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MIN | STER OF || || || RICK
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S E L E C T W 0 R K S
OF THE LATE
R.E.W. THOMAS B O STON,
MIN IST E R OF ETTR, IC K :
WITH
A MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE AND WRITINGs.
- EDITED BY THE
R.E.W. ALEXANDER. S. PATTERSON,
MINISTER OF HUTCHESONTOWN FREE CHURCH, GLASGow. …sºss
A, FULLARTON AND CO.,
ED IN B U R G H, L O N DO N, A N D D U B L I N.
sº

1844.
&/3 &22 – 270
S E L E C T W 0 R K S
OF THE
R.E.W. THOMAS BOST ON.
P. R. E. F. A. C. E.
ABOUT the middle of last century many of the writings of Thomas Boston
of Ettrick were collected into a single folio. That volume, however, is now
somewhat rare; and besides that it contains several productions not much
adapted for popular edification, there have been published, since the time when
it appeared, many additional Remains of Boston. It is the object of the present
Work to furnish, in an elegant form, and at a moderate price, a large Collection
of the more practical and precious writings of that able and estimable man.
When it had been resolved to publish such a Collection, and the Editor had
agreed to prepare it, various suggestions were made to him, by individuals who
admired the Author or were interested in the undertaking, as to the selection
of the writings, the construction of the memoir, and the revisal and punctuation
of the text. He has acted in accordance with certain of the advices which
have been given him, but is himself responsible for the selection made, and for
the literary execution in general of the editorial department of the book.
In now reviewing the course and tenor of the Work, the Editor sees no
cause to regret the admission of any production here republished. He acknow-
ledges, however, that there is a good deal left behind which, if the proposed
extent of the book had admitted of it, might have fitly found a place. What
is given he commends to the diligent and prayerful perusal of the traveller
towards etermity, and to the grace of that God in whose service Thomas
Boston lived and died.
ABBOTSFORD PLACE, GLAsgow,
March, 1844.
C O N T E N T S.
Page
tion of the unregenerate world lying in
wickedness, º te º & &
II. The Divine call to sinners, to come out
from among the world lying in wicked-
ness, explained and urged, . * †e
III. The believer's hundred-fold in this
life considered; and a view of the reality,
parts, inhabitants, passage into, and state
of men in the world to come, º
IV. The great care and concern now, that
out soul be not gathered with sinners
in the other world, considered and im-
proved, o o º - º º
V. The improvement of life in this world to
the raising a good name, the best balance,
for the present, for the vanity and misery
of human life: and the good man's dying-
day better than his birth-day, . º
VI. Christ's special order for gathering his
saints to him at the last day; with their
distinguishing character, as entering into
his covenant now, considered, &
VII. The saints' lifetime in this world a
night-time; their expectation of the day's
breaking in the other world, and the sha-
dows fleeing away; and their great con-
cern for Christ's presence till that happy
SeaSOIn COIme, . t e º º
VIII. Readiness for our removal into the
other world opened up, urged, and en-
forced, -> e º tº º *
4
357
373
416
453
468
487
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
On the nature of prayer in general; with
the import of praying without ceasing,
Of the Spirit's help in prayer, º
Of praying in the name of Jesus Christ, .
Of God's hearing of praying,
509
516
555
565
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
I. ANTIDOTES AGAINST
FEARs –
Rev. i. 17, 18. Fear not : I am he that
liveth and was dead; and behold I am
alive for evermore, Amen; and have
the keys of hell and of death,
II. BELIEVERS SEEKING A contLNUING
CITY : —
Heb. xiii. 14. For here we have no con-
tinuing city, but we seek one to come,
III. Gospel-CoMPULSION:–
Luke xiv. 23. Compel them to come in,
UNBELIEVING
583
Page
PREFACE, tº e º e e e v
MEMOIR of THE AUTHOR, . & e IX.
HUMAN NATURE IN ITS FOUR FOLD
STATE.
PREFACE, * ſº e 3
STATE FIRST.-NAMELY, THE STATE
of INNOCENCE, . - º º 7
STATE SECOND. — NAMELY,
. STATE of NATURE, e . 17
HEAD I.-The sinfulness of man's nature, 17
HEAD II.-The misery of man's natural
TEIE
state, e * e e g . 60
HEAD III.—Man's utter inability to re-
cover himself, e © º º 76
STATE THIRD.—NAMELY, THE STATE
OF GRACE, tº º º te . 85
HEAD I.—Regeneration, . º º 85
HEAD II.—The mystical union betwixt
Christ and believers, e e ... 109
STATE FOURTH. — NAMELY, THE
ETERNAL STATE, e º e 143
HEAD I.—Of death, . e & . 143
HEAD II.—The difference betwixt the
righteous and the wicked in their
death, . tº e e 151
HEAD III.—The resurrection, l67
HEAD IV.-The general judgment, . 178
HEAD V.—The kingdom of heaven, . 195
HEAD VI.—Hell, . º º e 213
A MEMORIAL CONCERNING PERSON-
AL AND FAMILY FASTING AND
HUMILIATION.
CHAP. I.-Of personal and family fasting
and humiliation in the general, . e
CHAP. II.-Of personal fasting and humili-
ation in particular, º e e 236
CHAP. III.-Of family fasting and humi-
liation in particular, * º . 259
THE ConcLUSION, 261
THE CROOK IN THE LOT, 267
A VIEW OF THIS AND THE OTHER
WORLD.
I. The state and character of believers,
as they are of God, with their know-
ledge thereof, illustrated; and a descrip-
594
603
viii
CONTENTS.
Page
IV. AN INTERESTING INQUIRY :-
Matt. xx. 6. Why stand ye here all the
day idle 7 . e tº * tº
V. THE SUITABLE IMPROVEMENT OF
sAINTs' FORMER EXPERIENCES :-
2 Kings ii. 14. And he took the mantle
of Elijah, that fell from him, and smote
the waters, and said, Where is the
Lord God of Elijah P tº
VI. The same subject continued,
VII. ENocB's CHARACTER AND TRANSLA-
TION EXPLAINED ; WITH A DESCRIP-
TION OF WALKING WITH GOD, As THAT
IN WEHICBI THE LIFE OF RELIGION
I, IES : -
Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with
God, and he was not ; for God took
him, © * ſº tº te . 627
VIII. THE PLEASURES OF REAL RELI-
GION : —
Prov. iii. 17. Her ways are ways of pleas-
antness, and all her paths are peace,
IX. FEAR AND HOPE, OBJECTs of THE
IXIVINE COMPLACENCY : —
Psalm cylvii. 11. The Lord taketh pleas-
ure in them that fear him, in those
that hope in his mercy, * e
X. The same subject continued, . tº
XI. DEPARTING FROM INIQUITY THE
DUTY OF ALL WHIO NAME THE NAME
OF CHRIST :-
2 Tim. ii. 19. And let every one that
612
616
622
636
685
69||
Tage
nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity, © e * tº o 703
XII. The same subject continued, . . 710
XIII. The same subject continued, 716
XIV. The same subject continued, 722
XV. TRUE BELIEVERs, IN RELATION To
GoD IN CHRIST As THEIR REFUGE
AND PORTION : –
Psalm cyliii. 5. I cried unto thee, O
Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and
my portion in the land of the living,
XVI. THE soul's REcognition of TAK-
ING GoD FOR A REFUGE AND Port-
TION II, LUSTRATED :-
Same Text, e * e &
XVII. GoD IN CHRIST THE BELIEVER's
PORTION :-
Same Text, . * e gº o
XVIII. MAN's PROPER work IN THIS
WORLD, AND HIS JOURNEY TO AN-
OTEIER 3–
Eccl. ix. 10. Whatsoever thy hand find-
eth to do, do it with thy might; for
there is no work, nor device, nor know.
ledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither *
thou goest, t i. * tº . 762
XIX. SELF-EXAMINATION:—
2 Cor. xiii. 5. Examine yourselves,
whether ye be in the faith; prove
your own selves: know you not your
own selves, how that Jesus Christ is
in you, except ye be reprobates?
732
739
747
776
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR,
Thomas BosTon was born at Dunse, in the county of Berwick, on the 17th
day of March, 1676. His grandfather, Andrew Boston, had come from Ayr,
and settled in that town; and there his father, John Boston, continued to
reside almost till the close of life. The latter is described by his honest and
conscientious son, from whose Autobiography the principal materials of this
Memoir are derived, as an intelligent and pious man, who, when Prelacy was
established in Scotland, suffered imprisonment in the cause of nonconformity.
“When I was a little boy,” says Thomas, “I lay in the prison of Dunse with him,
to keep him company; the which I have often looked on as an earnest of what
might be abiding me; but hitherto I have not had that trial.” Alison Trotter,
our Author's mother, he himself describes as “a woman prudent and virtuous.”
Of these respectable parents Thomas was the youngest child. He was
early sent to school; and at the age of seven, could read the Bible. Thus
early in his life, he even found pleasure in perusing that sacred Book to the
study of which he devoted so many of his maturer years. “I would have
read,” says he, “with my schoolmistress in the winter nights, when the rest
of the children were not present; yea, and got the Bible sometimes to the bed
with me, and read there. Meanwhile I know nothing induced me to it but
the natural vanity of my mind, and curiosity, as about some scripture-histories.”
At the age of nine, he entered the grammar-school of his native town. In
his classical studies he made satisfactory progress under Mr. Bullerwall, his
teacher; and of his schoolboy sports he himself gives the following graphic
sketch—a sketch which exhibits him in striking contrast with what he after-
wards became as the grave and quiet divine:–“ By means of my education,
and natural disposition, I was of a sober and harmless deportment, and pre-
served from the common vices of children in towns. I was at no time what
they call a vicious or a roguish boy; neither was I so addicted to play as to
forget my business; though I was a dexterous player at such games as re-
quired art and nimbleness; and towards the latter end of this period, having
had frequent occasion, to see soldiers exercised, I had a peculiar faculty at
mustering and exercising my school-fellows accordingly, by the several words
and motions of the exercise of the musket; they being formed into a body,
under a captain. The which exercise I have managed, to as much weariness
and pain of my breast, as sometimes I have preached.” Still more interesting,
and far more important, are the following extracts, referring to our Author's
early religious impressions under the ministry of Henry Erskine, the ejected
minister of Cornhill, and father of the celebrated Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine,
and recording certain incidents in his early life:—“Two of Mr. Erskine's first
texts were, John i. 29, “Behold the Lamb of God,’ &c. and Matt. iii. 7, O
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee,’ &c. I distinctly remember,
that from this last he ofttimes forewarned of judgments to come on these
nations, which I still apprehend will come. By these, I judge God spake to
me; however, I know I was touched quickly after the first hearing, wherein I
b
X MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
was like one amazed with some new and strange thing. My lost state by nature,
and my absolute need of Christ, being thus discovered to me, I was set to pray
in earnest; but remember nothing of that kind I did before, save what was done
at meals, and in my bed. I also carefully attended for ordinary the preaching
of the word at Revelaw, where Mr. Erskine had his meeting-house, near about
four miles from Dunse. In the summer-time, company could hardly be missed;
and with them something to be heard, especially in the returning, that was for
edification, to which I listened: but in the winter, sometimes it was my lot to
go alone, without so much as the benefit of a horse to carry me through Black-
adder water, the wading whereof in sharp frosty weather I very well remember.
But such things were then easy, for the benefit of the word, which came with
power.” “In these days I had a great glowing of affections in religion, even
to a zeal for suffering in the cause of it, which I am very sure was not accord-
ing to knowledge; but I was ready to think, as Zebedee's children said, Matt.
xx. 22, “We are able.’ I was raw and unexperienced, had much weakness
and ignorance, and much of a legal disposition and way, then, and for a good
time after, undiscerned. Howbeit I would fain hope, there was, under a heap
of rubbish of that kind, “ some good thing toward the God of Israel’ wrought
in me. Sure I am, I was in good earnest concerned for a saving interest in
Jesus Christ; my soul went out after him, and the place of his feet was glorious
in mine eyes. Having read of the sealing of the tribes, Rev. vii., Satan wove
a snare for me out of it, viz., that the whole number of the elect, or those who
were to be saved, was already made up; and therefore there was no room for
me. How that snare was broken, I do not remember; but thereby one may
see, what easy work Satan, brooding on ignorance, hath to hatch things which
may perplex and keep the party from Christ. At that time there was another
boy at the school, Thomas Trotter of Catchilraw, whose heart the Lord had
also touched: and there came to the school a third, one Patrick Gillies, a
serious lad, and elder than either of us; but the son of a father and mother,
ignorant and carnal to a pitch; which made the grace of God in him the more
remarkable. Upon his motion, we three met frequently in a chamber in my
father's house, for prayer, reading the scriptures, and spiritual conference;
whereby we had some advantage, both in point of knowledge and tenderness.
It was remarkable concerning the said Thomas, that being taken to the first
Presbyterian meeting that was in the country after the liberty; where I sup-
pose, the worthy, and famous Mr. James Webster, afterwards a minister in
Edinburgh, preached; he, upon his return from it, giving an account in the
school concerning his being there, ridiculed the Whigs; the which I, who
nevertheless was not there, was very sorry for, on no other account, I reckon,
but that my father was one of that sort of people. But going afterward to the
like meetings, he turned a very devout boy.” “The schoolhouse being within
the churchyard, I was providentially made to see there, within an open coffin,
in an unripe grave opened, the consuming body just brought to the consistence
of thin mortar, and blackish: the which made an impression on me, remaining
to this day; whereby I perceive, what a loathsome thing my body must at
length become before it be reduced to dust; not to be beheld with the eye but
with horror.”
In 1689—the year in which Prelacy was abolished in Scotland–young
Boston, now in the fourteenth year of his age, left the grammar-school. In a
spirit which has often been exemplified among Scottish Presbyterian parents,
his father, though a man in humble circumstances, aimed at securing for him
the opportunity of prosecuting his studies at a university; and the talents,
attainments, and piety of the youth, were such as to vindicate the elder Bos-
ton's wish. The narrowness of his income, however, interfered, for a consider-
able time, with the attainment of the object on which his parental heart was
set; and, in February 1691, both the father and the son were called to endure
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, xi
a trial of a different kind—one of the severest among the ordinary calamities
of life—the death of a wife and mother. Meanwhile, Thomas occupied his
time, partly in writing in the office of a notary, and partly in the private pro-
secution of his studies. At length, the father,-resolved to attain his object,
although he had failed in more than one attempt to realize it, conveyed his
son to Edinburgh, and entered him at college. Looking back, in later life,
on this interesting event, Boston, with characteristic attention to the guiding
hand of Providence, remarks:—“Thus the Lord, in my setting out in the
world, dealt with me, obliging me to have recourse to himself for this thing,
to do it for me. He brought it through many difficulties, tried me with
various disappointments, at length carried it to the utmost point of hopeless-
ness, seemed to be laying the gravestone upon it at the time of my mother's
death; and yet, after all, he brought it to pass: and that has been the usual
method of Providence with me all along in matters of the greatest weight.
The wisdom appearing, in leading the blind by a way they knew not, shined
in the putting off that matter to this time, notwithstanding all endeavours to
compass it sooner; for I am perfectly convinced I was abundantly soon put to
the college, being then but in the fifteenth year of my age; and the manner of
it was kindly ordered, in that I was thereby beholden to none for that my
education; and it made way for some things which Providence saw needful for
me.”
After passing, with creditable success, although amidst considerable in-
firmity of body, through a course of literature and philosophy, our Author, in
1694, obtained a bursary from the Presbytery of Dunse, and, in January 1695,
entered the school of divinity at Edinburgh, which was then taught by a man
of high attainments but remarkable modesty, Mr. George Campbell—a Pro-
fessor for whom Boston obviously entertained great respect and esteem. While
#. his divinity-course, he paid some attention to music, in which, he
imself says, he “had a delight.”
On leaving college, he addressed himself for a season, as so many other
promising and gifted candidates for the ministry have done, to the education of
youth. In 1696, after teaching, for a short time, a school at Glencairn, he
entered into the family of Colonel Bruce of Kennet, as tutor to his step-son,
Andrew Fletcher of Aberlady. In both situations, he met with considerable
annoyance from the behaviour of certain members of the families in which he lived.
Speaking of the one, however, he remarks:—“While I was in that country,
I had advantage of converse with Mr. Murray, a learned and holy man; the
meeting of which two in a character was not very frequent there; as also of
Janet Maclaunie, an old, exercised, godly woman,”—and referring to the time
when he resided at Kennet, he says:—“It was a time of much trouble to me,
yet in the main a thriving time for my soul, My corruption sometimes pre-
vailed over me; but it put me to the using of secret fasting and prayer; where-
unto I was also moved by the case of the poor, it being one of the years of
dearth, and scarcity that the Lord was then contending by year after year.
And this I did not without some success. Then it was that on such an occa-
sion I drew up a catalogue of sins, which, with many unknown ones, I had to
charge on myself; the which hath several times been of use to me since: there
I had some Bethels, where I met with God, the remembrance whereof hath
many times been useful and refreshful to me, particularly a place under a tree
in Kennet orchard, where, Jan. 21, 1697, I vowed the vow, and anointed the
pillar. That day was a public fast-day; and the night before, the family being
called together, I laid before them the causes of the fast, and thereto added
the sins of the family, which I condescended on particularly, desiring them to
search their own hearts for other particulars, in order to our due humiliation.
After sermons, going to the Garlet to visit a sick woman, I was moved, as I
passed by the orchard, to go to prayer there; and being helped of the Lord, I
xii MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
did there solemnly covenant with God under a tree, with two great boughs
coming from the root, a little north-west from a kind of ditch in the eastern
part of the orchard. Though it was heavy to me that I was taken from the
school of divinity, and sent to Kennet; yet I am convinced God sent me to
another school there, in order to prepare me for the work of the gospel, for
which he had designed me: for there I learned in some measure what it was
to have the charge of souls; and being naturally bashful, timorous, and much
subject to the fear of man, I attained, by what I met with there, to some bold-
ness, and not regarding the persons of men when out of God's way. There
I learned, that God will countenance one in the faithful discharge of his duty,
though it be not attended with the desired success; and that plain dealing will
impress an awe on the party's conscience, though their corruption still rages
against him that so deals with them. It was by means of conversation there
that I arrived at a degree of a public spirit which I had not before; and there
I got a lesson of the need of prudent and cautious management, and abridging
one's self of one's liberty, that the weak be not stumbled, and access to edify
them be precluded; a lesson I have in my ministry had a very particular and
singular occasion for.”
Talents and worth like those of young Boston could scarcely fail to secure
for him friends among the pious clergy. When just about to leave Kennet,
he was urged by Mr. Turnbull, minister of Alloa, and Mr. Buchanan, minister
of Tulliallan, to remain in the neighbourhood, and pass his trials for license in
the Presbytery of Stirling. A similar application was made to him by his
highly valued friend, Mr. Murray, minister of Penpont, to proceed to that
parish, and take his trials there. When in a state of hesitation between the two
proposals, he had occasion to visit his father at Dunse, in order to have his
purse replenished; and the result was that, on the suggestion of Mr. Colden,
minister of his native town, he remained within the limits of the united pres-
byteries of Dunse and Chirnside, and there received license to preach the
gospel on the 15th day of June, 1697.
His probationary life extended to rather more than two years. His first
sermon in public was from Psalm l. 22; and the general tone of his discourses
during several successive weeks was that of severe expostulation against vice
and irreligion, and bold denunciation of divine wrath against the workers of
iniquity. “But,” said Mr. Dysert, minister of Coldingham, to the young
and intrepid preacher, “if you were entered on preaching of Christ, you would
find it very pleasant.”, “ This,” says Boston, now become the faithful preacher
of Christ crucified, “had an effect on me so far, that immediately I did some-
what change my strain; where I had occasion to enter on a new text: and
then I preached, first, on Isaiah lxi. 1, and next, on 1 Pet. ii. 7. I have often,
since that time, remembered that word of Mr. Dysert's as the first hint given
me, by the good hand of my God, towards the doctrine of the gospel.”. These
are strong expressions. But considering what Boston had known and tasted
from boyhood of the excellence and preciousness of Christ, it must not be
supposed that he altogether omitted, in his earliest discourses, to commend him
to the people. He continued in the Merse for several months, assisting his
friends, and preaching in vacant parishes. Two attempts were made to have
him settled in some parish within the limits of the presbyteries in which he
received his license—the one in the case of Foulden, the other in that of
Abbey. Both, however, proved unsuccessful; and at length, on the 17th day
of March, 1698, he settled, for a season, within the limits of the Presbytery of
Stirling. Here he enjoyed friendly and edifying converse with three ministers
of whom he speaks in the language of high esteem—Mr. Turnbull of Alloa,
Mr. White of Larbert, and Mr. Mair of Culross. The parishes in which he
chiefly preached were Clackmannan, Airth, and Dollar. All of them were
vacant; and in all, attempts were made to secure him for the settled minister.
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xiii
These, however, failed; in consequence, it would seem, partly, of the influence
of certain heritors, partly, of dislike, in the minds of some of the parishioners,
to the strictness and severity of his preaching, and partly, of conscientious
scruples of his own. It was at this period of his life—in January 1699—that
he composed the remarkable relic of his pen entitled “A Soliloquy on the
Art of Man-fishing.” In that document—which has frequently been printed
—the figurative idea is certainly carried out to an extent scarcely consistent
with the strictest principles of taste. But it contains many sound practical
suggestions on the work of the ministry, and affords a striking insight into the
depths of the author's heart. A few passages, referring to his own state and
experience, may be here extracted:—“Seeing I am called out to preach this
everlasting gospel, it is my duty to endeavour, and it is my desire to be (Lord,
thou knowest) a fisher of men. But, alas! I may come in with my complaints
to my Lord, that I have toiled in some measure, but caught nothing, for any
thing I know, as to the conversion of any one soul. I fear I may say, I have
almost spent my strength in vain, and my labour for nought, for Israel is not
gathered. O my soul, what may be the cause of this, why does my preaching
so little good? No doubt part of the blame lies on myself, and a great part
of it too. But who can give help in this case but the Lord himself? and how
can I expect it from him but by prayer, and faith in the promises, and by con-
sulting his word, where I may, by his Spirit shining on my heart, (shine, O
Sun of righteousness,) learn how to carry, and what to do, to the end the
gospel preached by me may not be unsuccessful? Therefore did my heart cry
out after Christ this day, and my soul was moved, when I read that sweet
promise of Christ, Matt. iv. 19, “ Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men, directed to those that would follow him. O how fain would my soul
follow him, as on other accounts, so on this, that I might be honoured to be a
fisher of men Therefore my soul would fain know what sort of following of
Christ this is, to which this sweet promise is annexed. I would know it,
(Lord, thou knowest,) that I might do it, and so catch poor souls by the
gospel, and that I might know whether I have a right to this promise or not.
O let thy light and thy truth shine forth, that they may be guides to me in
this matter; and let the meditations of my heart be according to thy mind, and
directed by thy unerring Spirit. Grant light and life, O Lord my God!”
“Tell me, O my soul, what is thy design in preaching? for what end dost
thou lay the net in the water? is it to show thy gifts, and to gain the applause
of men? Oh! no. Lord, thou knowest my gifts are very small; and had I
not some other thing than them to lean to, I had never gone to a pulpit. I
confess, that, for as small as they are, the devil and my corruptions do some-
times present them to me in a magnifying glass, and so would blow me up
with wind. But, Lord, thou knowest it is my work to repel these motions.”
“I find a threefold flame, though weak, in my heart. (1) A flame of love
to Christ. My soul loves him above all; and I have felt my love to Christ
more vigorous within this short while, than for a considerable time before.
Lord, put fuel to this flame. I have a love to his truths that I know, what
God reveals to me of his word. I find sometimes his word sweeter to me than
honey from the comb. It comforts and supports me. I cannot but love it;
it stirs me up, and quickens my soul when dead. I love his commands, though
striking against my corruptions. I love the promises, as sweet cordials to a
fainting soul; as life from the dead to one trodden under foot by the apprehen-
sions of wrath, or the prevailing of corruption. I love his threatenings as
most just; my soul heartily approves them: “If any man love not the Lord
Jesus, let him be anathema, maranatha. The least hoof of truth that God
makes known to me I love; and, by grace, would endeavour to adhere to. I
love those in whom the image of God does appear; though otherwise mean
and contemptible, my heart warms towards them. I love his work, and am
xiv MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
glad when it thrives, though, alas! there is little ground for such gladness
now. I love his ordinances, and what bears his stamp; though all this be but
weak. I love his glory, that he should be glorified, come of me what will.
(2.) I find in my heart a flame of desires. [1] After the righteousness of
Christ. My soul earnestly desires to be stript naked of my own righteousness,
which is as rags, and to be clothed and adorned with the robe of his righteous-
ness. This wedding-garment my soul affects; so shall I be found without
spot, when the Master of the feast comes in to see the guests. My soul is
satisfied, and acquiesces in justification by an imputed righteousness, though,
alas! my base heart would fain have a home-spun garment of its own some-
times. [2] After communion with him. When I want it, my soul, though
sometimes careless, yet, at other times, cries out, “O that I knew where I
might find him " I have found much sweetness in communion with God,
especially at the sacrament of the Lord's supper, in prayer and meditation,
hearing of the word, faithfully and seriously preached, and in preaching it
myself, when the candle of the Lord shines on my tabernacle; then was it a
sweet exercise to my soul. I endeavour to keep it up when I have it, by
watching over my heart, and sending up ejaculations to God. When I want
it, I cry to him for it, though, alas! I have been a long time very careless.
Sometimes my soul longs for the day when my minority shall be overpast, and
I be entered heir to ‘the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth
not away; to be quit of this evil world; to be dissolved, and to be with Christ,
which is best of all; especially at three times. (i.) When I get more than
ordinarily near God, when my soul is satisfied as with marrow and fat, when
my heart is nobilitated, and tramples on the world. (ii.) When I am wrestling
and groaning under the body of sin and death, the evil heart: then fain would
I be there, where Satan cannot tempt, and sin cannot enter; yea, when I have
been much forsaken, at least as to comfort, Diary, Aug. 2, 1696, where is the
most eminent instance of it. (iii.) When I preach, and see that the gospel
hath not success, but people are unconcerned, and go on in their abominations.
(3.) I find in my heart some heat of zeal for God, which vents itself, [1]. By
endeavouring to be active for God in my station. So when I was at K. I
endeavoured to do something for God, though, alas! it did some of them no
good. Before I entered on trials, one main motive was to have opportunity
to give a testimony against sin, and to see if I could be an instrument to re-
claim any soul from their wicked way. This I have, as the Lord enabled me,
done, since I was a preacher, testifying against sin freely and plainly, and as
earnestly as I could, by grace assisting me, though in weakness. And, Lord,
thou knowest that my great desire is to catch men, and to get for that end my
whole furniture from thee, laying aside my own wisdom. And if I could do
this, how satisfying would it be to my soul, that desires to do good to others,
though I myself should perish Therefore do I not spare this weak body,
and therefore have I desired never to be idle, but to go unsent for sometimes.
Yet my conscience tells me of much slackness in this point, when I have been
in private with people, and have not reproved them as I ought, when they
offended, being much plagued with want of freedom in private converse. This
I have in the Lord's strength resolved against, and have somewhat now
amended it. [2] It vents itself in indignation against sin in myself and others.
Many times have I thought on that of the apostle, ‘ Yea, what revenge!' when
I have been overcome by a temptation, being content as it were to be revenged
on myself, and as it were content to subscribe a sentence of damnation against
myself, and so to justify the Lord in his just proceedings against me. And,
• Lord, do not I hate those that hate thee! am I not grieved with those that
rise up against thee? The reproaches cast on thee, have fallen on me.’ And
my heart rises and is grieved, when I see transgressors, that they keep not thy
law. [3.] It vents itself in grieving for those things that I cannot help. Lord,
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XV.
thou knowest how weighty the sins of this land have been unto me, how they
have lien and do lie somewhat heavy on me; and at this time in particular the
laxness of many in joining with the people of these abominations, the unfaith-
fulness of some professors, the lack of zeal for God in not making a more
narrow search for the accursed thing in our camp, now when God's wrath is
going out violently against us, and not making an acknowledgment of sins
and renewing our national vows, according as our progenitors did, many as it
were thinking shame of the covenant, of whom the church of Scotland may be
ashamed.” -
On the 8th day of May, 1699, Boston set out on his return to Dunse,
amidst the regrets of many friends in the neighbourhood of Clackmannan, and
not without reason to believe that his services had proved both acceptable and
useful to the pious portion of the people who had heard him. Soon after
reaching his native town, he was seized with illness; and this probably com-
bined with the remarkable tenderness and susceptibility of his conscience to
produce those dark states of mind under which he occasionally laboured. If,
however, he was sometimes beset with fears and scruples, he also enjoyed
much sweet experience, even in his present unsettled situation, of his heavenly
Father's love, and of filial confidence in God. The following account of
certain rules which he prescribed to himself is alike characteristic and instruc-
tive:—“On the 8th, considering the perplexing circumstances I was in, and
finding my heart brought to a better temper with respect to them than some
time before, I began at night seriously to deliberate how I might carry under
them as a Christian; which was continued next morning, being Friday. There
were three things I saw weighty in the complication: 1. The broken state of
my health; 2. My being in terms of marriage; 3. No probability of my settle-
ment. To carry Christianly in these perplexing circumstances, I proposed
to myself that I should, 1. Live near God, so as my heart should not have
wherewith to reproach me, Job xxvii. 6, Acts xxiii. 1; 2. Beware of anxious
thoughts about them; lay them before the Lord in prayer, and leave them
on him, trusting him with them, though in a manner blindly, Phil. iv. 6;
3. Believe the promise, that all things should work together for my good,
Rom. viii. 28; 4. Remember that man's extremity is God's opportunity, with
my former experiences of the same, Gen. xxii. 14; 5. Use the means with
dependence on the Lord for success; 6. Be diligent about the work of m
station, and ply my studies more closely; and for this end, beware of sleeping
too much; Lastly, Not think that, because God doth not presently answer,
therefore he will not answer at all, but wait on him, Isa. xxviii. 16; and that
if at any time I begin to faint under my difficulties, I should press myself to
hang by the promises, remembering the shortness of my time, and that no
man knows love or hatred by all that is before him; and should read Heb. xii.
And my conscience bare me witness, that to be helped so to live in a course
of filial obedience, would be more sweet to me, than to be rid of all these
difficulties.”
The small parish of Simprin in Berwickshire was now vacant. There Mr.
Boston preached in July 1699. The people and the proprietor issued a call
in his favour. After much solemn deliberation, he consented to the invitation;
and on the 21st day of September, having passed his trials before the Presby-
tery of Chirnside, he was ordained minister of Simprin. In prospect of that
interesting and important event of his life, he renewed the dedication of himself
to God, in the following document, afterwards found among his papers:–“ I,
Mr. Thomas Boston, preacher of the gospel of Christ, being by nature an
apostate from God, an enemy to the great Jehovah, and so an heir of hell and
wrath, in myself utterly lost and undone, because of my original and actual
sins, and misery thereby; and being, in some measure, made sensible of this
my lost and undone state, and sensible of my need, my absolute need of a
xvi MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
Saviour, without whom I must perish eternally; and believing that the Lord
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the eternal God, is not only able to save me,
by virtue of his death and sufferings, but willing also to save me (though most
vile and ugly, and one who has given him many repulses), both from my sins,
and from the load of wrath due to me for them, upon condition that I believe,
come to him for salvation, and cordially receive him in all his offices; consent-
ing to the terms of the covenant: therefore, as I have at several opportunities
before given an express and solemn consent to the terms of the covenant, and
have entered into a personal covenant with Christ; so now, being called to
undertake the great and weighty work of the ministry of the gospel, for which
I am altogether insufficient, I do by this declare, that I stand to and own all
my former engagements, whether sacramental, or any other way whatsoever;
and now again do RENEw my covenant with God; and hereby, at this present
time, do solemnly covenANT and ENGAGE to be the Lord's, and MAKE a solemn
resignation and upgiving of myself, my soul, body, spiritual and temporal con-
cerns, unto the Lord Jesus Christ, without any reservation whatsoever; and
do hereby give my voluntary consent to the terms of the covenant laid down
in the holy scriptures, the word of truth; and with my heart and soul ITAKE
and RECEIVE Christ in all his offices, as my PROPHET to teach me, resolving
and engaging in his strength to follow, that is, to endeavour to follow, his
instructions: I TAKE him as my PRIEST, to be saved by his death and merits
alone; and renouncing my own righteousness as filthy rags and menstruous
cloths, I am content to be clothed with his righteousness alone; and live
entirely upon free grace; likewise ITAKE him for my ADvocate and INTER-
cEssoR with the Father: And, finally, I TAKE him as my KING, to reign in
me, and to rule over me, renouncing all other lords, whether sin or self, and
in particular my predominant idol; and in the strength of the Lord, do resolve
and hereby engage, to cleave to Christ as my Sovereign Lord and King, in
death and in life, in prosperity and in adversity, even for ever, and to strive
and wrestle in his strength against all known sin; protesting, that whatever
sin may be lying hid in my heart out of my view, I disown it, and abhor it,
and shall, in the Lord's strength, endeavour the mortification of it, when the
Lord shall be pleased to let me see it. And this solemn covenant I make as
in the presence of the ever-living, heart-searching God, and subscribe it with
my hand, in my chamber, at Dunse, about one o'clock in the afternoon, the
fourteenth day of August, One thousand six hundred and ninety-nine years.
—T. Boston.”
Mr. Boston entered on his ministerial work by preaching from Hebrews xiii.
17, “For they watch for your souls, as they that must give account.” From
the want of a house in Simprin, he lived for the first two months at Dunse—
but early in December, he fixed his residence in the village of his own parish.
In the same month, he introduced a regular week-day sermon; and from the
record of his ministry in Simprin, it clearly appears that he was “instant in
season, out of season.” His personal experience still continued variable; and
it may well be doubted whether, in common with many other eminently good
men, he did not sometimes suffer the observation of his mental frames and pro-
vidential trials unreasonably to interfere with his Christian peace and filial
confidence. The following extract from the Autobiography—referring to
January 1700—affords a specimen of a week at Simprin:-“I endeavoured
on the Monday, not without some success, to keep my heart in a heavenly
disposition; spent the morning in my chamber, the forenoon in catechising,
the afternoon in business, and visiting a sick man at night, with help from the
Lord. Thereafter earnestly plying my books, I found my heart much bet-
tered, my confidence in the Lord more strengthened, the world less valuable
in my eyes, and my soul free of the temptations that otherwise I was liable to.
And on the Tuesday morning, when I arose, my soul began to soar aloft in
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xvii
thoughts of the morning of the resurrection. And after earnest prayer, I
betook myself to my studies again, as soon as I could. Experience of this
kind hath been one thing, which all along, and especially in later years, hath
recommended close study to me, and in a manner bound it upon me, as being
that on which much of my peace and comfort depended. The victual being
then dear, the payment of my stipend had been shifted, and was like to have
been withheld for a season from me. But when thus I was least anxious about
the matter, I understood that orders were given for doing me justice. And
here I cannot but observe, that matters of the world go best with me when I
am least anxious about them. I examined my heart how it stood affected with
this, and found it was not lifted up: but I was grieved I could not be more
thankful for it; for I was persuaded that it was the doing of the Lord. I
went to give God thanks for it, and to beg a thankful heart; and it was not
without some success. Visiting a sick man, the Lord bare in on my heart
what I spoke to him, and made me see the reality of it. . Having gone to
G , while I was there, my eyes were somewhat dazzled with the world's
-vanity. So poor and foolish am I, and in thy sight a beast, O Lord!—That
afternoon I went to Kersefield, having sought of God strength to carry right
in all companies: and by the help I had to season converse there, I was more
encouraged to venture on company. And there also I spent some time in
reading. On Thursday, having studied my sermon, my heart longed to be at
the work; and it fared with me accordingly in prayer: but, by a temptation
laid to me in the very time of that exercise, I lost all, and the sermon went
heavily on. That same night, the factor visiting me, paid the little money
payable by Langton, and showed me I was to have all the victual due as soon
as it could be got ready for me. The stipend of Simprin was paid partly in
grain, and partly in money; and there was likewise a proportionable allowance
for communion elements. This was the half-year's stipend, crop 1699, which
afterwards I received accordingly. And it was near as much worth as any,
and more worth than some whole year's stipend after, on account of the ad-
vanced price upon grain at that time. The which put me, I believe, in better
circumstances than I was expecting, or could foresee : kind and watchful
Providence then, as always, balancing my affairs, according to the design
thereof—I read not only on the Friday, but some part of Saturday forenoon;
which I am surprised to find: but it seems I smarted for that keenness, such
indisposition of body and mind seizing me after, that I was quite unfit for my
study for the Sabbath. At length I came to myself; saw, and lamented
before the Lord, my sin: and he turned my heart back again. So, after
dinner, I began and completed my sermons, in a good frame. But in the
morning of the Lord's day, being the 21st, I found it much abated; and I
could not recover it, till near the time of going to church. That day, I per-
ceived, that, through the corruption of my own heart, the smallness of my
auditory was to my disadvantage; knowing by experience, while a probationer,
the sight of a multitude was of use to drive me out of myself. Therefore I
endeavoured to be impressed with a sense of the weight of the Lord's work in
itself, to compensate that loss: and I had the divine assistance that day accord-
ingly. Even in the lecture, I endeavoured to level the word to their con-
Sciences, and had advantage by that method. Betwixt sermons, considering
how I was helped to plainness and faithfulness in some measure, I saw, in the
mean while, clearly, my inability to stand before a holy God, to give an
account thereof; and the need of Christ's imputed righteousness to cover the
sins of my public capacity as a preacher. Thus it was also in my coming
home from the afternoon sermon, in which my assistance had been augmented,
acknowledging the justice of God, if he should eternally exclude me from
his presence. But it was heavy to me, that there was no appearance of
Success.”
C
xviii. MEMIOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
On the 17th day of July, 1700, Mr. Boston was married to Catherine Brown,
a resident in the parish of Culross; with whom he had become acquainted on
leaving Kennet in 1697. The ceremony was performed by his excellent friend,
Mr. Mair. In the following passage, which has been much and deservedly
admired, Boston himself, in 1730, records the event, and sketches the character
of his excellent but afflicted partner: —“Thus was I by all-wise Providence
yoked with my wife, with whom I have now, [1730, by the mercy of God, lived
thirty years complete: a woman of great worth, whom I therefore passionately
loved, and inwardly honoured: a stately, beautiful, and comely personage,
truly pious, and fearing the Lord; of an evenly temper, patient in our common
tribulations, and under her personal distresses: a woman of bright natural parts,
an uncommon stock of prudence; of a quick and lively apprehension, in things
she applied herself to; great presence of mind in surprising incidents; sagacious
and acute in discerning the qualities of persons, and therefore not easily imposed
upon; modest and grave in her deportment, but naturally cheerful; wise and
affable in conversation, having a good faculty at speaking, and expressing her-
self with assurance; endowed with a singular dexterity in dictating of letters;
being a pattern of frugality, and wise management of household-affairs, there-
fore entirely committed to her; well fitted for, and careful of, the virtuous
education of her children; remarkably useful to the country-side, both in the
Merse and in the Forest, through her skill in physic and surgery, which, in
many instances, a peculiar blessing appeared to be commanded upon from
heaven; and, finally, a crown to me in my public station and appearances.
During the time we have lived together hitherto, we have passed through a
sea of trouble, as yet not seeing the shore but afar off. I have sometimes been
likely to be removed from her: she having had little continued health, except
the first six weeks, her death hath oftentimes stared us in the face, and hun-
dreds of arrows have pierced my heart on that score; and sometimes I have
gone with a trembling heart to the pulpit, laying my account with being called
out of it, to see her expire. And now for the third part of the time we have
lived together, namely, ten years complete, she has been under a particular
racking distress; and, for several of these years, fixed to her bed; in the which
furnace, the grace of God in her hath been brightened, her parts continued to
a wonder, and her beauty, which formerly was wont, upon her recoveries, to
leave no vestige of the illness she had been under, doth as yet now and then
show some vestiges of itself.”
In the following passage Mr. Boston records the fact of his becoming
acquainted with the first part of “The Marrow of Modern Divinity,”—an
event which exerted a decided influence on his subsequent ministrations:–
“As for the doctrine of grace, how the Lord was pleased to give my heart a
set toward the preaching of Christ, and how I had ºf convictions of
legality in my own practice, is already narrated. . I had heard Mr. Mair often
speak of being divorced from the law, dead to it, and the like; but I under-
stood very little of the matter. Howbeit, my thoughts being, after my settle-
ment at Simprin, turned that way, that I might understand somewhat of these
things; some light, new to me, seemed to break up from the doctrine of Christ:
but then I could not see how to reconcile the same with other things which
seemed to be truth, too. And I think, that among these first rays of light,
was a notion, that the sins of believers in Christ, even while yet not actually
repented of, did not make them, being in a state of grace, liable to eternal
punishment. And on this head I did, by a letter, consult Mr. Murray in
Penpont; but was not thoroughly satisfied with what he advanced upon it.
Meanwhile, being still on the scent, as I was sitting one day in a house of
Simprin, I espied above the window-head two little old books; which when I
had taken down, I found entitled, the one ‘The Marrow of Modern Divinity,’
the other, “ Christ's Blood flowing freely to Sinners.’ These I reckon had
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xix
been brought home from England by the master of the house, a soldier in the
time of the civil wars. Finding them to point to the subject I was in particu-
lar concern about, I brought them both away. The latter, a book of Salt-
marsh's, I relished not; and I think I returned it without reading it quite
through. The other, being the first part only of the ‘Marrow,' I relished
greatly; and having purchased it at length from the owner, kept it from that
time to this day; and it is still to be found among my books. I found it to
come close to the points I was in quest of; and to show the consistency of
these, which I could not reconcile before: so that I rejoiced in it, as a light
which the Lord had seasonably struck up to me in my darkness.-What time,
precisely, this happened, I cannot tell: but I am very sure, that, by the latter
end of the year 1700, I had not only seen that book, but digested the doctrine
thereof in a tolerable measure; since by that time I was begun to preach it,
as I had occasion, abroad. Such opportunities I took, to give way to the then
bent of my heart, which I could not so directly satisfy at home, being on the
ordinary aforesaid.”
In April 1701, Boston lost his father—an event of which he says, in lan-
guage which filial affection can well interpret, “It was a heavy death to me,
the shock of which I had much ado to stand.” Two of his children also died
during the remainder of his ministry at Simprin; and in the course of the
same period, both he and his admirable wife suffered severely from sickness.
He continued, however, in his quiet rural charge, to prosecute his labours
with strict conscientiousness and untiring zeal—combining, as became him,
diligent study with active effort. He gradually increased his library, originally
very small. He composed several able and erudite treatises—published, after
his death, under the title of “Miscellany Questions”—on certain important
points of theological discussion; some remarks on the doctrinal portion of the
Epistle to the Romans; a Paraphrase on the Epistle to the Galatians; and
a form of Catechetical preparation for Baptism. . . In February 1702, he
began to write his sermons at large,_a practice which he continued during
the remainder of his life. Onwards from October 1701, he filled the office of
clerk to the synod of which he was a member; and the intelligence and pre-
cision with j he discharged its duties were greatly commended and ad-
mired. The following curious and interesting extract from his “Memoirs”—
referring to 1703—exhibits a specimen of the views he entertained, and the
part he took, in ecclesiastical affairs:–“In the month of March following, met
the first general assembly in the reign of Queen Anne; of the which assembly
I was a member. Seafield being the Queen's Commissioner, Mr. George
Meldrum was chosen Moderator, sas the man who to him would be most
acceptable. The asserting of the intrinsic power of the church, was then the
great point that some laboured for; but in vain: it was told them by their
brethren, They had it, and what then needed the waste of an act asserting it?
The assembly having sat several days, were upon an overture for preventing
Protestants marrying with Papists: in the time whereof, a whisper beginning
about the throne, and a motion being, I think, made for recommitting the
overture; the Commissioner, rising from his seat, instantly dissolved the assem-
bly in Her Majesty's name. This having come like a thunder-clap, there
were, from all corners of the house, protestations offered against it, and for the
intrinsic power of the church; with which I joined. But the Moderator,
otherwise a most grave and composed man, being in as much confusion as a
schoolboy when beaten, closed with prayer; and got away, together with the
clerk, so that nothing was then got marked. This was one of the heaviest
days that ever I saw, beholding a vain man trampling on the privileges of
Christ's house, and others couching under the burden. And I could not but
observe, how Providence rebuked their shifting the act to assert as above said,
and baffled their design in the choice of the Moderator; never a Moderator
XX MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
since the Revolution to this day, so far as I can guess, having been so ill
treated by a Commissioner. The learned and pious Mr. James Brisbane, late
minister of Stirling, a young man at that time as well as I, pulled me down,
when offering to join the protesters: and the same very worthy man, many
years after, joined not with the representers in the affair of the ‘Marrow;’
though he had no freedom to go along with the assembly, but was obliged to
declare himself in favour of truth, before they should close that affair. And I
remember, that with respect to this last case, he, in private conversation, said
in his pleasant manner, thereafter, he had so done, but knew not if he would
have full satisfaction in it, when got home, and reflecting thereon in his closet.
Meanwhile the dissolving of that assembly by Seafield, was the occasion of
adjusting that matter betwixt the church and state, and settling it in the
manner wherein, I suppose, it hath all along since continued, the assembly
being first dissolved in the name of Jesus Christ, by the Moderator as their
mouth, and in the name of the magistrate by the Commissioner. In April
following, the synod meeting at Dunse, entered on making an act, asserting
their principles with respect to the established government of the church.
Against which, Mr. Alexander Orrock, minister at Hawick, a man of vast
parts, and the greatest assurance I ever knew, protested, and left the synod;
pretending the same to be a rising of groundless jealousies against the magis-
trate; though in the meantime the grounds of jealousy were looked on as
not small. With him joined Mr. Robert Bell, minister at Cavers, now at
Crailing, Mr. Robert Cunningham at Wilton, afterward at Hawick, and Mr.
Robert Scott at Roberton. Upon the other hand, I was dissatisfied with the
act, for that it touched not the particular point in which the church was at that
time especially aggrieved; namely, her intrinsic power of meeting, and treating,
in her judicatories, of her affairs, as necessity might require, for the honour of
her Head, and the spiritual welfare of her members. And since, for the said
cause, I could not approve of it, and had not so clear access as ordinary to give
my vote, I declared this my mind before the synod ere it was put to the vote.
Whereupon Mr. Charles Gordon, minister of Ashkirk, a learned and holy
man, of uncommon integrity, sometime chosen to be Professor of Divinity in
Aberdeen, though he accepted it not, spoke something in answer thereto, and
for the act, which thereafter was voted, and approved by the rest. But that
same night, I think, he sent for me to his quarters, where he lodging together
with Mr. William Macghie, minister of Selkirk, we supped together, and were
brought acquainted. And this, I believe, was the occasion of the presbytery
of Selkirk there setting their eye on me for the parish of Ettrick. And I
had the comfort of his declaring to me, on his death-bed, some time after my
coming to Ettrick, the satisfaction he had in having seen Mr. Gabriel Wilson,
my friend, and me, settled in their presbytery.”
During the last years of Mr. Boston's residence at Simprin, he found reason
to believe that his ministrations were decidedly useful; and the account which
he gives of the last occasion on which he dispensed the Lord's supper in that
parish, indicates a state of feeling among those present similar to what has
characterized the religious movements commonly called revivals. When, in
1706 and 1707, a call was prosecuted in the church-courts for his removal
from Simprin to Ettrick, the encouraging scene which was witnessed on that
sacramental occasion combined with other considerations to render him, for a
season, disinclined to go. He ultimately, however, came to the resolution of
leaving the determination to the synod, and submitting himself to their decision.
On the 6th day of March, 1707, they resolved that he should be translated to
Ettrick; and on the 15th of June, he preached his farewell-sermon at Simprin,
from John vii. 37. From the peroration of that discourse, the following pas-
sages may be quoted:—“We have had now, for near eight years, a feast of
ordinances together, and now the last day of that feast is come. I hope your
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xxi
table shall be again covered to greater advantage, seeing God has children
here to feed. But now I would have you to reflect, (1.) On the entertainment
you have had at this feast; both ordinary, at the preaching of the word; and
extraordinary, at the sacraments. When I entered on the ministry here, I
began and preached man's natural state, for the first eleven months; then I
preached Christ the remedy. I have withheld nothing from you of the whole
counsel of God, so far as I knew it, and was necessary for you. I have told
you the danger of neglecting the remedy, and am free of the blood of all men.
(2.) How it has been with you under the means. If any have been brought
to acquaintance with Christ and themselves, and have got their souls refreshed,
bless God for it. Where it has been otherwise, now mourn before the Lord
for it.—I have not many advices to leave you, having about half-a-year ago
been pressed in my spirit before I knew what way I would be disposed of, to
preach some things to you, which I began then, and finished just the last
Lord's day I was here. I will put you in mind of them: I exhorted you to
beware of the evils of the tongue, &c., &c.—Take this removal kindly out of
the Lord's hand. Search out the cause of it, sisting your consciences before
the Lord. I think it will be safest for every man to leave his complaint on
himself. It is a small thing for me to be judged of men. God knows the
heart, and will bring secret things to light. Some say, I needed not have
gone away, but if I would. If my heart deceive me not, it is several years
since I gave up with mine own will, and in this I have followed what I took
to be God’s will. As I came to this place under a sense of a call from God,
and durst not do otherwise; so I go from it under a sense of God's call, which
for my soul I durst not disobey, whatever difficulties I may meet with, though
I should die at the end of it. Pray for a minister from the Lord. Pray in
secret. Meet together, and pray for one. And, in the meantime, make con-
science of family duties; watch over one another, and live in peace together.”
“Above all, I exhort you to go to Christ, and be daily making use of him,
for the supply of all your wants. I dare not say I have been useless here. I
hope you and I will not forget the many sweet days we have had in this place.
He has been with us at sermons, both on sabbath days and week days. We
have had much of his presence at communions, and I bless God that ever put
it in my heart to celebrate the sacrament in the winter. I hope you will par
ticularly remember, and never forget the sabbath after our last communion.—
I have come so far short of my duty to you as a minister, that if God should
enter into judgment with me on that account, I should undoubtedly be damned.
But for pardon, I flee to the same blood of Jesus Christ which I have preached
to you. And I advise you to take the same course with respect to your short-
comings. Now, I beseech you, pray for me; and God forbid that I should
cease to pray for you, that Simprin may always be as a field that the Lord
hath blessed. Now I will say no more, but conclude with the words of the
Apostle, Acts xx. 32, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to
the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an in-
heritance among them which are sanctified.’ Amen.”
Boston was inducted into his new charge, on the 1st of May, 1707–º a
day,” he himself suggests, “remarkable to after ages, as the day in which the
union of Scotland and England commenced, according to the articles thereof
agreed upon by the two parliaments.” It was not till the middle of June,
however, that he removed his family to Ettrick.
This parish, now so celebrated as the scene of Boston's apostolic labours
and devout communion with his God, is situated in the south-west of the
county of Selkirk. It consists of a succession of verdant hills and valleys,
spotted with clumps of trees, and watered by the Ettrick and a variety of other
streams. The situation is secluded; but the scenery is generally of a cheerful
character, and the parish contains some of the most pleasing and picturesque
xxii MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
mountain-landscape to be met with in that romantic district of Scotland to
which it belongs. Ettrick is characteristically a land of shepherds; and there,
in the neighbourhood of the quiet burial-ground where the ashes of Thomas
Boston sleep, a shepherd, of less consecrated fame, but great in genius and in
song—the author of “The Queen's Wake”—drew his earliest breath.
Such is the parish of which Boston was now the minister—a peaceful home,
one might have thought, for his religious and meditative soul. But in the
midst of its sequestered scenery, the ancient towers of Thirlestane and Tushie-
law stand forth as monuments of feudal power and military strife; and Boston
soon found that, in the neighbourhood of his secluded dwelling, the elements
of moral discord were not awanting. In connection more especially with the
commencement of his ministry at Ettrick, he complains, in doleful terms, of
the number and bitterness of Mr. MºMillan's followers in the parish—who, it
would seem, not only absented themselves from the parish-church, but also
inveighed against Mr. Boston and the other ministers of the Establishment.
At the same time great spiritual deadness prevailed among those who waited,
regularly or occasionally, on his own ministrations. He even found profane
swearing to be common—a fact which may account for the frequency and
minuteness with which he preached against that particular sin. To these
more public trials was added the death, in September 1707, of his son Eben-
ezer, and in October 1708, of another child, to whom he had given the same
hallowed name. In reference to the former bereavement, he says:—“Before
that event, I was much helped of the Lord; I had never more confidence with
God in any such case, than in that child's being the Lord's. I had indeed
more than ordinarily, in giving him away to the Lord, to be saved by the
blood of Jesus Christ. But his death was exceeding afflicting to me, and
matter of sharp exercise. To bury his name, was indeed harder than to bury
his body; and so much the heavier was it, that I could fall on no scripture-
example parallel to it: but I saw a necessity of allowing a latitude to sover-
eignty. I could not charge myself with rashness, in giving him that name.
But one thing was plain as the sun to me, that that day eight days before, my
heart was excessively led away from God towards the creature; and I had not
visited my pillar so often and seriously as I ought to have done.” In reference
to the death of the other child, the pious and affectionate father writes:–
“When the child was laid in the coffin, his mother kissed his dust. I only
lifted the cloth off his face, looked on it, and covered it again, in confidence of
seeing that body rise a glorious body. When the nails were driving, I was
moved for that I had not kissed that precious dust, which I believed was united
to Jesus Christ, as if I had despised it; and I would fain have caused draw
the mail again, but, because of one that was present, I restrained, and violented
myself. So far as I remember, I was never so much straitened to know why
the Lord contended with me, as in this. I could not say, that I was secure as
to his life since he was born. I know many things in my heart and life offen-
sive to the Lord; but to pitch on any one thing, so as to say of it, this is the
cause, was what I could not get done. Often in that distress, my soul has
said to the Lord, ‘Thou knowest that I am not wicked.' I remember I had
a more than ordinary freedom with God, to refuse process according to the
covenant of works, but that it should be according to the covenant of grace.
But I see most plainly, that sovereignty challenges a latitude, to which I must
stoop, and be content to follow the Lord in an untrodden path; and this made
me with more ease to bury my second Ebenezer than I could do the first.
That scripture was very useful to me, ‘It was in my heart to build a house to
the Lord.' I learned not to cry, how will the loss be made up? but being
now in that matter as a weaned child, desired the loss to be made up by the
presence of the Lord. I had ground to think, that I had been too peremptory
as to his life in seeking it.” -
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xxiii
As to Boston's pastoral labours at this period of his ministry, he himself, at
a later stage of life, gives the following account:—“From the time of my
settling here, the great thing I aimed at in my preaching, was to impress the
people with a sense of their need of Christ, and to bring them to consider the
foundations of practical religion. For the which ends, after some time spent
in direct preaching the need of Christ, and handling the parable of the wise
and foolish builders, some of which sermons are written in shorthand characters,
I did, on May 9, 1708, begin an ordinary, the same, for substance, as in the
first years of my ministry in Simprin, but prosecuted after another manner.
That part of it which contained the doctrine of man's fourfold state, then
begun, was ended this year on the 16th of October. The conduct of Provi-
dence in leading to a second attempt on that subject, was the more remarkable,
considering what the same Providence had designed it for, unknown to and
unlooked for by me, till the event discovered itself years after. And the
preaching of these sermons of the Fourfold State, through the mercy of God,
was not in vain. Thereafter I proceeded in the remaining part of that ordi-
nary, viz. the nature and necessity of holiness.—Meanwhile, on Oct. 30, I
began to preach catechetical doctrine; and I went through the whole cate-
chism, from the beginning to the end; but at several distant times. At that
time I proceeded straight forward, till I came to the application of the redemp-
tion purchased by Christ; where I stopt.—Twice a-year I catechised the
parish, having no diet but one at the church; and once a-year I visited their
families. The former was usually begun about the end of October, the latter
about the end of April, or beginning of May. This was my ordinary course
all along, save that of some few late years, through my wife's extraordinary
sickness in the spring, and the decay of my own strength, I have not got the
visiting of families performed as before; neither have I hope of it any more,
though I still aim at something of that kind yearly. But I bless God, that
when I had ability, I was helped to lay it out that way. Thus the winter-
season was the time wherein I did most of my work in the parish. Meanwhile
that also was the season wherein I did most in my closet. Being twelve miles
distant from the presbytery-seat, I attended it not in the winter; but when I
attended it, I ordinarily went away and returned the same day, being loth to
lose two or three days on it. These things, with other incidents, occasioned
me much riding; in which I must acknowledge the goodness of God, that
brought me out of Simprin, where I had but little occasion of riding, and my
health was sore broken. But here I had more exercise of that kind, which no
doubt was to my advantage in that point, though now at length my strength
is much wasted away. The which has necessarily made an alteration in the
course of my management; but the diets of catechising are still in the winter,
only I begin now sooner than I was wont; and the winter-nights, that were
; best employed times in my closet, I cannot now spend so any more, as
refore.” “, -
In the midst of his public and official labours, Boston watched—sometimes,
perhaps, with an unreasonable degree of jealousy—over his own soul. He
seems, however, amidst many scruples of conscience and many penitential
retrospects, to have entertained the persuasion that he was one of the children
of God. The following passage on that subject is interesting and instructive.
It relates to the year 1709. “Last Lord's day night I had some thoughts as
to evidences for heaven, which I resumed this day. 1. I am content to take
Christ for my prophet, to be taught by him what is my duty, that I may
comply with it; I am content to know what is my sin, that I may turn from
it; and by grace I know something of what it is to make use of Christ as a
prophet in this case; and I desire to learn of him, as the only Master, what is
the will of God, and the mystery of renouncing my own wisdom, which I
reckon but weakness and folly. 2. I know and am persuaded, that I am a
xxiv. MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
lost creature; that justice must be satisfied; that I am not able to satisfy it,
mor any creature for me; that Christ is able, and his death and sufferings are
sufficient satisfaction. On this I throw my soul with its full weight; here is
my hope and only confidence. My duties, I believe the best of them, would
damn me, sink me to the lowest pit, and must needs be washed in that precious
blood, and can have no acceptance with God but through his intercession. I
desire to have nothing to do with an absolute God, nor to converse with God
but only through Christ. I am sensible that I have nothing to commend me
to God, nor to Christ, that he may take my cause in hand. If he should
damn me, he should do me no wrong. But the cord of love is let out, even
the covenant in his blood; I accept of it, and at his command lay hold on it,
and venture. This is faith in spite of devils. And my heart is pleased with
the glorious device of man's salvation through Christ, carrying all the praise
to free grace, and leaving nothing of it to the creature. 3. My soul is content
of him for my King; and though I cannot be free of sin, God himself knows
he would be welcome to make havoc of my lusts, and to make me holy. I
know no lust that I would not be content to part with. My will bound hand
and foot I desire to lay at his feet; and though it will strive, whether I will or
not, I believe whatever God does to me is best done. 4. Though afflictions
of themselves can be no evidence of the Lord's love; yet forasmuch as the
native product of afflictions and strokes from the hand of the Lord, is to drive
the guilty away from the Lord; when I find it is not so with me, but that I.
am drawn to God by them, made to kiss the rod, and accept of the punishment
of my iniquity, to love God more, and to have more confidence in him, and
kindly thoughts of his way, and find my heart more closely cleaving to him,
I cannot but think such an affliction an evidence of love. I have met with
many troubles, and the afflictions I have met with have been very remarkable
in their circumstances. Often have I seen it, and now once more, verified in
my lot, 1 Cor. iv. 9, ‘For we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels,
and to men,’ &c. Now I am as a weaned child, through grace, in the matter.
Let the Lord do what seemeth him good.’
The following passage relates to Boston's studies:—“As for my studies:
from my settling in Ettrick, I gave myself to reading, as I was disposed and
had access; making some excerpts out of the books I read. I began the book
of the passages of my life, which before had been kept in the two manuscripts
above mentioned, and some other papers. My son John was begun to learn
the Latin tongue, Feb. 16, 1708, and had domestic teaching till the year
1712; for which cause I had several young men in that time for teachers; but
often the burden lay on myself. And there was no legal school in the parish,
till of late, when none of my children needed it. I read some of the books of
Antonia Bourignon, for understanding her principles, which made a consider-
able noise at that time; and making some excerpts out of them, I left a
column blank for animadversions thereon; which I, finding no occasion for
after, did never make. I began lecturing in Ettrick where I left off in Sim-
prin; and proceeding to the book of the Revelation, I wrote some lectures
thereon, from the 4th chapter, but in shorthand characters. The same I did
on some chapters of Isaiah afterwards.” He adds, referring to the year 1711:
—“This was the happy year wherein I was first master of a Hebrew Bible,
and began the study of it. About the time of my coming out of the Merse to
Ettrick, I borrowed a piece of the Hebrew Bible, containing the books of
Samuel and Kings; and having got that, I went on accordingly in the study
of the holy tongue. For which cause I did this year purchase Athias's
Hebrew Bible, of the second edition, having been long time lured and put off
with the hopes of a gift of Arrius Montanus from an acquaintance in the
Merse; the which were not like to be accomplished, and in end were frus-
trated. Thus provided, I plied the Hebrew original close, with great delight;
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XXV
and all along since, it hath continued to be my darling study. But I knew
nothing then of the accentuation. Howbeit, I took some notes of the import
of the Hebrew words with much pleasure. I had got another parcel of books
in the year 1706, the chief of which was Turrettine's works, in four volumes
4to., wherewith I was not altogether unacquainted before; and, in the year
1707, before I went to Ettrick, I purchased Poole's Annotations, having had no
entire commentary on the whole Bible before that, except the English Anno;
tations, edition 1st, purchased in 1704. But from the time I left Simprin, I
set myself no more to purchase parcels of books as before; but got some par-
ticular books now and then, as I found myself disposed for them.”
Amidst his labours and discouragements, Boston possessed the privilege
of holding, friendly intercourse, in person and by letter, with several emi-
nently godly men. Even in Ettrick, from the commencement of his ministry
in that parish, he found a few whom he had reason to regard as among “the
excellent of the earth.” He records the character of one of these—William
Biggar, an elder of the parish—and also his death in 1709, in the following
terms:—“He died in hopes of eternal life, through Jesus Christ. Among
his last words were, “Farewell, sun, (to the best of my remembrance,) moon
and stars; Farewell, dear minister;-and Farewell the Bible ;’ which last
words especially made great impression on me. He blessed God, that ever
he had seen my face; which was no small comfort to me, especially in these
heavy circumstances. Thus the Lord pulled from me a good man, a com-
fortable fellow-labourer, and a supporter, or rather the supporter of me in
my troubles in this place. . He was always a friend to ministers, a fast
friend to my predecessor, which helped to complete the ruin of his means.
Though he was a poor man, yet he had always a brow for a good cause, and
was a faithful, useful elder; and as he was very ready to reprove sin, so he had
a singular dexterity in the matter of admonition and reproof, to speak ‘a word
upon the wheels, so as to convince with a certain sweetness, that it was hard
to take his reproofs ill.” Several of the neighbouring ministers are referred to
by Boston in the language of affection and esteem; and with three of them—
Mr. Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, Mr. Henry Davidson of Galashiels, and Mr.
John Simson of Morebattle—he maintained a strict and tender friendship.
To each of these excellent men he has raised, in his “Memoirs,” a slight but
permanent memorial. In reference to his connection with Mr. Wilson—with
whom he carried on a regular correspondence on theological and ecclesiastical
subjects—he thus writes:—“That friendship hath indeed been one of the
greatest comforts of my life: he being a man of great piety, tenderness, and
learning, with a vast compass of reading; a painful minister; a plain preacher,
but deep in his thought, especially of later years, and growing remarkably
unto this day in insight into the holy scriptures; zealous and faithful to a
pitch; having more of the spirit of the old Presbyterians than any other min-
ister I know; for the which cause he has been, and is in the eyes of many,
like a speckled bird; but withal a most affectionate, constant, and useful friend;
a seasonable and wise adviser in a pinch; often employed of God signally and
seasonably, to comfort and bear me up, when I needed it extremely; insomuch
that I have often been convinced, he could not have gone the length that way
that he went, if it had not been through a particular disposal of Providence
indulging my weakness, particularly in this and the following period, wherein
I was in a special manner, from within and from without, at once sore bowed
down. Whatever odds there was in some respects betwixt him and me, there
was still a certain cast of temper by which I found him to be my other self:
[and though we have passed, especially since the year 1712, through several
steps, at which many chief friends have been separated; yet, through the divine
mercy, we still stuck close, speaking the same thing; the sense whereof has
often obliged us to give thanks unto God expressly on that account..] He was
xxyi MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR,
extremely modest; but, once touched with the weight of a matter, very forward
and keen, fearing the face of no man: on the other hand, I was slow and
timorous. In the which mixture, whereby he served as a spur to me, and I
as a bridle to him, I have often admired the wise conduct of Providence that
matched us together.” Mr. Davidson he thus describes:—“A man of great
gravity, piety, and tenderness; learned and judicious; well acquainted with
books; a great preacher, delivering in a taking manner masterly thoughts, in
an unaffected elevated style; endowed with a gift of prayer, in heavenly oratory,
beyond any man that ever I knew: extremely modest, and reserved in his
temper; but a kind and affectionate friend.” Of Mr. Simson he says:–“ He
was a serious good man; a most pathetic, zealous, and popular preacher, and
withal substantial in his sermons; having a most ready gift; always concerned
to gain souls to Jesus Christ; blessed with a great measure of his Master's
countenance; and most acceptable to the people. He had a singular easiness
and sweetness of temper, which continued with him to the last. He was, in
the end of his days, confined for a long time to his bed; in which time, visiting
him, in company with my two friends Messrs. Wilson and Davidson, we found
him still lovely and pleasant as before.”
Of another tried friend of Boston, Dr. John Trotter of Dunse, mention
must here be made—the rather as it was a suggestion made by that “beloved
physician” that gave rise to the publication of the “Fourfold State.” The
friendship began at Simprin and lasted till Dr. Trotter's death. That good
and useful man is thus described by Boston:—“He was second son to Alex-
ander Trotter of Cattlesheill, and married Mrs. Julian Home, sister to the
Laird of Kimmerghame, a grave, virtuous, and pious gentlewoman. By her
he had several children, but all dead by that time, except his daughter Elisa-
beth, a pleasant and promising girl. She also died of a lingering disease,
some little time after his own death: by which means his substance went to
his elder brother. He was a grave man, truly religious, acting from a prin-
ciple of conscience towards God, temperate to a pitch, concerned for the spiritual
good of others, particularly his relations; useful by his advice and converse,
not only to the bodies, but to the souls of his patients; skilful in his business,
and more ready, than ever I knew another, to show to such as he judged
capable, the rationale of his practice in physic: withal he was ready to do good
to all, but especially to those of the household of faith. He had something
severe in his temper, but was nevertheless a most affectionate and useful friend,
whose memory is exceeding dear to me. He not only laid out himself, and
that always freely, for my health and that of my family, both at Simprin and
in Ettrick; but, upon my removal from the former to the latter, proposed my
looking out a piece of land in Ettrick for him to buy, that we might still live
together: the which, though it did not take effect, was a sign of singular
friendship. To him it was owing, that I ever thought of writing the Fourfold
State.”
The Fourfold State—that is a magic name, a fondly cherished sound, to
many a pious heart; and a few particulars may be here recorded respecting the
production of the admirable exhibition of Divine truth to which our author
has affixed that simple but expressive title. In October 1711, he assisted at
the dispensation of the Lord's supper in Kelso. As the synod—the clerkship
of which he had now resigned—was to meet in that town ten days after; during
the interval, instead of returning to Ettrick, he paid a visit to Dunse. There
his friend Dr. Trotter proposed to him the publication of some of his sermons,
and offered him considerable encouragement in the matter. Mr. Boston had
carried with him to Kelso, in prospect of the communion, some old notes on the
fourfold state of man. These the Doctor retained. At the synod, the subject
was mentioned to Mr. Wilson, who decidedly encouraged the proposal; and
soon after Mr. Boston's return home, he received letters from Dr. Trotter and
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, xxvii
a Mr. Willis, commending the notes, and urging him to give the substance of
them to the world. He considered the suggestion with characteristic serious-
ness and deference to what he considered as the will of God; and the following
extract from his Diary may serve as a specimen of the way in which he was
led ultimately to consent:—“Nov. 30. Some things this night observed and
considered (after prayer) with respect to the publishing of the sermons. 1.
With respect to our parish. 1st, I have many that will not hear me preach,
and so have no access to be useful to them that way, they being dissenters;
yet I have ground to think that they would read my sermons. 2dly, There
are several that make no conscience of ordinary attendance on the public ordi-
mances, and so have heard but few of these sermons. 3dly, There are some
who cannot get attended punctually, and to whom silent Sabbaths are a grief;
and it is hoped they might be welcome to those, especially at such times. 2.
With respect to my friends in the Merse. As the Lord was pleased to own
me while there, making me serviceable, not only to my own parish, but to
many of the godly in the country; so copies of my sermons, since I came from
them, have been desired and got by several there; which shows the interest I
have in their affections, and promises a kindly reception. 3. With respect to
myself. 1st, I am very little serviceable with reference to public management,
being exceeding defective in ecclesiastical prudence; and very little useful in
converse, being naturally silent; but the Lord has given me a pulpit-gift, not
unacceptable; and who knows what he may do by me that way P 2dly,
Though sometimes I wrote as little of my sermons as many others, yet these
nine years at least last by-past, I have been led into a way of close study, and
writing largely. I have ofttimes wished to have that yoke off my neck, but
still Providence held it on me; and though I have several times been designed
for public places, yet I have still been shut up where I had time for study.
3dly, The Lord has often made me a wonder to myself, and to say from my
heart, What am I? and whence is this? while he has helped me to preach,
blessed my sermons, and given me from thence such an interest in the affec-
tions of the godly. And I will never forget, through grace, the surprising
goodness of God to me, in clerking to the synod; which was so done to satis-
faction, that, the Lord knows, it was such a surprise to me, that to this day
(having now given it over) I do, but believe it on the testimony of others.
That work was taken off my hand at the last synod, while this was proposed
to be put into it., 4thly, I have a weary task of my work in this parish, the
Lord's message in my mouth meeting with such bad entertainment: what if
the Lord should make up this another way? 4. With respect to the sermons
themselves. , 1st, The universal usefulness of the subjects, not treated of in
that method by any that I know. 2dly, As I had an uneasiness till I got
through them, to my parish, in regard of the great weight of the subjects; so
it would be no small comfort to me, to have them still speaking to them. 3dly,
Providence has ordered that I have been now twice on these subjects, though
in a different method; once at Simprin, and once here. 4thly, These very
sermons, I know, were useful to some when preached : I have had express
acknowledgments of their efficacy, particularly that of the corruption of nature,
the mystical union, and the eternal state. Lastly, The steps of Providence in
that business: the providential carrying of these sermons to Dunse, at that
time; at the synod Mr. Wilson's declaring to me, that he minded to have pro-
posed it, and my being freed of the clerk's office; and Mr. B.'s letter meeting
me when I came home.” Moved by such considerations as these, Mr. Boston
began to write the Fourfold State on the 29th day of January, 1712, com-
mencing the work with prayer; and, on the 9th of March, 1713, he finished
it. “Whatever,” says he, recording the termination of his labours, “What-
ever the Lord minds to do with them, I had worth my pains in the work, with
respect to my own private case; for they made me many errands to the throne
xxviii MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
of grace, and helped me to keep up a sense of religion on my spirit. Writing
of heaven, I found it no easy thing to believe the greatness of the glory which
is to be revealed.”
In the General Assembly of 1712—which Boston attended—a discussion
took place respecting the oath of abjuration,--a matter which had for some
time divided the minds of the ministers of the Church of Scotland. Like
many other excellent men, he had refrained from taking that oath; nor was he
turned aside from his views by the answers given at the Assembly to the
objections urged against it. Its intention he believed to be, the preserving
inviolable the act by which the Prelatic Church of England was secured.
The 28th October, 1712, was the last day allowed by law for taking the
oath without becoming liable to certain disabilities, and also to a heavy fine;
and on the 2d of November, the naturally timid, yet, in what he regarded
as matters of conscience an moral obligation, firm and intrepid, minister of
Ettrick, thus commenced his discourse: –“ The Lord God of gods, the Lord
God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know, if it be in rebellion against
the government that I appear here this day, to preach unto you the gospel of
Christ. Contempt of magistrates, and of their laws, is no part of my religion:
but it lies upon my conscience to cleave to the laws of my Lord and Master
Jesus Christ, the only King and Head of his church; from whom I have re-
ceived the office of the ministry, by the hands of church-officers, and not by
the hand of the magistrate; even when these laws of his are crossed and con-
tradicted by the laws of men, 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. The magistrate has the same
power over ministers' persons and goods, as over other men's; and if he abuse
it, it is his sin. But he has no power over our office: he has no power to
deprive the ministers of the gospel of their ministerial office, nor yet of the
exercise of it formally and directly. For the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom
within a kingdom; a spiritual kingdom, distinct from and independent on the
magistrate. I have now served the Lord in this work of the ministry thirteen
years: and though he needs none of my service, and his work might be well
done without me; yet seeing he has not discharged me, I must say, as the
servant under the law, “I love my Master,’ and my children whom I have be-
gotten in the gospel, or nourished up; and I desire not to go out, and would
be content my ear were bored through with an awl to serve him for ever.
Our Lord has given us a plain and positive allowance, ‘When they persecute
you in one city, flee unto another.' ... I cannot reckon this persecution to be
begun yet: therefore I must work the work of him that sent me while it is
called to-day, not knowing how soon the violence of our enemies may bring on
the night. What I desire of you is, that, as the Israelites of old were to eat
the passover, you will eat your spiritual food in haste, not knowing how soon
your table may be drawn. , Let us then go on as formerly.” The abjuration-
oath was afterwards somewhat modified; but the sensitive conscience of Boston
still led him to resist, and, in 1718 or 1719, he prepared a paper bearing the
title of “Reasons for refusing the abjuration-oath in its latest form,”—a docu-
ment which was published, he knew not how.
In the year 1715, the mind of this true-hearted Presbyterian patriot was
much excited by the movements of the Jacobites. In prospect of the invasion
of Popery, he had preached a rousing sermon on the subject in February 1714,
from Psalm lxxiv. 19, and had afterwards, in his catechetical course, descanted
on some of the evils of Popery from the second commandment. Now, during
the rebellion of 1715, he preached at great length what he regarded as doctrine
appropriate to the times, from Amos iv. 12. He was deeply affected by the
indifference of his parishioners to the state of things around them, and addressed
his congregation on the subject in the language of severe reproof and earnest
remonstral) Ce.
Mr. Boston was accustomed, in a pre-eminent degree, to mark the course of
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xxix
Providence; and in accordance with this feature of his character, he was wont,
in his ministrations, to refer to public and personal events, as fraught with
practical instruction for the soul. Thus, in 1714, he was led, by the sudden
death of a healthy old man on his way to church, to preach an excellent course
of sermons on “the earthly tabernacle” and the heavenly home, from 2 Cor.
v. 1; and, in January 1716, when the parish suffered much distress from a
storm, he entered on a lengthened, ingenious, and impressive illustration of the
groans of creation, from Rom. viii. 22. He made a point of observing, not
only public, but also personal and domestic fasts; and, in 1716, at a time of
prevailing sickness, in the course of which he himself was deprived of his
youngest child, he preached the discourses which he afterwards formed into a
Treatise on “Personal and Family Fasting.”
It was in 1714 that Mr. Boston first came before the public as an author.
Early in that year, at the urgent request of friends, he committed to the press
an action-sermon on Hosea ii. 19—which appeared under the title of “The
everlasting Espousals.” The printed discourse was popular, and, as he found
reason to believe, proved useful also. In May 1715, nearly 1200 copies had
been despatched; and, in the following year, a second edition was issued.
Our Author had now entered on the diligent and enthusiastic study of the
Hebrew accents. He had been guided in his inquiries by Cross's Taghmical
Art; and in January 1716, he met with a work, by Wasmuth, on Hebrew
accentuation. In the same month, he himself began to commit his views on
the subject to writing.
In the years 1716 and 1717, an attempt was made to have Mr. Boston
translated to the parish of Closeburn. The prospect of losing their able and
devoted pastor disquieted the minds of many who had but ill improved his
ministrations. “And thus,” says that keen-eyed observer of times and seasons,
“the trouble of the parish about me began just about the time wherein, the
year preceding, my trouble with them was going to the highest pitch.” He
himself was warmly opposed to the translation; and when, in August 1717,
the case came before the Commission, he delivered a characteristic and interest-
ing speech, in which, after giving a minute account of the state of things at
Ettrick, he thus proceeded:–
“Moderator, The parish of Closeburn is so considerable, numerous, and
divided, that it is a burden quite too heavy for me, and requires a minister
endued with qualifications, I cannot pretend to, and withal of another spirit
than I am; being very unfit, on many accounts, to appear in the world in any
such post, even though it were an unanimous parish. But as it is a parish
notably divided, I am still the more unfit for it. I have had too much ac-
quaintance with myself, in the management of the parish of Ettrick, to think
I am fit to undertake the charge of the parish of Closeburn, wherein, I am
persuaded, the work of the gospel would egregiously suffer in my hands. I
know, that little stress is sometimes put upon professions of this nature; but I
do ingenuously declare, that in my most retired thoughts of this transportation,
the disadvantages I find I labour under from myself, in managing my work in
the . I am set over, do so stare me in the face, that I cannot
encourage this design, without a witness against me in my own bosom, testify-
ing. I should be injurious to the parish of Closeburn, in accepting their call,
which I plainly perceive has proceeded on a mistake concerning me. For
thºugh it has pleased the Lord sometimes to make my preaching.gift accept-
able to his people; yet it is well known to those of my acquaintance, I labour
under some uncommon disadvantages, which render me unfit for such a post.
“Besides, Moderator, I have seriously considered the matter of this trans-
Portation again and again, and I can have no other apprehension of it, but that
it will be a renting of me from a congregation whose hearts are pierced with
the thoughts of my removal from them, and a throwing me undesired into
XXX MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
another. I am convinced, that upon whatever views that parish made choice
of me to be their minister when they signed their call to me, matters are now
so far altered, that had some things with relation to the parish of Ettrick and
to myself, which in the progress of this affair have manifestly appeared, to the
conviction of all unbiassed persons, been believed before this process was com-
menced, they had not proceeded therein. And whatever reason the pursuers
may have to go on since they have begun, I hope our very reverend judges
will find themselves obliged to determine as the present state of affairs requires.
Several persons, Commissioners from the parish of Closeburn, at different times,
have had the trouble of several long journeys in this affair, which I am heartily
sorry for. And I freely own, that Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, and another of
that parish, have all along appeared cordial and serious in that matter: but I
must have been unaccountably blinded, if, by repeated evidences otherwise, I
had not perceived the parish of Closeburn not inclined to be hard on the parish
of Ettrick in this affair. And however this might perhaps be deemed to be of
small importance in the case of one inclinable to embrace their call; yet it can-
not but have weight with our reverend and compassionate judges, in the case
of a fixed minister, whose congregation and himself must both be violented, in
order to the casting him in upon another that desires him not.
“Moderator, I need not put the reverend Commission in mind of the great
end of this project, namely, the healing of breaches there: but I heartily wish
it may be duly weighed, whether this transportation be a means proper for
attaining that end. . . And one would think, some more than ordinary certainty
was necessary in this point, especially considering that the widening of the
breaches in Ettrick, and the adjacent parts, will surely follow upon the event
of this transportation; and that a mistake, or false step, in an affair relating to
such a broken country as Nithsdale is, may be of dangerous consequence. I
am persuaded, with the reverend synod of Merse and Teviotdale, that this
transportation will not answer the end; and think it strange, if any who know
all circumstances be otherwise minded. Whatever measures the wisdom of
some other person who shall be called to that parish may suggest unto him
for compassing the desired end, I find myself so straitened in that respect, that
I cannot forbear to say, with all deference to my reverend judges, that the
transporting me to Closeburn will in effect be a driving me into a snare, where,
to which hand soever I turn, I must be broken.
“Now, Moderator, will the justice of the reverend Commission allow them
to lay a congregation desolate which was planted with so much difficulty, has
been managed with so much uneasiness, and, upon the event of this transporta-
tion, must become the very seat of separation in the country, and which there.
is so very little hope of the comfortable supply of, they in the meantime so
vigorously reclaiming; and all this, in a time wherein there is so very little
need of transportations, but the parish pursuing may be otherwise settled, to
far greater advantage? Will their respect to the peace of this church, suffer
them to give such ground of irritation to a congregation in these circumstances
I have narrated? Will their compassion allow them to take one whose spirit
is already shattered with the effects of the divisive temper, and cast him into
another place, where it must be far more so? or to lead out one, and set him
upon the ice, where he knows no way (in the course of ordinary Providence)
how to keep his feet; and when he falls, must fall for nought, I mean, no
advantage to the church gained thereby? Nay, Moderator, I cannot believe
these things.
“I have the greatest aversion to this transportation; and whoso considers
what I have represented, will not think it strange. I hope the reverend Com-
mission will not violent me; which they will do, if they transport me to
Closeburn. The case of the Reverend Mr. Warden's transportation to Fal-
kirk, and of the Reverend Mr. Wodrow’s to Stirling, which were refused by
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xxxi
the Commission, though each of these parishes are more considerable than the
parish here pursuing, are such instances of the lenity of this very reverend
judicatory, that it will be thought exceeding strange if it shall be my lot only
to be violented.
“Moderator, I have been twice settled already; and I bless the Lord, who
was pleased, in both, convincingly to show me his own call coming along with
the call of his church. And I have felt so much need of the former, its ac-
companying the latter, that I would be most inexcusable to venture on removing
to another parish without it. I was persuaded in my conscience of the Lord's
calling me to Ettrick; and my clearness as to my call to that place was never
overclouded, no, not in my darkest hours; and had I not had that to support
me there, I had sunk under my burden. Now I have endeavoured, according
to the measure of the grace bestowed on me, to set aside my own inclinations,
and the consideration of the ease and satisfaction of my own heart, and to lay
this matter before the Lord, for light, to discover his mind about it, labouring
to wait upon him in the way of his word and works. But I sincerely declare,
after all, I have no clearness to accept the call of Closeburn, nor a foundation
for my conscience in this transportation, which ought not to rest on human
authority. I have all deference for the authority of this church, and my min-
istry is very dear to me: so I cast myself down at your feet, begging that you
will not grant this transportation, which has been refused by the presbytery
and synod whereof I am a member; and who are best acquainted with the
state of the parish of Ettrick, and what concerns me; whereas both that parish
and I are known but to very few of our now reverend judges. But if it shall
please the holy wise God to suffer me now, for my trial and correction, to fall
under your sentence, transporting me from the parish of Ettrick to the parish
of Closeburn; since it is a charge I have no clearness to undertake, I resolve,
through grace, rather to suffer, than to enter upon it blindfolded. Though,
in the meantime, I cannot help thinking, it will be hard measure to punish
me, because I cannot see with other men's eyes: especially considering that
the presbytery of Selkirk, and the reverend synod of Merse and Teviotdale,
have, by their respective sentences, continued me in Ettrick, upon very weighty
grounds, contained in the sentence of the latter in this affair.”
It was resolved, by a large majority, that Boston should not be translated.
The result gave great satisfaction at Ettrick; and the 18th of September was
observed in that parish as a thanksgiving-day—when he himself, and his bosom-
friends, Messrs. Wilson and Davidson, preached.
In June 1718, the project of publishing “The Fourfold State” was revived
by Messrs. Wilson, Davidson, and Simson. These excellent men, besides
urging Boston to proceed, offered to advance money for the execution of the
work. The manuscript was sent to Edinburgh for the perusal of Mr. Wight-
man, treasurer of the city; to whom application had been made by some
individual interested in the scheme. That gentleman gave a favourable
answer. . In 1719, Boston finished the transcription of the work; and in the
course of the same year, it was put to press at Edinburgh. On visiting that
city in 1720, the Author found that his friendly, but officious, patron, Mr.
Wightman, had made considerable alterations on certain portions of the work,
and had prepared a preface “recommending,” as the former expresses it, “the
modish ". He felt greatly annoyed by these liberties; but succeeded,
with the help of Mr. William Hog—an excellent merchant, with whom he
held frequent and friendly correspondence for several years—in preserving a
considerable part of the work as he himself had written it. It appeared, with
a preface by Wightman, in the beginning of November 1720. “A bound
copy of the Fourfold State having on the 6th come to my hand,” says Boston
himself, referring to this period, “I did, on the morrow after, spread it before
the Lord in prayer, for his blessing to go out with it, and to be entailed on it,
xxxii MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
while I live, and when I am gone; and that it might be accepted.” Who
will say that that prayer has been left unanswered? *
In the same year, the General Assembly passed an act condemning “the
Marrow of Modern Divinity”—a work written by an English author, Edward
Fisher, and originally published in 1646. Some years after Boston had met
with the copy of this book which he found in the house of one of his parishion-
ers at Simprin, he spoke of it to Mr. Drummond, minister of Crieff, while
sitting beside him in the Assembly-house. The latter succeeded in obtaining
a copy. This passed into the hands, first, of Mr. James Webster of Edin-
burgh, and then, of Mr. James Hog of Carnock. In 1718, the first part of
the work was republished, with a commendatory preface by Mr. Hog. Forth-
with a movement was made about the matter, especially in Fife, where Mr.
Hog resided, and where considerable discussion had lately occurred respecting
the terms of the Covenant of Grace. Early in 1719, Mr. Hog published two
pamphlets, in defence of the “Marrow,” and of his own views on the subject
of which it treats. In April of the same year, Principal Haddow of St.
Andrews attacked the “Marrow” in a Synod-sermon. This production was
published—as also another work, by the same author, entitled, “The Anti-
nomianism of the Marrow detected.” A complaint was laid against the work
recommended by Mr. Hog before the General Assembly of 1719 ; when that
body instructed their Commission to watch over purity of doctrine, and to call
before them ministers of the Church who might write or recommend books or
pamphlets inconsistent with the “Confession of Faith.” The Commission
appointed a Committee on the subject; one section of which met at St. An-
drews, the other at Edinburgh. Mr. Hog, and certain other ministers who
were supposed to preach the doctrine of the “Marrow,” were examined before
the latter. The Commission reported unfavourably respecting the book to
the General Assembly of 1720; and by that Assembly it was denounced as a
work not proper to be read by the people. In common with several other
eminently able and pious ministers of the Church of Scotland, Mr. Boston was
greatly offended and distressed by the terms and general tenor of the Act.
The subject was brought before the presbytery of which he was a member,
and by them submitted to the synod. The result was unsatisfactory to himself,
and the friends who thought along with him in the matter. He now wrote to
Mr. Hog, requesting that he and others of like mind would co-operate in
remonstrating against the Act of Assembly. He received two favourable
answers; the one from Mr. Hog himself, and the other from Mr. Ralph
Erskine of Dunfermline. A representation to the Assembly, sent by these
two brethren for Boston's perusal, failed to satisfy him; and he himself pre-
pared a draught of such a document as, he thought, should be laid on the
Assembly's table. In February 1721, a meeting of “Marrowmen,” as the
were afterwards called, was held at Edinburgh. In the house of Mr. Wardrop,
a respectable apothecary, were gathered together on the occasion nine ministers,
all eminent for Christian virtue, and some of them now known and honoured
as among the most intelligent, practical, and savoury of Scotland's theological
writers. These were, Ebenezer Erskine of Portmoak; his brother Ralph, and
James Wardlaw, both of Dunfermline; James Kid of Queensferry; William
Wilson of Perth; James Bathgate of Orwell; Gabriel Wilson of Maxton;
Henry Davidson of Galashiels; and, “last, not least,” Thomas Boston of
Ettrick. After prayer and deliberation, all present signed the Representation
which Boston had prepared, as altered at this meeting. A similar meeting
was held at the opening of the Assembly; and after the Representation, as
transcribed, had been signed by the nine brethren, with the exception of Mr.
Wilson of Perth, and also by Mr. Hog of Carnock, Mr. Williamson of Inver-
esk, Mr. Bonar of Torphichen, and Mr. Hunter of Lilliesleaf, it was laid
before the Committee on Bills. The Representers were called before the
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xxxiii
Commission, and considerable discussion, in which Boston took part, ensued.
In November of the same year, and also in March 1722, the parties appeared
again before that body. On the former occasion, certain Questions were pro-
posed to them connected with the language and doctrine of the “Marrow;"
and on the latter, Answers to these, prepared by Mr. Ebenezer Erskine and
Mr. Gabriel Wilson, were given in. In May, the General Assembly brought
the affair to a termination. The Act passed on the occasion, if less offensive
to the Representers than that of 1720, was not such as to satisfy their minds.
Boston and his companions gravely received the Assembly's admonition and
rebuke; but a protestation, which he had previously prepared, was given in by
Mr. Kid, signed by all the twelve brethren. The Assembly declined to hear
it read.
There were many evangelical divines in the Church of Scotland who objected
to portions of the work recommended in such strong terms by Mr. Hog, and
took no active part on this occasion in defending it. As to the contest itself,
it seems to have been, in some degree, one of words. Still, it is beyond all
reasonable doubt, that certain points of vast religious importance were involved
in these protracted proceedings. The articles chiefly contended for by Boston
and his associates were these:-That all precepts, including those which require
faith and repentance, pertain to the law, and that the gospel, in the stricter
application of the word, has none; that, in order to forsake sin, men must believe
the gospel, and that without the latter attainment they will never effectually
secure the former; that there is a warrant for all freely to receive Christ; that
justifying faith includes a persuasion, on the part of the individual, that Christ
died for him, and that he, by Christ, shall have salvation; that, although
believers are under the law as a rule of life, they are not under it as a cove-
nant of works; that they should not be prompted to obedience by a hope of
obtaining the inheritance by any good works of their own; and finally, that,
nevertheless, as the grace of the gospel does not loose men from the obligation
to obey the law, so the faith of that grace, as exhibited on the principles of
the “Marrow,” introduces into the soul strong motives to obedience.
Little more than a month after the General Assembly had passed the Act
of 1722 respecting “the Marrow of Modern Divinity,” Mr. Boston finished a
body of Notes on that book—which he had undertaken, at the suggestion of
his two friends, Messrs. Davidson and Wilson. “In compiling of these notes,”
says he, referring to the subject, “I had in view what was advanced against
the “Marrow,' in the several prints extant at that time, and which had come
to my hand; especially Principal Haddow’s “Antinomianism of the Marrow of
Modern Divinity detected; but naming no body. The unacquaintedness with
these prints, may occasion posterity's judging several of the notes quite need-
less: but at that time many had been at much pains to find knots in a rush.”
These Notes were published, along with the work itself, in 1726.
It was during the “Marrow” controversy that Mr. Boston entered on the
protracted series of discourses which were given to the world, after his death,
in the form of Treatises on the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace.
His study of the latter subject led him to preach, in June 1723, at the cele-
bration of the Lord's supper, on “the mystery of Christ in the form of a
servant”—under which title the sermons were published in 1727. In the
former year, on the 6th of August, he finished an essay, which he had prose-
cuted for a considerable time before with enthusiastic interest, on the accentua-
tion of the Hebrew Scriptures; and on the 31st of October, he began a
Translation, with Notes, of part of the Book of Genesis.
The year 1724 was memorable in the life of Boston for severe personal and
domestic affliction. An attack of gravel shook, and even shattered his frame;
and several members of his family were laid prostrate by fever. The state of
lis mind on the occasion is strikingly exhibited in the following passage of his
62
xxxiv. MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
“Memoirs:”—“I was sensibly helped to the exercise of faith in the time of
our first distress; and had a sweet view of the Lord Jesus as administrator of
the covenant, being a skilful pilot to carry us through the deep waters; which
view was kept before me all along, after we were entered into them. My per-
sonal trouble was turned to my advantage. It was sore indeed; but kind
Providence made it short, and timed it so happily, that my public work was
not interrupted by it. ... I saw therein a palpable difference between groaning .
and grudging. For while in my agony I could not help groaning and crying,
so that I was heard at a distance; yet my heart, sensible that I had had
much health, was made by grace to say, Welcome, welcome; and kissed the
rod, for the sake of him i. groaned and died on the cross for me; and I was
even made to weep for joy in his dying love to me. The foundation of faith,
that ‘whosoever believeth shall not perish, but have everlasting life,’ John
iii. 16, was my anchor-ground. I had a satisfaction, in that while the rod was
oing about, my kind God had not forgotten me, but given me my share.
ut I had a greater difficulty to believe, upon the turning back of our broken
ship into the deeps, after we were brought within sight of land. But one day,
as I was going into the pulpit, in the time of our first distress, the congregation
was singing Psal. cxxviii. ver. 3, to the end, “Thy children like to olive-plants
about thy table round,’ &c. That came seasonably to me, and was of great
use to me all along thereafter. At length I got my wife and children so
planted about my table; and on the family-thanksgiving, I told them how
useful that psalm had been to me in the day of our distress: and so I sung it
with them. And there is something more in that psalm, that I have some
expectation of still.” To this period of Boston's life belong the three following
specimens of his epistolary composition:—
- “August 8, 1724.
“D. SIR,--There is no appearance of the dissolution of the cloud that for
several years now has been over my wife. We have made a new essay this
season in the use of means for her #º but all hitherto serves for nothing
but to discover that vain is the help of man in the case. She has not wanted
seasonable supports, from a higher hand; and when several coals were by wise
and holy Providence cast in together into our furnace, she who behoved to be
waited on and served before, was even helped to wait on, and be very helpful
to others in distress; and then the clouds returned after the rain, and now she
comes little out of the bed at all. But all is necessary, and he is infinitely
wise who has the managing of all in his hand. It is a very sweet view of
affliction, to view it as the discipline of the covenant: and so it is indeed; and
nothing else to the children of our Father's family. In that respect it is
medicinal; it shines with many gracious purposes about it; and, end as it
will, one may have the confidence of faith, that it shall end well. And O how
happy would we be if we could always maintain the confidence of faith ! The
soul in that case would be like that babe in the shipwrecked woman’s arms on
the plank, smiling amidst the waves, unconcerned with the hazard. I desire
to remember, and be remembered by you. I am, with cordial respects to
yours, &c.”
“DR SIR,-You will excuse me when I have told you, that since I saw
you, I have been in the furnace of affliction, through the rod of a kind and
gracious God on myself and family. My eldest daughter had a fever when.
you was here last; and on the morrow after you went off, my other daughter
took her bed also by a fever; after her my youngest son; another boy of the
family being in the meantime indisposed. While thus severals were together
in sickness, but my eldest daughter beginning to recover, I myself was, on a
Lord's day after sermons, suddenly seized with a violent illness, which after-
wards I knew to be a fit of the gravel, before that time unknown to me. It
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XXXV
was sharp; but the time was kindly shortened, for I got up again on the
Wednesday: neither did Iagonize all that time, but was favoured with inter-
missions: but I had one fit of six or seven hours' continuance. Meanwhile
my distressed wife was helped to get from her bed, and to go between me and
the children, and to be useful to both. Our ship seemed to be hard at the
shore, in mine and the children's recovery, when behold, a wave came, and
drove back the shattered vessel again. My eldest son and our servant-woman
being taken ill on one day, and his fever the most dangerous of all, the woman's
fever abated on the 6th, my son's not till the 13th, my second daughter's on
the 11th. My eldest son is now recovering, though slowly; and all are well
again except my distressed wife, whose chastisements are new every morning.
I have given you this particular account, as making no doubt of your sym-
pathy, and that you will join with us in the deliverance wrought for us, and in
seeking pity and help in the continued affliction, and grace rightly to improve
both the one and the other. The Lord was very gracious according to his
word, and I felt him to be the lifter up of mine head, while carried through
the deep waters; and my soul blesseth his holy name for this dispensation in
this trial, in which he made me inwardly to rejoice when nothing of that kind
appeared about me. O that I could praise and trust him l he is a skilful pilot,
and one might be very easy in doubtful events, trusting and relying on him,
believing that what is good he will give. I am, &c.”
“ Dec. 14, 1724.
“DR SIR,--I rejoice to hear of the success of your affairs; which you take
as you ought from him who keeps the balance of trade, as well as of crowns
and of kingdoms, in his own hand. , O but the management of the kingdom
of grace must be a great thing! and our Mediator must be well furnished for
the managing of it! since the vast and extensive kingdom of Providence is
put in his hand as a subordinate, there to be administrate in a subserviency to
the kingdom of grace, and to carry on the glorious purposes thereof. He sits
enthroned in Zion; and as Zion's King, his power reaches through the whole
earth, the seas, heaven, and hell! All power is given him everywhere. His
subjects in Zion are but few, but the whole world is rolled hither and thither
for that little, kingdom. For their sakes he sent to Babylon, and brought
down the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships: for it the Babylonian, Persian,
Grecian, and Roman monarchies were brought down. O, Sir, continue to
follow your business in the actual faith of this: and as, when there is a pros-
perous turn in it, you willingly give it under your hand you are the Mediator's
debtor for it; so when there comes about an awkward-like turn at any time,
labour to believe the same hand does it for the best; for this reason, that he
never does any thing but what is best done; which will one day be demon-
strated beyond contradiction. As for the discourses on the covenant of grace,
I have long ago ended that subject; but I am so engaged otherwise, that Í
cannot take it in hand for some time, to be counted by years, for aught I yet
see; and, my years now appear to me in a manner more than formerly uncer-
tain; and I would fain do, as the Lord is pleased to enable, what I conceive
might be of greatest usefulness, as long as life is continued with strength. I
am, DR SIR, &c.” •
. In the year 1725, Mr. Boston corresponded with Professor Gordon of Aber-
deen as to the principles and proposed publication of the Essay on Hebrew
accentuation: . He was advised by that learned gentleman and by Lord Grange
to translate it into Latin; and this he proceeded to do in April 1726. “As I
went on,” says he, “I read something of Cicero, in my leisure-hours, for the
language, and noted in a book some terms and phrases, taken from him, and
others; particularly out of Calepin's dictionary, which Providence had in the
xxxvi MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR,
year 1724 laid to my hand, when I knew not for what use it was designed.
And to this collection I had frequent recourse, while I wrote that book; and
found it to be of good use to me. I had formerly, upon occasion of appearing
in print, done the same as to the English tongue; by which means my style,
that I had been careless of before, was now somewhat refined.” The transla-
tion of the Essay was finished in March 1727; and during the remainder of Mr.
Boston's life, there was carried on an extensive correspondence on the subject,
in which the following distinguished persons took a part—Professor Hamilton
of Edinburgh, D. J. H. Michaelis of Halle, Dr. Waterland, and Sir Richard
Ellys. It was the opinion of some Hebraists then, as it is that of many now,
that the view adopted by Boston attributes undue authority to the punctuation
of the Hebrew Bible. In the course of the correspondence, however, learned
men combined to do honour to the man who, amidst the labours of a ministe-
rial charge, and in the seclusion of a pastoral parish, had produced such a work
as the Latin Essay on the subject. That Essay was published at Amsterdam,
several years after the Author's death, under the title of “Tractatus Stigmo-
logicus Hebræo-Biblicus.”
From the year 1726 onwards till the death of Mr. Boston, the manse of Ettrick
was, to use his own descriptive word, an “hospital.” His excellent wife, who
had long suffered under the hand of God, was now almost entirely confined to
bed; and his own health, which had been variable for many years, was now
sadly broken. During this period of his life, he preached on a variety of sub-
jects appropriate to his own afflicted circumstances and approaching departure.
It was then that he prepared the discourses on Prayer, on “the Crook in the
Lot,” and on “this and the other world,” which constitute such interesting and
precious portions of the present Collection. How he bore his own afflictions,
and how he could administer consolation to others, may appear from the fol-
lowing letters to a Christian friend,-letters finely illustrative of the piety and
kindness of our Author's heart, and of the moral skill and occasional graceful-
ness with which he used his pen:-
- “May 21, 1726.
“D. SIR,--I had yours, with the much affecting account of your loss of a
dear child. I travelled that gloomy road six times, and learned, that God has
other use for children than our comfort; an use far more honourable and happy
for them: and the parents often come to see it afterwards, that it is peculiar
kindness to the dear babes they were so early carried off. It likewise serves
to let in to the sweetness of that word in particular, ‘I will be thy God, and
the God of thy seed.’ While parents are taken up for the eternal salvation of
their dying little ones, and look about to see what the word says with relation
to the case, O do not grudge the freedom, the Lord has used with you, in
pitching upon a precious thing of yours for himself, and accordingly taking it
away. Both of you have offered your all to the Lord: and though, when it
comes to the pinch, the heart is ready to misgive; yet in calm blood I am
persuaded you will stand to the bargain, and check yourselves for any sem-
blance of rueing. The next time you see your child, you will see him shining
white in glory, having been washed ‘in the blood of the Lamb,” who was an
infant, a child, a boy, a youth, as well as a grown man, because he came a
Saviour of infants, little children, &c., as well as of persons come at age.
Perhaps his cries are not yet out of your and his mother's ears; but then you
will see him capable of managing his harp as well as the saint that died an
hundred years ago. Ah! ah! why are we thus not fully satisfied and acqui-
escing in the wise management of the great Counsellor, who puts clouds and
darkness round him, bidding us follow at his back through the cloud, promising
an eternal uninterrupted sunshine on the other side. “Lord, increase our faith,’
is a petition we need to be oft putting up. But I hope the Lord has taught
you and your spouse resignation to the will of him who does all things well.
, MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xxxvii
. But I find it is a difficult lesson to learn: the flesh still spurns and rises against
the rod. And O how difficult is it to get our hows and whys crucified, and to
resolve all into, and rest satisfied in infinite wisdom tempered with covenant-
love! Our affliction is returned to an extremity, and the storm has blown
hard now for some time: but the Lord sits on the flood; and though it seems
to be without all order, yet certainly there is an order in it, though impercep-
tible to our eyes, and the several drops keep their ranks according to the word
of command. I am, with the most endeared respects,” &c. -
“August 6, 1726.
“DEAR SIR,-As to the matter of the sacrament not celebrated here this
season, some things falling out in our session did put me off from aiming at it in
our usual time; which I was otherwise of thoughts of as ordinary: but when
it was so determined to pass the diet, the extreme distress of my wife did per-
fectly confirm me in it. We have had a heavy summer of it in that respect;
which yet continues. We exceedingly need the prayers of our friends; and
know, that several do carry our afflicted case before the Lord; and hope, that
he will at length incline his ear to hear, though the afflicted cries, ‘Why are
his chariot-wheels so long in coming?' It seems we are not yet sufficiently
humbled, and ripe for deliverance. May the Lord himself send forth humbling
influences, and so prepare our hearts, and cause his ear to hear. For my own
part, I am much as when you saw me; the Lord still affording me strength to
go on in the work I was then engaged in; and am not without hopes that he
will carry me through it.
“It would be comfortable to hear of a favourable turn in your wife's afflicted
case; but whatever be in that, the time will come, when the Lord's children,
prisoners of affliction and iron, as the words of the Holy Ghost are, Psal. cvii.
10, will be as light, free, and easy, as if never an iron had been on their legs,
and afflictions on their spirits, nor a prison-door closed on them, if the sun, that
is making post-haste, had made a few rounds more. I am,” &c.
“June 5, 1727.
“W. D. SIR,--The bearer comes for the wine, and will take the same quan-
tity as usual; though I apprehend our throng here will not be so great as some
time heretofore, the same ordinance being to be celebrate the same day in two
places in the neighbourhood from whence people use to come hither. The
bruised serpent, who ordinarily is not idle among us at such a time, has given
us a broadside at this time; but I hope our Lord will see to his own honour.
I remember the word, “A great door and effectual is opened; but there are
many enemies.’
“Our letters show us to be companions in tribulation; and I hope we shall
be companions in victory, everlasting victory. Let us leave it to our Lord
how to carry us through the world; his own glory is at stake, seeing by his
grace we have committed ourselves to him. He is a skilful pilot; and his skill
appears best in guiding the ship among the rocks and shelves. The natural
effect of affliction on a sinner is, to drive him away from God; but we must
consider affliction as an ordinance of God, and the discipline of the covenant,
having a promise annexed to it; and believe the promise; and so the bitter
pill, taken by faith in the vehicle of the promise, will lose its natural efficacy,
and have its instituted one. If your affairs are in confusion, it is not your
riotous living, nor carelessness about them, that has brought them to that pass,
but the overruling providence of God; and so it is not your sin, but your
affliction; and you may have many a time laid your substance, and your all,
at the Lord's feet, never to break with him on any such head, nor any what-
soever. And now word is sent to you about some of it from heaven, as was
sent to the owner of the ass, saying, ‘The Lord hath need of him; i.e. he
xxxviii MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
has use for it for his own glorious purposes. And he can make you an orna-
ment to the gospel in the confused state of your affairs, as well as when they
went on more prosperously. My heart is feelingly touched with your dear
wife's case; but ere all be done, she shall be nothing behind the hand with
her Lord, for all she suffers at his will and pleasure.—The broad blessing of
the covenant be on you and her, and your seed. Pray for us. I am, &c.
“P. S. Ol what think ye? will he not come to the feast!”
“July 22, 1727.
“W. D. SIR,--I had yours of the 11th instant, and was concerned to under-
stand by it, the increasing of your wife's distress, and the additional trial of the
seizing of the ship at Cadiz. Here's work for faith, to see and believe that he
into whose hands the Father hath committed all judgment, doth, in a consist-
ency with his love to our souls, make deep call unto deep, and manages all to
work together for our good. This is too fine a thread to be perceived by the
eye of sense; but by the help of the glass of the word, it may be seen satisfy-
ingly, and believed. Jacob and Job are two very plain instances of saints
meeting with a train of crosses, one upon the neck of another, as if providence
had designed to run them aground, and break them in pieces; and yet we see
also the end of the Lord in these cases, that it was quite otherwise. I have
had use for consulting these instances often; and the first particularly hath
been very staying to me. I cannot but with tender affection observe your
care of my affairs, in midst of your plunges; and it is with some difficulty, in
that respect, that I can lay them to your hand. However, you may consider,
that what of that nature is done, it is for a companion in tribulation, &c. I
am, with tender respects, very D. SIR, yours most affectionately.
“My wife continues as formerly; but the prayers at M-n I found she
had remarkably reaped the benefit of; for which we desire to praise, and thereby
be encouraged to hope.”
“August 26, 1727.
“W. D. SIR,-Yesterday I had yours, together with newspapers, and a
letter from P. Hamilton; some account of . you will meet with in the
enclosed to Mr. Gordon; which I commit to your care, for the forwarding of
it to him. You will perhaps think strange of my writing, in the enclosed, that
passage anent prayers with respect to that affair. I considered ere I did it;
and judging him one that acknowledgeth the Lord in his ways, as well as I,
and that it might be of use for exciting and encouraging him for his part of the
work he has undertaken, and that it may abide the censure of the learned,
being Christians, I gave that general account of the thing. As for Prof.
Gordon's differing from me in the matter of expressing the dignity of the
accents, by marks of our own stigmatology; he does not refuse it simply, but
only that always, and everywhere, they are to be expressed by the same marks;
and this depends upon the question, whether the value of the accents is ambu-
latory or fixed; in which there is a main difference betwixt Wasmuth and the
MS.; the former holding it to be ambulatory; so that, e.g., ATHNACH may
be expressed by a colon in one verse, but in another only by a comma; the
latter holding it to be fixed. This I have no doubt of, and I hope it will
make its way through prejudices by the divine blessing. I find Mrs. G. has
had a trial by the way home. I rejoice that she was pitied of our gracious
God, and that her son recovered. . That is the discipline of our Father's family,
by which they are conformed to the image of Christ, that he may appear the
first-born among many brethren. It sincerely touches me to hear that your
wife's affliction is continued, and for the time growing worse, so that you fear
the issue. I understand that very well, through long experience of such fears,
not only of late years, but even formerly. That is a vanity that attends all
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xxxix
our earthly enjoyments; the more dear they are to us, the more piercing fears
and sorrows arise to us from fear of losing them: but I hope your Father will
stay his rough wind in the day of his east wind; and your Lord, Head, and
Husband, who is at the helm, will carry you safe even where two seas meet.
Our broken ship has been long in a storm, and yet we are not within eye-sight
of land; but we hope to get through, and stand upon the shore yet, and sing
and say, He has done all things well; and would say to you our fellow-voy-
agers, Fear not, we will all get safe ashore at length. When I came home
from Galashiels, I found matters had been, and were extraordinarily ill: yet the
Lord kept me, that I was not staggered, but that I was still to pray, and not
to faint, on the credit of the word he tells us; and it was not in vain; and since
that time we have been down and up. D. Sir, let us, by all means, endeavour
to believe, and hang on, and beware of surmises of ill designs of Heaven
against us to appear in end, as we would beware of coals of hell flung into our
breasts. God is love. Amen. I am as formerly.”
“January 27, 1728.
“W. D. SIR,-The last letter I had from you gave a very affecting account
of the increase of your wife's indisposition, of the trial of your affairs continuing
without any prospect as yet of an issue. When the storm is hard where two
seas meet, great is the hazard of fainting; but patience must have her perfect
work. These things are designed, I believe, by a holy wise God, not against
you, but against the unrenewed part in you, called in scripture the flesh, which
is not to be amended, but to be mortified gradually till it die out in the close
of the spiritual warfare; at which time the new creature will be perfected, and
the image of God, that is never on the whole soul, will wholly occupy every
part of the soul, through full and perfecting supplies of grace from Christ the
Head, not communicate during the course of this life. Then will be fully
seen the beauty of these perplexing dispensations, the necessity of them, and
every one of them, which is now to be believed, but not to be clearly seen, by
reason of the remains of darkness that is to be found together with the light of
grace in the mind. Be we so happy as to take part with the Spirit against
the flesh in this war; and though this last complain under great hardships
put upon it, let us secretly rejoice, that the Lord is at such pains to advance
mortification in us, that we º be still aiming to be as weaned children, and
look upon your afflictions as what the Lord is laying on, to conform you to
the image of his Son, whereof suffering and holiness are joint parts. If we
suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. . These things I aim at to stay
my own heart with them in the afflicted lot he has pleased to carve out for me,
and have found some advantage thereby in my case, wherein the waters break
in at several hands at once too. My wife's case has made notable advances
this season, in point of growing weakness; and the gravel has come heavily on
me, insomuch that the two last weeks I had two sore fits of it each week, and
still it hangs about. I am, D. SIR, yours, &c., me.”
“April 13, 1728.
“W. D. SIR,--It is long now since we had an occasion to the town. We
have had a very threatening season; and the effects of the Lord's anger are
found in the country, both on the sown ground, and on the flocks. And I see
the Lord's own children, in common calamity, miss not their leal share; so
that all falls alike to all in respect of the matter. But O the difference that
there is in the manner of conveyance! The two covenants are very different
channels of conveyance; and it is the work of faith to perceive the coming of
trials in the way of the covenant of grace, wherein the heaviest things bring
down blessings with them. It has been something relieving to me of late, in
consideration of the Lord's hand, gone out against me, and many of my dear
friends in Christ, that whereas it is now a time of the church's peace; and
xl MEMOIR of THE AUTHOR,
others that went before us in the way of the Lord to the kingdom, through
much tribulation, some suffering the spoiling of their goods, some long and
tedious imprisonments, some the loss of their relations, lives, &c., and all these
were needful to purify and make them white in giving evidence of their love to
the Lord; the Lord is making up that want to us another way, bringing about
to us, by his own immediate hand, or by the hands of naughty men, the same
things on the matter as he did formerly by the hand of persecutors. Now it
is his to make choice of the manner of our trial; it is our part to take it as they
did; and our work shall be rewarded, even our suffering work. My wife is
brought through the additional storm; and it pleased the great manager not
to carry her back again into the main sea at the time I last wrote to you.
She is now returned to her ordinary, which is great and continued trial; but
of late the Lord has been pleased to make his refreshing visits to her soul
somewhat more frequent than formerly. I long to hear how it is with your
wife, the prisoner of Jesus Christ with you: they will both hear at length,
“Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.’ And I am, W. D. SIR, yours
affectionately.” -
“October 5, 1728. -
“W. D. SIR,--I am in health, through the goodness of God; enabled to
pursue my public work, and to do some little thing in my closet. I should be
glad to hear of some relaxation continuing in your wife's case, and of some
outgate in your affairs. Afflictions are appointed means of sanctification,
which, I am persuaded, is as great a mystery, as our justification is the work
of the Spirit carrying it on by several means, all of them concurring to the
effect, is a great depth. We see, the forming and nourishing of the natural
body is a thing we perceive very little as to the way how it is brought about:
what wonder that we can so little comprehend the forming and nourishing of
the new creature? which should move us to endeavour to live by faith, believing
what we see not, and to yield ourselves willingly, without disputing, unto the
Spirit's method with us, though some of the means may be in their own nature
pinching. The promoting the growth of the new creature, requires the bear-
ing down and subduing the old man; and to this effect, even sharp and long
trials all have enough ado. May we be aiming at this temper of spirit. I
am, W. D. SIR, yours,” &c.
“April 19, 1729.
“W. D. SIR,--I see by yours, that your wife continues sickly, and that
your affair with that man is not like to have any comfortable issue. But, in
the meantime, Providence supports. I have, of a considerable time, observed
that Providence has been directing particular strokes against the most serious
odly of my acquaintance; but it has here, of late, made such steps of that
kind on the bodies and substance of those in whom I had most comfort, whereof
some removed by death, that I think judgment is begun at the house of God,
as a sign of more to follow. For my own part, I am kept close in the furnace,
and the receipt of your letters last week, came very seasonably for some refresh-
ment to me in the course of Providence. My wife has had a fever again, since
the beginning of this month, and an unusual sinking of the spirit is brought
in by it. I was comforted this day, reading, in my ordinary, the Queen of
Sheba's admiring particularly Solomon's ascent by which he went up to the
house of the Lord: he was a type of Christ. We hear, while here, the report
of the ascent by which Christ brings his people to the temple above: when
we see it in the word indeed by faith, we say, it becomes his wisdom; but
when we look into it with our eyes, there are so many turnings and windings
in it, so many black steps, we know not what to make of it many times. But
O! to think of the view will be got of it in Immanuel's own land. We will
be wrapt into admiration of that ascent, and see the beauty of every step
thereof, &c. I am with great regard for you and yours, V. D. SIR,” &c.
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xli
“ Nov. 22, 1729.
“D. SIR,-My daughter gives but a sorry account of your wife's health.
These bodies of ours, that bear the image of the first Adam, are pieces of
wretched matter; and must be more so, till they be reduced to dust, of which
they were originally framed. But we must comfort ourselves in the believing
expectation of the new-fashioning of them, after the image of the second
Adam, the Lord from heaven; in which fashion they will be incorruptible,
glorious, powerful, and spiritual bodies. It is observed that bodies, the higher
they are lifted up towards heaven, they become less ponderous, the lighter:
this may help to some notion of the spiritualness of our raised bodies, when all
relation betwixt them and this cursed earth is dissolved, and we are in heaven.
I am, DEAR SIR, affectionately,” &c.
In the midst of much affliction, Boston persevered in study. In the year
1727, he revised the “Fourfold State,”—a second edition of which was pub-
lished at the close of 1729. In the former year, he also began a little work,
printed after his death, on a portion of the Shorter Catechism. In 1728 and
1729, he prepared for the press his well-known work on the Covenant of
Grace, and in the latter year, his Memorial on Fasting. It was not, however,
till 1734 that these two productions of his pen appeared—in which year they
were published together. When called away to a world where “there is no
more pain, neither sorrow, nor crying,” he had entered on the revision of his
discourses on “the Crook in the Lot,”—but he did not live to complete the
undertaking.
In 1729, sentence was pronounced by the General Assembly, in the case of
Mr. John Simson, Professor of Theology in Glasgow—against whom the
charge of teaching heretical doctrine respecting the person of Christ and the
Blessed Trinity had been clearly proved. Of this Assembly Mr. Boston was
a member. Satisfied that Simson should have been deposed, he stood alone
in resistance to the Act by which a previous sentence of suspension was con-
firmed. An account of the part which he acted on the occasion is contained
in a printed letter from Mr. Davidson of Braintree, who seems to have wit-
nessed the scene in the Assembly; and in the published Correspondence of
Wodrow, some details are given of what our Author said and did in the matter.
Boston's own narrative, however, is the most satisfactory of the three. “I
waited,” says he, “on the Assembly punctually, and on the private meeting
of those against Simson at the Spread Eagle. Though the major part of the
Assembly were clear for deposing him, I found it necessary to propose one
night to that meeting, what we should do in case it were carried against us?
But they seemed not inclined to consult about that. They seemed to me to
be inclined to oppose the committing of that affair to a committee, as what
might tend to break us. But at length that was the issue in the Assembly,
to refer it to a committee to bring in an overture about it. This I opposed in
the Assembly; but was seconded by none but Colonel Erskine. The affair was
in agitation whole eight days, managed with as great gravity as ever I was
witness to in an Assembly. The night before it was determined, being at the
private meeting aforesaid, and observing how they were disposed, I stole away
with a sorrowful heart, and left them. I went to my chamber, and there
alone considered what course I was to take; and on the morning drew up a
paper in shorthand, to be used or not, as the case should appear to me to
require. That morning I had an appointment with Professor Gordon at the
Spread Eagle, at eight o'clock; and coming thither at that time, I was con-
veyed into that very room where the meeting aforesaid was always kept.
While I waited there alone, I put the writing foresaid, being a dissent, in
mundos in long, hand. And nobody at all coming near me, by the time I
was done it was time for me to go to the Assembly; and so I went off. Favour-
xlii MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
able and kind was that providence, that Mr. Gordon kept not the appoint-
ment; as it was remarkable, that I behoved to come to that room for writing
that dissent, where also I was left alone. In the Assembly, the committee's
overture was produced: the putting it to a vote was carefully guarded against,
and the affair was brought to a push, by the proposing to the Assembly an
acquiescing; and though several had declared they were for deposition, yet all
seemed, for peace's sake, to acquiesce. Finding I durst not acquiesce, Iarose,
and said, ‘I dissent, in my own name, and in name of all that shall adhere to
me:’ and finding nobody at all to declare their adherence, I added, “and for
myself alone, if nobody shall adhere.'. Whereupon I was gravely accosted by
the Moderator to bring me off from it. And when he had done speaking, I
not being satisfied, had the paper ready; and with an audible voice formall
made my dissent, by reading it before them. The tenor thereof follows:– I
dissent, as judging it, inasmuch as it doth not bear a deposition of Mr. Simson
from the office of the ministry, of teaching and preaching the gospel of the
blessed God, to be no just testimony of this church's indignation against the
dishonour done by the said Mr. Simson to our glorious Redeemer, the great
God and our Saviour, and what hath been found both relevant and proved
against him by the two immediately preceding General Assemblies; and
judging the same also not to be agreeable to the rule of God’s word in such
cases, nor to the form of process established in this church; to be saddening
to the hearts of the generality of the ministers and godly through the land,
and not sufficient to dash the hopes of the proud contemners of revealed re-
ligion, and the awful and incomprehensible mysteries of the same, both at
home and abroad; nor a fit means to bring the said Mr. Simson himself to
repentance, whereof as yet he hath given no evidence. All which shall be
fully manifested to the world, if need be.’ Hereupon the Moderator spoke to
me very pathetically; and I stood, hearing all, gravely, without .#
until he said, ‘Will you tear out the bowels of your mother? Whereunto I,
being sensibly touched, replied, That if I had the conviction of that's being
the tendency thereof, I would rather take it, (the paper I read,) and tear it in
a thousand pieces. I had also before expressed my continued charity to those
of my acquaintance who were for the overture. Then the marking of the
dissent was proposed, and I was urged not to insist in that. I said it might
be marked, and that I might afterward consider thereof, and there was still
room to take it up. This was by good providence overruled. At length, by
Prof. Hamilton's means, I obtained, that the not insisting on the marking of
it for that time, should not preclude my access thereto in a subsequent diet.
This was granted, and the matter ended for that time. At that time Mr.
Gabriel Wilson, though not a member, craved, and obtained leave to speak,
and delivered himself briefly, as follows:—“ Moderator, In regard I am per-
suaded this sentence does not duly serve to glorify God our Saviour, nor to
preserve this church upon him as the foundation; and in regard it is nowise
agreeable to the mind of the Church of Scotland, made known to this Assem-
bly; and that it will, I am afraid, (or I am confident,) hasten bringing wrath
upon this church,--I therefore declare my testimony against it. Culfargie
also spake something, showing his dissatisfaction with the Assembly’s decision:
but neither was he a member. As soon as I could, I got to my chamber, to
consider of my now difficult situation; and in a little time after was sent for
to meet with some ministers. When I came, I found Mr. Hog, and the two
Erskines, and, I suppose, some other. They began to speak of their adhering
to my dissent. I thought this too precipitant, judging they should first of all
have considered what was expedient for me to do in my present situation; and
that the proper way for them, not being members, was, in case of my insisting,
to declare their adherence after, by a writing under their hand, to be tacked
to it in case of publication. So I was going away, that I might consider
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. - xliii
alone what was proper for me; but was kept; and several other ministers of
the party against Mr. Simson came in, with Mr. Charles Erskine, and the
Colonel. They began to direct their discourse to me, and some of them spoke
with a keenness very uneasy to me. So I was obliged to tell them, that the
meeting was not called by me, but I was sent for to it, and came, judging the
design thereof to be a friendly consultation of what was to be done by me in
my present circumstances; that what I had done, I had not done rashly ; and
that I was content to overhear what they should discourse among themselves
on that point, and afterwards should consider of it, and regulate my conduct
as I should find freedom. And then I went off to a side in the room, that
they might not direct their discourse to me. So they spoke upon it, and
showed they were against my insisting. Having come to my chamber, I con-
sidered my case alone, and on the morrow morning drew up my resolution in
another paper, which I determined to read to the Assembly. And having
caused one intimate to the Moderator aforehand the nature of my resolution,
that they might take no alarm at my offering to speak again, I did that day,
after reading of the minutes, the house being full, crave leave to be heard,
with reference to the advice given me yesterday from the chair. Which being
granted, I did with an audible voice say, reading, as follows:—‘Moderator, I
have, according to your desire, considered again my dissenting from the sentence
and decision of this venerable Assembly in the affair of Mr. Simson: and as
it was out of no design to break in upon the peace of this church, but for the
necessary exoneration of my own conscience, that I did formally declare my
dissent in that matter; so I can see no ground to retract it, and therefore am
far from retracting the same. Yet, forasmuch as the marking of it in your
records, which is the only thing that now remains, in that matter, is judged
by my very reverend fathers and brethren of this Assembly, to be of dangerous
consequence to the peace of this church, which I think myself obliged in con-
science to be very tender of, I do not insist for the marking of it in your
records: but having the dissent, as I declared it, by me, in writ, from which I
read it before this venerable Assembly; and having also in writing what I
have now delivered, I am resolved, through grace, to make such use of the
same afterward, as pressing necessity, in any undesirable event, may be judged
to require.’ Which said, I immediately sat down; and the Assembly seemed
to be well satisfied.” -
Warned by his bodily weakness of his approaching end, Mr. Boston, in the
course of this year, arranged his temporal affairs, and engaged in a course of
devotion and self-examination with a special reference to death. He, at the
same time, persevered in his ministerial work, although less competent than
formerly for its more active duties. Referring to the year 1730, he writes:
“It had been my manner for a long time, besides the catechising the parish
already mentioned, to have diets of catechising those of the younger sort; and
they met in the kirk, sometimes in my house. What time I began this course,
I do not remember: but I think it has been early; for I learned it from Mr.
Charles Gordon, minister of Ashkirk, whom I found so employed in his house
when I went at a time to visit him; and he died, at furthest, in the year 1710.
By this course I got several young people of both sexes trained up to a good
measure of knowledge; some of whom unto this day are solid and knowing
Christians; but it suffered some interruptions. The time I found fittest for
it, on their part, was from January to the beginning of May; and the whole
youth of the parish who were disposed, and had access to wait on, came
together, and were welcome; as were others also, who inclined to hear. The
intimation of their first diet was made from the pulpit; and then from time to
time I set, and signified to them, their next diet: ordinarily they met once
a-fortnight, sometimes once in twenty days only, sometimes once a-week, as
occasion required. Several times these meetings were closed with a warm
xliv MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
-i.
13.
!
;
§
exhortation to practical religion; the which I sometimes used also in the diets
of catechising the parish. Thus this accessory work fell in the time when
ordinarily I was weakest; and of late years, that my frailty notably increased,
I wanted not inclination sometimes to give it over. But that I might the
better comport with it, I did some years ago cause make a portable iron grate
in which I had a fire in the kirk to sit at, on these occasions. This year, after
I had once and again found myself fail mightily in diets for the parish, through
bodily inability, the time of beginning this course was returning; and the Lord
pitied and helped again in another diet for the parish. So I was encouraged,
and began that course again at the ordinary time, not daring as yet to give it
over: and, through the mercy of God, it was yet carried on as usual.”
On the 2d day of January, 1732, Boston began to preach, from Rev. x. 6,
7, on the end of time and the conclusion of the mystery of God. This subject
he prosecuted till the 26th of March. On the 2d and 9th of April, from a
window of the manse, he delivered the discourse on self-examination with which
the present Selection terminates. He delivered it—and preached no more. He
was now labouring under a scorbutic affection, which gradually tended towards
a fatal issue. He anticipated the result with Christian hope and courage; and
yet, there is something touching in the following note, written by him, a few
weeks before his death, to a friend in Edinburgh:—
“MY VERY DEAR SIR,--I am obliged downright to acquaint you, that I
have been of a considerable time, and am still in an apparently dying condition.
All business is quite given over; and I can no more, as matters stand, corre-
spond with any about the MSS. or any thing else, but must leave them to the
Lord, and the management of my friends, as he shall direct them. I do not
doubt but your God, who has seen meet to row you into deep waters, will in
due time bring you out; but there is need of patience. -
“I cannot insist. The eternal God be your refuge, and underneath the
everlasting arms, and plentifully reward your twelve years' most substantial
friendship.–I am, very dear SIR, yours most affectionately,” &c.
On the 20th day of May, 1732, Thomas Boston died—scarcely old in years,
but weary with labour and meet for heaven. -
To the published Works which appeared in his life-time a large addition
has been made, since his death, by a succession of Editors, who have, more or
less judiciously, availed themselves of the access which they had to his manu-
scripts. His writings, and not least of all, the Memoirs of his own life which
he left behind him for the use of his family—from which somewhat copious
extracts have been made in the present Sketch—combine with the recorded
testimonies of those who lived with him on the terms of Christian friendship,
to afford a clear and comprehensive view of his personal and public character.
Converted in boyhood to the faith and love of Christ, he devoted a large por-
tion of his life to the service of the best of Masters, and the promotion of the
best of causes. He was truly a “man of God,” not in respect of office and
profession merely, but in respect of thought, and feeling, and action. He took
God’s law for the standard of his conduct, God’s promises for the ground of
his hope, God's favour and fellowship for the fountain of his joy, and God
himself for the portion of his soul. A practice which, in his Body of Divinity,
he earnestly recommends to others, he habitually, and even systematically,
followed—that of tracing and pondering on the ways of Providence; and the
Kindred duty of self-examination—one of the last which he publicly enforced—
he himself, to the close of life, continued to observe. Even when the darkness
which sometimes gathered on his soul may reasonably suggest a doubt whether
\º always carried on this twofold work judiciously, the sincerity of aim, the
honesty of purpose, may well secure the respect of the observer. His natural
timidity occasionally obscured the vigour of his intellect, and his shyness and
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xlv.
reserve were apt to conceal the tenderness of his feelings. . But he has left
substantial proof that his understanding, as well as his conscience, was acute,
and that the heart so susceptible to devotion was also awake to the claims of
friendship and the cry of woe. It is unfortunate that, with respect to one or
two theological points, more especially the nature of justifying faith, he did
not employ rather more of logical discrimination, and scriptural simplicity of
speech. But the great mass of his theology is the precious ore of substantial
and saving truth—the doctrine which apostles preached, for which martyrs
died, and the restoration of which in its right proportions and relations consti-
tutes one of the noblest and most valuable triumphs of the Protestant Refor-
|
mation. The “Fourfold State” has proved one of the most useful uninspired
books in the English language—let it live on till the day of doom. It has
instruction for the ignorant, admonition for the careless, counsel for the per-
plexed, consolation for the wretched. Scriptural soundness of doctrine is com-
bined with great force of illustration. . The style is such as beseems the subject
and the matter—clear, simple, energetic, nor always destitute of rich and graceful
ornament. All the writings of our Author do not rise to so high a level—but
it is much to say, as may be reasonably done, that, in this Collection, that
admirable work appears in fit society, and that the other productions of Boston
there presented are not unworthy of him who penned the “Fourfold State.”
Mr. Boston has been thus described by his intimate friends, Messrs. Colden,
Davidson, and Wilson. “He was of a stature above the middle size; of a
venerable, amiable aspect; of a strong and fruitful genius; of a lively imagi-
nation, such as affords what is called a ready wit, which instead of cultivating,
he laid under a severe restraint; of tender affections; a clear and solid judg-
ment; his temper candid, modest, cautious, benevolent, obliging, and courte-
ous; had a natural aversion to any thing rude or uncivil in words or behaviour,
and a delicate feeling, in case of meeting with aught of that sort; could be
heavy and severe in his words, when there was just occasion, or he judged the
same necessary. He was early called by divine grace; all along afterwards,
exercised unto godliness; walked indeed with God, in all his ways daily
acknowledging him; frequent in solemn, extraordinary applications to Heaven,
(viz. upon every new emergent of duty, difficulty, or trial,) followed with
evident, comfortable, and confirming testimonies of divine acceptance and
audience; a judicious observer, recorder, and improver of the dispensations of
divine providence, in connection with the word, his own frame and walk, and
consequently of great experience in religion. He was accurately and exten-

** = &ºxº~ * *
sively regardful of the divine law, in all manner of life and conversation, even
in things that escape the notice of the most part of Christians; of a tender
conscience, carefully watching against and avoiding the appearance of evil;
compassionate, and sympathizing with the distressed; charitable to the needy;
a dutiful husband; an indulgent father; a sincere, a faithful, and an affectionate
friend; to which he had a particular cast in his temper, which proved a rich
blessing to those who were favoured with his friendship. He was a consider-
able scholar in all the parts of theological learning, and excelled in some of
them. What he was for a humanist, even toward the latter end of his days,
his translation of his own work on the Hebrew accentuation into good Roman
Latin will abundantly testify. Was well seen in the Greek; and for the skill
he attained in the Hebrew, he will, we are satisfied, in ages to come, be ad-
mired, and had in honour by the learned world; especially when it is under-
stood, under what disadvantages, in what obscurity and seclusion from learned
assistances, the work was composed; and when it is considered how far, not-
withstanding, he has outstripped all that went before him, in that study, viz
of the Hebrew accentuation. He understood the French, and for the sake of
comparing translations, could read the Dutch Bible. There were few pieces
of learning that he had not some good taste of. But all his knowledge behoved
xlvi MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
to be otherwise discovered than by professing of it. He was a hard student,
of indefatigable application, so that whatever he was once heartily engaged
in, he knew not to quit, till by help from Heaven, and incessant labour, he got
through it. Had a great knowledge and understanding of human nature, of
the most proper methods of addressing it, and the most likely handles for
catching holding of it. He had an admirable talent at drawing a paper, which
made a statesman,” a very able judge say, when Mr. Boston was clerk of the
synod of Merse and Teviotdale, that he was the best clerk he had ever
known, in any court, civil or ecclesiastical. An admirer of other men's
gifts and parts, liberally giving them their due praise, even though in some
things they differed from him: far from censorious, assuming, or detracting.—
As a minister, he had on his spirit a deep and high sense of divine things;
was mighty in the scriptures, in his acquaintance with the letter, with the
spirit and sense of them, in happily applying and accommodating them, for
explaining and illustrating the subject. His knowledge and insight in the
mystery of Christ was great; though a humbling sense of his want of it was
like to have quite sunk and laid him by, after he began to preach. He had a
peculiar talent for going deep into the mysteries of the gospel, and at the same
time for :#; aſ “ºn's-s-“.: -

hem plain; making intelligible their connection with, and
influence upon gospel holiness; notable instances of which may be seen in his
most valuable ‘Treatise of the Covenant,’ and in his ‘Sermons of Christ in
the form of a Servant.’ His invention was rich, but judiciously bounded; his
thoughts were always just, and often new ; his expressions proper and pure;
his illustrations and similes often surprising; his method natural and clear; his
delivery grave and graceful, with an air of earnestness, meekness, assurance,
and authority, tempered together. No wonder his ministrations in holy things
were all of them dear and precious to the saints. He was fixed and established,
upon solid and rational grounds, in the reformation principles, in opposition to
popery, prelacy, superstition, and persecution; was pleasant and lively in con-
versation, but always with a decorum to his character; quite free of that
sourmess of temper, or ascetical rigidity, that generally possesses men of a
retired life. He fed and watched with diligence the flock over which the
Holy Ghost made him overseer; and notwithstanding his eager pursuit of that
study which was his delight, he abated nothing of his preparation for the
Sabbath, nor his work abroad in the parish; nor did he so much as use the
shorthand, whereof he was master, but always wrote out his sermons fair, and
generally as full as he preached them; far from serving the Lord with that
which cost him nothing, it was his delight to spend and be spent in the service
of the gospel; was a faithful, and at the same time a prudent, reprover of sin;
was endued with a rich measure of Christian wisdom and prudence, without
craft or guile, whereby he was exceedingly serviceable in judicatories, and
excellently fitted for counsel in intricate cases; zeal and knowledge were in
him united, to a pitch rarely to be met with. Had a joint concern for purity
and peace in the church; no man more zealous for the former, and at the same
time more studious of the latter; having observed and felt so much of the mis-
chief of division and separation, was exceeding cautious and scrupulous of any
thing new or unprecedented, until he was thoroughly satisfied of its necessity
and ground. It was his settled mind, that solidly and strongly to establish
|
the truth, was in many cases the best, the shortest, and most effectual way to
; confute error, without irritating and inflaming the passions of men, to their
own, and to the truth’s prejudice; on all which accounts he was much respected
and regarded, by not only his brethren that differed from him, but generally
by all sorts of men. To conclude, he was a scribe singularly instructed into
the kingdom—happy in finding out acceptable words—a workman that needed
* “Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood.”
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, xlvii
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth—a burning and a shining
light. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.” His friends
add: “Though a skilful hand might, in fewer words, have drawn his charac-
ter to much better purpose, there is no partiality, by overdoing in what is said,
if intimate friendship for many years, and the account of his own life done by
himself, are allowed for competent evidence.”
The Rev. Thomas Davidson of Braintree thus writes respecting our Author:
—“The acquaintance I had with him, and the frequent opportunities I had
of hearing him preach, I look upon as one of the greatest privileges wherewith
I was favoured in my early days, and which I still reflect on with great plea-
sure. He was indeed one of the most powerful preachers I ever heard open a
mouth. It is true, he was no Boanerges, as to his voice, his delivery being
grave and deliberate; yet there was a majestic energy in it which, together
with his venerable and comely aspect, made no small impression to his advan-
tage, on the minds of those who had the pleasure of hearing him. There were
but few men, if any, in his day who courted popularity less than he did;
nay, he rather shunned it: but, like his shadow, it followed him wherever he
went; for his ministrations were savoury and acceptable to all who had a relish
for the truth as it is in Jesus, and a love to that holiness of heart and life,
which the belief of it never fails to influence in the minds of all the children of
God.” .
To these tributes may be added the following sketch which Boston gives of
himself at the end of his Autobiography:—“That cast of temper whereby I
was naturally slow, timorous, and diffident, but eager in pursuit when once
engaged; as it early discovered itself, so, I think, it hath spread itself all along,
through the whole of my course. It hath been a spring of much uneasiness
to me, in the course of my life; in that I was thereby naturally fond, where I
loved. Yet I cannot but observe that my God hath made a valuable use of
it; especially in my studies, combating special difficulties therein, till sur-
mounted by his favour. Agreeable unto it, I was not of a quick apprehen-
sion; but had a gift of application: and things being once discovered, I was
no more wavering in them. I was addicted to silence, rather than to talking.
I was no good spokesman, but very unready even in common conversation;
and in disputes especially at a loss, when engaged with persons of great assur-
ance: the disadvantage of which last I often found in Ettrick, where an un-
common assurance reigned. The touching of my spirit, so as to set me above
fear, the moving of my affections, and being once well dipped into the matter,
were necessary to give me an easy exercise of my faculties, in these and other
extempore performances. My talent lay in doing things by a close application,
with pains and labour. I had a tolerable faculty at drawing of papers: yet no
faculty at dictating, but behoved to have the pen in my own hand: and even
in that case it would often have been a while ere I could enter on. Accord-
ingly, as for my sermons, it was often hard for me to fix on a text; the which
hath ofttimes been more wasting and weakening to me, than the study of my
sermon thereon. I studied my sermons with the pen in my hand, my matter
coming to me as I wrote, and the bread increasing in the breaking of it: if at
any time I walked, it was occasioned by my sticking. Meanwhile, it would
frequently have been long ere I got the vein of my subject struck: but then I
could not be easy, unless I thought I had hit it. Thence it was, I often tore
out what I had written, and began anew again; but ordinarily I found, this
turned to my greatest comfort and satisfaction, in end falling upon the vein.
Hence it was not my manner to shift from text to text; but to insist long on
an ordinary; the closing of which at length I readily found to relish as much
with myself and the serious godly as the other parts preceding. Thus also I
was much addicted to peace, and averse to controversy; though once engaged
therein, I was set to go through with it. I had no great difficulty to retain a
t
xlviii MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
due honour and charity for my brethren differing from me in opinion and prac-
tice: but then I was in no great hazard neither of being swayed by them to
depart from what I judged truth or duty. Withal it was easy to me to yield
to them in things wherein I found not myself in conscience bound up. What-
ever precipitant steps I have made in the course of my life, which I desire to
be humbled for, rashness in conduct was not my weak side. But since the
Lord, by his grace, brought me to consider things, it was much my exercise
to discern sin and duty in particular cases; being afraid to venture on things,
until I should see myself called thereto: but when the matter was cleared to
me, I generally stuck fast by it, being as much afraid to desert the way which
I took to be pointed out to me. And this I sincerely judge to have been the
spring of that course of conduct upon which Mr. James Ramsay above-men-
tioned did, before the commission anno 1717, in my hearing, give me the
following character, viz., that if I thought myself right, there would be no
diverting of me by any means. I never . the art of º; rich; nor could
I ever heartily apply myself to the managing of secular affairs. Even the
secular way of managing the discipline of the church was so unacceptable to
me, that I had no heart to dip in the public church-management. What
appearances I made at any time in these matters, were not readily in that way.
I had a certain averseness to the being laid under any notable obligation to
others, and so was not fond of gifts, especially in the case of any whom I had
to deal with as a minister. And Providence so ordered that I had little trial
of that kind. I easily perceived, that in that case “the borrower is servant to
the lender.’”
“HE BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH.”—Heb. xi. 4.
H U M A N N A T U R E .
FourFold state
PRIMITIVE INTEGRITY, N r THE PARENTs of MANKIND
- IN PARADISE.
ENTIRE DEPRAVATION, THE UNREGENERATE,
BEGUN RECOVERY, THE REGENERATE.
*
i
<
AND ConsumMATE HAPPINEss ALL MANKIND IN THE FUTURE
oR MISERY, ~ \ . STATE.
IN SEVERAL
PRACTICAL DIsco URSEs.
John ii. 24, 25.—“But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,
and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”
LUKE ix. 55.-“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
Prov, xxvii. 19–" As in water face answereth to face; so the heart of man to man.”
P. R. E. F. A. C. E.
IT is a maxim among wise men, that the knowledge of persons is of as great use in
the conduct of human life, as the knowledge of things: and it is most certain, that
he who knows the various tempers, humours, and dispositions of men, who can find
out their turn of thought, and penetrate into the secret springs and principles of
their actings, will not be at a loss to find out proper means for compassing his aims,
will easily preserve himself from snares, and either evite or overcome difficulties.
But the knowledge of human nature, morally considered, or, in other words, of the
temper and disposition of the soul in its moral powers, is of much greater value ;
as it is of use in the concerns of an unchangeable life and world. He who is pos-
sessed of so valuable a branch of knowledge, is thereby capacitated to judge aright
of himself, to understand true Christianity, and to conceive justly of perfect happi-
ness and consummate misery.
The depravity of human nature is so plainly taught, yea, inculcated in sacred
scripture, and is so obvious to every thinking man's observation, who searches his
own breast, and reflects duly on his temper and actings, that it is surprisingly
strange and wonderful, how it comes to pass that this important truth is so little
understood, yea, so much disbelieved, by men who bear the name of Gospel-min-
isters. Are there not persons to be found in a neighbouring nation, in the charac-
ter of preachers, appearing daily in pulpits, who are so unacquainted with their
Bibles and themselves, that they ridicule the doctrine of original sin as unintelli-
gible jargon ? If they are persons of a moral life and conversation, they seem to
imagine they cannot become better than they are ; if they are immoral, they seem
to indulge a conceit that they can become virtuous, yea, religious, when they please,
These are the men who talk of the dignity of human nature, of greatness of mind,
nobleness of Soul, and generosity of spirit; as if they intended to persuade them-
selves and others, that pride is a good principle ; and do not know that pride and
selfishness are the bane of mankind, and productive of all the wickedness, and much
of the misery to be found in this and the other world; and is indeed that wherein
the depravity of human nature properly consists.
Upright Adam's nature faintly adumbrated the divine, in a moderated self.
esteem, an adequate self-love, and delightful reflection on his own borrowed ex-
cellency, regulated by a just esteem of, and supreme love to, his adored Creator;
whence a peaceful serenity of mind, a loving, compassionate, and benevolent dispo-
sition of soul, a depth of thought, and brightness of imagination, delightfully em-
ployed in the rapturous contemplation of his beloved Maker's infinite perfections:
thus bearing the divine image, and resembling God that made him. But no sooner
did he disobey the divine probatory command, than the scales were cast ; his
moderated self-esteem degenerated into pride, his adequate self-love shrunk into
mere selfishness, and his delightful reflections on his own excellency varied into
the tickling pleasures of vanity and conceit; he lost view of the Author of his being,
and thenceforth, instead of delighting in him, first dreaded, and then despised him.
The modest, and therefore hitherto anonymous author of the following discourses,
Mr. Thomas Boston, having handled this subject, in preaching to his own obscure
parochial congregation at Ettrick, in the sheriffdom of Selkirk, had a particular
view to their benefit in printing and publishing them; and therefore the style and
4 PREFACE.
method is plain and simple, and the first edition printed on a coarse paper: but the
subject is so comprehensive and important, so well managed, and the book has been
So well received, that it now appears in the world, more embellished, as well as
better corrected than formerly.
Let it suffice to recommend it to those who have a right taste for genuine Chris-
tianity, that all the author's notions flow so directly from the sacred fountain, that
it is to be doubted if he has had much recourse to any other helps than his Bible
and his God, for assistance. Mean time, I am aware of an exception from those
who rank themselves among the polite part of mankind, as that there is the same
harsh peculiarity of dialect in it, which is commonly to be found in books of prac-
tical divinity. But I beg leave to observe, that the dialect they except against
is borrowed from sacred scripture ; and like as “it has pleased God, by the foolish-
mess of preaching to save them that believe,” so also to countenance what they are
displeased with, by the operations of his Spirit on the minds of true Christians, as
their common experience witnesseth. However, I heartily wish the exception
were altogether removed, by some persons digesting into a methodical treatise, the
views of human nature in its primitive perfection, in its depraved condition, and in
its retrieved state, who is master of modern style, and thoroughly understands the
subjects discoursed in this book, that, by “becoming all things to all men, some,”
viz. of all ranks and kinds of men, “may be gained.”
I am not to declaim at large in favour of religion; this were to write a book
by way of preface. Many able pens have been employed in recommending it to
the world, by strong arguments drawn from its usefulness to society, its suitable-
ness to the dignity of the rational nature, and the advantages arising to men from
; it in this and in the other world. But, after all, may not one be allowed to doubt,
if religion be rightly understood by all its patrons ? May not the beauties and ex-
cellencies of a precious gem be elegantly described by a naturalist, or jeweller, who
never saw the particular one he talked of, and knows little of its nature, less of the
construction of its parts, and nothing of its proper use ? Are there not men of
bright parts, who reason finely in the defence of religion, and yet are so much
strangers to it that they brand the persons, who are so happy as to be possessed of
it, with the hard name of spiritualists, reckoning them a kind of enthusiasts, un-
worthy of their regard 2 The truth is, Christianity is a mystery; mere reason
does not comprehend it. There is a spiritual discerning necessary to its being
rightly understood ; whence it comes to pass, that men of great learning and abil-
ities, though they read the scriptures with attention, and comment learnedly upon
them, yet do not, yea, cannot enter into the vein of thought peculiar to the in-
spired penmen, because they share not of the same spirit: wherefore it is, that the
apostle Paul asserts, that “the natural,” that is, unregenerate, “man doth not
know the things of God, neither indeed can” be capable of knowing them, “because
they are spiritually discerned.”
From what has been said, it is easy to conclude, that no pedantic apology, on
the part of the author, for appearing in print, or fawning compliments to the cour-
teous reader, on the part of the prefacer, are to be expected. The truth is, both
the one and the other are rather little arts, veiling pedantry and conceit, than evi-
dences of modesty and good Sense. . It is of more use to recommend the perusal of
the book to persons of all ranks and degrees, from a few suitable topics, and then
to show wherein this edition differs from the first.
That all mankind, however differenced by their rank and station in the world,
have an equal concern in what is revealed concerning another and future world,
will be readily owned ; and it must be as readily granted, that, however allowable it
may be for men of learning and parts to please themselves with fineness of language,
justness of thought, and exact connection, in writings upon other subjects, yet they
ought not to indulge themselves in the same taste in discourses on divine things,
lest they expose themselves to the just censure of acting with the same indiscretion,
as a person in danger of famishing by hunger would be guilty of, if he perversely
rejected plain wholesome food, when offered to him, for no other reason than the
want of palatable sauce, or order and splendour in serving it up.
The sacred book we call the Bible has a peculiar sublimity in it, veiled with un-
PREFACE. 5
usual dialect and seeming inconnection ; but it is not therefore to be rejected by
men who bear the name of Christians, as uncouth or unintelligible ; true wisdom
dictates quite another thing ; it counsels us, by frequent reading, to acquaint our-
selves well with it, become accustomed to its peculiar phrases, and search into its
stablimities; upon this ground, that the matters contained in it are of the utmost
consequence to us, and when rightly understood, yield a refined delight, much supe-
rior to what is to be found in reading the best written books on the most entertain-
ing subjects. What pleads for the parent, is a plea for the progeny; practical dis-
courses upon divine subjects are the genuine offspring of the sacred text, and ought
therefore to be read carefully and with attention, by persons of all ranks and de-
grees ; though they are indeed calculated for, and peculiarly adapted to, such as
move in low spheres of life.
Let it, however, be a prevailing argument with persons of all denominations care-
fully to read books of practical divinity, that many of them are not written on the
same motives and principles as other books are ; the authors have often a peculiar
divine call to publish them, and well-founded hope of their being useful to advance
Christianity in the world. In consequence whereof it is, that great numbers have
reaped benefit by reading them, especially in childhood and youth ; many have
been converted by them ; and it may be questioned, if ever there was a true Chris-
tian, since the art of printing made these books common, who has not, in some stage
of life, reaped considerable advantage from them. This book recommends itself in
a particular manner, by its being a short substantial system of practical divinity;
insomuch that it may with truth be asserted, that a person who is thoroughly ac-
quainted with all that is here taught, may, without danger to his eternal interest,
remain ignorant of other things which pertain to the science called divinity. It
is therefore earnestly recommended to the serious and frequent perusal of all, but
especially of such as are in that stage of life called youth, and are so stationed in
the world, as not to be frequently opportuned to hear sermons, and read commen-
taries on the sacred text. -
It is doubtless incumbent on masters of families to make some provision of spir-
itual, as well as bodily food, for their children and servants. This is effectually
done by putting practical books in their hands: and therefore this book is humbly
and earnestly recommended as a family-book, which all the members of it are not
only allowed, but desired to peruse.
As to the difference betwixt this and the former edition, which gives it prefer-
ence, it lies chiefly in the author's not only having revised the style, but the thought
in many places, and corrected both, so as to set several important truths in a
clearer light, and make the style of the book now uniform, which formerly was not
so, because of the explications of peculiar words and phrases in use amongst prac-
tical divines, especially of the Church of Scotland, which were interspersed through-
out the former edition, and introduced by another hand, for the sake of such per-
sons as are not accustomed to them, . It remains, that the prefacer not only
subjoin his name, (which was concealed in the first edition,) as a testimony that he
esteems the author, and values the book, but that he may thereby recommend it in
a particular manner to the perusal of persons of his own acquaintance. If in his
assisting towards its being published, and in prefacing both editions, he has not run
unsent, he has what will bear him up under all censures: the charitable will think
no evil, and others will do as they please.
ROBERT WIGHTMAN, M.D.G.E.
EDINBURGH, 18th March, 1729.
STATE FIRST.
NAMELY,
THE STATE OF INNOCENCE, OR PRIMITIVE INTEGRITY, IN
WHICH MAN WAS CREATED. -
ECCLEs. vii. 29.
“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought
out many inventions.”
THERE are four things very necessary to be known by all that would see heaven :
First, What man was in the state of innocence, as God made him. Secondly,
What he is in the state of corrupt nature, as he hath unmade himself. Thirdly,
What he must be in the state of grace, as “created in Christ Jesus unto, good
works,” if ever he be made a partaker of “the inheritance of the saints in light.”
And, lastly, What he shall be in his eternal state, as made by the Judge of all
either perfectly happy, or completely miserable, and that for ever. These are
weighty points, that touch the vitals of practical godliness; from which most men,
and even many professors, in these dregs of time, are quite estranged. I design,
therefore, under the divine conduct, to open up these things, and apply them.
I begin with the first of them, namely, THE STATE OF INNOCENCE : that, behold-
ing man “polished after the similitude of a palace,” the ruins may the more affect
us; we may the more prize that matchless person whom the Father has appointed
the “repairer of the breach ;” and that we may, with fixed resolves, betake our-
selves to that way which leadeth to the “city that hath” unmoveable “founda-
tions.”
In the text we have three things:
1. The state of innocence wherein man was created: “God hath made man up-
right.” By man here we are to understand our first parents, the archetypal pair, the
root of mankind, the compendized world, and the fountain from whence all genera-
tions have streamed: as may appear by comparing Gen. v. ver, 1. and 2,-"In
the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and fe-
male created he them, and blessed them,” (as the root of mankind,) “and called their
name Adam.” The original word is the same in our text. In this sense, man
was made right, (agreeable to the nature of God, whose work is perfect,) without
any imperfection, corruption, or principle of corruption, in his body or soul. He
was made upright, that is, straight with the will and law of God, without any ir-
regularity in his soul. By the set it got in its creation, it directly pointed towards
God as his chief end; which straight inclination was represented, as in an emblem,
by the erect figure of his body, a figure that no other living creature partakes of.
What David was in a gospel-sense, that was he in a legal-sense, one “according to
God's own heart,” altogether righteous, pure, and holy. God made him thus: he
did not first make him, and then make him righteous; but in the very making of
him, he made him righteous; original righteousness was concreated with him; so
that, in the same moment he was a man, he was a righteous man, morally good ;
8 FOUR FOLD STATE.
with the same breath that God breathed in him a living soul, he breathed in
him a righteous soul.
2. Here is man's fallen state : “But they have sought out many inventions.”
They fell off from their rest in God, and fell upon seeking inventions of their own
to mend their case ; and they quite marred it. Their ruin was from their own
proper motion: they would not abide as God had made them ; but “they sought
out inventions” to deform and undo themselves.
3. Observe here the certainty and importance of these things: “Lo, this only
have I found,” &c. Believe them ; they are the result of a narrow search, and a
serious inquiry, performed by the wisest of men. In the two preceding verses Solomon
represents himself as in quest of goodness in the world: but the issue of it was,
he could find no satisfying issue of his search after it ; though it was not for want
of pains, for he “counted one by one to find out the account.” “Behold, this have
I found, saith the preacher,” to wit, “That” (as the same word is read in our text)
“yet my soul seeketh, but I find not.” He could make no satisfying discovery of it,
which might stay his inquiry. He found good men very rare,—“one,” as it were,
“among a thousand ;” good women more rare, not one good among his thousand
wives and concubines, 1 Kings xi. 3. But could that satisfy the grand query,
“Where shall wisdom be found 2’’ No, it could not ; and if the experience of
others, in this point, run counter to Solomon's, as it is no reflection on his discern-
ing, it can as little decide the question, which will remain undetermined till the
last day. But, amidst all this uncertainty, there is one point found out and fixed;
“This have I found.” Ye may depend upon it as a most certain truth, and be fully
satisfied in it : “Lo this,”—fix your eyes upon it, as a matter worthy of most deep
and serious regard,—to wit, that man's nature is now depraved ; but that deprava-
tion was not from God, for he “made man upright,” but from themselves, “they
have sought out many inventions.”
DoCTRINE,-God made man altogether righteous.
This is that state of innocence in which God set man down in the world. It is
described in the holy scriptures with a running pen, in comparison of the following
states; for it was of no continuance, but passed as a flying shadow, by man's
abusing the freedom of his own will. I shall,
First, Inquire into the righteousness of this state wherein man was created.
Secondly, Lay before you some of the happy concomitants and consequents
thereof.
Lastly, Apply the whole.
Of Man's original righteousness.
I. As to the righteousness of this state, consider, that as uncreated righteousness,
y the righteousness of God, is the Supreme rule; so all created righteousness,
whether of men or angels, hath respect to a law as its rule, and is a conformity
thereunto. A creature can no more be morally independent on God in its actions
and powers, than it can be naturally independent on him. A creature, as a crea-
ture, must acknowledge the Creator's will as its Supreme law ; for, as it cannot be
without him, so it must not be but for him, and according to his will ; yet no law
obliges, until it be revealed. And hence it follows, that there was a law which man,
as a rational creature, was subjected to in his creation, and that this law was re-
vealed to him : “God made man upright,” says the text. This presupposeth a
law to which he was conformed in his creation ; as, when any thing is made regu-
lar, or according to rule, of necessity the rule itself is presupposed. Whence we
may gather, that this law was no other than the eternal, indispensable law of
righteousness, observed in all points by the second Adam, opposed by the carnal
mind, some notions of which remain yet among the Pagans, who, “having not the
law, are a law unto themselves,” Rom. ii. 14. In a word, this law is the very same
which was afterwards summed up in the ten commandments, and promulgate on
Mount Sinai to the Israelites, called by us the moral law ; and man’s righteousness
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FOUR FOLD STATE, 9
consisted in conformity to this law or rule. More particularly, there is a twofold
conformity required of man; a conformity of the powers of his soul to the law,
which you may call habitual righteousness; and a conformity of all his actions to
it, which is actual righteousness. Now, God made man habitually righteous ;
man was to make himself actually righteous: the former was the stock God put
into his hand; the latter, the improvement he should have made of it. The sum
of what I have said is, that the righteousness wherein man was created was the
conformity of all the faculties and powers of his soul to the moral law. This is
what we call original righteousness, which man was originally endued with. We
may take it up in these three things: -
First, Man's understanding was a lamp of light. He had perfect knowledge of
the law, and of his duty accordingly ; he was made after God's image, and conse-
quently could not want knowledge, which is a part thereof, Col. iii. 10. “The new
man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” And in-
deed this was necessary to fit him for universal obedience, seeing no obedience can
be according to the law, unless it proceed from a sense of the commandment of
God requiring it. It is true, Adam had not the law written upon tables of stone;
but it was written upon his mind, the knowledge thereof being concreated with him.
God impressed it upon his soul, and made him a law to himself, as the remains of it
among the heathens do testify, Rom. ii. 14, 15. And seeing man was made to be the
mouth of the creation, to glorify God in his works, we have ground to believe he
had naturally an exquisite knowledge of the works of God. We have a proof of
this in his giving names to the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and these
such as express their nature : “Whatsoever Adam called every living creature,
that was the name thereof,” Gen. ii. 19. And the dominion which God gave him
over the creatures, soberly to use and dispose of them according to his will, (still
in subordination to the will of God,) seems to require no less than a knowledge of
their natures. And besides all this, his perfect knowledge of the law proves his
knowledge in the management of civil affairs, which, in respect of the law of God,
“a good man will guide with discretion,” Psal. cxii. 5.
Secondly, His will lay straight with the will of God, Eph. iv. 24. There was
no corruption in his will, no bent nor inclination to evil; for that is sin, properly
and truly so called : hence the apostle says, Rom. vii. 7. “I had not known sin,
but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt
not covet.” An inclination to evil is really a fountain of sin, and therefore incon-
sistent with that rectitude and uprightness which the text expressly says he was
endued with at his creation. The will of man, then, was directed and naturally
inclined to God and goodness, though mutably. It was disposed, by its original
make, to follow the Creator's will, as the shadow does the body; and was not left
in an equal balance to good and evil: for at that rate he had not been upright, nor
habitually conform to the law ; which in no moment can allow the creature not to
be inclined towards God as his chief end, more than it can allow man to be a god to
himself. The law was impressed upon Adam's soul; now, this, according to the new
covenant, by which the image of God is repaired, consists in two things: 1. “Put-
ting the law into the mind,” denoting the knowledge of it; 2. “Writing it in the
heart,” denoting inclinations in the will, answerable to the commands of the law,
Heb. viii. 10. So that, as the will, when we consider it as renewed by grace, is
by that grace natively inclined to the same holiness, in all its parts, which the law
requires ; so was the will of man, when we consider him as God made him at first,
endued with natural inclinations to every thing commanded by the law. For if the
regenerate are “partakers of the divine nature,” as undoubtedly they are, for so says
the scripture, 2 Pet. i. 4, and if this divine nature can import no less than inclina-
tions of the heart to holiness, then surely Adam's will could not want this inclina-
tion ; for in him the image of God was perfect. It is true, it is said, Rom. ii. 14,
15. “That the Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts;” but
this denotes only their knowledge of that law, such as it is ; but the apostle to the
Hebrews, in the text cited, takes the word “heart” in another sense, distinguishing
it plainly from the “mind.” And it must be granted, that, when God promiseth in
the new covenant, “to write his law in the heart of his people,” it imports quite
B
10 FOUR FOLD STATE.
another thing than what heathens have ; for though they have notions of it in their
minds, yet their hearts go another way; their will has got a set and bias quite
contrary to that law ; and therefore the expression, suitable to the present purpose,
must needs import, besides these notions of the mind, inclinations of the will going
along therewith ; which inclinations, though mixed with corruption in the regen-
erate, were pure and unmixed in upright Adam. In a word, as Adam knew his
Master's pleasure in the matter of duty, so his will stood inclined to what he knew.
Thirdly, His affections were orderly, pure, and holy; which is a necessary part
of that uprightness wherein man was created. The apostle has a petition, 2 Thess.
iii. 5, “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God;’ that is, The Lord
straighten your hearts, or make them lie straight to the love of God: and our text
tells us, man was thus made straight. “ The new man was created in righteous-
ness and true holiness,” Eph. iv. 24. Now, this holiness, as it is distinguished
from righteousness, may import the purity and orderliness of the affections. And
thus the apostle, 1 Tim. ii. 8, will have men to “pray, lifting up holy hands, without
wrath and doubting :” because, as troubled water is unfit to receive the image of
the sun, so the heart, filled with impure and disorderly affections, is not fit for divine
communications. Man's sensitive appetite was indeed naturally carried out towards
objects grateful to the senses. For, seeing man was made up of body and soul,
and God made this man to glorify and enjoy him, and for this end to use his good
creatures in subordination to himself, it is plain that man was naturally inclined
both to spiritual and sensible good ; yet to spiritual good, the chief good, as his ul-
timate end : and therefore his sensitive motions and inclinations were subordinate
to his reason and will, which lay straight with the will of God, and were not in the
least contrary to the same. Otherwise he should have been made up of contradic-
tions; his soul being naturally inclined to God, as the chief end, in the superior
part thereof; and the same soul inclined to the creature, as the chief end, in the
inferior part thereof, as they call it, which is impossible ; for man, at the same in-
stant, cannot have two chief ends. Man's affections, then, in his primitive state,
were pure from all defilement, free from all disorder and distemper; because, in all
their motions, they were duly subjected to his clear reason, and his holy will. He
had also an executive power answerable to his will ; a power to do the good which
he knew should be done, and which he inclined to do, even to fulfil the whole law of
God. If it had not been so, God would not have required of him perfect obedience ;
for to say that “the Lord gathereth where he hath not strawed,” is but the blas-
phemy of a wicked heart against a good and bountiful God, Matt. xxv.24, 26.
From what has been said it may be gathered, that the original righteousness ex-
plained was universal and natural, yet mutable.
1. It was universal; both with respect to the subject of it, the whole man, and
the object of it, the whole law. Universal, I say, with respect to the subject
of it ; for this righteousness was diffused through the whole man; it was a blessed
leaven that leavened the whole lump. There was not one wrong pin in the taber-
nacle of human nature, when God set it up, however shattered it is now. Man
was then holy in soul, body, and spirit; while the soul remained untainted, its
lodging was kept clean and undefiled ; the members of the body were consecrated
vessels, and instruments of righteousness. A combat betwixt flesh and spirit, reason
and appetite, nay, the least inclination to sin, or lust of the flesh in the inferior
part of the soul, was utterly inconsistent with this uprightness in which man was
created ; and has been invented to veil the corruption of man's nature, and to ob-
scure the grace of God in Jesus Christ : it looks very like the language of fallen
Adam, laying his own sin at his Maker's door, Gen. iii. 12. “The woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” But as this right-
eousness was universal in respect of the subject, because it spread through the whole
man ; so also it was universal in respect of the object, the holy law. There was
nothing in the law but what was agreeable to his reason and will, as God made him:
though sin hath now set him at odds with it : his soul was shapen out in length
and breadth to the commandment, though “exceeding broad;” so that his original
righteousness was not only perfect in parts, but in degrees.
2. As it was universal, so it was natural to him, and not supernatural in that
FourFold STATE. 11
state. Not that it was essential to man, as man ; for then he could not have lost
it, without the loss of his very being; but it was connatural to him; he was created
with it, and it was necessary to the perfection of man, as he came out of the hand
of God; necessary to constitute him in a state of integrity. Yet,
3. It was mutable ; it was a righteousness that might be lost, as is manifested by
the doleful event. His will was not absolutely indifferent to good or evil: God set
it towards good only ; yet he did not so fix and confirm its inclinations, that
it could not alter. No, it was moveable to evil, and that only by man himself,
God having given him a sufficient power to stand in this integrity, if he had pleased.
Let no man quarrel God’s work in this: for if Adam had been unchangeably right-
eous, he behoved to have been so either by nature or by free gift; by nature he
could not be so, for that is proper to God, and incommunicable to any creature ; if
by free gift, then no wrong was done him, in withholding of what he could not
crave. Confirmation in a righteous state is a reward of grace, given upon continu-
ing righteous through the state of trial ; and would have been given to Adam, if he
had stood out the time appointed for probation by the Creator ; and accordingly is
given to the saints, upon the account of the merits of Christ, who was obedient even
to the death. And herein believers have the advantage of Adam, that they can
never totally nor finally fall away from grace.
Thus was man made originally righteous, being “created in God's own image,”
Gen. i. 27. which consists in the positive qualities of knowledge, righteousness,
and holiness, Col. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 24. All that God made “was very good,” according
to their several natures, Gen. i. 31; and so was man morally good, being made after
the image of him who is good and upright, Psal. xxv, 8. Without this he could
not have answered the great end of his creation, which was to know, love, and serve
his God, according to his will ; nay, he could not be created otherwise ; for he be-
howed either to be conform to the law in his powers, principles, and inclinations, or
not : if he was, then he was righteous; and if not, he was a sinner, which is ab-
surd and horrible to imagine.
Of Man's original happiness.
II. I shall lay before you some of those things which did accompany or flow from
the righteousness of man's primitive state. Happiness is the result of holiness; and
as it was a holy, so it was a happy state.
First, Man was then a very glorious creature. We have reason to suppose that
as Moses’ face shone when he came down from the mount, so man had a very light-
some and pleasant countenance, and beautiful body, while as yet there was no
darkness of sin in him at all. But seeing God himself is “glorious in holiness,”
(Exod. xv. 11.) Surely that spiritual gomeliness the Lord put upon man at his crea-
tion made him a very glorious creature. O how did light shine in his holy conver-
sation, to the glory of the Creator while every action was but the darting forth of
a ray and beam of that glorious unmixed light which God had set up in his soul;
while that lamp of love, lighted from heaven, continued burning in his heart, as in
the holy place ; and the law of the Lord, put in his inward parts by the finger of
God, was kept by him there as in the most holy. There was no impurity to be seen
without ; no squint look in the eyes after any unclean thing ; the tongue spoke
nothing but the language of heaven ; and, in a word, “the King's” son “was all
glorious within, and his clothing of wrought gold.”
Secondly, He was the favourite of heaven. He shone brightly in the image of
God ; who cannot but love his own image, wherever it appears. While he was alone
in the World, he was not alone, for God was with him. His communion and fellow-
ship was with his Creator, and that immediately ; for as yet there was nothing to
turn away the face of God from the work of his own hands, seeing sin had not as
yet entered, which alone could make the breach.
By the favour of God, he was advanced to be confederate with Heaven in the
first covenant, called the covenant of works. God reduced the law which he gave
in his creation into the form of a covenant, whereof perfect obedience was the con-
dition ; life was the thing promised, and death the penalty. As for the condition,
12 FOUR FOLD STATE.
one great branch of the natural law was, that man believe whatsoever God shall
reveal, and do whatsoever he shall command : accordingly God, making this cove-
nant with man, extended his duty to the not eating of “the tree of knowledge of
good and evil;” and the law thus extended was the rule of man's covenant-obe-
dience. How easy were these terms to him who had the natural law written on
his heart, and that inclining him to obey this positive law, revealed to him, it
seems, by an audible voice, (Gen. ii. 17,) the matter whereof was so very easy l
And, indeed, it was highly reasonable that the rule and matter of his covenant-
obedience should be thus extended ; that which was added being a thing in itself
indifferent, where his obedience was to turn upon the precise point of the will of
God, the plainest evidence of true obedience ; and it being in an external thing,
wherein his obedience or disobedience would be most clear and conspicuous.
Now, upon this condition God promised him life; the continuance of natural life, in
the union of soul and body; and of spiritual life, in the favour of his Creator : he
promised him also eternal life in heaven, to have been entered into when he should
have passed the time of his trial upon earth, and the Lord should see meet to transport
him into the upper paradise. This promise of life was included in the threatening of
death, mentioned in Gen. ii. 17: for while God says, “In the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die,” it is in effect, If thou do not eat of it, thou shalt
surely live. And this was sacramentally confirmed by another tree in the garden,
called therefore, “the tree of life,” which he was debarred from when he had sin-
ned ; Gen. iii. 22, 23, “Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden
of Eden.” Yet it is not to be thought that man's life and death did hang only on
this matter of the forbidden fruit, but on the whole law ; for so says the apostle,"
Gal. iii. 10, “It is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them.” That of the forbidden fruit
was a revealed part of Adam's religion, and so behoved expressly to be laid before
him ; but as to the natural law, he naturally knew death to be the reward of dis-
obedience : for the very heathens were not ignorant of this, “knowing the judg-
ment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death,” Rom. i.
32. And moreover, the promise included in the threatening secured Adam's life,
according to the covenant, as long as he obeyed the natural law, with the addition
of that positive command; so that he needed nothing to be expressed to him in the
covenant, but what concerned the eating of the forbidden fruit. That eternal life
in heaven was promised in this covenant is plain from this, that the threatening was
of eternal death in hell : to which when man had made himself liable, Christ was
promised by his death to purchase eternal life. And Christ himself expounds the
promise of the covenant of works of eternal life, while he promiseth the condition
of that covenant to a proud young man, who, though he had not Adam's stock, yet
would needs enter into life in the way of working, as Adam was to have done under
this covenant, Matt. xix. 17, “If thou wilt enter into life,” (viz. eternal life, by do-
ing, ver. 16.) “keep the commandments.” - -
The penalty was death, Gen. ii. 17, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die.” The death threatened was such as the life promised was; and
that most justly, to wit, temporal, spiritual, and eternal death. The event is a
commentary on this ; for that very day he did eat thereof, he was a dead man in
law; but the execution was stopped, because of his posterity, then in his loins,
and another covenant was prepared ; however, that day his body got its death
wounds, and became mortal. Death also seized his soul; he lost his original right-
eousness, and the favour of God : witness the gripes and throes of conscience which
made him hide himself from God. And he became liable to eternal death, which
would have actually followed of course, if a Mediator had not been provided, who
found him bound with the cords of death, as a malefactor ready to be led to exe-
cution. Thus you have a short description of the covenant into which the Lord
brought man in the state of innocence.
And seemeth it a small thing unto you, that earth was thus confederate with
heaven? This could have been done to none but him whom the King of heaven
delighted to honour. It was an act of grace, worthy of the gracious God whose
FOUR FOLD STATE. 13
favourite he was; for there was grace and free favour in the first covenant; though
“the exceeding riches of grace,” as the apostle calls it, Eph. ii. 7, was reserved for
the second. It was certainly an act of grace, favour, and admirable condescension
in God, to enter into a covenant, and such a covenant, with his own creature. Man
was not at his own, but at God's disposal; nor had he any thing to work with, but
what he had received from God. There was no proportion betwixt the work and
the promised reward. Before that covenant, man was bound to perfect obedience,
in virtue of his natural dependence on God; and death was naturally the wages of
sin, which the justice of God could and would have required, though there had never
been any covenant betwixt God and man : but God was free; man could never have
required eternal life as the reward of his work, if there had not been such a covenant.
God was free to have disposed of his creature as he saw meet; and if he had stood
in his integrity as long as the world should stand, and there had been no cov-
enant promising eternal life to him upon his obedience, God might have withdrawn
his supporting hand at last, and so made him creep back into the womb of nothing,
whence almighty power had drawn him out. And what wrong could there have
been in this, while God should have taken back what he freely gave 2 But now, the
covenant being made, God becomes debtor to his own faithfulness: if man will work,
he may crave the reward on the ground of the covenant. Well might the angels,
then, upon his being raised to this dignity, have given him that salutation, “Hail!
thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee.”
Thirdly, God made him lord of the world, prince of the inferior creatures, uni-
versal lord and emperor of the whole earth. His Creator gave him dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, over all the earth, yea, and every
living thing that moveth on the earth: he “put all things under his feet,” Psal.
viii. 6, 7, 8. He gave him a power soberly to use and dispose of the creatures in
the earth, sea, and air. Thus man was God's depute-governor in the lower world;
and this his dominion was an image of God’s sovereignty. This was common to the
man and the woman : but the man had one thing peculiar to him, to wit, that he
had dominion over the woman also, 1 Cor. xi. 7. Behold how the creatures came to
him to own their subjection, and to do him homage as their lord; and quietly stood
before him, till he put names on them as his own, Gen. ii. 19. Man's face struck
an awe upon them ; the stoutest creatures stood astonished, tamely and quietly
adoring him as their lord and ruler. Thus was “man crowned with glory and
honour,” Psal. viii. 5. The Lord dealt most liberally and bountifully with him,
“put all things under his feet :” only he kept one thing, one tree in the garden
out of his hands, even the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
But you may say, “And did he grudge him this?’ I answer, Nay; but when he
had made him thus holy and happy, he graciously gave him this restriction, which
was in its own nature a prop and stay to keep him from falling. And this, I say,
upon these three grounds: (1.) As it was most proper for the honour of God, who
had made man lord of the lower world, to assert his sovereign dominion over all,
by some particular visible sign; so it was most proper for man's safety. Man be-
ing set down in a beautiful paradise, it was an act of infinite wisdom, and of grace
too, to keep from him one single tree, as a visible testimony that he must hold all
of his Creator, as his great landlord; that so, while he saw himself lord of the crea-
tures, he might not forget that he was still God's subject. (2.) This was a memo-
rial of his mutable state given to him from heaven, to be laid up by him for his
greater caution. For man was created with a free will to good, which the tree
of life was an evidence of; but his will was also free to evil, and the forbidden tree
Was to him a memorial thereof. It was, in a manner, a continual watchword to
him against evil; a beacon set up before him, to bid him beware of dashing himself
to pieces on the rock of sin. (3.) God made man upright, directed towards God as
the chief end. He set him, like Moses, on the top of the hill, holding up his hands
to heaven; and as Aaron and Hur stayed up Moses’ hands, (Exod. xvii. 10, 11,
12,) So God gave man an erect figure of body, and forbid him the eating of this
tree, to keep him in that posture of uprightness wherein he was created. God
made the beasts looking down towards the earth, to show that their satisfaction
might be brought from thence; and accordingly it does afford them what is com-
14 FOUR FOLD STATE,
mensurable to their appetite: but the erect figure of man's body, which looketh up-
ward, showed him that his happiness lay above him, in God ; and that he was to ex-
pect it from heaven, and not from earth. Now, this fair tree, of which he was for-
bidden to eat, taught him the same lesson, that his happiness lay not in enjoyment of
the creatures, for there was a want even in paradise : so that the forbidden tree
was, in effect, the hand of all the creatures, pointing man away from themselves to
God for happiness. It was a sign of emptiness hung before the door of the creation,
with that inscription, “This is not your rest.”
Fourthly, As he had a perfect tranquillity within his own breast, so he had a per-
fect calm without. His heart had nothing to reproach him with ; conscience then
had nothing to do, but to direct, approve, and feast him ; and without there was
nothing to annoy him. The happy pair lived in perfect amity ; and though their
knowledge was vast, true, and clear, they knew no shame : though they were naked,
there were no blushes in their faces; for sin, the seed of shame, was not yet sown,
Gen. ii. 25. And their beautiful bodies were not capable of injuries from the air:
so they had no need of clothes, which are originally the badges of our shame. They
were liable to no diseases nor pains; and, though they were not to live idle, yet toil,
weariness, and sweat of the brows were not known in this state.
Fifthly, Man had a life of pure delight, and undreggy pleasure, in this state. Rivers
of pure pleasures run through it. The earth, with the product thereof, was now
in its glory ; nothing had yet come in to mar the beauty of the creatures. God
set him down, not in a common place of the earth, but in Eden, a place eminent
for pleasantness, as the name of it imports; nay, not only in Eden, but in the gar-
den of Eden; the most pleasant spot of that pleasant place ; a garden planted by
God himself, to be the mansion-house of this his favourite. As, when God made
the other living creatures, he said, “Let the water bring forth the moving
creature,” Gen. i. 20, and “Let the earth bring forth the living creature,” verse
24; but when man was to be made, he said, “Let us make man,” verse 26;
so when the rest of the earth was to be furnished with herbs and trees, God said,
“Let the earth bring forth grass,”—and “the fruit-tree,” &c. Gen. i. 11; but of
paradise it is said, “God planted it,” chap. ii. 8; which cannot but denote a sin-
gular excellency in that garden beyond all other parts of the then beautiful earth.
There he wanted neither for necessity nor delight; for there was “every tree that
is pleasant to the sight, and good for food,” verse 9. He knew not those delights
which luxury has invented for the gratifying of lusts; but his delights were such
as came out of the hand of God, without passing through sinful hands, which
readily leave marks of impurity on what they touch. So his delights were pure,
his pleasures refined. And yet may “I show you a more excellent way:” “wisdom
had entered into his heart ;” surely then “knowledge was pleasant unto his soul.”
What delight do some find in their discoveries of the works of nature, by the scraps
of knowledge they have gathered' but how much more exquisite pleasure had
Adam, while his piercing eyes read the book of God's works; which God laid be-
fore him, to the end he might glorify him in the same ; and therefore had surely
fitted him for the work | But above all, his knowledge of God, and that as his
God, and the communion he had with him, could not but afford him the most re-
fined and exquisite pleasure in the innermost recesses of his heart. Great is that
delight which the saints find in these views of the glory of God, that their souls
are sometimes let into, while they are compassed about with many infirmities: but
much more may well be allowed to sinless Adam ; no doubt he relished these plea-
sures at another rate.
Lastly, He was immortal. He would never have died if he had not sinned; it
was in case of sin that death was threatened, Gen. ii. 17; which shows it to be the
consequent of sin, and not of the sinless human nature. The perfect constitution
of his body, which came out of God's hand very good, and the righteousness and
holiness of his soul, removed all inward causes of death; nothing being prepared
for the grave's devouring mouth, but “the vile body,” Phil. iii. 21, and “those
who have sinned,” Job xxiv. 19. And God's special care of his innocent creature
secured him against outward violence. . The apostle's testimony is express, Rom.
v. 12, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” Behold the
FOUR FOLD STATE. 15
door by which death came in 1 Satan wrought with his lies till he got it opened,
and so death entered ; and therefore is he said to have been “a murderer from the
beginning,” John viii. 44. &
Thus have I shown you the holiness and happiness of man in this state. If any
shall say, ‘What is all this to us, who never tasted of that holy and happy state 3’
they must know, it nearly concerns us, in so far as Adam was the root of all man-
kind, our common head and representative, who received from God our inheritance
and stock, to keep it for himself and his children, and to convey it to them. The
Lord put all mankind's stock, as it were, in one ship; and as we ourselves would
have done, he made our common father the pilot. He put a blessing in the root,
to have been, if rightly managed, diffused into all the branches. . According to our
text, making Adam upright, he made man upright ; and all mankind had that up-
rightness in him ; for, “if the root be holy, so are the branches:” but more of this
afterwards. Had Adam stood, none would have quarrelled the representation.
The doctrine of the state of innocence applied.
Use I. For information. This shows us, (1.) That not God, but man himself, was
the cause of his ruin. God made him upright ; his Creator set him up, but he
threw himself down. Was the Lord's directing and inclining him to good, the reason
of his woful choice 2 or did heaven deal so sparingly with him, that his pressing
wants sent him to hell to seek supply ? Nay, man was, and is, the cause of his
own ruin. (2.) God may most justly require of men perfect obedience to his law,
and condemn them for their not obeying it perfectly, though now they have no
ability to keep it. In so doing “he gathers” but “where he has strawed.” He gave
man ability to keep the whole law : man has lost it by his own fault; but his sin
could never take away that right which God hath to exact perfect obedience of his
creature, and to punish in case of disobedience. (3.) Behold here the infinite
obligation we lie under to Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who, with his own pre-
cious blood, has bought our escheat, and freely makes offer of it again to us, Hos.
xiii. 9; and that with the advantage of everlasting security, that it can never be al-
together lost any more, John x. 28, 29. Free grace will fix those, whom free will
shook down into a gulf of misery.
Use II. This reacheth a reproof to three sorts of persons: (1.) To those who hate
religion in the power of it, wherever it appears; and can take pleasure in nothing,
but in the world and their lusts. Surely these men are far from righteousness:
they are “baters of God,” Rom. i. 30, for they are haters of his image. Upright
Adam in paradise would have been a great eye-sore to all such persons; as he was
to the serpent, whose seed they prove themselves to be by their malignity. (2.)
It reproves those who put religion to shame, and those who are ashamed of religion,
before a graceless world. There is a generation who make so bold with the God that
made them, and can in a moment crush them, that they ridicule piety, and make a
mock of seriousness. “Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make
ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?” Isa. lvii. 4. Is it not against God
himself, whose image, in some measure repaired on Some of his creatures, makes
them fools in your eyes 2 But “be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made
strong,” Isa. xxviii. 22. Holiness was the glory of God put on man, when he made
him; but now the sons of men turn that glory into shame, because they themselves
glory in their shame. There are others that secretly approve of religion, and in
religious company will profess it, who, at other times, to be neighbour-like, are
ashamed to own it; so weak are they, that they are blown over with the wind of the
wicked's mouth. A broad laughter, an impious jest, a silly jibe out of a profane
mouth, is to many an unanswerable argument against religion and seriousness; for,
in the cause of religion, they are “as silly doves without heart.” O that such
would consider that weighty word, Mark viii. 38, “Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him
also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father,
with the holy angels.” (3.) It reproves the proud self-conceited professor, who
admires himself in a garment he hath patched together of rags. There are many,
16 FOUR FOLD STATE.
who, when once they have gathered some scraps of knowledge of religion, and have
attained to some reformation of life, do swell big with conceit of themselves; a sad
sign that the effects of the fall lie so heavy upon them, that they have not as yet
“come to themselves,” Luke xv. 17. They have “eyes behind,” to see their attain-
ments; but no “eyes within,” no “eyes before,” to see their wants, which would surely
humble them: for true knowledge makes men to see, both what once they were,
and what they are at present; and so is humbling, and will not suffer them to be
content with any measure of grace attained; but puts them on to press forward,
“forgetting the things that are behind,” Phil. iii. 13, 14. But those men are such
a spectacle of commiseration, as one would be that had set his palace on fire, and
were glorying in a cottage he had built for himself out of the rubbish, though so
very weak that it could not stand against a storm.
Use III. Of lamentation. Here was a stately building; man carved like a
fair palace, but now lying in ashes: let us stand and look on the ruins, and drop a
tear. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. Could we choose but
to weep, if we saw our country ruined and turned by the enemy into a wilderness 2
if we saw our houses on fire, and our households perishing in the flames 2 But all
this comes far short of the dismal sight, man “fallen as a star from heaven.” Ah!
may we not now say, “O that we were as in months past,” when there were no
stains in our nature, no clouds in our minds, no pollution in our hearts l Had we
never been in better case, the matter had been less; but “they that were brought
up in scarlet do now embrace dunghills l” Where is our primitive glory now Ż
Once no darkness in the mind, no rebellion in the will, no disorder in the affections.
But ahl “how is the faithful city become an harlot l Righteousness lodged in it;
but now murderers. Our silver is become dross, our wine mixed with water.” That
heart which was once the temple of God is now turned into a den of thieves. Let
our name be Ichabod, for the glory is departed. Happy wast thou, O man, who was
like unto thee ? No pain nor sickness could affect thee, no death could approach thee,
no sigh was heard from thee, till these bitter fruits were plucked off the forbidden tree.
Heaven shone upon thee, and earth Smiled: thou wast the companion of angels, and
the envy of devils. But how low is he now laid, who was created for dominion, and
made lord of the world ! “The crown has fallen from our head ; wo unto us that we
have sinned.” The creatures that waited to do him service, are now, since the fall, set
in battle-array against him, and the least of them, having commission, proves too hard
for him. Waters overflow the old world ; fire consumes Sodom ; the stars in their
courses fight against Sisera ; frogs, flies, lice, &c. turn executioners to Pharaoh and
his Egyptians; worms eat up Herod : yea, man needs “a league with the beasts,”
yea, with the very “stones of the field,” Job v. 23; having reason to fear that
every one that findeth him will slay him. Alas! how are we fallen! how are we
plunged into a gulf of misery 1 The Sun has gone down on us; death has come in
at our windows ; our enemies have put out our two eyes, and sport themselves with
our miseries. Let us then lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us.
Nevertheless, “there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.” Come then, O sinner,
look to Jesus Christ, the second Adam ; quit the first Adam and his covenant;
come over to the Mediator and Surety of the new and better covenant, and let
your hearts say, “Be thou our ruler, and let this breach be under thy hand;” and
let your “eye trickle down, and cease not, without any intermission, till the Lord
look down and behold from heaven,” Lam, iii. 49, 50.
STATE SE COND.
NAMELY,
THE STATE OF NATURE, OR OF ENTIRE DEPRAVATION.
H E A D I.
THE SINFULNEss OF MAN's NATURAL STATE.
GENESIS vi. 5.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
WE have seen what man was, as God made him ; a lovely and happy creature:
let us view him now as he hath unmade himself, and we shall see him a sinful and
miserable creature. This is the sad state we were brought into by the fall ; a
state as black and doleful as the former was glorious ; and this we commonly call
the state of nature, or man's natural state, according to that of the apostle, Eph.
ii. 3, “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” And herein
two things are to be considered : 1st, The sinfulness; 2dly, The misery of this
estate, in which all the unregenerate do live. I begin with the sinfulness of man's
natural state, whereof the text gives us a full, though short account: “And God
saw that the wickedness of man was great,” &c.
The scope and design of these words is, to clear God's justice in bringing the
flood on the old world. There are two particular causes of it taken notice of in the
preceding verses. (1.) Mixed marriages, ver. 2, “The sons of God,” the posterity
of Seth and Enos, professors of the true religion, married with “the daughters of
men,” the profane cursed race of Cain. They did not carry the matter before the
Lord, that he might choose for them, Psal. xlvii. 4: but, without any respect to the
will of God, they chose, not according to the rules of their faith, but of their fancy;
they “saw that they were fair;” and their marriage with them occasioned their
divorce from God. This was one of the causes of the deluge which swept away
the old world. Would to God all professors in our day could plead not guilty:
but though that sin brought on the deluge, yet the deluge hath not swept away that
sin ; which, as of old, so in our day, may justly be looked upon as one cause of
the decay of religion. It was an ordinary thing among the Pagans, to change their
gods, as they changed their condition into a married lot ; and many sad instances
the Christian world affords of the same ; as if people were of Pharaoh's opinion, that
religion is only for those who have no other care upon their heads, Exod. v. 17.
(2.) Great oppression, ver, 4, “There were giants in the earth in those days;”
men of great stature, great strength, and monstrous wickedness, “filling the earth
with violence,” ver, 11. But neither their strength nor treasures of wickedness
could profit them in the day of wrath. Yet the gain of oppression still carries
C
18 FOUR FOLD STATE.
many over the terror of this dreadful example, Thus much for the connection,
and what particular crimes that generation was guilty of.
But every person that was swept away with the flood could not be guilty of these
things; and “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Therefore, in my
text, there is a general indictment drawn up against them all, “The wickedness of
man was great in the earth,” &c. And this is well instructed, for “God saw it.”
Two things are laid to their charge here :
1. Corruption of life, wickedness, “great wickedness.” I understand this of the
wickedness of their lives; for it is plainly distinguished from the wickedness of their
hearts. The sins of their outward conversation were great in the nature of them,
and greatly aggravated by their attending circumstances: and this not only among
those of the race of cursed Cain, but those of holy Seth ; the wickedness of man
was great. And then it is added, “in the earth ;” (1.) To vindicate God's sever-
ity, in that he not only cut off sinners, but defaced the beauty of the earth, and
swept off the brute creatures from it, by the deluge ; that as men had set the marks
of their impiety, God might set the marks of his indignation, on the earth. (2.)
To show the heinousness of their sin, in making the earth, which God had so
adorned for the use of man, a sink of sin, and a stage whereon to act their wicked-
mess, in defiance of heaven. God saw this corruption of life ; he not only knew it,
and took notice of it, but he made them to know that he did take notice of it, and
that he had not forsaken the earth, though they had forsaken heaven.
2. Corruption of nature : “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.” All their wicked practices are here traced to the fountain
and spring-head : a corrupt heart was the source of all. The soul, which was made
upright in all its faculties, is now wholly disordered. The heart, that was made
according to God’s own heart, is now the reverse of it, a forge of evil imaginations,
a sink of inordinate affections, and a storehouse of all impiety, Mark vii. 21, 22.
Behold the heart of the natural man, as it is opened in our text. The mind is defiled;
the thoughts of the heart are evil; the will and affections are defiled; the imagi-
nation of the thoughts of the heart (i. e. whatsoever the heart frameth within itself
by thinking, such as judgment, choice, purposes, devices, desires, every inward mo-
tion), or rather, the frame of the thoughts of the heart (namely, the frame, make,
or mould of these, 1 Chron. xxix. 18.), is evil; yea, and “every imagination,”
every frame of his thoughts, is so. The heart is ever framing something, but never
one right thing ; the frame of thoughts in the heart of man is exceeding various,
yet are they never cast into a right frame. But is there not at least a mixture of
good in them ? No, they are “only evil;” there is nothing in them truly good
and acceptable to God: nor can any thing be so that comes out of that forge;
where, not the Spirit of God, but “the prince of the power of the air, worketh,”
Eph. ii. 2. Whatever changes may be found in them, are only from evil to evil;
for the imagination of the heart, or frame of thoughts, in natural men is evil con-
tinually, or every day. From the first day to the last day, in this state, they are
in midnight darkness; there is not a glimmering of the light of holiness in them ;
not one holy thought can ever be produced by the unholy heart, O what a vile
heart is this O what a corrupt nature is this The tree that always brings forth
fruit, but never good fruit, whatever soil it be set in, whatever pains be taken on
it, must naturally be an evil tree: and what can that heart be whereof “every
imagination,” every set of thoughts, is “only evil,” and that “continually?” Sure-
ly that corruption is ingrained in our hearts, interwoven with our very natures, has
sunk into the marrow of our souls, and will never be cured but by a miracle of
grace. Now, such is man's heart, such is his nature, till regenerating grace change
it. God that searcheth the heart saw man's heart was so, he took special notice of
it : and the faithful and true Witness cannot mistake our case; though we are most
apt to mistake ourselves in this point, and generally do overlook it.
Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, ‘What is that
to us? Let that generation of whom the text speaks see to that.” . For the Lord
has left the case of that generation on record, to be a looking-glass to all after-gen-
erations, wherein they may see their own corruption of heart, and what their lives
would be too if he restrained them not : for “as in water face answereth to face,
FOUR FOLD STATE. 19
so the heart of man to man,” Prov. xxvii. 19. Adam's fall has framed all men's
hearts alike in this matter. Hence the apostle, Rom. iii. 10–18, proves the cor-
ruption of the nature, hearts, and lives of all men, from what the Psalmist says of
the wicked in his day, Psal. xiv. 1, 2, 3; v. 9; czl. 3; x. 7; xxxvi. 1; and from
what Jeremiah saith of the wicked in his day, Jer. ix. 3, and from what Isaiah says
of those that lived in his time, Isa. lvii. 7, 8, and concludes with that, Rom. iii. 19,
“Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law ; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God.” Had the history of the deluge been transmitted unto us with-
out the reason thereof in the text, we might thence have gathered the corruption
and total depravation of man's nature ; for what other quarrel could a holy and
just God have with the infants that were destroyed by the flood, seeing they had
no actual sin 2 If we saw a wise man, who having made a curious piece of work,
and heartily approved of it when he gave it out of his hand, as fit for the use it was
designed for, rise up in wrath and break it all in pieces, when he looked on it after-
wards; would we not thence conclude the frame of it had been quite marred since
it went out of his hand, and that it does not serve for that use it was at first designed
for ? How much more, when we see the holy and wise God destroying the work of
his own hands, once solemnly pronounced by him very good, may we conclude that
the original frame thereof is utterly marred, that it cannot be mended, but it must
needs be new-made or lost altogether l Gen. vi. 6, 7, “And it repented the Lord
that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart: and the
Lord said, I will destroy man,” or blot him out; as a man doth a sentence out of a
book, that cannot be corrected by cutting off some letters, syllables, or words, and
interlining others here and there, but must needs be wholly new-framed. But did
the deluge carry off this corruption of man's nature ? did it mend the matter ?
