Walking with God
Genesis 5:24 — “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”Various are the pleas and arguments which men of corrupt minds frequently urge against yielding
obedience to the just and holy commands of God. But, perhaps, one of the most common objections
that they make is this, that our Lord's commands are not practicable, because contrary to flesh and
blood; and consequently, that he is ‘an hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering
where he has not strewed'. These we find were the sentiments entertained by that wicked and slothful
servant mentioned in the 25th of St. Matthew; and are undoubtedly the same with many which are
maintained in the present wicked and adulterous generation. The Holy Ghost foreseeing this, hath
taken care to inspire holy men of old, to record the examples of many holy men and women; who,
even under the Old Testament dispensation, were enabled cheerfully to take Christ's yoke upon
them, and counted his service perfect freedom. The large catalogue of saints, confessors, and
martyrs, drawn up in the 11th chapter to the Hebrews, abundantly evidences the truth of this
observation. What a great cloud of witnesses have we there presented to our view? All eminent for
their faith, but some shining with a greater degree of luster than do others. The proto-martyr Abel
leads the van. And next to him we find Enoch mentioned, not only because he was next in order
of time, but also on account of his exalted piety; he is spoken of in the words of the text in a very
extraordinary manner. We have here a short but very full and glorious account, both of his behavior
in this world, and the triumphant manner of his entry into the next. The former is contained in these
words, ‘And Enoch walked with God'. The latter in these, ‘and he was not: for God took him'. He
was not; that is, he was not found, he was not taken away in the common manner, he did not see
death; for God had translated him. (Heb. 11:5.) Who this Enoch was, does not appear so plainly.
To me, he seems to have been a person of public character; I suppose, like Noah, a preacher of
righteousness. And, if we may credit the apostle Jude, he was a flaming preacher. For he quotes
one of his prophecies, wherein he saith, ‘Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly
deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners
have spoken against him'. But whether a public or private person, he has a noble testimony given
him in the lively oracles. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews saith, that before his translation
he had this testimony, ‘that he pleased God'; and his being translated, was a proof of it beyond all
doubt. And I would observe, that it was wonderful wisdom in God to translate Enoch and Elijah
under the Old Testament dispensation, that hereafter, when it should be asserted that the Lord Jesus
was carried into heaven, it might not seem a thing altogether incredible to the Jews; since they
themselves confessed that two of their own prophets had been translated several hundred hears
before. But it is not my design to detain you any longer, by enlarging, or making observations, on
Enoch's short but comprehensive character: the thing I have in view being to give a discourse, as
the Lord shall enable, upon a weighty and a very important subject; I mean, walking with God.
‘And Enoch walked with God.' If so much as this can be truly said of you and me after our decease,
we shall not have any reason to complain that we have lived in vain.
In handling my intended subject, I shall,
First, Endeavor to show what is implied in these words, walked with God.
Whitefield's Sermons George WhitefieldSecondly, I shall prescribe some means, upon the due observance of which, believers may keep
up and maintain their walk with God. And,
Thirdly, Offer some motives to stir us up, if we never walked with God before, to come and
walk with God now. The whole shall be closed with a word or two of application.
First, I am to show what is implied in these words, ‘walked with God'; or, in other words, what
we are to understand by walking with God.
And First, walking with God implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of a person's heart
be taken away by the blessed Spirit of God. Perhaps it may seem a hard saying to some, but our
own experience daily proves what the scriptures in many places assert, that the carnal mind, the
mind of the unconverted natural man, nay, the mind of the regenerate, so far as any part of him
remains unrenewed, is enmity, not only an enemy, but enmity itself, against God; so that it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Indeed, one may well wonder that any creature,
especially that lovely creature man, made after his Maker's own image, should ever have any enmity,
much less a prevailing enmity, against that very God in whom he lives, and moves, and hath his
being. But alas! so it is. Our first parents contracted it when they fell from God by eating the
forbidden fruit, and the bitter and malignant contagion of it hath descended to, and quite overspread,
their whole posterity. This enmity discovered itself in Adam's endeavoring to hide himself in the
trees of the garden. When he heard the voice of the Lord God, instead of running with an open
heart, saying Here I am; alas! he now wanted no communion with God; and still more discovered
his lately contracted enmity, by the excuse he made to the Most High: ‘The woman (or, this woman)
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat'. By saying thus, he in effect lays
all the fault upon God; as though he had said, If thou hadst not given me this woman, I had not
sinned against thee, so thou mayest thank thyself for my transgression. In the same manner this
enmity works in the hearts of Adam's children. They now and again find something rising against
God, and saying even unto God, What doest thou? ‘It scorns any meaner competitor (says the
learned Dr. Owen, in his excellent treatise on indwelling sin) than God himself.' Its command is
like that of the Assyrians in respect to Ahab — shoot only at the king. And it strikes against every
thing that has the appearance of real piety, as the Assyrians shot at Jehoshaphat in his royal clothes.
