consolation, who hath commanded it, who seeth that you have need of it, and who hath promised to give you all your petitions which you make according to his will, will surely give you patience.

Sixth, Of bearing afflictions thankfully and fruitfully.

To bear adversity and afflictions well, it is not enough that you bear them patiently, because you deserve them, and because they come from God; but you must bear them thankfully; cheerfully and comfortably, because they are, as you have heard, for your good. We do not only patiently endure the hand of the surgeon, and the prescriptions of the physician, but we thank them, pay them, and are glad of their recipes, though they put us to pain. "Count it exceeding joy," saith St. James, "when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience," &c.

Last of all, unto patience and thankfulness, you must add fruitfulness and growth of grace; this should be the fruit of all crosses and afflictions, that with David you may be better for them, and that you may, with Job, come out of them as gold refined and purged from dross. Therefore God doth chasten you as he did Jacob: This is all the fruit, to take away your sin, and that you should be partaker of his holiness. Be better, therefore,

for crosses; then God hath his end, when, after his ploughing, harrowing, and threshing of you, he shall reap the harvest of well doing, which he reapeth not so much for himself, as for you; for the ground that bringeth forth fruit meet for him that dresseth it, receiveth blessing from God. All good works are "treasured up in heaven for the doers of them."

When you have learned this lesson also, "How to be abased and to suffer need," as well as "how to be full and to abound," with all the fore-mentioned directions, how at all times, and in all things, to walk with God, you will prove yourself to be a good proficient in the school of Christ, one that hath walked to good purpose before God; showing, that you are neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus much concerning the outward frame of your life and conversation, according to which you must walk with God. The inward truth and life of all this, which is, doing all in uprightness, remaineth to be spoken unto, and is as followeth.

CHAPTER XI.

Of Uprightness.

THE sum of this head is contained in this, that in your whole walking with God you must be upright. Both these, to walk with God, and to be upright, are joined in this precept: "Walk with me, and be perfect," or upright. He speaketh not of an absolute perfection of degrees, in the fulness of all graces, which is only aimed at in this life, towards which the Christian, by watchfulness and diligence, may come nearer and nearer; but is never attained until we come to heaven, amongst the spirits of just men made perfect. He speaketh here of the perfection of parts, and of truth and grace in every part,

expressing itself in unfeignedness of will and endeavour; which is uprightness.

I. The Necessity of Uprightness in Religion.

That you should be sincere and upright, read Joshua xxiv. 14. 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. And the apostle telleth you, that since Christ Jesus, your passover, is slain, you must keep the feast (which shadoweth forth the whole time of our life here) "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." The examples of Noah, Nathaniel, with many others in the scriptures, are therefore written, that of them you may learn to be upright.

There is special reason why you should be upright:

1. Your God with whom you walk, is perfect and upright; he is truth, he loveth truth in the inward parts; all his works are done in truth; and there was no guile ever found to be either in the mouth, hand, or heart, of your head Christ Jesus. Now, you should please God, and be like your Father, and head Christ Jesus, following his steps.

your

2. It is to no purpose to do that which is right in God's sight, in respect of the matter of your actions, if in the truth and disposition of your soul you be not upright therein. For the best action, void of uprightness, is but like a well-proportioned body without life and substance. And that is counted as not done at all to God, which is not done in uprightness. This exception is taken against Amaziah's good actions: It is said, "He did that which was right in the sight of the

Lord, but" he

did it not in uprightness, he did it "not with a perfect heart."

3. The best actions, without uprightness, do not only lose their goodness; but, in God's account, are esteemed abominable evils. Such were the prayers and sacrifices of the hypocritical Jews. For God judgeth such actions, and such services, to be mere flattery, lying, and mocking him to his face.

Now, because there is none so ready to presume that he is upright, as the hypocrite, saying, with Ephraim, "In all my labours they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin." And, because there are none so ready to doubt whether they be upright, as are the tender-hearted and sincere; so it was with David, when he prayed to have a right spirit renewed in him; it will be needful and useful that I show you what uprightness is, and by what infallible signs you may know whether you be upright or not.

II. The Description of Uprightness.

Christian uprightness, for of that I speak, is a saving grace of the Holy Ghost, wrought in the heart of a man rightly informed in the knowledge of God in Christ, whereby his soul standeth so entirely and sincerely right towards God, that, in the true disposition, bent, and firm determination of his will, he would, in every faculty and power of soul and body, approve himself to be such a one as God would have him to be, and would do whatsoever God would have him to do, and all as God would have him, and that, for and unto God, and his glory.

The author of this uprightness is God's sanctifying Spirit,

The common nature of it, wherein it agreeth with other graces, is, it is a saving grace; it is peculiar to them that shall be saved, for only they are endued with it; but it is common to all, one, who is effectually called.

The proper seat of this grace is the will.

and every

The fountain in man from whence, through the special grace of the Holy Ghost, it springs, is sound knowledge of God and of his will, concerning those things which the will should choose and refuse; and from faith in Christ Jesus, through whom every believer doth, of his fulness, receive this grace to be upright. Hereby Christian uprightness differeth from that uprightness, which may be in a mere natural, superstitious, and misbelieving man, for even such may be unfeigned in their actions in their kind, both in actions civil and superstitious, doing that. which they do, in their ignorance and blindness, without dissimulation either with God or man. This St. Paul did before his conversion, he did as he thought he ought to do.

The form and proper nature of uprightness, is the good inclination, disposition, and firm intention of the will, to a full conformity with God's will, and that not in some faculties and powers of man, or in some of his actions, but the Christian would be universally sincere in all his parts, and in all things; he would be, and do, as God would have him to be and do, making God's will, revealed in his word and works, to be his will, and God's glory to be his end, This holy uprightness expresseth itself in these three things:

First, It showeth itself, in a well-grounded and