No, it did not. God, in his holy providence, “that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the new world may become guilty before God,” as well as the old, permits
that corruption of nature to break out in Noah, the father of the new world, after
the deluge was over. Behold him as another Adam, sinning in the fruit of a tree:
Gen. ix. 20, 21, “He planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was
drunken, and he was uncovered within his tent.” More than that, God gives the
same reason against a new deluge, which he gives in our text for bringing that on
the old world : “I will not,” saith he, “again curse the ground any more for man's
sake ; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth,” Gen. viii. 21.
Whereby it is intimated, that there is no mending of the matter by this means;
and that if he would always take the same course with men that he had done, he
would be alway sending deluges on the earth, seeing the corruption of man's nature
remains still. But though the flood could not carry off the corruption of nature,
yet it pointed at the way how it is to be done; to wit, that men must be “born
of water and of the Spirit,” raised from spiritual death in sin by the grace of Jesus
Christ, “who came by water and blood;” out of which a new world of saints
arise in regeneration, even as the new world of sinners out of the waters, where
they had long lain buried, as it were, in the ark. This we learn from 1 Pet. iii.
20, 21, where the apostle, speaking of Noah's ark, saith, “wherein few, that is,
eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth
also now save us.” Now, the waters of the deluge being a like figure to baptism,
it plainly follows, that they signified, as baptism doth, “the washing of regenera-
tion, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” To conclude, then; these waters, though
now dried up, may serve us still for a looking-glass, in which we may see the total
corruption of our nature, and the necessity of regeneration.
From the text, thus explained, ariseth this weighty point of doctrine, which he
that runs may read in it, viz. Man's nature is now wholly corrupted. Now is there
a sad alteration, a wonderful overturn, in the nature of man : where, at first, there
was nothing evil, now there is nothing good. In prosecuting of this doctrine, I shall,
First, Confirm it.
Secondly, Represent this corruption of nature in its several parts.
Thirdly, Show you how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted.
Lastly, Make application,
20 FOUR FOLD STATE,
That man's nature is corrupted,
I. I am to confirm the doctrine of the corruption of nature ; to hold the glass to
your eyes, wherein you may see your sinful nature; which, though God takes par-
ticular notice of it, many do quite overlook. And here we shall consult, First,
God's word. Secondly, Men's experience and observation.
First, For scripture-proof, let us consider.
1. How the scriptures take particular notice of fallen Adam's communicating his
image to his posterity, Gen. v. 3, “Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after
his image ; and called his name Seth.” Compare with this verse 1, of that chap-
ter: “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.”
Behold here, how the image after which man was made, and the image after which
he is begotten, are opposed. Man was made in the likeness of God; that is, a
holy and righteous God made a holy and righteous creature : but fallen Adam be-
gat a son, not in the likeness of God, but in his own likeness; that is, corrupt
sinful Adam begat a corrupt sinful son. For as the image of God bore righteous-
ness and immortality in it, as was cleared before ; so this image of fallen Adam
bore corruption and death in it, 1 Cor. xv. 49, 50; compare ver. 22. Moses, in that
fifth chapter of Genesis, being to give us the first bill of mortality that ever was
in the world, ushers it in with this, that dying Adam begat mortals. Having
sinned, he became mortal, according to the threatening ; and so he begat a son in
his own likeness, sinful and therefore mortal. Thus sin and death passed on all.
Doubtless he begat both Cain and Abel in his own likeness, as well as Seth. But
it is not recorded of Abel; because he left no issue behind him, and his falling the
first sacrifice to death in the world was a sufficient document of it ; nor of Cain, to
whom it might have been thought peculiar, because of his monstrous wickedness;
and besides, all his posterity were drowned in the flood: but it is recorded of Seth,
because he was the father of the holy seed; and from him all mankind since the
flood have descended, and fallen Adam's own likeness with them.
2. It appears from that scripture-text, Job xiv. 4, “Who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean 2 Not one.” Our first parents were unclean, how then can we
be clean 2 how could our immediate parents be clean 2 or how shall our children be
so 2 The uncleanness here aimed at, is a sinful uncleanness; for it is such as makes
man's days “full of trouble:” and it is natural, being derived from unclean parents;
“Man is born of a woman,” ver. 1; “And how can he be clean that is born of a
woman 2" Job xxy. 4. An omnipotent God, whose power is not here challenged,
could bring a clean thing out of an unclean, and did so in the case of the man
Christ; but no other can. Every person that is born according to the course of
nature is born unclean. If the root be corrupt, so must the branches be. Neither
is the matter mended, though the parents be sanctified ones: for they are but holy
in part, and that by grace, not by nature ; and they beget their children as men,
not as holy men. Wherefore, as the circumcised parent begets an uncircumcised
child, and after the purest grain is sown, we reap corn with the chaff; so the holi-
est parents beget unholy children, and cannot communicate their grace to them, as
they do their nature ; which many godly parents find true, in their sad experience.
3. Consider the confession of the psalmist David, Psal. li. 5, “Behold, I was
shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Here he ascends
from his actual sin, to the fountain of it, namely, corrupt nature. He was a man
according to God's own heart; but “from the beginning it was not so" with him.
He was begotten in lawful marriage; but when the lump was shapen in the womb,
it was a sinful lump. Hence the corruption of nature is called “the old man;” being
as old as ourselves, older than grace, even in those that are sanctified from the
womb.
4. Hear our Lord's determination of the point, John iii. 6, “That which is born
of the flesh, is flesh.” Behold the universal corruption of mankind, all are flesh.
Not that all are frail, though that is a sad truth too, yea, and our natural frailty
is an evidence of our natural corruption : but that is not the sense of this text ;
but here is the meaning of it, all are corrupt and sinful, and that naturally : hence
FOUR FOLD STATE. 21
our Lord argues here, that because they are flesh, therefore they must be “born
again, or else they cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” ver. 3, 5. And as the
corruption of our nature evidenceth the absolute necessity of regeneration, so the
absolute necessity of regeneration plainly proves the corruption of our nature ; for
why should a man need a second birth if his nature were not quite marred in the
first birth ? Infants must be born again, for that is an “except” (John iii. 3.) which
admits of no exception. And therefore they were circumcised under the Old Testa-
ment; as having the “body of the sins of the flesh,” which is conveyed to them by
natural generation, to put off, Col. ii. 11. And now, by the appointment of Jesus
Christ, they are to be baptized; which says they are unclean, and that there is no
salvation for them, but “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy
Ghost,” Tit. iii. 5.
5. Man certainly is sunk very low now, in comparison of what he once was.
God made him but a “little lower than the angels ;” but now we find him likened
to the beasts that perish. He hearkened to a brute, and is now become like one of
them. Like Nebuchadnezzar, his portion, in his natural state, is with the beasts,
“minding only earthly things,” Philip. iii. 19. Nay, brutes, in some sort, have
the advantage of the natural man, who is sunk a degree below them. He is more
withess, in what concerns him most, than the stork, or the turtle, or the crane, or
the swallow, in what is for their interest, Jer. viii. 7. He is more stupid than the
ox or ass, Isa. i. 3. I find him sent to school to learn of the ant or emmet, which
having no guide, or leader to go before her; no overseer or officer, to compel or
stir her up to work; no ruler, but may do as she lists, being under the dominion
of none ; yet “provideth her meat in the summer and harvest,” Prov. vi. 6, 7, 8;
while the natural man hath all these, and yet exposeth himself to eternal starving.
Nay, more than all this, the scripture holds out the natural man, not only as want-
ing the good qualities of those creatures, but as a compound of the evil qualities
of the worst of the creatures ; in which do concentre the fierceness of the lion, the
craft of the fox, the unteachableness of the wild ass, the filthiness of the dog and
swine, the poison of the asp, and such like. Truth itself calls them serpents, “a
generation of vipers;” yea, more, even “children of the devil,” Matt. xxiii. 33 ;
John viii. 44. Surely, then, man's nature is miserably corrupted.
Lastly, “We are by nature the children of wrath,” Eph. ii. 3. We are worthy
of, and liable to, the wrath of God; and this by nature : and therefore, doubtless,
we are by nature sinful creatures. We are condemned before we have done good
or evil; under the curse, ere we know what it is. “But will a lion roar in the
forest while he hath no prey !” Amos iii. 4; that is, will a holy and just God roar
in his wrath against man, if he be not, by his sin, made a prey for wrath ? No,
he will not, he cannot. Let us conclude then, that, according to the word of God,
man's nature is a corrupt nature.
Secondly, If we consult experience, and observe the case of the world, in those
things that are obvious to any person that will not shut his eyes against clear
light; we shall quickly perceive such fruits as discover this root of bitterness. I
shall propose a few things, that may serve to convince us in this point.
1. Who sees not a flood of miseries overflowing the world 2 and whither can a
man go where he shall not dip his foot, if he go not over head and ears in it ! Every
one at home and abroad, in city and country, in palaces and cottages, is groaning
under some one thing or other ungrateful to him. Some are oppressed with
poverty, some chastened with sickness and pain; some are lamenting their losses;
none wants a cross of one sort or another. No man's condition is so soft, but there
is some thorn of uneasiness in it. And at length death, “the wages of sin,” comes
after these its harbingers, and sweeps all away. Now, what but sin has opened
the sluice 3 There is not a complaint nor sigh heard in the world, nor a tear that
falls from our eye, but it is an evidence that man is fallen as a star from heaven;
for “God distributeth sorrows in his anger,” Job xxi. 17. This is a plain proof of
the corruption of nature : forasmuch as those that have not yet actually sinned, have
their share of these sorrows; yea, and draw their first breath in the world weeping,
as if they knew this world, at first sight, to be a Bochim, the place of weepers.
There are graves of the smallest, as well as of the largest size, in the churchyard ;
22 FOURFOLD STATE
and there are never wanting some in the world who, like Rachel, “are weeping
for their children, because they are not,” Matt. ii. 18.
2. Observe how early this corruption of nature begins to appear in young ones.
Solomon observes that “even a child is known by his doings,” Prov. xx. 11. It
may soon be discerned, what way the bias of the heart lies. Do not the children
of fallen Adam, before they can go alone, follow their father's footsteps ? What a
vast deal of little pride, ambition, curiosity, vanity, wilfulness, and averseness to
good, appears in them And when they creep out of infancy, there is a necessity
of using “the rod of correction, to drive away the foolishness that is bound in their
heart,” Prov. xxii. 15. Which shows, that if grace prevail not, the child will be
as Ishmael, a wild-ass-man, as the word is, Gen. xvi. 12. -
3. Take a view of the manifold gross outbreakings of sin in the world. “The
wickedness of man” is yet “great in the earth.” Behold the bitter fruits of the
corruption of our nature, Hos. iv. 2. “By swearing and lying, and killing, and
stealing, and committing adultery, they break out,” like the breaking forth of waters,
“ and blood toucheth blood.” The world is filled with filthiness, and all manner of
lewdness, wickedness, and profanity. Whence is this deluge of sin on the earth,
but from the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, the heart of man,
“out of which proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness,” &c. Mark vii. 21, 22. Ye will, it may be, thank God
with a whole heart, that ye are not like these other men: and indeed ye have bet-
ter reason for it than, I fear, ye are aware of ; for “as in water face answereth to
face, so the heart of man to man,” Prov. xxvii. 19. As, looking into clear water, ye see
your own face, so, looking into your heart, ye may see other men's there ; and look-
ing into other men's, in them ye may see your own. So that the most vile and
profane wretches that are in the world should serve you for a looking-glass, in which
you ought to discern the corruption of your own nature: and if you do so, ye
would with a heart truly touched, thank God, and not yourselves, indeed, that ye
are not as other men, in your lives; seeing the corruption of nature is the same in
you as in them.
4. Cast your eye upon those terrible convulsions the world is thrown into by the lusts
of men. Lions make not a prey of lions, nor wolves of wolves; but men are turned
wolves to one another, “biting and devouring one another.” Upon how slight oc-
casions will men sheath their swords in one another's bowels The world is a wil-
derness, where the clearest fire men can carry about with them will not fright away
the wild beasts that inhabit it, (and that because they are men, and not brutes,) but
one way or other they will be wounded. Since Cain shed the blood of Abel, the
earth has been turned into a slaughter-house ; and the chase has been continued
since Nimrod began his hunting ; on the earth, as in the sea, the greater still de-
vouring the lesser. When we see the world in such a ferment, every one stabbing
another with words or swords, we may conclude there is an evil spirit among them.
These violent heats among Adam's sons speak the whole body to be distempered,
the whole head to be sick, and the whole heart faint. They surely proceed from
an inward cause, James vi. 1, “lusts that war in our members.” -
5. Consider the necessity of human laws, fenced with terrors and severities; to
which we may apply what the apostle says, 1 Tim. i. 9, that “the law is not
made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient ; for the ungodly,
and for sinners,” &c. Man was made for society; and God himself said of the
first man, when he had created him, that it was “not meet that he should be alone;”
yet the case is such now, that in society he must be hedged in with thorns. And
that from hence we may the better see the corruption of man's nature, consider,
(1.) Every man naturally loves to be at full liberty himself; to have his own will
for his law ; and if he would follow his natural inclinations, would vote himself out
of the reach of all laws, divine and human. And hence some, the power of whose
hands has been answerable to their natural inclination, have indeed made them-
selves absolute and above laws; agreeable to man's monstrous design at first, to be
as gods, Gen. iii. 5. Yet, (2.) There is no man that would willingly adventure to
live in a lawless Society; and therefore even pirates and robbers have laws among
themselves, though the whole society casts off all respect to law and right. Thus
FOURFOLD STATE. 23
men discover themselves to be conscious of the corruption of nature ; not daring to
trust one another, but upon security. (3.) How dangerous soever it is to break
through the hedge, yet the violence of lust makes many adventure daily to run the
risk. They will not only sacrifice their credit and conscience, which last is lightly
esteemed in the world; but, for the pleasure of a few moments, immediately suc-
ceeded with terror from within, they will lay themselves open to a violent death by
the laws of the land wherein they live. (4.) The laws are often made to yield to
men's lusts. Sometimes whole societies run into such extravagancies, that, like a
company of prisoners, they break off their fetters, and put their guard to flight :
and the voice of laws cannot be heard for the noise of arms. And seldom is there
a time wherein there are not some persons so great and daring, that the laws dare
not look their impetuous lusts in the face; which made David say, in the case of
Joab, who had murdered Abner, “These men, the sons of Zeruiah, be too hard
for me,” 2 Sam, iii. 39. Lusts sometimes grow too strong for laws, so that the law
is slacked, as the pulse of a dying man, Hab. i. 3, 4, (5.) Consider what necessity
often appears of amending old laws and making new ones; which have their rise
from new crimes, that man's nature is very fruitful of There would be no need of
mending the hedge, if men were not, like unruly beasts, still breaking it down. It
is astonishing to see what figure the Israelites, who were separated unto God from
among all the nations in the earth, do make in their history; what horrible
confusions were among them when there was no king in Israel, as you may
see in chapters xviii. xix. xx. and xxi. of Judges; how hard it was to reform them,
when they had the best of magistrates; and how quickly they turned aside again
when they got wicked rulers. I cannot but think, that one grand design of that
sacred history was, to discover the corruption of man's nature, the absolute need
of the Messiah and his grace; and that we ought, in the reading of it, to improve it
to that end. How cutting is that word the Lord has to Samuel, concerning Saul,
1 Sam. ix. 17, “The same shall reign over” (or, as the word is, shall restrain)
“my people.” O the corruption of man's nature | The awe and dread of the God of
heaven restrains them not ; but they must have gods on earth to do it, “to put
them to shame,” Judges xviii. 7.
6. Consider the remains of that natural corruption in the Saints. Though grace
has entered, yet corruption is not quite expelled ; though they have got the new
mature, yet much of the old corrupt nature remains, and these struggle together
within them, as the twins in Rebekah's womb, Gal. v. 17. They find it present with
them at all times, and in all places, even in the most retired corners. If a man
have an ill neighbour, he may remove; if he have an ill servant, he may put him
away at the term ; and if a bad yoke-fellow, he may sometimes leave the house,
and be free of molestation in that way. But should the saint go into a wilderness,
or set up his tent in some remote rock in the sea, where never foot of man, beast,
nor fowl, had touched, there will it be with him. Should he be, with Paul, caught
up to the third heavens, it shall come back with him, 2 Cor. xii. 7. It follows him
as the shadow does the body : it makes a blot in the fairest line he can draw. It
is like the fig-tree in the wall, which, how nearly soever it was cut, yet still grew,
till the wall was thrown down; for the roots of it are fixed in the heart, while the
Saint is in the world, as with bands of iron and brass. It is especially active “when
he would do good,” Rom. vii. 21 ; then the fowls come down upon the carcases.
Hence, often, in holy duties, the spirit even of a saint, as it were, evaporates, and
he is left, ere he is aware, like Michal, with an image in the bed, instead of a hus-
band. I need not stand to prove the remains of the corruption of nature in the
godly, to themselves ; for they groan under it, and to prove it to them were to
hold out a candle to let men see the sun : and as for the wicked, they are ready to
account mole-hills in the saints as big as mountains, if not to reckon them all hypo-
crites. But consider these few things on this head. (1) “If it be thus in the
green tree, how must it be in the dry 2” The saints are not born saints, but made
So by the power of regenerating grace. Have they got a new nature, and yet so
much of the old remains with them ? How great must that corruption be in others,
where it is altogether unmixed with grace : (2.) The saints groan under the re-
mains of it, as a heavy burden. Hear the apostle, Rom, vii. 24, “O wretched man
24 FOURFOLIO STATE,
that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?” What though the
carnal man lives at ease and quiet, and the corruption of nature is not his burden?
is he therefore free from it? No, no ; only he is dead, and feels not the sinking
weight. Many a groan is heard from a sick-bed, but never one from a grave. In
the saint, as in the sick man, there is a mighty struggle, life and death striving for
the mastery; but in the natural man, as in the dead corpse, there is no noise, be-
cause death bears full sway. (3.) The godly man resists the old corrupt nature ;
he strives to mortify it, yet it remains ; he endeavours to starve it, and by that
means to weaken it, yet it is active ; how must it spread then, and strengthen it-
self in that soul where it is not starved, but fed l And this is the case of all the un-
regenerate, who make “provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” . If the
garden of the diligent afford him new work daily, in cutting off and rooting up ;
surely that of the sluggard must needs be “all grown over with thorns.”
Lastly, I shall add but one observation more ; and that is, that in every man
naturally the image of fallen Adam does appear. Some children, by their features
and lineaments of their face, do, as it were, father themselves; and thus we do re-
semble our first parents. Every one of us bears the image and impress of their
fall upon him : and to evince the truth of this, I do appeal to the consciences of all,
in these following particulars:
(1.) Is not sinful curiosity natural to us? and is not this a print of Adam's
image 2 Gen. iii. 6. Is not man naturally much more desirous to know new things,
than to practise old known truths How like to old Adam do we look in this, itch-
ing after novelties, and disrelishing old solid doctrines I We seek after knowledge
rather than holiness, and study most to know these things which are least edifying.
Our wild and roving fancies need a bridle to curb them, while good solid affections
must be quickened and spurred up.
(2.) If the Lord, by his holy law and wise providence, do put a restraint upon
us, to keep us back from any thing, doth not that restraint whet the edge of our
natural inclinations, and make us so much the keener in our desires 2 And in this
do we not betray it plainly, that we are Adam's children? Gen. iii. 2, 3, 6. I
think this cannot be denied ; for daily observation evinceth, that it is a natural
principle, that “stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant,”
Prov. ix. 17. The very heathens were convinced that man was possessed with this
spirit of contradiction, though they knew not the spring of it. . How often do men
give themselves the loose in those things in which, if God had left them at liberty,
they would have bound up themselves . . But corrupt nature takes a pleasure in
the very jumping over the hedge. And is it not a repeating of our father's folly,
that men will rather climb for forbidden fruit, than gather what is shaken off the
tree of good providence to them, when they have God's express allowance for it?
(3.) Which of all the children of Adam is not naturally disposed to hear the
“instruction that causeth to errº” And was not this the rock our first parents
split upon? Gen. iii. 4, 6. How apt is weak man, ever since that time, to parley
with temptations ! “God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not,”
Job xxxiii. 14; but readily doth he listen to Satan. Men might often come fair
off, if they would dismiss temptations with abhorrence, when first they appear; if
they would nip them in the bud, they would soon die away ; but, alas! when we
see the train laid for us, and the fire put to it, yet we stand till it run along, and
we be blown up with its force.
(4) Do not the eyes in our head often blind the eyes of the mind? And was not
this the very case of our first parents? Gen. iii. 6. Man is never more blind than
when he is looking on the objects that are most pleasing to sense. Since the eyes
of our first parents were opened to the forbidden fruit, men's eyes have been the gates
of destruction to their souls; at which impure imaginations and sinful desires
have entered the heart to the wounding of the soul, wasting of the conscience, and
bringing dismal effects sometimes on whole Societies, as in Achan's case, Josh. vii.
21. THoly Job was aware of this danger from these two little rolling bodies, which a
very small splinter of wood will make useless ; so as (with that king who durst not,
with his ten thousand, meet him that came with twenty thousand against him,
FOUR FOLD STATE. 25.
Luke xiv. 31, 32.) he sendeth and desireth conditions of peace, Job xxxi. 1. “I
have made a covenant with mine eyes,” &c.
(5.) Is it not natural to us to care for the body even at the expense of the soul?
This was one ingredient in the sin of our first parents, Gen. iii. 6. O how happy
might we be, if we were but at half the pains about our souls, that we bestow upon
our bodies ' If that question, “What must I do to be saved ?” (Acts xvi. 30.)
did run but near as oft through our minds as these other questions do, “What'
shall we eat 2 What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed ?” (Matt. vi.
31.) many a now hopeless case would turn very hopeful. But the truth is, most
men live as if they were nothing but a lump of flesh, or as if their souls served
for no other use but, like salt, to keep the body from corrupting. “They are flesh,”
John iii. 6; “they mind the things of the flesh,” Rom. viii. 5; and “they live
after the flesh,” ver, 13. If the consent of the flesh be got to an action, the con-
sent of the conscience is rarely waited for ; yea, the body is often served when the
conscience has entered a dissent against it.
(6.) Is not every one by nature discontent with his present lot in the world, or
with some one thing or other in it 2 This also was Adam's case, Gen. iii. 5, 6.
Some one thing is always missing ; so that man is a creature given to changes.
And if any doubt of this, let them look over all their enjoyments, and, after a re-
view of them, listen to their own hearts, and they will hear a secret murmuring for
want of something; though, perhaps, if they consider the matter aright, they would
see that it is better for them to want, than to have that something. Since the
hearts of our first parents flew out at their eyes on the forbidden fruit, and a night
of darkness was thereby brought on the world ; their posterity have a natural dis-
ease, which Solomon calls, “the wandering of the desire,” (or, as the word is,
“the walking of the soul,”) Eccl. vi. 9. This is a sort of diabolical trance, where-
in the soul traverseth the world ; feeds itself with a thousand airy nothings;
Snatcheth at this and the other created excellency, in imagination and desire ; goes
here, and there, and every where, except where it should go. And the soul is
never cured of this disease, till overcoming grace bring it back, to take up its ever-
lasting rest in God through Christ : but till this be, if man were set again in para-
dise, the garden of the Lord, all the pleasures there would not keep him from look-
ing, yea, and leaping over the hedge a second time.
(7.) Are we not far more easily impressed and influenced by evil counsels and
examples, than by those that are good 2 You see this was the ruin of Adam, Gen.
iii. 6. Evil example, to this day, is one of Satan's master-devices to ruin men.
And though we have, by nature, more of the fox than of the lamb, yet that ill pro-
perty some observe in this creature, viz. that, if one lamb skip into a water, the
rest that are near will suddenly follow, may be observed also in the disposition of
the children of men ; to whom it is very natural to embrace an evil way, because
they see others upon it before them. Ill example has frequently the force of a
violent stream, to carry us over plain duty ; but especially if the example be given
by those we bear a great affection to : our affection, in that case, blinds our judg-
ment ; and what we would abhor in others, is complied with to humour them.
And nothing is more plain, than that generally men choose rather to do what the
most do, than what the best do. -
(8.) Who of all Adam's sons needs be taught the art of “sewing fig-leaves to-
gether,” to cover their nakedness? Gen. iii. 7. When we have ruined ourselves,
and made ourselves naked to our shame, we naturally seek to help ourselves by our-
selves; and many poor shifts are fallen upon, as silly and insignificant as Adam's
fig-leaves. What pains are men at to cover their sin from their own consciences,
and to draw all the fair colours upon it that they can And when once convictions
are fastened upon them, so that they cannot but see themselves naked, it is as na-.
tural for them to attempt to spin a cover to it out of their own bowels, as for fishes.
to swim in the waters, or birds to fly in the air. Therefore the first question of .
the convinced is, “What shall we do "Acts ii. 27. How shall we qualify our-
selves 3 What shall we perform 3 Not minding that the new creature is God's own
“Workmanship,” (or deed, Eph. ii. 10.) more than Adam thought of being clothed
with the skins of sacrifices, Gen. iii. 21.
D
*
26 FOUR FOI,D STATE,
(9.) Do not Adam's children naturally follow his footsteps in “hiding themselves
from the presence of the Lord?” Gen. iii. 8. We are every whit as blind in this
matter as he was, who thought to hide himself from the presence of God among
the shady trees of the garden. We are very apt to promise ourselves more security
in a secret sin, than in one that is openly committed. “The eye of the adulterer
waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me,” Job xxiv. 15. And men
will freely do that in secret, which they would be ashamed to do in the presence of
a child; as if darkness could hide from an all-seeing God. Are we not naturally
careless of communion with God ; ay, and averse to it? Never was there any com-
munion betwixt God and Adam's children, where the Lord himself had not the
first word. If he would let them alone, they would never inquire after him. Isa.
lvii. 17, “I hid me.” Did he seek after a hiding God? Very far from it, “He
went on in the way of his heart.”
(10.) How loath are men to confess sin, to take guilt and shame to themselves 1
And was it not thus in the case before us? Gen. iii. 10. Adam confesseth his
nakedness, which he could not get denied; but not one word he says of his sin :
here was the reason of it, he would fain have hid it if he could. It is as natural
for us to hide sin, as to commit it. Many sad instances thereof we have in this
world ; but a far clearer proof of it we shall get at the day of judgment, the day
in which “God will judge the secrets of men,” Rom. ii. 16. Many a foul mouth
will then be seen, which is now “wiped, and saith, I have done no wickedness,”
Prov. xxx. 20. -
(11.) Is it not natural for us to extenuate our sin, and transfer the guilt upon
others? And when God examined our guilty first parents, did not Adam lay the
blame on the woman 2 and did not the woman lay the blame on the serpent ? Gen.
iii. 12, 13. Now, Adam's children need not be taught this hellish policy; for be-
fore they can well speak, if they cannot get the fact denied, they will cunningly
lisp out something to lessen their fault, and lay the blame upon another. Nay,
so natural is this to men, that, in the greatest of sins, they will lay the fault
upon God himself; they will blaspheme his holy providence under the mistaken
name of misfortune or ill-luck, and thereby lay the blame of their sin at Heaven's
door. And was not this one of Adam's tricks after his fall ? Gen. iii. 12, “And
the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the
tree, and I did eat.” Observe the order of the speech. He makes his apology in
the first place ; and then comes his confession : his apology is long ; but his con-
fession very short ; it is all comprehended in a word, “and I did eat.” How
pointed and distinct is his apology, as if he was afraid his meaning should have
been mistaken l “The woman,” says he, or “that woman,” as if he would have
pointed the Judge to his own work, of which we read, Gen. ii. 22. There was but
one woman then in the world; so that one would think he needed not to have been so
mice and exact in pointing at her: yet she is as carefully marked out in his defence,
as if there had been ten thousand. “The woman whom thou gavest me :” here he
speaks, as if he had been ruined with God's gift. And to make the gift look the
blacker, it is added to all this, “thou gavest to be with me,” as my constant com-
panion, to stand by me as a helper. This looks as if Adam would have fathered
an ill design upon the Lord in giving him this gift. And, after all, there is a new
demonstrative here, before the sentence is complete : he says, not, “The woman
gave me,” but, “The woman she gave me,” emphatically; as if he had said, She,
even she gave me of the tree. This much for his apology. But his confession
is quickly over, in one word, (as he spoke it,) “and I did eat.” And there is no-
thing here to point to himself, and as little to show what he had eaten. How natu-
ral is this black art to Adam's posterity he that runs may read it. So universally
does Solomon's observation hold true, Prov, xix. 3, “The foolishness of man per-
verteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord.” Let us then call fallen
Adam father ; let us not deny the relation, seeing we bear his image.
And now, to shut up this point, sufficiently confirmed by concurring evidence
from the Lord's word, our own experience, and observation, let us be persuaded to
believe the doctrine of the corruption of our nature, and to look to the second Adam,
the blessed Jesus, for the application of his precious blood, to remove the guilt of
FOUR FOLD STATE. 27
this sin; and for the efficacy of his Holy Spirit, to make us new creatures, knowing
that, “except we be born again, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Of the corruption of the understanding.
II. I proceed to inquire into the corruption of nature in the several parts thereof.
But who can comprehend it? Who can take the exact dimensions of it, in its breadth,
length, height, and depth ? “The heart is deceitful above all things and despe-
rately wicked ; who can know it?” Jer. xvii. 9. However, we may quickly per-
ceive as much of it as may be matter of deepest humiliation, and may discover to
us the absolute necessity of regeneration. Man in his natural state is altogether
corrupt. Both soul and body are polluted, as the apostle proves at large, Rom. iii.
10–18. As for the soul, this natural corruption has spread itself through all the
faculties thereof; and is to be found in the understanding, the will, the affections,
the conscience, and the memory.
First, The understanding, that leading faculty, is despoiled of its primitive glory,
and covered over with confusion. We have fallen into the hands of our grand ad-
versary, as Samson into the hands of the Philistines, and are deprived of our two
eyes. “There is none that understandeth,” Rom. iii. 11. “Mind and conscience are
defiled,” Tit. i. 15. The natural man's apprehension of divine things is corrupt;
Psal. 1. 21, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.” His
judgment is corrupt, and cannot be otherwise, seeing his “eye is evil;” and there-
fore the scriptures, to show that men did all wrong, say, “Every one did that which
was right in his own eyes,” Judges xvii. 6, and xxi. 25. And his “imaginations,” or
reasonings, must be “cast down,” by the power of the word, being of a piece with his
judgment, 2 Cor. x. 5. But, to point out this corruption of the mind or under-
standing more particularly, let these following things be considered.
1. There is a natural weakness in the minds of men with respect to spiritual things.
The apostle determines concerning every one that is not endued with the graces of
the Spirit, that he “is blind, and cannot see afar off,” 2 Pet. i. 9. Hence the
Spirit of God in the scripture clothes, as it were, divine truths with earthly figures,
even as parents teach their children, “using similitudes,” Hos. xii. 10; which,
though it doth not cure, yet doth evidence this natural weakness in the minds of men.
But we want not plain proofs of it from experience. As, (1.) How hard a task is
it to teach many people the common principles of our holy religion, and to make
truths so plain as they may understand them! Here there must be “precept upon
precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line,” Isa. xxviii. 9. Try
the same persons in other things, they shall be found “wiser in their generation than
the children of light.” They understand their work and business in the world, as
well as their neighbours; though they be very stupid and unteachable in the matters
of God. Tell them how they may advance their worldly wealth, or how they may
gratify their lusts, and they will quickly understand these things; though it is very
hard to make them know how their souls may be saved, or how their hearts may
find rest in Jesus Christ. (2.) Consider those who have many advantages above
the common race of mankind; who have had the benefit of good education and in-
struction; yea, and are blessed with the light of grace in that measure wherein
it is distributed to the saints on earth; yet how small a portion have they of the
knowledge of divine things! what ignorance and confusion do still remain in their
minds! how often are they mired, even in the matter of practical truths, and speak
as a child in these things! It is a pitiful weakness that we cannot perceive the
things which God has revealed to us; and it must needs be a sinful weakness, since
the law of God requires us to know and believe them. (3.) What dangerous mis-
takes are to be found amongst men, in their concerns of greatest weight ! what woful
delusions prevail over them Do we not often see those, who, otherwise, are the
wisest of men, the most notorious fools with respect to their souls’ interest ? Matt.
xi. 21, “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.” Many that are
eagle-eyed in the trifles of time, are like owls and bats in the light of life. N ay,
truly, the life of every natural man is but one continued dream and delusion, out
of which he never awakes, till either, by a new light darted from heaven into his
28 FOUR FOLD STATE.
soul, he “come to himself,” Luke xv. 17; or “in hell he lift up his eyes,” chap.
xvi. 23. And therefore, in scripture-account, be he never so wise, he is a “fool”
and a “simple one.”
2. Man's understanding is naturally overwhelmed with gross darkness in spirit-
ual things. Man, at the instigation of the devil, attempting to break out a new
light in his mind, (Gen. iii. 5,) instead of that, broke up the doors of the bottomless
pit ; so as, by the Smoke thereof, he was buried in darkness. When God at first
had made man, his mind was a lamp of light ; but now, when he comes to make
him over again in regeneration, he finds it darkness; Eph. v. 8, “Ye were some-
times darkness.” Sin has closed the window of the soul; darkness is over all that
region. It is the “land of darkness and shadow of death, where the light is as dark-
ness.” The prince of darkness reigns there, and nothing but “the works of darkness”
are framed there. We are born spiritually blind, and cannot be restored without
a miracle of grace. This is thy case whosoever thou art that art not born again.
And that you may be convinced in this matter, take these following evidences of it.
Evidence 1. The darkness that was upon the face of the world, before, and at
the time when Christ came, arising as “the Sun of righteousness” upon the earth.
When Adam by his sin had lost that primitive light wherewith he was endued in
his creation, it pleased God to make a gracious revelation of his mind and will to
him, touching the way of salvation, Gen. iii. 15. This was handed down by him,
and other godly fathers, before the flood : yet the natural darkness of the mind of
man prevailed so far against that revelation, as to carry off all sense of true reli-
gion from the old world, except what remained in Noah's family, which was pre-
served in the ark. After the flood, as men multiplied on the earth, the natural
darkness of mind prevails again, and the light decays, till it died out among the
generality of mankind, and is preserved only among the posterity of Shem. And
even with them it was well near its setting, when God called Abraham from serv-
ing other gods, Josh. xxiv. 15. God gives Abraham a more clear and full revela-
tion, and he communicates the same to his family, Gen. xviii. 19; yet the natural
darkness wears it out at length, save that it was preserved among the posterity of
Jacob. They being carried down into Egypt, that darkness prevailed so as to leave
them very little sense of true religion; and a new revelation behoved to be made
them in the wilderness. And many a cloud of darkness got above that, now and
then, during the time from Moses to Christ. When Christ came the world was
divided into Jews and Gentiles. The Jews and the true light with them, were
within an enclosure, Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. Betwixt them and the Gentile world,
there was a partition-wall of God's making, namely, the ceremonial law; and upon
that there was reared up another of man’s own making, namely, a rooted enmity
betwixt the parties, Eph. ii. 14, 15. If we look abroad without the enclosure,
and except those proselytes of the Gentiles, who, by means of some rays of light
breaking forth unto them from within the enclosure, having renounced idolatry
worshipped the true God, but did not conform to the Mosaical rites; we see
nothing but “dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty,” Psal.
lxxiv. 20. Gross darkness covered the Gentile world, and the way of salva-
tion was utterly unknow namong them. They were drowned in superstition and
idolatry, and had multiplied their idols to such a vast number, that above
thirty thousand are reckoned to have been worshipped by those of Europe
alone. Whatever wisdom was among their philosophers, “the world by ” that
“wisdom knew not God,” 1 Cor. i. 21; and all their researches in religion were but
groping in the dark, Acts xvii. 27. If we look within the enclosure, and except a
few that were groaning and “waiting for the consolation of Israel,” we will see a
gross darkness on the face of that generation. Though “to them were committed
the oracles of God,” yet they were most corrupt in their doctrine. Their traditions
were multiplied, but the knowledge of those things wherein the life of religion lies
was lost: masters of Israel knew not the nature and necessity of regeneration,
John iii. 10. Their religion was to build on their birth-privilege, as children of
Abraham, Matt. iii. 9, to glory in their circumcision, and other external ordinances,
Phil. iii. 2, 3, and to “rest in the law,” (Rom. ii. 17.) after they had, by their
false glosses, cut it so short, as they might go well near to the fulfilling of it, Matt, v.
FOURFOLD STATE. 29
Thus was darkness over the face of the world, when Christ, the true Light, came
into it; and so is darkness over every soul, till he, as the day-star, arise in the
heart. The former is an evidence of the latter. What but the natural darkness
of men's minds could still thus wear out the light of external revelation, in a mat-
ter upon which eternal happiness did depend ? Men did not forget the way of pre-
serving their lives: but how quickly did they lose the knowledge of the way of sal-
vation of their souls, which are of infinite more weight and worth ! When patri-
archs' and prophets’ teaching was ineffectual, men behoved to be taught of God
himself, who alone can open the eyes of the understanding. But, that it might
appear that the corruption of man's mind lay deeper than to be cured by mere ex-
termal revelation, there were but very few converted by Christ's preaching, “who
spake as never man spake,” John xii. 37, 38. The great cure on the generation
remained to be performed, by the Spirit accompanying the preaching of the apos-
tles; who, according to the promise, (John xiv. 12,) were to do greater works.
And if we look to the miracles wrought by our blessed Lord, we will find, that, by
applying the remedy to the soul, for the cure of bodily distempers, (as in the case
of the man sick of the palsy, Matt. ix. 2,) he plainly discovered, that it was his
main errand into the world to cure the diseases of the soul. I find a miracle
wrought upon one that was born blind, performed in such a way, as seems to have
been designed to let the world see in it, as in a glass, their case and cure, John ix.
6, “He made clay, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.” What
could more fitly represent the blindness of men's minds, than eyes closed up with
earth? Isa. vi. 1, “shut their eyes: ” shut them up by anointing, or casting them
with mortar, as the word will bear. And chap. xliv. 18, “He hath shut their
eyes: ” the word properly signifies he hath “plastered ” their eyes; as the
house in which the leprosy had been was to be plastered, Lev. xiv. 42. Thus the
Lord's word discovers the design of that strange work; and by it shows us, that
the eyes of our understanding are naturally shut. Then the blind man must “go
and wash ’’ off this clay “in the pool of Siloam :” no other water will serve this
purpose. If that pool had not represented him whom the Father sent into the
world “to open the blind eyes,” (Isa. xlii. 7.) I think the Evangelist had not given
us the interpretation of the name, which he says, signifies “sent,” John ix. 7.
And so we may conclude, that the natural darkness of our minds is such as there
is no cure for but from the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ, whose “eye-salve *
only can make us see, Rev. iii. 18.
Evid. 2. Every natural man's heart and life is a mass of darkness, disorder, and
confusion ; how refined soever he appear in the sight of men. “For we ourselves
also,” saith the apostle Paul, “were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serv-
ing divers lusts and pleasures,” Tit. iii. 3; and yet, at that time which this text
looks to, he was “blameless, touching the righteousness which is in the law,” Phil.
iii. 6. This is a plain evidence that “the eye is evil, the whole body being full of
darkness,” Matt. vi. 23. The unrenewed part of mankind is rambling through the
world, like so many blind men who will neither take a guide, nor can guide them-
selves, and therefore are falling over this and the other precipice, into destruction.
Some are running after their covetousness, till they are “pierced through with
many sorrows :” some sticking in the mire of sensuality ; others dashing themselves
on the rock of pride and self-conceit ; every one stumbling on some one stone of
stumbling or other: all of them are running themselves upon the sword-point of jus-
tice, while they eagerly follow whither their unmortified passions and affections lead
them : and while some are lying along in the way, others are coming up and fall-
ing headlong over them. And therefore, “Woe unto the ” blind “world because
of offences,” Matt. xviii. 7, Errors in judgment swarm in the world ; because it
is “night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.” All the unregener-
ate are utterly mistaken in the point of true happiness; for though Christianity
hath fixed that matter in the point of principle, yet nothing less than overcoming
grace can fix it in the practical judgment. All men agree in the desire to be happy;
but amongst unrenewed men, touching the way to happiness, there are almost as
many opinions as there are men ; they being “turned every one to his own way,”
Isa, liii. 6. They are like the blind Sodomites about Lot's house : all were seek-
30 FOURFOLD STATE.
ing to find the door; some grope one part of the wall for it, some another; but
none of them could certainly say he had found it: and so the natural man may
stumble on any good but the chief good, Look into thine own unregenerate heart,
and there thou wilt see all turned upside down; heaven lying under, and the earth
a-top. Look into thy life, there thou mayest see how thou art playing the madman,
snatching at shadows, and neglecting the substance; eagerly flying after “that which
is not,” and slighting that which is, and will be for ever. - -
Evid. 3. The natural man is always as a workman left without light; either
trifling or doing mischief. Try to catch thy heart at any time thou wilt, and thou
shalt find it either “weaving the spider's web,” or “hatching’ cockatrice' eggs”
(Isa. lix. 5.) ; roving through the world, or digging into the pit ; filled with vanity,
or else with vileness; busy doing nothing, or what is worse than nothing. A sad
sign of a dark mind. -
Evid. 4. The natural man is void of the saving knowledge of spiritual things.
He knows not what a God he has to do with ; he is unacquainted with Christ, and
knows not what sin is. The greatest graceless wits are as blind as moles in these
things. Ay, but some such can speak of them to good purpose : and so might the
Israelites, of the temptations, signs, and miracles their eyes had seen, (Deut. xxix.
3,) to whom, nevertheless, the Lord had not “given an heart to perceive, and eyes
to see, and ears to hear, unto that day,” ver, 4. Many a man that bears the name
of a Christian may make Pharaoh's confession of faith, Exod. v. 2. They “know
not the Lord, neither will they let go” what he commands them to part with. God
is with them, as a prince in disguise among his subjects, who meets with no better
treatment from them, than if they were his fellows, Psal. 1. 21. Do they know
Christ, or see his glory, and any beauty in him, for which he is to be desired? If
they did, they would not slight him as they do ; a view of his glory would so darken
all created excellency, that they would take him for and instead of all, and gladly
close with him, as he offereth himself in the gospel, John iv. 10; Psal. ix. 10;
Matt. xiii. 44, 45, 46. Do they know what sin is, who hug the serpent in their
bosom ; hold fast deceit, and refuse to let it go ? I own, indeed, they may have a
natural knowledge of those things, as the unbelieving Jews had of Christ, whom
they saw and conversed with ; but there was a spiritual glory in him, perceived by
the believers only, John i. 14 ; and in respect of that glory, “the'' unbelieving
“world knew him not,” ver, 10. But the spiritual knowledge of them they can-
not have : it is above the reach of the carnal mind, 1 Cor. ii. 14, “The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him ; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” He may, in-
deed, discourse of them, but no other way than one can talk of honey or vinegar
who never tasted the Sweetness of the one, nor the Sourness of the other. He has
some notions of spiritual truths, but sees not the things themselves that are wrapt
up in the words of truth, 1 Tim, i. 7, “Understanding neither what they say, nor
whereof they affirm.” In a word, natural men fear, seek, confess, they know not
what. Thus you may see man's understanding naturally is overwhelmed with gross
darkness in spiritual things.
3. There is in the mind of man a natural bias to evil, whereby it comes to pass,
that whatever difficulties it finds while occupied about things truly good, it acts with
a great deal of ease in evil; as being in that case in its own element, Jer. iv. 22.
The carnal mind drives heavily in the thoughts of good, but furiously in the thoughts
of evil. While holiness is before it, fetters are upon it; but when once it has got
over the hedge, it is as a bird got out of the cage, and becomes a free-thinker in-
deed. Let us reflect a little on the apprehension and imagination of the carnal
mind, and we shall find incontestable evidence of this woful bias to evil.
Evidence 1. As when a man, by a violent stroke on the head, loseth his sight,
there ariseth to him a kind of false light, whereby he perceives a thousand airy no-
things; so man being struck blind to all that is truly good, and for his eternal in-
terest, has a light of another sort brought into his mind; his “eyes are opened,
knowing evil;” and so are the words of the tempter verified, Gen. iii. 5. The
words of the prophet are plain, “They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have
no knowledge,” Jer, iv. 22. The mind of man has a natural dexterity to devise
FOUR FOLD STATE. 31
mischief: none are so simple as to want skill to contrive ways to gratify their lusts,
and ruin their souls; though the power of every one's hand cannot reach to put
their devices in execution. None needs to be taught this black art ; but as weeds
grow up of their own accord in the neglected ground, so doth this wisdom (which
is “earthly, sensual, devilish,” James iii. 15.) grow up in the minds of men, by vir-
tue of the corruption of their nature. Why should we be surprised with the pro-
duct of corrupt wits; their cunning devices to affront Heaven, to oppose and run
down truth and holiness, and to gratify their own and other men's lusts 3 They
row with the stream, no wonder they make great progress: their stock is within
them, and increaseth by using of it: and the works of darkness are contrived with
the greater advantage, that the mind is wholly destitute of spiritual light; which,
if it were in them in any measure, would so far mar the work, 1 John iii. 9,
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;” he does it not by art ; for “his
seed remaineth in him.” But, on the other hand, “it is as sport to a fool to do
mischief; but a man of understanding hath wisdom,” Prov. x. 23. “To do witty
wickedness nicely,” (as the words import,) “is as a sport or a play to a fool ;” it
comes off with him easily; and why, but because he is a fool, and hath not wisdom,
which would mar the contrivances of darkness? The more natural a thing is, it is
done the more easily.
Evid. 2. Let the corrupt mind have but the advantage of one's being employed
in, or present at some piece of service to God, that so the device, if not in itself
sinful, yet may become sinful by its unseasonableness ; it shall quickly fall on
some device or expedient, by its starting aside ; which deliberation, in Season,
could not produce. Thus Saul, who wist not what to do before the priest began to
consult God, is quickly determined when once the priest's hand was in ; his own
heart then gave him an answer, and would not allow him to wait an answer from the
Lord, 1 Sam. xiv. 18, 19. Such a devilish dexterity hath the carnal mind, in de-
vising what may most effectually divert men from their duty to God.
Evid. 3. Doth not the carnal mind naturally strive to grasp spiritual things in
imagination ; as if the soul were quite immersed in flesh and blood, and would turn
every thing into its own shape? Let men who are used to the forming of the most
abstracted notions look into their own souls, and they shall find this bias in their
minds; whereof the idolatry, which did of old, and still doth, so much prevail in
the world, is an incontestable evidence : for it plainly discovers, that men naturally
would have a visible deity, and see what they worship: and therefore they “changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image,” &c. Rom. i. 23. The reforma-
tion of these nations (blessed be the Lord for it!) hath banished idolatry, and
images too, out of our churches; but heart-reformation only can break down men-
tal idolatry, and banish the more subtile and refined image-worship, and represen-
tations of the Deity, out of the minds of men. The world, in the time of its dark-
ness, was never more prone to the former, than the unsanctified mind is to the lat-
ter. And hence are horrible, monstrous, and misshapen thoughts of God, Christ,
the glory above, and all spiritual things.
Evid. 4. What a difficult task is it to detain the carnal mind before the Lord!
How averse is it to the entertaining of good thoughts, and dwelling in the meditation
of spiritual things! If one be driven, at any time, to think of the great concerns of
his soul, it is no harder work to hold in an unruly hungry beast, than to hedge in
the carnal mind, that it get not away to the vanities of the world again. When
God is speaking to men by his word, or they are speaking to him in prayer, doth not
the mind often leave them before the Lord, like so many “idols, that have eyes,
but see not, and ears, but hear not ?” The carcase is laid down before God, but
the world gets away the heart: though the eyes be closed, the man sees a thousand
Vanities: the mind, in the mean time, is like a bird got loose out of the cage, skip-
ping from bush to bush ; so that, in effect, the man never “comes to himself,” till
he be “gone from the presence of the Lord.” Say not, it is impossible to get
the mind fixed. It is hard, indeed, but not impossible. Grace from the Lord
can do it, Psal. cviii. 1. Agreeable objects will do it. A pleasant speculation
will arrest the minds of the inquisitive. The worldly man's mind is in little hazard
of wandering, when he is contriving of business, casting up his accounts, or telling
32 FOUR FOLD STATE.
his money: if he answer you not at first, he tells you, he did not hear you, he was
busy ; his mind was fixed. Were we admitted into the presence of a king, to
petition for our lives, we would be in no hazard of gazing through the chamber of
presence. But here lies the case ; the carnal mind, employed about any spiritual
good, is out of its element, and therefore cannot fix.
Evid. 5. But however hard it is to keep the mind on good thoughts, it sticks as
glue to what is evil and corrupt like itself, 2 Pet. ii. 14, “Having eyes full of
adultery, and that cannot cease from sin.” Their eyes cannot cease from sin, (so
the words are constructed,) that is, their hearts and minds, venting by the eyes what
is within, are like a furious beast, which cannot be held in when once it has got
out its head. Let the corrupt imagination once be let loose on its proper object, it
will be found hard work to call it back again, though both reason and will be for
its retreat. For then it is in its own element; and to draw it off from its impurities,
is as the drawing of a fish out of the water, or the rending of a limb from a man.
It runs like fire set to a train of powder, that resteth not till it can get no further.
Evid. 6, Consider how the carnal imagination supplies the want of real objects
to the corrupt heart ; that it may make sinners happy, at least, in the imaginary
enjoyment of their lusts. Thus the corrupt heart feeds itself with imagination-
sins; the unclean person is filled with speculative impurities, “having eyes full of
adultery;” the covetous man fills his heart with the world, though he cannot get
his hands full of it; the malicious person, with delight, acts his revenge within his
own breast ; the envious man, within his own narrow soul, beholds with satisfaction
his neighbour laid low enough ; and every lust finds the corrupt imagination a friend
to it in time of need. And this it doth, not only when people are awake, but some-
times even when they are asleep ; whereby it comes to pass, that those sins are
acted in dreams which their hearts were carried out after while they were awake.
I know, some do question the sinfulness of these things; but can it be thought
they are consistent with that holy nature and frame of spirit which was in innocent
Adam, and in Jesus Christ, and should be in every man Ž It is the corruption of
nature, then, that makes “filthy dreamers,” condemned Jude 8. Solomon had
experience of the exercise of grace in sleep : in a dream he prayed, in a dream he
made the best choice; both were accepted of God, 1 Kings iii. 5–15. And if a
man may, in his sleep, do what is good and acceptable to God, why may he not
also, when asleep, do that which is evil and displeasing to God 2 The same Solomon
would have men aware of this ; and prescribes the best remedy against it, namely,
“the law upon the heart,” Prov. vi. 20, 21. When “thou sleepest,” says he, ver. 22,
“it shall keep thee,” to wit, from sinning in thy sleep ; that is, from sinful dreams:
for one’s being kept from sin—not his being kept from affliction—is the immediate
proper effect of the law of God impressed upon the heart, Psal. cxix. 11. And
thus the whole verse is to be understood, as appears from ver. 23, “For the com-
mandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of
life.” Now, the law is a lamp and light, as it guides in the way of duty ; and in-
structing reproofs from the law are the way of life, as they keep from sin : neither
do they guide into the way of peace, but as they lead into the way of duty ; nor do
they keep a man out of trouble, but as they keep him from sin. And remarkable
is the particular in which Solomon instanceth, namely, the sin of uncleanness, “to
keep thee from the evil woman,” &c. ver. 24, which is to be joined with ver, 22,
enclosing the 23d in a parenthesis, as some versions have it. These things may
suffice to convince us of the natural bias of the mind to evil.
4. There is in the carnal mind an opposition to spiritual truths, and an aversion
to the receiving of them. It is as little a friend to divine truths, as it is to holi-
ness. The truths of natural religion, which do, as it were, force their entry into
the minds of natural men, they “hold” prisoners in “unrighteousness,” Rom. i. 18.
And as for the truths of revealed religion, there is “an evil heart of unbelief” in
them, which opposeth their entry ; and there is an armed force necessary to capti-
vate the mind to the belief of them, 2 Cor. X. 4, 5. God has made a revelation of
his mind and will to sinners, touching the way of Salvation ; he has given us the
doctrine of his holy word: but do natural men believe it indeed ? No, they do not;
“for he that believeth not on the Son of God, believeth not God,” as is plain from
FOUR FOLD STATE, 33
1 John v. 10. They believe not the promises of the word: they look on them, in
effect, only as fair words; for those that receive them are thereby made “partakers
of the divine nature,” 2 Pet. i. 4. The promises are as silver cords let down from
heaven to draw sinners unto God, and to waft them over into the promised land; but
they cast them from them. They believe not the threatenings of the word. For, as
men travelling in deserts carry fire about with them, to fright away wild beasts, so
God has made his law “a fiery law,” Deut. xxxiii. 2, hedging it about with threats of
wrath; but men naturally are more brutish than beasts themselves, and will needs
“touch the "fiery, smoking “mountain,” though they should be “thrust through
with a dart.” I doubt not but most, if not all, of you who are yet in the black state
of nature, will here plead, Not guilty; but remember, the carnal Jews in Christ's
time were as confident as you are, that they believed Moses, John ix. 28, 29. But
he confutes their confidence, roundly telling them, John v. 46, “Had ye believed
Moses, ye would have believed me.” Did ye believe the truths of God, ye durst
not reject, as ye do, him who is truth itself. The very difficulty you find in assent-
ing to this truth bewrays that unbelief I am charging you with. Has it not pro-
ceeded so far with some at this day, that it has steeled their foreheads with the
impudence and impiety openly to reject all revealed religion ? Surely “it is out of
the abundance of the heart their mouth speaketh.” But though ye set not your
mouths against the heavens, as they do ; the same bitter root of unbelief is in all
men by nature, and reigns in you, and will reign, till overcoming grace captivate
your minds to the belief of the truth. To convince you in this point, consider
these three things:
Evidence 1. How few are there who have been blessed with an inward illumina-
tion, by the special operation of the Spirit of Christ, letting them into a view of
divine truths in their spiritual and heavenly lustre How have you learned the
truths of religion, which ye pretend to believe 3 Ye have them merely by the
benefit of external revelation, and of your education ; so that you are Christians,
just because you were not born and bred in a Pagan, but in a Christian country.
Ye are strangers to the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and
with the word in your hearts; and so you cannot have the assurance of faith, with
respect to that outward divine revelation made in the word, 1 Cor. ii. 10–12,
and therefore ye are still unbelievers, “It is written in the prophets, And the
shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned
of the Father, cometh unto me,” says our Lord, John vi. 45. Now, ye have not
come to Christ, therefore ye have not been “taught of God:” ye have not been
so taught, and therefore ye have not come : ye believe not. Behold the revela-
tion from which the faith even of the fundamental principles in religion doth
spring, Matt. xvi. 16, 17, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.—Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
my Father which is in heaven.” If ever the Spirit of the Lord take a dealing
with thee, to work in thee that faith which is of the “operation of God,” it may
be as much time will be spent in razing the old foundation, as will make thee find
a necessity of the “working of his mighty power,” to enable thee to believe the very
foundation-principles,” which now thou thinkest thou makest no doubt of, Eph. i. 19.
Evid. 2. How many professors have made shipwreck of their faith, such as it
was, in the time of temptation and trial! See how they fall like stars from heaven,
when Antichrist prevails l 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12, “God shall send them strong delu-
sion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed
hot the truth.” They fall into damning delusions; because they never really be.
lieved the truth, though they themselves, and others too, thought they did believe
it. That house is built on the sand, and that faith is but ill founded, that cannot
bear out, but is quite overthrown, when the storm comes.
Evid. 3. Consider the utter inconsistency of most men's lives with the principles
of religion which they profess: ye may as soon bring east and west together, as
their principles and practice. Men believe that fire will burn them, and therefore
they will not throw themselves into it; but the truth is, most men live as if they
thought the gospel a mere fable, and the wrath of God revealed, in his word, against
their unrighteousness and ungodliness a mere scarecrow. If ye believe the doc-
E
34 FOUR FOLD STATE.
trines of the word, how is it that yeare so unconcerned about the state of your souls
before the Lord 3 how is it that ye are so little concerned with that weighty point,
whether ye be born again or not ? Many live as they were born, and are like to
die as they live, and yet live in peace. Do such believe the sinfulness and misery
of a natural state 2 Do they believe they are children of wrath? Do they believe
there is no Salvation without regeneration, and no regeneration but what makes
man a new creature? If you believe the promises of the word, why do you not em-
brace them, and labour to enter into the promised rest? What sluggard would not
dig for a hid treasure, if he really believed he might so obtain it 2 Men will work
and Sweat for a maintenance, because they believe that by so doing they will
get it; yet they will be at no tolerable pains for “the eternal weight of glory;”
why, but because they do not believe the word of promise ? Heb. iv. 1, 2. If ye
believe the threatenings, how is it that ye live in your sins, live out of Christ, and
yet hope for mercy? Do such believe God to be the Holy and Just One, who
will “by no means clear the guilty ?” No, no; “none believe, none,” or next
to none, “believe what a just God the Lord is, and how severely he punisheth.”
5. There is in the mind of man a natural proneness to lies and falsehood, which
make for the safety of lusts. “They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies,” Psal. lviii. 3. We have this with the rest of the corruption of our nature,
from our first parents. God revealed the truth to them ; but through the solicita-
tion of the tempter, they first doubted of it, then disbelieved it, and embraced a
lie instead of it. And for an incontestable evidence hereof, we may see that first
article of the devil's creed, “Ye shall not surely die,” Gen. iii. 4; which was
obtruded by him on our first parents, and by them received, naturally embraced
by their posterity, and held fast, till a light from heaven oblige them to quit it.
It spreads itself through the lives of natural men, who, till their consciences be
awakened, walk after their own lusts, still retaining the principle, “That they shall
not surely die :” and this is often improved to that perfection, that the man can
say, over the belly of * the denounced curse, “I shall have peace, though I walk in
the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst,” Deut. xxix. 19. What-
ever advantage the truths of God have over error, by means of education, or other-
wise ; error has always with the natural man this advantage against truth, namely,
that there is something within him which says, O that it were true: so that
the mind lies fair for assenting to it. And here is the reason of it. The true doc-
trine is, “the doctrine that is according to godliness,” 1 Tim. vi. 3, and “the truth
which is after godliness,” Tit. i. 1. Error is the doctrine which is according to
ungodliness; for there is never an error in the mind, nor an untruth vented in the
world, in matters of religion, but what has an affinity with one corruption of the
heart or other, according to that of the apostle, 2 Thess. ii. 12, “They believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” So that truth and error being
otherwise attended with equal advantages for their reception, error, by this means,
has most ready access into the minds of men in their natural state. Wherefore,
it is nothing strange that men reject the simplicity of gospel truths and institutions,
and greedily embrace error and external pomp in religion; seeing they are so
agreeable to the lusts of the heart, and the vanity of the mind of the natural man.
And from hence also it is, that so many embrace atheistical principles; for none do
it but in compliance with their irregular passions; none but those whose advantage
it would be, that there were no God. -
Lastly, Man naturally is high-minded ; for when the gospel comes in power to
him, it is employed in “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that ex-
alteth itself against the knowledge of God,” 2 Cor. x. 5. Lowliness of mind is not
a flower that grows in the field of nature ; but it is planted by the finger of God
in a renewed heart, and learned of the lowly Jesus. It is natural to man to think
highly of himself, and what is his own : for the stroke he has got by his fall in
Adam has produced a false light, whereby mole-hills about him appear like moun-
tains; and a thousand airy beauties present themselves to his deluded fancy.
“Wain man would be wise,” (so he accounts himself, and so he would be accounted
.* i. e. in resistance, or opposition to.—ED. .
FOURFOLD STATE. 35
of by others,) “though man be born like a wild ass's colt,” Job xi. 12. His way
is right, because it is his own : “for every way of a man is right in his own eyes,”
Prov. xxi. 2. His state is good, because he knows none better ; he is “alive with-
out the law,” Rom. vii. 9, and therefore his hope is strong, and his confidence firm.
It is another tower of Babel, reared up against heaven; and shall not fall, while
the power of darkness can hold it up. The word batters it, yet it stands: one while,
breaches are made in it, but they are quickly repaired; at another time, it is all
made to shake, but still it is kept up ; till either God himself by his Spirit raise an
heart-quake within the man which tumbles it down, and leaves not one stone upon
another, (2 Cor. x. 4, 5,) or death batter it down, and raze the foundations of it, Luke
xvi. 23. And as the natural man thinks highly of himself, so he thinks meanly of
God, whatever he pretends, Psal. 1. 21, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such
an one as thyself.” The doctrine of the gospel, and the mystery of Christ, are
foolishness to him; and in his practice he treats them as such, 1 Cor. i. 18, and ii.
14. He brings the word, and the works of God in the government of the world,
before the bar of his carnal reason ; and there they are presumptuously censured
and condemned, Hos. xiv. 9. Sometimes the ordinary restraint of providence is
taken off, and Satan is permitted to stir up the carnal mind: and, in that case, it is
like an ant’s nest, uncovered and disturbed ; doubts, denials, and hellish reasoning
crowd in it, and cannot be laid by all the arguments brought against them, till a
power from on high captivate the mind, and still the mutiny of the corrupt principles.
Thus much of the corruption of the understanding ; which, although the half be
not told, may discover to you the absolute necessity of regenerating grace. Call
the understanding now Ichabod; for “the glory is departed ” from it. Consider
this, ye that are yet in the state of nature, and groan ye out your case before the
Lord, that the Sun of Righteousness may arise upon you, before you be shut up in
everlasting darkness. What avails your worldly wisdom ? what do your attain-
ments in religion avail, while your understanding lies yet wrapt up in its natural
darkness and confusion, utterly void of the light of life? Whatever be the natural
man's gifts or attainments, we must, as in the case of the leper, Lev. xiii. 44, “pro-
nounce him utterly unclean, his plague is in his head.” But that is not all; it is
in his heart too ; his will is corrupted, as I shall show anon.
Of the corruption of the will.
Secondly, The will, that commanding faculty, which sometime was faithful, and
ruled with God, is now turned traitor, and rules with and for the devil. God planted
it in man “wholly a right seed :'', but now it is “turned into the degenerate plant
of a strange vine.” It was originally placed in a due subordination to the will
of God, as was shown before ; but now it is gone wholly aside. However some do
magnify the power of free-will, a view of the spirituality of the law, to which acts
of moral discipline do in no wise answer, and a deep insight into the corruption of
nature, given by the inward operation of the Spirit, convincing of sin, righteous-
ness, and judgment, would make men find an absolute need of the power of free
grace, to remove the bands of wickedness from off their free-will. To open up this
plague of the heart, I offer these following things to be considered.
1. There is in the unrenewed will an utter inability for what is truly good and
acceptable in the sight of God. The natural man's will is in Satan’s fetters;
hemmed in within the circle of evil ; and cannot move beyond it, more than a dead
man can raise himself out of his grave, Eph. ii. 1. We deny him not a power to
choose, pursue, and act what on the matter is good; but though he can will what
is good and right, he can will nothing aright and well, John xv. 5, “Without
me,” i.e. separate from me, as a branch from the stock, (as both the word and con-
text do carry it,) “ye can do nothing ;” viz. nothing truly and spiritually good.
His very choice and desire of spiritual things is carnal and selfish, John vi. 26,
“Ye seek me because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.” He not only comes
not to Christ, but he cannot come, John vi. 44. . And what can one do acceptable
to God, who believeth not on him whom the Father hath sent 2 To evidence this
inability for good in the unregenerate, consider these two things:
36 FOUR FOLD STATE.
Evidence 1. How often does the light so shine before men's eyes, that they can-
not but see the good they should choose, and the evil they should refuse; and yet
their hearts have no more power to comply with that light, than if they were ar-
rested by some invisible hand 1 They see what is right, yet they follow, and can-
not but follow, what is wrong. Their consciences tell them the right way, and ap-
prove of it too; yet cannot their will be brought up to it; their corruption so chains
them, that they cannot embrace it; so they sigh and go back over the belly of their
light. And if it be not thus, how is it that the word and way of holiness meet with
such entertainment in the world? How is it that clear arguments and reason on
the side of piety and a holy life, which bear in themselves even on the carnal mind,
do not bring men over to that side? Although the being of a heaven and a hell
were but a may-be,” it were sufficient to determine the will to the choice of holi-
ness, were it capable to be determined thereto by mere reason; but men, “know-
ing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death,
not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them,” Rom. i. 32. And
how is it that those who magnify the power of free-will do not confirm their opinion
before the world by an ocular demonstration, in a practice as far above others in
holiness, as the opinion of their natural ability is above that of others? Or is it
maintained only for the protection of lusts, which men may hold fast as long as
they please, and when they have no more use for them, can throw them off in a
moment, and leap out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom? Whatever use some
make of that principle, it does of itself, and in its own nature, cast a broad shadow
for a shelter to wickedness of heart and life. And it may be observed, that the
generality of the hearers of the gospel of all denominations are plagued with it:
for it is a root of bitterness natural to all men ; from whence do spring so much
fearfulness about the soul's eternal state, so many delays and off-puts in that weighty
matter, whereby much work is laid up for a death-bed by some ; while others are
ruined by a legal walk, and unacquaintedness with the life of faith, and the mak-
ing use of Christ for sanctification ; all flowing from the persuasion of sufficient
natural abilities. So agreeable is it to corrupt nature.
Evid. 2. Let those, who, by the power of “the spirit of bondage,” have had the law
laid out before them in its spirituality, for their conviction, speak and tell, if they
found themselves able to incline their hearts towards it in that case ; nay, if the
more that light shone into their souls, they did not find their hearts more and more
unable to comply with it. There are some who have been brought unto “the place
of the breaking forth,” who are yet in the devil's camp, that from their experience
can tell, light let into the mind cannot give life to the will, to enable it to comply
therewith ; and could give their testimony here, if they would. But take Paul's
testimony concerning it, who, in his unconverted State, was far from believing his
utter inability for good, but learned it by experience, Rom. vii. 8–11, 13. I own,
the natural man may have a kind of love to the law : but here lies the stress of the
matter, he looks on the holy law in a carnal dress ; and So, while he hugs a crea-
ture of his own fancy, he thinks he has the law, but in very deed he is without
the law; for as yet he sees it not in its spirituality ; if he did, he would find it the
very reverse of his own nature, and what his will could not fall in with till changed
by the power of grace.
2. There is in the unrenewed will an averseness to good. Sin is the natural
man's element; he is as loath to part with it, as the fishes are to come out of the
water into dry land. He not only cannot come to Christ, but he “will not come,”
John v. 40. He is polluted, and hates to be washen, Jer. xiii. 27. “Wilt thou not
be made clean? when shall it once be 3’’ He is sick, but utterly averse to the
remedy: he loves his disease so, that he loathes the physician. He is a captive,
a prisoner, and a slave ; but he loves his conqueror, his jailer, and master; he is
fond of his fetters, prison, and drudgery, and has no liking to his liberty. For
evidence of this averseness to good in the will of man, I shall instance in some par-
ticulars.
Evidence 1. The untowardness of children. Do we not see them naturally lovers
* i. e. an uncertainty, a doubtful thing.—Ed.
FOUR FOLD STATE. 37
of sinful liberty 2 How unwilling are they to be hedged in how averse to re-
straint The world can bear witness, that they are “as bullocks unaccustomed to
the yoke;” and more than that, it is far easier to bring young bullocks tamely to
bear the yoke than to bring children under discipline, and make them tamely sub-
mit to the restraint of sinful liberty. Every body may see in this, as in a glass, that
man is naturally wild and wilful, according to Zophar’s observation, (Job xi. 12,)
that “man is born like a wild ass's colt.” What can be said more ? He is like a
colt, the colt of an ass, the colt of a wildass. Compare Jer. ii. 24. “A wild ass used
to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure ; in her occasion, who
can turn her away ?”
Evid. 2. What pain and difficulty do men often find in bringing their hearts to
religious duties 1 and what a task is it to the carnal heart to abide at them It is
a pain to it to leave the world but a little to converse with God. It is not easy to
borrow time from the many things to bestow upon the “one thing needful.” Men
often go to God in duties with their faces towards the world ; and when their bodies
are on the mount of ordinances, their hearts will be found at the foot of the hill,
“going after their covetousness,” Ezek. xxxiii. 31. They are soon wearied of
well-doing ; for holy duties are not agreeable to their corrupt nature. Take notice
of them at their worldly business, set them down with their carnal company, or let
them be sucking the breasts of a lust; time seems to them to fly, and drive furi-
ously, so that it is gone ere they are aware. But how heavily does it drive, while
a prayer, a sermon, or a Sabbath lasts | The Lord's day is the longest day of all
the week with many ; and therefore they must sleep longer that morning, and go
sooner to bed that night, than ordinarily they do, that the day may be made of a
tolerable length; for their hearts say within them, “When will the Sabbath be
gone?” Amos viii. 5. The hours of worship are the longest hours of that day:
hence, when duty is over, they are like men eased of a burden; and when sermon
is ended, many have neither the grace nor the good manners to stay till the blessing
be pronounced, but, like the beasts, their head is away as soon as one puts his hand
to loose them ; why, but because, while they are at ordinances, they are, as Doeg,
“ detained before the Lord 2’’ 1 Sam. xxii. 7.
Evid, 3. Consider how the will of the natural man doth “rebel against the light,”
Job xxiv. 13. Light sometimes entereth in, because he is not able to hold it out; but he
“loveth darkness rather than light.” Sometimes, by the force of truth, the outer door
of the understanding is broken up, but the inner door of the will remains fast bolted.
Then lusts rise against light: corruption and conscience encounter, and fight as in
the field of battle, till corruption getting the upper hand, conscience is forced to give
the back; convictions are murdered, and truth is made and held prisoner, so that
it can create no more disturbance. While the word is preached or read, or the rod
of God is upon the natural man, sometimes convictions are darted in on him, and
his spirit is wounded, in greater or lesser measure : but these convictions not being
able to make him fall, he runs away with the arrows sticking in his conscience;
and at length, one way or other, gets them out, and licks himself whole again.
Thus, while the light shines, men, naturally averse to it, wilfully shut their eyes,
till God is provoked to blind them judicially, and they become proof against the
word and providences too; so they may go where they will, they can sit at ease; there
is never a word from heaven to them, that goeth deeper than into their ears, Hos.
iv. 17, “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.”
Evid. 4. Let us observe the resistance made by elect souls, when the Spirit of
the Lord is at work, to bring them from “the power of Satan unto God.” Zion's
King gets no subjects but by stroke of sword, “in the day of his power,” Psal. cx.
2, 3. None come to him but such as are drawn by a divine hand, John vi. 44.
When the Lord comes to the soul, he finds the strong man keeping the house, and
a deep peace and security there, while the soul is fast asleep in the devil's arms.
But “the prey must be taken from the mighty, and the captive delivered.” There-
fore the Lord awakens the sinner, opens his eyes, and strikes him with terror, while
the clouds are black above his head, and the sword of vengeance is held to his
breast. Now he is at no small pains to put a fair face on a black heart; to shake
off his fears, to make head against them, and to divert himself from thinking on
38 FOUR FOLD STATE,
the unpleasant and ungrateful subject of his soul's case. If he cannot so rid him-
Self from them, carnal reason is called in to help, and urgeth, that there is no
ground for so great fear; all may be well enough yet; and if it be ill with him, it
will be ill with many. When the sinner is beat from this, and sees no advantage
in going to hell with company, he resolves to leave his sins, but cannot think of
breaking off so soon ; there is time enough, and he will do it afterwards. Con-
science says, “To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;” but he
cries, “To-morrow, Lord, to-morrow, Lord,” and “Just now, Lord,” till that
“ now” is never like to come. And thus many times he comes from his prayers
and confessions with nothing but a breast full of sharper convictions; for the
heart doth not always cast up the sweet morsel as soon as confession is made with
the mouth, Judges x. 10–16. And when conscience obligeth him to part with
Some lusts, others are kept as right eyes and right hands; and there are rueful
looks after those that are put away; as it was with the Israelites, who with bitter
hearts did remember “the fish they did eat in Egypt freely,” Numb. xi. 5. Nay,
when he is so pressed, that he must needs say before the Lord, that he is content
to part with all his idols; the heart will be giving the tongue the lie. In a word,
the soul, in this case, will shift from one thing to another, like a fish with the hook
in his jaws, till it can do no more, and power come to make it succumb, as “th
wild ass in her month,” Jer. ii. 24. -
3. There is in the will of man a natural proneness to evil, a woful bent towards
sin. Men naturally are “bent to backsliding from God,” Hos. ii. 7. They “hang”
(as the word is) towards backsliding; even as a hanging wall, whose “breaking com-
eth suddenly at an instant.” Set holiness and life upon the one side, sin and death
upon the other; leave the unrenewed will to itself, it will choose sin, and reject
holiness. This is no more to be doubted, than that water, poured on the side of a
hill, will run downward, and not upward, or that a flame will ascend, and not
descend.
Evidence 1. Is not the way of evil the first way the children of men do go 2 Do
not their inclinations plainly appear on the wrong side, while yet they have no cun-
ning to hide them ? In the first opening of our eyes in the world, we look asquint,
hell-ward, not heaven-ward. As soon as it appears we are reasonable creatures, it
appears we are sinful creatures; Psal. lviii. 3, “The wicked are estranged from the
womb, they go astray as soon as they be born ;” Prov. xxii. 15, “Foolishness is
bound in the heart of a child : but the rod of correction shall drive it far from
him.” Folly is bound in the heart, it is woven into our very nature. The knot
will not loose; it must be broke asunder by strokes. Words will not do it, the rod
must be taken to drive it away; and if it be not driven far away, the heart and it
will meet and knit again. Not that the rod of itself will do this : the sad experi-
ence of many parents testifies the contrary ; and Solomon himself tells you, Prov.
xxvii. 22, “Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat, with a
pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him;” it is so bound in his heart.
But the rod is an ordinance of God, appointed for that end ; which, like the
word, is made effectual by the Spirit's accompanying his own ordinance. And
this, by the way, shows that parents, in administering correction to their children,
have need, first of all, to correct their own irregular passions, and look upon it as
a matter of awful solemnity, Setting about it with much dependence on the Lord,
and following it with prayer for the blessing, if they would have it effectual.
Evid. 2. How easy are men led aside to sin The children who are not persuaded
to good, are otherwise “simple” ones, easily wrought upon : those whom the word
cannot draw to holiness are “led by Satan at his pleasure.” Profane Esau, that
cunning man, (Gen. xxv. 27,) was as easily cheated of the blessing, as if he had
been a fool or an idiot. The more natural a thing is, it is the more easy: so Christ's
“yoke is easy” to the saints, in so far as they are “partakers of the divine nature,”
and sin is easy to the unrenewed man ; but to learn to do good, as difficult as for
“the Ethiopian to change his skin;” because the will naturally hangs towards evil,
but is averse to good. A child can cause a round thing to run, while he cannot
move a square thing of the same weight; for the roundness makes it fit for motion,
so that it goes with a touch. Even So, when men find the heart easily carried to-
FOUR FOLD STATE. 39
wards sin, while it is as a dead weight in the way of holiness; we must bring the
reason of this from the natural set and disposition of the heart, whereby it is prone
and bent to evil. Were man's will, naturally, but in equal balance to good and
evil, the one might be embraced with as little difficulty as the other; but expe-
rience testifies it is not so. In the sacred history of the Israelites, especially in the
book of Judges, how often do we find them forsaking Jehovah, the mighty God,
and doting upon the idols of the nations about them But did ever one of these
nations grow fond of Israel's God, and forsake their own idols? No, no; though
man is naturally given to changes, it is but from evil to evil, not from evil to good;
Jer. ii. 10, 11, “Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods 2 but
my people have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit.” Surely the
will of man stands not in equal balance, but has a cast to the wrong side.
Evid. 3. Consider how men go on still in the way of sin till they meet with a
stop, and that from another hand than their own ; Isa. lvii. 17, “I hid me, and
he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.” If God withdraw his restraining
hand, and lay the reins on the sinner's neck, he is in no doubt what way to choose:
for (observe it) the way of sin is the way of his heart; his heart naturally lies that
way; it hath a natural propensity to sin. As long as God suffereth them, they
“walk in their own way,” Acts xiv. 16. The natural man is so fixed in his woful
choice, that there needs no more to show he is off from God’s way, but to tell him
he is upon his own.
Evid, 4. Whatever good impressions are made upon him, they do not last.
Though his heart be firm as a stone, yea, harder than the nether mill-stone, in point
of receiving of them; it is otherwise “unstable as water,” and cannot keep them. It
works against the receiving of them ; and when they are made, it works them off,
and returns to its natural bias; Hos. vi. 4, “Your goodness is as a morning cloud,
and as the early dew it goeth away.” The morning cloud promiseth a hearty
shower; but when the sun ariseth, it evanisheth; the sun beats upon the early dew,
and it evaporates; so the husbandman's expectation is disappointed. Such is the
goodness of the natural man. Some sharp affliction, or piercing conviction, oblig-
eth him, in some sort, to turn from his evil course ; but his will not being renewed,
religion is still against the grain with him, and therefore this goes off again, Psal.
lxxviii. 34, 36, 37. Though a stone, thrown up into the air, may abide there a
little while, yet its natural heaviness will bring it down to the earth again: and so
do unrenewed men return to “the wallowing in the mire;” because, although they
were washed, yet their swinish nature was not changed. It is hard to cause wet
wood take fire, hard to make it keep fire ; but it is harder than either of these, to
make the unrenewed will retain attained goodness ; which is a plain evidence of
the natural bent of the will to evil.
Evid. 5. Do the saints serve the Lord now as they were wont to serve sin in
their unconverted state? Very far from it. Rom. vi. 20, “When ye were the ser-
vants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.” Sin got all and admitted no part-
ner; but now, when they are the servants of Christ, are they free from sin? N ay,
there are still with them some deeds of the old man, showing that he is but dying
in them. And hence their hearts often misgive them, and slip aside unto evil,
“when they would do good,” Rom, vii. 21. They need to watch, and keep their
hearts with all diligence ; and their sad experience teacheth them, that “he that
trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” Prov. xxviii. 26. If it be thus in the green
tree, how must it be in the dry ? -
4. There is a natural contrariety, direct opposition, and enmity, in the will of
man to God himself, and his holy will; Rom. viii. 7, “The carnal mind is enmity
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” The
will was once God's deputy in the soul, set to command there for him; but now it
is set up against him. If you would have the picture of it in its natural state, the
very reverse of the will of God represents it. If the fruit hanging before one's eyes
be but forbidden, that is sufficient to draw the heart after it. Let me instance in
the sin of profane swearing and cursing, to which some are so abandoned, that they
take a pride in them ; belching out horrid oaths and curses, as if hell opened with
the opening of their mouths; or larding their speeches with minced oaths, as faith,
40 FOUR FOLD STATE,
tº-
haith, fai’d'ye, hai'd'ye, and such like ; and all this without any manner of provo-
cation, though even that would not excuse them. Pray tell me, (1.) What profit
is there here? A thief gets something in his hand for his pains; a drunkard gets
a belly full ; but what do ye get? Others serve the devil for pay; but ye are
volunteers, that expect no reward but your work itself, in affronting of heaven.
And if you repent not, you will get your reward in full tale; when you go to hell,
your “work will follow you.” The drunkard will not have a drop of “water to
cool his tongue '’ there ; nor will the covetous man's wealth follow him into the
other world: but ye shall drive on your old trade there ; and an eternity will be
long enough to give you your heart's fill of it. (2.) What pleasure is there here,
but what flows from your trampling upon the holy law 2 Which of your senses
doth swearing or cursing gratify 2 If it gratify your ears, it can only be by the
noise it makes against the heavens. Though you had a mind to give up your-
selves to all manner of profanity and sensuality, there is so little pleasure can be
strained out of these sins, that we must needs conclude, your love to them, in this
case, is a love to them for themselves; a devilish unhired love, without any pros-
pect of profit or pleasure from them otherwise. If any shall say, these are mon-
sters of men. Be it so; yet, alas ! the world is fruitful of such monsters; they
are to be found almost everywhere. And allow me to say, they must be admitted
as the mouth of the whole unregenerate world against heaven; Rom. iii. 14,
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;” ver 19, “Now we know, that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
I have a charge against every unregenerate man and woman, young or old, to
be verified by the testimonies of the scriptures of truth, and the testimony of their
own consciences; namely, that whether they be professors or profane, whatever
they be, seeing they are not born again, they are heart enemies to God; to the
Son of God, to the Spirit of God, and to the law of God. Hear this, ye careless
Souls, that live at ease in your natural state.
1st. Ye are “enemies to God in your mind,” Col. i. 21. Ye are not as yet recon-
ciled to him : the natural enmity is not as yet slain, though perhaps it lies hid,
and ye do not perceive it. (1.) Ye are enemies to the very being of God, Psal.
xiv. 1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” The proud man would
that none were above himself; the rebel, that there were no king ; and the unre-
newed man, who is a mass of pride and rebellion, that there were no God. He
saith it in his heart, he wisheth it were so, though he be ashamed and afraid to speak
it out. And that all natural men are such fools, appears from the apostle's quot-
ing a part of this psalm, “That every mouth may be stopped,” Rom. iii. 10, 11,
12, 19. I own, indeed, that while the natural man looks on God as the Creator and
Preserver of the world, because he loves his own self, therefore his heart riseth not
against the being of his benefactor : but this enmity will quickly appear when he
looks on God as the Rector and Judge of the world, binding him, under the pain of
the curse, to exact holiness, and girding him with the cords of death, because of sin.
Listen in this case to the voice of the heart, and thou wilt find it to be, “No god.”
(2.) Ye are enemies to the nature of God; Job xxi. 14, “They say unto God, De-
part from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” . Men set up to them-
selves an idol of their own fancy, instead of God; and then fall down and worship
it. They love him no other way than Jacob loved Leah, while he took her for
Rachel. Every natural man is an enemy to God, as he is revealed in his word.
An infinitely holy, just, powerful, and true Being, is not the God whom he loves,
but the God whom he loathes. In effect, men naturally are “haters of God,”
Rom. i. 30; and if they could, they certainly would make him another than what
he is. For, consider it is a certain truth, That whatsoever is in God, is God;
and therefore his attributes or perfections are not anything really distinct from him-
self. If God's attributes be not himself, he is a compound being, and so not
the first Being, (which to say is blasphemous,) for the parts compounding are be-
fore the compound itself; but he is “Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.”
Now, upon this, I would, for your conviction, propose to your consciences a few
queries. (1.) How stand your hearts affected to the infinite purity and holiness of
FOUR FOLD STATE. 41
God? Conscience will give an answer to this, which the tongue will not speak
out. If ye be not “partakers of his holiness,” ye cannot be reconciled to it. The
Pagans, finding they could not be like God in holiness, made their gods like them-
selves in filthiness, and thereby discovered what sort of a god the natural man
would have. God is holy; can an unholy creature love his unspotted holiness 3
Nay, it is the righteous only that can “give thanks at the remembrance of his
holiness,” Psal. xcvii. 12. “God is light;” can creatures of darkness rejoice therein?
Nay, “every one that doth evil hateth the light,” John iii. 20; for “what com-
munion hath light with darkness?” 2 Cor. vi. 14. (2.) How stand your hearts
affected to the justice of God? There is not a man who is wedded to his lusts,
as all the unregenerate are, but would be content, with the blood of his body, to
blot that letter out of the name of God. Can the malefactor love his condemning
judge? or an unjustified sinner, a just God? ... No, he cannot ; Luke vii. 47, “To
whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Hence, seeing men cannot get the
doctrine of his justice blotted out of the Bible, yet it is such an eyesore to them, that
they strive to blot it out of their minds; and they ruin themselves by presuming
on his mercy, while they are not careful to get a righteousness wherein they may
stand before his justice; but “say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither
will he do evil,” Zeph. i. 12. (3.) How stand ye affected to the omniscience and
omnipresence of God? Men naturally would rather have a blind idol than an all-
seeing God, and therefore do what they can, as Adam did, to hide themselves from
the presence of the Lord. They no more love an all-seeing, everywhere-present God,
than the thief loves to have the judge witness to his evil deeds. If it could be
carried by votes, God would be voted out of the world, and closed up in heaven;
for the language of the carnal heart is, “The Lord Seeth us not ; the Lord hath
forsaken the earth,” Ezek. viii. 12. (4.) How stand ye affected to the truth and
veracity of God? There are but few in the world that can heartily subscribe to
that sentence of the apostle, Rom. iii. 4, “Let God be true, but-every man a liar.”
Nay truly, there are many, who, in effect, do hope that God will not be true to his
word. There are thousands who hear the gospel that hope to be saved, and think
all safe with them for etermity, who never had any experience of the new birth, nor
do at all concern themselves in that question, Whether they are born again, or
not ? a question that is like to wear out from among us at this day. Our Lord's
words are plain and peremptory, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.” What are such hopes, then, but real hopes that God (with pro-
foundest reverence be it spoken) will recall his word, and that Christ will prove a
false prophet? What else means the sinner who, “when he heareth the words of
the curse, blesseth himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk
in the imagination of mine heart?”. Deut. xxix. 19. Lastly, How stand ye
affected to the power of God? None but new creatures will love him for it, on a
fair view thereof; though others may slavishly fear him upon the account of it.
There is not a natural man but would contribute to the utmost of his power to the
building of another tower of Babel, to hem it in. On these grounds I declare every
unrenewed man an enemy to God. - +
2dly. Ye are enemies to the Son of God. That enmity to Christ is in your hearts
which would have made you join the husbandmen who “killed the heir, and cast
him out of the vineyard,” if ye had been beset with their temptations, and no more
restrained than they were. “Am I a dog,” you will say, to have so treated my
sweet, Saviour 3. So said Hazael in another case; but when he had the tempta-
tion, he was a dog to do it. Many call Christ their sweet Saviour, whose con-
sciences can bear witness, they never sucked so much sweetness from him, as from
their sweet lusts, which are ten times sweeter to them than their Saviour. He is
no other way sweet to them than as they abuse his death and sufferings, for the
peaceable enjoyment of their lusts; that they may live as they list in the world,
and when they die, may be kept out of hell. Alas! it is but a mistaken Christ
that is sweet to you, whose souls loathe that Christ who “ is the brightness of the
Father's glory, and the express image of his person.” It is with you as it was
with the carnal Jews, who delighted in him while they mistook his errand into the
world, fancying that he would be a temporal deliverer to them, Mal. iii. 1, But
F
42 FOUR FOLD STATE.
when he was come, and “sat as a refiner and purifier of silver,” ver. 2, 3, and
cast them as “reprobate silver,” who thought to have had no small honour in the
kingdom of the Messiah; his doctrine galled their consciences, and they rested not
till they had imbrued their hands in his blood. To open your eyes in this point,
which ye are so loath to believe, I will lay before you the enmity of your hearts
against Christ in his offices.
(1.) Every unregenerate man is an enemy to Christ in his prophetical office.
He is appointed of the Father the great Prophet and Teacher; but not upon the
world's call, who, in their natural state, would have unanimously voted against him:
and therefore, when he came, he was condemned as a seducer and blasphemer.
For evidence of this enmity, I shall instance in two things. -
Evidence 1. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach
souls inwardly by his Spirit. Men do what they can to stop their ears, like “the
deaf adder,” that they may not hear his voice. They “always resist the Holy
Ghost: they desire not the knowledge of his ways,” and therefore bid him “depart
from them.” The old calumny is often raised up upon him on that occasion, John x.
20, “He is mad, why hear ye him?” Soul-exercise raised by the spirit of bon-
dage, is accounted, by many, nothing else but distraction and melancholy fits;
men thus blaspheming the Lord's work, because they themselves are beside them-
selves, and cannot judge of those matters. -
Evid. 2. Consider the entertainment he meets with, when he comes to teach
men outwardly by the word.
i. His written word, the Bible, is slighted. Christ hath left it to us, as the book
of our instructions, to show us what way we must steer our course, if we would come
to Immanuel's land. It is a lamp to light us through a dark world to eternal light.
And he hath left it upon us to search it with that diligence wherewith men dig
into mines for silver or gold, John v. 39. But, ah! how is this sacred treasure
profaned by many 1 They ridicule that holy word by which they must be judged
at the last day; and will rather lose their souls than their jest, dressing up the
conceits of their wanton wits in scripture-phrases: in which they act as mad a
part as one who would dig into a mine, to procure metal to melt and pour down
his own and his neighbour's throat. Many exhaust their spirits in reading romances,
and their minds pursue them as the flame doth the dry stubble ; while they have
no heart for, nor relish of, the holy word; and therefore seldom take a Bible in their
hands. What is agreeable to the vanity of their minds is pleasant and taking ; but
what recommends holiness to their unholy hearts makes their spirits dull and flat.
What pleasure will they find in reading of a profane ballad, or story-book, to whom
the Bible is tasteless as the white of an eggº Many lay by their Bibles with their
Sabbath-day’s clothes; and whatever use they have for their clothes, they have
none for their Bibles, till the return of the Sabbath, Alas ! the dust or finery
about your Bibles is a witness now, and will, at the last day, be a witness of the
enmity of your hearts against Christ as a prophet. Besides all this, among those
who ordinarily read the scriptures, how few are there that read it as the word of
the Lord to their souls, and keep up communion with him in it! They do not
make his statutes their counsellors, nor doth their particular case send them to
their Bibles. They are strangers to the solid comfort of the scriptures. And if
at any time they be dejected, it is something else than the word that revives them;
as Ahab was cured of his sullen fit by the securing of Naboth's vineyard for him.
ii. Christ's word preached is despised. The entertainment most of the world to
whom it has come have always given it as that which is mentioned, Matt. xxii. 5,
“They made light of it;” and for its sake they are despised whom he has employed
to preach it, whatever other face men put upon their contempt of the ministry;
John xv. 20, 21, “The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have perse-
cuted me, they will also persecute you ; if they have kept my sayings, they will
keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's
sake.” That Levi was the son of “the hated,” seems not to have been without
a mystery, which the world in all ages hath unriddled. But though “the earthen
vessels,” wherein God has put “the treasure,” be turned, with many, into “ves-
sels wherein there is no pleasure,” yet why is the treasure itself slighted? But
FOUR FOLD STATE. 43
slighted it is, and that with a witness this day. “Lord, who hath believed our re-
port?” “To whom shall we speak?” Men can, without remorse, make to themselves
silent Sabbaths, one after another. And, alas! when they come to ordinances, for
the most part, it is but “to appear” (or as the word is, “to be seen") before the
Lord ; and to “tread his courts,” namely, as a company of beasts would do, if
they were driven into them, Isa. i. 12, so little reverence and awe of God appears
on their spirits. Many stand like brazen walls before the word, in whose corrupt
conversation the preaching of the word makes no breach. Nay, not a few are grow-
ing worse and worse, under “precept upon precept;” and the result of all is,
“They go and fall backward, and be broken, and Snared, and taken,” Isa. xxviii.
13. What tears of blood are sufficient to lament that the gospel, “the grace of
God,” is thus “received in vain!” We are but “the voice of one crying;” the speaker
is in heaven, and speaks to you from heaven by men: why do ye “refuse him that
speaketh?” Heb. xii. 25. God has made our Master “heir of all things,” and
we are sent to court a spouse for him. There is none so worthy as he ; none more
unworthy than they to whom this match is proposed: but the “prince of darkness”
is preferred before the “Prince of peace.” A dismal darkness overclouded the
world by Adam's fall, more terrible than if the sun, moon, and stars had been for
ever wrapt up in blackness of darkness; and there we should have eternally lain,
had not this grace of the gospel, as a shining sun, appeared to dispel it, Tit. ii. 11.
But yet we fly like night-owls from it; and, like the wild beasts, “lay ourselves
down in our dens: ” when “the sun ariseth,” we are struck blind with the light
thereof, and, as creatures of darkness, “love darkness rather than light.” Such is
the enmity of the hearts of men against Christ in his prophetical office.
(2.) The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his priestly office. He is ap-
pointed of the Father “a priest for ever;” that, by his alone sacrifice and intercession,
sinners may have peace with, and access to God: but Christ crucified is “a stum-
bling-block” and “foolishness” to the unrenewed part of mankind to whom he is
preached, 1 Cor. i. 23. They are not for him as “the new and living way.” Nor is
he, by the voice of the world, “an high priest over the house of God.” Corrupt nature
goes quite another way to work. -
Evidence 1. None of Adam's children naturally incline to receive the blessing in
borrowed robes; but would always, according to the spider's motto, owe all to them-
selves ; and so climb up to heaven on a thread spun out of their own bowels. For
they “desire to be under the law,” Gal. iv. 21; and “go about to establish their
own righteousness,” Rom. x. 3. Man, naturally, looks on God as a great Master;
and himself as his servant, that must work and win heaven as his wages. Hence,
when conscience is awakened, he thinks, that, to the end he may be saved, he must
answer the demands of the law ; serve God as well as he can, and pray for mercy,
wherein he comes short. And thus many come to duties that never come out of
them to Jesus Christ.
Evid. 2. As men, naturally, think highly of their duties, that seem to them to
be well done ; so they look for acceptance with God, according as their work is
done, not according to the share they have in the blood of Christ. “Wherefore
have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not º' They will value themselves on their
performances and attainments, yea, their very opinions in religion (Phil. iii. 4–7);
taking to themselves what they rob from Christ the great high priest.
Evid. 3. The natural man going to God in duties will always be found either
to go without a mediator, or with more than the one only Mediator, Jesus Christ.
Nature is blind, and therefore venturous: it sets men a-going immediately to God,
Without Christ; to rush into his presence, and put their petitions in his hand, with:
out being introduced by the secretary of heaven, or putting their requests into his
hand. So fixed is this disposition in the unrenewed heart, that when many hearers
of the gospel are conyersed with upon the point of their hopes of salvation, the name
of Christ will scarcely be heard from their mouths. Ask them, how they think to
9btain the pardon of sin they will tell you, they beg and look for mercy because
God is a merciful God ; and that is all they have to confide in. Others look for
mercy for Christ's sake; but how do they know that Christ would take their plea
in hand? Why, as the Papists have their mediators with the Mediator, so have
44 * FOUR FOLD STATE,
they. They know he cannot but do it; for they pray, confess, mourn, and have
great desires, and the like, and so have something of their own to commend them
unto him ; they were never made poor in spirit, and brought empty-handed to
Christ, to lay the stress of all on his atoning blood.
(3.) The natural man is an enemy to Christ in his kingly office. The Father
has appointed the Mediator King in Zion, Psal. ii. 6. And all to whom the gospel
comes are commanded, on their highest peril, to “kiss the Son,” and submit them-
selves unto him, ver, 12. But the natural voice of mankind is, “Away with him:”
as you may see, ver. 2, 3. “They will not have him to reign over them,” Luke
xix. 14.
Evidence 1. The workings of corrupt nature to wrest the government out of his
hands. No sooner was he born, but being born a King, Herod persecuted him,
Matt. ii. And when he was crucified, they “set up over his head his accusation
written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews,” Matt. xxvii. 37. Though his king-
dom be a spiritual kingdom, and not of this world, yet they cannot allow him a
kingdom within a kingdom, which acknowledgeth no other head or supreme but
the Royal Mediator. They make bold with his royal prerogatives, changing his
laws, institutions, and ordinances; modelling his worship according to the devices
of their own hearts; introducing new offices and officers into his kingdom, not to be
found in “the book of the manner of his kingdom;” disposing of the external gov-
ernment thereof, as may best suit their carnal designs. Such is the enmity of the
hearts of men against Zion's King.
Evid. 2. How unwilling are men, naturally, to submit unto, and be hedged in by
the laws and discipline of his kingdom! As a king, he is a lawgiver, (Isa. xxxiii.
22,) and has appointed an external government, discipline, and censures, to control
the unruly, and to keep his professed subjects in order, to be exercised by officers
of his own appointment, Matt. xviii. 17, 18; 1 Cor. xii. 28; 1 Tim. v. 17; Heb.
xiii. 17. But these are the great eye-sores of the carnal world, who love sinful
liberty, and therefore cry out, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away
their cords from us,” Psal. ii. 3. Hence this work is found to be, in a special man-
ner, a striving against the stream of corrupt nature, which, for the most part, puts
such a face on the church, as if there were no “king in Israel,” every one doing
that which is “right in his own eyes.” 1.
Evid. 3. However natural men may be brought to feign submission to the “King
of Saints,” yet lusts always retain the throne and dominion in their hearts, and they
are “serving divers lusts and pleasures,” Tit. iii. 3. None but those in whom
“Christ is formed ” do really put the crown on his head, and receive the kingdom of
Christ within them. His crown is “the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in
the day of his espousals.” Who are they, whom the power of grace has not subdued,
that will allow him to set up, and to put down, in their souls, as he will ? Nay, as
for others, any lord shall sooner get the rule over them, than the Lord of glory:
they kindly entertain his enemies, and will never absolutely resign themselves to
his government, till conquered in a day of power. Thus you may see, that the
natural man is an enemy to Jesus Christ in all his offices.
But O how hard is it to convince men in this point . They are very loath to
take with it. And, in a special manner, the enmity of the heart against Christ in
his priestly office seems to be hid from the view of most of the hearers of the gospel.
Yet there appears to be a peculiar malignity in corrupt nature against that office
of his. It may be observed, that the Socinians, those enemies of our blessed Lord,
allow him to be properly a Prophet and a King, but deny him to be properly a
Priest. And this is agreeable enough to the corruption of our nature ; for under the
covenant of works, the Lord was known as a Prophet or Teacher, and also as a
King or Ruler, but not at all as a Priest : so man knows nothing of the mystery
of Christ, as the way to the Father, till it be revealed to him; and when it is re-
vealed, the will riseth up against it; for corrupt nature lies cross to the mystery of
Christ, and the great contrivance of salvation through a crucified Saviour, revealed
in the gospel. For clearing of which weighty truth, let these four things be con-
sidered.
i. The soul's falling in with the grand device of salvation by Jesus Christ, and
FOUR FOLD STATE, 45
setting the matters of salvation on that footing before the Lord, is declared by the
scriptures of truth to be an undoubted mark of a real saint, who is happy here, and
shall be happy hereafter ; Matt. xi. 6, “And blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in me;” 1 Cor. i. 23, 24, “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews
a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God ;”
Phil. iii. 3, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Now, how could
this be, if nature could comply with that grand device 3
ii. Corrupt nature is the very reverse of the gospel-contrivance. In the gospel,
God promiseth Jesus Christ as the great means of reuniting man to himself; he
has named him as the Mediator, one “in whom he is well pleased,” and will have
none but him, Matt. xvii. 5. But nature “will have none of him,” Psal. lxxxi. 11.
God appointed the place of meeting for the reconciliation, namely, the flesh of
Christ; accordingly God “was in Christ,” (2 Cor. v. 19,) as the tabernacle of
meeting, to make up the peace with sinners. But natural men, though they should
die for ever, will not come thither, John v. 40, “And ye will not come to me, that
ye might have life.” . In the way of the gospel, the sinner must stand before the
Lord in an imputed righteousness: but corrupt nature is for an inherent righteous-
ness; and therefore, so far as natural men follow after righteousness, they follow
after “the law of righteousness,” Rom. ix. 31, 32, and not after “the Lord our
righteousness.” Nature is always for building up itself, and to have some ground
for boasting: but the great design of the gospel is to exalt grace, to depress na-
ture, and “exclude boasting,” Rom. iii. 27. The sum of our natural religion is, to
do good from and for ourselves, John v. 44; the sum of the gospel-religion is, to
deny ourselves, and to do good from and for Christ, Phil. i. 21.
iii. Every thing in nature is against believing in Jesus Christ. What beauty
can the blind mind discern in a crucified Saviour, for which he is to be desired ?
How can the will, naturally impotent, yea, and averse to good, make choice of him?
Well may the soul then say to him in the day of the spiritual siege, as the Jebu-
sites said to David in another case, “Except thou take away the blind and the
lame, thou shalt not come in hither,” 2 Sam. v. 6. The way of nature is to go
into one’s self for all; according to the fundamental maxim of unsanctified moral-
ity, That a man should trust in himself; which, according to the doctrine of
faith, is mere foolishness, for so it is determined, Prov. xviii. 26, “He that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool.” Now, faith is the soul's going out of itself for all; and
this, nature, on the other hand, determines to be foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 18, 23.
Wherefore, there is need of “the working of mighty power,” to cause sinners
to believe, Eph. i. 19 ; Isa. liii. 1. We see the promises of welcome to sinners,
in the gospel-covenant, are ample, large and free, clogged with no conditions, Isa.
lv. 1; Rev. xxii. 17. If they cannot believe his bare word, he has given them his
oath upon it, Ezek. xxxiii. 11; and, for their greater assurance, he has appended
seals to his sworn covenant, namely, the holy Sacraments: so that no more could
be demanded of the most faithless person in the world, to make us believe him,
than the Lord hath condescended to give us, to make us believe himself. This
plainly speaks nature to be against believing, and those who flee to Christ for a
refuge have need of “strong consolation,” (Heb. vi. 18,) to balance their strong
doubts, and propensity to unbelief. Farther, also it may be observed, how, in the
word sent to a secure, graceless generation, their objections are answered aforehand,
and words of grace are heaped one upon another, as ye may read, Isa. lv. 7, 8, 9;
Joel ii. 13. Why? Because the Lord knows, that when these secure sinners are
thoroughly awakened, doubts, fears, and carnal reasonings against believing, will
º ‘. within their breasts, as thick as dust in a house, raised by sweeping a
ry floor. -
Lastly, Corrupt nature is bent towards the way of the law, or covenant of works;
and every natural man, so far as he sets himself to seek after salvation, is engaged
in that way, and will not quit it till beat from it by a divine power. Now, the
way of salvation by Works, and that of free grace in Jesus Christ, are inconsistent;
Rom, xi. 6, “And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no
46 FOUR FOLD STATE.
more grace ; but if it be of works, then is it no more grace ; otherwise work is no
more work;” Gal. iii. 12, “And the law is not of faith ; but the man that doth
them shall live in them.” Wherefore, if the will of man naturally incline to the
way of salvation by the law, it lies cross to the gospel-contrivance. And that
such is the natural bent of our hearts, will appear if these following things be con-
sidered. -
First, The law was Adam's covenant; and he knew no other, as he was the head
and representative of all mankind, that were brought into it with him, and left
under it by him, though without strength to perform the condition thereof. Hence,
this covenant is ingrained in our nature; and though we have lost our father's
strength, yet we still incline to the way he was set upon, as our head and repre-
sentative, in that covenant; that is, by doing to live. This is our natural religion,
and the principle which men maturally take for granted; Matt. xix. 16, “What
good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
Secondly, Consider the opposition that has always been made in the world, against
the doctrine of free grace in Jesus Christ, by men setting up for the way of works;
thereby discovering the natural tendency of the heart. It is manifest, that the
great design of the gospel-contrivance is to exalt the free grace of God in Jesus
Christ; Rom. iv. 16, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” See
Eph. i. 6; and chap. ii. 7, 9. All gospel truths centre in Christ ; so that to learn
the truth, is to learn Christ, Eph. iv. 20; and to be truly taught it, is to be
“taught as the truth is in Jesus,” verse 21. All dispensations of grace and favour
from heaven, whether to nations or particular persons, have still had something about
them proclaiming a freedom of grace; as, in the very first separation made by the
divine favour, Cain the elder brother is rejected, and Abel the younger accepted.
This shines through the whole history of the Bible. But as true as it is, this has been
the point principally opposed by corrupt nature. One may well say, that of all
errors in religion, since Christ, the seed of the woman, was preached, this of works,
in opposition to free grace in him, was the first that lived, and, it is likely, will be
the last that dies. There have been vast numbers of errors, which sprung up, one
after another, whereof, at length, the world became ashamed and weary, so that
they died out. But this has continued, from Cain, the first author of this heresy,
unto this day; and never wanted some that clave to it, even in the times of
greatest light. I do not, without ground, call Cain the author of it; who, when
Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement, a bloody offering of “the firstlings of his
flock,” like the publican “smiting on his breast,” and saying, “God be merciful
to me a sinner,” advanced with his thank-offering “of the fruit of the ground,”
(Gen. iv. 3, 4,) like the proud Pharisee, with his “God I thank thee.” For what
was the cause of Cain's wrath, and of his murdering of Abel ? Was it not that he
was not accepted of God for his work? Gen. iv. 4, 5, “And wherefore slew he
him 2 Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous,” (1 John iii.
12,) that is, done in faith, and accepted, when his were done without faith, and
therefore rejected, as the apostle teacheth, Heb. xi. 4. And so he wrote his indig-
nation against justification and acceptance with God through faith, in opposition to
works, in the blood of his brother, to convey it down to posterity. And since that
time, the unbloody sacrifice has often swimmed in the blood of those that rejected
it. The promise made to Abraham, of the seed in which all nations should be
blessed, was so overclouded among his posterity in Egypt, that the generality of
them saw no need of that way of obtaining the blessing, till God himself confuted
their error by a fiery law from mount Sinai, which “was added because of transgres-
sions, till the seed should come,” Gal. iii. 19. I need not insist to tell you how Moses
and the prophets had still much ado, to lead the people off the conceit of their own
righteousness. The ninth chapter of Deuteronomy is entirely spent to that purpose.
They were very gross in that point in our Saviour's time. In the time of the
apostles, when the doctrine of free grace was most clearly preached, that error lifted
up its head in face of clearest light: witness the epistles to the Romans and Gala-
tians. And since that time it has not been wanting ; Popery being the common
sink of former heresies, and this the heart and life of that delusion. And, finally,
FOUR FOI,D STATE. 47
it may be observed, that always as the church declined from her purity otherwise,
the doctrine of free grace was obscured proportionably. &
Thirdly, Such is the natural propensity of man's heart to the way of the law in
opposition to Christ, that, as the tainted vessel turns the taste of the purest liquor
put into it, so the natural man turns the very gospel into law, and transforms the
covenant of grace into a covenant of works. The ceremonial law was to the J ews a
realgospel; which held blood, death, and translation of guilt before their eyes continu-
ally, as the only way of salvation: yet their very “table” (i. e. their altar, with the
several ordinances pertaining thereto, Mal. i. 12) was “a snare unto them,” Rom.
xi. 9; while they used it to make up the defects in their obedience to the moral law,
and clave to it so, as to reject him whom the altar and sacrifices pointed them to as
the substance of all ; even as Hagar, whose it was only to serve, was, by their
father, brought into her mistress's bed; not without a mystery in the purpose of
God. “For these are the two covenants,” Gal. iv. 24. Thus is the doctrine of the
gospel corrupted by Papists, and other enemies to the doctrine of free grace.
And, indeed, however natural men's heads may be set right in this point; as surely
as they are out of Christ, their faith, repentance, and obedience, such as they
are, are placed by them in the room of Christ and his righteousness, and so
trusted to, as if by these they fulfilled a new law. *
Fourthly, Great is the difficulty in Adam's sons' parting with the law as a covenant
of works. None part with it in that respect but those whom the power of the Spirit of
grace separates from it. The law is our first husband, and gets every one's virgin-
love. When Christ comes to the soul, he finds it “married to the law,” so as it
neither can nor will be “married to another ” till it be obliged to part with the first
husband, as the apostle teacheth, Rom. vii. 1–4. Now, that ye may see what
sort of a parting this is, consider, (1.) It is a death, Rom. vii. 4; Gal. ii. 19. En-
treaties will not prevail with the soul here; it saith to the first husband, as Ruth to
Naomi, “ The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and
me.” And here sinners are true to their word; they die to the law, ere they be
married to Christ. Death is hard to every body: but what difficulty, do ye imagine,
must a loving wife, on her death-bed, find in parting with her husband, the husband
of her youth, and with the dear children she has brought forth to him . The law is
that husband; all the duties performed by the natural man are these children.
What a struggle, as for life, will be in the heart, ere they be got parted! I may
have occasion to touch upon this afterwards: in the mean time, take the apostle's
short, but pithy description of it, Rom. x. 3, “For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not sub-
mitted themselves to the righteousness of God.” They go about to establish their
own righteousness, like an eager disputant in schools, seeking to establish the point
in question; or like a tormentor, extorting a confession from one upon the rack.
They go about to establish it, to make it stand: their righteousness is like a house
built upon the sand; it cannot stand, but they will have it to stand: it falls, they
set it up again; but still it tumbles down on them; yet they cease not to go about
to make it stand. . But wherefore all this pains about a tottering righteousness?
Because, such as it is, it is their own. What ails them at Christ's righteousness?
Why, that would make them free grace's debtors for all; and that is what the proud
heart by no means can submit to. Here lies the stress of the matter, Psal. x. 4,
“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek” (to read it with-
out the supplement); that is, in other terms, He “cannot dig, and to beg he is
ashamed.” Such is the struggle ere the soul die to the law. But what speaks yet
more of this woful disposition of the heart, nature oft-times gets the mastery of the
disease; insomuch that the soul which was like to have “died to the law,” while
convictions were sharp and piercing, fatally recovers of the happy and promising
sickness, and, what is very natural, cleaves more closely than ever to the law, even
as a wife, brought back from the gates of death, would cleave to her husband. This
is the issue of the exercises of many about their soul's case: they are indeed brought
to follow duties more closely; but they are as far from Christ as ever, if not far-
ther. (2.) It is a violent death, Rom. vii. 4, “Ye are become dead to the law,”
being killed, slain, or put to death, as the word bears. The law itself has a great
48 FOUR FOI,D STATE,
hand in this ; the husband gives the wound, Gal. ii. 19, “I through the law am
dead to the law.” The soul that dies this death, is like a loving wife matched with
a rigorous husband: she does what she can to please him, yet he is never pleased;
but tosseth, harasseth, and beats her, till she break her heart, and death sets her
free, as will afterwards more fully appear. Thus it is made evident, that men's
hearts are naturally bent to the way of the law, and lie cross to the gospel contri-
vance; and the second article of the charge, against you that are unregenerate, is
verified, namely, that ye are enemies to the Son of God.
3dly, Ye are enemies to the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of holiness: the
natural man is unholy, and loves to be so, and therefore “resists the Holy Ghost,”
Acts vii. 51. The work of the Spirit is to “convince the world of sin, righteous-
ness, and judgment,” John xvi. 8. But O how do men strive to ward off these
convictions, as ever they would ward off a blow, threatening the loss of a right eye,
or a right hand ' If the Spirit of the Lord dart them in, so as they cannot evite
them, the heart says, in effect, as Ahab to Elijah, whom he both hated and feared,
“Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?” And indeed they treat him as an enemy,
doing their utmost to stifle convictions, and to murder those harbingers that come
to prepare the Lord's way into the soul. Some fill their hands with business, to
put their convictions out of their heads, as Cain, who fell a-building of a city:
some put them off with delays and fair promises, as Felix did: some will sport them
away in company, and some sleep them away. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
Sanctification, whose work it is to subdue lusts, and burn up corruption: how, then,
can the natural man, whose lusts are to him as his limbs, yea, as his life, fail of
being an enemy to him ?
Lastly, Ye are enemies to the law of God. Though the natural man “desires
to be under the law,” as a covenant of works, choosing that way of salvation in op-
position to the mystery of Christ; yet as it is a rule of life, requiring universal
holiness, and discharging all manner of impurity, he is an enemy to it; “is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” Rom. viii. 7. For, (1.) There is
no unrenewed man who is not wedded to some one lust or other, which his heart
can by no means part with ! Now that he cannot bring up his inclinations to the
holy law, he would fain have the law brought down to his inclinations; a plain
evidence of the enmity of the heart against it. And therefore, “to delight in the
law of God after the inward man,” is proposed in the word as a mark of a gracious
soul, Rom. vii. 22; Psal. i. 2. It is from this natural enmity of the heart against
the law that all the Pharisaical glosses upon it have arisen; whereby the command-
ment, which is in itself exceeding broad, has been made very narrow, to the intent
it might be the more agreeable to the natural disposition of the heart. (2.) The
law, laid home to the natural conscience in its spirituality, irritates corruption.
The nearer it comes, nature riseth the more against it. In that case it is as oil to
the fire, which, instead of quenching it, makes it flame the more. “When the
commandment came, sin revived,” says the apostle, Rom. vii. 9. What reason
can be assigned for this, but the natural enmity of the heart against the holy law Ż
Unmortified corruption, the more it is opposed, the more it rageth. Let us con-
clude then that the unregenerate are heart-enemies to God, his Son, his Spirit, and
his law; that there is a natural contrariety, opposition, and enmity in the will of
man to God himself and his holy will. -
5. There is in the will of man contumacy against the Lord. Man's will is natur-
ally wilful in an evil course. He will have his will, though it should ruin him. It
is with him as with the leviathan, Job xli. 29, “Darts are counted as stubble ; he
laugheth at the shaking of a spear.” The Lord calls to him by his word, says to
him, as Paul to the jailer, when he was about to kill himself, “Do thyself no
harm ;” Sinners, “why will ye die?” Ezek. xviii. 31. But they will not hearken;
“every one turneth to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle,” Jer. viii.
6. We have a promise of life, in form of a command, Prov. iv. 4, “Keep my
commandments and live :” it speaks impenitent sinners to be self-destroyers, wil-
ful self-murderers. They transgress the command of living; as if one's servant
should wilfully starve himself to death, or greedily drink up a cup of poison, which
his master commands him to forbear: even so do they ; they will not live, they
FOUR FOLD STATE. 49
will die; Prov. viii. 36, “All they that hate me, love death.” O what a heart is
this I It is “a stony heart,” Ezek. xxxvi. 26; hard and inflexible, as a stone :
mercies melt it not, judgments break it not ; yet it will break, ere it bow. It is an
insensible heart: though there be upon the sinner a weight of sin, which makes the
earth to stagger; although there is a weight of wrath on him, which makes the
devils to tremble, yet he goes lightly under the burden; he feels not the weight
more than a stone, till the Spirit of the Lord quicken him so far as to feel it.
Lastly, The unrenewed will is wholly perverse in reference to man's chief and
highest end. The natural man's chief end is not his God, but his self. Man is a
mere relative, dependent, borrowed being: he has no being nor goodness originally
from himself; but all he hath is from God, as the first cause and spring of all per-
fection, natural or moral: dependence is woven into his very nature ; so that if
God should totally withdraw from him, he would dwindle into a mere nothing.
Seeing then whatever man is, he is of him ; surely in whatever he is, he should be
to him; as the waters which come from the sea do of course return thither again.
And thus man was created, directly looking to God as his chief end: but falling
into sin, he fell off from God, and turned into himself; and like a traitor usurping
the throne, he gathers in the rents of the crown to himself. Now, this infers a
total apostacy, and universal corruption in man ; for where the chief and last end
is changed, there can be no goodness there. This is the case of all men in their
natural state; Psal. xiv. 2, 3, “The Lord looked down—to see if there were any
that did—seek God. They are all gone aside,” to wit, from God ; they seek not
God, but themselves. And though many fair shreds of morality are to be found
amongst them, yet “there is none that doth good, no, not one ;” for though some
of them run well, they are still off the way, they never aim at the right mark.
They are “lovers of their own selves” (2 Tim. iii. 2.) “more than God,” verse 4.
Wherefore Jesus Christ, having come into the world to bring men back to God
again, came to bring them out of themselves, in the first place, Matt. xvi. 24. The
godly groan under the remains of this woful disposition of the heart; they acknow-
ledge it, and set themselves against it, in its subtile and dangerous insinuations.
The unregenerate, though most insensible of it, are under the power thereof; and
whithersoever they turn themselves, they cannot move without the circle of self:
they seek themselves, they act for themselves; their natural, civil, and religious
actions, from whatever spring they come, do all run into, and meet in the dead
sea of self. f
Most men are so far from making God their chief end in their natural and civil
actions, that, in these matters, God is not in all their thoughts. Their eating and
drinking, and such like natural actions, are for themselves; their own pleasure or
necessity, without any higher end; Zech. vii. 6, “Did ye not eat for yourselves?”
They have no eye to the glory of God in these things, as they ought to have,
1 Cor. x. 31. They do not eat and drink to keep up their bodies for the Lord's
Service ; they do them not because God has said, “Thou shalt not kill;” neither
do those drops of sweetness God has put into the creature raise up their souls to-
wards that ocean of delights that are in the Creator; though they are indeed a sign
hung out at heaven's door, to tell men of the fulness of goodness that is in God him-
self, Acts xiv., 17. But it is self, and not God, that is sought in them, by natural
men. And what are the unrenewed man's civil actions, such as buying, selling,
working, &c., but “fruit to himself?” Hos. x. 1... So “marrying and giving in
marriage,” are reckoned among the sins of the old world (Matt. xxiv. 38); for
they had no eye to God therein, to please him ; but all they had in view, was to
please themselves, Gen. vi. 3. Finally, self is natural men's highest end in their
religious actions. They perform duties for a name, (Matt. vi. 1,2,.) or some other
worldly interest, John vi. 26. Or if they be more refined, it is their peace, and at
most their Salvation from hell and wrath, or their own eternal happiness, that is
their chief and highest end, Matt. xix. 16–22. Their eyes are held, that they see
not the glory of God. They seek God, indeed, but not for himself, but for them-
selves. They seek him not at all but for their own welfare: so their whole life is
woven into one web of practical blasphemy; making God the means, and self their
end, yea, their chief end. . -
G
50 FOURFOLD STATE,
.#
And thus have I given you some rude draughts of man's will in his natural state,
drawn by scripture and men's own experience. Call it no more Naomi, but Marah ;
for bitter it is, and a root of bitterness. Call it no more free-will, but slavish lust;
free to evil, but free from good, till regenerating grace loose the bands of wicked-
ness. Now, since all must be wrong, and nothing can be right, where the under-
standing and will are so corrupt, I shall briefly despatch what remains, as following
of course on the corruption of these prime faculties of the soul. -
The corruption of the affections, the conscience, and the memory. The body partaker
of this corruption. -
Thirdly, The affections are corrupted. The unrenewed man's affections are
wholly disordered and distempered; they are as the unruly horse, that either will
not receive, or violently runs away with the rider. So man's heart naturally is a
mother of abominations; Mark vii. 21, 22, “For from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,”
&c. The natural man's affections are wretchedly misplaced ; he is a spiritual
monster. His heart is there where his feet should be, fixed on the earth; his heels
are lifted up against heaven, which his heart should be set on, Acts ix. 5. His face
is towards hell, his back towards heaven; and therefore God calls him to “turn.”
He loves what he should hate, and hates what he should love ; joys in what he
ought to mourn for, and mourns for what he should rejoice in ; glorieth in his
shame, and is ashamed of his glory; abhors what he should desire, and desires
what he should abhor, Prov. ii. 13–15. They hit the point indeed, (as Caiaphas
did in another case,) who cried out on the apostles, as men that “turned the world
upside down,” Acts xvii. 6; for that is the work the gospel has to do in the
world, where sin has put all things so out of order, that heaven lies under, and
earth a-top. If the unrenewed man’s affections be set on lawful objects, then they
are either excessive or defective. Lawful enjoyments of the world have sometimes
too little, but mostly too much of them; either they get not their due, or, if they
do, it is measure pressed down, and running over. Spiritual things have always too
little of them. In a word, they are always in or over, never right, only evil.
Now, here is a threefold cord against heaven and holiness, not easily broken :
a blind mind, a perverse will, and disorderly distempered affections. The mind,
swelled with self-conceit, says, The man should not stoop; the will, opposite to
the will of God, says, He will not; and the corrupt affections, rising against the
Lord, in defence of the corrupt will, say, He shall not. Thus the poor creature
stands out against God and goodness, till a day of power come, in which he is made
a new Creature.
Fourthly, The conscience is corrupt and defiled, Tit. i. 15. It is an evil eye,
that fills one's conversation with much darkness and confusion, being naturally
unable to do its office. Till the Lord, by letting in a new light to the soul, awaken
the conscience, it remains sleepy and inactive. Conscience can never do its
work but according to the light it hath to work by. Wherefore, seeing the
natural man cannot spiritually discern spiritual things, (1 Cor. ii. 14,) the
conscience naturally is quite useless in that point ; being cast into such a
deep sleep, that nothing but a saving illumination from the Lord can set it
on work in that matter. The light of the natural conscience in good and evil, sin
and duty, is very defective ; therefore, though it may check for grosser sins, yet
as to the more subtile workings of sin, it cannot check for them, because it discerns
them not. Thus conscience will fly in the face of many, if at any time they be
drunk, swear, neglect prayer, or be guilty of any gross sin; who otherwise have a
profound peace, though they live in the sin of unbelief, are strangers to spiritual
worship, and the life of faith. And natural light being but faint and languishing
in many things which it doth reach, conscience in that case shoots like a stitch
in one's side, which quickly goes off: its incitements to duty, and checks for and
struggles against sin, are very remiss, which the natural man easily gets over. But
because there is a false light in the dark mind, the natural conscience, following
the same, will call “evil good, and good evil,” Isa, v. 20. And so it is often found
FOUR FOI,D STATE. 51
Iike a blind and furious horse, which doth violently run down himself, his rider,
and all that doth come in his way; John xvi. 2, “Whosoever killeth you, will think
that he doth God service.” When the natural conscience is awakened by the spirit
of conviction, it will indeed rage and roar, and put the whole man in a dreadful
consternation; awfully summon all the powers of the soul to help in a strait ; make
the stiff heart to tremble, and the knees to bow ; set the eyes a-weeping, the tongue
a-confessing ; and oblige the man to cast out the goods into the sea, which it ap-
prehends are like to sink the ship of the soul, though the heart still goes after
them. But yet it is an evil conscience, which naturally leads to despair, and will
do it effectually, as in Judas's case, unless their lusts prevail over it, to lull it
asleep, as in the case of Felix, Acts xxiv. 25; or the blood of Christ prevail over it,
sprinkling and purging it from dead works, as in the case of all true converts,
Heb. ix. 14, and x. 22.
Lastly, Even the memory bears evident marks of this corruption. What is good
and worthy to be minded, as it makes but slender impression, so that impression
easily wears off; the memory, as a leaking vessel, lets it slip, Heb. ii. 1. As a
sieve that is full when in the water, lets all go when it is taken out ; so is
the memory with respect to spiritual things. But how does it retain what ought
to be forgotten I Naughty things so bear in themselves upon it, that though men
would fain have them out of mind, yet they stick there like glue. However for-
getful men be in other things, it is hard to forget an injury. So the memory often
furnishes new fuel to old lusts; makes men in old age react the sins of their youth,
while it presents them again to the mind with delight, which thereupon licks up
the former vomit. And thus it is like the riddle, that lets through the pure grain,
and keeps the refuse. Thus far of the corruption of the soul.
The body itself also is partaker of this corruption and defilement, so far as it is
capable thereof. Wherefore the scripture calls it “sinful flesh,” Rom. viii. 3.
We may take this up in two things. (1.) The natural temper, or rather distemper,
of the bodies of Adam's children, as it is an effect of original sin, so it hath a na-
tive tendency to sin; incites to sin, leads the soul into snares, yea, is itself a snare
to the soul. The body is a furious beast, of such metal, that if it be not beat down,
“kept under, and brought into subjection,” it will cast the soul into much sin and
misery, 1 Cor. ix. 27. There is a vileness in the body, (Phil. iii. 21,) which, as to
the saints, will never be removed, until it be melted down in a grave, and cast in-
to a new mould at the resurrection, to come forth a spiritual body; and will never
be carried off from the bodies of those who are not partakers of the resurrection to
life. (2.) It serves the soul in many sins. Its members are “instruments,” or
weapons, of “unrighteousness,” whereby men fight against God, Rom. vi. 13. The
eyes and ears are open doors, by which impure motions and sinful desires enter
the soul. The tongue is “a world of iniquity,” James iii. 6; “an unruly evil, full
of deadly poison,” ver, 8: by it the impure heart vents a great deal of its filthiness.
“The throat is an open sepulchre,” Rom. iii. 13. The feet run the devil's
errands, ver, 15. The belly is made a god, Phil. iii. 19, not only by drunkards
and riotous livers, but by every natural man, Zech. vii. 6. So the body naturally
is an agent for the devil, and a magazine of armour against the Lord,
To conclude, man by nature is wholly corrupted; “from the sole of the foot,
even unto the head, there is no soundness in him.” And as, in a dunghill, every
part contributes to the corruption of the whole ; so the natural man, while in that
state, grows still worse and worse : the soul is made worse by the body, and the
body by the soul ; and every faculty of the soul serves to corrupt another more and
more. Thus much for the second general head.
How man's nature was corrupted.
III. I shall show how man's nature comes to be thus corrupted. The Heathens
perceived that man's nature was corrupted ; but how sin had entered, they could
not tell. But the scripture is very plain in that point; Rom. v. 12, “By one man
sin entered into the world;” ver. 19, “By one man's disobedience, many were
made sinners.” Adam's sin corrupted man's nature, and leavened the whole lump
52 FOURFOLD STATE.
of mankind. We putrified in Adam, as our root. The root was poisoned, and so the
branches were envenomed : the vine turned “the vine of Sodom,” and so the grapes
became “grapes of gall.” Adam, by his sin, became not only guilty, but corrupt; and
so transmits guilt and corruption to his posterity, Gen. v. 3; Job xiv. 4. By his sin
he stript himself of his original righteousness, and corrupted himself. We were in
him representatively, being represented by him, as our moral head, in the covenant
of works; we were in him seminally, as our natural head; hence we fell in him, and
by his “disobedience were made sinners;” as “Levi, in the loins of Abraham, paid
tithes,” Heb. vii. 9, 10. His first sin is imputed to us; therefore justly are we
left under the want of his original righteousness, which, being given to him as a
common person, he cast off by his sin: and this is necessarily followed, in him and
us, by the corruption of the whole nature; righteousness and corruption being two
contraries, one of which must needs always be in man, as a subject capable thereof.
And Adam our common father being corrupt, we are so too; for “who can bring
a clean thing out of an unclean 2" -
Although it is sufficient to evince the righteousness of this dispensation, that it
was from the Lord, who doth all things well; yet, to silence the murmurings of
proud nature, let these few things farther be considered. (1.) In the covenant
wherein Adam represented us, eternal happiness was promised to him and his pos-
terity, upon condition of his, that is, Adam's perfect obedience, as the representa-
tive for all mankind; whereas, if there had been no covenant, they could not have
pleaded eternal life upon their most perfect obedience, but might have been, after
all, reduced to nothing; notwithstanding, by natural justice, they would have been
liable to God’s eternal wrath, in case of sin. Who, in that case, would not have con-
sented to that representation ? (2.) Adam had a power to stand given him, being
made upright. He was as capable to stand for himself, and all his posterity, as
any after him could be for themselves. This trial of mankind in their head would
soon have been over, and the crown won to them all, had he stood ; whereas, had
his posterity been independent on him, and every one left to act for himself, the
trial would have been continually a-carrying on, as men came into the world. (3.)
He had natural affection the strongest to engage him, being our common father.
(4.) His own stock was in the ship, his all lay at stake as well as ours. He had no
separate interest from ours; but if he forgot ours, he behoved to have forgot his
own. (5.) If he had stood, we should have had the light of his mind, the righteous-
mess of his will, and holiness of his affections, with entire purity transmitted unto
us; we could not have fallen ; the crown of glory, by his obedience, would have been
for ever secured to him and his. This is evident from the nature of a federal re-
presentation ; and no reason can be given why, seeing we are lost by Adam's sin,
we should not have been saved by his obedience. On the other hand, it is reason-
able, that he falling, we should with him bear the loss. Lastly, such as quarrel
this dispensation must renounce their part in Christ ; for we are no otherwise made
sinners by Adam, than we are made righteous by Christ; from whom we have both
imputed and inherent righteousness. We no more made choice of the second Adam
for our head and representative in the second covenant, than we did of the first
Adam in the first covenant. -
Let none wonder that such an horrible change could be brought on by one sin of
our first parents; for thereby they turned away from God as their chief end, which
necessarily infers an universal depravation. Their sin was a complication of evils,
a total apostacy from God, a violation of the whole law. By it they broke all the
ten commands at once. (1.) They chose new gods. They made their belly their
god, by their sensuality ; self their god, by their ambition; yea, and the devil their
god, by believing him, and disbelieving their Maker, (2), Though they received,
yet they observed not that ordinance of God, about the forbidden fruit. They con-
temned that ordinance so plainly enjoined them, and would needs carve out to
themselves how to serve the Lord. (3.) They took the name of the Lord their
God in vain ; despising his attributes, his justice, truth, power, &c. They grossly
profaned that sacramental tree; abused his word, by not giving credit to it; abused
that creature of his which they should not have touched; and violently miscon-
strued his providence, as if God, by forbidding them that tree, had been standing
FOUR FOLD STATE. 53
in the way of their happiness; and therefore he suffered them not to escape his
righteous judgment. (4.) They remembered not the Sabbath to keep it holy,
but put themselves out of a condition to serve God aright on his own day ; neither
kept they that state of holy rest wherein God had put them. (5.) They cast off
their relative duties. Eve forgets herself, and acts without the advice of her hus-
band, to the ruin of both ; Adam, instead of admonishing her to repent, yields to
the temptation, and cönfirms her in her wickedness. They forgot all duty to their
posterity. They honoured not their Father in heaven ; and therefore their days
were not long in the land which the Lord their God gave them. (6.) They ruined
themselves and all their posterity. (7.) Gave up themselves to luxury and sen-
suality. (8.) Took away what was not their own, against the express will of the
great Owner. (9.) They bore false witness, and lied against the Lord, before
angels, devils, and one another; in effect giving out, that they were hardly dealt
by, and that Heaven grudged their happiness. (10.) They were discontent with
their lot, and coveted an evil covetousness to their house ; which ruined both them
and theirs. Thus was the image of God on man defaced all at once,
The doctrine of the corruption of nature applied.
Use I. For information. Is man's nature wholly corrupted? Then,
First, No wonder the grave open its devouring mouth for us, as soon as the
womb hath cast us forth, and that the cradle be turned into a coffin, to receive the
corrupt lump; for we are all, in a spiritual sense, dead-born ; yea, and filthy, (Psal.
xiv. 3,) noisome, rank, and stinking as a corrupt thing, as the word imports. Let
us not complain of the miseries we are exposed to at our entrance, nor of the con-
tinuance of them while we are in the world. Here is the venom that has poisoned
all the springs of earthly enjoyments we have to drink of. It is the corruption of
man's nature that brings forth all the miseries of human life in churches, states,
families, in men's souls and bodies.
Secondly, Behold here, as in a glass, the spring of all the wickedness, profanity,
and formality in the world ; the source of all the disorders in thy own heart and
life. Every thing acts like itself, agreeable to its own nature; and so corrupt man
acts corruptly. You need not wonder at the sinfulness of your own heart and life, nor
at the sinfulness and perverseness of others. If a man be crooked, he cannot but
halt; and if the clock be set wrong, how can it point the hour right?
Thirdly, See here, why sin is so pleasant, and religion such a burden to carnal
spirits: sin is natural, holiness not so. Oxen cannot feed in the sea, nor fishes in
the fruitful fields. A Swine brought into a palace would get away again to wallow
in the mire ; and corrupt nature tends ever to impurity.
Fourthly, Learn from this the nature and necessity of regeneration. First, This
discovers the nature of regeneration, in these two things: (1.) It is not a partial,
but a total change, though imperfect in this life. Thy whole nature is corrupted,
and therefore the cure must go through every part. Regeneration makes not only
a new head for knowledge, but a new heart, and new affections for holiness. “All
things become new,” 2 Cor. v. 17. If one, having received many wounds, should be
cured of them all, save one only ; he might bleed to death by that one, as well as a
thousand : So if the change go not through the whole man, it is naught. (2.) It is not
a change made by human industry, but by the mighty power of the Spirit of God,
A man must be “born of the Spirit,” John iii. 5. Accidental diseases may be
cured by men; but those which are natural, not without a miracle, John ix. 32.
The change brought upon men by good education, or forced upon them by a natu-
ral conscience, though it may pass among men for a saving change, it is not so;
for our nature is corrupt, and none but the God of nature can change it. Though
a gardener, ingrafting a pear-branch into an apple-tree, may make the apple-tree
bear pears; yet the art of man cannot change the nature of the apple-tree : so one
may pin a new life to his old heart, but he can never change the heart. Secondly,
This also shows the necessity of regeneration. It is absolutely necessary in order
to Salvation; John iii. 3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God.” No unclean thing can enter the new Jerusalem ; but thou art wholly
54 FO URFOLD STATE.
unclean, while in thy natural state. If every member of thy body were disjointed,
each joint behoved to be loosed, ere the members could be set right again. This
is the case of thy soul, as thou hast heard: and therefore thou must be born again;
else thou shalt never see heaven, unless it be afar off, as the rich man in hell did.
Deceive not thyself: no mercy of God, no blood of Christ will bring thee to heaven
in thy unregenerate state : for God will never open a fountain of mercy to wash
away his own holiness and truth; nor did Christ shed his precious blood, to blot
out the truths of God, or to overturn God's measures about the salvation of sinners.
Heaven! what would ye do there, that are not born again? ye that are no ways
fitted for Christ the head? That would be a strange sight ! a holy head, and
members wholly corrupt! a head full of treasures of grace, members wherein no-
thing but treasures of wickedness 1 a head obedient to the death, and heels kicking
against heaven Ye are no ways adapted to the society above, more than beasts
for converse with men. Thou art a hater of true holiness; and at the first sight
of a saint there, wouldst cry out, “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy ſ” Nay, the
unrenewed man, if it were possible he could go to heaven in that state, he would
no otherwise go to it than now he comes to the duties of holiness, that is, leav-
ing his heart behind him.
Use II. For lamentation. Well may we lament thy case, O natural man I for
it is the saddest case one can be in out of hell. It is time to lament for thee; for thou
art dead already, dead while thou livest ; thou carriest about with thee a dead soul
in a living body; and because thou art dead, thou canst not lament thy own case.
Thou art loathsome in the sight of God; for thou art altogether corrupt. Thou
hast no good in thee; thy soul is a mass of darkness, rebellion, and vileness before
the Lord. Thou thinkest, perhaps, that thou hast a good heart to God, good in-
clinations, and good desires: but God knows there is nothing good in thee, but
“every imagination of thine heart is only evil.” Thou canst do no good; thou
canst do nothing but sin. For,
First, Thou art “the servant of sin,” Rom. vi. 17, and therefore “free from
righteousness,” ver, 20. Whatever righteousness be, (poor soul!) thou art free of
it ; thou dost not, thou canst not meddle with it. Thou art under the dominion of
sin, a dominion where righteousness can have no place. Thou art a child and sér-
vant of the devil, though thou be neither wizard nor witch, seeing thou art yet in
the state of nature; John viii. 44, “Ye are of your father the devil.” And, to
prevent any mistake, consider, that sin and Satan have two sorts of servants: (1.)
There are some employed as it were in coarser work: those bear the devil's
mark in their foreheads, having no form of godliness, but are profane, grossly
ignorant, mere moralists, not so much as performing the external duties of
religion, but living to the view of the world, as sons of earth, only “minding earthly
things,” Phil. iii. 19. (2.) There are some employed in a more refined sort of ser-
vice to sin, who carry the devil's mark in their right hand, which they can and do
hide from the view of the world. These are close hypocrites, who sacrifice as much
to the corrupt mind, as the other to the flesh, Eph. ii. 3. These are ruined by a
more undiscernible trade of sin: pride, unbelief, self-seeking, and the like, swarm
in, and prey upon their corrupted, wholly corrupted souls. Both are servants of
the same house; the latter as far as the former from righteousness.
Secondly, How is it possible thou shouldst be able to do any good, thou whose
nature is wholly corrupt. 2 Can fruit grow where there is no root ? or can there be
an effect without a cause ? “Can the fig-tree bear olive-berries? either a vine,
figs 3" If thy nature be wholly corrupt, as indeed it is, all thou dost is certainly so
too ; for no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause. “Can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit?” Matt. vii. 18.
Ah! what a miserable spectacle is he that can do nothing but sin! Thou art
the man, whosoever thou art, that art yet in thy natural state. Hear, O sinner,
what is thy case. •
1. Innumerable sins compass thee about. Mountains of guilt are lying upon
thee. Floods of impurities overwhelm thee, Living lusts of all sorts roll up and
down in the dead sea of thy soul, where no good can breathe because of the corrup-
tion there. Thy lips are unclean : the opening of thy mouth is as the opening of
FOURFOLD STATE. 55
an unripe grave, full of stench and rottenness; Rom. iii. 13, “Their throat is an
open sepulchre.” Thy natural actions are sin; for “when ye did eat, and when
ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?” Zech. vii.
6. Thy civil actions are sin; Prov. xxi. 4, “The plowing of the wicked is sin.”
Thy religious actions are sin; Prov. xv. 8, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an
abomination to the Lord.” The thoughts and imaginations of thy heart are only
evil. A deed may be soon done, a word soon spoken, a thought Swiftly passeth
through the heart; but each of these is an item in thy accounts. O sad reckoning !
as many thoughts, words, actions, as many sins. The longer thou livest, thy ac-
counts swell the more. Should a tear be dropped for every sin, thine “head’ be-
hoved to be “waters,” and thine “eyes a fountain of tears;” for nothing but sin
comes from thee. Thy heart frames nothing but “evil imaginations;” there is no-
thing in thy life but what is framed by thine heart; and therefore there is nothing
in thy heart or life but evil.
2. All thy religion, if thou hast any, is lost labour, as to acceptance with God,
or any saving effect to thyself. Art thou yet in thy natural state 2 Truly, then,
thy duties are sins, as was just now hinted. Would not the best wine be loathsome
in a “vessel wherein there is no pleasure ?” So is the religion of an unregenerate
man. Under the law, the garment which the flesh of the sacrifice was carried in,
though it touched other things, did not make them holy: but he that was unclean
touching any thing, whether common or sacred, made it unclean. Even so thy
duties cannot make thy corrupt soul holy, though they in themselves be good; but
thy corrupt heart defiles them, and makes them unclean, Hag. ii. 12–14. Thou
wast wont to divide thy works into two sorts; some good, some evil: but thou must
count again, and put them all under one head ; for God writes on them all, “Only
evil.” This is lamentable. It will be no wonder to see those beg in harvest, who
fold their hands, and sleep in seed-time: but to be labouring with others in the
spring, and yet have nothing to reap when the harvest comes, is a very sad case;
and will be the case of all professors living and dying in their natural state.
Lastly, Thou canst not help thyself. What canst thou do to take away thy sin,
who art wholly corrupt 2 Nothing, truly, but sin. If a natural man begin to relent,
drop a tear for his sin and reform, presently the corrupt heart apprehends, at least,
a merit of congruity: he has done much himself, he thinks, and God cannot but
do more for him on that account. . In the mean time he does nothing but sin: so
that the congruous merit is, that the leper be put out of the camp, the dead soul
buried out of sight, and the corrupt lump cast into the pit. How canst thou think
to recover thyself by any thing thou canst do 2 Will mud and filth wash out filthi-
ness? and wilt thou purge out sin by sinning? Job took a potsherd to scrape him-
self, because his hands were as full of boils as his body. This is the case of th
corrupt soul; not to be recovered but by Jesus Christ, whose “strength was dried up
like a potsherd,” Psal. xxii. 15. Thou art poor indeed, extremely “miserable and
poor,” Rev. iii. 17. Thou hast no shelter, but “a refuge of lies;” no garment for thy
soul, but “filthy rags ;” nothing to nourish it, but “ husks,” that cannot satisfy.
More than that, thou hast got such a bruise in the loins of Adam, which is not as
yet cured, that thou art “without strength,” Rom. v. 6, unable to do, or work for
thyself; nay, more than all this, thou canst not so much as seek aright, but liest
helpless, as an infant exposed in the open field, Ezek. xvi. 5.
Use III. I exhort you to believe this sad truth. Alas! it is evident, it is very
little believed in the world. Few are concerned to get their corrupt conversation
changed ; but fewer, by far, to get their nature changed. Most men know not
what they are, nor what spirits they are of; they are as the eye, which, seeing many
things, never sees itself. But until ye know every one “the plague of his own
heart,” there is no hope of your recovery. Why will ye not believe it? Ye have
plain scripture-testimony for it; but you are loath to entertain such an ill opinion
of yourselves. Alas! that is the nature of your disease ; Rev. iii. 17, “Thou
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
Lord, open their eyes to see it, before they die of it, and in hell lift up their eyes,
and see what they will not see now.
56 FOUR FOLD STATE,
I shall shut up this weighty point, of the corruption of man's nature, with a few
words to another doctrine from the text. -
DoCTRINE, God takes special notice of our natural corruption, or the sin of our
nature. This he testifies two ways: (1.) By his word, as in the text, “God saw
that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.”
See Psal. xiv. 2, 3, (2.) By his works. God writes his particular notice of it,
and displeasure with it, as in many of his works, so especially in these two:-
First, In the death of the infant children of men. Many miseries they have
been exposed to. They were drowned in the deluge, consumed in Sodom by fire and
brimstone ; they have been slain with the sword, dashed against the stones, and
are still dying ordinary deaths. What is the true cause of this? On what ground
doth a holy God thus pursue them 2 Is it the sin of their parents 2 That may be
the occasion of the Lord's raising the process against them; but it must be their
own sin that is the ground of the sentence passing on them : for “the soul that
sinneth, it shall die,” saith God, Ezek. xviii. 4. Is it their own actual sin 2 They
have none. But as men do with toads and serpents, which they kill at first
sight, before they have done any hurt, because of their venomous nature ; so it is
in this case. - - -
Secondly, In the birth of the elect children of God. When the Lord is about to
change their nature, he makes the sin of their nature lie heavy on their spirits.
When he minds to let out the corruption, the lance gets full depth in their souls,
reaching to the root of sin, Rom. vii. 7–9. “The flesh,” or corruption of nature,
is pierced, being “crucified,” as well as “the affections and lusts,” Gal. v. 24.
Use. Let us then have a special eye upon the corruption and sin of our nature.
God sees it ; O that we saw it too, and that sin were “ever before us !” What
avails it to notice other sins, while this mother-sin is not noticed ? Turn your eyes
inward to the sin of your nature. It is to be feared, many have this work to
begin yet; that they have shut the door, while the grand thief is yet in the house
undiscovered. This is a weighty point; and in handling of it,
First, I shall, for conviction, point at some evidences of men's overlooking the
sin of their nature, which yet the Lord takes particular notice of (1.) Men's look-
ing on themselves with such confidence, as if they were in no hazard of gross sins.
Many would take it very heinously to get such a caution as Christ gave his apostles,
Luke xxi. 34, “Take heed of surfeiting and drunkenness.” If any should suppose
them to break out in gross abominations, they would be ready to say, Am I a dog?
It would raise the pride of their hearts, but not their fear and trembling; because
they know not the corruption of their nature. (2.) Untenderness towards those
that fall. Many, in that case, cast off all bowels of Christian compassion; for they
do not “consider themselves, lest they also be tempted,” Gal. vi. 1. Men's passions
are often highest against the faults of others, when sin sleeps soundly in their own
breasts. Even good David, when he was at his worst, was most violent against
the faults of others. While his conscience was asleep under his guilt, in the matter
of Uriah, the Spirit of the Lord takes notice, that his “anger was greatly kindled
against the man,” in the parable, 2 Sam. xii. 5. And, on good grounds, it is
thought it was at the same time that he treated the Ammonites so cruelly, as is
related, ver, 31, “putting them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under
axes of iron, and making them pass through the brick-kiln.” Grace makes men
zealous against sin in others, as well as in themselves; but eyes turned inward to
corruption of nature clothe them with pity and compassion, and fill them with thank-
fulness to the Lord, that they themselves were not the persons left to be such specta-
cles of human frailty. (3.) There are not a few, who, if they be kept from afflictions
in worldly things, and from gross outbreakings in their conversation, know not what
it is to have a sad heart. If they meet with a cross, which their proud hearts can-
not stoop to bear, they will be ready to say, O to be gone ! but the corruption of
their nature never makes them long for heaven. Lusts, Scandalously breaking out at
a time, will mar their peace; but the sin of their nature never makes them a heavy
heart. (4.) Delaying of repentance, in hopes to set about it afterwards. Many
have their own appointed time for repentance and reformation: as if they were
such complete masters over their lusts, that they can allow them to gather more
FOURFOLD STATE, 57
strength, and yet overcome them. They take up resolutions to amend, without an
eye to Jesus Christ, union with him, and strength from him; a plain evidence they
are strangers to themselves: and so they are left to themselves, and their flourish-
ing resolutions wither; for as they see not the necessity, so they get not the benefit
of the dew from heaven, to water them. (5.) Men's venturing frankly on tempta-
tions, and promising liberally on their own heads. They cast themselves fearlessly
into temptation, in confidence of their coming off fairly. But, were they sensible of
the corruption of their nature, they would beware of entering on the devil's ground ;
as one girt about with bags of gunpowder would be loath to walk where sparks of
fire are flying, lest he should be blown up. Self-jealousy well becomes Christians.
“Lord, is it I ?” They that know the deceit of their bow will not be very confident
that they shall hit the mark. (6.) Unacquaintedness with heart-plagues. The
knowledge of the plagues of the heart is a rare qualification. There are, indeed,
some of them written in such great characters, that he who runs may read them ;
but there are others more subtile, which few do discern. How few are there, to whom
the bias of the heart to unbelief is a burden : Nay, they perceive it not. Many
have had sharp convictions of other sins, that were never to this day convinced of
their unbelief; though that this is the sin specially aimed at in a thorough convic-
tion ; John xvi. 8, 9, “He will reprove the world of sin, because they believe not
on me.” A disposition to establish our own righteousness is a weed that naturally
grows in every man's heart: but few sweat at the plucking of it up ; it lurks un-
discovered. The bias of the heart to the way of the covenant of works is a hidden
plague of the heart to many. All the difficulty they find is, in getting up their
hearts to duties; they find no difficulty in getting their hearts off them, and over
them to Jesus Christ. How hard is it to stave men off from their own righteous-
ness I Yet it is very hard to convince them of their leaning to it at all. Lastly,
pride and self-conceit. A view of the corruption of nature would be very humbling,
and oblige him that has it to reckon himself “the chief of sinners.” Under
greatest attainments and enlargements, it would be ballast to his heart, and “hide
pride from his eyes.” The want of thorough humiliation, piercing to the sin of
one's nature, is the ruin of many professors; for “digging deep” makes great differ-
ence betwixt wise and foolish builders, Luke vi. 48, 49.
Secondly, I will lay before you a few things in which ye should have a special
eye to the sin of your nature. (1.) Have a special eye to it in your application to
Jesus Christ. Do you find any need of Christ, which sends you to him as the
Physician of souls º O forget not this disease, when ye are with the physician.
They never yet knew well their errand to Christ, that went not to him for the sin
of their nature; for his blood to take away the guilt of it, and his Spirit to break
the power of it. Though, in the bitterness of your souls, ye should lay before him
a catalogue of your sins of omission and commission which might reach from earth
to heaven ; yet if the sin of your nature were wanting in it, assure yourselves you
haye forgot the best part of the errand a poor sinner has to the Physician of souls.
What would it have availed the people of Jericho, to have set before Elisha all the
Yessels in their city, full of “the water that was naught,” if they had not led him
forth to the spring, to cast in the salt there? 2 Kings ii. 19—21. The application
is easy. (2) Have a special eye to it in your repentance, whether initial or pro-
gressive i in your first repentance, and in the renewing of your repentance after-
Wards. Though a man be sick, there is no fear of death, if the sickness strike not
his heart ; and there is as little fear of the death of sin, so long as the sin of our
nature, is not touched. , But if ye would repent indeed, let the streams lead you
up to the fountain ; and mourn over your corrupt nature, as the cause of all sin, in
heart, lip, and life; Psal. li. 4, 5, “ Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and
done this evil in thy sight. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me.” (3.) Have a special eye upon it in your mortification; Gaí.
y: 24, “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh.” It is the root of
bitterness that must be struck at ; which the axe of mortification must be laid to,
else we labour in Vain. In vain do men go about to purge the streams, while they
are ºf no pains about the muddy fountain ; it is vain religion to attempt to make
the life truly good, while the corruption of nature retains its ancient vigour, and
H
58 FOURFOLD STATE,
the power of it is not broken. Lastly, Ye are to eye it in your daily walk. He
that would walk aright must have one eye upward to Jesus Christ, and another in-
ward to the corruption of his own nature. It is not enough that we look about us,
we must also look within us. There the wall is weakest; there our greatest enemy
lies; and there are grounds for daily watching and mourning.
Thirdly, I shall offer some reasons, why we should especially notice the sin of
Our nature. - -
1. Because, of all sins, it is the most extensive and diffusive. It goes through
the whole man, and spoils all. Other sins mar particular parts of the image of
God; but this doth at once deface the whole. A disease affecting any particular
member of the body is ill; but that which affects the whole is worse. The corrup-
tion of nature is the poison of the old serpent, cast into the fountain of action; and
so infects every action, every breathing of the soul.
2. It is the cause of all particular lusts, and actual sins, in our hearts and lives.
It is the spawn which the great leviathan has left in the souls of men; from
whence comes all the fry of actual sins and abominations; Mark vii. 21, “Out of
the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,” &c. It is the bitter fountain ;
particular lusts are but rivulets running from it, which bring forth into the life a part
only, and not the whole of what is within. Now, the fountain is still above the
streams: so where the water is good, it is best in the fountain; where it is ill, it is
worst there. The corruption of nature being that which defiles all, itself must
needs be the most abominable thing.
3. It is virtually all sin; for it is the seed of all sins; which want but the occa-
sion to set up their heads; being in the corruption of nature, as the effect in the
virtue of its cause. Hence it is called “a body of death,” (Rom. vii. 24,) as consist-
ing of the several members belonging to such a “body of sins,” (Col. ii. 11,) whose
life lies in spiritual death. It is the cursed ground, fit to bring forth all manner
of noxious weeds. As the whole nest of venomous creatures must needs be more
dreadful than any few of them that come creeping forth ; so the sin of thy nature,
that mother of abominations, must be worse than any particular lusts that appear
stirring in thy heart and life. . Never did every sin appear in the conversation of
the vilest wretch that ever lived; but look thou into thy corrupt nature, and there
thou mayest see all and every sin in the seed and root thereof. There is a fulness
of “all unrighteousness” there, Rom. i. 29. There is atheism, idolatry, blasphemy,
murder, adultery, and whatsoever is vile. Possibly none of these appear to thee in
thy heart; but there is more in that unfathomable depth of wickedness than thou
Knowest. Thy corrupt heart is like an ant's nest, on which, while the stone lieth,
none of them appear ; but take off the stone, and stir them up but with the point
of a straw, you will see what a swarm is there, and how lively they be. Just such a
sight would thy heart afford thee, did the Lord but withdraw the restraint he has
upon it, and suffer Satan to stir it up by temptation.
4. The sin of our nature is, of all sins, the most fixed and abiding. Sinful ac-
tions, though the guilt and stain of them may remain, yet, in themselves, they are
passing. The drunkard is not always at his cup, nor the unclean person always
acting lewdness. But the corruption of nature is an abiding sin. It remains with
men, in its full power, by night and by day, at all times; fixed, as with bands of
iron and brass, till their nature be changed by converting grace : and the remains
of it continue with the godly, until the death of the body. Pride, envy, covetous-
ness, and the like, are not always stirring in thee; but the proud, envious, carnal
nature is still with thee: even as the clock that is wrong, is not always striking
wrong; but the wrong set continues with it, without intermission.
5. It is the great reigning sin; Rom. vi. 12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” There are three things
you may observe in the corrupt heart: (1.) There is the corrupt nature ; the cor-
rupt set of the heart, whereby men are unapt for all good, and fitted for all evil.
This the apostle here calls sin which “reigns.” (2.) There are particular lusts, or
dispositions of that corrupt nature, which the apostle calls “the lusts thereof;”
such as pride, covetousness, &c. (3.) There is one among these which is, like Saul
among the people, higher by far than the rest, namely, “the sin which doth so
FOUR FOLD STATE, 59
easily beset us,” Heb. xii. 1. This we usually call the predominant sin; because
it doth, as it were, reign over other particular lusts, so that other lusts must yield
to it. These three are like a river, which divides itself into many streams, where-
of one is greater than the rest. The corruption of nature is the river-head, which
has many particular lusts, in which it runs; but it mainly disburdens itself into
what is commonly called one's predominant sin: Now, all of these being fed by
the sin of our nature, it is evident, that sin is the great reigning sin, which never
loseth its superiority over particular lusts, that live and die with it, and by it. But
as, in some rivers, the main stream runs not always in one and the same channel;
so particular predominants may be changed, as lust in youth may be succeeded by
covetousness in old age. Now, what doth it avail to reform in other things, while
the reigning sin remains in its full power? What though some particular
Iust be broken? If that sin, the sin of our nature, keep the throne, it will set up
another in its stead ; as when a water-course is stopped in one place, while the
fountain is not dammed up, it will stream forth another way. And thus some cast
off their prodigality, but covetousness comes up in its stead : some cast away their
profanity, and the corruption of nature sends not its main stream that way as be-
fore, but it runs in another channel, namely, in that of a legal disposition, self-
righteousness, or the like. So that people are ruined, by their not eyeing the sin
of their nature.
Lastly, It is an hereditary evil; Psal. li. 5, “In sin did my mother conceive me.”
Particular lusts are not so, but in the virtue of their cause. A prodigal father
may have a frugal son : but this disease is necessarily propagated in nature, and
therefore hardest to cure. Surely, then, the word should be given out against
this sin, as against the king of Israel, 1 Kings xxii. 31, “Fight neither with small
nor great, save only with this:” for this sin being broke, all other sins are broken
with it; and while it stands entire, there is no victory.
Fourthly, That ye may get a view of the corruption of your nature, I would re-
commend to you three things. (1) Study to know the spirituality and extent of
the law of God; for that is the glass wherein you may see yourselves. (2.) Observe
your hearts at all times, but especially under temptation. Temptation is a fire that
brings up the scum of the vile heart: do ye carefully mark the first risings of cor-
ruption. Lastly, Go to God, through Jesus Christ, for illumination by his Spirit.
Lay out your soul before the Lord, as willing to know the vileness of your nature.
Say unto him, “That which I know not teach thou me.” And be willing to take
in light from the word. Believe, and you shall see. It is by the word the Spirit
teacheth; but without the Spirit's teaching, all other teaching will be to little pur-
pose. Though the gospel should shine about you, like the sun at noon-day, and
this great truth be never so plainly preached, ye will never see yourselves aright,
until the Spirit of the Lord light his candle within your breast. The fulness and
glory of Christ, the corruption and vileness of our nature, are never rightly learned,
but where the Spirit of Christ is the teacher.
And now to shut up this weighty point, let the consideration of what is said com-
mend Christ to you all. Ye that are brought out of your natural state of corrup-
tion unto Christ, be humble; still coming to Christ, and improving your union
with him, to the further weakening of the remains of this natural corruption. Is
your nature changed? It is but in part so. The day was ye could not stir: now ye are
cured ; but remember the cure is not yet perfected, ye still go halting. And though
it were better with you than it is, the remembrance of what you were by nature
should keep you low. Ye that are yet in your natural state, take with it : believe
the corruption of your nature; and let Christ, and his grace, be precious in your
eyes. O that ye would at length be serious about the state of your souls | What
mind ye to do 2 Ye must die, ye must appear before the judgment-seat of God.
Will ye lie down, and sleep another night at ease in this case ? Do it not ; for be-
fore another day, ye may be sisted before God's dreadful tribunal, in the grave-
clothes of your corrupt state, and your vile souls cast into the pit of destruction, as a
corrupt lump, to be for ever buried out of God's sight. For I testify unto you all,
there is no peace with God, no pardon, no heaven for you, in this state: there is
but a step betwixt you and eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord. If
60 FOUR FOLD STATE.
the brittle thread of your life, which may be broke with a touch, ere you are aware,
be indeed broken while you are in this state, you are ruined for ever, and without
remedy. But come speedily to Jesus Christ : he has cleansed as vile souls as
yours; and he will yet “cleanse the blood that he hath not cleansed,” Joel iii. 21.
Thus far of the sinfulness of man's natural state.
H E A D II.
THE MISERY of MAN's NATURAL STATE.
EPHESIANS ii. 3.
“We—were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
HAVING showed you the sinfulness of man's natural state, I come now to lay before
you the misery of it. A sinful state cannot but be a miserable state. If sin go be-
fore, wrath follows of course. Corruption and destruction are so knit together,
that the Holy Ghost calls destruction, even eternal destruction, corruption; Gal.
vi. 8, “He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption,” that is,
everlasting destruction; as is clear from its being opposed to life everlasting, in the
following clause. And so, the apostle having shown the Ephesians their real state
by mature, viz. that they were “dead in sins and trespasses,” altogether corrupt; he
tells them, in the words of the text, their relative state, namely, that the pit was
digged for them, while in that state of corruption; being dead in sins, they “were
by nature children of wrath, even as others.”
In the words we have four things.
1. The misery of a natural state. It is a state of wrath, as well as a state of sin.
“We were,” says the apostle, “children of wrath ;” bound over, and liable to the
wrath of God; under wrath in some measure, and, in wrath, bound over to more,
even the full measure of it, in hell, where the floods of it go over the prisoners for
ever. Thus Saul, in his wrath, adjudging David to die, (1 Sam. xx. 31,) and David,
in his wrath, passing sentence of death against the man in the parable, (2 Sam.
xii. 5,) say, each of them of his supposed criminal, “He shall surely die;” or, as
the words in the first language are, “He is a son of death.” So the natural man
is a “child of wrath,” “a son of death.” He is a malefactor, dead in law, lying in
chains of guilt; a criminal, held fast in his fetters till the day of execution; which
will not fail, unless a pardon be obtained from his God, who is his Judge and
party too. By that means, indeed, children of wrath may become children of the
kingdom. The phrase in the text, however common it is in the holy language, is
very significant. And as it is evident, that the apostle, calling natural men the
“children of disobedience,” (ver. 2,) means more, than that they were disobedient
children; for such may the Lord's own children be ; so, to be children of wrath is
more than simply to be liable to, or under wrath. Jesus Christ was liable to, and
under wrath ; but I doubt if we have any warrant to say, he was a child of wrath.
The phrase seems to intimate, that men are, whatsoever they are in their natural
state, under the wrath of God; that they are wholly under wrath : Wrath is, as it
were, woven into their very nature, and mixeth itself. with the whole of the man,
who is, if I may so speak, a very lump of Wrath, a child of hell, as the iron in the
fire is all fire. For men naturally are children of wrath; come forth, so to
speak, out of the womb of wrath ; as Jonah's gourd was the “son of a night,”
which we render, “came up in a night,” Jonah iv. 10; as if it had come out of
the womb of the night, as we read of the “womb of the morning,” Psal. cx. 3.;
and so, the birth following the belly whence it came, was soon gone. Thus
sparks of fire are called “sons of the burning coal,” Job v. 7, margin. Isa. xxi. 10,
FOUR FOLD STATE. - 61
“O my threshing, and the corn,” or son, “of my floor,” threshen in the floor of wrath,
and, as it were, brought forth by it. Thus the natural man is a child of wrath ; it
“comes into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones,” Psal. ciz. 18. For,
though Judas was the only “son of perdition ” amongst the apostles, yet all men,
by nature, are of the same family.
2. There is the rise of this misery; men have it by nature. They owe it to their
nature, not to their substance or essence ; for that neither is nor was sin, and there-
fore cannot make them children of wrath, though, for sin, it may be under wrath:
not to their nature, as qualified at man's creation by his Maker; but to their nature,
as vitiated and corrupted by the fall; to the vicious quality or corruption of their
nature, (whereof before,) which is their principle of action, and ceasing from action,
the only principle in an unregenerate state. Now, by this nature, men are children
of wrath; as, in time of pestilential infection, one draws in death together with the
disease then raging. Wherefore, seeing from our first being, as children of Adam,
we be corrupt children; “shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin;” we are also from
that moment children of wrath. -
3. The universality of this misery. All are by nature children of wrath: “we,”
saith the apostle, “even as others;” Jews as well as Gentiles. Those that are now,
by grace, the children of God, were, by nature, in no better case than those that are
still in their natural state.
Lastly, There is a glorious and happy change intimated here: we were children
of wrath, but are not so now ; grace has brought us out of that fearful state. This
the apostle says of himself and other believers. And thus it well becomes the
people of God to be often standing on the shore, and looking back to the Red sea
of the state of wrath they were sometimes weltering in, “even as others.”
Man's natural state a state of wrath.
DocTRINE, The state of nature is a state of wrath. Every one in a natural, unre-
generate state, is in a state of wrath. We are born children of wrath; and continue
So, until we be born again. Nay, as soon as we were children of Adam, we are chil-
dren of wrath.
I shall usher in what I am to say on this point with a few observations, touching
the universality of this state of wrath, which may serve to prepare the way of the
word into your consciences.
Wrath has gone as wide as ever sin went. When angels sinned, the wrath of God
brake in upon them as a flood. “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast
them down to hell,” 2 Pet. ii. 4. And thereby it was demonstrated, that no natural
excellency in the creature will shield it from the wrath of God, if once it become a
sinful creature. The finest and nicest piece of the workmanship of Heaven, if once
the Creator's image upon it be defaced by sin, God can and will dash in pieces in
his wrath, unless satisfaction be made to justice, and that image be repaired;
neither of which the sinner himself can do. Adam sinned; and the whole lump of
mankind was leavened, and bound over to the fiery oven of God's wrath. And from
the text ye may learn, (1.) That ignorance of that state cannot free men from it:
the Gentiles, that knew not God, “were by nature children of wrath, even as others.”
A man's house may be on fire, his wife and children perishing in the flames, while
he knows nothing of it, and therefore is not concerned about it. Such is your case,
O ye that are ignorant of these things! Wrath is silently sinking into your souls,
while you are blessing yourselves, saying, “Ye shall have peace.” Ye need not a
more certain token that ye are children of wrath, than that ye never yet saw your-
selves such. Ye cannot be the children of God, that never yet saw yourselves chil-
dren of the devil. Ye cannot be in the way to heaven, that never saw yourselves
by nature in the high road to hell. Ye are grossly ignorant of your state by nature,
and so ignorant of God, and of Christ, and your need of him ; and though ye look
on your ignorance as a covert from wrath, yet take it out of the mouth of God himself,
that it will ruin you if it be not removed; Isa. xxvii. 11, “It is a people of no un-
derstanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them.” See
2 Thess. i. 8; Hos. iv. 6, (2) No outward privileges can exempt men from this state
62 FOURFOLD STATE.
of wrath : for the Jews, the children of the kingdom, God's peculiar people, were
“children of wrath, even as others.” Though ye be church-members, partakers
of all church-privileges; though ye be descended of godly parents, of great and
honourable familes; be what ye will, ye are, “by nature,” heirs of hell, “children
of wrath.” (3.) No profession, nor attainments in a profession of religion, do or
can exempt a man from this state of wrath. Paul was one of the strictest sect of
the Jewish religion, Acts xxvi. 5, yet “a child of wrath, even as others,” till he
was converted. The close hypocrite and the profane are alike as to their state,
however different their conversations be, and they will be alike in their fatal end;
Psal. cxxv. 5, “As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall
lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.” (4.) Young ones, that are yet but
setting out into the world, have not that to do, to make themselves children of
wrath, by following the graceless multitude. They are “children of wrath by
nature;” so it is done already. They were born heirs of hell. They will indeed
make themselves more so, if they do not, while they are young, flee from that wrath
they were born to, by fleeing to Jesus Christ. Lastly, Whatever men are now by
grace, they were “even as others” by nature. And this may be a sad meditation
to them that have been at “ease from their youth,” and have had “no changes.”
Now, these things being premised, I shall, in the first place, show what this state
of wrath is ; next, confirm the doctrine ; and then apply it.
I. I am to show what this state of wrath is. But who can fully describe the
wrath of an angry God? None can do it. Yet so much of it may be discovered as
may serve to convince men of the absolute necessity of fleeing to Jesus Christ, out
of that state of wrath. Anger in men is a passion and commotion of the spirit for
an injury received, with a desire to resent the same. When it comes to a height,
and is fixed in one's spirit, it is called wrath. Now, there are no passions in God,
properly speaking ; they are inconsistent with his absolute unchangeableness and
independency: and therefore, Paul and Barnabas, to remove the mistake of the
Lycaonians, who thought they were gods, tell them, “they were men of like passions”
with themselves, Acts xiv. 15. Wrath, then, is attributed to God, not in respect of
the affection of wrath, but the effects thereof. Wrath is a fire in the bowels of a man,
tormenting the man himself; but there is no perturbation in God. His wrath does
not in the least mar that infinite repose and happiness which he hath in himself.
It is a most pure, undisturbed act of his will, producing dreadful effects against the
sinner. It is little we know of an infinite God; but, condescending to our weakness,
he is pleased to speak of himself to us after the manner of men. Let us, therefore,
notice man’s wrath, but remove every thing, in our consideration of the wrath of
God, that argues imperfection ; and so we may attain to some view of it, however
scanty. By this means we are led to take up the wrath of God against the natural
man in these three.
First, There is wrath in the heart of God against him. The Lord approves him
not, but is displeased with him. Every natural man lies under the displeasure of God;
and that is heavier than mountains of brass. Although he be pleased with himself,
and others be pleased with him too; yet God looks down on him as displeased.
(1.) His person is under God's displeasure: “thou hatest all workers of iniquity,”
Psal. v. 5. A godly man's sin is displeasing to God, yet his person is still “accepted
in the Beloved,” Eph, i. 6. But “God is angry with the wicked every day,” Psal.
vii. 11. There is a fire of wrath burns continually against him in the heart of God.
They are as dogs and swine, most abominable creatures in the sight of God. Though
their natural state be gilded over with a shining profession, yet they are abhorred
of God; they are to him as “smoke in his nose,” Isa. lxv. 5, and “ lukewarm
water,” to be “spewed out of his mouth,” Rev. iii. 16; “whited sepulchres,” Matt.
xxiii. 27; “a generation of vipers,” Matt. xii. 34; and “a people of his wrath,”
Isa. x. 6. (2.) He is displeased with all they do; it is impossible for them to
please him, being unbelievers, Heb. xi, 6. He hates their persons; and so hath no
pleasure in, but is displeased with, their best works; Isa. lxvi. 3, “He that sacrific-
eth a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck,” &c. Their duty, as done by them,
“is an abomination to the Lord,” Prov. xv. 8. And as men turn their back on
FOURFOLD STATE. 63
them whom they are angry with, so the Lord's refusing communion with the natu-
ral man in his duties is a plain indication of this wrath.
Secondly, There is wrath in the word of God against him. When wrath is in
the heart, it seeks a vent by the lips; so God fights against the natural man with
“the sword of his mouth,” Rev. ii. 16. The Lord’s word never speaks good of
him, but always curseth and condemneth him. Hence it is, that when he is awakened,
the word read or preached often increaseth his horror. (1.) It condemns all his ac-
tions, together with his corrupt nature. There is nothing he does, but the law de-
clares it to be sin. It is a rule of perfect obedience, from which he always, in all
things, declines; and so it rejects every thing he doth, as sin... (2.) It pro-
nounceth his doom, and denounceth God’s curse against him; Gal. iii. 10, “For as
many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed
is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the
law, to do them.” Be he never so well in the world, it pronounceth a woe from
heaven against him, Isa. iii. 11. The Bible is a quiver filled with arrows of
wrath against him ; ready to be poured in on his soul. God's threatenings, in his
word, hang over his head as a black cloud, ready to shower down on him every mo-
ment. The word is, indeed, the saint's security against wrath ; but it binds the
natural man's sin and wrath together, as a certain pledge of his ruin, if he continue
in that state. So the conscience being awakened, and perceiving this tie made by
the law, the man is filled with terrors in his soul.
Thirdly, There is wrath in the hand of God against the natural man. He is
under heavy strokes of wrath already, and is liable to more.
1. There is wrath on his body. It is a piece of cursed clay, which wrath is sink-
ing into, by virtue of the threatening of the first covenant, Gen. ii. 17, “In the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” There is never a disease, gripe,
nor stitch, that affects him, but it comes on him with the sting of God's indigna-
tion in it. They are all cords of death, sent before to bind the prisoner.
2. There is wrath upon his soul. (1.) He can have no communion with God;
he is “foolish, and shall not stand in God's sight,” Psal. v. 5. When Adam sin-
ned, God turned him out of paradise ; and natural men are, as Adam left them,
banished from the gracious presence of the Lord, and can have no access to him
in that state. There is war betwixt heaven and them ; and so all commerce is cut
off. “They are without God in the world,” Eph, ii. 12. The sun is gone down
on them, and there is not the least glimpse of favour towards them from heaven.
(2.) Hence the soul is left to pine away in its iniquity. The natural darkness of
their minds, the averseness to God in their wills, the disorder of their affections
and distemper of their consciences, and all their natural plagues, are left upon them
in a penal way, and being so left, increase daily. God casts a portion of worldly
goods to them, more or less, as a bone is thrown to a dog : but, alas ! his wrath
against them appears, in that they get no grace. The Physician of souls comes by
them, and goes by them, and cures others beside them, while they are consuming
away in their iniquity, and ripening daily for utter destruction. (3.) They lie
open to fearful additional plagues on their souls, even in this life. First, Sometimes
they meet with deadening strokes, silent blows, from the hand of an angry God;
arrows of wrath, that enter into their souls without noise : Isa. vi. 10, “Make the
heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they
See with their eyes,” &c. God strives with them for a while, and convictions enter
their consciences ; but they rebel against the light, and, by a secret judgment,
they are knocked in the head; so that, from that time, they do, as it were, live and
rot above the ground. Their hearts are deadened; their affections withered; their
consciences stupified ; and their whole souls blasted; “cast forth as a branch, and
withered,” John xv. 16. They are plagued with judicial blindness. They shut
their eyes against the light ; and they are given over to the devil, “the god of this
world,” to be blinded more, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Yea, “God sends them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie,” 2 Thess. ii. 11. Even conscience, like a false light
on shore, leads them upon rocks; by which they are broken in pieces. They
harden themselves against God; and he gives up with them, and leaves them to
Satan and their own hearts, whereby they are hardened more and more, They
64 FOURFOLD STATE.
are often “given up unto vile affections,” Rom. i. 26. The reins are laid on
their necks; and they are left to run into all excess, as their furious lusts draw
them. Secondly, Sometimes they meet with quickening strokes, whereby their
souls become like mount Sinai, where nothing is seen but fire and smoke ; nothing
heard but the thunder of God's wrath, and the voice of the trumpet of a broken
law waxing louder and louder: which makes them like Pashur, (Jer. xx. 4,) “a
terror to themselves.” God takes the filthy garments of their sins, which they
were wont to sleep in securely, overlays them with brimstone, and sets them on
fire about their ears: so they have a hell within them.
3. There is wrath on the natural man's enjoyments. Whatever be wanting in
his house, there is one thing that is never wanting there; Prov. iii. 33, “The curse
of the Lord is in the house of the wicked.” Wrath is on all that he has ; on the
bread that he eats, the liquor he drinks, the clothes which he wears. “His basket
and store are cursed,” Deut. xxviii. 17. Some things fall wrong with him; and
that comes to pass by virtue of this wrath ; other things go according to his wish ;
and there is wrath in that too, for it is a snare to his soul; Prov. i. 32, “The pros-
perity of fools shall destroy them.” This wrath turns his blessings into curses;
Mal. ii. 2, “I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already.” The
holy law is a killing letter to him, 2 Cor. iii. 6. The ministry of the gospel,
“a savour of death unto death,” chap. ii. 16. In the sacrament of the Lord's
supper, “he eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,” 1 Cor. xi. 29. Nay more
than all that, Christ himself is to him “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of
offence,” 1 Pet. ii. 8. Thus wrath follows the natural man, as his shadow doth
his body.
4. He is under the “power of Satan,” Acts xxvi. 18. The devil has over-
come him ; so he is his by conquest, his “lawful captive,” Isa. xlix. 24. The
natural man is “condemned already,” John iii. 18, and therefore under the heavy
hand of “him that hath the power of death, that is the devil.” And he keeps his
prisoners in the prison of a natural state, bound hand and foot, Isa. lxi. 1, laden
with divers lusts, as chains wherewith he holds them fast. Thou needest not,
as many do, call on the devil to take thee; for he has a fast hold of thee already,
as a child of wrath. -
Lastly, The natural man hath no security for a moment's safety, from the
wrath of God coming on him to the uttermost. The curse of the law, denounced
against him, has already tied him to the stake, so that the arrows of justice may
pierce his soul, and in him may meet all the miseries and plagues that flow from
the avenging wrath of God. See how he is set as a mark to the arrows of wrath,
Psal. vii. 11—13, “God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not,
he will whet his sword; he hath bent his "bow, and made it ready ; he hath also
prepared for him the instruments of death.” Doth he lie down to sleep 3 There
is not a promise he knows of, or can know, to secure him that he shall not be in
hell ere he awake. Justice is pursuing, and cries for vengeance on the sinner ; the
law casts the fire-balls of its curses continually upon him ; wasted and long tried
patience is that which keeps in his life. He walks amidst enemies armed against
him ; his name may be Magor-missabib, that is “terror round about,” Jer. xx. 3.
Angels, devils, men, beasts, stones, heaven, and earth, are in readiness, on a word
of command from the Lord, to ruin him.
Thus the natural man lives: but he must die too ; and death is a dreadful mes-
senger to him. It comes upon him armed with wrath, and puts three sad charges
in his hand. (1.) Death chargeth him to bid an eternal farewell to all things
in this world; to leave it, and make away to another world. Ah what a dread-
ful charge must this be to a “child of wrath !” He can have no comfort from
heaven, for God is his enemy; and, as for the things of the world, and the enjoy-
ment of his lusts, which were the only springs of his comfort, these are in a mo-
ment dried up to him for ever. He is not ready for another world: he was not
thinking of removing so soon ; or, if he was, yet he has no portion secured to him
in the other world, but that which he was born to, and was increasing all his days,
namely, “a treasure of wrath.” But go he must ; his clay-god, the world, must be
parted with, and what has he more ? There was never a glimmering of light, or
FOUR FOI,D STATE. 65
te
favour from heaven, to his soul: and now the wrath that did hang in the threaten-
ing, as “a cloud like a man's hand,” is darkening the face of the whole heaven above
him ; and if he “look into the earth,” from whence all his light was wont to come,
“behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and he shall be driven to dark-
ness,” Isa. viii. 22. (2.) Death chargeth soul and body to part till the great day.
His soul is required of him, Luke xii. 20. O what a miserable parting must this
be to a child of wrath ! Care was, indeed, taken to provide for the body things
necessary for this life: but, alas ! there is nothing laid up for another life to it;
nothing to be a seed of a glorious resurrection ; as it lived, so it must die and rise
again, sinful flesh, fuel for the fire of God's wrath. As for the soul, he was never soli-
citous to provide for it. It lay in the body, dead to God, and all things truly good,
and so must be carried out into the pit, in the grave-clothes of its natural state ;
for now that death comes, the companions in sin must part. (3) Death chargeth
the soul to compear before the tribunal of God, while the body lies to be carried to
the grave; Eccl. xii. 7, “The spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Heb. ix. 27.
“It is appointed unto all men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Well
were it for the sinful soul, if it might be buried together with the body. But that
cannot be : it must go and receive its sentence; and shall be shut up in the prison
of hell, while the cursed body lies imprisoned in the grave, till the day of the gen-
eral judgment.
When the end of the world, appointed of God, is come, the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead arise. Then shall the weary earth, at the command of the Judge,
cast forth the bodies, the cursed bodies of those that lived and died in their natural
state : “The sea, death, and hell shall deliver up their dead,” Rev. xx. 13. Their
miserable bodies and souls shall be reunited, and they sisted before the tribunal of
Christ. Then shall they receive that fearful sentence, “Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matt. xxv. 41.
Whereupon “they shall go away into everlasting punishment,” ver, 46. They shall
be eternally shut up in hell, never to get the least drop of comfort, nor the least
ease of their torment. There they will be punished with the punishment of loss;
being excommunicated for ever from the presence of God, his angels, and saints. All
means of grace, all hopes of a delivery, shall be for ever cut off from their eyes.
They shall not have “a drop of water to cool their tongues,” Luke xvi. 24, 25.
They shall be punished with the punishment of sense. They must not only depart
from God, but depart into fire, into everlasting fire. There “the worm" that shall
gnaw them, shall “never die; the fire '’ that shall scorch them, shall “never be
quenched.” God shall, through all eternity, hold them up with the one hand, and
pour the full vials of wrath into them with the other.
This is that state of wrath natural men live in ; being under much of the wrath
of God, and liable to more. But, for a further view of it, let us consider the
qualities of that wrath. (1.) It is irresistible; there is no standing before it;
“Who may stand in thy sight, when once thou art angry 2” Psal. lxxvi. 7. Can
the worm or the moth defend itself against him that designs to crush it? As little
can worm man stand before an angry God. Foolish man, indeed, practically bids a
defiance to heaven: but the Lord often, even in this world, opens such sluices of
Wrath upon them, as all their might cannot stop ; but they are carried away there-
by, as with a flood. How much more will it be so in hell! (2.) It is unsupportable.
What one cannot resist, he will set himself to bear; but, “who shall dwell with
devouring fire? who shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” God's wrath is a
weight that will sink men into the lowest hell. It is a burden no man is able to
stand under, “A wounded spirit who can bear?” Prov. xviii. 14. (3.) It is unavoid-
able to such as will go on impenitently in their sinful course. “He that, being
often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without
remedy,” Prov. xxix. 1. We may now fly from it, indeed, by flying to Jesus Christ;
but such as fly from Christ shall never be able to avoid it. Whither can men fly
from an avenging God? Where will they find a shelter? The hills will not hear
them... The mountains will be deaf to their loudest cries, when they cry to them
to “hide them from the wrath of the Lamb,” (4.) It is powerful and fierce wrath ;
Psal. xc, 11, “Who knoweth the power of thiné anger ? Even according to thy
I
66 FOUR FOLD STATE.
fear, so is thy wrath.” We are apt to fear the wrath of man more than we ought;
but no man can apprehend the wrath of God to be more dreadful than it really is.
The power of it can never be known to the utmost; seeing it is infinite, and, properly
speaking, has no utmost. How fierce soever it be, either on earth, or in hell, God
can still carry it further. Every thing in God is most perfect in its kind; and
therefore no wrath is so fierce as his. O sinner how wilt thou be able to endure
that wrath, which will “tear thee in pieces,” Psal. 1. 22, “and grind thee to pow-
der ?” Luke xx. 18. The history of the two she-bears, that tare the children of
Bethel, is an awful one, 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. But the united force of the rage of
lions, leopards, and she-bears, bereaved of their whelps, is not sufficient to give us
even a scanty view of the power of the wrath of God; Hos. xiii. 7, 8, “Therefore
I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them. I will
meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their
heart,” &c. (5.) It is penetrating and piercing wrath. It is “burning wrath, and
fiery indignation.” There is no pain more exquisite than that which is caused by
fire ; and no fire so piercing as the fire of God's indignation, that “burns unto the
lowest hell,” Deut. xxxii. 22. The arrows of men's wrath can pierce flesh, blood,
and bones, but cannot reach the soul; but the wrath of God will sink into the soul,
and so pierce a man in the most tender part. Likeas, when a person is thunder-
struck, ofttimes there is not a wound to be seen in the skin, yet life is gone, and
the bones are, as it were, melted; so God’s wrath can penetrate into, and melt one's
soul within him, when his earthly comforts stand about him entire, and untouched;
as in Belshazzar's case, Dan. v. 6. (6.) It is constant wrath, running parallel with
the man's continuance in an unregenerate state ; constantly attending him from
the womb to the grave. There are few so dark days, but the sun sometimes look-
eth out from under the clouds; but the wrath of God is an abiding cloud on the
objects of it; John iii. 36, “The wrath of God abideth on him " that believes not.
(7.) It is eternal. O miserable soul! if thou fly not from this wrath, unto Jesus
Christ, thy misery had a beginning, but it shall never have an end. Should devour-
ing death wholly swallow thee up, and for ever hold thee fast in a grave, it would
be kind ; but thou must live again, and never die ; that thou mayest be ever dying,
“in the hands of the living God.” Cold death will quench the flame of man's
wrath against us, if nothing else do it; but “God’s wrath,” when it has come on
the sinner millions of ages, will still be “the wrath to come,” Matt. iii. 7; 1 Thess.
i. 10; as the water of a river is still coming, how much soever of it has passed.
While God is, he will pursue the quarrel. Lastly, Howsoever dreadful it is, and
though it be eternal, yet it is most just wrath ; it is a clear fire, without the least
smoke of injustice. The sea of wrath, raging with greatest fury against the sinner,
is clear as crystal. The Judge of all the earth can do no wrong ; he knows no
transports of passion, for they are inconsistent with the perfection of his nature.
“Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance 2 (I speak as a man) God forbid; for
then how shall God judge the world 2’’ Rom. iii. 5, 6.
The doctrine of the state of wrath confirmed and vindicated.
II. I shall confirm the doctrine. Consider, (1.) How peremptory the threaten-
ing of the first covenant is: “In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,”
Gen. ii. 17. Hereby sin and punishment being connected, the veracity of God
ascertains the execution of the threatening. . Now, all men being by nature under
this covenant, the breach of it lays them under the curse. º The justice of God
requires, that a child of sin be a child of wrath; that the law being broken, the
sanction thereof should take place. God, as man's ruler and judge, cannot but do
right, Gen. xviii. 25. Now, it is “a righteous thing with God to recompence sin”
with wrath, 2 Thess, i. 6. He is “of purer eyes than to behold evil,” Hab. i. 13;
and “he hates all the workers of iniquity,” Psal. v. 6. (3.) The horrors of a
natural conscience prove this. There is a conscience in the breasts of men, which
can tell them they are sinners, and therefore liable to the wrath of God. Let men,
at any time, soberly commune with themselves, and they will find they have the
witness in themselves, “knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit
FOUR FOLD STATE. 67
such things are worthy of death,” Rom. i. 32. (4.) The pangs of the new birth, the
work of the Spirit of bondage on elect souls, in order to their conversion, demonstrate
this. Hereby their natural sinfulness and misery, as liable to the wrath of God, are
plainly taught them; filling their hearts with fear of that wrath. Now that this Spirit
of bondage is no other than the Spirit of God, whose work is to “convince of sin,
righteousness, and judgment,” (John xvi. 8,) this testimony must needs be true ;
for the Spirit of truth cannot witness an untruth, Meanwhile, true believers, be-
ing freed from the state of wrath, “receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but receive the Spirit of adoption,” Rom. viii. 15. And therefore, if fears of that
nature do arise, after the soul's union with Christ, they come from the saint's own
spirit, or from a worse. Lastly, The sufferings of Christ plainly prove this doctrine,
Wherefore was the Son of God a son under wrath, but because the children of
men were children of wrath? He suffered the wrath of God; not for himself, but
for those that were liable to it in their own persons. Nay, this not only speaks
us to have been liable to wrath ; but also that wrath must have a vent, in the
punishing of sin. If this was done in the green tree, what will become of the dry
What a miserable case must a sinner be in that is out of Christ; that is not vitally
united to Christ, and partakes not of his Spirit ! God, who spared not his own
Son, surely will not spare such a one.
But the unregenerate man, who has no great value for the honour of God, will
be apt to rise up against his Judge, and in his own heart condemn his procedure.
Nevertheless, the Judge being infinitely just, the sentence must be righteous. And
therefore, to stop thy mouth, O proud sinner, and to still thy clamour against thy
righteous Judge, consider, (1.) thou art a sinner by nature ; and it is highly
reasonable that guilt and wrath be as old as sin. Why should not God begin to
vindicate his honour, as soon as vile worms begin to impair it ! Why should not a
serpent bite the thief as soon as he leaps over the hedge? Why should not the
threatening take hold of the sinner, as soon as he casts the command? The poison-
ous nature of the serpent affords a man sufficient ground to kill it, as soon as ever
he can reach it: and by this time thou mayest be convinced, that thy nature is a
very compound of enmity against God. (2.) Thou hast not only an enmity
against God, in thy nature; but hast discovered it by actual sins which are in his
eye acts of hostility. Thou hast brought forth thy lusts into the field of battle,
against thy sovereign Lord. And now that thou art such a criminal, thy condem-
nation is just; for, besides the sin of thy nature, thou hast done that against heaven
which, if thou hadst done against men, thy life behoved to have gone for it; and shall
not wrath from heaven overtake thee ? First, Thou art guilty of high treason and
rebellion against the King of Heaven. The thought and wish of thy heart, which
he knows as well as the language of thy mouth, has been, “No God,” Psal. xiv. 1.
Thou hast rejected his government, blown the trumpet, and set up the standard of
rebellion against him ; being one of those that say, “We will not have this man
to reign over us,” Luke xix, 14. Thou hast striven against, and quenched his
Spirit; practically disowned his laws, proclaimed by his messengers; stopped thine
ears at their voice, and sent them away mourning for thy pride. Thou hast con-
spired with his grand enemy the devil. Although thou art a sworn servant of the
King of glory, daily receiving of his favours, and living on his bounty; thou art
holding a correspondence, and hast contracted a friendship with his greatest enemy,
and art acting for him against thy Lord ; for “the lusts of the devil you will do,”
John viii. 44. Secondly, Thou art a murderer before the Lord. Thou hast laid the
stumbling-block of thine iniquity before the blind world; and hast ruined the souls
of others by thy sinful course. And though thou dost not see now, the time may
come when thou shalt see the blood of thy relations, neighbours, acquaintances,
and others, upon thy head; Matt. xviii. 7, “Wo unto the world because of offences;
Wo to that man by whom the offence cometh.” Yea, thou art a self-murderer be-
fore God; Prov. viii. 36, “He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all
they that hate me love death;” . Ezek. xviii. 31, “Why will ye die?” The laws
of men go as far as they can against the self-murderer, denying his body a burial-
place amongst others, and confiscating his goods; what wonder is it the law of
God is so severe against soul-murderers ? Is it strange, that they who will needs
68 FOUR FOI,D STATE.
depart from God now, cost what it will, be forced to depart from him at last into
everlasting fire? But what is yet more criminal, thou art guilty of the murder of
the Son of God; for the Lord will reckon thee amongst those that “pierced him,”
Rev. i. 7. Thou hast rejected him, as well as the Jews did; and, by thy rejecting
him, thou hast justified their deed. They, indeed, did not acknowledge him to be
the Son of God, but thou dost. What they did against him was in his state of
humiliation ; but thou hast acted against him in his state of exaltation. These
things will aggravate thy condemnation. What wonder, then, if the voice of the
Lamb change to the roaring of the Lion, against the traitor and murderer?
Objection. But some will say, Is there not a vast disproportion betwixt our sin,
and that wrath you talk of ? I answer, No ; God punisheth no more than the sin-
ner deserves. To rectify your mistake in this matter, consider, (1.) The vast re-
wards God has annexed to obedience. His word is no more full of fiery wrath
against sin, than it is of gracious rewards to the obedience it requires. If heaven
be in the promises, it is altogether equal that hell be in the threatenings. If death
were not in the balance with life, eternal misery with eternal happiness, where were
the proportion? Moreover, sin deserves the misery, but our best works do not de-
serve the happiness: yet both are set before us; sin and misery, holiness and happi-
ness. What reason is there then to complain 3 (2.) How severe soever the threaten-
ings be, yet all has enough ado to reach the end of the law. “Fear him,” says our
Lord, “which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto
you, fear him,” Luke xii. 5. This bespeaks our dread of divine power and
majesty; but yet how few fear him indeed! The Lord knows sinners' hearts to be
exceedingly intent upon fulfilling their lusts; they cleave so fondly to those ful-
some breasts, that a small force does not suffice to draw them away from them.
They that travel through deserts, where they are in hazard from wild beasts, have
need to carry fire along with them ; and they have need of a hard wedge that have
knotty timber to cleave : so a holy law must be fenced with dreadful wrath, in a
world lying in wickedness. But who are they that complain of that wrath as too
great, but those to whom it is too little to draw them off from their sinful courses?
It was the man who pretended to fear his lord, because he was an “austere
man,” that “kept his pound laid up in a napkin ;” and so he was “condemned out
of his own mouth,” Luke xix. 20–22. Thou art that man, even thou whose ob-
jection I am answering. How can the wrath thou art under, and liable to, be too
great, while yet it is not sufficient to awaken thee to flee from it? Is it time to re-
lax the penalties of the law, when men are trampling the commands of it under
foot 3 (3.) Consider how God dealt with his own Son, whom “he spared not,” Rom.
viii. 32. The wrath of God seized on his soul and body both, and brought him
into the dust of death. That his sufferings were not eternal flowed from the qual-
ity of the sufferer, who was infinite, and therefore able to bear, at once, the whole
load of wrath ; and upon that account his sufferings were infinite in value. But
now that the sufferings of a mere creature cannot be infinite in value, they must
be protracted to an eternity. And what confidence can a rebel subject have to
quarrel, for his part, a punishment executed on the King's Son?... (4.) The sinner
doth against God what he can. “Behold, thou hast done evil things as thou
couldst,” Jer. iii. 5. That thou hast not done more, and worse, thanks to him who
restrained thee; to the chain which the wolf was kept in by, not to thyself. No
wonder God show his power on the sinner, who puts forth his power against God
as far as it will reach. The unregenerate man puts no period to his sinful course;
and would put no bounds to it neither, if he were not restrained by divine power
for wise ends: and therefore it is just he be for ever under wrath. (5.) It is infin-
ite majesty sin strikes against; and so it is in some sort an infinite evil. Sin riseth
In its demerit, according to the quality of the party offended. If a man wound his
neighbour, his goods must go for it; but if he wound his prince, his life must go to
make amends for that. The infinity of God makes infinite wrath the just demerit
of sin. God is infinitely displeased with sin ; and when he acts, he must act like
himself, and show his displeasure by proportionable means. Lastly, Those that
shall lie for ever under his wrath, will be eternally sinning, and therefore must
FOUR FOLD STATE. 69
eternally suffer; not only in respect of divine judicial procedure ; but because
sin is its own punishment, in the same manner as holy obedience is its own reward.
The doctrine of the misery of man's natural state applied.
Use I. Of information. Is our state by nature a state of wrath 3 Then,
First, Surely we are not born innocent. These chains of wrath, which by nature
are upon us, speak us to be born criminals. The swaddling-bands wherewith in-
fants are bound, hand and foot, as soon as they are born, may put us in mind of
the cords of wrath with which they are held prisoners, as children of Wrath. .
Secondly, What desperate madness is it for sinners to go on in their sinful
course ! What is it but to heap coals of fire on thine own head; to lay more and
more fuel to the fire of wrath; to “treasure up unto thyself wrath against the day
of wrath 3’ Rom. ii. 5. Thou mayest “perish when his wrath is kindled but a
little,” Psal. ii. 12; why wilt thou increase it yet more ? Thou art already bound
with such cords of death as will not easily be loosed; what need is there of more ?
Stand, careless sinner, and consider this.