But the opposition ceases when it finds that it is only an appearance, as the Assyrians left off
shooting at Jehoshaphat, when they perceived it was not Ahab they were shooting at. This enmity
discovered itself in accursed Cain; he hated and slew his brother Abel, because Abel loved, and
was peculiarly favored by, his God. And this same enmity rules and prevails in every man that is
naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam. Hence that a averseness to prayer and holy duties
which we find in children, and very often in grown persons, who have notwithstanding been blessed
with a religious education. And all that open sin and wickedness, which like a deluge has overflowed
the world, are only so many streams running from this dreadful contagious fountain; I mean a
enmity of man's desperately wicked and deceitful heart. He that cannot set his seal to this, knows
nothing yet, in a saving manner, of the Holy Scriptures, or of the power of God. And all that do
know this, will readily acknowledge, that before a person can be said to walk with God, the prevailing
power of this heart-enmity must be destroyed: for persons do not use to walk and keep company
together, who entertain an irreconcilable enmity and hatred against one another. Observe me, I say,
the prevailing power of this enmity must be taken away; for the in-being of it will never be totally
removed, till we bow down our heads, and give up the ghost. The apostle Paul, no doubt, speaks
of himself, and that, too, not when he was a Pharisee, but a real Christian; when he complains, ‘that
Whitefield's Sermons George Whitefieldwhen he would do good, evil was present with him'; not having dominion over him, but opposing
and resisting his good intentions and actions, so that he could not do the things which he would, in
that perfection which the new man desired. This is what he calls sin dwelling in him. ‘And this is
that phronhma sarko”, which (to use the words of the ninth article of our church,) some do expound
the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affectation, some the desire, of the flesh, which doth remain,
yea, in them that are regenerated.' But as for its prevailing power, it is destroyed in every soul that
is truly born of God, and gradually more and more weakened as the believer grows in grace, and
the Spirit of God gains a greater and greater ascendancy in the heart.
But Secondly, Walking with God not only implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of
a man's heart be taken away, but also that a person is actually reconciled to God the Father, in and
through the all-sufficient righteousness and atonement of his dear Son. ‘Can two walk together,
(says Solomon, [actually Amos 3:3]) unless they are agreed?' Jesus is our peace as well as our
peace-maker. When we are justified by faith in Christ, then, but not till then, we have peace with
God; and consequently cannot be said till then to walk with him, walking with a person being a
sign and token that we are friends to that person, or at least, though we have been at variance, yet
that now we are reconciled and become friends again. This is the great errand that gospel ministers
are sent out upon. To us is committed the ministry of reconciliation; as ambassadors for God, we
are to beseech sinners, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto God, and when they comply with the
gracious invitation, and are actually by faith brought into a state of reconciliation with God, then,
and not till then, may they be said so much as to begin to walk with God.
Further, Thirdly, Walking with God implies a settled abiding communion and fellowship with
God, or what in scripture is called, ‘The Holy Ghost dwelling in us'. This is what our Lord promised
when he told his disciples that ‘the Holy Spirit would be in and with them'; not to be like wayfaring
man, to say only for a night, but to reside and make his abode in their hearts. This, I am apt to
believe, is what the apostle John would have us understand, when he talks of a person ‘abiding in
him, in Christ, and walking as he himself also walked'. And this is what is particularly meant in
the words of our text. ‘And Enoch walked with God', that is, he kept up and maintained a holy,
settled, habitual, though undoubtedly not altogether uninterrupted communion and fellowship with
God, in and through Christ Jesus. So that to sum up what has been said on this part of the first
general head, walking with God consists especially in the fixed habitual bent of the will for God,
in an habitual dependence upon his power and promise, in an habitual voluntary dedication of our
all to his glory, in an habitual eyeing of his precept in all we do, and in an habitual complacence
in his pleasure in all we suffer.
