Once the powder is fired, the fire would get up above, and so it breaks out with violence. If it cannot find a vent to get out, it will break anything in the world, for it must get out so that it may rise to its own place. And so it should be with a Christian. There should be a strong, impetuous urge in him to get up to his own place. That would be an evidence indeed that heaven is your proper place. Oh, Christians, lift up your hearts, and let your way of life be in heaven.

I shall not need to come back and tell you what a heavenly life is; that has been opened to you at large. But to set an edge on this exhortation:

First, know that a heavenly life will be a very convincing life. When people see you live heavenly, you will convince them that you have something more than they have. For the people of the world know that the things of the world are the things their hearts are set on, the things they mind. But when they see those who profess religion mingle themselves with the earth as they do, they will think that these are moved by the same principles that move themselves. Heavenly lives, though, will convince them. They will be convinced when they see such people walking above the world in the whole course of their lives, when they see an evenness and proportion in their course: take them at any time and in any business, and they carry themselves as people of another world.

A man who is a stranger to a place may for a while act his part so well that he seems to be a native of it, but one who was born there will come close to finding him out in one thing or another. So it is very hard for people to carry themselves this way if they do not have true grace. Though they sometimes appear to be very heavenly, one who is a true citizen of heaven will see through them at one time or another if they lack grace. Indeed, the truth is that a carnal person will reveal that he is born of the earth and belongs to that country: his speech betrays him, he is a Gileadite. But when Christians, in their constant way, have their way of life in heaven, then their lives are very convincing. The rays of heaven are about them. They have the luster of heaven shining wherever they go and in all company, so that surely such a person seems to be in heaven continually. It will force this from the very consciences of others: “Certainly these are the citizens of heaven! If there are any citizens of the new Jerusalem living upon the earth, these are the ones.”

I remember it is said of that martyr Dr. Taylor that he rejoiced that he ever came into prison, so that he could be in the company of that angel of God, Mr. Bradford. Mr. Bradford’s life was angel-like, like an angel of heaven, and it convinced people almost everywhere he went. Oh, it is of great use that Christians should live convincing lives!

You know what Dives said to Abraham: he wanted someone sent to warn his brothers, so that they would not come to that place. Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets.” “Oh, but,” said Dives, “if one rise from the dead, they would hear him” (Luke 16:27-31). I may put it this way: if God sent someone from heaven to live among people and preach to them, surely they would pay attention to him. Would it not be a great benefit to the world if God sent some saint or angel from heaven to live among us in a bodily way? Truly, Christians should live as if they came from heaven every day, as if they had been in heaven conversing with God. When they go to perform their duty in the morning, and get alone between God and their souls, they should never stop striving until they get their hearts into heaven and get themselves up on the mount. Then, when they come down to their families, their very faces may shine, so that you can see by their lives that they have certainly been with God on the mount that day.

Now I appeal to you in this: do you live so that your family and your neighbors can see that you have been in heaven this morning? Every morning we should have some fellowship with heaven. If we had it, our lives would be convincing all day long, and it would be very profitable to the world. Christians who live heavenly lives are, I say, of very great use in the places where they live. I remember that it is said concerning Christ that when he ascended up to heaven, he gave gifts to men (Eph 4:8). And if we could ascend up to heaven more often, we would be more able to benefit the world.

A heavenly life is a growing life. Oh, how mightily those who live it grow! They thrive in grace exceedingly in a very little time. They grow until they attain a very great measure of communion with God the Father and with Jesus Christ, and every day they grow more and more spiritual, having so much of heaven within them. It is true that when they come into heaven they will be perfect. But for now, it is what they fetch from heaven that makes them grow; it must be the influence from heaven that causes the growth of the saints. Suppose the ground where flowers and herbs grow is ever so fertile in itself, and the herbs or plants are ever so well rooted in the earth. Yet if there is no influence of heaven upon them, they will not grow much, no, not at all, but will quickly wither. So it is with Christians. Let them have ever so many means of growing here below, ever so many ordinances; yet if they do not have rich dews from above, they will not grow. Or if there is any growth, either they will bear no fruit, or else it will be very shriveled and sour fruit.

You know that the fruit that has the most of the sun’s beams coming down from heaven upon it grows riper and sweeter than other fruit. Fruit that grows in the shade, with the influence of heaven kept off it, is sour fruit. And the reason the saints have so little fruit, and that it is so sour, is that they do not have more influences from heaven. They do not stand in the open sun. Their souls are not presented daily before God to have the warm beams of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon them from heaven; there is something between heaven and their souls. But a life in heaven, as it would be a convincing life, so it would be a growing life.

And then, a heavenly life would be one that glorifies God greatly. Oh, the glory that God would have from a life lived in heaven! “Let your light so shine before men, that others beholding your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). Then indeed the image of the God of heaven is held forth, when people’s lives are heavenly. The Lord takes great delight in having his glory spread abroad by his saints, so that it casts some reflection upon the world. It is as with a mirror: though the beams of the sun do not shine upon a wall, yet with a mirror you may catch the sun’s beams and cast their reflection upon the wall. So it is with the beams of the glory of God that shine in heaven. By their heavenly life the saints may catch them (as it were with a mirror) and reflect them upon the world and upon people’s faces. The hearts of the saints should be like a mirror, catching the beams of the glory of God and casting them up and down wherever they are, and so your heavenly Father will come to be glorified by you.

Let every Christian think like this: “My life is such and such; but what glory do I bring to God by my life? Do others glorify God when they see the luster of God’s holiness in me? Do they see cause to bless God because they see so much of his glory in me?”

Certainly more of the glory of God shines in the gracious, holy, spiritual life of a Christian than shines in the sun, moon, and stars, more than in heaven and earth. I mean the works of creation and providence that are in heaven and earth: the creatures God has made, such as the sun, moon, and stars, and here in this world the seas, the earth, the plants, and the like. Though they have much of the glory of God in them, yet a heavenly life declares more of the glory of God than all of these. You know what the psalmist says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Ps 19:1). This may be said even more fully of heavenly lives: the heavenly lives of the saints declare the glory of God. Those who shine in the firmament of the church are stars (for the church is the firmament, and the saints are there as stars), and they declare the handiwork of God.

Now it is true that, as in heaven one star differs from another star in glory (1 Cor 15:41), so among Christians not everyone can attain as much glory as another. Yet every one of them is a star. The lowliest Christian alive, the weakest believer there is, should still be like a star in the firmament. Though he cannot shine as gloriously as the sun, or as other stars, yet there should not be a single believer, not one godly man or woman in the church, who does not shine as a star in the firmament. Every one of them should be, as the gospel is, a mirror in which we might behold the glory of God, one in whom we may behold the glory of God even (as it were) with open face (2 Cor 3:18). A heavenly life is a life that glorifies God.

A heavenly life is a life that will bring much glory to yourselves. It is true that the saints should aim most at the glory of God. Yet glory will come to them whether they want it or not, if their lives are in heaven. When they walk in a heavenly way of life, it is impossible that people should not honor them in their consciences.

There is an excellent Scripture showing that in glorifying God we glorify ourselves as well. The apostle prays for the Thessalonians: “Wherefore also,” he says, “we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power” (2 Thess 1:11). To what end? “That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 1:12). He prays that the Thessalonians might walk in such a way, and have so much of the grace of God in them, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in them.

Oh, this is what all the saints should desire and work toward: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ should be glorified in them. “And ye in him,” he says. Labor that Christ may be glorified in your lives, and you will be glorified in him. We should desire that Christ may have glory in our glory, and then we will have glory in Christ’s glory. This is a sweet and blessed life, when the saints have such hearts that they can say, “Lord, let me have no glory except what you may have glory in.” Then God says, “Is it so? Do you desire no further glory in this world than what I may have glory in? Then I will have no glory in this world except what you will have glory in.” Christ will make us partakers of his glory, just as we make him partaker of our glory. Oh, a heavenly life that glorifies God will glorify the saints too.

A heavenly life will make all sufferings very easy. If your lives are in heaven, it will be nothing to suffer anything you meet with in this world. All revilings and reproaches and wrongs will be nothing if you once get a heavenly life. You will despise all these things that the men of the world think such great matters. People who have lived their lives in heaven will never be much offended by any sufferings. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: While we look not at the things which are seen, but at things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor 4:17-18). They are all but light afflictions. Why? Because our eye is above all these things.

And there is a notable passage in the Gospel on this. If you examine the account of Christ’s transfiguration on the mount, there Christ showed his glory to some disciples whom he took with him. And this is what I would point out from it: just observe in the story which disciples Christ took with him to see his glory. They were Peter, James, and John. Now compare that story with the account of Christ in his agony, which came not long after. Then his soul was heavy even to death. He was about to be betrayed and was to be crucified the next day, and he fell groveling on the ground and sweated clots of blood through the anguish that was on his spirit, and cried out to the Lord, “If it be possible let this cup pass from me” (Matt 26:39). Here is a great deal of difference between Christ in his agony and Christ on the mount in his transfiguration. And observe that Christ would have none of his disciples see him in his agony except Peter, James, and John, only those three who had seen him in his transfiguration on the mount, in his glory.

The lesson from this is: those who can commune much with Christ in glory, who can commune with Christ in heaven, who can see heaven, may be allowed to see Christ in his agony, and it will do them no harm. But as for the other disciples, who had not seen Christ in his glory, if they had seen Christ in his agony, it might have offended them. “Is this our Lord and Master, in such a fearful agony at this time?” Oh, it would have offended them! But the others, who had seen him glorified, were not offended by it. “Well,” they could say, “though he is in an agony now, yet we know him to be a glorious Savior, and we will believe and trust in him still.”

So if we can commune with God in glory on the mount, whatever agony we see Christ in afterward, we shall be able to bear it. Stephen had the stones rattling about his ears, yet when he saw the heavens opened, it was nothing to him then. He fell asleep; he rejoiced in the expectation of heaven. And if you read the Book of Martyrs, you may see how, whenever they came to their sufferings, they rejoiced when they thought of heaven and remembered eternal life. One woman’s child was going to be burned, and the people thought she would have wrung her hands and made great lamentation to see her child stepping into the flames. Yet she said nothing to him but this: “Remember eternal life, my son.” Oh, communing with heaven makes all sufferings in the world nothing!

Then, oh, the sweetness and comfort there will be while the soul is living its life in heaven! Oh, the joy and the peace that will come to the soul from the certain evidence that it shares in the death, resurrection, and intercession of Jesus Christ! Those whose way of life is in heaven, I say, come by this to have certain evidence in their souls that they have their portion in the death, in the resurrection, in the ascension, and in the intercession of Jesus Christ, and this will give comfort enough. There is that Scripture in Colossians 3:1-4: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth: for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

Here is evidence that you are risen with Christ, that you are dead to the world, that you have an interest in his ascension, that you are partakers of his resurrection, and that you have a part in his intercession. Those whose way of life is in heaven now may know for certain that they are risen from death to life, and that when Christ ascended, he went to heaven to take possession for them. Yes, they may know that they are in heaven where Christ is: “He hath set us in heavenly places together with Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6), for he is there as a common head. They may know that they have already ascended with Christ, and that Christ is there as an Advocate, making intercession for them to the Father. These will be the consolations of those whose way of life is in heaven.

And then, a life lived in heaven is a very safe life: you will be free from snares and temptations. As an earthly life lays us open to temptations, so a heavenly life will free us from temptations. When is the bird in danger of the lime-twig or the net, except when she comes down to peck on the ground? If she could only keep herself above always, she would be free from the snare and the net. It is Chrysostom’s comparison: “Keep above, and then you are free from the snare of the fowler.” It is a safe way to live.

And then, a heavenly life will cause an abundant entrance into the kingdom of heaven. When such people come to die, oh, how joyfully they will die! What an abundant entrance will be made for them into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet 1:11)! For when they die, they will only change their place; they will not change their company. They will only go to their Father’s house, to share in those mansions that Christ has prepared beforehand.

Oh, my brothers and sisters, labor to have your lives in heaven! And know that this is not a matter that concerns only eminent Christians, but all Christians. See how the apostle charges this on the Thessalonians in his first epistle to them: “As you know how we exhorted and comforted, and charged every one of you (as a father doth his children) that you would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory” (1 Thess 2:11-12). That is, that you would walk in a way of life suited to the glorious kingdom of God to which you are called. In keeping with your high calling, we should walk worthy of it; we are charged to do so. Saint John’s Gospel says concerning Christ, where he spoke of himself, “But the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). In the same way, it should be said of every child of God, “Here is one who is in heaven”: not only one who shall go to heaven, but one who is in heaven for the present.

But you will say, “How can we come to have our life in heaven? It is an excellent way of life indeed. Oh, that we might attain it!”

Rule 1: Believe It Can Be Attained

Take this rule: Be persuaded that it can be attained. Let Christians settle this in their own minds: “It is possible for me to live a life of heaven while I am on the earth.” There is a heaven to be gained, and if a Christian believes this, it will mightily stir up his spirit. “I may live in heaven here, with God, and Christ, and his angels and saints.” There are some who have attained this. And how did they attain it? Not by their own strength. They were men subject to the same infirmities you are. Even Paul himself, who had his life in heaven, was subject to many infirmities. But through the strength of Christ he could do all things; in himself he was nothing.

Just read Romans 7. There Paul says of himself that he was even sold under sin, and that when he would do good, evil was present with him. He was led captive, and he found a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind. He had many corruptions, and he was forced to bear a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to humble him. And he spoke of this heavenly life not only as something he had himself; writing to the Philippians, he shows that they had attained it too. They were a very spiritual church, but they were poor and lowly compared with some others, and they did not have the eminent gifts the Corinthians had. And yet the Philippians had their life in heaven. Therefore it is something that can be attained.

Rule 2: Keep a Clear Conscience

If you would have your life in heaven, labor to keep a clear conscience; keep a heaven in your conscience. Those who sully and defile their consciences lose their fellowship with heaven. Indeed, the presence of the God of heaven becomes tedious to them; once their consciences are defiled, they are loath to go into his presence. If there is a hell in a man’s conscience, there will not be a heaven in his life. But let men and women labor to keep their consciences clean, and a heaven there, and then there will be a heaven in their lives.

Rule 3: Watch for Opportunities

Watch for opportunities for heavenly exercises. Though you have much business in the world, watch for time. You who are servants should not, indeed, neglect your master’s business, for you may serve God in your master’s work. Yet you must watch for opportunities. Get alone; and if you cannot have any long time, let it be all the more frequent. Watch for every opportunity for heavenly exercises: for meditation, for prayer, for reading, for conversing with God. Oh, we might find many opportunities to get our souls into heaven if we would only watch!

Those who are diligent to watch for opportunities for heavenly exercises, and who prize those opportunities, are the men and women who will come to attain a heavenly life; they do not treat it as a light matter whether or not they have fellowship with God in holy duties. Christians who would have their life in heaven must look upon their opportunities for heavenly exercises and keep their eye on them, as the thing in which much of the joy and comfort of their lives consists.

Rule 4: Do Not Rest in Formality

In the next place, do not forget this (I am speaking now to Christians who would gladly have their life in heaven). I say to you, take heed and be careful that you do not rest in formality. Watch for opportunities, but do not be formal in the duties you perform in them. Oh, this will mightily darken your lives! It will make them very earthly, and there will be no beauty in them at all if you come to rest in formality in holy performances. There are many Christians who we hope may have some good at the bottom; yet because they grow into a mere form in religion, they never honor their profession. They have little comfort in their own souls. They go on in a dead-hearted condition. They do not know what it is to have communion with God. Oh, beware of that! We are all by nature subject to it.

Those whose consciences have been enlightened dare not fail to take opportunities for heavenly duties. But then come the temptation of the devil and the corruption of our own hearts: “When I have done my task, then it is over. I have prayed.” Yes, but have you been in heaven all that while? What fellowship with God have you had there? Oh, take heed of formality! It will greatly hinder your heavenly life. But now, a Christian whose gifts are ever so weak may only chatter to God and speak a few broken words and half sentences; yet if he does not rest in formality, he may have much fellowship with God. Others, meanwhile, who have excellent gifts but rest in the work done, never know what it means to have their life in heaven.

Rule 5: Beat Down the Body

Labor to beat down your bodies. That is, take heed of making provision for the flesh; beware of sensual lusts. How did Paul come to have his life in heaven? He says, “I beat down my body” (1 Cor 9:27). The word means black and blue: he clubbed it down. The Latin Bible renders it “I chastise my body,” and Augustine, “I bruise my body” and “I make my body black and blue.” It is a metaphor taken from boxers and wrestlers, who pound one another with fists and blows, as Chemnitz, Jansenius, Aretius, Pareus, and Piscator observe.

It is as if Paul said, “This body of mine would draw my heart aside from spiritual things and make me earthly and sensual. I will keep my body down. I will not give the flesh and the body such satisfaction as would strengthen any temptation to draw my heart away from spiritual and heavenly things. No, I beat down my body.” No Christian is heavenly unless he is very careful and watchful over his senses while he lives here, to beat down his body; and so he may come to have his life in heaven.