Thirdly, Thou hast no reason to complain, as long as thou art out of hell.
“Wherefore doth a living man complain.” Lam. iii. 39. If one who has forfeited
his life be banished his native country, and exposed to many hardships, he may
well bear all patiently seeing his life is spared. Do ye murmur, for that ye are
under pain or sickness 2 Nay, bless God ye are not there where the worm never
dieth. Dost thou grudge that thou art not in so good a condition in the world as
some of thy neighbours are ? Be thankful rather, that ye are not in the case of the
damned. Is thy substance gone from thee? Wonder that the fire of God's wrath
hath not consumed thyself. Kiss the rod, O sinner, and acknowledge mercy ; for
God “punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve,” Ezra ix. 13.
Fourthly, Here is a memorandum, both for poor and rich. (1.) The poorest
that go from door to door, and had not one penny left them by their parents, were
born to an inheritance. Their first father Adam left them children of wrath: and
continuing in their natural state, they cannot miss of it ; for “this is the portion
of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God,” Job xx.
29: an heritage that will furnish them with a habitation who have not where to
lay their head; they shall be “cast into utter darkness,” Matt. xxv. 30, for to
them “is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever,” Jude 13; where their bed
shall be sorrow, “they shall lie down in sorrow,” Isa. l. 11; their food shall be
judgment, for God will “feed them with judgment,” Ezek. xxxiv. 16; and their
drink shall be “the red wine” of God’s wrath, “the dregs whereof all the wicked of
the earth shall wring out, and drink them,” Psal. lxxv. 8. I know that those who
are destitute of worldly goods, and withal void of the knowledge and grace of God,
who therefore may be called the devil's poor, will be apt to say here, We hope
God will make us suffer all our misery in this world, and we shall be happy in the
next: as if their miserable outward condition in time would secure their happiness
in eternity. A gross and fatal mistake I and this is another inheritance they have,
namely, “lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit,” Jer, xvi. 19. But “the
hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,” Isa. xxviii. 17. Dost thou think, O sin-
ner, that God, who commands judges on earth “not to respect the person of the poor
in judgment,” Lev. xix. 15, will pervert judgment for thee ? Nay, know for certain,
that however miserable thou art here, thou shalt be eternally miserable hereafter, if
thou livest and diest in thy natural state. (2) Many that have enough in the
world have far more than they know of. Thou hast, it may be, O unregenerate
man, an estate, a good portion, or large stock left thee by thy father; thou hast
improven it, and the sun of prosperity shines upon thee, so that thou canst say
with Esau, Gen. xxxiii. 9, “I have enough.” But know, thou hast more than all
that, an inheritance thou dost not consider of: thou art a child of wrath, an heir
of hell, . That is an heritage which will abide with thee, amidst all the changes in
the world, as long as thou continuest in an unregenerate state. When thou shalt
leave thy substance to others, this shall go along with thyself into another world.
It is no wonder a slaughter-ox be fed to the full, and is not toiled as others are,
70 FOUR FOLD STATE,
Job xxi. 30, “The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction ; they shall be
brought forth to the day of wrath.” Well, then, “rejoice, let thin2 heart cheer
thee, walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes;” live above
reproofs and warnings from the word of God; show thyself a man of a fine spirit,
by casting off all fear of God; mock at seriousness; live like thyself, a child of
wrath, an heir of hell; “but know thou, that for all these things God will bring
thee into judgment,” Eccl. xi. 9. Assure thyself, thy “breaking shall come sud-
denly, at an instant,” Isa. xxx. 13. “For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of a fool,” Eccl. vii. 6. The fair blaze and great noise they
make is quickly gone ; so shall thy mirth be. And then that wrath that is now
silently sinking into thy soul shall make a fearful hissing.
Fifthly, Wo to him that, like Moab, “ hath been at ease from his youth,” Jer.
xlviii. 11, and never saw the black cloud of wrath hanging over his head. There
are many who “ have no changes, therefore they fear not God,” Psal. lv. 19. They
have lived in a good belief, as they call it, all their days; that is, they never had
power to believe an ill report of their soul's state. Many have come by their reli-
gion too easily ; and as it came lightly to them, so it will go from them when their
trial comes. Do ye think men flee from wrath in a morning-dream ? Or will they
flee from the wrath they never saw pursuing them : t
Sixthly, Think it not strange, if ye see one in great distress about his soul's con-
dition, who was wont to be as jovial and as little concerned for his salvation as any of
his neighbours. Can one get a right view of himself, as in a state of wrath, and
not be pierced with sorrows, terrors, and anxiety ? When a weight, quite above
one's strength, lies upon him, and he is alone, he can neither stir hand nor foot;
but when one comes to lift it off him, he will struggle to get from under it. Thun-
der-claps of wrath from the word of God, conveyed to the soul by the Spirit of the
Lord, will surely keep a man awake. -
Lastly, It is no wonder wrath come upon churches and nations, and upon us in
this land, and that infants and children yet unborn Smart under it. Most of the
society are yet children of wrath ; few are flying from it, or taking the way to pre-
vent it; but people of all ranks are helping it on. The Jews rejected Christ; and
their children have been smarting under wrath these sixteen hundred years. God
grant that the bad entertainment given to Christ and his gospel by this genera-
tion, be not pursued with wrath on the succeeding one.
Use II. Of Exhortation. And here, (1.) I shall drop a word to those who are
yet in an unregenerate state. (2.) To those that are brought out of it. (3.) To
all indifferently.
First, To you that are yet in an unregenerate state, I would sound the alarm,
and warn you to see to yourselves, while yet there is hope, O ye children of wrath,
take no rest in this dismal state ; but flee to Jesus Christ, the only refuge ; haste,
and make your escape thither. The state of wrath is too hot a climate for you to
live in ; Mic. ii. 10, “Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest.” O sinner,
knowest thou where thou art? dost thou not see thy danger ? The curse has en-
tered into thy soul; wrath is thy covering ; the heavens are growing blacker and
blacker above thy head ; the earth is weary of thee; the pit is opening her mouth
for thee ; and should the thread of thy life be cut this moment, thou art henceforth
past all hope for ever. Sirs, if we saw you putting a cup of poison to your mouth,
we would fly to you, and snatch it out of your hands; if we saw the house on fire
about you, while ye were fast asleep in it, we would run to you, and drag you out
of it. But alas ! ye are in ten thousand times greater hazard: yet we can do no
more, but, tell you your danger; invite, exhort, beseech, and obtest you, to look to
yourselves; and lament your stupidity and obstinacy, when we cannot prevail with
you to take warning. If there were no hope of your recovery, we should be silent,
and would not torment you before the time : but though ye be lost and undone,
there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. Wherefore, I cry unto you in the
name of the Lord, and in the words of the prophet, Zech. ix. 12, “Turn ye to the
strong hold, ye prisoners of hope.” Flee to Jesus Christ out of this your natural
State.
Motive 1. While ye are in this state, ye must stand or fall according to the law.
FOUR FOLD STATE, 71
or covenant of works. If ye understood this aright, it would strike through your
hearts as a thousand darts. One had better be a slave to the Turks, condemned
to the galleys, or under Egyptian bondage, than be under the covenant of works
now. All mankind were brought under it in Adam, as we heard before ; and thou
in thy unregenerate state art still where Adam left thee. It is true, there is an-
other covenant brought in ; but what is that to thee, who art not brought into it 2
Thou must needs be under one of the two covenants; either under “the law, or
under grace.” That thou art not under grace, the dominion of sin over thee
manifestly evinceth ; therefore thou art under the law, Rom. vi. 14. Do not think
God has laid aside the first covenant, Matt. v. 17, 18; Gal. iii. 10. No, he will
“magnify the law, and make it honourable.” It is broken, indeed, on thy part ;
but it is absurd to think, that therefore your obligation is dissolved. Nay, thou
must stand and fall by it, till thou canst produce thy discharge from God himself,
who is thy party in that covenant ; and this thou canst not pretend to, seeing thou
art not in Christ. & e & &
Now, to give you a view of your misery in this respect, consider these following
things. (1.) Hereby ye are bound over to death, in virtue of the threatening of
death in that covenant, Gen. ii. 17. The condition being broken, ye fall under
the penalty. So it concludes you under wrath, (2.) There is no salvation for you
under this covenant, but on a condition impossible to be performed by you. The
justice of God must be satisfied for the wrong you have done already. God has
written this truth in characters of the blood of his own Son. Yea, and you must
perfectly obey the law for the time to come. So saith the law, Gal. iii. 12, “The
man that doth them shall live in them.” Come then, O sinner, see if thou canst
make a ladder, whereby thou mayest reach the throne of God: stretch forth thine
arms, and try if thou canst fly on the wings of the wind, catch hold of the clouds,
and pierce through these visible heavens ; and then either climb over, or break
through, the jasper walls of the city above. These things shalt thou do, as soon
as thou shalt reach heaven in thy natural state, or under this covenant. (3.) There
is no pardon under this covenant. Pardon is the benefit of another covenant, with
which thou hast nothing to do; Acts xiii. 39, “And by him all that believe are jus-
tified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”
As for thee, thou art in the hand of a merciless creditor, which will take thee by the
throat, saying, “Pay what thou owest,” and cast thee into prison, there to remain
till thou hast paid the utmost farthing, unless thou be so wise as to get a cau-
tioner in time, who is able to answer for all thy debt, and get up thy discharge.
This Jesus Christ alone can do. Thou abidest under this covenant, and pleadest
mercy; but what is thy plea founded on ? There is not one promise of mercy or
pardon in that covenant. Dost thou plead mercy for mercy's sake 2 Justice will
step in betwixt it and thee, and plead God's covenant-threatening, which he can-
not deny. (4.) There is no place for repentance in this covenant, so as the sinner
can be helped by it. For as soon as ever thou sinnest, the law lays its curse on
thee, which is a dead weight thou canst by no means throw off; no, not though
thine “head were waters, and thine eyes a fountain of tears, to weep day and night”
for thy sin. That is “what the law cannot do, in that it is weak through the
flesh,” Rom. viii. 3. Now thou art another profane Esau, that hath sold the bless-
ing ; and there is no place for repentance, though thou seekest it carefully with
tears, while under that covenant. (5.) There is no accepting of the will for the
deed under this covenant, which was not made for good will, but good works. The
mistake in this point ruins many. They are not in Christ, but stand under the
first covenant ; and yet they will plead this privilege. This is just as if, one hav-
ing made a feast for those of his own family, when they sit down at table, another
man's servant, that has run away from his master, should presumptuously come
forward, and sit down among them : would not the master of the feast give such a
stranger that check, “Friend, how camest thou in hither ?” and, since he is none
of his family, command him to be gone quickly. Though a master accept the good
will of his own child for the deed, can a hired servant expect that privilege (6.)
Ye have nothing to do with Christ while under that covenant. By the law of God
a woman cannot be married to two husbands at once : either death or divorce must
72 FOUR FOLD STATE.
dissolve the first marriage, ere she can marry another. So we must first “be dead
to the law,” ere we can be “married to Christ,” Rom. vii. 4. The law is the first
husband; Jesus Christ, who raiseth the dead, marries the widow, that was heart-
broken, and slain by the first husband. But while the soul is in the house with
the first husband, it cannot plead a marriage-relation to Christ, nor the benefits of
a marriage-covenant, which is not yet entered into ; Gal. v. 4, “Christ is become
of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from
grace.” Peace, pardon, and such like benefits, are all benefits of the covenant of
grace. And ye must not think to stand off from Christ, and the marriage-cove-
mant with him, and yet plead these benefits; more than one man's wife can plead
the benefit of contract of marriage past betwixt another man and his own wife. Last-
ly, See the bill of exclusion passed in the court of heaven against all under the cov-
enant of works ; Gal. iv. 30, “The Son of the bond woman shall not be heir.” Com-
pare ver. 24. Heirs of wrath must not be heirs of glory. Whom the first covenant
has power to exclude out of heaven, the second covenant cannot bring into it.
Objection. Then it is impossible for us to be saved. Answer. It is so while you
are in that state. But if ye would be out of that dreadful condition, hasten out of
that state. If a murderer be under sentence of death ; so long as he lives within
the kingdom, the laws will reach his life; but if he can make his escape, and get
over the sea, into the dominions of another prince, our laws cannot reach him there.
This is what we would have you to do : flee out of the kingdom of darkness into
“ the kingdom of God's dear Son ;” out of the dominion of the law, into the domin-
ion of grace : then all the curses of the law, or covenant of works, shall never be
able to reach you.
Motive 2. O ye children of wrath, your state is wretched, for ye have lost God,
and that is an unspeakable loss. Ye are “without God in the world,” Eph. ii. 12.
Whatever you may call yours, ye cannot call God yours. If we look to the earth,
perhaps you can tell us, that land, that house, or that herd of cattle, is yours. But
let us look upward to heaven ; is that God, that grace, that glory yours ? Truly,
you have “neither part nor lot in that matter.” When Nebuchadnezzar talks of
cities and kingdoms, O how big does he speak | “Great Babylon that I have built—
my power—my majesty.” But he tells a poor tale, when he comes to speak of
God, saying, “your God,” Dan. ii. 47, and iv. 30. Alas! sinner, whatever thou
hast, God is gone from thee. O the misery of a godless soul! Hast thou lost
God? Then, (1.) The sap and substance of all thou hast in the world is gone. The
godless man, have what he will, is one “that hath not,” Matt. xxv. 29, I defy
the unregenerate man to attain to soul-satisfaction, whatever he possesseth, since
God is not his God. All his days he eateth in darkness. In every condition there
is a secret dissatisfaction haunts his heart, like a ghost : the soul wants something,
though perhaps it knoweth not what it is: and so it will be always, till the soul re-
turn to God, the fountain of satisfaction. (2.) Thou canst do nothing to purpose
for thyself; for God is gone, “ his soul is departed from thee,” Jer. vi. 8, like a
leg out of joint hanging by, whereof a man has no use, as the word there used doth
bear. Losing God, thou hast lost the fountain of good ; and so all grace, all good-
ness, all the saving influences of his Spirit. What canst thou do then ? What
fruit canst thou bring forth, more than a branch cut off from the stock? John xv.
4. Thou art “become unprofitable,” Rom. iii. 12, as a filthy rotten thing, fit only
for the dunghill. (3) Death has come up into thy windows, yea, and has settled
on thy face; for God, “in whose favour is life,” Psal. xxx. 5, is gone from thee,
and so the soul of thy soul is departed. What a loathsome lump is the body, when
the soul is gone ! Far more loathsome is thy soul in this case. Thou art dead
while thou livest. Do not deny it, seeing thy speech is laid, thine eyes closed, and
all spiritual motion in thee ceaseth. Thy true friends, who see thy case, do la-
ment, because thou art gone into the land of silence. (4.) Thou hast not a steady
friend among all the creatures of God ; for now that thou hast lost the Master's
favour, all the family is set against thee. Conscience is thine enemy : the word
never speaks good of thee: God's people loathe thee, so far as they see what thou
art, Psal. xv. 4. The beasts and stones of the field are banded together against
thee, Job v. 23; Hos. ii. 18. Thy meat, drink, clothes, grudge to be serviceable
FOURFOLD STATE. 73
to the wretch that has lost God, and abuseth them to his dishonour. The earth
groaneth under thee; yea, “the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain
together,” because of thee and such as thou art, Rom. viii. 22. Heaven will have
nothing to do with thee; for “there shall in no wise enter into it anything that de-
fileth,” Rev. xxi. 27. Only “hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at
thy coming,” Isa. xiv. 9. Lastly, Thy hell is begun already. What makes hell
but exclusion from the presence of God? “Depart from me, ye cursed.” Now ye
are gone from God already, with the curse upon you. That shall be your punish-
ment at length, if ye return not, which is now your choice. As a gracious state is
a state of glory in the bud, so a graceless state is hell in the bud, which, if it
continue, will come to perfection at length.
Motive 3. Consider the dreadful instances of the wrath of God; and let them
serve to awaken thee, to flee out of this state. Consider, (1.) How it has fallen
on men. Even in this world, many have been set up as monuments of divine ven-
geance, that others might fear. Wrath has swept away multitudes, who have fallen
together by the hand of an angry God. Consider how the Lord “spared not the
old world, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly ; and turning the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow,
making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly,” 2 Pet. ii. 5,
6. But it is yet more dreadful to think of that weeping, wailing, and gnashing of
teeth, amongst those, who “in hell lift up their eyes,” but cannot get a “drop of
water to cool their tongues.” Believe these things, and be warned by them ; lest
destruction come upon thee for a warning to others. (2.) Consider how wrath fell
upon the fallen angels, whose case is absolutely hopeless. They were the first that
ventured to break the hedge of the divine law ; and God set them up for monu-
ments of his wrath against sin. They once “left their own habitation,” and were
never allowed to look in again at the hole of the door; but they are “reserved in
everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day,” Jude 6.
Lastly, Behold how an angry God dealt with his own Son, standing in the room of
elect sinners; Rom. viii. 32, “God spared not his own Son.” Sparing mercy might
have been expected, if any at all. If any person could have obtained it, surely his
own Son would have got it; but he spared him not. The Father's delight is made
a man of sorrows; he who is the wisdom of God becomes sore amazed, ready to
faint away in a fit of horror. The weight of this wrath makes him sweat great
drops of blood. By the fierceness of this fire, his heart “was like wax melted in the
midst of his bowels.” Behold here how severe God is against sin . The sun was
struck blind with this terrible sight; rocks were rent; graves opened, death, as it
were, in the excess of astonishment, letting its prisoners slip away. What is a
deluge, a shower of fire and brimstone on Sodomites, the terrible noise of a dissolv-
ing world, the whole fabric of heaven and earth falling down at once, angels cast
down from heaven into the bottomless pit—what are all these, I say, in compari-
son with this, God suffering ! groaning ! dying upon a cross | Infinite holiness did
it, to make sin look like itself, that is, infinitely odious. And will men live at
ease, while exposed to this wrath?
Lastly, Consider what a God he is with whom thou hast to do, whose wrath thou
art liable unto. He is a God of infinite knowledge and wisdom; so that none of
thy sins, however secret, can be hid from him. He infallibly finds out all means,
whereby wrath may be executed, towards the satisfying of justice. He is of in-
finite power, and so can do what he will against the sinner. How heavy must the
strokes of wrath be, which are laid on by an omnipotent hand! Infinite power can
make the sinner prisoner, even when he is in his greatest rage against heaven. It
can bring again the several parcels of dust out of the grave, put them together
again, reunite the soul and body, sist them before the tribunal, hurry them away
to the pit, and hold them up with the one hand, through etermity, while they are
lashed with the other. He is infinitely just, and therefore must punish ; it were
acting contrary to his nature to suffer the sinner to escape Wrath. Hence the exe-
cuting of his wrath is pleasing to him : for though the Lord hath no delight in the
death of a sinner, as it is the destruction of his own creature ; yet he delights in it
as it is the execution of justice. “Upon the wicked he shall reign snares, fire and
K
74 FOUR FOLD STATE.
brimstone, and an horrible tompest;” mark the reason; “for the righteous Lord
loveth righteousness,” Psal. xi. 6, 7; “I will cause my fury to rest upon them,
and I will be comforted,” Ezek. v. 13; “I also will laugh at your calamity,” Prov.
i. 26. Finally, He lives for ever, to pursue the quarrel. Let us therefore con-
clude, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Be awakened them, O young sinner; be awakened, O old sinner, who art yet in the
state thou wast born in. Your security is none of God's allowance; it is the sleep
of death: rise out of it, ere the pit close its mouth on you. It is true, you may
put on a breast-plate of iron, make your brow brass, and your heart as an adamant;
who can help it? But God will break that brazen brow and make that adaman-
time heart, at last, to fly into a thousand pieces. Ye may, if you will, labour to
put these things out of your heads, that ye may yet sleep in a sound skin, though
in a state of Wrath. Ye may run away with the arrows sticking in your consciences,
to your work, to work them away; or to your beds, to sleep them out; or to com-
pany, to sport and laugh them away : but convictions so stifled, will have a fearful
resurrection; and the day is coming, when the arrows of wrath shall so stick in thy
soul, as thou shall never be able to pluck them out through the ages of eternity,
unless thou take warning in time.
But, if any desire to flee from the wrath to come, and for that end to know what
course to take, I offer them these few advices; and obtest and beseech them, as
they love their own souls, to fall in with them. (1.) Retire by yourselves into some
secret place, and there meditate on this your misery. Believe it, and fix your thoughts
on it. Let each put the question to himself, How can I live in this state 2 how can I
die in it? how will I rise again and stand before the tribunal of God in it? (2.) Con-
sider seriously the sin of your nature, heart, and life. A kindly sight of wrath flows
from a deep sense of sin. They who see themselves exceeding sinful, will find no
great difficulty to perceive themselves to be heirs of wrath. (3.) Labour to justify
God in this matter. To quarrel with God about it, and to rage like a wild bull in
a net, will but fix you the more in it. Humiliation of soul before the Lord is
necessary for an escape. God will not sell deliverance, but freely gives it to those
who see themselves altogether unworthy of his favour. Lastly, Turn your eyes,
O prisoners of hope, towards the Lord Jesus Christ; and embrace him, as he offer-
eth himself in the gospel. “There is no salvation in any other,” Acts iv. 12. God
is “a consuming fire ;” ye are “children of wrath;” if the Mediator interpose not
betwixt him and you, ye are undone for ever. If ye would be safe, come under his
shadow ; one drop of that wrath cannot fall there, for he “delivereth us from the
wrath to come,” 1 Thess. i. 10. Accept of him in his covenant, wherein he offer-
eth himself to thee; and so thou shalt, as the captive woman, redeem thy life, by
marrying the conqueror. His blood will quench that fire of wrath which burns
against thee: in the white raiment of his righteousness thou shalt be safe; for no
storm of wrath can pierce it.
Secondly, I shall drop a few words to the saints.
1. “Remember that at that time,” namely, when ye were in your natural state,
“ye were without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Call
to mind that state ye were in formerly, and review the misery of it. There are
five memorials I may thence give in to the whole assembly of the saints, who are
no more children of wrath, but “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,” though
as yet in their minority. (1) Remember, that in the day our Lord took you by
the hand, ye were in no better condition than others. O what moved him to take
you, when he passed by your neighbours? He found you “children of wrath, even
as others;” but he did not leave you so. He came into the common prison, where
ye lay in your fetters, even as others; and, from amongst the multitude of con-
demned malefactors, he picked out you, commanded your fetters to be taken off,
put a pardon in your hand, and brought you into “the glorious liberty of the chil-
dren of God,” while he left others in the devil's fetters. (2.) Remember, there
was nothing in you to engage him to love you, in the day he first appeared for
your deliverance. Ye were “children of wrath, even as others;” fit for hell, and
altogether unfit for heaven: yet the King brought you into the palace; the King's
Son made love to you, a condemned criminal, and espoused you to himself, on the
FOUR FOLD STATE. 75.
day in which ye might have been led forth to execution. “Even so, Father, for so it
seemed good in thy sight,” Matt. xi. 26. (3.) Remember, ye were fitter to be loathed
than loved in that day. Wonder that, when he saw you in your blood, he looked not
at you with abhorrence, and passed by you. Wonder, that ever such a time could
be “a time of love,” Ezek. xvi. 8. (4.) Remember, ye are decked with borrowed
feathers. It is his comeliness which is upon you, ver, 14. It was he that took off
your prison-garments, and clothed you with robes of righteousness, garments of sal-
vation, garments wherewith ye are arrayed as “the lilies which toil not, neither do
they spin.” He took the chains from off your arms, the rope from about your neck;
put you in such a dress, as ye might be fit for the court of heaven, even to eat at
the King's table. (5.) Remember your faults this day, as Pharaoh’s butler, who
had forgotten Joseph, Mind how you have forgotten, and how unkindly you have
treated him who remembered you in your low estate. “Is this your kindness to
your friend?” In the day of your deliverance, did ye think ye could have thus re-
quited him, your Lord?
2. Pity the children of wrath, the world that lies in wickedness. Can ye be un-
concerned for them, ye who were once in the same condition ? Ye have got ashore
indeed, but your fellows are yet in hazard of perishing; and will not ye make them
all possible help for their deliverance 2 What they are, ye sometime were. This
may draw pity from you, and engage you to use all means for their recovery. See
Tit. iii. 1–3.
3. Admire that matchless love which brought you out of the state of wrath.
Christ's love was active love; he “loved thy soul from the pit of corruption.” It was
no easy work to purchase the life of the condemned sinner; but he gave his life for
thy life. He gave his precious blood to quench that flame of wrath which other-
wise would have burnt thee up. Men get the best view of the stars from the bottom
of a deep pit ; and from this pit of misery, into which thou wast cast by the first
Adam, thou mayest get the best view of the Sun of Righteousness, in all its dimen-
sions. He is the second Adam, who took thee out of the “horrible pit,” and out
of the “miry clay.” How broad were the skirts of that love, which covered such
a multitude of sins! Behold the length of it, reaching “from everlasting to ever-
lasting,” Psal. ciii. 17; the depth of it, going so low as to deliver thee “from the
lowest hell,” Psal. lxxxvi. 13; the height of it, in raising thee up to “sit in hea-
venly places,” Eph. ii. 6.
4. Be humble, carry low sails, “walk softly all your years.” Be not proud of
your gifts, graces, privileges, or attainments; but remember ye “were children of
wrath, even as others.” The peacock walks slowly, hangs down his starry feathers,
while he looks to his black feet. “Look ye to the hole of the pit whence ye are
digged,” and walk humbly, as it becomes free grace's debtors.
Lastly, Be wholly for your Lord. Every wife is obliged to be dutiful to her
husband ; but double ties lie upon her who was taken from a prison or a dunghill.
If your Lord has delivered you from wrath, you ought, upon that very account, to
be wholly his; to act for him, to suffer for him, and to do whatever he calls you to.
The Saints have no reason to complain of their lot in the world, whatever it be. Well
may they bear the cross for him by whom the curse was borne away from them.
Well may they bear the wrath of men in his cause who has freed them from the
wrath of God; and cheerfully go to a fire for him, by whom hell-fire is quenched
to them. Soul and body, and all thou hadst in the world, were sometime under
wrath : he has removed that wrath ; shall not all these be at his service 2 That
thy soul is not overwhelmed with the wrath of God, is owing purely to Jesus Christ;
and shall it not then be a temple for his Spirit 2 That thy heart is not filled with
horror and despair is owing to him only ; to whom then should it be devoted, but
to him alone?, That thine eyes are not blinded with the smoke of the pit, thy
hands are not fettered with chains of darkness, thy tongue is not broiling in the
fire of hell, and thy feet are not standing in that lake that burns with fire and
brimstone, is owing purely to Jesus Christ; and shall not these eyes be employed
for him, these hands act for him, that tongue speak for him, and these feet
speedily run his errands? To him that believes he was a child of wrath, even as
76 FOUR FOLD STATE.
others, but is now delivered by the blessed Jesus, nothing will appear too much to
do or suffer for his deliverer, when he has a fair call to it.
Thirdly, To conclude with a word to all; let no man think lightly of sin, which
lays the sinner open to the wrath of God. Let not the sin of our nature, which
wreathes the yoke of God's wrath so early about our necks, seem a small thing in
our eyes. Fear the Lord, because of his dreadful wrath. Tremble at the thoughts
of sin, against which God has such fiery indignation. Look on his wrath, and
stand in awe, and sin not. Do you think this is to press you to slavish fear? If
it were so, one had better be a slave to God with a trembling heart, than a free
man to the devil, with a seared conscience and a heart of adamant. But it is not
so : you may love him, and thus fear him too; yea, ye ought to do it, though ye
Were Saints of the first magnitude. See Psal. cxix. 120; Matt. x. 28; Luke xii.
5 ; Heb. xii. 28, 29. Although ye have passed the gulf of wrath, being in Jesus
Christ; yet it is but reasonable your hearts shiver, when you look back to it. Your
sin still deserves wrath, even as the sins of others; and it would be terrible to be in
a fiery furnace, although, by a miracle, we were so fenced against it, as that it
could not harm us. -
H E A D I I I.
MAN's UTTER INABILITY TO RECOVER HIMSELF.
RoMANs v. 6.
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
JoHN vi. 44.
No man can come to me, eaccept the Father which hath sent me draw him.
WE have now had a view of the total corruption of man's nature, and that load of
wrath which lies on him, that gulf of misery he is plunged into in his natural state.
But there is one part of his misery that deserves particular consideration, namely,
his utter inability to recover himself; the knowledge of which is necessary for the
due humiliation of a sinner. What I design here is only to propose a few things,
whereby to convince the unregenerate man of this his inability; that he may see
an absolute need of Christ, and of the power of his grace.
As a man that is fallen into a pit cannot be supposed to help himself out of it
but by one of two ways; either by doing all himself alone, or taking hold of, and
improving the help offered him by others; so an unconverted man cannot be sup-
posed to help himself out of that state but either in the way of the law, or cove-
nant of works; by doing all himself without Christ; or else in the way of the gos-
pel, or covenant of grace; by exerting his own strength to lay hold upon, and to
make use of the help offered him by a Saviour. But, alas ! the unconverted man
is dead in the pit, and cannot help himself either of these ways: not the first way;
for the first text tells us, that when our Lord came to help us, we were without
strength, unable to recover ourselves. We were ungodly, therefore under a bur-
den of guilt and wrath : yet without strength ; unable to stand under it, and un-
able to throw it off, or get from under it : so that all mankind had undoubtedly
perished, had not Christ died for the ungodly, and brought help to them, who
could never have recovered themselves. But when Christ comes, and offereth help
to sinners, cannot they take it 2 cannot they improve help, when it comes to their
FOURFOLD STATE. 77
hands? No; the second text tells us they cannot: “No man can come unto me,”
that is, believe in me, John vi. 35, “except the Father draw him.” This is a draw-
ing which enables them to come who, till then, could not come, and therefore could
not help themselves, by improving the help offered. It is a drawing which is
always effectual ; for it can be no less than “hearing and learning of the Father,”
which whoso partakes of, cometh to Christ, ver, 45. Therefore it is not drawing
in the way of mere moral suasion, which may be, yea, and always is, ineffectual.
But it is drawing by “mighty power,” Eph. i. 19, absolutely necessary for them
that have no power in themselves, to come and take hold of the offered help.
Hearken, then, O unregenerate man, and be convinced, that, as thou art in a
most miserable state by nature, so thou art utterly unable to recover thyself any
manner of way. Thou art ruined, and what way wilt, thou go to work to recover
thyself? Which of the two ways wilt thou choose? Wilt thou try it alone, or wilt
thou make use of help ? Wilt thou fall on the way of works, or on the way of the
gospel? I know very well thou wilt not so much as try the way of the gospel, till
once thou hast found the recovery impracticable in the way of the law. Therefore
we shall begin where corrupt nature teaches men to begin, viz. at the way of the
law of works.
I. Sinner, I would have thee believe that thy working will never effect it.
Work, and do thy best ; thou shalt never be able to work thyself out of this
state of corruption and wrath. Thou must have Christ, else thou shalt perish
eternally. It is only “Christ in you” can be “the hope of glory.” But if thou wilt
needs try it, then I must lay before thee, from the unalterable word of the liv-
ing God, two things which thou must do for thyself. And if thou canst do
them, it must be yielded that thou art able to recover thyself; but if not, then
thou canst do nothing in this way for thy recovery.
First, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” Matt. xix. 17.
That is, if thou wilt by doing enter into life, then perfectly keep the ten commands;
for the scope of these words is to beat down the pride of the man's heart, and to
let him see an absolute need of a Saviour, from the impossibility of keeping the
law. The answer is given suitable to the address. Our Lord checks him for his
compliment, “Good Master,” ver. 16, telling him, “There is none good but one, that
is God,” ver. 17. As if he had said, You think yourself a good man, and me
another; but where goodness is spoken of, men and angels may vail their faces be-
fore the good God. And as to his question, wherein he discovereth his legal dispo-
sition, Christ does not answer him, saying, “Believe, and thou shalt be saved ;”
that would not have been so seasonable in the case of one who thought he could do
wellenough for himself, if he but knew what good thing he should do: but suitably to
the humour the man was in, he bids him “keep the commandments ;” keep them
nicely and accurately, as those that watch malefactors in prison, lest any of them
escape, and their life go for theirs. See, then, O unregenerate man, what thou
canst do in this matter: for if thou wilt recover thyself in this way, thou must per-
fectly keep the commandments of God.
And, (1.) Thy obedience must be perfect in respect of the principle of it; that
is, thy soul, the principle of action, must be perfectly pure, and altogether without
sin. For the law requires all moral perfection, not only actual, but habitual: and
so condemns original sin ; impurity of nature, as well as of actions. Now, if thou
canst bring this to pass, thou shalt be able to answer that question of Solomon's,
so as never one of Adam's posterity could yet answer it, Prov. xx. 9, “Who can say,
I have made my heart clean?” But if thou canst not, the very want of this perfection
is a sin, and so lays thee open to the curse, and cuts thee off from life. Yea, it makes
all thine actions, even thy best actions, sinful; for “who can bring a clean thing
out of an unclean 3” Job xiv. 4. And dost thou think by sin to help thyself out
of sin and misery ? (2.) Thy obedience must also be perfect in parts. It must be
as broad as the whole law of God: if thou lackest one thing, thou art undone; for
the law denounceth the curse on him that continueth not in every thing written
therein, Gal. iii. 10. Thou must give internal and external obedience to the whole
law; keep all the commandments in heart and life. If thou breakest any one of
them, that will ensure thy ruin. A vain thought, or idle word, will still shut thee up
78 FOURFOLD STATE.
under the curse. (3.) It must be perfect in respect of degrees; as was the obe-
dience of Adam, while he stood in his innocence. This the law requires, and will
accept of no less ; Matt. xxii. 37, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” If one degree of that love
required by the law be wanting; if each part of thy obedience be not screwed up
to the greatest height commanded; that want is a breach of the law, and so leaves
thee still under the curse. One may bring as many buckets of water to a house
that is on fire as he is able to carry, and yet it may be consumed, and will be so,
if he bring not as many as will quench the fire. Even so, although thou shouldst
do what thou art able, in keeping the commands; if thou fail in the least degree of
obedience which the law enjoins, thou art certainly ruined for ever, unless thou take
hold of Christ, renouncing all thy righteousness as filthy rags. See Rom. x. 5;
Gal. iii. 10. Lastly, It must be perpetual, as the man Christ's obedience was, who
always did the things that pleased the Father ; for the tenor of the law is, “Cursed
is he that continueth not in all things written in the law, to do them.” Hence,
though Adam's obedience was for a while absolutely perfect; yet, because at length
he tripped in one point, namely, in eating the forbidden fruit, he fell under the curse
of the law. If one should live a dutiful subject to his prince till the close of his
days, and then conspire against him, he must die for his treason. Even so, though
thou shouldst, all the time of thy life, live in perfect obedience to the law of God,
and only at the hour of death entertain a vain thought, or pronounce an idle word ;
that idle word or vain thought, would blot out all thy former righteousness, and
ruin thee; namely, in this way, in which thou art seeking to recover thyself.
Now, such is the obedience thou must perform, if thou wouldst recover thyself
in the way of the law. But, though thou shouldst thus obey, the law stakes thee
down in the state of wrath, till another demand of it be satisfied, viz.
Secondly, Thou must “pay what thou owest.” It is undeniable thou art a sin-
ner; and whatever thou mayest be in time to come, justice must be satisfied for
thy sin already committed. The honour of the law must be maintained, by thy
suffering the denounced wrath. It may be thou hast changed thy course of life,
or art now resolved to do it, and set about the keeping of the commands of God; but
what hast thou done, or what wilt thou do, with the old debt? Your obedience to
God, though it were perfect, is a debt due to him, for the time wherein it is per-
formed ; and can no more satisfy for former sins, than a tenant's paying the cur-
rent year's rent can satisfy the master for all bygones. Can the paying of new
debts acquit a man from old accounts 3 Nay, deceive not yourselves, you will find
these “laid up in store with God, and sealed up among his treasures,” Deut. xxxii.
34. It remains then, that either thou must bear that wrath, to which for thy sin
thou art liable, according to the law ; or else thou must acknowledge thou canst
not bear it, and thereupon have recourse to the surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let
me now ask thee, Art thou able to satisfy the justice of God? Canst thou pay
thy own debt? Surely not : for, seeing he is an infinite God whom thou hast offended,
the punishment, being suited to the quality of the offence, must be infinite. But so
it is, thy punishment or sufferings for sin cannot be infinite in value, seeing thou
art a finite creature : therefore they must be infinite in duration or continuance ;
that is, they must be eternal. And so all thy sufferings in this world are but an
earnest of what thou must suffer in the world to come.
Now, sinner, if thou camst answer these demands, thou mayest recover thyself
in the way of the law. But art thou not conscious of thy inability to do any of
these things, much more to do them all? Yet if thou do not all, thou dost nothing.
Turn, then, to what course of life thou wilt, thou art still in a state of wrath.
Screw up thy obedience to the greatest height thou canst; suffer what God lays
upon thee; yea, add, if thou wilt, to the burden, and walk under all, without the
least impatience; yet all this will not satisfy the demands of the law, and there-
fore thou art still a ruined creature. Alas! sinner, what art thou doing, while
thou strivest to help thyself, but dost not receive, and unite with Jesus Christ 2
Thou art labouring in the fire, wearying thyself for very vanity ; labouring to en-
ter into heaven by the door which Adam's sin so bolted, as neither he nor any of
his lost posterity can ever enter by it. Dost thou not see the flaming sword of
FOURFOLD STATE. 79
justice, keeping thee off from the tree of life 2 Dost thou not hear the law de-
nouncing a curse on thee for all that thou art doing ; even for thy obedience, thy
prayers, thy tears, thy reformation of life, &c., because, being under the law's do-
minion, thy best works are not so good as it requires them to be, under the pain
of the curse ? Believe it, Sirs, if you live and die out of Christ, without being
actually united to him as the second Adam, a life-giving Spirit, and without com-
ing under the covert of his atoning blood ; though ye should do the utmost that
any man on earth can do, in keeping the commands of God, ye shall never see the
face of God in peace. If you should from this moment bid an eternal farewell to
this world's joy, and all the affairs thereof, and henceforth busy yourselves with
nothing but the salvation of your souls; if you should go into some wilderness,
live upon the grass of the field, and be companions to dragons and owls; if you
should retire to some dark cavern of the earth, and weep there for your sins, until
you have wept yourselves blind, yea, wept out all the moisture of your body; if ye
should confess with your tongue, until it cleave to the roof of your mouth ; pray,
till your knees grow hard as horns; fast, till your body become like a skeleton ; and
after all this, give it to be burnt; the word is gone out of the Lord's mouth in
righteousness, and cannot return; you should perish for ever, notwithstanding of
all this, as not being in Christ; John xiv. 6, “No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me ; ” Acts iv. 12, “Neither is there salvation in any other ;” Mark xvi.
16, “He that believeth not shall be damned.”
Objection. But God is a merciful God, and he knows we are not able to answer
these demands; we hope therefore to be saved, if we do as well as we can, and keep
the commands as well as we are able. Answer. (1.) Though thou art able to do many
things, thou art not able to do one thing aright: thou camst do nothing acceptable to
God, being out of Christ; John xv. 5, “Without me ye can do nothing.” An unre-
newed man, as thou art, can do nothing but sin ; as we have already evinced. Thy
best actions are sin, and so they increase thy debt to justice: how then can it be ex-
pected they should lessen it 2 (2.) If God should offer to save men, upon condition
that they did all they could do, in obedience to his commands, we have ground to
think, that those who would betake themselves to that way should never be saved;
for where is the man that does as well as he can 2 Who sees not many false steps
he has made, which he might have evited ? There are so many things to be done,
so many temptations to carry us out of the road of duty, and our nature is so very
apt to be “set on fire of hell,” that we would surely fail, even in some point that is
within the compass of our natural abilities. But, (3.) Though thou shouldst do
all thou art able to do, in vain dost thou hope to be saved in that way. What
word of God is this hope of thine founded on ? It is neither founded on law nor
gospel; and therefore it is but a delusion. It is not founded on the gospel; for the
gospel leads the Soul out of itself to Jesus Christ for all, and it “establisheth the
law,” Rom. iii. 31. Whereas this hope of yours cannot be established but on the
ruins of the law, which God will “magnify and make honourable.” And hence it
appears, that it is not founded on the law neither. When God set Adam a-working
for happiness to himself and his posterity, perfect obedience was the condition re-
quired of him ; and a curse was denounced in case of disobedience. The law being
broken by him, he and his posterity were subjected to the penalty for sin com-
mitted, and withal still bound to perfect obedience : for it is absurd to think, that
man's sinning, and suffering for his sin, should free him from his duty of obedience
to his Creator. When Christ came in the room of the elect to purchase their sal-
vation, the same were the terms. Justice had the elect under arrest: if he minds
to deliver them, the terms are known. He must satisfy for their sin, by suffering
the punishment due to it; he must do what they cannot do, to wit, obey the law
perfectly, and so fulfil all righteousness. Accordingly, all this he did, and so be-
came “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” Rom. x. 4.
And now, dost thou think God will abate of these terms to thee, when his own Son
got no abatement of them ? Expect it not, though thou shouldst beg it with tears of
blood; for if they prevailed, they behoved to prevail against the truth, justice, and
honour of God; Gal. iii. 10, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them;” ver. 12, “And the law is
80 FOURFOLD STATE,
not of faith: but, the man that doeth them shall live in them.” It is true, that
God is merciful; but cannot he be merciful unless he save you in a way that is
neither consistent with his law nor gospel? Hath not his goodness and mercy suffi-
ciently appeared, in sending the Son of his love, to do “what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh?” He has provided help for them that can-
not help themselves: but thou, insensible of thine own weakness, wilt needs think
to recover thyself by thine own works, while thou art no more able to do it than
to remove mountains of brass out of their place. Wherefore I conclude, thou art
utterly unable to recover thyself by the way of works or of the law. O that thou
wouldst conclude the same concerning thyself I
II. Let us try next what the sinner can do to recover himself in the way of the
gospel. It is likely, thou thinkest, that howbeit thou canst not do all by thyself
alone, yet Jesus Christ offering thee help, thou canst, of thyself, embrace it, and
use it to thy recovery. But, O sinner, be convinced of thine absolute need of the
grace of Christ : for truly, there is help offered, but thou canst not accept of it :
there is a rope cast out to hale shipwrecked sinners to land; but, alas ! they have
no hands to catch hold of it. They are like infants exposed in the open field, that
must starve, though their food be lying by them, unless one put it into their mouths.
To convince natural men of this, let it be considered,
First, That although Christ is offered in the gospel, yet they cannot believe in
him. Saving faith is the “faith of God's elect ;” the special gift of God to them,
wrought in them by his Spirit. Salvation is offered to them that will believe in
Christ, but “how can ye believe 3’ John v. 44. It is offered to those that will
come to Christ ; but “no man can come unto him, except the Father draw him.”
It is offered to them that will look to him, as lifted up on the pole of the gospel, Isa.
xlv. 22: but the natural man is spiritually blind, Rev. iii. 17; and as to the things
of the Spirit of God, he “cannot know them,” for they are “spiritually discerned,”
1 Cor. ii. 14. Nay, “whosoever will,” he is welcome, “let him come,” Rev. xxii. 17;
but there must be “a day of power” on the sinner, before he will be “willing,”
Psal. cx. 3.
Secondly, Man naturally has nothing wherewithal to improve, to his recovery,
the help brought in by the gospel. He is cast away in a state of wrath; but is
bound hand and foot, so that he cannot lay hold of the cords of love, thrown out
to him in the gospel. The most skilful artificer cannot work without instruments;
nor can the most cunning musician play well on an instrument that is out of tune.
How can one believe, how can he repent, whose understanding is “darkness,” Eph.
v. 8; whose heart is a “stony heart,” inflexible, insensible, Ezek. xxxvi. 26; whose
affections are wholly disordered and distempered ; who is averse to good, and bent
to evil? The arms of natural abilities are too short to reach supernatural help :
hence those who most excel in them are ofttimes most estranged from spiritual
things; Matt. xi. 25, “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.”
Thirdly, Man cannot work a saving change on himself; but so changed he must
be, else he can neither believe nor repent, nor ever see heaven. No action can be
without a suitable principle. Believing, repenting, and the like, are the product
of the new nature, and can never be produced by the old corrupt nature. Now,
what can the natural man do in this matter? He must be regenerate, “begotten
again unto a lively hope ;” but as the child cannot be active in his own generation,
so a man cannot be active, but passive only, in his own regeneration. The heart
is shut against Christ: man cannot open it, only God can do it by his grace, Acts
xvi. 14. He is “dead in sin;” he must be quickened, raised out of his grave; who
can do this but God himself? Eph. ii. 1, 5. Nay, he must be “created in Christ
Jesus unto good works,” Eph. ii. 10. These are works of omnipotency, and can
be done by no less power.
Fourthly, Man, in his depraved state, is under an utter inability to do any thing
truly good, as was cleared before at large ; how, then, can he obey the gospel? His
nature is the very reverse of the gospel; how can he, of himself, fall in with that
device of salvation, and accept the offered remedy? The corruption of man's nature
infallibly concludes his utter inability to recover himself any manner of way: and
whoso is convinced of the one, must needs admit the other; for they stand and fall
FOUR FOLD STATE, 81
together. Were all the purchase of Christ offered to the unregenerate man for one
good thought, he cannot command it; 2 Cor. iii. 5, “Not that we are sufficient of
ourselves, to think any thing as of ourselves.” Were it offered on condition of a
good word, yet “how can ye, being evil, speak good things?” Matt. xii. 35. Nay,
were it left to yourselves to choose what is easiest, Christ himself tells you, John
xv. 5, “Without me ye can do nothing.”
Lastly, The natural man cannot but resist the Lord, offering to help him ; how-
beit, that resistance is infallibly overcome in the elect by converting grace. Can
the stony heart choose but resist the stroke 2 There is not only an inability, but an
enmity and obstinacy in man's will by nature. God knows, O natural man, whether
thou knowest it or not, “that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is as an iron sinew,
and thy brow brass,” Isa. xlviii. 4; and cannot be overcome but by him who hath
“broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.” Hence is there
such hard work in converting a sinner. Sometimes he seems to be caught in
the net of the gospel; yet quickly he slips away again. The hook catcheth hold of
him; but he struggles, till, getting free of it, he makes away with a bleeding wound.
When good hopes are conceived of him, by those that travail in birth for the form-
ing of Christ in him, there is ofttimes nothing brought forth but wind. The
deceitful heart makes many a shift to avoid a Saviour, and to cheat the man of
his eternal happiness. Thus the natural man lies in a state of sin and wrath,
utterly unable to recover himself.
Objection 1. “If we be under an utter inability to do any good, how can God
require us to do it?” Answer. God making man upright, Eccl. vii. 29, gave him
a power to do every thing he should require of him : this power man lost by his
own fault. We were bound to serve God, and to do whatsoever he commanded us,
as being his creatures; and also we were under the superadded tie of a covenant,
for that effect. Now, we having, by our own fault, disabled ourselves; shall God
lose his right of requiring our task, because we have thrown away the strength he
gave us wherewithal to perform it? Has the creditor no right to require payment of
his money, because the debtor has squandered it away, and is not able to pay him 2
Truly, if God can require no more of us than we are able to do, we need no more
to save us from wrath but to make ourselves unable for every duty, and to incapa-
citate ourselves for serving of God any manner of way, as profane men frequently
do ; and so the deeper one is immersed in sin, he will be the more secure from
wrath: for where God can require no duty of us, we do not sin in omitting it; and
where there is no sin, there can be no wrath. As to what may be urged by the
unhumbled soul, against the putting of our stock in Adam's hand; the righteous-
ness of that dispensation was cleared before. But moreover, the unrenewed man is
daily throwing away the very remains of natural abilities; that light and strength
which are to be found amongst the ruins of mankind. Nay, farther, he will not
believe his own utter inability to help himself, so that out of his own mouth he will
be condemned. Even those who make their natural impotency to good a covert to
their sloth, do, with others, delay the work of turning to God from time to time;
under convictions, make large promises of reformation, which afterward they never
regard; and delay their repentance to a deathbed, as if they could help them-
selves in a moment, which speaks them to be far from a due sense of their natural
inability, whatever they pretend.
Now, if God can require of men the duty they are not able to do; he can in jus-
tice punish them for their not doing it, notwithstanding of their inability. If he
have power to exact the debt of obedience, he has also power to cast the insolvent
debtor into prison, for his not paying of it. Further, though unregenerate men
have no gracious abilities, yet they want not natural abilities, which nevertheless
they will not improve. There are many things they can do, which they do not;
they will not do them, and therefore their damnation will be just. Nay, all their
inability to good is voluntary ; they “will not come" to Christ, John v. 40; they
will not repent, they “will die,” Ezek. xviii. 31. So they will be justly condemned,
because they will not turn to God, nor come to Christ; but love their chains better
than their liberty, and “darkness rather than light,” John iii. 19.
Objection 2. “Why do you, then, preach Christ to us, callus to come to him, to believe,
L
82 FOUR FOLD STATE,
repent, and use the means of salvation ?” Answer. Because it is your duty so to do.
It is your duty to accept of Christ, as he is offered in the gospel; to repent of your
sins, and to be holy in all manner of conversation: these things are commanded
you of God; and his command, not your ability, is the measure of your duty. More-
over, these calls and exhortations are the means that God is pleased to make use of
for converting his elect, and working grace in their hearts: to them, “faith cometh
by hearing,” Rom. x. 17; while they are as unable to help themselves as the rest
of mankind are. Upon very good grounds may we, at the command of God, who
raiseth the dead, go to their graves and cry in his name, “Awake, thou that sleep-
est, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,” Eph. v. 14. And
seeing the elect are not to be known and distinguished from others before conversion:
as the Sun shines on the blind man’s face, and the rain falls on the rocks as well.
as on the fruitful plains; so we preach Christ to all, and shoot the arrow at venture,
which God himself directs as he sees meet. Moreover, these calls and exhortations
are not altogether in vain, even to those that are not converted by them. Such
persons may be convinced, though they be not converted: although they be not
sanctified by these means, yet they may be restrained by them from running into
that excess of wickedness which otherwise they would arrive at. The means of
grace serve, as it were, to embalm many dead souls which are never quickened by
them : though they do not restore them to life, yet they keep them from smelling
so rank as otherwise they would do. Finally, Though ye cannot recover your-
selves, nor take hold of the saving help offered to you in the gospel; yet even by
the power of nature, ye may use the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ
communicates the benefits of redemption to ruined sinners, who are utterly unable
to recover themselves out of the state of sin and wrath. Ye may and can, if ye
please, do many things that would set you in a fair way for help from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Ye may go so far on, as to be “not far from the kingdom of God,”
as the discreet scribe had done, Mark xii. 34; though, it would seem, he was des-
titute of Supernatural abilities. Though ye cannot cure yourselves, yet ye may
come to the pool where many such diseased persons as ye are have been cured ;
though ye have none to put you into it, yet ye may lie at the side of it: and “who
knows but the Lord may return and leave a blessing behind him ?” as in the case of
the impotent man, recorded John v. 5–8. I hope Satan does not chain you to your
houses, nor stake you down in your fields on the Lord's day; but ye are at liberty,
and can wait at “the posts of Wisdom's doors,” if ye will. And when ye come thither,
he doth not beat drums at your ears, that ye cannot hear what is said; there is no
force upon you, obliging you to apply all you hear to others; ye may apply to
yourselves what belongs to your state and condition: and when ye go home, ye are
not fettered in your houses, where perhaps no religious discourse is to be heard; but
ye may retire to some separate place, where ye can meditate, and pose your con-
science with pertinent questions, upon what ye have heard. , Ye are not possessed
with a dumb devil, that ye cannot get your mouths opened in prayer to Gºd. Ye
are not so driven out of your beds to your worldly business, and from your worldly
business to your beds again, but ye might, if ye would, bestow some prayers to
God upon the case of your perishing souls. Ye may examine yourselves as to the
state of your souls in a solemn manner, as in the presence of God; ye may discern
that ye have no grace, and that ye are lost and undone without it ; and ye may
cry unto God for it. -
These things are within the compass of natural abilities, and may be practised
where there is no grace. It must aggravate your guilt, that you will not be at so
much pains about the state and case of your precious souls. And if ye do not
what ye can do, ye will be condemned not only for your want of grace, but for
your despising of it.
Objection 3. “But all this is needless, seeing we are utterly unable to keep our-
selves out of the state of sin and wrath.” Answer. Give not place to that delusion,
which puts asunder what God hath joined, namely, the use of means, and a sense
of our own impotency. If ever the Spirit of God graciously influence your souls,
ye will become thoroughly sensible of your absolute inability, and yet enter upon
a vigorous use of means. Ye will do for yourselves, as if ye were to do all; and
FOURFOLD STATE. 83
yet overlook all ye do, as if ye had done nothing. Will ye do nothing for your-
selves, because ye cannot do all? Lay down no such impious conclusion against
your own souls. Do what ye can ; and, it may be, while ye are doing what ye can
for yourselves, God will do for you what ye cannot. “Understandest thou what
thou readest ?” said Philip to the eunuch: “How can I,” saith he, “except some
man should guide me?” Acts viii. 30, 31. He could not understand the scripture
he read; yet he could read it: he did what he could, he read; and while he was
reading, God sent him an interpreter. The Israelites were in a great strait at the
Red sea; and how could they help themselves, when upon the one hand were
mountains, and on the other the enemies' garrison? when Pharaoh and his host were
behind them, and the Red sea before them, what could they do 2 “Speak unto the
children of Israel,” saith the Lord to Moses, “that they go forward,” Exod. xiv.
15. For what end should they go forward? Can they make a passage to them-
selves through the sea 2 No; but let them go forward, saith the Lord ; though
they cannot turn sea to dry land, yet they can go forward to the shore: and so
they did; and when they did what they could, God did for them what they could
not do.
Question. Has God promised to convert and save them, who in the use of means
do what they can towards their own relief? Answer. We may “not speak wickedly
for God;” natural men, being “strangers to the covemant of promise,” Eph. ii. 12,
have no such promise made to them. Nevertheless, they do not act rationally unless
they exert the powers they have, and do what they can. For (1.) It is possible this
course may succeed with them. If ye do what ye can, it may be, God will do for
you what you cannot do for yourselves. This is sufficient to determine a man, in
a matter of the utmost importance, such as this; Acts viii. 22, “Pray God, if per-
haps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee;” Joel ii. 14, “Who knoweth
if he will return ?” If success may be, the trial should be. If, in a wreck at sea,
all the sailors and passengers had betaken themselves each to a broken board for
safety; and one of them should see all the rest perish, notwithstanding of the utmost
endeavours to save themselves: yet the very possibility of escaping by that means
would determine that one still to do his best with his board. Why then do not ye
reason with yourselves as the four lepers did who sat at the gate of Samaria 2
2 Kings vii. 3, 4. Why do ye not say, If we sit still, not doing what we can, we
die ; let us put it to a trial; if we be saved, we shall live; if not, we shall but die 2
(2.) It is probable this course may succeed. God is good and merciful; he loves
to surprise men with his grace, and is often “found of them that sought him not,”
Isa. lxv. 1. If ye do thus, ye are so far in the road of your duty; and ye are using
the means which the Lord is wont to bless for men's spiritual recovery; ye lay
yourselves in the way of the great Physician, and so it is probablé ye may be
healed. Lydia went with others to the place “where prayer was wont to be made ;”
and “the Lord opened her heart,” Acts xvi. 13, 14. Ye plough and sow, though no-
body can tell you for certain that you will get so much as your seed again; ye use
means for the recovery of your health, though you are not sure if they will suc-
ceed. In these cases probability determines you; and why not in this also 2 Im-
portunity, we see, does very much with men: therefore pray, meditate, desire help
of God; be much at the throne of grace, supplicating for grace, and do not faint.
Though God regard not you, who, in your present state, are but one mass of sin,
universally depraved, and vitiated in all the powers of the soul, yet he may regard
his own ordinance. Though he regards not your prayers, your meditations, &c.,
yet he may regard prayer, meditation, and the like means of his own appointment,
and so bless them to you. Wherefore, if ye will not do what ye can, ye are not
only dead, but ye declare yourselves unworthy of eternal life.
To conclude, Let the saints admire the freedom and power of grace, which came
to them in their helpless condition; made their chains fall off, the iron gate to open
to them; raised the fallen creatures, and brought them out of the state of sin and
wrath, wherein they would have lain and perished, had they not been mercifully
visited. Let the natural man be sensible of his utter inability to recover himself.
Know thou art without strength ; and canst not come to Christ till thou be drawn.
Thou art lost, and camst not help thyself. This may shake the foundation of thy
84 FOURFOLD, STATE.
hopes, who never sawest thy absolute need of Christ and his grace, but thinkest to
shift for thyself by thy civility, morality, drowsy wishes and duties, and by a faith
and repentance which have sprung up out of thy natural powers, without the power
and efficacy of the grace of Christ. Obe convinced of thy absolute need of Christ
and his overcoming grace; believe thy utter inability to recover thyself; and so
thou mayest be humbled, shaken out of thy self-confidence, and lie down in dust
and ashes, groaning out thy miserable case before the Lord. A kindly sense of
thy matural impotency, the impotency of depraved human nature, would be a step
towards a delivery. . g -
Thus far of man's natural state, the state of entire depravation.
STATE THIRD.
NAMELY,
THE STATE OF GRACE, OR BEGUN RECOVERY.
H E A D I.
R. E. G E N E R A TI O N .
1 PETER. i. 23.
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of
God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”
WE proceed now to the state of grace; the state of begun recovery of human
nature, into which all that shall partake of eternal happiness are translated, sooner
or later, while in this world. It is the result of a gracious change, made upon those
who shall inherit eternal life; which change may be taken up in these two. (1.)
In opposition to their natural real state, the state of corruption ; there is a change
made upon them in regeneration, whereby their nature is changed. (2.) In oppo-
sition to their natural relative state, the state of wrath ; there is a change made
upon them in their union with the Lord Jesus Christ, by which they are set beyond
the reach of condemnation. These, therefore; namely, regeneration, and union
with Christ; I design to handle, as the great and comprehensive changes on a sin-
ner constituting him in the state of grace.
The first of these we have in the text; together with the outward and ordinary
means by which it is brought about. The apostle here, to excite the saints to the
study of holiness, and particularly of brotherly love, puts them in mind of their
spiritual original. He tells them, they were “born again ;” and that of one “incor-
ruptible seed, the word of God.” This speaks them to be brethren; partakers of
the same new nature, which is the root from which holiness, and particularly
brotherly love, doth spring. We are once born sinners: we must be born again,
that we may be saints. The simple word signifies “to be begotten ;” and so it
may be read, Matt. xi. 11; “to be conceived,” Matt. i. 20; and “to be born,”
Matt. ii. 1. Accordingly, the compound word used in the text may be taken in
its full latitude, the last notion presupposing the two former : and so regeneration
is a supernatural real change on the whole man, fitly compared to natural or cor-
poreal generation, as will afterwards appear. The ordinary means of regeneration,
called the seed whereof the new creature is formed, is not corruptible seed. Of
- such, indeed, our bodies are generated: but the spiritual seed, of which the new
creature is generated, is incorruptible, namely, “the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever.” The sound of the word of God passeth, even as other sounds do :
but the word lasteth, liveth and abideth, in respect of its everlasting effects, on all
upon whom it operates. This “word, which by the gospel is preached unto you,”
86 FOURFOLD STATE.
(verse 25,) impregnated by the Spirit of God, is the means of regeneration ; and
by it are dead sinners raised to life. -
DocTRINE, All men in the state of grace are born again. All gracious persons,
namely, such as are in a state of favour with God, and endowed with gracious
qualities and dispositions, are regenerate persons. In discoursing this subject, I
shall first show what regeneration is ; next, why it is so called ; and then apply
the doctrine.
Of the nature of regeneration.
I. For the better understanding of the nature of regeneration, take this along
with you in the first place ; that as there are false.conceptions in nature, so there
are also in grace : and by these many are deluded, mistaking some partial changes
made upon them for this great and thorough change. To remove such mistakes,
let these few things be considered. (1.) Many call the church their mother, whom
God will not own to be his children; Cant. i. 6, “My mother's children,” that is, false
brethren, “were angry with me.” All that are baptized are not born again.
Simon was baptized, yet still “in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity,”
Acts viii. 13, 23. Where Christianity is the religion of the country, many will be
called by the name of Christ who have no more of him but the name: and no
wonder, seeing the devil had his goats among Christ's sheep in those places where
but few professed the Christian religion; 1 John ii. 19, “They went out from us,
but they were not of us.” (2.) Good education is not regeneration. Education
may chain up men's lusts, but cannot change their hearts. A wolf is still a raven-
ous beast, though it be in chains. Joash was very devout during the life of his
good tutor Jehoiada; but afterwards he quickly showed what spirit he was of, by his
sudden apostacy, 2 Chron. xxiv. 2, 17, 18. Good example is of mighty influence
to change the outward man: but that change often goes off, when one changes his
company; of which the world affords many sad instances. (3.) A turning from open
profanity to civility and sobriety falls short of this saving change. Some are, for
a while, very loose, especially in their younger years; but at length they reform,
and leave their profane courses. Here is a change, yet but such an one as may be
found in men utterly void of the grace of God, and whose righteousness is so far
from exceeding, that it doth not come up to the “righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees.” (4.) One may engage in all the outward duties of religion, and
yet not be born again. Though lead be cast into various shapes, it remains still
but a base metal. Men may “escape the pollutions of the world,” and yet be but
dogs and swine, 2 Pet. ii. 20, 22. All the external acts of religion are within the
compass of natural abilities. Yea, hypocrites may have the counterfeit of all the
graces of the Spirit: for we read of “true holiness,” Eph. iv. 24; and “faith un-
feigned,” 1 Tim. i. 5; which shows us that there is a counterfeit holiness, and a
feigned faith. (5.) Men may advance to a great deal of strictness in their own
way of religion, and yet be strangers to the new-birth ; Acts xxvi. 5, “After the
most straitest sect of our religion, Ilived a Pharisee.” Nature has its own unsanc-
tified strictness in religion. The Pharisees had so much of it, that they looked on
Christ as little better than a mere libertine. A man whose conscience hath been
awakened, and who lives under the influence of the covenant of works, what will
he not do that is within the compass of natural abilities? It was a truth, though it
came out of a hellish mouth, that “skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give
for his life,” Job ii. 4. (6.) One may have sharp soul-exercises and pangs, and yet
die in the birth. Many “have been in pain” that have but “as it were brought
forth wind.” There may be sore pangs and throes of conscience which turn
to nothing at last. Pharaoh and Simon Magus had such convictions as made
them desire the prayers of others for them. Judas repented himself, and, under
terrors of conscience, gave back his ill-gotten pieces of silver. All is not gold that
glisters. Trees may blossom fairly in the spring, on which no fruit is to be found
in the harvest; and some have sharp soul-exercises which are nothing but foretastes
of hell. The new-birth, howsoever in appearance hopefully begun, may be marred
two ways. First, Some like Zarah, Gen. xxxviii. 28, 29, are brought to the birth,
FOUR FOLD STATE. 87
but go back again. They have sharp convictions for a while, but these go off, and they
turn as careless about their Salvation, as profane as ever, and usually worse than ever;
“their last state is worse than their first,” Matt. xii. 45. They get awakening
gracé, but not converting grace; and that goes off by degrees, as the light of the
declining day, till it issue in midnight darkness. Secondly, Some, like Ishmael,
come forth too soon, they are born before the time of the promise ; Gen. xvi. 2;
compare Gal. iv. 22, and downward. They take up with a mere law-work, and
stay not till the time of the promise of the gospel. They snatch at consolation, not
waiting till it be given them ; and foolishly draw their comfort from the law that
wounded them. They apply the healing plaster to themselves before their wound
be sufficiently searched. The law, that rigorous husband, severely beats them,
and throws in curses and vengeance upon their souls: then they fall a-reforming,
praying, mourning, promising, and vowing, till this ghost be laid; which done, they
fall asleep again in the arms of the law : but they are never shaken out of them-
selves and their own righteousness, nor brought forward to Jesus Christ. (7.)
There may be a wonderful moving of the affections, in souls that are not at all
touched with regenerating grace. Where there is no grace, there may, notwith-
standing, be a flood of tears, as in Esau, who “found no place of repentance, though
he sought it carefully with tears,” Heb. xii. 17. There may be great flashes of
joy, as in the hearers of the word represented in the parable by the stony ground,
who “anon with joy receive it,” Matt. xiii. 20. There may also be great desires
after good things, and great delight in them too; as in those hypocrites described Isa.
lviii. 2, “Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: they take de-
light in approaching to God.” See how high they may sometime stand who yet
“fall away,” Heb. vi. 4–6. They may be “enlightened, taste of the heavenly gift,
be partakers of the Holy Ghost, taste the good word of God, and the powers of the
world to come.” Common operations of the Divine Spirit, like a land-flood, make
a strange turning of things upside down ; and when they are over, all runs again
in the ordinary channel. All these things may be where the sanctifying Spirit of
Christ never rests upon the Soul, but the stony heart still remains; and in that case,
these affections cannot but wither, because they have no root.
But regeneration is a real, thorough change, whereby the man is made “a new
creature,’ 2 Cor. v. 17. The Lord God makes the creature a new creature, as the
goldsmith melts down the vessel of dishonour, and makes it a vessel of honour. Man
is, in respect of his spiritual state, altogether disjointed by the fall; every faculty
of the soul is, as it were, dislocated: in regeneration the Lord looseth every joint,
and sets it right again. Now, this change made in regeneration is,
First A change of qualities or dispositions: it is not a change of the substance,
but of the qualities of the soul. Vicious qualities are removed; and the contrary
dispositions are brought in, in their room. “The old man is put off,” Eph. iv. 22;
“the new man put on,” ver, 24. Man lost none of the rational faculties of his
soul by sin: he had an understanding still, but it was darkened; he had still a
will, but it was contrary to the will of God. So in regeneration, there is not a new
substance created, but new qualities are infused ; light instead of darkness, right-
eousness instead of unrighteousness. -
Secondly, It is a supernatural change : he that is “born again, is born of the
Spirit,” John iii. 5. Great changes may be made by the power of nature, especially
when assisted by external revelation. And nature may be so elevated by the com.
mon influences of the Spirit, that one may thereby be “turned into another man,”
(as Saul was, 1 Sam. x. 6,) who yet never becomes “a new man.” But in regen-
eration, nature itself is changed, and we become “partakers of the divine nature ;”
and this must needs be a supernatural change. How can we that are dead in tres.
passes and sins renew ourselves, more than a dead man can raise himself out of his
grave? Who but the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, can “form Christ” in a Soul,
changing it into the same image 2 Who but the Spirit of sanctification can give the
new heart? . Well may we say, when we see a man thus changed, This is the
finger of God.
Thirdly, It is a change into the likeness of God; 2 Cor. iii. 18, “We, beholding
y
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.” Every
88 FOURFOLD STATE.
thing that generates generates its like: the child bears the image of the parent ;
and they that are born of God, bear God’s image. Man, aspiring to be as God,
made himself like the devil. In his natural state he resembles the devil, as a child
doth the father; John viii. 44, “Ye are of your father the devil.” But when this
happy change comes, that image of Satan is defaced, and the image of God re-
stored. Christ himself, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, is the pattern after
which the new creature is made ; Rom. viii. 29, “For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” Hence he is said
to be “formed” in the regenerate, Gal. iv. 19.
Fourthly, It is an universal change : “all things become new,” 2 Cor. v. 17.
It is a blessed leaven that leavens the whole lump, “the whole spirit and soul and
body.” Original sin infects the whole man; and regenerating grace, which is the
salve, goes as far as the sore. This fruit of the Spirit is “in all goodness;” good-
ness of the mind, goodness of the will, goodness of the affections, goodness of the
whole man. One gets not only a new head, to know religion, or a new tongue, to
talk of it ; but a new heart, to love and embrace it, in the whole of his conversation.
When the Lord opens the sluice of grace on the soul's new-birth-day, the waters run
through the whole man, to purify and make him fruitful. In the natural changes
spoken of before, there are, as it were, pieces of new cloth put into an old garment,
a new life sewed to an old heart; but the gracious change is a thorough change, a
change both of heart and life. t
Fifthly, Yet it is but an imperfect change. Though every part of the man is
renewed, there is no part of him perfectly renewed. As an infant has all the parts
of a man, but none of them are come to their perfect growth ; so regeneration
brings a perfection of parts, to be brought forward in the gradual advances of sanc-
tification ; 1 Pet. ii. 2, “As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word,
that ye may grow thereby.” Although in regeneration there is a heavenly light
let into the mind, yet there is still some darkness there ; though the will is renewed,
it is not perfectly renewed, there is still some of the old inclination to sin remain-
ing: and thus it will be, till that which is in part be done away, and the light of
glory come. Adam was created at his full stature ; but they that are born, must
have their time to grow up : so those that are born again do come forth into the
new world of grace but imperfectly holy ; though Adam, being created upright,
was, at the same time, perfectly righteous, without the least mixture of sinful im-
perfection.
Lastly, Nevertheless, it is a lasting change, which never goes off. The seed is
“incorruptible,” saith the text; and so is the creature that is formed of it. The
life given in regeneration, whatever decays it may fall under, can never be utterly
lost. “His seed remaineth in him” who “ is born of God,” 1 John iii. 9. Though
the branches should be cut down, the root shall abide in the earth ; and being
watered with the dew of heaven, shall sprout again: for “the root of the righteous
shall not be moved,” Prov. xii. 3.
But to come to particulars.
1. In regeneration the mind is savingly enlightened. There is a new light let
into the understanding, so that they who were “sometime darkness are now light in
the Lord,” Eph. v. 8. The beams of the light of life make their way into the dark
dungeon of the heart: then the night is over, and the morning light is come, which
will shine more and more unto the perfect day. Now, the man is illuminated,
(1.) In the knowledge of God. He has far other thoughts of God than ever he
had before ; Hos. ii. 20, “I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and
thou shalt know the Lord.” The Spirit of the Lord brings him back to that ques-
tion, What is God 2 and catechizeth him anew upon that grand point, so as he is
made to say, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye
seeth thee,” Job xlii. 5. The spotless purity of God, his exact justice, his all-
sufficiency, and other glorious perfections revealed in his word, are by this new
light discovered to the soul, with a plainness and certainty that doth as far exceed
the knowledge it had of these things before, as ocular demonstration exceeds com-
mon fame. For now he “sees '' what he only “heard of ’’ before.
(2.) He is enlightened in the knowledge of sin. He hath other thoughts of it
FOURFOLD STATE. 89
than he was wont to have. Formerly his sight could not pierce through the cover
Satan laid over it: but now the Spirit of God strips it before him, wipes off the
paint and fairding ; and he sees it in its native colours, as the worst of evils, “ex-
ceeding sinful,” Rom. vii. 13. O what deformed monsters do formerly beloved
lusts appear ! Were they right eyes, he would pluck them out: were they right
hands, he would consent to their cutting off. He sees how offensive sin is to God,
how destructive it is to the soul; and calls himself fool, for fighting so long against
the Lord, and harbouring that destroyer as a bosom-friend.
3.) He is instructed in the knowledge of himself. Regenerating grace causeth
the prodigal to “come to himself,” Luke xv. 17, and makes men “full of eyes
within,” knowing every one “the plague of his own heart.” The mind being sav-
ingly enlightened, the man sees how desperately corrupt his nature is, what enmity
against God and his holy law has long lodged there; so that his soul loathes itself.
No open sepulchre, no puddle so vile and loathsome in his eyes as himself; Ezek.
xxxvi. 31, “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that
were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight.” He is no worse
than he was before: but the sun is shining; and so those pollutions are seen which
he could not discern when there was “no dawning ” in him, as the word is, Isa.
viii. 20, while as yet the day of grace was not broken with him.
(4.) He is enlightened in the knowledge of Jesus Christ; 1 Cor. i. 23, 24,
“But we preach Christ crucified: unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” The truth is, unregenerate men,
though capable of preaching Christ, have not, properly speaking, the knowledge of
him, but only an opinion, a good opinion of him; as one has of many controverted
points of doctrine wherein he is far from certainty. As when ye meet with a
stranger upon the road, he behaving himself discreetly, ye conceive a good opinion
of him, and therefore willingly converse with him; but yet ye will not commit your
money to him, because, though ye have a good opinion of the man, he is a stranger to
you, ye do not know him: so may they think well of Christ; but they will never com-
mit themselves to him, seeing they know him not. But saving illumination carries
the soul beyond opinion, to the certain knowledge of Christ and his excellency;
1 Thess. i. 5, “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” The light of grace thus dis-
covers the suitableness of the mystery of Christ to the divine perfections, and to
the sinner's case. Hence the regenerate admire the glorious plan of salvation
through Christ crucified, lay their whole weight upon it, and heartily acquiesce
therein; for whatever he be to others, he is to them “Christ the power of God, and
the wisdom of God.” But unrenewed men, not seeing this, are offended in him :
they will not venture their souls in that bottom, but betake themselves to the broken
boards of their own righteousness. The same light convincingly discovers a super-
lative worth, a transcendent glory and excellency in Christ, which darken all created
excellencies, as the rising sun makes the stars to hide their heads: and so it en-
gages “the merchant-man to sell all that he hath, to buy the one pearl of great
price,” Matt. xiii. 45, 46; makes the soul well content to take Christ for all, and
instead of all: even as an unskilful merchant to whom one offereth a pearl of great
price for all his petty wares dares not venture on the bargain; for, though he
thinks that one pearl may be more worth than all he has, yet he is not sure of it;
but when a jeweller comes to him, and assures him it is worth double all his wares,
he then greedily embraceth the bargain, and cheerfully parts with all he has for
that pearl. Finally, This illumination in the knowledge of Christ convincingly
discovereth to men a fulness in him sufficient for the supply of all their wants,
enough to satisfy the boundless desires of an immortal soul. They are persuaded
such fulness is in him, and that in order to be communicate: they depend upon
it, as a certain truth ; and therefore their souls take up their eternal rest in him.
(5.) The man is instructed in the knowledge of the vanity of the world; Psal.
cxix. 96, “I have seen an end of all perfection.” Regenerating grace elevates
the Soul, sets it, as it were, amongst the stars, from whence this earth cannot but
appear a little, yea, a very little thing; even as heaven appeared before, while the
M
90 FOUR FOLD STATE.
soul was immersed in the earth. Grace brings a man into a new world : while
this world is reputed but a stage of vanity, an howling wilderness, a valley of tears.
God hath hung the sign of vanity at the door of all created enjoyments: yet how
do men throng into the house, calling and looking for somewhat that is satisfying ;
even after it has been a thousand times told them, there is no such thing in it, it
is not to be got there ! Isa. lvii. 10, “Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy
way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope.” Why are men so foolish 2 The truth
of the matter lies here, they do not see by the light of grace, they do not spir-
itually discern that sign of vanity. They have often, indeed, made a rational dis-
covery of it: but can that truly wean the heart from the world? Nay, no more
than painted fire can burn off the prisoner's bands. But the light of grace is “the
light of life,” powerful and efficacious.
Lastly, To sum up all in one word, in regeneration the mind is enlightened in
the knowledge of spiritual things; 1 John ii. 20, “Ye have an unction from the
Holy One,” (that is, from Jesus Christ, Rev. iii. 18. It is an allusion to the sanc-
tuary, whence the holy oil was brought to anoint the priest,) “and ye know all
things,” namely, necessary to salvation. Though men be not book-learned, if they
be born again, they are Spirit-learned ; for “all” such are “taught of God,”
John vi. 45. The Spirit of regeneration teacheth them what they knew not before;
and what they did know, as by the ear only, he teacheth them over again, as by
the eye. The light of grace is an overcoming light, determining men to assent to
divine truths on the mere testimony of God. It is no easy thing for the mind of
man to acquiesce in divine revelation. Many pretend great respect to the scrip-
tures, whom, nevertheless, the clear scripture-testimony will not divorce from their
preconceived opinions. But this illumination will make men's minds run, as cap-
tives, after Christ's chariot-wheels; which, for their part, shall be allowed to drive
over, and “cast down their own imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God,” 2 Cor. x. 5. It will make them “receive
the kingdom of God as a little child,” Mark x. 15 ; who thinks he has sufficient
ground to believe any thing, if his father do but say it is so.
2. The will is renewed. The Lord takes away “the stony heart,” and gives “a
heart of flesh,” Ezek. xxxvi, 26; and so of stones raiseth up children to Abraham.
Regenerating grace is powerful and efficacious, and gives the will a new set. It
does not, indeed, force it; but sweetly, yet powerfully draws it, so that “his people
are willing in the day of his power,” Psal. cx. 3. There is heavenly oratory in the
Mediator's lips, to persuade sinners; Psal. xlv. 2, “Grace is poured into thy lips.”
There are “cords of a man,” and “bands of love” in his hands to draw them after
him, Hos. xi. 4. Love makes a net for elect souls, which will infallibly catch them,
and hale them to land. The cords of Christ's love are strong cords: and they need
to be so; for every sinner is heavier than a mountain of brass, and Satan, together
with the heart itself, draw the contrary way. But “love is strong as death,” and
the Lord's love to the soul he died for is strongest love; which acts so powerfully,
that it must come off victorious.
(1.) The will is cured of its utter inability to will what is good. While the open-
ing of the prison to them that are bound is proclaimed in the gospel, the Spirit of
God comes to the prison-door; opens it ; goes to the prisoner, and, by the power
of his grace, makes his chains fall off; breaks the bond of iniquity, wherewith he
was held in sin so as he could neither will nor do anything truly good; brings him
forth into a large place, “working in him both to will and to do of his good plea-
sure,” Phil. ii. 13. Then it is that the soul that was fixed to the earth can move
heaven-ward; the withered hand is restored, and can be stretched out.
(2.) There is wrought in the will a fixed aversion to evil. In regeneration, a man
gets a “new spirit put within him,” Ezek, xxxvi. 26 ; and that “spirit lusteth
against the flesh,” Gal. v. 17. The sweet morsel of sin, so greedily swallowed down,
he now loathes and would fain be rid of it; even as willingly as one that had drunk
a cup of poison would throw it up again. When the spring is stopped, the mud
lies in the well unmoved; but when once the spring is cleared, the waters, spring-
ing up, will work away the mud by degrees. Even so, while a man continues in
an unregenerate state, sin lies at ease in the heart; but as soon as the Lord strikes
FOUR FOI,D STATE. 91
the rocky heart, with “the rod of his strength,” in the day of conversion, grace is “in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” John iv. 14; working away
natural corruption, and gradually “purifying the heart,” Acts xv. 9. The renewed
will riseth up against sin, strikes at the root thereof, and the branches too. Lusts
are now grievous, and the soul endeavours to starve them ; the corrupt nature is
the source of all evil, and therefore the soul will be often laying it before the great
Physician. O what sorrow, shame, and self-loathing fill their heart, in the day that
grace makes its triumphant entrance into it ! For now the madman is “come
to himself,” and the remembrance of his follies cannot but cut him to the heart.
(3.) The will is endowed with an inclination, bent, and propensity to good. In
its depraved state, it lay quite another way, being prone and bent to evil only: but
now, by a pull of the Omnipotent's all-conquering arm, it is drawn from evil to good,
and gets another set. And as the former set was natural ; so this is natural too,
in respect of the new nature given in regeneration, which has its own holy lustings,
as well as the corrupt old nature hath its sinful lustings, Gal. v. 17. The will, as
renewed, inclines and points towards God and godliness. When God made man,
his will, in respect of its intention, was directed towards God as his chief end; in
respect of its choice, it pointed towards that which God willed. When man un-
made himself, his will was framed into the very reverse hereof; he made himself his
chief end, and his own will his law. But when man is new-made in regeneration,
grace rectifies this disorder in some measure, though not perfectly indeed, because
we are but renewed in part while in this world. It brings back the sinner, out of
himself, to God as his chief end, truly, though not perfectly ; Psal. lxxiii. 25,
“Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire be-
sides thee;” Phil. i. 21, “For me to live is Christ.” It makes him to deny him-
self, and whatever way he turns, to point habitually towards God; who is the
centre of the gracious soul, its home, its “dwelling-place in all generations,” Psal.
xc. 1. By regenerating grace, the will is framed into a conformity to the will of
God. It is conformed to his preceptive will, being endued with holy inclinations,
agreeable to every one of his commands. The whole law is impressed on the gra-
cious soul; every part of it is written over on the renewed heart. And although
remaining corruption makes such blots in the writing, that ofttimes the man him-
self cannot read it; yet he that wrote it can read it all times; it is never quite
blotted out, nor can be. What he has written he has written, and it shall stand;
“For this is the covenant—I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in
their hearts,” Heb. viii. 10. And it is a covenant of salt, a perpetual covenant. It
is also conformed to his providential will; so that the man will be no more master
of his own process, nor carve out his lot for himself. He learns to say, from his
heart, The will of the Lord be done, “he shall choose our inheritance for us,” Psal.
xlvii. 4. Thus the will is disposed to fall in with those things which, in its depraved
state, it could never be reconciled to. -
Particularly, (1.) The soul is reconciled to the covenant of peace. The Lord
God promiseth a covenant of peace to sinners ; a covenant which he himself hath
framed, and registered in the Bible : but they are not pleased with it. Nay, an un-
renewed heart cannot be pleased with it. Were it put into their hands, to frame
it according to their mind, they would blot many things out of it which God has
put in, and put in many things God has kept out. But the renewed heart is en-
. satisfied with the covenant; 2 Sam, xxiii. 5, “He hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure : this is all my Salvation, and
all my desire.” Though the covenant could not be brought down to their de-
praved will, their will is, by grace, brought up to the covenant: they are well
pleased with it; there is nothing in it they would have out, nor is there any
thing left out of it which they would have in. (2.) The will is disposed to receive
Christ Jesus the Lord. The soul is content to submit to him. Regenerating
grace undermines and brings down the towering imaginations of the heart, raised up
against its rightful Lord : it breaks “the iron sinew” which kept the sinner from
bowing to him; and disposeth him to be no more “stiff-necked, but to yield him-
self.” He is willing to take on the yoke of Christ's commands, to take up the
cross, and to follow him. He is content to take Christ on any terms; Psal. cx. 3,
“Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.”
92 FOUR FOLD STATE.
Now, the mind being savingly enlightened, and the will renewed, the sinner is
thereby determined and enabled to answer the gospel-call. So the main work in
regeneration is done; the fort of the heart is taken ; there is room made for the
Lord Jesus Christ in the innermost parts of the soul, the inner door of the will be-
ing now opened to him, as well as the outer door of the understanding. In one
word, Christ is passively received into the heart; he is come into the soul by his
quickening Spirit, whereby spiritual life is given to the man, who, in himself, was
dead in sin. And his first vital act we may conceive to be an active receiving of
Jesus Christ, discerned in his glorious excellencies; that is, a believing on him, a
closing with him, as discerned, offered, and exhibited in the word of his grace, the
glorious gospel: the immediate effect of which is union with him ; John i. 12, 13,
“To as many as received him, to them gave he power,” or privilege, “to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;” Eph. iii. 17,
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Christ having taken the heart
by storm, and triumphantly entered into it in regeneration, the soul, by faith, yields
itself to him, as it is expressed, 2 Chron. xxx. 8. Thus, this glorious King, who
came into the heart by his Spirit, “dwells” in it by faith. The soul, being drawn,
runs; and being effectually called, comes. -
3. In regeneration, there is a happy change made on the affections; they are
both rectified and regulated. * *.
(1.) This change rectifies the affections, placing them on suitable objects;
2 Thess. iii. 5, “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.” The regener-
ate man's desires are rectified ; they are set on God himself, and the things above.
He who before cried with the world, “Who will show us any good 2" has changed
his note, and says, “Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us,” Psal. iv. 6.
Sometime he saw no beauty in Christ for which he was to be desired ; but now he
is “all desires,” he is “altogether lovely,” Cant. v. 16. The main stream of his
desires is turned to run towards God ; for there is the “one thing he desireth,”
Psal. xxvii. 4. He desires to be holy, as well as to be happy; and rather to be
gracious than great. His hopes, which before were low, and staked down to things
on earth, are now raised, and set on the glory which is to be revealed. He enter-
tains the “hope of eternal life,” founded on the word of promise, Tit. i. 2; which
hope he has as an anchor of the soul, fixing the heart under trials, Heb. vi. 19.
And it puts him upon “purifying himself, even as God is pure,” 1 John iii. 3. For
he is “begotten again unto a lively hope,” 1 Pet. i. 3. . His love is raised, and set
on God himself, Psal. xxviii. 1; and on his holy law, Psal. cxix. 97. Though it
strike against his most beloved lust, he says, “The law is holy, and the command-
ment holy, and just, and good,” Rom. vii. 12. He loves the ordinances of God;
Psal. lxxxiv. 1, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ''' Being
“passed from death unto life,” he “loves the brethren,” (1 John iii. 14,) the peo-
ple of God, as they are called, 1 Pet. ii. 10. He loves God for himself, and what
is God's for his sake. Yea, as being a child of God, he loves his own enemies.
His heavenly Father is compassionate and benevolent : “he maketh his sun to
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust; ”
and therefore he is in the like manner disposed, Matt. v. 44, 45. His hatred is
turned against sin, in himself and others; Psal. ci. 3, “I hate the work of them
that turn aside, it shall not cleave to me.” He groans under the remains of it, and
longs for deliverance ; Rom. vii. 24, “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death ?” His joys and delights are in God the Lord ; in
the light of his countenance ; in his law ; and in his people, because they are like
him. Sin is what he chiefly fears: it is a fountain of sorrow to him now, though
formerly a spring of pleasure. -
(2.) It regulates the affections placed on suitable objects. Our affections, when
placed on the creature, are naturally exorbitant ; when we joy in it, we are apt to
overjoy, and when we sorrow, we are ready to sorrow overmuch: but grace bridles
these affections, clips their wings, and keeps them within bounds, that they over-
flow not all their banks. It makes a man “hate his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, yea, and his own life also,” comparatively ; that, is, to love them
FOUR FOLD STATE, 93
less than he loves God, Luke xiv. 26. It also sanctifies lawful affections; bringing
them forth from right principles, and directing them to right ends. There may
be unholy desires after Christ and his grace ; as when men desire Christ, not from
any love to him, but merely out of love to themselves. “Give us of your oil,”
said the foolish virgins, “for our lamps are gone out,” Matt. xxv. 8. There may
be an unsanctified sorrow for sin; as when one sorroweth for it, not because it is
displeasing to God, but only because of the wrath annexed to it, as did Pharaoh,
Judas, and others. So a man may love his father and mother from mere natural
principles, without any respect to the command of God binding him thereto. But
grace sanctifies the affections in such cases; making them to run in a new channel
of love to God, respect to his commands, and regard to his glory. Again, grace
screws up the affections where they are too low. It gives the chief seat in them
to God, and pulls down all other rivals, whether persons or things, making them
lie at his feet ; Psal. lxxiii. 25, “Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and
there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” He is loved for himself, and
other persons or things for his sake. What is lovely in them, to the renewed heart,
is some ray of the divine goodness appearing in them ; for unto gracious souls they
shine only by borrowed light. This accounts for the saints loving all men, and yet
hating those that hate God, and contemning the wicked as vile persons. They hate
and contemn them for their wickedness; there is nothing of God in that, and there-
fore nothing lovely nor honourable in it : but they love them for their commend-
able qualities or perfections, whether natural or moral ; because, in whomsoever
these are, they are from God, and can be traced to him as their fountain. Finally,
Regenerating grace sets the affections so firmly on God, that the man is disposed,
at God's command, to quit his hold of every thing else, in order to keep his hold
of Christ ; to hate father and mother in comparison with Christ, Luke xiv. 26. It
makes even lawful enjoyments, like Joseph's mantle, to hang loose about a man,
that he may quit them, when he is in hazard to be insnared by holding them.
If the stream of our affections was never thus turned, we are, doubtless, going
down the stream into the pit. If “the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and
the pride of life,” have the throne in our hearts, which should be possessed by the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; if we never had so much love to God, as to our-
selves ; if sin has been somewhat bitter to us, but never so bitter as suffering, never
so bitter as the pain of being weaned from it; truly we are strangers to this sav-
ing change. For grace turns the affections upside down, whenever it comes into
the heart.
4. The conscience is renewed. Now that a new light is set up in the soul, in
regeneration; conscience is enlightened, instructed, and informed. That “candle
of the Lord ” (Prov. xx. 27.) is now snuffed and brightened ; so as it shines, and
sends forth its light into the most retired corners of the heart, discovering sins which
the soul was not aware of before, and, in a special manner, discovering the corrup-
tion or depravity of nature, that seed and spawn whence all actual sins proceed.
This produces the new complaint, Rom. vii. 24, “O wretched man that I am I who
shall deliver me from the body of this death " . That conscience which lay sleep-
ing in the man's bosom before is now awakened, and makes its voice to be heard
through the whole soul; and therefore there is no more rest for him in the slug-
gard's bed : he must get up and be doing, arise, “haste and escape for his life.”
It powerfully incites to obedience, even in the most spiritual acts, which lay not
within the view of the natural conscience; and powerfully restrains from sin, even
from those sins which do not lie open to the observation of the world. It urgeth
the sovereign authority of God, to which the heart is now reconciled, and which it
willingly acknowledges: and so it engageth the man to his duty, whatever be the
hazard from the World ; for it fills the heart so with the fear of God, that the force
of the fear of man is broken. This hath engaged many to put their life in their
hand, and follow the cause of religion they once contemned, and resolutely walk in
the path they formerly abhorred ; Gal. i. 23, “He which persecuted us in times
past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.” Guilt now makes the con-
science to smart. It hath bitter remorse for sins past, which fills the soul with
anxiety, sorrow, and self-loathing. And every new reflection on these sins is apt
94 ROURFOLD STATE.
to affect, and make its wounds bleed afresh with regret. It is made tender in point
of sin and duty, for the time to come : being once burnt, it dreads the fire, and
fears to break the hedge where it was formerly bit by the serpent. Finally, The
renewed conscience drives the sinner to Jesus Christ, as the only Physician that
can draw out the sting of guilt, and whose blood alone can “purge the conscience
from dead works,” Heb. ix. 14, refusing all ease offered to it from any other hand.
And this is an evidence that the conscience is not only fired, as it may be in an
unregenerate state, but oiled also with regenerating grace.
5. As the memory wanted not its share of depravity, it is also bettered by re-
generating grace. The memory is weakened with respect to those things that are
not worth their room therein ; and men are taught to forget injuries and drop their
resentments; Matt. v. 44, 45, “Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you; that ye may be,” that is, appear to be, “the children
of your Father which is in heaven.” It is strengthened for spiritual things. We
have Solomon's receipt for an ill memory, Prov. iii. 1. “My son,” saith he, “for-
get not my law.” But how shall it be kept in mind? “Let thine heart keep
my commandments.” Grace makes a heart-memory, even where there is no
good head-memory; Psal. cxix. 11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart.”
The heart, truly touched with the powerful sweetness of truth, will help the
memory to retain what is so relished. Did divine truths make deeper impres-
sions on our hearts, they would thereby impress themselves with more force on
our memories; Psal. cxix. 93, “I will never forget thy precepts, for with them
thou hast quickened me.” Grace sanctifies the memory. Many have large
but unsanctified memories, which serve only to gather knowledge, whereby to aggra-
vate their condemnation ; but the renewed memory serves to “remember his
commandments to do them,” Psal. ciii. 18. It is a sacred storehouse from whence
a Christian is furnished in his way to Zion ; for faith and hope are often supplied
out of it, in a dark hour. It is the storehouse of former experiences; and
these are the believer's way-marks, by noticing of which he comes to know
where he is, even in a dark time; Psal. xlii. 6, “O my God, my soul is cast down
within me : therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan.” It also
helps the soul to godly sorrow and self-loathing, presenting old guilt anew before
the conscience, and making it bleed afresh, though the sin be already pardoned;
Psal. xxv. 7, “Remember not the sins of my youth.” And where unpardoned
guilt is lying on the sleeping conscience, it is often employed to bring in a word
which, in a moment, sets the whole soul astir ; as, when “Peter remembered the
words of Jesus, he went out and wept bitterly,” Matt. xxvi. 75. The word of
God, laid up in a sanctified memory, serves a man to resist temptations, puts the
sword in his hand against his spiritual enemies, and is a light to direct his steps in
the way of religion and righteousness.
6. There is a change made on the body, and the members thereof, in respect of
their use; they are consecrated to the Lord. Even “the body is for the Lord,”
I Cor. vi. 13. It is “the temple of the Holy Ghost,” verse 19. The members there-
of, that were formerly “instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,” become “in-
struments of righteousness unto God,” Rom. vi. 13; “servants to righteousness
unto holiness,” verse 19. The eye, that conveyed sinful imaginations into the heart,
is under a covenant, Job xxxi. 1, to do so no more; but to serve the soul, in viewing
the works, and reading the word of God, The ear, that had often been death's
porter, to let in sin, is turned to be the gate of life, by which the word of life enters
the soul. The tongue, that set on fire the whole course of nature, is restored to
the office it was designed for by the Creator; namely, to be an instrument of glori-
fying him, and setting forth his praise. In a word, the whole man is for God, in
soul and body, which by this blessed change are made his.
Lastly, This gracious change shines forth in the conversation. Even the out-
ward man is renewed. A new heart makes newness of life. When “the King's
daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold,” Psal. xlv. 13. The
“single eye” makes “the whole body full of light,” Matt. vi. 22. This change
will appear in every part of one's conversation; particularly in these following things.
(1.) In the change of his company. Though sometimes he despised the company
FOUR FOLD STATE. 95
of the saints, now they are “the excellent, in whom is all his delight,” Psal. xvi.
3. “I am a companion of all that fear thee,” saith the royal psalmist, Psal. cxix.
63. A renewed man joins himself with the saints: for he and they are like-mind-
ed, in that which is their main work and business ; they have all one new na-
ture; they are travelling to Immanuel's land, and converse together in the language
of Canaan. In vain do men pretend to religion, while ungodly company is their
choice; for “a companion of fools shall be destroyed,” Prov. xiii. 20. Religion
will make a man shy of throwing himself into an ungodly family, or any unneces-
sary familiarity with wicked men; as one that is clean will beware of going into
an infected house.
(2.) In his relative capacity, he will be a new man. Grace makes men gracious
in their several relations, and natively leads them to the conscientious performance
of relative duties. It does not only make good men and good women, but makes
good subjects, good husbands, good wives, children, servants, and in a word, good
relatives in the church, commonwealth, and family. It is a just exception made
against the religion of many, that they are bad relatives, they are ill husbands,
wives, masters, servants, &c. How will we prove ourselves to be new creatures, if
we be still but just such as we were before, in our several relations 2 Cor. v. 17,
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are past
away; behold, all things are become new.” Real godliness will gain a testimony
to a man from the consciences of his nearest relations, though they know more of
his sinful infirmities than others do ; as we see in that case, 2 Kings iv. 2, “Thy
servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord.”
(3.) In the way of his following his worldly business, there is a great change.
It appears to be no more his all, as sometime it was. Though saints apply them-
selves to worldly business, as well as others; yet their hearts are not swallowed
up in it. It is evident they are carrying on a trade with heaven, as well as a
trade with earth; Phil. iii. 20, “For our conversation is in heaven.” And they
go about their employment in the world, as a duty laid upon them by the Lord of
all, doing their lawful business as “the will of God,” Eph. vi. 7 ; working, be-
cause he hath said, “Thou shalt not steal.”
(4.) They have a special concern for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ
in the world; they espouse the interests of religion, and “prefer Jerusalem above
their chief joy,” Psal. cxxxvii. 6. How privately soever they live, grace gives them
a public spirit, which will concern itself in the ark and work of God; in the gospel
of God; and in the people of God, even those of them whom they never saw in the
face. As children of God, they “naturally care” for these things. They have a
new and unwonted concern for the spiritual good of others. And no sooner do
they taste of the power of grace themselves, but they are inclined to set up to be
agents for Christ and holiness in the world; as appears in the case of the woman of
Samaria, who, when Christ had manifested himself to her, “went her way into the
city, and saith unto the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I
did : is not this the Christ?” John iv. 28, 29. They have seen and felt the evil
of sin, and therefore pity the world lying in wickedness. They would fain pluck
the brands out of the fire, remembering that they themselves were plucked out of it.
They will labour to commend religion to others, both by word and example ; and
rather deny themselves their liberty in indifferent things, than, by the uncharitable
use of it, destroy others; 1 Cor. viii. 13, “Wherefore, if meat make my brother to
º I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to
offen .”
(5.) In their use of lawful comforts there is a great change. They rest not in
them as their end, but use them as means to help them in their way. They draw
their satisfaction from the higher springs, even while the lower springs are running.
Thus Hannah, having obtained a son, rejoiced not so much in the gift, as in the
Giver; 1 Sam. ii. 1, “And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the
Lord.” Yea, when the comforts of life are gone, they can subsist without them,
and “rejoice in the Lord, although the fig-tree do not blossom,” Hab. iii. 17, 18.
Grace teacheth to use the conveniencies of a present life passingly, and to show a
holy moderation in all things. The heart, which formerly immersed itself in these
96 FOUR FOLD STATE.
things without fear, is now shy of being overmuch pleased with them, and, being
apprehensive of danger, uses them warily ; as the dogs of Egypt run, while they
lap their water out of the river Nile, for fear of the crocodiles that are in it.
Lastly, This change shines forth in the man's performance of religious duties.
He who lived in the neglect of them will do so no more, if once the grace of God
enter into his heart. If a man be “new-born,” he will “ desire the sincere milk
of the word,” 1 Pet. ii. 2, 3. Whenever the prayerless person gets the Spirit of
grace, he will be in him “a Spirit of supplication,” Zech. xii. 10. It is as natural
for one that is born again to fall a-praying, as for the new-born babe to fall a-cry-
ing ; Acts ix. 11, “Behold he prayeth.” His heart will be a temple for God, and
his house a church. His devotion, which before was superficial and formal, is now
spiritual and lively ; forasmuch as heart and tongue are touched with a live coal
from heaven: and he rests not in the mere performing of duties, as careful only to
get his task done; but in every duty seeketh communion with God in Christ, justly
considering them as means appointed of God for that end, and reckoning himself
disappointed if he miss of it. Thus far of the nature of regeneration.
The resemblance betwixt natural and spiritual generation.
II. I come to show why this change is called regeneration, a being “born again.”
It is so called because of the resemblance betwixt natural and spiritual generation,
which lies in the following particulars.
First, Natural generation is a mysterious thing: and so is spiritual generation;
John iii. 8, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is
born of the Spirit.” The work of the Spirit is felt; but his way of working is a
mystery we cannot comprehend. A new light is let into the mind, and the will is
renewed; but how that light is conveyed thither, how the will is fettered with cords
of love, and how the rebel is made a willing captive, we can no more tell than we
can tell “how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child,” Eccl. xi.
5. As a man hears the sound of the wind, and finds it stirring, but knows not
where it begins, and where it ends; so is every one that is born of the Spirit: he
finds the change that is made upon him, but how it is produced he knoweth not.
One thing he may know, that whereas he was blind, now he seeth; but the “seed.”
of grace doth “spring and grow up, he knoweth not how,” Mark iv. 26, 27.
Secondly, In both, the creature comes to a being it had not before. The child
is not till it be generate; and a man has no gracious being, no being in grace,
till he be regenerate. Regeneration is not so much the curing of a sick man, as
the quickening of a dead man, Eph. ii. 1, 5. Man in his depraved state is a mere
nonentity in grace, and is brought into a new being by the power of him “who calleth
things that be not, as though they were ;” being “created in Jesus Christ unto good
works,” Eph. ii. 10. Therefore our Lord Jesus, to give ground of hope to the
Laodiceans in their wretched and miserable state, proposeth himself as “the be-
ginning of the creation of God,” Rev. iii. 14, namely, the active beginning of it,
for “all things were made by him” at first, John i. 3. From whence they might
gather, that, seeing he made them when they were nothing, he could make them
over again when worse than nothing; the same hand that made them his creatures,
could make them new creatures.
Thirdly, As the child is merely passive in generation, so is the child of God in
regeneration. The one contributes nothing to its own generation; neither does
the other contribute any thing, by way of efficiency, to its own regeneration : for
though a man may lay himself down at the pool, yet he hath no hand in moving
of the water, no efficacy in performing of the cure. One is born the child of a king,
another the child of a beggar ; the child has no hand at all in this difference.
God leaves some in their depraved state ; others he brings into a state of grace or
regeneracy. If thou be thus honoured, no thanks to thee; for “who maketh thee
to differ from another ?” 1 Cor. iv. 7.
Fourthly, There is a wonderful contexture of parts in both births. Admirable
is the structure of man's body, in which there is such a variety of organs; nothing
FOURFOLD STATE, 97
wanting, nothing superfluous. The Psalmist, considering his own body, looks on it
as a piece of marvellous work: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” saith he,
Psal. cxxxix. 14, “and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth,” ver. 15,
that is, in the womb, where I know not how the bones do grow, more than I know
what is a-doing in the lowest parts of the earth. In natural generation we are
“curiously wrought" as a piece of needle-work, as the word imports: even so it
is in regeneration; Psal. xlv. 14, “She shall be brought unto the King, in raiment
of needle-work,” raiment curiously wrought. It is the same word in both texts.
And what that raiment is, the apostle tells us, Eph. iv. 24. It is “the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” That is the rai-
ment, he saith in the same place, we must “put on ;” not excluding the imputed
righteousness of Christ. Both are curiously wrought, as master-pieces of “the
manifold wisdom of God.” O the wonderful contexture of graces in the new crea-
ture | O glorious creature, new-made after the image of God It is “grace for
grace ’’ in Christ, which makes up this new man, John i. 16; even as in bodily
generation, the child has member for member in the parent ; has every member
the parent has in a certain proportion.
Fifthly, All this, in both cases, hath its rise from that which is in itself very small
and inconsiderable. O the power of God, in making such a creature of “corrup-
tible seed,” and much more in bringing forth the new creature from so small be-
ginnings; it is as “the little cloud, like a man's hand,” which spread, till “heaven
was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain,” 1 Kings xviii. 44,
45. A man gets a word at a sermon which hundreds besides him hear, and let
slip : but it remains with him, works in him, and never leaves him, till the
little world be turned upside-down by it; that is, till he become a new man. It is
like the vapour that got up into Ahasuerus's head, and cut off sleep from his eyes,
Esth. vi. 1, which proved a spring of such motions as never ceased, until Mordecai,
in royal pomp, was brought on horseback through the streets, proud Haman trudg-
ing at his foot ; the same Haman afterwards hanged, Mordecai advanced, and the
church delivered from Haman's hellish plot. The “grain of mustard-seed be-
cometh a tree,” Matt. xiii. 31, 32. God loves to bring great things out of small
beginnings.
Sixthly, Natural generation is carried on by degrees; Job x. 10, “Hast thou
not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?” So is regeneration. It
is with the soul, ordinarily, in regeneration, as with the blind man cured by our
Lord, who first “saw men as trees walking,” afterwards “saw every man clearly,”
Matt. viii. 23–25. It is true, regeneration being, strictly speaking, a passing
from death to life, the soul is quickened in a moment; likeas, when the embryo is
brought to perfection in the womb, the soulis infused into the lifeless lump. Never-
theless, we may imagine somewhat like conception in spiritual generation, whereby
the soul is prepared for quickening; and the new creature is capable of growth,
1 Pet. ii. 2, and of “life more abundantly,” John x. 10.
Seventhly, In both there are new relations. The regenerate may call God
Father; for they are his “children,” John i. 12, 13; “begotten of him,” 1 Pet.
i. 3. “The bride, the Lamb's wife,” that is, the church, is their mother, Gal. iv. 26.
They are related, as brethren and sisters, to angels and glorified saints, the family
of heaven. They are of the heavenly stock: the meanest of them, the “base
things of the world,” 1 Cor. i. 28; the kinless things, as the word imports; who
cannot boast of the blood that runs in their veins, are yet, by their new birth, near
of kin with the excellent in the earth.
Eighthly, There is a likeness betwixt the parent and the child. Everything
that generates generates its like ; and the regenerate are “partakers of the divine
nature,” 2 Pet. i. 4. . The moral perfections of the divine nature are, in measure
and degree, communicated to the renewed soul; and thus the divine image is re-
trieved; so that, as the child resembles the father, the new creature resembles God
himself, being holy as he is holy.
Lastly, As there is no birth without pain, both to the mother and to the child;
So there is great pain in bringing forth the new creature. The children have more
or less of these birth-pains, whereby they are “pricked in their heart,” Acts ii.
N
98 FOUR FOLD STATE.
37. The soul hath sore pains when under conviction and humiliation. “A wounded
spirit who can bear’?” The mother is pained, “Zion travails,” Isa. lxvi. 8. She
sighs, groans, crieth, and hath hard labour in her ministers and members, to bring
forth children to her Lord; Gal. iv. 19, “My little children, of whom I travailin birth
again, until Christ be formed in you.” And never was a mother more feelingly
touched with joy that a man-child was born into the world, than she is upon the new
birth of her children. But what is more remarkable than all this, we read not only
of our Lord Jesus Christ’s “travail,” or toil, “of soul,” Isa. liii. 11; but, what
lies more directly to our purpose, of his pains, or pangs, as of one travailing in
child-birth ; so the word used, Acts ii. 24, properly signifies. Well may he call
the new creature, as Rachel called her dear-bought son, Benoni, that is, the son of
my sorrow, and as she called another Naphtali, that is, my wrestling; for the pangs
of that travail put him to “strong crying and tears,” Heb. v. 7; yea, into an
agony and bloody sweat, Luke xxii. 44. And in the end he died of these pangs;
they became to him “the pains of death,” Acts i. 24.
The doctrine of regeneration applied.
Use I. By what is said, you may try whether you are in the state of grace or
not. If ye be brought out of the state of wrath, or ruin, into the state of grace,
or salvation ; ye are new creatures, ye are born again. But ye will say, How
shall we know whether we be born again or not ? Answer. Did you ask me if the
sun were risen, and how you should know whether it were risen or not ; I would
bid you look up to the heavens, and see it with your eyes. And would you know
if the light be risen in your heart? Look in, and see. Grace is light, and discovers
itself. Look into thy mind, see if it has been illuminate in the knowledge of God.
Hast thou been inwardly taught what God is 2 Were thine eyes ever turned inward
to see thyself; the sinfulness of thy depraved state, the corruption of thy nature,
the sins of thy heart and life 2 Wast thou ever let into a view of the exceeding sin-
fulness of sinº Have thine eyes seen King Jesus in his beauty; the manifold wisdom
of God in him, his transcendent excellency, and absolute fulness and sufficiency, with
the vanity and emptiness of all things else? Next, What change is there on thy
will ? Are the fetters taken off wherewith it was sometimes bound up from moving
heavenwards 2 And has thy will got a new set 2 Dost thou find an aversion to sin,
and a proneness to good wrought in thy heart? Is thy soul turned towards God as
thy chief end ? Is thy will new-moulded into some measure of conformity to the
preceptive and providential will of God? Art thou heartily reconciled to the cov-
enant of peace, and fixedly disposed to the receiving of Christ, as he is offered in
the gospel ? And as to a change in your affections, are they rectified and placed on
right objects? Are your desires going out after God? Are they to his name, and
remembrance of him ? Isa. xxvi. 8. Are your hopes in him ? Is your love set upon
him, and your hatred set against sin 2 Does your offending a good God affect your
heart with sorrow, and do you fear sin more than suffering ? Are your affections
regulated ? Are they, with respect to created comforts, brought down, as being too
high ; and, with respect to God in Christ, screwed up, as being too low 2 Has he
the chief seat in your heart? And are all your lawful worldly comforts and enjoy-
ments laid at his feet? Has thy conscience been enlightened and awakened ; refus-
ing all ease, but from the application of the blood of a Redeemer? Is thy memory
sanctified, thy body consecrated to the service of God? And art thou now walk-
ing in newness of life 2 Thus ye may discover whether ye are born again or not.
But for your further help in this matter, I will discourse a little of another sign
of regeneration, namely, the love of the brethren ; an evidence whereby the weak-
est and most timorous saints have often had comfort, when they could have little
or no consolation from other marks proposed to them. This the apostle lays down,
1 John iii. 14, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren.” It is not to be thought that the apostle, by the brethren in
this place, means brethren by a common relation to the first Adam, but to the
second Adam, Christ Jesus: because, however true it is, that universal benevo-
lence, a good-will to the whole race of mankind, takes place in the renewed soul,
FOUR FOLD STATE, 99
as being a lively lineament of the divine image ; yet the whole context speaks of
those that are “the sons of God,” verses 1, 2; “children of God,” verse 10; “born
of God,” verse 9; distinguishing betwixt “the children of God,” and “the children
of the devil,” verse 10; betwixt those that are “of the devil,” verses 8, 12, and
those that are “ of God,” verse 10. And the text itself comes in as a reason why
we should not marvel that the world hates the brethren, the children of God, verse
13. How can we marvel at it, seeing the love of the brethren is an evidence of
one's having passed from death to life 2 And therefore it were absurd to look for
that love amongst the men of the world, who are dead in trespasses and sin.
They cannot love the brethren ; no marvel, then, that they hate them. Wherefore
it is plain, that by brethren here are meant brethren by regeneration.
Now, in order to set this mark of regeneration in a true light, consider these
three things. (1.) This love to the brethren is a love to them as such. . Then do
we love them in the sense of the text, when the grace or image of God in them is
the chief motive of our love to them. When we love the godly for their godliness,
the saints for their sanctity or holiness; then we love God in them, and so may
conclude we are born of God; for “every one that loveth him that begat, loveth
him also that is begotten of him,” 1 John v. 1. Hypocrites may love Saints on
account of a civil relation to them ; because of their obliging conversation; for their
being of the same opinion with themselves in religious matters; and on many other such
like accounts, whereby wicked men may be induced to love the godly. But happy
they, who can love them for naked grace in them, for their heaven-born temper and dis-
position; who can pick this pearl out of a dunghill of infirmities in and about them;
lay hold on it, and love them for it. (2.) It is a love that will be given to all in
whom the grace of God appears. They that love one saint because he is a saint
will have “love to all the saints,” Eph. i. 15. They will love all who, to their
discerning, bear the image of God. They that cannot love a gracious person in
rags, but confine their love to those of them who “wear gay clothing,” have not
this love to the brethren. Those who confine their love to a party to whom God
has not confined his grace are souls too narrow to be “put among the children.”
In what points soever men differ from us in their judgment or way, yet if they ap-
pear to agree with us in love to God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and in bearing
his image, we will love them as brethren, if we ourselves be of the heavenly family.
And, (3.) If this love be in us, the more grace any person appears to be possessed
of, he will be the more beloved by us. The more vehemently the holy fire of grace
doth flamein any, the hearts of true Christians will be the more warmed in love to them.
It is not with the saints as with many other men, who make themselves the standard
for others, and love them so far as they think they are like themselves: but, if they .
seem to outshine and darken them, their love is turned to hatred and envy, and
they endeavour to detract from the due praise of their exemplary piety; because
nothing relisheth with them in the practice of religion that goes beyond their own
measure : what of the life and power of religion appears in others, serves only to
raise the serpentine grudge in their Pharisaical hearts. But as for them that are
born again, their love and affection to the brethren bear proportion to the degrees
of the divine image they discern in them.
Now, if ye would improve these things to the knowledge of your state, I would
advise you, (1.) To set apart some time, when ye are at home, for a review of your
case, and try your state by what has been said. Many have comfort and clearness
as to their state at a sermon, who in a little time lose it again ; because, while
they hear the word preached, they make application of it, but do not consider of
these things more deliberately and leisurely when alone. The action is too sudden
and short to give lasting comfort ; and it is often so indeliberate, that it has bad
consequences. Therefore, set about this work at home, after earnest and serious
prayer to God for his help in it. Complain not of your want of time, while the
night follows the busy day; nor of place, while fields and out-houses are to be got.
(2) Renew your repentance before the Lord. Guilt lying on the conscience, un-
repented of, may darken all your evidences and marks of grace. It provokes the
Spirit of grace to depart ; and when he goes, our light ceases. It is not fit time
for a saint to read his evidences, when the candle is blown out by some conscience-
100 FOUR FOLD STATE.
wounding guilt. Lastly, Exert the powers of the new nature; let the graces of
the Divine Spirit in you discover themselves by action. If ye would know whether
there is a sacred fire in your breast or not, ye must blow the coal ; for although
it be, and be a live coal, yet if it be under the ashes, it will give you no light.
Settle in your hearts a firm purpose, through the grace that is in Christ Jesus, to
comply with every known duty, and watch against every known sin, having a rea-
diness of mind to be instructed in what ye know not. If gracious souls would thus
manage their inquiries into their states, it is likely they would have a comfortable
issue ; and if others would take such a solemn review, and make trial of their state
impartially, sisting themselves before the tribunal of their own consciences, they
might have a timely discovery of their own naughtiness: but the neglect of self-
examination leaves most men under sad delusions as to their state, and deprives
many saints of the comfortable sight of the grace of God in them.
But, that I may afford some further help to true Christians in their inquiries into
their state; I shall propose and briefly answer some cases or doubts, which may
possibly hinder some persons from the comfortable view of their happy state. The
children's bread must not be withheld, though, while it is reached to them, the dogs
should snatch at it. *
Case 1. “I doubt if I be regenerate ; because I know not the precise time of my
conversion, nor can I trace the particular steps in the way in which it was brought
to pass.” Answer. Though it is very desirable to be able to give an account of the
beginning, and the gradual advances of the Lord's work upon our Souls, as some
saints can distinctly do, (howbeit the manner of the Spirit's working is still a mys-
tery,) yet this is not necessary to evidence the truth of grace. Happy he that can
say, in this case, as the blind man in the gospel, “One thing I know, that, where-
as I was blind, now I see.” Likeas, when we see flame, we know there is fire,
though we know not how or when it began; so the truth of grace in us may be dis-
cerned, though we know not how or when it was dropt into our hearts. If thou canst
perceive the happy change which is wrought on thy soul; if thou findest thy mind
is enlightened, thy will inclined to comply with the will of God in all things, espe-
cially to fall in with the divine plan of salvation, through a crucified Redeemer; in
vain dost thou trouble thyself, and refuse comfort, because thou knowest not how
and what way it was brought about.
Case 2. “If I were a new creature, sin could not prevail against me as it doth.”
Answer. Though we must not lay pillows for hypocrites to rest their heads upon,
who indulge themselves in their sins, and make the doctrine of God’s grace sub-
servient to their lusts, lying down contentedly in the bond of iniquity, like men
that are fond of golden chains; yet it must be owned, “the just man falleth seven
times a-day,” and “iniquity” may “prevail against” the children of God. But,
if thou art groaning under the weight of the body of death, the corruption of thy
nature, loathing thyself for the sins of thy heart and life, striving to mortify thy
lusts, fleeing daily to the blood of Christ for pardon, and looking to his Spirit
for sanctification ; though thou mayest be obliged to say with the Psalmist, “Ini-
quities prevail against me,” yet thou mayest add with him, “As for our transgres-
sions, thou shalt purge them away,” Psal. lxv. 3. The new creature doth not yet
possess the house alone: it dwells beside an ill neighbour; namely, remaining cor-
ruption, the relics of depraved nature. They struggle together for the mastery :
“ the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,” Gal. v. 17.
And sometimes corruption prevails, “bringing” the child of God “into captivity to
the law of sin,” Rom. vii. 23. Let not therefore the prevailing of corruption make
thee in this case conclude thou art none of God's children ; but let it humble thee,
to be the more watchful, and to thirst the more intensely after Jesus Christ, his
blood and Spirit; and that very disposition will evidence a principle of grace in
thee which seeks the destruction of sin, that prevails so often against thee.
Case 3. “I find the motions of sin in my heart more violent since the Lord began
his work on my soul, than they were before that time. Can this consist with a
change of my nature?” ... Answer. Dreadful is the case of many, who, after God has
had a remarkable dealing with their souls, tending to their reformation, have
thrown off all bonds, and have bocome grossly and openly immoral and profane ;
FOURFOLD STATE. 10 I
as if the devil had returned into their hearts, with seven spirits worse than himself.
All I shall say to such persons is, that their state is exceeding dangerous ; they
are in danger of sinning against the Holy Ghost ; therefore let them repent, before
it be too late. But, if it be not thus with you; though corruption is bestirring itself
more violently than formerly, as if all the forces of hell were raised, to hold fast, or
bring back a fugitive ; I say, these stirrings may consist with a change of your na-
ture. When the restraint of grace is newly laid upon corruption, it is no wonder
if this last acts more vigorously than before, “warring against the law of the
mind,” Rom. vii. 23. The motions of sin may really be most violent when a new
principle is brought in to cast it out. And as the Sun, sending its beams through
the window, discovers the motes in the house, and their motions, which were not
seen before ; so the light of grace may discover the risings and actings of corrup-
tion, in another manner than ever the man saw them before, though they really
do not rise nor act more vigorously. Sin is not quite dead in the regenerate soul,
it is but dying; and dying a lingering death, being crucified : no wonder there be
great fightings, when it is sick at the heart, and death is at the door. Besides,
temptations may be more in number, and stronger, while Satan is striving to bring
you back who are escaped, than while he endeavoured only to retain you : “After
ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions,” says the apostle to the
Hebrews, chap. x, 32. But “cast not away your confidence,” ver. 34. Remem-
ber his “grace is sufficient for you,” and “the God of peace will bruise Satan
under your feet shortly.” Pharaoh and his Egyptians never made such a formi-
dable appearance against the Israelites as at the Red Sea, after they were brought
out of Egypt; but then were the pursuers nearest to a total overthrow, Exod. xiv.
Let not this case therefore make you raze foundations; but be ye emptied of your-
selves, and strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, and ye shall come
off victorious,
Case 4. “But when I compare my love to God with my love to some created en-
joyment, I find the pulse of my affections beat stronger to the creature than the
Creator. How then can I call him Father ? Nay, alas I those turnings of heart
within me, and glowings of affection to him, which sometimes I had, are gone, so
that I fear all the love I ever had to the Lord has been but a fit and flash of affection,
such as hypocrite soften have.” Answer. It cannot be denied, that the predominant
love of the world is a certain mark of an unregenerate state ; 1 John ii. 15, “If
any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Nevertheless, those
are not always the strongest affections which are most violent. A man's affection
may be more moved, on some occasions, by an object that is little regarded, than
by another, that is exceedingly beloved ; even as a little brook sometimes makes
a greater noise than a great river. The strength of our affections is to be measured
by the firmness and fixedness of the root, not by the violence of their actings. Sup-
pose a person, meeting with a friend who has been long abroad, finds his affections
more vehemently acting towards his friend on that occasion, than towards his own
wife and children; will he therefore say, that he loves his friend more than them 2
Surely no. Even so, although the Christian may find himself more moved in his
love to the creature, than in his love to God, yet he is not therefore to be said to
love the creature more than God; seeing love to God is always more firmly rooted
in a gracious heart, than love to any created enjoyment whatsoever, as appears when
competition arises in such a manner that the one or the other is to be foregone.
Would ye then know your case ?, Retire into your own hearts, and there lay the
two in the balance, and try which of them weighs down the other. Ask thyself,
as in the sight of God, whether thou wouldst part with Christ for the creature, or
part with the creature for Christ, if thou wert left to thy choice in the matter? If you
find your heart disposed to part with what is dearest to you in the world for Christ,
at his call, you have no reason to conclude, you love the creature more than God,
but, on the contrary, that you love God more than the creature; albeit you do not
feel such violent motions in the love of God, as in the love of some created things;
Matt, x, 37, “He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me;”
Luke xiv. 26, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, he
cannot be my disciple.” From which texts compared, we may infer, that he who
102 FOUR FOLD STATE.
hates, that is, is ready to part with, father and mother for Christ, is, in our Lord's
account, one that loves them less than him, and not one who loves father and
mother more than him. Moreover, ye are to consider there is a twofold love to
Christ. (1.) There is a sensible love to him, which is felt as a dart in the heart,
and makes a holy love-sickness in the soul, arising either from want of enjoyment,
as in that case of the spouse, Cant. v. 8, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusa-
lem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love ;” or else from
the fulness of it, as in that case, Cant. ii. 5, “Stay me with flagons, comfort me
with apples; for I am sick of love.” These glowings of affections are usually
wrought in young converts, who are ordinarily made to “sing in the days of their
youth,” Hos. ii. 14. While the fire-edge is upon the young convert, he looks upon
others reputed to be godly, and, not finding them in such a temper and disposition
as himself, he is ready to censure them, and think there is far less religion in
the world than indeed there is. But when his own cup comes to settle below the
brim, and he finds that in himself which made him question the state of others,
he is more humbled, and feels more and more the necessity of daily recourse to
the blood of Christ for pardon, and to the Spirit of Christ for sanctification, and
thus grows downwards in humiliation, self-loathing, and self-denial. (2.) There
is a rational love to Christ, which, without those sensible emotions felt in the former
case, evidences itself by a dutiful regard to the divine authority and command.
When one bears such a love to Christ, though the vehement stirrings of affection be
wanting, yet he is truly tender of offending a gracious God; endeavours to walk
before him unto all pleasing ; and is grieved at the heart for what is displeasing
unto him ; 1 John v. 3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his command-
ments.” Now, although that sensible love doth not always continue with you; yet
ye have no reason to account it a hypocritical fit, while the rational love remains
with you, more than a faithful and loving wife needs question her love to her hus-
band, when her fondness is abated.
Case 5. “The attainments of hypocrites and apostates are a terror to me, and come
like a shaking storm on me, when I am about to conclude, from the marks of grace
which I seem to find in myself, that I am in the state of grace.” Answer. These
things should, indeed, stir us up to a most serious and impartial examination of our-
selves, but ought not to keep us in a continued suspense as to our state, Sirs, ye
see the outside of hypocrites, their duties, their gifts, their tears, &c.; but ye see not
their inside; ye do not discern their hearts, the bias of their spirits. Upon what ye
See of them, ye found a judgment of charity as to their state; and ye do well to
judge charitably in such a case, because ye cannot know the secret springs of their
actings: but ye are seeking, and ought to have a judgment of certainty, as to your
own state ; and therefore are to look into that part of religion which none in the
world but yourselves can discern in you, and which ye can as little see in others.
A hypocrite's religion may appear far greater than that of a sincere soul: but that
which makes the greatest figure in the eyes of men is often least worth before God.
I would rather utter one of those groans the apostle speaks of, Rom. viii. 26, than
shed Esau’s tears, have Balaam's prophetic spirit, or the joy of the stony-ground
hearers. “The fire” that “shall try every man's work,” will try, not of what bulk
it is, but “ of what sort it is,” 1 Cor. iii. 13. Now, ye may know what bulk of religion
another has: and what though it be more bulky than your own? God doth not re-
gard that; why then do you make such a matter of it? It is impossible for you
without divine revelation certainly to know of what sort another man's religion is:
but ye may certainly know what sort your own is of, without extraordinary revela-
tion; otherwise the apostle would not exhort the Saints to “give diligence to make
their calling and election sure,” 2 Pet. i. 10. Therefore the attainments of hypo-
crites and apostates should not disturb you, in your serious inquiry into your own
state. But I will tell you two things, wherein the meanest saints go beyond the
most refined hypocrites. (1.) In denying themselves; renouncing all confidence in
themselves, and their own works; acquiescing in, being well-pleased with, and
venturing their souls upon, God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ; Matt. v.
3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;” and
chap. xi. 6, “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me;” Philip, iii.
FOUR FOLD STATE, 103
3, “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (2.) In a real hatred of all
sin; being willing to part with every lust, without exception, and to comply with
every duty the Lord makes, or shall make known to them; Psal. cxix. 6, “Then
shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” Try
yourselves by these.
Case 6. “I see myself fall so far short of the saints mentioned in the scriptures, and
of several excellent persons of my own acquaintance, that when I look on them, I
can hardly look on myself as one of the same family with them.” Answer. It is
indeed matter of humiliation, that we do not get forward to that measure of grace
and holiness which we see is attainable in this life. This should make us more
vigorously press towards the mark: but surely it is from the devil that weak
Christians make a rack for themselves of the attainments of the strong. And to yield
to this temptation is as unreasonable as for a child to dispute away his relation to his
father, because he is not of the same stature with his elder brethren. There are
Saints of several sizes in Christ's family; some fathers, some young men, and some
little children, 1 John ii. 13, 14.
Case 7. “I never read in the word of God, nor did I ever know of a child of God
so tempted, and so left of God, as I am ; and therefore, no saint's case being like
mine, I cannot but conclude I am none of their number.” Answer. This objection
arises to some from their unacquaintedness with the scriptures, and with experienced
Christians. It is profitable, in this case, to impart the matter to some experienced
Christian friend, or to some godly minister. This has been a blessed mean of peace to
Some persons; while their case, which appeared to them to be singular, has been evinced
to have been the case of other saints. The scripture gives instances of very horrid
temptations wherewith the saints have been assaulted. Job was tempted to blaspheme:
this was the great thing the devil aimed at, in the case of that great saint; Job i. 11,
“He will curse thee to thy face;” chap. ii. 9, “Curse God, and die.” Asaph was
tempted to think it was in vain to be religious, which was in effect to throw off all
religion; Psal. lxxiii. 13, “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain.” Yea, Christ
himself was tempted to cast himself down from a pinnacle of the temple, and to
worship the devil, Matt. iv. 6, 9. And many of the children of God have not only
been attacked with, but have actually yielded to, very gross temptations for a time.
Peter denied Christ, and cursed and swore that he knew him not, Mark xiv. 71.
Paul, when a persecutor, compelled even saints to blaspheme, Acts xxvi. 10, 11.
Many of the Saints can, from their sad experience, bear witness to very gross
temptations, which have astonished their spirits, made their very flesh to tremble,
and sickened their bodies. Satan's fiery darts make terrible work; and will cost pains
to quench them, by a vigorous management of “the shield of faith,” Eph. vi. 16.
Sometimes he makes such desperate attacks, that never was one more put to it, in
running to and fro, without intermission, to quench the fire-balls incessantly thrown
into his house by an enemy, designing to burn the house about him, than the poor
tempted Saint is to repel Satanical injections. But these injections, these horrid
temptations ; though they are a dreadful affliction, they are not the sins of the
tempted, unless they make them theirs by consenting to them. They will be
charged upon the tempter alone, if they be not consented to ; and will no more be
laid to the charge of the tempted party, than a bastard's being laid down at a
chaste man's door will fix guilt upon him.
But, suppose neither minister nor private Christian to whom you go can tell you
of any who has been in your case; yet you ought not thence to infer that your
case certainly is singular, far less to give over hopes: for it is not to be thought
that every godly minister or private Christian, has had experience of all the cases
a child of God may be in ; and we need not doubt but some have had distresses
known only to God and their own consciences, and so, to others, those distresses
are as if they had never been. Yea, and though the scriptures do contain suit-
able directions for every case a child of God can be in, and these illustrated with a
sufficient number of examples; yet it is not to be imagined that there are in the
scriptures perfect instances of every particular case incident to the saints. There-
fore, howbeit you cannot find an instance of your case in the scripture, yet bring
} 04 FOUR FOLD STATE.
your case to it, and you shall find suitable remedies proscribed there for it. And
study rather to make use of Christ for your case, who has salve for all sores, than
to know if ever any was in your case. Though one should show you an instance
of your case in an undoubted saint, yet none could promise it would certainly give
you ease ; for a scrupulous conscience would readily find out some difference. And
if nothing but a perfect conformity of another's case to yours will satisfy, it will be
hard, if not impossible, to satisfy you. For it is with people's cases as with their
natural faces. Though the faces of all men are of one make, and some are sovery like
others, that, at first view, we are ready to take them for the same ; yet if you view
them more accurately, you will see something in every face, distinguishing it from
all others, though possibly you cannot tell what it is. Wherefore I conclude, that
if you can find in yourselves the marks of regeneration proposed to you from the
word, you ought to conclude you are in the state of grace, though your case were
singular, which is indeed unlikely.
Case last, “The afflictions I meet with are strange and unusual. I doubt if ever
a child of God was trysted with such dispensations of providence as I am.” Answer.
Much of what was said on the preceding case may be helpful in this. Holy Job
was assaulted with this temptation; Job v. 1, “To which of the saints wilt thou
turn ?” But he rejected it, and held fast his integrity. The apostle supposeth
Christians may be tempted to “think strange concerning the fiery trial,” 1 Pet.
iv. 12. But they have need of larger experience than Solomon's who will venture
to say, “See this is new,” Eccl. i. 10. And what though, in respect of the out-
ward dispensations of providence, “it happen to you according to the work of the
wicked ?” You may be just notwithstanding ; according to Solomon’s observation,
Eccl. viii. 14. Sometimes we travel in ways where we cannot perceive the prints
of the foot of man nor beast, yet we cannot from thence conclude that there was
never any there before us; so, albeit thou canst not perceive the footsteps of the
flock in the way of thine affliction, thou must not therefore conclude thou art the
first that ever travelled that road. But what if it were so, that thou wert indeed
the first 2 Some one saint or other behoved to be first, in drinking of each bitter
cup the rest have drunk of. What warrant have you or I to “limit the Holy One
of Israel” to a trodden path, in his dispensations toward us? “Thy way is in the sea,
and thy path in the great waters; and thy footsteps are not known,” Psal. lxxvii.
19. If the Lord should carry you to heaven by some retired road, and let you in
at a back-door, so to speak, you would have no ground to complain. Learn to
allow sovereignty a latitude ; be at your duty; and let no affliction cast a vail over
any evidences you otherwise have, for your being in the state of grace ; for “no
man knoweth either love or hatred, by all that is before them,” Eccl. ix. 1.
Use II. Ye that are strangers to this new birth, be convinced of the absolute
necessity of it. Are all in this state of grace born again? then ye have neither
part nor lot in it who are not born again. I must tell you, in the words of
our Lord and Saviour, (and O that he would speak them to your hearts () “Ye
must be born again,” John iii. 7. And for your conviction consider these few
things.
#. Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you to do anything really
good and acceptable to God. While you are not born again, your best works are
but glistering sins ; for though the matter of them is good, they are quite marred
in the making. Consider, (1.) That without regeneration there is no faith, and
“without faith it is impossible to please God,” Heb. xi. 6. Faith is a vital act of
the new-born soul. The Evangelist, showing the different entertainment our Lord
Jesus had from different persons, some receiving and some rejecting him, points at
regenerating grace as the true rise of that difference, without which never one
would have received him. He tells us that “as many as received him" were those
“who were born of God,” John i. 11—13. Unregenerate men may presume; but
true faith they cannot have. Faith is a flower that grows not in the field of nature.
As the tree cannot grow without a root, neither can a man believe without the new
nature, whereof the principle of believing is a part. (2.) Without regeneration a
man's works are “dead works.” As is the principle, so must the effects be: if
the lungs be rotten, the breath will be unsavoury; and he who at best is dead in
FOUR FOLD STATE. 105
sin, his works at best will be but dead works. “Unto them that are defiled and un-
believing, is nothing pure, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good
work reprobate,” Tit. i. 15, 16. Could we say of a man, that he is more blame-
less in his life than any other in the world ; that he macerates his body with fast-
ing, and has made his knees as hard as horns with continual praying ; but he is
not born again ; that exception would mar all. As if one should say, There is a
well-proportioned body, but the soul is gone; it is but a dead lump. This is a
melting consideration. Thou dost many things materially good : but God saith,
all these things avail not, as long as I see the old nature reigning in the man; Gal.
vi. 15, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncir-
cumcision, but a new creature.”
If thou art not born again, (1.) All thy reformation is naught in the sight of
God. Thou hast shut the door, but the thief is still in the house. It may be thou
art not what once thou wast: yet thou art not what thou must be, if ever thou
seest heaven; for “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,”
John iii. 3. (2.) Thy prayers are “an abomination to the Lord,” Prov. xv. 8. It
may be, others admire thy seriousness; thou criest as for thy life: but God accounts
of the opening of thy mouth, as one would account of the opening of a grave full of
rottenness; Rom. iii. 13, “Their throat is an open sepulchre.” Others are affected
with thy prayers; which seem to them as if they would rend the heavens: but God
accounts them but as the howling of a dog; “They have not cried unto me with
their heart, when they howled upon their beds,” Hos. vii. 14. Others take thee
for a wrestler and prevailer with God; but he can take no delight in thee, northy
prayers neither; Isa. lxvi. 3, “He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man ; he
that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that burneth incense, as
if he blessed an idol.” Why, but because thou art yet “in the gall of bitterness,
and bond of iniquity ?” (3.) All thou hast done for God and his cause in the world,
though it may be followed with temporal rewards, yet it is lost as to divine accep-
tance. This is clear from the case of Jehu ; who was indeed rewarded with a
kingdom for executing due vengeance upon the house of Ahab, as being a work
good for the matter of it, because it was commanded of God, as you may see, 2
Kings x. 13, yet was he punished for it in his posterity, because he did it not in a
right manner; Hos. i. 4, “I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of
Jehu,” God looks mainly to the heart: and if so, truly albeit thy outward appear-
ance be fairer than that of many others, yet the hidden man of thy heart is loathsome;
thou lookest well before men, but art not as Moses was, “fair to God,” as the mar-
gin hath it, Acts vii. 20. O what a difference is there betwixt the characters of
Asa and Amaziah “The high places were not removed : nevertheless Asa's heart
was perfect with the Lord all his days,” 1 Kings xv. 14. “Amaziah did that
which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart,” 2 Chron.
xxv. 2. It may be thou art zealous against sin in others, and dost admonish them
of their duty, and reprove them for their sin; and they hate thee, because thou
dost thy duty; but I must tell thee, God hates thee too, because thou dost it not
in a right manner ; and that thou canst never do whilst thou art not born again.
Lastly, All thy struggles against sin in thine own heart and life are naught. The
proud Pharisee afflicted his body with fasting, and God struck his soul in the mean
time with a sentence of condemnation, Luke xviii. Balaam struggled with his
covetous temper to that degree, that though “he loved the wages of unrighteous.
ness,” yet he would not win them by cursing Israel: but he died the death of the
wicked, Numb. xxxi. 8. All thou dost while in an unregenerate state is for thy-
self; and therefore it will fare with thee as with a subject who, having reduced the
rebels, puts the crown on his own head, and therefore loseth all his good service.
and his head too.
Objection. “If it be thus with us, then we need never perform any religious duty
at all.” Answer. The conclusion is not just. No inability of thine can loose thee
from the duty God's law lays on thee; and there is less evil in thy doing thy duty,
than there is in the omitting of it. But there is a mids” betwixt omitting of duty, and
* i. e. an intermediate way.—ED,
O
106 FOUR FOLD STATE.
the doing of it as thou dost it. A man ordereth masons to build him an house.
If they quite neglect the work, that will not be accepted; if they fall on, and build
upon the old rotten foundation, neither will that please: but they must raze the
old foundation, and build on firm ground. “Go thou and do likewise.” In the
mean time, it is not in vain for thee, even for thee to seek the Lord: for though
he regards thee not, yet he may have respect to his own ordinance, and do thee
good thereby, as was said before. -
Secondly, Without regeneration there is no communion with God. There is a so-
ciety on earth whose “fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ,”
1 John i. 3. But out of that society all the unregenerate are excluded; for they
are all enemies to God, as ye heard before at large. Now “can two walk together,
except they be agreed ?” Amos iii. 3. They are all unholy ; and “what commu-
nion hath light with darkness, Christ with Belial 2’’ 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. They may
have a show and semblance of holiness: but they are strangers to true holiness,
and therefore without God in the world. How sad is this case, to be employed
in religious duties, but to have no fellowship with God in them Ye would not be
content with your meat, unless it fed you; nor with your clothes, unless they kept
you warm ; and how can you satisfy yourselves with your duties, while they are
not effectual to your communion with God?
Thirdly, Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you for heaven. None
go to heaven but they that are “made meet” for it, Col. i. 12. As it was with
Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi. 7, so is it with the temple above : it is “built of
stone made ready before it is brought thither ;” namely, of “lively stones,” 1
Pet. ii. 5, “wrought for the self-same thing,” 2 Cor. v. 5; for they cannot be laid
in that glorious building just as they come out of the quarry of depraved nature.
Jewels of gold are not meet for Swine, and far less jewels of glory for unrenewed
sinners. Beggars in their rags are not meet for kings' houses; nor sinners to “enter
into the King's palace,” without the “raiment of needle-work,” Psal. xlv. 14, 15.
What wise man would bring fishes out of the water to feed in his meadow 2 or
send his oxen to feed in the sea? Even as little are the unregenerate meet for
heaven, or is heaven meet for them. It would never be liked of by them.
The unregenerate would find fault with heaven on several accounts. As, (1.) That
it is a strange country. Heaven is the renewed man's native country : his Father
is in heaven; his “mother is Jerusalem, which is above,” Gal. iv. 26. He is “born
from above,” John iii. 3. Heaven is his home, 2 Cor. v. 1, therefore he looks on him-
self as a stranger on this earth, and his head is homeward; Heb. xi. 16, “They de-
sire a better country, that is, an heavenly.” But the unregenerate man is “the man
of the earth,” Psal. x. 18, “written in the earth,” Jer. xvii. 13. Now, home is home,
be it never so homely: therefore he “minds earthly things,” Phil. iii. 19. There
is a peculiar sweetness in our native soil; and hardly are men drawn to leave it,
and dwell in a strange country. In no case does that prevail more than in this:
for unrenewed men would quit their pretensions to heaven, were it not that they
see they cannot make a better of it. (2.) There is nothing there of what they de-
light most im, as most agreeable to the carnal heart ; Rev. xxi. 27, “And there
shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.” When Mahomet gave out para-
dise to be a place of sensual delights, his religion was greedily embraced; for that
is the heaven men naturally choose. If the covetous man could get bags full of
gold there, and the voluptuous man could promise himself his sensual delights there;
they might be reconciled to heaven, and meet for it too: but since it is not so,
though they may utter fair words about it, truly it has little of their hearts. (3.)
Every corner there is filled with that which of all things they have the least liking
of ; and that is holiness, true holiness, perfect holiness. Were one that abhors
swine's flesh bidden to a feast where all the dishes were of that sort of meat, but va-
riously prepared ; he would find fault with every dish at the table, notwithstanding
of all the art used to make them palatable. It is true, there is joy in heaven, but
it is holy joy; there are pleasures in heaven, but they are holy pleasures; there
are places to stand by in heaven, but it is holy ground. That holiness that casts up *
* i. e. presents itself.-ED.
FO (IR FOLD STATE. 107
in every place, and in every thing there, would mar all to the unregenerate. (4.)
Were they carried thither, they would not only change their place, which would
be a great heart-break to them ; but they would change their company too. Truly
they would never like the company there, who care not for communion with God
here, nor value the fellowship of his people, at least in the vitals of practical godli-
ness. Many, indeed, mix themselves with the godly on earth, to procure a name
to themselves, and to cover the naughtiness of their hearts; but that trade could
not be managed there. (5.) They would never like the employment of heaven,
they care so little for it now. The business of the saints there would be an intoler-
able burden to them, seeing it is not agreeable to their nature. To be taken up in
beholding, admiring, and praising of him that sitteth on the throne, and of the
Lamb, would be work unsuitable, and therefore unsavoury, to an unrenewed soul.
Lastly, They would find this fault with it, that the whole is of everlasting continu-
ance. This would be a killing ingredient in it to them. How would such as now
account the Sabbath-day a burden, brook the celebrating of an everlasting Sabbath
in the heavens 2
Lastly, Regeneration is absolutely necessary to your being admitted into heaven,
John iii. 3. No heaven without it. Though carnal men could digest all those
things which make heaven so unsuitable for them ; yet God will never suffer them
to come thither. Therefore born again ye must be, else ye shall never see heaven,
ye shall perish eternally. For, (1.) There is a bill of exclusion against you in the
court of heaven, and against all of your sort; “Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God,” John iii. 3. Here is a bar before you, that men
and angels cannot remove. And to hope for heaven, over the belly of this peremp-
tory sentence, is to hope that God would recall his word, and sacrifice his truth and
faithfulness to your safety; which is infinitely more than to hope, “the earth shall be
forsaken for you, and the rock removed out of his place.” (2.) There is no holiness
without regeneration. It is “the new man which is created in true holiness,” Eph. iv.
24; and no heaven without holiness, for “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,”
Heb. xii. 14. Will the gates of pearl be opened to let in dogs and swine 2 No ;
their place is without, Rev. xxii. 15. Godwill not admit such into the holy place
of communion with him here, and will he admit them into the holiest of all here-
after ? Will he take the children of the devil, and give them to sit with him on his
throne º Or will he bring the unclean into the city, whose street is pure gold 2 Be
not deceived; grace and glory are but two links of one chain, which God has joined,
and no man shall put asunder. None are transplanted into the paradise above but
out of the nursery of grace below. If ye be unholy while in this world, ye will be
for ever, miserable in the world to come. (3.) All the unregenerate are “without
Christ,” and therefore “having no hope” while in that case, Éph. ii. 12. Will Christ
prepare mansions of glory for them that refuse to receive him into their hearts?
nay, rather, will he not “laugh at their calamity, who now set at nought all his
counsel ?” Prov, i. 25, 26. Lastly, there is an infallible connection betwixt a
finally unregenerate state and damnation, arising from the nature of the things
themselves; and from the decree of Heaven, which is fixed and unmoveable as
mountains of brass, John iii. 3; Rom. viii. 6, “To be carnally minded is death.”
An unregenerate state is hell in the bud. It is eternal destruction in embryo;
growing daily, though thou dost not discern it. Death is painted on many a fair
face in this life. Deprayed nature makes men “meet to be partakers of the inheri-
tänge” of the damned in utter darkness. (i.) The heart of stone within thee is a
sinking Weight. As a stone naturally goes downward, so the hard stony heart
tends downwards to the bottomless pit. Ye are hardened against reproof: though
ye are told your danger, yet ye will not see it, ye will not believe it. But remem-
ber that the conscience being now “seared with a hot iron" is a sad presage of
everlasting burnings. (ii)Your unfruitfulness under the means of gracefits you for the
axe of God's judgment; Matt. iii. 10, “Every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” The “withered branch " is fuel for
‘... the fire,” John XV, 6., Tremble at this, ye despisers of the gospel : if ye be not
thereby made meet for heaven, ye will be like the barren ground, bearing briers
and thorns, “nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned,” Heb. vi. 8. (iii.)
108 FOURFOLD STATE.
The hellish dispositions of mind which discover themselves in profanity of life fit
the guilty for the regions of horror. A profane life will have a miserable end.
“They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” Gal. v. 19—
21. Think on this, ye prayerless persons, ye mockers of religion, ye cursers and
swearers, ye unclean and unjust persons, who have not so much as moral homesty
to keep you from lying, cheating, and stealing. What sort of a tree think ye it
to be upon which these fruits grow 2 Is it a tree of righteousness, which the Lord
hath planted ? Or is it not such an one as cumbers the ground, which God will
pluck up for fuel to the fire of his wrath? (iv.) Your being dead in sin makes you
meet to be wrapt in flames of brimstone as a winding-sheet, and to be buried in
the bottomless pit, as in a grave. Great was the cry in Egypt when the first-born
in each family was dead; but are there not many families where all are dead to-
gether ? Nay, many there are who are “twice dead, plucked up by the roots.”
Sometime, in their life, they have been roused by apprehensions of death, and its
consequences; but now they are so far on in their way to the land of darkness,
that they hardly ever have the least glimmering of light from heaven. (v.) The
darkness of your minds presageth eternal darkness. O the horrid ignorance some
are plagued with ; while others who have got some rays of reason's light into their
heads, are utterly void of spiritual light in their hearts! If ye knew your case,
ye would cry out, O darkness' darkness! making way for “the blackness of dark-
mess for ever !” The “face-covering ” is upon you already as condemned persons,
so near are ye to everlasting darkness. It is only Jesus Christ who can stop the
execution, pull the napkin off the face of the condemned malefactor, and put a par-
don in his hand; Isa. xxv. 7, “And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the
covering cast over all people,” that is, the face-covering cast over the condemned,
as in Haman's case; Esth. vii. 8, “As the word went out of the king's mouth,
they covered Haman's face.” (vi.) The chains of darkness ye are bound with in
the prison of your depraved state, Isa. lxi. 1, fit you to be cast into the burning
fiery furnace. Ah miserable men l Sometimes their consciences stir within them,
and they begin to think of amending their ways. But, alas ! they are in chains,
they cannot do it. They are chained by the heart: their lusts cleave so fast to
them, that they cannot, nay, they will not, shake them off. Thus you see what
affinity there is betwixt an unregenerate state and the state of the damned, the
state of absolute and irretrievable misery. Be convinced then, that ye must be
born again ; put a high value on the new-birth, and eagerly desire it.
The text tells you that the word is the seed whereof the new creature is formed:
therefore take heed to it, and entertain it, for it is your life. Apply yourselves to
the reading of the scripture. Ye that cannot read, cause others read it to you.
Wait diligently on the preaching of the word, as, by divine appointment, the spe-
cial mean of conversion; for “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe,” 1 Cor. i. 21. Wherefore, cast not yourselves out of Christ's
way; reject not the means of grace, lest ye be found to “judge yourselves un-
worthy of eternal life.” Attend carefully to the word preached. Hear every ser-
mon as if you were hearing for eternity ; and take heed the fowls of the air pick
not up this seed from you as it is sown. “Give thyself wholly to it,” 1 Tim. iv.
15. Receive it “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God,”
1 Thess. ii. 13. And hear it with application; looking on it as a message sent from
heaven to you in particular, though not to you only ; Rev. iii. 22, “He that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit Saith unto the churches.” Lay it up in your
hearts, meditate upon it, and be not as the unclean beasts that chew not the cud.
But, by earnest prayer, beg the dew of heaven may fall on thy heart, that the seed
may spring up there. -
More particularly, (1.) Receive the testimony of the word of God concerning the
misery of an unregenerate state, the sinfulness thereof, and the absolute necessity
of regeneration. (2.) Receive its testimony concerning God, what a holy and just
One he is. (3.) Examine thy ways by it ; namely, the thoughts of thy heart, the
expressions of thy lips, and the tenor of thy life. Look back through the sev-
eral periods of thy life ; and see thy sins from the precepts of the word; and learn
from its threatenings, what thou art liable to, on the account of these sins. (4.)
FOUR FOLD STATE. 109
View the corruption of thy nature, by the help of the same word of God as a glass,
which represents our ugly face in a lively manner. Were these things deeply
rooted in the heart, they might be the seed of that fear and sorrow, on account of
thy soul's state, which are necessary to prepare and stir thee up to look after a
Saviour. Fix your thoughts upon him offered to thee in the gospel as fully suited
to thy case, having, by his obedience to the death, perfectly satisfied the justice ºf
God, and brought in everlasting righteousness. This may prove the seed of humili-
ation, desire, hope, and faith, and put thee on to stretch out the withered hand unto
him at his own command. e tº * i tº
Let these things sink deeply into your hearts, and improve them diligently.
Remember, whatever ye be, ye “must be born again,” else it had been better for
you ye had never been born. Wherefore, if any of you shall live and die in an
unregenerate state, ye will be inexcusable, having been fairly warned of your
hazard.
H E A D II.
THE MYSTICAL UNION BETWIXT CHRIST AND BELIEVERS.
JoHN xv. 5.
“I am the vine ; ye are the branches.”
HAVING spoken of the change made by regeneration on all those that shalſ inherit
eternal life, in opposition to their natural real state, the state of degeneracy; I
proceed to speak of the change made upon them, in their union with the Lord
Jesus Christ, in opposition to their natural relative state, the state of misery. The
doctrine of the saints’ union with Christ is very plainly and fully insisted on from the
beginning to the 12th verse of this chapter ; which is a part of our Lord's farewell-
sermon to his disciples. Sorrow had now filled their heart: they were apt to say,
Alas! what will become of us, when our Master is taken from our head? who will
then instruct us? who will solve our doubts 2 how will we be supported under our
difficulties and discouragements 2 how will we be able to live, without our wonted
communication with him ? Wherefore, our Lord Jesus Christ seasonably teaches
them the mystery of their union with him, comparing himself to the vine-stock, and
them to the branches.
He compares, I say, (1.) Himself to a vine-stock: “I am the vine.” He had been
celebrating with his disciples the sacrament of his supper, that sign and seal of his
people's union with himself; and had told them, “he would drink no more of the
fruit of the vine till he should drink it new with them in his Father's kingdom:”
and now he shows himself to be the vine from whence the wine of their consolation
should come. The vine has less beauty than many other trees, but is exceeding
fruitful; fitly representing the low condition our Lord was then in, yet bringing
many sons to glory. But that which is chiefly aimed at, in his comparing himself
to a vine, is to represent himself as the supporter and nourisher of his people, in
whom they live, and bring forth fruit. (2.) He compares them to branches: “ye
are the branches'’ of that vine: ye are the branches knit to and growing on this
stock, drawing all your life and sap from it. It is a beautiful comparison; as if he
had said, I am as a vine, ye are as the branches of that vine. Now, there are two
sorts of branches: (1.) Natural branches, which at first spring out of the stock.
These are the branches which are in the tree, and were never out of it. (2.) There
are ingrafted branches; which are branches cut off from the tree that first gave
them life, and put into another to grow upon it. Thus branches come to be on a
110 FOURFOLD STATE.
tree which originally were not on it. The branches mentioned in the text are of
the latter sort : branches broken off, as the word in the original language denotes,
namely, from the tree that first gave them life. None of the children of men are
natural branches of the second Adam, viz. Jesus Christ, the true vine; they are all
the natural branches of the first Adam, that degenerate vine: but the elect are, all
of them, sooner or later, broken off from their natural stock, and ingrafted into
Christ, the true vine.
DoCTRINE, They who are in the state of grace, are ingrafted in, and united to, the
Lord Jesus Christ. They are taken out of their natural stock, cut off from it; and
are now ingrafted into Christ, as the new stock. In handling of this, I shall speak
to the mystical union; first, More generally ; secondly, More particularly.
A general view of the mystical whicn.
I. In the general, for understanding the union betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ and
his elect, who believe in him, and on him.
First, It is a spiritual union. Man and wife, by their marriage-union, become “one
flesh;” Christ and true believers, by this union, become “one spirit,” 2 Cor. vi.
17. As one soul or spirit actuates both the head and the members in the natural
body, so the one Spirit of God dwells in Christ and the Christian; for “if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his,” Rom. viii. 9. Corporeal union is
made by contract; so the stones in a building are united: but this is an union of
another nature. Were it possible we could eat the flesh, and drink the blood of
Christ, in a corporal and carnal manner, it would profit nothing, John vi. 63. It
was not Mary's bearing him in her womb, but her believing on him, that made her
a saint; Luke xi. 27, 28, “A certain woman said unto him, Blessed is the womb
that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea, rather
blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.”
Secondly, It is a real union. Such is our weakness in our present state, so much
are we immersed in sin, that we are prone to form in our fancy an image of every
thing proposed to us; and as to whatsoever that is denied us, we are apt to suspect
it to be but a fiction, or what has no reality. But nothing is more real than what
is spiritual; as approaching nearest to the nature of him who is the fountain of all
reality, namely, God himself. We do not see with our eyes the union betwixt our
own soul and body, neither can we represent it to ourselves truly, by imagination,
as we do sensible things; yet the reality of it is not to be doubted. Faith is no
fancy, but “the substance of things hoped for,” Heb. xi. 1. Neither is the union
thereby made betwixt Christ and believers imaginary, but most real: “For we are
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones,” Eph. v. 30.
Thirdly, It is a most close and intimate union. Believers, regenerate persons,
who fiducially credit him, and rely on him, have “put on Christ,” Gal. iii. 27. If
that be not enough, he is “in them,” John xvii. 23; “is formed in them,” as the
child in the mother's belly, Gal. iv. 19. He is “the foundation,” 1 Cor. iii. 11;
they are “the lively stones” built upon him, 1 Pet. ii. 5. He is “the head,” and
they “the body,” Eph. i. 22, 23. Nay, “he liveth in them,” as their very souls
in their bodies, Gal. ii. 20. And, what is more than all this, they are one in the
|Father and the Son, as the Father is in Christ, and Christ in the Father; John xvii.
21, “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that
they also may be one in us.”
Fourthly, though it is not a mere legal union, yet it is a union sustained in law.
Christ as the cautioner, the Christian as the principal debtor, are one in the eye
of the law. When the elect had run themselves, with the rest of mankind, in debt to
the justice of God; Christ became surety for them, and paid the debt. When they
believe on him, they are united to him in a spiritual marriage-union; which takes
effect so far, that what he did and suffered for them is reckoned in law as if they
had done and suffered it themselves. Hence they are said to be “crucified with
Christ,” Gal. ii. 20; “buried with him,” Col. ii. 12; yea, “raised up together,”
namely, with Christ, “and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”
FOURFOLD STATE. 1 11
Eph. ii. 6. In which “places,” saints on earth, of whom the apostle there speaks,
cannot be said to be “sitting,” but in the way of law-reckoning.
Fifthly, It is an indissoluble union. Once in Christ, ever in him. Having taken
up his habitation in the heart, he never removes. None can untie this happy knot.
Who will dissolve this union ? Will he himself do it? No, he will not ; we have
his word for it, “I will not turn away from them,” Jer. xxxii. 40. But perhaps
the sinner will do this mischief to himself? No, he shall not ; “they shall not
depart from me,” saith their God; ibid. Can devils do it? No, unless they be
stronger than Christ, and his Father too; “Neither shall any man pluck them out
of my hand,” saith our Lord, John x. 28; “And none is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand,” ver. 29. But what say you of death, which parts husband
and wife, yea, separates the soul from the body ? will not death do it? No, the
apostle, Rom. viii. 38, 39, is “persuaded that neither death,” as terrible as it is,
“nor life,” as desirable as it is, nor devils, those evil “angels,” nor the devil's per-
secuting agents, though they be “principalities or powers” on earth, nor evil
“things present,” already lying on us, nor evil “things to come " on us, nor the
“height” of worldly felicity, nor “depth " of worldly misery, “nor any other
creature,” good or ill, “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” As death separated Christ's soul from his body, but could
not separate either his soul or body from his divine nature ; so though the saints
should be separated from their nearest relations in the world, and from all their
earthly enjoyments; yea, though their souls should be separate from their bodies,
and their bodies separate in a thousand pieces, their “bones scattered, as when one
cutteth or cleaveth wood;” yet soul and body, and every piece of the body, the
smallest dust of it, shall remain united to the Lord Christ: for even in death “they
sleep in Jesus,” 1 Thess. iv. 14; and “he keepeth all their bones,” Psal. xxxiv.
20. Union with Christ is “the grace wherein we stand ” firm and stable, “as
mount Zion, which cannot be removed.”
Lastly, It is a mysterious union. The gospel is a doctrine of mysteries. It dis-
covers to us the substantial union of the three persons in one Godhead; 1 John v.
7, “These three are one:” the hypostatical union of the divine and human natures,
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ ; 1 Tim. iii. 16, “God was manifest in the
flesh:” and the mystical union betwixt Christ and believers; “this is a great mys-
tery’’ also, Eph. v. 32. O what mysteries are here ! The head in heaven, the
members on earth, yet really united | Christ in the believer, living in him, walk-
ing in him; and the believer dwelling in God, putting on the Lord Jesus, eating his
flesh, and drinking his blood I This makes the saints a mystery to the world, yea,
a mystery to themselves.
II. I come now more particularly to speak of this union with, and ingrafting into
Jesus Christ. And, First, I shall consider the natural stock which the branches
are taken out of Secondly, The Supernatural stock they are ingrafted into.
Thirdly, What branches are cut off the old stock, and put into the new. Fourthly,
How it is done. And, Lastly, The benefits flowing from this union and ingrafting.
Of the natural and supernatural stocks, and the branches taken out of the former, and
ângrafted into the latter.
First, Let us take a view of the stock, which the branches are taken out of. The
two Adams, that is, Adam and Christ, are the two stocks; for the scripture speaks
of these two, as if there had never been more men in the world than they ; I Cor.
xv. 45, “The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made
a quickening spirit;” ver. 47, “The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second
man is the Lord from heaven.” And the reason is, there never were any that were
not branches of one of these two ; all men being either in the one stock or in the
other; for in these two sorts all mankind stands divided; ver, 48, “As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that
are heavenly.” The first Adam, then, is the natural stock: on this stock are the
branches found growing at first which are afterwards cut off, and ingrafted into
1 12 FOURFOLD STATE.
Christ. As for the fallen angels, as they had no relation to the first Adam, so they
have none to the second.
There are four things to be remembered here: (1.) That all mankind, the man
Christ excepted, are maturally branches of the first Adam ; Rom. v. 12, “By one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men.” (2.) The bond which knit us unto the natural stock was the covenant of
works. Adam, being our natural root, was made the moral root also, bearing all
his posterity, as representing them in the covenant of works. For, “by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners,” Rom. v. 19. Now, there behoved to be a
peculiar relation betwixt that one man and the many, as a foundation for imputing
his sin to them. This relation did not arise from the mere natural bond betwixt
him and us, as a father to his children; for so we are related to our immediate
parents, whose sins are not thereupon imputed to us, as Adam's sin is. It behoved
then to arise from a moral bond betwixt Adam and us; the bond of a covenant
which could be no other than the covenant of works, wherein we were united to
him as branches to a stock. Hence Jesus Christ, though a son of Adam, Luke
iii. 23, 38, was none of these branches: for seeing he came not of Adam in virtue
of the blessing of marriage, which was given before the fall, (Gen. i. 28, “Be fruit-
ful and multiply,” &c.,) but in virtue of a special promise made after the fall,
(Gen. iii. 15, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head,”) Adam
could not represent him in a covenant made before his fall. (3.) As it is impos-
sible for a branch to be on two stocks at once, so no man can be, at one and the
same time, both in the first and second Adam. (4.) Hence it evidently follows,
that all who are not ingrafted in Jesus Christ are yet branches of the old stock,
and so partake of the nature of the same. Now, as to the first Adam, our natural
stock, consider,
1. What a stock he was originally. He was a vine of the Lord's planting, a
choice vine, “a noble vine, wholly a right seed.” There was a consultation of the
Trinity at the planting of this vine ; Gen. i. 26, “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness.” There was no rottenness at the heart of it. There was sap
and juice enough in it to have nourished all the branches, to bring forth fruit unto
God. My meaning is, Adam was made able perfectly to keep the commandments
of God, which would have procured eternal life to himself and to all his posterity:
for seeing all die by Adam's disobedience, all should have had life by his obedience,
if he had stood. Consider,
2. What that stock now is. Ah! most unlike to what it was, when planted by the
author and fountain of all good. A blast from hell, and a bite with the venomous
teeth of the old serpent, have made it a degenerate stock, a dead stock, nay, a
killing stock.
(1.) It is a degenerate, naughty stock. Therefore the Lord God said to Adam,
in that dismal day, “Where art thou?” Gen. iii. 9. In what condition art thou
now? “How art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?”
Or, Where wast thou? Why not in the place of meeting with me? Why so long a-
coming? What meaneth this fearful change, this hiding of thyself from me?
Alas ! the stock is degenerate, quite spoiled, become altogether naught, and brings
forth wild grapes. Converse with the devil is preferred to communion with God.
Satan is believed, and God, who is truth itself, disbelieved. He who was the
friend of God is now in conspiracy against him. Darkness is come into the room of
light; ignorance prevails in the mind, where divine knowledge shone ; the will,
sometime righteous and regular, is now turned rebel against its Lord ; and the
whole man is in dreadful disorder.
Before I go further, let me stop and observe, Here is a mirror both for saints
and sinners. Sinners, stand here, and consider what you are : and Saints, learn
ye what once ye were. Ye, sinners, are branches of a degenerate stock. Fruit
you may bear, indeed; but now that your vine is “the vine of Sodom,” your grapes
must of course be “grapes of gall,” Deut. xxxii. 32. The scripture speaks of two
sorts of fruit which grow on the branches upon the natural stock; and it is plain
enough they are of the nature of their degenerate stock. (1.) The “wild grapes” of
wickedness, Isa. v. 2. These grow in abundance by influence from hell. See Gal.
FOUR FOLD STATE, 113
v. 19–21. At their gates are all manner of these fruits, both new and old.
Storms come from heaven to put them back, but they still grow. They are struck
at with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God ; conscience gives them many a
secret blow ; yet they thrive. (2.) “Fruit to themselves,” Hos. x. 1. What else
are all the unrenewed man’s acts of obedience, his reformation, sober deportment, his
prayers, and good works : They are all done chiefly for himself, not for the glory
of God. These fruits are like the apples of Sodom, fair to look at, but fall to ashes
when handled and tried. Ye think ye have not only the leaves of a profession, but
the fruits of a holy practice too: but if ye be not broken off from the old stock, and
ingrafted in Christ Jesus, God accepts not, nor regards your fruits.
Here I must take occasion to tell you, there are five faults will be found in
heaven with your best fruits. (i.) Their bitterness; your “clusters are bitter,”
Deut. xxxii. 32. There is a spirit of bitterness wherewith some come before the
Lord in religious duties, “living in malice and envy ;” and which some professors
entertain against others, because they outshine them by holiness of life, or because
they are not of their opinion or way. This, wheresoever it reigns, is a fearful symp-
tom of an unregenerate state. But I do not so much mean this, as that which is
common to all the branches of the old stock, namely, “the leaven of hypocrisy,”
Luke xii. 1, which sours and embitters every duty they perform. “The wisdom” that
is “full of good fruits” is “without hypocrisy,” James iii. 17. (ii.) Their ill savour.
“Their works are abominable,” for themselves are “corrupt,” Psal. xiv. 1. They
all savour of the old stock, not of the new. It is the peculiar privilege of the saints,
that they are “unto God a sweet savour of Christ,” 2 Cor. ii. 15. The unregen-
erate man's fruits savour not of love to Christ, nor of the blood of Christ, nor of
the incense of his intercession, and therefore will never be accepted of in heaven.
(iii.) Their unripeness. Their grape is “an unripe grape,” Job xv. 33. There is
no influence on them from the Sun of righteousness, to bring them to perfection.
They have the shape of fruit, but no more. The matter of duty is in them, but
they want right principles and ends: their works are not “wrought in God,” John
iii. 21. Their prayers drop from their lips, before their hearts be impregnate with
the vital sap of “the Spirit of supplication:” their tears fall from their eyes, ere
their hearts be truly softened: their feet turn to new paths, and their way is altered,
while yet their nature is not changed. (iv.) Their lightness. Being “weighed in
the balances, they are found wanting,” Dan. v. 27. For evidence whereof you may
observe, they do not humble the soul, but lift it up in pride. The good fruits of
holiness bear down the branches they grow upon, making them to salute the ground;
1 Cor. xv. 10, “I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me.” But the blasted fruits of unrenewed men's
performances hang lightly on branches towering up to heaven ; Judges xvii. 13,
“Now know I, that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.”
They look indeed so high, that God cannot behold them. “Wherefore have we fast-
ed, say they, and thou seest not ?” Isa. lviii. 3. The more duties they do, and the
better they seem to perform them, the less are they humbled, the more they are
lifted up. This disposition of the sinner is the exact reverse of what is to be found
in the saint. To men who neither are in Christ, nor are solicitous to be found in
him, their duties are like windy bladders, wherewith they think to swim ashore to
Immanuel's land: but these must needs break, and they consequently sink; because
they take not Christ for “the lifter up of their head,” Psal. iii. 3. Lastly, They
are not “all manner of pleasant fruits,” Cant. vii. 13. Christ, as a King, must be
served with variety. Where God makes the heart his garden, he plants it, as Solo-
mon did his, with “trees of all kind of fruits,” Eccl., ii. 5. And accordingly it
brings forth “the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness,” Eph. v. 9. But the ungodly
are not so: their obedience is never universal; there is always some one thing or
other excepted. In one word, their fruits are fruits of an ill tree, that cannot be
accepted in heaven.
(2.) Our natural stock is a dead stock, according to the threatening, Gen. ii. 17,
“In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Our “root” now “is rotten-
ness;” no marvel “the blossom go up as dust.” The stroke has gone to the heart, the
sap is let out, and the tree is withered. The curse of the first covenant, like a hot
P
l 14 FOUR FOLD STATE.
thunderbolt from heaven, has lighted on it, and ruined it. It is cursed now as that
fig-tree; Matt. xxi. 19, “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever.” Now it is
good for nothing, but to cumber the ground, and furnish fuel for Tophet. -
Let me enlarge a little here also. Every unrenewed man is a branch of a dead
stock. When thou seest, O sinner, a dead stock of a tree, exhausted of all its sap,
having branches on it in the same condition, look on it as a lively representation
of thy soul's state. (1.) Where the stock is dead, the branches must needs be bar-
ren. Alas! the barrenness of many professors plainly discovers on what stock they
are growing. It is easy to pretend to faith, but “show me thy faith without thy
works,” if thou canst, James ii. 18. (2.) A dead stock can convey no sap to the
branches, to make them bring forth fruit. The covenant of works was the bond of
our union with the natural stock; but now it is become “weak through the flesh,”
that is, through the degeneracy and depravity of human nature, Rom. viii. 3. It
is strong enough to command, and to bind heavy burdens on the shoulders of those
who are not in Christ, but it affords no strength to bear them. The sap that was
once in the root is now gone : and the law, like a merciless creditor, apprehends
Adam's heirs, saying, “Pay what thou owest;” when, alas ! his effects are riotously
spent. (3.) All pains and cost are lost on the tree whose life is gone. In vain
do men labour to get fruit on the branches, when there is no sap in the root. First,
The gardener's pains are lost : ministers lose their labour on the branches of the
old stock, while they continue on it. Many sermons are preached to no purpose ;
because there is no life to give sensation. Sleeping men may be awakened, but
the dead cannot be raised without a miracle: even so the dead sinner must remain
so, if he be not restored to life by a miracle of grace. Secondly, The influences of
heaven are lost on such a tree: in vain doth the rain fall upon it; in vain is it laid
open to the winter cold and frosts. The Lord of the vineyard digs about many a
dead soul, but it is not bettered. “Bruise the fool in a mortar, his folly will not
depart.” Though he meets with many crosses, yet he retains his lusts: let him be
laid on a sick-bed, he will lie there like a sick beast, groaning under his pain, but
not mourning for, nor turning from his sin. Let death itself stare him in the face,
he will presumptuously maintain his hope, as if he would look the grim messenger
out of countenance. Sometimes there are common operations of the Divine Spirit
performed on him ; he is sent home with a trembling heart, and with arrows of
conviction sticking in his soul: but at length he prevails against these things, and
turns as secure as ever. Thirdly, Summer and winter are alike to the branches
on the dead stock. When others about them are budding, blossoming, and bring-
ing forth fruit, there is no change on them : the dead stock has no growing time at
all. Perhaps it may be difficult to know, in the winter, what trees are dead, and
what are alive ; but the spring plainly discovers it. There are some seasons where-
in there is little life to be perceived, even amongst saints; yet times of reviving
come at lengeth. But even when “the vine flourisheth, and the pomegranates
bud forth;” when saving grace is discovering itself by its lively actings, wheresoever
it is; the branches on the old stock are still withered: when the dry bones are com-
ing together bone to bone, amongst saints, the sinner's bones are lying still about
the grave's mouth. They are trees that cumber the ground ; are near to be cut
down ; and will be cut down for the fire, if God in mercy prevent it not, by cutting
them off from that stock, and ingrafting them into another. • .
Lastly, Our natural stock is a killing stock. If the stock die, how can the branches
live 2 If the sap be gone from the root and heart, the branches must needs wither.
“In Adam all die,” 1 Cor. xv. 22. The root died in paradise, and all the branches
in it and with it. The root is empoisoned, thence the branches come to be infected:
“death is in the pot,” and all that taste of the pulse, or pottage, are killed.
Know, then, that every natural man is a branch of a killing stock. Our natural
root not only gives us not life, but it has a killing power, reaching all the branches
thereof. There are four things which the first Adam conveys to all his branches; and
they are abiding in, and lying on, such of them as are not ingrafted in Christ. First,
A corrupt nature. He sinned, and his nature was thereby corrupted or depraved; and
this corruption is conveyed to all his posterity. He was infected, and the contagion
spread itself over all his seed. Secondly, Guilt, that is, an obligation to punish-
FOURFOLD STATE. - I 15
ment; Rom, v. 21, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The threatenings of the
law, as cords of death, are twisted about the branches of the old stock, to draw
them over the hedge into the fire. And till they be cut off from this stock by the
pruning-knife, the sword of vengeance hangs over their heads, to cut them down. ,
Thirdly, This killing stock transmits the curse into the branches. The stock, as
the stock (for I speak not of Adam in his personal and private capacity) being
cursed, so are the branches; Gal. iii. 10, “For as many as are of the works of
the law, are under the curse.” This curse affects the whole man, and all that
belongs to him, everything he possesses; and worketh three ways. (1.) As poison,
infecting; thus their “blessings are cursed,” Mal. ii. 2. Whatever the man enjoys,
it can do him no good, but evil, being thus empoisoned by the curse. His “pros-
perity” in the world “destroys him,” Prov. i. 32. The ministry of the gospel is “a
savour of death unto death to him,” 2 Cor. ii. 16. His seeming attainments in re-
ligion are cursed to him : his knowledge serves but to puff him up, and his duties
to keep him back from Christ. (2.) It worketh as a moth, consuming and wasting
by little and little ; Hos. v. 12, “Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth.”
There is a worm at the root consuming them by degrees. Thus the curse pur-
sued Saul, till it wormed him out of all his enjoyments, and out of the very show
he had of religion. Sometimes they decay like the fat of lambs, and melt away
as the snow in a sunshine. (3.) It acteth as a lion rampant; Hos. v. 14, “I will
be unto Ephraim as a lion.” The Lord “rains on them snares, fire, and brim-
stone, and an horrible tempest,” in such a manner, that they are hurried away
with the stream. He teareth their enjoyments from them in his wrath, pursueth
them with terrors, rends their souls from their bodies, and throws the deadened
branch into the fire. Thus the curse devours like fire, which none can quench.
Lastly, This killing stock transmits death to the branches upon it. Adam took
the poisonous cup and drunk it off: this occasioned death to himself and us. We
came into the world spiritually dead, thereby obnoxious to eternal death, and ab-
solutely liable to temporal death. This root is to us like the Scythian river, which,
they say, brings forth little bladders every day, out of which come certain small
flies, which are bred in the morning, winged at noon, and dead at night: a very
lively emblem of our mortal state.
Now, Sirs, is it not absolutely necessary to be broken off from this our natural
stock? What will our fair leaves of a profession, or our fruits of duties avail, if
we be still branches of the degenerate, dead, and killing stock? But alas! among
the many questions tossed among us, few are taken up about these, Whether am I
broken off from the old stock or not ? Whether am I ingrafted in Christ or not ?
Ah! Wherefore all this waste § Why is there so much moise about religion amongst
many who can give no good account of their having laida good foundation, being mere
strangers to experimental religion ? I fear, if God do not in mercy timeously under-
mine the religion of many of us, and let us see we have none at all, our root will
be found rottenness, and our blossom go up as dust, in a dying hour. Therefore
let us look to our state, that we be not found fools in our latter end.
Secondly, Let us now view the supernatural stock in which the branches cut off
from the natural stock are ingrafted. Jesus Christ is sometimes called “The
Branch,” Zech. iii. 8. So he is in respect of his human nature; being a branch,
and the top-branch of the house of David. Sometimes he is called a “root,” Isa.
xi. 10....We have both together, Rev. xxii. 16, “I am the root, and the offspring
of David;” David's root as God, and his offspring as man. The text tells us, that
he is the vine, that is, he, as a Mediator, is the vine stock, whereof believers are
the branches. As the sap comes from the earth into the root and stock, and from
thence is diffused into the branches; so, by Christ as Mediator, divine life is conveyed
from the fountain, unto those who are united to him by faith; John vi. 57, “As
the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father ; so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me.” Now, Christ is Mediator, not as God only, as some
have asserted ; nor yet as man only, as the Papists generally hold: but he is Medi-
ator as God-man; Acts xx. 28, “The church of § which he hath purchased by
his blood;” Heb, ix. 14, “Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
1 16 - FOUR FOLD STATE.
\
without spot to God.” The divine and human natures have their distinct actings,
yet a joint operation, in his discharging the office of Mediator. This is illustrated
by the similitude of a fiery sword, which at once cuts and burns: cutting, it burn-
eth, and burning, it cutteth ; the steel cuts, and the fire burns. Wherefore Christ,
, God-man, is the stock, whereof believers are the branches; and they are united
to whole Christ. They are united to him in his human nature, as being “mem-
bers of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones,” Eph. v. 30. And they are united
to him in his divine nature; for so the apostle speaks of this union, Col. i. 27, “Christ
in you the hope of glory.” And by him they are united to the Father, and to the
Holy Ghost; 1 John iv. 15, “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of
God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” Faith, the bond of this union, re-
ceives whole Christ God-man, and so unites us to him as such.
Behold here, O believers, your high privilege. Ye were once branches of a de-
generate stock, even as others; but ye are, by grace, become branches of “the true
vine,” John xv. 1. Ye are cut off a dead and killing stock; and ingrafted in “the
last Adam, who was made a quickening spirit,” I Cor. xv. 45. Your loss by the first
Adam is made up, with great advantage, by your union with the second. Adam,
at his best estate, was but a shrub, in comparison with Christ, the tree of life. He
was but a servant: Christ is the Son, the Heir, and Lord of all things; the Lord
from heaven. It cannot be denied that grace was shown in the first covenant; but
it is as far exceeded by the grace of the second covenant, as the twilight is by the
light of mid-day. -" "
Thirdly, What branches are taken out of the natural stock and grafted into this
vine 3 Answer. These are the elect, and none other. They, and they only, are
grafted into Christ; and consequently none but they are cut off from the killing
stock. For them alone he intercedes, “that they may be one in him and his
Father,” John xvii. 9, 23. Faith, the bond of this union, is given to none else;
it is “the faith of God's elect,” Tit. i. 1. The Lord passeth by many branches
growing on the natural stock, and cuts off only here one, and there one, and grafts
them into the true vine, according as free love hath determined. Oft does he pitch
upon the most unlikely branch, leaving the top boughs; passing by the mighty and
the noble, and calling the weak, base, and despised, 1 Cor. i. 26, 27. Yea, he
often leaves the fair and smooth, and takes the rugged and knotty: “And such
were some of you; but ye are washed,” &c., 1 Cor. vi. 11. If we inquire, Why so?
we find no other reason, but because they were “chosen in him,” Eph. i. 4, “pre-
destinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ,” ver. 5. Thus are they
gathered together in Christ; while the rest are left growing on their natural stock,
to be afterwards bound up in bundles for the fire. Wherefore, to whomsoever the
gospel may come in vain, it will have a blessed effect on God's elect; Acts xiii.
48, “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Where the Lord has
much people, the gospel will have much success sooner or later. Such as are to
be saved will be added to the mystical body of Christ.
How the branches are taken out of the natural stock, and ingrafted into the super-
natural stock.
Fourthly, I am to show how the branches are cut off from the natural stock, the
first Adam, and grafted into the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks to the
Husbandman, not to the branch, that it is cut off from its natural stock, and grafted
into a new one. The sinner, in his coming off from the first stock, is passive, and
neither can nor will come off from it of his own accord, but clings to it till almighty
power make him to fall off; John vi. 44, “No man can come unto me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him ;” and chap. v. 40, “Ye will not come to
me that ye might have life.” . The ingrafted branches are “God's husbandry,”
1 Cor. iii. 9; “the planting of the Lord,” Isa. lxi. 3. The ordinary means he
makes use of in this work, is the ministry of the word; 1 Cor. iii. 9, “We are
labourers together with God.” But the efficacy thereof is wholly from him, what-
ever the minister's parts or piety be ; verse 7, “Neither is he that planteth any
thing, neither he that watereth ; but God that giveth the increase.” The
FOURFOLD STATE, 117
apostles preached to the Jews, yet the body of that people remained in infidelity ;
Rom. x. 16, “Who hath believed our report?” Yea, Christ himself, who spoke
as never man spoke, saith concerning the success of his own ministry, “I have
laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought,” Isa. xlix. 4. The branches
may be hacked by the preaching of the word; but the stroke will never go through,
till it be carried home on them by an omnipotent arm. However, God's ordinary
way is, “by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe,” 1 Cor. i. 21.
The cutting off of the branch from the natural stock is performed by the pruning-
knife of the law, in the hand of the Spirit of God; Gal. ii. 19, “For I through the
law am dead to the law.” It is by the bond of the covenant of works, as I said
before, that we are knit to our natural stock; and therefore, as a wife, unwilling
to be put away, pleads and hangs by the marriage-tie, so do men by the covenant
of works. They hold by it, like the man who held the ship with his hands; and
when one hand was cut off, held it with the other; and when both were cut off,
held it with his teeth. This will appear from a distinct view of the Lord's work on
men, in bringing them off from the old stock; which now I offer in the following
particulars. - -
1. When the Spirit of the Lord comes to deal with a person, to bring him to
Christ, he finds him in Laodicea's case, in a sound sleep of security, dreaming of
heaven, and the favour of God, though full of sin against the Holy One of Israel;
Rev. iii. 17, “Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked.” And therefore he darts in some beams of light into the dark
Soul, and lets the man see he is a lost man, if he turn not over a new leaf, and betake
himself to a new course of life. Thus, by the Spirit of the Lord acting as a spirit
of bondage, there is a criminal court erected in the man's breast: where he is ar-
raigned, accused, and condemned for breaking the law of God; “convinced of sin
and judgment,” John xvi. 8. And now he can no longer sleep securely in his former
course of life. This is the first stroke the branch gets, in order to cutting off.
2. Hereupon the man forsakes his former profane courses; his lying, swearing,
Sabbath-breaking, stealing, and such like practices; though they be dear to him
as right eyes, he will rather quit them than ruin his soul. The ship is like to sink,
and therefore he throweth his goods over-board, that he himself may not perish.
And now he begins to bless himself in his heart, and look joyfully on his evidences
for heaven, thinking himself a better servant to God than many others; Luke xviii.
11, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers,” &c. But he soon gets another stroke with the axe of the law, showing
him that it is only he that doth what is written in the law who can be saved by
it, and that his negative holiness is too scanty a cover from the storm of God’s
Wrath. And thus, although his sins of commission only were heavy on him before,
his sins of omission now crowd into his thoughts, attended with a train of law-curses
and vengeance. And each of the ten commands discharges thunder-claps of wrath
against him, for his omitting required duties.
3. Upon this he turns unto a positively holy course of life. He not only is not
profane, but he performs religious duties: he prays, seeks the knowledge of the
principles of religion, strictly observes the Lord's day, and, like Herod, “does
many things, and hears” sermons “gladly.” In one word, there is a great con-
formity in his outward conversation to the letter of both tables of the law. And
now there is a mighty change upon the man, that his neighbours cannot but take
notice of Hence he is cheerfully admitted by the godly into their society, as a
praying person ; and can confer with them about religious matters, yea, and about
soul-exercise which some are not acquainted with ; and their good opinion of him
confirms his good opinion of himself. This step in religion is fatal to many, who
never get beyond it. But here the Lord reacheth the elect branch a further stroke.
Conscience flies in the man's face for some wrong steps in his conversation, the
neglect of some duty, or commission of some sin which is a blot in his conversation:
and then the flaming sword of the law appears again over his head; and the curse
rings in his ears, for that he “continueth not in all things written in the law to
do them,” Gal. iii. 10. - - -
4. On this account he is obliged to seek another salve for his sore. He goes to
1 18 FOUR FOLD STATE.
God; confesseth his sin; seeks the pardon of it, promising to watch against it for
the time to come; and so finds ease, and thinks he may very well take it, seeing
the scripture saith, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins,” 1 John i. 9, not considering that he grasps at a privilege which is theirs only
who are grafted into Christ and under the covenant of grace, and which the branches
yet growing on the old stock cannot plead. And here sometimes there are formal
and express vows made against such and such sins, and binding to such and such
duties. Thus many go on all their days; knowing no other religion but to do duties,
and to confess, and pray for pardon of that wherein they fail, promising themselves
eternal happiness, though they are utter strangers to Christ. Here many elect ones
have been cast down wounded, and many reprobates have been slain, while the
wounds of neither of them have been deep enough to cut them off from their natural
stock. But the Spirit of the Lord gives yet a deeper stroke to the branch which
is to be cut off, showing him, that, as yet, he is but an outside saint, and discover-
ing to him the filthy lusts lodged in his heart, which he took no notice of before ;
Rom. vii. 9, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Then he
sees his heart a dunghill of hellish lusts, filled with covetousness, pride, malice,
filthiness, and the like. Now, as soon as the door of the chambers of his imagery
is thus opened to him, and he sees what they do there in the dark, his outside
religion is blown up as insufficient ; and he learns a new lesson in religion, namely,
That “he is not a Jew which is one outwardly,” Rom. ii. 28.
5. Upon this he goes further, even to inside religion; sets to work more vigorous-
ly than ever, mourns over the evils of his heart, and strives to bear down the weeds
he finds growing in that neglected garden. He labours to curb his pride and pas-
Sion, and to banish speculative impurities; prays more fervently, hears attentively,
and strives to get his heart affected in every religious duty he performs; and thus
he comes to think himself not only an outside, but an inside Christian. Wonder
not at this; for there is nothing in it beyond the power of nature, or what one may
attain to under a vigorous influence of the covenant of works: therefore another
yet deeper stroke is reached. The law chargeth home on the man's conscience,
that he was “a transgressor from the womb;” that he came into the world a guilty
creature ; and that, in the time of his ignorance, and even since his eyes were
opened, he has been guilty of many actual sins, either altogether overlooked b
him, or not sufficiently mourned over: for spiritual sores, not healed by the
blood of Christ, but skinned over some other way, are easily ruffled, and as soon
break out again... And therefore the law takes him by the throat, saying, “Pay
what thou owest.”
6. Then the sinner says in his heart, “Have patience with me, and I will pay
thee all;” and so falls to work to pacify an offended God, and to atone for these
sins. He renews his repentance, such as it is ; bears patiently the afflictions laid
upon him ; yea, he afflicts himself, denies himself the use of his lawful comforts,
sighs deeply, mourns bitterly, cries with tears for a pardon, till he hath wrought up
his heart to a conceit of having obtained it: having thus done penance for what is
past, and resolving to be a good servant to God, and to hold on in outward and in-
ward obedience, for the time to come. But the stroke must go nearer the heart
yet, ere the branch fall off. The Lord discovers to him, in the glass of the law,
how he sinneth in all he does, even when he does the best he can ; and therefore
the dreadful sound returns to his ears, Gal. iii. 10, “Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things,” &c. “When ye fasted and mourned,” saith the Lord,
“did ye at all fast unto me, even to me !” Will muddy water make clean clothes?
Will you satisfy for one sin with another ? Did not your thoughts wander in such an
act of devotion ? Were not your affections flat in another ? Did not your heart
give a whorish look to such an idol 2 And did it not rise in a fit of impatience under
such an affliction ? “Should I accept this of your hands? Cursed be the deceiver,
which sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing,” Mal. i. 13, 14. And thus he becomes
so far broke off, that he sees he is not able to satisfy the demands of the law.
7. Hence, like a broken man,” who finds he is not able to pay all his debt, he goes
about to compound with his creditor. And, being in pursuit of ease and comfort,
* i. e. a bankrupt.—ED.
FOUR FOI, D STATE, 119
he does what he can to fulfil the law ; and wherein he fails, he looks that God
will accept the will for the deed. Thus doing his duty, and having a will
to do better, he cheats himself into a persuasion of the goodness of his state ;
and hereby thousands are ruined. But the elect get another stroke, which
looseth their hold in this case. The doctrine of the law is borne in on their con-
sciences, demonstrating to them that exact and perfect obedience is required by it,
under pain of the curse ; and that it is doing, and not wishing to do, which will
avail. Wishing to do better will not answer the law's demands; and therefore the
curse sounds again, “Cursed is every one that continueth not—to do them ;” that
is, actually to do them. In vain is wishing, then.
8. Being broken off from hopes of compounding with the law, he falls a borrow-
ing. He sees that all he can do to obey the law, and all his desires to be, and to do
better, will not save his soul: therefore he goes to Christ, entreating that his right-
eousness may make up what is wanting in his own, and cover all the defects of his
doings and sufferings, that so God for Christ's sake may accept them, and there-
upon be reconciled. Thus doing what he can to fulfil the law, and looking to Christ
to make up all his defects, he comes, at length, again to sleep in a sound skin.
Many persons are ruined this way. This was the error of the Galatians, which
Paul, in his epistle to them, disputes against. But the Spirit of God breaks off
the sinner from this hold also, by bearing in on his conscience that great truth,
Gal. iii. 12, “The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in
them.” There is no mixing of the law and faith in this business: the sinner must
hold by one of them, and let the other go. The way of the law, and the way of
faith, are so far different, that it is not possible for a sinner to walk in the one, but
he must come off from the other: and if he be for doing, he must do all alone;
Christ will not do a part for him, if he do not all. A garment pieced up of sundry
sorts of righteousness is not a garment meet for the court of heaven. Thus the
man who was in a dream, and thought he was eating, is awakened by the stroke,
and behold his soul is faint : his heart sinks in him like a stone, while he finds he
can neither bear his burden himself alone, nor can he get help under it.
9. What can one do, who must needs pay, and yet neither has as much of his
own as will bring him out of debt, nor can he get as much to borrow, and to beg he
is ashamed ; what can such a one do, I say, but sell himself, as the man under the
law that was waxen poor? Lev. xxv. 47. Therefore the sinner, beat off from so
many holds, goes about to make a bargain with Christ, and to sell himself to the
Son of God ; if I may so speak, solemnly promising and vowing, that he will be a
servant to Christ, as long as he lives, if he will save his soul. And here ofttimes
the sinner makes a personal covenant with Christ, resigning himself to him on these
terms; yea, and takes the sacrament, to make the bargain sure. Hereupon the
man's great care is how to obey Christ, keep his commands, and so fulfil his bar-
gain. And in this the soul finds a false, unsound peace for a while ; till the Spirit
of the Lord fetch another stroke, to cut off the man from this refuge of lies like-
wise. And that happens in this manner. When he fails of the duties he engaged
to, and falls again into the sin he covenanted against, it is powerfully carried home
on his conscience, that his covenant is broken : so all his comfort goes, and terrors
afresh seize on his soul, as one that has broken covenant with Christ. And commonly
the man, to help himself, renews his covenant, but breaks it again as before. And
how is it possible it should be otherwise, seeing he is still upon the old stock? Thus
the Work of many, all their days, as to their souls, is nothing but a making and
breaking such covenants, over and over again.
, Objection. Some perhaps will say, “Who liveth and sinneth not? Who is there
that faileth not of the duties he has engaged to ? If you reject this way as un-
sound, who then can be saved 2’” Answer. True believers will be saved, namely, all
who do by faith take hold of God's covenant. But this kind of covenant is men's
own covenant, devised of their own heart; not God's covenant, revealed in the gos-
pel of his grace ; and the making of it is nothing else but the making of a covenant
of works with Christ, confounding the law and the gospel; a covenant he will never
subscribe to, though we should sign it with our heart's blood; Rom. iv. 14, “For
if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of
120 FOURFOLD STATE.
none effect;” ver. 16, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end
the promise might be sure to all the seed;” Chap. xi. 6, “And if by grace, then it
is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace ; but if it be of works, then it
is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work.” God's covenant is everlasting;
once in, never out of it again, and the mercies of it are “sure mercies.” But that
covenant of yours is a tottering covenant, never sure, but broken every day. It is a
mere servile covenant, giving Christ service for salvation ; but God's covenant is a
filial covenant, in which the sinner takes Christ, and his salvation freely offered,
and so becomes a son ; John i. 12, “But as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God.” And being become a son, he serves his
Father, not that the inheritance may become his, but because it is his, through
Jesus Christ. See Gal. iv. 24, and downward. To enter into that spurious cove-
nant, is to buy from Christ with money; but to take hold of God's covenant, is to
“buy of him without money and without price,” Isa. lv. 1, that is to say, to beg
of him. In that covenant men work for life; in God's covenant they come to Christ
for life, and work from life. When a person under that covenant fails in his duty,
all is gone ; the covenant must be made over again. But under God's covenant,
although the man fail in his duty, and for his failures falls under the discipline of
the covenant, and lies under the weight of it till such time as he has recourse
anew to the blood of Christ for pardon, and renew his repentance; yet all that he
trusted to for life and salvation, namely, the righteousness of Christ, still stands
entire, and the covenant remains firm. See Rom. vii. 24, 25, and viii. 1.
Now, though some men spend their lives in making and breaking such covenants
of their own ; the terror upon the breaking of them wearing weaker and weaker by
degrees, till at last it creates them little or no uneasiness: yet the man in whom
the good work is carried on, till it be accomplished in cutting him off from the old
stock, finds these covenants to be as rotten cords, broke at every touch ; and the
terror of God being thereupon redoubled on his spirit, and the waters, at every turn,
getting in unto his very soul, he is obliged to cease from catching hold of such
covenants, and to seek help some other way.
10. Therefore the man comes at length to beg at Christ's door for mercy; but
yet he is a proud beggar, standing on his personal worth. For, as the Papists
have mediators to plead for them with the one only Mediator, so the branches of
the old stock have always something to produce, which, they think, may commend
them to Christ, and engage him to take their cause in hand. They cannot think of
coming to the spiritual market without money in their hand. They are like
persons who have once had an estate of their own, but are reduced to extreme
poverty, and forced to beg. When they come to beg, they still remember their
former character; and though they have lost their substance, yet they retain much
of their former spirit: therefore they cannot think they ought to be treated as or-
dinary beggars, but deserve a particular regard; and, if that be not given them,
their spirits rise against him to whom they address themselves for supply. Thus
God gives the unhumbled sinner many common mercies, and shuts him not up in
the pit according to his deserving: but all this is nothing in his eyes. He must be
set down at the children's table, otherwise he reckons himself hardly dealt with and
wronged: for he is not yet brought so low as to think God may be “justified when
he speaketh " against him, and “clear” from all iniquity, “when he judgeth’’
him, according to his real demerit, Psal. li. 4. He thinks, perhaps, that, even be-
fore he was enlightened, he was better than many others: he considers his reforma-
tion of life, his repentance, the grief and tears his sin has cost him, his earnest,
desires after Christ, his prayers and wrestlings for mercy; and useth all these now
as bribes for mercy, laying no small weight upon them in his addresses to the throne
of grace. But here the Spirit of the Lord shoots a sheaf of arrows into the man's
heart, whereby his confidence in these things is sunk and destroyed; and instead
of thinking himself better than many, he is made to see himself worse than any.