Fourthly, walking with God implies our making progress or advances in the divine life. Walking,
in the very first idea of the word, seems to suppose a progressive motion. A person that walks,
though he move slowly, yet he goes forward, and does not continue in one place. And so it is with
those that walk with God. They go on, as the Psalmist says, ‘from strength to strength'; or, in the
language of the apostle Paul, ‘they pass from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord'. Indeed,
in one sense, the divine life admits of neither increase nor decrease. When a soul is born of God,
to all intents and purposes he is a child of God; and though he should live to the age of Methuselah,
yet he would then be only a child of God after all. But in another sense, the divine life admits of
decays and additions. Hence it is, that we find the people of God charged with backslidings and
losing their first love. And hence it is that we hear of babes, young men, and fathers in Christ. And
upon this account it is that the apostle exhorts Timothy, ‘to let his progress be made known to all
Whitefield's Sermons George Whitefieldmen'. And what is here required of Timothy in particular, by St. Peter is enjoined on all Christians
in general. ‘But grow in grace, (says he), and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ'.
For the new creature increases in spiritual stature; and though a person can but be a new creature,
yet there are some that are more conformed to the divine image than others, and will after death be
admitted to a greater degree of blessedness. For want of observing this distinction, even some
gracious souls, that have better hearts than heads, (as well as men of corrupt minds, reprobates
concerning the faith) have unawares run into downright Antinomian principles, denying all growth
of grace in a believer, or any marks of grace to be laid down in the scriptures of truth. From such
principles, and more especially from practices naturally consequent on such principles, may the
Lord of all lords deliver us!
From what then has been said, we may now know what is implied in the words, ‘walked with
God', viz. Our having the prevailing enmity of our hearts taken away by the power of the Spirit of
God; our being actually reconciled and united to him by faith in Jesus Christ; our having and keeping
up a settled communion and fellowship with him; and our making a daily progress in this fellowship,
so as to be conformed to the divine image more and more.
How this is done, or, in other words, by what means believers keep up and maintain their walk
with God, comes to be considered under our second general head.
And, First, Believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by reading of his holy word.
‘Search the scriptures', says our blessed Lord, ‘for these are they that testify of me'. And the royal
Psalmist tells us ‘that God's word was a light unto his feet, and a lantern unto his paths'; and he
makes it one property of a good man, ‘that his delight is in the law of the Lord, and that he exercises
himself therein day and night'. ‘Give thyself to reading', (says Paul to Timothy); ‘And this book of
the law, (says God to Joshua) shall not go out of thy mouth'. For whatsoever was written aforetime
was written for our learning. And the word of God is profitable for reproof, for correction, and for
instruction in righteousness, and every way sufficient to make every true child of God thoroughly
furnished unto every good work. If we once get above our Bibles, and cease making the written
word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of
delusion, and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Our blessed
Lord, though he had the Spirit of God without measure, yet always was governed by, and fought
the devil with, ‘It is written'. This the apostle calls the ‘sword of the Spirit'. We may say of it, as
David said of Goliath's sword, ‘None like this'. The scriptures are called the lively oracles of God:
not only because they are generally made use of to beget in us a new life, but also to keep up and
increase it in the soul. The apostle Peter, in his second epistle, prefers it even to seeing Christ
transfigured upon the mount. For after he had said, chap. 1:18. ‘This voice which came from heaven
we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount'; he adds, ‘We have also a more sure word of
prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place, until the
day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts': that is, till we shake off these bodies, and see Jesus
face to face. Till then we must see and converse with him through the glass of his word. We must
make his testimonies our counselors, and daily, with Mary, sit at Jesus' feet, by faith hearing his
word. We shall then by happy experience find, that they are spirit and life, meat indeed and drink
indeed, to our souls.
Secondly, Believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by secret prayer. The spirit of
grace is always accompanied with the spirit of supplication. It is the very breath of the new creature,
the fan of the divine life, whereby the spark of holy fire, kindled in the soul by God, is not only
Whitefield's Sermons George Whitefieldkept in, but raised into a flame. A neglect of secret prayer has been frequently an inlet to many
spiritual diseases, and has been attended with fatal consequences. Origen observed, '‘hat the day
he offered incense to an idol, he went out of his closet without making use of secret prayer'' It is
one of the most noble parts of the believers' spiritual armor. ‘Praying always', says the apostle,
‘with all manner of supplication.' ‘Watch and pray', says our Lord, ‘that ye enter not into temptation.'