Rule 6: Draw Strength from Christ

Labor to be skillful in the mystery of godliness, so as to draw strength from Jesus Christ in everything you do. For, my brothers and sisters, Christ is Jacob’s ladder. When Jacob lay asleep, he saw a ladder on which the angels descended and ascended to heaven. Now this ladder of Jacob’s is nothing other than Jesus Christ to Christians, and it must be set up to heaven. If you would go to heaven and converse with heaven, it must be by Jesus Christ. You must be instructed in the mystery of the gospel, in conversing with God through a Mediator. There is such an infinite distance between God and us that unless we have Christ the Mediator, we can never come to God, nor can God come to us. It is only Christ the Mediator who is the ladder. We need not say, Who shall go up to heaven to fetch Christ down? No, we may have Christ in our hearts, and set him up, and so we may go up to heaven by his mediation.

Let a Christian come to live in this way: “Whatever I expect from God, I expect to draw it through a Mediator; and all the services I offer up to God, I offer up through the hand and heart of Christ.” Those who are acquainted with this have much fellowship with heaven. By Jesus Christ the Mediator I may come up there and present myself there, though no unclean thing may come there. For God looks on the saints through him as righteous, since they are clothed with his righteousness. They may come to their Father with boldness, wearing their elder Brother’s garments. They may come and kneel before the throne of grace; they may come into heaven as into the presence chamber and kneel every morning for their Father’s blessing. It is by him that we have access to the Father. Oh, acquaint yourself with the mystery of godliness, in drawing everything from Christ and offering everything to God through Christ! By this, heaven comes down to you, and by this you climb up to heaven. This is Jacob’s ladder.

But there are those who look on God only in a natural way, which is this: “Indeed, all good things must come from God.” And so they go to prayer: “Lord, we ask you to bless us this day, for all good things come from you.” And they serve God, for their consciences tell them they must worship and serve God while they live here; but it is only in a dull, natural way. Let me leave this in your hearts: All good comes from God through a Mediator, through Jesus Christ, the Second Person in the Trinity, God-Man; and all my services are offered up to God through him. There is this Mediator, God-Man, who unites God and me together, and so by him I have acceptance both for my person and for all my actions. By him I come to have a different kind of blessing than what comes from God merely as Creator.

God in his bounty bestows many good things upon the creature. But when we come to deal with God in Christ, we come to have heavenly blessings: blessings beyond the power of nature, yes, beyond all the blessings that nature can convey, beyond the blessings that the conduits of the creature are able to deliver. Such people have the blessing from God immediately (immediately, I mean, with respect to the creature; it is by the mediation of Christ). They enjoy God in Christ, and so come to enjoy God in a heavenly, supernatural way. Oh, this is the way to have our life in heaven! Those Christians who are well acquainted with the gospel of Christ come to live far more heavenly lives than others who go on serving God in a dull, heavy, natural kind of way. Being unacquainted with this mystery, their hearts lie low on the earth, and they do not know what it is to have their life in heaven.

Rule 7: Exercise Faith

The next rule, with which I must close everything, is this: Exercise the grace of faith much. There is no way to get above the creature and above nature except by exercising the grace of faith. Many Christians think they must exercise love to God and exercise sorrow for sin, the grace of repentance. Mourning for sin is good; you should do that, and you should exercise patience. But the great grace to be employed, if you would attain a heavenly life, is the exercise of faith. Make it a matter of conscience to put forth that grace much, for it is by faith that we converse with God through Christ. Though Christ is the ladder, yet it is faith that carries us up this ladder and brings us down again. It is faith that makes the things of heaven real to the soul. It is faith that is an “evidence of things not seen,” and “the substance of things hoped for” (Heb 11:1). By faith these things come to be made real and substantial, and present to us. It is faith that gives a great excellence to all the things of heaven itself.

Therefore live much by faith, and walk by faith and not by sense, and then you will be above the world and live in heaven. And as the fruit of your faith, wait for the appearing of Jesus Christ. “Our conversation is in heaven,” says the apostle, “from whence also we look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20). Where a person’s life is, there his expectations may be; and where his expectations are, there his life is. Now “our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for” Jesus Christ.

It is as if Paul said, “This is not a mere notion. Do not think that when we speak of living in heaven we are pleasing our own fancies. Oh no! By faith we look on heaven as the most real thing in the world. For we expect the Lord Jesus Christ before long to appear bodily in glory. We will see him with these eyes, and he will change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body. By faith we look on such glorious things as so real and so near at hand, and we wait for them; and it is this that makes our life to be in heaven. Our hearts and everything are there, because we expect these things to be made good to us quickly.”

Oh, Christians, only exercise your faith in this, in Jesus Christ, and put forth this fruit of faith in waiting for the appearing of Jesus Christ, when he will come and appear in his glory; this will help to make your life to be in heaven. Oh, what a blessed time that will be, when Jesus Christ comes from the heavens and appears to those who have been waiting for him! It was a blessed thing to have Christ here in person and to live with him when he was on the earth, even though it was in the state of his humiliation. Oh, when he comes in his glory, how blessed that will be! And he will change our vile bodies so that they may be like his glorious body. Oh, this will keep the heart in expectation of Christ! For then that vile body of yours, which is now a body of sin and death, matter for diseases, a body of weakness and a lump of clay, will be made like the glorious body of Jesus Christ, to shine more gloriously than the sun in the firmament. This will be when Jesus Christ comes with all his angels in his glory.

And this is worth noting: when all the glory of the creature is darkened by the glory of God and of Jesus Christ, even then the bodies of the saints will shine gloriously before the face of God and of Jesus Christ. Surely they will be more glorious than the glory of the sun, for the sun, you know, will be darkened at the coming of Jesus Christ. The great glory of the Father, and of Jesus Christ, and of the angels will darken the glory of the sun, moon, and stars. But the glory of the saints’ bodies will be so great that all the glory of God, and of Jesus Christ, and of the angels will not darken it; it will appear with a very great luster. Now if the glory of God and the angels were to darken it, then what would be the point of their bodies being made like the glorious body of Jesus Christ? But certainly it will not darken their glory. If a candle could be raised to such luster and beauty that, if you put it into the midst of the sun, it would still shine there, you would say it was a strange kind of light. So it will be with the bodies of the saints: though they are put into the midst of the glory of God and his Son, yet their very bodies will shine there in beauty and luster.

Now if we believed this, and waited for it every day, how it would change us! I have a diseased and sluggish body, and my body hinders me in every duty of worship and service; wandering and vain thoughts lodge in me now. Yes, but I will wait for the time when Christ comes in all his glory and makes my body like his glorious body, able to look upon the face of God and to be exercised in holy duties to all eternity without any weariness and without any interruption. The bodies of the saints will be raised to such power, and will be so strong, that their souls will be exercised about the highest things a creature can possibly be exercised with, without weariness. Wait for this. I have many things here that trouble my mind and spirit and hinder me in my fellowship with heaven. But within a little while the time will come when I will be delivered from all troubles here: when Christ appears with his mighty angels to be marveled at by his saints, and when he comes and takes the saints to judge the world, and sets all the saints on thrones to judge the world. The expectation of this time will raise the heart very much to be in heaven.

But then especially, when I consider the glory that will be upon my soul, let me think this way: If this body of mine, which is a lump of flesh, is to be raised by the almighty power of God, by which he is able to subdue all things to himself, to such a height of glory as to be more glorious than the sun in the firmament, then to what height of glory will my soul be raised! And then take not only my soul but my grace, the divine nature that is in my soul: to what will that be raised? Plants are capable of being raised to a higher excellence than stones; the rational creature to a higher excellence than a sensitive creature; the sensitive higher than the vegetative; and the supernatural creature to a higher excellence than the natural. Then raise your thoughts like this: “My body will be raised so high; what then will my soul be? And what will the graces in my soul be?”

Oh, wait for this! It is only a little while before I will be with God, and he will be all in all to my soul, as I enjoy full communion with him. Exercise faith, I say, and wait for it; look for it every day. Consider that it is nearer and nearer; your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. God has a little work for you here, but as soon as this is done, this will be my condition: I will see my Savior; my soul will immediately be with him and enjoy full communion with him in glory; and my body will within a while be raised and will live forever with him. It will be where he is, and will enjoy all that he has purchased by his blood. I am capable of as much glory as the blood of Christ is worth.

The text says it will be “a weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17). I am not fitted here to bear a weight of glory. If the glory of heaven were to shine in upon me as much as it might, it would swallow me up immediately. We read in Daniel that when the glory of God appeared to him, he says, “I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days” (Dan 8:27). If God were to open the heavens and dart some light from heaven into us as fully as he might, alas, we would faint immediately, and be sick and die. No one can see God and live; no one here can enjoy what God has prepared for his saints in heaven and live.

Therefore let us be content for a while to be as we are, and exercise your faith and hope in what will be. You will be able to bear that weight of glory, and be able to stand before the face of God continually, to enjoy those things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor can enter into the heart of man to conceive. Indeed, though a man has a spiritual eye, and a spiritual ear, and a spiritual heart enlarged to supernatural things, yet these things are beyond not only the eye of sense but the eye of reason. Indeed, the eye of faith has not seen them fully, nor has ear ever heard of them, nor can it enter into a gracious heart to conceive what it is. But those clusters we have from this land of Canaan show that there is a glorious rest for his people. Now, by the exercise of your faith and hope, work these things upon your souls every day; it would be a mighty help to make your life to be in heaven. Where should my heart and thoughts be, where should my life and conduct be, but where I expect such things as these to be revealed very soon, in the day of Jesus Christ, in his appointed time, which is at hand?

And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him (Gen 5:24).

In this chapter we have the genealogy from Adam to Noah. And it is worth noticing that God passes along through them all, saying of Adam that he lived so long and fathered sons; and so of those who came afterward, that they lived and fathered sons and daughters, and then died. He mentions them only briefly until he comes to Enoch, and there God seems to make a stop. He does not only tell you how long Enoch lived, and that he fathered sons and daughters, and died; he adds, “Enoch walked with God.” The Holy Spirit spends three verses on Enoch. He tells you how long he lived and that he fathered Methuselah, and that Enoch walked with God. Then in verse 23 he speaks of him again (Gen 5:23); and in verse 24, once more, “Enoch walked with God” (Gen 5:24). It is as if the Lord were saying, “Oh, my servant Enoch! I must not pass him by. He was an eminent, holy man in his generation. I must not pass him by without some special testimony.” It is as if God were saying, “Oh, he was the delight of my soul; he walked with me.” Enoch walked with God.

Enoch was a prophet in his time. He conversed much with God, and God revealed much of his mind to him. In the Epistle of Jude the Holy Spirit mentions him again: “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying...” (Jude 14). Enoch prophesied; he was a prophet. But where do we find Enoch’s prophecy in all the Book of God? We have the prophecy of Isaiah, and of Jeremiah, and of other prophets; but where is the prophecy of Enoch? Here the Holy Spirit says that Enoch prophesied, saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints...”

Now as for the prophecy the Holy Spirit mentions here in this Epistle of Jude, we do not have it fully set down in words. Yet we do have something of Enoch’s prophecy set down even a verse or two before my text, and that is in the very name of his son Methuselah. In the name (I say) of his son Methuselah lies that very prophecy of Enoch which the Holy Spirit speaks of in the Epistle of Jude. For Methuselah signifies this much: “He dies, and then the sending out,” that is, the flood. He dies, and then comes the flood; that is the meaning of the name Methuselah. So Enoch prophesied many hundreds of years before the flood came. And that prophecy seemed to reach further, for God’s dealings with people in those times were only a type of his dealings with men in later times: that the Lord would send forth a flood against all wicked and ungodly men in due time to destroy them. He dies, and then the sending forth of the flood. For the flood did come in the very last year of Methuselah.

And it is worth noticing that this Methuselah lived longer than any man has lived since the world began: “All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and then he died” (Gen 5:27). Now this may be one reason his life was lengthened out: that he might fulfill the prophecy of Enoch. For Enoch prophesied that the flood would come when Methuselah died; and because God had work to bring about, and meant to defer the flood a while longer, Methuselah must live that long.

God lengthens or shortens men’s lives according to the work he has to do, according to the use he has to make of them. But so much for Enoch, the person himself.

Enoch Walked with God

Now this phrase, walking with God, sometimes signifies some special ministry before the Lord, as in 1 Samuel 2: “Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed, That thy house, and the house of thy father should walk before me for ever” (1 Sam 2:30). And then in verse 35: “I will raise me up a faithful Priest that shall do according to that which is in my heart, and in my mind and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever” (1 Sam 2:35). That is, walking before the Lord in a special and holy ministry; it is sometimes taken so.

But here we are to understand it more broadly (though it is true that Enoch was a prophet, and he might be said to walk with God in regard of the special ministry of his prophetic office). It means walking with God in ways of righteousness and holiness. It is walking with God as it is said of Noah, Enoch’s great-grandson, in Genesis 6:9: “These are the generations of Noah, Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God.” No doubt hearing of his forefather’s walking with God was a great argument to move this great-grandson to do the same. And Noah’s walking with God is described as being righteous and being perfect with God.

The Seventy, in their translation, render what you have in your Bibles as “walk with God” by the words “he pleased God.” And it is worth noticing that when the Holy Spirit mentions Enoch in the New Testament, he follows the translation of the Septuagint. In Hebrews 11 you will find Enoch mentioned in the catalog of believers there: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb 11:5). What is rendered here in Genesis “he walked with God” is in Hebrews that he had this testimony, “that he pleased God.” And indeed it comes to the same thing: he walked in the ways that God was pleased and delighted in.

Where the Septuagint has “he pleased God,” the Chaldee translates it, “he walked in the fear of God.” And so some interpreters, quoting the Jerusalem Targum, give it, “he served,” or “he labored, in the truth before the Lord.” And there is one thing further in the explanation: it is said that he walked with God after he fathered Methuselah (Gen 5:22). Now some think that Enoch was a wicked man before he fathered Methuselah, since in those sixty-five years there is no mention of his walking with God. Enoch lived sixty-five years and fathered Methuselah, and he walked with God after he fathered Methuselah. But because it says “after,” that is no sufficient ground to conclude that he did not walk with God before. It might rather be said to note the constancy of his walking with God: that he continued walking with God through the steady course of his life. I need say no more by way of explaining this first part, Enoch’s walking with God. The point of doctrine from it is this.

Doctrine. It is the great excellence and commendation of a godly man to walk with God; or, it is the highest testimony that can be given of a man, that he walks with God.

Walking with God is a high excellence. Whoever has this testimony, that he walks with God, has the highest testimony that can be given to a man in this world. That is why it is worth noticing that God mentions it twice, as if he loved to mention his poor creatures walking with him: first, “And Enoch walked with God” (Gen 5:22); and then again, “And Enoch walked with God” (Gen 5:24). Oh, it is as if God were saying, “This is truly the delight of my soul.”

The same thing is worth noticing in the testimony given of Noah. Perhaps in reading it you have not noticed what I will now point out to you. “Noah,” he says, “was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Gen 6:9). He does not say, “Noah was a just man and walked with God.” But notice: he repeats Noah’s name twice. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. It is as if he were saying, “This is the blessed man who lived in a wicked generation. Though that generation was sinful and wicked, yet he kept close with God. Noah was just and perfect, and Noah walked with God. Oh, I take delight in this Noah! Consider my servant Noah: Noah was like this, and Noah walked with God.”

There is great emphasis in this doubling of his name, and no other reason can be given for it, for the sense would be complete without it, as if it simply read, “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation, and walked with God.” But it is there to put a special commendation upon Noah: “Oh! Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

Oh, it is a man’s excellence to walk with God, and to have God himself own him and say that he walks with him! People may live in the practice of the duties of religion, outward duties, and go very far that way, and yet be strangers to God and never know what it is to walk with God. They may have byways of their own in which their hearts walk. They are like the stars, which are turned around one way by the motion of the first mover, yet have a secret motion of their own the other way. So it is with many: in their outward profession they seem to be moved one way, but secretly their hearts move another way. All that while they do not walk with God. They prayed, and read, and heard, and came to sermons, and made a great profession, so that people might think they walked with God; but it was not so.

It is as with a ship. You may be bound for a certain port, and the ship and its sails may be blown that way; and yet while the ship goes east, a man may walk up and down in the ship westward. So in his profession a man seems to be carried eastward, yet his private walks may go another way, toward his own ends and his own designs. But here is a man’s honor: when God himself owns him. It is as if God said concerning Enoch, “I am the God who sees and searches all people’s hearts, and I observe the ways of my servant Enoch. I see him not only in the outward profession of godliness; in the secret of his soul he walks with me. He has no byways at all, but keeps himself close to me and walks with me continually.” So “Enoch walked with God.”

Scripture expresses this phrase, walking with God, in various other phrases that come to the same purpose. One is walking before God: “The Lord before whom I walk,” says Abraham (Gen 24:40). So also God told Abraham, “Walk before me and be upright” (Gen 17:1). And so: “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps 116:9). And it is said of Hezekiah, “Remember how I have walked before thee” (2 Kgs 20:3; Isa 38:3).