The naughtiness of his reformation of life is discovered : his repentance appears to
him no better than the repentance of Judas; his tears like Esau’s; and his desires
after Christ to be selfish and loathsome, like theirs who sought Christ because of the
loaves, John vi. 26. His answer from God seems now to be, Away, proud beggar,
FOURFOLD STATE. 121
“how shall I put thee among the children?” He seems to look sternly on him,
for his slighting of Jesus Christ by unbelief, which is a sin he scarce discerned be-
fore. But now at length he beholds it in its crimson colours, and is pierced to the
heart, as with a thousand darts, while he sees how he has been going on blindly, sin-
ning against the remedy of sin, and, in the whole course of his life, trampling on
the blood of the Son of God. And now he is, in his own eyes, the miserable object
of law-vengeance, yea, and gospel-vengeance too. . .
11. The man, being thus far humbled, will no more plead he is “worthy for
whom Christ should do this thing;” but on the contrary, looks on himself as un-
worthy of Christ, and unworthy of the favour of God. We may compare him, in
this case, to the young man who followed Christ, “having a linen cloth cast about
his naked body; on whom when the young men laid hold, he left the linen cloth,
and fled from them naked,” Mark xiv. 51, 52. Even so the man had been follow-
ing Christ in the thin and coldrife” garment of his own personal worthiness: but by it,
even by it, which he so much trusted to, the law catcheth hold of him, to make him
prisoner; and then he is fain to leave it, and flees away naked ; yet not to Christ,
but from him. If ye now tell him, he is welcome to Christ, if he will come to him;
he is apt to say, Can such a vile and unworthy wretch as I be welcome to the holy
Jesus? If a plaster be applied to his wounded soul, it will not stick. He says,
“Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” Luke v. 8. No man needs
speak to him of his repentance, for his comfort; he can quickly espy such faults
in it as makes it naught ; nor of his tears, for he is assured they have never come
into the Lord's bottle. He disputes himself away from Christ; and concludes, now
that he has been such a slighter of Christ, and is such an unholy and vile creature, he
cannot, he will not, he ought not to come to Christ; and that he must either be in
better case, or else he will never believe. And hence he now makes his strongest
efforts to amend what was amiss in his way before ; he prays more earnestly than
ever, mourns more bitterly, strives against sin, in heart and life, more vigorously,
and watcheth more diligently, if by any means he may, at length, be fit to come to
Christ. One would think the man is well humbled now : but ah! devilish pride
lurks under the veil of all this seeming humility; like a kindly branch of the old
stock, he adheres still, and will “not submit to the righteousness of God,” Rom.
x. 3. He will not come to the market of free grace without money. He is bidden
to the marriage of the King's son, where the bridegroom himself furnisheth all the
guests with wedding-garments, stripping them of their own : but he will not come,
because he wants a wedding-garment, howbeit he is very busy making one ready.
This is sad work; and therefore he must have a deeper stroke yet, else he is ruined.
This stroke is reached him with the axe of the law, in its irritating power. Thus
the law girding the soul with cords of death, and holding it in with the rigorous
commands of obedience, under the pain of the curse; and God, in his holy and
wise conduct, withdrawing his restraining grace; corruption is irritated; lusts be-
come violent; and the more they are striven against, the more they rage, like a
furious horse checked with the bit. Then do corruptions set up their heads which
he never saw in himself before. Here ofttimes atheism, blasphemy, and, in one
word, horrible things concerning God, terrible thoughts concerning the faith, arise
in his breast; so that his heart is a very hell within him. Thus, while he is sweep-
ing the house of his heart, not yet watered with gospel-grace, those corruptions
which lay quiet before in neglected corners fly up and down in it like dust. He is
as one who is mending a dam; and while he is repairing breaches in it and strength-
ening every part of it, a mighty flood comes down, overturns his work, and drives
all away before it, as well what was newly laid as what was laid before. Read
Rom. vii. 8–10, 13. This is a stroke which goes to the heart; and by it, his hope
of getting himself more fit to come to Christ is cut off.
Lastly, Now the time is come, when the man, betwixt hope and despair, resolves to
go to Christ as he is ; and therefore, like a dying man, stretching himself just be-
fore his breath goes out, he rallies the broken forces of his soul, tries to believe,
and in some sort lays hold on Jesus Christ. And now the branch hangs on the
* i. e. wanting warmth.-ED.
Q
122 FOURFOLD STATE.
old stock by one single tack of a natural faith, produced by the natural vigour of
one's own spirit, under a most pressing necessity; Psal. lxxviii. 34, 35, “When he
slew them, then they sought him; and they returned, and inquired early after God.
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer;”
Hos. viii. 2, “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.” But the Lord,
minding to perfect his work, fetches yet another stroke, whereby the branch falls
quite off. The Spirit of God convincingly discovers to the sinner his utter inability
to do any thing that is good, and so he “dieth,” Rom. vii. 9. That voice powerfully
strikes through his soul, “How can ye believe?” John v. 44: thou canst no more
believe, than thou canst reach up thine hand to heaven, and bring Christ down from
thence. And thus at length he sees he can neither help himself by working, nor
by believing ; and having no more to hang by on the old stock, he therefore falls
off. And while he is distressed thus, seeing himself like to be swept away with the
flood of God’s wrath, and yet unable so much as to stretch forth a hand to lay hold
of a twig of the tree of life, growing on the banks of the river, he is taken up, and
ingrafted in the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ giving him the spirit of faith.
By what has been said upon this head, I design not to rack or distress tender
consciences; for though there are but few such at this day, yet God forbid I should
offend any of Christ's little ones. But, alas! a dead sleep is fallen upon this gen-
eration; they will not be awakened, let us go as near the quick as we will: and
therefore I fear there is another sort of awakening abiding this sermon-proof gen-
eration, which shall make the ears of them that hear it to tingle. However, I
would not have this to be looked upon as the sovereign God's stinted method of
breaking off sinners from the old stock: but, I assert this, as a certain truth, that
all who are in Christ have been broken off from all these several confidences; and
that they who were never broken off from them, are yet in their natural stock.
Nevertheless, if the house be pulled down, and the old foundation razed, it is all a
case, whether it was taken down stone by stone, or whether it was undermined,
and all fell down together.
Now it is that the branch is ingrafted in Jesus Christ. And as the law, in the
hand of the Spirit of God, was the instrument to cut off the branch from the
natural stock; so the gospel, in the hand of the same Spirit, is the instrument used
for ingrafting it in the supernatural stock; 1 John i. 3, “That which we have
seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us;
and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” See
Isa. lxi. 1–3. The gospel is the silver cord let down from heaven, to draw perish-
ing sinners to land. And, though the preaching of the law prepares the way of the
Lord, yet it is in the word of the gospel that Christ and a sinner meet. Now, as
in the natural grafting, the branch, being taken up, is put into the stock, and,
being put into it, takes with it, and so they are united ; even so, in the spiritual
ingrafting, Christ apprehends the sinner, and the sinner, being apprehended of
Christ, apprehends him, and so they become one, Philip. iii. 12.
1. Christ apprehends the sinner by his Spirit, and draws him to himself;
1 Cor. xii. 13, “ For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.” The same
Spirit which is in the Mediator himself he communicates to his elect in due time,
never to depart from them, but to abide in them as a principle of life. Thus he
takes hold of them by his own Spirit put into them; and so the withered branch
gets life. The soul is now in the hands of the Lord of life, and possessed by the
Spirit of life: how can it then but live? The man gets a ravishing sight of Christ's
excellency, in the glass of the gospel: he sees him a full, suitable, and willing
Saviour; and gets a heart to take him for and instead of all. The Spirit of faith
furnisheth him with feet to come to Christ, and hands to receive him. What by
nature he could not do, by grace he can, the Holy Spirit working in him the work
of faith with power. º
2. The sinner, thus apprehended, apprehends Christ by faith, and so takes
with the blessed stock; Eph. iii. 17, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by
faith.” The soul, that before tried many ways of escape, but all in vain, doth
now look again with the eye of faith, which proves the healing look. As Aaron's
rod, laid up in the tabernacle, budded, and brought forth buds, Numb. xvii. 8, so
FOUR FOLD STATE. 123
the dead branch, apprehended by the Lord of life, put into, and bound up with
the glorious quickening stock, by the Spirit of life, buds forth in actual believing
on Christ, whereby this union is completed: “We, having the same spirit of faith,
believe,” 2 Cor. iv. 13. Thus the stock and the graft are united, Christ and the
Christian are married ; faith being the soul's consent to the spiritual marriage-
covenant, which, as it is proposed in the gospel to mankind sinners indefinitely, so
it is demonstrated, attested, and brought home, to the man in particular, by the
Holy Spirit: and so he “being joined to the Lord, is one spirit with him.” Hereby
a believer lives in, and for Christ; and Christ lives in, and for the believer; Gal. ii.
20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me ;” Hos. iii. 3, “ Thou shalt not be for another man; so will I also be for
thee.” The bonds, then, of this blessed union are, the Spirit on Christ's part, and
faith on the believer's part.
Now both the souls and bodies of believers are united to Christ. “He that is
joined to the Lord is one spirit,” 1 Cor. vi. 17. The very bodies of believers have
this honour put upon them, that they are “the temples of the Holy Ghost,” ver. 19,
and “the members of Christ,” ver. 15. When they sleep in the dust, they “sleep
in Jesus,” 1 Thess. iv. 14: and it is in virtue of this union they shall be raised up
out of the dust again; Rom. viii. 11, “He shall quicken your mortal bodies, by
his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” In token of this mystical union, the church of
believers is called by the name of her Head and Husband ; 1 Cor. xii. 12, “For
as the body is one, and hath many members, so also is Christ.”
Use. From what is said, we may draw these following inferences.
1. The preaching of the law is most necessary. He that would ingraft must
needs use the Snedding-knife.* Sinners have many shifts to keep them from Christ;
many things by which they keep their hold of the natural stock: therefore they
have need to be closely pursued, and hunted out of their skulking holes and refuges
of lies.
2. Yet it is the gospel that crowns the work: “the law makes nothing perfect.”
The law lays open the wound, but it is the gospel that heals. The law “strips a
man, wounds him, and leaves him half dead ;” the gospel “binds up his wounds,
pouring in wine and oil” to heal them. By the law we are broken off; but it is
by the gospel we are taken up, and implanted in Christ.
3. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his,” Rom. viii. 9.
We are told of a monster in nature, having two bodies differently animated, as ap-
peared from contrary affections at one and the same time, but so united, that they
were served with the self-same legs. Even so, however men may cleave to Christ;
“call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel,”
Isa. xlviii. 2; and they may be bound up as branches in him, John xv. 2, by the
outward ties of Sacraments; yet if the Spirit that dwells in Christ dwell not in them,
they are not one with him. There is a great difference betwixt adhesion and in-
grafting. The ivy clasps and twists itself about the oak ; but it is not one with it,
for it still grows on its own root: so, to allude to Isa. iv. 1, many professors “take
hold” of Christ, and “eat their own bread, and wear their own apparel, only they
are called by his name.” They stay themselves upon him, but grow upon their
own root: they take him to support their hopes, but their delights are elsewhere.
4. The union betwixt Christ and his mystical members is firm and indissoluble.
Were it so that the believer only apprehended Christ, but Christ apprehended not
him, we could promise little on the stability of such an union; it might quickly be
dissolved; but as the believer apprehends Christ by faith, so Christ apprehends
him by his Spirit, and none shall pluck him out of his hand. , Did the child only
keep hold of the nurse, it might at length weary, and let go its hold, and so fail
away; but if she have her arms about the child, it is in no hazard of falling away,
even though it be not actually holding by her. So, whatever sinful intermissions
may happen in the exercise of faith; yet the union remains sure, by reason of the
constant indwelling of the Spirit. Blessed Jesus! “All his saints are in thy hand,”
Deut. xxxiii. 3. It is observed by some, that the word Abba, is the same, whether
i. e. pruning-knife. So in German, beschneiden, to prune.—ED.
)
124 FOUR FOLD STATE,
you read it forward or backward: whatever the believer's case be, the Lord is still
to him, “Abba, Father.”
Lastly, They have an unsure hold of Christ whom he has not apprehended by
his Spirit. There are many half marriages here, where the soul apprehends Christ,
but is not apprehended of him. Hence, many fall away, and never rise again:
they let go their hold of Christ, and when that is gone, all is gone. These are “the
branches in Christ, that bear no fruit, which the Husbandman taketh away,” John
xv. 2. Question. How can that be? Answer. These branches are set in the stock by
a profession, or an unsound hypocritical faith; they are bound up with it in the ex-
ternal use of the Sacraments: but the stock and they are never knit ; therefore
they cannot bear fruit. And they need not be cut off, nor broken off; they are
by the Husbandman only “taken away,” or, as the word primarily signifies, lifted
up, and so taken away, because there is nothing to hold them: they are indeed
bound up with the stock, but they have never united with it.
Question. How shall I know if I am apprehended of Christº Answer. You
may be satisfied in this inquiry, if you consider and apply these two things.
(1.) When Christ apprehends a man by his Spirit, he is so drawn, that he comes
away to Christ with his whole heart, Acts viii. 37. Our Lord's followers are like
those who followed Saul at first, “men whose hearts God had touched,” 1 Sam. x.
26. When the Spirit pours in overcoming grace, they “pour out their hearts like
water before him,” Psal. lxii. 8. They “flow” unto him like a river; Isa. ii. 2,
“All nations shall flow unto it,” namely, to “the mountain of the Lord's house.”
It denotes not only the abundance of converts, but the disposition of their souls in
coming to Christ ; they come heartily and freely, as drawn with loving-kindness,
Jer. xxxi. 3. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,” Psal. cx. 3,
that is, free, ready, open-hearted, giving themselves to thee as free-will offerings.
When the bridegroom has the bride's heart, it is a right marriage: but some give
their hand to Christ who give him not their heart. They that are only driven to
Christ by terror, will surely leave him again when that terror is gone. Terrors may
break a heart of stone, but the pieces into which it is broken still continue to be
stone: the terrors cannot soften it into a heart of flesh. Yet terror may begin the
work which love crowns. The strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire going be-
fore ; the still Small voice, in which the Lord is, may come after them. When the
blessed Jesus is seeking sinners to match with him, they are bold and perverse:
they will not speak with him, till he hath wounded them, made them captives, and
bound them with the cords of death. When this is done, then it is that he makes
love to them, and wins their hearts. The Lord tells us, Hos. ii. 16–20, that his
chosen Israel shall be married unto himself. But how will the bride's consent be
won ? Why, in the first place, he will bring her into the wilderness, as he did the
people, when he brought them out of Egypt, ver. 14. There she shall be hardly
dealt with, scorched with thirst, and bitten of serpents: and then he will speak
comfortably to her, or, as the expression is, he will speak upon her heart. The
sinner is first driven, and then drawn to Christ. It is with the soul as with Noah’s
dove : she was forced back again to the ark, because she could find nothing else to
rest upon ; but, when she did return, she would have rested on the outside of it, if
Noah had not put forth his hand and pulled her in, Gen. viii. 9. The Lord sends
the avenger of blood in pursuit of the criminal; and he, with a sad heart, leaves
his own city, and, with tears in his eyes, parts with his old acquaintances, because
he dare not stay with them, and he flees for his life to the city of refuge. This is
not at all his choice, it is forced work; necessity has no law. But when he comes
to the gates, and sees the beauty of the place, the excellency and loveliness of it
charms him ; and then he enters it with heart and good-will, saying, “This is my
rest, and here I will stay;” and, as one said in another case, “I had perished, un-
less I had perished.”
(2.) When Christ apprehends a soul, the heart is disengaged from, and turned
against sin. As, in cutting off the branch from the old stock, the great idol self is
brought down, the man is powerfully taught to deny himself; so, in the apprehend-
ing of the sinner by the Spirit, that union is dissolved which was betwixt the man
and his lusts while he was “in the flesh,” as the apostle expresses it, Rom. vii. 5.
FOURFOLD STATE. 125
His heart is loosed from them, though formerly as dear to him as the members of
his body; as his eyes, legs, or arms: and, instead of taking pleasure in them, as
sometime he did, he longs to be rid of them. When the Lord Jesus comes to a soul
in the day of converting grace, he finds it like Jerusalem in the day of her nativity,
(Ezek. xvi. 4.) with its navel not cut, drawing its fulsome nourishment and satis-
faction from its lusts; but he cuts off this communication, that he may set the soul
on the breasts of his own consolations, and give it rest in himself. And thus the
Lord wounds the head and heart of sin, and the soul comes to him, saying, “Surel
our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit,” Jer.
xvi. 19.
Of the benefits flowing to true believers from their union with Christ.
Fifthly and lastly, I come to speak of the benefits flowing to true believers from
their union with Christ. The chief of the particular benefits believers have by it,
are justification, peace, adoption, sanctification, growth in grace, fruitfulness in good
works, acceptance of these good works, establishment in a state of grace, support,
and a special conduct of providence about them. As for communion with Christ,
it is such a benefit, as, being the immediate consequent of union with him, compre-
hends all the rest as mediate ones. For look, as the branch, immediately upon its
union with the stock, hath communion with the stock in all that is in it, so the be-
liever, uniting with Christ, hath communion with him; in which he launcheth forth
into an ocean of happiness, is led into a paradise of pleasures, and has a saving in-
terest in the treasure hid in the field of the gospel, “the unsearchable riches of
Christ.” As soon as the believer is united to Christ, Christ himself, in whom all
fulness dwells, is his ; Cant. ii. 16, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” And,
“how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” Rom. viii. 32. “Whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or
things to come, all are yours,” 1 Cor. iii. 22. Thus communion with Christ is the
great comprehensive blessing necessarily flowing from our union with him. Let us
now consider the particular benefits flowing from it, before mentioned.
1. The first particular benefit that a sinner hath by his union with Christ is justi-
fication; for, being united to Christ, he hath communion with him in his righteous-
ness; 1 Cor. i. 30, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom and righteousness.” He stands no more condemned, but justified before
God, as being in Christ; Rom. viii. 1, “There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus.” The branches hereof are, pardon of sin and
personal acceptance.
(1.) His sins are pardoned, the guilt of them is removed. The bond obliging
him to pay his debt is cancelled. God the Father takes the pen, dips it in the
blood of his Son, crosseth the sinner's accounts, and blotteth them out of his debt-
book. The sinner out of Christ is bound over to the wrath of God: he is under
an obligation in law to go to the prison of hell, and there to lie till he has paid the
utmost farthing. This ariseth from the terrible sanction with which the law is
fenced, which is no less than death, Gen. ii. 17. So that the sinner, passing the
bounds assigned him, is, as Shimei in another case, a man of death, 1 Kings ii. 42.
, But now, being united to Christ, God saith, “Deliver him from going down to the
pit ; I have found a ransom,” Job xxxiii. 24. The sentence of condemnation is
reversed; the believer is absolved, and set beyond the reach of the condemning
law. His sins, which sometimes were “set before the Lord,” Psal. xc. 8, so that
they could not be hid, God now takes and “casts them all behind his back,” Isa.
xxxvii. 17. . Yea, he “casts them into the depths of the sea,” Micah vii. 19. What
falls into a brook may be got up again ; but what is cast into the sea cannot be
recovered. Ay, but there are some shallow places in the sea: true, but their sins
are not cast in there, but “into the depths of the Sea ;” and the depths of the sea
are devouring depths, from whence they shall never come forth again. But what
if they do not sink? He will cast them in with force, so that they shall go to the
ground, and “sink as lead in the mighty waters” of the Redeemer's blood. They
are not only forgiven, but forgotten; Jer. xxxi. 34, “I will forgive their iniquity,
- 126 FOUR FOLD STATE.
and I will remember their sin no more.” And though their after-sins do in them-
selves deserve eternal wrath, and do actually make them liable to temporal strokes
and fatherly chastisements, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, Psal.
lxxxix. 30—33, yet they can never be actually liable to eternal wrath, or the curse
of the law ; for they are “dead to the law "in Christ, Rom. vii. 4. And they can
never fall from their union with Christ ; nor can they be in Christ, and yet under
condemnation; Rom. viii. 1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus.” This is an inference drawn from that doctrine of the
believer's being dead to the law, delivered by the apostle, chap. vii. 1–6, as is
clear from the 2d, 3d, and 4th verses of this eighth chapter. And in this respect
the justified man is “the blessed man, unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,”
Psal. xxxii. 2; as one who has no design to charge a debt on another, sets it not down
in his count-book. •
(2.) The believer is accepted as righteous in God's sight, 2 Cor. v. 21 ; for he is
“found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,” Phil. iii. 9. He could
never be accepted of God as righteous upon the account of his own righteousness:
because, at best, it is but imperfect; and all righteousness, properly so called,
which will abide a trial before the throne of God, is perfect. The very name of it
implies perfection: for unless a work be perfectly conform to the law, it is not right,
but wrong; and so cannot make a man righteous before God, whose judgment is ac-
cording to truth. Yet if justice demand a righteousness of one that is in Christ,
upon which he may be accounted righteous before the Lord, “surely shall such an
one say, In the Lord have I righteousness,” Isa. xlv. 24. The law is fulfilled, its
commands are obeyed, its sanction is satisfied. The believer's cautioner has paid
the debt. “It was exacted, and he answered for it.”
Thus the person united to Christ is justified. You may conceive of the whole
proceeding herein in this manner. The avenger of blood pursuing the criminal,
Christ, as the Saviour of lost sinners, doth, by the Spirit, apprehend him, and draw
him to himself; and he by faith lays hold on Christ: so “the Lord our righteous-
ness” and the unrighteous creature unite. From this union with Christ results a
communion with him in his unsearchable riches, and consequently in his righteous-
ness, that “white raiment" which he has for clothing of the naked, Rev. iii. 18.
Thus the righteousness of Christ becomes his: and because it is his by unquestionable
title, it is imputed to him; it is reckoned his in the judgment of God, which is always
according to the truth of the thing. And so the believing sinner having a righteous-
ness which fully answers the demands of the law, he is pardoned and accepted as right-
eous. See Isa. xlv. 22, 24, 25; Rom. iii. 24; and chap. v. 1. Now he is a free man.
“Who shall lay anything to the charge " of those whom God justifieth ? Canjustice lay
anything to their charge 2 No, for it is satisfied. Can the law? No, for it has got all its
demands of them in Jesus Christ ; Gal. ii. 20, “I am crucified with Christ.” What
can the law require more, after it has wounded their head, poured in wrath in full
measure into their soul, and cut off their life, and brought it into the dust of death,
in so far as it has done all this to Jesus Christ, who is their “head,” Eph. i. 22,
their “soul,” Acts ii. 25, 27, and their “life 3’ Col. iii. 4. What is become of
the sinner's own handwriting, which would prove the debt upon him ? Christ has
“blotted it out,” Col. ii. 14. But, it may be, justice may get its eye upon it again.
No, he “took it out of the way.” But, O that it had been torn in pieces ! may
the sinner say. Yea, so it is ; the nails that pierced Christ's hands and feet are
driven through it; he “nailed it.” But what if the torn pieces be set together
again? That cannot be ; for he “nailed it to his cross,” and his cross was buried
with him, but will never rise more, seeing Christ “dieth no more.” Where is the
face-covering that was upon the condemned man 2 Christ has destroyed it, Isa. xxv.
7. Where is death, that stood before the sinner with a grim face, and an open
mouth, ready to devour him 2 Christ has “swallowed it up in victory,” verse 8.
Glory, glory, glory to him that thus “loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood!”
The second benefit flowing from the same spring of union with Christ, and com-
ing by the way of justification, is peace; peace with God, and peace of conscience,
FOURFOLD STATE. 127
according to the measure of the sense the justified have of their peace with God;
Rom. v. 1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God;” chap.
xiv. 17, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Whereas God was their enemy before, now
he is reconciled to them in Christ : they are in a covenant of peace with him ; and
as Abraham was, so they are the friends of God. He is well pleased with them
in his beloved Son. His word, which spoke terror to them formerly, now speaks
peace, if they rightly take up its language. And there is love in all his dispensa-
tions towards them, which makes all work together for their good. Their
consciences are purged of that guilt and filthiness that sometime lay upon them :
his conscience-purifying blood streams through their souls, by virtue of their union
with him ; Heb. ix. 14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your
conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?” The bonds laid on their
consciences by the Spirit of God, acting as the spirit of bondage, are taken off,
never more to be laid on by that hand ; Rom. viii. 15, “For ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again, to fear.” Hereby the conscience is quieted, as soon
as the soul becomes conscious of the application of that blood ; which falls out
sooner or later, according to the measure of faith, and as the only wise God sees
meet to time it. Unbelievers may have troubled consciences, which they may
get quieted again : but alas ! their consciences become peaceable ere they be-
come pure ; so their peace is but the seed of greater horror and confusion. Care-
lessness may give ease for a while to a sick conscience : men neglecting its wounds,
they close again of their own accord, before the filthy matter is purged out. Many
bury their guilt in the grave of an ill memory : conscience smarts a little ; at
length the man forgets his sin, and there is an end of it ; but that is only an ease
before death. Business, or the affairs of life, often give ease in this case. When
Cain is banished from the presence of the Lord, he falls a building of cities. When
the evil spirit came upon Saul, he calls not for his bible, nor for the priests to con-
verse with him about his case ; but for music, to play it away. So many, when
their consciences begin to be uneasy, they fill their heads and hands with business,
to divert themselves, and to regain ease at any rate. Yea, some will sin over the
belly of their convictions, and so get some ease to their consciences, as Hazael gave
to his master, by stifling him. Again, the performing of duties may give some ease
to a disquieted conscience: and this is all that legal professors have recourse to for
quieting of their consciences. When conscience is wounded, they will pray, con-
fess, mourn, and resolve to do so no more ; and so they become whole again, with-
out an application of the blood of Christ by faith. But they whose consciences are
rightly quieted come for peace and purging to the blood of sprinkling. Sin is a
sweet morsel, that makes God's elect sick souls, ere they get it vomited up. It
leaves a sting behind it, which, some one time or other, will create them no little
3,111.
Elihu shows us both the case and cure, Job xxxiii. Behold the case one may be
in whom God has thoughts of love to. He darteth convictions into his conscience,
and makes them stick so fast, that he cannot rid himself of them ; ver, 16, “He
openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.” His very body sickens;
verse 19, “He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his
bones with strong pain.” He loseth his stomach ; ver, 20, “His life abhorreth
bread, and his soul dainty meat.” His body pines aways so that there is nothing
on him but skin and bone; ver. 21, “His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot
be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.” Though he is not prepared
for death, he has no hopes of life ; ver, 22, “His soul draweth near unto the grave,
and” (which is the height of his misery) “his life to the destroyers.” He is look-
ing every moment when devils, those destroyers, Rev. ix. 11, those murderers or
man-slayers, John viii. 44, will come and carry away his soul to hell. O dreadful
case ! yet there is hope. God designs to “keep back his soul from the pit,” ver,
18, although he bring him forward to the brink of it. Now, see how the sick man
is cured. The physician's art cannot prevail here : the disease lies more inward
than that his medicines can reach it. It is soul-trouble that has brought the body
into this disorder, and therefore the remedies must be applied to the sick man's
128 FOURFOLD STATE.
soul and conscience. The physician for this case must be a spiritual physician;
the remedies must be spiritual, a righteousness, a ransom, or atonement. Upon
the application of these, the soul is cured, the conscience is quieted, and the body
recovers; verses 23–26, “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter,
one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness; then he is gracious unto
him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.
His flesh shall be fresher than a child's ; he shall return to the days of his youth.
He shall pray unto God, and he shall be favourable unto him, and he shall see his
face with joy.” The proper physician for this patient, is “a messenger,” “an inter-
preter,” verse 23; that is, as some expositors, not without ground, understand it, the
great Physician, Jesus Christ, whom Job had called his Redeemer, chap. xix. 25.
He is a “messenger,” the messenger of “the covenant of peace,” Mal. iii. 1, who
comes seasonably to the sick man. He is an “interpreter,” the great interpreter
of God's counsels of love to sinners, John i. 18; “one among a thousand,” even
“the chief among ten thousand,” Cant. v. 10; “one chosen out of the people,”
Psal. lxxxix. 19; one to whom “the Lord hath given the tongue of the learned, to
speak a word in season to him that is weary,” Isa. l. 4–6. It is he that is “with
him,” by his Spirit, now, to “convince him of righteousness,” John xvi. 8 ; as he
was with him before, to “convince him of sin and of judgment.” His work now is,
to “show unto him his uprightness,” or his righteousness, that is, the interpreter
Christ's righteousness; which is the only righteousness, arising from the paying
of a ransom, and upon which a sinner is “delivered from going down to the pit,”
verse 24. And thus Christ is said to “declare God’s name,” Psal. xxii. 22, and
to “preach righteousness,” Psal. xl. 9. The phrase is remarkable: it is not, to
show unto the man, but unto man, his righteousness; which not obscurely intimates,
that he is more than aman who shows or declareth this righteousness. Compare Amos
iv. 13, “He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto
man what is his thought.” There seems to be in it a sweet allusion to the first de-
claration of this righteousness unto man, or, as the word is, unto Adam, after the
fall, while he lay under terror from apprehensions of the wrath of God; which
declaration was made by the messenger, the interpreter, namely, the eternal Word,
the Son of God, called the voice of the Lord God, Gen. iii. 8, and by him appear-
ing, probably, in human shape. Now, while he, by his Spirit, is the preacher of
righteousness to the man, it is supposed the man lays hold on the offered righteous-
ness: whereupon the ransom is applied to him, and he is delivered from going down
to the pit; for God hath a ransom for him. This is intimated to him : “God
saith, Deliver him,” verse 24. Hereupon his conscience, being purged by the
blood of atonement, is pacified, and sweetly quieted : “He shall pray unto God,
and see his face with joy,” which before he beheld with horror, verse 26; that is,
in New Testament language, “having an high priest over the house of God,” he
shall “draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having his heart
sprinkled from an evil conscience,” Heb. x. 21, 22. But then, what becomes of
the body, the weak and weary flesh 2 Why, “his flesh shall be fresher than a child's,
he shall return to the days of his youth,” verse 25. Yea, “all his bones” (which
were “chastened with strong pain,” verse 19.) “shall say, Lord, who is like unto
thee?” Psal. xxxv. 10. -
3. A third benefit flowing from union with Christ is adoption. Believers being
united to Christ, become children of God, and members of the family of heaven.
By their union with him who is the Son of God by nature, they become the sons
of God by grace, John i. 12. As when a branch is cut off from one tree, and
grafted in the branch of another, the ingrafted branch, by means of its union with
the adopting branch (as some not unfitly have called it), is made a branch of the
same stock with that into which it is ingrafted ; so sinners being ingrafted into
Jesus Christ, “whose name is the Branch,” his Father is their Father, his God
their God, John xx. 17. And thus they who are by nature children of the devil,
become children of God. They have “the Spirit of adoption,” Rom. viii. 15, namely,
“the Spirit of his Son,” which brings them to God, as children to a Father, to pour
out their complaints in his bosom, and to seek necessary supply; Gal. iv. 6, “Be-
cause ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, cry-
FOUR FOLD STATE. 129
ing, Abba, Father.” Under all their weaknesses they have fatherly pity and com-
passion shown them; Psal. ciii. 13, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Although they were but foundlings, “found in
a desert land;” yet now that to them belongs the adoption, “he keeps them as
the apple of his eye,” Deut. xxxii. 10. Whosoever pursue them, they have a re-
fuge ; Prov. xiv. 26, “His children shall have a place of refuge.” In a time of
common calamity, they have chambers of protection, where they may be “hid,
until the indignation be overpast,” Isa. xxvi. 20. And he is not only their refuge
for protection, but their portion for provision in that refuge ; Psal. cxlii. 5, “Thou
art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living.” They are provided for,
for eternity; Heb. xi. 16, “He hath prepared for them a city.” And what he sees
they have need of for time they shall not want; Matt. vi. 31, 32, “Take no thought,
saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be
clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”
Seasonable correction is likewise their privilege as sons: so they are not suffered
to pass with their faults, as happens to others who are not children, but servants
of the family, and will be turned out of doors for their miscarriages at length; Heb.
xii. 7, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what
son is he whom the Father chasteneth not ?” They are heirs of, and shall inherit
the promises, Heb. vi. 12. Nay, they are “heirs of God,” who himself is “the
portion of their inheritance,” Psal. xvi. 5, and “joint-heirs with Christ,” Rom. viii.
17. And because they are the children of the great King, and young heirs of
glory, they have angels for their attendants, who are “sent forth to minister for
them that shall be heirs of Salvation,” Heb. i. 14.
4. A fourth benefit is sanctification; 1 Cor. i. 30, “But of him are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification.”
Being united to Christ, they partake of his Spirit, which is “the Spirit of holi-
ness.” There is a fulness of the Spirit in Christ: and it is not like the fulness of
a vessel which only retains what is poured into it; but it is the fulness of a fountain
for diffusion and communication, which is always sending forth its waters, and yet
is always full. The Spirit of Christ, that spiritual sap which is in the stock, and
from thence is communicated to the branches, is “the Spirit of grace,” Zech. xii.
10. And where the Spirit of grace dwells, there will be found a complication of
all graces. Holiness is not one grace only, but all the graces of the Spirit: it is a
constellation of graces: it is all the graces in their seed and root. And as the sap
conveyed from the stock into the branch goes through it, and through every part
of it; so the Spirit of Christ sanctifies the whole man. The poison of sin was dif-
fused through the “whole spirit, soul, and body” of the man; and sanctifying grace
pursues it into every corner, 1 Thess. v. 23. Every part of the man is sanctified,
though no part is perfectly so. The truth we are sanctified by is not held in the
head, as in a prison ; but runs, with its sanctifying influences, through heart and
life. There are indeed some graces, in every believer, which appear as top-branches
above the rest ; as meekness in Moses, patience in Job: but seeing there is, in
every child of God, a holy principle going along with the holy law in all the parts
thereof, loving, liking, and approving of it; as appears from their universal respect
to the commands of God; it is evident they are endowed with all the graces of the
Spirit; because there can be no less in the effect than there was in the cause.
Now, this sanctifying Spirit, whereof believers partake, is unto them, (1.) A
spirit of mortification: “through the Spirit they mortify the deeds of the body,”
Rom. viii. 13. , Sin is “crucified ” in them, Gal. v. 24. They are “planted to-
gether,” namely, with Christ, “in the likeness of his death,” which was a lingering
death, Rom. vi. 5; , Sin in the saint, though not quite dead, yet is dying. If it
were dead, it would be taken down from the cross, and buried out of his sight; but
it hangs there as yet, working and struggling under its mortal wounds. Look, as
when a tree has got such a stroke as reaches the heart of it, all the leaves and
branches thereof begin to fade and decay; so, when the sanctifying Spirit comes,
and breaks the power of sin, there is a gradual ceasing from it, and dying to it, in
the whole man, so that “he no longer lives in the flesh to the lusts of men.” He does
not make sin his trade and business; it is not his great design to seek himself, and
R
130 FOURFOLD STATE.
to satisfy his corrupt inclinations; but he is for Immanuel's land, and is walking
in the highway to it, the way which is called “the way of holiness;” though the
wind from hell, that was on his back before, blows now full in his face, makes his
travelling uneasy, and often drives him, off the highway. (2.) This Spirit is a
Spirit of vivification to them; for he is “the Spirit of life;” and makes them
“live unto righteousness;” Ezek. xxxvi. 27, “And I will put my Spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes.” Those that “have been planted together
with Christ, in the likeness of his death, shall be also in the likeness of his resurrec-
tion,” Rom. vi. 5. At Christ's resurrection, when his soul was reunited with his
body, every member of that blessed body was enabled again to perform the actions
of life: so, the soul, being influenced by the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, is enabled
more and more to perform all the actions of spiritual life. And as the whole of
the law, and not some scraps of it only, is written on the holy heart; so believers
are enabled to transcribe the law in their conversation. And although they cannot
write one line of it without blots; yet God, for Christ's sake, accepts of the per-
formances, in point of sanctification; they being disciples of his own Son, and led
by his own Spirit.
This sanctifying Spirit, communicated by the Lord Jesus to his members, is the
spiritual nourishment the branches have from the stock into which they are in-
grafted ; whereby the life of grace, given them in regeneration, is preserved, con-
tinued, and actuated. It is the nourishment whereby the new creature liveth, and
is nourished up towards perfection. Spiritual life needs to be fed, and must have
supply of nourishment; and believers derive the same from Christ their head, whom
the Father has constituted the head of influences, to all his members'; Col. ii. 19,
“And not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having
‘nourishment ministered,” or supplied, &c. Now this supply is “the supply of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ,” Phil. i. 19. The saints feed richly, eating Christ's flesh
and drinking his blood for their spiritual nourishment; yet our Lord himself teach-
eth us, that “it is the Spirit that quickeneth,” even that Spirit that dwells in that
blessed body, John vi. 63. The human nature is united to the divine nature in
the person of the Son, and so, (like the bowl in Zechariah's candlestick, Zech. iv.,)
lies at the fountain-head, as the glorious means of conveyance of influences from
the fountain of the Deity; and receives not “the Spirit by measure,” but ever
hath a fulness of the Spirit by reason of that personal union. Hence, believers
being united to the man Christ, (as the seven lamps to the bowl by their seven pipes,
Zech. iv. 2,) “his flesh is ” to them “meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed;”
for feeding on that blessed body, that is, effectually applying Christ to their souls
by faith, they partake more and more of that Spirit who dwelleth therein, to their
spiritual nourishment. The holiness of God could never admit of an immediate
union with the sinful creature, nor, consequently, an immediate communion with
it ; yet the creature could not live the life of grace, without communion with the
fountain of life. Therefore, that the honour of God’s holiness, and the salvation of
sinners, might jointly be provided for, the second person of the glorious Trinity
took into a personal union with himself a sinless human nature; that so his “holy,
harmless, and undefiled” humanity might immediately receive a fulness of the
Spirit, of which he might communicate to his members, by his divine power and
efficacy. And likeas, if there were a tree, having its root in the earth, and its
branches reaching to heaven, the vast distance betwixt the root and the branches
would not interrupt the communication betwixt the root and the top branch; even
so the distance betwixt the man Christ, who is in heaven, and his members, who
are on earth, cannot hinder the communication betwixt them. What though the
parts of mystical Christ, namely, the head and the members, are not contiguous,
as joined together in the way of a corporal union ? The union is not therefore the
less real and effectual. Yea, our Lord himself shows us, that albeit we should eat
his flesh in a corporal and carnal manner, yet it would profit nothing, John vi. 63,
we would not be one whit holier thereby. But the members of Christ on earth are
united to their head in heaven, by the invisible bond of the self-same Spirit dwell-
ing in both ; in him as the head, and in them as the members: even as the wheels
in Ezekiel's vision were not contiguous to the living creatures, yet were united to
FOURFOLD STATE. 13 I
them by an invisible bond of one spirit in both ; so that, “when the living crea-
tures went, the wheels went by them, and when the living creatures were lift up
from the earth, the wheels were lift up,” Ezek. i. 19. “For,” says the prophet,
“the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels,” ver. 20.
Hence we may see the difference betwixt true sanctification, and that shadow of
it which is to be found amongst some strict professors of Christianity who yet are
not true Christians, are not regenerate by the Spirit of Christ, and is of the same
kind with what has appeared in many sober heathens. True sanctification is the
result of the soul's union with the holy Jesus, the first and immediate receptacle of
the sanctifying Spirit; out of whose fulness, his members do, by virtue of their
union with him, receive sanctifying influences. The other is the mere product of
the man's own spirit, which, whatever it has or seems to have of the matter of true
holiness, yet does not arise from the supernatural principles, nor to the high aims
and ends thereof; for, as it comes from self, so it runs out into the dead sea of
self again, and lies as wide of true holiness, as nature doth of grace. They
who have this bastard holiness are like common boatmen, who serve them-
selves with their own oars; whereas the ship bound for Immanuel's land sails
by the blowings of the divine Spirit. How is it possible there should be true
sanctification without Christ 2 Can there be true sanctification without partak-
ing of the Spirit of holiness? Can we partake of that Spirit but by Jesus Christ,
“the way, the truth, and the life 2'' The falling dew shall as soon make its
way through the flinty rock, as influences of grace shall come from God to sin-
ners, any other way, but through him whom the Father has constituted the head
of influences; Col. i. 19, “For it pleased the Father, that in him should all ful-
ness dwell;” and chap. ii. 19, “And not holding the head, from which all the body,
by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth
with the increase of God.” Hence see, how it comes to pass, that many fall away
from their seeming sanctification, and never recover; it is because they are not
branches truly knit to the true vine. Meanwhile, others recover from their decays,
because of their union with the life-giving stock, by the quickening Spirit; 1 John
ii. 19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of
us, they would no doubt have continued with us.”
5. A fifth benefit is growth in grace. “Having nourishment ministered, they in-
crease with the increase of God,” Col. ii. 19; “The righteous shall flourish like
the palm tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon,” Psal. xcii. 12. Grace is
of a growing nature ; in the way to Zion they “go from strength to strength.”
Though the holy man be at first a little child in grace, yet at length he becomes
“a young man,” a “father,” 1 John ii. 13. Though he does but creep in the way
to heaven sometimes; yet afterwards he walks, he runs, he “mounts up with wings
as eagles,”. Isa. xl. 31... If a branch grafted into a stock never grows, it is a plain
evidence of its not having knit with the stock.
But some may perhaps say, If all true Christians be growing ones, what shall
be said of those who, instead of growing, are going back? I answer, First, there is a
great difference betwixt the Christian's growing simply, and his growing at all times.
All true Christians do grow, but I do not say they grow at all times. A tree that
has life and nourishment grows to its perfection, yet it is not always growing; it
grows not in the winter. Christians also have their winters, wherein the influences
of grace, necessary for growth, are ceased; Cant. v. 2, “I sleep.” It is by faith
the believer derives gracious influences from Jesus Christ; likeas each lamp in the
candlestick received oil from the bowl, by the pipe going betwixt them, Zech.
iv. 2. Now, if that pipe be stopped, if the saint's faith lie dormant and inactive,
then all the rest of the graces will become dim, and seem ready to be extinguished;
in consequence whereof, depraved nature will gather strength, and become active.
What then will become of the soul? Why, there is still one sure ground of hope. The
saint's faith is not, as the hypocrite's, like a pipe laid short of the fountain, whereby
there can be no conveyance ; it still remains a bond of union betwixt Christ and
the soul; and therefore, “because Christ lives,” the believer “shall live also,”
John xiv. 19. The Lord Jesus “puts in his hand by the hole of the door,” and
clears the means of conveyance ; and then influences for growth flow, and the believer's
132 FOURFOLD STATE.
graces look fresh and green again; Hos. xiv. 7, “They that dwell under his shadow
shall return: they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.” In the worst
of times, the saints have a principle of growth in them ; 1 John iii. 9, “His seed
remaineth in him.” And therefore, after decays, they revive again ; namely,
when the winter is over, and the Sun of righteousness returns to them with his
warm influences. Mud thrown into a pool may lie there at ease ; but if be it cast
into a fountain, the spring will at length work it out, and run clear as formerly.
Secondly, Christians may mistake their growth, and that two ways. (1.) By judg-
ing of their case according to their present feeling. They observe themselves, and
cannot perceive themselves to be growing ; but there is no reason thence to con-
clude they are not growing; Mark iv. 27, “The seed springs and grows up, he
knoweth not how.” Should one fix his eye never so steadfastly on the sun running
his race, or on a growing tree ; he would not perceive the Sun moving, nor the tree
growing; but if he compared the tree as it now is with what it was some years ago,
and consider the place of the heavens where the sun was in the morning, he will
certainly perceive the tree has grown, and the sun has moved. In like manner
may the Christian know, whether he be in a growing or declining state, by com-
paring his present with his former condition. (2) Christians may mistake their
case by measuring their growth by the advances of the top only, not of the root.
Though a man be not growing taller, he may be growing stronger. If a tree be
taking with the ground, fixing itself in the earth, and spreading out its roots; it is
certainly growing, although it be nothing taller than formerly. So albeit the Chris-
tian may want the sweet consolation, and flashes of affection, which sometimes he
has had ; yet if he be growing in humility, self-denial, and sense of needy depen-
dence on Jesus Christ, he is a growing Christian ; Hos. xiv. 5, “I will be as the
dew unto Israel, he shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”
Question. But do hypocrites grow at all? And if so, how shall we distinguish
betwixt their growth, and true Christian growth? Answer. To the first part of
the question ; hypocrites do grow. The tares have their growth, as well as
the wheat: and “the seed that fell among thorns did spring up,” Luke viii. 7;
only “it did bring no fruit to perfection,” verse 14, Yea, a true Christian may
have a false growth. James and John seemed to grow in the grace of holy zeal,
when their spirits grew so hot in the cause of Christ that they would have fired
whole villages, for not receiving their Lord and Master; Luke ix. 54, “They said,
Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them,
even as Elias did?” But it was indeed no such thing; and therefore he rebuked
them, verse 55, “and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.” To
the second part of the question, it is answered, that there is a peculiar beauty
in true Christian growth, distinguishing it from all false growth ; it is uni-
versal, regular, proportionable. It is a “growing up into him in all things which
is the head,” Eph. iv. 15. The growing Christian grows proportionably in all
the parts of the new man. Under the kindly influences of the Sun of righteous-
ness, believers “grow up as calves of the stall,” Mal. iv. 2. Ye would think it
a monstrous growth in these creatures, if ye saw their heads grow, and not their
bodies; or if ye saw one leg grow, and another not ; if all the parts do not
grow proportionably. Ay, but such is the growth of many in religion. They grow
like rickety children, who have a big head but a slender body; they get more
, knowledge into their heads, but no more holiness into their hearts and lives. They
grow very hot outwardly, but very cold inwardly ; like men in a fit of the ague.
They are more taken up about the externals of religion than formerly; yet as great
strangers to the power of godliness as ever. If a garden is watered with the hand,
Some of the plants will readily get much, some little, and some no water at all ;
and therefore some wither, while others are coming forward: but after a shower
from the clouds, all come forward together. In like manner, all the graces of the
Spirit grow proportionably, by the special influences of divine grace. The branches
ingrafted in Christ, growing aright, do grow in all the several ways of growth at
once. They grow inward, growing into Christ, (Eph. iv. 15,) uniting more closely
with him, and cleaving more firmly to him, as the head of influences, which is the
spring of all other true Christian growth. They grow outward, in good works, in
FOURFOLD STATE. 133
their life and conversation. They not only, with Naphtali, “give goodly words;”
but, like Joseph, they are “fruitful boughs.” They grow upward in heavenly-
mindedness, and contempt of the world; for their “conversation is in heaven,”
Phil. iii. 20. And finally, they grow downward in humility and self-loathing. The
branches of the largest growth in Christ are, in their own eyes, “less than the least
of all saints,” Eph. iii. 8; “the chief of sinners,” 1 Tim. i. 15 ; “more brutish
than any man,” Prov. xxx. 2. They see they can do nothing, no, not so much as
“to think any thing, as of themselves,” 2 Cor. iii. 5; that they deserve nothing,
being “not worthy of the least of all the mercies showed unto them,” Gen. xxxii.
10; and that they “are nothing,” 2 Cor. xii. 11.
6. A sixth benefit is fruitfulness. The branch ingrafted into Christ is not barren,
but brings forth fruit; John xv. 5, “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit.” For that very end are souls married to Christ, that
they may “bring forth fruit unto God,” Rom. vii. 4. They may be branches in
Christ by profession, but not by real implantation, that are barren branches. Who-
soever are united to Christ bring forth the fruit of gospel-obedience, and true holi-
ness. Faith is always followed with good works. The believer is not only come
out of the grave of his natural state ; but he has put off his grave-clothes, namely,
reigning lusts, “in the which he walked sometime” like a ghost, being “dead while
he lived in them,” Col. iii, 7, 8. For Christ has said of him as of Lazarus, “Loose
him, and let him go.” And now that he has put on Christ, he personates him, so
to speak, as a beggar, in borrowed robes, represents a king on the stage; “walking
as he also walked.” Now “the fruit of the Spirit” in him “is in all goodness,”
Eph. v. 9. The fruits of holiness will be found in the hearts, lips, and lives of those
who are united to Christ. The hidden man of the heart is not only a temple built
for God, and consecrated to him, but used and employed for him; where love, fear,
trust, and all the other parts of unseen religion are exercised ; Phil. iii. 3, “For
we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit.” The heart is no more
the devil's common, where thoughts go free ; for there even “vain thoughts” are
“hated,” Psal. cxix. 118. But it is God's enclosure, hedged about as a garden for
him, Cant. iv. 16. It is true, there are weeds of corruption there, because the
ground is not yet perfectly healed ; but the man, in the day of his new creation, is
set “to dress it, and keep it.” A live coal from the altar has touched his lips, and
they are purified; Psal. xv. 1–3, “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle 2 who
shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that speaketh the truth in his heart: he that back-
biteth not with his tongue, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.” There
may be, indeed, a smooth tongue where there is a false heart. The voice may
be Jacob's, while the hands are Esau's. But, “if any man among you seem to be
religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's re-
ligion is vain,” James i. 26. The power of godliness will rule over the tongue,
though “a world of iniquity.” If one be a Galilean, his speech will bewray him;
he will speak, not the language of Ashdod, but the language of Canaan. He will
neither be dumb in religion, nor will his tongue walk at random ; seeing to the
double guard nature hath given the tongue grace hath added a third. The fruits
of holiness will be found in his outward conversation; for he hath “clean hands,” as
well as “a pure heart,” Psal. xxiv. 4. He is a godly man, and religiously discharges
the duties of the first table of the law ; he is a righteous man, and honestly per-
forms the duties of the second table. In his conversation, he is a good Christian,
and a good neighbour too. He carries it towards God, as if men's eyes were upon
him; and towards men, as believing God's eye to be upon him. Those things which
God hath joined in his law, he dare not, in his practice, put asunder.
Thus the branches in Christ are “full of good fruits;” and those fruits area cluster
of vital actions, whereof Jesus Christ is the principle and end: the principle; for
“he lives in them,” and “the life they live is by the faith of the Son of God,” Gal. ii.
20: the end; for they live to him, and “to them to live is Christ,” Phil. i. 21. The
duties of religion are, in the world, like fatherless children, in rags: some will not
take them in, because they never loved them, nor their father; some take them in,
because they may be serviceable to them; but the saints take them in for their
Father's sake, that is, for Christ's sake ; and they are lovely in their eyes, because
134 FOURFOLD STATE.
they are like him. O ! whence is this new life of the saints? Surely it could never
have been hammered out of the natural powers of their souls, by the united force
of all created power. In eternal barrenness should their womb have been shut up,
but that, being married to Christ, they “bring forth fruit unto God,” Rom. vii. 4.
If ye ask me, how your nourishment, growth, and fruitfulness may be forwarded?
I offer these few advices. (1.) Make sure work as to your knitting with the stock
by faith unfeigned ; and beware of hypocrisy : a branch that is not sound at the
heart will certainly wither. The trees of the Lord's planting are “trees of right-
eousness,” Isa. lxi. 3. So when others fade, they bring forth fruit. Hypocrisy is
a disease in the vitals of religion, which will consume all at length. It is a leak
in the ship, that will certainly sink it. Sincerity of grace will make it lasting, be
it never so weak ; as the smallest twig that is sound at the heart will draw mour-
ishment from the stock, and grow, while the greatest bough that is rotten can
never recover, because it receives no nourishment. (2.) Labour to be steadfast
in the truths and ways of God. An unsettled and wavering judgment is a great
enemy to Christian growth and fruitfulness, as the apostle teaches, Eph. iv. 14, 15,
“That ye henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about
with every wind of doctrine ; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into
him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” A rolling stone gathers no fog,
[moss, and a wavering judgment makes a fruitless life. Though a tree be never so
sound; yet how can it grow, or be fruitful, if ye be still removing it out of one
soil into another ? (3.) Endeavour to cut off the suckers, as gardeners do, that
their trees may thrive. These are unmortified lusts. Therefore “mortify your
members that are upon the earth,” Col. iii. 5. When the Israelites got meat to
their lusts, they got leanness to their souls. She that hath many hungry children
about her hand, and must be still putting into their mouths, will have much ado
to get a bit put into her own. They must refuse the cravings of inordinate affec-
tions who would have their souls to prosper. Lastly, improve, for these ends, the
ordinances of God. “The courts of our God” are the place where the trees of
righteousness “flourish,” Psal. xcii. 13. The waters of the sanctuary are the
means appointed of God, to cause his people to grow “as willows by the water-
courses.” Therefore drink in with “desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye
may grow thereby,” 1 Pet. ii. 2. Come to these wells of salvation; not to look at
them only, but to draw water out of them. The sacrament of the Lord's supper
is in a special manner appointed for these ends. It is not only a solemn public
profession, and a seal of our union and communion with Christ; but it is a means
of most intimate communion with him, and strengthens our union with him, our
faith, love, repentance, and other graces; 1 Cor. x. 16, “The cup of blessing which
we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ'? the bread which we break,
is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” and chap. xii. 13, “We have
been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Give yourselves unto prayer: open your
mouths wide, and he will fill them. By these means the branches in Christ may be
further nourished, grow up, and bring forth much fruit.
7. A seventh benefit is, The acceptance of their fruits of holiness before the Lord.
Though they be very imperfect, they are accepted, because they savour of Christ,
the blessed stock which the branches grow upon ; while the fruits of others are re-
jected of God; Gen. iv. 4, 5, “And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his
offering : but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect.” Compare Heb. xi. 3,
“By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” O how
defective are the saints' duties in the eye of the law The believer himself espies
many faults in his best performances: yet the Lord graciously receives them.
There is no grace planted in the heart but there is a weed of corruption hard by
its side, while the saints are in this lower world. Their very sincerity is not with-
out a mixture of dissimulation or hypocrisy, Gal. ii. 13. Hence there are defects
in the exercise of every grace, as well as in the performance of every duty: depraved
nature always drops something to stain their best works. There is still some
mixture of darkness with their clearest light. Yet this does not mar their accep-
tance; Cant. vi. 10, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning ?” or, as the
dawning 2 Behold how Christ's spouse is esteemed and accepted of her Lord, even.
FOUR FOLD STATE, 135
when she looks forth as the morning, whose beauty is mixed with the blackness of
the night ! “When the morning was looking out,” as the word is, Judges xix. 26,
that is, “in the dawning of the day,” as we read it. So the very dawning of
grace and good-will to Christ, grace peeping out from under a mass of dark-
ness in believers, is pleasant and acceptable to him, as the break of day is
to the weary traveller. Though the remains of unbelief make their hand of
faith to shake and tremble; yet the Lord is so well pleased with it, that he
employs it to carry away pardons and supplies of grace, from the throne of grace,
and the fountain of grace. His faith was effectual, who cried out, and said, with
tears, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief,” Mark ix 24. Though the re-
mains of sensual affections make the flame of their love weak and smoky ; he
turns his eyes from the smoke, and beholds the flame, how fair it is ; Cant. iv. 10,
“How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse !” The smell of their under garments
of inherent holiness, as imperfect as it is, is like “the smell of Lebanon,” verse 11,
and that because they are covered with their elder brother's clothes, which make
the sons of God to “smell as a field which the Lord hath blessed.” Their good
works are accepted; their cups of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a
disciple shall not want a reward. Though they cannot offer for the tabernacle,
gold, silver, and brass, and onyx-stones, let them come forward with what they
have ; if it were but goats' hair, it shall not be rejected; if it were but rams’ skins,
they shall be kindly accepted ; for they are “dyed red,” dipped by faith in the Medi-
ator's blood, and so presented unto God. A very ordinary work done in faith, and
from faith, if it were but the building of a wall about the holy city, is a great
work, Neh. vi. 3. If it were but the bestowing of a box of ointment on Christ, it
shall never be forgotten ; Matt. xxvi. 13, “Even a cup of cold water only given
to one of Christ's little ones, in the name of a disciple, shall be rewarded,” Matt.
x. 42. Nay, not a good word for Christ, shall drop from their mouths, but it shall
be registered in God’s “book of remembrance,” Mal. iii. 16. Nor shall a tear drop
from their eyes for him but he will “put it in his bottle,” Psal. lvi. 8. Their
will is accepted for the deed; their sorrow for the want of will, for the will itself;
2 Cor. viii. 12, “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to
that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” Their groanings, when
they cannot well word their desires, are heard in heaven ; the meaning of these
groans is well known there, and they will be returned like the dove with an olive
branch of peace in her mouth. See Rom. viii. 26, 27. Their mites are better
than other men's talents. Their lisping and broken sentences are more pleasant to
their Father in heaven, than the most fluent and flourishing speeches of those that
are not in Christ. Their voice is sweet, even when they are ashamed it should be
heard; their countenance is comely, even when they blush, and draw a veil over it,
Cant. ii. 14. The Mediator takes their petition, blots out some parts, rectifies
others, and then presents them to the Father, in consequence whereof they pass in
the court of heaven.
Every true Christian is a temple of God. If ye look for sacrifices, they are not
wanting there ; they offer the sacrifice of praise, and they do good; with such sac-
rifices God is well pleased, Heb. xiii. 15, 16. Christ himself is the altar that sanc-
tifies the gift, verse 10. But what comes of the skins and dung of their sacrifices 2
They are carried away without the camp. If we look for incense, it is there too.
The graces of the Spirit are found in their hearts: and the spirit of a crucified
Christ fires them, and puts them in exercise ; like as the fire was brought from the
altar of burnt-offering, to set the incense on flame: then they mount heaven-ward,
like pillars of smoke, Cant. iii. 6. But the best of incense will leave ashes behind
it; yes indeed; but as the priest took away the ashes of incense in a golden dish,
and threw them out ; so our great High Priest takes away the ashes and refuse of
all the saints' services, by his mediation in their behalf.
8. An eighth benefit flowing from union with Christ is establishment. The
Christian cannot fall away, but must persevere unto the end ; John x. 28, “The
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Indeed,
if a branch do not knit with the stock, it will fall away when shaking winds arise :
but the branch knit to the stock stands fast, whatever wind blows, Sometimes a
136 FOUR FOLD STATE.
stormy wind of temptation blows from hell, and tosseth the branches in Christ,
the true vine ; but their union with him is their security; moved they may be, but
removed they never can be. “The Lord will with the temptation also make a way
to escape,” 1 Cor. x. 13. Calms are never of a continuance : there is almost al-
ways some wind blowing, and therefore branches are rarely altogether at rest. But
sometimes violent winds arise which threaten to rend them from off their stock.
Even so it is with saints: they are daily put to it, to keep their ground against
temptation ; but sometimes the wind from hell riseth so high, and blows so furi-
ously, that it makes even top-branches to sweep the ground: yet being knit to
Christ their stock, they get up again, in spite of the most violent efforts of “the
prince of the power of the air;” Psal. xciv. 18, “When I said, My foot slippeth,
thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.” But the Christian improves by this trial; and
is so far from being damaged, that he is benefited by it, in so far as it discovers
what hold the soul has of Christ, and what hold Christ has of the soul. And look,
as the wind in the bellows which would blow out the candle, blows up the fire,
even so it often comes to pass, that such temptations do enliven the true Christian,
awakening the graces of the Spirit in him, and, by that means, discover both the
reality and the strength of grace in him. And hence, as Luther, that great man of
God, saith, “One Christian who hath had experience of temptation is worth a thou-
sand others.”
Sometimes a stormy wind of trouble and persecution from the men of the world
blows upon the vine, that is, mystical Christ: but union with the stock is a suffi-
cient security to the branches. In a time of the church's peace and outward pros-
perity, while the angels hold the winds, that they blow not, there are a great many
branches taken up and put into the stock which never knit with it, nor live by it,
though they be bound up with it, by the bonds of external ordinances. Now, these
may stand a while on the stock; and stand with great ease while the calm lasts.
But when once the storms arise, and the winds blow, they will begin to fall off, one
after another; and the higher the wind riseth, the greater will the number be that
falls. Yea, some strong boughs of that sort, when they fall, will, by their weight,
carry others of their own kind quite down to the earth with them ; and will bruise
and press down some true branches, in such a manner, that they would also fall
off, were it not for their being knit to the stock; in virtue whereof, they get up
their heads again, and cannot fall off, because of that fast hold the stock has of
them. Then it is that many branches, sometimes high and eminent, are found
lying on the earth withered, and fit to be gathered up and cast into the fire; Matt.
xiii. 6, “And when the sun was up, they were scorched: and because they had
not root, they withered away;” Johnxv. 6, “Ifaman abide not in me, he is cast forth
as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and
they are burned.” But however violently the winds blow, none of the truly ingrafted
branches that are knit with the stock, are found missing, when the storm is changed
into a calm ; John xvii. 12, “Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of
them is lost.” The least twig growing in Christ shall stand it out, and subsist,
when the tallest cedars growing on their own root shall be laid flat on the ground;
Rom. viii. 35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” See verses
36–39. However severely Israel be “sifted, yet shall not the least grain " (or as
it is in the original language, a little stone) fall upon the earth, Amos. ix. 9. It
is an allusion to the sifting of fine pebble-stones from among heaps of dust and
Sand: though the sand and dust fall to the ground, be blown away with the wind,
and trampled under foot ; yet there shall not fall to the earth so much as a little
stone, such is the exactness of the sieve, and care of the sifter. There is nothing
more ready to fall on the earth than a stone : yet if professors of religion be lively
stones built on Christ, the chief corner-stone; although they be little stones, they
shall not fall to the earth, whatever stone beat upon them. See 1 Pet. ii. 4–6.
All the good grain in the church of Christ is of this kind: they are stones in re-
spect of solidity; and lively stones in respect of activity. If men be solid substan-
tial Christians, they will not be like chaff “tossed to and fro with every wind,”
having so much of the liveliness, that they have nothing of the stone; and if they
FOURFOLD STATE. 137
be lively Christians, whose spirit will stir in them, as Paul's did when “he saw
the city wholly given to idolatry,” Acts xvii. 16, they will not lie like stones, to be
turned over, hither and thither, cut and carved, according to the lusts of men ;
having so much of the stone as leaves nothing of liveliness in them.
Our God's house is a great house, wherein are “not only vessels of gold, but also
of earth,” 2 Tim. ii. 20. Both these are apt to contract filthiness; and therefore,
when God brings trouble upon the church, he hath an eye to both. As for the
vessels of gold, they are not destroyed, but purged by a fiery trial in the furnace of
affliction, as goldsmiths purge their gold ; Isa. i. 25, “And I will turn my hand
upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross.” But destruction is to the vessels of
earth; they shall be broken in shivers, as a potter's vessel; ver. 28, “And the
destruction,” or breaking, “ of the transgressors, and of the sinners, shall be to-
gether.” It seems to be an allusion to that law for breaking the vessels of earth,
when unclean ; while vessels of wood, and consequently vessels of gold, were only
to be rinsed, Lev. xv. 12.
9. A ninth benefit is support. If thou be a branch ingrafted in Christ, “the
root beareth thee.” The believer leans on Christ, as a weak woman, in a journey,
leaning upon her beloved husband, Cant. viii. 5. He stays himself upon him, as a
feeble old man stays himself on his staff, Isa. l. 10. He rolls himself on him, as
one rolls a burden he is not able to walk under off his own back, upon another who is
able to bear it, Psal. xxii. 8. There are many weights to hang upon, and press down
the branches in Christ the true vine. But, ye know, whatever weights hang on
branches, the stock bears all; it bears the branch, and the weight that is upon
it too.
(1.) Christ supports believers in him under a weight of outward troubles. That
is a large promise, Isa. xliii. 2, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be
with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” See how David
was supported under a heavy load, 1 Sam. xxx. 6. His city Ziklag was burnt, his
wives were taken captives, his men spoke of stoning him ; nothing was left him but
his God and his faith ; but by his faith he encouraged himself in his God. The
Lord comes and lays his cross on his people's shoulders; it presseth them down;
they are like to sink under it, and therefore cry, “Master, save us, we perish '"
but he supports them under their burden; he bears them up, and they bear their
cross. Thus the Christian, having a weight of outward troubles upon him, goes
lightly under his burden, having withal the “everlasting arms underneath him.”
The Christian has a spring of comfort, which he cannot lose ; and therefore never
wants something to support him. If one have all his riches in money, robbers may
take these away ; and then “what has he more ?” But though the landed man be
robbed of his money, yet his lands remain for his support. They that build their
comfort on worldly goods, may quickly be comfortless: but they that are united to
Christ, shall find comfort when all the streams of worldly enjoyments are dried up;
Job vi. 13, “Is not my help in me? And is wisdom driven quite from me?” q. d.
Though my substance is gone; though my servants, my children, my health, and
soundness of body, are all gone; yet my grace is not gone too. Though the Sabeans
have driven away my oxen and asses, and the Chaldeans have driven away my
camels; they have not driven away my faith and my hope too: these are yet in
me, they are not driven from me; so that by them I can fetch comfort from heaven,
When I can have none from earth.
(2.) Christ supports his people under a weight of inward troubles and discour-
agements. Many times “heart and flesh faileth them,” but then “God is the
strength of their heart,” Psal. lxxiii. 26. They may have a weight of guilt press-
ing them. This is a load that will make their back stoop, and the spirits to sink ;
but he takes it off, and puts a pardon in their hand, while they cast their burden
over upon him. Christ takes the soul, as one marries a widow, under a burden of
debt ; and so when the creditors come to Christ's spouse, she carries them to her
husband, confesseth the debt, declares she is not able to pay, and lays all over upon
him. The Christian sometimes, through carelessness, loseth his discharge; he can-
not find it however he search for it. The law takes that opportunity; and bends
up a process against him for a debt already paid. God hides his face, and the soul
S
138 FOURFOLD STATE
is distressed. Many arrows go through the heart now ; many long accounts are
laid before the man, which he reads and acknowledges. Often does he see the
officers coming to apprehend him, and the prison-door open to receive him. What
else keeps him from sinking utterly under discouragements in this case, but that the
everlasting arms of a Mediator are underneath him, and that he relies upon the
great Cautioner? Further, they may have a weight of strong lusts pressing them.
They have a body of death upon them. Death is a weight that presseth the soul
out of the body. A leg or an arm of death, if I may so speak, would be a terrible
load. One lively lust will sometimes lie so heavy on a child of God, that he can no
more remove it than a child could throw a giant from off him. How, then, are
they supported under a whole body of death? Why, their support is from the
root that bears them, from the everlasting arm that is underneath them. His
“grace is sufficient for them,” 2 Cor. xii. 9. The great stay of the believer
is not the grace of God within him ; that is a well, whose streams sometimes
run dry ; but it is the grace of God without him, the grace that is in Jesus
Christ; which is an everflowing fountain, to which the believer can never come
amiss. For the apostle tells us in the same verse, it is the power of Christ.
“Most gladly, therefore,” saith he, “will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me,” or, tabernacle above me as the cloud of glory
did on the Israelites, which God spread for a covering, or shelter to them in the
wilderness, Psal. cy. 39, compare Isa. iv. 5, 6. So that the believer in this com-
bat, like the eagle, first flies aloft, by faith, and then comes down on the prey;
Psal. xxxiv. 5, “They looked to him and were lightened.” And finally, they have
a weight of weakness and wants upon them, but they cast over that burden on the
Lord their strength, and he sustains them, Psal. lv. 22. With all their wants and
weaknesses, they are cast upon him ; as the poor weak and naked babe coming out
of the womb, is cast into the lap of one appointed to take care of it, Psal. xxii. 10.
Though they be destitute, (as a shrub in the wilderness, which the foot of every
beast may tread down,) the Lord will regard them, Psal. cii. 17. It is no marvel
the weakest plant be safe in a garden; but our Lord Jesus Christ is a hedge for pro-
tection to his weak and destitute ones even in a wilderness.
Objection. But if the saints be so supported, how is it that they fall so often under
temptations and discouragements? Answer. (1.) How low soever they fall at any
time, they never fall off; and that is a great matter. They are “kept by the
power of God, through faith, unto salvation,” 1 Pet. i. 5. Hypocrites may fall so
as to fall off, and fall into the pit, as a bucket falls into a well when the chain
breaks. But though the child of God may fall, and that so low as the waters go
over his head; yet there is still a bond of union betwixt Christ and him, the chain
is not broken ; he will not go to the ground; he will be drawn up again ; Luke
xxii. 31, 32, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.”
(2.) The falls of the saints flow from their not improving their union with Christ,
their not making use of him by faith, for staying or bearing them up ; Psal. xxvii.
13, “I had fainted, unless I had believed.” While the nurse holds the child in
her arms, it cannot fall to the ground; yet if the unwary child hold not by her, it
may fall backwards in her arms to its great hurt. Thus David's fall broke his
bones, Psal. li. 8. But it did not break the bond of union betwixt Christ and him;
the Holy Spirit, the bond of that union, was not taken from him, ver, 11. -
10. The last benefit I shall name, is the special care of the Husbandman; John
xv. 1, 2, “I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman ; every branch
that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” Believers,
by virtue of their union with Christ, are the objects of God's special care and provi-
dence. Mystical Christ is God's vine; other societies in the world are but wild
olive-trees. The men of the world are but God's out-field; the saints are his vine-
yard, which he has a special propriety in, and a special concern for ; Cant. viii. 12,
“My vineyard, which is mine, is before me.” He that slumbers not nor sleeps
is the keeper of it : “he does keep it; lest any hurt it, he will keep it night and
day;” he in whose hand is the dew of heaven, will “water it every moment,” Isa.
xxvii. 3. He dresseth and purgeth it, in order to further fruitfulness, John
FOURFOLD STATE. 139
xv. 2. He cuts off the luxuriant twigs that mar the fruitfulness of the branch.
This is done, especially, by the word, and by the cross of afflictions. The saints
need the ministry of the word, as much as the vineyard needeth one to dress and
prune the vines; 1 Cor. iii. 9, “We are labourers together with God: ye are God's
husbandry, ye are God's building.” And they need the cross too, 1 Pet. i. 6.
And therefore, if we should reckon the cross amongst the benefits flowing to be-
lievers from their union with Christ, I judge we should not reckon it amiss. Sure
I am, in their sufferings they “suffer with him,” Rom. viii. 17. And the assur-
ances they have of the cross have rather the nature of a promise than of a threat-
ening; Psal. lxxxix. 30–33, “If his children forsake my law; then will I visit
their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. . Nevertheless, my
loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.”
This looks like a tutor's engaging to a dying father to take care of the children left
upon him, and to give them both nurture and admonition, for their good. The
covenant of grace does truly beat the spears of affliction into pruning-hooks, to them
that are in Christ; Isa. xxvii. 9, “By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be
purged; and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin.” Why then should we be
angry with our cross? Why should we be frighted at it 2 The believer must
“take up his cross,” and follow his leader, the Lord Jesus Christ. He must take
up his ilk” day's cross; Luke ix. 23, “If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily.” Yea, he must take up his holiday's cross too;
Lam. ii. 22, “Thou hast called, as in a solemn day, my terrors round about.” The
church of the Jews had, of a long time, many a pleasant meeting at the temple, on
solemn days, for the worship of God; but they got a solemnity of another nature,
when God called together, about the temple and city, the Chaldean army that burnt
the temple, and laid Jerusalem on heaps. And now that the church of God is yet
militant in this lower region, how can it be but the clouds will return after the
rain? But the cross of Christ (which name the saints' troubles do bear) is a kindly
name to the believer. It is a cross indeed; but not to the believer's graces, but to
his corruptions. The hypocrite's seeming graces may indeed breathe out their last
on a cross, as those of the stony ground hearers did; Matt. xiii. 6, “And when the
sun,” of persecution, ver. 21, “was up, they were scorched; and because they had
not root, they withered away.” But never did one of the real graces in a believer
die upon the cross yet. Nay, as the candle shines brightest in the night, and the
fire burns fiercest in intense frost; so the believer's graces are ordinarily most
vigorous in a time of trouble.
There is a certain pleasure and sweetness in the cross to them who have their
senses exercised to discern and to find it out. There is a certain sweetness in
one's seeing himself upon his trials for heaven, and standing candidate for glory.
There is a pleasure in travelling over those mountains where the Christian can see
the prints of Christ's own feet, and “the footsteps of the flock,” who have been
there before him. How pleasant is it to a saint, in the exercise of grace, to see
how a good God crosseth his corrupt inclinations, and prevents his folly How
Sweet is it to behold these thieves upon the cross How refined a pleasure is there
in observing how God draws away provision from unruly lusts, and so pincheth
them that the Christian may get them governed . Of a truth, there is a paradise
within this thorn hedge. Many a time the people of God are in bonds, which are
never loosed till they be “bound with cords of affliction.” God takes them, and
throws them into a fiery furnace, that burns off their bonds; and then, like
the three children, Dan. iii. 25, they are “loose, walking in the midst of the fire.”
God gives his children a potion, with one bitter ingredient: if that will not work
upon them, he will put in a second, a third, and so on, as there is need, that they
may “work together for their good,” Rom. viii. 28. With cross-winds he hastens
them to the harbour. They are often found in such ways as that the cross is the
happiest foot they can meet with : and well may they salute it, as David did Abi.
gail, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet
me," 1 Sam, xxv. 32. Worldly things are often such a load to the Christian, that
* i. e. every.—ED.
140 FOUR FOLD STATE.
he moves but very slowly heavenward. God sends a wind of trouble, that blows
the burden off the man's back: and then he walks more speedily on his way; after
God hath drawn some gilded earth from him, that was drawing his heart away from
God; Zeph. iii. 12, “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor
people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.” It was an observation of a
heathen moralist, “That no history makes mention of any man who hath been
made better by riches.” I doubt if our modern histories can supply the defect of
ancient histories in this point. But sure I am, many have been the worse of riches;
thousands have been hugged to death in the embraces of a smiling world; and
many good men have got wounds from outward prosperity, that behoved to be
cured by the cross. I remember to have read of one who, having an imposthume
in his breast, had in vain used the help of physicians: but being wounded with a
sword, the imposthume broke ; and his life was saved by that accident, which
threatened immediate death. Often have spiritual imposthumes gathered in the
breasts of God's people in the time of outward prosperity, and been thus broken
and discussed * by the cross. It is kindly for believers to be healed by stripes; al-
though they are usually so weak as to cry out for fear, at the sight of the pruning-
hook, as if it were the destroying axe ; and to think the Lord is coming to kill them,
when he is indeed coming to cure them.
I shall now conclude, addressing myself in a few words, first to saints, and next
to sinners. -
1. To you that are Saints, I say, -
(1.) Strive to obtain and keep up actual communion and fellowship with Jesus
Christ: that is, to be still deriving fresh supplies of grace from the fountain there-
of in him, by faith ; and making suitable returns of them, in the exercise of grace
and holy obedience. Beware of estrangement betwixt Christ and your souls. If
it has got in already, which seems to be the case of many this day, endeavour to
get it removed. There are multitudes in the world that slight Christ, though y?
should not slight him: many have turned their backs on him, that sometimes looked
fair for heaven. The warm Sun of outward peace and prosperity has caused some
cast their cloak of religion from them, who held it fast when the wind of trouble
was blowing upon them : and “will ye also go away ?” John vi. 67. The basest
ingratitude is stamped on your slighting of communion with Christ; Jer. ii. 31,
“Have I been a wilderness unto Israel; a land of darkness? Wherefore say my
people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?” Oh! beloved, “is this
your kindness to your friend?” It is unbecoming any wife to slight converse with
her husband, but her especially who was taken from a prison, or a dunghill, as ye
were by your Lord, But remember, I pray you, this is a very ill chosen time to
live at a distance from God: it is a time in which divine providence frowns upon
the land we live in ; the clouds of wrath are gathering, and are thick above our
heads. It is not a time for you to be out of “ your chambers,” Isa. xxvi. 20. They
that now are walking most closely with God may have enough ado to stand when
the trial comes: how hard will it be for others, then, who are like to be surprised
with troubles, when guilt is lying on their consciences unremoved To be awak-
ened out of a Sound sleep, and cast into a raging sea, as Jonah was, will be a fear-
ful trial. To feel trouble before we see it coming, to be past hope before we have
any fear, is a very sad case. Wherefore, break down your idols of jealousy; mor-
tifying those lusts, those irregular appetites and desires, that have stolen away your
hearts, and left you like Samson without his hair; and say, “I will go and return
to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now,” Hos. ii. 7.
(2.) Walk as becomes those that are united to Christ. Evidence your union
with him by walking as he also walked, 1 John ii. 6. If ye be brought from under
the power of darkness, let your light shine before men, “Shine as lights in the
world, holding forth the word of life,” as the lantern holds the candle, which, being
in it, shines through it, Phil. ii. 15, 16. Now that ye profess Christ to be in you,
let his image shine forth in your conversation, and remember the business of your
lives is to prove, by practical arguments, what ye profess.
* A word applied, in medicine, to the removal of a tumour.—ED.
FOUR FOLD STATE. 141
i. You know the character of a wife, “She that is married careth how she may
please her husband.” Go you and do likewise; “walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing,” Col. i. 10. This is the great business of life: you must please him,
though it should displease all the world. What he hates must be hateful to you,
because he hates it. Whatever lusts come in suit of your hearts, deny them, see-
ing “the grace of God has appeared, teaching” so to do, and you are “joined to
the Lord,” Let him be a covering to your eyes: for you have not your choice to
make, it is made already; and you must not dishonour your head. A man takes
care of his feet, for that if he catch cold there, it flies up to his head. “Shall I then
take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot ? God forbid,”
says the apostle, 1 Cor. vi. 15. Wilt thou take that heart of thine which is Christ's
dwelling-place, and lodge his enemies there ? Wilt thou take that body which is his
temple, and defile it, by using the members thereof as the instruments of sin Ż
ii. Be careful to bring forth fruit, and much fruit. The branch well laden with
fruit is the glory of the vine, and of the husbandman too; John xv. 8, “Herein is
my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” A
barren tree stands safer in a wood than in an orchard; and branches in Christ that
bring not forth fruit will be taken away and cast into the fire.
iii. Be heavenly-minded, and maintain a holy contempt of the world. Ye are
united to Christ: he is your head and husband, and is in heaven: wherefore your
hearts should be there also ; Col. iii. 1, “If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.” Let
the serpent's seed go on their belly, and eat the dust of this earth; but let the mem-
bers of Christ be ashamed to bow down, and feed with them.
iv. Live and act dependently, depending by faith upon Jesus Christ. That which
grows upon its own root is a tree, not a branch. It is of the nature of a branch to
depend on the stock for all, and to derive all its sap from thence. Depend on him
for life, light, strength, and all spiritual benefits; Gal. ii. 20, “I live, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God.” For this cause, in the mystical union, strength is united to
weakness, life to death, and heaven to earth ; that weakness, death, and earth,
may mount up on borrowed wings. Depend on him for temporal benefits also ;
Matt. vi. 2, “Give us this day our daily bread.” If we have trusted him with
our eternal concerns, let us be ashamed to distrust him in the matter of our pro-
vision in the world.
v. Be of a meek disposition, and an uniting temper with the fellow-members of
Christ's body, as being united to the meek Jesus, the blessed centre of union.
There is a prophecy to this purpose concerning the kingdom of Christ; Isa. ii. 6,
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.”
It is an allusion to the beasts in Noah's ark: the beasts of prey that were wont to
kill and devour others, when once they came into the ark, lay down in peace with
them ; the lamb was in no hazard by the wolf there, nor the kid by the leopard.
There was a beautiful accomplishment of it in the primitive church ; Acts iv. 32,
“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” And
this prevails in all the members of Christ, according to the measure of the grace of
God in them. Man is born naked; he comes naked into this world, as if God designed
him for the picture of peace: and surely, when he is born again, he comes not into the
new world of grace, with claws to tear, a sword to wound, and a fire in his hand to burn
up his fellow-members in Christ, because they cannot see with his light. Oh it is
sad to see Christ's lilies as thorns in one another's sides, Christ's lambs devouring
one another like lions, and God's diamonds cutting one another: yet it must be
remembered, that sin is no proper cement for the members of Christ, though Herod
and Pontius Pilate may be made friends that way. ... The apostle's rule is plain;
Heb. xii. 14, “ Follow peace with all men, and holiness.” To follow peace no
further than our humour, credit, and such like things will allow us, is too short: to
pursue it further than holiness, that is, conformity to the divine will, allows us, is
too far. Peace is precious, yet it may be bought too dear: wherefore we must
rather want it, than purchase it at the expense of truth or holiness. But otherwise
142 FOURFOLD STATE.
it cannot be over dear bought; and it will always be precious in the eyes of the
sons of peace.
2. And now, sinners, what shall I say to you? I have given you some view of the
privileges of those in the state of grace: ye have seen them afar off. But, alas !
they are not yours, because ye are not Christ's. The sinfulness of an unregenerate
state is yours; and the misery of it is yours also: but ye have neither part nor lot
in this matter. The guilt of all your sins lies upon you; ye have no part in the
righteousness of Christ. There is no peace to you, no peace with God, no true peace
of conscience; for ye have no saving interest in the great Peacemaker. Ye are
none of God's family; the adoption we spoke of belongs not to you. Ye have no
part in the Spirit of sanctification; and, in one word, ye have no inheritance among
them that are sanctified. All I can say to you in this matter is, that the case is
not desperate, they may yet be yours; Rev. iii. 20, “Behold, I stand at the door
and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,
and will sup with him, and he with me.” Heaven is proposing an union with earth
still, the potter is making suit to his own clay, and the gates of the city of refuge
are not yet closed. O that we could compel you to come in.
Thus far of the state of grace.
STATE F O U R T H.
NAMELY,
THE ETERNAL STATE, OR STATE OF CONSUMMATE
HAPPINESS OR MISERY.
H E A D I.
OF DEATH.
JoB xxx. 23.
“For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.”
I comE now to discourse of man's eternal state, into which he enters by death. Of
this entrance Job takes a solemn serious view in the words of the text, which con-
tain a general truth, and a particular application of it. The general truth is sup-
posed ; namely, that all men must, by death, remove out of this world; they must
die. ... But whither must they go 2 They must go to “the house appointed for all
living;” to the grave, that darksome, gloomy, solitary house, in the land of forgetful-
ness. Wheresoever the body is laid up till the resurrection ; thither, as to a dwell-
ing-house, death brings us home. While we are in the body, we are but in a
lodging-house; in an inn, on our way homeward. When we come to our grave,
we come to our home, our “long home,” Eccles. xii. 5. All living must be in-
habitants of this house, good and bad, old and young. Man's life is a stream, run-
ning into death's devouring deeps. They who now live in palaces must quit them,
and go home to this house; and those who have not where to lay their heads shall
thus have a house at length. It is appointed for all, by him whose counsel shall stand.
This appointment cannot be shifted ; it is a law which mortals cannot transgress.
Job's application of this general truth to himself is expressed in these words; “I
know that thou wilt bring me to death,” &c. He knew that he behoved to meet
with death; that his soul and body behoved to part ; that God, who had set the
tryst,” would certainly see it kept. Sometimes Job was inviting death to come to
him, and carry him home to its house ; yea, he was in hazard of running to it be-
fore the time ; Job vii. 15, “My soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than
my life.”. But here he considers God would bring him to it; yea, bring him back
to it, as the word imports. Whereby he seems to intimate, that we have no life in
this world but as runaways from death, which stretcheth out its cold arms to re-
ceive us from the womb ; but though we do then narrowly escape its clutches, we
eannot escape long, we will be brought back again to it. Job knew this, he had
laid his account with it, and was looking for it. -
DoCTRINE,-All must die.
Although this doctrine be confirmed by the experience of all former generations,
* i. e. who had made the appointment.—ED.
144 FOURFOLD STATE.
ever since Abel entered into the house appointed for all living; and though the
living know that they shall die, yet it is needful to discourse of the certainty of
death, that it may be impressed on the mind, and duly considered.
Wherefore consider, first, There is an unalterable statute of death under which
men are concluded. “It is appointed unto men once to die,” Heb. ix. 27. It is
laid up for them, as parents lay up for their children: they may look for it, and
cannot miss it, seeing God has designed and reserved it for them. There is no
peradventure in it, “we must needs die,” 2 Sam. xiv. 14. Though some men will
not hear of death, yet every man must see death, Psal. lxxxix. 48. Death is a
champion all must grapple with : we must enter the lists with it, and it will have
the mastery; Eccl. viii. 8, “There is no man that hath power over the spirit, to
retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death.” They, indeed, who
are found alive at Christ's coming, shall all be changed, 1 Cor. xv. 51. But that
change will be equivalent to death, will answer the purposes of it. All other per-
sons must go the common road, “the way of all flesh.” Secondly, Let us consult
daily observation. Every man “seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and
brutish person,” Psal. xlix. 10. There is room enough on this earth for us, not-
withstanding of the multitudes that were upon it before us; they are gone to make
room for us, as we must depart to leave room for others. It is long since death
began to transport men into another world, and vast shoals or multitudes are gone
thither already : yet the trade is going on still ; death is carrying off new inhabi-
tants daily, to “the house appointed for all living.” Who could ever hear the
grave say, It is enough 2 Long has it been getting, but still it asketh. This world
is like a great fair or market, where some are coming in, others going out, while
“the assembly that is in it is confused, and the more part know not wherefore
they are come together ;” or, like a town situate on the road to a great city, through
which some travellers are past, some are passing, while others are only coming in ;
Eccl. i. 4, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh ; but
the earth abideth for ever.” Death is an inexorable, irresistible messenger, who
cannot be diverted from executing his orders by the force of the mighty, the bribes
of the rich, nor the entreaties of the poor. It doth not reverence the hoary head,
nor pity the harmless babe. The bold and daring cannot outbrave it ; nor can the
faint-hearted obtain a “discharge in this war.” Thirdly, the human body consists of
perishing principles; Gen. iii. 19, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
The strongest are but brittle earthen vessels, easily broken in shivers. The soul
is but meanly housed while in this mortal body, which is not a house of stone, but
a house of clay : the mud walls cannot but moulder away ; especially seeing the
“foundation ” is not on a rock, but “in the dust:” they are “crushed before the
moth,” though this insect be so tender, that the gentlest touch of a finger will de-
spatch it, Job iv. 19. These principles are like gunpowder ; a very small spark,
lighting on them, will set them on fire, and blow up the house : the stone of a
raisin, or a hair in milk have choked men, and laid the house of clay in the dust.
If we consider the frame and structure of our bodies; how “fearfully and wonder-
fully we are made,” and on how regular and exact a motion of the fluids and balance
of humours our life depends ; and that death has as many doors to enter in by as
the body hath pores; and if we compare the soul and body together, we may justly
reckon, there is somewhat more astonishing in our life than in our death ; and that
it is more strange, to see dust walking up and down on the dust than lying down in
it. Though the lamp of our life be not violently blown out, yet the flame must go
out at length for want of oil. And what are those distempers and diseases we are
liable to, but death's harbingers, that come to prepare its way ? They meet us as
soon as we set our foot on earth, to tell us at our entry, that we do but come into the
world to go out again. Howbeit, some are Snatched away in a moment, without
being warned by sickness or disease. Fourthly, We have sinful souls, and therefore
have dying bodies: death follows sin, as the shadow follows the body. The wicked
must die, by virtue of the threatening of the covenant of works; Gen. ii. 17, “In the
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” And the godly must die too:
that as death entered by sin, sin may go out by death. Christ has taken away
the sting of death, as to them; albeit he has not as yet removed death itself.
FOURFOLD STATE. 145
Wherefore, though it fasten on them, as the viper did on Paul's hand, it shall do
them no harm. But because the leprosy of sin is in the walls of the house, it must
be broken down, and all the materials thereof carried forth. Lastly, Man's life in
this world, according to the scripture account of it, is but a few degrees removed
from death. The scripture represents it as a vain and empty thing, short in its
continuance, and Swift in its passing away.
1. Man's life is a vain and empty thing, while it is: it vanisheth away, and lo!
it is not; Job vii. 6, “My days are vanity.” If we suspect afflicted Job of partiality
in this matter, hear the wise and prosperous Solomon's character of the days of his
life; Eccl. vii. 15, “All things have I seen in the days of my vanity,” that is, my
vain days. Moses, who was a very active man, compares our days to a sleep ;
Psal. xc. 5, “They are as a sleep,” which is not noticed till it be ended. The
resemblance is appropriate : few men have right apprehensions of life until death
awaken them ; then we begin to know we were living. “We spend our years
as a tale that is told,” verse 9. When an idle tale is a-telling, it may affect a little;
but when it is ended, it is forgot: and so is man forgotten, when the fable of his life
is ended. It is as a dream or vision of the night, in which there is nothing solid:
when one awakes, all evanisheth; Job xx. 8, “He shall fly away as a dream, and
shall not be found; yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.” It is
but a vain show, or image ; Psal. xxxix. 6, “Surely every man walketh in a vain
show.” Man, in this world, is but, as it were, a walking statue : his life is but an
image of life, there is so much of death in it.
If we look on our life, in the several periods of it, we find it a heap of vanities.
“Childhood and youth are vanity,” Eccl. xi. 10. We come into the world the
most helpless of all animals: young birds and beasts can do something for them-
selves, but infant man is altogether unable to help himself. Our childhood is spent
in pitiful trifling pleasures, which become the scorn of our own after-thoughts.
Youth is a flower that soon withereth, a blossom that quickly falls off; it is a space
of time in which we are rash, foolish, and inconsiderate, pleasing ourselves with a
variety of vanities, and swimming, as it were, through a flood of them. But ere we
are aware, it is past, and we are in middle age, encompassed with a thick cloud of
cares, through which we must grope; and finding ourselves beset with pricking
thorns of difficulties, through them we must force our way to accomplish the pro-
jects and contrivances of our riper thoughts. And the more we solace ourselves in
any earthly enjoyment we attain to, the more bitterness do we find in parting with
it. Then comes old age, attended with its own train of infirmities, “labour and
Sorrow,” Psal. xc. 10, and sets us down next door to the grave. In a word, “All
flesh is grass,” Isa. xl. 6. Every stage or period in life is vanity. “Man at his
best state,” (his middle age, when the heat of youth is spent, and the sorrows of
old age have not yet overtaken him,) “is altogether vanity,” Psal. xxxix. 5, Death
carries off some in the bud of childhood, others in the blossom of youth, and others
When they are come to their fruit; few are left standing till, like ripe corn, they
forsake the ground: all die one time or other,
2. Man's life is a short thing; it is not only a vanity, but a short-lived vanity.
Consider, first, how the life of man is reckoned in the scriptures. It was indeed
Sometimes reckoned by hundreds of years; but no man ever arrived at a thousand,
which yet bears no proportion to eternity. Now hundreds are brought down to
SCOres; threescore and ten, or fourscore, is its utmost length, Psal. xc. 10. But
few men arrive at that length of life. Death does but rarely wait till men be bow-
ing down, by reason of age, to meet the grave. Yet, as if years were too big a
word for such a small thing as the life of man on earth, we find it counted by
months; Job xiv. 3, “The number of his months are with thee.” Our course, like
that of the moon, is run in a little time: we are always waxing or waning, till we
disappear. But frequently it is reckoned by days, and these but few; Job xiv. 1,
“Man that is born of a woman is of few days.” Nay, it is but one day in scripture
account ; and that a hireling's day, who will precisely observe when his day ends,
and give over his work; verse 6, *Till he shall accomplish as an hireling his day.”
Yea, the scripture brings it down to the shortest space of time, and calls it a mo-
ment; 2 Cor. iv. 17, “Our light affliction” (though it last all our life long) “is but
T
146 FOURFOLD STATE.
for a moment.” But elsewhere it is brought down to yet a lower pitch, farther
than which one cannot carry it; Psal. xxxix. 5, “Mine age is as nothing before
thee.” Agreeably to this, Solomon tells us, Eccl. iii. 2, there is “a time to be
born, and a time to die ;” but makes no mention of a time to live, as if our life
were but a skip from the womb to the grave. Secondly, Consider the various
similitudes by which the scripture represents the shortness of man's life. Hear
Hezekiah ; Isa. xxxviii. 12, “Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a
shepherd's tent: I have cut off, like a weaver, my life.” The shepherd's tent is
soon removed; for the flocks must not feed long in one place: such is a man's life
on this earth, quickly gone. It is a web he is incessantly working; he is not idle
so much as for one moment; in a short time it is wrought, and then it is cut off.
Every breathing is a thread in this web ; when the last breath is drawn, the web
is woven out, he expires, and then it is cut off, he breathes no more. Man is like
grass, and like a flower; Isa. xl. 6, “All flesh” (even the strongest and most healthy
flesh) “is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.” The
grass is flourishing in the morning; but in the evening, being cut down by the
mowers, it is withered: so man sometimes is walking up and down at ease in the
morning, and in the evening is lying a corpse, being knocked down by a sudden
stroke, with one or other of death's weapons. The flower, at best, is but a weak
and tender thing, of short continuance, wherever it grows; but observe, man is not
compared to the flower of the garden, but to the flower of the field, which the foot
of every beast may tread down at any time. Thus is our life liable to a thousand
accidents every day, any of which may cut us off. But though we should escape
all these, yet at length this grass withereth, this flower fadeth of itself. It is car-
ried off, “as the cloud is consumed, and vanisheth away,” Job vii. 9. It looks big
as the morning-cloud, which promiseth great things, and raiseth the expectations
of the husbandman: but the sun riseth, and the cloud is scattered; death comes,
and man evanisheth. The apostle James proposeth the question, “What is your
life 2'' chap. iv. 14. Hear his own answer, “It is even a vapour that appeareth
for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” It is frail, uncertain, and lasteth not.
It is as smoke, which goes out of the chimney as if it would darken the face of the
heavens; but quickly is scattered, and appears no more: thus goeth man's life, and
where is he It is a wind; Job vii. 7, “O remember that my life is wind.” It is
but a passing blast; a short puff; “a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again,”
Psal. lxxviii. 39. Our “breath is in our nostrils,” as it were always upon the wing
to depart ; ever passing and repassing, like a traveller; until it go away for good
and all, not to return “till the heavens be no more.”
3. Man's life is a swift thing; not only a passing, but a flying vanity. Have
you not observed how swiftly a shadow hath run along the ground, in a cloudy and
windy day; suddenly darkening the places beautified before with the beams of the
sun, but as suddenly disappearing 2 Such is the life of man on the earth ; for “he
fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not,” Job xiv. 2. A weaver's shuttle is very
swift in its motion; in a moment it is thrown from one side of the web to the other:
yet our days are “swifter than a weaver's shuttle,” chap. vii. 6. How quickly is
man tossed through time into eternity! See how Job describes the swiftness of the
time of life; chap. ix. 25, “Now, my days are swifter than a post : they flee away,
they see no good;” verse 26, “They are passed away as the swift ships; as the
eagle that hasteth to the prey.” He compares his days with a post, a foot-post;
a runner, who runs speedily to carry tidings, and will make no stay. But though
the post were like Ahimaaz, who overran Cushi, our days would be swifter than
he ; for they flee away, like a man fleeing for his life before the pursuing enemy:
he runs with his utmost vigour, yet our days run as fast as he. Howbeit, that is
not all. Even he who is fleeing for his life cannot run always; he must needs
sometimes stand still, lie down, or turn in somewhere, as Sisera did into Jael's tent,
to refresh himself: but our time never halts. Therefore it is compared to ships,
which can sail night and day without intermission, till they be at their port; and
to swift ships, ships of desire, in which men quickly arrive at the desired haven;
or ships of pleasure, that sail more swiftly than ships of burden. Yet the wind
failing, the ship's course is marred: but our time always runs with a rapid course.
FourFold state. 147
Therefore it is compared to the eagle flying; not with his ordinary flight, for that is
not sufficient to represent the swiftness of our days; but when he flies upon his prey
which is with an extraordinary swiftness. And thus, even thus, our days fly away.
Having thus discoursed of death, let us improve it, in discerning the vanity of
the world; in bearing up with Christian contentment and patience, under all
troubles and difficulties in it; in mortifying our lusts; in cleaving unto the Lord
with purpose of heart, on all hazards; and in preparing for death's approach.
And first, Let us hence, as in a looking-glass, behold the vanity of the world,
and of all those things in it which men so much value and esteem, and therefore set
their hearts upon. The rich and the poor are equally intent upon this world: they
bow the knee to it; yet it is but a clay god: they court this bulky vanity, and run
keenly to catch the shadow. The rich man is hugged to death in its embraces;
and the poor man wearies himself in the fruitless pursuit. What wonder if the
world's smiles overcome us, when we pursue it so eagerly, even while it frowns
upon us? But look into the grave, O man, consider and be wise; listen to the
doctrine of death; and learn, (1.) That, hold as fast as thou canst, thou shalt be
forced to let go thy hold of the world at length. Though thou load thyself with
the fruits of this earth; yet all shall fall off when thou comest to creep into thy
hole, “the house” underground, “appointed for all living.” When death comes, thou
must bid an eternal farewell to thy enjoyments in this world; thou must leave thy
goods to another; and “whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ?”
Luke xii. 20. (2.) Thy portion of these things shall be very little ere long. If
thou lie down on the grass, and stretch thyself at full length, and observe the print
of thy body when thou risest, thou mayest see how much of this earth will fall to
thy share at last. It may be thou shalt get a coffin, and a winding-sheet; but thou
art not sure of that ; many who have had abundance of wealth yet have not had so
much when they took up their new house in the land of silence. But however that
be, more ye cannot expect. It was a mortifying lesson Saladin, when dying, gave
to his soldiers: he called for his standard-bearer, and ordered him to take his wind-
ing-sheet upon his pike and go out to the camp with it, and tell them, that of all
his conquests, victories, and triumphs, he had nothing now left him but that piece
of linen to wrap his body in for burial. Lastly, This world is a false friend, who
leaves a man in time of greatest need, and flees from him when he has most to do.
When thou art lying on a death-bed, all thy friends and relations cannot rescue
thee; all thy substance cannot ransom thee, nor procure thee a reprieve for one
day, nay, not for one hour. Yea, the more thou possessest of this world's goods,
thy sorrow at death is like to be greater: for though one may live more com-
modiously in a palace than in a cottage, yet he may die more easily in the cottage,
where he has very little to make him fond of life.
Secondly. It may serve as a storehouse for Christian contentment and patience
under worldly losses and crosses. A close application of the doctrine of death
is an excellent remedy against fretting, and gives some ease to a rankled heart.
When Job had sustained very great losses, he sat down contented, with this medi-
tation ; Job i. 21, “Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I
return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the
name of the Lord.”. When providence brings, a mortality or murrain among
your cattle, how ready are you to fret and complain!” but the serious considera.
tion of your own death, to which you have a notable help from such providen-
tial occurrences, may be of use to silence your complaints, and quiet your
rankled spirits... Look to “the house appointed for all living,” and learn, (1.)
That ye must abide a sorer thrust than the loss of worldly goods. Do not cry out
for a thrust in the leg or arm; for ere long there will be a home-thrust at the
heart. You may lose your dearest relations; the wife may lose her husband, and
the husband his wife; the parents may lose their dear children, and the children
their parents. But if any of these trials happen to you, remember you must lose
your own life at last 5 and “wherefore doth a living man complain?” Lam. iii. 39.
It is always profitable to consider, under affliction, how our case might have been
worse than it is. Whatever be consumed, or taken from us, “it is of the Lord's
* The parish of Ettrick was a pastoral district.—Ed.
148 FOUR FOLD STATE.
mercies that we ourselves are not consumed,” verse 22. (2.) It is but for a short
space of time we are to be in this world. It is but little our necessities require in
this short space of time; when death comes, we will stand in need of none of these
things. Why should men rack their heads with cares how to provide for to-morrow,
while they know not if they shall need anything to-morrow? Though a man's
provision for his journey be near spent, he is not disquieted if he think he is near
home. Are you working with candle-light, and is there little of your candle left 2
It may be there is as little sand in your glass; and if so, ye have little use for it.
(3.) Ye have matters of greater weight that challenge your care. Death is at the
door, beware ye lose not your souls. If blood break out at one part of the body,
they use to open a vein in another part of it, to turn the stream of blood, and so
to stop it. Thus the Spirit of the Lord sometimes cures men of sorrow for earthly
things, by opening the heart-vein to bleed for sin. Did we pursue heavenly things
the more vigorously that our affairs in this life prosper not, we should thereby gain
a double advantage; our worldly sorrow would be diverted, and our best treasure
increased. (4.) Crosses of this nature will not last long. The world's smiles and
frowns will quickly be buried together in everlasting forgetfulness. Its smiles go
away as the foam on the water; and its frowns are as a passing stitch in a man's
side. Time flies away with swift wings and carries our earthly comforts, and crosses
too, along with it; neither of them will accompany us into the house appointed for
all living ; Job iii. 17, “There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the
weary be at rest ;” ver. 18, “There the prisoners rest together, they hear not the
voice of the oppressor;” ver. 19, “The small and great are there, and the servant
is free from his master.” Cast your eyes on eternity, and ye will see, affliction here
is but for a moment. The truth is, our time is so very short, that it will not allow
either our joys or griefs to come to perfection. Wherefore, let them “that weep
be as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not,” &c.
1 Cor. vii. 29–31. (5.) Death will put all men on a level. The king and the
beggar must dwell in one house, when they come to their journey's end, though
their entertainment by the way be very different. “The small and the great
are there,” Job iii. 19. We are in this world as on a stage : it is no great matter .
whether a man act the part of a prince or a peasant; for when they have acted
their parts, they must both get behind the curtain, and appear no more. Lastly,
If thou be not in Christ, whatever thy afflictions now be, troubles a thousand times
worse are abiding thee in another world. Death will turn thy crosses into pure
unmixed curses; and then how gladly wouldst thou return to thy former afflicted
state, and purchase it at any rate, were there any possibility of such a return ? If
thou be in Christ, thou mayest well bear thy cross. Death will put an end"to all
thy troubles. If a man on a journey be not well accommodated, where he lodgeth
only for a night, he will not trouble himself much about the matter; because he is
not to stay there; it is not his home. Ye are on the road to eternity; let it not
disquiet you that you meet with some hardships in the inn of this world. Fret not
because it is not so well with you as with some others. One man travels with a
came in his hand; his fellow-traveller, perhaps, has but a common stick, or staff:
either of them will serve the turn. It is no great matter which of them be yours;
both will be laid aside when you come to your journey's end.
w Thirdly, It may serve for a bridle, to curb all manner of lusts, particularly those
conversant about the body. A serious visit made to cold death, and that solitary
mansion, the grave, might be of good use to repress them. -
1. It may be of use to cause men remit of their inordinate care of the body;
which is to many the bane of their souls. Often do these questions, “What shall
We eat 3 what shall we drink? and wherewithal shall we be clothed ?” leave no
room for another of more importance, namely, “Wherewithal shall I come before
the Lord 3” The soul is put on the rack, to answer these mean questions in favour
of the body; while its own eternal interests are neglected. But, ah! why are men
50 busy to repair the ruinous cottage; leaving the inhabitant to bleed to death of
his wounds, unheeded, unregarded ? Why so much care for the body, to the
neglecting of the concerns of the immortal soul? Oh! be not so anxious for what
FOURFOLD STATE. 149
can only serve your bodies; since, ere long, the clods of cold earth will serve for
back and belly too.
2. It may abate your pride on account of bodily endowments, which vain man is
apt to glory in. Value not yourselves on the blossom of youth ; for while ye are
in your blooming years, ye are but ripening for a grave; and death gives the fatal
stroke, without asking any body's age. Glory not in your strength, it will quickly
be gone : the time will soon be, when ye shall not be able to turn yourselves on a
bed; and ye must be carried by your grieving friends to your long home. And
what signifies your healthful constitution ? Death does not always enter in soonest
where it begins soonest to knock at the door, but makes as great despatch with
some in a few hours, as with others in many years. Value not yourselves on your
beauty, which “shall consume in the grave,” Psal. xlix. 14. Remember the change
death makes on the fairest face ; Job xiv. 20, “Thou changest his countenance,
and sendest him away.” Death makes the greatest beauty so loathsome, that it
must be buried out of sight. Could a looking-glass be used in the house appointed
for all living, it would be a terror to those who now look oftener into their glasses
than into their Bibles. And what though the body be gorgeously arrayed ? The
finest clothes are but badges of our sin and shame, and in a little time will be
exchanged for a winding-sheet ; when the body will become a feast to the worms.
3. It may be a mighty check upon sensuality and fleshly lusts; 1 Pet. ii. 11,
“I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul.” It is hard to cause wet wood to take fire ; and when the fire
doth take hold of it, it is soon extinguished. Sensuality makes men most unfit for
divine communications, and is an effectual means to quench the Spirit. Intem-
perance in eating and drinking carries on the ruin of soul and body at once ; and
hastens death, while it makes the man most unmeet for it. Therefore, “take
heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and
drunkenness, and so that day come upon you unawares,” Luke xxi. 34. But, O
how often is the soul struck through with a dart, in gratifying the senses! At these
doors destruction enters in. Therefore Job “made a covenant with his eyes;” chap.
xxxi. 1. “The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit ; he that is abhorred of the
Lord shall fall therein,” Prov. xxii. 14. “Let him that standeth take heed lest he
fall.” Beware of lasciviousness; study modesty in your apparel, words, and ac-
tions. The ravens of the valley of death will at length pick out the wanton eye;
the obscene filthy tongue will at length be quiet, in the land of silence; and grim
death, embracing the body in its cold arms, will effectually allay the heat of all
fleshly lusts,
Lastly, In a word, it may check our earthly-mindedness, and at once knock down
“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Ah if we must
die, why are we thus? Why so fond of temporal things; so anxious to get them,
so eager in the embrace of them, so mightily touched with the loss of them 2 Let
me, upon a view of the house appointed for all living, bespeak the worldling, in the
words of Solomon ; Prov. xxiii. 5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is
not ? For riches certainly make themselves wings, they flee away as an eagle to-
wards heaven,” Riches, and all worldly things, are but a fair nothing; they are
“that which is not.” They are not what they seem to be ; they are but gilded
vanities, that deceive the eye. . Comparatively they are not ; there is infinitely
more of nothingness and not being, than of being or reality, in the best of them.
What is the world, and all that is in it, but a fashion or fair show, such as men
make on a stage, a passing show # 1 Cor. vii. 31. Royal pomp is but gaudy show
or appearance in God's account, Acts xxv. 23, . The best name they get is “good
things:” but, observe it, they are only the wicked man's good things, Luke xvi.
25: “Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,” says Abraham, in the par-
able, to the rich man in hell. And well may the men of the world call these things
their goods; for there is no other good in them, about them, nor attending them.
Now, wilt thou set thine eyes upon empty shows and fancies 2 Wilt thou º' cause
thine eyes to fly on them,” as the word is 2 Shall men's hearts fly out at their
eyes upon them, as a ravenous bird on its prey ! If they do, let them know, that
at length, these shall fly as fast away from them as ever their eyes flew upon them:
150 FOURFOLD STATE,
like a flock of fair feathered birds, that settle on a fool's ground ; the which, when
he runs to catch them as his own, do immediately take wing, fly away, and, sit-
ting down upon his neighbour's ground, elude his expectation; Luke xii. 20, “Thou
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall these things
be 3" Though you do not make wings to them, as many do, they “make them-
selves wings, and fly away;” not as a tame house bird, which may be catched again;
nor as an hawk, that will show where she is by her bells, and be called again with
the lure ; but as an eagle, which quickly flies out of sight, and cannot be recalled.
Forbear thou to behold these things, O mortal there is no reason thou shouldst set
thine eyes upon them. This world is a great inn, in the road to eternity, to which
thou art travelling. Thou art attended by these things, as servants belonging to
the inn where thou lodgest : they wait upon thee, while thou art there; and when
thou goest away, they will convoy thee to the door. But they are not thine ;
they will not go away with thee, but return to wait on other strangers as they did
on thee.
Fourthly, It may serve as a spring of Christian resolution, to cleave to Christ,
adhere to his truths, and continue in his way, whatever we may suffer for so doing.
It would much allay the fear of man, that bringeth a snare. “Who art thou, that
thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die ’’’ Isa. li. 12. Look on persecutors
as pieces of brittle clay, that shall be dashed in pieces: for then shall ye despise
them as foes that are mortal; whose terror, to others in the land of the living,
shall quickly die with themselves. The serious consideration of the shortness of
our time, and the certainty of death, will teach us, that all the advantage we can
make by our apostacy, in time of trial, is not worth the while : it is not worth go-
ing out of the way to get it ; and what we refuse to forego for Christ's sake, may
quickly be taken from us by death. But we can never lose it so honourably, as
for the cause of Christ and his gospel: for what glory is it, that ye give up what
ye have in the world, when God takes it from you by death, whether you will or
not ? This consideration may teach us to undervalue life itself, and choose to fore-
go it, rather than to sin. The worst that men can do, is to take away that life which
we cannot long keep, though all the world should conspire to help us to retain the
spirit. And if we refuse to offer it up to God, when he calls for it in defence of his
honour; he can take it from us another way: as it fared with him who could not
burn for Christ, but was afterwards burnt by an accidental fire in his house.
Lastly, It may serve for a spur, to incite us to prepare for death. Consider,
(1.) Your eternal state will be according to the state in which ye die ; death will
open the doors of heaven or hell to you. As the tree falls, so it shall lie through
eternity. If the infant be dead-born, the whole world will not raise it to life again:
and if one die out of Christ, in an unregenerate state, there is no more hope of him
for ever. (2.) Seriously consider, what it is to go into another world ; a world of
spirits, wherewith we are very little acquainted. How frightful is converse with
spirits, to poor mortals in this life and how dreadful is the case, when men are
hurried away into another world, not knowing but devils may be their companions
for ever ! Let us then give all diligence to make and advance our acquaintance
with the Lord of that world. (3.) It is but a short time ye have to prepare for
death: therefore, now or never, seeing the time assigned for preparation will soon
be over; Eccl. ix. 10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither
thou goest.” How can we be idle, having so great a work to do, and so little time
to do it in 2 But if the time be short, the work of preparation for death, though
hard work, will not last long. The shadows of the evening make the labourer
work cheerfully; knowing the time to be at hand, when he will be called in from
his labour. (4.) Much of our short time is over already ; and the youngest of us
all cannot assure himself, that there is as much of his time to come as is past.
Our life in the world is but a short preface to long eternity; and much of the tale
is told. Oh! shall we not double our diligence, when so much of our time is spent
and so little of our work is done ! (5.) The present time is flying away; and we
cannot bring back time past, it hath taken an eternal farewell of us ; there is no
kindling the fire again that is burnt to ashes. The time to come is not ours; and
FOURFOLD STATE, 151
we have no assurance of a share in it when it comes. We have nothing we can
call ours but the present moment; and that is flying away : how soon Qur time
may be at an end, we know not. Die we must: but who can tell us when ? If
death kept one set time for all, we were in no hazard of a surprise; but daily obser-
vation shows us, there is no such thing. Now, the flying shadow of our life allows
no time for loitering. The rivers run speedily into the sea, from whence they came :
but not so speedily as man to the dust, from whence he came. The stream of time
is the swiftest current, and quickly runs out to eternity. Lastly, if once death
carry us off, there is no coming back again to mend our matters; Job xiv. 14, “If
a man die, shall he live again!” Dying is a thing we cannot get a trial of ; it is
what we can only do once; Heb. ix. 27, “It is appointed unto men once to die.”
And that which can be but once done, and yet is of so much importance, that our
all depends on our doing it right, we have need to use the utmost diligence, that
we may do it well. Therefore prepare for death, and do it timeously.
If ye who are unregenerate ask me, what ye shall, do to prepare for death, that
ye may die safely £ I answer, I have told you already what must be done. And
that is, your nature and state must be changed : ye must be born again : ye must
be united to Jesus Christ by faith. And till this is done, ye are not capable of
other directions, which belong to one's dying comfortably ; whereof we may dis-
course afterwards in the due place.
H E A D II.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE RIGHTEO US AND THE WICKED IN
THEIR DEATH.
PROVERBs xiv. 32.
“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness ; but the righteous hath hope in
his death.”
This text looks like the cloud betwixt the Israelites and Egyptians; having a dark
side towards the latter, and a bright side towards the former. It represents death
like Pharaoh's jailer, bringing the chief butler and the chief baker out of one pri-
son ; the one to be restored to his office, and the other to be led to execution. It
shows the difference betwixt the godly and ungodly in their death; who, as they
act a very different part in life, so, in death, have a vastly different exit.
First, As to the death of a wicked man : here is, (1.) The manner of his passing
out of the world. He “is driven away;” namely, in his death, as is clear from
the opposite clause. He is forcibly thrust out of his place in this world; driven
away as chaff before the wind. (2.) The state he passeth away in. He dies in a
sinful and hopeless state. First, in a sinful state : he “is driven away in his wick-
edness.” He lived in it, and he dies in it; his filthy garments of sin, in which he
wrapt up himself in his life, are his prison-garments, in which he shall lie wrapt up
for ever, Secondly, In a hopeless state: “but the righteous hath hope in his
death i' which plainly imports the hopelessness of the wicked in their death.
Whereby is not meant, that no wicked man shall have any hope at all when he is
a-dying, but shall die in despair. No : sometimes it is so indeed ; but frequently
it is otherwise ; foolish virgins may, and often do, hope to the last breath. But
the wicked man has no solid hope; and as for the delusive hopes he entertains
º with, death will root them up, and he shall be for ever irretrievably mis-
T8,010,
152 FOURFOLD STATE.
Secondly, As to the death of a righteous man ; he “hath hope in his death.”
This is ushered in with a but, importing a removal of those dreadful circumstances
with which the wicked man is attended, who is “driven away in his wickedness;”
but the godly are not so. Not so, (1.) In the manner of their passing out of the
world. The righteous is not driven away as chaff before the wind, but led away
as a bride to the marriage-chamber, “carried away by angels into Abraham's
bosom,” Luke xvi. 22. (2.) Not so as to their state when passing out of this life.
The righteous man dies, (1.) Not in a sinful, but in a holy state. He goes not
away in his sin, but out of it. In his life he was putting off the old man, chang-
ing his prison-garments; and now the remaining rags of them are removed, and he
is adorned with robes of glory. (2.) Not in a hopeless, but a hopeful state. He
“ hath hope in his death :” he has the grace of hope, and the well-founded expecta-
tion of better things, than ever he had in this world ; and though the stream of
his hope at death may run shallow, yet he has still as much of it as makes him
venture his eternal interests upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
DoctriNE I.-The wicked dying are driven away in their wickedness, and in a
hopeless state.
In speaking to this doctrine, First, I shall show how, and in what sense, the
wicked are driven away in their wickedness, at death. Secondly, I shall discover
the hopelessness of their state at death. And lastly, Apply the whole.
I. How, and in what sense, the wicked are driven away in their wickedness. In
discoursing of this matter, I shall briefly inquire, First, What is meant by their
being driven away. Secondly, Whence they shall be driven, and whither. Thirdly,
In what respects they may be said to be driven away in their wickedness. But,
before I proceed, let me advertise you, that you are mistaken, if you think that no
persons are to be called “wicked ” but they who are avowedly vicious and profane;
as if the devil could dwell in none but those whose name is legion. In scripture-
account, all who are not righteous, in the manner hereafter explained, are reckoned
wicked. And therefore the text divides the whole world into two sorts, the right-
eous and the wicked ; and ye will see the same thing in that other text, Mal. iii. 18,
“Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked.” Where-
fore, if ye be not righteous, ye are wicked. If ye have not an imputed righteous-
mess, and also an implanted righteousness, or holiness; if ye be yet in your natu-
ral state, unregenerated, not united to Christ by faith; howsoever moral and blame-
less, in the eyes of men, your conversation may be, ye are the wicked, who shall
be driven away in your wickedness, if death find you in that state. Now,
First, As to the meaning of this phrase “driven away,” there are three things
in it : the wicked shall be taken away suddenly, violently, and irresistibly.
1. Unrenewed men shall be taken away suddenly at death. Not that all wicked
men die suddenly ; nor that they are all wicked who die so. God forbid But,
(1.) Death commonly comes upon them unexpected, and so surpriseth them: as the
deluge came surprisingly on the old world, though they were forewarned of it long
before it came ; and as travail cometh on a woman with child with surprising sud-
denness, although looked for and expected, 1 Thess. v. 3. Death seizeth them as a
creditor doth his debtor, to hale him to prison, Psal. lv. 15, and that when they
are not aware. Death comes in, as a thief, at the window, and finds them full of
busy thoughts about this life, which “that very day perish.” (2.) Death always
seizeth them unprepared for it ; the old house falls down about their ears, before
they have another provided. When death casts them to the door, they have not
Where to lay their heads; unless it be on a bed of fire and brimstone. The soul
and body are, as it were, hugging one another in mutual embraces; when death
comes like a whirlwind and separates them. (3.) Death hurries them away in a
moment to destruction, and makes a most dismal change ; the man, for the most
part, never knows where he is, till “in hell he lifts up his eyes,” Luke xvi. 23.
The floods of wrath suddenly overwhelm his soul: and ere he is aware, he is plunged
in the bottomless pit. .
2. The unrenewed man is taken away out of the world violently. Driving is a
FOUR FOLD STATE. 153
violent action : he is “chased out of the world,” Job xviii. 18. Fain would he
stay, if he could ; but death drags him away, like a malefactor, to the execution.
He sought no other portion than the profits and pleasures of this world; he hath
no other ; he really desires no other: how can he, then, go away out of it, if he
were not driven 2
Question. But may not a wicked man be willing to die 2 Answer. He may,
indeed, be willing to die; but, observe, it is only in one of three cases. (1.) In
a fit of passion, by reason of some trouble that he is impatient to be rid of. Thus
many persons, when their passion has got the better of their reason, and when, on
that account, they are most unfit to die, will be ready to cry, O to be gone
but should their desire be granted, and death come at their call, they would quickly
show they were not in earnest, and that if they go, they must be driven away
against their wills. (2.) When they are brimful of despair, they may be willing
to die. Thus Saul murdered himself; and Spira wished to be in hell, that he
might know the uttermost of what he believed he was to suffer. In this manner
men may seek after death, while it flies from them. But fearful is the violence those
do undergo whom the terrors of God do thus drive. (3.) When they are dreaming
of happiness after death. Foolish virgins, under the power of delusion as to their
state, may be willing to die, having no fear of lying down in sorrow. How many
are there who can give no scripture-ground for their hope, who yet “have no bands
in their death !” Many are driven to darkness sleeping : they go off like lambs,
who would roar like lions, did they but know what place they are going to : though
the chariot in which they are drives furiously to the depths of hell, yet they fear
not, because they are fast asleep.
3. The unregenerate man is taken away irresistibly. He must go, though sore
against his will. Death will take no refusal, nor admit of any delay, though the
man has not lived half his days, according to his own computation. If he will not
bow, it will break him : if he will not come forth, it will pull the house down about
his ears; for there he must not stay. Although the physician help, friends groan,
the wife and the children cry, and the man himself use his utmost efforts to retain
the spirit, his soul is required of him ; yield he must, and go where he shall never
more see light.
Secondly, Let us consider, whence they are driven, and whither. When the
wicked die, (1.) They are driven out of this world, where they sinned, into the
other world, where they must be judged, and receive their particular sentences;
Heb. ix. 27, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
They shall no more return to their beloved earth. Though their hearts are wedded to
their earthly enjoyments, they must leave them, they “can carry nothing hence.”
How sorrowful must their departure be, when they have nothing in view so good
as that which they leave behind them (2.) They are driven out of the society of
the Saints on earth, into the society of the damned in hell; Luke xvi. 22, “The
rich man also died and was buried;” verse 23, “And in hell he lift up his eyes.”
What a multitude of the devil's goats do now take place among Christ's sheep
but at death they shall be “led forth with the workers of iniquity,” Psal. cxxv. 5.
There is a mixed multitude in this world, but no mixture in the other: each party
is there set by themselves. Though hypocrites grow here as tares among the wheat,
death will root them up, and they shall be bound in bundles for the fire. (3.) They
are driven out of time into eternity. While time lasts with them, there is hope:
but when time goes, all hope goes with it. Precious time is now lavishly spent; it
lies so heavy upon the hands of many, that they think themselves obliged to
take several ways to drive away time, But beware of being at a loss what to do
in life : improve time for eternity, whilst you have it: for ere long death will drive
it from you, and you from it, so as ye shall never meet again. (4.) They are driven
out of their specious pretences to piety. Death strips them of the splendid robes
of a fair profession, with which some of them are adorned ; and turns them off the
stage, in the rags of a wicked heart and life. The word hypocrite properly signi-
fies a stage-player, who appears to be what indeed he is not. This world is the stage
on which these children of the devil personate the children of God. Their show of
religion is the player's coat, under which one must look who will judge of them
U
154 FOUR FOLD STATE.
aright. Now, death turns them out of their coat, and then they appear in their
native dress: it unveils them, and takes off their mask. There are none in the
other world who pretend to be better than they really are. Depraved nature acts
in the regions of horror, unallayed and undisguised. Lastly, They are driven away
from all means of grace ; and are set beyond the line, quite out of all prospect of
mercy. There is no more an opportunity to buy oil for the lamp ; it is gone out at
death, and can never be lighted again. There may be offers of mercy and peace
made after they are gone ; but they are to others, not to them: there are no such
offers in the place to which they are driven ; these offers are only made in that
place from which they are driven away.
Lastly, In what respects may they be said to be “driven away in their wicked-
ness 2" Answer. (1.) In respect of their being driven away in their sinful uncon-
verted state. Having lived enemies to God, they die in a state of enmity to him:
for none are brought into the eternal state of consummate happiness, but by the way
of the state of grace, or begun recovery in this life. The child that is dead in the
womb is born dead, and is cast out of the womb into the grave: so he who is “dead
while he liveth,” or is spiritually dead, is cast forth of the womb of time, in the same
state of death, into the pit of uttermisery. Omiserable death, to die in “the gall of
bitterness and bond of iniquity l’” It had been incomparably better for such as die
thus, that they had never been born. (2.) In regard they die sinning, acting wick-
edly against God, in contradiction to the divine law : for they can do nothing but
sin while they live ; so death takes them in the very act of sinning; violently
draws them from the embraces of their lusts, and drives them away to the tribunal
to receive their sentence. It is a remarkable expression, Job xxxvi. 14, “They
die in youth :” the marginal reading is, “their soul dieth in youth;” their lusts being
lively, their desires vigorous, and expectations big, as is common in youth: “and
their life is among the unclean ;” or, “and the company, or herd, of them dieth
among the Sodomites,” that is, is taken away in the heat of their sin and wicked-
mess, as the Sodomites were, Gen. xix.; Luke xvii. 28, 29. (3.) Inasmuch as they
are driven away loaded with the guilt of all their sins: this is the winding-sheet
that shall lie down with them in the dust, Job xx. 11. Their works follow them
into the other world ; they go away with the yoke of their transgression wreathed
about their necks. Guilt is a bad companion of life, but how terrible will it be in
death ! It lies now, perhaps, like cold brimstone on their benumbed consciences;
but when death opens the way for sparks of divine vengeance, like fire, to fall upon
it, it will make dreadful flames in the conscience, in which the soul will be, as it
were, wrapt up for ever. Lastly, The wicked are driven away in their wickedness,
in so far as they die under the absolute power of their wickedness. While there is
hope, there is some restraint on the worst of men ; and those moral endowments,
which God gives to a number of men, for the benefit of mankind in this life, are
so many allays and restraints upon the impetuous wickedness of human nature.
But all hope being cut off, and these gifts withdrawn; the wickedness of the wicked
will then arrive at its perfection. As the seeds of grace, sown in the hearts of the
elect, come to their full maturity at death ; so wicked and hellish dispositions in
the reprobate come then to their highest pitch. Their prayers to God will then be
turned to horrible curses, and their praises to hideous blasphemies; Matt. xxii. 13,
“There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This gives a dismal but genu-
ine view of the state of the wicked in another world.
II. I shall discover the hopelessness of the state of unrenewed men at death. It
appears to be very hopeless, if we consider these four things.
First, Death cuts off their hopes and prospects of peace and pleasure in this life;
Luke xii. 19, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry;” ver. 20, “But God said unto him, Thou fool, this might
thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou
hast provided ?” They look for great matters in this world; they hope to increase
their wealth, to see their families prosper, and to live at ease: but death comes
like a stormy wind, and shakes off all their fond hopes, like green fruit from off a
tree. “When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath
upon him,” Job xx. 23. He may begin a web of contrivances, for advancing his
FOUR FOLD STATE. 155
worldly interest; but before he gets it wrought out, death comes and cuts it out.
“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts
perish,” Psal. cxlvi. 4.
Secondly, When death comes, they have no solid grounds to hope for eternal
happiness. For “what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when
God taketh away his soul?” Job xxvii. 8. Whatever hopes they fondly entertain,
they are not founded on God's word, which is the only sure ground of hope: if they
knew their own case, they would see themselves only happy in a dream. And in-
deed what hope can they have 2 The law is plain against them, and condemns
them. The curses of it, those cords of death, are about them already. The
Saviour whom they slighted is now their Judge ; and their Judge is their enemy:
how then can they hope 2 They have bolted the door of mercy against themselves
by their unbelief. They have despised the remedy, and therefore must die without
mercy. They have no saving interest in Jesus Christ, the only channel of convey-
ance in which mercy flows; and therefore they can never taste of it. The sword of
justice guards the door of mercy, so as none can enter in but the members of the
mystical body of Christ, over whose heads is a covert of atoning blood, the Media-
tor's blood. These indeed may pass without harm, for justice has nothing to re-
quire of them. But others cannot pass, since they are not in Christ. Death comes
to them with the sting in it, the sting of unpardoned guilt. It is armed against
them with all the force the sanction of a holy law can give it; 1 Cor. xv. 56, “The
sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” When that law was given
on Sinai, “the whole mount quaked greatly,” Exod. xix. 18. When the Redeemer
was making satisfaction for the elect's breaking of it, “the earth did quake, and
the rocks rent,” Matt. xxvii. 51. What possible ground of hope then is there to
the wicked man, when death comes upon him armed with the force of this law 7
How can he escape that fire which “burnt unto the midst of heaven?” Deut. iv. 11.
How shall he be able to stand in that smoke that “ascended as the smoke of a
furnace 7" Exod. xix. 18. How will he endure the terrible “thunders and light-
nings,” ver, 16, and dwell in “the darkness, clouds, and thick darkness?” Deut.
iv. 11. All these resemblances, heaped together, do but faintly represent the fear-
ful tempest of wrath and indignation which shall pursue the wicked to the lowest
hell, and for ever abide on them who are driven to darkness and death.
Thirdly, Death roots up their delusive hopes of eternal happiness. Then it is
their covenant with death and agreement with hell is broken. They are awakened
out of their golden dreams, and at length lift up their eyes; Job viii. 14, “Whose
hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web.” They trust all shall
be well with them after death ; but this their trust is but a web woven out of their
own bowels, with a great deal of art and industry. They wrap themselves up in
this their hope, as the spider wraps herself in her web. But it is but a weak and
slender defence: for however it may withstand the threatenings of the word of God,
death, that besom of destruction, will sweep them and it both away, so as there shall
not be the least shred of it left them ; but he who, this moment, will not let his
hope go, shall next moment be utterly hopeless. Death overturns the house built
on the sand; it leaves no man under the power of delusion.
Lastly, Death makes their state absolutely and for ever hopeless. Matters can-
not be retrieved and amended after death. For, (1.) Time once gone can never be
recalled. If cries or tears, price or pains, could bring time back again, the wicked
man might have hope in his death. But tears of blood will not prevail; nor will
his roaring for millions of ages cause it to return. The sun will not stand still until
the sluggard awake, and enter on his journey; and when once it is gone down, he
needs not expect the night to be turned into day for his sake; he must lodge through
the long night of eternity where his time left him. (2.) There is no returning to
this life, to amend what is amiss: it is a state of probation and trial, which termi-
nates at death ; and therefore we cannot return to it again: it is but once we thus
live, and once we die. Death carries the wicked man to “his own place,” Acts
i.25. This life is our working day; death closeth our day and our work together.
We may readily imagine the wicked might have some hope in their death, if, after
death has opened their eyes, they could return to life, and have but the trial of one
156 FOUR FOLD STATE.
Sabbath, one offer of Christ, one day, or but one hour more, to make up their
peace with God: but “man lieth down, and riseth not ; till the heavens be no
more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep,” Job xiv. 12. Lastly,
In the other world, men have no access to get their ruined state and condition re-
trieved, if they never so fain would. For “there is no work, nor device, nor know-
ledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest,” Eccles. ix. 10. Now a man
may flee from the Wrath to come ; now he may get into a refuge: but when once
death has done its work, the door is shut ; there are no more offers of mercy, no
more pardons: where the tree is fallen, there it must lie.
Let what has been said be carefully pondered ; and that it may be of use, let me
exhort you, s -
First, To take heed that ye entertain no hopes of heaven but what are built on a
solid foundation. Tremble to think what fair hopes of happiness death sweeps
away like cobwebs; how the hopes of many are cut off, when they seem to them-
selves to be at the very threshold of heaven; how, in the moment they expected to
be carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, into the regions of bliss and peace,
they are carried by devils into the society of the damned in hell, into the place of
torment and regions of horror. I beseech you to beware, (1.) Of a hope built up
where the ground was never cleared. The wise builder “digged deep,” Luke vi.
48. Were your hopes of heaven never shaken, but have ye had good hopes all
your days 3 Alas for it ! you may see the mystery of your case explained, Luke .
xi. 21, “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.”
But if they have been shaken, take heed lest there have only some breaches been .
made in the old building, which you have got repaired again, by ways and means
of your own. I assure you, your hope, howsoever fair a building it is, is not to
trust to, unless your old hopes have been razed, and you have built on a founda-
tion quite new. (2.) Beware of that hope which looks brisk in the dark, but loseth
all its lustre when it is set in the light of God’s word, when it is examined and
tried by the touchstone of divine revelation; John iii. 20, “For every one that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved;”
ver, 21, “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be
made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” That hope which cannot abide
scripture-trial, but sinks when searched into by sacred truth, is a delusion, and
not a true hope ; for God's word is always a friend to the graces of God's Spirit,
and an enemy to delusion. (3.) Beware of that hope which stands without being
supported by scripture-evidences. Alas! many are big with hopes who cannot
give, because they really have not, any scripture-grounds for them. Thou hopest
that all shall be well with thee after death ; but what word of God is it on which
thou hast been “caused to hope?” Psal. cxix, 49. What scripture-evidence hast thou
to prove, that thy hope is not “the hope of the hypocrite ” What hast thou,
after impartial self-examination, as in the sight of God, found in thyself, which the
word of God determines to be a sure evidence of his right to eternal life who is
possessed of it. Numbers of men are ruined with such hopes as stand unsupported
by Scripture-evidence. Men are fond and tenacious of these hopes; but death
will throw them down, and leave the self-deceiver hopeless. Lastly, Beware of
that hope of heaven which doth not prepare and dispose you for heaven, which
never makes your souls more holy ; 1 John iii. 3, “Every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” The hope of the most part
of men is rather a hope to be free of pain and torment in another life, than
a hope of true happiness, the nature whereof is not understood and discerned ;
and therefore it stakes down in sloth and indolence, and does not excite to
mortification and a heavenly life. So far are they from hoping aright for heaven,
that they must own, if they speak their genuine sentiments, removing out of
this world into any other place whatsoever is rather their fear than their hope.
. The glory of the heavenly city does not at all draw their hearts upwards towards
it ; nor do they lift up their heads with joy, in the prospect of arriving at it. If
they had the true hope of the marriage-day, they would, as the bride, the Lamb's
wife, be making themselves ready for it, Rev. xix. 7. But their hopes are pro-
duced by their sloth, and their sloth is nourished by their hopes. O ! Sirs, as ye
FOUR FOLD STATE. 157
would not be driven away hopeless in your death, beware of these hopes. Raze
them now, and build on a new foundation ; lest death leave not one stone of them
upon another, and ye never be able to hope any more.
Secondly, Hasten, O sinners, out of your wickedness, out of your sinful state,
and out of your wicked life; if ye would not at death be driven away in your
wickedness. Remember the fatal end of the wicked man, as the text represents
it. I know there is a great difference in the death of the wicked, in respect of some
circumstances: but all of them, in their death, agree in this, that they are driven
away in their wickedness. Some of them die resolutely, as if they scorned to be
afraid: some in raging despair, so filled with horror, that they cry out, as if they
were already in hell: others in sullen despondency, oppressed with fears, insomuch
that their hearts are sunk within them upon the remembrance of misspent time,
and the view they have of eternity; having neither head nor heart to do anything
for their own relief. And others die stupid : they lived like beasts; and they die
like beasts, without any concern on their spirits about their eternal state. They
groan under their bodily distress, but have no sense of the danger of their souls.
One may with almost as much prospect of success speak to a stone, as speak to
them ; vain is the attempt to teach them ; nothing that can be said moves them.
To discourse to them, either of the joys of heaven, or the torments of hell, is to plough
on a rock or beat the air. Some die like the foolish virgins, dreaming of heaven:
their foreheads are steeled against the fears of hell, with presumptuous hopes of
heaven. Their business who would be useful to them is, not to answer doubts about
the case of their souls, but to dispute them out of their false hopes. But which
way soever the unconverted man dies, he is driven away in his wickedness. O
dreadful case ! O let the consideration of so horrible a departure out of this world
move you to betake yourselves to Jesus Christ, as an all-sufficient Saviour, an
almighty Redeemer. Let it prevail to drive you out of your wickedness, to holi-
ness of heart and life. Though you reckon it pleasant to live in wickedness; you
cannot but own, it is bitter to die in it. And if you leave it not in time, you shall
go in your wickedness to hell, the proper place of it, that it may be set there on
its own base. For when you are passing out of this world, all your sins, from the
eldest to the youngest of them, will swarm about you, hang upon you, accompany
you to the other world, and, as so many furies, surround you there for ever.
Lastly, O be concerned for others, especially for your relations, that they may
not continue in their sinful natural state, but be brought into a state of salvation ;
lest they be driven away in their wickedness at death. What would ye not do to
prevent any of your friends dying an untimely and violent death 2 But, alas ! do
not you see them in hazard of being driven away in their wickedness? Is not death
approaching them, even the youngest of them 2 And are they not strangers to true
Christianity, remaining in that state in which they came into the world? O make
haste to pluck the brand out of the fire, before it be burnt to ashes . The death of
relations often leaves a sting in the hearts of those they leave behind them; for
that they did not do for their souls as they had opportunity, and that now the op-
portunity is for ever taken out of their hands.
Doctrine II—The state of the godly in death is a hopeful state.
We have seen the dark side of the cloud looking towards ungodly men, passing
out of the world: let us now take a view of the bright side of it, shining on the
godly, as they are entering upon their eternal state. In discoursing this subject,
I shall confirm this doctrine, answer an objection against it, and then make some
practical improvement of the whole. -
For confirmation, let it be observed, that although the passage out of this world
by death has a frightful aspect to poor mortals, and to miscarry in it must needs be
of fatal consequence; yet the following circumstances make the state of the godly
in their death happy and hopeful. -
First, They have a trusty good friend before them in the other world. Jesus
Christ, their best friend, is Lord of that land to which death carries them. When
Joseph sent for his father to come down to him to Egypt, telling him, “God had
158 FOUR FOLD STATE.
made him lord over all Egypt,” Gen. xlv. 9, and “Jacob saw the waggons Joseph had
sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob revived,” verse 27. He frankly resolves to
undertake the journey. I think, when the Lord calls a godly man out of this world,
he sends him such glad tidings, and such a kind invitation into the other world,
that if he had faith to believe it, his spirit must revive, when he sees the waggon
of death, which comes to carry him thither. It is true, indeed, he has a weighty
trial to undergo ; “after death the judgment.” But the case of the godly is alto-
gether hopeful; for the Lord of the land is their Husband, and their Husband is
their Judge; “the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son,” John v. 22.
And surely the case of the wife is hopeful, when her own husband is her judge, even
such a husband as “hates putting away.” No husband is so loving and so tender
of his spouse, as the Lord Christ is of his. One would think, it would be a very
bad land which a wife would not willingly go to where the husband is the ruler
and judge. Moreover, their Judge is their Advocate; 1 John ii. 1, “We have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And therefore they need
not fear their being put back, and falling into condemnation. What can be more
favourable 2 Can they think that he who pleads their cause will himself pass sen-
tence against them 2 Yet further, their Advocate is their Redeemer; they are
“redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,” 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. So when he pleads
for them, he is pleading his own cause. Though an advocate may be careless of the
interest of one who employs him; surely he will do his utmost to defend his own
right, which he hath purchased with his money: and shall not their Advocate defend
the purchase of his own blood 2 But more than all that ; their Redeemer is their
Head, and they are his members, Eph. v. 23, 30. Though one were so silly as to
let his own purchase go without standing up to defend his right, yet surely he will
not quit a limb of his own body. Is not their case, then, hopeful in death, who
are so closely linked and allied to the Lord of the other world, who hath “the keys
of hell and of death ?”
Secondly, They shall have a safe passage to another world. They must indeed
go through the valley of the shadow of death; but though it be in itself a dark
and shady vale, it shall be a valley of hope to them ; they shall not be driven
through it, but walk through it, as men in perfect safety, who fear no evil, Psal.
xxiii. 4. Why should they fear 2 They have the Lord of the land's safe conduct,
his pass sealed with his own blood: namely, the blessed covenant, which is the
saint's death-bed comfort ; 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, “Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and
sure : for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to
grow.” Who then can harm them? It is safe riding in Christ's chariot, (Cant.
iii. 9,) both through life and death. They have good and honourable attendants, a
guard, even a guard of angels. These encamp about them in the time of their
life, and surely will not leave them in the day of their death. These happy min-
istering spirits are attendants on their Lord's bride, and will doubtless convey her
safe home to his house. When friends, in mournful mood, stand by the saint's
bed-side, waiting to see him draw his last breath ; his soul is waited for of holy
angels, to be carried by them into Abraham's bosom, Luke xvi. 22. The captain
of the saint's salvation is the captain of this holy guard: he was their “guide even
unto death,” and he will be their guide through it too; Psal. xxiii. 4, “Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for
thou art with me.” They may, without fear, pass that river, being confident it
shall not overflow them ; and may walk through that fire, being sure they shall not
be burnt by it. *
Death can do them no harm. It cannot even hurt their bodies: for though it
separate the soul from the body, it cannot separate the body from the Lord Christ.
Even death to them is but “sleep in Jesus,” 1 Thess. iv. 14. They continue mem-
bers of Christ, though in a grave. Their dust is precious dust; laid up in the grave,
as in their lord's cabinet. They lie in a grave mellowing ; as precious fruit laid
up, to be brought forth to him at the resurrection. The husbandman has corn in
his barn, and corns lying in the ground: the latter is more precious to him than
the former, because he looks to get it returned with increase. Even so the dead
FOURFOLD STATE, 159
bodies of the saints are valued by their Saviour: they are “sown in corruption,” to
be “raised in incorruption; sown in dishonour,” to be “raised in glory,” I Cor. xv.
42, 43. It cannot hurt their souls. It is with the souls of the saints at death as with
Paul and his company in their voyage, whereof we have the history, Acts xxvii. The
ship was broken in pieces, but the passengers “got all safe to land.” When the dying
saint's speech is laid, his eyes set, and his last breath drawn; the soul gets safe away
into the heavenly paradise, leaving the body to return to its earth, but in the joyful
hope of a reunion at its glorious resurrection. How can death hurt the godly? It is a
foiled enemy : if it cast them down, it is only that they may rise up more glorious.
“Our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death,” 2 Tim. i. 10. The soul and life
of it is gone : it is but a walking shade that may fright, but cannot hurt saints:
it is only the shadow of death to them ; it is not the thing itself: their dying is
but as dying, or somewhat like dying. The apostle tells us, “It is Christ that
died,” Rom. viii. 34. Stephen the first Christian martyr, though stoned to death,
yet but “fell asleep,” Acts vii. 60. Certainly the nature of death is quite changed
with respect to the saints. It is not to them what it was to Jesus Christ their
head : it is not the envenomed ruinating thing wrapt up in the sanction of the first
covenant ; Gen. ii. 17, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
It comes to the godly without its sting : they may meet it with that salutation,
“O death, where is thy sting 2" Is this Mara 2 Is this bitter death? It went out full
into the world, when the first Adam opened the door to it; but the second Adam hath
brought it again empty to his own people. Ifeel a sting, may the dying saint say, yet
it is but a bee-sting, stinging only through the skin: but, O death, where is thy sting,
thine old sting, the serpent's sting, that stings to the heart and soul? The sting of
death is sin; but that is taken away. If death arrest the saint, and carry him before
the Judge, to answer for the debt he contracted; the debt will be found paid by the
glorious Cautioner; and he has the discharge to show. The thorn of guilt is pulled out
of the man's conscience ; and his name is blotted out of the black roll, and “writ-
ten among the living in Jerusalem.” It is true, it is a great journey to go through
“the valley of the shadow of death :” but the saint's burden is taken away from
off his back, his iniquity is pardoned, he may walk at ease: “no lion shall be there,
nor any ravenous beast;” the redeemed may walk at leisure there, free from all
apprehensions of danger. º o
Lastly, They shall have a joyful entrance into the other world. Their arrival
in the regions of bliss will be celebrated with rapturous hymns of praise to their
glorious Redeemer. A dying day is a good day to a godly man. Yea, it is his
best day; it is better to him than his birth-day, or than the most joyous day he
ever had on earth. “A good name,” says the wise man, “is better than precious
ointment ; and the day of death than the day of one's birth,” Eccl. vii. I. The
notion of the immortality of the soul, and of future happiness, which obtained
among some Pagan nations, had wonderful effects on them. Some of them, when
they mourned for the dead, did it in women's apparel; that, being moved with the
indecency of the garb, they might the sooner lay aside their mourning. Others
buried them without any lamentation or mourning, but had a sacrifice, and a feast
for friends, upon that occasion. Some were wont to mourn at births, and rejoice
at burials. But the practice of some Indian nations is yet more strange, of whom
it is reported, that, upon the husband's decease, his several wives were in use to
contend before the judges, which of them was the best beloved wife : and she in
whose favours it was determined, with a cheerful countenance threw herself into
the flames prepared for her husband's corpse, was burned with it, and reckoned
happy ; while the rest lived in grief, and were accounted miserable. But, howso-
ever lame notions of a future state, assisted by pride, affectation of applause, ap-
prehensions of difficulties in this life, and such like principles proper to depraved
human nature, may influence rude uncultivated minds, when strengthened by the
arts of hell ; O what solid joy and consolation may they have who are true Öhris,
tians, being in Christ, who “ hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospell” 2 Tim. i. 10. Death is one of those “all things” that “work to-
gether for good to them that love God,” Rom. viii. 28. When the body dies, the
soul is perfected : the body of death goes off at the death of the body. What harm
160 FOURFOLD STATE.
did the jailer to Pharoah's butler, when he opened the prison door to him and let
him out 2 Is the bird in worse case when at liberty, than when confined in a cage 2
Thus, and no worse, are the souls of the saints treated by death. It comes to the
godly man, as Haman came to Mordecai, with the royal apparel and the horse,
Esth. iv. 11, with commission to do them honour, howsoever awkwardly it be per-
formed. I question not but Haman performed the ceremony with a very ill mien,
a pale face, a downcast look, and a cloudy countenance ; and like one who came to
hang him, rather than to honour him. But he whom the king delighted to hom-
our behoved to be honoured; and Haman, Mordecai's grand enemy, must be the
man employed to put this honour upon him. Glory, glory, glory, blessing and
praise to our Redeemer, our Saviour, our Mediator, by whose death, grim, devour-
ing death is made to do such a good office to those whom it might otherwise have
hurried away in their wickedness, to utter and eternal destruction | A dying day
is, in itself, a joyful day to the godly ; it is their redemption-day, when the cap-
tives are delivered, when the prisoners are set free. It is the day of the pilgrims'
coming home from their pilgrimage ; the day in which the heirs of glory return
from their travels, to their own country and their Father's house, and enter into
actual possession of the glorious inheritance. It is their marriage-day : now is
the time of espousals; but then the marriage is consummate, and a marriage-
feast begun which has no period. If so, is not the state of the godly in death a
hopeful state 2
Objection. But if the state of the godly in their death be so hopeful, how comes it
to pass that many of them, when dying, are full of fears, and have little hope 2
Answer. It must be owned, that saints do not all die in one and the same manner :
there is a diversity among them as well as among the wicked ; yet the worst case
of a dying saint is indeed a hopeful one. Some die triumphantly, in a full assur-
ance of faith; 2 Tim. iv. 6, “The time of my departure is at hand;” verse 7, “I have
foughtagood fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith;” verse 8, “Hence-
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” They get a taste of the joys of
heaven, while here on earth; and begin the songs of Zion, while yet in a strange land.
Others die in a solid fiducial dependence on their Lord and Saviour: though they
cannot sing triumphantly, yet they can and will say confidently, the Lord is their
God. Though they cannot triumph over death, with old Simeon, having Christ in
his arms, and saying, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, accord-
ing to thy word ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,” Luke ii. 29, 30; yet
they can say with dying Jacob, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord,” Gen.
xlix. 18. His left hand is under their head to support them, though his right hand
doth not embrace them ; they firmly believe, though they are not filled with joy
in believing. They can plead the covenant, and hang by the promise, although
their house is not so with God as they could wish. But the dying day of some
saints may be like that day mentioned, Zech. xiv. 7, “not day, nor night.” They
may die under great doubts and fears ; setting, as it were, in a cloud, and going
to heaven in a mist. They may go mourning without the Sun, and never put off their
spirit of heaviness till death strip them of it. . They may be carried to heaven
through the confines of hell; and may be pursued by the devouring lion even to the
very gates of the New Jerusalem ; and may be compared to a ship almost wrecked
in sight of the harbour, which yet gets safe into her port; 1 Cor. iii. 15, “If any
man's work shall be burnt, he shall suffer loss : but he himself shall be saved, yet
so as by fire.” There is safety amidst their fears, but danger in the wicked's strong
confidence ; and there is a blessed seed of gladness in their greatest Sorrows. “Light
is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart,” Psal. xcvii. 11.
Now, saints are liable to such perplexity in their death, because though they be
Christians indeed, yet they are men of like passions with others, and death is a
frightful object in itself, whatever dress it appears in ; the stern countenance with
which it looks at mortals can hardly miss of causing them shrink. Moreover, the
saints are of all men the most jealous of themselves. They think of eternity, and
of a tribunal, more deeply than others do: with them it is a more serious thing to
die, than the rest of mankind are aware of. They know the deceits of the heart,
the subtilties of deprayed human nature, better than others do; and therefore
FOUR FOLD STATE. 161
they may have much ado to keep up hope on a death-bed ; while others pass off
quietly, like sheep to the slaughter; the rather, that Satan, who useth all his art
to support the hopes of the hypocrite, will do his utmost to mar the peace, and in-
crease the fears of the saint. Finally, The bad frame of spirit and ill condition
in which death sometimes seizeth a true Christian, may cause this perplexity. By
his being in the state of grace, he is indeed always habitually prepared for death,
and his dying safely is ensured: but there is more requisite to his actual prepara-
tion, and dying comfortably ; his spirit must be in good condition too. r
Wherefore there are three cases in which death cannot but be very uncomfortable
to a child of God. (1.) If it seize him at a time when the guilt of some particular
sin, unrepented of, is lying on his conscience, and death comes on that very account,
to take him out of the land of the living, as was the case of many of the Corinthian
believers; 1 Cor. xi. 30. “For this cause” (namely, of unworthy communicating)
“many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” If a person is surprised
with the approach of death, while lying under the guilt of some unpardoned sin, it
cannot but cause a mighty consternation. (2.) When death catches him napping.
The midnight cry must be frightful to sleeping virgins. The man who lies in a
ruinous house, and awakens not till the timber begins to crack, and the stones to
drop down about his ears, may indeed get out of it safely, but not without fears of
being crushed by its fall. When a Christian has been going on in a course of
security and backsliding, and awakens not till death comes to his bed-side ; it is no
marvel if he get a fearful awakening. Lastly, When he has lost sight of his saving
interest in Christ, and cannot produce evidences of his title to heaven. It is hard
to meet death without some evidence of a title to eternal life at hand; hard to go
through the dark valley, without the candle of the Lord shining upon the head.
It is a terrible adventure to launch out into eternity, when a man can make no
better of it than a leap in the dark, not knowing where he shall light, whether in
heaven or hell.
Nevertheless, the state of the saints in their death is always in itself hopeful.
The presumptuous hopes of the ungodly in their death cannot make their state
hopeful, neither can the hopelessness of a saint make his state hopeless; for God
judgeth according to the truth of the thing, not according to men's opinions about
it. Howbeit, the saints can no more be altogether without hope than they can be
altogether without faith. Their faith may be very weak, but it fails not; and
their hope very low, yet they will, and do “hope to the end.” Even while the
godly seem to be carried away with the stream of doubts and fears, there remains
still as much hope as determines them to lay hold on the tree of life, that grows
on the bank of the river; Jonah ii. 4, “Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight:
yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.”
Use. This speaks comfort to the godly against the fear of death. A godly man
may be called a happy man before his death; because, whatever befall him in life,
he shall certainly be happy at death. You who are in Christ, who are true Chris-
tians, have hope in your end; and such a hope as may comfort you against all
those fears which arise from the consideration of a dying hour. This I shall branch
out, in answering some cases briefly.
Case I. “The prospect of death,” will some of the saints say, “is uneasy to me, not
knowing what shall become of my family when I am gone.” Answer. The righteous
hath hope in his death, as to his family, as well as himself. Although you have
little, for the present, to live upon; which has been the case of many of God's
chosen ones; I Cor. iv. 11, “We’’ (namely the apostles, ver, 9.) “both hunger
and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place;”
and though you have nothing to leave them, as was the case of that son of the pro-
phets who did fear the Lord, and yet died in debt, which he was unable to pay, as
his poor widow represents, 2 Kings iv. 1, yet you have a good friend to leave
them to ; a covenanted God, to whom you may confidently commit them; Jer. xlix.
11, “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy wi-
dows trust in me.” The world can bear witness of signal settlements made upon
the children of providence, such as by their pious parents have been cast upon
God's providential care. It has been often remarked, that they wanted neither
X
162 FOUR FOLD STATE.
provision nor education. Moses is an eminent instance of this. He, albeit he was
an outcast infant, Exod. ii. 3, yet was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyp-
tians,” Acts vii. 22, and became “king in Jeshurun,” Deut. xxxiii. 5. O ! may
we not be ashamed, that we do not securely trust him with the concerns of our
families to whom, as our Saviour and Redeemer, we have committed our eternal
interests? J
Case 2. “Death will take us away from our dear friends: yea, we shall not see
the Lord in the land of the living, in the blessed ordinances.” Answer. It will take
you to your best friend, the Lord Christ. And the friends you leave behind you,
if they be indeed persons of worth, you will meet again, when they come to heaven:
and you will never be separated any more. If death take you away from the tem-
ple below, it will carry you to the temple above. It will indeed take you from the
streams, but it will set you down by the fountain. If it put out your candle, it
will carry you where there is “no night,” where there is an eternal day. -
Case 3. “I have so much ado in time of health to satisfy myself as to my interest
in Christ, about my being a real Christian, a regenerate man, that I judge it is
almost impossible I should die comfortable.” Answer. If it is thus with you, then
double your “diligence to make your calling and election sure.” Endeavour to
grow in knowledge, and walk closely with God : be diligent in self-examination;
and pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit, whereby you may “know the things freely
given you of God.” If you are enabled, by the power and Spirit of Christ, thus
diligently to prosecute your spiritual concerns; though the time of your life be
neither day nor night, yet “at evening-time” it may “be light.” Many weak,
Christians indulge doubts and fears about their spiritual state, as if they placed at
least some part of religion in this imprudent practice : but towards the period of
life, they are forced to think and act in another manner. The traveller who reckons
he has time to spare may stand still debating with himself, whether this or the
other be the right way: but when the sun begins to set, he is forced to lay aside
his scruples, and resolutely to go forward in the road he judges to be the right one,
lest he lie all night in the open fields. Thus some Christians, who perplex them-
selves much throughout the course of their lives with jealous doubts and fears,
content themselves, when they come to die, with such evidences of the safety of
their state as they could not be satisfied with before, and, by disputing less against
themselves, and believing more, court the peace they formerly rejected, and gain
it too. - -
Case 4. “I am under a sad decay in respect of my spiritual condition.” Answer.
Bodily consumptions may make death easy: but it is not so in spiritual decays.
I will not say that a godly man cannot be in such a case when he dies, but I be-
lieve it is rarely so. Ordinarily, I suppose, a cry comes to awaken sleeping virgins,
before death come. Samson is set to grind in the prison, until his locks grow
again. David and Solomon fell under great spiritual decays; but before they died,
they recovered their spiritual strength and vigour. However, bestir ye yourselves
without delay, to “strengthen the things that remain:” your fright will be the
less, that ye awake from spiritual sleep ere death come to your bed-side: and you
ought to lose no time, seeing you know not how soon death may seize you. -
Case 5. “It is terrible to think of the other world, that world of spirits, which I
have so little acquaintance with.” Answer. Thy best friend is Lord of that other
world. “Abraham's bosom '' is kindly, even to those who never saw his face.
After death thy soul becomes capable of converse with the blessed inhabitants of
that other world. “The spirits of just men made perfect” were once such as thy
spirit now is. And as for the angels, howsoever they be of a superior nature in the
rank of beings, yet our nature is dignified above theirs, in the man Christ; and
they are, all of them, thy Lord's servants, and so thy fellow-servants.
Case 6. “The pangs of death are terrible.” Answer. Yet not so terrible as pangs
of conscience, caused by a piercing sense of guilt, and apprehensions of divine wrath,
with which I suppose thee to be not altogether unacquainted. But who would not
endure bodily sickness, that the soul may become sound, and every whit whole?
Each pang of death will set sin a step nearer the door ; and with the last breath,
FOURFOLD STATE. 163
the body of sin will breathe out its last. The pains of death will not last long;
and the Lord thy God will not leave, but support thee under them.
Case 7. “But I am like to be cut off in the midst of my days.” Answer. Do
not complain, you will be the sooner at home : you thereby have the advantage of
your fellow-labourers, who were at work before you, in the vineyard. God, in the
course of his providence, hides some of his saints early in the grave, that they may
be taken away from the evil to come. An early removal out of this world prevents
much sin and misery; and they have no ground of complaint who get the residue
of their years in Immanuel's land. Surely thou shalt live as long as thou hast
work cut out for thee, by thy great Master, to be done for him in this world; and
when that is at an end, it is high time to be gone.
Case 8. “I am afraid of sudden death.” Answer. Thou mayest indeed die so.
Good Eli died suddenly, 1 Sam. iv. 18. Yet death found him watching, ver, 13.
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour the Lord doth come,” Matt. xxiv.
42. But be not afraid: it is an inexpressible comfort, that death, come when it
will, can never catch thee out of Christ; and therefore can never seize thee, as a
jailer, to hurry thee into the prison of hell. Sudden death may hasten and facili-
tate thy passage to heaven, but can do thee no prejudice. | -
Case 9. “I am afraid it be my lot to die wanting the exercise of reason.” An-
swer. I make no question but a child of God, a true Christian, may die in this case.
But what harm ? There is no hazard in it, as to his eternal state ; a disease at
death may divest him of his reason, but not of his religion. When a man going a
long voyage has put his affairs in order, and put all his goods aboard, he himself
may be carried aboard the ship sleeping; all is safe with him, although he knows
not where he is till he awake in the ship. Even so the godly man who dies in this
case may die uncomfortably, but not unsafely. -
Case 10. “I am naturally timorous, and the thoughts of death are terrible to
me.” Answer. The less you think on death, the thoughts of it will be the more
frightful; but make it familiar to you by frequent meditations upon it, and you
may thereby allay your fears. Look at the white and bright side of the cloud; take
faith's view of the city that hath foundations: so shall you see hope in your death.
Be duly affected with the body of sin and death, the frequent interruptions of your
communion with God, and the glory which dwells on the other side death: this
will contribute much to remove slavish fear.
It is pity Saints should be so fond of life as they often are : they ought always to
be in good terms with death. When matters are duly considered, it might well be
expected every child of God, every regenerate man, should generously profess con-
cerning this life what Job did, chap. vii. 16, “I loathe it, I would not live always.”
In order to gain their hearts to this desirable temper, I offer the following addi-
tional considerations. - - ... -
1. Consider the sinfulness that attends life in this world. While ye live here,
ye sin, and see others sinning. Ye breathe infectious air. Ye live in a pest-house.
Is it at all strange to loathe such a life? (1.) Your own plague-sores are running
on you. Doth not the sin of your nature make you groan daily 2 Are you not sen-
sible, that though the cure be begun, it is yet far from being perfected? Has not
the leprosy got into the walls of the house, which cannot be removed without pull-
ing it down? Is not your nature so vitiate, that no less than the separation of the
soul from the body can root out the disease? Have you not your sores without,
as well as your sickness within 3 Do ye not leave marks of your pollution on what-
soever passes through your hands? Are not all your actions tainted and blem-
ished with defects and imperfections? Who else, then, should be much in love with
life, but such whose sickness is their health, and who glory in their shame? (2.)
The loathsome sores of others are always before your eyes, go where you wilſ.
The follies and wickedness of men are everywhere conspicuous, and make but an
unpleasant scene. This sinful world is but an unsightly company, a disagreeable
ºwd, in which the loathsome are the most numerous. (3.) Are not your own sores
ofttimes breaking out again, after healing ? Frequent relapses may well cause us
ºmit of our fondness for this life. To be ever struggling, and anon falling into
the mire again, makes weary work. Do ye never wish for cold death, thereby
i
164 FOURFOI,D STATE.
effectually to cool the heat of those lusts which so often take fire again, even after
a flood of godly sorrow has gone over them? (4.) Do not ye sometimes infect
others, and others infect you? There is no society in the world in which every
member of it doth not sometimes lay a stumbling-block before the rest. The best
carry about with them the tinder of a corrupt nature, which they cannot be rid of
while they live, and which is liable to be kindled at all times, and in all places:
yea, they are apt to inflame others, and become the occasions of sinning. Certainly
these things are apt to imbitter this life to the saints.
(2.) Consider the misery and troubles that attend it. Rest is desirable, but it is
not to be found on this side of the grave. Worldly troubles attend all men in this
life. This world is a sea of trouble, where one wave rolls upon another. They
who fancy themselves beyond the reach of trouble are mistaken: no state, no stage
of life is exempted from it. The crowned head is surrounded with thorny cares.
Honour many times paves the way to deep disgrace: riches, for the most part, are
kept to the hurt of the owners. The fairest rose wants not prickles, and the heavi-
est cross is sometimes found wrapt up in the greatest earthly comfort. Spiritual
troubles attend the saints in this life. They are like travellers travelling in a cloudy
night, in which the moon sometimes breaks out from under one cloud, but quickly
hides her head again under another: no wonder they long to be at their journey's
end. The sudden alterations the best frame of spirit is liable to, the perplexing
doubts, confounding fears, short-lived joys, and long-running sorrows, which have
a certain affinity with the present life, must needs create in the saints a desire to
be with Christ, which is best of all. -
(3.) Consider the great imperfections attending this life. While the soul is "
lodged in this cottage of clay, the necessities of the body are many ; it is always
craving. The mud-walls must be repaired and patched up daily, till the clay cot-
tage fall down for good and all. Eating, drinking, sleeping, and the like, are, in
themselves, but mean employments for a rational creature, and will be reputed
such by the heaven-born soul. They are badges of imperfection, and as such, un-
pleasant to the mind aspiring unto that life and immortality which is brought to
light through the gospel ; and would be very grievous, if this state of things were
of long continuance. Doth not the gracious soul often find itself yoked with the
body, as with a companion in travel, unable to keep pace with it? When the spirit
is willing, the flesh is weak. When the soul would mount upward, the body is as a
clog upon it, and as a stone tied to the foot of a bird attempting to fly. The truth
is, O believer ! thy soul in this body is at best but like a diamond in a ring, where
much of it is obscured: it is far sunk in the vile clay, till relieved by death.
I conclude this subject with a few directions how to prepare for death, so as we
may die comfortably. I speak not here of habitual preparation for death, which a
true Christian, in virtue of his gracious state, never wants, from the time he is born
again and united to Christ: but of actual preparation or readiness, in respect of his
circumstantiate case, frame, and disposition of mind and spirit; the want of which
makes even a saint very unfit to die.
1. Let it be your constant care to keep a clean conscience, “a conscience void
of offence toward God, and toward men,” Acts xxiv. 16. Beware of a standing
controversy betwixt God and you, on the account of some iniquity regarded in the
heart. When an honest man is about to leave his country, and not to return, he
settles accounts with those he had dealings with, and lays down methods for paying
his debts timeously; lest he be reckoned a bankrupt, and be attacked by an officer,
when he is going off. Guilt lying on the conscience is a fountain of fears; and will
readily sting severely, when death stares the criminal in the face. Hence it is, that
many, even of God’s children, when a-dying, are made to wish passionately, and
desire eagerly, that they may live to do what they ought to have done before that
time. Wherefore, walk closely with God. Be diligent, strict, and exact in your
course. Beware of a loose, careless, and irregular conversation: as ye would not
lay up for yourselves anguish and bitterness of spirit in a dying hour. And because,
through the infirmity cleaving to us, in our present state of imperfection, “in many
things we offend all,” renew your repentance daily, and be ever washing in the
Redeemer's blood. As long as ye are in the world, ye will need to wash your feet,
FOUR FOLD STATE, 165
John xiii. 10, that is, to make application to the blood of Christ anew, for the purging
your consciences from the guilt of daily miscarriages. Let death find you at the
fountain ; and if so, it will find you ready to answer its call.
2. Be always watchful, waiting for your change ; like unto “men that wait for
their Lord, that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him imme-
diately,” Luke xii. 36. Beware of slumbering and sleeping, while the bridegroom
tarries. To be awakened out of spiritual slumber, by a surprising call to pass into
another world, is a very frightful thing: but he who is daily waiting for the coming
of his Lord, shall comfortably receive the grim messenger, while he beholds him
ushering in him of whom he may confidently say, “This is my God, and I have
waited for him.” The way to die comfortably, is to “die daily.” Be often essay-
ing, as it were, to die. Bring yourselves familiarly acquainted with death, by
making many visits to the grave, in serious meditations upon it. This was Job's
practice ; chap. xvii. 13, 14, “I have made my bed in the darkness.” Go thou,
and do likewise ; and when death comes, thou shalt have nothing ado but to lie
down. “I have said to corruption, thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my
mother and my sister.” Do thou say so too, and thou wilt be the fitter to go home
to their house. Be frequently reflecting upon your conduct, and considering what
course of life you wish to be found in when death arrests you; and act accordingly.
When you do the duties of your station in life, or are employed in acts of worship,
think with yourselves, that, it may be, this is the last opportunity; and therefore
act as if you was never to do more of that kind. When you lie down at night,
compose your spirits, as if you was not to awake till the heavens be no more. And
when you awake in the morning, consider that new day as your last ; and live ac-
cordingly. Surely that night cometh of which you will never see the morning; or
that morning, of which you will never see the night. But which of your mornings
or nights will be such, you know not.
3. Employ yourselves much in weaning your hearts from the world. The man
who is making ready to go abroad busies himself in taking leave of his friends. Let
the mantle of earthly enjoyments hang loose about you ; that it may be easily
dropt, when death comes to carry you away into another world. Moderate your
affections towards your lawful comforts of life: and let not your hearts be too much
taken with them. The traveller acts unwisely, who suffers himself to be so allured
with the conveniences of the inn where he lodgeth, as to make his necessary de-
parture from it grievous. Feed with fear, and walk through the world as pilgrims
and strangers. . Likeas, when the corn is forsaking the ground, it is ready for the
sickle ; when the fruit is ripe, it falls off the tree easily: so, when a Christian's
heart is truly weaned from the world, he is prepared for death, and it will be the
more easy to him. . A heart disengaged from the world is an heavenly one: and
then are we ready for heaven, when our heart is there before us, Matt. vi. 21.
4. Be diligent in gathering and laying up evidences of your title to heaven, for
your support and comfort at the hour of death. The neglect hereof mars the joy and
consolation which some Christians might otherwise have at their death. Wherefore,
examine yourselves frequently as to your spiritual state; that evidences which lie
hid and unobserved may be brought to light, and taken notice of And if ye would
manage this work successfully, make solemn serious work of it. Set apart some
time for it. And after earnest prayer to God, through Jesus Christ, for the en-
lightening influences of his Holy Spirit, whereby ye may be enabled to understand
his own word, and to discern his own work in your souls; sist yourselves before
the tribunal of your consciences, that ye may judge yourselves in this weighty
matter.
And in the first place, Let the marks of a regenerate state be fixed, from the
Lord's word; and have recourse to some particular text for that purpose; such
as Prov. viii. 17, “I love them that love me.” Compare Luke xiv. 26, “If any
man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and
brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple;” Psal.
exix. 6, "Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy command-
ments;" Psalºviii. 23, “I was also upright before him; and I kept myself from
mine iniquity.” Compare Rom, vii. 22, 23, “For I delight in the law of God after
166 FOUR FOLD STATE.
the inward man ; but I see another law in my members warring against the law of
my mind,” &c.; 1 John iii. 3, “And every man that hath this hope in him puri-
fieth himself, even as he is pure ;” Matt. v. 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven;” Phil. iii. 3, “For we are the circumcision, which
worship, or serve, God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no con-
fidence in the flesh.” The sum of the evidence arising from these texts lies here.
A real Christian is one who loves God for himself as well as for his benefits; and
that with a Supreme love above all persons and all things: he has an awful and
impartial regard to God's commands: he opposeth and wrestleth against that sin,
which, of all others, most easily besets him: he approveth and loveth the holy law,
even in that very point wherein it strikes against his most beloved lust: his hope
of heaven engageth him in the study of universal holiness, in the which he aims at
perfection, though he cannot reach it in this life: he serves the Lord, not only in
acts of worship, but in the whole of his conversation, and as to both, is spiritual in
the principle, motives, aims, and ends of his service: yet he sees nothing in himself
to trust to, before the Lord: Christ and his fulness is the stay of his soul: and his
confidence is cut off from all that is not Christ, or in Christ, in point of justification,
or acceptance with God, and in point of sanctification too. Every one in whom
these characters are found, has a title to heaven, according to the word. It is con-
venient and profitable to mark such texts for this special use, as they occur, while
you read the scriptures, or hear sermons. The marks of a regenerate state thus
fixed ; in the next place, impartially search and try your own hearts thereby, as in
the sight of God, with dependence on him for spiritual discerning, that ye may know
whether they be in you or not. And when ye find them, form the conclusion de-
liberately and distinctly ; namely, that therefore you are regenerate, and have a
title to heaven. Thus you may gather evidences. But be sure to have recourse to
God in Christ by earnest prayer, for the testimony of the Spirit, whose office it is
to “bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God,” Rom. viii. 16.
Moreover, carefully observe the course and method of providence towards you, and
likewise how your soul is affected under the same in the various steps thereof:
compare both with scripture doctrines, promises, threatenings, and examples: so
shall ye perceive if the Lord deals with you as he used to do unto those that love
his name, and if you be going forth by the footsteps of the flock. This may afford
you comfortable evidence. Walk tenderly and circumspectly, and the Lord will
manifest himself to you, according to his promise; John xiv. 21, “He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth
me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to
him.” But it is in vain to think on successful self-examination, if ye be loose and
irregular in your conversation. - . .
5. Despatch the work of your day and generation with speed and diligence.
“David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep,”
Acts xiii. 36. God has allotted us certain pieces of work of this kind, which ought
to be despatched before the time of working be over ; Eccles. ix. 10, “Whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest;” Gal. vi. 10, “As we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the house-
hold of faith.” If a passenger, after he has got on shipboard, and the ship is get-
ting under sail, remember that he has omitted to despatch a piece of necessary
business when he was ashore, it must needs be uneasy to him; even so, reflection,
in a dying hour, upon neglected seasons, and lost opportunities, cannot fail to dis-
quiet a Christian. Wherefore, whatever is incumbent upon thee to do, for God's
honour and the good of others, either as the duty of thy station, or by special op-
portunity put into thy hand; perform it seasonably, if thou wouldst die comfortably,
FOURFOLD STATE, 167
H E A D III.
T H E RESU R.H.ECTION,
JoHN v. 28, 29.
“Marvel not at this : for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth : they that have done good, writo the resurrection
of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
THESE words are part of the defence our Lord Jesus Christ makes for himself,
when persecuted by the Jews for curing the impotent man, and ordering him to
carry away his bed on the Sabbath; and for vindicating his conduct, when accused
by them of having thereby profaned that day. On this occasion he professeth him-
self not only Lord of the Sabbath, but also Lord of life and death ; declaring, in
the words of the text, the resurrection of the dead to be brought to pass by his
power. This he introduceth with these words, as with a solemn preface, “Marvel
not at this,” that is, at this strange discourse of mine ; do not wonder to hear me,
whose appearance is so very mean in your eyes, talk at this rate ; for the day is
coming in which the dead shall be raised by my power.
Observe in this text, (1.) The doctrine of the resurrection asserted: “All that
are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” The dead bodies
which are reduced to dust shall revive, and evidence life by hearing and moving.
(2.) The author of it, Jesus Christ, the Son of man; ver, 27, “The dead shall hear
his voice,” and be raised thereby. (3.) The number that shall be raised; “All
that are in the graves,” that is, all the dead bodies of men, howsoever differently
disposed of, as it were, in different kinds of graves; or, all the dead, good and bad.
They are not all buried in graves, properly so called : some are burnt to ashes;
some drowned, and buried in the bodies of fishes; yea, some devoured by man-
eaters, called cannibals: but, wheresoever the matter or substance of which
the body was composed is to be found, thence they shall come forth. (4.) The
great distinction that shall be made betwixt the godly and the wicked. They
shall indeed both rise again in the resurrection. None of the godly shall be miss-
ing; though, perhaps, they either had no burial, or a very obscure one: and all the
wicked shall come forth ; their vaulted tombs shall hold them no longer than the
yoice is uttered. But the former shall have a joyful resurrection to life, whilst the
latter have a dreadful resurrection to damnation. Lastly, The set time of this
great event: there is an “hour,” or certain fixed period of time, appointed of God
for it. We are not told when that hour will be, but that it is “ coming ;” for this,
among other reasons, that we may always be ready.
DOGTRINE,--There shall be a resurrection of the dead.
º In discoursing of this subject, I shall, first, show the certainty of the resurrec-
tion ; next, I shall inquire into the nature of it; and lastly, make some practical
improvement of the whole.
I. In showing the certainty of the resurrection, I shall evince, First, That God
can raise the dead; and, Secondly, That he will do it: which are the two grounds
or topics laid down by Christ himself, when disputing with the Sadducees; Matt.
xxii. 29, “Jesus answered and said unto them, 'Ye do err, not knowing the scrip-
tures, nor the power of God.”
First, Seeing God is Almighty, surely he can raise the dead. We have instances
ºf this powerful work of God both in the Old and New Testaments. The son of
the widow in Sarepta was raised from the dead, I Kings xvii. 22; the Shunamite's
168 FOUR FOI,D STATE.
son, 2 Kings iv. 35 ; and the man cast into the sepulchre of Elisha, chap. xiii. 21.
In which we may observe a gradation, the second of these miraculous events being
more illustrious than the first, and the third than the second. The first of these
persons was raised when he was but newly dead; the prophet Elijah, who raised him,
being present at his decease. The second, when he had lain dead a considerable
time ; namely, while his mother travelled from Shunem to mount Carmel, reck-
oned about the distance of sixteen miles, and returned from thence to her house,
with Elisha, who raised him. The last, not till they were burying him, and the
corpse was cast into the prophet's grave. In like manner, in the New Testament,
Jairus' daughter, (Mark v. 41,) and Dorcas, (Acts ix. 40,) were both raised to life
when lately dead; the widow's son in Nain, when they were carrying him out to bury
him, Luke vii. 11, 15 ; and Lazarus, when stinking in the grave, John xi. 39, 44.
Can men make curious glasses out of ashes, reduce flowers into ashes, and raise
them again out of these ashes, restoring them to their former beauty; and cannot
the great Creator, who made all things of nothing, raise man's body, after it is re-
duced into dust 2 If it be objected, “How can men's bodies be raised up again,
after they are resolved into dust, and the ashes of many generations are mingled
together?” Scripture and reason furnish the answer; “With men it is impossible,
but not with God.” It is absurd for men to deny that God can do a thing, because
they see not how it may be done. How small a portion do we know of his ways
How absolutely incapable are we of conceiving distinctly of the extent of almighty
power, and much more of comprehending its actings, and the method of procedure!
I question not but many illiterate men are as great infidels to many chemical ex-
periments, as some learned men are to the doctrine of the resurrection ; and as
these last are ready to deride the former, so “the Lord will have them in derision.”
What a mystery was it to the Indians, that the Europeans could, by a piece of
paper, converse together at the distance of some hundreds of miles! And how
much were they astonished to see them with their guns, produce as it were thunder
and lightning in a moment, and at pleasure kill men afar off Shall some men do
such things as are wonders in the eyes of others, because they cannot comprehend
them ; and shall men confine the infinite power of God within the narrow boun-
daries of their own shallow capacities, in a matter nowise contrary to reason? An
inferior nature has but a very imperfect conception of the power of a superior.
Brutes do not conceive of the actings of reason in men ; and men have but lame
notions of the power of angels: how low and inadequate a conception, then, must
a finite nature have of the power of that which is infinite! Though we cannot con-
ceive how God acts, yet we ought to believe he can do above what we can think or
conceive of.
Wherefore, let the bodies of men be laid in the grave ; let them rot there, and
be resolved into the most minute particles; or let them be burnt, and the ashes cast
into rivers, or thrown up into the air, to be scattered by the wind: let the dust of
a thousand generations be mingled, and the steams of dead bodies wander to and fro
in the air : let birds or wild beasts eat the dead bodies, or the fishes of the sea
devour them, so that the parts of human bodies, thus destroyed, pass into substan-
tial parts of birds, beasts, or fishes: or, what is more than that, let man-eaters,
who themselves must die and rise again devour human bodies, and let others devour
them again ; and then let our modern Sadducees propose the question in these
cases, as the ancient Sadducees did, in the case of the woman who had been mar-
ried to seven husbands successively, Matt. xxii. 28, we answer as our blessed Lord
and Saviour did, verse 29, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power
of God.” We believe God to be omniscient and omnipotent; infinite in knowledge
and in power: and hence, agreeably to the dictates of reason, we conclude the
possibility of the resurrection, even in the cases supposed.
Material things may change their forms and shapes; may be resolved into the
principles of which they are formed: but they are not annihilated or reduced to
nothing ; nor can they be so by any created power. God is omniscient, his under-
standing is infinite : therefore he knows all things whatsoever; what they were at
any time, what they are, and where they are to be found. Though the country-
man who comes into the apothecary’s shop cannot find out the drug he wants; yet
FOURFOLD STATE, 169
the apothecary himself knows what he has in his shop, whence it came, and
where it is to be found. And in a mixture of many different seeds, the expert gar-
dener can distinguish betwixt seed and seed. Why, then, may not omniscience dis-
tinguish betwixt dust and dust? Can he who knows all things to perfection be liable to
any mistake about his own creatures 2 Whoso believes an infinite understanding must
needs own, that no mass of dust is so jumbled together but God perfectly compre-
hends, and infallibly knows, how the most minute particle, and every one of them,
is to be matched. And therefore he knows where the particles of each dead body
are ; whether in the earth, sea, or air ; how confused soever they lie. And par-
ticularly, he knows where to find the primitive substance of the man-eater; howso-
ever evaporate or reduced, as it were, into air or vapour, by Sweat or perspiration:
and how to separate the parts of the body that was eaten from the body of the
eater, howsoever incorporate or made one body with it: and so understands, not.
only how, but whence he is to bring back the primitive substance of the man-eater
to its proper place ; and also to separate from the man-eater's body that part of
the devoured body which goes into its substance, and is, indeed, but a very small
part of it. It is certain the bodies of men, as of all other animals or living crea-
tures, are in a continual flux ; they grow and are sustained by daily food; so small
a part whereof becomes nourishment that the most part is evacuate. And it is
reckoned that, at least, as much of the food is evacuate insensibly by perspiration,
as is voided by other perceptible ways. Yea, the nourishing part of the food, when
assimilate, and thereby become a part of the body, is evacuate by perspiration
through the pores of the skin, and again supplied by the use of the food ; yet the
body is still reckoned one and the same body. Whence we may conclude, that it.
is not essential to the resurrection of the body, that every particle of the matter
which at any time was part of a human body should be restored to it, when it is
raised up from death to life. Were it so, the bodies of men would become of so
huge a size that they would bear no resemblance of the persons. It is suffi-
cient to denominate it the same body that died, when it is risen again, if the body
that is raised be formed in its former proportions of the same particles of matter
which at any time were its constituent parts, howsoever it be refined ; likeas, we
reckon it is the same body that was pined away by long sickness, which becomes
fat and fair again after recovery.
Now, to this infinite understanding join infinite power, “whereby he is able to
subdue all things unto himself;” and this gloriously great work appears most reason-
able. If omniscience discover every little particle of dust, where it is, and how it
is to be matched, cannot omnipotence bring them, and join them together in their
order? Can the watchmaker take up the several pieces of a watch, lying in a con-
fused heap before him, and set each in its proper place ; and cannot God put the
human body into order after its dissolution ? Did he speak this world into being,
out of nothing; and can he not form man's body out of its pre-existent matter ? If he
“calleth those things which be not, as though they were:” surely he can call things
that are dissolved, to be as they were, before the compound was resolved into its
parts and principles. Wherefore, God can raise the dead. “And why should it
be º a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead 2’’ Acts
XXVI. &. -
Secondly, God will do it. He not only can do it; but he certainly willdo it, because
he has said it. Our text is very full to this purpose, “All that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” These
words relate to, and are an explanation of, that part of Daniel's prophecy, Dan. xii. 2,
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlast
ing life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” The which appears to have
been calculate to confront the doctrine of the Sadducees; which the Holy Ghost knew
Was to be at a great height in the Jewish church, under the persecution of Antio-
chus., There are many other texts, in the Old and New Testaments, that might
here be adduced; such as Acts xxiv. 15, “And have hope towards God, which they
themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the
just and unjust ;” Job xix. 26, 27, “And though after my skin worms destroy
Y
170 FOUR FOLD STATE.
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine
eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me.”
But I need not multiply testimonies, in a matter so clearly and frequently taught
in sacred scripture. Our Lord and Saviour himself proves it against the Sadducees,
in that remarkable text, Luke xx, 37, 38, “Now that the dead are raised, even
Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the
living ; for all live unto him.” These holy patriarchs were now dead : neverthe-
less, the Lord Jehovah is called their God, namely, in virtue of the covenant of
grace, and in the sense thereof; in which sense the phrase comprehends all bless-
edness, as that which by the covenant is secured to them who are in it; Heb. xi.
16, “God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them
a city.” He is not called the God of their souls only; but their God; the God of
their persons, souls and bodies: the which, by virtue of his truth and faithfulness,
must have its full effect. Now, it cannot have its full effect on the dead, who, in as
far as they are dead, are far from all blessedness; but on the living, who alone are
capable of it: therefore, since God is still called their God, they are living in respect
of God, although their bodies are yet in the grave; for in respect of him who by his
power can restore them to life, and in his covenant has declared his will and purpose so
to do, and whose promise cannot fail, they all are to be reckoned to live; and, consis-
tent with the covenant, their death is but a sleep, out of which, in virtue of the same
covenant, securing all blessedness to their persons, their whole man, they must and
shall certainly be awakened. The apostle Paul proves the resurrection at large, 1 Cor.
xv., and shows it to be a fundamental article, the denial whereof is subversive of
Christianity; verses 13, 14, “If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ
not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith
is also vain.”
To assist us in conceiving of it, the scripture gives us types of the resurrection
of the dead; as the dry bones living, Ezek. xxxvii. Jonah's coming out of the
whale's belly, Matt. xii. 40. And nature affords us emblems and resemblances of
it, as the Sun's setting and rising again; night and day ; winter and summer ; sleep-
ing and awaking ; swallows in winter lying void of all appearance of life, in ruin-
ous buildings and subterraneous caverns, and reviving again in the spring season;
the seeds dying under the clod, and thereafter springing up again; all which, and
the like, may justly be admitted as designed by the God of nature, though not for
proofs, yet for memorials of the resurrection ; whereof we have assurance from the
scripture, 1 Cor. xv. 36, “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened,
except it die.” r
II. I shall inquire into the nature of the resurrection, showing, First, Who shall
be raised ; Secondly, What shall be raised ; Thirdly, How the dead shall be raised.
First, Who shall be raised. Our text tells us who they are ; namely, “all that
are in the graves,” that is, all mankind who are dead. As for those persons who
shall be found alive at the second coming of Christ, they shall not die, and soon
thereafter be raised again ; but such a change shall suddenly pass upon them, as
shall be to them instead of dying and rising again, so that their bodies shall be-
come like to those bodies which are raised out of the graves; 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52,
“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twink-
ling of an eye.” Hence those who are to be judged at the great day are distin-
guished into “quick and dead,” Acts x. 42. All the dead shall arise, whether godly
or wicked, just or unjust, (Acts xxiv. 15,) old or young ; the whole race of man-
kind, even those who never saw the sun, but died in their mother's belly; Rev.
xx. 12, “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” The sea and
earth shall give up their dead without reserve ; none shall be kept back.
Secondly, What shall be raised. The bodies of mankind. A man is said to
die when the soul is separated from the body, and “returns unto God who gave it,”
Eccl. xii. 7. But it is the body only which is laid in the grave, and can be pro-
perly said to be raised: wherefore the resurrection is, strictly speaking, competent
to the body only. Moreover, it is the same body that dies which shall rise again.
At the resurrection, men shall not appear with other bodies, for substance, than
FOURFOLD STATE. 171
those which they now have, and which are laid down in the grave; but with the
self-same bodies, endowed with other qualities. The very notion of a resurrection
implies this; since nothing can be said to rise again but that which falls. But
to illustrate it a little, (1.) it is plain from scripture testimony. The apostle tells,
it is “this mortal” which “must put on immortality,” 1 Cor. xv. 53, and that
“Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body,” Phil. iii. 21. Death, in scripture language, is a sleep, and the resurrection an
awaking out of that sleep, Job xiv. 12; which shows the body rising up to be
the self-same that died. (2.) The equity of the divine procedure, both with re-
spect to the godly and the wicked, evinces this. It is not reckoned equal among
men, that one do the work, and another get the reward. Though the glorifying of
the bodies of the saints is not, properly speaking, and in a strict sense, the reward
of their services or sufferings on earth; yet this is evident, that it is not at all
agreeable to the manner of the divine dispensation, that one body serve him, and
another be glorified: that one fight, and another receive the crown. How can it
be imagined that the temples of the Holy Ghost (as these bodies of believers are
termed, 1 Cor. vi. 19,) should always lie in rubbish, and others be reared up in their
stead; that these “members of Christ'' (verse 15) shall perish utterly, and other
bodies come in their room ? Nay, surely, as these bodies of the saints now bear a part
in glorifying God, and some of them suffer in his cause ; so they shall partake of the
glory that is to be revealed. And those bodies of the wicked which are laid in the
dust shall be raised again, that the same body which sinned may suffer. Shall one
body sin here, and another suffer in hell for that sin 3 Shall that body which was
the soul's companion in sin, lie for ever hid in the dust, and another body, which
did not act any part in sinning, be its companion in torments 3 No, no ; it is that
body which now takes up all their thoughts to provide for its back and belly that
shall be raised up to suffer in hell. It is that same swearing, lying tongue, which
will need water to cool it in eternal flames. These same feet that now stand
in the way of sinners, and carry men in their ungodly courses, shall stand in the
burning lake. And these now covetous and lascivious eyes shall take part in the
fire and smoke of the pit.
Thirdly, How the dead shall be raised. The same Jesus who was crucified without
the gates of Jerusalem shall, at the last day, to the conviction of all, be declared
“both Lord and Christ,” appearing as Judge of the world, attended “with his mighty
angels,” 2. Thess. i. 7 ; he “shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” 1 Thess. iv. 16; “the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised,” and those who are alive “changed,” 1 Cor.
xv. 52. Whether this shout, voice, and trumpet, do denote some audible voice, or
only the workings of divine power for the raising of the dead, and other awful pur-
poses of that day, though the former seems probable, I will not positively deter-
mine. There is no question but this coming of the Judge of the world will be in
greater majesty and terror than we can conceive: yet that awful grandeur, majesty,
and state, which was displayed at the giving of the law, namely, thunders heard,
lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount seen, the Lord descending in fire,
the whole mount quaking greatly, and the voice of the trumpet waxing louder and
louder, (Exod. xix. 16, 18, 19,) may help forward a becoming thought of it. How-
eyer, the sound of this trumpet shall be heard all the world over; it shall reach to
the depths of the sea, and into the bowels of the earth. At this loud alarm, bones
shall come together, bone to his bone; the scattered dust of all the dead shall be
gathered together, dust to his dust ; “neither shall one thrust another, they shall
walk every one in his path;” and meeting together again, shall make up that very
same body which crumbled into dust in the grave. And at the same alarming
voice, shall every soul come again into its own body, never more to be separated.
The dead can stay no longer in their graves, but must bid an eternal farewell to
their long homes. They hear his voice, and must come forth, and receive their
final sentence.
Nºw, as there is a great difference betwixt the godly and the wicked in their life,
and in their death; so will there be also in their resurrection.
The godly shall be raised up out of their graves by virtue of the Spirit of Christ,
172 FOUR FOLD STATE.
the blessed bond of their union with him; Rom. viii. 11, “He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit which dwelleth
in you.” Jesus Christ “arose from the dead, as the first-fruits of them that slept,”
1 Cor. xv. 20. So they that are Christ's shall follow at his coming, ver, 23. The
mystical Head having got above the waters of death, he cannot but bring forth the
members after him in due time. They shall come forth with inexpressible joy: for
then shall that passage of scripture, which, in its immediate scope, respected the
Babylonish captivity, be fully accomplished in its extensive spiritual view ; Isa,
xxvi. 19, “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust.” As a bride adorned for her
husband goes forth of her bed-chamber unto the marriage ; so shall the saints go
forth of their graves to the marriage of the Lamb. Joseph had a joyful outgoing
from the prison, Daniel from the lion's den, and Jonah from the whale's belly; yet
these are but faint representations of the saints’ outgoing from the grave at the resur-
rection. Then shall they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb in highest strains;
death being quite swallowed up in victory. They had, while in this life, sometimes
sung, by faith, the triumphant song over death and the grave, “O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Cor. xv. 55; but when they sing the
same from sight and sense, the black band of doubts and fears which frequently
disturbed them and disquieted their minds is for ever cashiered.
May we not suppose the soul and body of every saint, as in mutual embraces, to
rejoice in each other, and triumph in their happy meeting again? And may not
one imagine the body to address the soul thus? “O my soul, have we got together
again after so long a separation art thou come back into thine old habitation,
never more to remove O joyful meeting ! how unlike is our present state to
what our case was, when a separation was made betwixt us at death ! Now is our
mourning turned into joy; the light and gladness sometimes sown are now sprung
up ; and there is a perpetual spring in Immanuel's land. Blessed be the day in
which I was united unto thee; whose chief care was to get Christ in us the hope of
glory, and to make me a temple for his Holy Spirit. O blessed soul, which, in the
time of our pilgrimage, kept thine eye on the land then afar off, but now near at
hand 1 Thou tookest me in secret places, and there madest me to bow these knees
before the Lord, that I might bear a part in our humiliations before him: and now
is the due time, and I am lifted up. Thou didst employ this tongue, in confes-
sions, petitions, and thanksgivings; which henceforth shall be employed in praising
for evermore. Thou madest these sometimes weeping eyes sow that seed of tears
which is now sprung up in joy that shall never end. I was happily beat down by
thee, and kept in subjection, while others pampered their flesh, and made their
bellies their gods to their own destruction; and now I gloriously arise to take my
place in the mansions of glory, whilst they are dragged out of their graves to be cast
into fiery flames. Now, my soul, thou shalt complain no more of a sick and pained
body; thou shalt be no more clogged with weak and weary flesh: I shall now hold
pace with thee in the praises of our God for evermore.” And may not the soul
say ? “O happy day, in which I return to dwell in that blessed body which was,
and is, and will be for ever a member of Christ, a temple of the Holy Spirit! Now
shall I be eternally knit to thee: the silver cord shall never be loosed more: death
shall never make another separation betwixt us. Arise then, my body, and come
away; and let those eyes which served to weep over my sins behold now with joy the
face of our glorious Redeemer. Lo! this is our God, and we have waited for him.
Let those ears which served to hear the word of life in the temple below come now,
and hear the hallelujahs in the temple above. Let those feet that carried me to
the congregations of Saints on earth take their place now among those who stand
by. And let that tongue which confessed Christ before men, and used to be still
dropping something to his commendation, join the choir of the upper house, in his
raises, for evermore. Thou shalt fast no more, but keep an everlasting feast :
thou shalt weep no more, neither shall thy countenance be overclouded ; but thou
shalt shine for ever, as a star in the firmament. We took part together in the
fight; come now, let us go together to receive and wear the crown.”
But, on the other hand, the wicked shall be raised by the power of Christ as a just
Judge, who is to render vengeance to his enemies. The same divine power which
FOURFOLD STATE. 173
shut up their souls in hell, and kept their bodies in a grave, as in a prison, shall
bring them forth, that soul and body together may receive the dreadful sentence of
eternal damnation, and be shut up together in the prison of hell.
They shall come forth of their graves with unspeakable horror and consternation.
They shall be dragged forth, as so many malefactors out of a dungeon, to be led to
execution; crying to the mountains and to the rocks, to fall on them, and hide
them from the face of the Lamb. Fearful was the cry in Egypt that night the
destroying angel went through, and slew their first-born. Dreadful were the shouts,
at the earth's opening her mouth, and swallowing up Dathan and Abiram, and all
that appertained to them. What hideous crying, then, must there be, when, at the
sound of the last trumpet, the earth and sea shall open their mouths, and cast forth
all the wicked world, delivering them up to the dreadful Judge How will they
cry, roar, and tear themselves | How will the jovial companions weep and howl,
and curse one another How will the earth be filled with their doleful shrieks and
lamentations, while they are pulled out like sheep for the slaughter? They who,
while they lived in the world, were profane debauchees, covetous, worldlings, or
formal hypocrites, shall then, in anguish of mind, wring their hands, beat their
breasts, and bitterly lament their case; roaring forth their complaints, calling them-
selves beasts, fools, and madmen, for having acted so mad a part in this life, and
not having believed what they then see. They were driven away in their wicked-
ness at death ; and now all their sins rise with them, and, like so many serpents,
twist themselves about their wretched souls, and bodies too; which now have a
frightful meeting, after a long separation.
