Keep close to God by keeping close to duty. Keep close to duty, and keep close to God in duty. Call not that a duty which thou canst not call communion with God. Make not duty to do the work of sin, by taking God out of sight. Let not prayer, or hearing, or ordinances be instead of God to thee. Such praying and hearing there is among many; but know not thou any thing for religion, wherein thou meetest not with God.

Behold the face of God, but behold his face in righteousness. Psalm 17:15. It is ill looking on God with a bloodshot eye. Guilt upon the heart will be a cloud that will make the sun as darkness to thee. Walk in the light of the Lord. Walk in the light, as he is in the light. In thy light-the holiness of thy life-thou shalt see his light. The light of his holiness in thee, will be attended with the light of his countenance upon thee. By the light of his countenance, thou wilt both see thyself in the way to thy hopes, and learn thy way more perfectly. "Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, and teach me thy statutes." Psalm 119: 135. God hath many ways of teaching: he teaches by book, he teaches by his finger, he teaches by his rod; but his most comfortable and effectual teaching is by the light of his eye. Send forth thy light and thy truth, let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill.

2. Keep hold on Christ. He is thy peace. Appear not before God, but in the blood of the Lamb; let him carry up thy duties; and own not that for a comfort which is not brought thee by his hand. Let

him be thy way to the Father, and thy Father's way to thee. Keep fresh upon thy heart the memory of his death and satisfaction, and let that be thy life and thy hope. Hast thou cast anchor on this rock? loose not thy hold; hang upon the horns of the altar. Thou canst not live, but there;. if thou must die, say, But I will die here. Put forth fresh acts of faith every day and hour. Believe, believe, believe, and thou shalt be established. Fall not into unbelief; then thou art gone; thou departest from the living God. Heb. 3:12.

3. Quench not the Spirit. Observe and obey his motions: when he excites, get thee on; when he checks, get thee back; know the holy from the evil spirit, by its according or differing with the Scriptures; reject that spirit in the heart that is not the same with the Spirit in the word. Try the wind, what and whence it is, by the card and compass: to the law and to the testimony. And when thou perceivest it is from above, hoist up thy sails, and get thee on. Quench not the Spirit: grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby thou art sealed to the day of redemption.

4. Keep in with conscience. Make not thy witness thine enemy. Deal friendly with it; thou wilt need its good word, which thou canst not have if it receive blows from thee. It will not learn this lesson, to speak good for evil: or if thou shouldst compel it to do so, thou art undone; if an abused conscience speak peace, it becomes thy traitor.

Give due respect to conscience. Let it abide with

thee in peace and in power. Keep up its authority as God's vicegerent. Next under God, commit the keeping of thy soul to conscience; as the Lord hath made, so do thou make it superintendent in thy soul; the judge and overseer of all thy motions and actions. Let conscience counsel thee, and tell thee thy way; let conscience quicken thee, and put thee on in thy way; let conscience watch thee, that thou turn not out of thy way; let conscience check thee, and restore thee into thy way. Wherever thou goest, carry conscience along with thee; carry conscience into thy closet, let it watch how thou behavest thyself there; carry conscience into thy shop, let it eye what thou doest there; carry conscience into thy fields, into the market, among thy friends, among thine enemies, let it observe how thou behavest thyself among them; carry conscience with thee to thy recreation, to thy bed, to thy table: wherever thou goest, there is like to be but sad work, if conscience be not with thee.

Commit the keeping of thy covenant to conscience: let it be the ark in which the tables of the testimony are kept and preserved; let it be the executor of thy testament. Conscience is bound from sin by the covenant; the covenant lays hold upon it, let it lay hold on thee. Is thy conscience bound, seek not to be loosed; is thy conscience bound, give it leave to bind thy whole man. Let it bind thy thoughts, and bind thy will, and bind thy affections, and bind thy tongue, and thy whole practice; thou never livest as a man in covenant, longer than thou livest as a man of conscience. What becomes of the

covenant, when a breach is made upon conscience ? O what is there worth having where conscience is not? What faith, or truth, or peace is there left alive? What are vows and covenants and promises? What are our duties to the Lord, our dealings with men, when there is no conscience towards God? Keep thy conscience, and thou keepest thy soul; keep thy conscience, and thou keepest thy covenant; keep thy covenant, and thou keepest thy peace; let that go, and all is lost.

Let conscience govern what God hath put under its power, and let it resist all adverse power. Let it resist temptations. Whenever Satan and thy flesh fall upon thee, and tempt thee, saying, Pity thyself, spare thyself, take thy liberty, take thine ease, take thy pleasure, provide for thy safety; what need is there of so much ado? why canst thou not take the same liberty, and allow thyself the same latitude as others do? they have souls as well as thou, and they have dangers as well as thou, and they have hopes as well as thou, and they have reasons and understandings to know what they do as well as thou; and why canst thou not be content to do as they? Why, let this be thy answer: "But what conscience is there for it? With what conscience can I be idle, when I have said I will be doing? With what conscience can I take mine ease, when I have said I will take pains? With what conscience can I serve my flesh, when I have said I will crucify it? With what conscience can I love this world, when I have said I will renounce it? With what conscience can I walk at liberty, when

I have said I will walk circumspectly? If all this were more than needs-far be it from me to have such a thought, till the serving my God, and the saving my soul, be more than needs—but if it were more than needs, yet is it any more than I am bound to? Are there any such liberties put into my indentures? Was there any exception made of this duty, or that duty? Was there any limitation made to this measure or that measure-hitherto will I go, and no further; this little I will do, and no more? Was there any such proviso put in as this, 'I will serve the Lord, provided I may with ease or with safety?' Have I not solemnly engaged to the Lord, to obey him in all things, to follow him fully, to love him and serve him with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, and this to the death? And O, shall I lie unto God? Is it more than needful to be righteous, and to keep my faith? Come, O my soul, come on; thou hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, and thou must not go back." Be true, be honest; be honest, though thou must suffer for it. Remember what thy mouth hath spoken, and see that thou fulfil it with thy hand.

Keep conscience pure. It is the book in which all thy records are written; let no blot be upon thy book. Beware of sinning against conscience. Every sin against conscience is a blot upon conscience; and blots upon conscience are blots upon thy covenantevidence: thou wilt not be able to read whether there be any thing written there for thee or not. Ah, foolish soul, what art thou doing? Dashing out all thy