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I. WHAT IS IT FOR A MAN TO FOLLOW GOD FULLY.

1. A fulness of all graces; though not the degree of all graces, yet the truth of every grace. There is no grace wanting where this evangelical fulness is.

2. There is no want, no not of any degree, wherein the soul rests; there is such a perfection as the soul takes no liberty to itself to fail in anything.

3. There are sincere aims, as in the sight of God, to attain to the highest perfection, the full measure of holiness; and —

4. There is that uprightness of the soul, as it doth not only desire and endeavour to attain, but doth indeed attain to the truth of that I shall deliver.

5. The heart is fully set and resolved for God; there is fulness of resolution; so the Septuagint translates that place in Joshua 15:8.

6. There is a fulness of all the faculties of the soul working after God; full apprehensions, full affections; the soul is filled with the will of God, "That ye may stand perfect, and full in all the will of God" (Colossians 4:12), as the sails filled with the wind. "My soul and all that is within me praise the Lord," saith David. As it is in giving men full possession of a house, they give up the keys of every room, so here the soul gives up every faculty to God; the whole soul opens itself to receive the Word and His truth.

7. The soul follows God fully in regard of the true endeavours of it to put forth what strength it hath in following the Lord.

8. The soul that fully follows the Lord, follows Him without delay in the use of all means and in all the ways of His commandments.

9. Again, a soul that follows God fully follows Him in all the ways of His commandments, as the Lord saith of David (Acts 13:22).

(1) It is willing to follow the Lord in difficult duties, when it must put the flesh to it, in duties that require pains, that cannot be done without some hard things attending on them.

(2) One that follows God fully will follow Him in discountenanced duties.

(3) One that is willing to follow God fully in all duties, he will follow Him in those where he sees no reason but the bare command of God.

(4) The soul that is willing to follow God in all duties, will follow Him in commandments that are accounted little. God expects faithfulness in little things; God prizes every tittle of His law more worth than heaven and earth, howsoever we may slight many things in it, and think them too small to put any great bond upon us.

(5) The soul that follows God fully in all duties, is willing to follow Him in duties wherein it must go alone; it is willing to follow God in solitary paths.

10. To follow God fully is to follow Him so as to be willing to venture the loss of all for Him, willing to cast off whatsoever comes in the way, though never so dear to us; to follow Him close whatsoever comes in competition with Him when our following Him will cost us the loss of our formerly most dear comforts and contentments.

11. To follow God fully is to follow Him only, so as to be willing to dedicate whatsoever God lets us still enjoy to God alone.

12. The soul then follows God fully when it carries through the work it undertakes against all discouragements and hindrances, as a ship coming with full sail bears all down before it. It doth not only work, but works thoroughly, works out that it doth.

13. One that follows God fully is willing to bind himself to God by the most full and strong bonds and engagements; his spirit is at the greatest liberty when he is most strongly bound to the Lord.

14. To follow God fully is to abide in all these constant to the end of our days. That is, we must be constant in God's ways, not think it enough to enter into them by fits and starts, but the ways of God must be our ordinary track (Proverbs 16:17).

(1) Wherever the Lord brings any to follow Him fully, He causeth such a perfect breach between sin and that soul as there is no possibility that the breach should be made up again.

(2) A second reason why that man that follows the Lord fully must needs follow Him for ever, is because at the first giving up himself to God he was content to let go all other holds and all other hopes in all creature-comforts whatsoever, and so to venture himself upon God; he hath no other prop that he doth expect support by. There is a blessed necessity upon him to follow the Lord for ever, and this necessity the soul is glad of.

(3) The soul that follows God fully will follow Him for ever, because in the full following of the Lord it finds so much ease, peace, joy, satisfaction, as it is for ever settled and confirmed in this way.

II. THE EXCELLENCY OF THIS FRAME OF SPIRIT.

1. This is truly to honour God as a God; except God be honoured as infinite He is not honoured as God; where God is followed and not thus, He is followed no otherwise than a creature may be followed. This is not therefore to honour Him as a God, but rather it is a dishonour to that infinite excellency and blessedness of His, whereby He is infinitely above all that creatures are, or that they are any way capable of.