And he spake a parable, that his disciples should pray, and not faint. Not that our Lord would have
us always upon our knees, or in our closets, to the neglect of our other relative duties. But he means,
that our souls should be kept in a praying frame, so that we might be able to say, as a good man in
Scotland once said to his friends on his death-bed, ‘Could these curtains, or could these walls speak,
they would tell you what sweet communion I have had with my God here'. O prayer! Prayer! It
brings and keeps God and man together. It raises man up to God, and brings God down to man. If
you would there, O believers, keep up your walk with God; pray, pray without ceasing. Be much
in secret, set prayer. And when you are about the common business of life, be much in ejaculatory
prayer, and send, from time to time, short letters post to heaven upon the wings of faith. They will
reach the very heart of God, and return to you again loaded with spiritual blessings.
Thirdly, Holy and frequent meditation is another blessed means of keeping up a believer's walk
with God. ‘Prayer, reading, temptation, and meditation', says Luther, make a minister.' And they
also make and perfect a Christian. Meditation to the soul, is the same as digestion to the body. Holy
David found it so, and therefore he was frequently employed in meditation, even in the night season.
We read also of Isaac's going out into the fields to meditate in the evening; or, as it is in the margin,
to pray. For meditation is a kind of silent prayer, whereby the soul is frequently as it were carried
out of itself to God, and in a degree made like unto those blessed spirits, who by a kind of immediate
intuition always behold the face of our heavenly Father. None but those happy souls that have been
accustomed to this divine employ, can tell what a blessed promoter of the divine life, meditation
is. ‘Whilst I was musing', says David, ‘the fire kindled.' And whilst the believer is musing on the
works and word of God, especially that work of works, that wonder of wonders, that mystery of
godliness, ‘God manifest in the flesh', the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world, he frequently
feels the fire of divine love kindle, so that he is obliged to speak with his tongue, and tell of the
loving-kindness of the Lord to his soul. Be frequent therefore in meditation, all ye that desire to
keep up and maintain a close and uniform walk with the most high God.
Fourthly, Believers keep up their walk with God, by watching and noting his providential
dealings with them. If we believe the scriptures, we must believe what our Lord hath declared
therein, ‘That the very hairs of his disciples' heads are all numbered; and that a sparrow does not
fall to the ground, (either to pick up a grain of corn, or when shot by a fowler), without the knowledge
of our heavenly Father'. Every cross has a call in it, and every particular dispensation of divine
providence has some particular end to answer in those to whom it is sent. If it be of an afflictive
nature, God does thereby say, ‘My son, keep thyself from idols': if prosperous, he does, as it were
by a small still voice, say, ‘My son, give me thy heart'. If believers, therefore, would keep up their
walk with God, they must from time to time hear what the Lord has to say concerning them in the
voice of his providence. Thus we find that Abraham's servant, when he went to fetch a wife for his
master Isaac, eyed and watched the providence of God, and by that means found out the person
that was designed for his master's wife. ‘For a little hint from providence', says pious Bishop Hall,
‘is enough for faith to feed upon.' And as I believe it will be one part of our happiness in heaven,
to take a view of, and look back upon, the various links of the golden chain which drew us there;
Whitefield's Sermons George Whitefieldso those that enjoy most of heaven below, I believe, will be the most minute in remarking God's
various dealings with them, in respect to his providential dispensations here on earth.
Fifthly, In order to walk closely with God, his children must not only watch the motions of
God's providence without them, but the motions also of his blessed Spirit in their hearts. ‘As many
as are the sons of God, are led by the Spirit of God', and give up themselves to be guided by the
Holy Ghost, as a little child gives its hand to be led by a nurse or parent. It is no doubt in this sense
that we are to be converted, and become like little children. And though it is the quintessence of
enthusiasm, to pretend to be guided by the Spirit without the written word; yet it is every Christian's
bounden duty to be guided by the Spirit in conjunction with the written word of God. Watch,
therefore, I pray you, O believers, the motions of God's blessed Spirit in your souls, and always try
the suggestions or impressions that you may at any time feel, by the unerring rule of God's most
holy word: and if they are not found to be agreeable to that, reject them as diabolical and delusive.