Then we may suppose the miserable body thus to accost the soul, “Hast thou
again found me, O mine enemy, my worst enemy 2 Savage soul, more cruel than
a thousand tigers, cursed be the day that ever we met. O that I had remained
a lifeless lump, rotted in the belly of my mother, and had never received sense,
life, nor motion O that I had rather been the body of a toad or a serpent
than thy body; for then had I lain still, and had not seen this terrible day ! If
I behoved to be thine, O that I had been thy ass, or one of thy dogs, rather
than thy body; for then wouldest thou have taken more true care of me than
thou didst O cruel kindness! hast thou thus hugged me to death, thus nour-
ished me to the slaughter ? Is this the effect of thy tenderness for me 2 Is this
what I am to reap of thy pains and concern about me 2 What do riches and
pleasures avail now, when this fearful reckoning is come, of which thou hadst
fair warning? O cruel grave, why didst thou not close thy mouth upon me for
ever? why didst thou not hold fast thy prisoner? why hast thou shaken me out,
while I lay still and was at rest ? Cursed soul, wherefore didst thou not abide in
thy place, wrapt up in flames of fire ? Wherefore art thou come back to take me
also down to the bars of the pit 3 Thou madest me an instrument of unrighteous-
ness: and now I must be thrown into the fire. This tongue was by thee employed
in mocking at religion, cursing, swearing, lying, backbiting, and boasting; and
withheld from glorifying God; and now it must not have so much as a drop of
water to cool it in the flames. Thou didst withdraw mine ears from hearing the
sermons which gave warning of this day. Thou foundest ways and means to stop
them from attending to seasonable exhortations, admonitions, and reproofs; but
why didst thou not stop them from hearing the sound of this dreadful trumpet 2
Why dost thou not now rove and fly away on the wings of imagination, thereby, as
it were, transporting me during these frightful transactions; as thou wast wont to
do, when I was set down at sermons, communions, prayers, and godly conferences;
that I might now have as little sense of the one, as I formerly had of the other 2
But, ah! I must burn for ever, for thy love to thy lusts, thy profanity, thy sensu-
ality, thy unbelief, and hypocrisy.” But may not the soul answer? “Wretched
and vile carcase, I am now driven back into thee... O that thou hadst lain rotting
for ever in thy grave | Had I not torment enough before ? Must I be knit to thee
again, that, being joined together as two dry sticks for the fire, the wrath of God
may the more keenly burn us up? It was by caring for you I lost myself. It was
your back and your belly, and the gratifying of your senses, which ruined me.
How often was I ensnared by your ears! how often betrayed by your eyes | It
174 FOURFOLD STATE.
was to spare you, that I neglected opportunities of making peace with God; loi-
tered away Sabbaths ; lived in the neglect of prayer; went to the house of mirth,
rather than to the house of mourning ; and that I chose to deny Christ, and for-
sake his cause and interests in this world : and so I am fallen a sacrifice to your
cursed ease. When, at any time, my conscience began to awake, and I was setting
myself to think of my sins, and the misery I have felt since we parted, and now
feel; it was you that diverted me from these thoughts, and drew me off to make
provision for thee, O wretched flesh. By your silken cords of fleshly lusts, I was
drawn to destruction, over the belly of my light and conscience: but now they are
turned into iron chains, with which I am to be held under wrath for evermore. Ah
wretched profits! ah cursed pleasures 1 for which I must lie for ever in utter dark-
mess!” But no complaints will then avail. “O that men were wise, that they
understood this, that they would consider their latter end '''
As to the qualities with which the bodies of the saints shall be endowed at the
resurrection, the apostle tells us, they shall be raised incorruptible, glorious, power-
ful, and spiritual; 1 Cor. xy. 42—44, “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in in-
corruption: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness,
it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
1. The bodies of the Saints shall be raised incorruptible. They are now, as the
bodies of others, a very mass of corruption, full of the seeds of diseases and death,
and when dead, become so nauseous, even to their dearest friends, that they must
be buried out of their sight, in a grave, there to rot and be consumed ; yea, loath-
some sores and diseases make some of them very unsightly even while alive. But
at the resurrection, they leave all the seeds of corruption behind them in the grave;
and rise incorruptible, incapable of the least indisposition, sickness, or sore, and
much more of dying. External violences and inward causes of pain shall for ever
cease ; they shall feel it no more : yea, they shall have an everlasting youth and
vigour, being no more subject to the decays which age produced in this life.
2. They shall be glorious bodies; not only beautiful, comely, and well-propor-
tioned, but full of splendour and brightness. The most beautiful face, and best
proportioned body that now appears in the world, is not to be named in comparison
with the body of the meanest saint at the resurrection ; for then “shall the right-
eous shine forth as the sun,” Matt. xiii. 43. If there was a dazzling glory on
Moses’ face, when he came down from the mount ; and if Stephen's face was “as
it had been the face of an angel,” when he stood before the council ; how much
more shall the faces of the saints be beautiful and glorious, full of sweet agreeable
majesty, when they have put off all corruption, and shine as the sun' But observe,
this beauty of the saints is not restricted to their faces, but diffuses itself through
their whole bodies: for the whole body is raised in glory, and shall be fashioned
like unto their Lord and Saviour's glorious body; in whose transfiguration not
only did “his face shine as the sun,” but also “his raiment was white as the light,”
Matt. xvii. 2. Whatever defects or deformities the bodies of the saints had when
laid in the grave, occasioned by accidents in life, or arising from secret causes of
their formation in the womb, they shall rise out of the grave free of all these. But
suppose “the marks of the Lord Jesus,” the scars or prints of the wounds and bruises
some of the saints received while on earth for his sake, should remain in their
bodies after the resurrection, likeas the print of the nails remained in Christ's body,
after his resurrection ; these marks will rather be badges of distinction, and add to
their glory, than detract from their beauty. , But howsoever that be, surely Isaac's
eyes shall not then be dim, nor will Jacob halt; Leah shall not be tender-eyed,
nor Mephibosheth lame of his legs. For as the goldsmith melts down the old crazy
vessel, and casts it over again in a new mould, bringing it forth with a new lustre;
so shall the vile body which lay dissolved in the grave come forth at the resurrec-
tion in perfect beauty, and comely proportion.
3. They shall be powerful and strong bodies. The strongest men on earth,
being frail and mortal, may justly be reckoned weak and feeble ; in regard their
strength, howsoever great, is quickly worn out and consumed. Many of the saints
now have bodies weaker than others ; but “the feeble among them” (to allude to
Zech. xii. 8,) “at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be
FOURFOLD STATE. 175
as God.” A grave divine says, that one shall be stronger at the resurrection than
a hundred, yea than thousands are now. Certainly great, and vastly great must
the strength of glorified bodies be, seeing they shall bear up under “an exceeding
and eternal weight of glory.” The mortal body is not at all adapted to such a
state. Do transports of joy occasion death, as well as excessive grief does, and
can it bear up under a weight of glory? Can it subsist in union with a soul filled
with heaven's raptures? Surely no. The mortal body would sink under that load,
and such a fill would make the earthen pitcher to fly all in pieces. The scripture
has plainly told us, that “flesh and blood,” namely, in their present frail state,
though it were the flesh and blood of a giant, “cannot inherit the kingdom of God,”
1 Cor. xv. 50. How strong must the bodily eyes be which, to the soul's eternal
comfort, shall behold the dazzling glory and splendour of the New Jerusalem, and
steadfastly look at the transcendent glory and brightness of the man Christ, the
Lamb which is the light of that city, the inhabitants whereof shall shine as the
sun' The Lord of heaven doth now, in mercy, “hold back the face of his throne, and
spreadeth his cloud upon it;” that mortals may not be confounded with the rays of
glory which shine forth from it, Job xxvi. 9. But then the vail shall be removed,
and they made able to behold it, to their unspeakable joy. How strong must their
bodies be who shall not rest night nor day, but be, without intermission, for ever
employed in the heavenly temple, to sing and proclaim the praises of God without
weariness; which is a weakness incident to the frail mortal, but incompetent to the
glorified body
Lastly, They shall be spiritual bodies. Not that they shall be changed into
spirits; but they shall be spiritual, in respect of their spirit-like qualities and endow-
ments. The body shall be absolutely subservient to the soul, subject to it, and
influenced by it; and therefore no more a clog to its activity, nor the animal appe-
tites a snare to it. There will be no need to beat it down, nor to drag it to the
service of God. The soul, in this life, is so much influenced by the body, that in
scripture-style it is said to be carnal: but then the body shall be spiritual, readily
serving the soul in the business of heaven, and in that only, as if it had no more
relation to earth than a spirit. It will have no further need of the now necessary
supports of life, namely, food and raiment, and the like. “They shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more,” Rev. vii. 16. For, “in the resurrection, they
neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”
Then shall the Saints be strong without meat or drink; warm without clothes; ever
in perfect health without medicine ; and ever fresh and vigorous, though they shall
never sleep, but “serve him night and day in his temple,” Rev. vii. 15. They
will need none of these things more than spirits do. They will be nimble and
active as spirits, and of a most refined constitution. The body, that is now lump-
ish and heavy, shall then be most sprightly. No such thing as melancholy
shall be found to make the heart heavy, and the spirits flag and sink. Where the
carcase is, there shall the Saints, as so many eagles, be gathered together. I shall
not further dip into this matter: the day will declare it.
As to the qualities of the bodies of the wicked at the resurrection, I find the
scripture speaks but little of them. Whatever they may need, they shall not get
a drop of water to cool their tongues, Luke xvi. 24, 25. Whatever may be said
of their weakness, it is certain they will be continued for ever in life, that they
may be ever dying ; they shall bear up, howsoever unwillingly, under the load of
God's wrath, and shall not faint away under it. “The smoke of their torment
ascendeth up for ever and ever. And they have no rest day nor night.” Surely
they shall not partake of the glory and beauty of the saints. All their glory dies
with them, and shall never rise again. Daniel tells us, they “shall awake to
shame, and everlasting contempt,” chap. xii. 2. Shame follows sin, as the shadow
followeth the body : but the wicked in this world walk in the dark, and often under
a disguise: nevertheless when the Judge comes in flaming fire, at the last day, they
will be brought to the light ; their mask will be taken off, and the shame of their
nakedness will clearly appear to themselves and others, and fill their faces with con-
fusion. Their shame will be too deep for blushes: but “all faces shall gather
blackness” at that day, when they shall go forth of their graves, as malefactors out
176 FOUR FOLD STATE.
of their prisons to execution ; for their resurrection is “the resurrection of damna-
tion.” The greatest beauties who now pride themselves in their comeliness of body,
not regarding their deformed souls, will then appear with a ghastly countenance, a
grim and death-like visage. Their looks will be frightful; and they will be horrible
spectacles, coming forth of their graves, like infernal furies, out of the pit. They
shall also rise to “everlasting contempt.” They shall then be the most contemptible
creatures; filled with contempt from God, as vessels of dishonour, whatever honour-
able uses they have been employed to in this world; and filled also with contempt
from men. They will be most despicable in the eyes of the saints, even of those
Saints who gave them honour here, either for their high station, the gifts of God in
them, or because they were of the same human nature with themselves. But then
shall their bodies be as so many loathsome carcases, which they shall go forth and
look upon with abhorrence: yea, “they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh,” Isa.
lxvi. 24. The word here rendered an abhorring, is the same which in the other
text is rendered contempt; and Isaiah and Daniel point at one and the same thing,
namely, the loathsomeness of the wicked at the resurrection. They will be loath-
some in the eyes of one another. The unclean wretches were never so lovely to
each other, as then they will be loathsome : dear companions in sin will then be an
abhorring, each one to his fellow ; and the wicked great and honourable men shall
be no more regarded by their wicked subjects, their servants, their slaves, than the
mire in the streets. - -
Use 1. Of comfort to the people of God. The doctrine of the resurrection is a
spring of consolation and joy unto you. Think on it, O believers, when ye are in
the house of mourning, for the loss of your godly relations or friends; that “ye sor-
row not, even as others which have no hope ;” for ye will meet again, 1 Thess. iv.
13, 14. They are but lain down to “rest in their beds” for a little while, Isa. lvii.
2; but in the morning of the resurrection, they will awake again, and come forth of
their graves. The vessel of honour was but coarse, it had much alloy of base metal
in it ; it was too weak, too dim and inglorious, for the upper-house, whatever
lustre it had in the lower one. It was cracked, it was polluted, and therefore it be-
hoved to be melted down, that it may be refined, and fashioned more gloriously. Do
but wait a while, and you shall see it come forth out of the furnace of the earth, vying
with the stars in brightness; nay, “as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.”
Have you laid your infant children in the grave 2 You will see them again. Your
God calls himself the God of your seed, which, according to our Saviour's exposi-
tion, secures the glorious resurrection of the body. Wherefore, let the covenant
you embraced, for yourself and your babes now in the dust, comfort your heart in
the joyful expectation, that, by virtue thereof, they shall be raised up in glory;
and that as being no more “infants of days,” but brought to a full and perfect
stature, as is generally supposed. Be not discouraged by reason of a weak and
sickly body; there is a day coming when thou shalt be every whit whole. At the
resurrection, Timothy shall be no more liable to his “often infirmities;” his body,
that was weak and sickly, even in youth, shall be “raised in power :” Lazarus shall
be hale and sound, his body being raised incorruptible : and although, perhaps,
thy weakness will not allow thee now to go one furlong to meet the Lord in public.
ordinances, yet the day cometh when thy body shall no more be a clog to thee,
but thou shalt “meet the Lord in the air,” 1 Thess. iv. 17. It will be with the
saints coming up from the grave as with the Israelites when they came out of
Egypt; Psal. cv. 37, “There was not one feeble person among their tribes.” Hast
thou an uncomely or deformed body ? There is a glory within, which will then
set all right without, according to all the desire of thine heart. It shall rise a glori-
ous, beautiful, handsome, and well-proportioned body. Its uncomeliness or defor-
mities may go with it to the grave, but they shall not come back with it. O that
those who are now so desirous to be beautiful and handsome would not be too hasty
to effect it with their foolish and sinful arts, but wait and study the heavenly art
of beautifying the body, by endeavouring now to become “all glorious within” with
the graces of God's Spirit ! this would at length make them admirable and ever-
lasting beauties. Thou must, indeed, O believer, grapple with death, and shalt
get the first fall; but thou shalt rise again, and come off victorious at last. Thou
FOURFOLD STATE, 177
must go down to the grave : but though it be thy “long home,” it shall not be thine
everlasting home. Thou wilt not hear the voice of thy friends there: but thou
shalt hear the voice of Christ there. Thou mayest be carried thither with mourn-
ing, but shalt come up from it rejoicing. Thy friends, indeed, will leave thee there;
but thy God will not. What God said to Jacob, concerning his going down to
Egypt, (Gen. xlvi. 3, 4,) he says to thee as to thy going down to the grave, “Fear
not to go down ; I will go with thee, and I will also surely bring thee up again.” O
solid comfort | O glorious hopes “Wherefore comfort” yourselves and “one another
with these words,” 1 Thess. iv. 18.
Use 2. Of terror to all unregenerate men... Ye who are yet in your natural state,
look at this piece of the eternal state ; and consider what will be your part in it, if
ye be not in time brought into the state of grace. Think, O sinner, on that day
when the trumpet shall sound, at the voice of which, the bars of the pit shall be
broken asunder, the doors of the graves shall fly open, the devouring depths of the
sea shall throw up their dead, the earth cast forth hers, and death everywhere, in
the excess of astonishment, shall let go its prisoners; and thy wretched soul and
body shall be reunited, to be sisted before the tribunal of God. Then, if thou hadst
a thousand worlds at thy disposal, thou wouldst gladly give them all away upon
condition thou mightest lie still in the grave, with the hundredth part of that ease
wherewith thou hast sometimes lain at home on the Lord's day; or (if that cannot
be obtained) that thou mightest be but a spectator of the transactions of that day,
as thou hast been at some solemn occasions, and rich gospel-feasts; or, if even that
is not to be purchased, that a mountain or a rock might fall on thee, and cover thee
from the face of the Lamb. Ah! how are men bewitched, thus to trifle away the
precious time of life in almost as little concern about death, as if they were like
the beasts that perish Some will be telling where their corpse must be laid;
while yet they have not seriously considered, whether their graves shall be their
beds, where they shall awake with joy in the morning of the resurrection, or their
prisons, out of which they shall be brought to receive the fearful sentence. Re-
member, now is our seed-time; and as we sow, we shall reap. God's seed-time
begins at death; and at the resurrection, the bodies of the wicked, that were sown
“full of sins, that lie down with them in the dust,” (Job xx. 11,) shall spring up
again, sinful, wretched, and vile. Your bodies, which are now instruments of
sin, the Lord will lay aside for the fire, at death ; and bring them forth for the
fire, at the resurrection. That body which is not now employed in God’s ser-
vice, but is abused by uncleanness and lasciviousness, will then be brought
forth in all its vileness, thenceforth to lodge with unclean spirits. The body of
the drunkard shall then stagger by reason of “the wine of the wrath of God,
poured out” to him, and poured into him, “without mixture.” Those who now
please themselves in their revellings will reel to and fro at another rate; when,
instead of their songs and music, they shall hear the sound of the last trumpet.
Many toil their bodies for worldly gain who will be loath to distress them for the
benefit of their souls. By labour, unreasonably hard, they will quite unfit them for
the service of God; and, when they have done, will reckon it a very good reason
for shifting duty, that they are already tired out with other business; but the day
cometh when they will be made to abide a yet greater stress. They will go several
miles for back and belly who will not go half the way for the good of their immortal
souls. They will be sickly and unable on the Lord's day who will be tolerably well
all the rest of the week. But when that trumpet sounds, the dead shall find their
feet, and none shall be missing in that great congregation. When the bodies of the
Saints shine as the Sun, frightful will the looks of their persecutors be. Fearful
will their condition be who sometimes shut up the saints in nasty prisons, stigma-
tized, burned them to ashes, hanged them, and stuck up their heads and hands in
public places, to fright others from the ways of righteousness, which they suffered
for. , Many faces now fair will then gather blackness. They shall be no more
admired and caressed for that beauty which has a worm at the root, that will cause
it to issue in loathsomeness and deformity. Ah! what is that beauty under which
there lurks a monstrous, deformed, and graceless heart? What but a sorry paint,
a slight varnish ; which will leave the body so much the more ugly, before that
Z
178 FOUR FOLD STATE.
flaming fire, in which the Judge “shall be revealed from heaven, taking vengeance
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel,” 2. Thess. i. 7, 8. They
shall be stripped of all their ornaments, and not haye a rag to cover their nakedness;
but their carcases shall be an abhorring to all flesh, and serve as a foil to set off the
beauty and glory of the righteous, and make it appear the brighter,
Now is the time to secure for yourselves a part in “the resurrection of the just.”
The which if ye would do, unite with Jesus Christ by faith, rising spiritually from
sin, and glorifying God with your bodies. He is “the resurrection and the life,”
John xi. 25. If your bodies be members of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, they
shall certainly arise in glory. Get into this ark now, and ye shall come forth with
joy into the new world. Rise from your sins; cast away these grave-clothes, put-
ting off your former lusts. How can one imagine, that those who continue “dead
while they live” shall come forth, at the last day, unto the resurrection of life? But
that will be the privilege of all those who, having first consecrated their souls and
bodies to the Lord by faith, do glorify him with their bodies, as well as their souls;
living and acting to him, and for him; yea, and suffering for him too, when he calls
them to it.
H E A D I W.
THE GENERAL JUDGMENT.
MAT THEW xxv. 31, 32, 33, 34, 41, 46.
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit wbon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all
nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his
sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
the left. Then shall the King say writo them on his right hand, Come ye blessed, &c.
— Unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, dºc. And these shall go
away into everlasting punishment : but the righteous into life eternal.”
THE dead being raised, and those found alive at the coming of the Judge changed,
follows the general judgment, plainly and awfully described in this portion of scrip-
ture ; in which we shall take notice of the following particulars. (1.) The coming
of the Judge: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory,” &c. The Judge
is Jesus Christ, “the Son of man;” the same by whose almighty power, as he is
God, the dead will be raised. He is also called “the King,” ver, 34; the judging
of the world being an act of the Royal Mediator's kingly office. He will come “in
glory;” glorious in his own person, and having a glorious retinue, even all the
holy angels with him, to minister unto him at this great solemnity. (2.) The
Judge's mounting the tribunal. He is a King, and therefore it is “a throne,” a
glorious throne; “he shall sit upon the throne of his glory,” ver, 31. (3.) The
compearance of the parties. These are “all nations;” all and every one, small
and great, of whatsoever nation, who ever were, are, or shall be on the face of the
earth: all shall be gathered before him; sisted before his tribunal. (4.) The sort-
ing of them. He shall separate the elect sheep and reprobate goats, setting each
party by themselves; as a shepherd, who feeds his sheep and goats together all the
day, separates them at night, ver, 32. The godly he will set “on his right hand,” as
the most honourable place, the wicked “on the left,” ver. 33; yet so as they shall be
both “before him,” ver, 32. It seems to be an allusion to a custom in the Jewish
courts, in which one sat at the right hand of the judges, who wrote the sentence of
absolution, another at the left, who wrote the sentence of condemnation. (5.) The
FOUR FOLD STATE. 179
sentencing of the parties, and that according to their works: the righteous being
absolved, and the wicked condemned, ver. 34, 41. Lastly, the execution of both
sentences, in the driving away of the wicked into hell, and carrying the godly to
heaven, wer. 46.
DoCTRINE,--There shall be a general Judgment.
This doctrine I shall, First, confirm ; Secondly, explain; and, Thirdly, apply.
I. For confirmation of this great truth, that there shall be a general judgment,
First, It is evident from plain scripture-testimonies. The world has in all ages
been told of it. Enoch, before the flood, taught it in his prophecy, related Jude
ver. 14, 15, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute
judgment upon all,” &c. Daniel describes it, chap. vii. 9, 10, “I beheld till the
thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as
snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame,
and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before
him ; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thou-
sand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” The
apostle is very express, Acts xvii. 31, “He hath appointed a day in the which he
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” See
Matt. xvi. 27; 2 Cor. v. 10; 2 Thess. i. 7–10; Rev. xx. 11—15. God has not
only said it, but he has sworn it; Rom. xiv. 10, 11, “We must all stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee
shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So that the truth of God
is most solemnly plighted for it. -
Secondly, The rectoral justice and goodness of God, the sovereign ruler of the
world, do necessarily require it ; inasmuch as they require its being well with the
righteous, and ill with the wicked. Howbeit, we often now see wickedness exalted,
while truth and righteousness fall in the streets; piety oppressed, while profanity
and irreligion do triumph. This is so very ordinary, that every one who sincerely
embraceth the way of holiness must, and doth lay his account with the loss of all
he has which the world can take away from him; Luke xiv. 26, “If any man come
to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren,
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” But it is incon-
sistent with the justice and goodness of God, that the affairs of men should always
continue in this state, which they appear in from one generation to another. These
attributes demand that every man be rewarded according to his works: and since
that is not done in this life, there must be a judgment to come ; “seeing it is a right-
eous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to
you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven,” 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. There will be a day in which the tables will be turned;
and the wicked shall be called to an account for all their sins, and suffer the due pun-
ishment of them ; and the pious shall be the prosperous: for, as the apostle argues
for the happy resurrection of the saints, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable,” 1 Cor. xv. 19. It is true, God sometimes pun-
isheth the wicked in this life, that men may know he “is a God that judgeth in the
earth ;” but yet much wickedness remains unpunished, and undiscovered, to be a
pledge of the judgment to come. If none of the wicked were punished here, they
would conclude that God had utterly forsaken the earth: if all of them were pun-
ished in this life, men would be apt to think there is no after reckoning. Therefore,
in the wisdom of God, some are punished now, and some not. Sometimes the
Lord Smites sinners in the very act of sin; to show unto the world that he is wit-
ness to all their wickedness, and will call them to an account for it. Sometimes
he delays long ere he strikes ; that he may discover to the world, that he forgets
not men's ill deeds, though he does not presently punish them. Besides all this,
the sins of many do outlive them ; and the impure fountain by them opened, runs
long after they are dead and gone. As in the case of Jeroboam, the first king of
the ten tribes, whose sin did run on all along unto the end of that unhappy king-
dom; 2 Kings xvii. 22, “The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam,
180 FOUR FOLD STATE,
which he did ; they departed not from them,” ver, 23, “Until the Lord removed
Israel out of his sight.” -
Thirdly, The resurrection of Christ is a certain proof that there shall be a day
of judgment. This argument Paul useth to convince the Athenians that Jesus
Christ will be the Judge of the world : “Whereof,” says he, “he hath given assur-
ance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts xvii. 31. The
Judge is already named, his patent written and sealed, yea, and read before all
men, in his rising again from the dead. Hereby God has “given assurance ’’ of it
(or offered faith, marg.). He hath, by raising Christ from the dead, exhibited his
credentials as the Judge of the world. When, in the days of his humiliation, he
was sisted before a tribunal, arraigned, accused, and condemned of men, he plainly
told them of this judgment, and that he himself would be the Judge ; Matt. xxvi.
64, “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven.” And now that he was raised from the dead,
though condemned as a blasphemer on this very head; is it not an undeniable proof
from heaven of the truth of what he asserted ? Moreover, this was one of the great
ends of Christ's death and resurrection. “For to this end Christ died, and rose,
and revived, that he might be the Lord,” (that is, The Lord Judge, as is evident
from the context,) “both of the dead and of the living,” Rom. xiv. 9. -
Lastly, Every man bears about with him a witness to this within his own breast ;
Rom. ii. 15, “Which show the work of the law written in their hearts; their con-
science also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or .
else excusing one another.” There is a tribunal erected within every man, where
conscience is accuser, witness, and judge, binding over the sinner to the judgment
of God. This fills the most profligate wretches with horror, and inwardly stings
them, on the commission of some atrocious crime ; in effect summoning them to
answer for it, before the Judge of the quick and dead. And this it doth, even
when the crime is secret and hid from the eyes of the world. It reacheth those whom
the laws of men cannot reach, because of their power or craft. When men have fled
from the judgment of their fellow-creatures; yet, go where they will, conscience,
as the supreme Judge's officer, still keeps hold of them, reserving them in its chains
to the judgment of the great day. And whether they escape punishment from men,
or fall by the hand of public justice ; when they perceive death's approach, they
hear, from within, of this after-reckoning, being constrained to hearken thereto, in
these, the most serious minutes of their life. If there be some in whom nothing
of this doth appear, we have no more ground thence to conclude against it than
we have to conclude, that, because some men do not groan, therefore they have no
pain; or that dying is a mere jest, because there have been who seemed to make
little else of it. A good face may be put upon an ill conscience ; and the more
hopeless men's case is, they reckon it the more their interest to make no reflec- .
tions on their state and case. But every one who will consult himself seriously
shall find in himself the witness of the judgment to come. Even the heathens
wanted not a notion of it, though mixed with fictions of their own. Hence, though
some of the “Athenians, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, mocked,”
Acts xvii. 32, yet there is no account of their mocking, when they heard of the
general judgment, verse 31. •
II. For explication, the following particulars may serve to give some view of the
nature and transactions of that great day. -
First, God shall judge the world by Jesus Christ. “He will judge the world in
righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained,” Acts xvii. 31. The Psalmist
tells us, that “God is Judge himself,” Psal. l. 6. The holy blessed Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is Judge, in respect of judiciary authority, dominion,
and power: but the Son incarnate is the Judge, in respect of dispensation and
special exercise of that power. The judgment shall be exercised or performed by
him, as the Royal Mediator: for he has a delegated power of judgment from the
Father as his servant, the “King whom he hath set upon the holy hill of Zion,”
(Psal. ii. 6,) and to whom “he hath committed all judgment,” John v. 22.
This is a part of the Mediator's exaltation, given him in consequence of his volun.
tary humiliation; Philip. ii. 8–10, “He humbled himself, and became obedient
FOUR FOLD STATE. 181
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name,” that is, power and
authority over all, to wit, “that at” or in “the name of Jesus” (not the name
Jesus; that is not the “name above every name,” being common to others, as to
Justus, Col. iv. 11. and Joshua, Heb. iv. 8.), “every knee should bow.” The which
is explained by the apostle himself, of “standing before the judgment-seat of Christ,”
Rom. xiv. 10, 11. So he who was judged and condemned of men shall be the
Judge of men and angels.
Secondly, Jesus Christ the Judge, descending from heaven into the air, (1 Thess.
iv. 16, 17,) “shall come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory,”
Matt. xxiv. 30. This his coming will be a mighty surprise to the world, which
will be found in deep security; foolish virgins sleeping, and the wise slumbering.
There will then be much luxury and debauchery in the world, little sobriety and
watchfulness; a great throng of business, but a great scarcity of faith and holi-
ness. “As it was in the days of Noah, so also shall it be in the days of the Son of
man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage,
until the day that Noah entered into the ark : and the flood came, and destroyed
them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank,
they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of man is revealed,” Luke xvii. 26–28, 30. The coming of
the Judge will surprise some at markets, buying and selling ; others at table, eating
and drinking, and making merry; others busy with their new plantings; some
building new houses; nay, some's wedding-day will be their own and the world’s
judgment-day. But the Judge cometh ! The markets are marred ; the buyer throws
away what he has bought; the seller casts down his money; they are raised from
the table, and their mirth is extinguished in a moment ; though the tree be set in
the earth, the gardener may not stay to cast the earth about it ; the workmen
throw away their tools, when the house is half-built, and the owner regards it no
more; the bridegroom, bride, and guests, must leave the wedding feast, and appear
before the tribunal: for, “Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see
him,” Rev. i. 7. He shall come most gloriously; for he “will come in the glory
of his Father, with the holy angels,” Mark viii. 38. When he came in the flesh,
to die for sinners, he laid aside the robes of his glory, and was “despised and
rejected of men:” but when he comes again, to judge the world, such shall be his
visible glory and majesty, that it shall cast an eternal vail over all earthly glory,
and fill his greatest enemies with fear and dread. Never had prince or potentate
in the world such a glorious train as will accompany this Judge: all the holy an-
gels shall come with him, for his honour and service. Then he who was led to the
cross with a band of soldiers will be gloriously attended to the place of judgment
by, not “a multitude of the heavenly host,” but the whole host of angels: “all
his holy angels,” says the text.
Thirdly, At the coming of the Judge, the summons are given to the parties by
the sound of the last trumpet; at which the dead are raised, and those found alive
changed; of which before ; 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. O loud trumpet, that shall be
heard at once, in all corners of the earth and of the sea O wonderful voice, that
will not only disturb those who sleep in the dust ; but effectually awaken, rouse
them out of their sleep, and raise them from death ! Were trumpets sounding now,
drums beating, furious soldiers crying and killing, men, women, and children run-
ning and shrieking, the wounded groaning and dying, those who are in the graves
would have no more disturbance than if the world were in most profound peace.
Yea, were stormy winds casting down the lofty oaks, the seas roaring and swallow-
ing up the ships, the most dreadful thunders going along the heavens, lightnings
everywhere flashing, the earth quaking, trembling, opening, and swallowing up
whole cities, and burying multitudes at once; the dead would still enjoy a perfect
repose, and sleep soundly in the dust, though their own dust should be thrown out
of its place. But at the sound of this trumpet, they shall all awake. The morn-
ing is come, they can sleep no longer; the time of the dead, that they must be
judged: they must get out of their graves, and appear before the Judge.
Fourthly, The Judge shall sit down on the tribunal ; “he shall sit on the throne
182 FOUR FOLD STATE.
of his glory.” Sometime he stood before a tribunal on earth, and was condemned
as a malefactor: then he shall sit on his own tribunal, and judge the world. Some-
time he hung upon the cross covered with shame: then he shall sit on a throne of
glory. What this throne shall be, whether a bright cloud, or what else, I shall
not inquire. Our eyes will give an answer to that question at length. John “saw
a great white throne,” Rev. xx. 11. “His throne,” says Daniel, “was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire,” chap. vii. 9. Whatever it be, doubtless it
shall be a throne glorious beyond expression, and in comparison with which, the
most glorious throne on earth is but a seat on a dunghill; and the sight of it will
equally surprise kings, who sat on thrones, in this, life, and beggars, who sat on
dunghills. It will be a throne, for stateliness and glory, suited to the quality of
him who shall sit on it. Never had a judge such a throne, and never had a throne
Such a judge upon it.
Leaving the discovery of the nature of the throne until that day, it concerns us
more nearly to consider what a Judge will sit upon it; a point in which we are not
left to uncertain conjectures. The Judge on the throne will be, (1.) A visible
Judge, visible to our bodily eyes; Rev. i. 7, “Every eye shall see him.” When
God gave the law on mount Sinai, the people “ saw no similitude, only they heard a
voice :” but when he calls the world to an account how they have observed his law ;
the man Christ being Judge, we shall see our Judge with our eyes, either to
our eternal comfort or confusion, according to the entertainment we give him
now. That very body which was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem, betwixt
two thieves, shall then be seen on the throne, shining in glory. We now see him
symbolically in the sacrament of his supper ; the saints see him by the eye of
faith : then, all shall see him with these eyes now in their heads. (2.) A Judge
having full authority and power, to “render unto every one according to his works.”
Christ, as God, hath authority of himself; and, as Mediator, he hath a judicial power
and authority, which his Father has invested him with, according to the covenant
betwixt the Father and the Son, for the redemption of sinners. And his divine
glory will be a light, by which all men shall see clearly to read his commission for
this great and honourable employment. “All power is given unto him in heaven
and on earth,” Matt. xxviii. 18. “He hath the keys of hell and of death,” Rev. i.
18. There can be no appeal from his tribunal: sentence once past there must stand
for ever; there is no reversing of it. All appeals are from an inferior court to a
superior one ; but when God gives sentence against a man, where can he find a
higher court to bring his process to ? This judgment is the Mediator's judgment;
and therefore the last judgment. If the Intercessor be against us, who can be for
us? If Christ condemn us, who will absolve us? (3.) A Judge of infinite wisdom.
His eyes will pierce into, and clearly discern the most intricate cases. His omni-
science qualifies him for judging of the most retired thoughts, as well as of words and
works. The most subtle sinner shall not be able to outwit him, nor, by any artful
management, to palliate the crime. He is the searcher of hearts, to whom nothing
can be hid or perplexed; but “all things are naked and open unto his eyes,” Heb.
iv. 13. (4.) A most just Judge, a Judge of perfect integrity. He is “the righte-
ous Judge,” (2 Tim. iv. 8,) and his throne “a great white throne,” (Rev. xx. 11,)
from whence no judgment shall proceed but what is most pure and spotless. The
Thebans ‘painted Justice blind, and without hands; for judges ought not to respect
persons, nor take bribes. The Areopagites judged in the dark ; that they might
not regard who spoke, but what was spoken. With the Judge on his throne there
will be no respect of persons: he will neither regard the persons of the rich, nor of
the poor ; but just judgment shall go forth, in every one's cause. Lastly, An
omnipotent Judge, able to put his sentence in execution. The united force of
devils and wicked men will be altogether unable to withstand him. They cannot
retard the execution of the sentence against them one moment ; far less can they
stop it altogether. “Thousand thousands” of angels “minister unto him,” Dan.
vii. 10. And by the breath of his mouth he can drive the cursed herd:whither he
pleaseth.
Fifthly, The parties shall compear. These are men and devils. Although those
last, the fallon angels, were, from the first moment of their sinning, subjected to the
FOUR FOLD STATE, 183
wrath of God, and were cast down to hell, and, wheresoever they go, they carry
their hell about with them ; yet it is evident, that they are “reserved unto judg-
ment,” (2 Pet. ii. 4.) namely, “unto the judgment of the great day,” Jude 6.
And then they shall be solemnly and publicly judged ; 1 Cor. vi. 3, “Know ye
not that we shall judge angels?” At that day they shall answer for their trade
of sinning, and tempting to sin, which they have been carrying on from the begin-
ning. Then many a hellish brat which Satan has laid down at the saints' door, but
not adopted by them, shall be laid at the door of the true father of it, that is, the
devil.” And he shall receive the due reward of all the dishonour he has done to
God, and of all the mischief he has done to men. Those wicked spirits now in
chains, (though not in such strict custody but that they can go about, like roaring
lions, seeking whom they may devour,) shall then receive their final sentence, and
be shut up in their den, namely, in the prison of hell; where they shall be held in
extreme and unspeakable torment, through all eternity ; Rev. xx. 10, “And the
devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and
ever.” In prospect of which, the devils said to Christ, “Art thou come hither to
torment us before the time 2'' Matt. viii. 29.
But what we are chiefly concerned to take notice of, is the case of men at that
day. All men must compear before this tribunal. All of each sex, of every age,
quality, and condition ; the great and small, noble and ignoble : none are excepted.
Adam and Eve, with all their sons and daughters; every one who has had, or, to
the end of the world, shall have, a living soul united to a body; will make up this
great congregation. Even those who refused to come to the throne of grace shall
be forced to the bar of justice: for there can be no hiding from the all-seeing
Judge, no flying from him who is present everywhere, no resisting of him who is
armed with almighty power. “We must all stand before the judgment-seat
of Christ,” 2 Cor. v. 10. “Before him shall be gathered all nations,” says the text.
This is to be done by the ministry of angels. By them shall the elect be gathered ;
Mark xiii. 27, “Then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect
from the four winds.” And they also shall gather the reprobate ; Matt. xiii. 40,
41, “So shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his
angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them
which do iniquity.” From all corners of the world shall the inhabitants thereof be
gathered unto the place where he shall set his throne for judgment.
Sixthly, There shall be a separation made betwixt the righteous and the wicked ;
the fair company of the elect sheep being set on Christ's right hand, and the repro-
bate goats on his left. There is no necessity to wait for this separation till the
trial be over; since the parties do rise out of their graves with plain outward marks
of distinction, as was cleared before. The separation seems to be effected by that
double gathering before-mentioned ; the one, of the elect, (Markxiii. 27,) the other,
of them that do iniquity, (Matt, xiii. 41,); the elect being “caught up together in the
clouds, meet the Lord in the air,” (1 Thess. iv. 17,) and so are set “on his right
hand,” and the reprobate left on the earth, (Matt. xxiv. 40, 41,) upon the Judge's
“left hand.” Here is now a total separation of two parties, who were always op-
posite to each other, in their principles, aims, and manner of life; who, when to-
gether, were a burden the one to the other, under which the one groaned, and the
other raged: but now they are freely parted; never to come together any more.
The iron and clay, (allude to Dan. ii. 41, 43,) which could nevér mix, are quite
separated: the one being drawn up into the air by the attractive virtue of the stone
cut out of the mountain, namely, Jesus Christ ; the other left upon its earth, to be
trod under foot.
Now, let us look to the right hand, and there we will see a glorious company of
Saints shining, as so many stars in their orbs; and with a cheerful countenance
beholding him who sitteth upon the throne. Here will be two wonderful sights
which the world used not to see. (1.) A great congregation of Saints in which not
* The meaning is obviously this: At the day of judgment many sins and temptations suggested
to believers by Satan, but not yielded to by them, shall be laid to the devil's account.—ED.
&A
184 FOUR FOLD STATE.
so much as one hypocrite. There was a bloody Cain in Adam's family; a cursed
Ham in Noah's family, in the ark; a treacherous Judas in Christ's own family:
but in that company shall be none but sealed ones, members of Christ, having all
one Father. And this is a sight reserved for that day. (2.) All the godly upon
one side. Seldom or never do the saints on earth make such a harmony but there
are some jarring strings among them. It is not to be expected, that men who see
but in part, though they be all going to one city, will agree as to every step in the
way: no, we need not look for it in this state of imperfection. But at that day,
Paul and Barnabas shall meet in peace and unity, though once “the contention
was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder, the one from the other,”
Acts xv. 39. There shall be no more divisions, no more separate standing amongst
those who belong to Christ. All the godly, of the different parties, shall then be
upon one side ; seeing, whatever were their differences in lesser things while in the
world, yet even then they met and concentred all in one Lord Jesus Christ, by a
true and lively faith, and in the one way of holiness, or practical godliness. And
the naughty hypocrites, of whatsoever party, shall be “led forth with the workers
of iniquity.”
Look to the left hand, and there you will see the cursed goats; all the wicked ones,
from Cain to the last ungodly person who shall be in the world; gathered together
into one most miserable congregation. There are many assemblies of the wicked
now ; then there shall be but one. But all of them shall be present there, brought
together as one herd for the slaughter, bellowing and roaring, weeping and howl-
ing for the miseries come, and that are coming on them. And remember, thou
shalt not be a mere spectator, to look at these two so different companies; but must
thyself take thy place in one of the two, and shalt share with the company, what-
ever hand it be upon. Those who now abhor no society so much as that of the
Saints would then be glad to be allowed to get in among them ; though it were but
to lie among their feet. But then not one tare shall be found with the wheat; “he
will thoroughly purge his floor.” Many of the right hand men of this world will
be left hand men in that day. Many who must have the door on the right hand
of those who are better than they, if “the righteous” be “more excellent than his
neighbour,” shall then be turned to the left hand, as most despicable wretches. O
how terrible will this separation be to the ungodly How dreadful will this gather-
ing of them together into one company be What they will not believe they will then
see, namely, that but few are saved. They think it enough now to be neighbour-
like, and can securely follow the multitude; but the multitude on the left hand
will yield them no comfort. How will it sting the ungodly Christian, to see him-
self set on the same hand with Turks and Pagans ! How will it gall men to find
themselves standing, profane Protestants, with idolatrous Papists; praying people,
with their profane neighbours who mocked at religious exercises; formal professors,
strangers to the new birth and the power of godliness, with persecutors' Now there
are many opposite societies in the world: but then all the ungodly shall be in one
society. And how dreadful will the faces of companions in sin be to one another
there ! What doleful shrieks, when the whoremonger and his whore shall meet ;
when the drunkards who have had many a jovial day together shall see one another
in the face ; when the husband and wife, the parents and children, masters and
servants, and neighbours, who have been Snares and stumbling-blocks to one another
to the ruin of their own souls, and those of their relatives, shall meet again in that
miserable society . Then there will be curses instead of salutations; and tearing
of themselves, and raging against one another, instead of the wonted embraces.
Seventhly, The parties shall be tried. The trial cannot be difficult, in regard the
Judge is omniscient, and nothing can be hid from him. But, that his righteous
judgment may be made evident to all, he will “set the hidden things of darkness”
in the clearest light at that trial, 1 Cor. iv. 5.
Men shall be tried, (1.) Upon their works; for “God shall bring every work
into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil,”
Eccl. xii. 14. The Judge will try every man's conversation, and set his deeds
done in the body, with all the circumstances thereof, in a true light. Then will
many actions commended and applauded of men as good and just be discovered to
FOURFOLD STATE. 185
have been evil and abominable in the sight of God; and many works now con-
demned by the world will be approven and commended by the great Judge, as good
and just. Secret things will be brought to light, and what was hid from the view
of the world shall be laid open. Wickedness which hath kept its lurking-place in
spite of all human search will then be brought forth to the glory of God, and the
confusion of impenitent sinners who hid it. The world appears now very vile in
the eyes of those who are exercised to godliness; but it will then appear a thousand
times more vile, when that which is done of men in Secret comes to be discovered.
Every good action shall then be remembered; and the hidden religion and good
works most industriously concealed by the saints from the eyes of men shall no
more lie hid; for though the Lord will not allow men to “proclaim every man his
own goodness,” yet he himself will do it in due time. (2.) Their words shall be
judged; Matt. xii. 37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words
thou shalt be condemned.” Not a word spoken for God and his cause in the world
from love to himself shall be forgotten. They are all kept in remembrance, and
shall be brought forth as evidences of faith and of an interest in Christ; Mal. iii.
16, “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord
hearkened and heard it ; and a book of remembrance was written before him ;”
ver. 17, “And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make
up my jewels.” And the tongue which did run at random shall then “confess to
God;” and the speaker shall find it to have been followed, and every word noted
that dropped from the unsanctified lips. “Every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment,” Matt. xii. 36. And if
they shall give account of idle words, that is, words spoken to no good purpose,
neither for God's glory, one's own, nor one's neighbour's good; how much more
shall men's wicked words, their sinful oaths, curses, lies, filthy communications,
and bitter words be called over again that day ! The tongues of many shall then
fall upon themselves, and ruin them. (3.) Men's thoughts shall be brought into
judgment; the Judge will “make manifest the counsels of the hearts,” 1 Cor.
iv. 5. Thoughts go free from man's judgment, but not from the judgment of the
heart-searching God; who knows men's thoughts, without the help of signs to dis-
cern them by. The secret springs of men's actions will then be brought to light;
and the sins that never came further than the heart will then be laid open. O
what a figure will man’s corrupt nature make, when his inside is turned out, and
all his speculative impurities are exposed The rottenness that is within many a
whited sepulchre, the speculative filthiness and wantonness, murder and malignity,
now lurking in the hearts of men, as in the chambers of imagery, will then be dis-
covered ; and what good was in the hearts of any shall no more lie concealed. If
it was in their hearts to build a house to the Lord, they shall hear that they did
“well that it was in their heart.”
. This trial will be righteous and impartial, accurate and searching, clear and
evident. The Judge is “the righteous Judge,” and he will do right to every one.
He has a just balance for good and evil actions, and for honest and false hearts.
The fig-leaf cover of hypocrisy will then be blown aside, and the hypocrite's naked-
ness will appear; as when the Lord came to judge Adam and Eve “in the cool,”
or, as the word is, in the wind, “ of the day,” Gen. iii. 8. “The fire,” which
tries things most exquisitely, “shall try every man's work, of what sort it is,”
1 Cor. iii. 13. Man's judgment is ofttimes perplexed and confused: but here the
whole process shall be clear and evident, as written with a sunbeam. It shall be
clear to the Judge, to whom no case can be intricate; to the parties, who shall be
convinced, Jude 15. And the multitudes on both sides shall see, the Judge is
“clear when he judgeth;” for then “the heavens shall declare his righteousness”
in the audience of all the world, and so it shall be universally known, Psal. 1. 6.
On these accounts it is, that this trial is held out, in the scripture, under the
notion of opening of books; and men are said to “be judged out of those things
written in the books,” Rev. xx. 12. The Judge of the world, who infallibly know-
eth all things, hath no need of books to be laid before him, to prevent mistake in
any point of law or fact ; but the expression points at his proceeding as most nice,
2 A
186 FOUR FOLD STATE.
accurate, just, and well-grounded, in every step of it. Now, there are four books
that shall be opened in that day.
1. The book of God’s remembrance or omniscience, Mal. iii. 16. This is an
exact record of every man's state, thoughts, words, and deeds, good or evil; it is,
as it were, a day-book, in which the Lord puts down all that passeth in men's
hearts, lips, and lives; and it is a filling up every day that one lives. In it are
recorded men's sins and good works, secret and open, with all their circumstances.
Here are registered all their privileges, mercies temporal and spiritual, sometime
laid to their hand; the checks, admonitions, and rebukes given by teachers, neigh-
bours, afflictions, and men's own consciences; every thing in its due order. This
book will serve only as a libel in respect of the ungodly ; but it will be for another
use in respect of the godly, namely, for a memorial of their good. The opening of
it is the Judge's bringing to light what is written in it; the reading, as it were, of
the libel and memorial, respectively, in their hearing.
2. The book of conscience will be opened, and shall be as a thousand witnesses to
prove the fact ; Rom. ii. 15, “Which show the work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness.” Conscience is a censor going with
every man whithersoever he goes, taking an account of his deeds done in the body,
and, as it were, noting them in a book; the which, being opened, will be found a
double of the former, so far as it relates to one's own state and case. Much is
written in it which cannot be read now ; the writing of conscience being, in many
cases, like to that which is made with the juice of lemons, not to be read till it be
held before the fire: but then men shall read it clearly and distinctly ; the fire
which is to try every man's work, will make the book of conscience legible in every
oint.
Though the book be sealed now ; the conscience, blind, dumb, and deaf; the
seals will then be broken, and the book opened. There shall be no more a weak
or misinformed conscience among those on the right hand, or those on the left.
There shall not be a silent conscience, and far less a seared conscience, amongst all
the ungodly crew; but their consciences shall be most quick-sighted, and most lively,
in that day. None shall then call good evil, or evil good. Ignorance of what sin
is, and what things are sins, will have no place among them ; and the subtile rea-
sonings of men in favour of their lusts will then be for ever baffled by their own
consciences. None shall have the favour, if I may so speak, of lying under the soft
cover of delusion; but they shall all be convicted by their consciences. Nill they,
will they,” they shall look on this book, read and be confounded, and stand speech-
less: knowing that nothing is charged upon them by mistake ; since this is a book
which was always in their own custody. Thus shall the Judge make every man
see himself in the glass of his own conscience, which will make quick work.
3. The book of the law shall be opened. This book is the standard and rule by
which is known what is right, and what is wrong; as also what sentence is to be
passed accordingly on those who are under it. As to the opening of this book, in
its statutory part, which shows what is sin, and what is duty; it falls in with the
opening of the book of conscience. For conscience is set, by the sovereign Law-
giver, in every man's breast to be his private teacher, to show him the law, and his
private pastor, to make application of the same : and at that day, it will be per-
fectly fit for its office ; so that the conscience, which is most stupid now, shall then
read to the man most accurate, but dreadful, lectures on the law. But what seems,
mainly at least, pointed at, by the opening of this book, is the opening of that
part of it which determines the reward of men's works. Now, the law promiseth
life upon perfect obedience ; but none can be found on the right hand, or on the
left, who will pretend to that, when once the book of conscience is opened. It
threateneth death upon disobedience, and will effectually bring it upon all under its
dominion. And this part of the book of the law, determining the reward of men's
works, is opened, only to show what must be the portion of the ungodly, and that
there they may read their sentence before it be pronounced. But it is not opened
for the sentence of the Saints; for no sentence absolving a sinner could ever bo
* i. e. whether they will or no. —ED.
FOURFOLD STATE. 187
drawn out of it. The law promiseth life, not as it is a rule of actions, but as a
covenant of works; and therefore innocent man could not have demanded life upon
his obedience, till the law was reduced into the form of a covenant ; as was shown
before. But the Saints having been, in this life, brought under a new covenant,
namely, the covenant of grace, were “dead to the law” as a covenant of works, and
it was dead to them. Wherefore, as they shall not now have any fears of death
from it, so they can have no hopes of life from it, since they “are not under the
law, but under grace,” Rom. vi. 14. But, for their sentence, another book is
opened; of which in the next place.
Thus the book of the law is opened, for the sentence against all those on the left
hand; and by it they will clearly see the justice of the judgment against them, and
how the Judge proceeds therein according to law. Nevertheless, there will be this
difference, namely, that those who had only the natural law, and lived not under
any special revelation, shall be judged by that law of nature they had in their
hearts; which law bears, that “they which commit such things” as they will
stand convicted of “are worthy of death,” Rom. i. 32. But those who had the
written law ; to whom the word of God came, as it has sounded in the visible
church ; shall be judged by that written law. So says the apostle, Rom. ii. 12,
“For as many as have sinned without ’’ the written “law shall also perish with-
out” the written “law; and as many as have sinned in the law,” that is, under the
written law, “shall be judged by the ” written “law.” -
4. “Another book” shall be “opened, which is the book of life,” Rev. xx. 12.
In this, the names of all the elect are written, as Christ said to his disciples, Luke
x. 20, “Your names are written in heaven.” This book contains God's gracious
and unchangeable purpose to bring all the elect to eternal life ; and that, in order
thereto, they be redeemed by the blood of his Son, effectually called, justified,
adopted, sanctified, and raised up by him at the last day without sin. It is now
lodged in the Mediator's hand, as the book of “the manner of the kingdom ;” and,
having perfected the work the Father gave them to do, he shall on the great day
produce and open the book, and present the persons therein named “faultless be-
fore the presence of his glory,” Jude 24 ; “not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing,” Eph. v. 27. None of them all who are named in the book shall be missing.
They shall all be found qualified, according to the order of the book; redeemed,
called, justified, sanctified, raised up without spot: what remains then, but that, ac-
cording to the same book, they obtain the great end, namely, everlasting life.
This may be gathered from that precious promise, Rev. iii. 5, “He that over-
cometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment” (being raised in glory), “and
I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name ''
(it shall be as it were, read out among the rest of God's elect) “before my Father,
and before his angels.” Here is now the ground of the Saints' absolviture, the
ground of the blessed sentence they shall receive. The book of life being opened,
it will be known to all, who are elected, and who are not. Thus far of the trial of
the parties.
Eighthly, Then shall the Judge pronounce that blessed sentence on the
saints, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world,” Matt. xxv. 34. It is most probable, the
man Christ will pronounce it with an audible voice, which not only all the saints,
but all the wicked likewise shall hear and understand. Who can conceive the
inexpressible joy with which these happy ones shall hear these words? Who
can imagine that fulness of joy which will be poured into their hearts, with these
words reaching their ears? And who can conceive how much of hell shall break
into the hearts of all the ungodly crew by these words of heaven 2 It is cer-
tain this sentence shall be pronounced before the sentence of damnation, Matt.
xxv. 34, “Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed,”
&c.; verse 41, “Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me,
ye cursed,” &c. There is no need of this order, that the saints may, without fear
or affrightment, hear the other sentence on the reprobate : they who are raised in
glory, caught up to meet the Lord in the air, presented without spot, and whose
souls, for the far greater part of them, have been so long in heaven before, shall
188 FOUR FOLD STATE,
not be capable of any such fear. But hereby they will be orderly brought in, to
sit in judgment, as Christ's assessors, against the ungodly ; whose torment will be
aggravated by it. It will be a hell to them, to be kept out of hell till they see the
doors of heaven open to receive the saints, who once dwelt in the same world with
them, and perhaps in the same country, parish, or town, and sat under the same
ministry with themselves. Thus will they see heaven afar off, to make their hell the
hotter. Like that unbelieving lord, 2 Kings vii. 19, 20, they “shall see " the
plenty “with their eyes, but shall not eat thereof.” Every word of the blessed
sentence shall be like an envenomed arrow shot into their hearts, while they see
what they have lost, and from thence gather what they are to expect. -
This sentence passeth on the saints “according to their works,” Rev. xx. 12; but
not for their works, nor for their faith neither, as if eternal life were merited by
them. The sentence itself overthrows this absurd conceit. The kingdom they are
called to was “prepared for them from the foundation of the world ;” not left to be
merited by themselves, who were but of yesterday. They inherit it as sons, but pro-
cure it not to themselves as servants do the reward of their work. They were redeemed
by the blood of Christ, and clothed with his spotless righteousness, which is the pro-
per cause of the sentence, They were also qualified for heaven by the sanctifica-
tion of his Spirit; and hence it is according to their works: so that the ungodly
world shall see now, that the Judge of the quick and the dead does good to them
who were good. Therefore it is added to the sentence, “For I was an hungered,
and ye gave me meat,” &c., verses 35, 36, which doth not denote the ground, but the
evidence of their right to heaven ; as if a judge should say, he absolves a man pur
sued for debt, for the witnesses depone that it is paid already. So the apostle says,
1 Cor. x. 5, “But with many of them God was not well-pleased, for they were
overthrown in the wilderness.” Their overthrow in the wilderness was not the
ground of God’s displeasure with them, but it was an evidence of it. And thus
our Lord teacheth us the necessary connection betwixt glory and good works,
namely, works evangelically good; works having a respect to Jesus Christ, and
done out of faith in him, and love to him, without which they will not be regarded
in that day. And the Saints will so far be judged according to such works, that
the degrees of glory among them shall be according to these works. For it is an
eternal truth, “he that Soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly,” 2 Cor. ix. 6.
Thus shall the good works of the godly have a glorious, but a gratuitous reward ;
a reward of grace, not of debt, which will fill thern with wonder at the riches of free
grace, and the Lord's condescending to take any notice, especially such public notice,
of their poor worthless works. The which seems to be the import of what they are said
to answer, “saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered,” &c., verses 37–39, And
may they not justly wonder to see themselves set down to the marriage-supper of
the Lamb, in consequence of a dinner or supper, a little meat or drink, such as
they had, which they gave to a hungry or thirsty member of Christ for his sake 2
O plentiful harvest, following upon the seed of good works Rivers of pleasure
springing up from perhaps “a cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a
disciple !” Eternal mansions of glory rising out of a night's lodging given to a saint
who was a stranger | Everlasting robes of glory given in exchange of a new coat,
or, it may be, an old one, bestowed on some saints who had not necessary clothing!
A visit to a sick saint repaid by Christ himself, coming in the glory of his Father,
with all his holy angels | A visit made to a poor prisoner for the cause of Christ
repaid with a visit from the Judge of all, taking away the visitant with him to the
palace of heaven, there to be ever with himself! These things will be matter of
everlasting wonder, and should stir up all to sow liberally in time, while the seed-
time of good works doth last. But it is Christ's stamp on good works that puts a
value on them in the eye of a gracious God; which seems to be the import of
our Lord's reply, verse 40, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” *
Ninthly, Now, the saints having received their own sentence, they “shall judge
the world,” 1 Cor. vi. 2. This was not fulfilled when the empire became Christian,
and Christians were made magistrates. No, the Psalmist tells us, “This honour
have all the Saints,” Psalm cylix. 9, And the apostle, in the forecited place, adds,
FOUR FOLD STATE, 189
“And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest
matters?” verse 3. “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” Being called, they
come to receive their kingdom, in the view of angels and men : they go, as it were,
from the bar to the throne. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me
in my throne,” Rev. iii. 21. They shall not only judge the world, in Christ
their head, by way of communion with him ; by their works, compared with those
of the ungodly ; or by way of testimony against them : but they shall be assessors
to Jesus Christ the Judge, giving their voice against them, consenting to his judg-
ment as just, and saying Amen to the doom pronounced against all the ungodly ;
as is said of the saints, upon the judgment of the great whore, Rev. xix. 1, 2,
“Hallelujah, for true and righteous are his judgments.” Thus “the upright
shall have dominion over them, in the morning” of the resurrection, Psal. xlix. 14.
Then, and not till then, shall that be fully accomplished, which ye may read, Psal.
cxlix. 6–9, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged
sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon
the people : this honour have all his saints.”... O what a strange turn of affairs will
appear here ! What an astonishing sight will it be, to see wicked churchmen and
statesmen standing, as criminals, before the Saints, whom sometimes they condemned
as heretics, rebels, and traitors . To see men of riches, and power stand, pale-
faced, before those whom they oppressed To see the mocker stand trembling be-
fore those he mocked The worldly wise man, before those whom he accounted
fools . Then shall the despised faces of the Saints be dreadful faces to the wicked;
and those who sometimes were “the song of the drunkards "shall then be a terror
to them. All wrongs must be righted at length, and every one set in his proper
lace.
Tenthly, The Judge shall pronounce the sentence of damnation on all the ungodly
multitude. “Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” verse 41. Fearful
doom ' and that from the same mouth from whence proceeded the sentence of ab-
solution before. It was an aggravation of the misery of the Jews, when their city
was destroyed, that they were ruined by one who was accounted the darling of the
world. O ! what an aggravation of the misery of the wicked will it be, that he
shall pronounce this sentence also To hear the curse from mount Zion must needs
be most terrible. To be damned by him who came to save sinners must be double
damnation. But thus it shall be. The Lamb of God shall roar as a lion against
them He shall excommunicate them, and cast them out of his presence for ever,
by a sentence from the throne, saying, “Depart from me, ye cursed.” He shall
adjudge them to everlasting fire, and the society of devils for evermore. And this
sentence also, we suppose, shall be pronounced with an audible voice by the man
Christ. And all the saints shall say, “Hallelujah, true and righteous are his judg-
ments.” None were so compassionate as the saints when on earth, during the time
of God's patience. But now that time is at an end ; their compassion on the un-
godly is swallowed up in joy in the Mediator's glory, and his executing of just judg-
ment, by which his enemies are made his footstool. Though sometimes the righteous
man did “weep in secret places for their pride, and because they would not hear ;”
yet then he “shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in
the blood of the wicked,” Psal. lviii. 10. No pity shall then be shown to them from
their nearest relations. The godly wife shall applaud the justice of the Judge in
the condemnation of her ungodly husband ; the godly husband shall say Amen to
the damnation of her who lay in his bosom ; the godly parents shall say Hallelu-
jah, at the passing of the sentence against their ungodly child ; and the godly child
shall, from his heart, approve the damnation of his wicked parents, the father who
begat him, and the mother who bore him. The sentence is just : they are “judg-
ed according to their works,” Rev. xx. 12.
There is no wrong done them. “For I was an hungered,” saith our Lord, “and
ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger,
and ye took me not in : naked, and ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye
visited me not,” ver, 42, 43. These are not only evidences of their ungodly and
cursed state, but most proper causes and grounds of their condemnation; for though
190 FOURFOLD STATE.
good works do not merit salvation, yet evil works merit damnation. Sins of one
kind only, namely, of omission, are here mentioned; not that these alone shall then
be discovered, for the opening of the books lays all open, but because these, though
there were no more, are sufficient to damn unpardoned sinners. And if men shall
be condemned for sins of omission, much more for sins of commission. The omission
of works of charity and mercy is condescended on particularly, to stop the mouths
of the wicked; for it is most just that “he have judgment without mercy, that
hath showed no mercy,” James ii. 13. The mentioning of the omission of acts
of charity and mercy towards the distressed members of Christ, intimates that
it is the judgment of those who have heard of Christ in the gospel that is prin-
cipally intended here, in this portion of scripture ; and that the slighting of Christ
will be the great cause of the ruin of those who hear the gospel: but the enmity of
the hearts of the wicked against Christ himself is discovered by the entertainment
they now give to his members.
In vain will they say, “When saw we thee an hungered, or athirst?” &c., ver.
44. For the Lord reckons, and will reckon the world's unkindness to his people
unkindness to himself; “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these,
ye did it not to me,” ver. 45. O meat and drink unhappily spared, when a
member of Christ was in need of it ! O wretched neglect, that the stranger
saint was not taken in It had been better for them, they had quitted their own
room, and their own bed, than he had wanted lodging. O cursed clothing, may
the wicked say, that was in my house, locked up in my chest, or hanging in my
wardrobe, and was not brought out to clothe such a one ! O that I had stripped
myself, rather than he had gone away without clothing ! Cursed business, that
diverted me from visiting such a sick saint | O that I had rather watched whole
nights with him Wretch that I was why did I sit at ease in my house, when
he was in prison, and did not visit him 2 But now the tables are turned : Christ's
servants shall eat, but I shall be hungry; his servants shall drink, but I shall be
thirsty ; they rejoice, but I am ashamed, Isa. lxv. 13. They are taken in ; but I
am cast out, and bid to depart: they are clothed with robes of glory; but I walk
naked, and they see my shame, Rev. xvi. 15. They are now raised up on high,
beyond the reach of sickness or pain; but I must now lie down in sorrow, Isa. l. 11.
Now shall they go to the palace of heaven, but I must go to the prison of hell.
But if our Lord do thus resent men's neglecting to help his people under these,
and the like distresses; what may they expect who are the authors and instruments
of them? If they shall be fed with wrath who fed them not when they were hungry,
what shall become of those who robbed and spoiled them, and took their own bread
away from them ? What a full cup of wrath shall be the portion of those who were
so far from giving them meat or drink, when hungry or thirsty, that they made it
a crime for others to entertain them, and made themselves drunken with their blood!
They must lodge with devils for evermore who took not in the Lord's people, when
strangers: then, what a lodging shall those have who drave them out of their own
houses, out of their native land, and made them strangers | Men will be con-
demned for not clothing them, when naked: then, how heavy must the sentence of
those be who have stripped them, and made them go without clothing ! Surely, if
not visiting of them in sickness, or in a prison, shall be so severely punished; they
shall not escape a most heavy doom who have cast them into prisons, and have put
them under such hardships as have impaired their health, brought sickness on them,
and cut their days in prison, or out of prison 1
To put a face upon such wicked practices, men will pretend to retain an honour
for Christ and religion, while they thus treat his members, walking in his ways, and
keeping the truth. They are here represented to say, “When saw we thee an
hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not
minister unto thee ?” ver, 44. As if they should say, Our bread, drink, lodging,
clothing, and visits, were, indeed, refused, but not to Christ; but to a set of men
of a bad character; men who “turned the world upside down” (Acts xvii. 6); who
“troubled Israel” (1 Kings xviii. 17); an humorous and fantastic sort of people,
having “laws diverse from all people,” factious and rebellious (they “did not keep
the king's laws,”) and therefore a very dangerous set of men; it was “not for the
FOUR FOLD STATE. 191
king's profit to suffer them,”. Esther iii. 8. But although men cast iniquity upon
the godly, and give them ill names, that they may treat them as criminals; all
these pretences will avail them nothing, in the great day, before the righteous
Judge, nor before their own consciences neither: but the real ground of their
enmity against the saints, will be found, to their own conviction, to be their enmity
against Christ himself. This seems to be the import of the objection of the damned,
ver. 44; and of the answer to it, ver, 45, “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the
least of these, ye did it not to me.”
Lastly, Sentence being passed on both parties, follows the full execution of the
same ; verse 46, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into life eternal.” The damned shall get no reprieve, but go to their
place without delay; they shall be driven away from the judgment-seat into hell:
and the saints “shall enter into the King's palace,” (Psal. xlv. 15,) namely, into
heaven, the seat of the blessed. But our Lord Christ and his glorious company
shall keep the field that day, and see the backs of all their enemies; for the damned
o off first.
8 In this “day of the Lord,” the “great day,” shall be the general conflagration;
by which these visible heavens, the earth, and sea, shall pass away. Not that they
shall be annihilated, or reduced to nothing; that is not the operation of fire : but
they shall be dissolved and purged by that fire from all the effects of sin, or of the
curse, upon them, and then renewed, and made more glorious and stable. Of this
conflagration the apostle Peter speaks, 2 Pet. iii. 10, “But the day of the Lord
will come, as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with
a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and
the works that are therein shall be burnt up.” See also ver, 7, 12. And of the
renewing of the world, he adds, ver. 13, “Nevertheless we, according to his pro-
mise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
It seems most agreeable to the scriptures, and to the nature of the thing, to con-
ceive this conflagration to follow after the general judgment; sentence being passed
on both parties before it. And I judge it probable, that it will fall in with the
putting of the sentence in execution against the damned ; so as they shall, accord-
ing to their sentence, depart, and the heavens and the earth pass away, together
and at once, at that furious rebuke from the throne, driving away the damned, out
of the world, in this fire, to “the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels:” even as, in the deluge, with which the apostle Peter compares the con-
flagration, or burning of the world, (2 Pet. iii. 6, 7,) the world itself, and the
wicked upon it, perisheth together; the same water which destroyed the earth,
sweeping away the inhabitants. For it is not likely that the wicked shall at all
stand on the new earth, “wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Pet. iii. 13. And as
for this earth, it shall “flee away,” which seems to denote a very quick despatch ;
and it shall “flee from his face who sits on the throne ;” Rev. xx. 11, “And I saw
a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heavens fled away.” The execution of the sentence on the wicked is also thus ex-
pressed; they “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence,”
or from the face, “of the Lord,” 2. Thess. i. 9. The original word is the same in
both texts; the which, being compared, seem to say, that these creatures, abused
by the wicked, being left to stand as witnesses against them in the judgment, are,
after sentence passed on their abusers, made to pass away with them from the face
of the Judge. It is true, the fleeing away of the earth and heaven is narrated (Rev.
xx. 11,) before the judgment; but that will not prove its going before the judg-
ment, more than the narrating of the judgment, ver, 12, before the resurrection,
ver, 13, will prove the judgment to be before it. Further, it is remarkable in the
execution of the sentence, Rev. xx. 14, 15, that not only the reprobate are cast
into the lake, but death and hell are cast into it likewise ; all effects of sin and of
the curse are removed out of the world, (for which very cause shall the conflagra-
tion be,) and they are confined to the place of the damned. Besides all this, it is
evident the end of the world is by the conflagration; and the apostle tells us,
(1 Cor. xv. 24, 25,) that “then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up
the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and
192 FOUR FOLD STATE,
all authority, and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under
his feet.” The which last, as it must be done before the end, so it seems not to be
done but by putting the sentence in execution passed in the day of judgment against
the wicked.
Now, if the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, that are “set forth for an example,”
(Jude 7,) was so dreadful; how terrible will that day be, when the whole world
shall be at once in flames How will wretched worldlings look when their darling
world shall be all on fire | Then shall strong castles, and towering palaces, with all
their rich furniture, go up together in one flame with the lowest cottages. What
heart can fully conceive the terror of that day to the wicked, when the whole fabric
of heaven and earth shall at once be dissolved by that fire | When that miserable
company shall be driven from the tribunal to the pit, with fire within them, and
fire without them, and fire behind them and on every hand of them, and fire before
them waiting them in the lake: whither this fire, for aught appears, may follow
them | *
As for the particular place of this judgment, though some point us to the valley
of Jehoshaphat for it, yet our Lord, who infallibly knew it, being asked the question
by his disciples, “Where, Lord?” told them only, “Wheresoever the body is,
thither will the eagles be gathered together,” Luke xvii. 37. After which answer,
it is too much for men to renew the question. As for the time when it shall be, in
vain do men search for what the Lord has purposely kept secret; Acts i. 7, “It
is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in his
own power.” The apostle Paul, after having very plainly described the second
coming of Christ, 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17, adds, chap. v. 1, 2, “But of the times and
seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you : for yourselves know
perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh, as a thief in the night.” Never-
theless, some, in several ages, have made very bold with the time; and several
particular years, which are now past, have been given out to the world, for the
time of the end, by men who have pried into the secrets of God. Time has pro-
claimed to the world their rashness and folly; and it is likely they will be no more
happy in their conjectures whose determinate time is yet to come. Let us rest in
that he cometh. God hath kept that day hid from us, that we may be every day
ready for it; Matt. xxv. 13, “Watch therefore : for ye know neither the day nor
the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” And let us remember, that the last
day of our life will determine our state in the last day of the world; and as we die,
So shall we be judged. -
I shall now shut up this subject, with some application of what has been said.
Use 1. Of comfort to all the saints. Here is abundance of consolation to all
who are in the state of grace. Whatever be your afflictions in the world, this day
will make up all your losses. “Though ye have lien among the pots; yet shall
ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold,”
Psal. lxviii. 13. Though the world reproach, judge, and condemn you; the Judge
will, at that day, absolve you, and “bring forth your righteousness as the light.” The
world's fools will then appear to have been the only wise men who were in it.
Though the cross be heavy, you may well bear it, in expectation of “the crown of
righteousness which the righteous Judge will then give” you. If the world do de-
spise you, and treat you with the utmost contempt, regard it not : the day cometh
wherein you shall sit with Christ in his throne. Be not discouraged by reason of
manifold temptations. But resist the devil, in confidence of a full and complete
victory: for you shall judge the tempter at last. Though you have hard wrestling
now with the body of sin and death ; yet ye shall get all your enemies under your
feet at length, and be “presented faultless before the presence of his glory.” Let
not the terror of that day dispirit you, when you think upon it. Let those who
have slighted the Judge, and continue enemies to him and to the way of holiness,
droop and hang down their heads, when they think of his coming: but lift ye up
your heads with joy, for the last day will be your best day. The Judge is your
Head and Husband, your Redeemer, and your Advocate. Ye must appear before
the judgment-seat, but ye “shall not come into condemnation,” John v. 24. His
coming will not be against you, but for you. He came in the flesh, to remove the
FOURFOLD STATE, 193
lawful impediments of the spiritual marriage, by his death : he came in the gospel
to you, to espouse you to himself: he will come, at the last day, to solemnize the
marriage, and take the bride home to his Father's house. “Even so, come, Lord
Jesus.”
Use 2. Of terror to all unbelievers. This may serve to awaken a secure generation;
a world lying in wickedness, as if they were never to be called to an account for it,
and slighting the Mediator, as if he were not to judge them. Ah! how few have
the lively impressions of the judgment to come ! Most men live as if what is said
of it, from the word, were but idle tales. The profane lives of many speak the
thoughts of it to be far from their hearts, and in very deed make a mock of it be-
fore the world, saying in effect, “Where is the promise of his coming?” The
hypocrisy of others, who blind the eyes of the world with a splendid profession,
being in appearance Christ's sheep while they are indeed the devil's goats, is an
evidence that the great separation of the sheep from the goats is very little laid to
heart. How do many indulge themselves in secret wickedness of which they would
be ashamed before witnesses; not considering, that their most secret thoughts and
actions will, at that day, be discovered before the great congregation! How eagerly
are men's hearts set on the world, as if it were to be their everlasting habitationſ
The solemn assemblies, and public ordinances, wherein the Judge is upon a trans-
action of peace with the criminals, are undervalued. Men's hearts will swim,
like feathers, in the waters of the sanctuary, that will sink, like stones, to the bot-
tom, in cares of this life. They will be very serious in trifles of this world ; and
trifle in the most serious and weighty things of another world. But O consider
the day that is approaching, in which Christ shall come to judgment, the world shall
be summoned, by the sound of the last trumpet, to compear before his tribunal.
The Judge shall sit on his throne, and all nations shall be sisted before him; the
separation shall be made betwixt the godly and the wicked; the books opened,
and the dead judged out of them; one party shall be adjudged to everlasting life,
and the other to everlasting fire, according to their works.
It would be a sight of admirable curiosity, if thou couldst wrap up thyself in
some dark cloud, or hide thyself in the cleft of some high rock, from whence thou
mightest espy wicked kings, princes, judges, and great ones of the earth, rising
out of their marble tombs, and brought to the bar, to answer for all their cruelty,
injustice, oppression, and profanity, without any marks of distinction but what
their wickedness puts upon them ; profane, unholy, and unfaithful churchmen, pur-
sued with the curses of the ruined people, from their graves to the judgment-
seat, and charged with the blood of souls to whom they gave no faithful warning;
mighty men standing trembling before the Judge, unable to recover their wonted
boldness, to outwit him with their subtilties, or defend themselves by their strength ;
delicate women cast forth of their graves, as abominable branches, dragged to the
tribunal to answer for their ungodly lives; the ignorant suddenly taught in the law
to their cost, and the learned declared, before the world, fools and laborious triflers;
the atheist convinced, the hypocrite unmasked, and the profane, at long run,”
turned serious about his eternal state ; Secret murders, adulteries, thefts, cheats,
and other works of darkness, which scorned all human search, discovered and laid
open before the world, with their most minute circumstances; no regard had to the
rich, no pity shown to the poor ; the scales of the world turned ; oppressed and
despised piety set on high, and prosperous wickedness at last brought low ; all not
found in Christ arraigned, convicted, and condemned without respect of persons,
and driven from the tribunal to the pit ; while those found in him, at that day,
being absolved before the world, go with him into heaven. Nay, but thou canst
not so escape. Thyself, whosoever thou art, not being in Christ, must bear a part
in this tragical and frightful action.
Sinner, that same Lord Christ whom thou now despisest, whom thou woundest
through the sides of his messengers, and before whom thou dost prefer thy lusts,
will be thy Judge. And a neglected Saviour will be a severe Judge. Of what
mountain, what rock wilt thou get to fall on thee, and hide thee from the face of
him who sitteth on the throne? Thou hast now a rock within thee, a heart of
- * i. e. at length.—ED.
2 B
194 FOUR FOLD STATE.
adamant, so that thou canst “count the darts” of the word “as stubble, and laugh
at the shaking of the spear:” but that rock will rend at the sight of the Judge ;
that hard heart will then break, and thou shalt weep and wail, when weeping and
wailing will be to no purpose. Death's bands will fall off; the grave will vomit
thee out ; and the mountains shall skip from thee, and the rocks refuse to grind
thee to powder. How will these cursed eyes abide the sight of the Judge | Be-
hold, he cometh? Where is the profane swearer, who tore his wounds 2 the wretched
worlding, now abandoned of his God? the formal hypocrite, who kissed him and
betrayed him 2 the despiser of the gospel, who sent him away in his messengers
groaning, profaned his ordinances, and trampled under foot his precious blood 2 O
murderer, the slain Man is thy Judge : there is he whom thou didst so maltreat :
behold the neglected Lamb of God appearing as a lion against thee. How will
thine heart endure the darts of his fiery looks? That rocky heart, now kept out
against him, shall then be blown up. That face which refuseth to blush now shall
then gather blackness. Arrows of wrath shall pierce, where arrows of con-
viction cannot enter now. What wilt thou answer him, when he riseth up and
chargeth thee with thy unbelief and impenitency ? Wilt thou say, thou wast not
warned? Conscience within thee will give thee the lie : the secret groans and
weariness of those who warned thee will witness the contrary. If a child or a
fool did tell you, that your house were on fire, you would immediately run to
quench it; but in matters of eternal concern, men will first fill their hearts
with prejudices against the messengers, and then cast their message behind their
backs. But these silly shifts and pretences will not avail in the day of the Lord.
How will these cursed ears, now deaf to the call of the gospel, inviting sinners to
come to Christ, hear the fearful sentence, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever-
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels I’’. No sleepy hearer shall be there:
no man’s heart will then wander : their hearts and eyes will then be fixed on their
misery, which they will not now believe. O that we knew, in this our day, the
things that belong to our peace! fi
Lastly, Be exhorted to believe this great truth, and believe it so as you may
prepare for the judgment betimes. Set up a secret tribunal in your own breasts,
and often call yourselves to an account there. Make the Judge your friend in
time, by closing with him in the offer of the gospel; and give all diligence, that
ye may be found in Christ at that day, Cast off the works of darkness, and live,
as believing you are, at all times, and in all places, under the eye of your Judge,
who “will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.” Be “fruit-
ful in good works,” knowing that as ye sow, ye shall reap. Study piety towards
God, righteousness and charity towards men. Lay up in store plenty of works of
charity and mercy towards them whq are in distress, especially such as are of the
household of faith; that they may be produced that day, as evidences that ye
belong to Christ. Shut not up your bowels of mercy, now, towards the needy,
lest ye then find no mercy. Take heed that in all your works ye be single and
sincere ; aiming in them all, at the glory of our Lord, a testimony of your love to
him, and obedience to his command. Leave it to hypocrites, who have their re-
ward, to proclaim every man his own goodness, and to sound a trumpet when they
do their alms. It is a base and unchristian spirit which cannot have satisfaction in
a good work, unless it be exposed to the view of others; it is utterly unworthy
of one who believes that the last trumpet shall call together the whole world, be.
fore whom the Judge himself shall publish works truly good, how secretly soever
they were done. Live in a believing expectation of the coming of the Lord. Let
your loins be always girt, and your lamps burning ; so when he comes, whether in
the last day of your life, or in the last day of the world, ye shall be able to say
with joy, “Lo, this is our God, and we have waited for him.”
FOURFOLD STATE. 195
H E A D V.
THE KING DOM OF HEAVEN.
MATTHEW xxv. 34.
“Then shall the King say writo them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
HAVING from this portion of scripture, which the text is a part of, discoursed of the
general judgment ; and being to speak of the everlasting happiness of the saints,
and the everlasting misery of the wicked, from the respective sentences to be
pronounced upon them in the great day ; I shall take them in the order wherein
they lie before us; the rather that, as sentence is first passed upon the righteous,
so the execution thereof is first begun, though possibly the other may be fully exe-
cuted before it be completed.
The words of the text contain the joyful sentence itself, together with an histori-
cal introduction thereto, which gives us an account of the Judge pronouncing the
sentence, “the King,” Jesus Christ ; the parties on whom it is given, “them on
his right hand ;” and the time when, “then,” as soon as the trial is over. Of
these I have spoken already. It is the sentence itself we are now to consider,
“Come, ye blessed of my Father,” &c. Stand back, O ye profane goats; have
away, all unregenerate souls, not united to Jesus Christ; this is not for you.
Come, O ye saints, brought out of your natural state into the state of grace ; be-
hold here the state of glory awaiting you. Here is glory let down to us in words
and syllables; a looking-glass in which you may see your everlasting happiness ;
a scheme, or draught, of Christ's Father's house, wherein there are “many
mansions.”
This glorious sentence bears two things. (1.) The complete happiness to which
the saints are adjudged, “the kingdom.” (2.) Their solemn admission to it, “Come,
ye blessed of my Father, inherit,” &c., First, their complete happiness is a kingdom.
A kingdom is the top of worldly felicity ; there is nothing on earth greater than a
kingdom ; therefore the hidden weight of glory in heaven is held forth to us under
that notion. But it is not an ordinary kingdom : it is the kingdom, the kingdom
of heaven ; surpassing all the kingdoms of the earth, in glory, honour, profit, and
pleasure, infinitely more than they do in these excel the low and inglorious condition
of a beggar, in rags and on a dunghill. Secondly, There is a solemn admission of the
saints into this their kingdom, “Comeye, inherit the kingdom.” In the view of angels,
men, and devils, they are invested with royalty, and solemnly inaugurated, before the
whole world, by Jesus Christ “the heir of all things,” who hath “all power in heaven
and in earth.” Their right to the kingdom is solemnly recognised and owned. They
are admitted to it, as undoubted heirs of the kingdom, to possess it by inheritance,
or lot, as the word properly signifies, because, of old, inheritances were designed
by lot, as Canaan to Israel, God's first-born, as they are called, Exod. iv. 22.
And because this kingdom is the Father's kingdom, therefore they are openly ac-
knowledged, in their admission to it, to be the blessed of Christ's Father; the
which blessing was given them long before this sentence, but is now solemnly recog-
mised, and confirmed to them, by the Mediator, in his Father's name. It is observ-
able, he says, not, Ye blessed of the Father, but, Ye blessed of my Father; to
show us, that all blessings are derived upon us from the Father, the Fountain of
blessing, as he is “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” through whom
we are blessed, Eph. i. 3. . And finally, they are admitted to this kingdom, as that
which was “prepared for them from the foundation of the world,” in God’s eternal
purpose, before they, or any of them were ; that all the world may see eternal life
to be the free gift of God.
196 FOUR FOLD STATE,
DocTRINE,--The saints shall be made completely happy in the possession of the
kingdom of heaven.
Two things I shall here inquire into : First, The nature of this kingdom ; Sec-
ondly, The admission of the Saints thereto ; And then I shall make some practical
improvement of the whole.
I. As to the nature of the kingdom of heaven, our knowledge of it is very imper-
fect; for “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,” 1 Cor. ii. 9.
As, by familiar resemblances, parents instruct their little children concerning things
of which otherwise they can have no tolerable notion; so our gracious God, in con-
sideration of our weakness, is pleased to represent to us heaven's happiness under
similitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men ; since naked
discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthly resemblances, would be too
bright for our weak eyes, and in them we would but lose ourselves. Wherefore now
one cannot but speak as a child of those things which the day will fully discover.
The state of glory is represented under the notion of a kingdom ; a kingdom,
among men, being that in which the greatest number of earthly good things doth
concentre. Now, every saint shall, as a king, inherit a kingdom. All Christ's
subjects shall be kings, each one with his crown upon his head: not that the great
King shall divest himself of his royalty, but he will make all his children partakers
of his kingdom.
First, The saints shall have kingly power and authority given them. Our Lord
gives not empty titles to his favourites; he makes them kings indeed. The domin-
ion of the saints will be a dominion far exceeding that of the greatest monarch ever
was in earth. They will be absolute masters over sin, that sometime had the
dominion over them. They will have a complete rule over their own spirits; an
entire management of all their affections and inclinations, which now create them
so much molestation : the turbulent rout of corrupt affections shall be for ever
expelled out of that kingdom, and never be able any more to give them the least
disturbance. They shall have “power over the nations,” the ungodly of all nations,
and shall “rule them with a rod of iron,” Rev. ii. 26, 27. The whole world of
the wicked shall be broken before them. Satan shall be “bruised under their
feet,” Rom. xvi. 20. He shall never be able to fasten a temptation on them any
more; but he will be judged by them, and, in their sight, cast, with the reprobate
crew, into the lake of fire and brimstone. So shall they rule over their oppressors.
Having fought the good fight, and got the victory, Christ will entertain them as
Joshua did his captains, causing them to “come near, and put their feet on the necks
of kings,” Josh. x. 24. -
Secondly, They shall have the ensigns of royalty. For a throne, Christ will
“grant them to sit with him in his throne,” Rev. iii. 21. They shall be advanced
to the highest honour and dignity they are capable of ; and in the enjoyment of it,
they will have an eternal, undisturbed repose, after all the tossings they met with
in the world, in their way to the throne. For a crown, they shall receive “a crown
of glory, that fadeth not away,” 1 Pet. v. 4. Not a crown of flowers, as subjects,
being conquerors or victors, sometimes have got: such a crown quickly fades, but
their crown never fadeth. Nor a crown of gold, such as earthly kings do wear;
even a crown of gold is often stained, and at best can never make them happy who
wear it. But it shall be “a crown of glory.” A crown of glory is “a crown of
life,” (Rev. ii. 10,) that life which knows no end; a crown which death can never
make to fall off one's head. It must be an abiding crown; for it is a “crown of
righteousness,” 2. Tim. iv. 8. It was purchased for them by Christ's righteousness,
which is imputed to them; they are qualified for it by inherent righteousness;
God's righteousness or faithfulness secures it to them. They shall have a sceptre,
“a rod of iron,” (Rev. ii. 27,) terrible to all the wicked world. And a sword too;
“a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and
punishments upon the people,” Psal. cxlix. 6, 7, They shall have royal apparel.
The royal robos in this kingdom are “white robes;” Rev. iii. 4, “They shall
FOURFOLD STATE. 197
walk with me in white.” And these last do, in a very particular manner, point at
the inconceivable glory of the state of the saints in heaven.
The Lord is pleased often to represent unto us the glorious state of the saints
under the notion of their being clothed in white garments. It is promised to the
overcomer, that he “shall be clothed in white raiment,” Rev. iii. 5. The elders
about the throne are “clothed in white raiment,” chap. iv. 4. The multitude before
the throne are “clothed with white robes,” chap. vii. 9, “arrayed in white robes,”
ver. 13, “made white in the blood of the Lamb,” ver, 14. I own, the last two tes-
timonies adduced do respect the state of the saints on earth; but withal the terms
are borrowed from the state of the church in heaven. All garments, properly so
called, being badges of sin and shame, shall be laid aside by the saints, when they
come to their state of glory. But if we consider on what occasions white garments
were wont to be put on, we shall find much of heaven under them.
1. The Romans, when they manumitted their bond-servants, gave them a white
garment, as a badge of their freedom. So shall the saints, that day, get on their
white robes; for it is the day of “the glorious liberty of the children of God,”
Rom. viii, 21 ; the day of “the redemption of their body,” ver. 23. They shall no
more see the house of bondage, nor lie any more among the pots. If we compare
the state of the Saints on earth with that of the wicked, it is indeed a state of free-
dom, whereas the other is a state of slavery ; but in comparison with their state in
heaven, it is but a servitude. A saint on earth is indeed a young prince, and heir
to the crown ; but his motto may be, “I serve ;” for “he differeth nothing from a
servant, though he be lord of all,” Gal. iv. 1. What are the groans of a saint, the
sordid and base work he is sometimes found employed in, the black and tattered
garments he walks in, but badges of this comparative servitude 2 But from the day
the Saints come to the crown, they receive their complete freedom, and serve no
more. They shall be fully freed from sin, which of all evils is the worst both in
itself, and in their apprehension too ; how great then must that freedom be, when
those “Egyptians whom they see to-day, they shall see them again no more for
ever!” They shall be free from all temptation to sin. Satan can have no access
to tempt them any more, by himself, nor by his agents. A full answer will then
be given to that petition they have so often repeated, “Lead us not into temptation.”
No hissing serpent can come into the paradise above; no snare nor trap can be laid
there, to catch the feet of the saints; they may walk there fearlessly, for they can
be in no hazard; there are no lions’ dens, no mountains of the leopards, in the pro-
mised land. Nay, they shall be set beyond the possibility of sinning, for they shall
be confirmed in goodness. It will be the consummate freedom of their will, to be
for ever unalterably determined to good. And they shall be freed from all the
effects of sin: “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain,” Rev. xxi. 4. What kingdom is like unto this? Death
makes its way now into a palace, as easily as into a cottage ; sorrow fills the heart
of one who wears a crown on his head; royal robes are no fence against pain, and
crying by reason of pain. But in this kingdom no misery can have place. All
reproaches shall be wiped off; and never shall a tear drop any more from their eyes.
They shall not complain of desertions again; the Lord will never hide his face from
them : but the Sun of Righteousness, shining upon them in his meridian bright-
ness, will dispel all clouds, and give them an everlasting day, without the least mix-
ture of darkness. A deluge of wrath, after a fearful thunder-clap from the throne,
will sweep away the wicked from before the judgment-seat, into the lake of fire ; but
they are, in the first place, like Noah, brought into the ark, and out of harm's way.
2. White raiment hath been a token of purity; therefore the Lamb's wife is
“arrayed in fine linen, clean and white,” Rev. xix. 8. And those who stood before
the throne “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,”
chap. vii. 14, ... The saints shall then put on the robes of perfect purity, and shine
in spotless holiness, like the sun in his strength, without the least cloud to inter-
cept his light. Absolute innocence shall then be restored, and every appearance of
sin banished far from this kingdom. The guilt of sin, and the reigning power of it,
are now taken away in the saints; nevertheless, sin dwelleth in them, Rom. vii. 20.
But then it shall be no more in them ; the corrupt nature will be quite removed ;
198 FourFold state.
that root of bitterness will be plucked up, and no vestiges of it left in their souls;
their nature shall be altogether pure and sinless. There shall be no darkness in their
minds; but the understanding of every saint, when he is come to his kingdom, will be
as a globe of pure and unmixed light. There shall not be the least aversion to good,
or inclination to evil in their wills: but they will be brought to a perfect conformity
to the will of God; blest with angelical purity, and fixed therein. Their affections
shall not be liable to the least disorder or irregularity; it will cost them no trouble
to keep them right; they will get such a set of purity as they can never lose.
They will be so refined from all earthly dross as never to savour more of any thing
but heaven. Were it possible they should be set again amidst the ensnaring objects
of an evil world, they should walk among them without the least defilement; as
the sun shines on the dunghill, yet untainted; and as the angels preserved their
purity in the midst of Sodom. Their graces shall then be perfected; and all the
imperfections now cleaving to them done away. There will be no more ground for
complaints of weakness of grace: none in that kingdom shall complain of an ill
heart, or a corrupt nature. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but, when
he shall appear, we shall be like him,” 1 John iii. 2.
3. Among the Jews, those who desired to be admitted into the priestly office, be-
ing tried, and found to be of the priest's line, and without blemish, were clothed in
white, and enrolled among the priests. This seems to be alluded to, Rev. iii. 5,
“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not
blot out his name out of the book of life.” So the saints shall not be kings only,
but priests withal; for they are “a royal priesthood,” 1 Pet. ii. 9. They will be
priests upon their thrones. They are judicially found descended from the great
High Priest of their profession, begotten of him by his Spirit, of the incorruptible
seed of the word, and without blemish ; so the trial being over, they are admitted
to be priests in the temple above, that they may dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever. There is nothing upon earth more glorious than a kingdom, nothing more
venerable than the priesthood; and both meet together in the glorified state of the
saints. “The general assembly of the first-born,” (Heb. xii. 23,) whose is the priest-
hood and the double portion, appearing in their white robes of glory, will be a
reverend and glorious company. That day will show them to be the persons whom
the Lord has chosen out of all the tribes of the earth, to be near unto him, and to
enter into his temple, even into his holy place. Their priesthood, begun on earth,
shall be brought to its perfection, while they shall be employed in offering the sacri-
fice of praise to God and the Lamb for ever and ever. They got not their portion
on the earth with the rest of the tribes; but the Lord himself was their portion,
and will be their double portion, through the ages of eternity. -
4. They were wont to wear white raiment in a time of triumph ; to the which
also there seems to be an allusion, Rev. iii. 5, “He that overcometh, the same
shall be clothed in white raiment.” And what is heaven but an everlasting triumph 2
None get thither, but such as fight, and overcome too. Though Canaan was given
to the Israelites, as an inheritance ; they behoved to conquer it, ere they could
be possessors of it. The saints, in this world, are in the field of battle ; often in
red garments, garments rolled in blood: but the day approacheth in which they
shall “stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and
palms in their hands,” Rev. vii. 9, having obtained a complete victory over all their
enemies. The palm was used as a sign of victory; because that tree, oppressed
with weights, yieldeth not, but rather shooteth upwards. And palm-trees were
carved on the doors of the most holy place, 1 Kings vi. 32, which was a special
type of heaven; for heaven is the place which the saints are received into, as con-
querors.
Behold the joy and peace of the saints, in their white robes. The joys arising
from the view of past dangers, and riches and honours gained at the very door of
death, do most sensibly touch one's heart; and this will be an ingredient in the
everlasting happiness of the saints, which could have had no place in the heaven of
innocent Adam, and his sinless offspring, supposing him to have stood. Surel
the glorified Saints will not forget the entertainment they met with in the world :
it will be for the glory of God to remember it, and also for the heightening of their
FOURFOLD STATE, 199
joy. The Sicilian king, by birth the son of a potter, acted a wise part, in that he
would be served at his table with earthen vessels; the which could not but put an
additional sweetness in his meals, not to be relished by one born heir to the crown.
Can ever meat be so sweet to any as to the hungry man? Or can any have such a
relish of plenty, as he who has been under pinching straits 2 The more difficulties
the saints have passed through in their way to heaven, the place will be the sweeter
to them when they come at it. Every happy stroke struck in the spiritual warfare
will be a jewel in the crown of glory. Each victory obtained against sin, Satan,
and the world, will raise their triumphant joy the higher. The remembrance of
the cross will sweeten the crown; and the memory of their travel through the wil-
derness will put an additional verdure on the fields of glory, while they walk through
them, minding the day when they went “mourning without the sun.”
And now that they appear triumphing in white robes, it is a sign they have ob-
tained an honourable peace ; such a peace as their enemies can disturb no more.
So every thing peculiarly adapted to their militant condition is laid aside. The
sword is laid down; and they betake themselves to “the pen of a ready writer,” to
commemorate the praises of him by whom they overcame. Public ordinances,
preaching, sacraments, shall be honourably laid aside; there is “no temple there,”
Rev. xxi. 22. Sometimes these were sweet to them : but the travellers being all
got home, the inns appointed for their entertainment by the way are shut up ; the
candles are put out, when the sun is risen ; and the tabernacle used in the wilder-
ness is folded up, when the temple of glory is come in its room. Many of the
Saints’ duties will then be laid aside ; as one gives his staff out of his hand, when
he is come to the end of his journey. Praying shall then be turned to praising ;
and there being no sin to confess, no wants to seek the supply of, confession and
petition shall be swallowed up in everlasting thanksgiving. There will be no mourn-
ing in heaven. They have sown in tears; the reaping time of joy is come, and
“God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” Rev. xxi. 4. No need of mortifica-
tion there; and self-examination is then at an end. They will not need to watch
any more ; the danger is over. Patience has had its perfect work, and there is no
use for it there. Faith is turned into sight, and hope is swallowed up in the ocean
of sensible and full enjoyment. All the rebels are subdued, the saints quietly set
on their throne ; and so the forces needful in the time of the spiritual warfare are
disbanded, and they carry on their triumph in profoundest peace.
5. White garments were worn on festival days, in token of joy. And so shall the
saints be clothed in white raiment, for they shall keep an everlasting Sabbath to
the Lord ; Heb. iv. 9, “There remaineth therefore a rest,” or keeping of a Sab-
bath, “to the people of God.” The Sabbath, in the esteem of saints, is the queen
of days ; and they shall have an endless Sabbatism in the kingdom of heaven: so
shall their garments be always white. They will have an eternal rest, with an unin-
terrupted joy: for heaven is not a resting-place where men may sleep out an eternity;
there they rest not day nor night: but their work is their rest, and continual re-
creation, and toil and weariness have no place there. They rest there in God, who
is the centre of their souls. Here they find the complement, or satisfaction, of all
their desires; having the full enjoyment of God, and uninterrupted communion with
him. This is the point unto the which till the soul come, it will always be restless:
but that point reached, it rests; for he is the last end, and the soul can go no fur-
ther. It cannot understand, will, nor desire more; but in him it has what is com-
mensurable to its boundless desires. This is the happy end of all the labours of
the saints; their toil and sorrows issue in a joyful rest. The Chaldeans, measur-
ing the natural day, put the day first, and the night last ; but the Jews counted
the night first, and the day last. Even so the wicked begin with a day of rest and
pleasure, but end with a night of everlasting toil and sorrow; but God's people
have their gloomy night first, and then comes their day of eternal rest. The which,
Abraham, in the parable, observed to the rich man in hell; Luke xvi. 25, “Son,
remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Laza-
rus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”
Thirdly, If one inquires where the kingdom of the saints lies 2 It is not in this
world ; it lies in “a better country, that is, an heavenly,” Heb. xi. 16; a country
200 FOUR FOLD STATE.
better than the best of this world; namely, the heavenly Canaan, Immanuel's
land, where nothing is wanting to complete the happiness of the inhabitants. This
is the happy country, blessed with a perpetual spring, and which yieldeth all things,
for necessity, conveniency, and delight. There men shall eat “angels' food;” they
shall be entertained with “the hidden manna,” (Rev. ii. 17,) without being set to the
painful gathering of it; they will be fed to the full, with the product of the land
falling into their mouths without the least toil to them. That land enjoys an ever-
lasting day ; “for there is no night there,” Rev. xxi. 25. An eternal sunshine
beautifies this better country; but there is no scorching heat there. No clouds
shall be seen there for ever: yet it is not a land of drought; the trees of the Lord's
planting are set by the rivers of water, and shall never want moisture; for they
will have an eternal supply of the Spirit, by Jesus Christ, from his Father. This
is the country from whence our Lord came, and whither he is gone again; the
country which all the holy patriarchs and prophets had their eye upon, while on
earth ; and which all the saints who have gone before us have fought their way to,
and unto which the martyrs have joyfully swimmed through a sea of blood. This
earth is the place of the saints' pilgrimage ; that is their country, where they find
their everlasting rest. -
Fourthly, The royal city is, “that great city, the holy Jerusalem,” described at
large, Rev. xxi. 10, to the end of the chapter. It is true, some learned divines
place this city in the earth ; but the particulars of the description seem to me to
favour those most who point us to the other world for it. The saints shall reign
in that city whose “wall is of jasper,” (verse 16,) and “the foundations of the
walls garnished with all manner of precious stones,” (verse 19,) “and the street of
pure gold” (verse 21), So that their feet shall be set on that which the men of
this world set their hearts upon. This is the city God “ has prepared for them,”
(Heb. xi. 16,) “a city that hath foundations,” (verse 10,) “a continuing city,”
(chap. xiii. 14,) which shall stand and flourish when all the cities of the world are
laid in ashes, and which shall not be moved when the foundations of the world are
overturned. It is a city that never changeth its inhabitants: none of them shall
ever be removed out of it ; for life and immortality reign there, and no death
can enter into it. It is blessed with a perfect and perpetual peace, and can
never be in the least disturbed. Nothing from without can annoy it ; “the gates
therefore are not shut at all by day, and there is no night there,” Rev. xxi. 25.
There can nothing from within trouble it. No want of provision there, no scarcity,
no discord amongst the inhabitants. Whatever contentions are amongst the saints
now, no vestige of their former jarrings shall remain there. Love to God, and to
one another, shall be perfected ; and those of them who stood at greatest distance
here will joyfully embrace and delight in one another there.
Fifthly, The royal palace is Christ's Father's house, in which are “many man-
sions,” John xiv. 2. There shall the saints dwell for ever. That is the house
prepared for all the heirs of glory, even those of them who dwell in the meanest
cottage now, or have not where to lay their heads.
As our Lord calls his saints to a kingdom, he will provide them a house suitable
to the dignity he puts upon them. Heaven will be a convenient, spacious, and
glorious house, for those whom the King delighteth to honour. Never was a house
purchased at so great a rate as this, being the purchase of the Mediator's blood,
and no less could it be afforded for to them : never was there so much ado, to fit
inhabitants for a house. The Saints were by nature utterly unfit for this house, and
human art and industry could not make them meet for it. But the Father gives
the designed inhabitants to the Son, to be by him redeemed; the Son pays the
price of their redemption, even his own precious blood, that, with the allowance of
justice, they may have access to the house; and the Holy Spirit sanctifies them by
his grace, that they may be meet to come in thither, where no unclean thing can
enter. And no marvel, for it is the King's palace they enter into, (Psal. xlv. 15 ;)
the house of the kingdom, where the great King keeps his court, where he has set
his throne, and shows forth his glory, in a singular manner, beyond what mortals
can conceive.
Sixthly, Paradise is their palace-garden. “This day shalt thou be with me in
FOUR FOLD STATE. 201
paradise,” said our Saviour to the penitent thief on the cross, Luke xxiii. 43.
Heaven is a paradise for pleasure and delight, where there is both wood and water:
“a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God
and of the Lamb; and on either side of the river, the tree of life, which bears twelve
manner of fruits, and yields her fruit every month,” Rev. xxii. 1, 2. How happy
might innocent Adam have been in the earthly paradise, where there was nothing
wanting for necessity, nor delight ! Eden was the most pleasant spot of the un-
corrupted earth, and paradise the most pleasant spot of Eden; but what is earth
in comparison of heaven? The glorified saints are advanced to the heavenly para-
dise. There they shall not only see, but eat of “the tree of life, which is in the
midst of the paradise of God,” Rev. ii. 7. They shall behold the Mediator's glory,
and be satisfied with his goodness. No flaming sword will be there, to keep the
way of that tree of life; but they shall freely eat of it, and live for ever. And they
shall drink of “the river of pleasures,” (Psal. xxxvi. 8,) those sweetest and purest
pleasures which Immanuel's land doth afford; and shall swim in an ocean of un-
mixed delight for evermore.
Seventhly, They shall have royal treasures sufficient to support the dignity they
are advanced unto. Since the street of the royal city is pure gold, and the twelve
gates thereof are twelve pearls, their treasure must be of that which is better than
gold or pearl. It is “an eternal weight of glory,” 2 Cor. iv. 17. O precious trea-
sure a treasure not liable to insensible corruption, by moths or rust ; a treasure
which none can steal from them, Matt. vi. 20. Never did any kingdom afford such
a precious treasure, nor a treasure of such variety; for “he that overcometh shall
inherit all things,” Rev. xxi. 7. No treasures on earth are stored with all things;
if they were all put together in one, there would be far more valuable things want-
ing in that one, than found in it. This then is the peculiar treasure of those kings
who inherit the kingdom of heaven. They shall want nothing that may contribute
to their full satisfaction. Now they are rich in hope; but then they will have their
riches in hand. Now all things are theirs in respect of right; then all shall be
theirs in possession. They may go for ever through Immanuel's land, and behold
the glory and riches thereof, with the satisfying thought, that all they see is their
own. It is pity those should ever be uneasy under the want of earthly good things
who may be sure they shall inherit all things at length.
Eighthly, Albeit there is no material temple therein, no mediate serving of
God in the use of ordinances, as here on earth; yet, as for this kingdom, “The
Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it,” Rev. xxi. 22. As the
temple was the glory of Canaan, so will the celestial temple be the glory of heaven.
The saints shall be brought in thither as “a royal priesthood,” to dwell in the house
of God for ever: for Jesus Christ will then make every saint a “pillar in the temple
of God, and he shall go no more out,” (Rev. iii. 12,) as the priests and Levites did,
in their courses, go out of the material temple. There the Saints shall have the
cloud of glory; the divine presence, with most intimate and uninterrupted com-
munion with God: there they shall have Jesus Christ as the true ark, wherein the
fiery law shall be for ever hid from their eyes, and the mercy-seat, from which
nothing shall be breathed but everlasting peace and good-will towards them ; the
cherubims, the society of holy angels, who shall join with them in eternal admira-
tion of the mystery of Christ; the golden candlestick with its seven lamps, for “the
glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof,” Rev. xxi. 23; the
incense-altar, in the intercession of Christ, who “ever liveth to make intercession
for them,” (Heb. vii. 25,) eternally exhibiting the merits of his death and suffer-
ings, efficaciously willing for ever that those whom the Father hath given him
be with him ; and the show-bread table, in the perpetual feast they shall have
together in the enjoyment of God. This leads me more particularly to consider,
Ninthly, The society in this kingdom. What would royal power and authority,
ensigns of royalty, richest treasures, and all other advantages of a kingdom, avail,
without comfortable Society? Some crowned heads have had but a sorry life through
the want of it: their palaces have been but unto them as prisons, and their badges of
honour as chains on a prisoner; while hated of all, they had none they could trust
in, or whom they could have comfortable fellowship with. But the chief part of
2 C
202. FOUR FOLD STATE.
heaven's happiness lies in the blessed society the Saints shall have there. For clear-
ing of which, consider these few things: -
1. The society of the saints among themselves will be no small part of heaven's
happiness. The communion of Saints on earth is highly prized by all those who are
travelling through the world unto Zion; and companions in sin can never have such
true pleasure and delight in one another, as sometimes the Lord's people have in
praying together, and conversing about those things which the world is a stranger
to. Here the saints are but few in a company, at best: and some are so posted
as that they seem to themselves to dwell alone ; having no access to such as they
could freely unbosom themselves to, in the matter of their spiritual case. They
sigh and say, “Wo is me ! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits
—there is no cluster to eat—the good man is perished out of the earth,” Micah vii.
1, 2. But in “the general assembly of the first-born” in heaven, none of all the
saints who ever were, or will be on the earth, shall be amissing. They will be all
of them together in one place, all possess one kingdom, and all sit down together
to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. Here the best of the saints want not their
sinful imperfections, making their society less comfortable; but there they shall be
perfect, “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” Eph. v. 27. And all natural,
as well as sinful imperfections, are then done away : they “shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament,” Dan. xii. 3.
There we will see Adam and Eve in the heavenly paradise freely eating of the
tree of life; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the holy patriarchs, no more
wandering from land to land, but come to their everlasting rest; all the prophets
feeding their eyes on the glory of him of whose coming they prophesied; the twelve
apostles of the Lamb sitting on their twelve thrones, and the holy martyrs in their
long white robes, with their crowns upon their heads; the godly kings advanced to
a kingdom which cannot be moved ; and them “that turn many to righteousness”
shining “as the stars for ever and ever.” There will we see our godly friends,
relations, and acquaintances, “pillars in the temple of God, to go no more out”
from us. And it is more than probable that the saints will know one another in
heaven ; that, at least, they will know their friends, relatives, and those they were
acquainted with on earth, and such as have been most eminent in the church :
howbeit that knowledge will be purged from all earthly thoughts and affections.
This seems to be included in that perfection of happiness to which the saints shall
be advanced there. If Adam knew who and what Eve was, at first sight, when the
Lord God brought her to him, (Gen. ii. 23, 24,) why should one question, but
husbands and wives, parents and children, will know each other in glory? If the
Thessalonians converted by Paul's ministry shall be his “crown of rejoicing in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming,” (1 Thess. ii. 19,) why may not
one conclude, that ministers will know their people, and people their ministers, in
heaven? And if the disciples, on the mount of transfiguration, knew Moses and
Elias, whom they had never seen before, (Matt. xvii. 4,) we have ground to think
we shall know them too, and such as they, when we come to heaven. The com-
munion of Saints shall be most intimate there: “they shall sit down with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven,” Matt. viii. 11; “Lazarus was car-
ried by the angels into Abraham's bosom,” (Luke xvi. 23,) which denotes most
intimate and familiar society. And though diversity of “tongues shall cease,”
(1 Cor. xiii. 8,) I make no question, but there will be an use of speech in heaven;
and that the saints shall glorify God in their bodies there, as well as in their spirits,
speaking forth his praises with an audible voice. As for the language, we shall
understand what it is when we come thither. When Paul was caught up to the
third heavens, the seat of the blessed, he heard there “unspeakable words, which
it is not lawful for a man to utter,” 2 Cor. xii. 4. Moses and Elias, on the mount
with Christ, “talked with him,” Matt. xvii. 3, and “spake of his decease which he
should accomplish at Jerusalem,” Luke ix. 31. -
2. The saints will have the Society of all the holy angels there. “An innumerable
company of angels” shall be companions to them in their glorified state. Happy
were the shepherds who heard the song of the heavenly host when Christ was born ;
but thrice happy they who shall join their voices with theirs in the choir of saints
FOUR FOLD STATE, 203
and angels in heaven, when he shall be glorified in all who shall be about him there!
Then shall we be brought acquainted with those blessed spirits who never sinned.
How bright will those morning-stars shine in the holy place . They were minister-
ing spirits to the heirs of salvation; loved them for their Lord and Master's sake; en-
camped round about them to preserve them from danger: how joyfully will they
welcome them to their everlasting habitations, and rejoice to see them come at length
to their kingdom, as the tutor doth in the prosperity of his pupils . The saints shall
be no more afraid of them, as sometimes they were wont to be : they shall then
have put off mortality, and infirmities of the flesh, and be themselves as the angels
of God, fit to entertain communion and fellowship with these shining ones. And
both being brought under one head, the Lord Jesus Christ, they shall join in the
praises of God and of the Lamb, saying, with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain,” &c. Rev. v. 11, 12. Whether the angels shall, as some think,
assume airy bodies, that they may be seen by the bodily eyes of the saints, and be
in nearer capacity to converse with them, I know not : but as they want not ways
of converse amongst themselves, we have reason to think that conversation betwixt,
them and the Saints shall not be for ever blocked up. -
3. They shall have society with the Lord himself in heaven, glorious communion
with God and Christ, which is the perfection of happiness. I choose to speak of
communion with God and the man Christ together; because as we derive our grace
from the Lamb, so we will derive our glory from him too, the man Christ being, if
I may be allowed the expression, the centre of the divine glory in heaven, from
whence it is diffused unto all the saints. This seems to be taught us by those scrip-
tures which express heaven's happiness by being with Christ ; Luke xxiii. 43, “This
day shalt thou be with me in paradise;” John xvii. 24, “Father, I will that those also
whom thou hast given me be with me,” and remarkable to this purpose is what fol-
lows, “that they may behold my glory;” 1 Thess. iv. 17, “So shall we ever be
with the Lord,” to wit, the Lord Christ, whom we shall meet in the air. This also
seems to be the import of those scriptures wherein God and the Lamb, the slain
Saviour, are jointly spoken of, in the point of the happiness of the saints in heaven;
Rev. vii. 17, “For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes;” chap. xxi. 3, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them,” to wit, as in a tabernacle, (so the word signifies,) that
is, in the flesh of Christ, (compare John i. 14.) and verse 22, “The Lord God Al-
mighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it.” Here lies the chief happiness of the
saints in heaven ; that without which they could never be happy, though lodged in
that glorious place, and blessed with the society of angels there. What I will ven-
ture to say of it shall be comprised in three things. w
(1.) The saints in heaven shall have the glorious presence of God, and of the
Lamb. , “God himself shall be with them,” Rev. xxi. 3. And “they shall ever
be with the Lord.” God is everywhere present, in respect of his essence ; the
saints militant have his special gracious presence : but in heaven they have his
glorious presence. . There they are brought near to the throne of the great King,
and stand before him, where he shows his inconceivable glory. There they have the
tabernacle of God, on which the cloud of glory rests, the all-glorious human nature
of Christ, wherein the fulness of the Godhead dwells, not vailed as in the days of
his humiliation, but shining through that blessed flesh, that all the saints may
behold his glory, and making that body more glorious than a thousand suns: so
that the city has no need of the sun, nor of the moon, but “the glory of God doth
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof,” properly, the candle thereof, Rev.
xxi. 23; that is, The Lamb is the luminary, or luminous body, which gives
light to the city; as the Sun and moon now give light to the world, or as a candle
lightens a dark room ; and the light proceeding from that glorious luminary, for
the city, is the glory of God. Sometime that candle burned very dim : it was hid
under a bushel, in the time of his humiliation ; but that, now and then, it darted
out some rays of this light, which dazzled the eyes of the spectators: but now it is
set on high, in the city of God, where it shines, and shall shine for ever, in perfec-
tion of glory. It was sometimes laid aside, as “a stone disallowed of the builders:”
204 FOUR FOLD STATE.
but now it is, and for ever will be, the light or luminary of that city; and that
“like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal,”
verse ll.
Who can conceive the happiness of the saints, in the presence-chamber of the
great King, where he sits in his chair of state, making his glory eminently to appear
in the man Christ 2 His gracious presence makes a mighty change upon the saints
in this world : his glorious presence in heaven, then, must needs screw up their
graces to their perfection, and elevate their capacities. The saints do experience
that the presence of God now with them in his grace can make a little heaven of a
sort of hell: how great then must the glory of heaven be, by his presence there in
his glory ! If a candle, in some sort, beautifies a cottage or a prison, how will the
shining Sun beautify a palace or paradise ! The gracious presence of God made a
wilderness lightsome to Moses, the valley of the shadow of death to David, a fiery
furnace to the three children: what a ravishing beauty shall then arise from the
Sun of Righteousness, shining in his meridian brightness on the street of the city
laid with pure gold! This glorious presence of God in heaven will put a glory on
the saints themselves. The pleasantest garden hath no beauty when the darkness
of the night sits down on it, but the shining sun puts a glory on the blackest moun-
tains; so those who are now as bottles in the smoke, when set in the glorious pre-
sence of God, will be glorious both in soul and body.
(2.) The saints in heaven shall have the full enjoyment of God and of the Lamb.
This is it that perfectly satisfies the rational creature ; and here is the saints' ever-
lasting rest. This will make up all their wants, and fill the desires of their souls,
which, after all here obtained, still cry, “Give, give,” not without some anxiety;
because, though they do enjoy God, yet they do not enjoy him fully. As to the
way and manner of this enjoyment, our Lord tells us, John xvii. 3, “This is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
has sent.” Now, there are two ways how a desirable object is known most perfectly
and satisfyingly ; the one is by sight, the other by experience : sight satisfies the
understanding, and experience satisfies the will. Accordingly, one may say, that
the saints enjoy God and the Lamb in heaven, i. By an intuitive knowledge. ii.
By an experimental knowledge ; both of them perfect, I mean in respect of the ca-
pacity of the creature ; for otherwise a creature's perfect knowledge of an infinite
Being is impossible. The saints below enjoy God in that knowledge they have of
him, by report, from his holy word, which they believe : they see him likewise
darkly in the glass of ordinances, which do, as it were, represent the bridegroom's
picture or shadow, while he is absent: they have also some experimental knowledge
of him ; they “taste that God is good,” and “that the Lord is gracious.” But the
saints above shall not need a good report of the King, they shall see himself; there-
fore faith ceaseth : they will behold his own face; therefore ordinances are no
more: there is no need of a glass: they shall drink, and drink abundantly of that
whereof they have tasted ; and so hope ceaseth, for they are at the utmost bounds
of their desires.
i. The Saints in heaven shall enjoy God and the Lamb by sight, and that in a
most perfect manner; 1 Cor. xiii. 12, “For now we see through a glass darkly;
but then face to face.” Here our sight is but mediate, as by a glass, in which we
see not things themselves, but the images of things; but there we shall have an
immediate view of God and the Lamb. Here our knowledge is but obscure ; there
it shall be clear, without the least mixture of darkness. The Lord doth now con-
verse with his saints through the lattices of ordinances; but then shall they be in the
presence-chamber with him. There is a wail now on the glorious face, as to us:
but when we come to the upper house, that wail, through which some rays of
beauty are now darted, will be found entirely taken off; and then shall glorious
excellencies and perfections not seen in him by mortals be clearly discovered, for
we shall “see his face,” Rev. xxii. 4. The phrase seems to be borrowed from the
honour put on some in the courts of monarchs, to be attendants on the king's per-
son. . We read, Jer, lii. 25, of “seven men of them that were " (Heb. Seers of the
king's face, that is, as we read it) “near the king's person.” O unspeakable
glory ! The great King keeps his court in heaven ; and the saints shall all be his
FOUR FOLD STATE, 205
courtiers; ever near the King's person, seeing his face. “The throne of God and
of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his
face,” Rev. xxii. 3, 4.
(i.) They shall see Jesus Christ with their bodily eyes, since he will never lay
aside the human nature. They will always behold that glorious blessed body
which is personally united to the divine nature, and exalted “far above principal-
ities and powers, and every name that is named.” There will we see with our eyes
that very body which was born of Mary at Bethlehem, and crucified at Jerusalem
betwixt two thieves ; the blessed head that was crowned with thorns; the face that
was spit upon ; the hands and feet that were nailed to the cross; all shining with
inconceivable glory. The glory of the man Christ will attract the eyes of all the
saints, and he will be for ever “admired in all them that believe,” 2. Thess. i. 10.
Were each star in the heavens shining as the sun in its meridian brightness, and
the light of the sun so increased, as the stars, in that case, should bear the same
proportion to the sun, in point of light, that they do now ; it might possibly be
some faint resemblance of the glory of the man Christ, in comparison with that of
the saints: for though the saints shall shine forth as the sun, yet not they, but
the Lamb shall be the light of the city. The wise men fell down and worshipped
him, when they saw him a young child, with Mary his mother, in the house. But
O what a ravishing sight will it be to see him in his kingdom, on his throne, at
his Father's right hand “The Word was made flesh,” (John i. 14,) and the
glory of God shall shine through that flesh, and the joys of heaven spring out from
it unto the saints, who shall see and enjoy God in Christ. For since the union
betwixt Christ and the saints is never dissolved, but they continue his members
for ever; and the members cannot draw their life but from their head, seeing that
which is independent on the head, as to vital influence, is no member ; therefore
Jesus Christ will remain the everlasting bond of union betwixt God and the saints,
from whence their eternal life shall spring; John xvii. 2, 3, “Thou hast given him
power, over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,” &c.;
verses 22, 23, “And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they
may be one, even as we are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one.” Wherefore, the immediate enjoyment of God in heaven is to be
understood, in respect of the laying aside of word and sacraments, and such exter-
nal means as we enjoy God by in this world ; but not as if the saints should then
cast off their dependence on their head for vital influences: nay, “the Lamb, which
is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains
of water,” Rev. vii. 17.
Now, when we shall behold him who died for us, that we might live for evermore ;
whose matchless love made him swim through the red sea of God's wrath, to make
a path in the midst of it for us, by which we might pass safely to Canaan's land;
then we will see what a glorious One he is who suffered all this for us; what enter-
tainment he had in the upper house ; what hallelujahs of angels could not hinder
him to hear the groans of a perishing multitude on earth, and to come down for
their help ; and what a glory he laid aside for us. Then will we be more able to
“comprehend with all Saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,” Eph. iii. 18, 19. When
the saints shall remember that the waters of wrath he was plunged into are the
“wells of salvation,” from whence they draw all their joy; that they have got the
cup of salvation, in exchange of the cup of wrath his Father gave him to drink,
which his sinless human nature shivered at ; how will their hearts leap within them,
burn with Seraphic love, like coals of juniper, and the arch of heaven ring with
their songs of Salvation 1. The Jews, celebrating the feast of tabernacles, (which
was the most joyful of all their feasts, and lasted seven days,) went once every day
about the altar, singing hosanna, with their myrtle, palm, and willow branches in
their hands, (the two former signs of victory, the last of chastity,) in the mean-
time bending their boughs towards the altar. When the saints are presented “as a
chaste virgin to Christ;” and, as conquerors, have got their “palms in their hands,”
how joyfully will they compass the altar evermore, and sing their hosannas, or
206 FOUR FOLD STATE.
rather their hallelujahs aboutit, bending their palms towards it, acknowledging them-
selves to owe all unto the Lamb that was slain, and redeemed them with his blood!
And to this agrees what John saw, Rev. vii. 9, 10, “A great multitude stood be-
fore the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their
hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”
(ii.) They shall see God, Matt. v. 8. They will be happy in seeing the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, not with their bodily eyes, in respect of which God is in-
visible, (1 Tim. i. 17,) but with the eyes of their understanding ; being blessed
with the most perfect, full, and clear knowledge of God and divine things which the
creature is capable of. This is called the beatific vision, and is the perfection of
the understanding, the utmost term thereof. It is but an obscure delineation of
the glory of God that mortals can have on earth ; a sight, as it were, of his “back
parts,” Exod. xxxiii. 23. But there they will see his face, Rev. xxii. 4. They
shall see him in the fulness of his glory, and behold him fixedly : whereas it is but
a passing view they can have of him here, Exod. xxxiv. 6. There is a vast differ-
ence betwixt the sight of a king in his night-clothes, quickly passing by us, and
a fixed leisure view of him sitting on his throne in his royal robes, his crown on his
head, and his sceptre in his hand : such a difference will there be betwixt the great-
est manifestation of God that ever a saint had on earth, and the display of his
glory that shall be seen in heaven. There the saints shall eternally, without in-
terruption, feed their eyes upon him, and be ever viewing his glorious perfections.
And as their bodily eyes shall be strengthened, and fitted to behold the glorious
majesty of the man Christ ; as eagles gaze on the sun, without being blinded there-
by ; so their minds shall have such an elevation, as will fit them to see God in his
glory: their capacities shall be enlarged, according to the measure in which he
shall be pleased to communicate himself unto them for their complete happiness.
This blissful sight of God being quite above our present capacities, we must needs
be much in the dark about it. But it seems to be something else than the sight of
that glory which we will see with our bodily eyes, in the Saints, and in the man
Christ, or any other splendour or refulgence from the Godhead whatsoever : for no
created thing can be our chief good and happiness, nor fully satisfy our souls; and
it is plain, that these things are somewhat different from God himself. There-
fore I conceive, that the souls of the saints shall see God himself: so the scrip-
tures teach us, that we shall “see face to face, and know even as we are known,”
1 Cor. xiii. 12; and that “we shall see him as he is,” 1 John iii. 2. Howbeit the
Saints can never have an adequate conception of God ; they cannot comprehend
that which is infinite. They may touch the mountain, but cannot grasp it in their
arms. They cannot, with one glance of their eye, behold what grows on every
side : but the divine perfections will be an unbounded field, in which the glorified
shall walk eternally, seeing more and more of God, since they can never come to
the end of that which is infinite. They may bring their vessels to this ocean every
moment, and fill them with new waters. What a ravishing sight would it be, to see
all the perfections and lovely qualities that are scattered here and there among
the creatures gathered together into one . But even such a sight would be infinitely
below this blissful sight the saints will have in heaven. For they shall see God,
in whom all these perfections shall eminently appear, with infinitely more, whereof
there is no vestige to be found in the creatures. In him shall they see everything
desirable, and nothing but what is desirable. -
Then shall they be perfectly satisfied as to the love of God towards them, which
they are now ready to question on every turn. They will be no more set to per-
suade themselves of it by marks, signs, and testimonies; they will have an intui-
tive knowledge of it. They shall, with the profoundest reverence be it spoken,
look into the heart of God, and there see the love he bore to them from all eternity,
and the love and good-will he will bear to them for evermore. The glorified shall
have a most clear and distinct understanding of divine truths, for “in his light we
shall see light,” Psal. xxxvi. 9, . The light of glory will be a complete commentary
on the Bible, and loose all the hard and knotty questions in divinity. There is
no joy on earth comparable to that which ariseth from the discovery of truth ; no
FOUR FOI,D STATE. 207
discovery of truth comparable to the discovery of scripture-truth, made by the Spirit
of the Lord unto the soul. “I rejoice at thy word,” says the Psalmist, “as one
that findeth great spoil,” Psal. cxix. 162. Yet it is but an imperfect discovery we
have of it while here. How ravishing then will it be, to see the opening of the
whole treasure hid in that field : They shall also be let into the understanding of
the works of God. The beauty of the works of creation and providence will then
be set in a due light. Natural knowledge will be brought to perfection by the
light of glory. The web of providence, concerning the church, and all men what-
soever, will then be cut out, and laid before the eyes of the saints: and it will ap-
pear a most beautiful mixture ; so as they shall all say together, on the view of it,
“He hath done all things well.” But, in a special manner, the work of redemp-
tion shall be the eternal wonder of the saints, and they will admire and praise the
glorious contrivance for ever. Then shall they get a full view of its suitableness
to the divine perfections, and to the case of sinners; and clearly read the covenant
that passed betwixt the Father and the Son, from all etermity, touching their sal-
vation. They shall for ever wonder and praise, and praise and wonder, at the mys-
teries of wisdom and love, goodness and holiness, mercy and justice, appearing in
the glorious device. Their soul shall be eternally satisfied with the sight of God
himself, and of their election by the Father, their redemption by the Son, and ap-
plication thereof to them by the Holy Spirit.
ii. The saints in heaven shall enjoy God in Christ by experimental knowledge,
which is, when the object itself is given and possessed. This is the participation of
the divine goodness in full measure; which is the perfection of the will, and utmost
term thereof. “The Lamb shall lead them unto living fountains of waters,” Rev.
vii. 17. These are no other but God himself, “the Fountain of living waters,” who
will fully and freely communicate himself unto them. He will pour out of his good-
ness eternally into their souls; and then shall they have a most lively sensation, in
the innermost part of their souls, of all that goodness they heard of and believed to
be in him, and of what they see in him by the light of glory. This will be an everlast-
ing practical exposition of that word, which men and angels cannot sufficiently unfold,
to wit, “God himself shall be their God,” Rev. xxi. 3. God will communicate
himself unto them fully; they will no more be set to taste of the streams of divine
goodness in ordinances, as they were wont, but shall drink at the fountain-head.
They will be no more entertained with sips and drops, but “filled with all the ful-
ness of God.” And this will be the entertainment of every saint; for though, in
created things, what is given to one is withheld from another, yet an infinite good can
fully communicate itself to all, and fill all. These who are heirs of God, the great
heritage, shall then enter into a full possession of their inheritance; and the Lord will
open his treasures of goodness unto them, that their enjoyment may be full. They
shall not be stinted to any measure ; but the enjoyment shall go as far as their
enlarged capacities can reach. As a narrow vessel cannot contain the ocean, so
neither can the finite creature comprehend an infinite good: but no measure shall
be set to the enjoyment, but what ariseth from the capacity of the creature; so
that, although there be degrees of glory, yet all shall be filled, and have what they
can hold ; though some will be capable to hold more than others, there will be no
want to any of them ; all shall be fully satisfied, and perfectly blessed in the full
enjoyment of divine goodness, according to their enlarged capacities: as when
bottles of different sizes are filled, some contain more, others less, yet all of them
have what they can contain. The glorified shall have all in God, for the satisfac-
tion of all their desires. No created thing can afford satisfaction to all our desires:
clothes may warm us, but they cannot feed us; the light is comfortable, but can-
not nourish us. But in God we shall have all our desires, and we shall desire nothing
without him. . They shall be the happy ones that desire nothing but what is truly
desirable, and withal have all they desire. God will be all in all to the saints; he
will be their life, health, riches, honour, peace, and all good things. He will com-
municate himself freely to them ; the door of access to him shall never be shut
again, for one moment. They may, when they will, take of “the fruit of the tree
of life,” for they will find it on each side of the river, Rev. xxii. 2. There will
be no wail betwixt God and them, to be drawn aside ; but his fulness shall ever
208 FOUR FOLD STATE.
stand open to them. No door to knock at in heaven ; no asking to go before
receiving ; the Lord will allow his people an unrestrained familiarity with himself
there. - -
Now they are in part made partakers of the divine nature: but then they shall
perfectly partake of it; that is to say, God will communicate to them his own
image, make all his goodness not only pass before them, but pass into them, and
stamp the image of all his own perfections upon them, so far as the creature is cap-
able to receive the same ; from whence shall result a perfect likeness to him, in all
things in or about them, which completes the happiness of the creature. And this
is what the Psalmist seems to have had in view, Psal. xvii. 15, “I shall be satis-
fied, when I awake, with thy likeness;” the perfection of God’s image, following
upon the beatific vision. And so says John ; 1 John iii. 2, “We shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.” Hence, there shall be a most close and intimate
union betwixt God and the saints: God shall be in them, and they in God, in the
way of a glorious and most perfect union ; for then shall they dwell in love made
perfect. “God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in
him,” 1 John iv. 16. How will the saints knit with God, and he with them, when
he shall see nothing in them but his own image, when their love shall arrive at its
perfection, no nature but the divine nature being left in them, and all imperfec-
tion swallowed up in their glorious transformation into the likeness of God . Their
love to the Lord, being purged from the dross of self-love, shall be most pure ; so
as they will love nothing but God and in God. It shall be no more faint and lan-
guishing, but burn like coals of juniper. It will be a light without darkness, a
flaming fire without smoke. As the live coal, when all the moisture is gone out of
it, is all fire; so will the saints be all love, when they come to the full enjoyment
of God in heaven, by intuitive and experimental knowledge of him by sight, and
full participation of the divine goodness.
(3.) From this glorious presence and enjoyment shall arise an unspeakable joy,
which the saints shall be filled with. “In thy presence is fulness of joy,” Psal.
xvi. 11. The saints sometimes enjoy God in the world when, their eyes being held
that they cannot perceive it, they have not the comfort of the enjoyment; but then,
all mistakes being removed, they shall not only enjoy God, but rest in the enjoy-
ment with inexpressible joy and satisfaction. The desire of earthly things breeds
torment, and the enjoyment of them often ends in loathing. But though the
glorified saints shall ever desire more and more of God, their desires shall not be
mixed with the least anxiety, since the fulness of the Godhead stands always open
to them ; therefore “they shall hunger no more ;” they shall not have the least
uneasiness, in their eternal appetite after the hidden manna, neither shall continued
enjoyment breed loathing; they shall never think they have too much ; therefore,
it is added, “neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat,” Rev. vii. 16. The
enjoyment of God and the Lamb will be ever fresh and new to them, through the
ages of eternity; for they shall drink of “living fountains of waters,” where new
waters are continually springing up in abundance, ver, 17. They shall eat of the
tree of life, which, for variety, affords “twelve manner of fruits,” and these always
new and fresh, for it yields “every month,” Rev. xxii. 2. Their joy shall be pure
and unmixed, without any dregs of sorrow; not slight and momentary, but solid and
everlasting, without interruption. They will “enter into joy;” Matt. xxv. 21,
“Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” The expression is somewhat unusual, and
brings me in mind of that word of our suffering Redeemer, Mark xiv. 34, “My
soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.” His soul was beset with sorrows, as the
word there used will bear: the floods of sorrow went round about him, encompass-
ing him on every hand: whithersoever he turned his eyes, sorrow was before him ;
it sprang in upon him from heaven, earth, and hell, all at once: thus was he entered
into sorrow, and therefore saith, Psal. lxix. 2, “I am come into deep waters,
where the floods overflow me.” Now wherefore all this, but that his own might
enter into joy ? Joy sometimes enters into us now, with much ado to get access,
while we are encompassed with sorrows : but then joy shall not only enter into us,
but we shall enter into it, and swim for ever in an ocean of joy; where we shall see
nothing but joy, whithersoever we turn our eyes. The presence and enjoyment of
;
FOURFOLD STATE. 209
God and the Lamb will satisfy us with pleasures for evermore ; and the glory of
our souls and bodies, arising from thence, will afford us everlasting delight. The
spirit of heaviness, how closely soever it cleaves to any of the Saints now, shall drop
off then : their weeping shall be turned into songs of joy, and bottles of tears shall
issue in rivers of pleasures. Happy they who now sow in tears, which shall spring
up in joy in heaven, and bow their heads there with a weight of glory upon them.
Thus far of the society in this kingdom of the saints.
In the tenth and last place. The kingdom shall endure for ever. As every thing
in it is eternal, so the saints shall have an undoubted certainty and full assurance
of the eternal duration of the same, This is a necessary ingredient in perfect
happiness; for the least uncertainty, as to the continuance of any good with one,
is not without some fear, anxiety, and torment, and therefore is utterly incon-
sistent with perfect happiness. But the glorified shall never have fear, nor cause
of fear, of any loss; they shall be “ever with the Lord,” 1 Thess. iv. 17. They
shall all attain the full persuasion, that “nothing shall be able to separate them
from the love of God,” nor from the full enjoyment of him for ever. The inheri-
tance reserved in heaven is “incorruptible ;” it hath no principle of corruption in
itself, to make it liable to decay, but endures for evermore : it is “undefiled;” no-
thing from without can mar its beauty, nor is there any thing in itself to offend
those who enjoy it : and therefore it “fadeth not away,” but ever remains in its
native lustre and primitive beauty, 1 Pet. i. 4. Hitherto of the nature of the king-
dom of heaven.
II. Proceed we now to speak of the admission of the saints into this their king-
dom: where I shall briefly touch upon two things; First, The formal admission,
in the call unto them from the Judge to come to their kingdom ; Secondly, The
quality in which they are admitted, and introduced to it. -
First, Their admission the text shows to be by a voice from the throne; the
King calling to them, from the throne, before angels and men, to come to their
kingdom. Come and go are but short words: but they will be such as will afford
matter of thought to all mankind, through all the ages of eternity; since upon the
one depends everlasting happiness, and upon the other everlasting misery.
Now our Lord bids the worst of sinners who hear the gospel come; but the most
part will not come unto him. Some few, whose hearts are touched by his Spirit,
do embrace the call, and their souls within them say, “Behold, we come unto
thee:” they give themselves to the Lord, forsake the world and their lusts for him :
they bear his yoke, and cast it not off, no, not in the heat of the day, when the
weight of it, perhaps, makes them sweat the blood out of their bodies. Behold the
fools saith the carnal world, whither are they going 2 But stay a little, O foolish
world ! From the same mouth whence they had the call they are now following,
another call shall come which will make amends for all, “Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom.” •
The saints shall find an inexpressible sweetness in this call to come. (1.) Hereby
Jesus Christ shows his desire of their society in the upper house, that they may be
ever with him there. Thus he will open his heart unto them, as sometimes he
did to his Father concerning them, saying, “Father, I will that they be with
me where I am,” John xvii. 24. Now “the travail of his soul” stands before the
throne, not only the souls but the bodies he has redeemed ; and they must come,
for he must be completely satisfied. (2.) Hereby they are solemnly invited to the
marriage-supper of the Lamb. They were invited to the lower table, by the voice
of the servants, and the secret workings of the Spirit within them ; and they came,
and did partake of the feast of divine communications in the lower house : but Jesus
Christ in person shall invite them, before all the world, to the higher table. (3.)
By this he admits them into the mansions of glory. The keys of heaven hang at
the girdle of our royal Mediator : “all power in heaven is given to him,” (Matt.
xxviii. 18,) and none get in thither but whom he admits. When they were living
on earth with the rest of the world, he opened the everlasting doors of their hearts;
entered into them himself; and shut them again, so as sin could never re-enter; to
reign there as formerly: and now he opens heaven's doors to them, draws his doves
into the ark, and shuts them in there ; so as the law, death, and hell, can never
2 D
21 () FOUR FOLL) S'I' ATE.
get them out again. The saints in this life were still labouring to enter into that
rest: but Satan was always pulling them back, their corruptions always drawing them
down ; insomuch that they have sometimes been left to hang by a hair of a promise, if
I may be allowed the expression, not without fears of falling into the lake of fire:
but now Christ gives the word for their admission; they are brought in, and put
beyond all hazard. Lastly, thus he speaks to them, as the person introducing
them into the kingdom, into the presence-chamber of the Great King, and unto the
throne. Jesus Christ is the great secretary of heaven, whose it is to bring the
saints into the gracious presence of God, and to whom alone it belongs to bring
them into the glorious presence of God in heaven. Truly, heaven would be a strange
place to them, if Jesus was not there : but the Son will introduce his brethren
into his Father's kingdom ; they shall go in “with him to the marriage,” Matt.
xxv. 10.
Secondly, Let us consider in what quality they are introduced by him.
1. He brings them in as the blessed of his Father ; so runs the call from the
throne, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,” &c. It is Christ's Father's house they
are to come into: therefore he puts them in mind, that they are blessed of his
Father; dear to the Father as well as to himself. This is it that makes heaven
home to them ; namely, that it is Christ's Father's house, where they may be
assured of welcome, being married to the Son, and being his Father's choice for
that very end. He brings them in for his Father's sake, as well as for his own:
they are the blessed of his Father ; who, as he is the fountain of the Deity,
is also the fountain of all blessings conferred on the children of men. They are
those to whom God designed well from eternity. They were blessed in the eternal
purpose of God, being elected to everlasting life. At the opening of the book of
life, their names were found written therein ; so that bringing them to the kingdom,
he doth but bring them to what the Father from all eternity designed for them :
being saved by the Son, they are “saved according to his,” that is, the Father's, “pur-
pose,” 2 Tim. i. 9. They are those to whom the Father has spoken well. He spake
well to them in his word, which must now receive its full accomplishment. They
had his promise of the kingdom, lived and died in the faith of it; and now they
come to receive the thing promised. Unto them he has done well. A gift is often
in scripture called a blessing ; and God’s blessing is ever real, like Isaac's blessing
by which Jacob became his heir. They were all by grace justified, sanctified,
and made to persevere unto the end ; now they are raised up in glory, and being
tried, stand in the judgment: what remains, then, but that God crown his own
work of grace in them, in giving them their kingdom, in the full enjoyment of him-
self for ever ? Finally, they are those whom God hath consecrated ; the which
also is a scripture notion of blessing, 1 Cor. x. 16. God set them apart for himself,
to be kings and priests unto him ; and the Mediator introduceth them as such to
their kingdom and priesthood.
2. Christ introduced them as heirs of the kingdom to the actual possession of it:
“Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom.” They are the children of God, by re-
generation and adoption, “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-
heirs with Christ,” Rom. viii. 17. Now is the general assembly of the first-born before
the throne: their minority is overpast, and the time appointed of the Father for the
receiving of their inheritance is come. The Mediator purchased the inheritance for
them with his own blood; their rights and evidences were drawn long ago, and
registered in the Bible ; may, they had infeftment of their inheritance in the per-
son of Jesus Christ, as their proxy, when he ascended into heaven, “whither the
Forerunner is for us entered,” Heb. vi. 20. Nothing remaineth, but that they
enter into personal possession thereof, which, begun at death, is perfected at the
last day; when the Saints, in their bodies as well as their souls, go into their
kingdom. - w -
3. They are introduced to it as those it was prepared for from the foundation of
the world. The kingdom was prepared for them in the eternal purpose of God, be-
fore they, or any of them, had a being ; which shows it to be a gift of free grace to
them. It was from eternity the divine purpose that there should be such a king-
dom for the elect ; and that all impediments which might mar their access to it
FOURFOLD STATE. 2 11
should be removed out of the way; and withal, by the same eternal decree, every
one's place in it was determined and set apart, to be reserved for him, that each of
the children coming home at length into their Father's house might find his own
place awaiting him, and ready for him ; as, at Saul's table, David's place was
empty, when he was not there to occupy it himself, 1 Sam. xx. 25. And now that
the appointed time is come, they are brought in to take their several places in glory,
set apart and reserved for them till they should come at them.
Use. I shall shut up my discourse on this subject, with a word of application ;
First, To all who claim a right to this kingdom ; Secondly, To those who have
indeed a right to it ; Thirdly, To those who have not a right thereto.
First, Since it is evident there is no promiscuous admission into the kingdom of
heaven, and none do obtain it but those whose claim to it is solemnly tried by the
great Judge, and, after trial, sustained as good and valid; it is necessary that all
of us impartially try and examine whether, according to the laws of the kingdom,
contained in the holy Scriptures, we can verify and make good our claim to this
kingdom. The hopes of heaven which most men have are built on such sandy
foundations as can never abide the trial, having no ground in the word but in their
own deluded fancy: such hopes will leave those who entertain them miserably dis-
appointed at last. Wherefore, it is not only our duty, but our interest, to put the
matter to a fair trial in time. If we find we have no right to heaven indeed, we
are yet in the way; and what we have not, we may obtain : but if we find we have
a right to it, we will then have the comfort of a happy prospect into etermity; which
is the greatest comfort one is capable of in the world. If ye inquire, how ye may
know whether ye have a right to heaven, or not ; I answer, ye must know that by
the state ye are now in. If ye are yet in your natural state, ye are children of
wrath, and not children of this kingdom; for that state, to them who live and die
in it, issues in eternal misery. If you be brought into the state of grace, you have
a just claim to the state of glory; for grace will certainly issue in glory at length.
This kingdom is an inheritance which none but the children of God can justly
claim. Now, we become the children of God by regeneration, and union with
Christ his Son: “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with
Christ,” Rom. viii. 17. These then are the great points upon which one's evidences
for the state of glory do depend. And therefore I refer you to what is said on the
state of grace, for clearing you as to your right to glory.
If you be heirs of glory, the kingdom of God is within you, by virtue of your
regeneration and union with Christ. (1.) The King of heaven has the throne in
thy heart, if thou hast a right to that kingdom: Christ is in thee, and God is in
thee; and having chosen him for thy portion, thy soul has taken up its everlasting
rest in him, . gets no kindly rest but in him, as the dove until she came into
the ark. To him the soul habitually inclines, by virtue of the new nature, the
“divine nature,” which the heirs of glory are partakers of; Psal. lxxiii. 25, “Whom
have I in heaven but thee ? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside
thee.” (2.) The laws of heaven are in thy heart, if thou art an heir of heaven;
Heb. viii. 10, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.”
Thy mind is enlightened in the knowledge of the laws of the kingdom, by the Spirit
of the Lord, the instructor of all the heirs of glory: for whosoever may want in-
struction, sure an heir to a crown shall not want it. “It is written in the prophets,
And they shall all be taught of God,” John vi. 45. Therefore, though father and
mother leave them early, or be in no concern about their Christian education, and
they be soon put to work for their daily bread; yet they shall not lack teaching.
Withal thy heart is changed, and thou bearest God's image, which consists in
righteousness and true holiness, Eph. iv. 24. Thy soul is reconciled to the whole
law of God, and at war with all known sin. In vain do they pretend to the holy
kingdom who are not holy in heart and life; for “without holiness no man shall
see the Lord,” Ileb. xii. 14. If heaven is a rest, it is for spiritual labourers, and
not for loiterers. If it be an eternal triumph, they are not in the way to it who
avoid the spiritual warfare, and are in no care to subdue corruption, resist tempta-
tion, and to cut their way to it through the opposition made by the devil, the world,
and the flesh. (3.) The treasure in heaven is the chief in thy esteem and desire ;
212 FOUR FOI,D STATE.
for it is your treasure, and “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,”
Matt. vi. 21. If it is not the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen,
which thy heart is at the greatest care and concern to obtain ; if thou art driving
a trade with heaven, and thy chief business lies there ; it is a sign thy treasure is
there, for thy heart is there. But if thou art of those who wonder why so much ado
about heaven and eternal life, as if less may serve the turn ; thou art like to have
nothing to do with it at all. Carnal men value themselves most on their treasures
upon earth; with them, the things that are not seen are weighed down by the things
that are seen, and no losses do so much affect them as earthly losses: but the heirs
of the crown of glory will value themselves most on their treasures in heaven, and
will not put their private estate in the balance with their kingdom; nor will the loss
of the former go so near their hearts, as the thoughts of the loss of the latter.
Where these first-fruits of heaven are to be found, the eternal weight of glory will
surely follow after ; while the want of them must be admitted, according to the
word, to be an incontestable evidence of an heir of wrath.
Secondly, Let the heirs of the kingdom behave themselves suitably to their char-
acter and dignity. Live as having the faith and hope of this glorious kingdom: let
your conversation be in heaven, Philip. iii. 20. Let your souls delight in com-
munion with God while ye are on earth, since ye look for your happiness in com-
munion with him in heaven. Let your speech and actions Savour of heaven; and
in your manner of life, look like the country to which ye are going: that it may be
said of you, as of Gideon's brethren, Judg. viii. 18, “Each one resembled the
children of a king.” Maintain a holy contempt of the world, and of the things of
the world. Although others, whose earthly things are their best things, do set
their hearts upon them ; yet it becomes you to set your feet on them, since your
best things are above. This world is but the country through which lies your road
to Immanuel's land: therefore pass through it as pilgrims and strangers; and dip
not into the incumbrances of it, so as to retard you in your journey. It is unworthy
of one born to a palace to set his heart on a cottage to dwell there ; and of one
running for a prize of gold, to go off his way, to gather the stones of the brook:
but much more is it unworthy of an heir of the kingdom of heaven to be hid among
the stuff of this world, when he should be going on to receive his crown. The prize
set before you challengeth your utmost zeal, activity, and diligence ; and holy
courage, resolution, and magnanimity become those who are to inherit the crown.
Ye cannot come at it, without fighting your way to it, through difficulties from
without and from within; but the kingdom before you is sufficient to balance them
all, though ye should be called to “resist even unto blood.” Prefer Christ's cross
before the world's crown, and wants in the way of duty before ease and wealth in
the way of sin. Choose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,” Heb. xi. 25. In a common inn, strangers,
perhaps, fare better than the children: but here lies the difference; the children are
to pay nothing for what they have got, but the strangers get their bill, and must
pay completely for all they have had. Did we consider the wicked's after-reckoning
for all the smiles of common providence they meet with in the world, we would not
grudge them their good things here, nor take it amiss that God keeps our best things
last. Heaven will make up all the saints' losses, and all tears will be wiped away
from their eyes there. -
It is worth observing, that there is such a variety of scripture notions of heaven's
happiness as may suit every afflicted case of the saints. Are they oppressed ? The
day cometh, in which they shall have the dominion. Is their honour laid in the
dust? A throne to sit upon, a crown on their head, and a sceptre in their hand,
will raise it up again. Are they reduced to poverty ? Heaven is a treasure. If
they be forced to quit their own habitations, yet Christ's Father's house is ready
for them. Are they driven to the wilderness? There is a city prepared for them.
Are they banished from their native country? They shall inherit a better country.
If they are deprived of public ordinances, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are the temple there, whither they are going ; a temple, the doors of which none
can shut. If their life be full of bitterness, heaven is a paradise for pleasure. If
they groan under the remains of spiritual bondage, there is a glorious liberty abid-
FourFold state. 213
ing them. Do their defiled garments make them ashamed ? The day cometh in
which their robes shall be white, pure, and spotless. The battle against flesh and
blood, principalities and powers, is indeed sore; but a glorious triumph is awaiting
them. If the toil and labours of the Christian life be great, there is an everlasting
rest for them in heaven. Are they judged unworthy of society in the world? They
shall be admitted into the society of angels in heaven. Do they complain of fre-
quent interruptions of their communion with God? There they shall go no more
out, but shall see his face for evermore. If they are in darkness here, eternal light
is there. If they grapple with death, there they shall have everlasting life. And,
to sum up all in one word, “He that overcometh, shall inherit all things,” Rev.
xxi. 7. He shall have peace and plenty, profit and pleasure, every thing desirable,
full satisfaction to his most enlarged desires. Let the expectants of heaven, then,
lift up their heads with joy, gird up their loins, and so run as they may obtain;
trampling on every thing that may hinder them in the way to the kingdom. Let
them never account any duty too hard, nor any cross too heavy, nor any pains too
much, so as they may obtain the crown of glory.
Lastly, Let those who have no right to the kingdom of heaven be stirred up to
seek it with all diligence. Now is the time wherein the children of wrath may
become heirs of glory ; and when the way to everlasting happiness is opened, it is
no time to sit still and loiter. Raise up your hearts towards the glory that is to be
revealed; and do not always lie along on this perishing earth. What can all your
worldly enjoyments avail you, while you have no solid ground to expect heaven
after this life is gone? Those riches and honours, profits and pleasures, that must
be buried with us, and cannot accompany us into another world, are but a wretched
portion, and will leave men comfortless at long-run. Ah! why are men so fond,
in their lifetime, to receive their good things? Why are they not rather in care
to secure an interest in the kingdom of heaven which would never be taken from
them, but afford them a portion, to make them happy through the ages of eternity?
If you desire honour, there you may have the highest honour, which will last when
the world's honours are laid in the dust; if riches, heaven will yield you a treasure,
even pleasures for evermore. O be not despisers of the pleasant land, neither judge
yourselves unworthy of eternal life: but marry the heir, and heaven shall be your
dowry; close with Christ, as he is offered to you in the gospel, and ye shall inherit
all things. Walk in the way of holiness, and it will lead you to the kingdom.
Fight against sin and Satan, and ye shall receive the crown. Forsake the world,
and the doors of heaven will be open to receive you.
H E A D V I.
H E L L.
MATTHEW xxv. 41.
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
WERE there no other place of eternal lodging but heaven, I should here have closed
my discourse of man's eternal state; but seeing, in the other world, there is a prison
for the wicked, as well as a palace for the saints, we must also inquire into that
state of everlasting misery; the which the worst of men may well bear with, with-
out crying, “Art thou come to torment us before the time 2" since there is yet
access to flee from the Wrath to come, and all that can be said of it comes short of
what the damned will feel; for “who knoweth the power of God's anger?”
214 FOUR FOLD STATE,
The last thing our Lord did before he left the earth was, “He lift up his hands,
and blessed” his disciples, Luke xxiv. 50, 51. But the last thing he will do before
he leave the throne is to curse and condemn his enemies; as we learn from the
text, which contains the dreadful sentence wherein the everlasting misery of the
wicked is wrapt up. In which three things may be taken notice of First, the
quality of the condemned, “Ye cursed.” The Judge finds the curse of the law
upon them, as transgressors, and sends them away with it, from his presence, into
hell, there to be fully execute upon them. 2dly, The punishment which they are
adjudged to ; and to which they were always bound over, by virtue of the curse.
And it is twofold: the punishment of loss, in separation from God and Christ;
“Depart from me:” and the punishment of sense, in most exquisite and extreme
torments; “Depart from me into fire.” 3dly, The aggravations of their torments.
(1.) They are ready for them, they are not to expect a moment's respite. The
fire is “prepared,” and ready to catch hold of those who are thrown into it. (2.)
They will have the society of devils in their torments, being shut up with them in
hell. They must depart into the same fire prepared for Beelzebub, the prince of
devils, and his angels, namely, other reprobate angels who fell with him, and be-
came devils. It is said to be “prepared for” them ; because they sinned, and were
condemned to hell, before man sinned. This speaks further terror to the damned,
that they must go into the same torments, and place of torment, with the devil and
his angels. They hearkened to his temptations, and they must partake in his tor-
ments; his works they would do, and they must receive the wages, which is death.
In this life they joined with devils, in enmity against God, and Christ, and the way
of holiness; and in the other, they must lodge with them. Thus all the goats shall
be shut up together; for that name is common to devils and wicked men in scrip-
ture ; Lev. xvii. 7, where the word rendered, devils, properly signifies, hairy ones,
or goats; in the shape of which creatures, devils delighted much to appear to their
worshippers, (3.) The last aggravation of their torment is the eternal duration
thereof: they must “depart into everlasting fire.” This is it that puts the cope-
stone upon their misery, namely, that it shall never have an end.
DoCTRINE,--The wicked shall be shut up under the curse of God, in everlasting
misery, with the devils in hell.
After having evinced, that there shall be a resurrection of the body, and a gen-
eral judgment, I think it not needful to insist to prove the truth of future punish-
ments. The same conscience there is in men of a future judgment bears witness
also of the truth of future punishments. And that the punishment of the damned
shall not be annihilation, or a reducing them to nothing, will be clear in the pro-
gress of our discourse. In treating of this awful subject, I shall inquire into these
four things. First, The curse under which the damned shall be shut up. Secondly,
Their misery under that curse. Thirdly, Their society with devils in this miser-
able state. Fourthly, The eternity of the whole.
I. As to the curse under which the damned shall be shut up in hell; it is the
terrible sentence of the law, by which they are bound over to the wrath of God, as
transgressors. This curse does not first seize them, when, standing before the
tribunal, they receive their sentence; but they were born under it, they led their
life under it in this world, they died under it, rose with it out of their graves; and
the Judge, finding it upon them, sends them away with it into the pit, where it
shall lie on them through all the ages of eternity. By nature all men are under
the curse ; but it is removed from the elect, by virtue of their union with Christ.
It abides on the rest of sinful mankind, and by it they are devoted to destruction,
separated to evil, as one may describe the curse from Deut. xxix. 21, “And the
Lord shall separate him unto evil.” Thus shall the damned, for ever, be persons
devoted to destruction; separate and set apart from the rest of mankind, unto evil,
as “vessels of wrath ;” set up for marks to the arrows of divine wrath; and made
the common receptacle and shore of vengeance.
This curse hath its first-fruits on earth, which are a pledge of the whole lump
that is to follow. And hence it is, that, as temporal and eternal benefits are bound
FOURFOLD STATE. 215
up together under the same expressions in the promise to the Lord's people, as Isa.
xxxv. 10, “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion,” &c.,
relating both to the return from Babylon, and to the Saints going to their eternal
rest in heaven; even so temporal and eternal miseries on the enemies of God are
sometimes wrapt up under one and the same expression in the threatening, as Isa.
xxx. 33, “For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared: he hath
made it deep and large ; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the
Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.” Which relates both to the
temporal and eternal destruction of the Assyrians, who fell by the hand of the
angel before Jerusalem. See also Isa. lxvi. 24. What is that judicial blindness to
which many are given up, “in whom the god of this world hath blinded their
eyes,” (2 Cor. iv. 4,) but the first-fruits of hell and of the curse ? Their sun is going
down at noon-day: their darkness is increasing, as if it would not stop till it issue
in utter darkness. Many a lash, in the dark, doth conscience give the wicked,
which the world doth not hear of, and what is that, but that the never-dying worm
has already begun to gnaw them 2 And there is not one of these but they may call
it Joseph, for “the Lord shall add another ;” or rather Gad, for “a troop cometh.”
These drops of wrath are terrible forebodings of the full shower which is to follow.
Sometimes they are given up to their vile affections, that they have no more com-
mand over them, Rom. i. 26. So their lusts grow up more and more towards per-
fection, if I may so speak. As in heaven grace comes to its perfection, so in hell
sin arrives at its highest pitch ; and as sin is thus advancing upon the man, he is
the nearer and the liker to hell. There are three things that have a fearful aspect
here. First, When every thing that might do good to men's souls is blasted to them;
so that their “blessings are cursed,” (Mal. ii. 2,) sermons, prayers, admonitions,
and reproofs, which are powerful towards others, are quite inefficacious to them.
2dly, When men go on sinning still in the face of plain rebukes from the Lord in
ordinances and providences. God meets them with rods in the way of their sin, as
it were striking them back; yet they rush forward. What can be more like hell,
where the Lord is always Smiting, and the damned always sinning against him 2
Lastly, When every thing in one's lot is turned into fuel to one's lusts. Thus ad-
versity and prosperity, poverty and wealth, the want of ordinances, and the enjoy-
ment of them, do all but nourish the corruptions of many. Their vicious stomaclis
corrupt whatsoever they receive, and all does but increase noxious humours.
But the full harvest follows in that misery which they shall for ever lie under in
hell ; that wrath, which, by virtue of the curse, shall come upon them to the utter-
most ; the which is the curse fully executed. This black cloud opens upon them,
and the terrible thunder-bolt strikes them, by that dreadful voice from the throne,
“Depart from me, ye cursed,” &c. Which will give the whole wicked world a
dismal view of what is in the bosom of the curse. It is, (1.) A voice of extreme
indignation and wrath, a furious rebuke from “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” His
looks will be most terrible to them; his eyes will cast flames of fire on them; and
his words will pierce their hearts, like envenomed arrows. When he will thus speak
them out of his presence for ever, and by his word chase them away from before
the throne, they will see how keenly wrath burns in his heart against them for their
sins. (2.) It is a voice of extreme disdain and contempt from the Lord. Time
was when they were pitied, besought to pity themselves and to be the Lord's, but
they despised him, they would have none of him ; but now shall they be buried out
of his sight, under everlasting contempt. (3.) It is a voice of extreme hatred.
Hereby the Lord shuts them out of his bowels of love and mercy: “Depart, ye
cursed,” q. d.' I cannot endure to look at you: there is not one purpose of good
to you in my heart; nor shall ye ever hear one word more of hope from me. (4)
It is a voice of eternal rejection from the Lord. He commands them to be gone,
and so casts them off for ever. Thus the doors of heaven are shut against them:
the gulf is fixed between them and it, and they are driven to the pit. Now should
they cry with all possible earnestness, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” they will hear
nothing, but, Depart, “depart, ye cursed.” Thus shall the damned be shut up
under the curse.
Use. First, Let all those who, being yet in their natural state, are under the
216 FOUR FOLD STATE.
curse, consider this, and flee to Jesus Christ betimes, that they may be delivered
from it. How can ye sleep in that state, being wrapt up in the curse ? Jesus Christ
is now saying unto you, Come, ye cursed, I will take the curse from off you,
and give you the blessing. The waters of the sanctuary are now running, to heal
the cursed ground: take heed to improve them for that end to your own souls;
and fear it as hell, to get no spiritual advantage thereby. Remember that “the
miry places,” (which are neither sea nor dry land, a fit emblem of hypocrites,)
“and the marshes,” (that neither breed fishes, nor bear trees, but the waters of
the sanctuary leave them, as they find them, in their barrenness,) “shall not be
healed,” seeing they spurn the only remedy; “they shall be given to salt,” left
under eternal barrenness, set up for monuments of the wrath of God, and concluded for
ever under the curse, Ezek. xlvii. 11. Secondly, Let all cursers consider this, whose
mouths are filled with cursing themselves and others. He who “clothes himself with
cursing” shall find the curse “come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his
bones,” (Psal. ciz. 18,) if repentance prevent it not. He shall get all his impreca-
tions against himself fully answered, in that day wherein he stands before the
tribunal of God; and shall find the killing weight of the curse of God, which he
makes light of now.
II. I proceed to speak of the misery of the damned under that curse; a misery
which the tongues of men and angels cannot sufficiently express. God always acts
like himself: no favours can be equal to his, and his wrath and terrors are without
a parallel. As the saints in heaven are advanced to the highest pitch of happiness,
so the damned in hell arrive at the height of misery. Two things here I shall
soberly inquire into ; the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense, in hell.
But since these also are such things as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, we must,
as geographers do, leave a large void for the unknown land which the day will
discover. -
First, The punishment of loss which the damned shall undergo, is separation
from the Lord, as we learn from the text: “Depart from me, ye cursed.” This
will be a stone upon their grave's mouth, as the talent of lead, Zech. v. 7, 8, that
will hold them down for ever. They shall be eternally separated from God and
Christ. Christ is the way to the Father: but the way, as to them, shall be ever-
lastingly blocked up, the bridge shall be drawn, and the great gulf fixed; so shall
they be shut up in a state of eternal separation from God the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. They will be locally separated from the man Christ, and shall never
come into the seat of the blessed, where he appears in his glory, but be cast out
into utter darkness, Matt. xxii. 13. . They cannot, indeed, be locally separated
from God; they cannot be in a place where he is not; since he is, and will be pre-
sent everywhere: “If I make my bed in hell,” says the Psalmist, “behold thou
art there,” Psal. cxxxix. 8. But they shall be miserable beyond expression, in a
relative separation from God. Though he will be present in the very centre of
their souls, if I may so express it, while they are wrapt up in fiery flames, in
utter darkness; it shall only be to feed them with the vinegar of his wrath, to
entertain them with the emanations of his revenging justice: but they shall never
taste more of his goodness and bounty, nor have the least glimpse of hope from
him. They will see his heart to be absolutely alienated from them, and that it
cannot be towards them, but that they are the party against whom “the Lord will
have indignation for ever.” They shall be deprived of the glorious presence and
enjoyment of God: they shall have no part in the beatific vision, nor see any thing in
God towards them but one wave of Wrath rolling on the back of another. This will
bring upon them overwhelming floods of sorrow for evermore. They shall never taste
of the rivers of pleasures the Saints in heaven enjoy; but shall have an everlasting
winter, and a perpetual night, because the Sun of righteousness has departed from
them, and so they are left in utter darkness. So great as heaven's happiness is, so
great will their loss be ; for they can have none of it for ever,
This separation of the wicked from God will be, (1.) An involuntary separation.
Now they depart from him; they will not come to him, though they are called, en-
treated, and obtested to come : , but then they shall be driven away from him, when
they would gladly abide with him. Although the question, “What is thy beloved
FOUR FOI,D STATE. 217
more than another beloved ?” is frequent now amongst the despisers of the gospel,
there will be no such question among all the damned crew ; for then they will see
that man's happiness is only to be found in the enjoyment of God, and that the loss
of him is a loss that can never be balanced. (2.) It will also be a total and utter
separation. Albeit the wicked are in this life separated from God, yet there is a
kind of intercourse betwixt them : he gives them many good gifts; and they give
him, at least, some good words; so that the peace is not altogether hopeless. But
then shall there be a total separation, the damned being cast into utter darkness,
where there will not be the least gleam of light or favour from the Lord : the which
will put an end unto all their fair words to him. Lastly, it shall be a final separa-
tion; they will part with him never more to meet, being shut up under everlast-
ing horror and despair. The match betwixt Jesus Christ and unbelievers, which
has so often been carried forward, and put back again, shall then be broken up for
ever; and never shall one message of favour or good-will go betwixt the parties
any more.
This punishment of loss, in a total and final separation from God, is a misery be-
yond what mortals can conceive, and which the dreadful experience of the damned
can alone sufficiently unfold. But that we may have some conception of the horror
of it, let these following things be considered.
1. God is the chief good, and therefore to be separated from him must be the
chief evil. Our native country, our relations, and our life, are good ; and therefore
to be deprived of them we reckon a great evil: and the better any thing is,
so much the greater evil is the loss of it. Wherefore, God being the chief good,
and no good comparable to him, there can be no loss so great as the loss of God.
The full enjoyment of him is the highest pinnacle of happiness the creature is
capable of arriving at: to be fully and finally separated from him must, then, be
the lowest step of misery which the rational creature can be reduced to. To be
cast off by men, by good men, by the best of men, is heavy : what must it then
be, to be rejected of God, of Goodness itself
2. God is the fountain of all goodness, from which all goodness flows unto the
creatures, and by which it is continued in them and to them. Whatsoever goodness
or perfection, natural as well as moral, is in any creature, it is from God, and de-
pends upon him, as the light is from, and depends on the sun ; for every created
being, as such, is a dependent one. Wherefore a total separation from God, where-
in all comfortable communication betwixt God and a rational creature is absolutely
blocked up, must of necessity bring along with it a total eclipse of all light of com-
fort and ease whatsoever. If there is but one window, or one open place, in a house,
and that be quite shut up ; it is evident there can be nothing but darkness in that
house. Our Lord tells us, (Matt. xix. 17,) “There is none good but one, that
is God.” Nothing good or comfortable is originally from the creature : whatever
good or comfortable thing one finds in one's self, as health of body, peace of mind;
whatever sweetness, rest, pleasure, or delight, one finds in other creatures, as in
meat, drink, arts, and sciences; all these are but some faint rays of the divine
perfections, communicated from God unto the creature, and depending on a constant
influence from him for their conservation, which failing, they would immediately
be gone ; for it is impossible that any created thing can be to us more or better
than what God makes it to be. All the rivulets of comfort we drink of, within or
without ourselves, come from God as their spring-head; the course of which to-
wards us being stopped, of necessity they must all dry up. So that when God goes,
all that is good and comfortable goes with him ; all ease and quiet of body or
mind ; Hos. ix. 12, “Wo also to them, when I depart from then.” When the
wicked are totally and finally separated from him, all that is comfortable in them,
or about them, returns to its fountain ; as the light goes away with the sun, and
darkness succeeds in the room thereof. Thus, in their separation from God, all
peace is removed far away from them, and pain in body and anguish of soul suc-
ceed to it; all joy goes, and unmixed sorrow settles in them ; all quiet and rest
separate from them, and they are filled with horror and rage ; hope flees away,
and despair seizeth them ; common operations of the Spirit, which now restrain
them, are withdrawn for ever, and sin º to its utmost height. And thus we
s
218 FOUR FOI,D STATE.
have a dismal view of the horrible spectacle of sin and misery which a creature
proves when totally separated from God, and left to itself; and one may see this
separation to be the very hell of hell. - -
Being separated from God, they are deprived of all good. The good things which
they set their hearts upon in this world are beyond their reach there. The covet-
ous man cannot enjoy his wealth there, nor the ambitious man his honours, nor the
sensual man his pleasures, no, not a drop of water to cool his tongue, Luke xvi.
24, 25. No meat nor drink there to strengthen the faint ; no sleep to refresh the
weary; and no music, nor pleasant company, to comfort and cheer up the sorrow-
ful. And as for those good things they despised in the world, they shall never
more hear of them, nor see them. No offers of Christ there, no pardon, no peace;
no wells of salvation in the pit of destruction. In one word, they shall be deprived
of whatsoever might comfort them, being totally and finally separated from God,
the fountain of all goodness. - ?
3. Man naturally desires to be happy, being withal conscious to himself that he
is not self-sufficient ; and therefore has ever a desire of something without himself
to make him happy : and the soul being, by its natural make and constitution,
capable of enjoying God, and nothing else being commensurable to its desires, it
can never have true and solid rest, till it rest in the enjoyment of God. This desire
of happiness the rational creature can never lay aside, no, not in hell. Now, while
the wicked are on earth, they seek their satisfaction in the creature; and when one
fails, they go to another: thus they put off their time in the world, deceiving their
own souls, and luring them on with vain hopes. But in the other world, all com-
fort in the creatures having failed together at once, and the shadows they are
now pursuing having all of them evanished in a moment; they shall be totally and
finally separated from God, and see they have thus lost him. So the doors of earth
and heaven both are shut against them at once. This will create them unspeak-
able anguish, while they shall live under an eternal gnawing hunger after happiness,
which they certainly know shall never be in the least measure satisfied, all doors
being closed on them. Who, then, can imagine how this separation from God shall
cut the damned to the heart How they will roar and rage under it, and how it
will sting them and gnaw them through the ages of eternity :
4. The damned shall know that some are perfectly happy in the enjoyment of
that God from whom they themselves are separate ; and this will aggravate the
sense of their loss, that they can never have any share with these happy ones. Be-
ing separated from God, they are separated from the society of the glorified saints
and angels. They may “see Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,” (Luke
xvi. 23,) but can never come into their company; being as unclean lepers, thrust
out without the camp, and excommunicated from the presence of the Lord and of
all his holy ones. It is the opinion of some, that every person in heaven or hell
shall hear and see all that passes in either state. Whatever is to be said of this,
we have ground from the word to conclude, that the damned shall have a very ex-
quisite knowledge of the happiness of the saints in heaven ; for what else can be
meant by the rich man in hell seeing Lazarus in Abraham's bosom ? One thing
is plain in this case, that their own torments will give them such notions of the
happiness of the saints, as a sick man has of health, or a prisoner has of liberty. And
as they cannot fail of reflecting on the happiness of those in heaven, more than
they can attain to contentment with their own lot; so every thought of that hap-
piness will aggravate their loss. It would be a mighty torment to a hungry man
to see others liberally feasting, while he is so chained up as he cannot have one
crumb to stay his gnawing appetite. To bring music and dancing before a man
labouring under extreme pains would but increase his anguish : how then will the
songs of the blessed, in their enjoyment of God, make the damned roar under their
separation from him -
5. They will remember that time was when they might have been made par-
takers of the blessed state of the saints, in their enjoyment of God ; and this will
aggravate their sense of the loss. All may remember, there was once a possibility
of it; that sometime they were in the world, in some corners of which the way of
salvation was laid open 9 men's view ; and may wish they had gone round the
FOUR FOLD STATE, 219
world, till they had found it out. Despisers of the gospel will remember with bit-
terness that Jesus Christ, with all his benefits, was offered to them ; that they were
exhorted, entreated, and pressed to accept, but would not ; and that they were
warned of the misery they feel, and obtested to flee from the wrath to come, but
they would not hearken. The gospel-offer slighted will make a hot hell, and the
loss of an offered heaven will be a sinking weight on the spirits of unbelievers in
the pit. Some will remember that there was a probability of their being eternally
happy; that sometime they seemed to stand fair for it, and were “not far from the
kingdom of God;” that they had once almost consented to the blessed bargain, the
pen was in their hand, as it were, to sign the marriage contract betwixt Christ and
their souls, but unhappily they dropped it, and turned back from the Lord to their
lusts again. And others will remember that they thought themselves sure of
heaven; but, being blinded with pride and self-conceit, they were above ordinances,
and beyond instruction, and would not examine their state, which was their ruin :
but then they shall in vain wish they had reputed themselves the worst of the con-
gregation in which they lived, and curse the fond conceit they had of themselves,
and that others had of them too. Thus it will sting the damned, that they might
have escaped this loss. -
6. They will see the loss to be irrecoverable ; that they must eternally lie
under it, never, never, to be repaired. Might the damned, after millions of ages
in hell, regain what they have lost, it would be some ground of hope ; but the prize
is gone, and can never be recovered. And there are two things here which will
pierce them to the heart. (1.) That they never knew the worth of it, till it was
irrecoverably lost. Should a man give away an earthen pot full of gold for a trifle,
never knowing what was in it till it was quite gone from him and past recovery ;
how would this foolish action gall him, upon the discovery of the riches in it !
Such a one's case may be a faint resemblance of the case of despisers of the gospel,
when, in hell, they lift up their eyes, and behold that to their torment which they
will not see now to their salvation. (2.) That they have lost it for loss and dung;
sold their part of heaven, and not enriched themselves with the price. They have
lost heaven for earthly profits and pleasures, and now both are gone together from
them. The drunkard's cups are gone, the covetous man's gain, the voluptuous
man's carnal delights, and the sluggard’s ease: nothing is left them to comfort
them now. The happiness they lost remains, indeed; but they can have no part
in it for ever.
Use. Sinners, be persuaded to come to God through Jesus Christ, uniting with
him through a Mediator; that ye may be preserved from this fearful separation
from him. O be afraid to live in a state of separation from God; lest that which ye
now make your choice become your eternal punishment hereafter. Do not reject
communion with God, cast not off the communion of Saints; for it will be the
misery of the damned to be driven out from that communion. Cease to build up
the wall of separation betwixt God and you, by continuing in your sinful courses:
repent, rather, in time, and so pull it down ; lest the copestone be laid upon it, and
it stand for ever between you and happiness. Tremble at the thoughts of rejection
and separation from God. By whomsoever men are rejected upon earth, they or-
dinarily find some to pity them ; but if ye be thus separated from God, ye will
find all doors shut against you. Ye will find no pity from any in heaven: neither
saints nor angels will pity them whom God has utterly cast off. None will pity
you in hell, where there is no love but loathing ; all being loathed of God, loathing
him, and loathing one another. This is a day of losses and fears. I show you a
loss ye would do well to fear in time: be afraid lest you lose God; if ye do, a long
etermity will be spent in roaring out lamentations for this loss. O horrid stupidity
Men are in a mighty care and concern to prevent worldly losses: but they are in
hazard of losing the enjoyment of God for ever and ever ; in hazard of losing
heaven, the communion of the blessed, and all good things for soul and body in
another world ; yet as careless in that matter, as if they were incapable of thought.
O ! compare this day with the day our text aims at. This day heaven is opened
to them who hitherto have rejected Christ; and yet there is room, if they will
come : but that day the doors shall be shut. Now Christ is saying unto you,
220 FOUR FOLD STATE.
Come : then he will say, “Depart;” seeing ye would not come when ye were
bidden. Now pity is shown ; the Lord pities you, his servants pity you, and tell
you that the pit is before you, and cry to you, that ye do yourselves no harm: but
then shall ye have no pity from God nor man. -
Secondly, The damned shall be punished in hell with the punishment of sense ;
they must “depart " from God “into everlasting fire.” I am not in a mind to dis-
pute what kind of fire it is which they shall depart into, and be tormented by for ever;
whether a material fire or not. Experience will more than satisfy the curiosity of
those who are disposed rather to dispute about it, than to seek how to escape it.
Neither will I meddle with that question, Where it is. It is enough, that “the
worm which never dieth,” and “the fire that is never quenched,” will be found
somewhere by impenitent sinners. But, (1) I shall evince that, whatever kind of
fire it is, it is more vehement and terrible than any fire we on earth are acquainted
with. (2.) I shall condescend on some properties of these fiery torments.
1. As to the first of these ; burning is the most terrible punishment, and brings
the most exquisite pain and torment with it. By what reward could a man be in-
duced to hold but his hand in the flame of a candle for one hour 2 All imaginable
pleasures on earth would never prevail with the most voluptuous man to venture
to lodge but one half hour in a burning fiery furnace ; nor would all the wealth in
the world prevail with the most covetous to do it: yet, on much lower terms do
most men, in effect, expose themselves to everlasting fire in hell, which is more
vehement and terrible than any fire we on earth are acquainted with ; as will appear
by the following considerations.
(1.) As, in heaven, grace being brought to its perfection, profit and pleasure do
also arrive at their height there ; so, sin being come to its height in hell, the evil
of punishment doth also arrive at its perfection there. Wherefore, as the joys in
heaven are far greater than any joys which the saints obtain on earth, so the punish-
ments of hell must be greater than any earthly torments whatsoever; not only in re-
spect of the continuance of them, but also in respect of vehemency and exquisiteness.
(2.) Why are the things of the other world represented to us in an earthly dress
in the word, but that the weakness of our capacities in such matters, which the Lord
is pleased to condescend unto, does require it; it being always supposed, that those
things of the other world are in their kind more perfect than that by which they
are represented ? When heaven is represented to us under the notion of a city,
with gates of pearl, and the streets of gold; we look not to find gold and pearls there,
which are so mightily prized on earth, but something more excellent than these
finest and most precious things in the world : when, therefore, we hear of hell-fire,
it is necessary we understand by it something more vehement, piercing, and tor-
menting, than any fire ever seen by our eyes. And here it is worth considering,
that the torments of hell are held forth under several other notions than that of
fire simply; and the reason of it is plain, namely, that hereby what of horror is
wanting in one notion of hell is supplied by another. Why is heaven's happiness
represented under the various notions of a treasure, a paradise, a feast, a rest, &c.,
but that there is not one of these things sufficient to express it ! Even so hell-tor-
ments are represented under the notion of fire which the damned are cast into. A
dreadful representation indeed yet not sufficient to express the misery of the state
of sinners in them. Wherefore we hear also of “the second death,” (Rev. xx. 6,) for
the damned in hell shall be ever dying ; of “the wine-press of the wrath of God,”
(chap. xiv. 19,) wherein they will be trodden in anger, trampled in the Lord's fury,
(Isa. lxiii. 3,) pressed, broken, and bruised, without end; “the worm that dieth
not,” (Mark ix. 44,) which shall eternally gnaw them; a “bottomless pit,” where
they will be ever sinking, Rev. xx. 3. It is not simply called a fire, but “the
lake of fire and brimstone,” (ver. 19,) “a lake of fire burning with brimstone,”
(chap. xix. 20,) than which one can imagine nothing more dreadful. Yet, because
fire gives light, and “light,” as Solomon observes, Eccles. xi. 7, “is sweet,” there
is no light there, but darkness, “utter darkness,” Matt. xxv. 30. For they must
have an everlasting night, since nothing can be there which is in any measure com-
fortable or refreshing. -
(3.) Our fire cannot affect a spirit but by way of sympathy with the body to
FOUR FOLD STATE. 221
which it is united : but hell-fire will not only pierce into the bodies, but directly
into the souls of the damned; for it is “prepared for the devil and his angels,”
those wicked spirits whom no fire on earth can hurt. Job complains heavily under
the chastisements of God’s fatherly hand, saying, “The arrows of the Almighty are
within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit,” Job vi. 4. . But how will
the spirits of the damned be pierced with the arrows of revenging justice How will
they be drunk up with the poison of the curse on these arrows! How vehement must
that fire be that pierceth directly into the soul, and makes an everlasting burning
in the spirit, the most lively and tender part of a man, wherein wounds or pain are
most intolerable !
(4.) The preparation of this fire evinceth the inexpressible vehemency and dread-
fulness of it. The text calls it “prepared fire,” yea, the prepared fire, by way of
eminency. As the three children were not cast into an ordinary fire, but a fire
prepared on a particular design, which therefore was exceeding hot, the furnace
being heated seven times more than ordinary, Dan. ii. 19, 22; so the damned
shall find in hell a prepared fire, the like to which was never prepared by human art:
it is a fire of God's own preparing, the product of infinite wisdom on a particular
design, to demonstrate the most strict and severe divine justice against sin; which
may sufficiently evidence to us the inconceivable exquisiteness thereof. God always
acts in a peculiar way becoming his own infinite greatness, whether for, or against
the creature; and therefore, as the things he hath prepared for them that love him
are great and good beyond expression or conception, so one may conclude, that the
things he hath prepared against those who hate him are great and terrible beyond
what men can either say or think of them. The pile of “Tophet is fire and much
wood,” (the coals of that fire are “coals of juniper,” a kind of wood which, set on fire,
burns most fiercely, Psal. cxx. 4,) “and the breath of the Lord, like a stream of
brimstone, doth kindle it,” Isa. xxx. 33. Fire is more or less violent, according to
the matter of it, and the breath by which it is blown ; what heart can then full
conceive the horror of “coals of juniper,” blown up with “the breath of the Lord?”
Nay, God himself will be “a consuming fire” (Deut. iv. 24) to the damned ; in-
timately present, as a devouring fire, in their souls and bodies. It is a fearful thing
to fall into a fire, or to be shut up in a fiery furnace on earth : but the terror of
these evanisheth, when one considers how “fearful it is to fall into the hands of the
living God,” which is the lot of the damned ; for “who shall dwell with the devour-
ing fire ? who shall dwell with everlasting burnings 2" Isa. xxxiii. 14.
2. ń. to the second point proposed, namely, the properties of the fiery torments
in hell,
(1.) They will be universal torments, every part of the creature being tormented
in that flame. When one is cast into a burning fiery furnace, the fire makes its
way into the very bowels, and leaves no member untouched : what part then can
have ease when the damned swim in a lake of fire burning with brimstone 2 There
will their bodies be tormented, and scorched for ever. And as they sinned, so shall
they be tormented, in all the parts thereof, that they shall have no sound side to
turn them to : for what soundness or ease can be to any part of that body which,
being separated from God, and all refreshment from him, is still in the pangs of the
second death, ever dying but never dead? But as the soul was chief in sinning,
it will be chief in suffering too; being filled brimful of the wrath of a sin-re-
venging God. The damned shall ever be under deepest impressions of God’s vin-
dictive justice against them ; and his fire will melt their souls, within them, like
wax. Who knows the power of that wrath which had such an effect on the Media-
tor, standing in the room of sinners; Psal. xxii. 14, “My heart is like wax, it is
melted in the midst of my bowels?” Their minds shall be filled with the terrible
apprehensions of God's implacable wrath; and whatever they can think upon, past,
present, or to come, will aggravate their torment and anguish. Their will shall be
crossed in all things for evermore : as their will was ever contrary to the will of
God's precepts, so God, in his dealings with them in the other world, shall have
war with their will for ever. What they would have, they shall not in the least
obtain ; but what they would not, shall be bound upon them without remedy.
Hence no pleasant affection shall ever spring up in their hearts any more : their
222 FOUR FOLD STATE.
love of complacency, joy, and delight, in any object whatsoever, shall be plucked
up by the roots: and they will be filled with hatred, fury, and rage, against God,
themselves, and their fellow-creatures, whether happy in heaven, or miserable in
hell, as they themselves are. They will be sunk in sorrow, racked with anxiety,
filled with horror, galled to the heart with fretting, and continually darted with
despair; which will make them weep, gnash their teeth, and blaspheme for ever;
Matt, xxii. 13, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into utter
darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth;” Rev. xvi. 21, “And
there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a
talent: and men blasphemed God because of the hail, for the plague thereof was
exceeding great.” Conscience will be a worm to gnaw and prey upon them : re-
morse for their sins shall seize them and torment them for ever, and they shall not be
able to shake it off, as sometimes they did; for “in hell their worm dieth not,” Mark
ix. 45, 46. Their memory will serve but to aggravate their torment, and every
new reflection will bring another pang of anguish ; Luke xvi. 25, “But Abraham
said,” (namely, to the rich man in hell,) “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime
receivedst thy good things.”
(2.) The torments in hell are manifold. Put the case, that a man were, at one
and the same time, under the violence of the gout, gravel, and whatsoever diseases
and pains have ever met together in one body; the torment of such a one would be
but light in comparison with the torments of the damned. For as, in hell, there is an
absence of all that is good and desirable, so there is the confluence of all evils there;
since all the effects of sin and of the curse take their place in it, after the last judg-
ment; Rev. xx. 14, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” There they
will find a prison they can never escape out of ; a lake of fire wherein they will be
ever swimming and burning; a pit whereof they will never find a bottom. The
worm that dieth not shall feed on them, as on bodies which are interred : the fire
that is not quenched shall devour them, as dead bodies which are burned. Their
eyes shall be kept in “blackness of darkness,” without the least comfortable gleam of
light ; their ears filled with the frightful yellings of the infernal crew. They shall
taste nothing but the vinegar of God's wrath, the dregs of the cup of his fury. The
stench of the burning lake of brimstone will be the smell there; and they shall feel
extreme pains for evermore.
(3.) They will be most exquisite and vehement torments, causing “weeping,
wailing, and gnashing of teeth,” Matt. xiii. 42, and xxii. 13. They are represented
to us under the notion of pangs in travail, which are very sharp and exquisite. So
says the rich man in hell, Luke xvi. 24, “I am tormented ” (to wit, as one in the
pangs of child-bearing) “in this flame.” Ah dreadful pangs horrible travail, in
which both soul and body are in pangs together helpless travail, hopeless and
endless! The word used for hell, Matt. v. 22, and in divers other places of the
New Testament, properly denotes the valley of Hinnom ; the name being taken
from the valley of the children of Hinnom, in which was Tophet, (2 Kings xxiii.
10,) where idolaters offered their children to Moloch. This is said to have
been a great brazen idol with arms like a man's ; the which being heated by fire
within it, the child was set in the burning arms of the idol: and, that the parent
might not hear the shrieks of the child burning to death, they beat drums in the
time of the horrible sacrifice; whence the place had the name of Tophet. Thus
the exquisiteness of the torments in hell are pointed out to us. Some have endured
grievous tortures on earth with a surprising obstinacy and undaunted courage;
but men's courage will fail them there when they find themselves fallen into the
hands of the living God, and no outgate * to be expected for ever. It is true, there
will be degrees of torment in hell. “It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon,
than for Chorazin and Bethsaida,” Matt. xi. 21, 22. But the least load of wrath
there will be insupportable ; for how can the heart of the creature endure, or his
hands be strong, when God himself is a consuming fire to him ' When the tares
are bound up in bundles for fire, there will be the bundles of covetous persons, of
drunkards, profane swearers, unclean persons, formal hypocrites, unbelievers, and
despisers of the gospel, and the like ; the several bundles being cast into hell-fire,
* i. e. means of escape.-ED.
FOUR FOLD STATE. 223
some will burn more keenly than others, according as their sins have been more
heinous than those of others: a fiercer flame will seize the bundles of the profane
than the bundles of the unsanctified moralists; the furnace will be hotter to those
who sinned against light, than to those who lived in darkness; Luke xii. 47, 48,
“That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did
according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and
did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.” But the
sentence common to them all, (Matt. xiii. 30,) “Bind them in bundles to burn them,”
speaks the great vehemency and exquisiteness of the lowest degree of torment in hell.
. (4.) They will be uninterrupted: there is no intermission there; no ease, no, not
for a moment. They “shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever,” Rev.
xx. 10. Few are so tossed in this world but sometimes they get rest ; but the
damned shall get none : they took their rest in the time appointed of God for
labour. No storms are readily seen, but there is some space between showers: but
no intermission in the storm that falls on the wicked in hell. There deep will be
calling unto deep, and the waves of wrath continually rolling over them. There the
heavens will be always black to them, and they shall have a perpetual night, but
no rest; Rev. xiv. 11, “They have no rest day nor night.”
(5.) They will be unpitied. The punishments inflicted on the greatest malefac-
tors on earth do draw forth some compassion from them who behold them in their
torments; but the damned shall have none to pity them. God will not pity them,
but “laugh at their calamity,” Prov. i. 26. The blessed company in heaven shall
rejoice in the execution of God's righteous judgment, and sing while “the smoke
riseth up for ever;” Rev. xix. 3, “And again they said, Allelujah ; and her
smoke rose up for ever and ever.” No compassion can be expected from the devil
and his angels; who delight in the ruin of the children of men, and are and will
be for ever void of pity. Neither will one pity another there, where every one is
weeping and gnashing his teeth under his own insupportable anguish and pain.
There natural affection will be extinguished : the parents will not love their chil-
dren, nor children their parents; the mother will not pity the daughter in these
flames, nor will the daughter pity the mother ; the son will show no regard to his
father there, nor the servant to his master, where every one will be roaring under
his own torment.
Lastly, To complete their misery, their torments shall be eternal; Rev. xiv. 11,
“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.” Ah! what a
frightful case is this, to be tormented in the whole body and soul; and that not
with one kind of torment, but many, all of these most exquisite ; and all this with-
out any intermission, and without pity from any | What heart can conceive those
things without horror? Nevertheless, if this most miserable case were at length to
have an end, that would afford some comfort : but the torments of the damned will
have no end ; of the which more afterwards.
Use. Learn from this, (1.) The evil of sin. It is a stream that will carry down
the sinner, till he be swallowed up in an ocean of wrath. The pleasures of sin are
bought too dear at the rate of everlasting burnings. What availed the rich man’s
purple clothing and sumptuous fare, when, in hell, he was wrapped up in purple
flames, and could not get a drop of water to cool his tongue? Alas ! that men
should indulge themselves in sin, which will be such bitterness in the end that
they should drink so greedily of the poisonous cup, and hug that serpent in
their bosom that will sting them to the heart, and gnaw out their bowels at length !
(2.) What a God he is with whom we have to do! what hatred he bears to sin, and
how severely he punisheth it ! Know the Lord to be most just, as well as most
merciful, and think not that he is such an one as you are: away with that fatal
mistake ere it be too late; Psal. 1. 21, 22, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine
eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there
be none to deliver.” The fire prepared for the devil and his angels, as dark as it
is, will serve to discover God to be a severe revenger of sin. Lastly, The absolute
necessity of fleeing to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith ; the same necessity of repen-
tance, and holiness of heart and life. The avenger of blood is pursuing thee, O
224 FOUR FOLD STATE.
sinner haste and escape to the city of refuge. Wash now in the fountain of the
Mediator's blood, that you may not perish in the lake of fire. Open thy heart to
him, lest the pit close its mouth on thee. Leave thy sins, else they will ruin thee: .
kill them, else they will be thy death for ever,
Let not the terror of hell-fire put thee upon hardening thy heart more, as it may
do if thou entertain that wicked thought, viz., “There is no hope,” Jer. ii. 25;
which perhaps is more rife among the hearers of the gospel, than many are aware
of. But there is hope for the worst of sinners who will come unto Jesus Christ.
If there are no good qualifications in thee, (as certainly, there can be none in a
natural man, none in any man, but what are received from Christ in him,) know,
that he has not suspended thy welcome on any good qualifications; do thou take
himself and his salvation, freely offered unto all to whom the gospel comes. “Who-
soever will, let him take of the water of life freely,” Rev. xxii. 17; “Him that com-
eth to me, I will in no wise cast out,” John vi. 37. It is true, thou art a sinful
creature, and canst not repent ; thou art unholy, and canst not make thyself holy;
nay, thou hast essayed to repent, to forsake sin, and to be holy, but still missed of
repentance, reformation, and holiness; and therefore, “thou saidst, There is no
hope; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.” Truly, no
marvel that the success has not answered thy expectation, since thou hast always
begun thy work amiss. But do thou, first of all, honour God, by believing the
testimony he has given of his Son, namely, that eternal life is in him : and honour
the Son of God, by believing on him, that is, embracing and falling in with the
free offer of Christ, and of his salvation from sin and from wrath, made to thee in
the gospel; trusting in him confidently for righteousness to thy justification, and
also for sanctification, seeing “of God he is made unto us both righteousness and
sanctification,” 1 Cor. i. 30. Then, if thou hast as much credit to give to the word of
God as thou wouldest allow to the word of an honest man, offering thee a gift, and
saying, Take it, and it is thine; thou mayest believe, that God is thy God, Christ
is thine, his salvation is thine, thy sins are pardoned, thou hast strength in him for
repentance and for holiness: for all these are made over to thee in the free offer of
the gospel. Believing on the Son of God, thou art justified, the curse is removed.
And while it lies upon thee, how is it possible thou shouldest bring forth the fruits
of holiness? But, the curse removed, that death which seized on thee with the
first Adam, (according to the threatening, Gen. ii. 17,) is taken away. In conse-
quence of which, thou shalt find the bands of wickedness, now holding thee fast in
impenitency, broken asunder, as the bands of that death ; so as thou wilt be able
to repent indeed from the heart: thou shalt find the Spirit of life, on whose de-
parture that death ensued, returned to thy soul; so as thenceforth thou shalt be
enabled to live unto righteousness. No man's case is so bad but it may be mended
this way in time, to be perfectly right in eternity: and no man's case is so good,
but, another way being taken, it will be marred for time and eternity too.
III. The damned shall have the society of devils in their miserable state in hell:
for they must “depart into fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” O horrible
company O frightful association | Who would choose to dwell in a palace
haunted by devils 2 To be confined to the most pleasant spot of earth, with the
devil and his infernal furies, would be a most terrible confinement. How would
men's hearts fail them, and their hair stand up, finding themselves environed with
the hellish crew, in that case ! But, ah how much more terrible must it be, to be
cast with the devils into one fire, locked up with them in one dungeon, shut up
with them in one pit ! To be closed up in a den of roaring lions, girded about
with serpents, surrounded with venomous asps, and to have the bowels eaten out
by vipers, altogether, and at once, is a comparison too low, to show the misery of
the damned, shut up in hell with the devil and his angels. They go about now as
roaring lions, seeking whom they may devour ; but then shall they be confined in
their den with their prey. They shall be filled to the brim with the wrath of God,
and receive the full torment, (Matt. viii. 29,) which they tremble in expectation of,
(James ii. 19,) being cast into the fire prepared for them. How will these lions
roar and tear ! how will these serpents hiss 1 these dragons vomit out fire | What
horrible anguish will seize the damned, finding themselves in the lake of fire, with
FOURIFOLD STATE. 225
the devil who deceived them ; drawn thither, with the silken cords of temptation,
by these wicked spirits, and bound with them “in everlasting chains under darkness!”
Rev. xx. 10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day
and night for ever and ever.”
O that men would consider this in time, renounce the devil and his lusts, and join
themselves to the Lord in faith and holiness Why should men choose that com-
pany in this world, and delight in that society they would not desire to associate
with in the other world? Those who like not the company of the saints in earth,
will get none of it in eternity: but, as godless company is their delight now, they
will afterwards get enough of it, when they have an eternity to pass in the roaring
and blaspheming society of devils and reprobates in hell. Let those who use to
invocate the devil to take them, soberly consider, that the company so often invited
will be terrible at last, when come.
IV. and Lastly, let us consider the eternity of the whole, the everlasting con-
tinuance of the miserable state of the damned in hell.
First, If I could, I should show what eternity is; I mean, the creature's
eternity. But who can measure the waters of the ocean, or who can tell you the
days, years, and ages of eternity, which are infinitely more than the drops of the
ocean? None can comprehend eternity but the eternal God. Eternity is an ocean
whereof we will never see the shore; it is a deep where we can find no bottom ; a
labyrinth from whence we cannot extricate ourselves, and where we shall ever
lose the door. There are two things one may say of it, (1.) It has a beginning.
God’s etermity has no beginning, but the creature's eternity has. Some time
there was no lake of fire ; and those who have been there for some thousands of
years were once in time, as we now are. But, (2.) It shall never have an end.
The first who entered into the eternity of wo is as far from the end of it as the
last who shall go thither will be at his entry. They who have launched out furthest
into that ocean are as far from land as they were the first moment they went into
it ; and thousands of ages after this they will be as far from it as ever. Where-
fore eternity, which is before us, is a duration that hath a beginning, but no end.