Sometimes the same thing is expressed by walking after the Lord: “Ye shall walk after the Lord” (Deut 13:4). Think of a child walking after his father: though he walks step by step behind him, yet he may be said to walk with him. And sometimes it is expressed by walking in the name of the Lord: “We will walk in the name of the Lord our God” (Mic 4:5). And then, fourthly, by walking in the Spirit of God (Gal 5:16); and here, by walking with God.

Walking before God, walking after God, walking in the name of God, walking in the Spirit of God, or walking with God: they all come to the same purpose.

But to open the point, there are four things I intend to handle.

1. What it is to walk with God; or, to describe the work of God in bringing the soul to walk with him, and the way of the soul in walking with God.

2. To show you the excellence there is in this walking with God: what a blessed thing it is for a Christian to walk with God.

3. To give you some evidences of a man’s walking with God.

4. To give you some rules for how you may come to walk with God, so ordering your lives that you may have this testimony even from God himself, that you walk with him.

These are the four things.

For the first, then: the description of walking with God, that is, the work of God in bringing the soul to walk with him, and the way of the soul in walking with God.

1. Everyone by nature goes astray from God. In Psalm 58:3 it is said of all the wicked that “they are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.” Speaking lies is one of the first things in which wickedness shows itself in children; but it is from the very womb that they go astray, before they can speak. It is natural for the wicked to go astray from God as soon as they have any being. The way in which men naturally walk is the way of death. It is the way of their own hearts and their own counsels; it is the common course of the world; it is the walk of the flesh.

But now, God’s work in bringing the soul to walk with him is, first, to cause the soul to make a stop in the way that men naturally walk in. There are those whom the Lord has left for a while in the way of nature, walking in the way of death. To them the Lord is pleased to come by some mighty work of his, to make them stop and consider: “Where am I? What is my way? Where am I going? Is the way I am in like the way that befits an immortal soul? Is the way I am walking in likely to end well?” This work causes the soul to make a stop and begin to think where it is and where it is going. And so it usually causes some fear. The soul fears that it is in a way likely to miscarry, so that it dares not go any further in the way it has been walking in all this while, however pleasant that way may be, however suited to the flesh. “The Lord forbid that I should go on in the way I have walked in!” There is a stop caused.

2. The Lord shows the soul the way of life, what the way of life is. This stop of the soul is just like what we read of Saul: when he was hurrying on in the way of death, a light shone around him and made him stop, so that he could go no further. But then, I say, the Lord shows the soul what the way of life is. As Isaiah 30:21 says, “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.” Oh, how many there are who can tell this from experience! They have been walking in the ways of death, of eternal misery, and blessed themselves in those ways. But there came a blessed time when God made them hear a voice, as it were behind them, saying, “This is the way, walk in it. You are out of the way, but here is the way of life. If you would not perish eternally, here is the way; walk in this way.”

It is a secret voice that the Lord causes to be heard in the soul, and yet a powerful voice. Perhaps you have come to the Word and have heard what the way of life is, and yet that has never turned your heart. But when God would have the soul come in to walk with him, he makes the soul hear, besides the outward voice of the Word, a voice behind it, secret and yet powerful, saying, “Oh, this is the way! Oh, you poor soul who are wandering from the way of life and going on in the way of eternal death, come in, come in! Here is another way. This is the way, walk in it.” And so the Lord gives the soul a mighty turn by that secret voice.

3. The Lord makes peace between himself and a sinner; he reveals the doctrine of reconciliation. For when a sinner first has his eyes enlightened, when he comes to know himself and to know God, God certainly cannot help appearing terrible at first to a sinner who has walked in the ways of death before. Such a sinner says, “Though I see that my way is dangerous, and I see that another way is good, oh, God is terrible to me! And how can two walk together who are not at peace?” “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” says the text in Amos 3:3. Oh, there is by nature an enmity between man and God; every man in the world is by nature an enemy to God. And can two walk together unless they are agreed?

Oh, you who are going on in the ways of enmity with God, surely you are strangers to this walking with God. Can you walk with God before you are agreed? No soul can have this testimony given of it, that it has walked with God, except a soul that is reconciled to him. God shows the soul its reconciliation in some measure before it is able to walk with him as Enoch did here. And certainly Enoch came to walk with God by this means. For the Holy Spirit, in the passage from Hebrews mentioned before (Heb 11:5), says that it was “by faith” that he did it; and “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). That is as much as to say, without faith it is impossible to walk with God. The Holy Spirit means the same thing when the apostle says that he walked by faith, and that without faith it is impossible to please God. Therefore there must be a work of faith to bring the soul to be reconciled, so that there may be agreement between the soul and God before it can walk with him. That is the third thing.

4. Though peace is made, so that God does not appear as an enemy against the soul, yet there may be some strangeness after peace is made. Peace was made between David and Absalom. David was pacified toward him, yet he would not see his face for a while. He would have him kept away from his presence; for a while there was to be no dealing with him in that familiar way, as a child with his father. So, though peace is made, a further work of God is required for the soul’s walking with him: God must show himself to the soul in loveliness, in fullness of mercy, in sweetness and delightfulness, so that there may be familiarity between the soul and God.

It is one thing for me to know that God is not an enemy to me, that he does not intend wrath and misery against me. It is another thing for the soul to grasp the sweet, delightful countenance of God, the embraces of the arms of his mercy, and the condescension of God by which he is willing to come and deal with us as a friend with his friend, in a familiar way. Therefore that is a fourth work: the Lord is pleased to show himself to the soul in the sweetness of his love and his delight. It is as if he said, “Not only are you a soul that shall not be damned, that shall be eternally saved; you are the soul that my soul delights in. You are one I take as my friend, one I love to deal with in all sweetness, and to bring into familiarity with myself.” This is what is shown to the soul to bring it to this walking with God that the Holy Spirit speaks of here concerning Enoch.

5. The Lord is pleased to send his Holy Spirit to guide the soul to himself, and to guide it in walking with himself. In Romans 8:14 it is said that all that are the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. When a father walks with his child, he gives him his hand and leads the child along with him. So when anyone becomes a child of God, God puts out his hand and leads him, and so they walk together. Have you not sometimes seen a father and child walking in the garden? The father puts out his finger, and the child takes hold of it and so walks along with him. Even so the Lord puts forth his Spirit into a gracious soul, and so God and the soul walk together, the soul being led by the Spirit of God.

In Isaiah 35:8-9 you may see what the Lord says of the way of the redeemed: “And an high way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those; the wayfaring men though fools, shall not err therein.” Though they are very weak, and fools, yet they shall not err in it. And “no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon: it shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.” That is the privilege of the redeemed. Now this way by which they walked up to the land of Canaan from their captivity is a type; it pictures the walk of the soul with the Lord.

6. For the soul’s walking with God, God does this further thing: Christ the Son of God takes the soul and brings it to God the Father; as the Spirit leads, so does Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ brings the soul to the Father, to make God and the soul familiar together. As Ephesians 2:18 says, “Through him we have an access by one Spirit unto the Father.” We have access through him; we are led by the hand. He brings us to the Father; we have access through Jesus Christ.

It is as if a prince should take a traitor who has been reconciled to his father, who has his pardon, and toward whom his father is now pacified. The prince comes and takes him by the hand and says, “Come, I will bring you to my father, and I will walk along with you to my father.” So it is. No one who has ever been a sinner can walk with God unless Christ walks together with him. Christ walks along with him, and so God is always made sweet, amiable, and lovely to him. Why? Because Christ has him by the hand, so to speak. God the Father has him by one hand and Christ has him by the other, and so the soul walks in this blessed walk between the hands of God the Father and the Son; and the Holy Spirit leads and guides him too.

But now, what is the way of the soul in this walk with God? When the soul has been brought to God in this way, and by these means has been enabled to walk with him, what then is its way in walking with God like this?

Keeping God in View

1. In the first place, now that the soul has come to God like this, it eyes God in all the ways of God and sets God before it. Enoch walked with God: that is, in the ways of his life Enoch set God before him and kept his eye on God. He did this, first, by beholding the infinite beauty there is in God; secondly, because God is the fountain of all good to the soul; and thirdly, because the soul apprehends God as infinitely worthy of all honor. These three things keep the eye on God continually: “The Lord has infinite excellence and beauty in him. The Lord is the fountain of all good to me. The Lord is infinitely worthy of all honor and service.” A soul walking with God eyes God like this continually.

“For thy loving kindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth” (Ps 26:3). That is: “O Lord, I see that you are amiable, lovely, and gracious, and the fountain of all good; and, Lord, I have walked in your truth,” setting God before me. So also: “I have set the Lord always before me that I might not fall” (Ps 16:8).

A soul that walks with God scarcely eyes anything but God. Even when it enjoys the creature, its eye is still on God, as a little child walking with his father looks up to the father. Every soul that walks with God has its eye on him, for there is no object so lovely and so drawing to the soul as God himself. Wicked men, by contrast, do not find God such a lovely object. They see no such excellence in him, and therefore they rather turn their eyes away from him and look another way. They do not set God before them (Ps 86:14). As for men who walk according to the lusts of their own hearts, in their wicked and sinful ways, God is not in all their thoughts, as Psalm 10 says (Ps 10:4). That is the first thing in the way of the soul’s walking with God: it eyes God and sees God before it.

Living as in God’s Presence

2. Secondly, the soul behaves itself as in God’s presence. “I see myself in God’s presence, and my eye is on God. Oh, then let me look to myself, so that the conduct of my soul befits one who is in the presence of so holy, so great, so glorious and blessed a God as the Lord is.” “As of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ,” says the apostle (2 Cor 2:17). When we come to do anything, we do it as of God, in the sight of God, knowing that we are always before God. Augustine, speaking of Noah’s walking with God, puts it this way: Noah walked with God; that is, he always had God present before his eyes, and so he walked holily and reverenced God.

This is to walk in the fear of God: when the soul, apprehending God’s presence, labors to compose itself as befits the presence it stands in. And indeed this is the walk you will find God’s saints in all day long. Would you know where to find a saint? You may know him by his walk: all day long you will find him walking in the fear of the Lord. As the text says, “Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long” (Prov 23:17). He does not say, “Fear the Lord all the day long,” but, “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Oh, the walk of a Christian should be like this from morning to night, walking in the fear of the Lord! Nothing in this world should put him out of this walk, and no temptation should call him out of it; he should be in the fear of the Lord all the day long. This is the walk of a Christian, when he labors to behave himself as befits the presence of God.

Making God’s Will the Rule of Our Will

3. Thirdly, the soul may be said to walk with God when its way is the same way God himself goes, and the soul does what God does. What is the way of God but the way of holiness and righteousness? When the soul makes the will of God its rule (“I will not be moved by my own will; I will not be moved by anything but the will of God. What does God will? I will the same thing”), then the soul walks the way God walks. It suits itself to God and sets the Lord before it as an example, as the Scripture says, “Be ye holy as your heavenly Father is holy.” “I see the holy and righteous ways of God, and I labor like a dear child to follow him and to go in the very same steps that God goes. How does God carry on his affairs? I will labor to carry things as God does, so that my life will show a resemblance of God himself.” This is to walk with God: to do as God does, to imitate God. That is the third thing in a soul’s walking with God.

Having the Same Ends God Has

4. The fourth is this: not only to do the same thing, making the will of God its rule, but to have the same ends God has. What end does God have in all his ways? Surely it is that his blessed name may be magnified and his glory set forth. “I will drive on the same design. That will be the great design of my life. It is what my soul will aim at as the highest end of all things, and all things will be subordinate to this end, the glory and honor of God. That is what God aims at, and therefore that is what I will aim at.” In this way the soul goes along with God, just as a man may be said to go along with another man when they both drive on the same designs. Oh, this is a blessed thing indeed!

We will speak to that hereafter, but the very opening of what it is shows much of its excellence. And I beg you, as you go along, examine your own hearts. See whether, by the very mention of these things, you are not strangers to God. Examine yourselves by God’s workings in bringing your souls to walk with him, or else by the way of the soul: in eyeing God, in behaving itself as in God’s presence, in making the will of God its rule, and in driving on the design God drives on.

Suiting the Soul to God’s Dealings

5. Fifthly, walking with God is observing God’s various dealings in the world and suiting the soul to each of them. I open it this way. God sometimes seems to work in one way, sometimes in another. Now the soul that walks with God observes the various ways and dealings of God in the world. “Let me,” says the soul, “labor to suit my heart to them.” That is, sometimes the Lord is in a way of judgments in the world, heavy and dreadful afflictions, yes, sometimes against his own saints and people. Then let me suit my heart accordingly. “O Lord, we will wait upon thee in the ways of thy judgments,” says the church in Isaiah 26:8.

Are we under God’s way of judgments, in a way of afflictions? “Lord, we will suit ourselves to honor you there, according to that way; we will labor to exercise the graces that suit these dealings of yours. And, Lord, are you in a way of mercy? We will suit ourselves accordingly, and labor to draw out and exercise the graces that suit those ways of yours. And are you in a way of affliction in my family, or in a way of mercy? Lord, I will labor to exercise the graces that suit those ways of yours.” This is to walk with God. It is as when we walk with a man: if he turns this way, I set myself to go with him; and if he turns another way, I suit myself to go with him that way. So, however varied the ways of God may be, the soul that walks with God suits itself to those ways.

Oh, this is a great art, a great mystery, to suit oneself to these various dealings of God in the world! Some, if God goes in a way of mercy, oh, there they can bless and praise God, and they think this is walking with God. But if God turns his back on you and takes away your choicest earthly comfort (perhaps your dearest husband or wife), and so comes in a way of afflictions, how can you suit yourself to God’s ways then? “When God was in a way of mercy, my exercise was joy and thanksgiving and speaking well of his name. But now the Lord is in a way of afflictions, and now I exercise faith in God, now I exercise patience, now I exercise Christian wisdom, to know what good I can get out of this hand of God.” So whatever course God takes, a Christian still has various graces to exercise in various conditions. It is not only while God is on a smooth path that the soul can exercise joy and thanksgiving and speak well of his name. Let God go into a rugged path of very great afflictions, and still the soul suits itself to God according to his various dealings. This is to walk with God.

Holy Dependence on God

6. Sixthly, walking with God is having a holy dependence on God in all his ways: living in a holy dependence on God for these four things.

(1) First, in a holy dependence on God for direction: “O lead me in the way of thy truth.” This is when a Christian looks up to God and depends on him in the constant course of his life, depending on him for direction: “O Lord, teach me your way. Lord, lead me in the way of everlasting life. Lord, send out your light and your truth to guide me. You will be my guide even unto death.” It is when the soul dares not go one step further than it sees God going before it, and therefore says, “Lord, lead me, guide me.”

I beg you, examine yourselves as you go along. Can you say that you find this in the course of your lives: that you walk in a holy dependence on God for guidance and direction in every step? That whatever you take in hand, your walk is still in this holy dependence on God for direction in your business, and that your heart works after God for guidance and direction all the more as the business is of greater consequence? But now, the men of the world are afraid that God might lead them into hard paths, into troublesome ways, and therefore they are shy of God’s guidance. This is the way of wicked hearts, I say: they are shy of the guidance and direction of God. But a gracious heart says, “Let God lead me, and let the way be what it will.” The wicked are guided by their own thoughts, by their own counsels, by the examples of other men, by whatever best suits their own ends. But the way of the saints is this: “Lord, guide me.”

(2) Secondly, their holy dependence on God is for protection, that he would protect them in what they do. “Lord, I am in the way you have guided me into. I may meet with much trouble and affliction, but, Lord, protect me; defend me in this way of yours.” A child walking with his father, if he hears some noise that frightens him, looks up to his father and depends on him for protection. So when a child of God walks in all his ways in a holy dependence on God for protection, this is to walk with God.

(3) Thirdly, the soul depends on God for assistance in anything it undertakes. “Lord, this is the work you call me to. Oh, let me have strength from yourself in this work. I can do nothing without you, Lord; let me have assistance from you.” The wicked, by contrast, make flesh their arm, and therefore a curse is pronounced against them in Jeremiah 17:5. They are strangers to any such work as this, depending on God for assistance. Now and then, in a spurt, they will say that God must help them and that they can do nothing without God. Yes, but to have a holy, gracious frame of spirit, to walk in a holy dependence on God for assistance in every business, is far from the wicked and ungodly.

(4) Fourthly, the soul walks in a holy dependence on God for a blessing on all it does. “Walk before me and be upright” (Gen 17:1); “I am thine exceeding great reward” (Gen 15:1). It is as if God were saying to Abraham, “Walk in dependence on me. I am your reward. Though you have little encouragement in the world, look up to me for your reward.” So when the soul turns from men and the world, and does not mind so much what encouragement it has from the world, but looks up to God (“Lord, I depend on you for a blessing; and however things seem to go, Lord, I look up to you to bring everything to a good outcome”), here now is a soul walking with God.