By observing this caution, you will steer a middle course between the two dangerous extremes
many of this generation are in danger of running into; I mean, enthusiasm, on the one hand, and
deism, and downright infidelity, on the other.
Sixthly, They that would maintain a holy walk with God, must walk with him in ordinances as
well as providences, etc. It is therefore recorded of Zachary and Elizabeth, that ‘they walked in all
God's ordinances, as well as commandments, blameless'. And all rightly informed Christians, will
look upon ordinances, not as beggarly elements, but as so many conduit-pipes, whereby the infinitely
condescending Jehovah conveys his grace to their souls. They will look upon them as children's
bread, and as their highest privileges. Consequently they will be glad when they hear others say,
‘Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord'. They will delight to visit the place where God's honor
dwelleth, and be very eager to embrace all opportunities to show forth the Lord Christ's death till
he come.
Seventhly and Lastly, If you would walk with God, you will associate and keep company with
those that do walk with him. ‘My delight', says holy David, ‘is in them that do excel' in virtue. They
were, in his sight, the excellent ones of the earth. And the primitive Christians, no doubt, kept up
their vigor and first love, by continuing in fellowship one with another. The apostle Paul knew this
full well, and therefore exhorts the Christians to see to it, that they did not forsake the assembling
of themselves together. For how can one be warm alone? And has not the wisest of men told us,
that ‘As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend?' If we look, therefore,
into church history, or make a just observation of our own times, I believe we shall find, that as the
power of God prevails, Christian societies, and fellowship meetings prevail proportionably. And
as one decays, the other has insensibly decayed and dwindled away at the same time. So necessary
is it for those that would walk with God, and keep up the life of religion, to meet together as they
have opportunity, in order to provoke one another to love and good works.
Proceed we now to the third general thing proposed: to offer some motives to excite all to come
and walk with God.
And, First, walking with God is a very honorable thing. This generally is a prevailing motive
to persons of all ranks, to stir them up to any important undertaking. O that it may have its due
weight and influence with you in respect to the matter now before us! I suppose you would all think
it a very high honor to be admitted into an earthly prince's privy council, to be trusted with his
secrets, and to have his ear at all times and at all seasons. It seems Haman thought it so when he
boasted, Esther 5:11, that besides his being ‘advanced above the princes and servants of the king;
Whitefield's Sermons George Whitefieldyea, moreover, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she
had prepared, but myself; and to-morrow am I invited unto her also with the king'. And when
afterwards a question was put to this same Haman, Chap. 6:6. ‘What shall be done unto the man
whom the king delighteth to honor?' he answered, verse 8. ‘Let the royal apparel be brought which
the king used to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set
upon his head; and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most
noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring
him on horseback through the street of the city and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to
the man whom the king delighteth to honor.' This was all, then, it seems, that an ambitious Haman
could ask, and the most valuable thing that he thought Ahasuerus, the greatest monarch upon earth,
could give. But, alas, what is this honor in comparison of that which the meanest of those enjoy,
that walk with God! Think ye it a small thing, sirs, to have the secret of the Lord of lords with you,
and to be called the friends of God? And such honor have all God's saints. The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear him: and ‘Henceforth(says the blessed Jesus) call I you no longer servants,
but friends; for the servant knoweth not the will of his master'. Whatever you may think of it, holy
David was so sensible of the honor attending a walk with God that he declares, ‘he had rather be
a door-keeper in his house, than to dwell even in the tents of ungodliness'. O that all were like-minded
with him!
But, Secondly, As it is an honorable, so it is a pleasing thing, to walk with God. The wisest of
men has told us, that ‘wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace'. And I
remember pious Mr. Henry, when he was about to expire, said to a friend, ‘You have heard many
men's dying words, and these are mine: A life spent in communion with God, is the pleasantest life
in the world'. I am sure I can set to my seal that this is true. Indeed, I have been listed under Jesus'
banner only for a few years; but I have enjoyed more solid pleasure in one moment's communion
with my god, than I should or could have enjoyed in the ways of sin, though I had continued to
have gone on in them for thousands of years. And may I not appeal to all you that fear and walk
with God, for the truth of this? Has not one day in the Lord's courts been better to you than a
thousand? In keeping God's commandments, have you not found a present, and very great reward?