2. This full following of God doth much honour the work of grace and the profession of godliness; it shows a reality, power, excellency, and beauty in it

3. This has such excellency in it, as that God Himself boasts of such as these are

; as they glory in the Lord and bless themselves in the Lord, so the Lord seems to glory in them, and to account His name blessed by them, as you may see how God rejoices in and makes His boast of Job (Job 1:8).

4. This following of the Lord fully doth ever attain its end.

III. REBUKE TO DIVERS SORTS WHOSE SPIRITS ARE NOT FULL IN FOLLOWING AFTER THE LORD.

1. As some are convinced, their judgments and consciences arc for God. but their lusts carry them violently another way.

2. Others rest in their good inclinations, their good desires; they say they would fain do better, and they hope God will accept the will for the deed; they like God's ways, and speak well of good men, and therefore they think their hearts are for God.

3. Others have good resolutions now and then in some good moods; the truths of God come darting in with some power, as they cannot but yield to them, and then they are resolved that they will do better and their lives shall be changed; but yet these vanish too, they follow not God fully.

4. Others have strong sudden affections, they feel sometimes some meltings, in sorrow for sin, in hearing the blessed truths of God revealed to them; they feel some sweetness in the working of truths upon their hearts, they have a taste of the powers of the world to come. Yet these are a great way off from following the Lord fully. For —

(1) These affections are sudden and flashing; the truths of God pass by them, leaving a little glimmering behind them, or as water passeth through a conduit and leaves a dew; but they soak not into the heart, as the water soaks into the earth to make it fruitful.

(2) These are stirred with the pardoning, comforting, saving mercies of God, but not with the humbling, renewing, sanctifying mercies.

5. Others follow the Lord, but they follow Him in a dull, heavy manner; there is no spirit, no heat, no life in their following of Him, and therefore they do not follow Him fully. They rest themselves in a lukewarm course; they like well of religion and profession, but what need men go so far, what need they do so much? As Pharaoh said to the Israelites (Exodus 8:28).

6. Some go beyond this dull lukewarm temper; they are very forward in some things, but in other things their hearts stick; they come not off fully in them.

7. There are others who cannot be so easily convinced in what particulars they forsake God in any of His ways; they seem to have a general forwardness in that which is good, but the truth is, they follow themselves, and not God in all; they rise no higher than self in all they do, which their own consciences, upon search made, will tell them: the commandment of God may be made the pretence, but self is the great mover in all.

8. Others follow the Lord earnestly a while, but afterwards forsake Him. Many are very hopeful at the first, yet they prove exceeding vile afterwards; yea, the more forward in good at first, the more vile after-as water that hath once been heated, and grows cold again, is colder than ever it was. Let none, then, rest themselves in their good beginnings. The evil of forsaking the Lord were great, if this were all —

(1) That all your labour in religion, that all that you have done is lost. It is an evil thing to lose all that we have wrought for; but this is not all.

(2) If you leave off from following the Lord, all the good that ever you have done and made profession of shall serve only to aggravate your sin and increase your torment.

(3) This leaving off from following the Lord is a great dishonour to God and His ways; an upbraiding of them, as if they were not good enough to draw the heart constantly after them.

(4) Such men as these do much mischief in the world; they are grievous scandals.

(5) These men shall have their spirits filled with horror; they did not fill up their work in following the Lord; but God and conscience shall follow them with anguish, and fill up their spirits with them.

(6) Lastly, these men are hateful both to God and men; they are hateful to men because they go no further, as Hebrews 10:38.

IV. COMFORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE LORD FULLY. Blessed are you of the Lord, you are honourable in the eyes of God and man, you make up in part that hurt that is done to religion by others. If you be content to give up all to God, to betrust God with all, know that there are many blessed promises full of mercy and encouragement for you; they shall come to you fuller of goodness and blessing than you can imagine. God certainly will remember the kindness of those who are willing to follow Him through the wilderness of difficulties and discouragement (Jeremiah 2:2). You who do thus shall die without stain, which few do; your memories shall be sweet and blessed when you are dead and gone. You shall have "an entrance ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11). This is promised, not only to those that are godly, but abound in it, as ver. 8. They shall be as a ship coming gloriously into the haven with full sail.