Freedom and Readiness in God’s Ways

7. Seventhly, one who walks with God has a heart that is free in all his ways of holiness and obedience. He comes readily to every good work. He is not hauled and pulled to God; he walks with him. There is a great deal of difference between one who is dragged after another (as if you were dragging a prisoner who has no mind to go that way) and another who walks up and down with you with delight and pleasure. Being in the way God would have you in, or doing the things God would have you do, is not enough to make it walking with God, unless your hearts go freely in the ways of obedience, unless there is cheerfulness in the ways of obedience, unless you choose the ways of holiness as the ways most suited to you. This is walking with God.

“I will walk at liberty,” says David, “for I seek thy precepts” (Ps 119:45). It is a notable Scripture. The men of the world think there is no walking at liberty except satisfying their desires to the uttermost, walking after their lusts, which is the Scripture’s phrase. “No,” says David, “my liberty is this: I seek your precepts.” A carnal heart thinks it the greatest bondage in the world to seek the precepts of God and to conform to God’s precepts: “That I must walk according to rule, that is bondage.” No: “I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts.” It is an excellent evidence of grace in the heart to count the precepts of God the greatest liberty to the soul. “When I am in the ways of sin, I am in the ways of bondage; I am a slave to Satan. But when I seek your precepts, I am at liberty.” A man walking up and down in the fields is at liberty. So when the soul is walking with God it is at liberty, but when the soul is walking without God it is in a dungeon, a prison. But, I say, when it walks with God it is at liberty; it goes freely in all the ways of obedience.

Communion with God

8. Eighthly, walking with God consists in the fellowship and communion the soul has with him in holy duties. These are the special walks of the soul with God, and of God with the soul, in the duties of holy worship. The Lord says, “Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein, I am the Lord your God” (Lev 18:4). You must walk in God’s ordinances. The ordinances of God are the walks of a gracious soul, and there the soul meets with God.

There is a notable Scripture in Leviticus 26 to show that the soul meets with God in his ordinances: “And I will set my tabernacle amongst you, and my soul shall not abhor you,” that is, it shall delight in you, “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (Lev 26:11-12). “I will set my tabernacle amongst you”: what is that? It means my ordinances. You shall enjoy my ordinances, you shall have the duties of my worship, and I will walk among you. God walks among us when we enjoy his ordinances. So you see that in Leviticus 18 God says you shall walk in his ordinances: the ordinances are the godly man’s walk. Then in Leviticus 26 the ordinances are God’s walk. So we see that they walk the same way, and there God and a gracious heart meet together.

The churches that enjoy the ordinances are the candlesticks we read of: “In the midst of the seven golden candlesticks was one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle” (Rev 1:13). The Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of the candlesticks, that is, in the midst of the churches. Where the ordinances of God are, there he is, and if you would walk with him, you must find him there. Here likewise you may see the way of a gracious heart in walking with God: “They have seen thy goings O God, even the going of my God, my King,” (where?) “in the sanctuary” (Ps 68:24). If you would walk with another, you must know where his goings are, observe where he usually walks, and be going there. “They have seen thy going O God, even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary”: there are the goings of God. If you would meet with God and walk with him, it must be in the sanctuary; it must be in his ordinances.

It is said that “the King” (speaking of Christ) “is held in the galleries” (Song 7:5). Now what is that but the ordinances? They are, as it were, the galleries of the great King of heaven and earth. You know that princes and great men have their sumptuous galleries where they are accustomed to walk, and only chief favorites are permitted and allowed to walk up and down there. “The King is held in his galleries”: that is, when Jesus Christ is in communion with his saints in his ordinances, in the duties of worship. Oh, these are the most pleasant galleries he has to walk in! It is as pleasant a gallery as he has in heaven itself. Oh, he loves to be there; the King is held there. Oh, many a sweet and comforting turn has a gracious heart had in these galleries, that is, in the ordinances and duties of worship, walking with Jesus Christ.

When the soul is exercised in the ordinances, it has fellowship with Christ. It listens to what Christ says, and Christ listens to what such a soul says: “I will listen to what he will say.” And the soul knows the voice of Christ: “It is the voice of my beloved,” says the Spouse (Song 5:2). Oh, it knows what the voice of Christ is when they walk together in the ordinances. Christ speaks to the soul, and the soul knows his voice, and the soul speaks back to Jesus Christ. There is a blessed converse between them: Christ lets himself into the heart, and the heart opens itself to Christ. Oh, the communion a gracious heart has with Jesus Christ in the ordinances is unspeakable! Only those who are acquainted with it understand what conversing with God there means.

It is with many just as it was with Adam: when God came to walk in the garden, we read that Adam was hidden in the bush (Gen 3:8). The ordinances and duties of worship are like paradise, like Eden. God comes many times to walk with us and would gladly have communion and fellowship with us. Yet oh, how many times are many of his servants hidden in the bush! They have walked loosely and contracted some guilt on their spirits, and so the presence of God is terrible to them. The more the voice of God and the presence of God are in an ordinance, the more they are afraid because of some guilt. They are entangled in the bush when they should be conversing with God. Oh, the difference there is between some Christians and others in exercising themselves in the duties of worship! There are some who, when they are worshiping God, oh, what sweet and blessed terms they are on with God, and what communion there is between God and their souls! Others, though perhaps they have some good in them, are entangled in the briars of the world; and though God is in the midst of his ordinances, they have no fellowship, no communion with him at all.

Following God More as He Reveals Himself More

9. The ninth particular is this: the soul that walks with God follows God more and more as God reveals himself to it more and more, and still seeks to glorify God more and more. That is walking: where there is walking, there is progress in the ways of godliness. When the soul is first led by the hand of Jesus Christ to God, and comes and walks with him, oh, it is sweet and comforting. But still, as God reveals himself more and more to the soul, the soul keeps growing in godliness more and more. It is still more holy and more gracious, and honors God more in its conduct than it has done before; it gets nearer and nearer to heaven every day. This is to walk with God.

There is a notable Scripture where David says, “My soul follows hard after thee, O Lord, thy right hand upholdeth me” (Ps 63:8). A poor child walking with his father may be weak and unable to go as fast as he would like; but the father puts out his hand and takes hold of him, and so upholds and strengthens the child, and the child follows hard after the father. So it is here. “O Lord, your right hand upholds me. If it did not uphold me, I could not walk; but your right hand upholds me, and then my soul follows hard after you,” and so it increases in godliness more and more. “I will praise thee more and more,” says David in another place (Ps 71:14), speaking of the honor he desired to give to God in his way. He professed that he would keep adding to the praise of God and praise him more and more.

The Principal Parts of Walking with God

These are the principal things in which walking with God consists. Now add to all of them the consideration we have mentioned all along, which completes it: that all these are in the constant course of a person’s life. This is walking with God.

Other men, who do not know what it is to walk with God, may perhaps come and walk a step or two in God’s ways, but they quickly turn out again, and they find them tedious and irksome. But the heart that walks with God does all that I have named. That is, it eyes God in all God’s ways, behaves itself as in the presence of God, walks in the same way God does, observes God’s designs, and likewise the rest; and it does all this in the constant course of its life.

It is true that through the violence of some temptation there may happen to be a step astray, or perhaps some fall along the way. But still the heart is Godward, still turned toward God; it gets up again and walks in the way again. It does not merely go a step into the way of God, as some carnal men do. Sometimes, perhaps, when God’s hand is on them, or upon hearing some sermon, their hearts are a little touched, and they seem a little eager. But take the constant course of their lives, and it is in the way of sin. The constant course of the saints’ ways, however, is in the ways of God.

A swine may go through a fair meadow, yes, but that is not the place it cares much about; it wants to be in the mire and dirt, and there it wallows. So it is with many wicked men. They will come and hear, and pray, and do some good duties: this is a swine in a meadow. But when they come to the ways that may satisfy the lusts of the flesh, there they wallow; that is their proper place. And therefore they are far from walking with God.

A beggar will perhaps follow a man a little way, as long as he has hopes of getting something from him; but if the man keeps going away from him, he turns aside into another way and will go no further with him. So it is with many men, even many who profess religion. They would seem to follow God, perhaps for comfort and for something they want from him; but if they cannot find at once what they want from God, they turn aside. Now (I beg you, observe this) see the difference between a friend walking with another out of delight in communion with him, and a beggar who only goes along with another man begging for alms. The man who goes along begging for alms does not care for this man’s company any further than he has hopes of alms from him. If he cannot have what he wants, or once he has what he wants, he turns aside from the man. But for a friend walking with his friend, what satisfies him is his friend’s company and the conversation he has with him while they walk. And so he goes on in a constant way and walks to the end of the place where his friend is going, and he is sorry the walk is so short, and still desires to talk with his friend.

So, I say, this is exactly the difference among those who profess religion. There are some who have some touch of conscience. They see that unless they have mercy from God there is no way for them but to perish, and perhaps they will be seeking God, following God, and crying to God for mercy. But if they do not have comfort as they expect, they turn away from him and seek comfort in other ways. A gracious heart that is truly turned to God, however, does not only seek God for mercy for itself, that it might be delivered from misery. It sees an excellence in God, finds sweetness in fellowship and communion with God, and loves the presence of God. And this is the ground of the constancy of such a heart in the ways of holiness: because it loves the presence of God and communion with God so much, it is for God himself that the soul is in those ways, and such a one will hold out in the ways of God.

Indeed, one who merely serves God in a servile way, and seeks only himself in seeking God, such a one, I say, will be ready to turn aside. But where the soul walks with God out of a sense of communion, of the sweetness and good there is in communion with God, such a one goes on in a constant way to the end and does not tire in the ways of God as others do. You know that if you are walking from place to place and have good company with you, you are not weary; you count the journey nothing. Why? Because you have good company, and especially if you have good conversation all along the way too. So it is with Christians. Oh, the ways of God become very easy to them on this ground, and so they hold out.

The next thing is the excellency that there is in walking with God.

The First Excellency

And this may be in the first place. Oh, there is an excellency in walking with God, if it were only this: that it makes the ways of God easy. How easy are all the ways of God to the soul that knows what this means, walking with God, the soul that has God in its company continually! Oh, the easiness there is in the ways of God! That is worth a world.

It is a very grievous and sad condition that men and women are in who have convinced consciences and dare not willfully go out of God’s ways, and yet are always drooping and find those ways grievous and tedious to them. But it is because they do not have communion with God in them. They are in them merely out of necessity, because they ought to be in them. But the saints find the ways of God easier, for they always have good company with them. “When I awake, I am always with thee,” says David (Ps 139:18). The very nights are pleasant to them; when he awakes, he is still with God. There are many men and women who cannot lie alone. For those who cannot sleep, if they have no company with them when they wake, the nights are tedious. But if they cannot sleep, and yet when they wake they have someone with them, the nights are not so tedious to them. “When I awake I am ever with thee,” says David concerning God. That is the first thing, for the excellency of this walking with God.

The Second Excellency

But second, this walking with God is most honorable. Oh, it is an honorable thing to walk with God! Attendance on kings and princes, we know, is honorable. For the maids of honor, who do no more than attend on a queen, it is a great honor; so is attendance on a king, yes, even on noblemen. But not only attendance: free converse with princes is more than mere attendance. To walk with an emperor as a friend, up and down in his galleries, in his gardens, in his orchard! So it is with the saints. Abraham is called God’s friend. You are not my servants, but my friends, says Christ (John 15:15). God admits the soul to come as a friend and to have converse with him. Oh, this is honorable!

Those who were in the presence of Solomon were counted blessed, though they were only his servants who waited at his table; much more blessed would it be to sit at his table and see the order of Solomon’s table. Then to be always with God, and walking with him, what a blessed and honorable thing is this! It is the honor of the angels themselves that they do no more than see the face of God; the angels that are in heaven behold the face of God. What honor is it, then, for Christians to be always walking with God? Honor! That is the great honor and happiness of the church when she shall be in her glory.

Mark how Christ expresses himself in Revelation 3:4: “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments.” What is promised to them? “And they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.” A glory shall be put upon them, and they shall walk with me, for they are worthy. Walking with Christ: that is the greatest honor Christ could promise them. And so in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation it is said of those who stood on Mount Zion with the Lamb, having harps in their hands and singing a new song: “These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins; these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes; these were redeemed from among men; being the first fruit unto God and to the Lamb” (Rev 14:4). They follow the Lamb wherever he goes; this is the honor that is put upon them. Oh, walking with God is most honorable!

The Third Excellency

Third, the excellency of walking with God consists in this: in the blessed satisfaction that the soul must necessarily have in walking with him. To walk with life itself, with glory, with happiness, and that in a constant way, must necessarily satisfy the soul. It must, I say, bring inconceivable satisfaction and peace to the soul that walks with him in this way. You know what Philip said: “Let us see the Father, and it sufficeth us” (John 14:8). What? Would it suffice Philip to see God? Oh, then, what is it not only to see him but to walk and be continually with him! People will often run just to get a sight of a great man; but to be admitted into the same room and to walk with him, this is more.

In Exodus 33:14: “And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” God promised Moses that his presence would be with him. And when the presence of God is with the soul, oh, the rest the soul has by the presence of God! Oh, the outpourings of joy there must be to the heart that walks with God! In Psalm 36:8-9: “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures; for with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” Certainly where God walks there is a glorious light all around, so that such a soul never walks in darkness; the light of God shines about it. We read of those who walked with Christ to Emmaus that, as the text says, their hearts burned within them (Luke 24:32). Certainly the hearts of the saints who walk with God must be filled with such influences from God as must make their hearts glow within them while they are walking with him.

In Psalm 89:15-16 you have a notable Scripture about the satisfaction of the soul in walking with God: “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” Those who walk with God walk in the light of God’s countenance; in God’s name they shall rejoice all the day, and in his righteousness they shall be exalted. Oh, it is a blessed thing to walk with God!

Consider the words of that noble Marquis Galeazzo, a man of great birth in Italy, who forsook all his honors and friends and came to Geneva. Once, feeling his sweet converse with God, he had this expression: “Cursed,” he said, “be that man that accounts all the gold and silver in the world worth one day’s enjoyment of communion with Jesus Christ.” He had left a great deal of gold and silver. The Pope himself was a near kinsman of his, and he had great possessions and kindred; and he left it all to come to Geneva, to profess the truth there. And he found it all recompensed in communion with Christ. His heart was so full of it that he even cursed those who would count all the gold and silver in the world worth the enjoyment of one hour’s communion with Christ. Oh, an hour’s walking with Christ is more than all the world!

I appeal to those souls who have been acquainted with this: would you have lost such an hour, in which you have been conversing with God, for all the world? What would you take for the enjoyment of such an hour as that? Oh, a gracious heart would not take thousands upon thousands of worlds for some hours it has had in the enjoyment of communion with God in walking with him. Oh, there is infinite sweetness in walking with God! There is a great deal of good to be had in walking with the saints. As I have sometimes told you of Dr. Taylor, the martyr: when he came to prison, he rejoiced that he had ever been put in prison, there to meet with that angel of God, John Bradford. Now if it is comforting to have communion with the saints, even in prison, oh, how sweet it is to have communion with God in walking with him!

I remember I have read of a king who, once seeing Plato walking up and down with other philosophers, cried out, “Oh life! This is life and true happiness; yonder is true happiness.” He did not look upon his kingdom as affording him a life, or as affording him such happiness as he believed Plato and the philosophers had in conversing with one another about philosophy. It was as if he were saying, “It is not the kings of the earth who live the happy lives, but these philosophers who walk and converse with one another like this.” Oh, then, what life and happiness it is for the soul to walk up and down with God and to converse with God himself!

What if you walk in the valley of Baca? Yes, what if you walk in the shadow of death in respect of outward afflictions? Still, walking with God is what will shine upon you, and will sweeten your heart even when you are walking in the valley of Baca and in the shadow of death. In Revelation 7:17, see where Jesus Christ leads the soul in walking with him: “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” So when you walk with Jesus Christ, he leads you to the living fountains of waters that comfort you. The comforts you had in the world were only like dirty puddles; but the comforts you have in Christ when you walk with him are the fountain of living waters. That is the third thing in which the excellency of walking with God consists: the abundance of soul-satisfaction that the heart has in God.

The Fourth Excellency

The fourth excellency in walking with God is this: it is a special part of the covenant that God makes with us, the part that is ours, and on it the very blessing of the covenant in great part depends. That Scripture in Genesis 17 clearly shows this, where God is coming to make a covenant with Abraham, to be a God to him and to his seed. What does God now require of Abraham? “Walk before me and be upright” (Gen 17:1). Then, he says, I am God all-sufficient, and I enter into covenant with you, to be a God to you and a God to your seed: “Walk before me and be upright.” It is as if that were the whole thing God looked at: that you should walk with him and be upright, and then you shall have the blessing of the covenant. Oh, this is a great excellency: that walking with God is a special part of the covenant God makes with his people, on their part; and then, on his part, he will be a God to them.

What was it that God required? In Micah 6:6-7 you may see how God prizes walking with him, that it is the great thing God looks at. There were some who said, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings? with calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” That is, what shall I do to please God? Mark the next verse: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic 6:8). It is as if he were saying, “This is the great thing: to walk with your God. Not only to exercise some particular grace, your justice and your mercy, but in general to walk with your God. Never tell me of anything you would do for me; but in the constant course of your life, walk humbly with your God.”

