course are even-carriaged hearts. An upright heart in his constant course
and grows, how he stands God-ward, Christ-ward, heaven-ward, and holiness-ward.
4. The last thing I shall premise is, Upright hearts in their constant course are even-carriaged hearts. An upright heart in his constant course is an even-carriaged heart. All the ways of an upright soul are as commentaries one upon another; and look, 'as face answereth face,' as Solomon speaketh, so the ways of an upright heart do one answer another. Christ sits at the stern of the soul, and guides the soul into those ways that are most like to himself: 2 Chron. 34:2, 'Josiah, he walked in all the ways of the Lord, as his father David did; he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left.' In all his ways he carried himself evenly. But an unsound heart, a rotten heart, is a very uneven-carriaged heart. You shall have one way wherein he walks to speak him out an angel, another to speak him a very sinful man, and a third to speak him a devil. Now he is for God, anon against God; now for justice and righteousness, anon for injustice and unrighteousness. But an upright heart is an even-carriaged heart. Let heaven and earth meet, let trials come, temptations and afflictions come, he keeps his ground, he is an even-carriaged heart. So much concerning the first thing.
For the second, concerning the ways of God, I shall briefly premise these five things:—
1. First, The ways of God are righteous ways, the ways of God are blessed ways: Prov. 8:20, 'I lead in the way of righteousness, and in the midst of the paths of judgment;' and in the 33d verse of that same chapter, 'Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, for blessed are they that keep thy ways.' The ways of God are blessed ways; they bring in temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings upon all that walk in them. They are righteous ways; they lead to righteousness, to the love of righteousness, to the practice of righteousness, to a delight in righteousness. As for the ways