V. AN EXHORTATION TO FOLLOW THE LORD FULLY.

1. There is infinite reason that our hearts should be fully after the Lord. For —

(1) There is a fulness of all good in God; He is worthy (Revelation 4:11). As that blessed martyr John Ardley once said: "What, have I but one life to lay down for Christ? If I had as many lives as there are hairs upon my head, they should all go for Jesus Christ." He saw Christ worthy of all he had, yea, of more than he had. This was God's own argument to Abraham, "Walk before Me and be upright"; be perfect, for I am God all-sufficient; I have all perfection in Me, and therefore be thou perfect before Me.

(2) Consider God might have had full glory in your destruction; let Him not be a loser in His showing mercy to you.

(3) Christ hath fully gone through the great work of redemption; He would never leave it till He had accomplished all, and said, "It is finished."(4) Yea, God's mercier for the present are very full towards you; His pardoning mercies, and His supplying mercies, with all things needful. This was David's argument (Psalm 103:1-3).

(5) Wicked men do fully follow after that which is evil; an infinite shame and confusion then would it be to us, likewise unto God, if we should not as fully follow the Lord in that which is good. I have read a passage in St. Cyprian how he brings in the devil triumphing over Christ in this manner: "As for my followers, I never died for them, as Christ did for His; I never promised them so great reward as Christ hath done to His; and yet I have more followers than He, and they do more for me than His doth for Him. Oh, let the thought of our giving the devil occasion thus to triumph over Christ in our slackness and negligence in following after Him cause shame and confusion to cover our faces."(6) The more fully we follow God, the more full shall our present peace, and joy, and soul-satisfying contentment be (Psalm 119:130).

(7) There is great reason why we should walk fully after the Lord, because the way that God calls us to walk in is a most blessed and holy way.

(8) The consideration of the end of our way should be a strong motive to draw our hearts fully after the Lord in it; the entrance into it is sweet, the midst of it more, but the end of it most sweet of all; there is that coming that will fully recompense all.

2. And thus I pass to the second thing propounded in this use, namely, to show what are the causes that hinder men from following the Lord fully. And they are five especially, which I shall but name.

(1) Low apprehensions that men have of God; they see not God in His glory, in His greatness; surely they know not God, and therefore it is that their hearts work so poorly after Him (Jeremiah 9:3).

(2) Unsound beginnings in the profession of religion are the cause why men do not fully follow after the Lord. Their hearts are not thoroughly broken, not deeply humbled. If cloth be not wrought well at the first, though it shows fair in the loom, yet it will shrink when it comes to wetting. The cause why many do so shrink in the wetting, when they come to suffer anything in the ways of religion, it is because their hearts were not well wrought at first.

(3) A third cause is the strength of engagements; their hearts are so wrapped in them, so glued to them, as it is exceeding painful to get them loosened from them, they are so near and dear to a corrupt heart.

(4) A fourth thing that hinders men from following God fully, it is going out in the strength of their own resolutions, not in any strength that they receive out of the fulness of Jesus Christ.

(5) A fifth cause is the meeting with more difficulties in God's ways than we made account of, when Christians think only of the good and sweet that they shall meet with in God's ways; but they do not cast in their thoughts what the troubles are like to be that they shall find in them.

VI. THAT IT IS THE CHOICENESS OF A MAN'S SPIRIT THAT CAUSES HIM TO FOLLOW GOD FULLY.

1. We shall show what there is in this spirit that doth carry on a man fully.

(1) By this a man comes to have a more full presence of God with him.