This, therefore, was the comfort of Hezekiah when the message of death came to him. “Remember, O Lord,” he says, “how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart.” “He turned his face to the wall, and,” the text says, “he wept” (Isa 38:2-3). It was for joy. It is as if he were saying, “Lord, it is true there have been many infirmities in me; but, Lord, I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart.” As if he were saying, “I may boldly claim it, and I now come, Lord, to claim the good of the covenant: that you would remember me according to the riches of your mercy. For, Lord, I have walked with you.” As if he were saying, “Lord, was not this the thing you required of my father Abraham? Why, Lord, I have walked before you, and I have been upright in some measure. Therefore, Lord, be a God all-sufficient to me. Lord, remember your covenant; be a God to me; be all in all to me because of this.”

Oh, my brothers and sisters! Is not this worth ten thousand thousand worlds: that the soul may be able to appeal to God that it has done what is a special thing required in the covenant on our part, and so, on that ground, may have the assurance of God’s performing the covenant on his part?

The Fifth Excellency

And then the fifth thing is this: there is a blessed safety in walking with God. See Psalm 23:4, where the prophet David, a man much exercised in walking with God, says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff doth comfort me.” That is: I am walking with you, and though I am walking in the shadow of death, I will therefore fear no evil. Now is it not a blessed thing to be always in safety with God? And in Psalm 138:7 David says, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble thou wilt revive me; thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies: and thy right hand shall save me.” No matter what the trouble is, so long as God is with the soul.

He who walks uprightly walks surely (Prov 10:9), whereas it is said of the wicked that they walk upon a snare continually: The wicked walk upon a snare (Job 18:8). The ways of wickedness that you walk in may seem pleasant and comfortable to you, but certainly you are upon a snare, and you may be caught and undone forever. Though perhaps you have escaped all this while, yet you are in continual danger. Every step, I say, that you take in the ways of sin, you are upon a snare and in danger of being caught, to your eternal destruction. But he who walks uprightly walks surely, and this is a great excellency, for a man to walk surely: “I know I am in my way, for I am with God.” A child does not fear whatever way it goes, if only it can see its father. Now the soul may know surely, “I am in the right way; I am with God; and I am safe whatever danger comes, for I am walking with God.”

The Sixth Excellency

The sixth excellency in walking with God is this: from it the soul comes to enjoy a holy boldness and a holy familiarity with God. It may be that when the soul first comes to God, the presence of the great God strikes some fear into it; there is some dread of the majesty of God. But when the soul has grown used to conversing with him, it has a holy familiarity with God, and a holy boldness. It can now have free liberty to say anything to him. And this is why some who before never knew what the spirit of prayer meant, or what the liberty of the soul in opening itself to God meant, are so changed once they have come to be acquainted with the ways of God. Oh, what liberty they then have in their spirits to open their hearts to God! Yes, they can open their hearts to God as one friend to another. I remember it is said of Luther that whenever he prayed, he could speak to God as to his friend.

In Job 22:21: “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace.” The soul comes to have an acquaintance with God. Oh, what a phrase is here! What, to acquaint ourselves with God, so that God should be our acquaintance! Yes, God is willing to be the acquaintance of the poorest Christian in the world: poor men and women, servants and others. Perhaps some rich people who live near them will scorn their acquaintance; they count them rather, as is said of some vile people, fit to be set with the dogs of the flock. Yes, though they may be poor godly people, such rich people think it too great a debasing of themselves to have any kind of acquaintance with them. Well, but the infinite God, though he is so high that he humbles himself to behold the very things that are done in heaven (Ps 113:6), yet this God does not think it too much to be one of your acquaintance, the acquaintance of anyone who has any godliness in them. When we see a great man, a man of abilities and honor, come to some poor man and shake him by the hand, we say, “Look what a humble man this is, who will be so familiar with the lowest of all!” Oh, now acquaint yourself with God! This is the blessedness of walking with God: the soul comes to have a familiar converse with God, and a holy boldness.

The Seventh Excellency

The seventh benefit or excellency in walking with God is this: the communication of God’s secrets. He who walks with God shall come to know the mind of God. It is impossible for a man to take delight in walking with another without secrets being opened between them; there is never any true friendship where the spirit is kept closed up. But where there is true friendship, friends will take each other along and walk together, and open their hearts to each other; this is comforting walking indeed. So it is in walking with God; this is the blessing of it: such souls have the secrets of God disclosed to them, and they come to know much of the mind of God. Though they are weak in their natural abilities, yet, I say, they come to know much of God’s mind because they are with God.

We read in Proverbs 13:20, where the Holy Spirit says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.” Then what shall he be who walks with God? Surely, if there is wisdom to be learned from walking with wise men, then there is wisdom to be learned in walking with God. It is from this that men who are weak in abilities come to have such excellent knowledge of the great mysteries of the gospel, and you wonder at it. You see a lowly servant who a while ago could understand nothing at all now coming to understand the great mysteries of the gospel, and that beyond many great scholars. How does this come about? He walks with the God of wisdom, and the God of wisdom delights to let himself out to him and to open his heart to him. They come to know the counsels of God because they walk with him. Those Christians who keep close to God in a holy life, walking with him, certainly come to know more of the mind of God than others do. Others, who walk loosely, know little of the great mysteries of the gospel. They may talk something of them, but certainly they do not have a spiritual insight into the great mysteries of the gospel as those have who walk with God.

The Eighth Excellency

The eighth benefit of walking with God is that such people find favor in God’s eyes for the granting of their petitions, so that he hears them in their prayers. In Psalm 37:4: “Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart.” Walk with God, and enjoy converse and communion with him, so as to delight yourself in him, and he will give you your heart’s desire; you shall have what you would have. For example, if a man has a petition to give to some great man, if he can only find him on his walks, he thinks that surely, with such an opportunity, he may now present it with hope of a hearing and of acceptance for his petition.

I remember I have read of one who offered to give a great sum of money for nothing more than the liberty to whisper anything in the king’s ear every day. Why? Because he thought that by this a great many people would come to him and desire his help to present their petitions, and if he might have only that liberty, he would gain enough that way. Now the soul that has the liberty of walking with God, what a privilege it has! And what opportunities to present petitions to God! And the Lord delights in hearing them. If a king will admit a man to walk with him, surely whatever such a man presents is likely to succeed.

Now, my brothers and sisters, on this ground it is so: you shall see a great deal of difference between the prayer of a formal professing Christian and the prayer of a godly man who walks with God. The difference in the prayers of these two is this, and I will set it out by this similitude. You have your beggars, and they pray for alms, but they stand at the door. But if you have a special friend, an acquaintance, who comes to desire a favor from you, the door is opened for him. You take him into the parlor, and there he opens his mind to you. He has a great deal more privilege than the other. Both come to ask a favor from you, but one stands at the door, and the other is let into the parlor, walks up and down there, and there opens his mind to you.

This is exactly the difference between the prayers of formal professing Christians and the prayers of those who walk with God. Those who make only a bare profession of religion will pray as others do, but they are like beggars at the door. They do not see God’s face all the while; they knock, it may be, but the door is not opened for them to come in. But a gracious heart that walks with God does not only stand knocking at the door. The door is opened, and he comes into the presence chamber, and there God says, “What is your request, O soul?” It is as when a man hears another who is his dear friend standing knocking at the door: he immediately opens the door and takes him into the best room he has, and there says, “Tell me what it is you would have; I cannot deny you.” And this is the privilege of those who are gracious and holy, who walk with God: they have much privilege in prayer, much benefit that way, and freedom with God, and assurance of God’s granting their petitions.

The Ninth Excellency

In the ninth place, there is this excellency in the soul’s walking with God: a glory must necessarily be put upon the soul. So it was with Moses. He went up and was with God only forty days on the mount, and when he came down, his face shone so that the people were not able to behold it. God appeared to him in a visible manner. But it is true spiritually now that the soul which converses with God forty days, yes, in the constant course of its life, has a beauty, a luster, a glory put upon it. And it is such a luster and glory that those who have enlightened consciences and yet are guilty are scarcely able to bear the sight of such people. I appeal to you: when you have given liberty to some way of sin, and you have come into the presence of those who have been godly and walked very close with God, has it not struck terror into you? For there is a glory and beauty upon those souls who walk close with God; they shine in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. What is the glory of heaven but the reflection of God’s presence upon heaven, which makes it so glorious? And in its measure, a gracious heart that walks close with God has the glory of heaven upon it.

The Tenth Excellency

Tenth, God’s presence mightily sets every grace to work; it draws forth every grace (and this I lay down as another distinct head in the excellency of walking with God). I say, it draws forth every grace; the graces of the Spirit of God are always kept in action, just as fire will draw fire. Since the Lord is of infinite holiness, when the heart is holy and is in the presence of God, walking with him, all holiness, I say, must be drawn forth and must be put into action. And this will put a mighty beauty upon people, when they not only have grace in their hearts but it is in action. And this is a great blessing, to have our graces put into action, drawn forth and enlarged; and this is the benefit of walking with God.

The Eleventh Excellency

And besides, the presence of God, and the familiarity of the soul in walking with him, will make it so that the presence of God shall never be terrible to it, either at death or at judgment. Those who now walk with God and have much converse with him, I say, shall not find God’s presence terrible to them when they come to die. Yes, when Jesus Christ comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who do not know him, the presence of Christ shall not be terrible to them. Why? Because they walked with Christ all the days of their lives. In Hosea 11:10: “They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion.” Mark how these two are joined together. Wicked and ungodly men shall tremble at the roaring of a lion, but for the saints it shall not be terrible. And how much is it worth that when God appears in death and at judgment, here and hereafter, the terror of God shall be taken away?

My brothers and sisters, God ordinarily appears at death, and at times of judgment, in another manner than he does in a time of prosperity. You see no terror in God’s presence now, but beware of it when death is approaching. When wicked men lie on their deathbeds, how terrible the presence of God is to them then! But those who walk with God shall not find it so. When they come to die, then God appears to them, and the soul says, “Now I am going to stand before the great God, to have my eternal state determined one way or the other. But what God is this? He is great indeed, but he is my friend; I have had converse with him all the days of my life.” And so, when I must come to judgment: “Here comes Jesus Christ with his thousands of angels in glory; but it is Christ that I have conversed with all the days of my life. This Christ, before whom I stand, has been my friend.” This will be the comfort of walking with God.

The Twelfth Excellency

And then, the end of the walk: that makes it blessed indeed. Oh, how blessed that will make it! It is a blessed thing to walk with God now, but when you come to the end of this walk, you shall find it blessed indeed. If a man came to enjoy God at last, even through ever so many difficulties, yet he would have cause to bless God. If someone were going to possess a kingdom, though his way were ever so difficult and hard, yet the end of his way would make it comfortable, because he is going to take a kingdom. But now, you who are walking with God have comfort in your walk; but the end of your walk, oh, that will be glorious indeed! It is to possess a kingdom; it is to have the crown of glory set on your heads. Your communion with God here is only the forerunner of that glorious communion you shall enjoy with him, together with the saints and angels, to all eternity.

And so we have given you at least the heads of the excellency there is in walking with God. No wonder the Holy Spirit sets such a commendation upon Enoch above all things, that he walked with God, seeing there is so much good in it. I confess I had intended not to leave this head without applying it and warming it upon your hearts, so that you might walk with God in such a way that you would not lose the comfort and blessing and sweet excellency that has been opened to you in walking with God. Only let me say this much: be in love with it. Know that there is no such good in any other path. The devil only fools you, and so do your own hearts; and the world only deceives you, if it promises any good in any other way that will equal this. Oh no, walking with God is the good of a Christian; it is his happiness, his glory, his commendation. Oh, that this may be recorded of you, as it was of Enoch: “And Enoch walked with God” (Gen 5:24)!

Now we proceed. I will make some use of this (briefly) before I go on to the third head, the evidences of walking with God.

The First Use

Bless God that he is pleased to walk in this way with his poor creatures; bless the Lord for his goodness to us. Happy are the angels who stand before the Lord. How happy, then, are we who may have this free fellowship with God! What? We who only a little while ago were not only strangers to God but his enemies, now walking with him! Oh, it is a blessed thing. Let God be magnified for this goodness of his to us.

He is the One who “humbleth himself to behold the things that are done in heaven” (Ps 113:6). He humbles himself even to look upon the things that are done in heaven, and yet he will stoop so far to his poor creatures, even here on earth, as to walk with them. If we were wholly freed from sin, that would be something. But we are not only so lowly in ourselves but so sinful, and yet God will walk with us like this!

We would have cause to bless God if we were only to see his face hereafter, even though we should never see him in this world. But God grants us not only this, that after a wearisome and tedious pilgrimage here in this world we will come to see his face hereafter, but also that we may have so much fellowship with him here. Oh, magnified and blessed be the name of God for this!

The Second Use

What strangers most of the world are to this that I am speaking of! What I am speaking of is a riddle to most people in the world. This walking with God is only an empty sound to most. Yes, the greatest part of the world walk (as the Scripture speaks) after their own counsels. You will find many notable expressions in Scripture about the walk of sinners, of wicked men.

They walk according to their own counsels. They walk after the flesh. They walk after their lusts. They walk after the course of this world. They walk in the vanity of their minds. They walk contrary to God. They walk according to men.

Yes, and this is worth noticing: the Holy Spirit condemns not only walking according to the course of the world and as men, but even walking in the way of kings is condemned in Scripture. Look at 2 Chronicles 28:2. If it were commendable to follow the course of any people, one would think following the king would be the most commendable of all. Yet here is a charge against Ahaz, that he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. And in 2 Kings 17:8: “They walked in the statutes of the heathen.” Here is walking as kings walk, and then walking in the laws of kings. God would not have anyone walk in these any further than they agree with his own statutes. So we must not say, “It is according to law, and I must walk according to law.” No, walking according to the practice of kings, or according to their laws when they are evil, is charged against people as sin.

And there is another Scripture, 1 Kings 15:26: “He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin.” So first, there is walking in the way of great men, and that is condemned. Second, there is walking in the way of the laws of the places where we live. Third, walking according to our fathers is condemned. And then last, walking according to the common course of the world is condemned. And yet this is the walk of sinners.

Further, the Scripture says that wicked men walk in darkness. They walk after their own imaginations and in the vanity of their minds. They walk in lies, their hearts walk after the sight of their own eyes, and they walk after their covetousness. We might mention nearly twenty such expressions in Scripture, and these are the walks of sinners. But the way of the saints is to walk with God. As for those who walk in the way of sinners, that is, in the vanity of their minds, according to the sight of their own eyes, after their covetousness, after the flesh and their lusts and lasciviousness and vanity, and in such ways as the Scripture describes, certainly the end of their walk will be nothing other than destruction and eternal misery.

The Third Use

What vile hearts we have, that we are so backward to walk with God, seeing God is pleased to admit his saints to walk with him! From this even those who are godly are to be rebuked, that they are so backward to come in and walk with God. It is our glory. This is what would make our lives comfortable. It would make this wilderness of ours a paradise. It would make our gardens Edens. It would make our houses churches, and make the church a heaven to us. And yet we are backward to it.

Oh, that we would only consider this when we are out on our walks and have vain thoughts there! Think how it ordinarily goes with people walking in their pleasant gardens, or perhaps in pleasant rooms. Oh, the vanity and folly of their thoughts! Let me speak to you: who are you walking with all this while? When you are walking in your galleries, or parlors, or gardens, or alone in the fields, who are you talking with? Who are you conversing with? Are you not often walking with the devil, and making provision for the flesh? You should be walking with God. What? Are you saints of God? Does God offer himself to walk and converse with you, and will you walk with the flesh and converse with the devil, and roll sin and wickedness up and down in your thoughts? Oh, what a vile and sinful thing this is!

May the Lord humble you for your sinful walks; may he humble you who are saints! You have sometimes had walks with God. Why do you not walk more closely with God? You sometimes complain that your great business in the world, and your occasions to deal with the world, leave you no time for communion with God. And yet when you are off from the world, and when you have time alone in which you might converse with God, and when you walk to the City and back again, what communion you might have with God! But oh, how backward our hearts are even to this, which is our happiness and our glory! That is a third use, by way of reproof even to the saints, which arises from considering the excellency there is in walking with God.

The Fourth Use

By way of exhortation: Oh, let us keep close to God in our walking with him. We read of Peter that he saw Christ walking on the water, and he would leap out to him to walk with him there. Even if it were in afflictions, walking with Christ should be a comfort to us. We read of idolaters who would have their children pass through the fire to get to their idols. Oh, let us be willing to pass through any difficulties to get to God! The Lord is willing that we should open ourselves to him, and he is willing to open himself to us. The Lord would give word for word, promise for promise, embrace for embrace. If we would speak to him, he would speak to us. If we would let out our hearts to him, he would let out his heart to us. If we would make promises to him, he would make promises to us.