Has not his word been sweeter to you than the honey or the honeycomb? O what have you felt,
when, Jacob-like, you have been wrestling with your God? Has not Jesus often met you when
meditating in the fields, and been made known to you over and over again in breaking of bread?
Has not the Holy Ghost frequently shed the divine love abroad in your hearts abundantly, and filled
you with joy unspeakable, even joy that is full of glory? I know you will answer all these questions
in the affirmative, and freely acknowledge the yoke of Christ to be easy, and his burden light; or
(to use the words of one of our collects), ‘His service is perfect freedom'. And what need we then
any further motive to excite us to walk with God?
But methinks I hear some among you say, ‘How can these things be? For, if walking with God,
as you say, is such an honorable and pleasant thing, whence is it that the name of the people of this
way is cast out as evil, and every where spoken against? How comes it to pass that they are frequently
afflicted, tempted, destitute, and tormented? Is this the honor, this the pleasure, that you speak of?'
I answer, Yes. Stop a while; be not over hasty. Judge not according to appearance, but judge
righteous judgment, and all will be well. It is true, we acknowledge the ‘people of this way', as you,
and Paul before you, when a persecutor, called them, have their names cast out as evil, and are a
sect every where spoken against. But by whom? Even by the enemies of the most high God. And
Whitefield's Sermons George Whitefielddo you think it is disgrace to be spoken evil of by them? Blessed be God, we have not so learned
Christ. Our royal Master has pronounced those ‘blessed, who are persecuted, and have all manner
of evil spoken against them falsely'. He has commanded them ‘to rejoice and be exceeding glad',
for it is the privilege of their discipleship, and that their reward will be great in heaven. He himself
was thus treated. And can there be a greater honor put upon a creature, than to be conformed to the
ever-blessed Son of God? And further, it is equally true that the people of this way are frequently
afflicted, tempted, destitute, and tormented. But what of all this? Does this destroy the pleasure of
walking with God? No, in no wise; for those that walk with God are enabled, through Christ
strengthening them, to joy even in tribulation, and to rejoice when they fall into divers temptations.
And I believe I may appeal to the experience of all true and close walkers with God, whether or
not their suffering times have not frequently been their sweetest times, and that they enjoyed most
of God when most cast out and despised by men? This we find was the case of Christ's primitive
servants, when threatened by the Jewish sanhedrin, and commanded to preach no more in the name
of Jesus; they rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for the sake of Jesus. Paul
and Silas sang praises even in a dungeon; and the face of Stephen, that glorious proto-martyr of
the Christian church, shone like the face of an angel. And Jesus is the same now as he was then,
and takes care so to sweeten sufferings and afflictions with his love, that his disciples find, by happy
experience, that as afflictions abound, consolations do much more abound. And therefore these
objections, instead of destroying, do only enforce the motives before urged, to excite you to walk
with God.
But supposing the objections were just, and walkers with God were as despicable and unhappy
as you would represent them to be; yet I have a third motive to offer, which if weighed in the balance
of the sanctuary, will over-weigh all objections, viz. That there is a heaven at the end of this walk.
For, to use the words of pious bishop Beveridge, ‘Though the way be narrow, yet it is not long:
and though the gate be strait, yet it opens into everlasting life'. Enoch found it so. He walked with
God on earth, and God took him to sit down with him for ever in the kingdom of heaven. Not that
we are to expect to be taken away as he was: no, I suppose we shall all die the common death of
all men. But after death, the spirits of those who have walked with God shall return to God that
gave them; and at the morning of the resurrection, soul and body shall be for ever with the Lord;
their bodies shall be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, and their souls filled with all the
fullness of God. They shall sit on thrones; they shall judge angels. They shall be enabled to sustain
an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, even that glory which Jesus Christ enjoyed with the
Father before the world began. ‘O gloriam quantam et qualem', said the learned and pious Arndt,
just before he bowed down his head, and gave up the ghost. The very thought of it is enough to
make us ‘wish to leap our seventy years', as good Dr. Watts expresses himself, and to make us
break out into the earnest language of the royal Psalmist, ‘My soul is athirst for God, yea, for the
living God. When shall I come to appear in the presence of my God?' I wonder not that a sense of
this, when under a more than ordinary irradiation and influx of divine life and love, causes some
persons to faint away, and even for a time lose the power of their senses. A less sight than this,
even the sight of Solomon's glory, made Sheba's queen astonished; and a still lesser sight than that,
even a sight of Joseph's wagons, made holy Jacob faint, and for a while, as it were, die away. Daniel,
when admitted to a distant view of this excellent glory, fell down at the feet of the angel as one
dead. And if a distant view of this glory be so excellent, what must the actual possession of it be?