It is a beginning without a middle, a beginning without an end ; after millions of
years past in it, still it is a-beginning. God's wrath in hell will ever be “the
wrath to come.” But there is no middle in eternity. When millions of ages are
past in eternity, what is past bears no proportion to what is to come ; no, not so
much as one drop of water falling from the tip of one's finger bears to all the waters
of the ocean. There is no end of it: while God is, it shall be. It is an entry with-
out an outgate ; a continual succession of ages; a glass always running, which
shall never run out.
Observe the continual succession of hours, days, months, and years, how one still
follows upon another; and think of eternity, wherein there is a continual succession
without end. When you go out in the night, and behold the stars of heaven,
how they cannot be numbered for multitude, think of the ages of eternity; con-
sidering withal, there is a certain definite number of the stars, but no number of
the ages of eternity. When you see a running water, think how vain a thing it
would be, to sit down by it, and wait till it should run out, that you may pass
over ; look how new water still succeeds to that which passeth by you: and therein
you will have an image of eternity, which is a river that never dries up. They
who wear rings have an image of eternity on their fingers; and they who handle
the wheel have an emblem of eternity before them: for to which part soever of the
ring or wheel one looks, one will still see another part beyond it; and on whatsoever
moment of etermity you condescend, there is still another beyond it. When you
are abroad in the fields, and behold the piles of grass on the earth, which no man
ean reckon; think with yourselves, that, were as many thousands of years to come
as there are piles of grass on the ground, even those would have an end at length,
but eternity will have none. When you look to a mountain, imagine in your hearts,
how long it would be, ere that mountain should be removed, by a little bird com-
ing once every thousand years, and carrying away but one grain of the dust thereof
at once : the mountain would at length be removed that way, and brought to an
2 F
226 FourFold STATE.
end ; but eternity will never end. Suppose this with respect to all the mountains of
the earth, nay, with respect to the whole globe of the earth: the grains of dust, whereof
the whole earth is made up, are not infinite, and therefore the last grain would, at
long-run, come to be carried away, in the way supposed; but when that slowest
work would be brought to an end, eternity would be, in effect, but beginning.
These are some rude draughts of eternity; and now add misery and wo to this
eternity, what tongue can express it? what heart can conceive it? In what balance
can that misery and that wo be weighed ? . - . . .
. Secondly, Let us take a view of what is eternal in the state of the damned in
hell. Whatsoever is included in the fearful sentence determining their eternal
state is everlasting: therefore all the doleful ingredients of their miserable state
will be everlasting ; they will never end. The text expressly declares the fire into
which they must depart to be “everlasting fire.” And our Lord elsewhere tells us,
that in hell the fire shall never be quenched, (Mark ix.43,) with an eye to the
valley of Hinnom, in which, besides the already mentioned fire, for burning of the
children to Moloch, there was also another fire burning continually, to consume
the dead carcases, and filth of Jerusalem: So the scripture representing hell-fire
by the fire of that valley speaks it not only to be most exquisite, but also ever-
lasting. Seeing, then, the damned must depart, as cursed ones, into everlasting
fire, it is evident, that - • *
1. The damned themselves shall be eternal; they will have a being for ever, and
will never be substantially destroyed or annihilated. To what end is the fire eter-
nal, if those who are cast into it be not eternally in it ! It is plain, the everlasting
continuance of the fire is an aggravation of the misery of the damned: but surely,
if they be annihilated, or substantially destroyed, it is all a case * to them, whether
the fire be everlasting or not. Nay, but they “depart into everlasting fire,” to be
everlastingly punished in it; Matt. xxv. 46, “they shall go away into everlasting
punishment.” Thus the execution of the sentence is a certain discovery of the
meaning of it. The worm that dieth not, must have a subject to live in ; they
who shall have “no rest day nor night,” (Rev. xiv. 11,) but shall be “tormented day
and night for ever and ever,” (chap. xx. 10,) will certainly have a being for ever and
ever, and not be brought into a state of eternal rest in annihilation. Destroyed indeed
they shall be: but their destruction will be an “everlasting destruction;” (2 Thess. i.
9,) a destruction of their well-being, but not of their being. What is destroyed is not
therefore annihilated. “Art thou come to destroy us?” said the devil unto Jesus
Christ, Luke iv. 34. Howbeit the devils are afraid of torment, not of annihilation;
Matt. viii. 29, “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time 3’ The state of
the damned is indeed a state of death ; but such a death it is as is opposite only to a
happy life; as is clear from other notions of their state, which necessarily include
an eternal existence, of which before. As they who are dead in sin are dead to God
and holiness, yet live to sin; so dying in hell, they live, but separated from God and
his favour, in which life lies, Psal. xxx. 5. They shall ever be under the pangs of
death ; ever dying, but never dead, or absolutely void of life. How desirable
would such a death be to them but it will fly from them for ever. Could each one
kill another there, or could they, with their own hands, rend themselves into life-
less pieces, their misery would quickly be at an end : but there they must live who
chose death, and refused life; for there death lives, and the end ever begins.
2. The curse shall lie upon them eternally, as the everlasting chain to hold them
in the everlasting fire ; a chain that shall never be loosed, being fixed for ever
about them by the dreadful sentence of the eternal judgment. This chain, which
spurns the united force of devils held fast by it, is too strong to be broken by men
who, being solemnly anathematized, and devoted to destruction, can never be re-
covered to any other use. . . - - . . ;
3. Their punishment shall be eternal; Matt, xxv, 46, “These shall go away
into everlasting punishment.” They will be for ever separated from God and
Christ, and from the society of the holy angels and saints, between whom and
them an impassable gulf will be fixed; Luke xvi. 26, “Between us and you,” says
Abraham, in the parable, to the rich man in hell, “there is a great gulf fixed; so
* i. e. a matter of indifference.—ED.
FOURFOLD STATE, 227
that they which would pass from hence to you cannot ; neither can they pass to us
that would come from thence.” They shall for ever have the horrible society of
the devil and his angels. There will be no change of company for evermore in that
region of darkness. Their torment in the fire will be everlasting: they must live
for ever in it. Several authors, both ancient and modern, tell us of earth-flax or
salamander's hairs, that cloth made of it, being cast into the fire, is so far from
being burnt or consumed, that it is only made clean thereby, as other things are
by washing. But however that is, it is certain the damned shall be tormented
for ever and ever in hell-fire, and not substantially destroyed, Rev. xx. 10. And
indeed, nothing is annihilated by fire, but only dissolved. Of what nature soever
hell-fire is, no question the same God who kept the bodies of the three children
from burning in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace can also keep the bodies of the
damned from any such dissolution by hell-fire as may infer privation of life.
4. Their knowledge and sense of their misery shall be eternal, and they shall
assuredly know that it will be eternal. How desirable would it be to them to have
their senses for ever locked up, and to lose the consciousness of their own misery !
as one may rationally suppose it to fare at length with some, in the punishment of
death inflicted on them on earth ; and as it is with some mad people in their mis-
erable case: but that agrees not with the notion of “torment for ever and ever,”
nor “the worm that dieth not.” Nay, they will ever have a lively feeling of their
misery, and strongest impressions of the wrath of God against them. And that
dreadful intimation of the eternity of their punishment made to them by the Judge,
in their sentence, will fix such impressions of the eternity of their miserable state
upon their minds as they will never be able to lay aside, but will continue with
them for evermore, to complete their misery. This will fill them with everlasting
despair; a most tormenting passion, which will continually rend their hearts, as it
were, in a thousand pieces. To see floods of wrath ever coming, and never to cease;
to be ever in torment, and withal to know there shall never, never be a release, will be
the copestone put on the misery of the damned. If “hope deferred maketh the heart
sick,” (Prov. xiii. 12,) how killing will be hope rooted up, slain outright, and buried
for ever out of the creature's sight! This will fill them with hatred and rage
against God, their known irreconcileable enemy ; and under it, they will roar for
ever like wild bulls in a net, and fill the pit with blasphemies for evermore.
Thirdly, I might here show the reasonableness of the eternity of the punishment
of the damned ; but having already spoke of it in vindicating the justice of God in
his subjecting men in their natural state to eternal wrath, I only remind you of
three things. (1.) The infinite dignity of the party offended by sin requires an in-
finite punishment to be inflicted for the vindication of his honour ; since the de-
merit of sin riseth according to the dignity and excellency of the person against
whom it is committed. The party offended is the great God, the chief good: the
offender, a vile worm ; in respect of perfection infinitely distant from God, to whom
he is indebted for all that ever he had implying any good or perfection whatsoever.
This, then, requires an infinite punishment to be inflicted on the sinner ; the which,
since it cannot, in him, be infinite in value, must needs be infinite in duration, that
is to say, eternal. Sin is a kind of infinite evil, as it wrongs an infinite God ; and
the guilt and defilement thereof is never taken away, but endures for ever, unless
the Lord himself in mercy do remove it. God, who is offended, is eternal, his
being never comes to an end : the sinful soul is immortal, and the man shall live
for ever. The sinner, being “without strength” (Rom. v. 6) to expiate his guilt, can
never put away the offence ; therefore it ever remains, unless the Lord do put it
away himself, as in the elect, by his Son's blood. Wherefore, the party offended,
the offender, and the offence, ever remaining, the punishment cannot but be eter-
nal. (2.) The sinner would have continued the course of his provocations against
God for ever, without end, if God had not put a check to it by death. As long as
they were capable to act against him in this world, they did it; and therefore justly
will he act against them while he is, that is, for ever. God who judgeth the will,
intents, and inclinations of the heart, may justly do against sinners, in punishing,
as they would have done against him in sinning. Lastly, (though I put not the
stress of the matter here, yet) it is just and reasonable the damned suffer eternally,
228 FOUR FOLD STATE.
since they will sin eternally in hell, gnashing their teeth (Matt. viii. 12) under
their pain, in rage, envy, and grudge, (compare Acts vii. 54; Psal. cxii. 10; Luke
xiii. 28,) and blaspheming God there, (Rev. xvi. 21,) whither they are “driven away
in their wickedness,” Prov. xiv. 32. That the wicked be punished for their wicked-
ness, is just ; and it is nowise inconsistent with justice, that the being of the crea-
ture be continued for ever : wherefore, it is just, that the damned, continuing
wicked eternally, do suffer eternally for their wickedness. The misery under which
they sin can neither free them from the debt of obedience, nor excuse their sinning
and make it blameless. The creature, as a creature, is bound unto obedience to
his Creator, and no punishment inflicted on him can free him from it, more than
the malefactor's prison, irons, whipping, and the like, do set him at liberty to
commit anew the crimes for which he is imprisoned or whipped. Neither can the
torments of the damned excuse or make blameless their horrible sinning under them,
more than exquisite pains, inflicted upon men on earth, can excuse their murmuring,
fretting, and blaspheming against God under them ; for it is not the wrath of God,
but their own wicked nature, that is the true cause of their sinning under it; and
so the holy Jesus bore the wrath of God without so much as one unbecoming thought
of God, and far less any one unbecoming word.
Use 1. Here is a measuring reed: O that men would apply it ! First, Apply
it to your time in this world, and you will find your time to be very short. A pros-
pect of much time to come proves the ruin of many souls. Men will be reckoning
their time by years, (like that rich man, Luke xii. 19, 20,) when, it may be, there
are not many hours of it to run. But reckon as you will, laying your time to the
measuring reed of eternity, you will see your age is as nothing. What a small and
inconsiderable point is sixty, eighty, or a hundred years in respect of eternity
Compared with eternity, there is a greater disproportion, than between a hair's
breadth and the circumference of the whole earth. Why do we sleep, then, in
such a short day, while we are in hazard of losing rest through the long night of
etermity ? 2dly, Apply it to your endeavours for salvation, and they will be found
very scanty. When men are pressed to diligence in their salvation-work, they are
ready to say, “To what purpose is this waste §" Alas! if it were to be judged by
our diligence, what it is we have in view ; as to the most part of us, no man could
thereby conjecture that we have an eternity in view. If we duly considered eter-
nity, we could not but conclude, that to leave no means appointed of God unessayed,
till we get our salvation secured; to refuse rest or comfort in any thing, till we
are sheltered under the wings of the Mediator; to pursue our great interest with
the utmost vigour; to cut off lusts dear as right hands and right eyes; to set our
faces resolutely against all difficulties, and fight our way through all the opposition
made by the devil, the world, and the flesh ; are, all of them together, little enough
for eternity.
Use 2. Here is a balance of the sanctuary; by which one may understand the
lightness of what is falsely thought weighty, and the weight of some things by
many reckoned to be very light.
First, Some things seems very weighty, which, weighed in this balance, will be
found very light. (1.) Weigh the world, and all that is in it; “the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;” and the whole will be found light in the
balance of eternity. Weigh herein all worldly profits, gains, and advantages, and
you will quickly see, that a thousand worlds will not quit the cost of the eternity
of wo. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul?” Matt. xvi. 26. Weigh “the pleasures of sin, which are but for a
season,” with the fire that is everlasting, and you must account yourselves fools and
madmen, to run the hazard of the one for the other. (2.) Weigh your afflictions
in this balance, and you will find the heaviest of them very light, in respect of the
weight of eternal anguish. Impatience under affliction, especially when worldly
troubles do so imbitter men's spirits that they cannot relish the glad tidings of the
gospel, speaks great regardlessness of eternity. As a small and inconsiderable loss
will be very little at heart with him who sees himself in hazard of losing his whole
estate ; so troubles in the world will appear but light to him who has a lively view
of eternity. Such an one will stoop, and take up his cross, whatever it be, think-
FOUR FOLD STATE, 229
ing it enough to escape eternal wrath. (3.) Weigh the most difficult and uneasy
duties of religion here, and you will no more reckon the yoke of Christ unsupport-
able. . Repentance, and bitter mourning for sin, on earth, are very light in com-
parison of eternal “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth” in hell. To wrestle
with God in prayer, weeping, and making supplication for the blessing in time, is:
far easier than to lie under the curse through all eternity. Mortification of the
most beloved lust is a light thing in comparison with “the second death” in hell.
Lastly, Weigh your convictions in this balance. O ! how heavy do these lie upon
many, till they get them shaken off They are not disposed to fall in with them;
but strive to get clear of them, as of a mighty burden. But the worm of an ill
conscience will neither die nor sleep in hell, though one may now lull it asleep for a
time. And certainly it is easier to entertain the sharpest convictions in this life,
so as they may lead one to Christ, than to have them fixed for ever in the con-
science, while in hell one is totally and finally separated from him.
Secondly, But, on the other hand, (1.) Weigh sin in this balance ; and though
now it seems but a light thing to you, ye will find it a weight sufficient to turn up
an eternal weight of wrath upon you. Even idle words, vain thoughts, and unpro-
fitable actions, weighed in this balance, and considered as following the sinner into
etermity, will each of them be heavier than the sand of the sea: time idly spent
will make a weary eternity. Now is your seed time ; thoughts, words, and actions
are the seed sown ; eternity is the harvest. Though the seed now lies under the
clod, unregarded by most men, every the least grain shall spring up at length;
and the fruit will be according to the seed; Gal. vi. 8, “For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption,” that is, destruction ; “but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall, of the Spirit, reap life everlasting.” (2.) Weigh in this bal-
ance your time and opportunities of grace and Salvation, and you will find them
very weighty. Precious time, and seasons of grace, sabbaths, communions, prayers,
sermons, and the like, are by many nowadays made light of: but the day is com-
ing when one of these will be reckoned more valuable than a thousand worlds, by
those who now have the least value for them. When they are gone for ever, and
the loss cannot be retrieved, those will see the worth of them who will not now see it.
Use 3 and last. Be warned and stirred up to flee from the wrath to come. Mind
eternity, and closely ply the work of your Salvation. What are you doing, while you are
not so doing? Is heaven a fable, or hell a mere scarecrow?, Must we live eternally,
and will we be at no more pains to escape everlasting misery ? Will faint wishes
take the kingdom of heaven by force 3 And will such drowsy endeavours as most
men satisfy themselves with be accounted flying from the wrath to come? Ye who
have already fled to Christ, up and be doing : ye have begun the work; go on,
loiter not, but “work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” Phil. ii. 12.
“Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” Matt. x. 28. Re-
member, ye are not yet ascended into heaven : ye are but in your middle state.
The everlasting arms have drawn you out of the gulf of wrath ye were plunged
into in your natural state ; they are still underneath you, that ye can never fall
down into it again: nevertheless, ye have not yet got up to the top of the rock ;
the deep below you is frightful; look at it, and hasten your ascent. Ye who are
yet in your natural state, lift up your eyes, and take a view of the eternal state.
Arise, ye profane persons, ye ignorant ones, ye formal hypocrites, strangers to the
power of godliness, flee from the wrath to come. Let not the young adventure to
delay a moment longer, nor the old put off this work any more. “To-day, if ye
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;”, lest he “swear in his wrath, that ye
shall never enter into his rest.” It is no time to linger in a state of sin, as in
Sodom, when fire and brimstone are coming down on it from the Lord. Take
warning in time. They who are in hell are not troubled with such warnings; but
are enraged against themselves, for that they slighted the warning when they had it.
Consider, I pray you, (1.) How uneasy it is to lie one whole night on a soft bed,
in perfect health, when one very fain would have sleep, but cannot get it, sleep
being departed from him. How often will one in that case wish for rest How
full of tossings to and fro! But, ah! how dreadful must it then be to lie in sorrow,
wrapt up in scorching flames, through long eternity, in that place where they “have
230 FOUR FOLD STATE.
no rest day nor night !” (2.) How terrible would it be to live under violent pains of
the colic or gravel for forty or sixty years together, without any intermission Yet
that is but a very small thing in comparison of eternal separation from God, “the
worm that never dieth, and the fire that is never quenched.” (3.) Eternity is an
awful thought. O long, long, endless eternity But will not every moment, in
eternity of wo, seem a month, and every hour a year, in that most wretched and
desperate condition ? Hence “ever and ever;” as it were, a double eternity. The
sick man, in the night, tossing to and fro on his bed, says, it will never be day;
complains that his pain ever continues, never, never abates. Are those petty
time-eternities which men form to themselves in their own imaginations so very
grievous? Alas! then, how grievous, how utterly insupportable must real eternity
of wo and all manner of miseries be | Lastly, There will be space enough there
to reflect on all the ills of one's heart and life, which one cannot get time to think
of now ; and to see that all that was said of the impenitent sinner's hazard was
true, and that the half was not told. There will be space enough in eternity to
carry on delayed repentance, to rue one's follies when it is too late, and, in a state
past remedy, to speak forth the fruitless wishes: “O that I had never been born ;
that the womb had been my grave, and I had never seen the sun 1 O that I had
taken warning in time, and fled from this wrath, while the door of mercy was stand-
ing open to me ! O that I had never heard the gospel, that I had lived in some
corner of the world where a Saviour and the great salvation were not once named !”
But all in vain. What is done cannot be undone; the opportunity is lost, and can
never be retrieved ; time is gone, and cannot be recalled. Wherefore, improve
time, while you have it; and do not wilfully ruin yourselves, by stopping your ears
to the gospel call.
And now, if you would be saved from the wrath to come, and never go into this
place of torment, take no rest in your natural state; believe the sinfulness and
misery of it, and labour to get out of it quickly, flying unto Jesus Christ by faith.
Sin in you is the seed of hell; and if the guilt and reigning power of it be not re-
moved in time, they will bring you to the second death in eternity. There is no
way to get them removed, but by receiving of Christ, as he is offered in the gospel,
for justification and sanctification: and he is now offered to you with all his salva-
tion ; Rev. xxii. 12, 17, “And behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me,
to give every man according as his work shall be. And the Spirit and the bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come. And let him that is athirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Jesus Christ
is the Mediator of peace, and the fountain of holiness: he it is who delivereth us
from the wrath to come. “There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” Rom. viii. 1. And the
terrors of hell, as well as the joys of heaven, are set before you, to stir you up to a
cordial receiving of him with all his salvation; and to determine you unto the way.
of faith and holiness, in which alone you can escape the everlasting fire. May the
Lord himself make them effectual to that end
Thus far of man's eternal state ; the which, because it is eternal, admits no suc-
ceeding one for ever.
A MEMORIAL
CONCERNING
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING
AND HUMILIATION,
PRESENTED TO SAINTS AND SINNERS:
WHEREIN ALSO THE NATURE OF PERSONAL COVENANTING WITH GOD
IS OCCASIONALLY OPENED.
ZECHARIAH xii. 12.
“And the land shall mourn, every family apart—their wives apart.”
CHAPTER I.
OF PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING AND HUMILIATION
IN THE GENERAL.
RELIGIOUS fasts, kept in secret by a particular person apart by himself, and by a
particular family apart by themselves, concerning which this Memorial is presented
both to saints and sinners, are not indeed the stated and ordinary duties of all times,
to be performed daily, or at set times recurring ; such as prayer, praise, and read-
ing of the word are: but they are extraordinary duties of some times, and to be
performed occasionally, as depending entirely, in respect of the exercise of them,
on the call of providence, which is variable.
They are authorized, and enjoined us, in the word of God; and therefore, when
we shall have performed them, we must say, “we are unprofitable servants, we
have done that which was our duty to do;” and must abhor the least thought of
meriting thereby.
The particular seasons of them are determined by providence. Wherefore they
who would be practisers of them must be religious observers of providence; other-
wise God may be calling aloud for weeping and mourning, and girding with sack-
cloth, while they, not heeding it, are indulging themselves in joy and gladness, Isa.
xxii. 12, 13; a dangerous adventure ver, 14, “Surely this iniquity shall not be
purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord.”
Hence the most serious and tender among knowing Christians, will readily be
found the most frequent in these exercises. It is on the pouring out of the Spirit,
that the land is to mourn, “every family apart and their wives apart,” Zech. xii. 10,
12. Paul was a scene wherein corrupt nature showed her cursed vigour, he being,
when he was bad, very bad ; and grace, in its turn, its sacred power, he being,
when he was good, very good, and then “in fastings often,” 2 Cor. xi. 27.
These duties consist of an external and circumstantial part, and an internal and
Substantial part.
To the external and circumstantial part of them belong time, place, and absti-
IlCI1C0. •
First of all, a proper time must be set apart for these duties. And this is to be
fººd by Christian prudence, as best suits the circumstances of the person or
amily.
We find the Saints in scripture ordinarily kept their fasts by DAY. But we have
an instance of a personal fast kept by NIGHT ; 2 Sam. xii. 16, “David fasted, and
went in, and lay all NIGHT upon the earth.” This I do the rather notice, to ob-
viate the excuse of those who quite neglect this duty, under the pretence of their
not being masters of their own time. If the heart can be brought to it, one will
readily find some time or other for it, either by day or else by night. It is recorded
to the honour of one of the weaker sex, viz., Anna, that she “served God with
fastings and prayers night and day,” Luke ii. 36, 37.
As to the QUANTITY of time to be spent in personal or family fasting and humili-
ation, the duty, I judge, is to regulate it, and not it to regulate the duty. The
family fast of Esther with her maidens, observed also by all the Jews in Shushan,
lasted three days, Esth. iv. 16. We read of the fasting-day, Jer. xxxvi. 6. Some-
times, it would seem, it was but a part of a day that was spent in such exercise;
- 2 G
234 A MEMORIA], CONCERNING
as in Cornelius his personal fast, which seems to have been over before the ninth
hour, that is, before three o'clock in the afternoon ; Acts x. 30, “Four days ago
I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house,” before
which time of the fourth day, Peter, to whom Cornelius saith this, might be come ;
there being but thirty-six miles from Joppa to Cesarea, whither he came on the
second day after he set out from Joppa, verses 23, 24; compare verses 8, 9, 17.
Much about that time of the day, Daniel got the answer of his prayers, made in his
personal fast, namely, “about the time of the evening oblation,” or the ninth hour,
Dan, ix. 21. And the people being “assembled with fasting, (Neh. ix. 1,) they
read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, one-fourth part of the day, and
another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the Lord their God,” verse 3.
So they continued in the work six hours, from nine o'clock in the morning, as it
would seem, till three afternoon ; that is, from the time of the morning sacrifice
to the evening sacrifice, with which the work seems to have been closed, as, it may
be presumed, they spent the morning in private preparation for the public duty.
Wherefore I judge, that none are to be solicitous as to what quantity of time,
more or less, they spend in these exercises, so that the work of the time be done.
Nay, I very much doubt, men lay a snare for themselves in tying themselves to a
certain quantity of time in such cases. It is sufficient to resolve, that, according
to our ability, we will take as much time as the work shall be found to require.
Secondly, A proper place is also to be chosen, where the person or family may per-
form the duty without disturbance from others. Time and place are natural circum-
stances of the action; and all places are alike now, under the gospel; none more
holy than another. Men may “pray everywhere,” whether in the house, or in the
field, “lifting up holy hands,” 1 Tim. ii. 8. Only, forasmuch as family fasting is
a private duty, it requires a private place ; and personal fasting a secret duty, it
requires a secret place: according to the caution given us by our Saviour, Matt.
vi. 18, “That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in
secret,” -
Thirdly, Abstinence is included in the nature of the thing; abstinence from meat
and drink, and all bodily pleasures whatsoever, as well as ceasing from worldly
business. The Jews are taxed for “finding pleasure,” and “exacting their labours”
in the day of their fast, Isa. lviii. 3. A time of religious fasting is a time for one's
“afflicting his soul,” (verse 5,) by denying himself even those lawful comforts and
delights which he may freely use at other times; Exod. xxxiii. 4, “The people
mourned, and no man did put on him his ornaments;” Dan. ix. 3, “I set my face
unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer, and supplications, with fasting, and sack-
cloth, and ashes;” 1 Cor. vii. 5, “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with
consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.” g
The rule for abstinence from meat and drink, cannot be the same as to all ; for
fasting, not being a part of worship, but a means to dispose and fit us for extraor-
dinary worshipping, is to be used only as helping thereto ; but it is certain, that
what measure of it would be helpful to some for that end, would be a great hin-
drance to others. Wherefore weakly persons, whom total abstinence would dis-
fit and indispose for duty, are not called to fast at that rate ; in their case, that
saying takes place, Hos. vi. 6, “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice.” Yet ought
they not in that case to indulge themselves the use of meat and drink with the
same freedom as at other times; but to use a partial abstinence, altering the
*quantity or quality of them, or both, so as they may thereby “be afflicted,” as the
Scripture expresseth it, Lev. xxiii. 29. So Daniel in his mourning, (Dan. x. 3,)
“ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into his mouth.” *
Meanwhile, all these things are but the outward shell of these duties; the inter-
nal and substantial part of them lies in the following spiritual exercises.
First, Serious meditation, and consideration of our ways, Hag. i. 5. Such times
are to be set apart from conversing with the world, that we may the more solemnly
commune with our own hearts, as to the state of matters between God and us. In
them we are diligently to review our past life; “search and-try our ways,” Lam.
iii. 40. And we are to search out our sins, by a sorrowful calling to remembrance
the sins of our heart and life, and that as particularly as we can ; and to search
PERSONAIA AND FAMILY FASTING. 235
into them, by a deep consideration of the evil of them, and of their aggravations,
the light, love, mercies, and warnings, we have sinned against; tracing them up to
the sin of our nature, the impoisoned fountain from whence they have all proceeded.
And the more fully and freely we converse with ourselves upon them, we will be the
more fit to speak unto God anent them, in confession and pleading for pardon.
Secondly, Deep humiliation of soul before the Lord; the which was signified by the
sackcloth and ashes used, under the law, on such occasions. The consideration of
our ways is to be pursued, till our soul be humbled within us; our heart rent, not
with remorse for sin only, but with regret and kindly sorrow for it, as an offence to a
“gracious and merciful God,” Joel ii. 12, 13; our face filled with shame and blush-
ing before him, in the view of our spiritual nakedness, pollution, and defilement,
Ezra ix. 6; and we loathe ourselves as most vile in our own eyes, Ezek. xxxvi.
31 ; Job xl. 4. -
Thirdly, Free and open confession of sin before God, without reserve. This is a very
material part of the duty incumbent on us in religious fasting: and the due con-
sideration and deep humiliation just now mentioned, do natively issue in it ; pro-
ducing, of course, extraordinary confession of sin, an exercise most suitable on such
an occasion. Hence the Jews spent “one fourth part of the day in confessing and wor-
shipping,” Neh. ix. 3; and the angel, who brought the answer to Daniel's supplica-
tions, “about the time of the evening oblation,” found him still “praying and con-
fessing his sin,” Dam. ix. 20, 21. For here the sinner duly humbled has much ado,
acting against himself the part of an accuser, recounting before the Lord his trans-
gressions of the holy law, so far as he is able to reach them ; the part of an advo-
cate, opening up the particulars, in their nature, and aggravating circumstances;
and the part of a judge, justifying God in all the evil he has brought upon him, and
condemning himself as unworthy of the least of all his mercies, and deserving to
perish under eternal wrath. - -
Fourthly, The exercise of repentance in turning from sin unto God, both in heart
and life ; the native result of deep humiliation and sincere confession; Joel ii. 12,
“Turn ye even to me—with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” In
vain will we fast, and pretend to be humbled for our sins, and make confession of
them, if our love of sin be not turned into hatred; our liking of it into loathing ;
and our cleaving to it, into a longing to be rid of it; with full purpose to resist the
motions of it in our heart, and the outbreakings thereof in our life; and if we turn
not unto God as our rightful Lord and Master, and return to our duty again. If
we are indeed true penitents, we will turn from sin, not only because it is danger-
ous and destructive to us, but because it is offensive to God, dishonours his Son,
grieves his Spirit, transgresseth his law, and defaceth his image; and we will cast
away all our transgressions, not only as one would cast away a live coal out of his
bosom, for that it burns him, but as one would cast away a loathsome and filthy
thing, for that it defiles him.
But withal, it is to be remembered, that the true way to deal with a hard heart,
to bring it to this temper, is to believe the gospel. As ravenous fowls first fly up-
ward, and then come down on their prey ; so must we first soar aloft in believing,
and then we shall come down in deep humiliation, sincere and free confession, and
true repentance; Zech. xii. 10, “They shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and shall mourn.” Therefore the Scripture proposeth the object of faith
in the promise of grace as a motive to repentance, that by a believing application
thereof the hard heart may be moved and turned ; Joel ii. 13, “Turn unto the
Lord your God, for he is gracious.” One may otherwise toil long with it, but all
in vain. “Without faith it is impossible to please God,” Heb. xi. 6; and there-
fore impossible to reach true humiliation, right confession, and sincere repentance,
which are very pleasing to him, Jer. xxxi. 18–20. The unbelieving sinner may
be brought to roar under law-horror; but one will never be a kindly mourner, but
under gospel influences. When guilt stares one in the face, unbelief locks up the
heart, as a keen frost doth the waters; but faith in the Redeemer's blood melts it
to flow in tears of godly sorrow. Hard thoughts of God, which unbelief suggests to
a soul stung with guilt, alienate that soul more and more from him; they render
it like the worm, which, when one offers to tread upon it, presently contracts itself,
236 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
and puts itself in the best posture of defence it can : but the believing of the pro-
claimed pardon touches the heart of the rebel so, that he casts down himself at the
feet of his Sovereign, willingly yielding himself to return to his duty.
5. Solemn covenanting with God, entering into or renewing covenant with him
in express words. As a fast-day is a day to “loose the bands of wickedness,” so
it is a day for coming explicitly into the bond of the holy covenant ; Jer, 1. 4,
“Going and weeping, they shall go, and seek the Lord their God;” ver. 5,
“Saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that
shall not be forgotten.” Accordingly, this was an eminent part of their fast-day's
work, Neh, ix. 38. It follows, of course, on due humiliation, confession, and the
exercise of repentance, whereby the league with sin is broken. And it lies in a
solemn professing before the Lord, that we take hold of his covenant, believing on
the name of his Son as the Saviour of the world, and our Saviour, and that in and
through him he will be our God, and we shall be his people ; and that we are from
the heart content, and consent to take him for our portion, Lord, and Master, and
resign ourselves to him only, wholly, and for ever; Heb. viii. 10, “This is the
covenant—I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people;” Isa. xlix. 8,
“I will give thee for a covenant ;” chap. lvi. 6, “Every one that taketh hold of
my covenant;” John i. 12, “As many as received him—that believe on his name;”
Psal. xvi. 2, “O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord ;” Isa.
xliv. 5, “One shall say, I am the Lord’s.” -
6. Lastly, Extraordinary prayer, in importunate addresses and petitions unto our
covenanted God, for that which is the particular occasion of our fast. The confes-
sion and the covenanting are, both of them, to be done prayer-wise, as appears
from Dan. ix.4—15 ; Neh. ix, 6–38. But besides, there must be prayers, sup-
plications, and petitions made for what the person or family hath particularly in
view, in their fast: Psal. xxxv. 13, “When they were sick, my clothing was sack-
cloth ; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into mine own
bosom.” And, indeed, the great end and design for which such fasts are to be kept is,
that thereby the parties may be the more stirred up unto, and fitted for wrestling with
God in prayer, anent the case which they have particularly at heart. So the Nine-
vites having their threatened overthrow at heart, it was ordered, that “man and
beast” should be “covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God,” Jonah iii.
8; that is, that the men should cry in prayer for pity and sparing ; and to the end
they might be moved to the greater fervency in these their praying cries, it is pro-
vided, that they and their beasts too should be covered with sackcloth, and that
their beasts, having fodder and water withheld from them on that occasion, should
be made to cry for hunger and thirst, even to cry unto God, namely, interpreta-
tively, as the “young ravens cry unto him,” Job xxxviii. 41. At which rate, the
cries of the beasts, being mixed with the cries of men, would make the solemnity
of that extraordinary mourning very great; and the hearts of men being, every
now and then during that solemnity, pierced with the cries of the harmless brutes,
would be stirred up to a more earnest, fervent, and importunate pleading with God
for mercy. -
Thus ń. of personal and family fasting and humiliation in the general.
CHAPTER II.
OF PERSONAL FASTING AND HUMILIATION IN PARTICULAR.
FROM what is said, it appears, that a PERSONAL fast is a religious exercise, wherein
a particular person, having set apart some time from his ordinary business in the
world, spends it in some secret place by himself, in acts of devotion tending to his
humiliation and reformation, and particularly in prayer, with fasting. Concerning.
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 237
the which we shall consider, I. The divine warrant for it; II. The call to it; and,
III. Offer advice how to manage it.
SECTION I.
Of the Divine Warrant for Personal Fasting and Humiliation.
Forasmuch as will-worship is condemned by the word, and that can never be
obedience to God whereof his revealed will is not the reason and rule, it concerneth
all who would perform this duty in faith, so as to have it accepted of him, to know
who hath required it at their hands. And to set that matter in a light sufficient
to satisfy and bind it upon the conscience, as a duty owing unto God, let these few
things following be duly weighed :—
First, God requires it in his word, and that both directly and indirectly.
It is directly required; James iv. 9, “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep.” It
is plain enough from the context, these things are proposed as agreeing to particu-
lar persons in their personal capacity. See verses 8, 10. And what it is that is
required of them in these words, could not miss to be as plain to those unto whom
they were originally directed; to wit, that it is fasting and humiliation that was
intended by them. For this epistle was written to those who were Jews by nation,
“the twelve tribes scattered abroad,” chap. i. 1. And this is the very language
of the Old Testament in that case, the same manner of expression in which their
prophets called them to it; Lev. xxiii. 27, “On the tenth day of this seventh month,
there shall be a day of atonement, and ye shall afflict your souls,” to wit, with
fasting ; Isa. lviii. 5, “Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? a day for a man to
afflict his soul?” or, more agreeable to the original, “Shall a fast I will choose,
a day of men's afflicting their soul, be like this?” Joel ii. 12, “Turn ye even to
me, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” And the mourning
required in these texts differs from the weeping, as the habit and gestures of
mourners differ from their tears, Gen. xxxvii. 34; Eccles. iii. 4; directly pointing
unto the duty of fasting and humiliation.
It is also required indirectly in the word, which supposeth it to be a duty the
saints will practise, inasmuch as divine directions are given anent it. Now, it is
inconsistent with the holiness of God, to give directions for regulating of will-wor-
ship, which he doth simply condemn ; Matt. xv. 9; Col. ii. 23; Jer. vii. 31. But
our Saviour gives directions about personal fasting ; Matt. vi. 16, “When ye fast,
be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance ; for they disfigure their faces, that
they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward;”
wer. 17, “But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;”
ver. 18, “That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in
secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” And it is
evident, that these directions do concern secret and personal fasting; for, besides
that the text speaks expressly of that which is done in secret, and therefore is to be
kept secret, contrary to the practice of the hypocritical Pharisees, who made it
their business to propale” their secret devotions, the outward signs of fasting
are commended in the case of public fasts, Exod. xxxiii. 4; Jonah iii. 8 ; Joel
ii. 15–17. In like manner, the apostle Paul gives a direction about this duty;
1 Cor. vii. 5, “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time,
that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer,” where the consent men-
tioned as necessary, determines the fasting to be personal; forasmuch as, in
the case of public fasts, that matter is predetermined by a superior authority, and
in the case of family fasts, it follows, of course, on the appointment of such a fast.
Secondly, It is promised that the saints shall perform this duty; Zech. xii. 10, “I
will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit
of grace and of supplications;” ver, 12, “And the land shall mourn, every family
apart, and their wives apart.” Thus, in virtue of the grace of the covenant, this
duty is made the matter of a promise, even as other duties of holy obedience are.
* i. e. to make an exhibition of.-E.D.
238 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
Accordingly our Lord promised it, in the case of his disciples in particular ; Matt.
ix. 15, “The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and
then shall they fast,” to wit, personally ; for it was not the neglect of the public
fast appointed and stated in the law, Lev. xxiii. 27–32, that they were taxed for,
but the neglect of personal fasting, used by the disciples of John, upon the occasion
of their master, the friend of the Bridegroom, being taken from them, and also
by the Pharisees, out of their superstitious and vain-glorious disposition; Matt. ix.
14, with Luke xviii. 12.
Thirdly, It is recommended unto us by the practice of the saints mentioned in scrip-
ture. It was, as we have already seen, practised by David, a man “according to
God’s own heart,” 2 Sam. xii. 16; Psal. xxxv. 13; by Daniel, a man “greatly be-
loved,” Dan. ix. 3, and x. 2, 3 ; and by the devout centurion, Acts x. 30. It was
a frequent exercise of Paul, the laborious apostle of the Gentiles, 2 Cor. xi. 27.
These all had the seal of God’s good pleasure with their work set upon it, in the
communion with God allowed them therein. And it is our duty to “go forth by
the footsteps of the flock,” following their approved example. -
Lastly, That occasional religious fasting and humiliation is a duty required in
the word of God, and to be performed by societies in a public capacity, will not, I
presume, be questioned. Now, upon that ground the duty of personal fasting and
humiliation may be thus evinced.
1. There is nothing in the nature of religious fasting and humiliation that of itself
is public, or necessarily requiring a plurality of persons to join therein. The preach-
ing of the word, and celebration of the sacraments, do, in their own nature, require
society, and therefore are not to be used by a single person alone in his closet.
But it is not so in this case. One may keep a fast alone, as well as he may pray,
read the scriptures, and sing psalms, alone. Now, whatever ordinances God hath
appointed, and hath not tied to societies or assemblies, nor to any certain set of
men, they are the duty of every one in particular, who is capable to perform them.
2. The ground upon which the duty of fasting and humiliation is bound on socie-
ties, in a public capacity, takes place in the case of particular persons, namely, that
extraordinary duties are called for on extraordinary emergents and occasions. If,
then, a church or congregation is called to fasting and humiliation, on such occasions
in their case ; is not a particular person called to the same, on Such occasions in
his case ? If abounding sin, or judgments threatened or inflicted on a land, require
solemn public fasting and humiliation; do not the same things, in the case of a par-
ticular person, call for personal fasting and humiliation ? Surely every one ought
to keep his own vineyard, with the same diligence the public vineyard is to be kept;
if one does not so, it will be bitterness in the end, Cant. i. 6.
3. Extraordinary duties to be performed by a whole nation, church, or congrega-
tion, cannot be soon overtaken, because all great bodies are slow in their motions,
and sometimes the season may be over ere they can move thereto in a public capa-
city ; yea, and ofttimes God is calling aloud, by his providence, for national and
congregational fasting and humiliation, when the call is not heeded by them on
whom it is incumbent to appoint them. Now, what should particular persons, dis-
cerning the call of providence, do in such cases? Must they sit still, and not
answer the call as they may, because they cannot answer it as they would? $hould
they not rather keep personal and family fasts, for those causes, for which others
either cannot or will not keep public fasts? as in the case of God's pleading with the
land of Egypt, “He that feared the word of the Lord amongst the servants of
Pharaoh, made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses,” Exod. ix. 20.
When the Jews are dispersed, some of them in one country, some in another, how
shall the land mourn ? Must they wait until they be gathered together ? No: but
the land shall mourn, families apart, and particular persons apart : even as when
our neighbour's house is on fire, we do not tarry until the whole town or neighbour-
hood be gathered; but immediately fall to work ourselves, to do what lies in our
power for quenching the flames. - -
And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the divine warrant for this extra-
ordinary duty.
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING, p 239
SECTION II.
Of a providential CALL to personal Fasting and Humiliation.
THE case of the church, the case of a neighbour, and one's own private case, may
each of them separately, and much more all of them conjunctly, found a provi.
dential call to personal fasting and humiliation. The prophet Daniel kept a per-
sonal fast on the church's account, Dan. ix. 2, 3; David on his neighbour's account,
Psal. xxxv. 13, and on his own, 2 Sam. xii. 16.
Zion's children should reckon her interest theirs: and as secret personal fasting
for public causes argues a truly public spirit; so it is highly commendable, and
being rightly managed, is very acceptable in the sight of God, Dan. ix. 20, 21.
The communion of Saints is an article of our creed, and a most beneficial thing
in the practice thereof. Considered only in these two parts of it, namely, a com-
munion of burdens, (Gal. vi. 2,) and a communion of prayers, (James v. 16,) it is
one of the best cordials the travellers towards Zion have by the way. For one to
“love his neighbour as himself,” whereof secret fasting on his account is a good
evidence, “is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices,” Mark xii. 33.
And whether it do good to his neighbour or not, it will not fail, if rightly man-
aged, to return with a plentiful reward into his own bosom, according to the Psal-
mist's experience, Psal. xxxv. 13. - -
Howbeit, it is hardly to be expected, that one will be brought to the practice of
this duty on the account of others, till once he has been engaged therein upon his
own account. But surely, if professors of religion were more exercised about their
own spiritual case, this duty of personal fasting and humiliation would not be so
rare as it is. Paul, who had much of this kind of exercise, (Acts xxiv. 16,) was “in
fastings often,” 2 Cor. xi. 27; “kept under his body, and brought it into subjec-
tion,” 1 Cor. ix. 27. r
Now, any or all of these cases call for this extraordinary duty, in three kinds
of events, other circumstances agreeing, and pointing thereto in the conduct of
providence.
Either, 1, When there is any special evil actually lying upon us, the church, or
our neighbour, in whom we have a special concern; whether it be a sinful or a
penal evil. There are some sins that leave such guilt on the conscience, and such
a defilement on the heart and life, as call aloud for fasting and humiliation, in order
to a recovery from the dismal effects thereof; James iv. 8, “Cleanse your hands,
ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded;” verse 9, “Be afflicted, and
mourn, and weep.” Accordingly the Israelites gathered to Mizpeh, being sensible
of the abominable idolatries they had fallen into, “fasted that day, and said, We
have sinned against the Lord,” l Sam. vii. 6.
In like manner, when the tokens of God's high displeasure are gone out in
afflicting providences, it is time for us to roll ourselves in the dust; and so to
accommodate our spirit and way to the dispensation, humbling ourselves before
him with fasting. Thus, Nehemiah found himself called to fasting, upon informa-
tion received of the continued ruins of Jerusalem, and the affliction that the returned
captives were in, Neh. i. 3, 4 ; David, and those with him, upon the news of the
defeat of Israel, and the death of Saul and Jonathan, 2 Sam, i. 12; and the people,
upon the consideration of the slaughter which the Benjamites had made among
them, Judges xx. 26. .
Or, 2, When there is any special stroke threatened and impending. Thus the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, being in imminent danger from their enemies, were
providentially called to weeping and mourning, though they heeded it not, Isa.
xxii. 12, 13. But the Ninevites took such an alarm, and complied with the call
of providence, Jonah iii. 4—9. So did David, when God struck his child with sick-
ness, 2 Sam. xii. 15, 16. Yea, and so did even Ahaz, when he had heard Elijah's
heavy message against him and his house, 1 Kings xxi. 27. When the lion roars,
it becomes us to fear; when God's hand is lifted up, and he appears to be about
to strike, it is high time for us to strip ourselves of our ornaments, and to lie in
sackcloth and ashes.
240 t A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
Or else, 3, When there is some special mercy and favour to be desired of the
Lord ; as was the return of the Babylonish captivity, for which Daniel kept his
fast, Dan. ix. 1–3. Christians exercised unto godliness, will rarely, if ever, want
their particular suits, and special errands unto the throne of grace. The same God,
who makes some mercies fall into the lap of others, without their being at much
pains about them, will give his own children many an errand unto himself for them,
ere they obtain them, because they must have them in the way of the covenant;
whereas they come to others only in the way of common providence, in which a blast-
ing curse may come along with the mercy. -
To set this matter in a yet clearer light, we shall exemplify these general heads,
in one's own private case ; and that in several instances, to be accommodate to the
case of the Church, and of our neighbour, by those who are disposed religiously to
observe and consider the dispensations of providence. There is a variety of these
particular cases, which, with agreeing circumstances to be discerned by each one
for himself, call for personal fasting and humiliation. As,
1. When, through a long track of sinning and careless walking, the case of one's
soul is left quite in disorder and confusion; Isa. xxxii. 11, “Tremble, ye women
that are at ease: be troubled, ye careless ones: strip ye and make ye bare, and
gird sackcloth upon your loins.” Certainly the voice of God unto such is, “Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways,” Hag. i. 5. Want of consideration
ruins many. They deal with their souls as some foolish men do with their estates,
running on without consideration, till they have run themselves aground. But
those who adventure so to take a time for sinning, have need to take also a set time
for mourning : for it is not to be expected, that accounts which have been long
running on, can be cleared and adjusted with a glance of one's eye. O careless
sinner, consider how matters stand betwixt God and you. Are you in any tolerable
case for the other world, for death and eternity ? are not matters gone quite to
wreck with your soul? are you not pining away in your iniquity? is not the state
and condition of your soul like that of the sluggard’s vineyard, that “was all grown
over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof
was broken down?” Prov. xxiv. 31. O set about personal fasting and humiliation.
Ordinary pains will not serve to recover the long neglected garden: it must be
trenched, digged deep. A little may help the case, that is timely seen to : but all
this will be little enough for thine, which hath lain so long neglected.
2. When one is under convictions, entertaining some thoughts to reform. On
such an occasion was that fast kept, Neh. ix. 1, 2; and had very good effects,
ver. 38; chap. x. 1, 28, 29. This method is, in such a case, a proper means to
bring men to a point in the matter, and to fix their resolutions, otherwise ready to
prove abortive. Some have convictions, which, at times, coming and passing away,
like a stitch in one's side, set them now and then to their prayers, but never pre-
vail to bring them to a settled course of reformation of life ; their disease is too
inveterate to be so easily carried off. But were they so wise as to make these con-
victions a matter of solemn seriousness, setting some time apart on that occasion
for personal fasting and humiliation, they might, through the divine blessing, turn
to a good account for the interest of their souls.
3. When the conscience is defiled with the guilt of some atrocious sin. Doth
national guilt of that kind require national fasting ? and doth not personal guilt of
the same kind, require personal fasting ? Yea, Sure, God calls men, in that case,
to “be afflicted, and mourn, and weep,” James iv. 8, 9. Strong diseases require
strong remedies; and conscience-wasting guilt, deep humiliation; as in David's
case, Psal. li.; and Peter's, Matt. xxvi. 75. This kind of guilt, deeply wounding
and stinging the soul, defiling and wasting the conscience, may be without any
Scandalous enormities of life, appearing to the view of the world. God is witness
to secret sins, even to the sins of the heart; and men of tender consciences will be
sick at the heart with such sins as are hid from all the world, and will never move
others. - - * .
4. When one would fain get over a snare he is often caught in, and have victory
over a lust that hath often mastered him. There are not a few who have many
good things about them, yet lack one thing: and that one thing is like to part
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 241.
between heaven and them ; marring all their good things, both by way of evidence
and of efficacy, Mark x. 21. They know that it is wrong: they often resolve to
amend; and they would fain get above it : but whenever a new temptation comes,
Satan attacking them on the weak side, down go all their resolutions, like a bow-
ing high wall, whose breaking cometh Suddenly in an instant; and they are hard
and fast in the snare again. O consider, that “this kind goeth not out but by prayer
and fasting,” Matt. xvii. 21. Set, therefore, some time apart for personal fasting
and humiliation, on the account of that very thing, that you may wrestle with God
in prayer anent it, and use this method time after time, until you prevail against
it: else that one thing may ruin you ; and you will be condemned for it, not because
you could not help it, but because you would not use the means appointed of God for
relief in that case. -
5. When one is under a dead desertion: in which case the Lord is departed, the
wonted influences from heaven are withheld, but the wound not smarting by reason
of spiritual deadness, the party is not much moved therewith. This was the case
of the spouse, Cant. iii. 1, “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul
loveth : I sought him, but I found him not.” And for a recovery from it, she
made some extraordinary efforts in the way of duty, ver, 2–4. The same appears
to be the case of many, with whom some time a-day it was better than now. God
hides his face from them: their incomes from heaven are rare and scanty, in com-
parison of what they have formerly been : they are sighing and going backward.
Though they go the round of ordinary religious exercises still, yet it is long since
they had a token from the Beloved, access to or communion with God in them.
O fast and pray for a recovery, as did Israel, when, after they had been long
deserted, and very little affected with it, they began at length to lament after the
Lord, 1 Sam. vii. 2, 6. It requires much, in the way of ordinary means, to go
to the ground of such a case, wherein “by much slothfulness the building hath de-
cayed, and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.” Though
true grace can never be totally lost, yet it may be brought to such a very low pass,
that, as some scholars, for retrieving the loss sustained through long absence from
the school, must begin anew again, so some Christians, in order to their recovery,
must be carried through the several steps of conversion again ; as we may learn
from our Saviour's words to Peter, with relation to his fall, Luke xxii. 32, “I
have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not ; and when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren.”
6. When one is under a felt and smarting desertion; Isa. xlix. 14, “Zion said, the
Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” This is a more hopeful case
than the former: howbeit it goes to the quick. Prov. xviii. 14, “The spirit of a man
will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear !" There are many bit-
ter ingredients in it, which make it a sorrowful case, exquisitely painful to the soul,
like that of a woman “forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,” Isa. liv. 6.
To one thus deserted, wrath appears in the face of God, and impressed on every dis-
pensation, Psal. lxxxviii. 7, 8. To his sense and feeling, his “prayer is shut out,”
Lam. iii. 8 ; and flashes of hell come into his soul, Psal. lxxxviii. 15, 16. Under
the pressure hereof, some very grave and solid persons have not been able to con-
tain themselves; Job xxx. 28, “I went mourning without the sun : I stood up,
and I cried in the congregation.” This Smarting desertion, in greater or lesser
measure, has often been the fearful outgoing from the dead desertion, as it was in
the experience of the spouse, Cant. v. 3–7. And it is a loud call to personal fast-
ing and humiliation ; Matt. ix. 15, “When the bridegroom shall be taken from
them, then shall they fast.”
7. When one is pressed with some outward affliction, whether in his body, rela-
tions, name, substance, or otherwise. In such a case, “Job rent his mantle, and
shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,” Job i. 20; and
David’s “knees were weak through fasting,” Psal. cix. 24. A time of affliction is a
special season for fasting and prayer. The Lord often lays affliction on his people
on purpose to awaken them to their duty, and as it were to necessitate them to it ;
even as Absalom, who having in vain sent once and again for Joab, obliged him at
length to come unto him, by causing set his corn field on fire. This is the way to
- 2 H
242 . A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
get affliction sanctified, and in due time removed ; James iv. 10, “Humble your-
selves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” We ought, therefore, to
take heed that we be not of those who cry not when he bindeth them ; but that, in
this case, we do as Benhadad's servants, who, upon a signal defeat of his army, “put
sackcloth on their loins, and ropes on their heads, and went out,” as humble sup-
plicants, “to the king of Israel,” who had smote them, 1 Kings xx. 31.
8. When, by the aspect of providence, one is threatened with some such afflic-
tion. It is an ungracious hardness, not to be affected when the Lord is lifting up
his hand against us. He was a man of an excellent spirit who said, “My flesh trem-
bleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments,” Psal. cxix. 120. Though
he was an hero that feared the face of no man, he laid aside that bravery of spirit.
when he had to do with his God. Wherefore, when the Lord was threatening the
removal of a child of his by death, though the continuing of that child in life would
have been a lasting memorial of his reproach, yet the impression of the Lord's anger
on that threatening dispensation, moved him to betake himself to personal fasting
and humiliation before the Lord, for the life of that child, 2 Sam. xii. 16, 22.
9. When one would have light and direction in some particular matter of special
weight. It is much to be lamented, that men, professing the belief of a divine pro-
vidence in human affairs, should, in confidence of their own wisdom, take the weight
of their matters on themselves, without acknowledging God in them ; aiming
only to please themselves therein, and not their God; as if their fancy, conve-
niency, or advantage, and not their conscience, were concerned in their determina-
tions and resolves. Hence it is, that wise men are often left to signal blunders in
conduct, and feel marks of God’s indignation justly impressed on their rash deter-
minations. Thus Joshua and the princes of Israel, in the matter of the league
with the Gibeonites, finding no need of the exercise of their faith, but of their
wit, vainly imagining they could see well enough with their own eyes, “took of
their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord,” and were egre-
giously overreached by them, as they saw afterward, when it was too late, Josh.
ix. 14, 22.
We have a divine command and promise, extending to our temporal, as well as
to our spiritual concerns, and very suitable to the necessary dependence we have
on God in all things, as creatures on their Creator; Prov. iii. 5, “Lean not unto
thine own understanding ;” verse 6, “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths.” We ought therefore, in all our matters, to eye him as
our director; and steer our whole course as he directs by his word and providence.
Since he hath said, “I will teach thee in the way which thou shalt go : I will
guide thee with mine eye,” (Psal. xxxii. 8,) it is unquestionably our duty to “set
the Lord always before us,” Psal. xvi. 8 ; to regulate our acting, and ceasing from
action, by the divine direction, even as the Israelites in the wilderness removed
and rested, just as the pillar of cloud and fire removed or rested before them, Num.
ix. 15–23.
Sometimes, indeed, an affair may be in such a situation, as allows not an opportu-
nity of making an address unto God, for light in it, by solemn prayer: but we are
never so circumstanced, but we have access to lift up our eyes to the holy oracle,
in a devout ejaculation ; as Nehemiah did in such a situation, Neh. ii. 4, 5. And
there is a promise relative to that case, which has been often verified in the com-
fortable experience of the saints taking that method to obtain the divine direction,
Frov. iv. 12, “When thou runnest thou shalt not stumble.” But Christians should
accustom themselves to lay their matters, before the Lord, in solemn prayer, for
light and direction therein, as far as circumstances do permit. So did Abraham's
pious servant, with the affair his master had committed to him, Gen. xxiv. 12—
14. And accordingly he had a pleasurable experience of the accomplishment of
the promise relative to that case, Prov. iv. 12, “When thou goest, thy steps
shall not be straitened.” And where they are to be determined in a matter of
special weight, such as the change of their lot, the choice of an employment, some
momentous undertaking, or any the like occurrences in life, whereof serious Chris-
tians will find not a few, allowing them time and opportunity to deliberate on them;
that is a special occasion for extraordinary prayer with fasting, for light from the
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. - 243
Lord, “the Father of lights,” to discover what is their duty therein, and what he is
calling them to in the matter. So the captives returning from Babylon with Ezra
kept a fast at the river Ahava, “to seek of God a right way,” Ezra viii. 21.
10. When duty being cleared in a matter of special weight, it comes to the set-
ting to ; in which event, one needs the presence of God with him therein, the
divine blessing upon it, and success in it. Thus Esther being to go in unto the
king, to make request for her people, there was solemn fasting, on that occasion,
used by her and the Jews in Shushan, Esth. iv. 8, 16. And Barnabas and Saul
being called of God unto a special work, were not sent away to it, but after fasting
and prayer, Acts xiii. 2, 3. We need not only light from the Lord to discover
unto us our duty in particular cases; but that being obtained, we need also his pre-
sence to go along with us in the thing, that we may be enabled rightly to make
our way which he bids us go. Therefore said Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 15, “If thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” Sin hath defiled every thing
to us: and however promising any worldly state, condition, or thing whatsoever,
may appear in our eyes, yet, if we have not the presence of God in it, and his
blessing upon it, to purify it unto us, we will be mired in it, and find a snare and a
trap, if not a curse, therein to us. -
11. When one, having some unordinary difficulty to encounter, is in hazard of
being ensnared either into sin or danger. On such an occasion was the fore-men-
tioned fast at Shushan kept ; Esther jeoparding her life, in “going in unto the
king in the inner court,” not called by him, Esth. iv. 11, 16. The ship has need
to be well ballasted that sails when the wind blows high : and in a difficult and
ensnaring time, there is need of fasting and prayer for Heaven's safe-conduct
through it. Men's trusting to themselves in such a case, cannot miss of betraying
them into Snares. - -
12. Lastly, When one hath in view some special solemn approach unto God;
in which case a special preparation is requisite. Thus Jacob called his family
to such preparation, in the exercise of repentance, in order to their appear-
ing before the Lord at Bethel, Gen. xxxv. 2, 3. The Israelites were called
to the same, in order to the awful solemnity of the giving of the law on mount
Sinai, Exod. xix. 10, 11, 15. And it is observable, that, whereas the feast of
tabernacles was the most joyful of all the feasts the Jews had throughout the
year, a solemn fast was appointed of God to be observed always before it, four
free days only intervening, Lev. xxiii. 27, 34. For in the method of grace,
none stand so fair for a lifting up, as those who are most deeply humbled, Isa. xl.
4; Luke xviii. 14; James iv. 10. Wherefore it is a laudable practice of our church,
that congregations keep a congregational fast before the celebration of the feast of
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper among them, in order to their preparation for
a solemn approach unto God in that holy ordinance.* And, for the same reason,
secret fasting by particular persons apart, and private fasting by families apart,
especially such as have not access to join in the public fast, would be very season-
able on such an occasion. And if those secret and private fasts could more gener-
ally obtain, and get place in congregations, some little time before the communion
work did begin, it would be a token for good, and might prove like the noise and
shaking among the dry bones, that ushered in the breathing on the slain, and the
causing them to stand “up upon their feet,” Ezek. xxxvii. 7, 10.
These things duly considered, each Christian may be in case to judge for himself,
when it is that he is under a providential call to personal fasting and humiliation.
SECTION III.
DIRECTIONS ament Personal Fasting and Humiliation.
HAVING seen the divine warrant for personal fasting and humiliation, and consid-
ered the nature of a providential call to that extraordinary duty, it remains to offer
Some advices or directions for the profitable managing of it in practice.
* A well-known custom in the Church of Scotland, and other Scottish Presbyterian churches.—ED.
244 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
DIRECTION I.
When you find that the Lord is calling you to this duty, prudently make choice
of a fit time and place for it aforehand, wherein you may have access to go about
it without distraction. And carefully dispose of your ordinary affairs before that
time, so as you may have no let nor hinderance from that part, which you can pre-
vent. Works of necessity and mercy, which are lawfully done on the Lord's day,
are much more so in this case, wherein the duty waits not on the time, but the
time on the duty. . Yea, in case something of worldly business, which you could
not foresee nor prevent, do fall out in time of your fast, and cannot be de-
ferred or put off without some notable inconveniency, you may, without scruple,
despatch it ; for the time is not holy. But in that case, labour that, if possible,
your work be not thereby marred; and carefully keep up your frame of spirit for
the duty you are engaged in. But Christian prudence to weigh circumstances, for
which you are to look up unto the Lord, is necessary to determine herein, accord-
ing to the general rules of the word, Matt. xii. 3—7.
As for such as are not masters of their time, which is the case of servants, they
cannot lawfully dispose of their time at their own hand, even for this duty; for our God
“hates robbery for burnt-offering,” Isa. lxi. 8. But then they may endeavour to
procure the necessary time at the hand of their masters, to whom, if they be godly
and serious, they may modestly hint their design, pitching on a time with so much
discretion as that their good may not be evil spoken of And if any be so unmind-
ful of their Master which is in heaven, as to refuse such a discreet desire, yet let
not the party by any means think, that the sacred nature of the thing he has in
view, gives him a power to rob his master of so much of his time ; for men can offer
nothing to God with a good conscience but what is their own, and exercises of
devotion are so far from slacking the tie of moral duty to our neighbour, that they
are nothing but an outward form of devotion, unacceptable to God, so far as they
do not influence the party to a careful and religious observance of the duties of
morality, such as judgment or justice, mercy, and faith or faithfulness, Matt. xxiii.
23. Neither yet let him imagine, on the other hand, that he is then no further
concerned to look after that extraordinary duty ; for no reason can be assigned,
why one ought not to be willing to be at as much pains or expense, for procuring
to himself an opportunity of communion with God, in that duty, as he will be for
an opportunity of attending some worldly business of his own, placing another in
his room. But if none of these can effectuate it, then, though the day or time of
labouring is the master's, yet the night or time of resting is the servant's ; let him
give unto God what he has, and it shall be accepted through Christ. But except-
ing the case of a providential necessity obliging one to take the night for this exer-
cise, the day is, generally speaking, the most proper time for it, beginning the ex-
ercise in the morning.
DIRECTION II.
Make some preparation for it the night before ; turning your thoughts towards
the exercise you have in view, considering of it, and avoiding every thing that hath
a tendency to disfit or indispose for it. Shun carnal mirth, and sensual delights;
sup sparingly ; to eat the more, that one is to fast religiously after, is to mock
God, and cheat one's self. In the intervals of sleep, take heed that your thoughts
be not vain, and much more that they be not vile ; but that they be such as tend
to fit you for the extraordinary duty in view.
DIRECTION III.
Rise early in the morning, even sooner than ordinary, unless by reason of bodily
weakness that would tend to disfit you for the work; for then you are called, in a
special manner, to “watch unto prayer,” Eph. vi. 18. Sleep is a fleshly comfort,
which, howbeit it is necessary, yet one is in this case called to be sparing of. There-
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 245
fore the priests were bid “lie all night in sackcloth,” Joel i. 13; and it is recorded
of Ahab, that he in his fast lay so, 1 Kings xxi. 27. A proper means to make one
sleep sparingly.
DIRECTION IV.
As soon as you awake in the morning, let holy thoughts, with a view to your
work, immediately have access into your heart. And beware that carnal or worldly
thoughts get not the start of them ; for if you allow that, they will be to your soul
like water poured upon firewood, that makes it hard to kindle. Surely, if one is
at any time to follow the example of the Psalmist David, Psal. cxxxix. 18, “When
I awake, I am still with thee,” he is to do it at such a time.
DIRECTION V.
Let your ordinary duties of prayer and reading of the word be first of all per-
formed ; for extraordinary duties are not to justle out the ordinary, but to be su-
peradded unto them. And, in such prayer, beg of God grace to enable you for
the work before you, according to his promise. Yea, it may be very expedient,
that thereafter you go unto God again by prayer, particularly and purposely for his
grace to enable you unto the duty now come to the setting to. And forasmuch as
our corrupt hearts are, upon a near view of a difficult and laborious holy exercise,
very apt to wax faint, and our hands to hang down, albeit “the way of the Lord”
is declared to be “strength to the upright,” Prov. x. 29; do you, therefore, by all
means, study to exercise faith, and labour to believe steadfastly, that his grace shall
be sufficient for you, to the making of “his yoke easy, and his burden light” unto
you, 2 Cor. xiii. 9, with Matt. xi. 30. For no man shall ever be able to perform
a duty acceptably unto God, without a believing persuasion, in greater or lesser
measure, of an allowance made him of grace sufficient for an acceptable perfor-
mance of it, 2 Cor. iii. 4, 5 ; Philip. ii. 12, 13. One will otherwise be but a
“wicked and slothful servant,” as our Saviour teacheth, Matt. xxv. 24–26.
DIRECTION VI.
After prayer in faith, for the aid of divine grace, as in the preceding direction,
begin the work with a solemn review of your sins, in deep meditation, and serious
communing with your own heart thereupon ; applying yourself to think of them, in
such manner as you think of your affairs, when considering how to manage them
in cases of difficulty. , God calls for this at your hand ; Hag. i. 5, “Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways;” Lam. iii. 40, “Let us search and try our
ways, and turn again to the Lord.”. It is recommended to us by the practice of the
saints; Psal. lxxvii. 6, “I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made dili-
gent search ;” and czix. 59, “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy
testimonies.” The nature of a religious fast requires it; for how can the deep
humiliation therein to be aimed at, be otherwise obtained ? or what way else can
one be fitted to make a confession suitable to such an occasion ? It is observable,
that in the fast mentioned, Neh. ix., the “reading of the law "went before the
making of the confession, verse 3. So the first work was to set the looking-glass
before their eyes, that therein every one might see his foul face. And the direc-
tion given to fallen Israel, in order to a recovery, Hos. Xiv. 2, “Take with you
words, and say,” &c., doth plainly bear, that there should, in that case, be solemn
serious thinking before solemn prayer.
Now, to assist you in the practice of this part of your work, the following advices
are offered:
First, Read some pertinent passage of holy Scripture, and that with application, as
reading your own heart and life therein. Such are those passages which contain
discoveries and confession of sin, as Isa. lix.; or lists of sins, or of several sorts of
sinners, as Rom. i. 29–32; 2 Cor. vi. 9, 10; Gal. v. 19—21; 2 Tim. iii. 1–5; Rev.
xxi. 8. Particularly, I recommend for this purpose, Ezra ix., Neh, ix., Dam. ix. Of
246. - A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
these, or other scriptures of the like nature, you may read such as you shall
judge meet. w -
Secondly, It will be expedient and useful, in this case, to read also the Larger
Catechism on the ten commands, in the answers to the questions, “What is re-
quired 2" and, “What is forbidden º’’ and especially the latter. For by reading
thereof with application to yourself, you will find out your guiltiness in many points
which, perhaps, would not otherwise come into your mind. *
Thirdly, This done, apply yourself to think of your sins, in order to your getting
a broad and humbling view of your sinful and wretched case. And for your help
herein, I suggest to you these things following.
1. You may compose yourself, what way you find, by experience, to be best for
keeping the mind fixed. It is a piece of Christian prudence in this case, to dispose
of every thing so, as you may the more readily reach that end, and block up the
avenues by which impertinent thoughts may make their entrance. As, (1.) Because
the eyes often betray the heart, through a variety of objects which present them-
selves to one's view in the light: if you are in a house, you may darken it by stop-
ping the light; if in the fields, you may lie down on your face, and close your eyes.
(2.) If you can by no means keep your heart at simple thinking, you may speak to
yourself with a low voice, that words may help to fix the mind unto the thing.
These are only prudential advices, which they that need may use, they that need
not may let alone. .
2. It will be very profitable to observe some method and order in thinking of
your sins. A confused and indeterminate manner of thinking of our sins doth, in
several respects, fall short of an orderly thought about them. It is true, when the
Spirit of the Lord is carrying on a special work of conviction in the heart of a sin-
ner, the man's sins will of course be readily laid to hand, and “set in order before
his eyes,” Psal. 1. 21. But it is another case, where one is searching out his sins,
with an ordinary assistance of the Spirit; herein these do not duly consult their
own interest, who refuse the help of method in the search.
And there is a twofold method or order, which may be helpful to you therein ; to
wit, the order of the time of life, and the order of the ten commandments. Both
these are natural, and easy to the meanest capacity.
Thinking on your sins in the order of the time of your life, you will thereby get a
general view of your own sinfulness, and that throughout your whole life. And in
this method, - &
1st, You are to consider the sin of your nature. You are to look “ unto the
rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged,” Isa.
li. 1. Think what a sinful lump thou wast in thy conception and birth, “shapen
in iniquity and conceived in sin,” Psal. li. 5; how thou camest into the world, with
cords of guilt wreathed about thy neck, binding thee over to wrath under the curse ;
stripped naked of original righteousness; thy whole nature corrupted, being the
very reverse of the holy nature of God; thy soul in all its faculties quite perverted,
ready to discover with the first occasion its wrong set, namely, a propensity to evil
and an aversion to good; and thy body in all its members sinful flesh. In consid-
eration whereof thou mayest well say, with admiration of the divine patience, “O
why did the knees prevent me ! or why the breasts that I should suck!”
2dly, Then turn your thoughts to the sins of your childhood. Solomon in his
penitentials tells us, that childhood and youth are vanity, Eccles. xi. 10. Truly,
the sins of that early period of our life are not to be remembered to be laughed
at, but mourned over ; and so they will be by true penitents: for they are
the early sproutings and buds of corrupt nature, that might have been fatal to us,
ere we had gone further. Behold how, in that period, thou hast “spoken and done
evil things as thou couldst.” It is likely that many of these things are forgotten:
but yet you may still search out as many of them as may be matter of deep humi-
liation to you before the Lord. There may be sins of childhood that will make
a bleeding wound in a gracious heart, on every remembrance thereof, even unto
the dying day.
3dly, Then take a view of the sins of your youth. Job got a moving view of his,
when he was come to a good age ; Job xiii. 26, “Thou writest bitter things against
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 247.
me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.” David's heart bleeds at
the remembrance of his, crying unto God, “Remember not the sins of my youth,”
Psal. xxv. 7. Youth is vain, rash, and inconsiderate, and therefore a dangerous
period of life; precipitating some into such steps as make them to halt all their life
after, proving fatal to many, and laying up matter of repentance to all. And if
the follies of it be not timely repented of, and mourned over by the sinner, they
“shall lie down with him in the dust,” Job xx. 11; and present themselves again
in full tail,” when “for all these God will bring him into judgment,” Eccles. xi. 9.
Therefore do you take a mournful view of them, and judge yourselves in time.
4thly, If you are to come to middle age, proceed to the searching out of the
sins of that period of your life. In it you cannot miss of matter of deep humilia-
tion; “for man at his best estate is altogether vanity,” Psal. xxxix. 5. Every
period of life is attended with its proper snares and temptations. And he who,
right or wrong, hath made his way through those of youth, doth but enter into a
new throng of temptations of another kind, while he enters on the next stage of life ;
in the which men often, ere they are aware, “pierce themselves through with many
sorrows,” lose themselves in a cloud of cares and business, and, “troubled about many
things,” forget the “one thing needful.” ,- s
Lastly, If you are advanced into old age, go forward and view your sins in that
period. Whatever infirmities do attend it, the sins of it must be searched out, and
repented of too; for it will not excuse a man, before an holy God, that he is an
aged sinner. The corruption of nature, the longer it hath kept its ground, is the
more hateful, and will be the more humbling to a gracious soul. -
Thus you will have your whole life before you, in parcels. And that you may,
with the greater distinctness, review any period thereof which you have fully past,
or of which you have past a great part: you may distinguish the same into lesser
periods, according to the more notable events, turns, or changes that were in it, and
review them separately ; as, for instance, the time before you went to school, by
itself; the time of your being at it, by itself; and so in other cases.
But for a more full and particular view of your sins, do you proceed in the order
of the ten commandments. The holy law, considered in its spirituality and vast
extent, is the proper means for sound conviction : it is the sinner's looking-glass,
whereby to discern the vast multitude of his spots and defilements, in order to his
humiliation ; Rom. viii. 7, “I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not
known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Wherefore by no
means neglect, in this review, to go through the ten commandments; and pause
upon every one of them, considering the duties required therein, and wherein you
have been guilty by omission of them ; and the sins forbidden therein, and wherein
you have been guilty by commission of them ; guilty in both kinds, in , thought,
word, and deed. This would be a proper means to show you the multitude of your
transgressions. -
But to proceed in both the one and the other order jointly, namely, by reviewing
each period of your life separately, in the order of the ten commandments, would,
through the divine blessing, be of the most singular use for reaching the most
humbling view of your whole life.
Thus far of the second thing suggested for your help to think of your sins, in
order to a humbling view of your case. And for your further help therein,
3. Be sure that, in a special manner, you set before your eyes the signal mis-
carriages of your life, those sins that have wounded your conscience deepest. I
doubt there are but few, if any, of a tender conscience, who see not some such blots
in their escutcheon; some remarkable trespasses in heart or life, that are ready to
gall them on every remembrance, though perhaps known unto none but God and
themselves, Good Eli had such a blot on him, pointed out to him under the name
of “the iniquity which he knoweth,” 1 Sam, iii. 13. And the best of the saints
mentioned in Scripture had something of that nature to humble them. Now, as
ever you would be duly humbled in your exercise of personal fasting, let these, in
your review of your sins, be brought forth by headmark, and set before you in the
sight of a holy God, and that, although they be freely pardoned unto you long
* i. e. in full measure—in all their extent.—ED.
248 - A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
ago: for the view of these is most likely to affect you; and pardoned sins, inasmuch
as they are pardoned, are humbling in the remembrance of them, Luke vii. 37—
47; as Paul's pardoned blasphemy and persecution were to him, 1 Tim. i. 13.
4. In thinking on your sins, take along with you the aggravations of them.
Represent to yourself the infinite majesty of God, against whom you have sinned ;
and as ever you would be duly humbled, entertain high and elevated thoughts
of the Lord our Lawgiver. This will make you to say with David, Psalm li. 4,
“Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight ;” under-
standing by your own experience what he meant thereby. In your meditation, set
God's way of dealing with you, all along from your very birth, over against your
way of dealing with him : so shall conviction be brought home on your conscience,
with a peculiar edge ; while considering the mercies he hath heaped on you, the
light and warnings he hath afforded you, your guilt will appear of a deepest dye.
5. Having thus seen your extreme sinfulness, consider, in the next place, the
just demerit of your sin, even God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and that
which is to come. “For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience,” Eph. v. 6. The law is a looking-glass for sinners,
not only in its commands, but also in its threatenings and curse ; showing unto all
their cursed state by nature—to unbelievers, what they are actually lying under
for their sins, and to believers, what theirs do deserve. And, therefore, after you
have, as before directed, gone through all the ten commandments, for your convic-
tion and humiliation, do you, for your farther humiliation, set your eyes upon the
threatenings and curse of that holy law as a covenant of works ; and see therein
your just deserving, so as that God may be justified when he speaketh against you,
and “clear when he judgeth,” Psalm li. 4. And think with thyself, how thou
shouldest, without peradventure, eternally perish under his wrath, if he should pro-
ceed against thee according to the law and justice; as he hath actually proceeded
against many, for those very sins wherewith thou art chargeable.
6. In this review of your sins, endeavour all along that your eye may affect your
heart. In vain will you rake into that dunghill, if suitable affections or emotions
of heart be not thereby excited in you. And these suitable affections are,
(1.) Hatred, detestation, and abhorrence of sin, Psal, czix. 128; Rom. xii. 9.
Wherefore, pull the mask from off it, remove the paint and varnish that have been
laid over it, that you may see it in its native deformity; and look on it until your
stomach turn on the sometimes sweet morsel. (2.) Grief and sorrow of heart
for it, Psal. xxxviii. 18. Let your heart be rent, in consideration of the offence
thereby given to a gracious God; its contrariety to his holy nature and will ; its dis-
honouring of his Son, who gave himself a sacrifice for sin; and grieving of his Spirit,
who sanctifies us. (3.) Holy shame upon the account of it, Jer. xxxi. 19. Behold
it as a filthy thing, the very reverse of “the beauty of holiness,” the holiness of God
expressed in his law ; and be confounded at the sight. Behold it as a base requital
of divine favours, and blush before him. (4.) Self-loathing, Ezek. xxxvi. 31.
Pursue the thought of the filthiness of your sin, till you loathe yourself in your
own sight, as rendered unclean all over by abominations of heart and life. (5.) A
longing to be rid of sin, the guilt, defilement, prevailing, and indwelling of it.
Dwell on the thought of your sinfulness, till your heart, pained and burdened there-
with, groan out longing desires of deliverance, as Rom. vii. 24, “O wretched man
that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death !” Who will draw
this dagger out of my bowels this sting out of my conscience this poison out of
my flesh who will take this load off my back!
All this would be no more than necessary humiliation. For it will be the lot
of every sinner, either in time or in eternity, to be like the fish that is boiled in the
water which it sometime a day swimmed in. But “blessed are ye that weep now,”
Luke vi. 21; “Wo unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep,” ver, 25.
Lastly, It will be very necessary that the whole of this work be mixed with
devout ejaculations. For, be sure, Satan will be at your right hand, to resist you, and
to mar your work; your heart will be ready to misgive you in it, to stop, and turn
aside ; therefore press forward in it, lifting your eyes, every now and then, to the
Lord for help. -
PERSONAIA AND FAMILY FASTING. 249
With this review of your own sins, let a view of the public sins of the church and
land wherein you live be joined; using the same helps as in your own particular
case, which need not to be here repeated.
And in relation to this, I subjoin only three advices.
1. Begin always with your own sins, even though the principal cause of your fast
be the state of the church or land. This has been the manner of the saints; Isa.
vi. 5, “Then said I, Wo is me ! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;” Dan. ix. 20, “And whilst
I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel.”
The reason hereof is manifest: for one will never be duly humbled for the sins of
others, who is not, in the first place, so humbled for his own.
2. Represent public sins to yourself under such notions as may tend to excite
suitable affections and emotions of heart in you. Look on them as they are dis-
honouring to our gracious God, wounding or ruining to the souls of men, disgrace-
ful to our holy Christian profession, and provoking God to wrath against the land.
Hate and loathe them, be ashamed of them, and mourn over them, on these ac-
counts; and long for the day of purging them away.
3. See your own sinful part in them, by all means. Bring them home to your
own conscience before the Lord ; search out, and see what of the guilt thereof you
are, either directly or indirectly, chargeable with, in his sight; and be deeply
humbled for the same.
Thus far of the review of sin.
DIRECTION VII.
After this review of your sins made, go unto God by prayer, and make confes-
sion of them. And here, confession is to be the chief part of your prayer: yea,
and if the whole of it almost be confession, it will not be amiss. Certainly extra-
ordinary confession of sin is a great part of the work of a religious fast, Neh. ix.
3; Dan. ix. 20. And the solemn review in which one's sins are so particularly
searched out natively issues therein.
For the more profitable management of this confession of sin, the following ad-
vices are offered. - -
1. Take no thought of your voice, farther than to keep it from being unseason-
ably high. For the voice, in itself, is nothing before the heart-searching God, who
regards not the sound of men's throats, but of their hearts and affections. “The
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father
seeketh such to worship him,” John iv. 23. But sometimes there is a deceit in
the voice, to the beguiling of the soul: as it fared with Ezekiel's hearers, “with
the mouth showing much love,” Ezek. xxxiii. 31. And one, by an indiscreet man-
agement of it, may be fruitlessly weakened, and disfitted for continuing at the
work so as need may require. The affections are the best rulers of the voice.
2. Endeavour to bring along into your confession, and carry along, those affec-
tions and emotions of heart of which before ; namely, hatred and detestation of
sin, godly sorrow, holy shame, self-loathing, and longing to be rid of sin; Psalm
xxxviii. 18, “I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.” When the
leper was to cry, “Unclean, unclean,” his clothes were to be rent, his head bare,
and there was to be a covering upon his upper lip, Lev. xiii. 45. A confessing
tongue requires a broken heart, a spirit really weighted with a sense of sin. And
the marble, that sweats in foul weather, but yet is never a whit the softer, shall be
an emblem of one confessing his sin with a hale heart. Yet let mone, sensible of the
hardness of their heart, be thereby made to stand aloof from confession, saying,
“Who will roll away the stone 7” Let them go forward, and essay it: let them con-
fess their hardness of heart, and unfitness to make confession; for so they may find
the stone rolled away to their hand. - *
3. Be as full as you can in your confession; laying all your spiritual sores before
the Lord, so far as you know them. One wound concealed from the physician, may
prove fatal to the patient; and one sin industriously passed over in confession, may
prove fatal to the sinner: “for he that covereth his sins shall not prosper,” Prov.
- 2 I
250 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
xxviii. 13. David was aware of this ; Psalm xxxii. 5, “I acknowledged my sin
unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.” It fared ill with Ananias and
Sapphira, for that in another case, they “lied unto God,” and “kept back a part,”
Acts v. And he is no true penitent, that desires to hide any sweet morsel under his
tongue, and is not willing to take shame to himself for every known sin. -
4. Be very particular in your confession, opening out your spiritual sores before
the Lord; Psal. li. 4, “I have done this evil in thy sight;" Josh. vii. 20, “I have
sinned; and thus, and thus, have I done.” To confess the several kinds of your sin,
in general, without descending to particulars, is too superficial work on such an oc-
casion. The particular abominations of yowr heart and life are raised up in medi-
tation, to be laid before the Lord in humble confession. I suppose you to be at this
work in a secret place, where you may freely utter before him what it would not
be proper you should say in the hearing of others. No doubt, a great deal of
freedom may be used in secret prayer, in narrating of thoughts and actions, with
the designation of time, place, and persons, so as may tend to one's deeper humilia-
tion, which would not be to edification in Social prayer. -
Now, in order to your being the more full and particular in your confession, I
would recommend the same method and order to be observed therein, as in the re-
view of your sins. I believe that, so doing, you will find the advantage of it. Go
orderly through the several periods of your life, and through all the ten command-
ments, making your confession; where also you may take in the confession of public
sins, always so as may best tend to the further humiliation of yourself. In a special
manner, be very particular as to the signal miscarriages of your life, and aggravate
your guilt, acknowledging the aggravating circumstances thereof. And unto the
confession of your known sins against all the ten commandments, add a humble
acknowledgment of a large void and blank to be left for your unknown sins against
every one of them ; which you can by no means fill up, but the all-knowing God
can : “for who can understand his errors ?” Psalm xix. 12. And, considering the
commands of the perfect law, as binding you to embrace the gospel, confess your
atrocious guilt in sinning against the remedy of sin, therein revealed, offered, and
exhibited unto you. -
5. It will be profitable, that, all along through your confession, you approve of
the law, as “holy, just, and good,” Rom. vii. 12. For as black doth best appear when
set by white, so sin appears most clearly in its native hue, “exceeding sinful,” when
set over against the pure, holy, just, and good commandment. As, for example,
when you are to confess your sins against the first commandment, you may say to
this purpose:—“Lord, thou commandest me, saying, ‘Thou shalt have no other
gods before me.’ I acknowledge this thy command is most just and reasonable in
itself, and most good for me. It was thou alone who made me, thou alone hast
preserved me. I never needed another god besides thee, and none but thou couldst
ever do the part of a God to me. Thou didst magnify thy rich grace, in conde-
scending to be, in Christ, a God to me, a most wretched creature. Nevertheless,
over the belly of this law of love, my duty, and my interest, I have had many other
gods before thee: I have set up my cursed self in thy room and stead, made the
vain world my god,” &c. And so in other cases, -
Lastly, Let your confession be closed with self-condemning, self-emptying, and
a look of faith. - . -
1st. Condemn yourself, as did the returning prodigal; Luke xv. 18, “Father, I
have sinned against heaven, and before thee,” verse 19, “and am no more worthy
to be called thy son.” As you looked to the commandments before, and confessed
your sin, so look now to the threatenings and curse of the law, and confess your
just deserving. Read there your deserved doom, and pass sentence against yourself.
Nothing is more natural than that now you call yourself fool and beast, for that you
have followed the wild-fire of your corrupt inclinations, to the miring of yourself
thus in sin and guilt; and have broken over the hedge, where now you find the
serpent biting you. And here,
(1.) Confess you deserve no good, but all evil, in time. If the cause of your fast
be some evil you are at present smarting under, acknowledge God to be just, very
just in it. If it is some stroke threatened, and hanging over your head, confess
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 251
that you well deserve that it should fall on you in its full weight. If it is light
that you want, confess you deserve to be left in darkness; or whatever be the
mercy you come to make supplication for, acknowledge from the heart that you
have forfeited it. Surely, in case your “uncircumcised heart be humbled,” you will
“accept of the punishment of your iniquity,” Lev. xxvi. 41. And then, if your sin
has found you out, you will own the procedure against you to be righteous and
holy ; if your broken bones smart, you will say it is just ; if the Lord has turned
his former smiles into frowns, mixed your comforts with gall and wormwood, souring
them so as to set your teeth on edge, blasted your enjoyments, and Squeezed the
sap out of them, you will, after confession of sin, say from your very heart, My
folly makes it so. - -
(2.) Confess you deserve eternally to perish, and that “it is of the Lord's mer-
cies you are not consumed,” Lam, iii. 22; that God might in justice wrap you up
in the filthy garments of your sin, and cast you out of his sight, into the lake burn-
ing with fire and brimstone, as the fittest place for such a sinful lump. Acknow-
ledge yourself to be, in yourself, a wretched creature, justly under the curse and
condemnatory sentence of the law, having nothing to say for yourself at the bar of
justice, why it may not be fully executed against you, a self-condemned, as well as
a law-condemned sinner, Psal. li. 4. Whatever your state be in the sight of God,
it is altogether just that your libel against yourself be not concluded without this.
2dly, Be emptied of yourself, in a humble and hearty acknowledgment of utter
inability to help yourself. Having taken a view of the load of sin lying upon you,
and laid before the Lord the particulars of your burden, with the sinking weight
thereof, acknowledge that it is quite beyond your power to move it from off you.
Say from the heart, “Lord, here is a load of guilt lying upon me, which by no
doing or suffering of mine can be moved: here is a mighty power of sin I am no
more able to grapple with than a child with a giant; a dead weight I can no more
remove than I can remove a mountain. If thou leave me under it, as justly thou
mayest, I perish.”
This is true humiliation, where the poor broken sinner lies at the Lord's feet,
sensible that he is bound with ten thousand cords of guilt, but unable to loose the
weakest of them; that his soul is preyed upon, and like to be devoured, by a
swarm of living lusts, yet unable to kill or shake off any of them. If we are duly
humbled, our humiliation will be carried thus far: for it is the ruin of many, that
they see not the absolute need of the blood of Christ for removing of their guilt, and
far less the absolute need of his Spirit, for breaking of the power of sin in them.
Lastly, Let there be a look of faith out of the low dungeon. Look unto God in
Christ, and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” Luke xviii. 13; and “turn
thou me, and I shall be turned,” Jer. xxxi. 18. Tell him, that since, according to
his holy gospel, there is yet “hope in Israel concerning this thing,” you must and will
take the benefit of the gospel-proclamation of grace and mercy, and lay hold on the
horns of the altar; and, therefore, though your weight be heavier than mountains
of brass, you do, with humble confidence, at the Father's bidding, lay it wholly
over on the blood of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting thereon allenarly * for
remission of sin, sanctification, and complete Salvation.
Now, as to the two directions last mentioned, I mean not, that what is proposed
in either of them must needs be done all at once, without intermission. You ma
use them as you are best able to reach them. It is not very likely that those who
spent one-fourth of the day in confessing and worshipping, (Neh. ix. 3,) did make
but one confession continued without intermission: so you may make such inter-
missions in either or both of them as you may find necessary. Christian prudence
must direct in the matter, to use the means, so as may best conduce to the end.
DIRECTION VIII.
After confession of sin, apply yourself to the duty of personal covenanting; ex-
plicit entering into, or renewing covenant with God, by taking hold of God's cove-
nant of grace in express words. That this is a necessary part of the work of a
* i, c, alone, exclusively,–ED.
252 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
*
personal fast, may be gathered from Jer. l. 4, and Neh. ix. 38, both cited before.
And it is clear from the nature of the thing ; for to what purpose shall men lay
open their wounds before the Physician of souls, if they mind not to put themselves
in his hand for cure, in the way of the covenant? or how can they pretend to mourn
for sin, if they are not to enter on the way of reformation ? A time of personal
fasting is a time for the runaway to return to his duty, and to set matters right
again, that were put wrong by turning aside from God and his way. And one
unwilling to enter into covenant with God, cannot be sincere in his confession of
sin, and mourning over it, whatever he may pretend.
For the right managing of this duty of personal covenanting, these three follow-
ing advices are offered.
First, See that you understand and rightly take up the covenant, the covenant of
grace, together with the way and manner of a sinner's personal entering into it, and
being instated in it unto salvation; the which are to be learned from the holy
scripture alone, as being revealed in it only. Mistakes and misapprehensions of
these things may be of very bad consequences in the practice of this duty, for which
cause men ought earnestly to pray that God would, by his own word and Spirit,
“show them his covenant,” according to the promise, Psal. xxv. 14. •
According to the scripture, the covenant, namely, the covenant of grace for life
and Salvation, is not left unto you to make, in whole nor in part, by proposing and
condescending on terms thereof, as a party contractor: it is made already, com-
pletely made and concluded in all the articles thereof, whether conditionary or
promissory; and that between God, the party contractor on heaven's side, and Christ
as Mediator and second Adam, the party contractor on lost man's side. And it is
registered in the sacred records, the holy scripture. And you are invited into the
fellowship of it; Psal. lxxxix. 3, “I have made a covenant with my chosen,_David
my servant;” 1 Cor. xv. 45, “The last Adam ;” 1 John i. 3, “That which we
have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
The condition of it is Christ's fulfilling all righteousness in the name of his
spiritual seed; Matt. iii. 15, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
This righteousness was stated from the broken covenant of works; and that in
three things, namely, perfect holiness of nature, righteousness of life, and satisfac-
tion for sin; all which Christ did fulfil, in his being born perfectly holy, living per-
fectly righteous, and making complete satisfaction by his death and sufferings. And
thus the condition of the covenant, on which is founded the right and claim to the
promises of it, is fulfilled already to your hand.
The promise of it, respecting lost sinners, is the promise of eternal life in its full
latitude, comprehending all things necessary to make a sinner holy and happy;
that God in Christ will be their God, and they shall be his people; Tit. i. 2, “In
hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began ;”
Heb. viii. 10, “This is the covenant;-I will be to them a God, and they shall be
to me a people.” And it is begun to be fulfilled to all who have taken hold of the
covenant, and is ready to be fulfilled unto all who shall yet take hold thereof.
This covenant is the plan laid by infinite wisdom for the salvation of lost sinners;
upon which they may safely venture themselves, for time and eternity, as upon a
bottom infallibly sure ; Isa. lv. 3, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
(Heb.-I will cut to you an everlasting covenant,) even the sure mercies of David;”
1 Cor. i. 23, 24, “We preach Christ—Christ the power of God and the wisdom of
God.” It is Heaven's device for repairing the loss we sustained by Adam's fall,
whereby we become unholy and miserable, lying in ignorance which we could not
cure, under guilt and the curse which we could not remove, and under bondage to
sin and Satan, which we could not break; verse 30, “But of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifi-
cation, and redemption.”
The great design of it is to exalt the free grace of God in the salvation of sinners;
to show therein the exceeding riches of his grace to them, in Christ. It is a plan
laid for cutting off all ground of boasting from the creature; to make Christ all,
and the creature nothing in its own salvation, as being indebted to free grace for
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 253
the whole thereof; Eph. i. 6, “To the praise of the glory of his grace ;” chap.
ii. 7, “That he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness to-
wards us through Christ Jesus;” verse 9, “Not of works, lest any man should
boast.” It is much like unto a contract of marriage, devised and drawn by a
wealthy and wise physician, of his own proper motion alone, between himself and
a poor woman drowned in debt, weak and witless, and withal overrun with loath-
some sores, rendering her incapable to do anything, whether for her own relief, or
for his service ; and this upon a design to have her wholly indebted to him for her
relief, the payment of her debt, the management of her person, and her recovery for
action and business.
This covenant is offered and exhibited to you in the gospel, as really as that
contract, drawn and signed by the physician, would be offered and exhibited to the
woman, if he should come and present it to her, for her acceptance ; Rom. x. 6,
“Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ
down from above;” verse 7, “Or, Who shall descend into the deep? that is, to
bring up Christ again from the dead;” verse 8, “But what saith it ! The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we
preach.” So that the righteousness of Christ, to wit, the holiness of nature where-
with he was born, and which he retained unspotted till death, the righteousness of
his life, and his satisfaction made by his sufferings, is in that word freely offered
and exhibited to you, as the fulfilled condition of the covenant, being “therein re-
vealed unto faith,” Rom. i. 17. Gr. ; as also “the promise of eternal life,” as the
promise of the covenant to be fulfilled, being therein left you, Heb. iv. 1.
Hence it appears that the duty of personal covenanting is much mistaken and
mismanaged, where the party, apprehending that God, in the word, declares him-
self willing to be his God upon certain terms to be by him performed, different
from accepting God's full and free covenant of promise, does accordingly make a
covenant with God, solemnly taking him for his God upon these terms ; promising
and vowing, that if God will be his God, pardon his sins, be at peace with him, and
save his soul, he will, for his part, be one of his people, and faithfully serve him
all the days of his life, watching against all known sin, and performing every known
duty. This is just as if the woman, in the case before put, should tell him who
offers her the contract, that she is content to take him for her husband, upon cer-
tain terms; particularly, that if he will be her husband, and do the duty of a hus-
band to her, she will, for her part, be a faithful wife to him, all the days of her
life, doing all that she is able to do for paying off her debt, managing herself and
his household to the best of her skill, and taking all pains on her sores, to make
her lovely in his eyes; the which being quite contrary to the design and end of
that unusual kind of contract, which is to have the wife wholly indebted to the hus-
band for all, doth alter the nature of the proposal, and would quite mar the sur-
prising match, which was in a fair way to be carried on.
But likeas in that case nothing remains for the woman to do, to entitle her to the
benefit of the contract, but, believing it to be a real and serious, not a ludicrous
deed, to sign her acceptance ; which signing with the hand is necessary, because her
belief of the reality of the offered contract, and trusting to it accordingly, being in-
ward acts of the soul, cannot be known among men, but by a proper external sign;
even so all that remains for you to instate you savingly in God's covenant of grace,
offered and exhibited to you in the gospel, is to “take hold " of it, Isa. lvi. 4.
And to the end that, in your aiming to take hold of the covenant, you may not
be at a loss, fearing that you may miss any part or parts thereof, lying scattered
through the blessed Bible ; know that Jesus Christ, the second Adam, head of the
covenant, is by his Father “given for a covenant” to you, Isa. xlix. 8. So that you
have the whole covenant in him ; and you take hold of it, by taking hold of him
offered and exhibited to you in the free promise of the gospel.
And this is done by faith, or believing in his name, according to John i. 12, “As
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name.” Wherefore, by believing on the name of Christ, we
take hold of the covenant, and are instated in it unto Salvation. And God hath
made believing to be the means of instating sinners personally and savingly in the
254 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
covenant, in consonancy with the great design and end thereof, declared in the
word, and of which before ; Rom. iv. 16, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might
be by grace;” Rom. iii. 27, “Where is boasting then It is excluded. By what
law 2 of works 2 Nay; but by the law of faith.”
Now, to believe on the name of Christ, is to believe or credit the free promise of the
gospel, with application to yourself, and accordingly to trust on him as the Saviour
of the world and your Saviour, in whom God will be your God, and you shall be
one of his people, unto your salvation from sin and from wrath; Mark i. 15, “Be-
lieve the gospel;” Gal. iii. 2, “The hearing of faith;” 1. Thess. i. 5, “Our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the holy Ghost, and in
much assurance;” I Cor. ii. 4, “In demonstration of the Spirit, and of power;”
verse 5, “That your faith should stand in the power of God;” and Acts xvi.
31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved ;” Psal. xxxvii.
40, “He shall save them, because they trust in him ;” Psal. ii. 12, “Blessed are
all they that put their trust in him;” Acts xv. 11, “We believe that, through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved.” This believing or crediting the
word, and trusting on the person, of Christ, is that which of all things is farthest
removed from the nature of a work, according to the scripture-use of that word ;
and therefore is the most agreeable means of saving entrance into that covenant,
which is “of faith, that it might be by grace ; not of works, lest any man should
boast.”
A sinner, being, by this believing on Christ, united to him as the head of the cov- -
enant, is thereby personally entered into the covenant, so as, in his right, to have
a saving interest in the condition, promise, and privileges thereof, unto his eternal
salvation ; even as becoming, through natural generation, children of Adam, the
head of the covenant of works, we are personally entered into that covenant, so
as to be involved in the guilt of the breach of it, and laid under the curse thereof;
Rom. v. 19, “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners; so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous;” John x. 9, “I am the door :
by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved;” Eph. iii. 17, “That Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith.”
Upon this believing on the name of Christ, crediting and trusting in manner said
before, do necessarily follow an absolute consent to take him for our Husband,
Head, and Lord, and God in him for our God ; and unconditional resignation of
ourselves unto him, soul and body, to be his only, wholly, and for ever; with an
illimited renunciation of all other for him: even as, in the case before put, upon
the woman's believing the reality of the offer of the contract of marriage between
the physician and her, and accordingly, that he will indeed be her husband, fol-
lows her consenting to take him for her husband, head, and lord, giving up herself
unto him, and renouncing all other for him, absolutely, unconditionally, without
limitation or reservation ; the which she can never do till once she believe that.
And thus to the word of grace, the covenant offered and exhibited in the gospel,
“I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people,” the believing soul
answereth, as an echo, “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” Cant. ii. 16.
Secondly, Having understood the covenant aright, together with the way and man-
ner of being personally and savingly entered into it, examine yourselves anent it im-
partially, as ever you would make sure work in this weighty matter. Inquire into
your sense of your need of the covenant, your belief of it, and the disposition
of your heart towards it. And upon these heads, pose yourself with these or the
like questions:
“In the first place, O my soul, do I verily believe that I was lost, ruined and
undone in Adam, by his breaking of the covenant of works; and that I have ruined
myself more and more, by my actual transgressions ? Do I believe, that I am by
nature wholly corrupt and sinful, averse to good, prone to evil, and justly laid un-
der the curse, binding me over to the revenging wrath of God for time and eter-
inty 2 Am I convinced that I am utterly unable to help myself, in whole or in part,
out of this gulf of sin and misery into which I am plunged ; and that I must needs
perish under the guilt, dominion, and pollution of my sin, without being justified or
sanctified, for ever, if I be not relieved by heaven's own hand 7 -
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 25.5°
“Next, O my soul, do I believe that there is a covenant of grace, for the relief
of lost sinners, established between God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, as
second Adam, wherein, upon condition of Christ's fulfilling all righteousness, as a
public person, is promised eternal life to them, that God in Christ will be their
God, and they shall be his people? Do I believe, that this is the plan and device
of Heaven, for life and salvation to lost sinners, for making of them holy, and for
making of them happy? Do I believe, that Jesus Christ hath, by his holy birth,
righteous life, satisfactory death and sufferings, performed that condition of the
covenant, and thereby purchased and secured the benefit therein promised, for
poor sinners ? Then, do I indeed believe, that this covenant, already fulfilled in
its condition, and certainly to be fulfilled in its promise, is in Christ crucified, really
offered and exhibited to me in the gospel; and that I am called to the fellowship
of it in him ? And then, do I verily believe on the name of Christ crucified, offered
and exhibited to me, as the Great High Priest, who, by the sacrifice of himself, hath
made the atonement, paid the ransom, and brought in everlasting righteousness
for poor sinners? That is to say, (1.) Can I credit his word of grace to me, that
he with his righteousness will be mine, and, in him, God will be my God, and I
shall be one of his people 2 (2.) And can I, as on a safe bottom, trust on him as
my Saviour, that in him it shall be so unto me, to my eternal life and salvation,
to the making of me holy and happy ?
“Finally, O my soul, how do I like the covenant 2 Am I pleased with the frame of
it, whereby Christ was from eternity appointed, not only the Priest of the covenant,
to fulfil the condition of it, but also the Prophet and the King thereof, to administer
it? And can I find in my heart to acquiesce in that device for salvation, as “all my
salvation and all my desire,” for making me holy and happy ? Am I content to
take Christ, the Son of God, for my only Priest, Surety, Intercessor, and Redeemer,
and in him, the Father for my Father, and the Holy Ghost for my Sanctifier; God
in Christ for my God? Am I willing wholly to resign myself, soul and body, to .
him, to be saved by his blood alone, renouncing all confidence in my own righteous-
ness, doings, and sufferings 2 Am I content to take him for my Head and Husband 2
Particularly, am I content to take him for my alone Prophet, Oracle, and Guide ;
to resign and give up myself wholly to him, to be taught, guided, and directed
in all things, by his word and Spirit; renouncing mine own wisdom, and the
wisdom of this world? Am I content to take him for my alone King and Lord ; to
resign myself wholly, soul, and body, unto him, to be rescued by his power from sin,
death, the devil, and this present evil world, for to serve him for ever, and to be
ruled by the will of his command, as to my duty, and the will of his providence, as
to my lot? And am I heartily content to part with, and renounce every known sin,
and particularly that which most easily besets me, together with my own foolish
will, and all other lords besides him, without reservation, and without exception
against his cross? And am I really, as in his sight, willing to have discovered unto
me, and upon discovery to part with, every sin in me that I know not ?”
Now, howbeit all doubting as to such of these points as are points of faith, and
every the least degree of aversion to the consenting, resignation, and renunciation,
is sin before the Lord, and needs to be purged away by the Redeemer's blood; yet
they ought not to stop your proceeding, unless they be predominant over your be-
lief and willingness in the matter; Mark ix. 24, “Lord I believe, help thou my
unbelief;” Gal. v. 17, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit —so that ye cannot
do the things that ye would,” namely, in that perfection that ye fain would do them.
But, indeed, if they be predominant, keeping your mind and heart quite unsettled,
and wavering like a wave of the sea, that hath nothing to fix it, one cannot advise
proceeding in that case ; for that would be to lie unto the Lord, with a witness;
James i. 6, “For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind
and tossed;” ver, 7, “For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of
the Lord.” Howbeit, a sincere belief and willingness in these points may, indeed,
waver like a ship at anchor, which is still held fast in the place, notwithstanding of
all its wavering therein. And one may take hold of God's covenant of grace, unto
salvation, even with a trembling hand.
Lastly, Having, in your self-examination, satisfied your conscience as to these
256 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
points, go unto God by prayer, and therein solemnly and in express words take
hold of the covenant. The which may be done in words to this purpose :
“O Lord, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I confess I am by
nature a lost sinner, wholly corrupted, and laid under the curse, in Adam, through
the breach of the covenant of works; and have ruined myself more and more by my
actual transgressions innumerable. I am convinced, and do acknowledge, that I
am utterly unable to help myself, in whole or in part, out of this gulf of sin and
misery into which I am plunged ; and that it is beyond the reach of the whole
creation to help me out of it ; so that I must inevitably perish for ever, if thine
own strong hand do not make help to me.
“But forasmuch as there is a covenant of grace, for life and salvation to lost sin-
ners, established between thee and thine own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as second
Adam, wherein, upon condition of his fulfilling all righteousness, which is now per-
formed in his having been born perfectly holy, lived altogether righteously, and
made perfect satisfaction to justice by his death and Sufferings, thou hast promised,
that thou wilt be their God and they shall be thy people, to the making of them
holy and happy for ever; and that this covenant is, in Christ, the head thereof,
offered and exhibited to me in thy gospel; and thou callest me into the fellowship of
it in him. Therefore, upon the warrant of, and in obedience to, thy command and
call, I, a poor perishing sinner, do take hold of that covenant, for life and Salvation
to me, believing on the name of Christ crucified, the head thereof, offered and ex-
hibited to me as the Great High Priest, who, by the sacrifice of himself, hath made
atonement, paid the ransom, and brought in everlasting righteousness for poor sin-
ners. I credit his word of grace to me, and accordingly trust on him, that he with
his righteousness will be mine, and that in, and through him, God will be my God,
and I shall be one of his people, to the making of me holy and happy for ever.
“O my God, I do by thy grace acquiesce in that covenant, as all my salvation,
and all my desire. With my whole heart and soul, the Son incarnate is my only
Priest, my Surety, my Intercessor, and my Redeemer; and, in him, the Father my
Father; the Holy Ghost my Sanctifier; God in Christ my God. I resign myself,
soul and body, to him, to be saved by his blood alone, renouncing all confidence in
mine own righteousness, doings, and sufferings. With my whole heart and soul,
he is my Head and Husband; and I am his only, wholly, and for ever, to live by
him, to him, and for him. I take him for my alone Prophet, Oracle, and Guide ;
give up myself wholly to him, to be taught, guided, and directed, in all things, by
his word and Spirit; and renounce mine own wisdom, and the wisdom of this
world. He is, with my heart's consent, my alone King and Lord. And I resign
myself wholly, soul and body, unto him, to be rescued by the strength of his mighty
hand, from sin, death, the devil, and this present evil world, for to serve him for
ever, and to be ruled by the will of his command, as to my duty, and the will of
his providence, as to my lot. I am with my whole heart content (Lord, thou
knowest) to part with, and do renounce every known sin, lust, or idol, and particu-
larly my , the sin which most easily besets me ; together with my own fool-
ish will, and all other lords besides him, without reservation, and without exception,
against his cross; protesting in thy sight, O Lord, that I am, through grace,
willing to have discovered unto me, and upon discovery to part with, every sin in
me that I know not ; and that the doubtings and averseness of heart mixed with this
my accepting of thy covenant, are what I allow not ; and that notwithstanding
thereof, I look to be accepted of thee herein, in the Beloved, thine only Son and
my Saviour, purging away these, with all my other sins, by his precious blood.
“Let it be recorded in heaven, O Lord, and let , and whatever is here pre-
sent, bear witness, that I, though most unworthy, have this day here taken hold
of, and come into thy covenant of grace, offered and exhibited to me in thy gospel;
and that thou art my God in the tenor of that covenant, and I am one of thy people,
from henceforth and for ever.”
DIRECTION IX.
After covenanting with God, set yourself to ply the throne of grace by prayer
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 257
and supplication, with reference to what is the particular cause or causes of your
fast. This is surely the proper order; for then is one in best case to make special
requests unto the Lord, when by application of the blood of Christ, in taking hold
of the covenant, his conscience is purged ; whereas, if one falls to that work before
this, he cannot have the confidence towards God necessary in this case, 1 John iii.
20, 21. -
And for the right managing hereof, the following advices are offered.
First, As it is fit you should, the night before, condescend in your own mind
on the causes of your fast ; so now again you should review them, partly that the
things which you are to lay before the Lord in prayer and supplication, may be
ready before you; and partly, that you may be duly affected therewith.
Secondly, Then go to prayer and present your petitions anent them to your cove-
manted God. And pray again and again on these heads, as you shall find your case
to require ; for the time is set apart for that very end, that you may have oppor-
tunity to wrestle with God, in prayers and supplications thereanent.
Thirdly, In these prayers, let there be a holy mixture of humility suitable to our
unworthiness, of fervency suitable to our pressing needs, and of confidence in God
suitable to the access unto him allowed us by the covenant; the which are the
special ingredients in prevailing prayer. -
1. In all your addresses to the throne of grace, continue a humble supplicant; not
forgetting, but maintaining a due sense of your sinfulness, vileness, and unworthi-
ness of the mercies you make suit for. “Lord, I am not worthy that thou
shouldest come under my roof,” saith the centurion, Matt. viii. 8 ; “I am not
worthy of the least of all thy mercies,” saith Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 10. Due humility
will oblige you to look on yourself as absolutely unworthy of spiritual mercies,
though in the meantime you see an absolute need of them : it will keep you from
being peremptory in the matter of temporal mercies, and dispose you to a holy sub-
mission unto the will of God therein : and it will engage you, in matters of light,
to lay yourself fairly open to the divine determination. - .
If, in this last case, your own inclination do sway you to any one side ; yet be
sure to have no regard to it before the Lord, but come unto him, as it were, in an
equipoise, to be cast to what side he will. Such are “the meek he will guide in
judgment, the meek he will teach his way,” Psal. xxv. 9. Unfair dealing with
God in this case is exceeding sinful and dangerous. They who venture on it are
therein dissemblers; and will readily throw off their mask, if the answer of God fall
not in with the side that their inclination is on : they will repel it ; they will not
see it; but will take their own way, notwithstanding, to the provoking of the eyes
of his glory; whereof we have a remarkable instance in the Jews consulting God
as to what they should do, while in the meantime they were aforehand resolved
what to do, being bent to go to Egypt, Jer. xli. 17; chap. xlii. 1–6, 19, 20; chap.
xliii. 2–7. Such dealing with God, in the matter of light, sometimes provokes
him to give men their will with a vengeance. Thus Balaam got an answer from
God, plainly notifying to him that he should not go with Balak's messengers,
Numb. xxii. 12. But that answer not suiting his inclinations, which were towards
“the wages of unrighteousness,” (2 Pet. ii. 15,) he went back for another answer
more agreeable thereto, and in wrath he got it, verses 19–22.
2. Be fervent in your addresses, “labouring fervently in prayers,” Col. iv. 12.
On such occasions the body is afflicted, that the spirit may become the more ear-
nest in supplication; the ordinary weight of worldly incumbrances is laid aside,
that the soul may the more readily take wing and mount heavenward. “The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” James v. 16.
3. Pray with confidence in God, through Jesus Christ; believing, not doubtingly
and distrustfully; Matt, xxi. 22, “And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
believing, ye shall receive.” Whether your petitions be for temporal or spiritual
mercies, present them to the Father in the name of Christ, according to the pro-
mises of the covenant relative thereto; believing, and being confident on the ground
of the merit and intercession of the Mediator, that God will do the best in your
case, that “your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord,” and that what is for his glory
2 R
258 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
and your good shall not be withheld from you, Psal. lxxxv. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 58;
Psal. lxxxiv, 11.
4. In the intervals of prayer, give yourself to some godly exercise, such as sing-
ing of psalms, reading of the word, or meditation. And, particularly, if you be seek-
ing light into a matter, you may enter on thinking about it, in order to your clear-
ing therein; weighing circumstances, with dependence on the Lord, according to
the promise, Psal. xxxii. 8, “I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which
thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” And specially, if you are seeking
light into the state of your soul, here is a favourable nick of time for it; the marks
and evidences of a gracious state being, upon the back of covenanting with God,
in a fair way to be discovered, to the satisfaction of the sincere soul.
5. Lastly, Lay no weight on the quantity of your prayers; that is to say, how
long or how many they are. These things avail nothing with God, by whom prayers
are not measured, but weighed. And what makes the weight in them is the faith,
fervency, and humility therein; so that one of those “groanings” mentioned, Rom.
viii. 26, will down-weigh a whole day's prayers in which these things are wanting.
Do you labour to get near God in prayer, and press forward to obtain that.
DIRECTION X.
As you have ability and opportunity, let works of charity and mercy be joined
with your fast ; doing them, whether in the time of it, or before it, or after it ;
Isa. lviii. 6, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen º’ ver. 7, “To deal thy bread
to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out, to thy house ? when
thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine
own flesh?” Let the poor be gainers by your fast: for it is the promise of God that
“he that watereth, shall be watered also himself,” Prov. xi. 25. And one's find-
ing mercy with God natively issues in a merciful disposition towards one's fellow-
creatures, Matt. xviii. 33; Eph. iv. 32.
DIRECTION XI.
Before you give over your work, you will do well to consider seriously, that you
are now the Lord's, and no more your own : and forasmuch as your covenanting
with God supposeth that you are resolved to reform, and to walk more closely with
God, lay down resolutions, in the strength of your covenanted God, to watch. And
by all means, forget not to consider what are those things whereby, in a special
manner, your spiritual condition had formerly been worsted, and by what means it
may be kept right: and sincerely resolve to eschew the one and pursue the other ;
that so what gaps have been in your conversation may be filled up, whereby it will
appear that by your fast you have been set forward in your Christian course. And,
withal, review your failures in all the parts of the exercise you have now been em-
ployed in.
DIRECTION XII.
. You may conclude the work with prayer, wherein you may humbly confess your
failures in the management of this duty, and apply anew to the blood of sprinkling
for purging them away; avouch your covenant-interest in God, and his in you; and
lay the causes of your fast again before him, and solemnly leave them on him.
The laying over a matter on the Lord believingly in prayer, gives great ease to a
burdened heart: it turns a fast sometimes into a spiritual feast. When Hannah
had done so with her case, “she went away and did eat, and her countenance was
no more sad,” 1 Sam. i. 18. And lay over yourself upon him for the grace of the
covenant, to subdue your corruptions, bear you up against temptations, and carry
on your resolutions, that you may go out into the world again, in the faith of his
grace sufficient for you in all exigencies. 3.
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 259
DIRECTION XIII.
When the work is over, take heed to your spirit. And,
First, Beware of spiritual pride. Do not value yourself upon the account of the
work done, as they did who said, “Wherefore have we fasted, and thou seest not?”
Isa. lviii. 3. The opinion of the merit of good works, is what the heart of man
easily goes off into, by its natural bias: and there is so much of the old man in the
best, that they are apt to think highly of their religious performances and services. .
Wherefore be on your guard, particularly on that side; and consider the perfection
required by the holy law, and keep in view your own mismanagements, so as when
you shall have done all those things, you may be obliged to say, “We are unpro-
fitable servants,” Luke xvii. 10. -
Secondly, Beware of carnal security. Saints sometimes fall asleep quickly after a
full meal of spiritual enjoyment ; as it fared with the spouse, Cant. v. 1, 2. And
Satan, watching the advantage, rallies his scattered forces, and with his wounded
men burns the city. So it comes to pass, that, according to Solomon's observe,
Prov. xii. 27, “The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting.”
What was gathered with much pains is lost through unwatchfulness, ere he gets
the use of it.
Lastly, Beware of forgetting the causes of your fast: but in your ordinary
addresses to God, remember them; and wait on for an answer; Psal. v. 3, “I will
direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Prayers may be accepted, and yet
not presently answered. In which case, it is necessary that with patience we wait
for a return from heaven, meanwhile using the appointed means for obtaining the
end. The neglecting hereof may provoke the Lord to continue the symptoms of
his anger, or stroke of his hand, which otherwise might sooner be removed; and to
leave one perplexed and embarrassed, in matters wherein light is needed.
But in your waiting for light, whatever the Sovereign Lord may do, do not you
look for impressions, far less for voices, nor extraordinary revelation in any manner
of way, to discover your duty in particular cases, 2 Pet. i. 18, 19. But, having
laid yourself fairly open to the divine determination, and made humble and earnest
supplication unto God for light in your particular case, believe that you shall be
guided, taught, and directed by him, according to his promise, Psal. xxv. 9; Prov.
iii. 6. And then, in dependence on the Lord, weigh the matter and circumstantiate
case in the balance of sanctified reason, according to the general directions of the
word, such as Philippians iv. 8, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and
if there be any praise, think on these things.” And carefully observe the conduct
and motions of providence, with reference to it, still comparing them with the
word. And you will find that he will guide you with his eye, according to the
promise, Psal. xxxii. 8. And with respect thereto, you may put up that petition
unto him in faith, Psal. lxxxvi. 17, “Show me a token for good.”
Thus far of personal fasting and humiliation.
CHAPTER III.
OF FAMILY FASTING AND HUMILIATION IN PARTICULAR.
WHEREIN the substance of this duty, which is the same in all religious fasts what-
soever, doth consist, is already declared. And there being many things common to
family fasts with personal ones, of which we have treated at large; it remains only
to add here some few things peculiar to Family fasting. And,
260 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
First, As to the divine warrant for it, one may be satisfied upon these grounds.
1. Forasmuch as every Christian family ought to be a church, (Rom. xvi. 5,) to
receive all ordinances appointed of God, and competent to them in their family
capacity; and that religious fasting is an ordinance of divine appointment, in the
nature whereof there is nothing to hinder its being performed by a family in their
family capacity, it is evident that family fasting and humiliation is a part of family
worship ; namely, an extraordinary part thereof, to be occasionally performed.
Accordingly it is promised, as an effect of the pouring out of the Spirit, Zech. xii.
12, “The land shall mourn, every family apart.” We have also a plain instance
of it in Esther's family, on the occasion of the mischievous decree against the
Jews procured by Haman; Esther iv.16, “I also and my maidens will fast likewise.”
And the fasting of the Jews on the same occasion, in every province whithersoever
that decree came, mentioned verse 3, seems to have been mostly, if not altogether,
of the same kind, to wit, family fasting ; not only in respect of their circumstances
in those provinces where they were dispersed, chap. iii. 8, but also, that the thanks-
giving for their deliverance was appointed to be “kept throughout every family,”
chap. ix. 28. s *-
2. The ground upon which the duty of fasting and humiliation is bound upon pub-
lic worshipping Societies and upon particular persons, takes place also in the case
of families. If national, congregational, and personal sins to be mourned over,
judgments to be deprecated, and mercies to be sought, do found a call to a nation,
congregation, or person, respectively, to humble themselves with fasting ; can there
be any reason assigned, why the same should not hold in like manner in the case
of families 2 Surely, as there are times wherein it goes ill with a land, or with a
particular congregation, or person, so there are times wherein it goes evil with
one's house, (1 Chron. vii. 23,) in respect of special family sins or strokes, and in
which there are special family mercies needed. And families are obliged to the
using of the same appointed means for getting rid of the one, and obtaining the
other, as other worshipping societies and particular persons are, in their respective
cases. And where the concern of members of a family is common, although it be
not equal, all of them ought, in reason, to take part of the burden.
Lastly, The promise made to joint prayers hath weight here ; Matt. xviii. 19,
“If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall
be done for them of my Father which is in heaven;” verse 20, “For where- two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” It
is certain there is such a thing as extraordinary prayer, which hath a share in the
benefit of this promise : and if the Lord is pleased to lay such a weight on some of
his people, their agreeing together to ask a thing of him, or their sounding together,
as the word properly signifies ; it is not to be doubted, but extraordinary prayer in
families, upon some special occasions, is both required by him, and acceptable unto
him through Jesus Christ his Son.
Secondly, As for a providential call to family fasting and humiliation : by what
is said before, for clearing of one's call to personal fasting, it may be judged of and
discerned ; the circumstances of the family being duly considered, and what the
conduct of providence towards it appears to point unto. The case of others in whom
the family hath a particular concern, especially the case of the church, may found a
call to family fasting, as is clear from the practice of Esther with her maids, Esth.
iv. 16. And so may the private case of the family itself; whether in respect to
family sins, family strokes threatened or inflicted, or some special family mercies
to be desired. And since the exemplification of these general heads, in one's pri-
vate case, made in the second section of the foregoing chapter, may, without diffi-
culty, be accommodated to the case of one's family, by persons of the meanest capa-
city disposed to consider them, it is not necessary here to descend to particulars
again. -
Lastly, For directions towards family fasting, there are but few that need to be
added unto those given before in the case of personal fasting. It is plain, from
the nature of the thing, that the external ordering and management of this matter
belongs to the head of the family; and he or she is discreetly to choose and appoint
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 261
the time and place, wherein the family may perform the duty with least disturbance:
and to see that all be done decently and in order. And,
1. Let the head of the family, some competent time, at least the night before,
give notice to them, that such a time is set apart for, and to be spent in, that exer-
cise ; and withal show them the causes of it, and exhort them to stir up themselves
to the duties of such a solemn approach unto God. Common prudence will direct,
as well as Christian duty doth oblige, the husband to consult his wife aforehand,
as to the fixing of the time to be set apart in the family for that extraordinary
piece of devotion. -
2. In the morning, let each member of the family go apart by himself into some
secret place, and there spend some time in reviewing, confessing, covenanting,
praying, and supplicating, as directed in the case of personal fasting, so far as he
can overtake them. The more conscientiously this secret work is managed, it
will readily fare the better with the family, when met together.
3. Let the head of the family, having taken to himself, and allowed to them a
competent time for their extraordinary secret devotions, thereafter call them to-
gether. And the family being convened, he may again, if need be, lay before
them the causes of their fast, with suitable exhortations and encouragements for
exciting them unto the duty. And, after calling on God for the aid of his Holy
Spirit, let him sing with them some psalm or part of a psalm, suitable to such an
occasion, such as Psalm lxxx. 1, and downwards; Psalm xxxix. 6, to the end;
Psalm li. 1, and downwards; read before them some pertinent passage of scrip-
ture, such as those mentioned in the sixth Direction of the preceding chapter, and
then pray with them. After prayer made by the head of the family, let the mis-
tress of the family, and such others as he judgeth fit, pray one after another. It
is very desirable that each member of the family, being through grace fit to be
employed, do take a part in that work. In the intervals of prayer, there may be
singing, reading, or conference, as may be found most expedient.
4. It is fit that, in these prayers, there be extraordinary confession of sin, as
particular as may be expedient; together with profession of repentance, and hearty
sorrow for sin, and of unfeigned desire to return unto God, and unto the duties of
a Christian life : and then, fervent and earnest supplications, upon the matters
that are the peculiar causes of the fast.
5. It is proper that the concluding prayer be made by the head of the family, and
that therein he resume the confessions, professions, and supplications on the matters
of the fast; humbly acknowledge their failures in the management of the work; and
profess their looking for pardon and acceptance through the blood of Jesus Christ
alone, and also for grace to walk in the ways of new obedience, through the same
atoning blood. Then the joint exercise may be closed with singing some part of
a psalm, such as Psalm Xc. 13, to the end; Psalm lxxxv. 6, to the end; or Psalm
lxix. 30, and downward. - *
Lastly, The joint exercise of the family being over, let each of them go apart
by himself again, and spend some time in a review of what they have been employed
in, and in secret prayer : the which is but a suitable conclusion to such solemn
work. And family reformation ought to follow hereupon ; every member of the
family watching over himself, and all of them watching one over another: that by
their holy walking, in peace and unity, and a conscientious performance of their
relative duties, it may appear that they have been sincere and upright before the
Lord in their fast. -
THE CONCLUSION.
And now, to recommend the practice of these duties to persons and families,
these five things are offered in favour thereof; namely, that the practice of them
262 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING
is a proper means,—(1) To bring strangers to religion acquainted with it; (2) To
recover backsliders; (3.) To prevent relapses; (4.) To prepare for a time of trial;
and lastly, To get matters clear for eternity.
First, The practice of personal and family fasting and humiliation, is a proper
means to bring strangers to religion acquainted with it ; that those who have not
yet dipt into practical religion may begin to enter into it. The work of conver-
sion unto God begins at solemn serious consideration of one's own spiritual state
and case: the which, if sinners could once be brought unto, there would be some
hope of them, as of the prodigal, when “he came to himself,” Luke xv. 17. And
if they would set themselves to the duty of personal fasting, and masters of
families would now and then use family fasts, they might at length be brought to
consider of their spiritual state and case. Wherefore,
1. Ye who are young, and have not yet dipt into the heart of religion, this Me-
morial is for you. It is presumed ye were baptized in your infancy, and that now
ye are come to the years of discretion: but have you ever, as yet, taken a solemn
deliberate view of your lost and undone state by nature, under sin and the curse ;
and of the remedy provided for you in Jesus Christ? And have you ever, as yet,
personally entered into covenant with God, by taking hold of his covenant of grace 2
You eat, you drink, you sleep, you work, you play or divert yourselves; and so do
young beasts too, the which, when they are dead, are done: but you have an im-
mortal soul, that must eternally live happy in heaven, or miserable in hell. It
may be, you say your prayers too : but have you, as yet, personally renounced the
devil, the vain world, and the flesh 2 You cannot but see that death seizeth
some as young and sprightly as you are ; and you know not how soon God may call
you off: have you then laid your measures for eternity ? Alas! you are heed-
lessly running about the devil's trap, playing yourselves about the pit's mouth ; and
should your foot slip now, you are undone for ever. “Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, Consider your ways.”
2. Careless sinners, careless about the concerns of the other world, whatever your
age or years be, this Memorial is for you. “Ye careless ones, strip ye, and make
ye bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins,” Isa. xxxii. 11. What is your reli-
gion ? Is it not like the foam on the water, no substance in it 2 What is your life
and conversation ? See your own picture, Jer. ii. 24, “A wild ass used to the wil-
derness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure.” What condition is your soul
in 2 The emblem of it is the sluggard’s vineyard, “all grown over with thorns,
nettles covering the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof broken down,” Prov.
xxiv, 30, 31. Can you really persuade yourselves that you are “going forth by
the footsteps of the flock º’ that the saints now in glory took the sinful liberty of
thinking, speaking, and acting, that you do? that their soul's state and case cost
them as few serious thoughts as yours have cost you? Do you think to stumble on
a saving interesfin Christ, a pardon, a heaven? No, you will not find it so. Up
then, and be doing : Set apart some time for considering of, and doing something
effectually in your Soul's case ; that you may go to the ground of the matter, and
get it rectified.
Secondly, It is a proper means for the recovery of backsliders, that they may
“remember whence they are fallen, and repent, and do the first works,” Rev. ii. 5.
There are not a few, who sometime a-day blossomed fair, in hopeful beginnings of
religion, who are now withered. Their bones are dried, and there is no sap of that
kind in them now ; and by their sinning against light, they have provoked God to
depart from them, so as there is no sap in ordinances, nor in providences, to them,
neither ; but these are all, as it were, blasted to them, and they are left in the un-
happy case of the vineyard, Isa. v. 6, “I will also command the clouds that they
rain no rain upon it.” And some are not only withered, but are become noisome
in their life and conversation: they have not only lost any life of religion they
sometimes seemed to have, but their lusts are become rampant in them, as given
up to vile affections, defiling the very outward man. “It has happened unto them
according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the
sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire,” 2 Peter ii. 22. -
O backsliders, your case is a fearful one ; Heb. x. 38, “If any man draw back,
PERSONAL AND FAMILY FASTING. 263
my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” What mind ye to do with it? Will ye
continue in it, to your eternal ruin? 'Oh! no, pity your own souls. There is “hope
in Israel concerning this thing,” bad as it is. Perhaps your hearts tell you, that
your case is now gone on too far to be mended; but it is not so : that is but a
Satanical suggestion. God's word says otherwise; Jer. iii. 1, “Though thou hast
played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord :''
Isaiah liv. 6, “I have called thee as a wife of youth, when thou wast refused,
saith thy God.” Wherefore, O backslider, bestir thyself to answer the Lord's call,
and remember that some devils “go not out but by prayer and fasting,” Matt. xvii.
21. Try this method, then, for your recovery: try it, as you would not be guilty
of wilful dying of your disease. Our heavenly Father kindly meets returning pro-
digals: the returning backslider will be treated by him as a “dear son, a pleasant
child,” Jer. xxxi. 20. Return ye, then, and “he will restore to you the years that
the locust hath eaten,” Joel ii. 25. And as yet, “ your bones shall flourish like an
herb,” Isaiah lxvi. 14.
Thirdly, It is a proper means to prevent relapses, and to keep one's spiritual
case right, when once it is right. Frequent stating of accounts keeps matters clear,
which otherwise might come to be perplexed and involved. And the case which,
being on the decline, is taken in time, is easily righted, in comparison of that which
has long run on ; even as, when Christ raised to life the young man of Nain, whom
they were, carrying out to the grave, he only touched the bier, and said, “Young
man, I say unto thee, Arise,” Luke vii. 14. But he wept and groaned once and
again at the raising of Lazarus, who had been four days dead, John xi. 33, 35, 38.
The unhealthy and sickly disposition of the souls of men, by reason of the remains
of corruption that are always in the best while here, makes the occasional per-
formance of extraordinary duties now and then necessary, over and above the course
of their ordinary and stated devotions.
Fourthly, It is a proper means of preparation for a time of trial. It is a piece
of Christian prudence to “foresee the evil and hide one's self,” while “the simple
pass on, and are punished,” Prov. xxii. 3. When God is threatening a land with
his judgments, it becomes the inhabitants to take the alarm, and prepare to meet
their God: and personal and family fasts are proper expedients for that end; since
they who, in sinning times, “sigh and cry for all the abominations done in the midst
thereof,” stand fair to receive the mark for special favour in suffering times, Ezek.
ix. 4. For all the lesser strokes and deliverances these nations have met with of
late years, it is, alas! visible to Sober men of whatever denomination, that we are
not thereby reformed, nor duly convinced of, far less humbled under the causes of
God’s flaming controversy with us. And while there is a God to judge on the
carth, we can have no reason to think that a generation chargeable with the guilt
which we are chargeable with, is in Safety with such a load upon them ; but that
either God will, by an unordinary pouring out of his Spirit, awaken, humble, and
make the land to mourn, or else, by some rousing stroke of judgment, will vindi-
cate his own honour, injured to a pitch that our fathers arrived not at. And the
less appearance there is of the former, there is the greater appearance of the lat-
ter. However, we seem to have no such security against it, as to render it un-
seasonable to keep personal and family fasts in that view ; that we may mourn over
our own sins, and the sins of the nations, and may solemnly commit ourselves and
our families to the divine grace, mercy, and protection, whatever may be the occur-
rences of Providence in our day. None know what dark steps may be between
them and the grave; and, therefore, it cannot be an unwise course timely to take
God in Christ for our guide through the mountains of darkness, for our protector
in all dangers, and for our supporter and helper in the midst of trouble.
Lastly, It is a proper means to get matters clear for eternity, and so to make us
a safe and comfortable passage out of this world. It was David's unspeakable com-
fort on his death-bed, that he could say of the God unto whom his spirit was about
to return, “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant,” 2 Samuel xxiii. 5.
Jacob, being an old man, and a-dying, comfortably reflected on the place and time,
where and when, in the days of his youth, he had remarkable communion with
God, received the blessing, and vowed the vow ; Gen. xlviii. 3, with chapter xxviii.
264 A MEMORIAL CONCERNING FASTING.
10–22. . Would one be in a condition to look death in the face, to pass safely
and comfortably to the other world, there is not a more feasible means to reach it
than this. Therefore,
1. Ye who are under doubts and fears, complaining that ye can never reach
clear evidences for heaven, this Memorial is for you, No wonder they walk in the
dark, who will not be at so much pains to get light into their state. The obtaining
of such light might of itself be a sufficient ground for such an exercise. Clear
evidences for heaven are such an unspeakable comfort, and so hard to raise up
amidst so much corruption of heart and life, that it is not at all strange they require
something beyond the ordinary course of devotion and application, to obtain the
same. And this is a most feasible means fore that purpose: for after one has got
his soul humbled by a review of his sins, hath poured out his heart before the Lord
in solemn confession of sin, and personally entered into, or renewed, covenant with
God, by taking hold of God's covenant of grace; if he shall then take the matter
in hand, and examine himself as to the evidences of Saving grace in him, they will
then be as likely to appear clearly as ever.
2. Ye who are, one way or other, getting warnings of approaching death, this
Memorial is for you, Do you observe your equals in years, or younger than you,
carried off by death? Have you been at any time rescued from imminent danger
of your life, arising from some accident, or unforeseen occurrence 2 Are ye now
and then visited with sickness? Do you perceive your strength begin to fail, the
pins of your tabernacle begin to be loosened? These and the like are loud provi-
dential calls to you to prepare for the other world. And preparation for that world
is sufficient to found a call unto such extraordinary devotion: a prospect of approach-
ing death may well be allowed to call one to set some time apart, in order to pre-
pare for it. Preparation for death is work to be done in time of health : and why
should it be delayed, since you see that death is approaching? How unreasonable
is it for men to leave that work to the sick-bed, where they will have enough ado
to die, or may be deprived of their judgment, if they do at all get a sick-bed, and
be not suddenly snatched away ere they or their friends are aware l No, Sirs; ye
know that death is coming: therefore, while ye are able, set some time apart for
that very end, to prepare for it, and to state matters clearly for eternity: otherwise
ye are cruel to your own souls; by your negligence, making of death a leap in the
dark into the other world.
Lastly, All, without exception, who believe a heaven and a hell, this Memorial
is for you. The eternal state is not a matter to venture upon at random. If you
do really believe a life to come, ye cannot reasonably think that this is too much
to make a suitable preparation for it. Their hearts are certainly more stout than
holy, who, amidst so many instances of mortality as the world is still affording,
are not thereby excited to set their own soul's case in order, with an eye to death's
coming about to their own door: and thus to set some time apart for that end, is
little enough in a case of such vast importance,
THE
CROOK IN THE LOT:
OR, THE
SOVEREIGNTY AND WISDOM OF GOD IN THE
AFFLICTIONS OF MEN DISPLAYED ;
TOGETHER WITH
A C H R IS TI A N D EP OR T ME N T UN DER THE M.
BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF SEVERAL SERMONS ON
EccL. vii. 13; PRov. xvi. 19; AND 1 PET. v. 6.
T H E C R O 0 K IN T H E L O T.
ECCLEs. vii. 13.
“Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which he hath
made crooked?”
A JUST view of afflicting incidents is altogether necessary to a Christian deport-
ment under them : and that view is to be obtained only by faith, not by sense.
For it is the light of the word alone that represents them justly, discovering in
them the work of God, and consequently designs becoming the divine perfections.
These perceived by the eye of faith, and duly considered, one has a just view of
afflicting incidents, fitted to quell the turbulent motions of corrupt affections under
dismal outward appearances. *
It is under this view that Solomon, in the preceding part of this chapter, advances
several paradoxes, which are surprising determinations in favour of certain things,
that, to the eye of sense looking gloomy and hideous, are therefore generally re-
puted grievous and shocking. He pronounceth “the day of one's death to be better
than the day of his birth;” namely, the day of the death of one, who, having become
the friend of God through faith, hath led a life to the honour of God, and service
of his generation, and thereby raised to himself the good and savoury “name better
than precious ointment,” ver, 1. In like manner, he pronounceth “the house of
mourning” to be preferable to “the house of feasting, sorrow to laughter, and a
wise man's rebuke to a fool's song;” for that, howbeit the latter are indeed the
more pleasant, yet the former are the more profitable, ver, 2–5. And observing
with concern, how men are in hazard, not only from the world's frowns and ill
usage, “oppression making a wise man mad,” but also from its smiles and caresses—
“a gift destroyeth the heart”—therefore, since whatever way it goes there is dan-
ger, he pronounceth the “end of every” worldly “thing better than the begin-
ning thereof,” ver. 7, 8. And from the whole he justly infers, that it is better to
be humble and patient, than proud and impatient, under afflicting dispensations;
since, in the former case, one wisely submits to what is really best ; in the latter,
he fights against it, ver. 8. And he dehorts from being angry with our lot because
of the adversity found therein, ver, 9; cautions against making odious comparisons
of former and present times, in that point insinuating undue reflections on the pro-
vidence of God, ver. 10; and against that querulous and fretful disposition he first
prescribes a general remedy, namely, holy wisdom, as that which enables one to
make the best of every thing, and even giveth life in killing circumstances, ver, 11,
12; and then a particular remedy, consisting in a due application of that wisdom
towards the taking a just view of the case: “Consider the work of God: for who
can make that straight which he hath made crooked ?”
In which words is proposed, (1.) The remedy itself; (2.) The suitableness thereof.
First, The remedy itself is a wise eyeing of the hand of God in all we find to
bear hard upon us: “Consider the work,” or, See thou the doing, “of God,” viz. in
the crooked, rough, and disagreeable parts of thy lot, the crosses thou findest in it.
Thou seest very well the cross itself; yea, thou turnest it over and over in thy
268 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
mind, and leisurely viewest it on all sides; thou lookest withal to this and the other
second cause of it, and so thou art in a foam and a fret: but wouldest thou be
quieted and satisfied in the matter, lift up thine eyes towards heaven, see the doing
of God in it, the operation of his hand; look at that, and consider it well; eye
the first cause of the crook in thy lot; behold how it is the work of God, his doing.
Secondly, As for the suitableness of this remedy, that view of the crook in our
lot is very suitable to still indecent risings of heart, and quiet us under it: “For
who can” (that is, none can) “make that straight which God hath made crooked ?”
As to the crook in thy lot, God hath made it, and it must continue while he will have
it so. Shouldest thou ply thine utmost force to even it, or “make it straight,”
thine attempt will be in vain : it will not alter for all thou canst do ; only he who
made it can mend it, or “make it straight.” This consideration, this view of the
matter, is a proper means at once to silence and to satisfy men, and so to bring
them into a dutiful submission to their Maker and Governor, under the crook in
their lot.
Now, we take up the purpose of the text in these three doctrines.
DocT. I. Whatsoever crook there is in one's lot, it is of God’s making.
DocT. II. What God sees meet to mar, one will not be able to mend in his lot.
DocT. III. The considering of the crook in the lot, as the work of God, or of
his making, is a proper means to bring one to a Christian deportment under it.
DoCT. I. Whatsoever crook there is in one's lot, it is of God's making.
Here are two things fall to be considered, namely, the crook itself, and God's
making of it.
I. As to the crook itself, the crook in the lot ; for the better understanding
thereof, these few things that follow are premised.
1. There is a certain train or course of events, by the providence of God, fall-
ing to every one of us during our life in this world; and that issour lot, being al-
lotted to us by the sovereign God, our Creator and Governor, “in whose hand our
breath is, and whose are all our ways.” This train of events is widely different to
different persons, according to the will and pleasure of the sovereign manager, who
ordereth men's conditions in the world in a great variety, some moving in a higher,
some in a lower sphere. -
2. In that train or course of events, some fall out cross to us, and against the
grain ; and these make the crook in our lot. While we are here, there will be
cross events, as well as agreeable ones, in our lot and condition. Sometimes things
are softly and agreeably gliding on ; but, by and by, there is some incident which
alters that course, grates us, and pains us, as when, having made a wrong step, we
begin to halt.
3. Every body's lot in this world hath some crook in it. Complainers are apt
to make curious comparisons: they look about, and taking a distant view of the
condition of others, can discern nothing in it but what is straight, and just to
one's wish ; so they pronounce their neighbour's lot wholly straight. But that
is a false verdict: there is no perfection here ; no lot out of heaven without a
crook. For, as to “all the works that are done under the sun, behold all is
vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight,”
Eccl. i. 14, 15. Who would have thought but Haman's lot was very straight,
while his family was in a flourishing condition, and he prospering in riches and
honour, being prime minister of state in the Persian court, and standing high
in the king's favour? Yet there was at the same time a crook in his lot, which
so galled him, that “all this availed him nothing,” Esth. v., 13. Every one
feels for himself where he is pinched, though others perceive it not. Nobody's
lot in this world is wholly crooked; there are always some straight and even parts
in it. Indeed, when men's passions, having got up, have cast a mist over their
minds, they are ready to say, all is wrong with them, nothing right; but though in
hell that tale is, and ever will be true, yet it is never true in this world ; for there,
indeed, there is not a drop of comfort allowed, (Luke xvi. 25,) but here it always
holds good, that “it is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed,” Lam, iii. 22.
4. The crook in the lot came into the world by sin, it is owing to the fall; Rom.
v. 12, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;” under which
THE CROOK IN THE I, OT. 269
death, the crook in the lot is comprehended, as a state of comfort or prosperity is,
in scripture style, expressed by living, 1 Sam. xxv. 6; John iv. 50, 51. Sin so
bowed the hearts and minds of men, as they became crooked in respect of the holy
law; and God justly so bowed their lot, as it became crooked too. And this crook
in our lot inseparably follows our sinful condition, till, dropping this body of sin
and death, we get within heaven's gates.
These being premised, a crook in the lot speaks, in the general, two things, (1.)
Adversity ; (2) Continuance. Accordingly it makes a “day of adversity,” opposed
to “the day of prosperity,” in the verse immediately following the text.
The crook in the lot is, first, some one or other piece of adversity. The prosper-
ous part of one's lot, which goes forward according to one's wish, is the straight
and even part of it; the adverse part, going a contrary way, is the crooked part
thereof. God hath intermixed these two in men's condition in this world ; that,
as there is some prosperity therein, making the straight line, so there is also some
adversity, making the crooked. The which mixture hath place, not only in the lot
of saints, who are told, that “in the world they shall have tribulation,” but even
in the lot of all, as already observed. Secondly, it is adversity of some continu-
ance. We do not reckon it a crooked thing which, though forcibly bended and
bowed together, yet presently recovers its former straightness. These are twinges
of the rod of adversity, which, passing like a stitch in one's side, all is immediately
set to rights again: one’s lot may be suddenly overclouded, and the cloud evanish
ere he is aware. But under the crook, one, having leisure to find his smart, is in
some concern to get the crook evened. So the crook in the lot is adversity, con-
tinued for shorter or longer time.
Now, there is a threefold crook in the lot incident to the children of men.
First, One made by a cross dispensation, which, howsoever in itself passing, yet
hath lasting effects. Such a crook did Herod's cruelty make in the lot of the mothers
in Bethlehem, who by the murderers were left “weeping for their” slain “children,
and would not be comforted, because they were not,” Matt. ii. 18. A slip of the
foot may soon be made, which will make a man go halting all along after. “As
the fishes are taken in an evil net, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time,”
Eccl. ix. 12. The thing may fall out in a moment under which the party shall go
halting to the grave.
Secondly, There is a crook made by a train of cross dispensations, whether of the
same or different kinds, following hard one upon another, and leaving lasting effects
behind them. Thus in the case of Job, while one messenger of evil tidings “ was yet
speaking, another came,” Job i. 16–18. Cross events coming, one upon the
neck of another, “deep calling unto deep,” make a sore crook. In that case, the
party is like unto one who, recovering his sliding foot from one infirm piece of
ground, sets it on another equally unfirm, which immediately gives way under him
too ; or like unto one who, travelling in an unknown mountainous tract, after hav-
ing with difficulty made his way over one mountain, is expecting to see the plain
country, but instead thereof there comes in view, time after time, a new mountain
to be passed. This crook in Asaph's lot had like to have made him give up all his
religion, until he went into the sanctuary, where this mystery of providence was
unriddled to him, Psal. lxxiii. 13–17. Solomon observes, that “there be just
men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked,” Eccl. viii. 14;
Providence taking a run against them, as if they were to be run down for good and
all. Whoever they be whose life in no part thereof affords them experience of
this, sure Joseph missed not of it in his young days, nor Jacob in his middle days,
nor Peter in his old days, nor our Saviour all his days. -
Thirdly, There is a crook made by one cross dispensation, with lasting effects there-
of, coming in the room of another removed. Thus one crook straightened, there is
another made in its place ; and so there is still a crook. Want of children had
long been the crook in Rachel's lot, Gen. xxx. 1. That was at length evened to
her mind; but then she got another in its stead, hard labour in travailing to bring
forth, chap. xxxv. 16. This world is a wilderness, in which we may indeed get our
station changed ; but the remove will be out of one wilderness station to another.
When one part of the lot is evened, readily some other part thereof will be crooked.
270 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
More particularly, the crook in the lot hath in it four things of the nature of
that which is crooked. - - - * ſº
1. Disagreeableness. A crooked thing is wayward ; and being laid to a rule,
answers it not, but declines from it. There is not in any body's lot any such thing
as a crook in respect of the will and purpose of God. Take the most harsh and
dismal dispensation in one's lot, and lay it to the eternal decree made in the depth
of infinite wisdom before the world began, and it will answer it exactly, without the
least deviation, “all things being wrought after the counsel of his will,” Eph. i.
11. Lay it to the providential will of God in the government of the world, and
there is a perfect harmony. If Paul is to be bound at Jerusalem, and “delivered
into the hands of the Gentiles,” it is “the will of the Lord” it should be so, Acts
xxi. 11–14. Wherefore, the greatest crook of the lot on earth is straight in
heaven ; there is no disagreeableness in it there. But in every person's lot there
is a crook in respect of their mind and natural inclination. The adverse dispensa-
tion lies cross to that rule, and will by no means answer it, nor harmonize with it.
When divine providence lays the one to the other there is a manifest disagreeable-
ness : the man's will goes one way, and the dispensation another way; the will
bends upward, the cross events press down: so they are contrary. And there, and
only there, lies the crook. It is this disagreeableness which makes the crook in the
lot fit matter of trial and exercise to us in this our state of probation: in the which,
if thou wouldst approve thyself to God, walking by faith, not by sight, thou must
quiet thyself in the will and purpose of God, and not insist that it should “be ac-
cording to thy mind,” Job xxxiv. 33. -
2. Unsightliness. Crooked things are unpleasant to the eye : and no crook in
the lot “seemeth to be joyous but grievous,” making up an unsightly appearance,
Heb. xii. 11. Therefore men need to beware of giving way to their thoughts, to
dwell on the crook in their lot, and of keeping it too much in view. David shows
a hurtful experience of his, in that kind; Psal. xxxix. 3, “While I was musing the
fire burned.” Jacob acted a wiser part, called his youngest son Benjamin, the son
of the right.hand, whom the dying mother had named Benoni, the son of my sor-
row; by this means providing, that the crook in his lot should not be set afresh in
his view, on every occasion of mentioning the name of his son. Indeed, a Chris-
tian may safely take a steady and leisurely view of the crook of his lot in the light
of the holy word, which represents it as the discipline of the covenant. So faith
will discover a hidden sightliness in it, under a very unsightly outward appearance;
perceiving the suitableness thereof to the infinite goodness, love, and wisdom of
God, and to the real and most valuable interest of the party : by which means one
comes to take pleasure, and that a most refined pleasure, in distress, 2 Cor. xii. 10.
But whatever crook in the lot be to the eye of faith, it is not at all pleasing to the
eye of sense.
3. Unfitness for motion, Solomon observes the cause of the uneasy and un-
graceful walking of the lame; Prov. xxvi. 7, “The legs of the lame are not equal.”
This uneasiness they find who are exercised about the crook in their lot; a high
spirit and a low adverse lot, makes great difficulty in the Christian walk. There
is nothing that gives temptation more easy access than the crook in the lot ; no-
thing more apt to occasion out-of-the-way steps. Therefore Saith the apostle,
Heb. xii. 13, “Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way.” They are to be pitied, then, who are labouring under it, and not
to be rigidly censured ; though they are rare persons who learn this lesson, till
taught by their own experience. It is long since Job made an observe in this case,
which holds good unto this day; Job xii. 5, “He that is ready to slip with his feet
is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.”
4. Aptness to catch hold and entangle, like hooks, fish-hooks, Amos iv. 2.
The crook in the lot doth so very readily make impression, to the ruffling and fret-
ting of one's spirit, irritating corruption, that Satan fails not to make diligent use
of it to these dangerous purposes; the which point once gained by the tempter, the
tempted, ere he is aware, finds himself entangled as in a thicket, out of which he
knows not how to extricate himself. In that temptation it often proves like a
crooked stick troubling a standing pool, the which not only raiseth up the mud all
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. - 27 1
over, but brings up from the bottom some very ugly thing. Thus it brought up a
spice of blasphemy and atheism in Asaph's case; Psal. lxxiii. 13, “Verily I have
cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.” As if he had said,
There is nothing at all in religion, it is a vain and empty thing that profiteth nothing;
I was a fool to have been in care about purity and holiness, whether of heart or
life. Ah! is this the pious Asaph ; How is he turned so quite unlike himself
But the crook in the lot is the handle whereby the tempter makes surprising dis-
coveries of latent corruption even in the best.
This is the nature of the crook in the lot; let us now observe what part of the
lot it falls in. And, in the general, three conclusions may be established on this
head. -
First, It may fall in any part of the lot: there is no exempted one in the case ;
for, sin being found in every part, the crook may take place in any part. Being
“all as an unclean thing,” we may all “fade as a leaf,” Isa. lxiv. 6. The main
stream of sin, which the crook readily follows, runs in very different channels, in
the case of different persons. And in regard of the various dispositions of the minds
of men, that will prove a sinking weight unto one, which another would go very
lightly under.
Secondly, It may at once fall in many parts of the lot; the Lord “calling, as in a
solemn day, one's terrors round about,” Lam. ii. 22. Sometimes God makes one
notable crook in a man's lot ; but its name may be Gad, being but the forerunner
of a troop which cometh. Then the crooks are multiplied, so that the party is
made to halt on each side. While one stream, let in from one quarter, is running
full against him, another is let in on him from another quarter, till in the end the
waters break in on every hand. - -
Thirdly, It often falls on the tender part; I mean, that part of the lot wherein one is
the least able to bear it, or at least thinks he is so ; Psal. lv. 12, 13, “It was
not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. But it was thou, a
man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.” If there is any one part of
the lot which, of all others, one is disposed to nestle in, the thorn will readily be laid
there, especially if he belongs to God; in that thing wherein he is least of all able
to be touched, he will be sure to be pressed. There the trial will be taken of him;
for there is the grand competition with Christ. “I take from them the desires of
their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds,” Ezek. xxiv. 25. Since the
crook in the lot is the special trial appointed for every one, it is altogether reason-
able, and becoming the wisdom of God, that it fall on that which, of all things, doth
most rival him.
But more particularly, the crook may be observed to fall on these four parts of
the lot. .
1st, In the natural part, affecting persons considered as of the make allotted
for them by the great God that formed all things. The parents of mankind, Adam
and Eve, were formed altogether sound and entire, without the least blemish, whether
soul or body; but in the formation of their posterity, there often appears a notable
variation from the original. Bodily defects, superfluities, deformities, infirmities,
natural or accidental, make the crook in the lot of some : they have something
unsightly or grievous about them. Crooks of this kind, more or less observable,
are very common and ordinary, the best not exempted from them ; and it is purely
owing to sovereign pleasure they are not more numerous. Tender eyes made the
crook in the lot of Leah, Gen. xxix. 17. Rachel’s beauty was balanced with bar-
renness, the crook in her lot, chap. xxx. 1. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles,
was, it should seem, no personable man, but of a mean outward appearance, for
which fools were apt to contemn him, 2 Cor. x. 10. Timothy was of a crazy frame,
weakly, and sickly, 1 Tim. v. 23. And there is yet a far more considerable crook
in the lot of the lame, the blind, the deaf, and the dumb. Some are weak to a
degree in their intellectuals; and it is the crook in the lot of several bright souls
to be overcast with clouds, notably bemisted and darkened, from the crazy bodies
they are lodged in ; an eminent instance whereof we have in the grave, wise, and
patient Job, “going mourning without the sun,” yea, “standing up and crying in
the congregation,” Job xxx, 28.
272 THE CROOK. IN THE LO'I'.
2dly, It may fall in the honorary part. There is an honour due to all men,
the small as well as the great, 1 Pet. ii. 17 ; and that upon the ground of the
original constitution of human nature, as it was framed in the image of God. But
in the sovereign disposal of holy providence, the crook in the lot of some falls here;
they are neglected and slighted; their credit is still kept low ; they go through
the world under a cloud, being put into an ill name, their reputation sunk. This
sometimes is the native consequence of their own foolish and sinful conduct; as
in the case of Dinah, who, by her gadding abroad to satisfy her youthful curiosity,
regardless of, and therefore not waiting for a providential call, brought a lasting
stain on her honour, Gen. xxxiv. But where the Lord intends a crook of this kind
in one's lot, innocence will not be able to ward it off in an ill-natured world; neither
will true merit be able to make head against it, to make one’s lot stand straight in
that part. Thus David represents his case ; Psal. xxxi. 11—13, “They that did
see me without, fled from me ; I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am
like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many.”
3dly, It may fall in the vocational part. Whatever is men's calling or sta-
tion in the world, be it sacred or civil, the crook in their lot may take its place
therein. Isaiah was an eminent prophet, but most unsuccessful, Isa. liii. 1. Jere-
miah met with such a strain of discouragements and ill usage in the exercise of his
sacred function, that he was well near giving it up, saying, “I will not make men-
tion of him, nor speak any more in his name,” Jer. xx. 9. The Psalmist observes
this crook often to be made in the lot of some men very industrious in their civil
business, who “ sow the fields,” and at times “God blesseth them, and suffereth
not their cattle to decrease.” But, again, “they are minished and brought low
through oppression, affliction, and sorrow,” Psal. cwii. 37–39. Such a crook was
made in Job's lot, after he had long stood even. Some manage their employments
with all care and diligence ; the husbandman carefully labouring his ground; the
sheep-master “diligent to know the state of his flocks, and looking well to his
herds;” the tradesman early and late at his business; the merchant diligently
plying his watching and falling in with the most fair and promising opportunities;
but there is such a crook in that part of their lot, as all they are able to do can by
no means even. For why? the most proper means used for compassing an end
are insignificant, without a word of divine appointment commanding their success.
“Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?”
Lam. iii. 37. People ply their business with skill and industry; but the wind turns in
their face, providence crosseth their enterprises, disconcerts their measures, frustrates
their hopes and expectations, renders their endeavours unsuccessful, and so puts
and keeps them still in straitening circumstances. “So the race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise,” Eccl. ix. 11. Provi-
dence, interposing, crooks the measures which human prudence and industry had laid
straight towards the respective ends: so the swift lose the race, and the strong the
'battle, and the wise miss of bread ; while, in the meantime, some one or other
providential incident supplying the defect of human wisdom, conduct, and ability,
the slow gain the race, and carry the prize; the weak win the battle, and enrich
themselves with the spoil; and the bread falls into the lap of the fool.
Lastly, It may fall in the relational part. Relations are the joints of society;
and there the crook in the lot may take place, one's Smartest pain being often felt
in these joints. They are in their nature the springs of man's comfort; yet they
often turn the greatest bitterness to him. Sometimes this crook is occasioned by
the loss of relations. Thus, a crook was made in the lot of Jacob by means of the
death of Rachel, his beloved wife, and the loss of Joseph, his son and darling, which
had like to have made him go halting to the grave. Job laments this crook in his
lot; chap. xvi. 7, “Thou hast made desolate all my company;” meaning his dear
children, every one of whom he had laid in the grave, not so much as one son or
daughter left him. Again, sometimes it is made through the afflicting hand of
God lying heavy on them; the which, in virtue of the relation, recoils on the party,
as is feelingly expressed by that believing woman ; Matt. xv. 22, “Have mercy on
me, O Lord ; my daughter is grievously vexed.” Ephraim felt the smart of a
course of afflictions, when “he called his son's name Beriah, because it went evil
THE CROOK. IN THE LOT, 273
with his house,” 1 Chron, vii. 23. Since all is not only vanity, but vexation of
spirit, it can hardly miss but, the more of these springs of comfort are opened to
a man, he must, at one time or other, find he has but the more sources of sorrow
to gush out and spring in upon him ; the sorrow always proportioned to the com-
fort found in them, or expected from them. And finally, the crook is sometimes
made by their proving uncomfortable through the disagreeableness of their temper,
disposition, and way. There was a crook in Job's lot, by means of an undutiful,
ill-natured wife, Job xix. 17; in Abigail’s, by means of a surly, ill-tempered hus-
band, 1 Sam. xxv. 25 ; in Eli's, through the perverseness and obstinacy of his
children, chap. ii. 25 ; in Jonathan's, through the furious temper of his father,
chap. xx. 30, 33. So do men oftentimes find their greatest cross where they ex-
pected their greatest comfort. Sin hath unhinged the whole creation, and made
every relation susceptible of the crook. In the family are found masters hard and
unjust, servants froward and unfaithful; in the neighbourhood, men selfish and un-
easy ; in the church, ministers unedifying and offensive in their walk, and people
contemptuous and disorderly, a burden to the spirits of ministers; in the state,
magistrates oppressive and discountenancers of that which is good, and subjects
turbulent and seditious: all these cause crooks in the lot of their relatives. And
thus far of the crook itself.
II. Having seen the crook itself, we are, in the next place, to consider of God's
making it. And here is to be shown, (1.) That it is of God's making; (2.) How it is
of his making ; (3.) Why he makes it.
First, That the crook in the lot, whatever it is, is of God's making, appears from
these three considerations, -
1. It cannot be questioned, but the crook in the lot, considered as the crook,
is a penal evil, whatever it is for the matter thereof; that is, whether the thing in
itself, its immediate cause and occasion, be sinful or not, it is certainly a punish-
ment or affliction. Now, as it may be, as such, holily and justly brought on us by
our Sovereign Lord and Judge, so he expressly claims the doing or making of it;
Amos iii. 6, “Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?”
Therefore, since there can be no penal evil but of God's making, and the crook in
the lot is such an evil, it is necessarily concluded to be of God's making.
2. It is evident, from the scripture doctrine of divine providence, that God.
brings about every man's lot, and all the parts thereof, He sits at the helm
of human affairs, and turns them about whithersoever he listeth: “Whatsoever the
Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and earth, in the seas and all deep places,”
Psal. cxxxv. 6. There is not anything whatsoever befalls us without his overruling
hand. The same providence that brought us out of the womb, bringeth us to, and
fixeth us in, the condition and place allotted for us by him who “ hath determined
the times, and the bounds of our habitation,” Acts xvii. 26. It overrules the
Smallest and most casual thing about us, such as hairs of our head falling on the
ground, Matt. x. 29, 30. A lot cast into the lap, Prov. xvi. 33. Yea, the free acts
of our will, whereby we choose for ourselves; for even “the king's heart is in the
hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water,” Prov. xxi. 1. And the whole steps we
make, and which others make in reference to us; “for the way of man is not in
himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” Jer. x. 23. And this,
whether these steps, causing the crook, be deliberate and sinful ones, such as
Joseph's brethren selling him into Egypt; or whether they be undesigned, such as
man-slaughter purely casual, as when one hewing wood kills his neighbour with
“the head of the axe slipping from the helve,” Deut. xix. 5. For there is a holy
and wise providence that governs the sinful and the heedless acts of men, as a rider
doth a lame horse, of whose halting not he, but the horse's own lameness, is the
true and proper cause ; wherefore, in the former of these cases, God is said to have
sent Joseph into Egypt, Gen. xlv. 7, and in the latter, to deliver one into his
neighbour's hand, Exod. xxi. 13.
Lastly, God hath, by an eternal decree, immoveable as “mountains of brass,”
(Zech. vi. 1,) appointed the whole of every one's lot ; the crooked parts thereof, as
well as the straight. By the same eternal decree, whereby the high and low parts
of the earth, the mountains and the valleys, were appointed, are the heights and
2 M
274 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
depths, the prosperity and adversity, in the lot of the inhabitants thereof deter.
mined ; and they are brought about in time in a perfect agreeableness thereto.
The mystery of providence in the government of the world is, in all the parts
thereof, the building reared up of God, in exact conformity to the plan in his de-
cree “who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,” Eph. i. 11. So
that there is never a crook in one's lot, but may be run up to this original. Here-
of Job piously sets us an example in his own case ; Job xxiii. 13, 14, “He is in
one mind, and who can turn him ? And what his soul desireth, even that he doth.
For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me : and many such things are
with him.” *
Secondly, That we may see how the crook in the lot is of God's making, we
must distinguish between pure sinless crooks, and impure sinful ones.
1. There are pure and sinless crooks, the which are mere afflictions, cleanly
crosses, grievous indeed, but not defiling. Such were Lazarus's poverty, Rachel's
barrenness, Leah’s tender eyes, the blindness of the man who had been so from his
birth, John ix. 1. Now, the crooks of this kind are of God's making, by the effica-
cy of his power directly bringing them to pass, and causing them to be. He is the
Maker of the poor ; Prov. xvii. 5, “Whoso mocketh the poor, reproacheth his
Maker,” that is, “reproacheth God who made him poor,” according to that, 1 Sam.
ii. 7, “The Lord maketh poor.” It is he that hath the key of the womb, and as
he sees meet, shuts it, 1 Sam. i. 5, or opens it, Gen. xxix. 31. And it is “he that
formeth the eye,” Psal. xciv. 9. And the man was “born blind, that the works of
God should be made manifest in him,” John ix. 3. Therefore he saith to Moses,
Exod. iv. 11, “Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind 2 Have.
not I the Lord?”. Such crooks in the lot are of God's making, in the most ample
sense, and in their full comprehension ; being the direct effects of his agency, as
well as the heavens and the earth are.
2. There are impure sinful crooks, which, in their own nature, are sins as
well as afflictions, defiling as well as grievous. Such was the crook made in
David's lot, through his family disorders, the defiling of Tamar, the murder of
Ammon, the rebellion of Absalom, all of them unnatural. Of the same kind was
that made in Job's lot, by the Sabeans and Chaldeans taking away his substance,
and slaying his servants. As these were the afflictions of David and Job respec-
tively, so they were the sins of the actors, the unhappy instruments thereof. Thus
one and the same thing may be, to one a heinous sin, defiling and laying him un-
der guilt, and to another an affliction, laying him under suffering only. Now, the
crooks of this kind are not of God's making in the same latitude as those of the
former : for he neither puts evil in the heart of any, nor stirreth on to it; “he
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man,” James i. 13. But they
are of his making, by his holy permission of them, powerful bounding of them, and
wise overruling of them to some good end.
(1.) He holily permits them, suffering men “to walk in their own ways,” Acts
xiv. 16. Though he is not the author of these sinful crooks, causing them to be
by the efficacy of his power : yet, if he did not permit them, willing not to hinder
them, they could not be at all ; “for he shutteth and no man openeth,” Rev. iii.
7. But he justly withholds his grace, which the sinner doth not desire ; takes off
the restraint under which he is uneasy; and, since the sinner will be gone, lays the
reins on his neck, and leaves him to the swing of his lust; Hos. iv. 17, “Ephraim
is joined to idols: let him alone.” Psal, lxxxi. 11, 12, “Israel would none of me:
So I gave them up to their own hearts' lust.” In which unhappy situation, the
sinful crook doth, from the sinner's own proper motion, natively and infallibly fol-
low ; even as water runs down a hill, wherever there is a gap left open before it.
So in these circumstances, “Israel walked in their own counsels,” ver, 12. And
thus this kind of crook is of God's making, as a just Judge, punishing the sufferer
by it. The which view of the matter silenced David under Shimei's cursings; 2 Sam.
xvi. 10, “Let him alone, and let him curse ; for the Lord hath bidden him.”
(2.) He powerfully bounds them ; Psal. lxxvi. 10, “The remainder of wrath,”
namely, the creature's wrath, “thou shalt restrain.” Did not God bound these
crooks, howsoever Sore they are in any one case, they would be yet sorer: but he
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 27.5
says to the sinful instrument, as he said to the sea, “Hitherto shalt thou come,
but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” He lays a restraining
band on him, that he cannot go one step farther, in the way his impetuous lust
drives, than he sees meet to permit. Hence it comes to pass, that the crook of this
kind is neither more nor less, but just as great as he by his powerful bounding
makes it to be. An eminent instance hereof we have in the case of Job, whose lot
was crooked through a peculiar agency of the devil; but even to that grand sinner,
God set a bound in the case; “The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he
hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand,” Job i. 12. Now,
Satan went the full length of the bound, leaving nothing within the compass there-
of untouched which he saw could make for his purpose, ver. 18, 19. But he
could by no means move one step beyond it, to carry his point, which he could not
gain within it. And therefore, to make the trial greater, and the crook sorer,
nothing remained but that the bound set should be removed, and the sphere of his
agency enlarged; for which cause he saith, “But touch his bone and his flesh,
and he will curse thee to thy face,” chap. ii. 5; and it being removed accordingly,
but withal a new one set ; ver. 6, “Behold he is in thine hand, but save his life;”
the crook was carried to the utmost that the new bound would permit, in a consis-
tency with his design of bringing Job to blaspheme ; “Satan Smote him with sore
boils, from the sole of his foot unto the crown of his head,” ver. 7. And had it
not been for this bound, securing Job's life, he, after finding that successless too,
had doubtless despatched him for good and all.
(3.) He wisely overrules them to some good purpose, becoming the divine perfec-
tions. While the sinful instrument hath an ill design in the crook caused by him,
God directs it to a holy and good end. In the disorders of David's family, Amnon's
design was to gratify a brutish lust; Absalom's to glut himself with revenge, and
to satisfy his pride and ambition; but God meant thereby to punish David for his
sin in the matter of Uriah. In the crook made in Job's lot by Satan, and the
Sabeans and Chaldeans his instruments, Satan's design was to cause Job blaspheme,
and theirs to gratify their covetousness; but God had another design therein be-
coming himself, namely, to manifest Job's sincerity and uprightness. Did not he
wisely and powerfully overrule these crooks made in men's lot, no good could come
out of them : but he always overrules them so as to fulfil his own holy purposes
thereby, howbeit the sinner meaneth not so ; for his designs cannot miscarry, his
“counsel shall stand,” Isa. xlvi. 10. So the sinful crook is, by the overruling
hand of God, turned about to his own glory and the people's good in the end;
according to the word, Prov. xvi. 4, “The Lord hath made all things for himself;
Rom. viii. 28, All things work together for good to them that love God.” Thus
Haman's plot for the destruction of the Jews was turned to the contrary, Esth. ix.
1. And the crook made in Joseph's lot, by his own brethren selling him into Egypt,
though it was on their part most sinful, and of a most mischievous design, yet, as
it was of God's making, by his holy permission, powerful bounding, and wise over-
ruling of it, had an issue well becoming the divine wisdom and goodness: both of
which Joseph noticeth to them, Gen. 1, 20, “As for you, ye thought evil against
me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much
people alive.” - -
Thirdly, It remains to inquire, Why God makes a crook in one's lot? And
this is to be cleared by discovering the design of that dispensation ; a matter which
it concerns every one to know, and carefully to notice, in order to a Christian im-
provement of the crook in their lot. The design thereof seems to be, chiefly,
sevenfold. º
1. The trial of one's state, Whether one is in the state of grace or not 2
whether a sincere Christian, or a hypocrite 2 Though every affliction is trying,
yet here I conceive lies the main providential trial a man is brought upon, with
reference to his state : forasmuch as, the crook in the lot being a matter of a con-
tinued course, one has occasion to open and show himself again and again in the
same thing ; whence it comes to pass, that it ministers ground for a decision in
that momentous point. It was plainly on this bottom that the trial of Job's state
was put. The question was, whether Job was an upright and sincere servant of
276 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
God as God himself testified of him ; or but a mercenary one, a hypocrite, as
Satan alleged against him. And the trial hereof was put upon the crook to be
made in his lot, Job i. 8–12, and ii. 3–6. Accordingly, that which all his friends,
save Elihu the last speaker, did, in their reasoning with him under his trial, aim at,
was to prove him a hypocrite ; Satan thus making use of these good men for gain-
ing his point. As God took trial of Israel in the wilderness, for the land of Ca-
naan, by a train of afflicting dispensations; the which Caleb and Joshua bearing
strenuously, were declared meet to enter the promised land, as having “followed the
Lord fully,” while others being tired out with them, their carcasses fell in the wil-
derness; so he makes trial of men for heaven, by the crook in their lot. If one
can stand that test, he is manifested to be a saint, a sincere servant of God, as Job
was proven to be : if not, he is but a hypocrite ; he cannot stand the test of the
crook in his lot, but goes away like dross in God's furnace. A melancholy instance
of which we have in that man of honour and wealth who, with high pretences of
religion, arising from a principle of moral seriousness, addressed himself to our
Saviour, to know what he should “do that he might inherit eternal life,” Mark x. 17,
21. Our Saviour, to discover the man to himself, makes a crook in his lot, where
all-along before it had stood even ; obliging him, by a probatory command, to sell
and give away all that he had, and follow him ; verse 21, “Sell whatsoever thou
hast, and give to the poor; and come, and take up the cross, and follow me.” Here-
by he was, that moment, in the court of conscience, stripped of his great possessions;
so that thenceforth he could no longer keep them with a good conscience, as he
might have done before. The man instantly felt the smart of this crook made in
his lot : “he was sad at that saying,” verse 22; that is, immediately upon the hear-.
ing of it, being struck with pain, disorder, and confusion of mind, his countenance
changed, became cloudy and lowering, as the same word is used, Matt, xvi. 3. He
could not stand the test of that crook; he could by no means submit his lot to God
in that point, but behoved to have it, at any rate, according to his own mind. So
he “went away grieved, for he had great possessions.” He went away from Christ
back to his plentiful estate, and, though with a pained and sorrowful heart, sat him
down again on it, a violent possessor before the Lord, thwarting the divine order,
And there is no appearance that ever this order was revoked, nor that ever he came
to a better temper in reference thereunto. i.
2, Excitation to duty, weaning one from this world, and prompting him
to look after the happiness of the other world. Many have been beholden to the
crook in their lot, for that ever they came to themselves, settled and turned seri-
ous. Going for a time “like a wild ass used to the wilderness,” Scorning to be
turned, their foot hath slid in due time ; and a crook being hereby made in their
lot, their month hath come wherein they have been caught, Jer. ii. 24. Thus was
the prodigal brought to himself, and obliged to entertain thoughts of returning unto
his father, Luke xv. 17. The crook in their lot convinces them at length that
here is not their rest. Finding still a pricking thorn of uneasinéss, whensoever
they lay down their head where they would fainest take rest in the creature, and
that they are obliged to lift it again, they are brought to conclude there is no hope
from that quarter, and begin to cast about for rest another way, so it makes them
errands to God which they had not before ; forasmuch as they feel a need of the
comforts of the other world, to which their mouths were out of taste, while their
lot stood even to their mind. Wherefore, whatever use we make of the crook in
our lot, the voice of it is, “Arise ye and depart, this is not your rest.” And it is
surely that which, of all means of mortification of the afflictive kind, doth most
deaden a real Christian to this life and world. - *
3. Conviction of sin. As when one, walking heedlessly, is suddenly taken
ill of a lameness; his going halting the rest of his way convinceth him of having
made a wrong step ; and every new painful step brings it afresh to his mind: so
God makes a crook in one's lot, to convince him of some false step he hath made,
or course he hath taken. What the sinner would otherwise be apt to overlook,
forget, or think light of, is by this means recalled to mind, set before him as an
evil and bitter thing, and kept in remembrance, that his heart may every now and
then bleed for it afresh, Thus, by the crook, men's sin finds them out to their
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 277
conviction, “as a thief is ashamed when he is found,” Num. xxxii. 23; Jer. ii. 26.
The which Joseph's brethren do feelingly express, under the crook made in their
lot in Egypt; Gen. xlii. 21, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother ;” chap.
xliv.16, “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.” The crook in the lot
doth usually, in its nature or circumstances, so natively refer to the false step or
course, that it serves for a providential memorial of it, bringing the sin, though of
an old date, fresh to remembrance ; and for a badge of the sinner's folly in word or
deed, to keep it ever before him. When Jacob found Leah, through Laban's unfair
dealing, palmed upon him for Rachel, how could he miss of a stinging remembrance
of the cheat he had seven years at least before put on his own father, pretending
himself to be Esau ? Gen. xxvii. 19. How could it miss of galling him occasion-
ally afterwards during the course of the marriage 2 He had imposed on his father
the younger brother for the elder; and Laban imposed on him the elder sister for
the younger. The dimness of Isaac's eyes favoured the former cheat; and the
darkness of the evening did as much favour the latter. So he behoved to say, as
Adonibezek in another case ; Judg. i. 7, “As I have done, So God hath requited
me.” In like manner, Rachel, dying in child-birth, could hardly evite a mel-
ancholy reflection on her rash and passionate expression mentioned Gen. xxxi. 1,
“Give me children, or else I die.” Even holy Job read in the crook of his lot
some false steps he had made in his youth many years before ; Job xiii. 26, “Thou
writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my
outh.”
y 4. Correction, or punishment for sin. In nothing more than in the crook
of the lot is that word verified, Jer, ii. 19, “Thine own wickedness shall correct
thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee.” God may, for a time, wink at one's
sin, which afterwards he will set a brand of his indignation upon in crooking the
sinner's lot, as he did in the case of Jacob and Rachel, mentioned before. Though
the sin was a passing action, or a course of no long continuange, the mark of the
divine displeasure for it, set on the sinner in the crook of his lot, may pain him
long and sore, that by repeated experience he may know what an evil and bitter
thing it was. David's killing Uriah by the sword of the Ammonites was soon over;
but for that cause, “the sword never departed from his house,” 2 Sam. xii. 10,
Gehazi quickly obtained two bags of money from Naaman, in the way of falsehood
and lying; but, as a lasting mark of the divine indignation against the profane trick,
he got withal a leprosy which clave to him while he lived, and to his posterity after
him, 2 Kings v. 27. This may be the case, as well where the sin is pardoned as
to the guilt of eternal wrath, as where it is not. And one may have confessed and
sincerely repented of that sin which yet shall make him go halting to the grave,
though it cannot carry him to hell. A man's person may be accepted in the Be-
loved, who yet hath a particular badge of the divine displeasure, with his sin hung
upon him in the crook of his lot; Psal. xcix. 8, “Thou wast a God that forgavest
them, though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions.”
5. Preventing of sin; Hos. ii. 6, “I will hedge up thy way with thorns,
and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.” The crook in the lot will
readily be found to lie cross to some wrong bias of the heart, which peculiarly
sways with the party: so it is like a thorn-hedge or wall in the way which that bias
inclines him to. The defiling objects in the world do specially take and prove en-
smaring, as they are suited to the particular cast of temper in men; but by means
of the crook in the lot, the paint and varnish is worn off the defiling object, whereby
it loseth its former taking appearance: so the fuel being removed, the edge of cor-
rupt affections is blunted, temptation weakened, and much sin prevented ; the
sinner, after “gadding about so much to change his way, returning ashamed,” Jer.
ii. 36, 37. Thus the Lord crooks one's lot, that “he may withdraw man from his
purpose, and hide pride from man;” and so, “he keepeth back his soul from the pit,”
!ob xxxiii. 17, 18. Every one knows what is most pleasant to him; but God alone
knows what is the most profitable. As all men are liars, so all men are fools too;
he is the “only wise God,” Jude ver, 25. Many are obliged to the crook in their
lot, that they go not to those excesses which their vain minds and corrupt affections
would with full sail carry them to; and they would from their hearts bless God for
278 - THE CROOK. IN THE LOT.
making it, if they did but calmly consider what would most likely be the issue of
the removal thereof. When one is in hazard of fretting under the hardship of
bearing the crook, he would do well to consider what condition he is as yet in for
to bear its removal in a Christian manner.
6. Discovery of the latent corruption, whether in saints or sinners. There.
are some corruptions in every man's heart which lie, as it were, so near the sur-
face, that they are ready on every turn to cast up : but then there are others also
which lie so very deep, that they are scarcely observed at all. But as the fire.
under the pot makes the scum to cast up, appear a-top, and run over ; so the
crook in the lot raiseth up from the bottom, and brings out such corruption as
otherwise one would hardly imagine to be within. Who would have suspected
such strength of passion in the meek Moses as he discovered at the waters of strife,
and for which he was kept out of Canaan 2 Psal, cvi. 32, 33; Num. xx. 13: so
much bitterness of spirit in the patient Job, as to charge God with becoming cruel
to him ? Job xxx. 21: so much ill-nature in the good Jeremiah, as to curse not
only the day of his birth, but even the man who brought tidings of it to his father?
Jer. xx. 14, 15: or such a twang” of atheism in Asaph, as to pronounce religion a
vain thing? Psal. lxxiii. 13. But the crook in the lot, bringing out these things,
showed them to have been within, how long soever they had lurked unobserved.
And as this design, however indecently proud scoffers allow themselves to treat it,
is in nowise inconsistent with the divine perfections; so the discovery itself is ne-
cessary for the due humiliation of sinners, and to stain the pride of all glory, that
men may know themselves. Both which appear, in that it was on this very design
that God made the long continued crook in Israel's lot in the wilderness; even to .
“humble them and prove them, to know what was in their heart,” Deut. viii. 2.
Lastly, The exercise of grace in the children of God. Believers, through the
remains of indwelling corruption, are liable to fits of spiritual laziness and inac-
tivity, in which their graces lie dormant for the time. Besides, there are some
graces which, of their own nature, are but occasional in their exercises, as being
exercised only upon occasion of certain things which they have a necessary relation
to ; such as patience and long-suffering. Now, the crook in the lot serves to rouse
up a Christian to the exercise of the graces overpowered by corruption, and withal
to call forth to action the occasional graces, ministering proper occasions for them.
The truth is, the crook in the lot is the great engine of Providence for making men
appear in their true colours, discovering both their ill and their good; and if the
grace of God be in them, it will bring it out, and cause it to display itself. It so
puts the Christian to his shifts that, however it makes him stagger for a while, yet
it will at length evidence both the reality and the strength of grace in him : “Ye
are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being
more precious than of gold that perisheth, may be found unto praise,” 1 Pet. i. 6,
7. The crook in the lot gives rise to many acts of faith, hope, love, self-denial,
resignation, and other graces; to many heavenly breathings, pantings, longings,
and groanings, which otherwise would not be brought forth. And I make no
question but these things, howsoever by carnal men despised as trifling, are more
precious in the sight of God than even believers themselves are aware of, being acts
of immediate internal worship; and will have a surprising notice taken of them, and
of the sum of them, at long-run, howbeit the persons themselves often can hardly
think them worth their own notice at all. We know who hath said to the gracious
soul, “Let me see thy countenance ; thy countenance is comely,” Song ii. 24;
“Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes,” chap. iv. 9. The steady
acting of a gallant army of horse and foot to the routing of the enemy, is
highly prized; but the acting of holy fear and humble hope is, in reality, far
more valuable, as being so in the sight of God, whose “judgment,” we are sure,
“is according to truth.” This the Psalmist teacheth; Psalm cylvii. 11, 12, “He
delighteth not in the strength of the horse; he taketh not pleasure in the legs
of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in
his mercy.” And indeed the exercise of the graces of his Spirit in his people
is so very precious in his sight, that whatever grace any of them do excel in,
* i. e. a sharp sound.—ED.
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 279
they will readily get such a crook made in their lot as will be a special trial for it,
that will make a proof of its full strength. Abraham excelled in the grace of faith,
in trusting God’s bare word of promise over the belly of sense : and God, giving
him a promise that “he would make of him a great nation,” made withal a crook
in his lot, by which he had enough ado with all the strength of his faith; while he
was obliged, for good and all, to leave his country and kindred, and sojourn among
the Canaanites; his wife continuing barren, till past the age of child-bearing ; and
when she had at length brought forth Isaac, and he was grown up, he was called to
offer him up for a burnt-offering, the more exquisite trial of his faith, that Ishmael
was now expelled his family, and that it was declared that “in Isaac only his
seed should be called,” Gen. xxi. 12. “Moses was very meek above all men which
were upon the face of the earth,” Num. xii. 3; and he was intrusted with the
conduct of a most perverse and unmanageable people, the crook in his lot plainly
designed for the exercise of his meekness. Job excelled in patience ; and, by the
crook in his lot, he got as much to do with it. For God gives none of his people to
excel in a gift but, some one time or other, he will afford them use for the whole
compass of it.
Now, the use of this doctrine is threefold: (1.) For reproof; (2.) For consolation;
and, (3.) For exhortation.
. Use 1, Of reproof. And it meets with three sorts of persons as reprovable.
First, The carnal and earthly, who do not with awe and reverence regard the
crook in the lot as of God's making. There is certainly a signature of the divine
hand upon it to be perceived by just observers, and that challengeth an awful re-
gard, the neglect of which forebodes destruction ; Psal. xxviii. 5, “Because they
regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, thou shalt de-
stroy them, and not build them up.” And herein they are deeply guilty who,
poring upon second causes, and looking no further than the unhappy instruments
of the crook in their lot, overlook the first cause, as a dog Snarls at the stone,
but looks not to the hand that cast it. This is, in effect, to make a God of the
creature ; so regarding it, as if it could of itself effectuate anything, while, in the
mean time, it is but an instrument in the hand of God, “the rod of his anger,” Isa.
x. 5; “ordained of him for judgment, established for correction,” Hab. i. 12. O
why should men terminate their view on the instruments of the crook in their lot,
and so magnify their scourges The truth is, they are for the most part rather
to be pitied, as having an undesirable office, which, for their gratifying their
own corrupt affections, in making the crook in the lot of others, returns on their
own head at length with a vengeance, as did the blood of Jezreel on the house
of Jehu, Hos. i. 4. And it is specially undesirable to be so employed in the case
of such as belong to God ; for rarely is the ground of the quarrel the same on the
part of the instrument as on God's part, but very different : witness Shimei's curs-
ing David as a bloody man, meaning the blood of the house of Saul, which he was
not guilty of, while God meant it of the blood of Uriah, which he could not deny,
2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8. Moreover, the quarrel will be, at long-run, taken up between
God and his people ; and then their scourgers will find they had but a thankless
office; Zech. i. 15, “I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the afflic-
tion,” saith God, in resentment of the heathen crooking the lot of his people. In
like manner are they guilty who impute the crook in their lot to fortune, or their
ill luck; which in very deed is nothing but a creature of imagination, framed for a
blind to keep men from acknowledging the hand of God. Thus what the Philis-
times doubted they do more impiously determine, saying in effect, “It is not his
hand that smote us, it was a chance that happened us,” 1 Sam. vi. 9. And, finally,
those also who, in the way of giving up themselves to carnal mirth and sensuality,
set themselves to despise the crook in their lot, to make nothing of it, and to forget
it. I question not, but one committing his case to the Lord, and looking to him
for remedy in the first place, may lawfully call in the moderate use of the comforts
9f life for help in the second place. But as for that course so frequent and usual
in this case among carnal men, if the crook of the lot really be, as indeed it is, of
God's making, it must needs be a most indecent unbecoming course, to be abhorred
of all good men ; Prov. iii. 11, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord.”
280 - THE CROOK IN THE LOT,
It is surely a very desperate method of cure, which cannot miss of issuing in some-
thing worse than the disease, however it may palliate it for a while ; Isa, xxii. 12,
14, “In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning; and
behold, joy and gladness, eating flesh and drinking wine : and it was revealed in
mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you
till we die.”
sºil, The unsubmissive, whose hearts, like the troubled sea, swell and boil,
fret and murmur, and cannot be at rest under the crook in their lot. This is a
most sinful and dangerous course. The apostle Jude, characterizing some “to
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever,”(ver. 1,) saith of them, ver. 16,
“These are murmurers, complainers;” namely, still complaining of their lot, which
is the import of the word there used by the Holy Ghost. For, since the crook in their
lot which their unsubdued spirits can by no means submit to is of God's making, this
their practice must needs be a fighting against God; and these their complainings and
murmurings are indeed against him, whatever face they put upon them. Thus,
when the Israelites murmured against Moses, (Numb. xiv. 2,) God charges them.
with murmuring against himself; “How long shall I bear with this evil congrega-
tion, which murmured against me?” ver. 27. Ah may not he who made and
fashioned us without our advice, be allowed to make our lot too without asking
our mind, but we must rise up against him on account of the crook made in it :
What doth this speak but that the proud creature cannot endure God’s work, nor
digest what he hath done 2 And how black and dangerous is that temper of spirit i
How is it possible to miss of being broken to pieces in such a course ? “He is wise
in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and
hath prospered?” Job ix. 4.
Lastly, The careless and unfruitful, who do not set themselves dutifully to comply
with the design of the crook in their lot. God and nature do nothing in vain. Since he
makes the crook, there is, doubtless, a becoming design in it, which we are obliged
in duty to fall in with, according to that, Micah vi. 9, “Hear ye the rod.” And,
indeed, if one shut not his own eyes, but be willing to understand, he may easily
perceive the general design thereof to be, to wean him from this world, and
move him to seek and take up his heart's rest in God. And the nature and the
circumstances of the crook itself being duly considered, it will not be very hard to
make a more particular discovery of the design thereof. But, alas ! the careless
sinner, sunk in spiritual sloth and stupidity, is in no concern to discover the design
of providence in the crook: so he cannot fall in with it, but remains unfruitful;
and all the pains taken on him, by the great husbandman, in the dispensation, are
lost. “They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty,” groaning under the
pressure of the crook itself, and weight of the hand of the instrument thereof;
“but none saith, Where is God my maker ?” they look not, they turn not, to God
for all that, Job xxxv. 9, 10.
Use 2, Of consolation. It speaks comfort to the afflicted children of God. What-
ever is the crook in your lot, it is of God's making; and therefore you may look
upon it kindly. Since it is your Father has made it for you, question not but
there is a favourable design in it towards you. A discreet child welcometh his
father's rod, knowing that, being a father, he seeks his benefit thereby: and shall
not God's children welcome the crook in their lot, as designed by their Father, who
cannot mistake his measures to work for their good, according to the promise ? The
truth is, the crook in the lot of a believer, how painful soever it proves, is a part
of the discipline of the covenant, the nurture secured by the promise of the Father
to Christ's children ; Psal. lxxxix. 30, 32, “If his children forsake my law, and
walk not in my judgments, then will I visit their transgressions with the rod.”
Furthermore, all who are disposed to betake themselves to God, under the crook
in their lot, may take comfort in this: let them know that there is no crook in
their lot, but may be made straight ; for God made it, surely then he can mend
it. He himself can make straight what he hath made crooked, though none other
can. There is nothing too hard for him to do. “He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill; that he may set him with
princes. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 281
of children,” Psal. cxiii. 7–9. Say not that your crook hath been of so long con-
tinuance that it will never mend. Put it in the hand of God who made it, that
he may mend it, and wait on him; and if it be for thy good that it should be
mended, it shall be mended, for “no good thing will he withhold from them that
walk uprightly,” Psal. lxxxiv. 11.
Use last, Of exhortation. Since the crook in the lot is of God's making, then,
eyeing the hand of God in yours, be reconciled to it, and submit under it, what-
ever it is: I say, eyeing the hand of God in it; for otherwise, your submission under
the crook in your lot cannot be a Christian submission, acceptable to God, having
no reference to him as your party in the matter.
Objection 1. But some will say, The crook in my lot is from the hand of the
creature ; and such a one too as I deserved no such treatment from.
Answer. From what hath been already said it appears, that although the crook
in thy lot be indeed immediately from the creature's hand, yet it is mediately from
the hand of God; there being nothing of that kind, no penal evil, but “the Lord
hath done it.” Therefore, without all peradventure, God himself is thy principal
party, whoever be the less principal. And albeit thou hast not deserved thy crook
at the hand of the instrument or instruments which he makes use of for thy correc-
tion, thou certainly deservest it at his hand; and he may make use of what instru-
ment he will in the matter, or may do it immediately by himself, even as seems good
in his sight.
Object. 2. But the crook in my lot might quickly be evened, if the instrument
or instruments thereof pleased ; only there is no dealing with them, so as to con-
vince them of their fault in making it.
Answ. If it is so, be sure God's time is not yet come that that crook should be
evened: for if it were come, though they stand now like an impregnable fort, they
would give way like a sandy bank under one's feet; they should “bow down to
thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet,” Isa. xlix.
23. Meanwhile, that state of the matter is so far from justifying one's not eyeing
the hand of God in the crook in the lot, that it makes a piece of trial in which his
hand very eminently appears, namely, that men should be signally injurious and
burdensome to others, yet by no means susceptible of conviction. This was the
trial of the church from her adversaries; Jer. l. 7, “All that found them have
devoured them; and their adversaries said, We offend not ; because they have
sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice.” They were very abusive, and
gave her barbarous usage; yet would they take with no fault in the matter. How
could they ward off the conviction ? Were they verily blameless in their devour-
ing the Lord's straying sheep 2 No, Surely ; they were not. Did they look upon
themselves as ministers of the divine justice against her ? No; they did not.
Some, indeed, would make a question here, how the adversaries of the church
could celebrate her God as the habitation of justice. But the original pointing of
the text being retained, it appears that there is no ground at all for this question
here, and withal the whole matter is set in a clear light: “All that have found
them have devoured them ; and their adversaries said, We offend not : because
they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice.” These last are not
the words of the adversaries, but the words of the prophet; showing how it came to
pass that the adversaries devoured the Lord's sheep, as they lighted on them, and
withal stood to the defence of it, when they had done, far from acknowledging any
Wrong: the matter lay here, the sheep had “sinned against the Lord, the habitation
of justice ’’ and as a just punishment hereof from his hand, they could have no
justice at the hand of his adversaries. -
Wherefore, laying aside these frivolous pretences, and eyeing the hand of God,
as that which hath bowed your lot in that part, and keeps it in the bow,” be recon-
eiled to and submit under the crook, whatever it is, saying from the heart, “Truly
this is a grief, and I must bear it,” Jer. x. 19. And to move you hereunto, consider,
1. It is a duty you owe to God, as your sovereign Lord and Benefactor. His
Soyereignty challengeth our submission ; and it can in no case be meanness of
Spirit to submit unto the crook which his hand hath made in our lot, and to go
* i.e. keeps it bent.—ED,
2 N
282 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
quietly under the yoke that he hath laid on : but it is really madness for “the pot-
sherds of the earth,” by their turbulent and refractory carriage under it, to “strive
with their Maker.” And his beneficence to us ill-deserving creatures may well stop
our mouths from our complaining of his making a crook in our lot, who had done
us no wrong had he made the whole of it crooked. “Shall we receive good at the
hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” Job ii. 10.
2. It is an unalterable statute for the time of this life, that nobody shall want a
crook in their lot ; for “man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward,” Job
v. 7. And those who are designed for heaven are, in a special manner, assured of
a crook in theirs, that “in the world they shall have tribulation,” John xvi. 33;
for by means thereof the Lord makes them meet for heaven. And how can you
imagine that you shall be exempted from the common lot of mankind? “Shall
the rock be removed out of his place for thee ?” And since God makes the crooks
in men's lot according to the different exigence of their cases, you may be sure that
yours is necessary for you.
3. A crook in the lot which one can by no means submit to, makes a condition
of all things the likest to that in hell. For there a yoke which the wretched suffer-
ers can neither bear nor shake off, is wreathed about their necks; there the
almighty arm draws against them, and they against it ; there they are ever suf-
fering and ever sinning; still in the furnace, but their dross not consumed, nor
they purified. Even such is the case of those who now cannot submit under the
crook in their lot. *.
4. Great is the loss by not submitting under it. The crook in the lot, rightly
improven, hath turned to the best account, and made the best time to some that
ever they had all their life long, as the Psalmist from his own experience testified;
Psal. cxix. 67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy
word.” There are many now in heaven who are blessing God for the crook they
had in their lot here. What a sad thing must it then be to lose this teeth-wind for
Immanuel's land But if the crook in thy lot do thee no good, be sure it will not
miss of doing thee great damage ; it will hugely increase guilt, and aggravate thy
condemnation, while it shall for ever cut thee to the heart, to think of the pains
taken on thee, by means of the crook in the lot, to wean thee from the world, and
bring thee to God, but all in vain. Take heed, therefore, how you manage it,
“lest thou mourn at the last, and say, How have I hated instruction, and my
heart despised reproof?” Prov. v. 10–12.
DoCTRINE II. What God sees meet to mar, we will not be able to mend in our
lot. What crook God makes in our lot, we will not be able to even. We shall here,
I. Show God’s marring and making a crook in one's lot, as he sees meet.
II. We shall consider men's attempting to mend or even that crook in their lot.
III. In what sense it is to be understood, that we will not be able to mend or even
the crook in our lot.
IV. Render some reasons of the point.
I. As to the first head, namely, Show God's marring and making a crook in one's
lot, as he sees meet.
First, God keeps the choice of every one's crook to himself; and therein he ex-
erts his sovereignty, Matt. xx. 15. It is not left to our option what that crook
shall be, or what our peculiar burden ; but as the potter makes of the same clay
one vessel for one use, another for another use, So God makes one crook for one,
another for another, according to his own will and pleasure ; Psal. cxxxv. 6, “What-
soever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth,” &c.