The Lord often calls us to walk with him. Close friends will sometimes call to one another, “Come, let us walk out together.” And those who are very close and loving, though they may have some business, will lay it aside when their dear friend calls them to walk, they take so much delight in it. Many times God, our dear Friend, calls us: “Come, let us walk out together.” When God at any time darts a heavenly thought into your minds, he is (as it were) calling you to walk with him there, and he would have you follow that thought. Following that heavenly thought that is darted into your minds is answering God’s call to walk with him. Consider this one point. Oh, do not refuse this! You do not know how much your lives may be comforted this way, and your hearts strengthened.

The Fifth Use

And then the last thing I will name by way of use is this: If there is so much excellency in our walking with God here, what will there be in heaven! If our fellowship with him in this world is so sweet, oh, how sweet will our fellowship with him in heaven be, when we walk with him in white, when our garments are glorious indeed and our souls fit to converse with God! The truth is that now we are very unfit to converse with the Lord, because of our blindness and darkness; we do not know God. Let an ignorant man come to converse with a learned man, and he gets very little good, for he is not able to put a question to him, nor able to understand what the man says, especially if he speaks to him with any depth of learning. In the same way, many who are very weak, when they are in discussion with those who are strong and godly, are not able to make the use of their discussion that others can. It is a great excellency for a person to be able to make good use of his conversation with people who have abilities and strength. To be able (I say) to make good use of their conversation is a great excellency.

Alas, we are not able to make good use of our fellowship with God here! But in heaven we will be able to make good use of our fellowship with God. We will know as we are known; we will understand God. If God only opens himself, we will be fit to receive all the beams of his glory that he is pleased to let out. Oh, that will be an excellent thing indeed, when we are always walking with God and conversing with him continually!

Bernard says of the gracious visits of God’s Spirit to his soul, “How sweet, if it were not so little!” But then it will be constant. We will then follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and walk with him in white, as he says. Now the church cries out, “Oh draw us, and we will run after thee” (Song 1:4). The Spirit of God needs to draw us here. But then we will have no such need of drawing. Of ourselves, from the inclination of our own hearts, we will be always walking and conversing with God. We will have nothing else to do but walk continually with the Lord.

“I will walk in thy truth, unite my heart to fear thy Name” (Ps 86:11). It is an excellent Scripture. “I will walk in thy truth,” says the prophet; “Oh unite my heart to the fear of thy Name.” It is as if he said, “I find much sweetness and good in walking in your truth here. O Lord, unite my heart to the fear of your name. Lord, keep me always here. It is good to be here,” as Peter said when Christ was transfigured in his glory. So when the soul is walking with God, it says, “It is good to be here.” Well, when you come to heaven you will always be with the Lord, as the Scripture says (1 Thess 4:17). Therefore, from the excellency you find here, learn to long for heaven, where you will be continually with the Lord.

And take just this one point to set out the excellency of heaven. I confess that only those who have had much sweetness in walking with God here will understand what I mean by it. Suppose that all the sweet manifestations of God to your soul here, all the dartings-in of the Spirit of God, all the soul-ravishing joys you have had, were all put together, and you had them all over again at this moment. What a comforting time that would be! At such a time some soul (one that knows what this point means) may say, “Oh, the sweet communion I had with God! I would give a world to have it again!” Well, you had it once, but it was quickly gone; and you have had it a second and a third time. “Yes, many times when I have been with God I have had wonderful and gracious lettings-out of God to my soul. Oh, that I had them again!”

Well, suppose that now, in this one quarter of an hour, you had all the comfort and joy you ever had in all your life, with all those times put together. What a comforting quarter of an hour that would be! Now in heaven you will have that, in a way infinitely more than that, to all eternity: for millions of years, even forever. Oh, what will heaven be! If I were to set out heaven to a carnal man, I would have to tell him of crowns of glory, and that there he will see glorious sights, he will be freed from every kind of sorrow, and there he will have a kingdom. But if I would set out heaven to a saint, I must tell him this: he will have communion with God, and all the soul-ravishing comforts he has had in the presence of God in this world he will have all together, and infinitely more than them. Oh, this is what will make their souls long for heaven and set a high price on it!

But now that I have set out to you the excellency of walking with God, you will say, “Who is it that does walk with him?” I shall go on to set out to you the evidences of those men and women who do walk with God.

First Evidence: Above Sense and Reason

One who walks with God does not depend much on sense or reason in the course of his life. I say, such a one is above the ways of sense and reason in his course; he has received a principle that takes him higher. Most people in the world walk according to sense, and so the Scripture speaks of them as walking according to the pleasure of their eyes. But the walk of one who walks with God lies beyond sense and above reason. Things of sense may seem to go this way or that, quite cross to him; yes, reason itself may seem to go quite cross to him; yet still his heart is not thrown into turmoil. He has something that can quiet his heart even though sense and reason seem to be against him.

In 2 Corinthians 5:7 you see the walk of a godly man: “For we walk by faith and not by sight,” says the apostle. That is, beyond our sight, whether the sight of sense or the sight of reason: we walk by faith. Now, a Christian’s walking by faith is a great point, and therefore I intend, God willing, to speak to it on its own, from this very text, in another treatise.

Second Evidence: The Same in Private as in Public

One who walks with God you will find the same in private as he is in public. Whatever holiness appears in such a one before others as he walks in the world, if you trace him and follow him in his private course, you will find him the same man as in public. Why? Because it is not so much man he has to deal with; he has to deal with God in all his ways. When he has anything to do before others, he walks with God, and when he is alone he is the same man still. See what David says about his walk in private, in his family: “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way,” he says. “Oh when wilt thou come unto me! I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (Ps 101:2). It is as if he said, “I will not walk with a perfect heart only when I am out in the world; I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.”

There are many people who seem very strict in their ways when they are out in the world, but follow them to their houses and you will see a great deal of difference. Many times you will find as much difference between people’s conduct out in the world and at home as you find in their clothes. You will have many men and women who are very neat when they go out; though they have only small means, they will put it all on their backs so that they may be fine when they are out. But come to them in their families, and they do not care what clothes they wear there. It is just the same with their lives: their lives differ as much as their clothes. When they are out, they put a good face on things, seem very fair in their conduct, and speak good things. But at home they are peevish and perverse, and perhaps in their passions they will swear. There they are profane and ungodly, and vent their corruptions in a most ungodly manner.

Do you walk with God? If you had to deal with God, you would be the same in your family that you are out in the world, so that your wife, your children and your servants might give as good a testimony of you as others give when you are out in the world with them. Yes, and if you could go with those who walk with God into their very prayer closets, you would find them the same there in all the duties of religion. You will have many who, when they come out and join with others, oh, how enlarged they are! Yet they are dead and dull when they are at home, whether in the family or in the prayer closet; yes, their own consciences tell them so.

Those who walk with God will be as spiritual in the one as in the other. It may be that when they are with others, because they are to be the mouth of the others in prayer, they will suit themselves to those they pray with. Yet when they are alone and in their families, their hearts are as spiritual and as holy in their duties as when they are with others. Why? Because they have to deal with God in all. And that is another evidence of one who walks with God: he is the same in private as he is in public.

Third Evidence: A Serious Spirit

A person who walks with God has a serious spirit. Walking with God will compose the spirits of men and women; it will take away that looseness and vanity of spirit. Therefore walking in the vanity of the mind is quite contrary to walking with God. It is said of wicked men in Ephesians 4:17 that they walk in the vanity of their minds. All wicked people walk in the vanity of their minds; then all who walk with God walk in the seriousness of their minds. They cannot help having a seriousness of spirit in all their ways, for it is God they have to deal with; they do not take the liberty to run this way or that as others do.

If servants are walking together, they can take the liberty to go out of their way and talk with this or that person as they please. But if a servant walks with his master or mistress, he must not take that liberty; he must go as they go. So many who walk only with created things take the liberty to run up and down as they please. But those who walk with God must have composed spirits and walk seriously. And though they walk seriously, yet they may walk cheerfully. I beg you to consider this. For the Christian who does not know how to mix rejoicing with seriousness does not know the way of Christian rejoicing. Yes, Seneca, who was a heathen, could say, “Joy, it is a serious thing.” There is a kind of seriousness in true joy, for the joy of a Christian is not frothy; it is a composed joy. It is serious in this way:

1. A Christian in his joy is able to command himself. He can let out his joy so far, and yet at a beck he can command himself away from his joy to the most spiritual duty in the world. He does not let out his heart so lavishly that he cannot call it in again. Certainly you do not rejoice as a Christian if you cannot take your heart off from the joys of created things. God gives you liberty to be merry, but only so as to keep it under your command, so that you are able to call your heart off from it to the most serious duty in the world.

2. He can not only command himself to holy duties in the midst of his joy; he finds himself the fitter for holy duties because of it. Now this is a serious joy, if it is such that I can command myself off from it, and such as fits me for what is holy. Christians need to take heed of frothiness, slightness and vanity. Certainly walking with God cannot help but make them serious, and those who are slight and vain surely do not converse with God. For God is so serious an object that it is impossible for him not to work a seriousness in the spirits of men.

Fourth Evidence: Newness of Life

Those who walk with God walk in newness of life. For this is not our natural walk. Our walking with God comes from a mighty conversion that God works in our spirits. Our natural walk is with our lusts and with the devil, and in the way to hell. But one who walks with God walks in newness of life, as the Scripture speaks (Rom 6:4). He walks according to the rule of the new creature: “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy” (Gal 6:16).

You will say, “What rule does the apostle mean here?” I confess that ordinarily you have it applied to walking according to the Scriptures. I grant that this is a truth: the Word of God should be the rule of our walk and of our lives, and those who walk according to that rule will have peace. But I do not think that is the meaning of this text. The scope is to be taken from the words of the verse before. For he says in Galatians 6:15, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Then, “And as many as walk according to this rule” (that is, according to the rule of the new creature: not standing so much on external things, either circumcision or uncircumcision; not standing so much on outward duties, though in their kind they must be stood upon; but the main thing to be stood upon is the walk of the new creature; and those who walk according to the rule of the new creature, those who act out the new creature in their walk) “peace be unto them.” And that is the fourth among the evidences of one who walks with God: he walks in newness of life, and so according to the rule of the new creature.

Fifth Evidence: Passing Through Created Things to God

When he has to deal with created things, he quickly passes through them to God. Anyone, I say, who is acquainted with this mystery of godliness in walking with God has to deal with created things while he is in this world, as other people do; yet he will not stick in them, but soon passes from them to God. For example, he receives sweetness from created things as well as others do. But when he has received their sweetness, or while he is receiving it, his heart is on God: “Oh, the sweetness there is in God! Is the creature so sweet? How sweet, then, is God?” When he is in company with friends: “Is it so sweet to have fellowship with men? How sweet, then, is it to have fellowship with God?” When he has comforts in a wife: “Oh, what comfort there is in the comforts of my Husband, Jesus Christ!” When he has comfort in a pleasant dwelling: “Oh, what comfort there is in God, our dwelling place!” He is not rooting about in the world, in the creature, but he relies on God in all that he enjoys. Now those who stick fast in whatever they have in the creature are not acquainted with this way of walking with God.

Sixth Evidence: Loving to Be Alone with God

A person who walks with God loves to be much retired from the world. It is true, he must follow his business in the world, and he does that in obedience to God; but unless he can have his times of retirement, he does not know how to live. It is true that when he is in his calling he walks with God there, and carries his heart heavenly. But there is a great deal of difference between walking with a friend in company with others and walking with him when the two of you are alone. It is true that while the saints of God live in the world they must converse with the people of the world, and they have something of God there. But though they have something of God there, it is not as much as when God and their souls are alone. That is what is exceedingly sweet and comforting to them. Therefore they have their retired times of meditation and their retired times of prayer.

We read of Isaac that he went out into the field to meditate, or to pray (Gen 24:63), for meditation and prayer are sometimes taken in Scripture as one and the same. “I’ll pour forth my meditations to thee,” says David: that was his prayer. So, because the two should be joined together, Isaac went out into the field to meditate. Those who walk with God, if they live in a house with no private rooms, go out and find some time or other to be alone by themselves.

Other people, by contrast, do not know how to spend any time alone. When they are alone their minds wander this way and that; they gaze after every feather that flies; it is a prison to them to be alone. They wonder that men and women will shut themselves up alone; surely, they think, it is only melancholy. Oh, poor wretch, you do not know what walks such people have! They are not alone all this while. They would be loath to give up their retired times for all the times of your jollity and finery. You think that if you are out in company, feasting and having good cheer, music, talk and laughter, this is a fine life. But they would be loath to exchange their retired times for the times of your greatest jollity with your companions. One who walks with God loves some times of retirement as well as being busy in the business of the world.

Seventh Evidence: Keeping Accounts Even with God

One who walks with God is careful to settle his accounts with God; he keeps his accounts with God even. This is a special thing in walking with God. When they lie down, they consider: “Are my accounts even with God? Is there nothing amiss between God and my soul? What has passed this day between God and my soul?” For how can two walk together unless they are agreed, as the prophet says (Amos 3:3)? Therefore they are very careful to keep their agreement with God.

Indeed, Jesus Christ, the great Reconciler, has first reconciled their souls to God, and so they come to walk with him. But afterward, in the course of their lives, they must keep up their agreement with God and not run into arrears with him, and so become ensnared in the world and in the corruptions of their own hearts. That is how men and women will be if they are not careful to keep their accounts with God even daily: they will ensnare their souls in the world and in the lusts of their own hearts until God and their souls become strangers, yes, until they are almost afraid to think of God.

This is the reason many people are loath to come to prayer, loath to come to the duties of communion with God. Why? Because they have not kept their accounts even with God, but have run into arrears with him. Their hearts are entangled in the world and in their lusts, and now the presence of God has become terrible to them. Oh, poor wretch that you are! What, you who are a Christian, and yet in such a state that the presence of God is grievous to you! Oh, your condition is sad indeed! Whereas you should be glad when you think of God: “I was glad when they said, Come let us go up to the house of the Lord” (Ps 122:1).

But to one who does not keep his accounts with God even, his retired times are grievous. Indeed, he dares not do without retired times; yes, but they are grievous to him. Why? Because he has not kept his accounts even with God. But the soul that keeps even with God, oh, that soul rejoices in those times when it is to go to God, or even only thinks of God. That is a special thing in a man’s or woman’s walking with God: they keep their accounts even. And I beg you to observe it: as it is an evidence, so it may be given as a rule to help you walk with God. Oh, be careful to keep your accounts daily! Though this point I am treating is perhaps little understood by many, yet if God would by his Spirit work your hearts to this, to keep your accounts even with God, you would know more of the meaning of this point.

Eighth Evidence: Delighting Most in What Is Most Spiritual

The more spiritual any truth is, or any ordinance, or any company, the more the soul delights in it. When one who is used to God and converses with God meets with a truth that has much of God in it, oh, how his soul closes with that truth! When it meets with an ordinance that has much of God in it, when it meets with company that has much of God in it, how this soul delights in it! This suits the heart that converses much with God. The soul says, “I have had sweet walks with God. Now, it seems to me, I come into such company and see the very image of God in these people, and oh, how sweet and delightful they are to me!” And so for truths and ordinances: the more spiritual they are, the more such a one delights in them.

By contrast, take a carnal heart that walks according to the flesh, in the way of the world. If there are truths that have some kind of human excellence in them (for example, some solid discourse in a sermon that shows strength of reason or strength of judgment), he will take delight in that. If there is any wit, rhetoric or eloquence, he takes delight in that. But in spiritual truths he finds no such delight, unless they are clothed with some human excellence.

But those who are spiritual take the more delight in anything the more spiritual it is. As for ordinances, they are only dry food to those who are carnal, unless there is something external about them. Bring the ordinances to them in the plain simplicity of the gospel, where there is only the communion of saints sitting around a table, eating a piece of bread and drinking a little wine, and they see no excellence there. But a gracious heart, the less of man and the more of God it sees in an ordinance, the more it closes with it and delights in it. Here now is one who walks with God.

Ninth Evidence: Walking in All God’s Commandments

A person who walks with God is one who walks in all the commandments of God. He endeavors to walk in them before God, and blameless before men. In Luke 1:6 it is said of Zechariah and Elizabeth, “They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Here is a walking with God: not only walking in some one thing, but in all the commandments and ordinances of God; and not only so, but blameless before men too. Though it is true that the chief work he has is in his converse with God, yet he is careful to be blameless before men, because the honor of God is much concerned in his being blameless before men. Zechariah and Elizabeth were walkers with God, and their lives are described this way: they were conscientious in all the commands of God, and walked blameless before men.

Now as we go along, apply it. Can you say, “Lord, you who know all things know that there is no command of yours, nor any ordinance of yours, that my soul does not close with; and I desire to spend my life in them and to walk blamelessly before men”? There are a great many who speak much of walking before God and of the ordinances of God, and yet when it comes to their conduct before men, they are careless and negligent. (Only listen to what the Lord speaks to you this day.) Certainly you never knew what it was to walk with God unless you walk blamelessly before men too.

Tenth Evidence: How Scripture Describes the Saints’ Walk

Only see how the Scripture describes the walk of the saints with God. There are some four or five particulars that I will dwell on, in which I will open some Scriptures that describe the saints’ walk with God.