(2) The choiceness of a man's spirit raiseth it to converse with high things, and so carries it above the snares and hindrances that are below; and being above these, it goes on freely and fully in its course, and is not in that danger of miscarrying as other poor spirits are who converse so much with the things upon the earth; as birds that fly high are not caught by the fowler, they are not taken by his lime-twigs, by his net or pitfall, so as others are who are much below upon the ground (Proverbs 25:24).

(3) The choiceness of a man's spirit changeth his end. and so carries him on fully after the Lord; for when the end is changed all is changed.

(4) This choiceness of spirit causeth a suitableness, a sympathy between the frame of the heart and the ways of holiness.

(5) This choiceness of spirit causeth a man to look to his duty and not to regard what may follow.

(6) The choiceness of a man's spirit causes a man that if he doth look at any consequences that may follow upon his way, he looks only at the last issue of all. Will it then be peace? shall I then be glad of these ways I now walk in?

(7) The choiceness of a man's spirit strengthens it against the impressions that sensitive objects use to leave upon soft and weak spirits.

2. Thus you see what there is in this choice spirit that carries it on fully after the Lord. Now there must of necessity be this, or else this full following of the Lord will never be; nothing else will do it. And that —

(1) Because the ways of God are supernatural, and therefore there must be something in the spirit of a man which is supernatural that must reach to them; this which is supernatural in the spirits of godly men we see it in the effects, and we know it is above reason and all natural principles whatsoever.

(2) The ways of God are not only above nature but contrary to nature, and therefore there must needs be some special choiceness of spirit to carry a man on in them. In following after the Lord, all natural abilities and common grace will do no more but stop the stream of corrupt nature; they cannot so overpower it as to carry the soul another way; but the work of grace in this choiceness of spirit will do it.

(3) The stream of times and examples of men are exceeding strong, and it is not a little matter that will carry on the soul against them.

(4) There are so many strong alluring temptations, wherein the wiles of Satan are very powerful to draw the heart away from God, that except there be some special work of God's grace to give wisdom to discern the deceits of sin and to discern the danger of them, the soul most certainly could never hold on in the way of its following after the Lord.

(5) There are so many troubles, oppositions, that it meets withal in this way, that most certainly would drive it out were it not for some choice work of God's grace in it; but this choiceness of spirit will carry a man through all them.

(6) There are so many scandals and reproaches that rise against the ways of God, that if a man hath not more than an ordinary spirit he most certainly will be offended.

(7) Yea, God many times hides Himself from His servants, while they are following after Him, and this oftentimes proves the sorest temptation of all, and a greater discouragement than all the rest. It must needs be something extraordinary that preserves a spark in the midst of waves, that preserves a candlelight in the midst of storms and tempests.

Use 1: Never wonder then, or be offended, to see so many to fall off from God; few men have choice spirits.

Use 2: Hence the world is mistaken, who judge it stubbornness of spirit in God's servants that will go on in the ways of godliness; they are a kind of inflexible people. No, it is no stubbornness, it is the choiceness of their spirits; you judge it stubbornness because you do not know the principles upon which they go.

Use 3: Let those who have this choice spirit encourage themselves in this, that surely it will enable them to follow God fully; let them know —

(1) That though they be weak, if their spirits be right, if of the right kind, they shall certainly hold out.

(2) Therefore is Christ filled with all fulness of all grace, that out of His fulness thou mayst receive grace for grace.

Use 4: If it be this choiceness of spirit that is the only thing that will fully carry after the Lord, then let us learn to look to our spirits: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life." But wherein should we look to our spirits?

(1) Take heed to your judgments; keep your judgments clear for God and His truth, as it is said (Isaiah 33:6).

(2) Labour to keep conscience clear, take heed of pollution there, take heed of a breach in thy spirit there, for that will weaken it much.

(3) Labour to keep thy heart low and humble; when the flesh swells it cannot bear any hard thing upon it; though a member grows bigger when it swells yet it grows weaker; so it is with the soul.

(4) Labour to keep the spirit heavenly; mixture of dross will weaken it.

(5) Labour to keep thy spirit in a continual trembling frame, abiding in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

(J. Burroughes.)

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KJV: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

WEB: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.