Secondly, He sees and observes the bias of every one's will and inclination, how
it lies, and wherein it especially bends away from himself, and consequently wherein
it needs the special bow; so he did in that man's case, Mark X. 21, “One thing
thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give it to the poor,” &c.,
Observe the bent of his heart to his great possessions. He takes notice what is
that idol that in every one's case is most apt to be his rival, that so he may suit
the trial to the case, making the crook there.
Thirdly, By the conduct of his providence, or a touch of his hand, he gives that
part of one's lot a bow the contrary way; so that henceforth it lies quite contrary
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 283
to that bias of the party's will, Ezek. xxiv. 25. And here the trial is made ; the
bent of the will lying one way, and that part of one's lot another, that it does not
answer the inclination of the party, but thwarts with it.
Lastly, He wills that crook in the lot to remain while he sees meet, for longer
or shorter time, just according to his own holy ends he designs it for, 2 Sam. xii.
10 ; Hos. v. 15. By that will it is so fixed, that the whole creation cannot alter
it, or put it out of the bow.
II. We shall consider men's attempting to mend or even that crook in their lot.
This, in a word, lies in ſheir making efforts to bring their lot in that point to their
own will, that they may both go one way; so it imports three things:
First, A certain uneasiness under the crook in the lot: it is a yoke which is hard
for the party to bear, till his spirit be tamed and subdued; Jer. xxxi. 18, “Thou
hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke :
turn thou me, and I shall be turned,”’ &c. And it is for the breaking down of the
weight of one's spirit that God lays it on ; for which cause it is declared to be a good
thing to bear it, (Lam. iii. 27,) that being the way to make one at length “as a
weaned child.”
Secondly, A strong desire to have the cross removed, and to have matters in that
part going according to our inclinations. This is very natural, nature desiring to be
freed from every thing that is burdensome or cross to it; and if that desire be kept
in due subordination to the will of God, and be not too peremptory, it is not sinful;
Matt. xxvi. 39, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, not as
I will,” &c. Hence so many accepted prayers of the people of God for the removal
of the crook in the lot. - -
Lastly, An earnest use of means for that end. This natively follows on that de-
sire. The man, being pressed with the cross, which is his crook, labours all he can
in the use of means to be rid of it. And if the means used be lawful, and not
relied upon, but followed with an eye to God in them, the attempt is not sinful
either, whether he succeed in the use of them or not.
III. In what sense it is to be understood, that we will not be able to mend or
even the crook in our lot. -
Negatively, It is not to be understood, as if the case were absolutely hopeless, and
that there is no remedy for the crook in the lot. For there is no case so desperate
but God may right it; Gen. xviii. 14, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?”
When the crook has continued long, and spurned all remedies one has used for it,
one is ready to lose hope about it ; but many a crook given over for hopeless that
would never mend God has made perfectly straight, as in Job’s case. But,
Positively, We will never be able to mend it by ourselves; if the Lord himself
take it not in hand to remove it, it will stand before us immoveable, like a moun-
tain of brass, though perhaps it may be in itself a thing that might easily be re-
moved. We take it up in these three things:
1. It will never do by the mere force of our hand; 1 Sam. ii. 9, “For by strength
shall no man prevail.” The most vigorous endeavours we can use will not even the
crook, if God give it not a touch of his hand; so that all endeavours that way,
without an eye to God, are vain and fruitless, and will be but ploughing on the rock,
Psal. cxxvii. 1, 2.
2. The use of all allowable means, for it will be successless unless the Lord bless
them for that end; Lam. iii. 37, “Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass,
when the Lord commandeth it not?” As one may eat and not be satisfied, so one
may use means proper for evening the crook in his lot, and yet prevail nothing;
for nothing can be or do for us any more than God makes it to be or do; Eccl. ix.
11, “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither yet bread
to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding,” &c.
3. It will never do in our time, but in God's time, which seldom is so early as
ours; John vii. 26, “My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.”
Hence that crook remains sometimes immoveable, as if it were kept by an invisible
hand; and at another time it goes away with a touch, because God's time is come
for evening it.
IV. We shall now assign the reasons of the point.
284 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
First, Because of the absolute dependence we have upon God, Acts xvii. 28. As
the light depends on the Sun, or the shadow on the body, so we depend on God,
and without him can do nothing great or small. And God will have us to find it
so, to teach us our dependence.
Secndly, Because his will is irresistible; Isa. xlvi. 10, “My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure.” When God wills one thing, and the creature the
contrary, it is easy to see which will must be done. When the omnipotent arm
holds, in vain does the creature draw ; Job ix. 4, “Who hath hardened himself
against him and prospered?”
Inference 1. There is a necessity of yielding and submitting under the crook in
our lot; for we may as well think to remove the rocks and mountains which God
has settled, as to make that part of our lot straight which he hath made crooked.
2. The evening the crook in our lot, by main force of our own, is but a cheat we
put on ourselves, and will not last ; but, like a stick by main force made straight,
it will quickly return to the bow again. -
3. The only habile way of getting the crook evened is to apply to God for it.
Exhortation 1. Let us then apply to God for removing any crook in our lot, that
in the settled order of things may be removed. Men cannot cease to desire the
removal of a crook, more than that of a thorn in the flesh; but, since we are not
able to mend what God sees meet to mar, it is evident we are to apply to him that
made it to mend it, and not to take the evening of it in our own hand.
Motive 1. All our attempts for its removal will, without him, be vain and fruit-
less, Psal. cxxvii. 1. Let us be as resolute as we will to have it evened, if God say
it not, we will labour in vain, Lam. iii. 37. Howsoever fair the means we use bid
for it, they will be ineffectual if he command not the blessing, Eccl. ix. 11.
Mot. 2. Such attempts will readily make it worse. Nothing is more ordinary than
for a proud spirit, striving with the crook, to make it more crooked; Eccl. x. 8,
“Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him;” ver, 9, “Whoso removeth
stones shall be hurt therewith,” &c. This is evident in the case of the murmurers
in the wilderness. It natively comes to be so ; because, at that rate, the will of
the party bends farther away from it, and moreover, God is provoked to wreathe the
yoke the faster about one's neck, that he will by no means let it sit so easy on him.
Mot. 3. There is no crook but what may be remedied by him, and made perfectly
straight; Psal. cxlvi. 8, “The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down,” &c. He
can raise the oldest sit-fast, concerning which there remains no hope with us;
Rom. iv. 17, “Who quickeneth the dead; and calleth those things which be not,
as though they were.” It is his prerogative to do wonders; to begin a work,
where the whole creation gives it over as hopeless, and carry it on to perfection,
Gen. xviii. 14.
Mot. 4. He loves to be employed in evening crooks, and calls us to employ him that
way; Psal. 1, 15, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee,”
&c. He makes them for that very end, that he may bring us to him on that errand,
and may manifest his power and goodness in evening them, Hos. v. 15. The straits
of the children of men afford a large field for displaying his glorious perfections,
which otherwise would be wanting, Exod. xv. 11.
Mot. 5. A crook thus got evened is a double mercy. There are some crooks evened
by a touch of the hand of common providence, while people are either not exer-
cised about them, or when they fret for their removal; these are sapless mercies,
and short-lived, Psal. lxxviii. 30, 31 ; Hos. Xiii. 11. Fruits thus too hastily
plucked off the tree of providence can hardly miss to set the teeth on edge, and
will certainly be bitter to the gracious soul. But O the Sweet of the evening of
the crook got by a humble application to, and waiting on the Lord! It has the
image and superscription of divine favour upon it, which makes it bulky and valu-
able; Gen. xxxiii. 10, “For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen
the face of God,” &c. chap. xxi. 6. -
Mot. 6. God has signalized his favour to his dearest children, in making and mend-
ing notable crooks in their lot. His darling ones have ordinarily the greatest crooks
made in their lot, Heb. xii. 6. But then they make way for their richest expe-
riences, in the removal of them upon their application to him. This is clear from
THE CROOK IN THE LOT 285
the case of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. Which of the patriarchs had so great
crooks as they 2 but which of them, on the other hand, had so signal tokens of the
divine favour? The greatest of men, as Samson and the Baptist, have been born
of women naturally barren ; so do the greatest crooks issue in the richest mercies
“to them that are exercised thereby.”
Mot. 7. It is the shortest and surest way to go straight to God with the crook in
the lot. If we would have our wish in that point, we must, as the eagle, first soar
aloft, and then come down on the prey, Mark v. 36. Our faithless out-of-the-way
attempts to even the crook, are our fool's haste, that is no speed; as in the case of
Abraham's going in to Hagar. God is the first mover, who sets all the wheels in
motion for evening the crook, the which without him will remain immoveable, Hos.
ii. 21, 22.
Objection 1. But it is needless, for I see that though the crook in my lot may
mend, yet I will never mend. In its own nature it is capable of being removed,
but it is plain, it is not to be removed, it is hopeless.
Answer. That is the language of unbelieving haste, which faith and patience
should correct, Psal. cxvi. 11, 12. Abraham had as much to say for the hopeless-
ness of his crook, but yet he applies to God in faith for the mending of it, Rom.
iv. 19, 20. Sarah had made such a conclusion, for which she was rebuked, Gen.
xviii. 13, 14. Nothing can make it needless in such a case to apply to God.
Object. 2. But I have applied to him again and again for it, yet it is never
mended.
Answ. Delays are not denials of suits at the court of heaven, but trials of the
faith and patience of the petitioners. And whoso will hang on will certainly come
speed at long-run ; Luke xviii. 7, 8, 31, “And shall not God avenge his own elect,
which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them 2 ” verse 8,
“I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” Sometimes indeed folks grow pet-
tish, in the case of the crook in the lot, and let it drop out in their prayers, in a
course of despondency, while yet it continues uneasy to them ; but, if God mind to
even it in mercy, he will oblige them to take it again into them; Ezek. xxxvi. 37,
“I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them,” &c.
If the removal come, while it is dropt, there will be little comfort in it: though it
were never to be removed while we live, that should not cut off our applying to
God for the removal ; for there are many prayers not to be answered till we come
to the other world, and there all will be answered at once, Rom. vii. 24.
Directions for right managing the application for removing the crook in the lot.
1. Pray for it, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. And pray in faith, believing that, for the sake
of Jesus, you shall certainly obtain at length, and in this life too, if it is good for
you ; but without peradventure in the other life, Matt. xxi. 22. They will not be
disappointed that get the song of Moses and of the Lamb, Rev. xv. 3. And, in
Some cases of that nature, extraordinary prayer, with fasting, is very expedient,
Matt. xvii. 21
2. Humble yourselves under it, as the yoke which the sovereign hand has laid on
you ; Micah vii. 9, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned
against him,” &c. Justify God, condemn yourselves, kiss the rod, and go quietly
under it ; this is the most sensible way to get rid of it, James iv. 10. When the
bullock is broken and tamed, as accustomed to the yoke, then it is taken off, the
end being obtained ; Psal. x. 17, “Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause
thine ear to hear.”
3. Wait on patiently till the hand that made it mend it, Psal. xxvii. 14. Do
not give up the matter as hopeless, because you are not so soon relieved as you
would ; “but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and en-
tire, wanting nothing,” James i. 4. Leave the timing of the deliverance to the
Lord ; his time will at length, to conviction, appear the best, and it will not go be-
yond it ; Isa. lx. 22, “I the Lord will hasten it in his time.” Waiting on him, you
will not be disappointed ; “For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me,”
Isa, xlix. 23.
286 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
Exhortation 2. What crook there is, that, in the settled order of things, cannot
be got removed or evened in this world, let us apply to God for suitable relief
under it. For instance, the common crook in the lot of saints, namely, indwelling
sin; as God has made that crook not to be removed here, he can certainly balance
it, and afford relief under it. The same is to be said of any crook, while it remains
unremoved. In both cases apply yourself to God, for making up your losses an-
other way. And there are five things I would have you to keep in view, and aim
at here.
1. To take God in Christ for, and instead of, that thing, the withholding or
taking away of which from you makes the crook in your lot, Psal. cxlii. 4, 5.
There is never a crook God makes in our lot, but it is in effect heaven’s offer of "a
blessed exchange to us; such as Mark x. 21, “Sell whatsoever thou hast, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven.” In managing of which exchange, God first puts
out his hand, and takes away some earthly thing from us ; and it is expected we
put out our hand next, and take some heavenly thing from him in the stead of it,
and particularly, his Christ. Wherefore, has God emptied your left hand of such
and such an earthly comfort 2 Stretch out your right hand to God in Christ, take
him in the room of it, and welcome. Therefore the soul's closing with Christ is
called buying, wherein, parting with one thing, we get another in its stead; Matt.
xiii. 45, 46, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly
pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that
he had, and bought it.” Do this, and you will be more than even hands with the
crook in your lot. -
2. Look for the stream running as full from him as ever it did or could run,
when the crook in the lot has dried it. This is the work of faith, confidently to
hang on for that from God which is denied us from the creature ; “When my
father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up,” Psal. xxvii. 10.
This is a most rational expectation : for it is certain there is no good in the crea-
ture but what is from God; therefore there is no good to be found in the creature,
the stream, but what may be got immediately from God, the fountain. And O !
but it is a welcome plea, to come to God and say, Now, Lord, thou hast taken away
from me such a creature-comfort, I must have as good from thyself.
3. The spiritual fruits of the crook in the lot, Heb. xii. 11. We see the way in
the world is, when one trade fails, to fall on and drive another trade; so should we,
when there is a crook in the lot making our earthly comforts low, set ourselves the
more for spiritual attainments. If our trade with the world sinks, let us see to
drive a trade with heaven more vigorously; see if, by means of the crook, we can
reach more faith, love, heavenly-mindedness, contempt of the world, humility, self-
denial, &c. 2 Cor. vi. 10. So, while we lose at one hand, we will gain at another.
4. Grace to carry us up under the crook; 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9, “For this thing I
besought the Lord thrice. And he said, My grace is sufficient for thee.”
Whether a man be faint, and have a light burden, or be refreshed, and strength-
ened, and have a heavy one, it is all a case; the latter can go as easy under his
burden as the former under his. Grace porportioned to the trial is what we should
aim at ; getting that, though the crook be not evened, we are even hands with it.
5. The keeping in our eye the eternal rest and weight of glory in the other world;
2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things that are not seen.” This will balance the crook
in your lot, be it what it will: while they who have no well-grounded hope of salvation,
will find the crook in their lot in this world such a weight, as they have nothing
to counterbalance it; yet the hope of eternal rest may bear up under all the toil
and trouble met with here. -
Exhortation 3. Let us then set ourselves rightly to bear and carry under the
crook in our lot, while God sees meet to continue it. What we cannot mend, let
us bear Christianly, and not “fight against God,” and so “kick against the pricks.”
So let us bear it, - -
1. Patiently, without firing and fretting, or murmuring, James v. 7 ; Psal.
xxxvii. 7. Though we lose our comfort in the creature, through the crook in our
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 287
lot, let us not lose the possession of ourselves, Luke xxi. 19. The crook in our
lot makes us like one who has but a scanty coldrife fire to warm at : but impa-
tience under it scatters it, so as to set the house on fire about us, and exposeth us;
Prov. xxy. 28, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is bro-
ken down and without walls.”
2. With Christian fortitude, without sinking under discouragement; “Nor faint
when thou art rebuked of him,” Heb. xii. 5. Satan’s work is, by the crook, either
to bend or break people's spirits, and oftentimes, by bending, to break them : our
work is to carry evenly under it, steering a middle course, guarding against splitting
on the rocks on either hand. Our happiness lies not in any earthly comfort, nor
will the want of any of them render us miserable, Hab. iii. 17, 18. So that we
are resolutely to hold on our way with a holy contempt and regardlessness of the
hardships; Job xvii. 9, “The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that
hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.”
Question. When is one to be reckoned to fall under sinking discouragement from
the crook in his lot ?
Answer. When it prevails so far as to unfit for the duties either of our particular
or Christian calling. We may be sure it has carried us beyond the bounds of mo-
derate grief, when it unfits us for the common affairs of life, which the Lord calls
us to manage, 1 Cor. vii. 24. It is recorded to the commendation of Abraham,
Gen. xxiii. 3, 4. Or for the duties of religion, hindering them altogether; 1 Pet.
iii. 7, “That your prayers be not hindered,” (Greek, cut off, or up, like a tree
from the roots ;) or making one quite hopeless in them, Mal. ii. 1
3. Profitably, so as we may gain some advantage thereby ; Psal. cxix. 71, “It
is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” There
is an advantage to be made thereby, Rom. v. 3—5. And it is certainly an ill-
managed crook in our lot when we get not some spiritual good of it, Heb. xi. 21.
The crook is a kind of spiritual medicine: and as it is lost physic that purges
away no ill humours, but in vain are its unpleasantness to the taste, and its grip-
ings endured ; so it is a lost crook, and ill is the bitterness of it wared,” that we are
not bettered by ; Isa. xxvii. 9, “By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be
purged, and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin.”
Motives to press this exhortation. Consider,
1. There will be no evening of it while God sees meet to continue it. Let us
carry under it as we will, and make what sallies we please in the case, it will con-
tinue immoveable, as fixed with bands of iron and brass ; Job xxiii; 13, 14, “But
he is of one mind, and who can turn him ? And what his soul desireth, even that he
doth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me : and many such
things are with him.” Is it not wisdom, then, to make the best we may of what we
cannot mend ? Make a virtue, then, of necessity. What is not to be cured must be
endured, and should with a Christian resignation.
2. An awkward carriage under it notably increases the pain of it. What makes
the yoke gall our necks, but that we struggle so much against it, and cannot let it
sit at ease on us? Jer. xxxi. 18. How often are we in that case, like men dashing
their heads against a rock to remove it? The rock stands unmoved, but they are
wounded and lose exceedingly by their struggle. Impatience under the crook lays
an overweight on the burden, and makes it heavier, while withal it weakens us, and
makes us less able to bear it.
3. The crook in thy lot is the special trial God has chosen out for thee to take
thy measure by, 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. It is God's fire, whereby he tries what metal men
are of ; heaven's touchstone, for discovering of true and counterfeit Christians.
They may bear, and get through several trials, which the crook in the lot will dis-
cover to be naught, because by no means they can bear that, Mark x. 21, 22.
Think, then, with thyself under it, Now, here the trial of my state turns, I must
by this be proven either sincere or a hypocrite ; for, can any be a cordial subject
of Christ, without being able to submit his lot to him : Do not all who sincerely
come to Christ, put a blank in his hand? Acts ix. 6; Psal. xlvii. 4. And does he
not tell us, that without that disposition we are not his disciples? Luke xiv. 26,
* i. e. expended.—Ed.
288 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and chil-
dren, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my dis-
ciple.” Perhaps you find you submit to any thing but that ; but will not that but
mar all? Mark x. 21. Did ever any hear of a sincere closing with Christ with a
reserve or exception of one thing, wherein they behoved to be their own lords 2
Question. Is that disposition, then, a qualification necessarily pre-required to our
believing ; And if so, where must we have it? can we work it out of our natural
owers ? -
p Answer. No, it is not so ; but it necessarily accompanies and goes along with be-
lieving, flowing from the same saving illumination in the knowledge of Christ whereby
the soul is brought to believe on him. Hereby the soul sees him an able Saviour,
so trusts on him for salvation; the rightful Lord, and infinitely wise Ruler, and so
submits the lot to him, Matt. xiii. 45, 46. The soul, taking him for a Saviour,
takes him also for a Head and Ruler. It is Christ's giving himself to us, and our
receiving him, that causes us quit other things to and for him, as it is the light dis-
pels the darkness.
Case. Alas! I cannot get my heart freely to submit my lot to him in that
oint.
p Answ. 1. That submission will not be carried on in any without a struggle: the
old man will never submit it, and when the new man of grace is submitting it, the
old man will still be reclaiming ; Gal. v. 17, “For the flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the
other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,” but are sincerely desirous
and habitually aiming to submit it. Do ye, from the ungracious struggle against
the crook, turn away to the struggle with your own heart to bring it to submit, be-
lieving the promise, and using the means for it, being grieved from the heart with
yourselves that ye cannot submit it? This is submitting of your lot, in the favour-
able construction of the gospel, Rom. vii. 17–20; 2 Cor. viii. 12. If ye had your
choice, would ye rather have your heart brought to submit to the crook, than the
crook evened to your heart's desire? Rom. vii. 22, 23. And, do ye not sincerely
endeavour to submit it over the belly of the reluctancy of flesh? Gal. v. 17.
Answ. 2. Where is the Christian self-denial, and taking up of the cross, without
sbumitting to the crook? This is the first lesson Christ puts in the hands of his dis-
ciples; Matt. xvi. 24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me.” Self-denial would procure a reconciliation
with the crook, and an admittance of the cross : but while we cannot bear our cor-
rupt self to be denied any of its cravings, and particularly that which God sees
meet especially to be denied in, we cannot bear the crook in our lot, but fight
against it in favour of self. -
Answ. 3. Where is our conformity to Christ, while we cannot submit to the crook 2
We cannot evidence ourselves Christians without conformity to Christ. “He that
saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked,” 1 John ii. 6.
There was a continued crook in Christ's lot, but he submitted to it ; Phil. ii. 8,
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross;” Rom, xv. 3, “For even Christ pleased not
himself,” &c. And so must we, if we will prove ourselves Christians indeed, Matt.
xi. 29; 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12.
Answ. 4. How will we prove ourselves the genuine kindly children of God, if still
warring with the crook? We cannot pray, “Our Father,-Thy will be done on
earth,” &c. Matt. vi. Nay, the language of that practice is, we must have our
own will, and God’s will cannot satisfy us.
4. The trial by the crook here will not last long, 1 Cor. viii. 31. What
though the work be sore, it may be the better comported with, that it will not be
longsome ; a few days or years at farthest will put an end to it, and take you off
your trials. Do not say, I will never be eased of it; for if ye be not eased before,
ye will be eased of it at death, come in the room of it after what will. A serious
view of death and eternity might make us to set ourselves to carry rightly under
our crook while it lasteth. -
5. If ye would, in a Christian manner, set yourselves to bear the crook, ye would
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 289
find it easier than ye imagine; Matt. xi. 29, 30, “Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me, and ye shall find rest to your souls;” ver. 30, “For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light.” Satan has no readier way to gain his purpose, than to
persuade men it is impossible that ever their minds should ply with the crook; that
it is a burden to them altogether insupportable: as long as you believe that, be
sure ye will never be able to bear it. But the Lord makes no crook in the lot of
any but what may be so borne of them acceptably, though not sinlessly and per-
fectly, Matt. xi. 30. For there is strength for that effect secured in the covenant,
2 Cor. iii. 5; Phil. iv. 13; and being by faith fetched, it will certainly come, Psal.
xxviii. 7. -
6. If ye carry Christianly under your crook here, ye will not lose your labour,
but get a full reward of grace in the other world, through Christ, 2 Tim. ii. 12;
1 Cor. xv. 58. There is a blessing pronounced on him that endureth, on this very
ground ; James i. 12, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when
he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them
that love him.” Heaven is the place into which the approven, upon the trial of the
crook, are received ; Rev. vii. 14, “These are they which came out of great tribu-
lation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb.” When we come there, no vestiges of it will be remaining in your lot, nor
will ye have the least uneasy remembrance of it; but it will accent your praises,
and screw up your joy.
7. If you do not carry Christianly under it, ye will lose your souls in the other
world, Jude, ver. 15, 16. Those who are at war with God in their lot here, God
will have war with them for ever. If they will not submit to his yoke here, and
go quietly under it, he will wreathe his yoke about their neck for ever, with ever-
lasting bonds that shall never be loosed, Job ix. 4.
Lastly, Whatever crook is in the lot of any, it is very likely there is a public
crook abiding the generation, that will be more trying. This is a day of sinning,
beyond the days of our fathers; a day wherein God is making great crooks in the
lot of the dearest to himself; but these seem to presage such a general public crook
to be abiding the generation, as will make our now private ones of very little weight,
l º iv. 17, 18. Therefore, set yourselves to carry rightly under the crook in
your lot.
If you ask what way one may reach that ; for direction we propose,
DOGTRINE III. The considering the crook in the lot as the work of God, is a
proper means to bring one to carry rightly under it. *
I. What it is to consider the crook as the work of God, we take it up in these
five things.
First, An inquiry into the spring whence it riseth, Gen. xxv. 22. Reason and
religion both teach us, not only to notice the crook, which we cannot avoid, but to
consider and inquire into the spring of it. Surely, it is not our choice, nor do we
designedly make it for ourselves; and to ascribe it to fortune is to ascribe it to no-
thing: it is not sprung of itself, but sown by one hand or another for us, Job v. 6;
and we are to notice the hand from whence it comes.
Secondly, A perceiving of the hand of God in it. Whatever hand any creature
hath therein, we ought not to terminate our view in them, but to look above and
beyond them to the Supreme manager's agency therein, Job i. 22. Without this
We make a god of the creature instrumental of the crook, looking on it as if it were
the first cause, which is peculiar to God, (Rom. xi. 36;) and bring ourselves under
that doom, Psal. xxviii. 5, “Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor
the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.”
Thirdly, A representing it to ourselves as a work of God which he hath wrought
against us for holy and wise ends, becoming the divine perfections. This is to take
it by the right handle, to represent it to ourselves under a right notion, from whence
a right management under it may spring. It can never be safe to overlook God
in it; but very safe to overlook the creature, ascribing it unto God, as if no other
hand were in it, his being always the principal therein; “It is the Lord, let him
do what seemeth him good,” I Sam. iii. 18. Thus David overlooked Shimei, and
2 O
290 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
looked to God in the matter of his cursing, as one would the axe, fixing his eye on
him that wielded it. Here two things are to come into consideration.
1st, The decree of God purposing that crook for us from eternity: “for he
worketh all things by the counsel of his own will,” Eph. i. 11; the sealed book in
which are written all the black lines that make the crook. Whatever valley of dark-
mess, grief, and sorrow we are carried through, we are to look on them as made by
the mountains of brass, the immoveable divine purposes, Zech. vi. 1. This can be
no presumptiop in that case, if we carry it no further than the event goes in our
sight and feeling ; for so far the book is opened for us to look into.
2dly, The providence of God bringing to pass that crook for us in time, Amos
iii. 6. There is nothing can befall us without him in whom we live. Whatever
kind of agency of the creatures may be in the making of our crook, whatever they
have done or not done towards it, he is the spring that sets all the created wheels
in motion, which ceasing, they would all stop; though he is still infinitely pure in
his agency, however impure they be in theirs. Job considered both these, chap.
xxiii. 14.
Fourthly, A continuing in the thought of it as such. It is not a simple glance
of the eye, but a contemplating and leisurely viewing of it as his work, that is the
proper mean. We are to be, -
1st, Habitually impressed with this consideration: as the crook is some lasting
grievance, so the consideration of this as the remedy should be habitually kept up.
There are other considerations, besides this, that we must entertain, so that we can-
not always have it expressly in our mind: but we must lay it down for a rooted
principle, according to which we are to manage the crook, and keep the heart in a
disposition whereby it may slip into our minds, as occasion calls expressly.
2dly, Occasionally exercised in it. Whenever we begin to feel the smart of the
crook, we should fetch in this remedy ; when the yoke begins to gall the neck, there
should be an application of this spiritual ointment. And however often the former
comes in on us, it will be our wisdom to fetch in the latter as a proper remedy ;
the oftener it is used, it will more easily come on hand, and also be the more
effectual.
Fifthly, A considering it for the end for which it is proposed to us, namely, to
bring to a dutiful carriage under it. Men's corruptions will cause them to enter
on this consideration ; and as is the principle, so will the end and effect of it be
corrupt, 2 Kings vi. 33. But we must enter on, and use it for a good end, if we
would have good of it, taking it as a practical consideration for regulating our con-
duct under the crook. - -
II. How it is to be understood to be a proper means to bring one to carry rightly
under the crook.
First, Negatively ; not as if it were sufficient in itself, and as it stands alone,
to produce that effect. But,
Secondly, Positively ; as it is used in faith, in the faith of the gospel: that is
to say, a sinner's bare considering the crook in his lot as the work of God, without any
saving relation to him, will never be a way to carry rightly under it, but having
believed in Jesus Christ, and so the crook as the work of God, his God, is the pro-
per means to bring him to that desirable temper and behaviour. Many hearers
mistake here. When they hear such and such law-considerations proposed for
bringing them to duty, they presently imagine that, by the mere force of them,
they may gain the point. And many preachers too, who, forgetting Christ and the
gospel, pretend by the force of reason to make men Christians: the eyes of both
being held, that they do not see the corruption of men's nature, which is such as
sets the true cure above the force of reason ; all that they are sensible of being
some ill habits, which they think may be shaken off by a vigorous application of
their rational faculties. To clear this matter, consider,
1. Is it rational to think to set fallen man, with his corrupted nature, to work
the same way with innocent Adam ? That is to set beggars on a level with the
rich, lame men to a journey with them that have limbs. Innocent Adam had a
stock of gracious abilities, whereby he might have, by the force of moral consider-
ations, brought himself to perform duty aright. But where is that with us? 2
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 291
Cor. iii. 5. Whatever force be in them to a soul endued with spiritual life, what
force is in them to raise the dead, such as we are ? Eph. ii. 1.
2. The scripture is very plain on this head, showing the indispensable neces-
sity of faith, Heb. xi.; and that such as unites to Christ; John xv. 5, “With-
out me,” that is, separate from me, “ye can do nothing,” no, not with all the
moral considerations ye can use. How were the ten commandments given on
Mount Sinai ? Not bare exactions of duty, but fronted with the gospel, to be believed
in the first place: “I am the Lord thy God,” &c. And so Solomon, whom many
do regard rather as a moral philosopher, than an inspired writer leading to Christ,
fronts his writings, in the beginning of the Proverbs, with most express gospel.
And we must have it expressly repeated in our Bibles with every moral precept,
or else shut our eyes, and take these precepts without it ; that is the effect of our
natural enmity to Christ. If we loved him more, we would see him more in every
page, and in every command, receiving the law at his mouth. -
3. Do but consider what it is to carry rightly under the crook in the lot; what
humiliation of soul, self-denial, and absolute resignation to the will of God, must
be in it; what love to God it must proceed from ; how regard to his glory must
influence it as the chief end thereof: and try and see if it is not impossible for you
to reach it without the faith afore-mentioned. I know a Christian may reach it,
without full assurance: but still, according to the measure of their persuasion that
God is their God, so will their attainments in it be ; these keep equal pace. O
what kind of hearts do they imagine themselves to have, that think they can for a
moment empty themselves of the creature, farther than they can fill them with a
God, as their God, in its room and stead | No doubt men may, from the force of
moral considerations, work themselves to a behaviour under the crook externally
right, such as many Pagans had ; but a Christian disposition of spirit under it will
never be reached without that faith in God.
, Objection. Then it is saints only that are capable of improvement of that con-
sideration. -
Answer. Yea, indeed it is so, as to that and all other moral considerations, for
true Christian ends; and that amounts to no more, than that directions for walk-
ing rightly are only for the living, that have the use of their limbs: and therefore
that ye may improve it, set yourselves to believe in the first place.
III. I shall confirm that it is a proper mean to bring one to carry rightly under
it. This will appear, if we consider these four things.
First, It is of great use to divert from the considering and dwelling on those things
about the crook, which serve to irritate our corruption. Such are, the balking of
our will and wishes; the satisfaction we would have in the matter's going according
to our mind; the instruments of the crook, how injurious they are to us, how un-
reasonable, how obstinate, &c. The dwelling on these considerations is but the
blowing of fire within ; but to turn our eyes to it as the work of God, would be a
gure by way of diversion, 2 Sam. vi. 9, 10. And such diversion of the thoughts
is not only lawful, but expedient and necessary.
. Secondly, It has a moral aptitude for producing the good effect. Though our cure
is not compassed by the mere force of reason; yet it is carried on, not by a brutal
movement, but in a rational way, Eph. v. 14. This consideration has a moral efficacy
on Qur reason; is fit to awe us into a submission; and ministers a deal of argument
for it, moving to carry Christianly under our crook,
Thirdly. It hath a divine appointment on it for that end, which is to be believed,
Prov. iii. 6. So the text. The creature in itself is an inefficacious and moveless
thing, a mere vanity, Acts xvii. 28. What makes any thing a means fit for the
end, is a word of divine appointment, Matt. iv. 4. To use anything then for an
end, without the faith of this, is to make a God of the creature; therefore it is to
be used in a dependence on God, according to that word of appointment, 1 Tim. iv.
4, 5., And every thing is fit for the end for which God has appointed it. This
consideration is appointed for that end; and therefore is a fit means for it.
Fourthly, The Spirit may be expected to work by it, and does work by it in them
that believe, and look to him for it, forasmuch as it is a mean of his own appointment.
Papists, legalists, and all superstitious persons, devise various means of sanctifica-
292 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
tion, seeming to have, or really having a moral fitness for the same ; but they are
quite ineffectual, because, like Abana and Pharphar, they want a word of divine
appointment for curing us of our leprosy ; therefore the Spirit works not by them,
since they are none of his own tools, but devised of their hearts. And since the
means of divine appointment are ineffectual without the Spirit, these can never
be effectual. But this consideration having a divine appointment, the Spirit
works by it. -
Use. Then take this direction for your carrying right under the crook in your
lot. Inure yourselves to consider it as the work of God. And for helping you to
improve it, so as it may be effectual, I offer these advices.
First, Consider it as the work of your God in Christ. This is the way to sprinkle
it with gospel-grace, and so to make it tolerable, Psalm xxii. 1–3. The discern-
ing of a Father's hand in the crook will take out much of the bitterness of it, and
sugar the pill to you. For this cause it will be necessary, (1.) Solemnly to take
God for your God under your crook, Psalm cylii. 4, 5 ; (2.) In all your encounters
with it, resolutely to believe, and claim your interest in him, 1 Sam. xxx. 6.
Secondly, Enlarge the consideration with a view of the divine relations to you, and
the divine attributes. Consider it being the work of your God, and the work of your
Father, elder Brother, Head, Husband, &c., who therefore surely consults your
good. Consider his holiness and justice, showing he wrongs you not ; his mercy
and goodness, that it is not worse; his sovereignty, that may silence you; his in-
finite wisdom and love, that may satisfy you in it.
3. Consider what a work of his it is ; how it is a convincing work, for bringing
sin to remembrance; a correcting work, to chastise you for your follies; a prevent-
ing work, to hedge you up from courses of sin ye would otherwise be apt to run
into ; a trying work, to discover your state, your graces, and corruptions; a wean-
ing work, to wean you from the world and fit you for heaven.
4. In all our considerations of it in this manner, look upward for his Spirit, to
render them effectual, 1 Cor. iii. 6.—Thus may ye carry Christianly under it, till
God even it either here or in heaven.
PROVERBs xvi. 19.
“Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil
with the proud.”
Could men once be brought to believe, that it is better to have their minds
brought to ply with the crook in their lot, than to force even the crook to their
mind, they would then be in a fair way to bring their matters, in that case, to a
good account. Hear then the divine decision in that case: “Better is it to be of
an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” In
which words,
First, There is a comparison instituted, and that between two parties, and two
points wherein they vastly differ.
1. The parties are the lowly and the proud, who differ like heaven and the cen-
tre of the earth : the proud are aye climbing up and soaring aloft; the lowly are
content to creep on the ground, if that is the will of God. Let us view them more
particularly as the text represents them. -
(1.) On the one hand is the lowly. Here there is a line-reading, and a margi-
mal, both from the Holy Spirit, and they differ only in a letter: the former is the
afflicted or poor, that are low in their condition; those that have a notable crook
in their lot through affliction laid on them, whereby their condition is lowered in
the world. The other is the lowly or meek humble ones, who are low in their
spirit, as well as their condition, and so have their minds brought down to their
lot. Both together making the character of this lowly party.
(2.) On the other hand is the proud, the gay, and high-minded ones. It is
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 293
supposed here that they are crossed too, and have crooks in their lot ; for dividing
the spoil is the consequent of a victory, and a victory presupposes a battle.
2. The points wherein these parties are supposed to differ, namely, being of a
humble spirit, and dividing the spoil.
Afflicted and lowly ones may sometimes get their condition changed; may be raised
up on high and divide the spoil, as Hannah, Job, &c. The proud may sometimes be
thrown down and crushed, as Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. But that is not the
question, Whether it is better to be raised up with the lowly, or thrown down with
the proud. There would be no difficulty in determining that. But the question is,
Whether it is better to be of a low and humble spirit, in low circumstances, with
afflicted humble ones, or to divide the spoil, and get one's will, with the proud 2 If
men would speak the native sentiments of their hearts, that question would be de-
termined in a contradiction to the text. The points then here compared, and set
against one another, are these,
(1.) On the one hand, to be of a humble spirit with afflicted lowly ones, (Heb.)
to be low of spirit, for the word primarily denotes lowness in situation or state : so
the point here proposed is to be with or in the state of afflicted lowly ones, having
the spirit brought down to that low lot; the lowness of the spirit balancing the low-
ness of one's condition.
(2.) On the other hand, to divide the spoil with the proud. The point here pro-
posed is, to be with or in the state of the proud, having their lot by main force
brought to their mind; as those who, taking themselves to be injured, fight it out
with the enemy, overcome and divide the spoil according to their will.
Secondly, The decision made, wherein the former is preferred to the latter;
“Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with
the proud,” &c. If these two parties were set before us, it were better to take our
lot with those of a low condition, who have their spirits brought as low as their lot,
than with those who, being of a proud and high-bended spirit, have their lot
brought up to their mind. A humble spirit is better than a heightened condition.
DocTRINE, There is a generation of lowly afflicted ones, having their spirit lowered
and brought down to their lot, whose case, in that respect, is better than that of
the proud getting their will, and carrying all to their mind.
I. We shall consider the generation of the lowly afflicted ones, having their
spirit brought down to their lot. And we shall,
First, Lay down some general considerations about them.
1. There is such a generation in the world, as bad as the world is. The text ex-
pressly mentions them, and the scripture elsewhere makes mention of them; as
Psal. ix. 12, and x. 12; Matt. v. 3, with Luke vi. 20. Where shall we seek them?
Not in heaven, there are no afflicted ones there ; nor in hell, there are no lowly or
humble ones there, whose spirit is brought to their lot. In this world they must
then be, where the state of trial is.
2. If it were not so, Christ, as he was in the world, would have no followers in it.
He was the head of that generation whom they all copy after; “Learn of me, for I am
meek and lowly in heart,” Matt. xi. 29. And for his honour, and the honour of his
cross, they will never be wanting while the world stands; Rom. viii. 29, “Whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
His image lies in these two, suffering and holiness, whereof lowliness is a chief part.
3. Nevertheless, they are certainly very rare in the world. Agur observes, that
there is another generation, (Prov. xxx. 13, “Their eyes are lofty, and their
eye-lids lifted up,”) quite opposite to them, and this makes the greatest company by
far. The low and afflicted lot is not so very rare, but the lowly disposition of spirit
is rarely yoked with it. Many a high-bended spirit keeps on the bend in spite of
the lowering circumstance. -
4. They can be no more in number than the truly godly ; for nothing less than
the power of divine grace can bring down men's minds from their native height,
and make their will pliant to the will of God, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. Men may put on a
face of submission to a low and cross lot, because they cannot help it, and they see
it is in vain to strive ; but to bring the spirit truly to it, must be the effect of
humbling grace. -
294 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
5. Though all the godly are of that generation, yet there are some of them to
whom that character more especially belongs. The way to heaven lies through
tribulation to all, Acts xiv. 22, and all Christ's followers are reconciled to it not-
withstanding, Luke xiv. 26; yet there are some of them more remarkably disciplined
than others, whose spirit however is thereby humbled, and brought down to their
lot ; Psal. cxxxi. 2, “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that
is weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child;” Phil. iv. 11, 12, “For
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both
how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where, and in all things, I am
instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
6. A lowly disposition of soul, and habitual aim and bent of the heart that way,
has a very favourable construction put upon it in heaven. Should we look for a
generation perfectly purged of pride and risings of heart against their adverse lot
at any time, we would find none in this world: but those who are sincerely aiming
and endeavouring to reach it, and keep the way of contented submission, though
Sometimes they are blown aside, and returning to it again, God accounts to be
that lowly generation, 2 Cor. vii. 12; James v. 11.
Secondly, We shall enter into the particulars of their character. There are
three things which together make up their character.
1. Affliction in their lot. That lowly generation, preferred to the proud and
prosperous, are a generation of afflicted ones, whom God keeps under the discipline
of the covenant. We may take it up in these two. -
(1.) There is a yoke of affliction of one kind or other oftentimes upon them, Psal.
lxxiii. 14. If there be “silence in heaven,” it is but “for half an hour,” Rev. viii. 1.
God is frequently visiting them as a master doth his scholars, and a physician his
patients; whereas others are in a sort overlooked by him, Rev. iii. 19. They are
accustomed to the yoke, and that from the time they enter into God's family, Psal.
cxxix. 1–3. God sees it good for them, Lam. iii. 27, 28. -
(2.) There is a particular yoke of affliction, which God has chosen for them, that
hangs about them, and is seldom, if ever, taken off them, Luke ix. 23. That is
their special trial, the crook in their lot, the yoke which lies on them for their con-
stant exercise. Their other trials may be exchanged; but that is a weight that still
hangs about them, bowing them down.
2. Lowliness in their disposition and tenor of spirit. They are a generation
of lowly humble ones, whose spirits God has, by his grace, brought down from
their natural height. And thus,
(1.) They think soberly and meanly of themselves; what they are, 2 Cor. xii. 11;
what they can do, 2 Cor. iii. 5; what they are worth, Gen. xxxii. 10; and what they
deserve, Lam. iii. 22. Viewing themselves in the glass of the divine law and per-
fection, they see themselves as a mass of imperfection and sinfulness, Job xlii. 5, 6.
(2.) They think highly and honourably of God, Psal. cxliv. 3. They are taught
by the Spirit what God is ; and so entertain elevated thoughts of him. They con-
sider him as the Sovereign of the world, his perfections as infinite, his work as per-
fect. They look on him as the fountain of happiness, as a God in Christ, doing
all things well; trusting his wisdom, goodness, and love, even where they cannot
see, Heb. xi. 8.
(3.) They think favourably of others, as far as in justice they may, Phil. ii. 3.
Though they cannot hinder themselves to see their glaring faults, yet they are ready
withal to acknowledge their excellencies, and esteem them so far. And because
they see more into their own mercies and advantages for holiness, and misimprov-
ing thereof, than they can see into others, they are apt to look on others as better
than themselves, circumstances compared. - -
(4.) They are sunk down into a state of subordination to God and his will, Psal.
cxxxi. 1, 2. Pride sets a man up against God; lowliness brings him back to his
place, and lays him down at the feet of his sovereign Lord, saying, “Thy will be
done on earth,” &c. They seek no more the command; but are content that God
himself sit at the helm of their affairs, and manage all for them, Psal. xlvii. 4.
(5.) They are not bent on high things, but disposed to stoop to low things, Psal.
cxxxi. I. Lowliness levels the towering imaginations, which pride mounts up
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 295
against heaven; draws a veil over all personal worth and excellencies before the
Lord, and yields a man's all to the Lord, to be as stepping-stones to the throne of
his glory, 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26. tº e e
(6.) They are apt to magnify mercies bestowed on them, Gen. :Wii.IO. Pride
of heart overlooks and viſifies mercies one is possessed of, and fixetſ tºyson what
is wanting in one's condition, making one like the flies, which pass over the sound
places, and swarm together on the sore. On the contrary, lowliness teaches men
to recount the mercies they enjoy in the lowest condition, and to set a mark on the
good things they have possessed, or yet do, Job ii.10. º
3. A spirit brought down to their lot. errº Tot is a low and afflicted one ;
but their spirit is as low, being, through grace, brought down to it. We may take
it up in these five things. g
(1.) They submit to it as just ; Mic. vii. 9, “I will bear the indignation of the
Lord, because I have sinned against him.” There are no hardships in our condi-
tion but we have procured them to ourselves; and it is therefore just we kiss the
rod, and be silent under it, and so lower our spirits to our lot. If they complain,
they have their complaints on themselves; their hearts rise not up against the
Lord, far less do they open their mouths against the heavens. . They justify God
and condemn themselves, reverencing his holiness and spotless righteousness in his
proceedings against them.
(2.) They go quietly under it as tolerable; Lam, iii. 26–29, “It is good that a
man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good
for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence,
because he hath borne it upon him; he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there
may be hope.” While the unsubdued spirit rageth under the yoke as a bullock
unaccustomed to it, the spirit brought to the lot goes softly under it. They see it
is of the Lord's mercies that it is not worse: they take up the naked cross, as God
lays it down, without those overweights upon it that turbulent passions add there-
unto ; and so it becomes really more easy than they thought it could have been,
like a burden fitted on the back.
(3.) They are satisfied in it, as drawing their comfort from another airth” than
their outward condition, even as the house stands fast when the prop is taken away
that it did not lean upon ; “Although the fig-tree should not blossom, neither
fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord,” Hab. iii. 17, 18. Thus did
David in the day of his distress: “he encouraged himself in the Lord his God,”
1 Sam. xxx. 6. It is an argument of a spirit not brought down to the lot, when
one is damped and sunk under the hardships of it, as if their condition in the world
were the point whereon their happiness turned. It is want of mortification that
makes men's comforts to wax and wane, ebb and flow, according to the various
appearances of their lot in the world. -
(4.) They have a complacency in it, as that which is fit and good for them, Isa.
xxxix. 8; 2 Cor. xii. 10. Men have a sort of complacency in the working of phy-
sic, though it gripes them sore ; they rationally think with themselves that it is
good and best for them : so these lowly souls consider their afflicted lot as a spiri-
tual medicine, necessary, fit, and good for them : yea, best for them for the time,
since it is ministered by their heavenly Father: and so they reach a holy com-
placency in their afflicted lot.
The lowly spirit extracts this sweet out of the bitterness in his lot, considering
how the Lord, by means of that afflicting lot, stops the provision for unruly lusts,
that they may be starved ; how he cuts off the by-channels, that the whole stream
of the soul's love may run towards himself; how he pulls off the holds off the man's
burden and clog of earthly comforts, that he may run the more expeditiously the
way to heaven. -
(5.) They rest in it, as what they desire not to come out of, till the God that
brought them into it see it meet to bring them out with his good will, Isa. xxviii.
16. Though an unsubdued spirit's time for deliverance is always ready, a humble
Soul will be afraid of being taken out of its afflicted lot too soon. It will not be
for a moving for a change, till the heavens moving bring it about : So this hinders
* i. e. from another quarter.—ED.
ſºw?
296 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
not prayer, and the use of appointed means, with dependence on the Lord ; but re-
Quires faith, hope, patience, and resignation, 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.
II. We shall consider the generation of the proud getting their will, and carry-
ing all to their mind. And in their character also are three things.
First, There are crosses in their lot. They also have their trials allotted them
by overruling providence, and let them be in what circumstances they will in the
world, they cannot miss them altogether. For consider,
1. The confusion and vanity brought into the creation by man's sin, have made
'it impossible to get through the world, but men must meet with what will ruffle
them, Eccl. i. 14. Sin has turned the world from a paradise to a thicket; there
is no getting through without being scratched. As the midges in the summer will
fly about those walking abroad in a goodly attire, as well as about those in sordid
apparel; so will crosses in the world meet with the high as well as the low.
2. The pride of their heart exposes them particularly to crosses. A proud heart
will make a cross to itself, where a lowly soul would find none, Esth. v. 13. It will
make a real cross ten times the weight it would be to the humble. The generation
of the proud are like nettles and thorn-hedges, upon which things flying about do
fix, while they pass over low and plain things: so none are more exposed to crosses
than they, though none so unfit to bear them; as appears from,
Secondly, Reigning pride in their spirit. Their spirits were never subdued by a
work of thorough humiliation; they remain at the height in which the corruption
of nature sets them: hence they can by no means bear the yoke God lays on them.
The neck is swollen with the ill humours of pride and passion: hence, when the
yoke once begins to touch it, they cannot have any more ease. We may view the
case of the proud generation here in three things.
1. They have an over-value for themselves: and so the proud mind says, The
man should not stoop to the yoke; it is below them. What a swelling vanity is in
that, Exod. v. 2, “Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice 2'' Hence a
work of humiliation is necessary to make one take on the yoke, whether of Christ's
precepts or providence. The first error is in the understanding; whence Solomon
ordinarily calls a wicked man a fool: accordingly the first stroke in conversion is
there too, by conviction to humble. Men are larger in their own conceit than they
are in deed; therefore God suiting things to what we are really, cannot please us.
2. They have an unmortified self-will, arising from that over-value for them-
selves; and it says he will not stoop, Exod. v. 2. The question betwixt heaven
and us is, Whether God's will or our own must carry it. Our will is corrupt,
God’s will is holy ; they cannot agree in one. God says in his providence, our
will must yield to his; but that it will not do, till the “iron sinew” in it be broken,
Rom. vi. 7 ; Isa. xlviii. 4.
3. They have a crowd of unsubdued passions taking part with the self-will; and
they say, He shall not stoop, Rom. vii. 8, 9. And so the war begins, and there is
a field of battle within and without the man, James iv. 1.
(1.) A holy God crosses the self-will of the proud creatures by his providence,
overruling and disposing of things contrary to their inclination ; sometimes by his
own immediate hand, as in the case of Cain, Gen. iv. 4, 5; sometimes by the hand
of men carrying things against their mind, as in the case of Ahab, to whom Naboth
refused his vineyard, 1 Kings xxi. 4.
(2.) The proud heart and will, unable to submit to the cross, or to bear to be
controlled, rises up against it, and fights for the mastery, with its whole force of
unmortified passions. The design is to remove the cross, even the crook, and bring
the thing to their own mind: this is the cause of this unholy war; in which,
i. There is one black band of hellish passions that marches upward, and makes
an attack on heaven itself, viz. discontent, impatience, murmuring, fretting, and
the like; “The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against
the Lord,” Prov. xix. 3. These fire the breast; fall* the countenance, Gen. iv. 6;
let off, sometimes, a volley of indecent and passionate complaints, Jude ver, 16, and
sometimes of blasphemies, 2 Kings vi. 33.
ii. There is another that marches forward, and makes an attack on the instru-
* i.e. cause to fall.—ED.
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 297
ment or instruments of the cross, viz. anger, wrath, fury, revenge, bitterness, &c.
Prov. xxvii. 4. These carry the man out of the possession of himself, Luke xxi.
19: fill the heart with a boiling heat, Psal. xxxix. 3; the mouth with clamour and
evil-speaking, Eph. iv. 31 : and threatenings are breathed out, Acts ix. 1; and
sometimes set the hands on work, which has a most heavy event, (Matt. v. 21, 22,)
as in the case of Ahab against Naboth. &
Thus the proud carry on the war; but oftentimes they lose the day, and the cross
remains immoveable for all they can do; yea, and sometimes they themselves fall
in the quarrel, it ends in their ruin, Exod. xv. 9, 10. But that is not the case
in the text. We are to consider them as,
Thirdly, Getting their will, and carrying all to their mind. This speaks,
1. Holy Providence yielding to the man's unmortified self-will, and letting it go
according to his mind, Gen. vi. 3. God sees it meet to let the struggle with him
fall, for it prevails not to his good, Isa. i. 5. So the reins are laid on the proud
man's neck, and he has what he would be at: “Ephraim is joined to idols, let him
alone,” Hos. iv. 17.
2. The lust remaining in its strength and vigour; Psal. lxxviii. 30, “They
were not estranged from their lust.” God, in the method of his covenant, some-
times gives his people their will, and sets them where they would be ; but then, in
that case, the lust for the thing is mortified, and they as weaned children, Psalm
x. 17. But here the lust remains rampant ; the proud seek meat for it, and get it.
3. The cross removed, the yoke taken off, Psalm lxxviii. 29. They could not
think of bringing their mind to their lot ; but they thwarted with it, wrestled and
fought against it, till it is brought up to their mind: so the day is their own, the
victory is on their side. -
4. The man is pleased in his having carried his point, even as one is when he
is dividing the spoil, 1 Kings xxi. 18, 19.
Thus the case of the afflicted lowly generation, and the proud generation pros-
pering, is stated. Now,
III. I am to confirm the doctrine, or the decision of the text, that the case of
the former is better than that of the latter. It is better to be in a low afflicted
condition, with the spirit humbled and brought down to the lot, than to be of a
proud and high spirit, getting the lot brought up to it, and matters go to will and
wish, according to one's mind. This will appear from the following considerations.
First, Humility is so far preferable to pride, that in no circumstances whatso-
ever its preferableness can fail. Let all the afflictions in the world attend the hum-
ble spirit, and all the prosperity in the world attend pride, humility will still
have the better ; as gold in a dunghill is more excellent than so much lead in
a cabinet. For,
1. Humility is a piece of the image of God. Pride is the masterpiece of the
image of the devil. Let us view him who was the express image of the Father's
person, and we shall behold him “meek and lowly in heart,” Matt. xi. 29. None
more afflicted, yet his spirit perfectly brought down to his lot; Isa. liii. 7, “He was
oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.” That is a shining
piece of the divine image: for though God cannot be low in respect of his state and
condition, yet he is of infinite condescension, Isa. lvii. 15. None bears as he,
Rom. ii. 4; nor suffers patiently so much contradiction to his will, which is proposed
to us for our encouragement, in affliction, as it shone in Christ; “For consider
him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds,” Heb. xii. 3.
Pride, on the other hand, is the very image of the devil, 1 Tim. iii. 6. Will we
Value ourselves on the height of our spirits? Satan will vie with the highest of us
in that point; for, though he is the most miserable, yet he is the proudest in the
whole creation. There is the greatest distance between his spirit and his lot; the
fºrmer is as high as the throne of God, the latter aslow as heliº and as it is impos-
sible that ever his lot should be brought up to his spirit, so his spirit will never
come down to his lot; and therefore he will be eternally in a state of war with his lot.
Hence, even at this time, he has no rest, but goes about, seeks rest indeed, but
finds none.
2 P
298 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
Now, is it not better to be like. God, than like the devil? like him who is the
fountain of all good, than him who is the spring and sink of all evil? Can any
thing possibly cast the balance here, and turn the preference to the other side 3
“Then better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly,” &c.
2. Humility and lowliness of spirit qualifies us for friendly communion and inter-
course with God in Christ. Pride makes God our enemy, 1 Pet. v. 5. Our happiness
here and hereafter depends on our friendly intercourse with heaven. If we have not
that, nothing can make up our loss, Psal. xxx. 5. If we have that, nothing can
make us miserable; Rom. viii. 31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Now, who are they whom God is for but the humble and lowly; those who, being in
Christ, are so made like him? He blesses them, and declares them the heirs of the
crown of glory: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,”
Matt. v. 3. He will look to them be their condition never so low, while he overlooks
others, Isa. lxvi. 2. He will have respect to them, however they be despised :
“Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect to the lowly; but the proud he
knoweth afar off,” Psal. cxxxviii. 6. He will dwell with them, however poorly they
dwell, Isa. lvii. 15. He will certainly exalt them in due time, however low they
lie now, Isa. xl. 4.
Whom is he against 2 Whom does he resist? The proud. Them he curseth, Jer.
xvii. 5, and that curse will dry up their arm at length. The proud man is God's
rival; he makes himself his own God, and would have those about him make him
theirs too ; he rages, he blusters, if they will not fall down before him. But God
will bring him down, Isa. xl. 4; Psal. xviii. 27.
Now, is it not better to be qualified for communion with God, than to have him
engaged against us at any rate 3 -
3. Humility is a duty pleasing to God; pride a sin pleasing to the devil, Isa.
lvii. 15; 1 Tim. iii. 6. God requires us to be humble, especially under affliction :
“ and be clothed with humility,” 1 Pet. v. 5, 6. That is our becoming garment.
The humble publican was accepted, the proud Pharisee rejected. We may say of
the generation of the proud, as 1 Thess. ii. 16, “Wrath is come upon them to the
uttermost.” They please neither God nor men, but only themselves and Satan,
whom they resemble in it. Now, duty is aye better than sin at any rate.
Secondly, They whose spirits are brought down to their afflicted lot, have much
quiet and repose of mind, while the proud that must have their lot brought up to
their mind, have much disquiet, trouble, and vexation.—Consider here, that, on
the one hand,
1. Quiet of mind, and ease within, is a great blessing, upon which the comfort
of life depends. Nothing without this can make one's life happy, Dan. v. 6, And
where this is maintained, nothing can make it miserable, John xvi. 33. This being
secured in God, there is a defiance bid to all the troubles of the world, Psalm xlvi.
2–4; like the child sailing in the midst of the rolling waves.
2. The spirit brought down to the lot makes and maintains this inward tran-
quillity. Our whole trouble in our lot in the world riseth from the disagreement of
our mind therewith : let the mind be brought to the lot, and the whole tumult is
instantly hushed; let it be kept in that disposition, and the man shall stand at ease
in his affliction, like a rock unmoved with waters beating on it; Col. iii. 15, “And
let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called.”
On the other hand consider,
1. What disquiet of mind the proud do suffer ere they can get their lot brought
up to their mind; “They have taught their tongues to speak lies, and they weary
themselves to commit iniquity,” Jer. ix. 5; James iv. 2, “Ye lust, and have not :
ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight and war, yet ye have not.”
What arrows of grief go through their heart! What torture of anxiety, fretting, and
vexation must they endure | What contrary passions do fight within them and
what sallies of passions do they make | What uneasiness was Haman in, before he
could carry the point of the revenge against Mordecai obtaining the king's decreel
2. When the thing is got to their mind, it will not quit the cost.* The enjoy-
* i. e. it will not prove equal to the expense.—ED.
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 299
ment thereof brings not so much satisfaction and pleasure, as the want of it gave
pain. This was evident in Rachel's case, as to the having of children; and in
that case, Psal. lxxviii. 30, 31. There is a dead fly in the ointment that mars the
savour they expected to find in it. Fruit plucked off the tree of providence, ere it
is ripe, will readily set the teeth on edge. It proves like the manna kept over
night, Exod. xvi. 20.
3. They have but an unsure gripe of it; it doth not last with them. Either it
is taken from them soon, and they are just where they were again; “I gave thee a
king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath,” Hos. xiii. 11. Having a root
of pride, it quickly withers away; or else they are taken from it, that they have no
access to enjoy it. So Haman obtained the decree; but ere the day of the execu-
tion came, he was gone. -
Thirdly, They that get their spirit brought down to their afflicted lot, do gain a
point far more valuable than they who, in their pride, force up their lot to their
mind; Prov, xvi. 32, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and
he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” This will appear, if ye
consider, -
1. The latter makes but a better condition in outward things, the former makes
a better man. “The life is more than meat.” The man himself is more valuable
than all external conveniences that attend him. What, therefore, betters the man
is preferable to what betters only his condition. Who doubts but, where two are
sick, and the one gets himself transported from a coarse bed to a fine one, but the
sickness still remaining; the other lies still in the coarse bed, but the sickness is
removed; that the case of the latter is preferable 2 So here, “better it is to be,” &c.
2. The subduing of our own passions is more excellent than to have the whole world
subdued to our will ; for then we are masters of ourselves, according to that, Luke
xxi. 19 ; whereas, in the other case, we are still slaves to the worst of masters,
Rom. vi. 16. In the one case we are safe, blow what storm will : in the other, we
lie exposed to thousands of dangers; Prov. xxy. 28, “He that hath no rule over
his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.”
3. When both shall come to be judged, it will appear the one has multiplied the
tale of their good works, in bringing their spirit to their lot; the other, the tale of
their ill works, in bringing their lot to their spirit. We have to do with an omni-
Scient God, in whose eyes every internal action is a work, good or bad, to be reck-
oned for, Rom. ii. 16.
An afflicted lot is painful; but, where it is well managed, it is very fruitful; it
exercises the graces of the Spirit in a Christian, which otherwise would lie dormant.
But there is never an act of resignation to the will of God under the cross, nor an
act of trusting in him for his help, but they will be recorded in heaven's register
as good works, Mal. iii. 16. And these are occasioned by affliction.
On the other hand, there is never a rising of the proud heart against the lot,
nor a faithless attempt to bring it to our mind, whether it succeed or not, but it
passes for an ill work before God. How then will the tale of such be multiplied by
the war in which the spoil is divided !
Use 1. Of information. Hence we may learn,
First, It is not always best for folk to get their will. Many there are who cannot
be pleased with God's will about them, and they get their own will with a ven-
geance; Psal. lxxxi. 11, 12, “Israelwould none of me; so I gave them up to their own
hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels.” It may be pleasantest and
gratefullest for the time, but it is not the safest. Let not people pride themselves
in their carrying things that way, then, by a strong hand; let them not triumph on
such victory; the after reckoning will open their eyes.
Secondly, The afflicted, crossed party, whose lot is kept low, is so far from being a
loser that he is againer thereby, if his spirit is brought down to it. And if he will see
his case in the light of God's unerring word, he is in better case than if he had got
all carried to his mind. In the one way, the “vessels of wrath " are “fitted for
destruction,” Psal. lxxviii. 29–31; in the other, the “vessels of mercy” are
fitted for glory, and so God disciplines his own, Lam. iii. 27.
3. It is better to yield to Providence than to fight it out though we should win.
300 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
Yielding to the sovereign disposal is both our becoming duty and our greatest inter-
est. Taking that way we act most honourably ; for what honour can there be in
a creature's disputing his ground with his Creator ? And we act most wisely ; for
whatever may be the success of some battles in that case, we may be sure victory
will be on heaven's side in the war; 1 Sam, ii. 9, “ For, by strength shall no man
prevail.”
p Lastly, It is of far greater concern for us to get our spirits brought down than
our outward condition raised. But who believes this? All men strive to raise
their outward condition ; most men never mind the bringing down of their spirits,
and few there are who apply themselves to it. And what is that but to be con-
cerned to minister drink to the thirsty sick, but never to mind to seek a cure for
them, whereby their thirst may be carried off? -
Use 2. Of exhortation. As you meet with crosses in your lot in the world, let
your bent be rather to have your spirit humbled and brought down, than to get
the cross removed. I mean not but that you may use all lawful means for the
removal of your cross, in dependence on God ; but only, that you be more concerned
to get your spirit to bow and ply, than to get the crook in your lot evened.
Motive 1. It is far more needful for us to have our spirits humbled under the
cross, than to have the cross removed. The removal of the cross is needful only
for the ease of the flesh; the humbling for the profit of our souls, to purify them,
and bring them into a state of health and cure.
Mot. 2. The humbling of the spirit will have a mighty good effect on a crossed lot;
but the removal of the cross will have none on the unhumbled spirit. The humbling
will lighten the cross mightily for the time, (Matt. xi. 30,) and in due time carry it
cleanly off, 1 Pet. v. 6. But the removal of the cross is not a means to humble
the unhumbled; though it may prevent irritation, yet the disease still remains.
Mot. 3. Think with yourselves how dangerous and hopeless a case it is to have the
cross removed ere the spirit is humbled ; that is, to have the means of cure pulled
away, and blocked up from us, while the power of the disease is yet unbroken ; to
be taken off trials ere we have given any good proof of ourselves, and so to be given
over of our physicians as hopeless, Isa. i. 5; Hos. iv. 17.
Use 3. For direction. Believing the gospel, take God for your God in Christ
towards your eternal salvation, and then dwell much on the thoughts of God s
greatness and holiness, and of your own sinfulness: so will ye be “humbled under
the mighty hand of God;” and, in due time, “he will lift you up.”
1 PETER. v. 6.
“ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may easalt you
in due time.”
IN the preceding part of this chapter, the apostle presseth the duties of church-
officers towards the people ; and then the duty of the people, both towards their
officers, and among themselves, which he winds up in one word, submission. For
which causes he recommends humility as the great means to bring all to their re-
spective duties. This is enforced with an argument taken from the different treat-
ment the Lord gives to the proud and the humble ; his opposing himself to the
one, and showing favour to the other. Our text is an exhortation drawn from that
consideration: and in it we have,
First, The duty we are therefore to study: “Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” And therein we
may notice,
I. The state of those whom it is proposed to, those “under the mighty hand of
God;” whom his hand has humbled, or stated,” Some way, low in respect of their
* i. e. constituted.—ED.
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 301
circumstances in the world. And by these are, I think, meant, not only such as are
under particular signal afflictions, which is the lot of some ; but also those who, by
the providence of God, are any manner of way lowered, which is the lot of all, all
being in a state of submission, or dependence on others. God has made this life a
state of trial: and for that cause he has, by his mighty hand, subjected men one to
another, as wives, children, servants, to husbands, parents, masters; and these,
again, to their superiors; among whom, again, even the highest depends on those
under them, as magistrates and ministers on the people, even the Supreme magis-
trate being major singulis, minor universis.” This state of the world God has made
for taking trial of men in their several stations and dependence on others: and
therefore, when the time of trial is over, it also comes to an end ; “Then cometh
the end, when he shall have put down all rule, and authority, and power,” 1 Cor.
xv. 24, 25. Meantime, while it lasts, it makes humility necessary to all, to prompt
them to the duty they owe their superiors, to whom God’s mighty hand has sub-
jected them.
2. The duty itself, viz., Humiliation of our spirits under the humbling circum-
stances the Lord has placed us in: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” Whether it is we are under par-
ticular afflictions which have cast us down from the height we were sometimes in ; or
whether we are only inferiors in one or more relations; or whether, which is most
common, both these are in our case, we must therein eye the mighty hand of God,
as that which placed us there, and is over us there to hold us down in it; and so,
with an awful regard thereto, crouch down under it in the temper and disposition
of our spirits, suiting our spirits to our lot, and careful of performing the duty of
our low sphere.
3. A particular spring of this duty: therefore t we must consider, that those who
cannot quietly keep the place assigned them of God in their afflictions or relations,
but still press upward against the mighty hand that is over them, that mighty hand
resists them, throwing them down, and often farther down than before, whereas it
treats them with grace and favour that compose themselves under it to a quiet
discharge of their duty in their situation; so that eyeing this, we must set ourselves
to humble ourselves.
Secondly, The infallible issue of that course : “that he may exalt you in due
time.” The particle that is not always to be understood finally, as denoting the end
or design the agent proposes to himself, but sometimes eventually only, as denoting
the event or issue of the action, John ix. 2; 1 John ii. 19. So here, the meaning
is, not, Humble yourselves, on design “he may exalt you ;” but, and it shall issue
in his exalting you. Compare James iv. 10.
1. Here is a happy event of humiliation of spirit secured ; and that is, exaltation
or lifting up on high by the power of God: “that he may exalt you.” Exalting
will as surely follow on humiliation of spirit suitable to the low lot, as the morning
follows the night, or the sun riseth after the dawning. And these words are fitted
to obviate the objection that the world and our corrupt hearts are apt to make
against bringing down the spirit to the low lot.
Objection 1. If we let our spirit fall, we will lie always among folk's feet, and
they will trample on us.
Answer. No ; pride of spirit unsubdued, will bring men to lie among the feet of
others for ever, Isa. lxvi. 24. But humiliation of spirit will bring them undoubt-
edly out from among their feet, Mal. iv. 2, 3. They that humble themselves now
will be exalted for ever; they will be brought out of their low situation and circum-
stances. Cast ye yourselves even down with your low lot, and assure yourselves ye
shall not lie there.
Object, 2. If we do not raise ourselves, none will raise us; and therefore we must
see to ourselves to do ourselves right.
Answ. That is Wrong. Humble ye yourselves in respect of your spirits, and God
will raise you up in respect of your lot, or low condition; and they that have God
engaged for raising them, have no reason to say they have none to do it for them.
* i. e. greater than each, less than all,—ED. + i. e. in order to the performance of it.—ED.
302 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
Bringing down of the spirit is our duty, raising us up is God's work: let us not
forfeit the privilege of God's raising us up, by arrogating that work to ourselves,
taking it out of his hand. - -
Object. 3. But sure we will never rise high, if we let our spirits fall.
Answ. That is wrong too. God will not only raise the humble ones; but he
will lift them up on high, for so the word signifies. They shall be as high at
length as ever they were low, were they ever so low ; nay, the exaltation will bear
proportion to the humiliation.
2. Here is the date of that happy event, when it will fall out: “in due time,” or
in the season, the proper season for it; Gal. vi. 9, “In due season we shall reap,
if we faint not.” We are apt to weary in humbling trying circumstances, and aye
we would have up our head, John vii. 6. But Solomon observes, there is a time
for every thing when it does best, and the wise will wait it, Eccl. iii. 1–8. There
is a time too for exalting them that humble themselves; God has set it, and it is
the due time for the purpose, the time when it does best, even as sowing in the
spring, and reaping in the harvest. When that time comes, your exalting shall no
longer be put off, and it would come too soon should it come before that time.
DoCTRINE I. The bent of one's heart, in humbling circumstances, should lie to-
wards a suitable humbling of the spirit, as under God's mighty hand placing us in
them. We have here, -
I. Some things supposed in this. It supposeth and bears in it, that,
First, God brings men into humbling circumstances; Ezek. xvii. 24, “And all
the trees of the field shall know, that I the Lord have brought down the high tree.”
There is a root of pride in the hearts of all men on earth, that must be mortified
ere they can be meet for heaven: and therefore no man can miss, in this time of
trial, some things that will give a proof whether he can stoop or no. And God
brings them into humbling circumstances for that very end ; Deut. viii. 2, “The
Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to
prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart.” -
Secondly, These circumstances prove pressing as a weight on the heart, tending to
bear it down; Psal. cvii. 12, “Therefore he brought down their heart with labour.”
They strike at the grain of the heart, and cross the natural inclination: whence a
trial natively ariseth, whether, when God lays on his mighty hand, the man can
yield under it or not ; and consequently, whether he is meet for heaven or not.
Thirdly, The heart is naturally apt to rise up against these humbling circumstances,
and, consequently, against the mighty hand that brings and keeps them on. The
man naturally bends his force to get off the weight, that he may get up his head,
seeking more to please himself than to please his God; Job xxxv. 9, 10, “They
cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty: but none saith, Where is God my
maker ?” This is the first gate the heart runs to in humbling circumstances; and
in this way the unsubdued spirit holds on.
Fourthly, But what God requires is, rather to labour to bring down the heart,
than to get up the head, James iv. 10. Here lies the proof of one's meetness for
heaven; and then is one in the way heavenward, when he is more concerned to get
down his heart than up his head, to go calmly under his burden than to get it off,
to crouch under the mighty hand than to put it off him.
Fifthly, There must be a noticing of God as our party, in humbling circumstances;
“Hear ye the rod, and him who hath appointed it,” Micah vi. 9. There is an
abjectness of spirit whereby some give up themselves to the will of others, in the
harshest treatment, merely to please them, without regard to the authority and
command of God. This is real meanness of spirit, whereby one lies quietly to be
trampled on by a fellow-worm, from its imaginery weight; and none so readily fall
into it as the proud, at sometimes, to serve their own turn, Acts xii. 22. These are
men-pleasers, Eph. vi. 6, with Gal. i. 10. -
II. What are these humbling circumstances the mighty hand of God brings them
into ? Supposing here what was before taught concerning the crook in the lot's
being of God’s making, these are circumstances,
First, Of imperfection. God has placed all men in such circumstances under a
variety of wants and imperfections, Phil. iii. 12. We can look nowhere where we
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are not beset with them. There is a heap of natural and moral imperfections
about us: our bodies and our souls, in all their faculties, are in a state of imper-
fection. The pride of all glory is stained: and it is a shame for us not to be hum-
bled under such wants as attend us; it is like a beggar strutting in his rags.
Secondly, Of inferiority in relations, whereby men are set in the lower place in re-
lations and society, and made to depend on others, 2 Cor. vii. 24. God has, for a
trial of men's submission to himself, subjected them to others whom he has set over
them, to discover what regard they will pay to his authority and commands at
second hand. Dominion or superiority is a part of the divine image shining in them,
1 Cor. xi. 7. And therefore reverence of them, consisting in an awful regard to
that ray of the divine image shining in them, is necessarily required, Eph. v. 33;
Heb. xii. 9; compare Psal. cxi. 9. The same holds in all other relations and
superiorities, namely, that they are so far in the place of God to their relatives,
(Psal. lxxxiii. 6,) and though the parties be worthless in themselves, that he looseth
not one from the debt to them, Acts xxiii. 4, 5; Rom. xiii. 7: the reason is, because
it is not their qualities, but their character, which is the ground of that debt of
reverence and subjection; and the trial God takes of us in that matter turns not
on the point of the former but of the latter.
Now, God having placed us in these circumstances of inferiority, all refractori-
ness in all things not contrary to the command of God, is a rising up against his
mighty hand, (Rom, xiii. 2,) because it is mediately upon us for that effect, though
it is man's hand that is immediately on us.
Thirdly, Of contradiction, tending directly to balk us of our will. This was a part of
our Lord's state of humiliation, and the apostle supposes it will be a part of ours too,
Heb. xii. 3. There is a perfect harmony in heaven, no one to contradict another
there; for they are in their state of retribution and exaltation: but we are here in
our state of trial and humiliation, and therefore cannot miss contradiction, be we
placed ever so high.
Whether these contradictions be just or unjust, God trysts men with them to
humble them, break them off from addictedness to their own will, and to teach
them resignation and self-denial. They are in their own nature humbling, and
much the same to us, as the breaking of a horse or a bullock is to them. And I
believe there are many cases in which there can be no accounting for them, but by
recurring to this use God has for them. y
Fourthly, Of affliction; Prov. xvi. 19, “Prosperity puffs up sinners with pride;”
and, O! but it is hard to keep a low spirit with a high and prosperous lot. But God,
by affliction, calls men down from their heights to sit in the dust, plucks away their
jay-feathers wherein they prided themselves, rubs the paint and varnish from off
the creature, whereby it appears more in its native deformity. There are various
kinds of afflictions, some more, some less humbling; but all of them are humbling.
Wherefore, not to lower the spirit under the affliction, is to pretend to rise up
when God is casting and holding down, with a witness; and cannot miss, if con-
tinued in, to provoke the Lord to break us in pieces, Ezek. xxiv. 13. For the
afflicting hand is mighty.
Fifthly, Of sin, as the punishment of sin. We may allude to that, Job xxx. 19. All
the sin in the world is a punishment of Adam's first sin. Man threw himself into
the mire at first, and now he is justly left weltering in it. Men wilfully make one
false step, and for that cause they are justly left to make another worse; and sin
hangs about all, even the best. And this is overruled of God for our humiliation,
that we may be ashamed, and never open our mouth any more. Wherefore, not to
be humbled under our sinfulness, is to rise up against the mighty hand of God, and
to justify all our sinful departings from him, as lost to all sense of duty, and void
of shame.
III. What it is, in humbling circumstances, to humble ourselves under the mighty
hand of God. This is the great thing to be aimed at in our humbling circum-
stanges. And we may take it up in these eight things.
First, N oticing the mighty hand, as employed in bringing about every thing that
concerns us, either in the way of efficacy or permission; I Sam. iii. 18, “And he
said, It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good:” 2 Sam, xvi. 10; “And
304 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
the king said, The Lord hath said unto him ; Curse David : Who shall then
say, Wherefore hast thou done so 2° He is the fountain of all perfection, but we
must trace our imperfections to his sovereign will. It is he that has posted every
one in their relations by his providence ; without him we could not meet with such
contradictions; for, “the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of
water: he turneth it whithersoever he pleaseth,” Prov. xxi. 1. He sends on afflic-
tions, and he justly punishes one sin with another, Isa. vi. 10.
Secondly, Asense of our own worthlessness and nothingness before him, Psal. cxliv,
3. Looking to the infinite majesty of the mighty hand dealing with us, we should say,
with Abraham, Gen. xviii. 27, “Behold I am but dust and ashes;” and say Amen
to the cry, Isa. xl. 6, “All flesh is grass,” &c. The keeping up of thoughts of our
own excellency under the pressures of the mighty hand, is the very thing that swells
the heart in pride, causing it to rise up against it. And it is the letting of all such
thoughts of ourselves fall before the eyes of his glory, that is the humbling required.
Thirdly, A sense of our guilt and filthiness, Rom. iii. 10; Isa. lxiv. 6. The mighty
hand doth not press us down but as sinners: it is meet, then, that under it we see
our sinfulness; our guilt, whereby we will appear criminals justly caused to suffer;
our filthiness, whereupon we may be brought to loathe ourselves; and then we shall
think nothing lays us lower than we well deserve. It is the overlooking our sinful-
ness that suffers the proud heart to swell.
Fourthly, A silent submission under the hand of God. His sovereignty challengeth
this of us; Rom. ix. 20, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”
And nothing but unsubdued height and pride of spirit can allow us to answer again
under the Sovereign hand. A view of the sovereign hand humbled and awed the
Psalmist into a submission with a profound silence ; Psal. xxxix. 9, “I was dumb,
I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it ;” Job i. 21, “The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord;” and xl. 4, 5, “What
shall I answer thee ? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken,
but I will not answer; yea, twice, but I will proceed no farther.” And Eli, 1 Sam.
iii. 18, “It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him good.”
Fifthly, A magnifying of his mercies towards us in the midst of all his proceedings
against us, Psal. cxliv. 3, Has he laid us low 2 If we be duly humbled we will
wonder he has laid us no lower, Ezra, ix. 13. For, however low the humble are
laid, thqy will see they are not yet so low as their sins deserve, Lam. iii. 22.
Sixthly, A holy and silent admiration of the way and counsels of God, as to us un-
searchable, Rom. xi. 33. Pride of heart thinks nothing too high for the man, and
so arraigns before its tribunal the divine proceedings, pretends to see through them,
censures freely and condemns; but humiliation of spirit disposes a man to think
awfully and honourably of the mysteries of Providence he is not able to see through.
Seventhly, A forgetting and laying aside before the Lord all our dignity, whereby
we excel others, Rev. iv. 10. Pride feeds itself on the man's real or imaginary per-
sonal excellency and dignity, and, being so inured to it before others, cannot forget it
before God ; Luke xviii. 11, “God, I thank thee, I am not as other men.” But
humiliation of spirit makes it all to evanish before him as doth the shadow before
the shining sun, and it lays the man in his own eyes lower than any ; “Surely I
am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man,” Prov.
XXX. 2.
Eighthly, A Submitting readily to the meanest offices requisite in, or agreeable to,
our circumstances. Pride, at every turn, finds something that is below the man to con-
descend or stoop to ; measuring by his own mind and will, not by the circumstances
God has placed him in. But humility measures by the circumstances one is placed
in, and readily falls in with what they require. Hereof our Saviour gave us an
example (Phil. ii. 8, “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death ")
to be imitated; John xiii. 14, “If I then your Lord and Master have washed your
feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet.”
Use. Of exhortation. Let the bent of your heart, then, in all your humbling
circumstances, be towards the humbling of your spirit, as under the mighty hand
of God. This lies in two things. 3
First, Carefully notice all your humbling circumstances, and overlook none of them.
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 305
Observe your imperfections; inferiority in relations; contradictions you meet with :
your afflictions; uncertainty of all things about you ; and your sinfulness. Look
through them designedly, and consider the steps of the conduct of Providence to-
wards you in these, that ye may know yourselves, and may not be strangers at
home, blind to your own real state and case. -
Secondly, Observing what these circumstances do require of you, as suitable to
them, bend your endeavours towards it, to bring your spirits into the temper of
humiliation, that, as your lot is really low in all these respects, so your spirits may
be low too, as under the mighty hand of God. Let this be your great aim through
your whole life, and your exercise every day.
Motive 1. God is certainly at work to humble one and all of us. However high
any are lifted up in this world, Providence has hung certain badges for humiliation
on them, whether they will notice them or not, Isa. xl. 6. Now, it is our duty to
fall in with the design of Providence ; that while God is humbling us, we may be
humbling ourselves, and that we may not receive humbling dispensations in vain.
Mot. 2. The humiliation of our spirit will not take effect without our own agency
therein : while God is working on us that way, we must work together with him ;
for he works on us as rational agents, who, being moved, move themselves, Phil. ii.
12, 13. God, by his providence, may force down our lot and condition without us;
but the spirit must come down voluntarily and of choice, or not at all: therefore,
strike in with humbling providences in humbling yourselves, as mariners spread
out the sails when the wind begins to blow, that they may go away before it.
Mot. 3. If ye do not, ye resist the mighty hand of God, Acts vii. 51. Ye resist in
so far as ye do not yield, but stand as a rock keeping your ground against your Maker
in humbling providences; Jer. v. 3, “Thou hast stricken them, but they have not
grieved ; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.”
Much more when ye work against him to force up your condition, which we may
see God means to hold down. And of this resistance consider,
1. The sinfulness; what an evil thing it is. It is a direct fighting against God,
a shaking off of subjection to our sovereign Lord, and a rising in rebellion against
him, Isa. xlv. 9.
2. The folly of it. How unequal is the match How can the struggle end well?
Job ix. 4. What else can possibly be the issue of “the potsherds of the earth”
dashing against “the Rock of ages,” but that they be broken to pieces? We may
say, as Job xli. 8. All men must certainly bow or break under the mighty hand.
Mot. 4. This is the time of humiliation, even the time of this life. “Every thing
is beautiful in its season ;” and the bringing down of the spirit now is beautiful, as
in the time thereof, even as the ploughing and sowing of the ground is in the spring.
Consider, - -
1. Humiliation of spirit “is in the sight of God of great price,” 1 Pet. iii. 4.
As he has a special aversion to pride of heart, he has a special liking of humility,
chap. v. 5. The humbling of sinners and bringing them down from their heights,
wherein the corruption of their nature has set them, is the great end of his word,
and of his providences.
2. It is no easy thing to humble men's spirits; it is not little that will do it;
it is a work that is not soon done. There is need of a digging deep for a thorough
humiliation in the work of conversion, Luke vi. 48. Many a stroke must be given
at the root of the tree of the natural pride of the heart ere it fall; ofttimes it seems
to be fallen, and yet it arises again. And, even when the root-stroke is given in
believers, the rod of pride buds again, so that there is still occasion for new hum-
bling work. - : -
3. The whole time of this life is appointed for humiliation. This was signified
by the forty years the Israelites had in the wilderness, Deut. viii. 2. It was so to
Christ, and therefore it must be so to men, Heb. xii. 2. And in that time they
must either be formed according to his image, or else appear as reprobate silver
that will not take it on by any means, Rom. viii. 29. So that whatever lifting
up men may now and then get in this life, the habitual course of it will still be
humbling. - - . . - . . . .
2 Q
306 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
4. There is no humbling after this, Rev. xxii. 11. If the pride of the heart be
not brought down in this life, it will never be ; no kindly humiliation is to be ex-
pected in the other life. There the proud will be broken in pieces, but not softened:
their lot and condition will be brought to the lowest pass; but the unhumbleness of
their spirits will still remain, whence they will be in eternal agonies through the
opposition betwixt their spirits and lot, Rev. xvi. 21.
Wherefore, beware lest ye sit your time of humiliation: humbled we must be,
or we are gone for ever, and this is the time, the only time of it ; therefore, make
your hay while the sun shines; strike in with humbling providences, and fight not
against them while ye have them, Acts xiii. 41. The season of grace will not last;
if ye sleep in seed-time, ye will beg in harvest. -
Mot. 5. This is the way to turn humbling circumstances to a good account ; so
that instead of being losers, ye would be gainers by them ; Psal. cxix. 71, “It is
good for me that I have been afflicted.” Would ye gather grapes of these thorns
and thistles, set yourselves to get your spirits humbled by them.
1. Humiliation of spirit is a most valuable thing in itself, Prov. xvi. 32. It
cannot be bought too dear. Whatever one is made to suffer, if his spirit is thereby
duly brought down, he has what is well worth bearing all the hardship for, 1 Pet.
iii. 4. - -
2. Humility of spirit brings many advantages along with it. It is a fruitful
bough, well loaden, wherever it is. It contributes to one's ease under the cross,
Matt. xi. 30; Lam. iii. 27—29. It is a sacrifice particularly acceptable to God,
Psal. li. 17. The eye of God is particularly on such for good; Isa. lxvi. 2, “To
this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trem-
bleth at my word.” Yea, he dwells with them, Isa. lvii. 15. And it carries a line
of wisdom through one's whole conduct; Prov. xi. 2, “With the lowly is wisdom.”
Mot. 6. Consider it is a mighty hand that is at work with us; the hand of the
mighty God: let us then bend our spirits towards a compliance with it, and not
wrestle against it. Consider,
1. We must fall under it. Since the design of it is to bring us down, we can-
not stand before it; for it cannot miscarry in its designs; Isa. xlvi. 10, “My coun-
sel shall stand.” So, fall before it we must, either in the way of duty or judgment;
Psal. xlv. 5, “Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies, whereby
the people fall under thee.”
2. They that are so wise as to fall in humiliation under the mighty hand, be they
never so low, the same hand will raise them up again, James iv. 10. In a word,
be the proud never so high, God will bring them down: be the humble never so
low, God will raise them up.
Directions for reaching this humiliation.
I. GENERAL DIRECTIONs.
Direct. 1. Fix it in your heart to seek some spiritual improvement of the conduct
of Providence towards you, Micah. vi. 9. Till once your heart get a set that way,
your humiliation is not to be expected, Hosea xiv. 9. But nothing is more rea-
sonable if we would act either like men or Christians, than to aim at turning what
is so grievous to the flesh unto the profit of the spirit; that, if we are losers at one
hand, we may be gainers at another. §
2. Settle the matter of your eternal salvation, in the first place, by betaking
yourself to Christ, and taking God for your God in him, according to the gospel-
offer, Hos. ii. 19; Heb. viii. 10. Let your humbling circumstances move you to
this, that while the creature dries up, you may go to the Fountain: for it is im-
possible to reach due humiliation under the mighty hand without faith in him as
your God and friend, Heb. xi. 6; 1 John iv. 19.
3. Use the means of soul-humbling in the faith of the promise, Psalm, xxviii. 7.
Moses smiting the rock in faith of the promise made water gush out, which
otherwise would not at all appear. Let us do likewise in dealing with our rocky
hearts. They must be laid on the soft bed of the gospel, and struck there, as Joel
_r=w-
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 307
ii. 13, “Turn to the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful;” or they
will never kindly break or fall in humiliation.
II. PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.
1. Assure yourselves that there are no circumstances so humbling that you are
in, but you may get your heart acceptably brought down to them ; 1 Cor. x. 15,
“But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able,
but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to
bear it.” This is truth; 2 Cor. xii. 9, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my
strength is made perfect in weakness.” And you would be persuaded of it, with
application to yourselves, if ever you would reach the end, Phil. iv. 13, “I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” God allows you to be per-
suaded of it, whatever is your weakness and the difficulty of the task; “For your
sakes this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope ; and that he that
thresheth in hope, should be partaker of his hope,” 1 Cor. ix. 10. And the belief
thereof is a piece of the life of faith, 2 Tim. ii. 1. If you have no hope of success,
your endeavours, as they will be heartless, so they will be vain. “Wherefore lift up
the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees,” Heb. xii. 12.
2. Whatever hand is, or is not, in your humbling circumstances, do you take
God for your party, and consider yourselves therein as under his mighty hand, Mic.
vi. 9. Men in their humbling circumstances overlook God; so they find not them-
selves called to humility under them; they fix their eyes on the creature instru-
ment, and, instead of humility, their hearts rise. But take him for your party,
that ye may “remember the battle,” and “do no more,” Job xli. 8.
3. Be much in the thoughts of God’s infinite greatness: consider his holiness
and majesty, fit to awe you into deepest humiliation, Isa. vi. 3—5. Job met with
many humbling providences in his case ; but he was never sufficiently humbled un-
der them, till the Lord made a new discovery of himself unto him, in his infinite
majesty and greatness. He kept his ground against his friends, and stood to his
points, till the Lord took that method with him. It was begun with thunder, Job
xxxvii. 1, 2. Then followed God's voice out of the whirlwind, chap. xxxviii. 1,
whereon Job is brought down, chap. xl. 4, 5. It is renewed till he is farther humbled;
chapter xlii. 5, 6, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
4. Inure yourselves silently to admit mysteries in the conduct of Providence
towards you, which you are not able to comprehend, but will adore ; Rom. xi. 33,
“O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how un-
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !” That was the first
word God said to Job, chap. xxxviii. 2, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by
words without knowledge?” It took him by the heart, stuck with him, and he
comes over it again, chap. xlii. 3, as that which particularly brought him to his
knees, to the dust. Even in those steps of Providence which we seem to see far
into, we may well allow there are some mysteries beyond what we see. And, in
those which are perplexing and puzzling, sovereignty should silence us; his infinite
wisdom should satisfy, though we cannot see.
5. Be much in the thoughts of your own sinfulness; Job xl. 4, “Behold I am
vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” It is over-
looking of that which gives us so much ado with humbling circumstances. While
the eyes are held that they cannot see sin, the heart riseth against them; but
when they are opened, it falls. Wherefore, whenever God is dealing with you in
humbling dispensations, turn your eyes, upon that occasion, on the sinfulness of our
nature, heart, and life, and that will help forward your humiliation.
6. Settle it in your heart, that there is need of all the humbling circumstances
you are put in. This is truth; 1 Pet. i. 6, “Though now for a season, if need be,
ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” God brings no needless trials
upon us, afflicts none but as their need requires; Lam. iii. 33, “For he doth not
afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” That is an observable difference
betwixt our earthly and heavenly Father's correction; Heb. xii. 10, “They—after
their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his
308 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
holiness.” Look to the temper of your own hearts and nature, how apt to be lift
up, forget God, carried away with the vanities of the world; what foolishmess is
bound up in your heart. Thus you will see the need of humbling circumstances for
ballast, and of the “rod for the fool's back;” and if at any time you cannot see that
need, believe it on the ground of God’s infinite wisdom, that does nothing in vain.
7. Believe a kind design of Providence in them towards you, God calls us to
this, as the key that opens the heart under them, Rev. iii. 19. Satan suggests
suspicions to the contrary, as the bar which may hold it shut ; 2 Kings vi. 33,
“This evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?” As long
as the suspicions of an ill design in them against us reigns, the creature will, like
the worm at the man's feet, put itself in the best posture of defence it can, and
harden itself in sorrow ; but the faith of a kind design will cause it open out itself in
humility before him. -
Case. O ! if I knew there were a kind design in it, I would willingly bear it,
although there were more of it; but I fear a ruining design of Providence against
ime therein.
Answer. Now, what word of God, or discovery from heaven, have you to ground
these fears upon ? 'None at all, but from hell, 1 Cor. x. 13. What think you the
design towards you in the gospel is ? Can you believe no kind design towards you
in all the words of grace there heaped up neither ? What is that, I pray, but black
unbelief in its hue of hell, (Isa. lv. 1,) flying in the face of the truth of God, and
making him a liar: 1 John v. 10, 11. The gospel is a breathing of love and good-
will to the world of mankind sinners, Tit. ii. 11; iii. 4; 1 John iv. 14; John iii.
17. But ye believe it not, in that case, more than devils believe it. But if ye can
believe a kind design there, ye must believe it in your humbling circumstances too:
for the design of Providence cannot be contrary to the design of the gospel; but
contrariwise the latter is to help forward to the other.
8. Think with yourselves, that this life is the time of trial for heaven; James i.
12, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall
receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”
And therefore there should be a welcoming of humbling circumstances on that
view ; ver, 2, “Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations.” If there
is an honourable office or beneficial employment to be bestowed, men strive to be
taken on trials for it, in hope they may be thereupon legally admitted to it. Now,'
God takes trial of men for heaven by humbling circumstances, as the whole Bible
teacheth; and shall men be so very loath to stoop for them ? I would ask you,
(1.) Is it nothing to you to stand a candidate for glory, to be put on trials for
heaven 2 Is there not an honour in it, an honour which all the saints have had 2
James v. 11, “Behold we count them happy that endure,” &c. And a fair pros-
pect in it ; 2 Cor. iv. 17, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Do but put the
case, God should overlook you in that case, as one whom it is needless ever to try
on that head; that he should order your portion in this life with full ease, as one
that is to get no more of him ; what would that be 2
(2.) What a vast disproportion is there between your trials and the glory !
Your most humbling circumstances, how light are they in comparison of the weight
of it ! The longest continued of them are but for a moment, compared with the
eternal weight. Alas! there is much unbelief at the root of all our uneasiness
under our humbling circumstances. Had we a clearer view of the other world, we
would not make so much of either the Smiles or frowns of this.
(3.) What think ye of coming foul off the trial of your humbling circumstances?
(Jer. vi. 29, 30, “The lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain;
for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, be-
cause the Lord hath rejected them ;”) that the issue of it be only, that your heart.
appear of such a temper as by no means to be humbled; and that therefore you
must and shall be taken off them, while yet no humbling appears? I think the
awfulness of the dispensation is such, as might set us to our knees to deprecate the
lifting us up from our humbling circumstances, ere our hearts are humbled, Isa. i.
5; Ezek. xxiv, 13. * * *
THE CROOK. IN THE LOT. 309
9. Think with yourselves, how it is by humbling circumstances the Lord pre-
pares us for heaven; Col. i. 12, “Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made
us meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” with 2 Cor.
v. 5. The stones and timber are laid down, turned over and over, and hewed, ere
they be set up in the building; and not just set up as they come out of the quarry
and wood. Were they capable of a choice, such of them as would refuse the iron
tool would be refused a place in the building. Pray, how think ye to be made meet
for heaven by the warm sunshine of this world's ease, and getting all your will
here? Nay, Sirs; that would put your mouth out of taste for the joys of the other
world. Wessels of dishonour are fitted for destruction that way; but vessels of
honour for glory by humbling circumstances. I would here say,
(1.) Will nothing please you but two heavens, one here, another hereafter? God
has secured one heaven for the saints, one place where they shall get all their will,
wish, and desire, where there shall be no weight on them to hold them down; and
that is in the other world. But ye must have it both here and there, or ye cannot
digest it. Why do ye not quarrel too that there are not two summers in one year;
two days in twenty-four hours? The order of the one heaven is as firm as that of
the years and days, and ye will not reverse it: therefore, choose ye whether you
will take your night or your day first, your winter or your summer, your heaven
here or hereafter. .*
(2.) Without being humbled with humbling circumstances in this life, ye are
not capable of heaven; 2 Cor. v. 5, “Now, he that hath wrought us for the self-
same thing is God.” Ye may, indeed, lie at ease here in a bed of sloth, and
dream of heaven, big with hopes of a fool's paradise, wishing to cast yourselves
just out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom; but without ye be humbled ye are
not capable, "T
i. Of the Bible-heaven, that heaven described in the Old and New Testaments.
Is not that heaven a lifting up in due time? But how shall ye be lifted up that
are never well gotten down 2 Where will your tears be to be wiped away ? What
place will there be for your triumph, that will not fight the good fight? How can
it be a rest to you, who cannot away with labour 3
ii. Of the saint's heaven; Rev. vii. 14, “And he said unto me, These are they
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.” This answers the question anent Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the saints with them there: they were brought down to
the dust with humbling circumstances, and out of these they came to before the
throne. How can ye ever think to be lifted up with them, with whom ye cannot
think to be brought down 2
iii. Of Christ's heaven; Heb. xii. 2, “Who, for the joy that was set before him,
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of
God.” O ! consider how the Forerunner made his way; Luke xxiv. 26, “Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” And lay
your accounts with it, that if ye get where he is, ye must go thither as he went ;
Luke ix. 23, “And he said, If any will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross daily and follow me.”
10. Give up at length with your towering hopes from this world, and confine
them to the world to come. Be as pilgrims and strangers here, looking for your
rest in heaven, and not till ye come there. There is a prevailing evil; Isa. lvii.
10, “Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way: yet saidst thou not, There is
no hope.” So the Babel-building is still continued, though it has fallen down
again and again: for men say, “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build
with hewn stones ; the Sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into
cedars,” Isa. ix. 10. This makes humbling work very longsome; we are so hard to
quit the gripe of the creature, to fall off from the breast and be weaned. But fas-
ten your gripes on the other world, and let your gripe of this go ; so shall ye “be
humbled indeed under the mighty hand.” The faster you gripe the happiness of
that world, the easier will it be to accommodate yourselves to your humbling cir-
cumstances here. -
11. Make use of Christ in all his offices, for your humiliation under your hum-
310 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
bling circumstances. That only is kindly humiliation that comes in that way;
Zech. xii. 10, “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they
shall mourn,” &c. That you must do by trusting on him for that effect,
(1.) As a Priest for you. You have a conscience full of guilt, and that will
make one uneasy in any circumstances, and far more in humbling circumstances;
it will be like a thorn in the shoulder on which a burden is laid. But the blood
of Christ will purge the conscience, draw out the thorn, give ease, (Isa. xxxiii.
24,) and fit for service, doing or suffering ; Heb. ix. 14, “How much more shall
the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God ''' - -
(2.) As your Prophet to teach you. We have need to be taught rightly to dis-
cern our humbling circumstances: for often we mistake them so far, that they
prove an oppressing load; whereas, could we rightly see them, just as God sets
them to us, they would be humbling, but not so oppressive. Truly we need Christ
and the light of his word and Spirit, to let us see our cross and trial, as well as
our duty, Psal. xxy. 9, 10.
(3.) As your King. You have a stiff heart, loath to bow even in humbling cir-
cumstances: take a lesson from Moses what to do in such case ; Exod. xxxix. 9,
“And he said, Let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us, for it is a stiff-necked
people, and pardon our iniquity, and our sin.” Put it in his hands that is strong
and mighty, Psal. xxiv. 8. He is able to cause it to melt, and, like wax before
the fire, turn to the seal.
Think on these directions, in order to put them in practice; remembering that, “if
ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” Remember, humbling work
is a work that will fill your hand while you live here, and that you cannot come
to the end of till death ; and humbling circumstances will attend you while you
are in this lower world. A change of them ye may get ; but a freedom from them
ye cannot till ye come to heaven. So the humbling circumstances of our imper-
fections, relations, contradictions, afflictions, uncertainties, and sinfulness, will
afford matter of exercise to us while here. What remains of the purpose of this
text, I shall comprise in
DocTRINE II. There is a due time wherein those that now humble themselves
under the mighty hand of God will certainly be lifted up. We shall take,
I. A general view of this point. And consider,
First, Some things supposed and implied in it. It bears,
1. That those who shall share of this lifting up, must lay their accounts, in the
first place, with a “casting down,” Rev. vii. 14; John xvi. 33, “In the world ye
shall have tribulation.” There is no coming to the promised land, according to
the settled method of grace, but through the wilderness; nor entering into this
exaltation, but through a strait gate. If we cannot away with casting down, we
will not taste of the sweet of the lifting up. w
2. Being cast down by the mighty hand of God, we must learn to lie still and
quiet under it, till the same hand that cast us down raise us up, if we would share
of this promised lifting up, Lam. iii. 27. It is not the being cast down into hum-
bling circumstances by the providence of God, but the coming down of our spirits
under them by the grace of God, that brings us within the compass of this promise.
3. Never humbled in humbling circumstances, never lifted up in the way of this
promise. Men may keep their spirits on the high bend in their humbling cir-
cumstances, and in that case may get a lifting up, Prov. xvi. 19. But note this,
what they get will be a lifting up, to the end they may get the more grievous fall ;
“Surely thou didst set them in slippery places, thou castedst them down in a mo-
ment,” Psal. lxxiii. 18. But they who will not humble themselves in humbling
circumstances, will find their obstinacy a need nail, that will keep their misery
ever fast on them without remedy.
4. Humility of spirit, in humbling circumstances, ascertains a lifting up out of
them sometime, with the good-will and favour of heaven ; Luke xviii. 14, “I tell
you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased.” Solomon observes, Prov, xv. 1, that “a
soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.” And so it is,
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. w 31 I
that while the proud, through their obstinacy, do but wreathe the yoke faster about
their own necks, the yielding, humble ones, by their yielding, make their relief sure;
| Sam. ii. 8–10, “He raiseth the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar
from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne
of glory. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in
darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall
be broken in pieces.” So the cannon-ball breaks down a stone wall, while the
yielding packs of wool take away its force.
5. There is an appointed time for the lifting up of those that humble themselves
in their humbling circumstances; Hab. ii. 3, “For the vision is yet for an ap-
pointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it;
because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” To every thing there is a time, as
for humbling, so for lifting up, Eccl. iii. 3. We know it not, but God knows it,
who hath appointed it. Let not the humble one say, I will never be lifted up: there
is a time fixed for it, as precisely as for the rising of the sun, after the long and
dark night, or the return of the spring, after the long and sharp winter.
6. It is not to be expected, that immediately upon one's humbling himself the
lifting up is to follow. No ; one is not to lie down under the mighty hand, but lie
still waiting the due time: humbling work is longsome work; the Israelites had
forty years of it in the wilderness. God's people must be brought to put a blank
in his hand, as to the time ; and while they have a long night of walking in dark-
ness, must trust; Isa. l. 10, “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that
obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light 2 let
him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.”
7. The appointed time for the lifting up is the due time, the time fittest for it,
wherein it will come most seasonably ; “And let us not be weary in well-doing;
for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not,” Gal. vi. 9. For that is the time
God has chosen for it; and be sure, his choice, as the choice of infinite wisdom, is
the best, and therefore faith sets to wait it ; Isa. xxviii. 16, “He that believeth
shall not make haste.” There is much of the beauty of a thing depends on the
timing of it, and he has fixed that in all that he does; Eccl. iii. 11, “He hath made
every thing beautiful in his time.”
8. The lifting up of the humble will not miss to come in the appointed and due
time, Hab. ii. 3. Time makes no halting, in its running day and night; so the
due time is fast coming, and, when it comes, it will bring the lifting up along with
it. Let the humbling circumstances be ever so low, ever so hopeless, it is impossi-
ble but the lifting up from them must come in the due time.
II. A word, in the general, to the lifting up, abiding those that humble them-
selves. There is a twofold lifting up.
First. A partial lifting up, competent to the humbled in time, during this life; Psal.
xxx. 1, “I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made
my foes to rejoice over me.” This is a lifting up in part, and but in part, not
wholly; and such liftings up the humbled may expect while in this world, but no
more. These give a breathing to the weary, a change of burdens, but do not set
them at perfect ease. So Israel, in the wilderness, in midst of their many
mourning times, had some singing ones, Exod. xv. 1; Num. xxi. 17.
2. A total lifting up, competent to them at the end of time, at death; Luke
xvi. 22, “It came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom.” Then the Lord deals with them no more by parcels
and halves, but carries them relief to perfection, Heb. xii. 23. Then he takes
off all their burdens, eases them of all their weights, and lays no more on for ever.
He then lifts them up to a height they were never at before; no, not even at their
highest. He sets them quite above all that is low, and therein fixes them, never to
be brought down more. Now, there is a due time for both these.
1st, For the partial lifting up. Every time is not fit for it; we are not always
fit to receive comfort, an ease or a change of our burdens. God sees there are
times wherein it is needful for his people to be in heaviness, (1 Pet. i. 6,) to have
their hearts brought down with grief, Psal. cwii. 12. But then, there is a time
really appointed for it in the divine wisdom, when he will think it as needful to
312 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
*
comfort them, as before to bring down ; 2 Cor. ii. 7, “So that contrariwise, ye
ought rather to forgive, and comfort him, lest perhaps such an one should be
swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.” We are, in that case, in the hand of God,
as in the hand of our physician, who appoints the time the drawing plaster shall
be applied, and leaves it not to the patient. -
2dly, For the total lifting up. When we are sore oppressed with our burdens, we
are ready to think, O to be away, and set beyond them all; Job vii. 2, 3, “As a
servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of
his work; so am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are
appointed to me.” But it may be fitter, for all that, that we stay a while, and
wrestle with our burdens; Phil. i. 24, 25, “Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is
more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and
continue with you all, for your furtherance and joy of faith.” A few days might
have taken Israel out of Egypt into Canaan; but they would have been oversoon
there, if they had made all that speed: so they behoved to spend forty years in
the wilderness, till their due time of entering Canaan should come. And be sure,
the saints, entering heaven, will be convinced, that the time of it is best chosen,
and there will be a beauty in that it was not sooner. And thus a lifting up is
secured for the humble.
III. The certainty of the lifting up of those that humble themselves under
humbling circumstances. If one would assure you, when reduced to poverty, that
the time should certainly come yet that ye should be rich; when Sore sick, that ye
should not die of that disease, but certainly recover; that would help you to bear
your poverty and sickness the better, and you would comfort yourselves with that
prospect. However, one may continue poor, and never be rich ; may be sick, and
die of his disease: but, whoever humble themselves under their humbling circum-
stances, we can assure them from the Lord's word they shall certainly, without all
peradventure, be lifted up out of, and relieved from, their humbling circumstances;
they shall certainly see the day of their ease and relief, when they shall remember
their burdens as waters that fail. And ye may be assured thereof from the follow-
ing considerations.
First, The nature of God, duly considered, ensures it; Psal. ciii. 8, 9, “The Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, . He will not always
chide ; neither will he keep his anger for ever.” The humbled soul, looking to
God in Christ, may see three things in his nature jointly securing it.
1. Infinite power, that can do all things. No circumstances are so low, but he
can raise them; so entangling and perplexing, but he can unravel them ; so hope-
less, but he can remedy them ; Gen. xviii. 14, “Is any thing too hard for the
Lord?” Be our case what it will, it is never past reach with him to help it; but
then is the most proper season for him to take it in hand, when all others have
given it over; Deut. xxxii. 36, “For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent
himself for his servants; when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none
shut up, or left.”
2. Infinite goodness, inclining to help. He is good and gracious in his nature,
Exod. xxxiv. 6–9. And therefore his power is a spirit of comfort to them, Rom.
xiv. 4. Men may be willing that are not able, or able that are not willing; but
infinite goodness joining infinite power in God, may ascertain the humbled of a lift-
ing up in due time. That is a word of inconceivable sweetness, 1 John iv. 16,
“And we know and believe the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” He has the bowels of a father
towards the humble ; Psal. ciii. 13, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Yea, bowels of mercy more tender than a
mother to her sucking child, Isa. xlix. 15. Wherefore, howbeit his wisdom may see
it necessary to put them in humbling circumstances, and keep them in them for a
time, it is not possible he can leave them in them for altogether.
3. Infinite wisdom, that doth nothing in vain, and therefore will not needlessly
keep one in humbling circumstances; Lam. iii. 32, 33, “But though he cause
grief, yet he will have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies; for
he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” God sends them on
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 3 13
for humbling, as the end and design to be brought about by them : when that is
obtained, and there is no more use for them that way, we may assure ourselves they
will be taken off. -
Secondly, The providence of God, viewed in its stated method of procedure with its
objects, ensures it. Turn your eyes which way you will on the divine providence, ye
may conclude thence, that in due time the humble will be lifted up.
1. Observe the providence of God, in the revolutions of the whole course of
nature ; day succeeding to the longest night, a summer to the winter, a waxing to
a waning of the moon, a flowing to an ebbing of the sea, &c. Let not the Lord's
humbled ones be idle spectators of these things, they are for our learning ; Jer.
xxxii. 35–37, “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and
the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night; which divideth the
sea, when the waters thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is his name. If these ordi-
nances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall cease
from being a nation before me for ever.” Will the Lord's hand keep such a steady
course in the earth, sea, and visible heavens, as to bring a lifting up in them after
a casting down, and only forget his humbled ones 2 No, by no means.
2. Observe the providence of God, in the dispensations thereof about the man
Christ, the most noble and august object thereof, more valuable than a thousand
worlds, Col. ii. 9. Did not Providence keep this course with him, first humbling him,
then exalting him and lifting him up? first bringing him to the dust of death, in a course
of sufferings thirty-three years, then exalting him to the Father's right hand in eter-
nity of glory 2 Heb. xii. 2, “Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throme of
God;” Phil. ii. 8, 9, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God hath
also highly exalted him.” The exaltation could not fail to follow his humiliation;
Luke xxiv. 26, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
his glory ?” And he saw and believed it would follow, as the springing of the seed
doth the sowing it, John xii. 24. There is a near concern the humbled in hum-
bling circumstances have herein.
(1.) This is the pattern Providence copies after in its conduct towards you. The
Father was so well-pleased with this method, in the case of his own Son, that it
was determined to be followed, and just copied over again, in the case of all the
heirs of glory; Rom. viii. 29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predesti-
mate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among
many brethren.” And who would not be pleased to walk through the dark valley,
treading his steps ?
(2.) This is a sure pledge of your lifting up. Christ, in his state of humiliation,
was considered as a public person and representative, and so is he in his exalta-
tion. So Christ's exaltation ensures your exaltation out of your humbling circum-
stances; Isa., xxvi. 19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body
shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust;” Hos. vi. 1, 2,
“Come, and let us return unto the Lord : for he hath torn, and he will heal us;
he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us: in the
third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight; ” Eph. ii. 6, “And
hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus... Yea, he is gone into the state of glory for us as our forerunner; Heb. vi.
. £ 6 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest
Ol' OWer.
(3.) His humiliation was the price of your exaltation, and his exaltation a full
testimony of the acceptance of its payment to the full. There are no humbling cir-
cumstances ye are in but ye would have perished in them, had not he purchased
your lifting up out of them by his own humiliation, Isa. xxvi. 19. Now, his
º grace in you is an evidence of the acceptance of his humiliation for your
lfting up. -
3. Observe the providence of God towards the church in all ages. This has been
the course the Lord has kept with her, Psal. cxxix. 1–4. Abel was slain by the
Wicked Cain, to the great grief of Adam and Eve, and the rest of their pious chil-
2 R
3.14 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
dren: but then, there was another seed raised up in Abel's room after, Gen. iv. 25.
Noah and his sons were buried alive in the ark more than a year; but at length
Isaac was born. Israel was long in miserable bondage in Egypt, but at length
seated in the promised land, &c. We must be content to go by the footsteps of
the flock; and if in humiliation, we will surely follow them in exaltation too. -
4. Observe the providence of God in the dispensation of his grace towards his
children. The general rule is, 1 Pet. v. 5, “For God resisteth the proud, and
giveth grace to the humble.” How are they brought into a state of grace 2 Is
it not by a work of humiliation going before ? Luke vi. 48. And ordinarily, the
greater measure of grace is designed for one, the deeper is their humiliation before,
as in Paul's case. If they are to be recovered out of a backsliding case, the same
method is followed ; so that deepest humiliation ordinarily makes way for the
greatest comforts, and the darkest hour goes before the rising of the Sun of Right-
eousness upon them, Isa. lxvi. 5—13. -
5. Observe the providence of God at length throwing down wicked men, however
long they stand and prosper; Psal. xxxvii. 35, 36, “I have seen the wicked in great
power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree : yet he passed away, and, lo,
he was not ; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.” They are long green
before the sun; but at length they are suddenly smitten with an east wind, and
wither away ; their lamp goes out with a stench, and they are put out in obscure
darkness. Now, it is inconsistent with the benignity of the divine nature, to for-
get the humble, to raise them, while he minds the proud, to abase them.
Thirdly, The word of God puts it beyond all peradventure, which, from the beginning
to the end, is the humbled saint's security for lifting up ; Psal. cxix. 49, 50, “Re-
member the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This
is my comfort in my affliction ; for thy word hath quickened me.” His word is
the great letter of his name, which he will certainly see to cause to shine ; Psal.
cxxxviii. 2, “For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name ;” and in all
generations has been safely lippened [trusted] to, Psal xii. 6. Consider,
1. The doctrines of the word, which teach faith and hope for the time, and the
happy issue the exercise of these graces will have. The whole current of scripture,
to those in humbling circumstances, is, Not to cast away their confidence, but to
hope to the end ; and that for this good reason, That it shall not be in vain.
See Psal. xxvii. 14, “Wait on the Lord ; be of good courage, and he shall strength-
en thine heart : wait, I say, on the Lord.” And compare Rom. ix. 33; Isa. xlix.
23, “For they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.”
2. The promises of the word, whereby heaven is expressly engaged for a lifting
up to those that humble themselves in humbling circumstances; James iv. 10,
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up;” Matt. xxiii.
12, “And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” It may take a time to pre-
pare them for lifting up, but that being done, it is secured; Psal. x. 17, “Lord,
thou hast heard the desire of the humble ; thou wilt prepare their heart ; thou wilt
cause thine ear to hear.” They have his word for deliverance, Psal. l. 15. And
though they may seem to be forgotten, they shall not be always so ; the time of
their deliverance will come; Psal. ix. 18, “For the needy shall not always be for-
gotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever;” Psal. cii. 17, “He
will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.”
3. The example of the word, sufficiently confirming the truth of the doctrines
and promises; Rom. xv. 4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were
written for our learning ; that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures,
might have hope.” In the doctrines and promises the lifting up is proposed to our
faith, to be reckoned on the credit of God's word; but, in the examples it is, in
the case of others, set before our eyes to be seen; James v. 11, “Behold we count
them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen
the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.” There
we see it in the case of Abraham, Job, David, Paul, and other saints; but above
all, in the case of the man Christ.” ” ” wºrrºw: cº-stºry.” -
Fourthly, The intercession of Christ, joining the prayers and cries of his humbled
people, in their humbling circumstances, ensures a lifting up for them at length.
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. - 315
Be it so, that the proud cry not when he bindeth them ; yet his own humbled ones
will not do so, they will cry; Psal. xlii. 7, 8, “Deep calleth unto deep, at the noise
of thy water-spouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the
Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song
shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.” And though unbe:
lievers may soon be outwearied, and give it over for altogether, sure believers will
not do so; but though they may, in a fit of temptation, lay it by as hopeless, they
will find themselves obliged to take it up again; Jer. xx. 9, “Then I said, I will
not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in
mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbear-
ing, and I could not stay;” and continue to cry on night and day, (Luke xviii. 7,)
knowing no time for giving it over till they be lifted up ; Lam, iii.49, 50, “Mine
eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission ; till the Lord look
down and behold from heaven.” Now, Christ's intercession being joined with these
cries, there cannot miss to be a lifting up.–Consider,
1. Christ's intercession is certainly joined with the cries and prayers of the
humbled in their humbling circumstances; Rev. viii. 3, “And another angel came
and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much
incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden altar,
which was before the throne.” They are by the Spirit helped to groan for relief, Rom.
viii. 26; and the prayers and groans which are through the Spirit are certainly to
be made effectual by the intercession of the Son, James v. 16. And ye may know
they are by the Spirit, if so be ye are helped to continue praying, hoping for your
suit at last on the ground of God's word of promise ; for nature's praying is a pool
that will dry up in a long drought. It is the Spirit of prayer is the lasting spring,
John iv. 14 ; Psal. cxxxviii. 3, “In the day when I cried, thou answeredst me,
and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.” Truly there is an intercession
in heaven, on account of the humbling circumstances of the humbling ones; “Then
the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not
have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had
indignation these threescore and ten years?” Zech. i. 12. How then can they miss
of a lifting up in due time 2
2. He is in deepest earnest in his intercession for his people in their hum-
bling circumstances. Some will speak a good word in favour of the helpless, that
will be little concerned whether they come speed or not: but our Intercessor is in
earnest in behalf of his humbled ones; for he is touched with Sympathy in their
ease; Isa. lxiii. 9, “In all their afflictions he was afflicted.” Amost tender sympathy;
Zech. ii. 8, “For he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye.” He has
their case upon his heart, where he is, in the holy place in the highest heavens,
Exod. xxviii. 29 ; and he keeps exact account of the time of their humbling circum-
stances, be it as long as it will, Zech. i. 12. Moreover, it is his own business; the
lifting up they are to have is a thing that is secured to him, in the promises made
to him on the account of his blood shed for them, Psalm lxxxix. 33, 36. So, not
only are they looking on earth, but the man Christ is in heaven looking for the
accomplishment of these promises; Heb. x, 12, 13, “But this man, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God ; from
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” How is it possible,
then, that looking should be balked ? Moreover, these humbling circumstances are
his own sufferings still, though not in his person, yet in his members; Col. i. 24,
“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the
afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church.” where.
fore, there is all ground to conclude he is in deep earnest.
3. His intercession is always effectual; John xi. 42, “And I know that thou
hearest me always.” It cannot miss to be so; because he is the Father's well be.
loved Son, his intercession has a plea of justice for the ground of it; 1 John ii. 1,
“We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” More-
QVer, he has all power in heaven and earth lodged in him, 1 john v. 22. And
finally, he and his Father are one, and their will one. So, for the present time,
316 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
both Christ and his Father do will the lifting up of the humble ones, but yet only
in due time.
II. I proceed to a more particular view of the point. And,
First, We will consider the lifting up as brought about in time, which is the partial
lifting up. And,
1. Some considerations for clearing the nature thereof.
(1.) This lifting up does not take place in every case of a child of God. One may
be humbled in humbling circumstances, from which he is not to get a lifting up in
time. We would not from the promise presently conclude, that we, being humbled
under our humbling circumstances, shall certainly be taken out of them, and freed
from them, ere we get to the end of our journey. For it is certain, there are
some, such as our imperfections, and sinfulness, and mortality, we can by no
means be rid of while in this world. And there are particular humbling circum-
stances the Lord may hang about one, and keep about them, till they go down to
the grave, while in the meantime he may lift up another from the same. Heman
was pressed down all along from his youth, Psal. lxxxviii. 15; others all their life-
time, Heb. ii. 15.
Objection. If that be the case, what comes of the promise of lifting up 2 Where
is the lifting up, if one may get to the grave under the weight?
Answer. Were there no life after this, there would be weight in that objection;
but since there is another life, there is none in it at all. In the other life the pro-
mise will be accomplishing to the humbled, as it was, Luke xvi. 22. Consider that
the great term for accomplishing the promises is the other life, not this ; “These
all died in the faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar
off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,” Heb. xi. 13. And that
whatever accomplishing of the promise is here, it is not the nature of the stock, but
of a sample or a pledge. -
Question. But then, may we not give over praying for the lifting up, in that case ?
Answer. We do not know when that is our case ; for a case may be past all hope
in our eyes, and the eyes of others, in which God designs a lifting up in time, as
in Job's, chap. vi. 11, “What is my strength, that I should hope 2 And what is
mine end, that I should prolong my life?” But, be it as it will, we should never
give over praying for the lifting up ; since it will certainly come to all that pray in
faith for it, if not here, yet hereafter. The promise is sure, and that is the com-
mandment ; so such praying cannot miss of a happy issue at length ; Psal. 1. 15,
“And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify
me.” The whole life of a Christian is such a praying, waiting life, to encourage
whereunto all temporal deliverances are given as pledges; Rom. viii. 23, “And
not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit; even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of
our body.” And whoso observes that full lifting up at death to be at hand, must
certainly rise, if he has given over his case as hopeless.
(2.) However, there are some cases wherein this lifting up does take place.
God gives his people some notable liftings up, even in time raising them out of
remarkable humbling circumstances. The storm is changed into a calm, and
they remember it as waters that fail, Psal. xl. 1–4. Two things may be observed
on this.
i. One may be in humbling circumstances very long, and sore, and hopeless, and
yet a lifting up may be abiding them of a much longer continuance. This is some-
times the case of the children of God who are set to bear the yoke in their youth,
as it was with Joseph and David; and of them that get it laid on them in their .
middle age, as it was with Job, who could not be less than forty at his trouble's
coming, but after it lived one hundred and forty, Job xlii. 16. God by such methods
prepares men for peculiar usefulness.
ii. One may be in humbling circumstances long and sore, and quite hopeless, in
the ordinary course of providence, yet they may get a clear and warm blink of a
lifting up ere they come to their journey's end. The life of some of God's children
is like a cloudy and rainy day wherein, in the evening, the sun breaks out from
under the clouds, shines fair and clear a little, and then sets : “And it shall come
**
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 317
to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall come
to pass, that at evening-time it shall be light,” Zech. xiv. 6, 7. Such was the case
of Jacob in his old age, brought in honour and comfort into Egypt unto his son,
and then died. - -
(3.) Yet whatever liftings up they get in this life, they will never want some
weights hanging about them for their humbling. They may have their singing
times, but their songs, while in this world, will be mixed with groanings; 2 Cor. v.
4, “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.” The unmixed
dispensation is reserved for the other world; but this will be a wilderness unto the
end, where there will be howlings with the most joyful notes.
Lastly, All the liftings up the humbled meet with now are pledges, and but
pledges, samples, and arlepennies,” of the great lifting up abiding them on the other
side ; and they should look on them so. *
i. They are really so; Hos. ii. 15, “And I will give her her vineyards from
thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in
the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came out of the land of Egypt.”
Our Lord Jesus is leading his people now through the wilderness; and the manna
and water of the rock are earnests for the time of the milk and honey flowing in
the promised land. They are not yet come home to their Father's house : but they
are travelling on the road, and Christ their elder Brother with them, (Song iv. 8,)
who bears their expenses, takes them into inns by the way, as it were, and refreshes
them with partial liftings up ; after which, they must get to the road again. But
that entertainment by the way is a pledge of the full entertainment he will afford
them when come home.
Objection. But people may get a lifting up in time that yet is no pledge of a lifting
up on the other side. How shall I know it, then, to be a pledge?
Answer. That lifting up which comes by the promises, is certainly a pledge of the
full lifting up in the other world; for as the other life is the proper time of the
accomplishing of the promises, so we may be sure that when God once begins to
clear his bond, he will certainly hold on till it is fully cleared; “The Lord will
perfect that which concerneth me,” Psal. cxxxviii. 8. So we may say as Naomi to
Ruth, upon her receiving the six measures of barley from Boaz, Ruth iii. 18, “He
will not be in rest until he have finished the thing this day.” There are liftings up
that come by common providence; and these indeed are single, and not pledges of
more : but the promise chains mercies together, so that one got is a pledge of an-
other to come, yea, of the whole chain to the end, 2 Sam. v. 12.
Question. But how shall I know the lifting up to come by the way of the promise 2
Answer. That which comes by the way of the promise, does at once come the low
way of humiliation, the highway of faith or believing the promise, and the long
way of waiting hope and patient continuance; James v. 7, “Be patient, therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the
precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early
and latter rain.” Humility qualifies for the accomplishment of the promise, faith
Sucks the breasts of it, and patient waiting hangs by the breast till the milk come
abundantly.
ii. But no lifting up of God's children here are any more than pledges of lifting
up. God gives worldly men their stock here, but his children get nothing but a
sample of theirs here, Psal. xvii. 14; even as the servant at the term gets his fee
in a round sum, while the young heir gets nothing but a few pence for spending-
money. The truth is, the same spending-money is more valuable than the world's
stock; Psal. iv. 7, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time
that their corn and their wine increased.” But though it is better than that and
their services too, and more worth than all their on-waiting, yet it is below the
honour of their God to put them off with it; Heb. xi. 16, “But now they desire a
better country, that is, an heavenly : wherefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.”
* An arlepenny is a small sum of money, given as a token that an agreement has been Concluded,
and a pledge that the sum promised will be paid.—ED,
3.18 THE CROOK. IN THE LOT.
2. The partial lifting up itself. What they will get, getting this lifting up pro-
mised to the humbled. Why, they will get,
(1.) A removal of their humbling circumstances. God, having tried them a while,
and humbled them, and brought down their hearts, will at length take off their
burden, remove the weight so long hung at them, and so take them off that part of
their trial joyfully, and let them get up their back long bowed down; and this one
of two ways.
i. Either in kind, removing the burden for good and all. Such a lifting Job
got, when the Lord turned back his captivity; increased again his family and sub-
stance, which had both been desolated : David, when Saul his persecutor fell in
battle, and he was brought to the kingdom, after many a weary day, expecting one
day to fall by his hand. It is easy with our God to make such turns in the most
humbling circumstances. -
ii. Or in equivalent, or as good ; removing the weight of the burden, that,
though it remains, it presses them no more ; 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10, “And he said
unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weak-
ness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in mine infirmities.”
Though they are not got to the shore, yet their head is no more under the water,
but lifted up. David speaks feelingly of such a lifting up, Psal. xxvii. 5, 6, “For
in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his taber-
nacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be
lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle
sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.” Such had the
three children in the fiery furnace: the fire burned, but it could burn nothing of
them but their bonds; they had the warmth and light of it, but nothing of the
Scorching heat. Sometimes God lifts up his people this way in their humbling
circumstances. 's
(2.) A comfortable sight of the acceptance of their prayers, put up in their hum-
bling circumstances. While prayers are not answered, but trouble continued, the
hangers on about the Lord's hand are apt to think they are not accepted or re-
garded in heaven, because there is no alteration in their case ; Job ix. 16, 17, “If
I had called, and he had answered me, yet would I not believe that he had heark-
ened unto my voice, for he breaketh me with a tempest.” But that is a mistake :
they are accepted immediately, though not answered ; 1 John v. 14, “And this is
the confidence we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he
heareth us.” The Lord does with them as a father, with the letters coming thick
from his son abroad; reads them one by one with pleasure, and carefully lays them
up to be answered at his convenience. And when the answer comes, the son will
know how acceptable they were to his father Matt. xv. 28.
(3.) A heart-satisfying answer of these prayers, (ibid.) So as they shall not only get
the thing, but see they have it as an answer of prayer ; and they will put a double
value on the mercy, 1 Sam. ii. 1. Accepted prayers may be very long of answering;
many years, as in Abraham and David's case ; but they cannot miscarry of an
answer at length, Psal. ix. 18. The time will come when God will tell out to them
according to the promise, that they shall change their note, and say, Psal. cxvi. 1,
“I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplication;” look-
ing on their lifting up as bearing the signature of the hand of a prayer-hearing God.
(4.) Full satisfaction, as to the conduct of Providence in all the steps of the hum-
bling circumstances, and the delay of the lifting up, however perplexing these were
before, Rev. xv. 3. Standing on the shore, and looking back to what they have
passed through, they will be made to say, “He hath done all things well.” Those
things which are bitter to Christians in the passing through, are very sweet in the
reflection on them ; so is Samson's riddle verified in their experiences.
(5.) They get the lifting up, together with the interest for the time they lay out
of it. When God pays his bonds of promises, he pays both stock and interest to-
gether; the mercy is increased according to the time man waited on, and the expenses
and hardships sustained during the dependence of the process. The fruits of com-
mon providences are soon ripe, soon rotten: but the fruit of the promise is readily
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 319
long a-ripening, but then it is durable ; and the longer it is a-ripening, it is the
more valuable when it comes. Abraham and Sarah waited for the promise about
ten years, at length they thought on a way to hasten it, Gen. xvi. 1–6. That
soon took in the birth of Ishmael, but he was not the promised son. They
were coming into extreme old age ere the promise brought forth, Gen. xviii. 11.
But when it came, they got it with an addition of the renewing of their ages, Gen.
xxi. 7, and xxv. 1. The most valuable of all the promises was the longest in ful-
filling, namely, the promise of Christ, that was four thousand years.
(6.) The spiritual enemies that flew thick and throng * about them in the time of
the darkness of the humbling circumstances, will be scattered at this lifting up in the
promise ; 1 Sam. ii. 1, 5, “And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the
Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies. They that were full have hired out
themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased.” Formidable was Pharaoh’s
host behind the Israelites, while they had the Red sea before them; but, when
they were through the sea, they saw the Egyptians dead on the shore, Exod. xiv.
30. Such a sight will they that humble themselves under humbling circumstances
get of their spiritual enemies, when the time comes for the lifting up.
3. The due time of this lifting up. That is a very natural question of those
in humbling circumstances, “Watchman, What of the night?” And we cannot
answer it.to the humbled soul, but in general, Isa. xxi. 11, 12. So take these gen-
eral observations on it.
(1.) The lifting up the humbled will not be longsome, considering the weight of
the matter: that is to say, considering the worth and value of the lifting up of the
humble ; when it comes, it can by no means be reckoned long to the time of it.
When you sow your corn in the fields, though it does not ripen so soon as some
garden-seeds, but you wait three months or so, yet you do not think the harvest long
a-coming, considering the value of the crop. This view the apostle takes of the
lifting up in humbling circumstances, 2 Cor. iv. 17, “For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.” So that a believer, looking on the promise with an eye of faith, and per-
ceiving its accomplishment, and the worth of it when accomplished, may wonder it
is come in so short on-coming. Therefore it is determined to be a time that comes
Soon, Luke xviii. 7 ; soon in respect of its weight and worth.
(2.) When the time comes, it and only it will appear in the due time. To every
thing there is a season; and a great part of wisdom liesin discerning it, and doing things
in the season thereof. And we may be sure infinite wisdom cannot miss the sea-
son by mistaking it; Deut. xxxii. 4, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his
ways are judgment.” But whatever God doth will abide the strictest examination
in that, as all other points; Eccl. iii. 14, “I know that whatsoever God doth, it
shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it : and God
doth it, that men may fear before him.” It is true, many times cast upt to us as
the due time for lifting up, which yet really is not so, because there are some cir-
cumstances hid to us which renders that season unfit for the thing. Hence, John
vii. 6, “My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.” But when all
the circumstances, always foreknown of God, shall come to be opened out, and laid
together before us, we will then see the lifting up is come in the nick of time, most
for the honour of God and our good, and that it would not have done so well
SOO110]'. -
(3) When the time comes that is really the due time, the proper time for the lift-
ing up a child of God from his humbling circumstances, it will not be put off one
moment longer ; Hab. ii. 3, “At the end it shall speak, it will surely come, it will
not tarry.” Though it tarry, it will not linger nor put off to another time. O what
rest of heart would the firm faith of this afford us ! There is not a child of God but
would, with the utmost carefulness, protest against the lifting up before the due
time, as against an unripe fruit casten to him by an angry father, that would set
his teeth on edge. Sith it is so then, could we firmly believe this point, that it
would undoubtedly come in the due time, without losing of a minute, it would af.
* i. e. crowded.—ED. + i. e. occur.—ED.
320 THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
ford a sound rest. It must be so, because God has said it ; were the case never so
hopeless, were mountains of difficulties lying in the way of it, at the appointed time
it will “blow,” (Heb.) Hab. ii. 3. A metaphor from the wind rising in a moment
after a dead calm.
(4.) The humbling circumstances are ordinarily carried to the utmost point of
hopelessness before the lifting up. The knife was at Isaac's throat before the
voice was heard; 2 Cor. i. 8, 9, “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant
of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life ; but we had the sentence
of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which rais-
eth the dead.” Things soon seem to us arrived at that point ; such is the hastiness
of our spirits. But things may have far to go down, after we think they are at
the foot of the hill. And we are almost as little competent judges of the point of
hopelessness, as of the due time of lifting up. But readily God carries his people's
humbling circumstances downward, still downward, till they come to that point.
Two reasons are to be noticed.
i. One from the explanatory cause of it. Herein God is holding the same
course which he held in the case of the man Christ; the beloved pattern copied
after in all the dispensations of Providence towards the church, and every particular
believer, Rom. viii. 29. He was all along a man of Sorrows; as his time went on,
the waters swelled more, till he was brought to the dust of death ; then he was
buried, and the grave-stone sealed, which done the world thought they were freely
quit of him, and he would trouble them no more. But they mistook it ; then,
and not till then, was the due time for lifting him up. And the liftings up that
his people get most remarkably, are only little pieces fashioned after this grand
attern.
p ii. Another from the final cause, the end and design Providence aims at in it ;
and that is to carry the believer cleanly off his own, and all created bottoms, to
bottom his trust and hope in the Lord alone ; 2 Cor. i. 9, “That we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.” The life of a Christian
here is designed to be a life of faith ; and though faith may act more easily that
it has some help from sense, yet it certainly acts most nobly when it acts over the
belly of sense. Then it is pure faith when it stands only on its own native legs,
the power and word of God; Rom. iv. 19, 20, “And being not weak in faith, he
considered not his own body now dead, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in the
faith, giving glory to God.” And thus it must do, when matters are carried to the
utmost point of hopelessness. -
(5.) Due preparation of the heart for the lifting up out of the humbling circum-
stances, goes before the due time of that lifting up according to the promise. It
is not so in every lifting up : the lifting up of the common providences are not so
critically managed ; men will have them, will want them no longer, and God flings
them to them in anger, ere they are prepared for them ; Hos. xiii. 11, “I gave
thee a king in mine anger.” They can by no means abide the trial, and God takes
them off as reprobate silver that is not able to abide it, Jer. vi. 29, 30.
This due preparation consists in a due humiliation, Psalm X. 17. And it often
takes much work to bring about this, which is another point that we are ever incompe-
tent judges of. We would have thought Job was brought very low in his spirit, by
the providence of God bruising him on the one hand, and his friends, on the other,
for a long time: yet, after all he had endured both ways, God saw it necessary to
speak to him himself, for his humiliation, chap. xxxviii. 1. By that speech of God
himself, he was brought to his knees, chap. xl. 4, 5. And we would have thought
he was then sufficiently humbled, and perhaps he thought so himself too. But
God saw a further degree of humiliation necessary; and therefore just begins
anew again to speak for his humiliation, which at length laid him in the dust, chap.
xiii. 5, 6. And when he was thus prepared for lifting up, he got it.
There are six things, I conceive, belong to this humiliation, preparatory to lift-
II] Q UlO.
#. K deep sense of sinfulness and unworthiness of being lifted up at all; Job xl.
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 321
4, “Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee . I will lay mine hand upon my
mouth.” People may be long in humbling circumstances, ere they be brought
this length ; even good men are much prejudiced in their own favours, and may so
far forget themselves as to think God deals his favours unequally, and is mighty
severe on them more than others. Elihu marketh this wrong in Job, under his
humbling circumstances, Job xxxiii. 10–12. And I believe it will be found, there
is readily a greater keenness to vindicate our honour from the imputation the
humbling circumstances seem to lay upon it, than to windicate the honour of God
in the justice and equity of the dispensation. The blindness of an ill-natured
world, still ready to suspect the worst causes for humbling circumstances, as if the
greatest sufferers were surely the greatest sinners, (Luke xiii. 4,) gives a handle for
this bias of the corrupt nature. But God is a jealous God; and when he appears
sufficiently to humble, he will cause the matter of our honour to give way, like a
sandy brae under our feet, while we shall be obliged to clever * to the vindication
of his. -
ii. A resignation to the divine pleasure as to the time of lifting up. God gives
the promise, leaving the time blank as to us. Our time is always ready, and we
rashly fill it up at our own hand. God does not keep our time, because it is not
the due time. Hence we are ready to think his word fails; whereas it is but our
own harsh conclusion from it that fails; Psalm cvi. 11, “I said in my haste, All
men are liars.” Several of the saints have gottent on the finger ends by this means,
and thereby learned to let alone filling up that blank. The first promise was thus
used by believing Eve, Gen. iv. 1. Another promise was so by believing Abraham
after * ten years on-waiting, Gen. xvi.; another by David, forecited, Psalm
cxvi. 11.
If this be the case of any child of God, let them not be discouraged upon it,
thinking they were over-rash in applying the promise to themselves: they were
only so in applying the time to the promise; a snapper that Saints in all ages have
made, which they repented, and saw the folly of, and let alone that point for the
time to come; and then the promise was fulfilled in its own due time. Let them,
in such circumstances, go and do likewise, leaving the time entirely to the Lord.
iii. An entire resignation as to the way and manner of bringing it about. We are
ready to do, as to the way of accomplishing the promise, just as with the time of it;
to set a particular way for the Lord's working of it; and if that be not kept, the
proud heart is stumbled; 2 Kings v. 11, “But Naaman was wroth, and he went
away, and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me, and stand and
call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place.” But
the Lord will have his people broke off from that too, that they shall prescribe no
way to him, but leave that to him entirely, as in that same case ; ver. 14, “He
went down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of
the man of God, and he was clean.” The compass of our knowledge of ways and
means is very narrow, so as, if one is blocked up, ofttimes we cannot see another :
but our God knows many ways of relief, where we know but one or none at all;
and it is very usual for the Lord to bring the lifting up of his people in a way they
had no view to, after repeated disappointments from those airths whence they had
great expectation. .
iv. Resignation as to the degree of the lifting up, yea, and as to the very being
of it in time. The Lord will have his people weaned, so that, however hasty they
have sometimes been, that they behoved to be so soon lifted up, and could no longer
bear, they shall be brought at length to set no time at all, but submit to go to the
grave under their weight, if it seem good in the Lord's eyes; and in that case they
will be brought to be content with any measure of it in time, without prescribing
how much ; 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26, “If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he
will bring me again. But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here
alm I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.” -
v. The continuing in prayer and waiting on the Lord in the case; Eph. vi. 18,
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching there-
* i. e. cling.—Ep. i i. e. been struck.— Ed.
322 - THE CROOK IN THE LOT.
unto with all perseverance.” It is pride of heart, and unsubduedness of spirit, that
makes people give over praying and waiting, because their humbling circumstances
are lengthened out time after time, 2 Kings vi. 33. But due humility, going be-
fore the lifting up, brings men into that temper, to pray, wait, and hang on reso-
lutely, setting no time for the giving it over, till the lifting up come, whether in
time or eternity, Lam. iii. 49, 50.
vi. Mourning under mismanagements in the trial; Job xlii. 3, “Therefore have
I uttered that I understood not ; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.”
The proud heart dwells and expatiates on the man's sufferings in the trial, and
casts out all the folds of the trial on that side, and views them again and again.
But when the Spirit of God comes, duly to humble, in order to lifting up, he will cause
the man to pass, in a sort, the suffering side of the trial, and turn his eyes on his
own conduct in it, ransack it, judge himself impartially, and condemn himself; so
that his mouth will be stopped. This is that humility that goeth before the lifting
up in time, in the way of the promise.
Secondly, We proceed to consider the lifting up as brought about at the end of
time, in the other world. And,
1. A word as to the nature of this lifting up. Concerning it we shall say these
five things:
(1.) There is a certainty of this lifting up, in all cases of the humbled under hum-
bling circumstances. Though one cannot, in every case, make them sure of a lift-
ing up in time, yet they may be assured, be the case what it will, they will, without
all peradventure, get a lifting up on the other side ; 2 Cor. v. 1, “For we know,
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Though God's hum-
ble children may both breakfast and dine on bread of adversity, and water of afflic-
tion, they will be sure to sup sweetly and plentifully. And the believing expecta-
tion of the latter might serve to qualify the former, and make easy under it.
(2.) It will be a perfect lifting up, Heb. xii. 23. They will be perfectly delivered
out of their particular trials and special furnace, be what it will, that made them
many a weary day. Lazarus was then delivered from his poverty, and Sores, and
lying at the rich man's gate, (Luke xvi. 22,) and fully delivered. Yea, they will get
a lifting up from all their humbling circumstances together. All the imperfections
will then be at end; inferiority in relations, contradictions, afflictions, uncertainty,
and sin. If it was long a-coming, there will be a blessed moment when they shall
get all together.
(3.) They will not only be raised out of their low condition, but they will be set
up on high as Joseph: not only brought out of prison, but made ruler over the land
of Egypt. And they will be lifted up,
i. Into a high place ; Luke xvi. 22, “The beggar died, and was carried by
the angels into Abraham's bosom.” Now they are, at best, in a low place,
but upon this earth ; there they will be seated in the highest heavens, Phil. i.
23, with Eph. iv. 10. Often, in their humbling circumstances, they are obliged
now to “embrace dunghills;” then they will be set with Christ on his throne; Rev.
iii. 21, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne.”
Though their belly now cleaves to the earth, and men say, “Bow down that we may
pass over” you, they will then be settled in the heavenly mansions, above the sun,
moon, and stars.
ii. Into a high state and condition, a state of perfection. Out of all their
troubles and uneasinesses, they will be set into a state of rest; from their mean
and inglorious condition, they will be advanced into a state of glory; their weighted
and sorrowful life will be succeeded with a fulness of joy; and, for their humbling
circumstances, they will be clothed with eternal glory and honour.
(4.) It will be a final lifting up, after which there will be no more casting down for
ever, Rev. vii. 16. When we get a lifting up in time, we are apt to imagine fondly
we are at the end of our trials; but we soon find we are too hasty in our conclusions,
and the cloud returns; Psal. XXX. 6, 7, “In my prosperity I said, I shall never
be moved. Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” But then indeed the
THE CROOK IN THE LOT. 323
trial is quite over, the fight is at an end; and then is the time of the retribution
and triumph. -
(5.) There will not be the least remaining uneasiness from the humbling circum-
stances, but, on the contrary, they will have a glorious and desirable effect. I
make no question but the saints will have the remembrance of their humbling cir-
cumstances they were under here below. Did the rich man in hell remember his
having five brethren on the earth, how sumptuously he fared, how Lazarus sat at
his gate, and can we doubt but the saints will remember perfectly their heavy trials?
Rev. vi. 10. But then they will remember them as waters that fail; as the man
recovered to health remembers his tossings on the sick bed; and that is a way of
remembering that sweetens the present state of health beyond what otherwise it
would be. Certainly the shore of the Red sea was the place that of all places was
the fittest to help the Israelites to sing in the highest key, Rev. xv. 3. And the
humbling circumstances of Saints on the earth will be of the same use to them in
heaven.
2. A word to the due time of this lifting up. There is a particular definite
time for it in every saint's case, which is the due time ; but it is hid from us. We
can only say in the general :
(1.) Then is the due time for it, when our work we have to do in this world is over.
God has appointed every one their task, fight, trial, and work; and, till that is done,
we are, in a sort, immortal, John ix. 4, and xi. 9. That work is,
i. Doing work; work set to us by the great Master, to be done for the honour
of God and the good of our fellow-creatures, Eccl. ix. 10. We must be content to
be doing on, even in our humbling circumstances, till that be done out. It is not
the due time for that lifting up, till we are at the end of that work, and to have
served our generation.
ii. Suffering work. There is a certain portion of suffering that is allotted for the
mystical body; and the head has divided to the several members their proportions
thereof: and it is not the due time for that lifting up, till we have exhausted the
share thereof allotted to us. Paul looked to his life as a going on in that, Col. i. 24.
(2.) When that lifting up comes, we will see it is come exactly in the due time;
that it was well it was neither sooner nor later: for though heaven is always better
than earth, and that it would be better for us, absolutely speaking, to be in heaven
than on earth; yet certainly there is a time wherein it is better for the honour of
God and his service, that we be on the earth than in heaven; Phil. i. 34, “Never-
theless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” And it will be no grief of
heart to them when there, that they were so long in their humbling circumstances,
and were not brought sooner.
Use 1. Let not, then, the humble cast away their confidence, whatever their hum-
bling circumstances be: let them assure themselves there will come a lifting up to
them at length ; if not here, yet, to be sure, hereafter. Let them keep this in their
view, and comfort themselves with it, for God has said it; Psal. ix. 18, “The needy
shall not always be forgotten.” If the night were never so long, the morning will
come at length.
2. Let patience have her perfect work. The husbandman waits for the return of
his seed ; the sea-merchant for the return of his ships; the store-master for what he
calls year-time, when he draws in the produce of his flocks. All these have long
patience ; and why should not the Christian, too, have patience, and patiently wait
for the time appointed for his lifting up? -
Ye have heard much of the Crook in the Lot; the excellency of humbledness of
spirit in a low lot, beyond pride of spirit, though joined with a high one : ye have
been called to humble yourselves in your humbling circumstances, and assured in
that case of a lifting up. To conclude: we may assure ourselves, God will, at
length, break in pieces the proud, be they never so high ; and he will triumphantly
lift up the humble, be they never so low.
A
VIEW OF THIS AND THE OTHER WORLD ;
WITH
THE STATE OF SAINTS AND SINNERS IN BOTH,
CONTRASTED :
PARTIC U L A R L Y DES C R. IIB ING THE SO L E MN EN T R A N C E W H I C H T PIE SO U L
M A K E S IN TO T H E O T II E R W OR L D A T DE AT H.
IN SEVERAL PRACTICAL DISCOURSES.
THE STATE AND CHARACTERS OF BELIEVERS, AS THEY ARE OF GOD,
WITH THEIR KNOWLEDGE THEREOF, ILLUSTRATED ; AND A DESCRIP -
TION OF THE UNREGENERATE WORLD LYING IN WICKEDNESS.
sEVERAL SERMONs PREACHED AT ETTRICK, IN THE END OF THE YEAR 1728,
AND BEGINNING OF 1729.
1 JoHN v. 19.
“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.”
As it was said to Rebekah, Gen. xxv. 23, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two
manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels:—and the elder shall serve
the younger;” so it may be said of this text. Two manner of people are here, to
one of which all of us do belong, viz. those that are of God, and those that are of
the world. The latter is the elder, and shall serve the younger; Psal. xlix. 14,
“The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.”
1. There is a people that, though they are in the world, are not of it, but separ-
ated from it; “And we know that we are of God.” Here consider, (1.) The origin
of that people: they are of God ; that is, begotten and born of God, regenerate
persons, born again. They are a heavenly people in respect of their extract, “born
from above,” 2 Pet. i. 4. (2.) Who they are in particular: We are they, we be-
lievers in Christ ; those that, having received the call of the gospel to come out of
the world lying in wickedness, have, by faith, embraced the call, and come away,
John i. 12, 13; 2 Cor. v. 17. (3.) The knowledge they have of their original:
“We know that we are of God;” we are not only regenerate, but we know that we
are so. Not that all of them know so much ; but some of them do : there may be
children so young, that they know not their father's and mother's names; but the
elder children know them very well. This comes in here for the comfort of be-
lievers against the “sin unto death,” verse 16; which the regenerate cannot fall
‘into, verse 18.
2. There is another people, who are not of God, but are quite distinct from
those that are so. Here consider, (1.) Who they are: “the world,” that is, the
unregenerate ; these are the people distinct from, yea, in an opposite interest
to, the people of God. It is plain the world is taken here, not for the place, but
for the men of the place, and these not the strangers and pilgrims in it, but
the natives, who have no other but a worldly birth, and who are in it as at home in
their own country. The phrase is taken from the Old Testament, where the
church is called “the sons of God,” Gen. vi. 4: those without the church, “the
earth,” (Gen. xi. 1,) in opposition to heaven; being the earthly men, in opposition to
the heavenly men; men whose birth, temper, and manner of life are all worldly. (2.)
The character of this people: they are “lying in wickedness,” or, in the wicked
one, namely, the devil. They are lying in sin, in the guilt and filth, and under
the reigning power of it; and so under the power of the devil. They are not ris-
ing and wrestling out of it ; but they are lying in it, sleeping, dead, and buried in
it. (3.) The extent of this character: it belongs to them all, “the whole world.”
There are many differences among those of the unregenerate world; some of them
are professors, some profane ; but the former as well as the latter are lying in
wickedness,
328 A VIEW OF THIS
That I may give you some view of this text, in its different branches, I shall
essay to open up the three following points of doctrine therefrom, namely,
DocTRINE I. All true believers are of God, and so separated from the world lying
in wickedness.
DocT. II. People's being of God, and separated from the world lying in wicked.
ness, is what may be known by themselves.
DocT, III. The whole unregenerate world lieth in wickedness.
DocTRINE I. All true believers are of God, and so separated from the world lying
in wickedness.
In handling this point, I shall show,
I. How true believers are of God.
II. How, as they are of God, regenerate persons, they are separated from the
world lying in wickedness.
III. Make improvement.
I. I am to show how true believers are of God. One is said to be of God two
ways.
First, By creation ; and so all things are “ of God,” Rom. xi. 36. Thus the
devils themselves are of God as their Creator, and so is “the world.” But this is
not the being “ of God” here meant. They may be God's creatures who, never-
theless, are the children of the devil.
Secondly, By generation, as a son is of a father. And this is twofold.
1. Eternal generation; so Christ alone is “ of God,” John vi. 46; Psal. ii. 7.
He is the Son of God by generation of the person of the Father, having the same
numerical divine essence eternally and necessarily communicated to him from the
Father. Hence he is self-existent, independent, and equal with the Father, John
v. 26 ; Phil. ii. 6. Neither is this meant here.
2. Temporal generation, called regeneration ; which is the work of God's grace
on the souls of men, resembling natural generation. And thus believers, and none
else, are “ of God,” John i. 12, 13; and viii. 47. We are all born from below
naturally ; but we must be born from above spiritually, if we see heaven ; John iii.
3, “Except a man be born again (marg. from above), he cannot see the kingdom
of God.” All the elect are born so, sooner or later. They naturally lie in the
foul womb of the world with others; but the power of divine grace separates them
therefrom.
The work of regeneration is held forth under a double notion, showing the re-
generate to be “ of God.”
(1.) It is a being “begotten of God;” 1 John v. 18, “He that is begot-
ten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one touched him not.” God
himself is the Father of the new creature ; it is of no lower original. The in-
corruptible word of the gospel is the seed of it, James i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 23, 25.
A word is cast into the heart which, by the efficacy of the Spirit, changes one
into a new nature. It is done by means of the resurrection of Christ, verse 3.
Christ lay in the womb of the earth in the grave, as a public person : having satis-
fied justice, he was raised, came forth of the grave, as the first-born from the dead;
and in virtue thereof, the dead elect are raised out of their grave of sin, as the next-
born from the dead.
And this notion of regeneration speaks the parties themselves to have no hand
in it, more than a child hath in its own generation. So that, as regenerate, they
are wholly of God; and owe their being in grace to him purely, not to their own
free-will. -
(2.) It is being “born of God;” 1 John v. 18, “Whosoever is born of God sin-
neth not.” By his Spirit alone the new creature is formed in all its parts, and
brought forth into the new world of grace, John iii. 5. And this notion of it speaks
the parties to receive life by the Spirit, and to be brought forth to act that life ;
and none other but the Spirit to be the cause thereof, John i. 13. -
Now, by this means, viz. regeneration, believers are of God, -
1st, As partaking of the divine nature, as the child doth of the nature of the
parent, 2 Pet. i. 4. There is a fulness of grace lodged in the man Christ, out of
which they receive “grace for grace,” and so with him partake of “the divine
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 329
nature,” being made “one spirit,” or of one spiritual and divine nature, “with
him ;” even as they received a corrupt nature, derived to them from Adam, by
which they were originally of the wicked one.
2dly, As bearing the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.
By regeneration, they are like him ; and if it were perfect, they would be perfectly
like him. For, in regeneration, Christ is formed in them, Gal. iv. 19; that is, they
are the image of the man Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God.”
3dly, As being of his family, Eph. iii. 14, 15; and that not as servants only,
but as children, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. The new birth is a high birth : by it the sin-
ner is a member of the family of heaven; God is his Father, Christ is his elder
brother, and the angels and saints are his brethren.
4thly, As owing their new being to him only, in the efficacy of his grace ; Eph.
ii. 10, “For we are his workmanship, created, in Christ Jesus, unto good works.”
Our natural being we owe in part to our parents, Heb. xii. 9; but our gracious
being to God only. That we are men, we owe it to him in the efficacy of his creat-
ing power; and that we are saints, we owe it to him in the efficacy of his quick-
ening and renewing grace ; Gal. iv. 28, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are
the children of promise.” -
II. I shall show how believers, as they are of God, regenerate persons, are separ-
ated from the world lying in wickedness. Negatively,
First, Not in respect of place, 1 Cor. v. 9, 10. They are still in the world, and
must be till the Lord call them home ; though they are not of the world. God
could, in the moment of conversion, have transported converts into heaven, taken
them out of the world for good and all : but he has seen meet for their trial, and
the glory of the power of his grace, to keep them in the world a while ; and yet to
keep them separate from them. -
Secondly, Not in respect of gathering them into pure unmixed societies for wor-
ship. There are no such visible church societies in the world, Matt. xiii. 28–30.
Separating from the world lying in wickedness is not such an easy thing as visible
church separating: they may be forward enough to that who are yet with the world
lying in wickedness, Jude 19; and may go from party to party in the visible
church, who are still of the world's party, not of God. But positively, the regen-
erate as such are separated from the world,
1. In respect of their being broke off from that corrupt mass, and become a part
of a new lump. Adam falling left all mankind earthly men, bearing his corrupt
image ; Christ is become a second Adam, the head of heavenly men, bearing his
image, 1 Cor. xv. 47, 48. Now, the regenerate are separated from the former so-
ciety, and become members of the latter, through regenerating grace. They are
become members of Christ's mystical body, of the invisible church, a distinct
though invisible society.
2. Their being delivered from under the power of “the god of this world,”
namely, Satan, Acts xxvi. 18. Satan is the god of this world ; the wicked are
led by him at his will; he works effectually in them and blinds their minds, 2 Cor.
iv. 3, 4. But the regenerate are got out from under his subjection, delivered from
his kingdom, Col. i. 13. He is indeed an enemy to molest them, but not their
king that reigns over them : his involuntary prisoners they may be for a time, but
they are no more his willing subjects. -
3. Their having a Spirit, even the Spirit of God, dwelling in them, which the
world have not, Rom. viii. 9; Jude 19. When Lazarus's spirit entered again into
his body, he was separated from the congregation of the dead ; and when a dead
sinner gets the Spirit of Christ breathed into him, he is separated from the world,
as much as the living from the dead.
4. Lastly, Their having a disposition, frame, bent, and cast of heart and soul,
opposite to that of the world; so that they are as much separated from the world
as enemies are one from another, Gen. iii. 15. Hence they are, in their great
designs, affections, course and manner of life, nonconformists, and opposites to the
world ; as opposite as Caleb and Joshua were to their unbelieving countrymen,
Numb. xiv. 24. º
From this doctrine, we may learn the following things:
2 T
330 A VIEW OF THIS
First, This speaks the dignity of believers. They are the truly honourable ones
as being of God; they are the excellent of the earth. What avails it that men
can boast of their honourable extract in the world, while it still remains true, that
they are of their father the devil : The beggar on the dunghill, being of God, is
more honourable than the wicked king sitting on his throne, attended with all the
majesty of a kingdom,
Secondly, It speaks the privilege of believers. Every one will care and provide
for his own ; be sure God will, then, take special concern about believers; Matt. vi.
31, 32, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat 3 or what shall we
drink 2 or wherewithal shall we be clothed ? (For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things.” But many such, ye may say, are sorrily provided for. Answer. Ye are
too hasty in such a judgment; Heb. xi. 16; “God is not ashamed to be called their
God; for he hath prepared for them a city.” Every one will protect his own, too;
God will, then, protect believers, and he will avenge all their quarrels. There is
never an unkindness done to them but he will resent it, as ye will see from Christ's
procedure with the wicked at the last day, Matt. xxv. There is not a hard word spo-
ken to them, nor a wrong look given them, but he will cause their enemies pay for it.
Thirdly, It speaks the duty of believers. Carry yourselves as becomes your
dignity and privilege, as those that are of God. Trust him with all your concerns,
in all your straits: walk tenderly before him, remembering that your follies reflect
dishonour on him ye belong to ; and that ye are to evidence your being of God,
by your steering another course than the world lying in wickedness.
Lastly, It shows the self-deceivery of unbelievers; pretenders to a saving inter-
est in God, while, in the meantime, they are lying together with the world in
wickedness. How can they be of God who are not separated from the world, but
“walking according to the course” thereof, in “the lust of the flesh, the lust o
the eyes, and the pride of life 2''
But I proceed to the second Doctrine from the text.
DocTRINE II. People's being of God, and separated from the world lying in wick-
edness, is what may be known by themselves. “We know that we are of God,”
says the apostle. There is a people in the world, yet not of the world, but separ-
ated from it; and they may see that they are such.
In treating this subject, I shall show,
I. What knowledge may be had of this.
II. Make some practical improvement.
1. I am to show what knowledge may be had of this, That one is of God, and
separated from the world lying in wickedness.
There are three ways of coming to the knowledge of a thing.
First, By our senses, as we know fire to be hot, and ice to be cold. But this
matter cannot be known that way. The grace of God and the spiritual privileges
of believers, are not the objects of sense. Indeed, if separation from the world
were just a separating from one party, and joining with another in church society,
we might know it by sense ; but it is not so. -
Secondly, By extraordinary revelation ; visions, voices, or impressions. Such
things have been, as in Abraham's case, Gen. xii. 1, 2. But that dispensation is
ceased, the canon of the scripture being completed, and we referred to it, as unto
“a more sure word of prophecy,” 2 Pet. i. 19. It was never common to all, though
all are required to know this, verse 10. Assurance, then, of one's being in a state
of grace, may be attained without extraordinary revelation. -
Thirdly, By rational evidence: as, seeing a house, we know it has been built by
some one ; seeing the world, we know that it has been created of God; because
they could not make themselves. So men may know themselves to be of God, by
“giving diligence to make their calling and election sure,” 2 Pet. i. 10. Two
things concur here. • - -
1. Spiritual discerning; a spiritual sight, taste, or feeling of the things of God,
in ourselves or others, 1 Cor. ii. 14. It is the total want of this in some, that
makes them deceive themselves: they have no spiritual discerning, to distinguish
between God's people and the world; so they are like men in the dark, that know
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 331
not where they are, nor whither they are going. And the weakness of this discern-
ing in many of God's people robs them of the comfort they might have.
2. Spiritual reasoning on scripture-grounds; 1 John v. 13, “These things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of
God.” The word is the rule which pronounces of men's state in the general: by
spiritual discerning, believers see, in themselves or others, those things concerning
which the scripture pronounces; and by spiritual reasoning, they come to know,
by these means, that they are of God, and separated from the world lying in wick-
edness. Now, by way of rational evidence, one may know this of a twofold object.
(1.) Of others. One may know that others are of God, and separated from the
world; discerning the image of God shining forth in them, and thence gathering
that they are of God, and not of the world. So the apostle, in the text, speaks of
others as well as himself. There is a spiritual discerning in that case, as Barnabas
“saw the grace of God” in the converts at Antioch, Acts xi. 23. And this knowledge
is supposed in the command of loving one another, given to God's people: for how
can men love others as of God, if they cannot know them to be so 2
(2.) Of themselves. A true believer may know himself to belong to God, and
not to the world. So the apostle says in the text, “We know that we are of God.”
There are such marks of distinction betwixt the two societies fixed in the word,
that, by spiritual discerning and reasoning, one that is of God may be satisfied
that he is really of God, and needs not be always in the dark in that place.*
But betwixt that knowledge concerning one's self and others, there is this re-
markable difference. -
1st, In the case of others, we can have, by rational evidence, only a judgment
of charity, not of certainty, without extraordinary revelation, such as Ananias had
with respect to Paul, Acts ix. 15. This is founded upon probable appearance of
the grace of God in them, which yet may be but an appearance. Hence the best
of men may be deceived in their opinion of others, as Philip was with Simon
Magus. The devil's goats may be taken for Christ's sheep, by very discerning
Christians. Of this I would say:
i. We should not be rash in giving or refusing that judgment, but hold pace with
the appearance or non-appearance of the grace of God in ''them. We are bid to
beware of men: for we are told all men are liars; and many a fair outside there
is, where there is a foul inside, that a little trial discovers': therefore we ought not
to have the persons of any in admiration. On the other side, the grace of God
may dwell with much dross; therefore we are to beware lest we trample the jewel
under foot because it lies in a dunghill. -
ii. The love bestowed on hypocrites is not all lost, and therefore it is safest erring
on the charitable side. A man may love Christ in a hypocrite; not that Christ
dwells in any such, but what we bestow on any for Christ's sake, whether they
really deserve it or not, will not lose its reward, Mark ix. 41. And by the rule of
charity, we are obliged to put the best construction on our neighbour's state and
way that they can reasonably bear, 1 Cor. xiii. 7. One had better judge ten
hypocrites sincere, for that may be duty, than one sincere person a hypocrite, for
that must always be sin.
iii. Let us carry our judgment of others no farther than that of charity, and not
pretend to a certainty, which is not competent to us in the case, but to God only.
He alone is the searcher of hearts, without the knowledge of which an absolute
certainty cannot be attained. Keeping within our own bounds, the deceit discovered
in the world would brangle us the less, as being not inconsistent with the judgment
that we formed.
2dly, In our own case, we may have, by rational evidence, a judgment of cer-
tainty, without extraordinary revelation. We may in an ordinary way, if we really
belong to God, be infallibly assured of it. The reason of the difference is plain :
we see the open actions and carriage of others, but we cannot know the secret
springs of them, the principles, ends, and manner of them, upon which the main
* i. e. respecting that point.—ED,
332 A VIEW OF THIS
stress lies; but we may know these things in ourselves. What moves ourselves
so to walk, we can assuredly know ; but what moves others, we cannot know that.
This is clear from the following grounds.
i. A true child of God may assuredly know his relative state in the favour of
God. Though he cannot open the sealed book of the decrees, and read his name at
first hand in the decree of election; yet, by comparing the word of God in the
Bible, and the work of God in his own soul, he may know himself to be one of the
elect, 2 Pet. i. 10; Heb. vi. 11; to be one of those for whom Christ died, and of
the family of God, Rom. viii. 16, 17.
ii. He may discern in himself real grace, and know that he believes in Christ, as
sure as he breathes, (2 Tim. i. 12,) and loves him so that he can appeal to Omniscience
for the truth thereof, as Peter did, John xxi. 15. And knowing that all who be-
lieve in Christ, and love the Lord, are of God, separated from the world, and shall
never be suffered to mix with them again, he may conclude so of himself with the
greatest certainty.
iii. All the saints have the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 9. And it is the office of
the Spirit to lead them into all truth, and particularly to shine upon his own work
in the soul, 1 Cor. ii. 12; and so to be a joint witness with their own spirits to
their adoption into the family of God, Rom. viii. 16; to be a seal, which is de-
signed to ensure, Eph. iv. 30 ; and an earnest too, which is both a part of the
price, and a pledge of the whole, 2 Cor. v. 5.
iv. The effects of faith sometimes produced by it in the saints confirm this. Such
is the boldness and confidence they sometimes have with God, (Eph. iii. 12,)
“rejoicing in hope of the glory of God,” Rom. v. 2; which is sometimes “unspeak-
able,” 1 Pet. i. 8; so that they can cheerfully undergo sufferings, Heb. x. 34. All
which necessarily presupposeth their knowing themselves to be of God. *
v. The examples of the saints make it plain; as Job xix. 25–27, “For I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see
God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;
though my reins be consumed within me;” Psal. xxiii. ult. “Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the
Lord for ever;” 2 Tim. iv. 8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righ-
teousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not
to me only, but unto them also that love his appearing.” This knowledge is what
has been reached, and therefore yet may be so.
II. For practical improvement of this point, I exhort you to be concerned to
know, whether ye are of God, separated from the world, or not. Take that matter
under serious consideration. To press you thereto, consider,
First, We are all of us naturally, and by our first birth, of the world lying in
wickedness, Eph, ii. 2, 3. No question but we were once joined to the wicked
world, as kindly members thereof: all the question is, Whether we be separated
from them or not ? It is by a second birth that we are of God, if at all. What
experience have we of that ?
Secondly, The world lying in wickedness is the society appointed to destruction,
as in a state and course of enmity against God, Eph. ii. 3. Therefore all that
are to be saved are delivered and gathered out of it, Gal. i. 4. Wo to them that
are left in it, for they will perish in the ruins of it. David prays, “Gather not my
soul with the wicked.” But they that are not gathered out of them in life, cannot
miss to be gathered with them in death ; being eternally left in the guilt and filth
of their wickedness, where “the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
Thirdly, Many deceive themselves in this matter, as the foolish virgins, Matt.
xxv. Christ's flock is certainly a “little flock,” Luke xii. 32; Matt. vii. 13, 14. Yet
there are but very few who do not hope to share with them; for a ruining principle
obtains, That if we be not notoriously profane, it will be well with us in the end ;
as if the devil could dwell in none whose name is not Legion. They that have a
form of religion build on that; and others build on the mercy of God. They
consider not how very unlikely it is, that they shall leap out of Delilah's lap into
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 333
Abraham's bosom ; and therefore they trouble not themselves with separating from
the world lying in wickedness.
Fourthly, Death is approaching; and if it were come, there will be no separat-
ing more from the world. There are two parts of that world; the one within, the
other without, the line of mercy. The latter lies on the other side of death. And
death separates the unregenerate from the former part, indeed; but it fixes them
for ever among the other part that is quite hopeless.
Fifthly, It is uncertain when death comes to us, and how, Matt. xxiv. 42.
People of all ages and sizes die, and death fixes all in an unalterable state. A
death-bed is not to be trusted to : for death may surprise you without getting one ;
and though ye get it, it may be very useless for soul-business, whether through
raving, or extreme tossing. At best it is hardly the fit time of being new-born,
when a-dying.
Lastly, It is an excellent and useful thing to know our state in this point. For
if we find that we are not of God, but of the world, we are awakened to see to it in
time. If we find that we are, it is what makes both a comfortable life, in the
midst of troubles from the world; and a fruitful life, inflaming the heart with love,
humbling the soul, and strengthening it, and fitting both to live and to die.
For your help in this inquiry, consider the following signs, marks, and characters
of those that are of God, separated from the world.
Characters of those that are of God.
1. They are such as have fled from the world to Jesus Christ as a refuge, Heb.
vi. 18. They have seen danger in it, in a work of conviction ; and safety from it
in Christ, in a work of saving illumination. Such are of God, and none other; as
is manifest from that gospel call, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, “Wherefore come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;
and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” The secure, and strangers to Christ, are yet
in the world lying in wickedness.
(1.) Seen danger in the world has made them flee from it. They have come out
of it, as Lot out of Sodom, under conviction that destruction from the Lord was
waiting it. They have heard and believed the report of the word about it, saying,
as Rev. xviii. 4, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues.” They have got an awakening that has
frighted them from staying longer with them, notwithstanding of the multitude
abiding at ease therein, the discerning of which makes many easy in their stay
in it.
(2.) Seen safety in Christ has brought them to him, in a way of believing; Acts
xv. 11, “But we believe that, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved.” They have seen him to be the Christ, in whom the fulness of
happiness is lodged, in opposition to the world, 1 John v. 1. They have discovered
in him a glory darkening all the world's glory; and so have made the exchange as
of husks for bread, Matt. xiii. 45, 46. s
2. They are coming away with Christ from the world in their daily walk; an-
swering his call, Cant. iv. 8, “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me
from Lebanon.” After Israel came out of Egypt, they went not back to it, to the
brick-kilns, and the flesh-pots; but they marched through the wilderness. Those
that are separated from the world in regeneration, are still separating from it in
progressive sanctification, labouring to keep themselves “unspotted from the world.”
They are not of God, then, who, having once had something like conversion, make
that stand for all, and never endeavour to be separating more and more from
the world.
There are three things that make them still to be coming away from the world.
(1.) It grows no better in their eyes, in any of its shapes, whatever it grows
worse: so they continue their separation and march, “coming up from the wilder-
ness,” Cant. viii. 5. Some people get a fright of the world sometime ; and the
ways of the world appear to them dangerous ways, But that fright goes off, and
334 A VIEW OF THIS
the way of the world looks more gay to them; and they, being “hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin,” even go back again, and settle down in the world lying in
wickedness, in one shape or another, that likes them best.
(2.) There are two contrary principles in them; an earthly one and a heavenly
one, grace and corruption, Gal. v. 17. If they had only the earthly principle,
they would settle still with the world, they could not come away at all. If they
had only the heavenly principle, they would be quite separated from the world, and
their march from it would be at an end. But having both, the one puts them in
continual hazard of “the unclean thing,” and the other prompts them to be mak-
ing away from it. g
(3.) They have peremptorily left their old rest, and are not yet come to their new.
rest; therefore they must be moving. They have left the city of destruction; but
they are not yet come to the city of God, the new Jerusalem, Heb. iv. 9, 11. They
are come out of Egypt, but they are not yet come to Canaan; but they are on
their wilderness march, minded to hold on, while apostates are for returning to
Egypt again.
3. They are nonconformists to the world, Rom. xii. 2. They do not conform
themselves to the course of the world, Eph. ii. 2. Hence they are indeed the
world's wonder, and at length the object of their reproach and spite ; 1 Pet. iv. 4,
“Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess,
of riot, speaking evil of you.” They dare not do what the world makes no bones
of: * they hate the courses that the world is fond of; and take pleasure in
those things that are tasteless and sapless to the world. Being of God, it must be
So ; for, -
(1.) They are of another country than the world, being heavenly men, born from
above. They are pilgrims and strangers here ; how then can they miss but to be
conformed to the natives? Indeed, if they were to settle among them, and to be
naturalized, forgetting the heavenly country, they would fall in with their ways
and courses, as apostates do. But they are only travelling through the world, and
therefore it is not strange they quite differ in their language, habit, and manners,
from the natives of this world.
(2.) They are of another nature than the men of the world, “being partakers of
the divine nature,” 2 Pet. i. 4. Some men differ in their natural constitutions so,
that what is one man's meat is another's poison. But the new creature in the
regenerate differs farther from the old corrupt nature in the world. Grace gives
the hearts of men a new set, hangs a new bias on them ; so that they dearly love
what themselves before hated, and hate what before they loved. The new nature
and the old course are inconsistent. One must quit the latter, or all pretence to
the former.
This nonconformity lies, not only in not doing what the world does, but in doing
another way than the world does in that which they both do. So, in those things
which they both do, there is still a nonconformity to the world, which is seen in
these three things.
1st, In natural actions, as eating and drinking, &c. They that are of God must
do these as well as they that are of the world; yet the former do not conform to
the latter in the way of doing them. The way of the world in these things is merely
selfish and carnal, to gratify a lust or appetite, without any eye to God in them,
to his command, his glory, or to the fitting of them to serve God in their station;
Zech. vii. 9, “When ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did ye not eat for your-
selves, and drink for yourselves * Matt. xxiv. 38. Hence, conscience has with
them nothing to do in the getting, or in the using of these things. -
But they that are of God will take their religion to their bed and to their board,
and regulate themselves therein according to the dictates, not of carnality, but con-
science, 1 Cor. x. 31. The satisfying the necessities of the body will not be to
them the ends of their living, but the means of living, their end being to live to
God; and therefore these things will be cut and carved as they may best contri-
bute to that end, 1 Thess. iv. 4, 5.
* i. e. does not scruple about.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 335
2dly, In civil actions, as working, bargaining, guiding a family, Serving, &c.
The way of the world in these things is to have no respect to the command or hon-
our of God in them ; to shuffle out the directions in their Bible from them, as a
thing having no concern in these matters, Luke xvii. 28; to have no single eye to
seek the good of those they have to do with, but to please themselves; or at best to be
men-pleasers, not God-pleasers, in these things; to count exact truth and upright-
ness needless nicety.
But those that are of God dare not, will not, nay, abhor to conform themselves
to that way of the world. They will carry their religion into their callings, worldly
business, and relations, 1 Cor. vii. 23, 24. They will look on God as the principal,
whoever is the less principal party they have to do with, Prov. iii. 6. The end of
regeneration is the restoring of sinners to conformity unto the rule of righteousness,
whereof the sum is love to God and our neighbour, showing itself in sincere en-
deavours to honour God, and to be beneficial to mankind ; 1 John iii. 10, “In this
the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil : whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”
3dly, In religious actions. It is not bare praying, hearing, &c. that will distin-
guish one from the world lying in wickedness; for all that religion is found among
them too. But they have a way of their own in it; holding with the form, but
“denying the power,” 2 Tim. iii. 5; contenting themselves with bodily exercise, while
strangers to the spirituality of duties, Matt. xv. 8; seeking themselves in them,
not God, Matt. vi. 2; making a shelter of them, wherein to sin more at ease, Prov.
vii. 14, 15 ; and putting them in Christ's room, by confidence in them, Rom. x. 3.
But those that are of God conform not to that way of religion. For to the re-
generate, it is not a piece of art, but of new nature ; religion is a thing that their
new nature leads them to. And what is natural people will still aim at the perfec-
tion of, and so they will study the power of godliness. And being of God, they
will natively seek the enjoyment of God, as the infant seeks to suck the breasts of
the mother that bare it ; and they will seek the destruction of sin by their religion,
as being a contrary principle thereto; and it will natively carry them out of them-
selves to Christ for all, since he is the life of the new creature. See their charac-
ter, Phil. iii. 3, “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
4. They are in a state of opposition to the world lying in wickedness. This is
plain from Gen. iii. 15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed;” James iv. 4. The two parties are like “the
company of two armies '' engaged against one another. When, by regenerating
grace, one comes out from among them, he is not only separated from them, but
set up in opposition to them. This says negatively:
(1.) Those that are of God are not the friends of the world, taking part with
them against those that are of God. There are some not without pretences to re-
ligion, but as to matters of practice they are still upon the loose side ; they will
plead for Baal, and give squint strokes at tender holy walking. They will
declaim against hypocrisy, being tongue-tacked * against profaneness; they have
a vail to throw over the gross abominations of the licentious, but they will rip up
the infirmities of the weak; they have a tongue soft as wool for the credit of the
scandalous and profane, but piercing like a sword unto the serious. Let these read
the sentence of the Spirit of God, excommunicating them out of the communion of
saints; James iv. 4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friend-
ship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the
world, is the enemy of God.”
(2.) They are not neuters in the quarrel with the world lying in wickedness.
There are some who think that they do very well, if they do nothing against the
cause of religion ; but to act against the cause of wickedness in the world is
none of their business, it belongs not to them ; not considering what Solomon says,
Prov. xxviii, 4, “They that forsake the law praise the wicked; but such as keep
the law contend with them.” They think to keep peace with God, and with the
* i. e. dumb, or silent.—ED.
336 A WIEW OF THIS
world lying in wickedness too; but they are mistaken, it will not do. Whoever
they be that are not content to list themselves under Christ's banner, to oppose
and act against the world lying in wickedness, Christ denounces them enemies to ,
him; Matt. xii. 30, “He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth
not with me scattereth abroad.”
How can it be but that those who are of God are in a state of opposition to the
world lying in wickedness 2 - - -
1st, The object of their love is the object of the world's hatred, which cannot
miss to produce this. God in Christ is the principal object of the love of the re-
generate, and him the world hates, John xv. 18; and they show it in their hatred
of his image, in his ordinances, his people, and especially in his law, because there
it is most lively expressed. And can any thing be more natural, than for a son to
be in a state of opposition to his father's haters and enemies? (Psal. cxxxix. 21,)
namely, to oppose them in their opposition, that is, their sin, not their persons.
2dly, They are under opposite heads, betwixt whom there is an irreconcilable
war; Christ and the devil, Michael and the dragon. This war was proclaimed in
paradise, (Gen. iii. 15,) and will never end but in the destruction of the one party.
Nobody can be neuters in such a case, but do make opposition. The arms of the
parties are indeed very different. The world act against those that are of God, by
persecutions, reproaches, mockings, contempt and hatred of their persons, looseness
of life, trampling on the laws and honour of God: the regenerate act against the
world lying in wickedness, by hatred of their ways, loving their persons, testifying
against them, endeavouring to reclaim them, rowing against the stream in a tender
walk, mourning and praying for them. They that are not so engaged against the
world, are not of God. -
3dly, The interest of the two societies is downright opposite ; so opposite that
the one cannot be advanced but on the ruin of the other. The spreading of holi-
ness is the interest that the one is pursuing, the promoting of sin is the interest
pursued by the other: these are as opposite as light and darkness. And it is as sure
that every man and woman is acting in this life to the promoting of one of these
two in the world, as that every person and thing will act agreeable to its own
nature ; Micah iv. 5, “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god,
and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God, for ever and ever.” And
therefore those that are of God are in a state of opposition to the world lying in
wickedness.
5. There is a bond of brotherly love, whereby they are knit together among
themselves as children of one family. By this one may know himself to belong
to the family of God; 1 John iii. 14, “We know that we have passed from death
unto life, because we love the brethren :” and by it, as a badge, on-lookers may
know they belong to it; John xiii. 35, “By this shall all men know that ye are
my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” So that it is a sign that casts its
light both inward and outward. The certainty hereof appears from several con-
siderations.
(1.) They all love God their common Father, love his image, pressing to be like
him as their main aim. Hence, since all the regenerate do bear God's image as
begotten of him, they must love them also ; 1 John v. 1, “Every one that loveth
him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.” The love of God natively
draws after it the Christian love of those that are of God.
(2.) They have forsaken the world for the society of the saints: and as the
married woman forsakes her father's house, and joins herself unto the house of her
husband, thenceforth to look upon the interest thereof as her interest; so, in the
spiritual marriage with Christ and regeneration, the soul comes home to the Society
of the saints for good and all, in opposition to the world, cordially falling in with
the call given, Psalm xlv. 10, “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline
thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house.”
(3.) The natural enmity against the seed of the woman that is inseparable from
the seed of the serpent, evinceth this, Gen. iii. 15. In every unregenerate man
there is a natural enmity against a holy God, his holy Christ, and his holy seed;
their natures being as contrary as fire and water, that it is impossible ever they
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 337
should be, as such, lovely in one another's eyes. And in regeneration, the ser-
pentine nature is changed, the enmity removed, and consequently this love to the
saints is fixed in its room, as a necessary consequent of the new nature.
(4.) As God is love, and the devil is a mass of hatred and malice against God
and man, so the two parties partake of their natures respectively. God bears a
common love to his creatures, so as to do them good, and a special love to the
saints: and those that are of God, accordingly, have implanted in them a principle
of love, of good-will and beneficence to mankind, (Luke vi. 35,) but a special love
of delight in the saints, Psal. xvi. 3; Gal. vi. 10. Satan bears a hatred against
men, especially holy men; but most of all he hates God: so his seed hate one
another, (Tit. iii. 5,) and more keenly hate the heavenly seed, and that because of
their hatred wherewith, most of all, they are irreconcileable to God, John xv. 18.
Objection. Where are there greater heats and oppositions than among the dif-
ferent parties in the church 2 where, then, is the brotherly love by which all are pre-
tended to be knit 2 Answer. There is a difference betwixt the visible church, and
those that are of God. In the visible church are many who are still of the world
lying in wickedness; and they bring with them into the church their natural
enmity, hatred, and unchristian spirit, and exercise it in the things of God, to the
marring of the purity, beauty, and peace of it. But this hellish fire belongs to the
spirit of the world, and the blame of kindling it lies at the door of the world. And
if the church, though imperfect, were freely separated from the world lying in
wickedness, it would be a lovely and loving society far beyond what it is. I own
that these things also are incident to those that are of God, as in the contention
between Paul and Barnabas, Acts xv. 39; and the reason is, the remains of the
spirit of the world in them is not yet purged away; but the cause of the quarrel is
not what they conceive to be likeness, but unlikeness to God, and notwithstanding
all their jarrings, they will still love them as they appear to have the image of God
on them; for whatever they differ in, they agree in that. Wherefore we may lay
down these conclusions.
1st, They that are of God love the society of the regenerate considered as a holy
society, separated from the world lying in wickedness, Heb. xii. 22. The picture
of that society drawn in the Bible is beautiful in their eyes; more alluring to them
than the richest, most powerful, and most gay and splendid society in the World:
and therefore they desire more to be of it than of any other whatsoever. The grace
in it glisters more in their eyes than gold in the world; and so it is not with others,
1 John ii. 15 ; Cant. i. 7. -
2dly, They love particular saints of their acquaintance for what likeness to God
appears in them, 2 John 1, 2, There are many things about the children of God
that may move love to them in a child of the devil; their relation, usefulness, and
agreeableness in several things to them : but their spiritual beauty in conformity
to the holy Jesus is a motive and ground of love to them, not in the unregenerate,
but in the regenerate partakers of the same divine nature. Upon that score the
serpentine enmity rises in the one, and love in the other.
3dly, They love all the Saints without exception, so far as they can take them
up to be so, Eph. i. 15. They will never confine their love to a party to whom
God has not confined his grace; nor to such as are attended with worldly ad-
vantages, despising the rest on whom the world particularly frowns, Psal. cxix.
63. If they should do so, they would evidence that it is not God they love in
them, but themselves; that it is not the advantages they have as the darlings
of heaven, but of the world. But whatever defects are about them, the appear-
ance of God's grace in them will supply them all, to the rendering them lovely in
the eyes of those that are of God, though not to others, whereby they are tried
and cast.*
4thly, The more gracious and holy any are, the more will they be loved of them.
For the more of the cause there is in any, the more there must be of the effect.
And hence it is, that the most tender and holy Christians are at once the objects
of the greatest love of the regenerate, and the world's greatest hatred. Many can
* i. e. rejected.—ED.
º
2 U
338 A VIEW OF THIS
endure holiness while it remains dim and obscure in men, that spit venom against
it where it shines clear; so formal hypocrites are like the owl that can come abroad
in the twilight, but cannot endure the light of the Sun: an eminent instance were
the Pharisees to Christ.
5thly, The more any have of the world's hatred for their opposition to it, they
will love them the more. As fire burns keenest in the sharpest frost, so it has al-
ways been observed, that the love of the godly to one another was strongest when
the world's hatred of them was most keen. So dangerous it is to be found joining
the torrent of the world against serious godly ones.
6. Their hearts are kindly disposed towards the holy law. As the old corrupt
mature, reigning in the unregenerate, fills them with enmity against it, Rom. viii.
7; so the new nature in them kindly plies and bends towards it, Psal. cxix. 97.
The reason is, the image of God, expressed in the law, is begun to be drawn on
their souls, so that their new nature and the holy law point both one way, Heb. viii.
10. It is true, there is a resistance and aversion of the unrenewed part ; but that
is not total, and there is a gracious principle that condemns it, Rom. vii. 22, 23.
Hence,
(1.) They willingly take on the yoke of obedience, and go under it, because it
is agreeable to their new nature; 1 John v. 3, “For this is the love of God, that
we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” Christ's
yoke is a galling yoke to the necks of the men of the world, because there is no
suitableness of their nature to it; they spurn it; their hearts rise against it; fain
would they be quit of it, that they might take their swing according to their lust.
But it is not so to those that are of God, Matt. xi. 29, 30. Fain would they be rid
of their lusts, but not of the law, Rom. vii. 24.
(2.) They are universal in their obedience to their knowledge; Psal. cxix, 6,
“Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.”
Where there is an artificial bending towards the law upon a particular design,
there is a picking and choosing of the parts thereof most agreeable to one's circum-
stances: hence, some fall in with duty to God, but make no conscience of their
duty to men; others fall in with personal duty, but make no conscience of relative
duties; they comply with duties of commanding, but make no conscience of duties
of subjection: for the one they can digest, but not the other. But where the
bent is new-natural, there will be a falling in with the whole, since the whole is
agreeable to the new nature, and is of a piece, and laid on by the same authority,
James ii. 10, 11.
Lastly, They overcome the world; 1 John v. 4, “Whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith.” Having separated from the world, it will pursue them, as the Egyptians
did Israel, and it will have a war with them, encountering them with its smiles and
frowns: but whatever way it attacks them, they overcome; though they may lose in
particular battles, yet still they are the overcomers in the main by faith. And,
(1.) They overcome its smiles; holding fast by their God, religion, and duty,
in the face of a smiling world, Job i. 1–5. Many a man that sometimes seemed
to be separated from the world, is brought, by the warm sun of worldly prosperity,
to drop off his garments of religion and a tender walk, and plunge himself into
the way of the world lying in wickedness. And there is no question but worldly
prosperity is given to men for their trial, as well as adversity; and many come foul
off in it, Prov. i. 32. But those who are once truly separate will overcome.
(2.) They overcome its frowns; holding fast by their God, religion, and duty, as
sweet, though the world turn never so sour; Hab. iii. 17, 18, “Although the fig-
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olives
shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold,
and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in
the God of my salvation.” The sour world gets the day of * many, by sucking the
sap out of religion to them, rendering the word of promise and spiritual comforts
tasteless to them; so that though, when the world gave them comfort, they had
* i. e. overcomes.—-ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 339
some comfort in religion too, yet when the world's comforts are dried up, the com-
forts of religion are gone too, Exod. vi. 9. That, says the world, was the main
pillar on which their comfort stood. But though the world may prevail to brangle
thus them that are of God, yet they will not be quite overcome, but will be over-
comers in the case: showing that they are in hope of something better than what
they have lost; that there is something for which they can part with all to obtain
it; and that there is a fountain running, while the world's cisterns are dry.
I proceed now to consider the last doctrine, namely,
DocTRINE III. The whole unregenerate world lieth in wickedness.
In handling this subject, we shall, - - -
I. Show why the society of the unregenerate is called “the world.”
II. Offer some description of the unregenerate world.
III. Make improvement.
I. I am to show why the society of the unregenerate is called “the world.” It
is plain here, that, though the regenerate really are in this world, as well as the
unregenerate, yet the unregenerate are by the Spirit of God called “the world,”
in contradistinction to the regenerate, as if they possessed the earth alone, and no
other were mixed with them in it. The reasons are,
First, They are the main body of the world; and so few of the other sort are
mixed with them, that they alter not the denomination ; John i. 10, “He was in
the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” The
regenerate are but here one and there one, but the unregenerate appear in multi-
tudes: the former are but as gleanings, the latter as the harvest. What safety can
men propose, then, in the way of the multitude, the course of the world 2
The scripture is plain in this ; Matt. vii. 13, 14, “Enter ye in at the strait
gate : for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and
many there be which go in thereat : because strait is the gate, and narrow is the
way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;” Luke xiii. 24, “Strive
to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and
shall not be able.” Christ's flock is a very “little flock,” in comparison of the
devil's herd, Luke xii. 32. And it is, alas ! demonstrable beyond contradiction.
Dividing the world into thirty parts, nineteen of them are possessed by Pagan idol-
aters, who know not the true God; six by Jews, Turks, and Saracens: so five only
remain which profess Christianity. Thus Christians by profession are but five to
twenty-five. Of these five, two are reckoned to be of the Greek church, much
sunk in ignorance ; and the other three, idolatrous Papists, and Protestants. And
among Protestants, how many are openly profane, or grossly ignorant, having no
tolerable show of piety how many are mere formalists, strangers to the work of
grace, and exercise to godliness!
Secondly, They are the natives; others are but strangers among them, and such
are not counted in a general denomination of a society. They are in the scrip-
ture style, “the inhabitants of the world,” Isa. xxvi. 18; “of the earth and sea,”
Rev. xii. 12; as being the natives of it, having their birth and breeding only of the
world. The regenerate are sojourners among them, pilgrims and strangers among
them, Heb. xi. 13. -
Thirdly, Their spirit, temper, and disposition, chief aims and designs, are all
worldly ; there is nothing heavenly in them, Psal. xvii. 14. Their souls indeed
are of heavenly original; but they are sunk, like a pearl in a mire, in the profits,
pleasures, vanities, and cares of the world. Hence they are called flesh, as if they
had no spirit in them, (John iii. 6,) and are said to be “in the flesh,” Rom. viii.
8. For they can relish nothing but what is fleshly or worldly : their views are
confined within the compass of the present world: on these things they value
themselves: and in effect, their souls have resigned themselves slaves to their
bodies, and their conscience to their senses; being, in effect, in their bodies as salt,
only to keep them from rotting.
Fourthly, They are the lower part of the rational kind, the dreggy part of the
creation. Therefore, whereas the church is called heaven, and the regenerate sons
of God, heavenly men ; they are called “the earth,” “children of men,” “earthy
men,” Gen. xi. 1, & vi. 2; 1 Cor. xv. 48, For as, when the Spirit moved, and
340 A VIEW OF THIS
the divine word passed upon the shapeless mass at the beginning, the finer parts
went upward or off from the dreggy gross part, which, remaining lowest, was called
earth: so, the word and Spirit passing on the mass of mankind, that part thereof
which is thereby regenerate gets a new nature, ascendeth in their designs and aims,
and at length becomes equal with the angels, Luke xx, 36 ; and the unregenerate
part that is left below, being “earthly, sensual, devilish,” for the time are like the
beasts, following their fleshly appetite, as dogs and swine the grossest of them, and
in the end are thrust down into the place of devils.
Lastly, Because all in the world, without exception, are originally, of their kind,
unregenerate, John iii. 6. Even the elect themselves are once unregenerate ; they
who are now of God were sometime of the unregenerate world, Tit. iii. 3. So that
irregeneracy is the state of all the world originally, in which state all lie in wicked-
ness, Psal. xiv. 3. Only those that are of God have heard Heaven's voice, as
saying, Come up hither, and so have been separated from the world. But the so-
ciety they came from is still “the world lying in wickedness.”
A description of the unregenerate world.
II. The second head proposed was to offer some description of the unregenerate
world. We have seen some of the characters of those that are of God ; I shall
now lay before you a view of the world lying in wickedness. That world is, as it
were two hemispheres, twofold.
First, The lower world lying in wickedness. That is the region of death, eternal
death ; the lake of fire ; the pit, the abyss of hell. The inhabitants thereof are,
the devils, and the souls of the damned, who have lived and died in their unre-
generate state, and will continue for ever in it.
Secondly, The upper world, lying in wickedness. That is “the land of the liv-
ing,” this present evil world; made up of all those who are living in their unregen-
erate state, the black state of nature, strangers to Christ and the power of godli-
ness. It is the upper unregenerate world we are to speak of, not the lower, when
we have observed that they are but one world in different circumstances.
1st, The lower and upper unregenerate world are indeed one world, one kingdom
of Satan, one family of his. As it is but one family of Saints that is in heaven and
earth, Eph. iii. 15; so it is but one family of sinners that is in hell and on earth.
Therefore those here are declared children of hell, as well as those that are there,
Matt. xxiii. 15; of the devil, John viii. 44. So men dying unregenerate go to
their own place, Acts i. 25 ; and though they change their place, they change not
their society, being gathered with those in death in society with whom they lived,
2dly, But only they are in different circumstances.
First, The state of the one is alterable, as of those who are upon a trial; of the
other unalterable, as those on whom a definitive sentence is passed; this is held forth
in the case of the rich man and his five brethren, Luke xvi. 25—28. Those of .
them here are upon their way in their travel, and may change their route, and go
heavenward; the other are at their journey's end, and can move no more from
their place.
Secondly, So the case of the one is not without hope, but that of the other abso-
lutely hopeless. They are both prisoners; but the one are “prisoners of hope,” Zech.
ix. 12; but “the earth with her bars is about ’’ the other for ever. There is a
“gulf fixed" between heaven and them, impassable. Here they are in darkness,
indeed ; but it is not “outer darkness,” as in the case of the damned. Here “the
voice of the turtle is heard,” but there nothing but yelling.
Thirdly, Here they lie in wickedness with some ease and pleasure; there they lie
in it with none at all. Their pleasurable sins are there at an end, Rev. xviii. 14.
Nothing of them remains with them but the guilt of them, and cutting remorse for
them: the sweet of their cup is drunk out, and nothing remains but the bitter dregs.
One encourages another here, and men please themselves with the multitudes going
their way: but there the throng is far greater; for whereas there are some con-
stantly dropping off here, the wicked of all generations are there, and none return,
yet the more the worse, Luke xvi. 28.

AND THE OTHER WORLD. 341
But now as to the upper unregenerate world, we shall first consider the parts,
and then the state thereof.
The parts of the unregenerate world.
We may take them up in these three.
1. The religious part of it, that is as the heavens in that world. Wonder not
that we speak of the religious part of the world lying in wickedness; for there is some
religion, but of the wrong stamp, in that world, and one part of it is exalted above
another, as the heaven above the earth, Matt. xi. 23. This makes them appear
like the regenerate in the outward man, “having a form of godliness,” and imitat-
ing the saints in their outward actions and behaviour, 2 Tim. iii. 5; being formal-
ists, hypocrites, tares among the wheat, but still strangers to a work of grace, and
so much the farther that they have a show of it, Matt. xxi. 31. Two things bring
religion into the world lying in wickedness, where there is no regeneration.
(1.) A natural conscience, which dictates that there is a God, a difference be-
twixt good and evil, rewards and punishments after this life, Rom. ii. 15. Though
this is wrestled down in some of that world, that it has very little power with
them; yet with others that are no more regenerate than they, it is improved, by
the light of the gospel in the word, by good education, consideration, and thought,
so that they prove morally serious, regular in their lives, embracing the external
parts of religion, though unregenerate.