1. Their walk is a walk of humility, a very humble way. The heart that walks with God must be very humble in the presence of God. You know the place in Micah: “He hath shown thee, O man, what he would have thee to do, to walk humbly with thy God” (Mic 6:8). That is more than offering thousands of lambs or ten thousand rivers of oil: to walk humbly with your God. A proud man or woman never knows what it is to walk with God. But walking with God produces much humility. There is nothing in the world that so humbles the heart of a man as having converse with God. Do you see someone proud and haughty, and lofty in his bearing? Surely you may conclude that this person has little converse with God. Job says, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now have mine eyes seen thee.” And what then? “I abhor myself in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).

2. Another thing the Scripture says of a Christian’s walk with God is uprightness: “Walk before me, and be upright” (Gen 17:1). I could give you twenty Scriptures to show that uprightness is the walk of a Christian with God. I will give you only one on this, in 3 John 3. There in the New Testament it is expressed as walking in the truth; and so sometimes in the Old Testament too, walking in uprightness and walking in the truth are somewhat the same. “I rejoiced greatly,” says the apostle, “when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.” So this surely refers to walking according to the truth of the gospel, in the truth and sincerity of our hearts. “They testified of the truth that is in thee”: that is, the word of the gospel prevailed in your heart, and, prevailing in your heart, you walked in the strength and power of that truth and according to the truth. Here is a walking with God.

And no wonder this man’s soul was in so good a condition, as indeed it was. For in this epistle you find a very remarkable expression of John’s concerning this Gaius. What does he say of him? “I wish,” he says, “above all things, that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2). It seems this Gaius had only a poor, weak, sickly body, but he was a very good soul. And John says, “I wish that thou mayest prosper even as thy soul prospereth,” as if to say, “Oh, that you had as good a body as a soul!” It is a very remarkable saying. Such a wish would be a curse to many of you, I am afraid. But John could say concerning Gaius, “Oh, that this man Gaius had as good a body as he has a soul!”

And how did his soul come to prosper? He walked in the truth and according to the truth, and all that he did was in the truth and sincerity of his heart; that is how his soul came to prosper. And those who have only very weak gifts, yet if they walk in the truth, their souls will prosper.

3. The third thing is walking in the fear of God. Indeed, these two are very near akin to one another. So you have it in Nehemiah 5:9: “Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God?” And he gives an argument there: “Because of the reproach of the heathen.” So I may say to all who profess themselves Christians and godly: Ought not you to walk in the fear of our God? Whatever other people do (they do thus and thus, and seek to follow their own ends and ways), ought not you to walk in the fear of our God? That is the walk of a Christian: the fear of God is continually upon him.

And observe: in Acts 9:31 we read of the walk of the Christians in the earliest times, by which they came to grow up in the ways of godliness as they did. The text says, “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified”; and what then? “They walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and so came to be multiplied.” It is an excellent Scripture. Would you be built up in godliness? Let the fear of God be upon you; and if you walk in the fear of God, you will walk in the joy of the Holy Ghost.

Objection. You will say, “Fear may hinder our joy.”

Answer. No. The way to have true joy in the Holy Ghost is to walk in the fear of God. There may be a company of vain and wanton spirits who are for nothing but jollity and mirth; they cannot admit any kind of seriousness (which we spoke of before). But certainly their jollity is only frothy and carnal. Those have the best joy in their hearts who walk most in the fear of God. When I see a Christian with the fear of God upon him, and that in the whole course of his life, then he will have much of the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

4. The comfort of the Holy Ghost is joined with the fear of God. If you see any who talk ever so much of the joy they have, it is only a frothy, carnal joy unless the fear of God is upon them. Oh, it will be a means to convince others of the excellence of the ways of God when they see Christians walk in the fear of God. So the text says, “they were multiplied”: many were convinced by it and joined with them, because they saw such beauty and excellence in their way, walking in the fear of God and in the joy of the Holy Ghost. And this was at a time when they had much rest. Many people, it may be, will seem to walk in the fear of God when they are in danger. But mark: this was at a time when this people was freed from their danger. Then they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the joy of the Holy Ghost, and that increased in them. And this is the walk of the saints in their walking with God.

Two or three more things I will mention. For example:

5. The walk they walk is above. The way of the saints is on high. It is a walk above the world; they keep themselves on high, aloft in a spiritual way. It is true that their hearts are humble before God, and yet they are on high too. Though they do not look on themselves as worthy of the least crumb of bread, yet on the other hand they look on themselves as too good to be slaves to the world or to their lusts. They look on themselves as set by God in too high a condition to be satisfied with having all the world as their portion. Their hearts are lifted up on high to converse with the most high God, and so they come to be delivered from the snares of death that are below.

6. Yes, and they also endeavor to walk as Christ walked. As in 1 John 2:6, those who walk with God walk as Christ himself walked. Who ever walked with God as Christ did? Who ever had such fellowship with the Father and the Son as Christ had? The saints labor to walk as Christ walked, to look on Christ as the pattern of their lives. And as Christ was anointed with the oil of joy and gladness above his fellows, so they come to have some of the ointment run down upon them. They come to have something of that communion which Jesus Christ had with the Father; Christ had much communion with the Father in the constant course of his life. Now the saints, laboring to walk as Christ walked, so come to have communion with God. The Lord bring you into this walk, and keep you in such a blessed walk as this is.

Now, the rules of direction for this our walking with God are to be our subject in the next chapter.

What rules should be observed for a Christian’s walking with God? You will say to me, “You have shown us that it is a most blessed thing to walk with God, and we are convinced of it. But what rules can be given for it?”

The First Rule

Be sure of this: that there is no way of sin in you. Take heed of giving way to any sin, especially known sin, even if it is a little one, even if it is only a sin of omission. Giving way to any known sin will make the presence of God terrible to you and make all your duties empty; it will estrange God from your soul. There is more evil in it than you are aware of. You can have no communion with God while you are in any way of sin, especially if it is against light. The least sin that a Christian gives way to is like a thorn in a man’s foot, but a great sin, a sin against knowledge, is like a great gash in a man’s foot.

Now if a man has only a thorn in his foot, he cannot walk well; it will make him limp. If a man has only a little gravel in his shoe, he will not be able to keep walking along; he may walk a step or two, but not very long. Small sins are like gravel in the shoe, or like a thorn in the foot. But if you fall into a great sin, a sin against light, against conscience, oh, that is like a great gash such as one might cut with a hatchet or an ax. If a man has cut a great gash in his foot, he will hardly be able to walk with comfort. So it is when you fall into any great sin. Then you need to go to the surgeon; then you need to have salve applied to heal your soul, or else it will hinder you in your walk with God.

The Second Rule

Labor to draw your heart away from earthly and sensual things as much as you can, so that you may be spiritual. A drossy, earthly, sensual heart is unfit to have communion with God. God is a Spirit, and you must be spiritual in your dealings with him. Take heed of mingling your heart with creature comforts. You may make use of them, but in a spiritual way. Do not defile your heart with them; do not let your heart close with them as the full and proper objects of your desires or of your love. Take heed of being entangled, of being ensnared, with any creature comforts. A man cannot walk if he has gotten into a snare. When men fetter themselves in the world and entangle themselves with an abundance of business and creature contentments, it mightily hinders their freedom in walking with God. When men’s hearts sink down to the creature, they cannot walk with God; for God is above, he is on high, and the way of the wise is on high, and we must keep ourselves on high.

If Christians sometimes have some good affections, and their hearts are stirred up a little toward good things, but at other times their hearts sink down to the world and to sensual and earthly contentments, they cannot walk freely with God; at best they can only limp. They are like a man who has one leg shorter than the other: he cannot walk evenly, but limps as he goes. So when our affections go up and down, sometimes stirred up to heaven and sometimes down to the world again, yes, and perhaps at the very same time we have some truths heaving us upward and yet a drossy spirit sinking us downward, this will be nothing but limping. Our affections must go evenly. They must not be for heaven and earth together, unless one is in subordination to the other. And so, while we are on earth, we are in heaven, if we keep our hearts in subordination to spiritual things when we are busy about earthly ones.

A man’s heart is spiritual and separated from the earth when he knows how to have comfort in God alone, when he knows how to make up the lack of all creature comforts in God himself. That is a spiritual heart. Now you will say, “We must not be ensnared in the things of the earth; but when is a man’s heart spiritual?” It is spiritual when it knows how to satisfy itself in God alone, and to make up the lack of all creature comforts in God himself. No Christian can walk with God unless he attains to that height: to know how to make up everything in God, and to use everything with a view to God.

The Third Rule

If you would walk with God, always take Christ with you. God and the soul cannot walk together except with Christ, Christ who is God and man, the Mediator. By this I mean that in all your dealings with God you should have an eye to Christ. Look to God, the infinite, glorious First Being of all things, but through Christ the Mediator; otherwise God will not be made amiable and sweet and lovely to you. God is made sweet and amiable and lovely to the soul, like a friend with whom the soul can be familiar, when he is looked upon through Jesus Christ. Do everything by Christ, by the strength of Christ, and offer up all your services to God through Christ. Those who are not acquainted with the mystery of the gospel in Christ surely know very little of this walk with God.

Question. You will say, “Enoch did not know much of Christ.”

Answer. Oh yes! Certainly, though it was so long before Christ came, his eye was still on Christ. For in Hebrews 11:5 the apostle says that it was by faith that he walked with him; it was all by faith. Now Christ is the object of faith, and so his eye was certainly on Christ. It was through faith. And I will give you one Scripture that will show the use of eyeing Christ in walking with God: “Thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee, and there will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee” (Exod 25:21-22). That is, there at the mercy seat. They came to the ark to look up to the mercy seat, and there, says God, I will meet with you, and there I will commune with you.

And what is the mercy seat but Jesus Christ? We must look upon God in Christ, and so God is made amiable, sweet, glorious and lovely to us in his Son. There God meets with his saints, and there he communes with them. Indeed, while we look upon God as he is in himself, he is a consuming fire, and we cannot expect to commune with God there. And therefore those who look upon God merely in a legal way, who look on him as one who exacts and requires such and such services and duties from them, and who consider God merely as a Judge if they do not perform such and such duties, do not meet and commune with God. But those who look up to the mercy seat, who look up to Christ by faith, when they have to deal with God in Christ, oh, these meet with God, these commune with God! Oh, there is much sweet communion between God and their souls. They walk with God, because God through Christ comes to be made gracious, lovely, sweet, amiable and familiar to them.

The Fourth Rule

Be careful to beautify your soul; or, more generally, first, take great care of your spirit. Look to your spirit rather than to your outward actions in your walking with God. God is a Spirit, and will be worshiped in spirit and truth (John 4:24). One who would walk with God needs to be very careful of his spirit. “Keep thy heart with all diligence” (Prov 4:23), for it is with your soul that God converses. Indeed, the proper sphere of a Christian is to be busy about his heart, to be busy in the inward man; there is the sphere of a Christian. It is not so much about the outward man. If the heart is kept in a right frame, the outward man will be brought over of its own accord.

But be careful of your spirit, that is, of the thoughts of your mind. Take heed of admitting any uncleanness even into your thoughts, for the soul converses with God in thoughts just as we converse with men in words. How do you commune and converse with men but by speech? That is why God gives speech to men, so that they may converse with one another. What speech is to men, thoughts are to God; we converse much with God by our thoughts. Be conscientious about your thoughts. Labor to cleanse your thoughts, and also the affections of your heart and the stirrings of your heart, for God and your soul converse together in the workings and stirrings of your heart. Look to your spirit.

And labor to beautify your soul with what may make you amiable and lovely in the eyes of God, and then the Lord will delight to converse with you and walk with you. Suppose you were called out to walk with a man who was your superior, with some leading man in your parish, a gentleman or a knight or a nobleman. If such a one should call you to walk with him, you would labor, as far as you were able, to adorn yourselves with such clothes as were suitable for the company of such a person. You who profess yourselves Christians, God calls you every day to walk with him. If you expect to have communion with God, and expect God to take delight in you, you must labor to beautify your souls, to dress yourselves with the things that may make you amiable in the eyes of God, and not come dirty and filthy into the presence of God.

Now what makes the soul amiable in the eyes of God is holiness, for that is the very image of God, and God delights to walk with one in whom he can see his own image. The more resplendent the image of God is in the soul, the more the Lord delights to walk with such a soul. Labor for the behavior of your soul to be suitable to God. When I walk with one who is my superior, I must have such a demeanor as is suitable to his presence; and, as was said before, to walk with God is to walk in the fear of God.

And that is the fourth thing: take heed to your spirit, beautify your soul with what may make you amiable and lovely in God’s eyes, and carry yourself as is suitable to the presence of God. I shall give you only one Scripture about the beautifying of the soul, Psalm 45, where it speaks of the church and of the saints being brought into the presence of God: “The King’s daughter” (that is, the church) “is all glorious within” (Ps 45:13). Many make great shows of religion without, but the King’s daughter is all glorious within. “Her clothing is of wrought gold”: there are her ornaments. Notice what follows: “She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework” (Ps 45:14). She shall be brought to the King, to Jesus Christ, in garments of needlework. By this is meant the various graces of the Spirit of God that put a beauty on the soul. As there is a variety in needlework that gives beauty to the work, so she shall be brought to the King. So you must have what may make you amiable and lovely in the eyes of the King.

The Fifth Rule

Take heed of halting. When you walk with him, you must not halt between two, but give yourself up fully to God. You must give yourselves up wholly to him in walking with him, not having a distracted heart, or a heart divided between two. “Why halt ye between two opinions?” says the prophet. If God be God, worship him; if Baal, worship him (1 Kgs 18:21). So, when the heart is not divided this way and that, but is resolved in the way of God, that is what I mean here; that is, “If I cannot be happy here, I am content to be miserable here.” The soul is so resolved and does not halt in God’s way when it knows that here is the way in which happiness is to be had, and says, “Whatever seems to the contrary to flesh and blood, yet I know that in these ways there is happiness to be had, there is enough to bless my soul forever; and therefore, whatever becomes of me, I am resolved upon these ways.” This is one who is fit to walk with God. He will not halt, but will tread straight steps in the ways of God. And that is what the apostle requires of us: “Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way” (Heb 12:13). Make straight paths; go on in a straight way, without your heart longing after something else.

There are some who have some convictions of conscience, whose hearts are inclined toward the ways of God, and who are going on in some of the ways of God, and yet they have longings of spirit after something else. But when the heart truly walks with God, it gives itself up wholly to him and is resolved in these ways. You have had some good thoughts; but if your hearts are divided between God and the world, you will turn apostates in time. That which is lame will be turned out of the way. The ways of God will be tedious to you when you do not give yourselves up wholly to them. And this is the reason for the apostasy there is in the world: people seem to go on in God’s ways, but they go on only lamely, because they do not give themselves up wholly to the ways of God.

The Sixth Rule

If you would walk with God, take heed of formality in all holy duties. Be laborious in holy duties; take pains with your hearts in them; labor for the power of godliness in holy duties. You must strive to get up to God in them. It would be well if, when we perform holy duties, we at least kept close to the duty itself; few go that far. But it is one thing to keep close to the duty, and another thing to keep close to God in the duty. We must labor not only to mind what we are about, but to keep close to God in the duty, to find God in all the duties we perform, and in the use of all ordinances to take pains to find God there, and not to satisfy and quiet our hearts unless we find God in the duties we perform.

We have a notable Scripture for this: “In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee” (Exod 20:24). That is, wherever there is any ordinance or any holy duty to be performed, there is a recording of God’s name. And, he says, I will come to you, and there I will bless you. If you would walk with God, you must go where God is, and be in those places where God is accustomed to come. Now the walk where God is accustomed to walk is in his ordinances, in his worship. Therefore you must be very spiritual in worship and sanctify the name of God there (as we have treated at large in Gospel Worship). You must take pains there; stir up your hearts and all that is within you to walk with God there, and do not be satisfied unless you have something of God there. It is a notable saying of Bernard: “I never go from you without you.” That is, whenever I come to any holy duty and leave it, I never leave it without having you with me. We must not be satisfied unless we meet with God in holy duties.

The Seventh Rule

Take heed of secret declinings, or slidings away from the paths of God into any bypaths. Those who profess their desire to walk with God will not forsake God and his ways in an open way. But if you are not very watchful over your hearts, you will find them secretly declining from the ways of God, from those paths in which you have formerly had communion with God. Oh, take heed of turning out of the paths of God! Take heed of any allurements from the flesh, of any temptations, and especially such temptations as suit your corruptions. They will be alluring you, to lead you aside out of the ways of God, and will seem to promise ways of contentment to the flesh. Oh, take heed of any such thing! Take heed of being allured through the deceitfulness of the flesh, as the apostle speaks in 2 Peter 2:18 (there he speaks of certain false teachers): “When they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.”