If the first fruits are so glorious, how infinitely must the harvest exceed in glory?
Whitefield's Sermons George WhitefieldAnd now, what shall I, or, indeed, what can I well say more to excite you, even you that are
yet strangers to Christ, to come and walk with God? If you love honor, pleasure, and a crown of
glory, come, seek it where alone it can be found. Come, put ye on the Lord Jesus. Come, haste ye
away and walk with God, and make no longer provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof.
Stop, stop, O sinner! Turn ye, turn ye, O ye unconverted men, for the end of that way you are now
walking in, however right it may seem in your blinded eyes, will be death, even eternal destruction
both of body and soul. Make no longer tarrying, I say: at your peril I charge you, step not one step
further on in your present walk. For how knowest thou, O man, but the next step thou takest may
be into hell? Death may seize thee, judgment find thee, and then the great gulf will be fixed between
thee and endless glory for ever and ever. O think of these things, all ye that are unwilling to walk
with God. Lay them to heart. Show yourselves men, and in the strength of Jesus say, Farewell, lust
of the flesh, I will no more walk with thee! Farewell, lust of the eye, and pride of life! Farewell,
carnal acquaintance and enemies of the cross, I will no more walk and be intimate with you!
Welcome Jesus, welcome thy word, welcome thy ordinances, welcome thy Spirit, welcome thy
people, I will henceforth walk with you. O that there may be in you such a mind! God will set his
almighty fiat to it, and seal it with the broad seal of heaven, even the signet of his holy Spirit. Yes,
he will, though you have been walking with, and following after, the devices and desires of your
desperately wicked hearts ever since you have been born. ‘I, the high and lofty One', says the great
Jehovah, ‘that inhabiteth eternity, will dwell with the humble and contrite heart, even with the man
that trembleth at my word.' The blood, even the precious blood of Jesus Christ, if you come to the
Father in and through him, shall cleanse you from all sin.
But the text leads me to speak to you that are saints as well as to you that are open and
unconverted sinners. I need not tell you, that walking with God is not honorable, but pleasant and
profitable also; for ye know it by happy experience, and will find it more and more so every day.
Only give me leave to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, and to beseech you by the
mercies of God in Christ Jesus, to take heed to yourselves, and walk closer with your God than you
have in days past: for the nearer you walk with God, the more you will enjoy of him whose presence
is life, and be the better prepared for being placed at his right hand, where are pleasures for evermore.
O do not follow Jesus afar off! O be not so formal, so dead and stupid in your attendance on holy
ordinances! Do not so shamefully forsake the assembling yourselves together, or be so niggardly
or indifferent about the things of God. Remember what Jesus says of the church of Laodicea,
‘Because thou art neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth'. Think of the love of
Jesus, and let that love constrain you to keep near unto him; and though you die for him, do not
deny him, do not keep at a distance from him in any wise.
One word to my brethren in the ministry that are here present, and I have done. You see, my
brethren, my heart is full; I could almost say it is too big to speak, and yet too big to be silent,
without dropping a word to you. For does not the text speak in a particular manner to those who
have the honor of being styled the ambassadors of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. I
observed at the beginning of this discourse, that Enoch in all probability was a public person, and
a flaming preacher. Though he be dead, does he not yet speak to us, to quicken our zeal, and make
us more active in the service of our glorious and ever-blessed Master? How did Enoch preach!
How did Enoch walk with God, though he lived in a wicked and adulterous generation! Let us then
follow him, as he followed Jesus Christ, and ere long, where he is there shall we be also. He is not
entered into his rest: yet a little while and we shall enter into ours, and that too much sooner than
Whitefield's Sermons George Whitefieldhe did. He sojourned here below three hundred years; but blessed be God, the days of man are now
shortened, and in a few days our walk will be over. The Judge is before the door: he that cometh
will come, and will not tarry: his reward is with him. And we shall all (if we are zealous for the
Lord of hosts) ere long shine as the stars in the firmament, in the kingdom of our heavenly Father,
for ever and ever. To Him, the blessed Jesus, and eternal Spirit, be all honor and glory, now, and
to all eternity. Amen, and Amen.
