N00860:55
Walking with God, the great duty and privilege of true Christians. In two sermons,…Walking with God, the great duty and priviledge of true Christians. In two sermons,…
Walking with God, the great duty and privilege of true Christians. In two sermons, preached on the lecture, in the year 1700. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Four lines from Micah]Walking with God, the great duty and priviledge of true Christians. In two sermons, preached on the lecture, in the year 1700. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Four lines from Micah]
Boston: printed by B. Green, 1701
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. That all sincere Obedience is the exercise of love. Faith indeed regulates our Obedience, but it is love that acts it, according to Gal 5.6. Faith that worketh by love. We walk with God in no duty any farther than we do it in love, for we are told in, Rom. 13 10. Love is the fulfilling of the law And for this reason all Obedience is called by the name of love, and ⟨p. 37⟩put distributively with faith, 2 Tim. 1 13. Faith and love which is in Christ Jesus; and the Apostle John so argues, 1 Joh 4.7, 8. Love is of God, & every one that loveth is born of God, & knoweth God; he that loveth not, knoweth not God.
2. Hence we no farther please God, than we are acted by this love in our Duties. We may be very circumspect in the matter of them, and critical to the very tithing of mint, anise and cummin, and take a great deal of pains in the performance of it; but still, if this principle doth not influence them, God will not take the least content therein; and good reason, for love is the very life of the precept, and obedience thereto is denominated by it, Mat. 22.37, 38 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, & with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; this is the first and great Commandment.
2. Hence we no farther please God, than we are acted by this love in our Duties. We may be very circumspect in the matter of them, and critical to the very tithing of mint, annise and cummin, and take a great deal of pains in the performance of it; but still, if this principle doth not influence them, God will not take the least content therein; and good reason, for love is the very life of the precept, and obedience thereto is denominated by it,