There were some who had escaped from the ways of error, from sinful, ungodly ways, and had really escaped, that is, in their kind. They were not hypocrites, that is, making a show of one thing and doing another; what they did, they did according to the light of their consciences. Yet it was not through the sanctifying, saving work of God, but through the strength of a natural conscience. And so they were allured through the lusts of the flesh and through wantonness by those who taught false doctrine; and along with their false doctrine, those teachers came with what suited the flesh.

I beg you, observe it: some who have been walking with God then meet with those who come with fair shows of what is false (and you may know it by this, that it gives liberty to the flesh), and they think, “Here is a fine, even, smooth way in which I may have contentment for the flesh.” Observe it: there is no way to allure those who, by the power of the Word, have escaped from the ways of sin in great measure, no way (I say) to allure them like coming and showing them how they may make a profession of godliness and yet have liberty for the flesh too. Oh, the Lord deliver young beginners from the wantons of our age, the wantons of our generation, who allure them through the lusts of the flesh and promise them liberty! For so the text says: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption” (2 Pet 2:19). Themselves! Notice: those who promise them liberty, and bring such a doctrine of liberty to you, are themselves, all the while, the servants of corruption.

Oh, take heed of declining to the ways of the flesh after you have seemed to begin in the spirit. What have you to do in the way of Assyria and in the ways of Egypt (Jer 2:18)? Oh, you who formerly seemed to converse with God and to walk with him, God asks what iniquity you have found in him (Jer 2:5). So, what evil have you found in the ways of God? Do you find them too difficult for you? Oh, that is through the baseness of your heart, because your heart is not changed and made suitable to what is spiritual and holy.

Oh, that the Lord would be pleased to cause his angel to meet with some who are declining from his good and blessed ways! As we read in the book of Genesis, the angel met Hagar when she was fleeing from Abraham’s family, from the church of God, and said, “Hagar, Sarah’s maid, from whence camest thou?” (Gen 16:8). That is: Do you come from Abraham’s family? Are you going away from there? And where do you think to find so much good as in Abraham’s family, where the presence of God is? So, oh, that God would meet with those who are declining from the good ways of God! O soul, where are you going? You who have had the Word working on your heart, and seemed to be turned into the good ways of God, where are you going? Are these ways like the former ways you seemed to walk in? Oh, what will be the end of these ways you are now in? Indeed, they give more contentment to the flesh than your former ways, but do you think their end will be peace?

Oh, that there were such a messenger from God to meet you in the ways you are walking in, so that you might say as the church does, “I will return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than it is now” (Hos 2:7). “I used to have more peace, comfort and sweetness in conversing with God in holy duties than I now find; I will return to those ways of God. However much many loose professing Christians seem to scorn and deride them, yet, Lord, I am sure I found more sweetness in them then than I do now. Well, I will return to them and labor to walk in them.”

The Eighth Rule

Or, if you have declined, labor to keep a tenderness of spirit, so as to be sensitive to the beginnings of declining. It is true, we have a great deal of corruption while we remain here in this world, and our hearts are quickly drawn away from the ways of God. Yes, but if we could keep a spirit sensitive to the beginnings of declining, we might still keep up our walk with God: if, as soon as we had gotten only one step from God, we would begin to think to ourselves, “Where are we? What are we doing?” Oh, this would cause us to return, and not to go so far off from God. For a man to go far from God is very dangerous, for then he begins to have many thoughts of despair, and so he often grows even desperate in his course and gives himself up to excess, even to satisfy the lusts of the flesh with greediness. There are some men who are convinced in their consciences that they are out of the way, and though they are convinced of it, they still go farther and farther off from God.

You will say, “Why, is that possible?”

Yes, because having once made a profession of religion and then departed from God, such a man is followed by the devil with despairing thoughts. He thinks God will not now receive him and accept him if he returns to him, and therefore he is resolved to satisfy himself to the full. And I truly believe this is the great reason why many apostates become as notoriously wicked as they do. When you see a man who has been forward in religion afterward not only fall away, but you find him to be a drunkard, a whoremonger, a scoffer, you may almost conclude that this is the very ground of it. Though his conscience is convinced that he is out of the way, yet he is desperately set on having his pleasure, because he thinks God has forsaken him, and he has forsaken God, and his lusts he will have; and, poor creature, that is all he has to satisfy himself with. Oh, take heed of getting far from God! Hearken to this, you who are “far from righteousness,” as the Scripture speaks (Isa 46:12). Oh, it is a terrible thing to have gone far from God. Labor to keep your heart watchful of the beginnings of declining, and be tender and sensitive to them.

The Ninth Rule

Labor to be spiritual in your solitary times. If you would walk with God, prize your solitary times highly, and labor to be spiritual in them. Do not waste those times when you are alone, when there is no one but God and yourselves together. And especially you who have much business in the world: alas, what little use you generally make of your solitary times! When you are alone, you do not know what to do. But a man who would walk with God needs to be careful to be very spiritual then: “Now I am separated from the world; now I have to deal with God and my own soul. Oh, let me make good use of this and gain advantage by it! Oh, let me not be quiet until I have some fellowship with God.” Those Christians who are spiritual in their solitary times will be very spiritual when they come into company. So it was with Moses: when he had been alone with God on the mount and came down to the people, his face shone so that they were not able to bear it. Certainly those who are alone with God, and are spiritual, will shine in holy conduct when they come down from the mount, when they come to converse with others.

The Tenth Rule

Let God’s presence be more to you than all the world. Count it a greater obligation upon your soul that you are with God, that you have God’s presence with you, than if you had the eyes of all the world upon you. It would mightily compose the spirits of men and women if they had an awed reverence for the presence of God and counted it more than all the world besides; and therefore you should do nothing in God’s presence but what you would do in the sight of all the world, or what you may do without your conscience accusing you of sin in it. Oh, look upon the presence of God as more to you than all the world!

The Eleventh Rule

Go on with resolution in the performance of holy duties, even though you see nothing come of them for the present. “Though I do not have the comfort I would like, yet I am doing the duty I am commanded; I am still in God’s way.” And that should satisfy every gracious heart: “Though I do not have the encouragements I would like, yet I am in God’s way; and let me keep in that way of God.”

The Twelfth Rule

Put good interpretations on all God’s ways and dealings with you. This is a mighty help to us in keeping on in the way of God and walking with him. If God comes in a way of affliction, put a good interpretation on the affliction. Do not immediately conclude that God appears as an enemy to you; that will discourage you in the ways of God. But look upon God as intending good to you in everything, and that will help you to keep close to him and to walk close with him in every condition. If God seems to go out of the way of prosperity and to come in the way of affliction, put good interpretations on it. Do not think that God is therefore leaving you and forsaking you, but exercise faith in this, and believe that God may intend as much good to you in that way as in any way whatever.

And I ground this rule on that text in Hebrews 12. In the earlier part of the chapter the apostle speaks of God’s chastening of his people: “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Heb 12:5-6). And again: “If ye endure chastening, then God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisements, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Heb 12:7-8). So he still goes on with the point of chastisement; in Hebrews 12:9-11 he speaks of nothing but chastisements. Now then, having laid this down as a ground, that we are to look upon God as a father in his chastisements, he draws a conclusion from it: “Wherefore then lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way” (Heb 12:12-13).

It is as if he said: When you apprehend God as dealing with you in a way of wrath and not in a way of love, your knees will be feeble, and you will not be able to go on with cheerfulness and to walk with God in the hard way he seems to call you to. But when you look upon yourselves as sons, and upon God as intending good to you, that by chastisements you may be made partakers of his holiness, now, he says, lift up your hands that hang down, and those feeble knees, those feeble knees that were so weak that you were disabled from walking with God. Those feeble knees will be strengthened if you put a good interpretation on the ways of God and believe that the Lord intends good to you. And as with other chastisements, so among the rest with the chastisements of spiritual desertions: when God not only comes upon you with outward afflictions, but when the Lord himself comes against you with spiritual desertions and afflictions, afflicting your very souls, you must put good interpretations on them.

You will say, “That is when it is hardest to walk with God. Indeed, we may walk with God and keep on in communion with him in spite of outward afflictions; but when the Lord seems to withdraw himself, and when there is affliction both outward and inward too, that is hard.”

As for outward afflictions, I will give you one notable Scripture showing a child of God following hard after God even though God seems to withdraw himself from the soul. It is Psalm 63, where by the title of the psalm you will find that David was in the wilderness of Judah, and that was when Saul was persecuting him for his life. Saul persecuted David and pursued him, and David was forced to skulk up and down in the wilderness of Judah from place to place. And yet notice: “O God, thou art my God” (for all that), “early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (Ps 63:1). And then: “My soul followeth hard after thee” (Ps 63:8). Though, Lord, you seem to withdraw yourself from me in these outward dealings, yet “my soul followeth hard after thee,” says David, notwithstanding.

In times of affliction, when God seems to withdraw himself by his afflictions, our souls should still follow hard after God. Does God seem to go from us, as if he would not walk with us? Oh, run after him! It is as with a poor child: if the mother seems to go away from it and gets over a stile ahead of it, the child cries and runs after her. So it was with David. When the Lord seemed by those dealings of his to be going away from him, he says that his soul follows hard after him. And this is an excellent frame of spirit: the more the Lord seems to be gone from a Christian, the harder the soul follows after God. Nothing can satisfy such a one but God himself. And therefore David tells the Lord that his soul thirsts after him in a dry land; he does not say after water, but after him. So in any affliction, if you can say this: “Lord, it is not so much deliverance from an affliction that my soul thirsts after; but, O Lord, you know my soul thirsts after you. If only the affliction may be made up in yourself, it is enough. I never find my soul following more earnestly after you than now, in the time of my affliction.”

If it is a spiritual desertion, if the Lord seems to withdraw himself from the spirits of his servants, what rules should be given for a person still to walk with God in a time of spiritual desertion?

I have several things to say to those from whom God has seemed to withdraw himself.

Objection. You will say, “You have told us of the excellency of walking with God, and we count it the happiness of our lives to walk with him. Oh, but God will not walk with me! He withdraws himself from my soul, so that I cannot see him, and he hides himself from me.”

Now I have several things to say to you.

1. Be of good comfort. It is a good sign that God has made you know what it is to walk with him, since you can feel his withdrawings. There is a generation of people in the world who go on in a slight kind of way in their profession of religion, and they do not know what it is to feel any of God’s withdrawings from them. You never hear them complain of any such thing; they do not know what it means. Therefore, I say, it is a good sign that you know what it is to walk with God, because you can feel any of God’s withdrawings from you.

2. Examine whether you have not sometimes shut God out when he offered himself to walk with you. Has not God sometimes offered himself, and even taken you by the hand to walk with you, and you were not at leisure then, because your mind was on something else? Oh, then, be humbled before him for all your unworthy dealings with him and for all your declinings from him. Know that God calls you to this. There have been many wanderings of your spirit from God. Oh, that you could say about your spiritual wanderings what the prophet David says about his wanderings: “Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle, are they not in thy book?” (Ps 56:8).

Oh, that you could say so! “Lord, there have been many wanderings of my spirit, but Lord, put my tears into your bottle. As my wanderings have been, so are my tears. Oh, it grieves me to the soul that I have ever grieved your Spirit! When your Spirit has even taken me by the hand to walk with you, I have withdrawn myself, and so your Spirit has been grieved. Oh, it grieves my soul! O Lord, you have taken notice of my wanderings; take notice of my tears, which answer to them.”

3. It is better that God withdraw than that we withdraw. I beg you, observe this. If God withdraws from you, it is your affliction; but if you withdraw from God, it is your sin. And sin is worse than affliction. Better to bear any affliction, yes, even spiritual afflictions, than to commit sin. And you should labor to feel that. You who complain of God’s withdrawing from you, and that God will not walk with you: do you feel your own withdrawings as a greater evil to you than his? This should be your language: “It is true, God’s withdrawing from me is a sore affliction, above all that ever befell me in this world; but my withdrawing from him is a greater burden to me.”

And it may be that if God did not withdraw from you, you would withdraw from him. Many times God does withdraw from his people to prevent his people’s withdrawing from him, just as a mother will many times withdraw herself from her child so that the child may not wander from her. And this may be the very reason God withdraws. He sees your heart beginning to be loose, wanton, slight and vain, and that is why he hides himself: so that you may be awakened and made aware of the danger you are in by withdrawing yourself from God; so that you may cleave to him more fully; so that your soul may follow after him more; so that you may lift up your heart and cry more earnestly after God.

But now, if God has withdrawn and the soul is not so sensitive as to cry after him, or if it should leave off crying, then that person is in a dangerous condition indeed. It is as if a poor child had lost its father or mother and was crying after them, and at length some beggar comes along with an apple or a plum and steals the child away, and then the child is quiet for the present. Oh, take heed of that! Do not depart from the Lord; keep crying after him in all his withdrawings.

4. God’s withdrawing of comfort is not always the withdrawing of his presence. You may be mistaken. You think God has withdrawn. Why? Because he has withdrawn comfort. There may be a great mistake in this. God, I say, may withdraw comfort and not withdraw his presence. Take this as a certain rule, and make much use of it when comforts are gone. When comforts are gone, do not say, “Therefore the presence of God is gone.” There may be as full and as gracious a presence of God when comforts are gone as there ever was. He may be present with his graces and his support, as in Psalm 63:8: “My soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me,” even though God seems to be gone. So God may be present to uphold you, to strengthen you and to exercise your faith in him, and that may be just as acceptable to God. The exercise of faith when comfort is lacking may have as much of God in it as all the comfort you ever had in all your life. And therefore do not say that God’s presence is gone because comforts are gone.

The beams of the sun in wintertime are not as effective as the influence of the sun in summertime when it is behind a cloud. Is the presence of the sun gone in summer because there is a cloud between the sun and you? A child may think, “Oh, the sun has gone out of the sky, because there is a cloud.” Yes, but I know the sun is still there, for there is the influence of the sun: there is some heat in the day, and there is some light by which I can see to do my work, though I do not have the brightness I had before. Now when the sun shines in winter, it shines bright, but it does not have the kind of influence on the earth that makes the plants grow.

So the beams of God’s presence may sometimes be clouded to a Christian because of outward afflictions, and yet there may be more of God’s presence then than at another time, when it shines in all its beauty in a Christian’s comforts. For I compare the shining of a Christian’s comforts to the shining of the sun in winter: sometimes they have no influence to sanctify the heart, just as in wintertime the sun does not have the influence to make the ground fruitful. But at other times, though the sun is clouded, it still has influence to make the ground fruitful. So though God may not shine on you with outward comforts, yet he may shine into your soul and make you increase and grow in goodness more than ever before.

5. If you cannot see God’s face, still listen, and see whether you cannot hear his voice, and follow that. Do you come to the Word and hear his voice there? Is not God pleased to speak to your soul out of his Word? Perhaps you go into your private room and cannot see his face there as you used to. Yet bless him that you can hear his voice, and follow his voice, even in the dark.

For instance, if a child is walking with its father and gets lost, yet if the child cries and the father or mother speaks, that quiets the child very much. So it is with the children of God: when they cannot see God’s face, they may still hear God’s voice. They cannot have those comforts from God that they have sometimes had, those sweet manifestations of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts; but when they come to the Word, they cannot help saying that they hear their Father’s voice. Perhaps the Word is not a comforting word to you as it used to be. Yes, but is it not a directing word, an instructing word, an enlightening word? Oh, this should support you for now.

6. All that I will say further is this: Keep yourself in a waiting frame for God. Do not conclude that because the Lord is gone, he will always be gone. Oh no! Keep on in the ways of God, waiting for him. Resolve that though God leaves you, you will not leave the path where God used to be: “I am sure God was once here.” Oh, then keep to the path where you used to meet with God, for you will meet with him again. It is better to keep to the path, God’s ordinary highway, for you are more likely to meet with God there than if you went out of the way. I will give you a Scripture or two for this and so conclude.

The first is Psalm 101:2: “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way, Oh when wilt thou come unto me!” What I quote this for is David’s resolution to behave himself wisely in a perfect way, together with his panting after the presence of God: “Oh when wilt thou come unto me!” It is as if he were saying, “Lord, you are absent from me now, but Lord, I will not go out of the way where I used to find you. Oh, when will you come? I will not conclude that I shall never see you in this way as I have before. No, I hope I shall meet you hereafter.”

And so in Psalm 119:8: “I will keep thy statutes.” What then? “Oh forsake me not utterly.” It seems that, as David understood it, the Lord had forsaken him for the present. But what was David’s resolution? “God has forsaken me, so I will forsake him”? Oh no! Rather, “I will keep your statutes; and oh, do not leave me utterly.”

So keep on in the ways of God still. Go on in his way and wait for the presence of God until he comes, and conclude this: Surely he will come. Do not be like children who see the sun going down and conclude that the sun is gone and will never come again. Though God seems to withdraw the light of his face from you, do not conclude and settle it: “Well, I shall never have those comforts from God, in communion with God, in walking with God, that I once used to have.” Do not say so. Go on, keep in the ways of God, wait on him and look up toward him, and so you may come to have as much communion, sweetness and joy in God as you ever had in all your life. And know this now: God calls for the work of faith in times such as these. Now God calls you to walk by faith and not by sense.