(2.) Interest, which sways the men of the world to it several ways. In some
times and places religion is fashionable, gains men credit and reputation: so they
embrace it for their credit, as the Pharisees did, Matt. vi. 2. In some cases
worldly advantages and profits attend it; and that bait draws many worldly men
to it, as it did the multitude to Christ for the loaves, John vi. 26, 27. And then,
its declared eternal advantages follow it, salvation from the wrath of God, and
heaven's happiness; and a carnal sight of these things draws many who are merely
selfish in their pursuit, as was the case of that multitude who said, ver. 34, “Lord,
evermore give us this bread.”
2. The moral part of it, who are like the air in that world, not rising so high as
the former, nor sunk so low as the other in immorality and profaneness. These
are they who keep off from religion and the profession of it, and from gross profanity
too. They are civil and neighbourly men; just, honest, and upright in their deal-
ings between man and man; and despise religion from the fraud and deceit of some
whom they see profess it, Matt. xviii. 7. Some such there have been among
heathens, and some among Christians. Two things, besides natural conscience
and interest, bring in morality into the world lying in wickedness.
(1.) Civil society; by which means men may live at peace in the world, and be
protected from injuries: for this cause men combine together in societies, appoint
government, governors, and laws over themselves, which must establish morality,
without which society cannot consist. And for this cause government is a great
mercy, external order being kept among men by that means. Without it there
would be no living in the world; but the weak would be swallowed up, and all filled
with violence, rapine, and outrage.
(2.) Natural modesty and temper; in respect of which there is a great difference
among even worldly men. Whatever internal or external cast it be owing to, it is
evident there is a certain simplicity, candour, integrity, and benevolence in some,
whereby they differ from others that have a cast of spirit to fraud, disingenuous-
ness, pride, imperiousness, and violence. And yet the former are of the world, as
well as the latter; and so, “in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”
3. The immoral part of it. These are the earth and sea in that world, the
grossest part of it all, whose conversation is neither bounded with religion nor mo-
rality, but is just vile, irreligious, and immoral, as occasion serves. This is the far
greatest part of that world; and in it abound gross abominations, which bring
God's wrath on lands and churches. The abominations therein appearing are in-
numerable. See 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; Gal. v. 19–21 ; Tit. iii. 3. Two things concur
to fill the world with immorality:
342 - A VIEW OF THIS
(1.) The corruption of human nature, the natural bent of which lies to all enor-
mities. This was the spring of the flood of wickedness, and of water, that over-
flowed the old world, Gen. vi. 5. The heart of man is a depth of wickedness, that
casts it forth as a fountain doth its waters; and when it gets leave to run freely
without restraint, it sends forth plentifully; Mark vii. 21, 22, “For from within,
out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy,
pride, foolishness.” -
(2.) Occasions of sin and temptations thereto, which offer themselves thick in this
evil world, because the multitude is of that sort, Matt. xviii. 7. Snares are strawed
everywhere ; and every temptation going in the world has a lust in the heart akin
to it, that tend so natively to unite, that it is hard to keep them at meeting from
closest embraces. - -
And there are two sorts that are most exposed to temptations, the rich and the
poor; which makes them, generally speaking, to be of the immoral part of the world,
though there want not some of both sorts that are not so. This Agur observed
long ago; Prov. xxx. 8, 9, “Remove far from me,” saith he, “vanity and lies;
give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I
be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord 3 or lest I be poor, and steal, and
take the name of my God in vain.” -
i. The wealth of the rich makes immorality abound among them. It swells the
heart in pride, and fills them with admiration of themselves: it ministers much
fuel to their lusts, and affords them occasions of fulfilling them. The natural
vanity of the heart and mind has a broad field to rove about in ; so that they are
apt to forget themselves, and think their circumstances give them an allowance to
make themselves vile, and that the laws of God and man are not made but to hold
the poorer sort, Prov. xxx. 9. Hence our Lord says, Matt. xix. 23, 24, “Verily. I
say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And
again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” And says the apostle,
1 Cor. i. 26, “Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.” They are to be pitied for
their snares and temptations. * - - -
ii. The poor, those who are in extreme poverty, among them also immorality
remarkably abounds. Their condition deprives them of many advantages others
have. They are generally neglected in their education, all the care being to get
to put in their mouths. They have rarely the advantage of good company. Their
pinching circumstances embitter their spirits, that they relish not the things of
God, and afford many Snares and temptations to dishonesty, lying, falsehood, and
all manner of wickedness, whereby they may think to better their outward circum-
stances. And when they turn idle, and vague * up and down, their case readily
turns most hopeless, Prov. xxx. 9, forecited; Jer. v. 4, “Therefore I said, Surely
these are poor, they are foolish ; for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the
judgment of their God.”
Hence may be seen the reason why the greatest regularity of life is found among
those of the middle sort, though some of them are immoral too. They want the
snares and temptations of the rich, on the one hand, and of the poor, on the other.
They have neither the full idleness of the one, nor the poverty and idleness of the
other. - -
If we compare the immoral part of the world lying in wickedness with the other
two ; though it is true they are all of the same world, and will perish if they be not
separated from it, yet the religious and moral have the advantage of the immoral,
1st, In this life, in many respects. They walk more agreeably to the dignity of
human nature than the immoral; who are more akin to the brutes, being led by
their brutal passions and affections even as they. They are more useful and bene-
ficial to mankind; whereas the immoral are the pests of human society, working
mischief to one or other. They have more inward quiet ; and are not put on the
* i. e. wander.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 343
rack that immorality brings men on, to compass their mischievous designs, to cover
their deeds, and defend them. And so they have more outward safety; their re-
gular lives being a fence to them, both from danger without and within.
2dly, In the life to come. Though the world's, the unregenerate world's, religion
and morality will not bring them to heaven, yet it will make them a softer hell than
the immoral shall have, Rev. xx. 12, 13. And no man can doubt but works of
morality are not so ill as immorality; unsanctified soberness is not so bad as re-
velling and open profaneness. It is true, hypocrites shall have a hot part in hell;
but can one imagine that their throwing off the mask, and giving themselves the
swing, will make an easier part 2 No; Rev. xxi. 8, “The fearful, and the unbeliev-
ing, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire
and brimstone : which is the second death.” No doubt, the more light men sin
against, their condemnation will be the more aggravated : but certainly it will be
sorer for immoral pagans than moral ones, for immoral Christians than moral
ones, where “the worm never dieth, and the fire is not quenched.” Conscience
will have less guilt, and not so deep, to charge on the one as on the other
The state of the woregenerate world.
Having seen the parts of that world, we are next to view the state of these parts;
and that is, the whole world lieth in wickedness, the moral as well as immoral part,
and the religious as well as the other. It is the common state of the whole unre-
generate world ; whatever differences are among them, they all agree in this, they
are lying in wickedness. In speaking to this, I shall,
First, Confirm and evince the truth of it in the general.
Secondly, Explain this state of the unregenerate world, their lying in wickedness.
First, I am to confirm and evince the truth of the doctrine in the general.
1. Satan is the god of the whole unregenerate world: how can it miss, then, to
be wholly lying in wickedness? 2 Cor. iv. 4. It is the honour and advantage of
the regenerate, that God is their God, Heb. viii. 10; but the unregenerate
world is apostate from God and have taken Satan in his room, giving him the hom-
age they owe to God. Now, Satan is the god of the unregenerate world lying in
wickedness: -
(1.) In respect to his god-like power over them; which we may take up in
these particulars: -
i. The sovereignty of it. The unregenerate world is Satan's dominion, whereof
he is prince, John xii. 31, and xiv. 30. Though he is under check and control of
heaven, and the most fearful vengeance is abiding him from the Lord, yet he is a
sovereign prince among them, ruling more absolutely than any prince in this world
doth his subjects, 2 Tim, ii. 26. None of them all have their subjects so much at
their beck, as he has the men of the world.
ii. The rivalship of it; being set up and managed just to confront the kingdom
of God among men. Though Satan is the most miserable thing of the whole
creation, yet, by a peculiar pride and spite against God, he sets up directly and
immediately against God and his Son Jesus Christ, whose kingdom the regener-
ate are. And his rival kingdom is the unregenerate world. Between these is the
lasting enmity, Gen. iii. 15 ; and these are the opposite kingdoms that can never
mix, Psal. xii. 7; and the design of the gospel is to pull down Satan's kingdom,
Acts xxvi. 18; Col. i. 13.
iii. The extent of it; reaching over the whole world, from one end of the earth
to the other. All the power that ever the Chaldean, Persian, Grecian, and Roman
monarchs had, never reached but over a part of the world; but the power of the
devil reaches over all countries wherever the unregenerate of men are.
iv. The nature of it. He receives external worship from many in the world, hav-
ing many whole nations at his devotion. But from the whole unregenerate world
he receives the subjection, homage, and obedience of the inner man, and that is
peculiarly due to God; Eph. ii. 2, “Wherein in time past ye walked, according to
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
344 - . A VIEW OF THIS
that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Men of great eminency over
others can only pretend to rule their outward man; the soul, the inner man, must
be left to God; and that Satan usurps in the unregenerate world. He entered
into Judas, moving him to betray Christ; filled the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira
to lie to the Holy Ghost, &c. -
(2.) In respect of his prime origination of their corruption. As from God men
have their nature, whereby they are men, and their new nature, whereby they are
regenerate men ; so from the devil men have all the corruption and sin of their
nature, whereby they are unregenerate men : wherefore, as men owe themselves to
God, as men and Christians; so they are owing to the devil, as they are unregen-
erate men lying in wickedness. See John xiv. 30. He hath of his own in them.
Hence,
i. The devil is the common father of the unregenerate world as such. It is ow-
ing to him as the procreating cause thereof. It was the spawn of the old serpent,
conveyed, by the first sin, into human nature, that corrupted all mankind. Hence
men are said to be of him, 1 John iii. 12; and of him as a child is of a father,
John viii. 44. So the world lying in wickedness is called our father's house or
family, Psal. xlv. 10. And not only are notoriously wicked persons, but all the un-
regenerate, called “children of the devil,” (1 John iii. 10,) as bearing his image ;
John viii. 44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye
will do.” -
ii. Their continuation in that their state, they have from him also. God pre-
serves by his providence all that his own hands made ; and the divine preservation
is, in effect, a continued creation. But, since the corruption of the world is origi-
nally from the devil, not from God, the maintenance of it comes the same way. So
Satan upholds that world by his power, and he is incessant in his working for that
end. -
This gives a very different view of the unregenerate world : it is not God’s world,
but the devil's world, deriving its original from him, and over which he has the
power of a God. Whence we must see, that he is surely,
1st, The mire of sin, in which the miserable inhabitants must be continually wal-
lowing: for nothing doth so much please the god of that world. He is an enemy
to all good ; and, as far as his power reacheth, no good can have place. The dust
is his meat, and so a life of sin is a wallowing in the mire.
2dly, The region of death and destruction; which God will certainly destroy, if
once he had his own out of it. For Christ came to “destroy the works of the
devil.” -
2. Spiritual darkness, thick darkness, is over the whole of that world, Eph. v. 8;
how can any thing but works of darkness be found in it 2 The Egyptian darkness
was emblem of this : they had a thick darkness, only in Goshen there was light; so
the Egyptians rose not from their place to do business, Exod. x. 22, 23. Consider,
(1.) The Sun went down on all mankind, in Adam's transgressing the covenant:
the light of God’s countenance was then withdrawn, and so there was a terrible
eclipse ; witness Adam's hiding himself from the presence of God, and all men
naturally following his footsteps in that.
(2.) The unregenerate world remains as Adam left them ; the Sun of righteous-
mess, Jesus Christ, is not yet arisen to them, Mal. iv. 2, 3. Though he has spread
abroad his light in the world, it is not yet come into their hearts. They know him
not; they have not yet received the saying illumination of his Spirit.
Their state in point of darkness concludes them under sin, far from all good.
1st, They are in darkness, Acts xxvi. 18. Every unregenerate man sits in
darkness, Matt. iv. 16. He is like a captive or prisoner in a dark dungeon, where
no light comes. The smoke of the opened, pit that was let into the world by sin,
makes thick darkness there; and that is round about every man till converting
grace scatter it.
2dly, They are under “the power of darkness,” Col. i. 13. They are not like
those that are in the dark, but can come out when they please into the light; but
they are under the power of it, as “in chains of darkness.” No human art can
|
* AND THE OTHER WORLD. 345
remove the darkness of a natural state ; nay, it retains its power over them in the
midst of gospel-light. God alone can dispel it, 2 Cor. iv. 6. ... *
3dly, The powers of hell rule in that darkness, Eph. vi. 12. When the
night comes on, the wild beasts come out of their dens, and range abroad ; and so
the dark world is Satan's walk, where he goes about like a roaring lion. Hence
it comes to pass, that if any light begin to peep in, Satan presently stops it, 2 Cor.
iv. 3, 4. Thus convictions are stifled, and resolves of reformation fly up as dust.
4thly, It is a darkness of blindness; they really have not eyes to see with, Deut.
xxix. 4. A child of God may be in the dark at a time ; but then, he will come
forth at length into the light, and will see : but every unregenerate man is spiritu-
ally blind, Rev. iii. 17; the darkness has blinded him, 1 John ii. 11. He wants
a faculty of discerning spiritual things in their true natures, 1 Cor. ii. 14. Their
understanding is darkened. -
5thly, The light in the unregenerate world is darkness, Matt. vi. 23. That is,
it is a false light which quite misrepresents things, so that they call good evil, and
evil good. Hence to them the vanities of a present world are substantial, and the
treasure hid in the field of the gospel is but a trifle. And because they think they
see, their case is the more hopeless; as Christ said to the Pharisees, John ix. 41,
“If ye were blind, ye should have no sin : but now ye say, We see ; therefore your
sin remaineth.” -
6thly, There is a continual night in the unregenerate world, 1 Thess. v. 5. There
is an eternal day in heaven, “no night there;” with the regenerate the day is broken;
but with the unregenerate the black and dark night still remains, Isa. viii. 20.
From all which it appears, that they lie in sin, as prisoners in a dungeon ; and
that an unconverted state is the suburbs of hell, where there is “outer darkness.”
3. They are all lying under the curse, Gal. iii. 10. For not being in Christ,
they are under the law as a covenant of works, Rom. iii. 19. It is the regenerate
only that are delivered from it; Rom. viii. 1, “There is no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus.” Hence all the unregenerate are declared out of Christ,
2 Cor. v. 7 ; and debarred out of heaven, John iii. 3. And whatever differences
may be among them as to their way and walk, the curse goes over the whole world.
Now, this proves that they are lying in wickedness two ways.
1st, In that the curse always implies wickedness. A holy God will lay none
under the curse of the law, but such as are lying under sin. It is wickedness that
draws the curse after it : and the latter could have had no place in the world, till
once the former made way for it. So being children of wrath by nature, proves us
to be in a state of corruption by nature.
2dly, While it lies on, sin and wickedness retain their strength ; 1 Cor. xv. 56,
“The strength of sin is the law.” The reason is, the curse on a sinner effectually
bars all sanctifying influences from heaven ; so that it is not possible that the sin-
ner can rise up from his state of sin, while in that case. When the fig-tree was
cursed, it withered away : and so does the world in wickedness under the curse.
Therefore faith is the only way to holiness; for by it alone the sinner is united to
Christ, and justified, whereby the curse is removed ; and then he is sanctified, or
brought out of his state of wickedness. - -
4. They are all “dead in sin,” Eph. ii. 1. There was a great cry in Egypt,
when there was one dead in every family: but the unregenerate world is all dead
together. God, the life of the soul, is departed from them ; they are “alienated
from the life of God;” their speech is laid, and their spiritual senses are bound up.
So that world is “the region of the shadow of death.” There is this difference in-
deed :
(1.) Some are dead and rotten : these are the immoral part of the world, who,
by their profane lives, are as intolerable to sober men, as a stinking carcase ; whose
conversation, by reason of their profanity, is like the opening of an unripe grave,
Rom. iii. 13; therefore compared to dogs and swine. -
(2.) Some are embalmed dead: these are the moral and religious part of the
world. “A form of godliness,” the study and practice of moral virtue, is to them
as the embalming of the dead corpse, though they cannot put spiritual life in a soul.
X -
346 A VIEW OF THIS
So that these also are dead still, and lying dead in sin, though they smell not so
rank as the profane and immoral. -
Lastly, They are all destitute of every principle of holiness, and there cannot be
an effect without a cause of it; there can be no acts of holiness without principle to
proceed from. They are destitute, - -
(1.) Of the Spirit of God; he dwells not in them, Jude 19; compare 1 Cor. ii.
14. All true sanctification, according to the scripture, is by the Spirit; it is his
taking possession of the soul that looses the bands of sin and death, Rom. viii. 2;
and he dwells in all that are Christ's, verse 9. But they are passed by the spirit
of the world, which is opposite to the Spirit of God, and has contrary effects; 1 John
iv. 5, “They are of the world; therefore spéak they of the world, and the world
heareth them.” - -
(2.) They are destitute of the new nature. It is by regeneration the new man is
framed ; in the unregenerate is the old man alone, which is corrupt with his deeds,
Eph. iv. 22. Since then the tree is not good, how can the fruit be good 2 If the
new nature is totally wanting, how can there be the actions, life, and conversation
of the new frame 2 -
(3.) They are destitute of faith. And without that there can be nothing accep-
table to God, Heb. xi. 6. Feigned faith they may have : but true faith they have
not ; for that unites with Christ, and makes a new creature.
(4.) Love, the immediate principle of all acceptable obedience, is wanting in them;
for that proceeds from faith, and faith works by it. They cannot love God that
have not believed in him, for these go together. And where no love is, there can
be no holy obedience.
Secondly, I come now to explain this state of the unregenerate world, their lying
in wickedness. And we shall consider, r
1. What of wickedness they lie in.
2. How they lie in it.
1. I am to consider what of wickedness they lie in. All the unregenerate world
lies : * - - -
(1.) In a state of sin and wickedness; Acts viii. 23, “I perceive that thou art
in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.” Their state before the Lord
is a sinful and wicked state ; they have never been washed, nor purged from their
sin. They are all over sinful and wicked, as over head and ears in the mire, Rev.
iii. 17. This we take up in two things. •
i. Their nature is wholly corrupted with sin and wickedness, Matt. vii. 18. Some
of them may have a fair show outwardly; but inwardly they are all overspread
with the leprosy of sin, wholly corrupt, John iii. 6. The infection by the first sin
has gone over the whole man, “from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot.”
And the cure has never yet been begun in them, as having never been touched
with regenerating grace. Even the saints' nature is corrupt, but they are renewed
in part : but the unregenerate are wholly corrupted in the whole man, Isa. viii.20;
there is not the least stroke of purity in them, Tit. i. 15. r
(i.) Their souls in all their faculties are overspread with sin, and wholly cor-
rupted. - -
1st, Their mind and understanding is wretchedly vitiated. It is overwhelmed
with gross darkness as to spiritual things, Eph. iv. 17, 18. Darkness is over all
that region : it is “the land of darkness and shadow of death, where the very light
is darkness;” so that they cannot receive the things of God, more than a blind
man the light of the sun, 1 Cor. ii. 14. So unbelief reigns there; they cannot be-
lieve, for they cannot see, Eph. ii. 2. -
2dly, Their will is wholly perverse and rebellious against God; neither plying,
nor able to ply, to the will of God, Rom. viii. 7. The wrong set it got by the fall,
it keeps; and nothing less than creating power can give it a new set. What God
wills not, that they will; and what he wills, they will not : so that the holy law
has an irritating effect on them. It is called a “stony heart;” break it may, but
bow it cannot, till melted down by regenerated grace.
3dly, Their affections are all in disorder, Jer. xvii. 9. There is no moderating
of them by religion and reason, but they are turbulent and unmanageable, Jer, ii.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 347
23, 24. They are wretchedly misplaced; they love what they should loathe, and loathe
what they should love. They can keep no measure ; they run to evil, and what is
good is against the grain with them. They are monsters in spiritual things; their
hearts are where their feet should be, on the world, and their heels lifted up against
heaven. - - -
4thly, Their conscience is in miserable plight, Tit. i. 15. It is unfit to do its
office truly, for want of saving illumination. Hence it is a lax conscience, that
lets many evils pass without any check at all, being silent and senseless but as to
gross sins; in checking of which it becomes, through custom, in them very remiss
and easy. And if, at any time, it be awakened, it is easily either bribed or boasted
to silence. - * : - - - -
(ii.) The body partakes of that corruption, by communication with the sinful
soul. It incites to sin; it is a house wherein the soul finds many a snare spread
for it; so that many, to gratify their senses and bodily appetites, make shipwreck
of their souls. Therefore the apostle says, “I keep under my body, and bring it
into subjection ; lest that, by any means, when I have preached to others, I my-
self should be a cast-away,” 1 Cor. ix. 27. It serves the soul in much sin, with
the members thereof “instruments of unrighteousness,” Rom. vi. 13. The eyes
and ears are windows whereat death comes in to the Soul; the tongue an unruly
evil; the lips unclean; the throat an open sepulchre; the feet swift to mischief; and
the belly made a god, not only by them that feed delicately, but those that live on
coarse fare, Zech. vii. 6. ... •
ii. Their lives and conversations are wholly corrupted, Psalm xiv. 3. For the
fountain being poisoned, no pure streams can come forth from thence, Matt. xii.
34. The conversation of unregenerate men is one continued course of error, and
wandering out of the way of God's commandments. Some of them are nearer the
way than others of them; but all of them are quite off it, Psalm xiv. 3. Whether
they move slow or fast, they are out of course, Eccl. x. 15. For many of their
actions are ill in themselves, in the very matter of them condemned by the law of
God, and which they never truly repent of. All of them are wrong in the manner;
the best of them are marred in the making, through the want of right principles,
motives, and ends. - - .
(2.) The whole unregenerate world lies under the dominion and reigning power
of sin and wickedness, Rom. vi. 17. Even in the regenerate sin dwells, as a
troublesome guest; but it has lost the throne in the heart. But in the unregener-
ate it has full sway, and is the sovereign commanding principle in them. There
are two things that evidence this. - -
i. Sin is in them in its full strength and vigour, and therefore rules and com-
mands all. “The strength of sin is the law,” 1 Cor. xv. 56 ; and they are under
the law, under it as a covenant of works, and therefore under the curse. And
wherever the curse lies, there sin remains in its strength and power; and there is
no cutting off the locks of sin, and breaking the power of it, but by removing the
curse, and delivering from the law as a covenant, Rom. vi. 14. -
ii. It possesseth them alone without an opposite principle. The old man of sin
has not only the possession of every part, but of the whole of every part ; there
being no principle of grace brought in upon it to counteract it. In the regenerate
there is a corrupt principle, indeed, called “the flesh;” but it reigns not, because
there is an opposite principle brought in upon it to resist it, Gal. v. 17. But the
unregenerate are wholly flesh, John iii. 6. So they are like the dead man, where
death bears full sway; in the other, death and the disease are struggling for the
mastery. - - -
º They lie in the habitual practice of sin and wickedness; Psal. xiv. 1, “The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God; they are corrupt, they have done
abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” Where sin reigns in the heart,
one's course of life cannot be otherwise ; if the eye be evil, the whole body must
be full of darkness. Where the old corrupt nature remains in its vigour, it is im-
possible but the life and conversation must be corrupt too. It is true, there is a
great difference of life and practice among the men of the world: but that all the
348 A VIEW OF THIS
unregenerate lie in the practice of sin and wickedness, however they differ in the
kinds of it, is clear from the following considerations. -
i. The bent, strain, and course of their life is quite wrong, Eph. ii. 1, 2. They
are off from the mark: Adam led us all off the road, and they are not brought to
it again. However quickly they move at any time, they are always like an arrow
shot beside the mark, a traveller that is off his road, Eccl. x. 15. They are a com-
pany of wanderers; straying sheep, wandering on the mountains of vanity, 1 Pet.
ii. ult. ; though they go their sundry ways, (Isa. liii. 6,) some wandering in the wil-
derness of formality, others in the mires and bogs of profanity. But “all have
sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” Rom. iii. 23.
ii. Any good they do is accidental; even as a wanderer, in his course of wan-
dering, may stumble sometimes on the road : but it is not the product of their
main scope and aim. So the Danites consulted God as to their way, not that they
were seeking an occasion of it, but an occasion met them, Judges xviii. 5. So some
expound that passage, Lev. xxvi. 23, “If ye will not be reformed by me by these
things, but will walk contrary to me,” &c. Unregenerate men may do good; but it
is by the by only, as it happens to suit with their particular humours and interests;
for self is the dead sea with them, wherein all is swallowed up, and they are un-
converted. -
iii. The best things they do are sin, unapproved, unaccepted, of God; Prov.
xv. 8, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord;” Isa. lxvi. 3,
“He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he
cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood ;
he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.” They reckon wrong, dividing their
actions into good works and ill works: they are entirely divided into glistering sins,
and black and dark sins: and what they call their good works, are but glistering
sins ; for they are not done in faith; and “whatsoever is not of faith, is sin,”
Rom. xiv. ult. Their sinful, unregenerate state corrupts all, as a tainted vessel
doth the liqour poured into it, Hag. ii. 11–14. Their actions materially good, are
really evil; as wrong in the principles, manner, and end.
iv. Whatever good an unregenerate man does, he still lives in the allowed prac-
tice of some sin without repenting or forsaking it. Let him have never so many
goods things about him, there is still one thing lacking that mars all, Mark x. 21.
This will be evident, if ye consider, -
(i.) That an universal and impartial respect to the commands of God is a mark
of the regenerate; Psal. cxix. 6, “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have re-
spect unto all thy commandments.” This bears that, in the case of others, there
is always some exception; they never go along with the holy law without reserve.
There is always something in Christ that offends them, that they stick at, and that
cannot go down with them, Matt. xi. 6.
(ii.) Sin's reign being still entire in them, it must have some lust or other for its
sceptre to command by, Rom. vi. 12. The current or channel of a water may be
altered ; but as long as the fountain is not dried up, it will have some channel to
run in. A man's particular predominant may alter ; but while unregenerate, he
will always have some predominant that shall command all.
(iii.) The heart of man must needs hang on at one door or other for rest to itself.
Faith carries the soul to take up its rest in God, Heb. iv. 3. But the unregenerate
being unbelievers, do not make God their rest: therefore, without controversy, they
will be found about the creature's door, seeking their rest there. So the heart has
still some secret haunt of lust or other, that it can never be driven away from.
That haunt of the heart will be found in one of two. . . . . * .
1st, In the desires of the flesh, Eph. ii. 3. There the grosser part of the world
do nestle, who live as if they were nothing but flesh, and had nothing but the body,
and a present life, to care for. And here one of two things will readily be found
the reigning sin of the unregenerate. *
[1..] Covetousness and worldly-mindedness. There is in the world “the lust of
the eye,” the gains and profits of a present world; and there many an unsanctified
heart has its secret haunt, ever minding earthly things, Phil. iii. 19. Here is the
bait for the rich and the poor; the main stream of their cares runs there ; the one
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 349
for increasing, the other for getting; some by lawful means but immoderately used,
others right or wrong. But that is instead of God to them, 1 John ii. 15 ; and
therefore it is called “idolatry,” Col. iii. 5.
[2.] Sensuality. There is in the world “ the lust of the flesh,” the pleasures of
sense, and carnal appetite : and there many an unrenewed heart has its secret
haunt, that it can by no means be kept out of. There may be many good things
about them; but their running issue there can never be stopped. The pleasures
of sense are better to them than all the pleasures of communion with God; and
they are instead of it to them, 2 Tim. iii. 4, 5. Hence, some are voluptuous epi-
cures, whose belly is their god ; some fleshly slaves, abandoned to, and wholly in
the power of, their fleshly lusts.
2dly, Or in the desires of the mind, Eph. ii. 3. There is in the world “the pride
of life” too ; and there the more refined part of the unregenerate world do nestle.
And here are several things that will be found reigning sins of the unregenerate,
the haunts of their unrenewed hearts.
[1..] Reigning pride and self-conceit, 2 Tim. iii. 2. Having never had a
kindly work of humiliation wrought on them, the natural height of their spirit is
unbroken. If they have any natural or acquired excellencies about them, they
admire themselves in these, and take it very ill if others do not so too. If
they happen to obtain any religious or moral excellencies, their case then be-
comes most hopeless, so that “publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of
heaven before them ;” for their unrenewed hearts have no ballast for that sail.
[2] Bitterness of spirit; showing itself in malice and revenge against those they
think have injured them. The unregenerate world is the region of malice and bit-
terness, as peopled by the seed of the serpent: Tit. iii. 3, “For we ourselves also,”
saith the apostle Paul, “were sometimes foolish,_living in malice and envy, hate-
ful, and hating one another.” This temper of spirit is more the nature of the unre-
generate than generally we are aware of. The contrary disposition is the badge
of the family of God; Matt. v. 44, 45, “But I say unto you, love your enemies;
bless them that curse you ; do good to them that hate you ; and pray for them
which despitefully use you, and persecute you : that ye may be the children of
your Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” An unforgiving dispo-
sition is a sign of an unforgiving state, Matt. vi. 14, 15. Therefore there were none
more spiteful and malicious than the Pharisees, because there were none farther
from a state of pardon with God. Where grace comes, it turns lions into lambs,
(Isa. xi. 6,) and has a benign influence to the good of mankind, Rom. xiii. 10.
[3] Reigning vanity of mind, Eph. iv. 17. All the unregenerate world, having
left God, follow after vanity; for there is no mids, 1 Sam, xii. 21. They are all
in the dark, groping here and there for rest to their hearts among the creatures :
they find it not, but a thousand disappointments cause them not to give over. They
are like a sick man on his bed; turning everywhere for ease, and tossing, only
never turning to God in Christ. The sick heart has this and the other fair promise
made to it, to give it ease: for that end the world makes a mighty stir about meat,
clothes, building, planting, doing and undoing again, turning upside down, changing
and tacking about ; and all in vain, without finding rest.
[4.] Natural enmity against God, Rom. viii. 7. The unregenerate world is, in
the language of the Holy Ghost, a “generation of vipers,” Matt. iii. 7. And the
seed of the serpent have all their venomous nature unchanged in them, whatever
shapes a form of religion or morality has cast them into. And this their natural
enmity against God appears in two things,
[i.] A reigning enmity against the power of godliness, wherever it appears, Acts
xiii. 10. Unrenewed professors of religion may very well like religion of the stamp
of their own, and may have as much zeal as could burn up others that are not of
their way: but to heaven shall hell be as soon reconciled, as they to real godliness
In the power thereof, as it expresseth the image of Christ. And therefore there are
none more virulent than they against the most serious godly, against those whose
life is likest Christ's on earth. &
[ii.] An irreconcilable enmity to the law, and the holiness it requires, Rom, viii.
350 A VIEW OF THIS
7. The image of God was most livelily expressed on the man Christ; and in his
holy life, when on the earth, the world saw it: and it no sooner appeared, than the
natural enmity of the unregenerate world appeared against God, in the treatment
they gave to him, until they had him persecuted to the death. Now, the most
lively expression of the image of God to be seen on earth, is in the holy law : but
darkness and light may as soon be reconciled, as the unregenerate heart to the law.
This appears, if ye consider,
First, There is never an unrenewed heart for the whole law, but at most to pick
and choose in it. Their shoulders can never away with the whole yoke of Christ.
Seek all the unregenerate world, ye shall no sooner find one that is for fulfilling
all God's will, than one after God’s own heart, Acts xiii. 22. Some or other of
his commands are always grievous to them, and that they can by no means bear.
Secondly, The law, brought close home to the unregenerate, has an irritating
power on them, Rom. vii. 9. The more they are girded with the holy command-
ment, the more they fling against it: the closer it is applied to them, the farther
they flee from it. It is like the stirring of the ant's nest, and the fretting of the
serpent, that causes it spit its venom. Hence, the more means of grace many have,
they are the more vile; as the more the sun beats on the dunghill, its stench is the
reater.
§ Thirdly, Akin to this is the enmity of the world against the ministers of Christ,
which all ages and places have given pregnant instances of. The true reason
of it is their office, an office ungrateful to the world, to declare the laws of
Heaven; John xv. 20, 21, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant
is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute
you : if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these
things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me.” Hence, the current of spite against them, as against stewards who are
to execute, in a family, the orders of the head thereof which are very unacceptable.
Thus men, being touched in their sore places, are irritated: yea, if providence
frown upon men, their ill nature is ready to appear against them; because the un-
humbled heart frets against the Lord, and so it rebounds on his servants standing
in that relation to him. -
[5.] Selfishness; 2 Tim. iii. 2, “Men shall be lovers of their own selves.” It is
among the first lessons Christ puts into the hands of his scholars, to deny themselves;
importing that all unregenerate men are overgrown with Selfishness. Man, falling
off from God, set up for himself as his chief end: and hence comes no due concern
for the honour of God, nor for the good of others; but all swallowed up in concern
for themselves; driving forward to that end over both the one and the other. Now,
grace corrects this disposition, bringing men out of the circle of self in which they
were confined. This selfishness appears, -
[i.] In their worldly management, where it swallows up neighbour-love, as in a
devouring gulf, Phil. ii. 20, 21. Hence, no due sympathy with the afflicted, their
sorrows no allay to their joys; yea, a secret satisfaction in the crosses, losses, and
afflictions of others, that the sorrows of others are matter of joy and triumph to
them, Prov. xxiv. 17, 18; envying and grudging at the prosperity of others, un-
dermining them in their affairs, not standing to drive on their own interest on the
ruin of their neighbours; a scandalous cruel practice, which God is this day visibly
contending for.
[ii.] In their religious management, where it swallows up the love of God and
Christ, like a devouring gulf, Phil. ii. 21. Hence no due concern for the honour
of God in the world, no mourning for the sins of others, but a careless Gallio-like
temper whether the interests of religion sink or swim. No rejoicing in the glorifying
of God, where they themselves cannot pretend to a share; an ill eye on the good of
others, and hardly a good word to spare of it, but a readiness to detract from it and
sully it, unless they be of their party and way: in that case they find room for it,
because there is room for self there, Phil. i. 15—18. " . -
[6.] Unbelief. This is the common sin of all the unregenerate world (John iii.
18, 19) that hear the gospel. They may escape many a mire of pollution that
others fall into, who are yet sunk over head and ears here. It is a sin that is the
AND THE O'I HER WORLD. 351
need-nail to all others, (John viii. 24,) and yet such a spiritual sin, that it is hardly
discerned; it not being of the nature of those sins that a natural conscience boggles
at.* But all the unregenerate live in it.
[i.] They do not truly believe the gospel, Isa. liii. 1. There is a report sent from
another world, of life and salvation for sinners through Christ: they do not contra-
dict, they say they believe it, nay, they think they believe it; but in reality they
believe it not. For to quit the enjoyment of their lusts, and the pursuit of the vain
- world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” is in their
eyes to quit certainty for uncertain hope. . Any faith they have of it is but super-
ficial; for it is risen without the root of saving illumination, and the “demonstration
of the Spirit,” 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5 ; Matt. xvi. 17.
[ii.] They have never been brought freely away to Christ, in the way of believing,
for all, John i. 12, 13. All the proposals of the gospel made to them, have never
prevailed farther than to make them almost Christians: they have not felt the day
of power to make them willing, Psal. cx. 3. Men have drawn them, conscience
has pressed them; but they have not felt the Father's drawing yet. Two things
evince this.
First, They are not yet come freely away out of themselves, to Christ, for a rest
to their consciences, Phil. iii. 3. They have never yet died to the law, and there-
fore cannot be married to Christ, Rom. vii. 4. They are not poor in spirit, Mat. v. 3.
There is something left them still of their own, which though they cannot trust to
before God for altogether, yet they can in part. They are never brought freely out
of their own righteousness, Rom. x. 3.
Secondly, They are not come freely away from the creature unto Christ, for a
rest to their hearts, Heb. iv. 3. They have never seen the fulness in Christ, that
he should be the one thing desired by them: but, in their way, Christ may bear the
weight somewhat for a rest to their consciences, but the heart can have no rest but
in the creature; for they say, as Isa. iv. 1, “We will eat our own bread, and wear
our own apparel : only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.”
He is not the one pearl to them, for which all is to be sold. w
[iii.] They do not live by faith, which is the only true Christian life, Gal. ii. 20.
So far from it, that, -
First, Sense, and not faith, is their guide in their way, quite contrary to the
Christian course; 2 Cor. v. 7, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” The constant
cry of the unregenerate world is, “Who will show us any good?” Psal. iv. 6; and
nothing is good in their eyes but sensible good. So the things that are seen and
present are valued and pursued, things that are not seen and future are slighted as
uncertain.
Secondly, Self, and not Christ, is what they lean to for carrying them on their
way. The life of faith is a leaning on Christ, Cant. viii. 5. But instead of that,
the unregenerate lean on their own stock; their self-wisdom for management, their
self-strength for performance, and their self-worth for acceptance. -
Thus it appears, that they still live in the allowed practice of some sin or
other. Now, , , *
1. The effect thereof is, that that one thing mars all to them, in point of accept-
ance ; and keeps them in a state of death, Mark x. 21. While one sin is allow-
edly kept, no good they do can be accepted of God, Psal. lvi. 18. It is as poison
poured into a cup, which goes through all. And it effectually concludes them in a
state of death : for an offending right eye or right hand puts the whole body in
hazard of perishing, Matt. v. 29, 30. One leak may sink the ship. Abimelech,
the Son of Gideon's concubine, slew his seventy brethren, the sons of the wives.
2. The reason hereof is, that one sin, kept in the allowed practice thereof, evi-
denceth that any good done by such a one is not done out of love to God, and re-
gard to his holy law, but for some self-end. For if the authority of God upon any
command were sufficient to recommend the obedience of it to a man, it would
recommend all the commands to him, because all bear the same impress of divine
authority, James ii. 10, 11.
* i. e. is scared by.—ED,
352 A VIEW OF THIS
(4.) The whole unregenerate world lies under the guilt of sin, the guilt of re-
venging wrath; Rom. iii. 19, “Now we know, that what things soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law ; that every mouth may be stopped, and
all the world may become guilty before God.” By the sanction of the law, guilt
follows sin; the creature sinning becomes liable to wrath ; there is a bond of guilt
wreathed about their neck by which they may be drawn to suffer. Hence, sin is
called a debt, because, as it is the taking away of obedience due, it binds to suffer
punishment accordingly. That we may have a view of their state under the guilt
of sin, consider, -
i. It is the guilt of eternal wrath they lie under, being bound over thereto by
the curse, Gal. iii. 10. The regenerate may be under guilt too; but it is only the
guilt of fatherly anger ; there is no curse, no revenging wrath in their case, Rom.
viii. 1. But the unregenerate are under a bond of guilt, binding them to suffer in
hell to the complete satisfaction of justice.
ii. This guilt of their original sin they were born with is still lying on them ;
Eph. ii. 3, “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” They
came into the world condemned men ; and not being in Christ, the sentence is
never reversed, though the execution is delayed. They have not the king's par-
don, though they are yet spared, and easy as if there were no quarrel.
iii. Every actual transgression, in heart, lip, or life, by omission or commission,
brings on new guilt of that kind on them ; Gal. iii. 10, “Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”
So the guilt of their actual sins is added to the guilt of their original sin ; and as
many actual sins as they are chargeable with, so many plaits there are of the cord
of death on them. As they repeat their sins, the law repeats its curse.
iv. An unregenerate man can do nothing but what is sin, Matt. vii. 8. Accord-
ingly, God testifies of them, that “there is none that doeth good, no, not one,”
Rom. iii. 12. His nature being wholly corrupt, all his actions are corrupt too; his
natural actions, (Zech. vii. 6,) his civil actions, (Prov. xxi. 4,) and his religious
actions, Prov. xv. 8. So that in all they do, they contract new guilt, Hag. ii. 14.
v. Man is a busy creature, still doing. And none are more busy than the un-
regenerate, that can do no good ; Isa. lvii. 20, “The wicked are like the troubled
sea, when it cannot rest; whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” The heart of man
is like the watch, that may go as fast going wrong, as when going right ; it is still
employed about vanity or vileness; and every imagination is evil, Gen. vi. 5.
vi. All their guilt sticks with them, nothing of it goes off, being out of Christ,
Eph. ii. 1. Believers are daily contracting guilt, it is true ; but then they are
daily getting it removed too, through daily application of the blood of Christ by
faith, as the living man is putting off nastiness from him: whereas all abides with
the unregenerate world, as the vermin on the dead corpse that can put off none.
Now, put all these together, and what a dreadful lair has the unregenerate world
in the guilt of sin Floods of guilt are still rolling in on them, as the waters are
running continually into the sea; but whereas the sea lets out its waters that it
receives in, they keep all the floods of guilt that roll in on them. So, the longer
they live, they are the more miserable, because the more guilty.
(5.) The whole unregenerate world lies in the filth and pollution of sin ; Tit. i.
15, “ Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure; but even their
mind and conscience is defiled.” Sin is a defiling evil; it pollutes the sinner in
the sight of God, defacing his image in the Soul, and rendering him unlike God.
God is “glorious in holiness;” this holiness he has expressed in his law, and sin is
the quite contrary of that holiness. So that God can no more cease to abominate
it, than to delight in his own image, Hab. i. 13; Jer. xliv. 4.
i. Their natural defilement and pollution which they were born in still remains,
Psal. li. 5; for they are not “born " again “of the water and of the Spirit.” An
emblem of their case ye have in Ezek. xvi. The whole frame of their soul is un-
clean, polluted, and unlike God, Tit. i. 15. .
ii. Every actual transgression, of Omission or commission, leaves a new stroke of
pollution on them, rendering them more unlike God, Rom. iii. 13. So that their
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 353
spiritual uncleanness is ever increasing, and the longer they live, they do but con-
tract the more defilement. - -
iii. All sticks on them, nothing of their old or new defilement is removed ; be:
cause they were never washed in the laver of regeneration, Ezek. xxii. 24. . And
what a wretched case must that be, where new filth is still coming on the soul, but
none going off! …” – -
2. I shall now show how the unregenerate world lies in wickedness. They lie in
it in the most hopeless case; which we may take up in three things. They lie,
(1.) Bound in it, Acts viii. 23; bound in it like prisoners in the pit, Isa. lxi. 1.
They are in chains of guilt, which they cannot break off; there are fetters of
strong lusts upon them, which hold them fast. Satan has overcome them, and
brought them into bondage : and though they see their case is wrong; though a
natural conscience witnesseth their hazard; yet they cannot leave it, but go on
like an ox to the slaughter, and a fool to the correction of the stocks.
(2.) Asleep in it, Eph. v. 14. They have drunk of the intoxicating cup, and are
fast asleep, though within the sea-mark of vengeance. Though sometimes they are
made to start in their sleep, by passing convictions like a stitch in the side ; yet
there is no awakening of them, by all the alarms they get from the word, from pro-
vidence, and their own conscience. If they are at any time moved by these, yet
they quickly fall over asleep again. - .*
(3.) Dead in it, Eph. ii. 1. A natural life, through the union of a soul with
their body, they have ; but their spiritual life is gone, the union of their souls with
God being quite broken, Eph. iv. 18. The image of God on the soul, the princi-
ple of vital holy actions, is away from them ; so they lie in their wickedness breath-
less and moveless, ready to be buried out of God's sight.
The doctrine of the unregenerate world lying in wickedness applied.
Use, Of information. See here,
First, The spring and fountain of the abounding sin in our day: “The whole world
lies in wickedness ;” and “wickedness proceedeth from the wicked,” 1 Sam. xxiv.
13. What but wickedness can be expected in a wicked world? The unregenerate
bear the far greater bulk in the land, as in the world; and they are lying in wick-
edness. Here, then, is the open fountain of the great deep, that has brought on a
deluge of wickedness. Hence,
1. The apostacy in principles ; men departing from the faith, and bringing in
damnable heresies. The infidelity of this generation has gone to a monstrous height;
contempt of revealed religion has fearfully spread. The doctrine of the grace of
Christ is despised; and the doctrine of the person of Christ is rudely attacked :
the foundations that were left in safety in the time of Prelacy, yea, under Popery,
are now overturned.* So has the wickedness of the world lying in wickedness
broke out in our day. -
2. Apostacy in practice. There is a deluge of profanity gone over the land;
men have loosed the bridle to their lusts, opened the sluice to their wickedness, that
there is no stopping of it by men's endeavours; Psal. cxix. 126, “It is time for
thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law.” All ranks have corrupted
their ways in church and state ; that they are like to “wear out ’’ serious godli-
ness, and “the Saints of the Most High.” And the generation is remarkably worse
than their fathers; more loose, and regardless of all that is good.
Secondly, The spring of all the miseries that arelying on us, and we are threatened
with. The world is lying in wickedness, and therefore lies in misery; for God is
a sin-hating and sin-revenging God. It is the sin and wickedness of the generation
that has brought on the decay of trade, and is impoverishing the country, for a
witness against the misimprovement of a thriving condition. To that is owing the
present straitness, and diminishing of our ordinary food; for the abuse of fulness
in luxury, sensuality, and lasciviousness: the desolating of the flocks, for men's
* The author refers to the revival of Arianism in England by Dr. Clarke, and in Scotland by
Professor Simpson.
*
2 Y
354 A VIEW OF THIS
oppressing one another: the great sickness and death in families wherewith the
Lord is afflicting us. And these look but like “the beginning of sorrows,” for
there is no turning to the hand that Smiteth.
Let not men harden themselves in the case, because it seems to fare as ill with
Saints as sinners. For, - - - - -
1. It is God's ordinary way in his proceedings against a land, to begin with his
own house and family, Ezek, ix. 6. For though they are not of, yet they are in
the world, and contract infection, so that with them also there are sins against the
Lord. And because the Lord has a kindness for them, they get the brim of the
cup, Zech. i. 11, 12.
2. But it is a sign for ill to the world lying in wickedness. And of a long time
we have had that sign, of particular strokes directed against those that are the
most serious; 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18, “For the time is come that judgment must begin
at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that
obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall
the ungodly and the sinner appear?” If God's own people drink of the cup of judg-
ment; the world lying in wickedness shall pledge them, and drink after, Jer. xxv.
28, 29. And the former getting the brim, the dregs will fall to the latter, Psal,
lxxv. 8. And thus God's own prophets have been signs to a people with whom
God had a controversy; Ezek. xxiv. 24, “Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: ac-
cording to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know
that I am the Lord God.”
3. Though, in the outward course of providence, all falls alike to all, yet the
cross of the saint is better than the crown of the sinner; Isa. iii. 10, 11 ; “Say
ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him : for they shall eat the fruit of
their doings. Wo unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his
hands shall be given him;” Rom. viii. 28, “And we know that all things work
together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to
his purpose;” Prov. i. 32, “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”
Thirdly, It is not strange to find men of the world lying in the habitual practice
of some abomination: for “the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Men will carry
themselves agreeable to their state of regeneracy or irregeneracy: and to find un-
regenerate men lying in this and the other wickedness, is no more strange than to
find fish swimming in the water, and birds flying in the air; it is their element,
1. Accordingly, some lie in open wickedness, “declaring their sin as Sodom,”
Isa. iii. 9. For where men cannot restrain them, they are at liberty, because they
have “no fear of God before their eyes.” Their lust is their law in these things: and
they go as far in the road as their feet will carry them, doing evil as they may or can.
2. Some lie in some secret wickedness, which they get kept secret from the
open view of the world; and for the eye of a jealous God, that mars them not ;
Ezek. viii. 12, “Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel
do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery ? for they say, The Lord
seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth.” This evil world has a loathsome
aspect as it is, for all the covering of abominations in it: but were the secret
abominations in it brought out to men's knowledge; the secret frauds and cheats,
whoredoms, adulteries, and lasciviousness, murders, thefts, &c. set in the light, how
much more loathsome would the world appear; Eph. v. 12, “For it is a shame
even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” But two things
are certain:
(1.) Where the fountain of sin is not stopped by regenerating grace, it must needs
have its main stream running in the practice of some one wickedness or other, Rom.
vi. 12. An unregenerate man's predominant sin may, indeed, be changed; but
he shall sooner cease to breathe, than to have some one running issue or other. And
that will always be his neckbreak here, that will part betwixt Christ and him, Markx.
21, 22; and that will be the most terrible gnawing worm in the conscience hereafter.
(2.) Whether it be an open or secret wickedness, it will be called at length before
a tribunal where there will be no shifting of compearance, defeating of probation,
nor stopping execution; Acts xvii. 31, “He hath appointed a day in the which he
will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained;” Rom
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 355
xiv. 10, “We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.” There the most
secret pieces of wickedness shall be discovered before all the world; Eccl. xii. ult.
“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether
it be good, or whether it be evil;” Prov, xxvi. 26, “Whose hatred is covered by
deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation.” And the
most daring transgressor shall be made to stand trembling; Eccl. xi. 9, “Rejoice,
O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth;
and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou,
that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.”
Fourthly, The world must be an infectious society: it must be a pestilential air
that is breathed in it, and wickedness in it must be of a growing and spreading
nature. For “the whole world lieth in wickedness.” Hence,
1. Unregenerate men, if they get not a cast of saving grace to change their
nature, will undoubtedly grow worse and worse, 2 Tim. iii. 13. As that which lies in
the dunghill rots the more the longer it lies; so men lying in irregeneracy, in wicked-
ness, the longer they live their case is the more hopeless. How evidently is this
seen, in there being some hope of some while they are yet young, yet, not being
converted then, they grow, at length, to a pitch that there is no dealing with them
2. Unregenerate men are Snares and neckbreaks one to another, serving to
advance the growth of wickedness in one another, Matt. xviii. 7. As, in a dung-
hill, one part serves to rot another, so it is in the world lying in wickedness. The
ill example of some encourages others; and so the elder corrupt the younger,
especially when they go about to train them up in the ways of wickedness.
3. They are snares even to the godly. It is hard to come near a mire or dung-
hill, and not be defiled. There was a suffocating vapour arose from the high priest's
hall, that made Peter to fall a-denying his Master. This made the Psalmist say, “Wo
is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar !” Psal. cxx. 5.
Hence we may learn,
1st, They have a hard task in hand, whose business it is to deal with the world
lying in wickedness, in order to their reformation; for the longer they lie in their
wickedness, they are the more strengthened in it, their hearts are the more hard-
ened, their consciences more seared, and the bands of wickedness grow stronger.
And then, one helps another in an ill course ; they unite and combine to strengthen
one another in wickedness. So that it is a heavy task.
2dly, The danger of ill company ; 1 Cor. xv. 33, “Evil communications corrupt
good manners.” The wicked world is a dangerous society, and has been ruining
to many. How many have been ruined, by their being educated and living amongst
those of the world lying in wickedness, never having opportunity of good company
where they might see or get good How many have been ruined by their falling
into ill company, after hopeful beginnings | The stream of our nature runs the
wrong way ; so the world lying in wickedness rows with the stream, and so is suc-
cessful in working sinners ruin ; Prov. xiii. 20, “He that walketh with wise men
shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
Fifthly, This accounts for the uneasy life that the serious godly have in the world.
“The whole world lieth in wickedness.” Our Lord Jesus had an uneasy life in it,
and so will all his followers have to the end. The church in the world is like a
lily among thorns; however the world may caress its own, the serious godly will
not get leave to forget that they are from home while in it, strangers and pilgrims;
that they are in a wilderness. How can their life in it miss to be uneasy 2 For unto
them,
1. It is a loathsome world, where their eyes must behold abominations that they
cannot help : Hab. i. 3, “Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to be-
hold grievance 3 for spoiling and violence are before me; and there are that raise
up strife and contention.”. However the swine of this world may delight to wallow
in their own mire, and to lie on their own dunghill; yet to heaven-born souls, the
stench arising from that dunghill must needs be noisome. Hence says the prophet,
Jer. ix. 2, “O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that
I might leave my people, and go from them for they be all adulterers, an assem-
bly of treacherous men.”
356 - A VIEW OF THIS . 3.
2. It is a vexatious world: the temper of the parties is so different, so opposite,
that they can never hit it, but must needs be heavy one to another. As the way
of the godly is uneasy to the world, so the way of the world is uneasy to them,
makes them many a Sorrowful day and heavy heart, and draws many a sigh and
groan from them, as in Lot's case, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. And the uneasiness arising
from that quarter makes heaven more desirable, as to burdened men groaning.
3. It is an ensnaring world, wherein snares of all sorts are going, and they are
many times catched in the trap ere they are aware ; 2 Tim. iii. 1, 2, “This
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers
of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy,” &c. The world lying in wickedness lay snares for them, that,
by drawing them into their courses, they make them like themselves. And at all
times they are in hazard by them, either by omission of necessary duty, or com-
mission of sin. - - -
4. It is a world wherein wickedness thrives apace as in its native soil, but any
good has much ado to get up its head; Jer. iv. 22, “For my people is foolish, they
have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding;
they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.” The ground
being cursed, thistles and thorns grow up of their own accord: but after much
labour for the seed-corn, the husbandman has but a sorry increase. So the work
of wickedness goes on with speed ; but O how hard is it to make a good work takeſ
The most prudent management can hardly carry a good work; “but one sinner
destroyeth much good,” Eccl. ix. ult. -
Sixthly, This accounts for the frightful end this visible world will make, by the
general conflagration, 2 Pet. iii. 10. There is a curse on it; for the wickedness in it,
that once deluged it, will in the end burn it up. It has been a stage of wickedness,
and will be pulled down ; a sink of abominations, and will be overthrown. The
creatures groan in it, under the abuse of them to the serving of the lust of men:
they must be delivered. -
Lastly, This shows the dangerous state of the unregenerate world : they lie in
wickedness. Therefore, -
1. They now lie under wrath, hanging in the threatening and curse which is
over their heads, Eph. ii. 3. Being the region of wickedness, it is the region of
wrath, John iii. 36. They are in a state of wrath; it is on them, and theirs.
2. They will perish under that wrath, whoever continue and come not out from
among them. For the world now lying in wickedness will sink down into the pit,
and lie eternally under their guilt and filth, Matt. xxy, ult, ; Rev. xx. 14, 15.
Use 2. Of exhortation. - -
First, To all I would say, Search and try what society ye belong to; whether ye
are still of, or separated from, the world lying in wickedness. It is certain, we are
all naturally of the world; there is no coming out of it, but by regenerating grace;
and being come, ye will have taken another route. What has been already said,
particularly on the first clause of the verse, touching the marks and characters of
those that are of God, and so separated from the world, may serve to discover your
state in this point. º
Secondly, To saints separated from the world I would say,
1. Do not much wonder at the harsh entertainment we meet with in it.
Value not the frowns of the world lying in wickedness; and think not strange
of frowns of providence on you while ye are in it. For it will never be quite
well with the family of God, while they are here in the same place with the world.
2. Watch against it while ye are in it, as being in hazard of sins and snares
in a world lying in wickedness. Be not secure ; knowing that “your adversary
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” 1 Pet. v.8.
3. Look homeward, and long to be with Christ; where you shall be for ever
out of the reach of all evil, and enjoy such peace and freedom as your enemies can
disturb no more.
Lastly, To sinners of the world lying in wickedness, I would say, Come out
from among them, and be separated, as ye would not be ruined with them, and
perish eternally in their destruction. But of that in the next discourse.
THE DIVINE CALL TO SINNERS, TO COME OUT FROM AMONG THE WORLD
LYING IN WICKEDNESS, EXPLAINED AND URGED.
SEVERAL SERMONs PREACHED AT ETTRICK, IN 1729.
1 JOHN v. 19.
“The whole world lieth in wickedness.”
2 CoR. vi. 17.
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch
not the wr.clean thing ; and I will receive you.”
YE have had a frightful description of the world lying in wickedness. We come
now to press the exhortation to come out of it, in the words of this compared text.
In which we have,
1. The gospel-call to sinners: “Come out from among them.” For whereas
the words are taken out of Isa. lii. 11; it is plain the prophet there speaks of the
days and preaching of the gospel, though with an eye to the deliverance from Baby-
lon, verses 7–10. In it we have,
(1.) The substance of the duty that sinners are called to : “Come out from
among them,” namely, the world lying in wickedness, whereof Babylon was an em-
blem, as the Jews were of the elect. Babylon was “the mother of abominations,”
and devoted to destruction: so the world lying in wickedness is. To “come out
from among them,” is to come out of your natural state, unto Christ, by faith;
that is the only way to come out from among them. And that the text aims at no
less is evident from this, that adoption into God's family is thereupon promised.
(2.) The touchstone of sincerity in it: “Be ye separate.” Right coming out
from among the world lying in wickedness, is a coming out from among them freely
and for altogether. A withdrawing for a time, the relation standing, will not do;
nor a halting between two: there must be a total separation, by going quite to the
other side, and setting up against them. Thus the apostle explains the double call
to depart, Isa. lii. 11, “Depart ye, depart ye,” going still farther and farther
from them, till the great gulf be fixed betwixt you and them.
(3.) A necessary direction for the right managing of your coming away : “Touch
not the unclean thing.” They are an unclean society, like a leprous person ; con-
sult not with them ; but be resolute, without tampering with them. Every thing
among them is unclean ; take up none of it to carry with you, as Rachel did her
father's images. Be afraid of every person and thing in the world lying in wicked-
ness, as of fire. -
2. The gospel-offer and promise to be accomplished on complying with the call:
“I will receive you.” I the Lord Christ will take you in. Be not afraid that ye
shall be at any loss in the case ; such refugees shall have the borders of the Lord's
land, the gates of his house opened to them.
Now, the doctrine of these texts thus compared, is,
DOCTRINE. There is a call from the Lord to sinners, to come out from among the
world lying in wickedness, and leave them. -
358 A VIEW OF THIS
In handling this doctrine, I shall,
I. Show some things implied in it.
II. Show what is the sinner's coming out from among the world lying in
wickedness.
III. Consider the call from the Lord to come out from among them.
IV. Lastly, Apply the whole.
I. I shall show some things implied in the doctrine. It implies,
First, The world lying in wickedness is a society hateful to the Lord, else he
would not call to come out from among them. They may please themselves, as if
they only were the people. The region of a natural state has the cloud of wrath
abiding on it, John iii. ult. They are a society whom God abhors as unclean ; a
people of God's indignation, as being his enemies; and against whom he will have
war for ever, that shall end in their destruction, or rather never end.
Secondly, Sinners, ye are all by nature in among them, and of them ; else,
why is the call, “Come out from among them?” Whoever has not heard this
call, and come out from among them, in conversion, is among them yet, John
viii. 44. I told you there are in the world lying in wickedness, the lower and
the upper world: but both these make but one world; the devil is the head of
both ; and if a few years were gone, they will be both turned into one, and all the
inhabitants housed under one roof, Matt. xxv. 41. Therefore unconverted sinners
are as sure among them as the damned.—Sinners, ye are children of hell, a
prison-house, a dark house, a miserable house, Matt. xxiii. 15. As long as ye are
among them, ye are like the house, and like the father of it. He is a fallen crea-
ture, lying in wickedness; his nature is enmity against God: so art thou and thine;
and though thou put a fair face on it by a form of godliness, no marvel, for “Satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light,” 2 Cor. xi. 14. -
Thirdly, Great is the danger of abiding among them; Isa, lii. 11, “Departye, depart
ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her.”
There are three special emblems of the wretched world lying in wickedness, and
the danger of abiding among them, to which this call may have reference. One is
Babylon doomed to destruction, Psal. cxxxvii. 8. ... See the call to leave her, Jer.
li. 6, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not
cut off in her iniquity: for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance; he will render
unto her a recompence ;” Rev. xviii. 4, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Another is
Sodom, which fire from heaven was abiding: the call Lot got to get out of it ye
have, Gen. xix. 15, “Arise, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.”
It was “set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 7.
A third is the tents of Dathan and Abiram, which were to be swallowed up of the
earth. The call to the congregation to get up from about them ye have, Numb.
xvi. 26, “Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing
of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.” Which is applied to gospel-hearers,
2 Tim. ii. 19, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from in-
iquity.” Ye can have no more safe staying there than ye could have in these,
believe it or not. -
Fourthly, It is possible ye may get away from among them. If ye were once
down in the lower world lying in wickedness, it will be impossible ever to get out
from among them more: this call has nothing ado with that part of them. But ye
are yet in the upper world lying in wickedness, where Christ has his lower house,
with a commission to fill it out of those of them that are lying there. And for this
cause the call sounds in your ears this day; Psal. xlv. 10, “Forget thine own peo-
ple, and thy father's house ;” Luke xiv. 23, “Compel them to come in, that my
house may be filled.” Come away before your fear slip; ye may get away, though
never so far on.
Fifthly, God has some amongst them that shall not get leave to stay; for he
would never send out such a call altogether in vain. No ; there is an elect number
among them, on whom the call shall be effectual, sit it” who will ; 2 Tim. ii. 19,
* i. e. fail to yield to it.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 35g
“The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them
that are his.” Satan may get leave to keep a reprobate world, but the sheep of
Christ purchased with his blood cannot be lost; John x. 16, “Other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.”
There is a secret mark on some of the strays, and they shall be made to come out
from among the rest. Let this encourage you to come away, standing as fair as
others to get help from heaven to make your escape.
Sixthly, Ye will be very welcome to Christ from among them; Psal. xlv. 10, 11,
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own
people, and thy father's house. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty.”
They that come uncalled, sit unserved: but ye need not fear, the Master calleth
you. It is what you have his word on, “I will receive you.” Do not say, Alas!
I need never think that Christ will receive me ; for I have been a poor, worldly,
carnal creature, savouring nothing but the world: no, the call supposes that, that
ye are among them. But “I am deep in wickedness:” yet welcome, if ye had even
been among the very worst of them; come from among them, and welcome, 1 Cor.
vi. 9–11.
Seventhly, Ye will not be carried away from amongst them against your will.
No ; if ye come not voluntarily upon your own feet, ye will get leave to stay and
perish among them ; Psal. cx. 3, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power.” Christ will have none but willing subjects, such as submit by choice, not
by force. “Compel them :” but how 2 as men are compelled to a feast, by most
earnest entreaties, importunity, &c., but no otherwise. They that will needs lie
still in their wickedness with the world, they will get their will with a vengeance ;
they will not be forced from the society they choose.
Eighthly, Ye will not be carried away sleeping from among them neither ; ye
must awake, hear the call, and set down your feet to make your escape. Some say,
they can do nothing, they cannot convert themselves, and they hope for grace after-
ward. So they make soft their pillow, sleep securely, and will do nothing. But
if ye were willing to come away from among the world lying in wickedness, ye
would stretch out the withered hand, ye would try the lame leg, take the help of
offered grace, and take no rest till ye were got away.
Ninthly, Ye need not expect their good-will to the parting. The call is directed
to you, without noticing of them; for it is certain they will never let you out from
among them, as long as they are able to keep you. Therefore you must be reso-
lute and peremptory ; Matt. xi. 12, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force.” Hell's flatteries and threatenings will all be
plied to keep you among them ; but stop your ears, and look not behind you, as the
angels enjoined Lot, when they had brought him out of Sodom, Gen. xix. 7.
Lastly, Ye will be received of the Lord into the society of the clean and holy,
Heb. xii. 22—24. One part of them is perfectly clean, as to the other their cleans-
ing is begun, John xiii. 8 ; but all are but one family, the former the elder chil-
dren, in the upper rooms; the latter the younger, in the lower rooms; the whole
headed by Christ,
II. I come now to show what is the sinner's coming out from among the world
lying in wickedness.
Negatively, (1.) It is not a sinner's going out of this world. That is brought
about by death, whether we will or no ; and they that die in the Lord, they are
indeed absolutely separated from the world lying in wickedness. But they that die
out of Christ, they are for ever thereby fixed in the world lying in wickedness.
Since they are not come out from among them here, they are put in among them
there, their souls gathered with the wicked in death, with whom they gathered
themselves in life. (2.) It is not a coming out from among the immoral part
of the world lying in wickedness, and joining in with the professors of religion in
a visible church-state. For there is a moral, and religious part too, of the world
in wickedness; and those that are of these parts are as sure among them as the
lying immoral are. In a word, nothing short of true conversion and a saying
change, is a coming out from among them,
360 A VIEW OF THIS
Positively, It is a spiritual gracious motion of the soul unto Jesus Christ, and is
the very same with effectual calling, which is the work of the Spirit of Christ on
those ordained to eternal life. We may take it up in these four steps.
First, the sinner's coming to a true sense of his own state and case among them;
and this he is brought to in a work of conviction; John xvi. 8, “And when he is
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
Those of the world lying in wickedness are under spiritual blindness: they know
neither what they are, nor where they are in very deed ; and one must be brought
to himself before he come out from among them, otherwise he will not stir. Now,
1. The coming sinner comes to be fully persuaded, that he is among them, and
out of the family of God, Luke xv. 17. He gets a dismal view of a natural state ;
of the case of the unregenerate world, of the world lying in wickedness; and he
sees himself in the midst of them : so he is like one awaking out of a dream, and
Seeing himself beset about. So there are two things here.
(1.) He gets a frightful view of the world lying in wickedness, as a society in
most miserable case. The world lying in wickedness, that was in his eyes before
like a paradise, a garden of pleasure, a fort of safety, appears in quite other colours;
as a Babel of confusion, a wilderness of emptiness, a Sodom of wickedness, and
tents of Dathan to be swallowed up. He sees it to be a society,
i. Lying in wickedness, under the guilt, pollution, and dominion of sin, contrary
to God, and hateful unto him, Eph. ii. 12; a society abominable in the eyes of a
holy God, however pleasant in the eyes of one another ; wherein there neither is
nor can be any thing good or acceptable in the sight of the Great King. -
ii. Laid open to “destruction from the presence of the Lord,” Eph. ii. 12. He sees
the curse lying on it, and binding it over to revenging wrath, and in virtue thereof
certainly to be destroyed. The flaming sword appears, wherever he turns his eyes,
ready to cut off the miserable inhabitants. -
(2.) He gets a frightful view of his own case as being among them, lying in wick-
edness, and lying open to destruction, Luke xv. 17. He sees his own sinfulness, is
convinced of the sinfulness of his own life, heart, and nature; and sees his lost and
undone case under the wrath of God and curse of the law, Rom. vii. 9.
2. He comes to be fully persuaded that there is no abiding for him among them;
as Peter's hearers were, Acts i. 37; and the Philippian jailer, Acts xvi. 30. He
sees he is ruined for ever, if he go not away from among them. Time was when
he could not think of parting from among them ; but now he can get no rest among
them ; seeing every moment the city of destruction ready to be overthrown, and
himself to be swallowed up in the ruins.
This is a new sight, that one gets, not by the sight of the eyes, but from the
word, by the Spirit acting as a Spirit of bondage on the soul and conscience;
awakening, convincing, and persuading into a firm belief of the report of the law,
with application to one's own particular case. . •
Secondly, The sinner's coming to see a better state and case for him with Christ
and his company, Luke xv. 17. If the convinced sinner did not see a refuge, where
he might be in safety, he would sink in despair: but the Lord timely opens his
eyes, as he did Hagar's to see the well, when the child was laid by for dead. And
he sees: • *
1. Full safety for him there, if he could get in among them, Luke xv. 17. The
soul gets a view of Christ in the transcendent glory of his person and offices; sees
him an able and sufficient Saviour, (Heb. vii. 25,) having a fulness of merit, for pro-
curing him the pardon of his greatest and most numerous sins; and of Spirit, for
sanctifying him and subduing the strongest lusts. -
2. Free access for him to get in among them, Jer. iii. 22. He beholds the gates
of the city of refuge cast open to receive him, and hears the voice of the Lord cry-
ing to him to turn in thither, Zech. ix. 12. He believes Christ to be not only an
able but a willing Saviour, willing to receive him; otherwise he would never come
3.W8, W.
Fis sight is given by the Spirit, demonstrating the word of the gospel to the
soul, 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. He shows it convincingly to be the infallible word of the
eternal God, and his word to the sinner in particular. He brightens the glass of
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 361
the gospel, so that in it they clearly see the glory of the Lord Christ, which they
never saw before. And here they discover in him, -
1st, A rest to their consciences, not to be got in the fiery region of the law; Heb.
ix. 14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal
Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works,
to serve the living God?” The conscience, stung with guilt, cannot be quieted with
an imperfect righteousness, that comes not up to the law's demand of perfect obedi.
ence and satisfaction : but the gospel reveals Christ's righteousness, (Rom. i. 17,)
a broad cover, that salve which applied makes a sick conscience hale, Isa. xxxiii. ult.
2dly, A rest to their hearts, not to be got in the barren region of the creation ;
Psal. lxxiii. 25, “Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth
that I desire besides thee.” The soul, being a spiritual substance, immortal, can
never rest fully in the enjoyment of temporal things; they are neither sufficient
for it, nor certain. But in Christ there is a fulness, and that inexhaustible ; and
So the man sees him as commensurable to the desires of the soul.
Thirdly, The sinner's coming to be willing to come out from among the world,
and to come in to Christ and his company; Psal. cx. 3, “Thy people shall be will-
ing in the day of thy power.” Sinners naturally are unwilling to come away out
of the world lying in wickedness, and to come to Christ: it is as much against the
grain with them, as for the fishes to come out of the water to dry land. They like
their master, their work, and their company there ; they would never leave them,
if they could but see how to put up with them. They have a heart-aversion and
enmity to Christ and his company, his way, and his law. But the Spirit makes
them willing, renewing their will, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. And they become,
1. Rationally and deliberately willing to come out from among them, the soul
being moved thereto with the greatest reason. A drawing there is in the case, but
no force, only strong persuasion, Gen. ix. 27. It is no blind impulse brings men
to Christ; it is no rash and inconsiderate adventure ; but the cost is counted ere
this building is begun. Where it is otherwise, men soon show that they are still
among them, for all the bustle they seemed to make to be away.
2. They are absolutely willing, content on any terms, as Paul was ; Acts ix. 6,
“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Many could be willing on such and such
terms, if they could get leave to pick and choose, if it were that such a particular
lust only might be spared, if as to such a duty they might be excused ; but they
that are willing indeed are absolutely willing, willing at any rate.
3. They are willing for the present; nothing else answers the gospel-call; Heb.
iv. 7, “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Felix was will-
ing, but for an after time, not for the present: so many young sinners are willing
to come out from among the world lying in wickedness, if once they were past their
youth, and come of age ; and the aged, if they were come to a death-bed. But
the coming sinner is willing to come out from them this moment.
4. They are peremptorily willing: it is not a thing only they are willing to do,
but they are peremptory they will do it. They are not only content to leave them;
but they may not, dare not, will not stay longer with them, cost what it will. They
are willing as the slayer to be in the city of refuge ; for, by their conviction and
saving illumination, they see there is safety there, and nowhere else.
Fourthly, The last step is the sinner's joining himself to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the head of the society opposite to the world lying in wickedness, Jer. l. 5; which
implies two things:
1. An actual renouncing of the world lying in wickedness, and all that is therein;
Job xxxiv. 32, “That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I
will do no more.” He renounces his relation to that society, their work, their way,
and course ; resolute to bid an eternal farewell thereto, and to stay no longer
among them, come what will. Though a Red sea be before him he knows not how
to get through, he is peremptory not to return to Egypt.
2. A receiving and resting on Christ for all; John i. 12, “As many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name.” They sell all to buy the field; part with all for the one pearl.
Christ is held forth in the gospel as a full and satisfying portion, as a rest to the
2 z
362 A VIEW OF THIS
conscience, and a rest to the heart; and faith closes the eyes to all others, and
takes him as such in the word of the gospel-offer, Psal. lxxiii. 25.
Hereby the soul is knit to Christ, becomes a member of his mystical body, Eph.
iii. 17. By this means there is a spiritual marriage betwixt Christ and the soul
entered into : Christ becomes the believer's, and the believer his, only, wholly,
and for ever; Cant. ii. 16, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” So they are
one spirit with Christ, 1 Cor. vi. 17.
And thus the sinner is effectually out from among them; no more of their num-
ber, no more in their state and case: he is brought into another opposite society,
whose communion is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Though there-
after he is, indeed, in the world, yet he is no more of it; and though he is yet out
of heaven, he is really of the family there.
III. I proceed to consider the call from the Lord to come out from among them.
And, -
First, The ground in law that it is founded on, is the eternal agreement of the
glorious Trinity for man's salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, having undertaken
to do and die for, and instead of, an elect world, and his merit being sufficient for
the redemption of the whole world; the Father was so well-pleased with his under-
taking and performance, that he made him the ordinance of heaven for salvation
to all that would believe ; he gave him a kingdom to be raised out of the world
lying in wickedness. And thereon the call is founded; Matt. xxii. 4, “All things
are ready, come unto the marriage.”
Secondly, This call was drawn up and recorded in the Bible, by the Holy Spirit;
that it might not be only a call by word of mouth that passeth, but in writing that is
permanent, which the called may have occasion to consult when they please; Isa. lv. 1,
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money;
come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price.” . The whole Bible is a declaration of this call, with promises to those that
answer it, and threatenings against them that refuse it. So the truth and realit
thereof is sealed by the blood of Christ, the blood of the testament. t
Thirdly, It is given in the gospel by Jesus Christ, with the consent of his Father
and Spirit. The Father has sent him to call sinners to come out from among the
worldlying in wickedness. “The Spirit says, Come.” A whole Trinity invites
them to come away, not willing that the captive exiles should die in the pit, Ezek.
xviii. 23. -
Fourthly, It is directed to men, sons of men; Prov. viii. 4, “Unto you, O men,
I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.” It is not to fallen angels; they are left
to lie still in their wickedness, without remedy, and to reckon for it at last. But
it is addressed to the descendants of fallen Adam in this world, without exception
of great, yea, the greatest of sinners; Rev. xxii. 17, “Whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely;” Isa. i. 18, “Come now, and let us reason together,
saith the Lord: though your sins be as Scarlet, they shall be as white as Snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Though they have continued
never so long among them, and be never so signalized among them, they are wel-
come to come away from among them.
Fifthly, It was the Son of God in person that first proclaimed this call, in para-
dise, Gen. iii. 14. Afterwards, taking on our nature, and appearing in the world
in our flesh, he spent the time of his public ministry in calling sinners to come out
from among the world lying in wickedness, Heb. ii. 3; though they were but few
that came away upon that his call, Isa. liii. 1.
Sixthly, He continues to call sinners hereto, by his messengers, the ministers of
the gospel, that call them in his name, 2 Cor. v. 20. And this is our work, to call
you to come away out from among the world lying in wickedness. We are the
voice, he is the caller, Luke X. 16. For even now, when he is in heaven, he
speaketh to you by us, Heb. xii. 25.
Lastly, It is in this world only that the call takes place, Matt. xxviii. 18, 19.
As for those who are gone into the other World, the call can reach them no more,
they are prisoners without hope. But while ye are here, the call is to you, particu-
larly in the public assemblies; Proy. i. 20, 21, “Wisdom crieth without, she utter-
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 363
eth her voice in the streets: she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the open-
ings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words,” &c.
I come now to the improvement of this subject.
Use 1. Of information. This lets us see,
First, Where we all are by nature; even in the world lying in wickedness, being
real members of that sinful and miserable society. That is our native country; we
are all natives of the world lying in wickedness, by our first birth. It is only by
conversion and the new birth that we come out from among them, and are natural-
ized in the heavenly country. Think on this, ye young or aged, strangers to a
work of conversion ; and know where ye are.
Secondly, Ye cannot abide among them but in rebellion against the call of God.
$y @nis gospel ye are summoned, in the Lord's name, to come out from among them:
and if after that ye take it on you to stay, ye do it upon your peril, incurring the
displeasure of heaven, not only for your being among them, but your refusing to
come out from among them.
Thirdly, The sin of gospel-hearers abiding among them is fearfully aggravated,
and therefore will be fearfully punished. Every new gospel-call is a new call from
the Lord to you to come out from among them. How inexcusable will they then
be that give a deaf ear to them all; Matt. xi. 21, 22, “Woe unto thee, Chorazin
woe unto thee, Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you, had
been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and
ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the
day of judgment, than for you.” -
Lastly, Ye will surely be welcome to Christ coming out from among them : for
he will never put away them whom he calls to him ; John vi. 37, “Him that com-
eth to me I will in no wise cast out.” His call is not only your warrant to come,
but as such it is an ensurance of your welcome ; Mark x. 49, “And Jesus stood
still, and commanded him to be called : and they call the blind man, saying unto
him, Be of good comfort, rise ; he calleth thee.”
Use 2. Of exhortation. O sinners, seeing it is so, that the whole world lieth in
wickedness, and there is a call from the Lord to sinners to come out from among
them, hearken ye this day to the call, and come out from among them, all and every
one of you. -
This is a point of the greatest weight, and therefore I shall,
First, Branch out the exhortation more particularly, that ye may not be in the
dark as to what ye are called to.
Secondly, Address it to several sorts of sinners, that it may be the more closely
brought home to the conscience. -
Thirdly, Urge it with some motives, that so it may be pressed upon you.
Fourthly, Consider the hinderances or impediments that keep men from coming
out from among the world lying in wickedness, that so they may be removed out
of the way. -
First, To branch out the exhortation more particularly, I lay it before you in
these four branches.
1. O sinner, believe it firmly, and consider it seriously, that the unregenerate,
unconverted world is a sink of sin and wickedness, and doomed to destruction.
This is infallible truth ; 1 John v. 19, “The whole world lieth in wickedness;”
John iii. ult., “He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of
God abideth on him ;” Matt. xviii. 3, “Except ye be converted, and become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven ;” John iii. 3, “Ex-
cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” If ye be not let
into a view of this, to see that society a most sinful and dangerous one, we will but
beat the air in calling you to come out from among them. Open, then, the eyes
of your minds, and see, by the light of God's word, the state of the unconverted
world. See,
(1.) The sinfulness of it ; how they lie in their sin, original and actual, in the
guilt of all their sins, in the pollution of them, under the dominion of sin, and in
the practice of sin, doing nothing but what is sin, incapable to do any thing good
or acceptable in God's sight. They are a Sodom for filthiness; they are a com-
364 A VIEW OF THIS
pany of spiritual lepers, set out without the camp of the saints where the Lord
dwelleth and walketh ; of dead men, whose beauty, sense, and motion is gone, and
on whose souls living lusts are preying, like so many worms on the carcase in the
grave. - -
(2.) The misery of it; how they lie under the curse, Gal. iii. 10, with Rom. iii.
19; under the displeasure and wrath of God. A black cloud of wrath hangs over
them continually, John iii. ult. It never clears. Smiles of common providence they
may have, whereby temporal mercies are laid to their hands, as victuals to the con-
demned man are carried into the prison till his execution; but one smile of special
favour and love they never have ; Psal. vii. 11, “God is angry with the wicked
every day.” Some drops of wrath are still falling on them, sinking, though silently,
into their souls; and the full shower and pouring out of the cloud is abiding them.
2. Be convinced, O sinner, that thou art among them ; that their case is thy
case, and thy part and lot is among them ; that thou art sinful and miserable with
them. It is the ruin of many that they do not see, and will not see, that they are
among them, and therefore they cannot come out from among them ; Rev. iii. 17,
“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked ;” Matt. ix. 12, “They that be whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick.” Are there not many of you who have never seen this to this
day? But if ye have not seen it, either ye are “sanctified from the womb,” or that
is a certain sign ye are among them still. And O how many have seen themselves
among them, that yet were never freely brought out from among them, but, after
some awakening, have just lain down where they were among them before | But,
O! open your eyes, young sinners, and old sinners, and see yourselves among them,
before you see yourselves among them in the lower world, where there is no com-
ing out.
3. Be convinced that you cannot safely abide one moment longer among them .
see the rock hanging over your head, ready to fall every moment, and to crush you
to pieces; see the “snares, fire, and brimstone,” ready to be rained down on you
in that state, Psal. xi. 6. Manythink that it is not safe indeed to die among them, but
that yet they may safely live a while longer among them. This ruins many, while,
delaying from time to time, they are surprised into destruction. *
4. Make a way speedily from among them, by conversion unto God in Christ;
Ezek. xxxiii. 11, “Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways.” That is, believe and
repent, so coming unto God by Christ. By faith we unite with Christ, the head of
the opposite society, and so return unto God; and by repentance we return unto
our duty. This is the coming out from among them we call you to.
Secondly, I would address this exhortation and call to several sorts of sinners
among you. Come out from among them,
1. Ye that have all your days been at ease in the world lying in wickedness,
never considering that ye were there, nor concerned how to get out from among
them. Open your eyes at length; know your natural state ; see yourselves children
of hell, heirs of wrath ; sleep no longer, but look about you, see your danger, and
come away; Prov. vi. 9, “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou
arise out of thy sleep 7”
2. Ye that, having once been awakened, have fallen asleep again, and look on
that former fright as a dream. Know that the danger you sometime saw was most
real, and represented your true case ; and it was through the sleight of Satan, ye
were brought to take the armies of heaven, advancing against you, for the shadows
of the mountains. Wherefore, bestir yourselves again, take second thoughts, and
come away.
3. Apostates and backsliders, who sometime were on the way coming out from
among them, but have now turned back, and fallen afresh to the way of the world
lying in wickedness. Your case is very dangerous; Heb. x. 38, “If any man
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” “Remember Lot's wife,” who
was turned into a pillar of salt, for looking back to Sodom after she had got out of
it. But our Lord is giving you a new call ; Jer, iii. 22, “Return, ye backsliding
AND, THE OTHER WORLD. 365
children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Hearken to it, or ye are doubly
ruined. p
4. Ye that are halting betwixt two opinions, in a doubt whether to come out from
among the world lying in wickedness, or not yet. Conscience is pressing you forward,
corruption is pulling you back: you hear one voice or whisper, saying, “To-day,
if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;” another saying, Not yet, there
will be time enough after. Know this last is the language from hell among them:
O heed it not, but come away, as from fire that will burn you up.
5. Ye that have been often aiming at coming, but yet have never come away
freely, O make a thorough separation from them at last ; out with the right eye,
off with the offending right hand. Let no beloved lust be spared: leave not a
hoof behind you. It is sad to miss of the kingdom of heaven, when one is not far
from it; to fall into the pit, from the threshold of heaven.
6. All ye that have any mind for heaven, or the favour of God in time or
eternity, come out from among the world lying in wickedness. All that have
any concern for your own souls, and would not perish for ever, O set away
from among them, and be still coming farther and farther from them, nearer to
Christ. -
Thirdly, Let me now urge the following motives to press the exhortation
and call.
General motive. It is a most miserable case to be among the world lying in
wickedness; the sight whereof is enough to fright one. However secure sinners
please themselves in being among them; yet never could one that was in a den
of lions, enclosed among serpents or other venomous creatures, be more desirous to
be from among them, than God's elect to be out of the world lying in wickedness,
when once the Spirit has opened their eyes, Luke xv. 17, 18; Acts ii. 37. I would
paint out the misery of the case of being among them.
1. There is nothing pure or clean among them; “Touch not the unclean thing,”
i. e. Meddle with nothing that belongs to them, for they and all theirs are unclean,
Tit. i. 15. There are souls and rational faculties among them, but they are all
defiled and loathsome before God; there is no spiritual beauty or likeness to God
among them. There are works they call good among them ; but they are all vile
and loathsome in the sight of God, Psal. xiv. 1. There are prayers and praises
among them, but they are but like the opening an unripe grave, Rom. iii. 13. There
are among them fair promises and engagements to duty, but they are but abomin-
able deceit, ib. There is meddling with holy things among them, but see Isa. lxvi.
3, “He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he
cut off a dog's neck,” &c. For they cannot please God till they come out from the
world lying in wickedness, Heb. xi. 6.
2. There is no spiritual health or soundness among them. We may say of them,
as Isa. i. 6, “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness
in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” However little need they
find of the Physician of souls, they are all sick, deadly sick, as unpardoned
sinners; though most of them are delirious, and know not their sickness, Matt.
ix. 12, 13; Isa. xxxiii. ult. Their plague-Sores of sin are running on them con-
tinually ; none of them want a running issue of some predominant lust, that can
never be got stopped. - -
3. There is a deadly infection among them; so that to be among them, is to be in
a pest-house, where one draws in death with the disease prevailing among them, 1 Cor.
xv. 33. Every one of them is “a root of bitterness,” which, “springing up,” is ready
to defile many, Heb. xii. 15. Therefore Solomon observes, that “one sinner destroy-
eth much good,” Eccl. ix, ult. The steam of their ungodly example and corrupt
conversation sickens some, and kills others outright; wounds the godly, and ruins
those of their own sort.
4. There is nothing but darkness, gross darkness among them, for the Day-star
is not yet arisen into their hearts, Isa. lx. 2. They sit in darkness and the shadow
of death: they are darkness itself, Eph. v. 8, for they are blind souls, Rev. iii. 17.
Though the light of the gospel shines about them, it hath not “shined into their
366 A VIEW OF THIS
hearts:” they think they see ; for though they are void of the light of grace, they
have the light of reason; but that is darkness in them, Matt. vi. 23. So they see
not where they are, nor whither they go, 1 John ii. 11.
5. There is no part with Christ among them, Eph. ii. 12. There is a rich pur-
chase made by the Mediator, and he has taken all believers into fellowship with him
in it, 1 John i. 3; but the world has no share with them; no share in the righteous-
ness, peace, pardon, and title to heaven. They share with the society of the first
Adam, in their sin and misery; but not with the society of the second Adam.
Hence they are unwashen, unjustified, and unsanctified.
6. There is nothing but rank poverty among them. Whatever wealth they may
have for their bodies, in respect of their souls they are poor to an extremity, Rev.
iii. 17 ; whereof there are three glaring evidences. -
(1.) They are poor naked souls, ib. The best raiment among them to cover their
spiritual nakedness is rags, “filthy rags,” the rags of their own righteousness: they
have nothing else to cover their shame before the Lord ; and that will never do it,
but leave them “naked to their shame.”
(2.) They are poor starving souls; there is nothing among them to feed on but
empty husks, “that which is not bread” and “satisfieth not.” Only Christ is bread
for the soul, only a God in Christ can satisfy the cravings thereof. Dust is their
meat, with the serpent ; they feed on the empty husks of the creature, and so do
but fill their belly with the east wind.
(3.) They are drowned in debt to justice, and have nothing wherewith to pay.
Sin is that debt, and there is no forgiving the debt while one is among them; Acts
iii. 19, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out.” It is a debt that, however long it lie over, will be exacted; it will be pursued
for, and that on the debtor's expense. And they have no saving interest in the
great Cautioner.
7. There is no peace with God among them; 2 Cor. vi. 14—17, “What fellow-
ship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial 2’’ &c. Sooner shall
light and darkness agree, than a holy God and the world lying in wickedness. Nay,
they are a society with whom God has declared he will have war for ever; Isa. lvii.
ult., “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Those in the lower world
lying in wickedness are roaring under the felt enmity of God against them ; while
those in the upper world lying in wickedness may be enjoying a profound peace.
But the latter, as well as the former, stand as marks to the arrows of God’s wrath,
Deut. xxix. 19, 20. As long as thou art among them, thou art in a state of enmity
with God, Rom. viii. 7; Luke xix. 27.
8. They have no sound bond of peace among themselves, Tit. iii. 3. God alone
is the centre of true unity; and where men are broke off from God, they will be
found at bottom broke off from one another, as altogether selfish, and having their
unruly passions unmortified, which make them uneasy both to themselves and others.
And hence, faith in Christ is the only restorer of true peace and love among men.
That peace and love that is between companions in sin, will, without peradventure,
break out in rage and hatred.
9. There is a curse among them, the curse of God and of his broken law, Gal.
iii. 10. They are under the law, and it makes its way among them, Rom. iii. 19.
This makes them a society of cursed children, cursed in their persons, and in all
that is theirs. By this means they are a society separated to evil; and that
curse will pull down the roof upon their heads at length, as it brought on the
deluge, bringing in the general conflagration; and will lie a sinking weight on
them for ever.
10. There is a cloud of wrath hanging over their head, and the head of every one
among them, John iii. ult. While ye are among them, your state is a state of wrath;
ye are ever under Heaven's displeasure, Psal. vii. 11. Ye dwell under Mount Sinai,
where the fire of wrath is flashing; and though, sleeping there, ye are secure, yet
ye will no sooner be awakened, than ye will see the lightnings, hear the thunders.
and “the voice of the trumpet waxing louder and louder.”. Therefore I would say
as Deut. i. 6, “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.”
AND THE O'THER WORLD. 367
11. Death reigns among them, Matt. iv. 16. They are a company of condemned
criminals, (John iii. 18,) that know not how soon their sentence may be executed.
They are all in a dying condition; they have got their death's wounds, and are
pining away in their iniquity. Nay, they are dead already : God is departed from
them. O why will ye continue in the congregation of the dead? Come out from
among them. -
12. There is no good to be found among them, Psal. xiv. 1. They are corrupt
trees, and cannot bring forth good fruit. There is nothing among them but sin;
for there is no faith among them. What has the name of good hearts, good works,
is but so in appearance, not in reality: for what good can be there, where the
nature is totally corrupt 3 -
13. All evil is to be found among them. The unrenewed heart is a depth of
wickedness; and in the world lying in wickedness all manner of wickedness is to be
found. Much of it appears now, yet much is hid: but at length all will be seen.
14. They are not to stay here, but will all be down in the lower world at length,
Rev. xx. 14, 15. There are some dropping down to it daily, yet the rest remain
secure ; but all will be hurried down together to it at the last judgment. What a
fearful cry was there at Dathan and Abiram’s down-going ! Num. xvi. 34. What,
then, will the cry be, when the whole world lying in wickedness shall go down to-
gether Therefore I say to you, as Num. xvi. 26, “Depart, I pray you, from the
tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all
their sins.” -
Fourthly, I shall now consider the impediments hindering men to come out from
among the world lying in wickedness, and keeping them among them.
1. Want of consideration, Luke xv. 17. They ramble through the world, walk-
ing at adventures, and are not so just to their own souls as seriously to take under
consideration their spiritual state and case. They seek not these thoughts; and if,
at any time, they bear in themselves upon them, they shift them. Hence,
1st, They have no just view of the corruption and danger of the world lying in
wickedness. Though it is abominable in the eyes of God, it is a beauty in theirs;
though it is a Sodom to be destroyed, they see nothing but safety, Mal. iii. 15.
Why, they view it in a false light; they consider it not as represented in the word,
which alone can give a true notion of it.
2dly, They discern not themselves as true members of the world lying in wicked-
ness. They form to themselves a notion of the wicked, whereby those only that
are monsters of wickedness are reckoned of that sort ; not considering, that all the
unregenerate are of them in God’s account, even though moral, or “having a
form of godliness.” And though they be immoral, vicious, and profane, they think
themselves not of the number, because there are some worse than they.
3dly, They see not the need of coming out from among the world lying in wicked-
ness, Matt. ix. 12, 13. Their eyes being withheld from a sight of their own dan-
ger among them, how can they be moved to make an escape 2 Will a man flee
that apprehends no pursuit 2 No ; they will be secure, if not mockers. -.
Now, to remove this impediment, hearken to the divine call; Hag. i. 7, “Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.” Stand, sinner, young or old, and con-
sider where you are, what you are doing, where your present course is like to land
you in eternity. You can consider of the trifles of a present world: why not con-
sider your soul's case, and the concern of another world 2 Want of consideration
allows present ease, but it lays a foundation for eternal pain. Careless souls now
will sink themselves into deep consideration through eternity, which makes the
worm that never dies. Wherefore I give you three advices.
(1.) Take some time purposely for consideration of these matters; pray and
think in earnest about them, Psal. cxix. 59. They are too weighty to be success-
fully managed by fleeting and occasional consideration.
(2) Consider them according to the word of God, Psal. cxix. 9. Lay aside all
other rules of judging, as the course of this world, the opinions of the men of the
world, &c., and consider purely what the Bible says in the case; for it is not by
the former, but the latter, you are to be judged and sentenced.
(3.) Pursue this consideration, till you have discovered clearly your state as it
368 A VIEW OF THIS
is, according to the word. And be not loath to admit conviction ; for to see the
disease is the first step to the cure. And then you have gained that sight, when
you see an absolute necessity of getting out from among them without delay. -
2. The pleasures of the world, Luke viii. 14. These are the syren songs that
arrest many, that they cannot come away from among the world lying in wicked-
ness. These are the silken cords by which they are tied down among them, as fast
as by iron chains, These gripe them by the heart, so that, remembering them,
their very hearts fail to think of coming away from among them.
The pleasures of sense ; seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling ; are ruin-
ing Snares to the souls of most men. “The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh,
and the pride of life,” keep many away from God: for men naturally are “lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God,” 2 Tim. iii. 4. Now, the world lying in
wickedness, giving up themselves to these, bless themselves in their enjoyment, and
men cannot think of coming out from among them.
1st, Unlawful pleasures bewitch them, as of drunkenness, gluttony, uncleanness,
Prov. xxiii. ult.; Luke xvi. 19, 23 ; Prov. vii. 22, 23. There is a particular plea-
sure corrupt nature has in breaking over the hedge of the divine law, which makes
forbidden fruit more pleasing than what is allowed, Prov. ix. 17, 18. They will,
therefore, rather venture the eternal ruin of their souls, than come out from among
them, and forego these. s
2dly, Even lawful pleasures fetter them, and lull them asleep among them, Luke
xvii. 27. One may abide within the boundaries of lawful things, and yet have the
heart so bewitched with them, that they may prove effectual snares. There is
much of that which is counted innocent mirth and pleasure, and is so in itself, that
yet becomes criminal, as taking the place of, and diverting from, the main thing.
To break this snare, and remove this impediment, consider,
(1.) The pleasures of this world are deceitful; and as they are snares to the soul,
they end in bitterness, Prov. xiv. 13. They are Satan's busked * hooks, wherewith
he first allures, and then ruins many a poor soul. They are his green and soft
paths leading to destruction: and the pleasures of sin will be bitterness in the end,
come what will.
(2.) This life is to us, not the time of pleasure, but the time of trial and proba-
tion for another world. Brute creatures enjoy the pleasures of sense they are
capable of, more than the most voluptuous man doth : for these are the utmost of
what they can obtain; and when they are dead, they are done. But God made
man for a more refined sort of pleasure, in the enjoyment of himself. Man sinned
and forfeited that; and God has proposed a new way for his recovering it, the way
of faith. And now we are on our trials for it to be had in another world; and in
denying ourselves to the pleasures of sin and sense lies a great part of that trial,
2 Tim. ii. 3. Can ye expect two summers in one year? an easy, soft life of plea-
sure here, and hereafter too? Such expectation is in vain.
(3.) Consider the life of Christ and his saints, and the life of the wicked going
to destruction. Which of them was it that had the life of worldly pleasure, im-
mersed in the pleasures of sense, living at ease for the flesh? Was it the saints?
No: Luke ix. 23, “If any man will come after me,” says Christ, “let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Was it Christ? No; Isa. liii.
3, “He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief.” Was it the wicked that had the life of pleasure? Yes; see Job xxi.
7–14, “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their
eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They
take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend
their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say
unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;” Psal.
lxxiii. 4–12, “For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
* i. e. dressed, trimmed.—ED. .
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 369
They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a
garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could
wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak
loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens; and their tongue walketh
through the earth. Therefore his people return hither; and waters of a full cup
are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there know-
ledge in the most High'? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world;
they increase in riches.” The decision is plainly made, Luke xvi. 25, in the
case of the rich man and Lazarus; the former received his good things in his life-
time, and the latter evil things. The way of providence in that matter has been,
that the slaughter-oxen have had the greatest ease and been best fed.
(4.) The pleasures of sin and the world put the mouth out of taste to the plea-
sures of communion with God, 1 Pet. ii. 11. By them the Spirit is quenched,
and good motions heavenwards are stifled. Therefore it is the Lord inures his
people to hardness; because that makes them value the consolations of God, which
the soft and delicious life would make them neglect.
(5.) Were it not better to break these chains of worldly pleasures now and
escape, than to remain in them, and “lie down in sorrow” for ever? Isa. l. ult.
It was by the pleasures of sense that mankind was ruined at first, Gen. iii. 6; and
for that the second Adam paid for the elect in his bitter sufferings, when he was
deprived of all that could be grateful to his senses, and, contrariwise, was exposed
to the wrath of God, and the rage of men and devils. That life will have a bitter
reckoning in the other world, when men are divested of their bodies till the last
day, and then raised up for eternal punishment again at that day.
Therefore I would advise you to weigh these things in time, and to be resolute to
break through that bond; Matt. v. 29, “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,
and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
3. A prejudice against religion as a very unpleasant thing; Matt. xxv. 24,
“Then he which had received the one talent came, and said, Lord, I knew thee
that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering
where thou hast not strawed;” Mal. i. 13, “Ye said also, Behold, what a weari-
ness is it; and ye have Snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts.” This is an impedi-
ment that stands in the way of many: they think that if they should come out
from among the world lying in wickedness, they may for ever after bid farewell to
all pleasure, to taste it no more ; they must spend their days in sorrow, and never
see a joyful hour more. This is what they can by no means do; and therefore
come after what will, they must abide among them. But, -
(1) Suppose that were true of religion, whether is it easier to spend a lifetime
in a constant cloud of sorrow till death, or to spend an eternity so after death ? If
men had no view at all beyond death, it would be more tolerable for them to make
the most pleasurable they could of a present life; but since there is a life of plea-
sure or torment in another world, it is most absurd, for eviting of momentary sor-
rows and hardships, to throw themselves into endless misery.
(2.) But it is absolutely false; a rash, ill grounded prejudice, wherewith men
are possessed against religion: and it is fostered by Satan, and the deluded world.
It is contrary to the plain testimony of God and Christ ; Prov. iii. 17, “Her ways
are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;” Matt. xi. 28–30, “Come
unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
It is contrary to the experience of the saints in all ages; John viii. 56, “Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad;” Psal. iv.
7, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn
and their wine increased ;” 1 John v. 3, “For this is the love of God, that we
keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” And it is
contrary to the nature of things, which of themselves lead quite otherwise ; Isa.
lvii. 20, 21, “But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose
3 A
370 A VIEW OF THIS
waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;”
compared with 2 Cor. i. 12, “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our con-
science, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the
grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to
you-ward.” But here lies your mistake. - -
i. You know and can conceive of no other pleasures but those of the world, sense,
and sin : but there is another kind of pleasure, that is spiritual, which religion af-
fords, that none know but those who have tasted it, Prov. xiv. 10. There are “rivers
of pleasure” in heaven, but your worldly pleasures are not there: and there are in
religion pleasures of that kind, in the Lord's lifting up the light of his countenance
upon his people, and putting gladness in their hearts, Psal. iv. 6, 7; in seeing one's
name written in heaven, Luke x. 20; and in the approbation of conscience, 2 Cor.
i. 12. It is your want of a new nature, that ye cannot relish these new, refined,
undreggy pleasures. - -
ii. You think all pleasures are noisy, like those of the revellers and jovial ones
of the earth: but it is not so ; Rev. ii. 17, “To him that overcometh will I give to
eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new
name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.” The deepest
waters run most still, and so do the deepest joys: hence, even in worldly concerns,
deep joy is not expressed by laughter, which is used only on trifling occasions. And
of all joys and pleasures, those of religion lie most inward.
iii. You form your notion of religion by the outward appearance of some that
profess it, who are of a heavy disposition. But you ought to form it by the scrip-
ture, and not by the appearance of some of its professors, from whence you may
draw the most frightful notion of it: but the art of hell is in this; leading you
from the view of cheerful Christians, to settle on those that are not so. But after
all, ye may be deceived in them ; for the countenance is not always an exact re-
presenter of what is within : witness the mirth and jollity of many whose heart
feels, stings, and lashes in the time. But what notion would you have formed of
religion from the appearance of the man Christ, who was “a man of sorrows;” of
whose weeping you read sometimes, of his rejoicing once, but of his laughing
never ? * -
(3.) Consider whether the way of religion, or the way of the world, affords the
most ground for joy and pleasure. This will be no hard question to an impartial
inquirer. The one is the way to a state of favour with God, peace, &c. here, the
other keeps one under his wrath : the one is the way to be eternally happy, the
other to be eternally miserable. Wherefore, bring ye no sorrow with you into re-
ligion nor spring of it, and ye will find none in religion. But it teaches men to be
sorrowful in time for what is just ground of sorrow, and will produce it sooner or
later in all.
§ The very sorrows that religion puts men to are better than the world's joys
and pleasures. These last are a spring of sorrow, and will end in it ; Luke vi. 25,
“Woe unto you that laugh now ; for ye shall mourn and weep.” They may end in
it here, either in the way of bitter repentance, or in the way of bitter affliction,
which will render all the former pleasures of sin tasteless, leaving nothing of them
but the sting : or surely in the life to come. Whereas the sorrows of religion, be
they never so deep, make way for joy here, and hereafter too; ver. 21, “Blessed
are ye that weep now ; for ye shall laugh.” - . . -
4. The cares of the world, Luke viii. 14. These are a thicket whereby IYler, are
entangled in the world lying in wickedness, that they cannot get away. The clay-
idol bewitches them, that they have neither heart nor hand for coming out from
among them. These cares are a net, wherein the feet of poor and rich are held
fast : for the frowning and Smiling world are each of them apt to crave inordinate
care. They hinder in so far as they enhance the whole man; and so, -
1st, They fix the heart to the world as the main thing, and so keep it back from
God; Matt. vi. 24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon.” Hence covetousness is called idolatry, inasmuch
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 371
as thereby the world, and its good things, are put in God's room ; loved, desired,
and followed after, more than he. ... •
2dly, They leave no room for a due concern about spiritual things; Luke x. 41,
42, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one
thing is needful.” This and the other worldly thing, one on the back of another,
challenges their care and concern, keeps their hearts and hands ever full, that due
care for their souls cannot get entered. Hence the lives of many are spent in a
continual hurry, never getting leave to think seriously; and it fares with them as
with the man in the parable, 1 Kings xx. 39, 40, “As the king passed by, he cried
unto the king ; and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle ; and,
behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man:
if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou
shalt pay a talent of silver. And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was
gone.” - - -
3dly, They leave them no gust nor relish for spiritual things; they make them
tasteless to them, so that nothing relishes with them but carnal worldly things.
The smiling world has this effect; Job xxi. 13, 14, “They spend their days in
wealth—Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the
Knowledge of thy ways.” And the frowning world has it too, as in the case of the
Israelites under their oppression in Egypt; Exod. vi. 9, “They hearkened not
unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.”
To remove this hinderance, consider, -
(1.) The shortness of your time, and how in a little ye will be beyond all the
things of the present evil world, to have no more use for them for ever; 1 Cor. vii.
29–31, “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both
they that have wives be as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though
they wept not ; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not ; and they that
buy, as though they possessed not ; and they that use this world, as not abusing it:
for the fashion of this world passeth away.” Death approaches, and the frowns of
the world can annoy you no more, and its smiles be in no more stead to you. Why
do ye take so great care about what is to last so short while 2 Why is not your
short time better filled up 2
(2.) Consider what will be the issue of the cares of the world hindering you to
come out from among the world lying in wickedness. You will lose your souls in that
throng of care for the present life, and no advantage in the world will quit the
cost of that ; Matt. xvi. 26, “For what is a man profited, if he should gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?” Ye have eternity challenging your care, of which, if ye continue careless,
death will bring you into a surprising plunge.
(3.) You quite mistake your measures for your own interest; taking a burden on
yourself that might be borne without you, Psal. lv. 22. Your true way would
be to come out from among the world lying in wickedness to Jesus Christ, and
leave it to him to care for you, which would not be in vain; 1 Pet. v. 7, “Casting
all your care upon him, for he careth for you.”
5. Ill company and their influence hinders many. It was Paul's advantage,
that, when God called him, he “conferred not with flesh and blood,” Gal. i. 16.
For the world lying in wickedness will never be content that any of their own should
leave them ; therefore is the call, Psal. xlv. 10, “Forget thine own people, and
thy father's house.” Satan has his agents in the world, that will be at all pains
to entangle them among them that would be away. And they do it, (1.) By their
example ; casting off the fear of God, indulging themselves a sinful liberty, and
so cast a stumbling-block before others, Matt. xviii. 7. And, (2.) By their influ-
ence otherwise, advising, enticing, and encouraging them to sin, Prov. i. 10; acting
Satan's part. -
To remove this hinderance, consider,
1.) You have God's call to come away: and it will be a sorry excuse for your
disobedience, that others, by their example and influence, hindered you; Acts iv.
19, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more than
372 A VIEW OF THIS AND THE OTHER WORLD.
unto God, judge ye.” You ought, at the call of your Maker, to come away over
the belly of all the bad company that beset you.
(2.) Open your eyes, and see their danger as well as your own. Believe that
“the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unright-
eousness of men,” Rom. i. 18, and you will be obliged to make away, as the
Israelites from the tents of Dathan and Abiram. -
(3.) It will be no comfort to you in the end, to be ruined together with ill com-
pany, and by their influence. Their sin is great; but they will leave you to answer
for yourselves, and bear your own punishment, Prov. ix. 12. And the society of
companions in sin, in hell, will be bitter; as appears from Luke xvi. 27, 28, “I pray
thee, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house; for I have five
brethren ; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of
torment.” -
Lastly, Delays are a great hinderance; Prov. vi. 9–11, “How long wilt thou sleep,
O sluggard 2 when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep 2 Yet a little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep : so shall thy poverty come as one
that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” Men deceive themselves with
off-puts, and the prospect of much time before them. To remove this obstruction,
consider,
(1.) The longer you delay, it will be the harder to get away from among them.
Sin gathers strength by delay of repentance; as the waters, the farther they are
from the head, they greater do they grow. The heart becomes harder, the mind
blinder, the will more perverse, the affections more carnal.
(2.) Your time is uncertain ; you know not if ever you will see the term-day to
which you put off. How many are there that drop into eternity ere ever they are
aware The present time only is yours.
(3.) Suppose you should see the time you put off to, God may withhold grace
from you ; Luke xiv. 24, “For I say unto you, That none of these men which were
bidden shall taste of my supper.” Take the alarm, therefore, in time, and strike
in with the opportunity ye now have ; Isa. lv. 6, “Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found, call ye upon him while he is near.”
(4.) It is a base spirit that puts you on to delay: it bewrays the predominant
love of sin, and shows ye have no regard to God for himself; otherwise ye would
not hesitate one moment to obey his call. Wherefore we beseech you to consider
the matter, and delay no longer. Let a regard to the authority of God, and the
view of his matchless excellences in Christ; let a sense of gratitude for the divine
patience, and the love ye bear to your own souls; let every consideration, whether
from the terrors of God's everlasting wrath, or the comforts of his everlasting love,
unite to move you speedily to come out from among the world lying in wickedness,
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Head of the society separated from the
world. So coming, ye shall find welcome : “I will receive you, and will be a
Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Al-
mighty.”
And now, to conclude: Ye have had the picture of the world lying in wickedness
drawn before you, and the call to come away out from among them. It is like *
these may appear as idle tales to some, and they may be as one that mocked, Gen.
xix. 14. But if ye come not away out from among them, ye will perish among
them, and the more fearfully that ye have been so solemnly warned.
* i. e. probable.—ED.
THE BELIEVER'S HUNDRED-FOLD IN THIS LIFE CONSIDERED; AND A VIEW
OF THE REALITY, PARTS, INHABITANTS, PASSAGE INTO, AND STATE
OF MEN IN THE WORLD TO COME.
SEVERAL SERMONs PREACHED AT ETTRICK, IN 1729.
MARK x. 30.
“He shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters,
and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions ; and in the world to come,
eternal life.” - .*
YE have heard much of this present evil world, and been called to come away out
from among them. I come now to tell you, that there is another world beyond it,
into which we must all go; a view of which may be of use to stir us up to come out
from among the world lying in wickedness, and to make us more indifferent about
the smiles and frowns of this world.
The text is a part of an encouragement to saints under worldly losses. The
remote occasion of it was, a view of a man ruined with worldly prosperity, whose
wealth in the world was the neckbreak of his soul; and such examples are never
rare, ver, 17–22. (1.) He was a young man, (Matt. xix. 20,) and a ruler, Luke
xviii. 18. Worldly wealth and honour are great snares to people; especially to the
young, who are raw and of little experience in the vanity of the world. (2.) He
was, nevertheless, in some concern for another world; verse 17, “Good Master,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” For all the temptations hanging
about him, he considered that there was a life after this, and that he could not
carry his wealth and honour with him thither. Hence, though he took Christ but
for a good man, he was very respectful to him, he cast himself into his company,
he kneeled to him as one desirous to have his blessing; he proposes a weighty ques-
tion to him about another world. It is pity that anything in this world should put
that out of one's head and heart. (3.) But he was a conceited man, unhumbled,
unacquainted with his own weakness, and thought he could do well enough, if he
knew what. Self-conceit mars many good motions, and spoils them all. •
Our Lord, for his humiliation, sets before him, (1.) The holiness of God: verse
18, “And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? there is none good,
but one, that is God.” A view of the goodness and holiness of God is fit to
humble sinners, and let them in to a view of their own badness and unholiness, Isa.
vi. 5. (2.) The holy law : verse 19, “Thou knowest the commandments, Do not
commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not,
Honour thy father and mother.” The law, in its holy commandments, is a looking-
glass wherein to see our defilement and sinfulness. He pitches on those of the
second table, for in these lies the trial of the sincerity of professors of religion. He
begins with the command forbidding the lusts of the flesh; then pride, passion, and
revenge, covetousness, &c. For the law, in these things, speaks to all alike, young
and old, great and Small. -
The youth, hereupon, gives an account of himself: verse 20, “Master, all these
have I observed from my youth ;” in which, though he discovers his ignorance of
the spirituality of the law, and his self-justifying temper, yet withal he shows, that,
374 A VIEW OF THIS
notwithstanding of his circumstances in the world, he had been kept from the gross
pollutions of it. He had been no rambling youth, but kept within the bounds of
decency. It seems, though he had not grace, he had education.
Christ brings the trial close home to him, in his predominant, the love of the
world: verse 21, “Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him,
One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the
poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and
follow me.” He had many good things that were lovely in him : but he wanted
a heart weaned from the world, and knit to God in Christ; and that want, he is
told, behoved to be made up, if ever he would see heaven. Observation 1. They
may have many things good about them, where one thing lacking mars all.
Obs. 2. Whoever would have a happy portion in another world, must be ready
to part with the good things of this world at Christ's call, and submit to its evil
things. Though this is hard to flesh and blood, it is a constitution of heaven not
to be altered.
The issue of this trial was sad: he parted with Christ and heaven; since he could
not have them on easier terms, he behoved to quit them, for these terms he could
not digest: ver, 22, “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved ; for
he had great possessions.” His great possessions were his great Snare. The good
things of this world part betwixt Christ and many.
The use Christ makes of this sad event, for the disciples’ instruction: verse 23,
“And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall
they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” Observation 1. Though
riches make an easy life in this world, they make hard work for the party that has
them to get into a better world. Obs. 2. The ruining effects saints may see that
world's wealth has on men generally, should make them sit down contented with the
small share of it which providence lets come in to their hands, q. d. Now, see what
world's wealth does. -
The disciples being surprised herewith, (1.) Christ explains what he had said:
verse 24, “But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is
it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!” Observation,
It is hard for men to have world's wealth, and not to trust in it as their portion and
happiness, to bring out of it their satisfaction, which they should seek in God.
(2.) He confirms it by a proverbial saying of a thing of a difficulty next to impos-
sibility: ver. 25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The gate of life is narrow ; the
world's wealth is like the burden on the camel's back.
The disciples are astonished at this; they might observe what a great snare
poverty was to many, and if it was so with riches too, they say, “Who then can be
saved ?” ver. 26. The consideration of the mischief the world does; on the one
hand, with its frowns, and on the other, with its smiles; makes salvation appear
very difficult.
Our Lord tells them, that what is impossible to nature is possible to God. The
power of his grace can so loose the heart from the world, that it shall not be able
to bewitch a man with all its Snares, nor hinder him from the kingdom of heaven.
Witness Abraham, Job, Joseph, &c., who, though rich men, were yet truly religious,
and attained to heavenly happiness. -
Follows the immediate occasion of the words of the text. Peter shows how he
and the rest had behaved in such a trial as proved fatal to that man: they had
left all they had in the world at Christ's call, and followed him, verse 28. See
Matt. iv. 18—20. It was not much they had to leave for him : but it was
by the power of grace they were brought to part with it, little as it was. That
is it that makes the difference. Now, he is desirous to know the issue of that,
and what they were to expect at his hand: and Christ allows his people to per-
suade themselves, that they shall not be losers at his hand. And therefore, what-
ever weakness might be in Peter's question, our Lord directly answers it, in a liberal
promise, to all his followers, of a sufficient upmaking of all that they lose for him.
In which we have : º,
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 375
1. The losers to whom Christ gives security for upmaking of their loss. And
here consider,
1st, What kind of losers they are. It is not every kind of losers. Some lose their
worldly good things for their lusts' sake, squandering away the same on their lusts,
and by their criminal negligence; or they are justly taken from them in an ill cause
for their crimes: these are not they. But they that quit with anything for Christ's
sake and the gospel's, the Lord by his call bids them give up with it, and they at
his call quit their gripe: they cannot keep it, and keep the road of the gospel too;
and therefore, that they may not go off the road of the gospel, they quit what they
have. These are the losers.
2dly, What kind of loss it is that Christ puts his people to. It is not the loss
of spiritual benefits and privileges, and their portion in another world; but only
worldly good things. (1.) He may call them to leave house and hold, and they
must leave it for his sake, with all the conveniences they had in their own house
before. If they have not left them where to lay their head, he bids them not ride
a ford he rode not before them ; Matt. viii. 20, “The foxes have holes, and the
birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”
If they be forced to hide in dens and caves of the earth, they fare not worse than
the worthies mentioned Heb. xi. 38. (2.) Their relations, and the comfort they
had in them ; “brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, and children.” He may
carry away their relations from them by death; or otherwise providentially separate
them from them ; or deprive them of the comfort of them though they be with
them, and make them a cross to them. Or he may carry them away from their
relations, that they have not access to the comfort they might otherwise have
in them. In all these cases, they are losers for Christ that give up with them
at his call, to follow him. (3.) Their lands, and all the profits and advantages
flowing from them. “Even the king is served by the field:” but Christ must
be served with the field itself given up to him, when he calls for it; whether it
be theirs in property, or only in the use. They must give up their claim to him
at his call. - -
2. What is secured to these losers for Christ 2 Double. -
1st, Something in hand; “a hundred-fold now in this time.” The term of this
upmaking is in this world, “now in this time.” Our Lord does indeed reserve the
greatest upmaking to another world: but he does not put off his people with nothing
in the time; no, there is a settlement for the present made upon them, to bear the
expense of their journey, and to bear up their hearts till they get their portion.
And that is “a hundred-fold,” namely, of what they lost for him, viz., “houses,”
&c. It is plain it cannot be meant of a hundred-fold in kind: that is not possible
in the case of father and mother: but in value ; i. e. they shall get what will be a
hundred times the value of all they lost for him. For instance, do they lose a house
for him? they shall get what shall be worth a hundred houses, &c. But there is an
appurtenance of this hundred-fold that may keep from dreaming of world's ease for
all that: “with persecutions.” All times of the church are not times of public per-
secution ; but this secures them, that, go the times as they will, they shall never
get the good-will of the world lying in wickedness. Satan and his agents will always
be at them, one way or other. - -
2dly, Something in hope. Here is, (1.) The term and place of it: “in the
world to come.” (2.) What they will get there : “eternal life.” This plainly bears,
[1..] That there is a world to come, another world than this. The word properly
signifies an age, or duration. And being in opposition to the age of this world, or
time of its duration, it signifies the age of eternity. It is used also for the world
itself, Heb. i. 2. And being to come, it differs from the present world. [2.] That
that world to come is the place and time where and when men are to get the full
reward of their works: and therefore, men go into that world when they have done
with this, and are not done when dead. [3] That such losers for Christ shall, in
that world, get “eternal life,” when others shall get eternal death there: for if in
that world were only eternal life, it had been needless to say more than that they
should go into that world. -
3. The security itself, Christ's own words: “Verily I say unto you,” verse 29,
376 A VIEW OF THIS
A security that carnal men cannot trust; but all believers take it for good -
security. - - -
†: I come to the main thing intended, I will speak somewhat to the hundred-
fold in this life, from the following doctrine, viz.
DocTRINE. Our Lord Jesus has given security for a hundred-fold, with a burden,
in this life, to them who, for his sake and the gospel's, leave and give up with their
worldly good things and enjoyments, at his call.
In discoursing from this doctrine, we shall consider,
I. The parties to whom the security is made.
II. The hundred-fold secured to such losers. -
III. The burden going along with the hundred-fold, “with persecutions.”
IV. The security given for the hundred-fold to the losers for Christ's sake and
the gospel's.
W. Make application.
I. We shall consider the parties to whom the security is made. Two things will
set this in due light; viz. An inquiry, -
First, How Christ calls people to leave and give up with any worldly comforts
and enjoyments they have had. .
Secondly, What it is at Christ's call to leave and give up with them for his sake
and the gospel's.
First, I am to inquire how Christ calls people to leave and give up with any
worldly comforts and enjoyments they have had.
1. When we cannot keep them without sin. When we are brought to that, that
we must either lose them, or sin against God; must either part with them, or part
with a good conscience; be sure then Christ is saying, Give up with them, leave
them for me. And so it is in four cases: -
(1.) In the case of persecution, or the violence of evil men reducing us to that
strait. Thus confessors’ goods were called for by Christ, (Heb. x, 34,) and the
lives of the martyrs, chap. xi. 35. And they parted with them; as Joseph dropped
his mantle, when he could not keep it and his chastity too. If there had been a
fair way to have preserved the substance and the life, and a good conscience too,
they would not have been required : but as they could not preserve a good con-
science with the possession of them, therefore they were called to part with both
substance and life.
The same holds in the case of illegal violence: when men are reduced to such a
strait by the violence of evil men in common life, that loss is on the one hand, sin
on the other ; that is a providential call to give up with worldly good things and
enjoyments, 1 Cor. vi. 6, 7. .
(2.) In the case of justice. It is a divine command, “Owe no man any thing,
but to love one another,” Rom. xiii. 8. What justice requires us to part with, God
requires us to part with : “for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness,” Psal.
xi. 7. And to keep it is robbery; because, in justice, it is not ours, but another's.
And therefore, no man can reckon any more his own, than what remains to him
after payment of his just debts, 2 Kings iv. 1, 7. To this belongs, .
(3.) The case of restitution of goods unjustly got. What we have unjustly got
is not ours in the sight of God; and therefore God calls to restore it, Luke xix. 8.
And the sin of the taking it away is not forgiven while it is kept. And where it is
so, God often forces it out of the hand of them or theirs, taking away more with it,
Job xx. 10, 15. For a little of that sort is a moth among, and worms one out of
much. -
(4.) In the case of charity. It is a divine command to improve our worldly sub-
stance for the honour of God, (Prov. iii. 9,) and to relieve the wants of the poor
and needy, according to our ability, and their need. God has made us stewards,
and the truly poor his receivers, Prov. xix. 17. The sturdy beggars are indeed the
reproach of our land, and eat the meat out of the mouths of those that are poor
indeed: their idleness is their sin, and the sin of the government that suffers them to
be idle, 2 Thess. iii. 10; and their vagabond life is their sin and punishment, Psal.
cix. 10. But the truly poor that fain would, but are not able, or cannot have access,
to do for themselves, God obliges others to help them, even though they be straitened
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 377
themselves; 2 Cor. viii. 2, “In a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their
joy, and their deep poverty, abounded unto the riches of their liberality;” Eph.
iv. 8, “Let him that stole, steal no more : but rather let him labour, working with
his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
See Prov. xxi. 13. - - -
2. When he himself is providentially taking them away from us. Sometimes he
lays worldly good things to one's hand; at other times, he returns and takes them
away, and then doubtless he says, Give them up to me. Job saw this in his own
experience, chap. i. 21; “Naked came I out of my mother's womb,” says he, “and
naked shall I return thither : the Lord gave; and the Lord hath taken away :
blessed be the name of the Lord.” And this the Lord does in two cases :
(1.) In the case of providential losses; when the things themselves are by holy
providence taken away. Thus the Lord swept away Job's substance, his children,
and his health too. At whatever time God thus is pulling from us, we are called
to open our hearts to quit them, and let go our gripe of them. In that case, God
is sending to us as he did to the owner of the ass; Matt. xxi. 2, 3, “The Lord
hath need of them;” and we should entertain his send * as that man who, straight-
way, sent the ass and the colt.
(2.) In the case of providential restraints; when the comfort of the things is
taken away, though themselves remain. Thus the Lord took away Job’s comfort
in his acquaintance, friends, and domestics; there was an embargo laid upon
them, that they had not power to be comfortable to him, but, on the contrary, were
a cross to him, Job xix. 13–16. Yea, in his own wife, who proved unkind to him,
(ver. 17,) and a Snare and a cross to him, chap. ii. 9. No person, no thing, can be
to us other than what God makes it to be ; and sometimes God, for one's trial,
Squeezes the Sap out of their creature-comforts, and so calls them to quit their com-
fort in them.
Secondly, I come to show what it is, at Christ's call, to leave and give up with
them for his sake and the gospel's. And thus we will see who they are to whom
this security is made. It lies in three things:
1. Discerning of heaven's call to give up with them, 2 Sam. xvi. 10. None can
leave any thing at God's call, when he discerns no call from him for that effect.
There is a generation who, like the dog, Snarl at the stone, but look not to the hand
above that cast it. In their losses, they blame this and that person, this and that
unlucky accident; but they consider not God's hand overruling them, and, by these
things, taking trial of them, Psal. xxviii. 5. We should see him first mover in all
the losses that befall us. - -
2. Loving of Christ and the gospel more than the world, and all that is in it: for
that person or thing for whose sake we leave any thing, must needs be more beloved
than that thing. This is the habitual temper of soul from whence that action doth
proceed, to be found in all believers, Luke xiv. 26, ; and them only, 1 John ii. 15.
And unless the heart be once moulded into this frame through faith, it is not to be
expected that one will truly quit any worldly good for Christ's sake and the gospel's,
whatever they may do for their own sake.
3. Heart and hands quitting gripes of them out of love to Christ and the gospel;
Heb. x. 34, “Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.” The call clears to them,
that they must part either with Christ or the world in that instance, and laying
the two in the balance, Christ and the gospel downweigh the worldly thing, and
they quit it to hold them fast : not only giving it up with the hand, which may be
done against one's will, but with the heart. So that this is a religious, holy part-
ing therewith ; an act of Christian resignation and self-denial. Hence, we may
state the characters of the losers to whom the hundred-fold is secured, in the fol-
lowing particulars.
(1.) They are true believers, who have taken Christ and the promises of the
gospel for their portion, their all; Psal. cxix. 57, “Thou art my portion, O Lord.”
In vain is it expected that the heart will ever quit its gripe of the world, till it
take gripes of Christ and the promise of the gospel. Therefore faith is called buy-
* i. e. his message.—ED.
3 B
37.8 - A VIEW OF THIS
ing, wherein the party gets as good as he gives, Rev. iii. 18; Matt. xiii. 45, 46.
And indeed, in the day of the soul's closing with Christ, it gives up with all things
in the world, and takes Christ for them all, Luke xiv. 26. And to such the hun-
dred-fold is secured. - -
(2.) In all their losses they take God for their party, and yield the things to
him, as Job did, chap. i. 21, forecited. They say as Eli did ; 1 Sam. iii. 18, “It
is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.” They have a faith of the divine
providence with application to themselves, knowing that nothing can befall them,
but as he orders it : they know that he is just in all his ways, and does them no
wrong, whatever wrong may be doñe them by men ; yea, that he is good, and pun-
ishes them not as they well deserve. Therefore they submit to him, saying as the
church, Lam. iii. 22, “It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, be-
cause his compassions fail not ;” and as Hezekiah, Isa. xxxix. ult, “Good is the
word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.” And thus delivering up their comforts
to him, he will restore them a hundred-fold, as in Job's case.
(3.) They yield up the things into the hand he directs, be that what it will.
Whether he take away immediately by his own hand, or by the hands of men,
right or wrong ; the intimation of his will is sufficient to them, as it was to Job,
chap. i. 21, though the devil and his agents were instrumental in these losses. They
look above second causes, and take their loss out of the hand of the first cause,
which employs what second causes he sees meet. If men look not to God in these
cases, they cannot expect that he will make up what is not given him. -
(4.) They leave and give up with them, to keep the road of duty in obedience to
his command, Heb. xi. 25. It is their care to keep their worldly enjoyments as
valuable gifts of God, and not to waste them by riot or negligence ; but it is their
greater care to keep themselves in the love of God, and in the way of holy obedi-
ence. And therefore, when they cannot do both together, they quit the former,
and cleave to the latter. Such losers God will make up (Heb. xi. 25, 26.) that
will rather lose their substance than a pure conscience ; that will rather suffer
than sin against him.
(5.) They seek their rest and comfort in him under all their losses, and in the
romise of the gospel, Psal. xxvii. 10. By an eye of faith they see a fulness in
Christ and the promise that is sufficient to bear up under all they can lose in a
world ; they discern a treasure in heaven which is not liable to be lost. And in
the faith thereof, they quit their worldly comforts, Heb. x. 34; taking God's pro-
mises in the gospel for their heritage, in which they may rejoice in the want of
worldly things, Zeph. iii. 12. What makes men hold such a greedy gripe of the
world is, that they see not how, if they lose it, the want can be made up : but
faith looses that difficulty.
(6.) They are submissive under their losses; maintaining their love to an
afflicting God, and their esteem of the gospel under all their losses, 2 Sam. xv. 25,
26. They will not cast out with God and the gospel for world's enjoyments; nor
think the worse of him because he takes back his own, or denies them what he is
not obliged to give them. If such thoughts rise in their hearts, they will wrestle
against them, mourn over them, condemn themselves for them, and return to their
temper. The contrary disposition prevailing in proud hearts, Satan blows the
coal, and ofttimes it has a desperate and fearful issue, as in Ahithophel and others.
(7.) They will take no sinful method to prevent their losses, nor yet to recover
them, or shift under them. When life lay at stake with those worthies mentioned
Heb. xi. 35, they would not accept deliverance on any sinful terms; when Joseph
was sold for a slave, he would not buy his freedom with defiling his conscience.
That is losing for Christ's sake and the gospel's: and them that so lose Christ will
make up ; when they that go out of God's ways into sinful ways, which honour not
God but the devil, either for preventing or recovering, will find their loss doubled
by these means. -
(8.) The more that created streams are dried up, the more closely they will seek
after the fountain, 1 Tim, v. 5. It is for this very case the Lord trysts his own
people with crosses and losses: as Absalom set Joab's corn-field on fire ; the Lord
causeth a burden to be blown off the back of his people, that they may run their
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 379
race more speedily; dries up a stream of comfort in a created person or thing,
that they may come with greater appetite to the fountain of comfort.
II. The next head is to consider the hundred-fold secured to such losers. This
is not a hundred-fold in kind, but a hundred-fold in value. Such is, -
First, The peace and pleasurable reflection on the way of losing it, 2 Cor. i. 12.
When the losses of untender, unholy men leave a sting behind them, in that they
find they have lost for their lust's sake ; theirs shall afford them a pleasure, that
their losses come not that way, but in a cleanly providential way, by the hand of
God taking a trial of them, what they can lose and part with for him. This is a
hundred-fold more ; for,
1. This peace is a Christian, spiritual benefit, flowing from the Spirit's leading
of a man in the way of God; therefore more valuable than the having of temporal
good things, which is a common benefit. He may thus reflect, Had I been left to
the Swing of my lusts, I might have sustained all this loss by my sinful hand bring-
ing it on : but O how am I obliged to preventing grace
2. Such losing is a piece of honour that God puts on his people, 1 Pet. iv. 14. What-
ever impossibility there is to reconcile this with the world's false notions of honour;
according to scripture and reason, it is certainly an honour to have some consider-
able thing in the world, and a heart to part with it for Christ, Heb. xi. And
therefore we expect that the greatest sufferers for Christ will have the richest in-
comes in the other world. -
Secondly, The cordial satisfaction in the way of parting with it. There are two
things meeting here, which make a hundred-fold more to spring up in the way of
satisfaction. -
1. The consideration that Christ will condescend to take such a token of our love
off our hand, Acts v. 41. It is an obligement to the lover, that the beloved party
will accept a token of his love : though by that means he has less in hand than his
rival, from whom such a thing is not taken, he has more in hope. Allis the Lord’s ;
and that he will take anything off our hand as a token will be, in the eyes of hum-
ble souls, a great condescension.
2. The consideration of the Lord’s giving a heart to part with it to him. Every
serious soul will value this a hundred times more than the having of the thing parted
with, 1 Chron. xxix. 14. For the latter is but a common gift, but the former a
gift of special grace, Phil. i. 29. And there is far more of the love of God in the
one than in the other ; for it argues a special love. -
Thirdly, Contentment with the low and afflicted lot. All the abundance of the
world cannot give contentment: but losers for Christ's sake and the gospel's have
their worldly loss made up with a gain in the frame of their spirit. A spirit suited to
one's lot, brought down to the afflicted condition, is a hundred-fold more than what
is lost. That is a valuable lesson, (Phil. iv. 12, “In all things I am instructed,
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need,”) to have one’s
thirst abated, as their drink is dried up ; to have their desires narrowed as their
enjoyments are, Psal. xxxvii. 19. This is a hundred-fold; for,
1. Contentment with a little is more valuable by far than even contentment with
much. For it is more difficult to reach, and speaks more of the reality and strength
of grace, Psal. xxxvii. 16. It is a good exchange, when what is taken off our com-
forts is made up in adding to the contented frame of spirit.
2. The narrowing of the desire of worldly comforts is better than the enlarging
of one's possessions and enjoyments. For the former is cutting short of our lusts,
the other food to them.
Fourthly, A particular care of Heaven about them for their supply, 1 Pet. v. 7.
Losers for Christ have, in all ages, been the peculiar objects of Heaven's care and
concern, to their upbearing and throughbearing ; John xiv. 18, “I will not leave
you comfortless.” And none have been better seen to than the children of provi-
dence, who have been as the lilies clothed better than Solomon in all his glory.
Hence, an afflicted lot of Saints has been the time of greatest experiences; and they
have had richest incomes, when living from hand to mouth, Rom. v. 3, 4. This
is a hundred-fold; for,
1. The suitableness of it to their real deeds, Matt, vi. 32. They have a promise,
380 - A VIEW OF THIS
Phil. iv. 19, “My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory,
by Christ Jesus:” and God, who is their Father, is a good judge of what these
needs are, and will see to suit providential supplies unto them. He has all in hand,
and is able; he loves them tenderly, and will give them what is good.
2. The seasonableness of it. Providential favourable casts * in this case are
double gifts from the timing of them, as being laid in the nick of time when they
may be most useful, as in Mordecai's case. - -
3. From both these they bear an impression and character of the divine care arid
love; so that though, for the matter of them, they have very small things, yet the
image and superscription they bear will make them of much bulk. Thus, Esau’s
countenance was a vast mercy in Jacob's esteem, Gen. xxxiii. 10. And many a
thing which some would account a mere trifle has filled a saint with joy.
Question, How can that be? Answer, On these reasonable grounds. (1.) The
thing's coming as an answer of prayer. A straitened lot in the world makes God’s
children carry even their smaller matters to their prayers; and there are answers
of prayer in these cases. (2.) Coming as an accomplishment of a promise depended
on by faith. The promise comes as low as to the bread and the water. And the
sap of a promise is matter of joy, though it were but a drop. -
Fifthly, A particular allowance of communion with God, and access to him in
duties, made to these losers: that, as their trials are greater than those of others,
their supports may be conformable ; Cant. i. 7, “Tell me, O thou whom my soul
loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.” Not
that they will get these however they carry themselves, but that the Lord has
allowed it them being duly exercised by their trials; which was sealed in Paul's
experience; 2 Cor. xii. 10, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in neces-
sities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake : for when I am weak, then am
I strong.” This is agreeable to, - -
1. The goodness of God, that where he closes the door of the creature fastest on
his people, he opens his own the wider; and that they who find the world deafest
to their cries, find him most ready to answer them.
2. To their exigence. The drying up of created streams of comfort makes
people more sensible of their need of the fountain, and to thirst the more for it.
And those that are most pinched with sense of need, will readily come best speed
at the throne of grace; Luke i. 53, “He hath filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he hath sent empty away.” -
3. To the experiences of the saints in all ages. Those who have had, or were to
get, the greatest trials, were they that had the largest portion of spiritual enjoy-
ments falling to their share. And the greatest sufferers and losers have been the
greatest gainers in that respect; as in the case of Jacob, Joseph, &c.
Now, this is a hundred-fold; for, * -
1st, Communion with God is better than the best things the world can afford :
one of the kisses of his mouth is preferable to all the treasure the world casts into
one’s lap, Psal. iv. 6, 7, This made the confessors take joyfully the spoiling of
their goods, and made martyrs joyfully meet death ; made Paul and Silas sing in
the prison, and the three children easy in the fiery furnace. -
2dly, It is heaven on earth ; Rev. ii. 17, “To him that overcometh will I give
to eat of the hidden manna.” The saints carried to glory leave all their worldly
enjoyments behind them, as Elijah dropped his mantle: and they miss them not
there; getting full, immediate, uninterrupted communion with God, instead of all;
more than we miss the star-light, when the Sun shines in his meridian brightness.
And communion with God here is a foretaste of heaven.
3dly, Access to God in duties eases God's people of a burden of care; getting it
cast over on the Lord, whereby they are sustained under their losses, Psal. lv. 22.
Many a time the children of God have gone to duty sore bowed down under diverse
pressures, and have come away with the load taken off their spirits, as in the case
of Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 18. So that what was as a mountain before becomes like a
mole-hill. And it is a hundred-fold better to be strengthened from above to go
lightly under a burden, than to have it taken off. -
* i. e. experiences.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 38]
4thly, It makes them find the sweetness of the Bible, and suck the sweet of the
promises; Psal. cxix. 49, 50, “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which
thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word
hath quickened me.” While world's ease makes the heart fat as grease, insensible
to the consolations of the word; affliction, with access to God under it, causes the
word relish with the soul, makes a sweetness to be felt in those parts of the word
where it was not felt before.
Lastly, The spiritual good effects whereof worldly losses are the causes and
occasions, being sanctified. Such are especially,
1. Weanedness from the world; Psal. cxxxi. 2, “My soul is even as a weaned
child.” The Lord's laying gall and wormwood on the breast of the creature, is a
blessed means to wean them therefrom : his setting fire to their nest in the world,
moves them to seek their rest in God, Cant. iv. 8. This makes them long to be
home, and to be looking heavenward, and mending their pace. .
2. Seeking to get their wants made up in Christ. The world's frowns make
them more solicitous for his smiles: while worldly comforts are plucked from them,
they endeavour the more to fasten their gripes on him, making a blessed exchange
of the world for Christ, Hab. iii. 17, 18. This makes them many times to say, I had
perished, unless I had perished; being driven to their spiritual good by afflictions.
3. Living by faith; Psal. xxvii. 13, “I had fainted, unless, I had believed to see
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” When created streams are dried
up, people must either fetch in their comfort from another quarter, or they must
want. For this cause God sweeps away from his people, many times, their com-
forts of sense, that they may learn to live on the promise by believing.
III. I shall now consider the burden going along with the hundred-fold, “with
persecutions.” It implies three things.
First, That, in the course of worldly losses and troubles, the hundred-fold shall
be made forthcoming to them; Heb. x. 34, “Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your
goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring
substance.” The Lord will not leave his people comfortless, while matters are on
a run against them. But as Satan and an ill world are taking away from them
on the one hand, he will be laying in to them on the other. While the world clos-
eth its doors on them, God will open his to them.
Secondly, That the hundred-fold in this life doth not secure the receivers as to
worldly ease thereafter. An end of troubles in this world is not to be expected
while they are in it: but though the shower has been great and long, the clouds
will return after the rain; and after one loss another will come, that a new trial
may be taken of the Lord's people. However much they have endured, they must
expect to meet with more. A change of troubles there may be, but there will be
no end till the great change come.
Lastly, However, no worldly losses nor troubles shall be able to stop the course
of the hundred-fold. Let them be never so weighty, the Lord can let in what will
downweigh them all ; Hab. iii. 17, 18, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom,
&c.; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” So
that let the cloud be never so thick, the eye of faith may see how to get through
it: for God lays no trial on his people, without allowing them sufficient furniture
for bearing it. f
IV. The security given for the hundred-fold to the losers for Christ's sake and
the gospel's. Concerning which, observe these two things:
First, It is Christ's own security. He has engaged for it to his people. And,
(1.) He is able; for he is the great Trustee of the covenant, in whose hands all the
benefits of the covenant are lodged, to distribute them to poor sinners, Matt. xi. 27.
(2.) He is faithful, and cannot break his engagement; for he is truth itself, and it
is impossible that he should fail. -
Secondly, It is the security of his word: he has given his word on it. And that
requires faith in us, namely, that we trust to that security for the hundred-fold;
so shall it be made forthcoming.
I shall now shut up this subject with a word of improvement.
Use 1. Of information. This doctrine lets us see,
382 A VIEW OF THIS
First, That even an afflicting God is a bountiful God; ready to deal bountifully
with us, in our most straitening circumstances. Whatever he calls you to part
with for him, he is ready to give you more and better in its stead. Think not,
then, that he is a hard master. For however short by the head he sees meet to
hold you,” it is your own fault if ye be not gainers by all worldly losses and troubles,
2 Chron. xxv. 9.
Secondly, Here is the mystery of the sweet peace and joy that martyrs, confes-
sors, and others have had in their trials and afflictions, Heb. x. 34. They enjoyed
the hundred-fold. And therefore they preferred Christ's cross to the world's crown;
they would not accept of deliverance on sinful terms, because so they would have
forfeited the hundred-fold. Whatever trouble without their crosses and losses
brought on them, the hundred-fold gave them a peaceful calm within.
Use 2. Labour to manage your losses and crosses in the world so as you may gain
the hundred-fold. And,
First, Learn to sit loose to the world, and all things and persons in it ; that, at
Christ's call, ye may be ready to part with them, or your comfort in them, Luke
ix. 23. Let them hang loose about you, that, on occasion, ye may easily drop
them. It is the gluing of our affections to them that makes it so hard for us to
part with them. -
Secondly, Whatever way they are taken from you, or withheld from you, make
God himself your party, and quit them to him, for his sake and the gospel's, Job
i. 21. Thus God will be the party-receiver from you, and you may look that he
will recompense you.
Though you have mismanaged that already, yet there is room to help it; repent-
ing of your unwillingness to part with them, and your not quitting them to him.
Let the heart now quit its hankering after them again for his sake, and all will
be set right.
Thirdly, Trust him in the promise of the hundred-fold. Believe that he will
make up your losses accordingly, if not in kind, yet in value, and assuredly ye shall
not be disappointed; Rom. ix. ult., “Whosoever believeth on him, shall not be
ashamed.”
Lastly, Seek of him the hundred-fold according to his promise, and wait for it
in the use of means. In the leaving worldly enjoyments for him ye make an ex-
change, taking Christ instead of what ye lose : now, pursue that, that ye may have
that comfort from him, and much more, that ye have lost.
I proceed now to the main point I intend to discourse on from the text, namely,
DocTRINE. There is another world than this, a world to come, wherein men will
receive their part for eternity.
This is an awful subject, and what we know very little about ; yet so much is
revealed concerning it as God saw necessary, though not to satisfy our curiosity, yet
for our salvation. In speaking to it, I shall,
I. Show some things imported in this. º
II. Confirm the being of another world, a world to come, wherein men shall re-
ceive their part for eternity.
III. Essay to give some view of the other world.
IV. Make application of the whole.
I. I am to show some things imported in this doctrine, That there is another
world than this, a world to come, wherein men will receive their part for eternity.
It imports,
First, That this world is a place wherein men receive their part only for time.
The parts and portions distributed by divine providence in it are very different;
some are high, others low ; some rich, others poor; some healthy, others sickly;
some in prosperity, others in adversity; some spend their days in pleasure, others
never eat with pleasure. But all these things are only for a time ; these different
states are only to last for a certain number of years, which being expired, things
shall be set on a quite different footing in the other world. So,
1. The smiles, comforts, and advantages of this world that any do enjoy, will in
* i. e. whatsoever restraints he is pleased to impose on you.-E.D.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 383
a little time have an end. It is a pity that any should value themselves upon
them. They are but the conveniences they have in the inn, in their way to the
other world; and are neither eternal, nor pledges of welfare in eternity, Luke xii.
19—21.
2. The afflictions, crosses, and miseries of this world will shortly have an end
too. . As the summer warmth thereof will not last, neither will its winter blasts.
Both the saint and the sinner will quickly remember them as waters that fail; the
one exchanging them, in the other world, with eternal joys, the other with eternal
SOTI’OWS, Af
Secondly, That our main concern lies in the world to come: for there our eter-
mal state is to be settled, there we are to have our portion for eternity. As is the
weight of eternity to time, so is the world to come to the present world; and as
time will be swallowed up in eternity, so ought our temporal concerns to be en-
gaged in concern about the world to come. It is fearful heedlessness to behave
otherwise. -
Thirdly, Men must pass out of this world into the other world, from out of the
world we see into the world we see not : otherwise there could be no receiving our
art in it,
p 1. We must all leave this world, and that passage is by death. That is “the
way of all flesh ;” Psal. lxxxix. 48, “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see
death ?” Death is our going hence, Psal. xxxix. ult. And our whole life here is
a journey through the world, to the end of which journey we come at death, Eccl.
ix. 10. However unwilling men may be to leave the world, no art or might can
alter the statute ; Heb. ix. 27, “It is appointed unto men once to die.”
2. We are not done when dead. We do not cease to be when we cease to
breathe in this world; neither do we cease to act when all bodily motion fails with
us. We leave our dead bodies to our friends, for them to lay up in the grave in
the lower parts of this earth ; but we pass away from among them, for the soul is
the man: and they cannot keep ws still, nor can we abide; but, dropping the man-
tle of the body, we fly away. -
3. We enter then into the other world: as, at our birth, we are born of our
mothers into this world; at our death, we are born into the world of spirits. That
world which we now hear of, we will then see ; and that state we are now making
forward to, we will then arrive at. When we are lost to our friends we leave be-
hind us weeping, we will be found of others before us, and perceived as new in-
comers into their world.
Fourthly, This world itself passeth away, the other world will abide for ever;
the age of the one is but time, that of the other is eternity: so the former gives
place to the latter.
1. This world is passing, 1 Cor. vii. 31; 1 John ii. 17. It is long since it began,
and it will have an end. Its glass is running, and the last sand thereof will run
out at length : the sun and moon are by the appointment of God to make so many
rounds; and then, time comes to an end, and the fabric of this evil world is dis-
solved. There was a curse laid on it for man's sin; that deluged it with water
once, and, in end, will burn it up with fire. So,
(1.) The weary land to the godly will vanish out of their sight: the waste howling
wilderness, wherein they had many a heavy heart, for their own sins and miseries,
and those of others, they will see no more for ever. It is a world that will not
mend, but spurns all means of amendment; it will be destroyed at length, they
looking on and seeing the vengeance. •
(2.) The land whereon the wicked set their hearts as the only pleasant land, will
sink under their feet, and leave them to drop into the pit of destruction in the other
world. It is the stage of their wickedness now ; but God will take it down : it is
the sink of sin ; but it will be burnt up. And they that took it for their portion,
will perish, and their portion with them.
2. The other world will abide for ever : for there men live eternally, and there-
fore it must be eternal. The seat of the blessed was never defiled by men's sin ;
therefore there will be no passing away of it, even when the visible heavens shall
be dissolved, which afford light and covering to sinful man : and the seat of the
384 A VIEW OF THIS
damned will abide for ever; for there the everlasting fire into which they are con-
demned will be kept on, and there is the place of everlasting punishment. So, in
a sort, it will be for evermore the world to come, in the sense that conservation is a
continued creation. Hence, -
(1.) Entering into the other world, men are at the end of their journey, at their
utmost point: they are no more travellers, but at their home, their everlasting home,
Rev. iii. 12; Luke xvi. 27. There is no coming back again into this world, and there
is no passing out of that world into another ; for there is none to succeed to it.
(2.) Whatever men's portion in that world is, it is sure; for it is an abiding world.
Men's portion in this world cannot be sure, because the world itself is not so: it is
like the foam on the water, which is liable to perishing, because the water itself is
still in motion : but that world is not liable to passing away ; happy are they who
lay up for themselves treasures in heaven. -
Lastly, Men are to receive, each one at length, his part for eternity. What we
get now in hand is but for time; worldly good things are so ; and even the grace
given now is the provision given for our journey through time, and is liable to many
changes, if not in itself as real inherent grace, yet as to the sense thereof as relative
grace : but when we come to the other world, we will receive what falls to our lot
for all the ages of eternity. Hence, -
1. Men's being is to be continued through eternity. God was from eternity, and
will be to eternity: we had indeed a beginning of our being, but it will have no end.
Our being in this world will soon come to an end ; but when we cease to be in this
world, we will be in the other. Though the body is mortal, the soul is immortal,
and will never cease to be. Death will dissolve the union betwixt soul and body;
but it will not touch the soul, to put an end to it. -
2. Our state in the other world will continue for ever as it is fixed and deter-
mined at death, Eccl. xi. 3. If we die in the favour of God, we will never lose it;
if we die out of it, we will never recover it; for our state in the other world will be
eternal. Now, if we be wrong, we may yet get right again ; but there, there is no
mending of our state. - -
3. Our great work now, then, must be to have a happy part secured for us there.
Were it believed that the moment is abiding us wherein we shall be set down in
an unalterable state, there could not be so little care about it to have it right.
But, alas ! the din of this world will not suffer the report from the other world to
take place with us.
II. I shall confirm the being of another world, a world to come, wherein men
shall receive their part for eternity. And to establish the notion of that world in
the general, consider,
First, There is an invisible world actually in being, namely, the world of spirits,
distinct from our visible world, Heb. i. 2; Col. i. 16. Invisible it is, not in respect
of the inhabitants thereof; for the saints that are there are “in light,” and even
the rich man in hell is said to see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom : but in respect of
us who are in this world, it is invisible. This is that other world into which we
say the souls of men do pass, going out of this world by death.
This is the world to come spoken of in the text ; of which heaven, the seat
of the blessed, is a part. For it is evident, that it is in heaven the losing saints
shall receive eternal life, even in the heaven that now is ; and that their heavenly
eternal life is not put off till the last day, Phil. i. 23; Luke xxiv. 51; 2 Cor. v. I.
The only difficulty is, how that world now in being can be called “the world to
come.” To which it is answered, that it is so called in respect of us, who have now
no part or place in it, as in this world, but at death are to get it. So that though,
in itself, it is come already, yet as to us it is to come. Further, - -
Secondly, That world will, at the end of time, be extended, to the comprehending
of “the new heavens and new earth” which will take place after the conflagration
of this world. That there will be a passing away, an end of this world, appears from
1 John ii. 17; a perishing of it, Psal, cii. 25, 26; and that it will be by fire,
2 Pet. iii. 10; and that God will create new heavens and earth upon the back of
that, verse 13, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” These will be a new world,
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 385
not belonging to this world, which then will be gone, but to the other world, the world
to come. And in respect of this addition, the other world is the world to come, which
is not now in being. And so the world to come will comprehend all, even that space
which this world now takes up. And thus the now invisible world will be enlarged,
like a house whose rooms are enlarged by taking down the partitions.
Thirdly, In that world there will be a quite new state of men and things;
1 John ii. 17, “The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth
the will of God abideth for ever;” Rev. xxi. 4, “God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
As is the difference betwixt men and their business on a journey, and when come
to their journey's end; so will the difference be of the state of men and things
then, from what they are now. The other world brings along with it another state,
and so constitutes a change which is our change by way of eminency, Job xiv. 14.
As all the changes we meet with in this world fall short of the change we
make when we come out of the belly into the light of this world; which would
give us the greatest surprise, had we the full use of reason then : So all the
changes we are acquainted with now, as from health to sickness, or from sickness
to health, &c., must needs, fall short of the change that we will undergo, entering
the other world. .*
Now, to evince the being of another world, a world to come, consider,
1. The scripture expressly mentions a world to come. So in our text: and Matt.
xii. 32, “Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to come ;” Eph. i. 21, “Far above all
principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.” What doubt, then, can
they entertain of it that believe the scriptures to be the word of God? I own, “the
world to come * is sometimes in scripture used for the state of the church under
the gospel; as Heb. ii. 5, “For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the
world to come, whereof we speak.” But it is not always so used ; Eph. i. 21, just
cited. And where it is so used, it is borrowed from the prophets of the Old Testa-
ment, who spoke of the gospel church under the notion of a new world, Isa. lxv.
17, to the end. But then, it must also be owned, that the prophets in such
passages had also the other world in view, and from thence borrowed their expres-
sions for the gospel-church, which still confirms the being of a world to come.
Hence Peter, (2 Epist. iii. 13, forecited,) proves it from Isa. lxv. 17, “For behold,
I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered,
nor come into mind.” And such compound senses of passages are usual with the
prophets; as Isa. xxvi. 19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body
shall they arise;” Hos. vi. 2, “After two days will he revive us ; in the third day
he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” So Rev. vi. 12, to the end, and
vii. 9, to the end. -
2. The scripture so speaks of the world we are in, as it supposes the being of
another. The scripture usually calls it, not simply, the world, but, this world ; as
James ii. 5; 1 John iii. 17; and iv. 17: “this present world,” 2 Tim. iv. 10;
Tit. ii. 12. Now, why should it be called “this world,” if there were not another
world? and “this present world,” if there were not a world to come 2 Yea, this and
the other world are expressly opposed, Luke xx, 34, 35; Eph. i. 21 ; “this time
and the world to come,” in the text; “this world and eternal life,” John xii. 25.
All which plainly declare, that there is another world than this.
3. There are beings who are not inhabitants of our world ; therefore there is a
world invisible to us, whereof they are inhabitants. The man Christ was in our
world for some time; but now is no more in it, John xvii. 11. But somewhere he
must be ; and it is plain he is gone out of this world into the other world to his
Father, John xiii. 1. There are angels good and bad, which belong not to our
world, as appears from their appearances and actings recorded in scripture: and
the denial of them by the Sadducees is condemned, Acts xxiii. 8. Therefore there
is another world they belong to. . . . t -
4. The nature of death and the immortality of the soul evince this point, Death
J C
386 A VIEW OF THIS
is a going out of this world, Psal. xxxix. ult, ; Job xiv. 2; John xiii. 1, not in re-
spect of our bodies, which are laid up in it, but in respect of our souls, that then
“return to God who gave” them. There must, then, be another world into which
they go. Death dissolves the union betwixt the soul and the body, and the body
into parts of which it is made up : but it cannot dissolve the soul into parts, which
is a simple spirit; but being loosed from the body, and leaving this world, there
must be another world that it is received into. This is plain from the parable,
Luke xvi.; where Lazarus, dying, is said to be carried into Abraham's bosom, and
the rich man, being dead and buried, is said to be in hell. - - I
5. It is evident that, in this world, it is generally best with the wicked, and wors
with the godly. Look abroad and see : into whose hands is the wealth, honour,
and ease of this world mostly given ? Have not the wicked the greatest share of
these by far 2 And are not adversity and various afflictions in this world, in a
special manner, the lot of the godly 2 1 Cor. xv. 19. Do not many wicked ones
prosper on unto the end, without any remarkable punishment before the world?
and many godly go with a bowed down back to the grave, without any remarkable
change into prosperity ? Now, consider withal the justice and holiness of God, his
goodness, wisdom, and love to his people. And thence you will be obliged to con-
clude, that there is another world, a world to come, wherein all odds shall be made
even ; wherein it shall be perfectly well with the righteous, and ill with the wick-
ed. It is inconsistent with the divine perfections, that it should be otherwise.
What wise or good governor will heap favours on ill men his enemies, and bear
hard on good men his friends, always 2 If he do it at a time, it must be for trial
only ; but it will not be always so. - - -
6. Conscience within men bears witness to this truth, that there is another world,
rewards and punishments after this life. How many good and wise men have suf-
fered death and most exquisite torments here, in the hope of happiness in another
world! Heb. xi. How many wicked and ungodly have been under the greatest ter-
rors, in the view and expectation of misery there ! These have seized men for crimes
the world knew not of, and men who have been in no hazard of punishment from
men. And so natural to man is this notion of another world, that there are few or
no nations on the earth, however barbarous, that have not had it. What is it men
are so afraid of at death, or in the view of death, but the state in another world 2
7. Wherefore did God make man capable of a happiness he never reaches in this
world? Šurely he made him for his own glory: but how little glory, how much
dishonour has he by him here ! Surely God made not man in vain: therefore
there is another world, where God will have his glory of man, and the lovers of
God will reach the happiness they are capable of Consider, . . .
(1.) All men desire immortality, or an eternal being in a happy state. This is
so woven into our very nature, that we can never absolutely put it away from us,
but in every state of man it has been with him: therefore it is from God, the
author of nature. Yet it is evident, this cannot be obtained here ; nevertheless
it is not in vain, for that consists not with the goodness of God that it should be so;
therefore there is another world in which it may be satisfied. r :
(2.) Where the grace of God has touched the heart, there is framed, by the
Spirit, an earnest desire of the perfect enjoyment and glorifying of God, Rom. viii.
23 ; 2 Cor. v. 2. These are not to be obtained in this world: therefore there is
another world in which they shall; for it cannot be that God would create such an
appetite after perfection in his saints never to be satisfied. The work of grace is
carried on in the soul by degrees, through the Spirit; and it cannot be that God
will leave his work imperfect. It is not perfected here ; therefore there is another
world where it will be perfected, where they shall perfectly enjoy and glorify God.
(3.) Where grace reaches not now, men continue till death in a state of sin, dis-
honouring God: therefore there is another world in which God will have his glory
of such men ; for God cannot fall short of his end in making them. Now, there is
no beginning of a work of grace after death, Eccl. xi. 3, that these should glorify
him actively, in a state of happiness, there; therefore they shall glorify him there
passively, in a state of misery. - -
(4.) The dignity of our nature, as made rational souls, quite above the beasts
AND THE OTHER WORLD, 387
that perish, akin to the angelical tribe, yea, made after God's own image at first ;
must needs bear us in hand,” that, as we consist of one part not of the nature of
the earth, but a spiritual substance, so we are not to perish with the earth, but will
at length, since we are not to stay here, be inhabitants of another world.
8. There are not wanting emblems of another world after this, to teach us it by
the eye, as well as by the ear. There was a pure and undefiled world that Adam
was brought into, wherein was paradise, by which heaven is expressed in scripture.
This quickly went out of sight. And a defiled, sinful, miserable world succeeded,
much like what it is now, that lasted long. That old world was destroyed by the
waters of the flood, and a new world succeeded to it thereafter. An emblem of the
destroying of this by fire, and another world coming in its room. There was the
state of the world under the law; and the state thereof under the gospel, that was
long prophesied of, under the name of “the world to come,” before it came. And
even the constant revolutions of winter and summer, night and day, may serve for
memorials of the great change of this world, with another world to come.
9. The word cannot be fulfilled if there be not a world to come ; for sure, in
many parts thereof, it is not fully accomplished in this world. Now, it is more
sure than heaven and earth, and must be completely fulfilled; and therefore, there
is a world to come in which it must be so, that the veracity of God may be entire.
(1.) The promises of the word are far from being fully accomplished in this
world; and therefore they who, by faith, betake themselves to them for their por-
tion, must not only live in faith, but die in faith, Heb. xi. 13. In this world there
is a begun accomplishment of them; but certain it is, that God's people have
always vastly more in hope than in hand, 1 Cor. ii. 9. But their faith and hope
should be vain, were there not a world to come.
(2.) The threatenings of the word are not fully accomplished in this world neither.
Many ungodly men live and die in peace, as far as the world can discern, Job xxi.
13; Psal. lxxiii. 3, 4. Yet most terrible things are denounced against them in
the word: and that they are not accomplished in this world is an infallible proof
that there is another world in which they shall.
A description of the other world.
III. Having evinced the being of another world, a world to come, we shall now
essay to give some view of that world. And here we are much in the dark, know-
ing but very little of the subject; and therefore it is a very scanty view we can
pretend to give of it. The reasons hereof are: -
1st, We are, while in this body, creatures of sense, and much of the knowledge we
have arises from our senses: but thither our senses cannot reach. We see, and
hear, and feel much of this world lying in wickedness, whereby we are in a capacity
to judge thereof: but in respect of these our senses, and all other, that world is as
it were not at all; so that those who are immersed in sense, void of faith, heed not
that world. There are loud songs of joy and praise among the saints in that world,
and howlings among the damned there ; but listen we as we will, we can hear
neither. There is shining glory in one part of it, and darkness and misery in the
other; but neither of them can our eyes perceive. -
2dly, The communication betwixt our world and it is stopped beyond the power
of men to open it. Men have opened a communication betwixt us and the most
remote parts of this world: they have found means to pass the vast oceans between
them and us; to go to them that dwell in the utmost parts, and to return, and
give us descriptions of their part of the world, and the manner of the inhabitants.
But the invisible world remains yet the unknown land to us, and will do so to the
end. There is a passage to it, but not at our will neither; but there is no passage
back again to us. All of us have friends and acquaintance there before us, but no
more communication betwixt them and us than others. -
3dly, Though there have been apparitions of inhabitants of that worki, unto some
of our world; both of good angels and of Saints, (Matt. xxvii. 53,) and of evil angels,
º * i. e. prove to us.—ED.
388 A VIEW OF THIS
(Matt. iv.) yet it is observable, that these were quite extraordinary, and happened
but to very few ; that men are very unable to bear the sight even of good angels,
or to converse with them, Dan. viii. 17, 18; and that the accounts they have
brought concerned men's duty, or events to befall in this world, and not to give
them descriptions of the other world whence they came. And if, at any time, evil
spirits have offered reports of that kind, they cannot be depended on ; for the devil
is “a liar, and the father of it,” John viii. 44. And apparitions of the dead are
very suspicious; and it is like Satan offers in that kind many illusions, as is thought
he did in the case of the apparition of Samuel, 1 Sam. xxviii.
4thly, The Lord has made the revelations concerning the other world but spar-
ingly in the word, from whence we get our notices of it. There is as much there
discovered about it, as is necessary for us to know for our salvation. The happi-
ness of the inhabitants of one part of it, and the misery of the other, are, in the
general, plainly laid before us, to stir us up to our duty, to see timely how to be
right posted there: but certainly there is a veil drawn over many particulars con-
cerning it, which we will never be able while here to draw by, 1 Kings x. 7. Be-
sides, we are slow of understanding what is revealed about it.
Lastly, There is, indeed, a disproportion between our present faculties, and the
clear and distinct notions of the other world. As to heaven's happiness, there is a
plain and pointed testimony; 1 Cor. ii. 9, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him.” The eye sees many things that the hands cannot reach;
the ear hears more than the eye sees ; but the heart conceives more than is either
seen or heard, yet cannot reach that. The same may be said of the misery
of hell, it is beyond our conception. When Paul was caught up to the third hea-
ven, he “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful [marg. possible] for a
man to utter,” 2 Cor. xii. 4. An evidence hereof is, that the notices given us of
the other world, are much in the way of similitudes taken from things we are ac-
quainted with, as heaven a glorious city, hell a burning lake. Our Lord gives the
reason.; John iii, 12, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how
shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things 2" So our notions of these things
are like those of children of what they never saw, 1 Cor. xiii. 11, 12.
Wherefore the little I can or will adventure to say on that world, shall be com-
prised in a few heads: -
First, The parts of the other world.
Secondly, The inhabitants of it.
Thirdly, The passage into it.
Fourthly, The state of men in it.
Of the parts of the other world.
That vast world is, according to the scripture, divided into two, and but two
parts; heaven the seat of the blessed, and hell the seat of the damned. A pur-
gatory, or place of a middle state between these, there is none : for scripture men-
tions but two places, into one of which souls separated from their bodies do pass,
Luke xvi. 22, 23. And accordingly, there are but two ways, the one to life, the
other to destruction, Matt. vii. 13, 14. Besides, the sins of believers are fully
purged away by the blood of Christ, and the scripture knows no other purgative of
sin, 1 John i. 7 ; Heb. x. 14, 17. Unbelievers die in their sins without hope,
Prov. xiv. 32. The saints are happy immediately after death, Rev. xiv. 13. There-
fore Paul desired to be dissolved, Phil. i. 23: “For we know,” says he, “that if
our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” 2 Cor. v. 1. w
I shall speak a word of these two parts.
1. The one part of the other world is heaven, the empyreal heaven, the seat of the
blessed. Concerning which, under the guidance of Scripture-light, we may consider
three things of it as a part of the other world.
(1.) What it is; for that it is can be refused by none who own the scripture, and
the being of another world. ... •
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 389
i. It is a real definite place. I think they refine too much on the scripture ex-
pression that deny a local heaven, and confine it to the notion of a state. Our Lord
expressly calls it a place; John xiv. 2, “In my Father's house are many mansions;
if it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you.” And the
body of Christ is contained in it, Acts iii. 21; and the bodies of some saints, Enoch
and Elias, are already in it; and the bodies of all the elect shall be in it: and bodies
must needs be circumscribed in a place.
It is a definite place; and not everywhere where God is. It is not on earth, for
earth and heaven are opposed, Psal. cxv. 16; Col. iii. 1. And betwixt it and hell
a gulf is fixed, that it reaches not thither, Luke xvi. 26. And though finite
spirits that are perfect are in it, yet it cannot contain God, who is not only omni-
present, but immense, 1 Kings viii. 27; therefore it is a place that hath its bounds.
Hence,
ii. It is a created thing; for it is the throne of God, Isa. lxvi. 1; his house and
dwelling, John xiv. 2.; therefore is not God, but created by him ; since whatso-
ever is is either the Creator, or a creature. The scripture is express, that God
made it; Heb. xi. 10, “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God.” And whereas it is said to be “not made with hands,”
(2 Cor. v. 1; Heb. ix. 24,) that denies it only to be made by men, as houses here
are, and the tabernacle was.
Moreover, it was created within the six days, and therefore is not to be imagined
to have been long before this world, much less from everlasting, Exod. xx. 11. No ;
but it was created the first day, and was absolutely the first thing that was created,
Gen. i. 1. Accordingly, the inhabitants thereof, the angels, created with it, are
said to have shouted at laying the foundation of the earth, Job xxxviii. 4, 7. Agree-
ably to all which it is said to have been “prepared from the foundation of the world,”
Matt. xxv. 34.
(2.) Where it is. As to this point, the situation thereof, the scripture is plain
in two things:
i. That it is upward from us who are in this visible world. For it is the dwell-
ing of God, and where the man Christ hath his seat; and that is on high ; Psal.
cxiii. 5, “Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high 2’’ Heb. i. 3,
“When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high ;” Col. iii. 1, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Christ coming
thence into our world at first, is said to come down from it, John iii. 13; and at his
second coming, he will descend from it, and be met by the saints in the air, 1 Thess.
iv. 16, 17. So, when he went to it after his resurrection, he is said to have been
carried up into it, Luke xxiv. 51; taken up, gone up, a cloud receiving him out of
the disciples’ sight, Acts i. 9, 10.
ii. That it is above all the visible heavens, sun, moon, and stars. For the heaven
which is the seat of the blessed is the same heaven where the man Christ is, John
xvii. 24, and xiv. 3: therefore they are said to be “with Christ,” Phil. i. 23;
“with the Lord,” 1 Thess, iv. 17. But the place where Christ is is above and far
above all the visible heavens, Eph. iv. 10. Therefore it is above them all. Hence
the scripture calls it, “the third heaven,” 2 Cor. xii. 2. It speaks of a threefold
heaven. (1.) The airy heaven, wherein the clouds are, (Gen. vii. 11,) and the
fowls fly, Gen. i. 20; hence called, “the clouds of heaven,” and the “fowls of hea-
ven.” (2.) The starry heaven, where are the sun, moon, and stars, Gen. i. 14,
16; called, therefore, “the host of heaven,” Deut. xvii. 3. (3.) The third heaven
above all these, which is the seat of the blessed.
(3.) What sort of a place it is, as to the qualities thereof. A particular descrip-
tion thereof is beyond the reach of mortals, 1 Cor. ii. 9. It is observable, that
Moses does no more but mention it, (Gen. i.,) and then proceeds to the description
of the earth and visible heavens, their parts, and how they were created; thus draw-
ing a veil over the highest heavens, not to be removed till we come there. Only
Some general notices of it appear through the veil, in the light of the word, which
we shall obsorve. It is,
i. A holy place, Psal. xv. 1: the holy of holies, or the holiest of all, Heb, ix. 8;
3.
390 A VIEW OF THIS
in allusion to the place in the tabernacle and temple so called. This lower world
is the open court, as it were ; the starry heaven the holy place ; but the third
heaven, the holy of holies, into which Christ at his ascension as our High Priest is
entered, (Heb. ix. 12,) and has opened the entry into it for us also, chap. x. 19. .
Here this world lies in wickedness, there the other world shines in holiness.
Here is no clean thing, there is no unclean thing, Rev. xxi. 27. It is “the holy
Jerusalem,” verse 10. There is nothing there but what is holy, perfectly holy:
even “the spirits of just men” must be “made perfect,” ere they enter there; and
for others, they can never breathe the air of that holy land, but are kept without,
chap. xxii. 15.
ii. A most lightsome place. It is all light, Col. i. 12. The sun in his bright-
ness makes this world pleasant; but then, all looks awful and gloomy again in
the night, and there is always night in some place of it. But there is “no night,”
no darkness, “there,” Rev. xxi. 25. The seat of the blessed enjoys an eternal
day; for the light thereof is not made by Sun and moon circling about it, as
here: they would be as needless there, as the lighting of a farthing candle in
the brightest Sunshine here. And such light it is, as mortal eyes cannot behold,
1 Tim. vi. 16.
iii. A most glorious place, Psal. lxxiii. 25. How glorious would a king's palace
on earth, with all its rich furniture, appear to us! But should all the glory of all
the palaces on earth be brought together into one, how much more would that appear
glorious ! And we are allowed that thought to help us to conceive of heaven; Rev.
xxi. 24, “The kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.” For it
is the palace of the King of kings, (Psal. xlv. 15,) where he keeps his court. Nay,
it is his throne; Isa. lxvi. 1, “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and
the earth is my footstool.” How glorious must that throne be, that has such a foot-
stool | So glorious that it would absolutely confound us mortals with its dazzling
glory and splendour, Job xxvi. 9.
iv. A most rich place. We know the riches of far countries, by the rich things
brought out of them to our country: now, every valuable thing comes from thence;
James i. 17, “Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights.” Every inhabitant there is a king, with a crown
on his head, a sceptre in his hand, and royal treasures to support his dignity: for
heaven is a “crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the
honourable of the earth,” to allude to Isa. xxiii. 8. There the “gates are of pearl,
and the street of pure gold,” Rev. xxi. 21. It is rich in its affording all things within
itself; verse 7, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his
God, and he shall be my son.”
v. A most pleasant place. How can it be otherwise, considering the light, glory,
and riches, that must needs make it a most beautiful and lovely place 2 Therefore
it is called “paradise,” 2 Cor. xii. 4. There a river of pleasures runs, enough to
satisfy all the inhabitants, Psal. xxxvi. 8; but no surfeiting, for there are no dreggy
pleasures there. These we mortals can have no distinct notion of ; the best guess
to be made of them is, by the foretastes of heaven in the joy of the Holy Ghost,
sometimes afforded believers.
vi. A most spacious place; John xiv. 2, “In my Father's house are many man-
sions.” It is shown us not only under the notion of a large house, but of a country,
yea, kingdom. If the airy heaven is more spacious than our earth which it sur-
rounds, and the starry heaven than the airy heaven, what can we think of the third
heaven that is above them all? Being a real place, it cannot be immense * indeed;
it is measurable ; but we find it is measured by an angel, not by a man, Rev. xxi.
9, 15. And how can it be otherwise than of a vast space that is to be the happy
abode of all the saints with the angels, containing the bodies of all saints that have
been, or shall be to the end of the world?
vii. A place liable to no shock or change. The apostle intimates to us, that it is
a “continuing city,” (Heb. xiii. 14,) that will stand when all this world is laid in
ashes; “a city that hath foundations,” (chap. xi. 10,) viz., which shall never be
* i. e. immeasurable.—-ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 391
overturned; “a kingdom that cannot be moved,” (Heb. xii. 28,) even when the
visible heavens and earth shall be shaken, so as to be shaken all asunder. Therefore
it is eternal,” 2 Cor. v. 1.
Inference 1. Let God's people be put to suffer for him what they will, they can
never be losers at his hand; Heb. xi. 6, “God is not ashamed to be called their
God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” Suppose they be turned out of house
and hold; pinched with cold, hunger, thirst, and nakedness; loaded with reproach;
suffer the most exquisite torments unto death; they are not losers at his hand: he
may well put them to all these, and yet maintain and show his special love to them,
having such a place provided for them in the other world, where all will be abun-
dantly made up. And they had need of much here that are like to have no part
there: for have what they will, it is impossible it can make up their loss.
Inf. 2. Lift your eyes, O sinners, from off all worldly glory, and stay your pur-
suit of it; there is a glory of heaven in the view of which it would all disappear,
like as the stars do at the rising of the sun. Alas! the glory that takes with most
of us, is that which Laban's sons so highly esteemed, Gen. xxxi. 1; a great stock,
riches, and wealth : they see no glory so attractive as that. But if ye are the
children of God, the glory of the city above will darken it in your eyes. O set
your eyes and hearts on that glorious city, Heb. xi. 10. The earth, in its most
beautiful spots, is the work of God's hands; but the visible heavens, of his fingers,
Psalm viii. 3: but of the seat of the blessed he is the artist, (Heb. xi. 10. Gr.) as
if the Omnipotent had used a peculiar art in making of that.
Inf. 3. See the necessity of holiness; Heb. xii. 14, “Without holiness no man
shall see the Lord;” Psal. xv. 1, “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle 2 who
shall dwell in thy holy hill?” The unholy may get room in this world, and the
chief rooms; but there is no room for them in the other world but without the gates
of heaven, in outer darkness. If there be no holiness here, there will be no happi-
ness hereafter ; the dogs and swine come not into that holy place.
Inf. 4. How inexpressibly happy shall they be that get thither, to enjoy the
light there ; behold the glory, possess the riches, drink of the refined pleasures;
walk at liberty in that spacious place ; and enter into happiness there, where there
is no change | The faith of this could not miss, if lively, to cause them sing the
triumph before the victory.
Inf. 5. What an unspeakable loss must the loss of heaven be If there were no
more for hell, it might be most heavy. So great as heaven's happiness is, so great
will their loss be who come short of it.
2. The other part of the other world is hell, the seat of the damned. Concern-
ing which, considered as a part of the other world, we shall, under the guidance of
scripture-light, inquire into three things.
(1.) What it is. That there is a hell as well as a heaven one who believes the
Scripture cannot doubt. As to what it is, we say,
i. It is a real definite place also. There is a local hell, as well as heaven. The
scripture expressly calls it a place; Acts i. 25, “that he,” namely Judas, “might
go to his own place.” And it hath its bounds, whereby it is separated from heaven,
Luke xvi. 26. There the spirits of wicked men, separated from their bodies, are
detained as in a prison, 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. And there their bodies, being reunited
to their souls at the last day, will be shut up, Matt. xxv. 41.
ii. Hence it is a created thing also, ibid. But when it was created I cannot say,
no express mention being made of it by Moses in the history of the creation. Only
it is “ of old,” Isa. xxx. ult. And whereas it is evident that the angels were fallen
very early, and, I think, by the first day of man's creation ; they found it ready for
them upon their sinning, 2 Pet. ii. 4. This concludes it to have been made within
the six days.
(2.) Where it is. This question we cannot pretend to satisfy, the scripture not
being clear in this point. It is our business to know how to escape it, rather than
to dispute where it is. Two things in the general seem plain about it:
i. That it is without the boundaries of the heaven which is the seat of the blessed.
Hence it is called “outer darkness,” Matt. viii. 12. It is without the gates of the
392 A VIEW OF THIS
holy city, (Rev. xxii. 14, 15,) the place of God's glorious presence, as Cain was
cast out from his presence, 2 Thess. i. 9.
ii. That it is down or beneath, in respect of heaven, the seat of the blessed ; for
so the scripture still speaks of it as below. Capernaum, exalted to heaven, was
to be “brought down to hell,” Matt. xi. 23; the fallen angels were “cast down ''
into it, 2 Pet. ii. 4. “The way of life is above to the wise,” says Solomon, “that
he may depart from hell beneath,” Prov. xv. 24. And says God, “A fire is kindled
in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell,” Deut. xxxii. 22. Accordingly
it is called “the depth,” Luke viii. 31; “the bottomless pit,” Rev. ix. 1, the mo-
tion from which is ascending or coming up, chap. xi. 7.
Where it is most particularly, I think the scripture doth not clearly show. It
is certain it is, be it where it will.
. (3.) What sort of a place it is, as to the qualities thereof.
i. It is an unholy and unclean place, as much as any place can be so. There
meet together all the dregs of the creation, persons and things; sin and all the effects
thereof, with the sinners, Rev. xx. 14, 15. Now there is much of that unclean-
ness upon the earth ; but the earth will be purged and purified at length, and all
gathered together there.
ii. It is a place of horrible darkness, called, therefore, “outer darkness,” Matt.
viii. 12. Light is sweet: but it is “the land of darkness, as darkness itself:” there
is “ the blackness of darkness,” Jude 13; “chains of darkness,” 2 Pet. ii. 4, where
I think there is an allusion to the Egyptian darkness, Exod. x. 22, 23 ; and “the
mist of darkness,” 2 Pet. ii. 17. No sun, moon, nor star-light appear there ; no
candle shines there : and whatever fire is there, it is scorching heat without light,
for those who, having the light, chose to walk in darkness.
iii. It is a most dismal and melancholy place ; a place of “weeping, and wailing,
and gnashing of teeth,” Luke xiii. 28. Nothing pleasant is to be found there ; no
pleasures of the mind, no pleasures of sense are there. It is a lake, yet there is
not a drop of water in that lake to cool the tongue ; it is a lake of fire and brim-
stone. It is a pit, a bottomless pit. What heart can conceive the horror of such
a place, or what dreary place or dungeon in the world can be a sufficient emblem
of it 2 -
iv. It is a “place of torment,” Luke xvi. 24: it is therefore represented by
Tophet, or the valley of Hinnom, from whence it hath its name in the New Testa-
ment ; in which place the idolaters burnt their children in the fire, and beat drums
that they might not hear their shrieks. There the damned find themselves gnawn
with the worm that never dies, scorched with the fire that is never quenched.
There men pay dear for the pleasures of sin which they sometimes swam in ; being
punished from the presence of the Lord. -
v. It is a fast and firm place, whence there is no escaping. It is God’s prison-
housé, where he keeps his criminals in chains till “the judgment of the great day,”
1 Pet, iii. 19, and 2 Pet. ii. 14. There is a gulf fixed that none can pass, to get
out of that place into the seat of the blessed : but when one is once there, no
sleight nor might can obtain liberty any more. -
vi. It is an everlasting place. Whether there may be any change of it by the
general conflagration or not, we do not know : but certain it is, that if it be, it will
be to the worse, and hell shall be for ever as well as heaven, for the fire there will
be “everlasting,” Matt. xxv. 41, and the chains of darkness there are “everlast-
ing,” Jude 6. There “the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched :” therefore
the place where they shall be or are, is everlasting. .
Inference 1. God is a just God, and a most dreadful hater and avenger of sin,
Hab, i. 13. He has given incontestable evidences of it in this world: but in the
other world he gives such evidence as carries off all doubt of it from the sinner.
As, looking up into heaven, the seat of the blessed, you may see God's love to holi-
ness ; so, looking down to hell, the seat and place of the damned, you may see
what “fiery indignation” he has against sin. How keen must that hatred of it be
in him who has prepared such a place for the punishment of it ! ... -
Inf. 2. God may well suffer sinners to pass unpunished and prosper for a while,
without any the least imputation on his holiness and justice. For he sees the sin-
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 393
ner's day is coming, the place is prepared where his holiness and justice will be suf-
ficiently vindicated. Indeed, if there were no other world than this, or no hell in the
other world for sinners, justice would necessarily require that they should be punished
in this life. But since there is a reckoning with them on the other side, the accounts
may lie dormant while they are here, with safety of justice.
Inf. 3. The pleasures and profits of sin are dear-bought, in whatever measure
any do enjoy them ; Matt. xvi. 26, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain
the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?” It is absolutely impossible that ever any thing gained here should be
able to quit the cost of such a lodging after death. If one should be kept in
greatest extremity during this life, heaven would make up all : but if all the imagin-
able pleasures and profits of this world should be heaped together upon one, they
could never be a sufficient hire for going to such a place.
Inf. 4. The misery of the damned is inexpressible, but certainly it is little believed.
O what must the case of those be, whose unholy lives have now lodged them in that
unclean place How will they take with “the blackness of darkness” there !
How can they bear in that dismal place endure the torments there, seeing no
way to escape . How must it cut them, to think that there they must be for ever!
Yet how unconcerned are we, that we go not into that place of torment
These are the two parts of the other world, heaven and hell. And between them
there is a great gulf, impassable, fixed, Luke xvi. 26. The nature of it we know
not, further than that thereby all passage betwixt the two parts of the other world
is stopped. Betwixt this world and the other there is a passage: but betwixt the
parts of the other world there is none, and there never will be any, for it is fixed.
So the inhabitants of each part are unalterably seated, that they cannot remove
from the one to the other for ever ; which makes the happiness of the one, and
the misery of the other, eternal.
These are the present parts of the other world. There is another part of it
which is future, and will be added thereto after the last judgment, viz. the new
heavens and the new earth, to be made by the omnipotent hand, after the general
conflagration ; Isa. lxv. 17, “Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth ;”
2 Pet. iii. 12, 13, “We, according to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;” Rev. xxi. 1, “And I saw a new heaven,
and a new earth.” Of the nature and use of these we know very little. Only,
1st, They will be an appurtenance of heaven, the seat of the blessed, 2 Pet. iii.
13. As this world now is an appurtenance of hell, as being a world lying in
wickedness; so that will be an appurtenance of heaven, as an inferior world
“wherein dwelleth righteousness.” It will be the court of the temple above, having
such a relation to heaven as the court of Israel and the court of the priests to the
temple-house ; Isa. lxvi. 22, “The new heavens, and the new earth, which I will
make, shall remain before me, (Heb. at my face,) saith the Lord.” So did the
court ; Exod. xxix. 42, “This shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your
generations, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord :
where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee;” 2 Chron. i. 6, “And Solomon
went up thither to the brazen altar before the Lord, which was at the tabernacle of
the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt-offerings upon it.”
2dly, They will be a very glorious heaven and earth, far more glorious than those
that now we have. This is intimated by the newness of them. The heavens and
earth that now are are like an old garment, (Psal. cii. 26,) Sullied and rent: but
they will be splendid and beautiful as a new one. The day of their creation is the
day of “restoration of all things,” viz, into their primitive glory and splendour, Acts
iii. 21 ; and that with such an advantage, that “the former shall not be remem-
bered,” in respect of the surpassing glory, Isa. lxv. 17.
3dly, They will be pure and incorrupt; Rom. viii. 21, “The creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the
children of God.” There will be no noisome vapour there; nothing offensive to the
eye, smell, or ear, or touch: but all will be grateful to the senses of glorified bodies;
Rev. xxi. 4, 5, “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying; neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he
3 D
394 A VIEW OF THIS
that sat upon the throne, said, Behold, I make all things new.” All the effects of
sin on the creature shall be purged away, and, as it were, swept off into the lake of
fire, Rev. xx. 14. That earth will be holy ground, in a more strict sense than the
ground of the temple of Jersualem was ; nothing to purge away there. Compare
Rev. xvi. 16, 19.
4thly, They will belong to the saints, without any partnership of the wicked in
them; 2 Pet. iii. 13, “We look.for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness.” The wicked's heaven and earth will then be away, consumed with
fire; and those of the godly succeed, wherein they can have no part with them.
The dominion over the creatures lost by Adam, and purchased again for the Saints
by Christ, is not fully restored in this life; but it is promised, and shall then be re-
stored in the other world. Abraham had the promise of being “heir of the world,”
Rom. iv. 13; and the meek have the promise of inheriting the earth, (Matt. v. 5,)
and that alone and in profound peace, Psal. xxxvii. 9–11, which hath not its full
accomplishment but in the new earth.
5thly, They will be of use for the glory of God, and the delight of the saints.
These were the design and end of the first heavens and earth, which were made all
very good: but that design of them was marred by sin. Therefore, in “the
restitution of all things,” that design shall take,” Rom. viii. 20, 21. God will
set them up as monuments of his glory; looking-glasses of his power, wisdom and
goodness. They are so now, Psal. xix. 1; but, by reason of our blindness, the
end is not obtained: but then the eyes of the saints shall be cleared, and the
looking-glass brightened; and so the Creator shall have his glory. And they will
serve for the delight of the saints; Isa. lxv. 17, 18, “Behold, I create new heavens,
and a new earth : and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create : for behold, I create
Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” God himself will be their chief de-
light, with the glory of the highest heavens; but the new heavens and earth will
be their secondary delight.
And none must think that upon this there must be an interruption of their hea-
venly joy and happiness; for suppose them to be sometimes bodily on the new earth,
(which 2 Pet. iii. 13, seems to favour,) it will be but as coming to their country-
seat, and they will still have the glorious presence of God with them, for the new
heavens and earth shall “stand at his face,” (Isa. lxvi. 22, Heb.) as the court of
the temple did. There will be no withholding the face of his throne there, as now,
Job xxvi. 9.
Lastly, They will remain for ever, Isa. lxvi. 22. That glorious fabric shall stand
for ever: it will never wax old ; it shall never be shaken in the least, nor taken
down. A beginning it will have, but no end. There will be no deluge nor confla-
gration of the new heavens and earth.
Inference 1. As we go through this world towards the other, there is great need
to take heed that we do not mistake our way, taking the way to hell instead of the
way to heaven. For wherever our way lands us, there we are fixed. If one, in-
stead of going to one city, should mistake his way and go to another, he, seeing his
mistake, might go out of the wrong way to the right one, and so retrieve his error:
but when one once is landed in hell, there is no retrieving of that mistake, there is
no getting over the gulf betwixt it and heaven.
Inf. 2. The unhinging of the creation will be remedied, and the abused creatures
will be delivered and restored to their primitive end. Ungodly men abuse these
visible heavens and earth to the dishonour of God, , and service of their lusts;
whereby the creation groans under them. But God will put an end to that, de-
stroying his abused and polluted fabric ; and rear up a new one, where no abuse
can have place for ever, but God shall be glorified.
Inf. 3. They make more haste than good speed that set their hearts on this
earth to inherit it. For whatever speed they come therein, their inheritance will
be burned up, it will not last: the earth that will last, where one may make a sure
purchase, belongs to the World to come, and particularly to heaven, and will be the
* i.e. shall be realized.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 395
inheritance of the saints only; Psal. xxxvii. 9, “For evil-doers shall be cut off:
but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.”. Therefore it is
undoubtedly better to wait for our part by faith, than to press for it in hand here.
Inf. 4. God’s people have no reason to grudge and be uneasy, however small a
portion they have of this earth; nor yet to despond on the view of the wickedness
done upon it. For there is a new heaven and earth coming more glorious than
this, in which, they shall not be hampered, but enjoy it all with all freedom as the
lords of it. And there shall be no sin nor disorder in it, no injustice or oppression,
no ill neighbourhood; nothing but righteousness dwelling there.
Inf. 5. Hell will be a close prison, there will be no getting out of it for ever.
There is an impassable gulf betwixt heaven and it; the new heavens and earth will
be an appurtenance of heaven; and therefore the prisoners there can no more get
out to the new earth, than to the highest heaven. Nay, neither devils nor men
will be able to come from thence to set a foot upon that earth, however they range
through this. So losing heaven, they will lose the earth too.
Thus far of the parts of the other world.
Of the inhabitants of the other world.
We have seen the parts of the other world, let us now consider the inhabitants
of these parts. And,
1. The inhabitants of the upper part, namely, heaven. These are,
(1.) God himself, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Matt. vi. 9. God is every-
where present, and immense: but there he is as a king in his palace, on his throne.
There he manifests his glory, in a manner inconceivable to us mortals; and, by his
glorious presence, makes the happiness of the creatures who, being there, see his
face. How glorious is a palace when the king is in it with his court! In heaven
the great King of the world keeps his court.
(2.) The man Christ. He was sometime an inhabitant of our world, and when
he was in it had not where to lay his head: now he is there, and will be there to
the end of the world, Acts iii. 21, sitting on the right hand of God, as the heir of
all things. And there he will be for evermore, 1 Thess. iv. 17. He is there in
inconceivable glory, even of his blessed body, Phil. iii. 21. In his transfiguration
on earth, “his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light,”
Matt. xvii. 2. How gloriously must it then shine in heaven
(3.) The holy angels, Matt. xxiv. 36. These are glorious creatures, natives of
the place, pure spirits that never sinned, waiting about the throne, ready to execute
the commands of God and Christ their head. They are of a nature superior to
man: but full they are of love and good-will to us; witness their song (Luke ii.
14.) at our Saviour's birth; and our nature is exalted above theirs in Christ, so
that they are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, Heb. i. ult. Their num-
ber we know not; but there must needs be vast numbers of them, considering the
scripture-account, (Dan. vii. 10,) even such as is innumerable to us in this state,
Heb. xii. 22. See Matt. xxvi. 53.
(4.) The souls of all departed saints are there, now perfected, Heb. xii. 23.
There are the blessed souls of all the holy patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, and
of all the godly that have been in the world since the beginning; thither all the
godly that now are in the world, yea, and all that shall be to the end of the world,
shall certainly go and dwell for ever. Enoch and Elias are there, soul and body,
and so shall all the Saints be after the last judgment, Shining in glory, as the stars
of the firmament.
2. The inhabitants of the lower part of the other world, viz. hell. These are:
(1.) The devil and his angels, Matt. xxv. 41; all of them with their prince, called
“the prince of the devils,” chap. xii. 24; fallen angels, 2 Pet. ii. 4. These are
most wicked and unclean spirits: enemies to God and Christ, Matt. xiii. 39; 2 Cor.
vi. 15; and to mankind, therefore called Satan, or an adversary : subtile as a
serpent and mischievous, false and deceiving, malicious and cruel, murderers and
roaring lions, desperate without hope for ever. The number of them is without
question vast, a legion of them being in one man, Luke viii. 30. They are not so
396 A VIEW OF THIS
fixed to their eternal abode as yet but that this world is full of them, so as no man
wants a tempter carrying his hell about with him ; but they will be fixed at length
in their place, which they themselves are sure of, Luke viii. 31 ; James ii. 19.
(2.) The souls of the wicked departed, Luke xvi. 23. There is their habitation,
as of prisoners in a pit, 1 Pet. iii. 19. These also are wicked spirits, having been
by death driven away in their wickedness; and now absolutely desperate, without
the least gleam of hope ; from which must needs issue their arriving there at a
height of wickedness agreeable to their state. Their number also is vast, being all
that have lived and died in their natural state from the beginning of the world;
and will be increased with all that shall so live and die to the end. -
Inference 1. Heaven's happiness must needs be unspeakable, in respect of the
society there. The saints going thither shall no more be in a lonely condition, but
have the pleasant society of other saints perfected; holy angels, the man Christ,
and God himself. The society of saints here is very comfortable; how much more
the general assembly of them in heaven! There are the angels, the courtiers of the
great King; burning with love to God, and warm love to the Saints. Yea, there is
“the tabernacle of God with men,” Rev. xxi. 3.
Inf. 2. Hell's horror must be unspeakable also, in regard of the society there.
The appearance of one evil spirit now strikes the children of men with terror: but
who can conceive the horror of being cast into one prison with the damned crew,
to hear the hissing of these serpents, the roarings of these devouring lions, the
“weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth” of the wicked sunk in despair, and that
for ever ! -
Inf. 3. The two parties, now wearied of one another, will be fairly parted in the
other world, never to come together again. The godly are weary of the society of
the wicked. The psalmist finds himself as dwelling in Mesech and Kedar, Psal.
cxx. 5; “among lions; among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men,
whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword,” Psal.
lvii. 4; and therefore wishes for wings to flee away from them ; Psal. lv. 6, “O
that I had wings like a dove for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” Death
will give these wings to them, that will carry them away quite from among
them. Jeremiah desired a lodge in the wilderness, that he might leave his people:
but now he has got a lodging in heaven, where he can no more be uneasy from
them, Jer. ix. 2.
The wicked are weary of the society of the godly: they desire it not, they are
hampered with it, it is a burden to them. They will be quit of it in the other world,
where they will see their faces no more, but afar off in Abraham's bosom, and at
the last day, in the air, on Christ's right hand. The unpassable gulf will be be
tween them and them there for ever. -
Inf. 4. True lovers of the saints and holy society will be satisfied at length; and
the lovers of the company of the ungodly will get their heart's fill of it. There is
great stress laid upon our love of the godly for their godliness, Christians for
Christ's sake; 1 John iii. 14, “We know that we have passed from death unto
life, because we love the brethren.” Such will never get enough of their society
here : but there they shall be led into an unmixed society of Saints, where is not
one wicked person, not one sinner; and herewith they should now comfort them-
selves, while they “dwell in the tents of Kedar.” There is great stress also laid
on the love of ill company; Prov. xiii. 20,—“but a companion of fools shall be
destroyed.” Such will get a fill of it when they come to the other world, to the
society wherein is not one gracious person; when they shall be bundled together
in punishment with those with whom they have been bundled together in sin,
Matt. xiii. 30. - -
Inf. 5. As ye would choose your habitation in the other world, choose your way
now ; for it is impossible that one way can lead to both. The way of faith and
holiness leads to heaven; the way of unbelief, unholiness, and licentiousness leads
to hell; Matt. vii. 13, 14, “Enter ye in at the strait gate,” &c. Do not think ye
can enter into life by the broad gate ; for “without holiness no man shall see the
Lord,” Heb. xii. 14. Ye will join yourselves to those now with whom ye will be
joined for ever; therefore says the apostle to the believing Hebrews, “Ye are come
AND THE OTIIER WORLD. 397
unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and
to an innumerable company of angels,” &c., Heb. xii. 22–24; and, says Solomon,
“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise : but a companion of fools shall be
destroyed,” Prov. xiii. 20.
Of the passage into the other world.
As to the passage of unbodied spirits, to wit, angels, good or bad, who sometimes
are here, and depart again into the other world, we inquire not about it. But the
passage into the other world for us mortals, is what we are concerned to know.
Paul had a passage into it extraordinary for a visit; how that was, “in or out of
the body, he himself could not tell.” It is the passage into it for habitation, for our
lasting abode, that concerns us. It is twofold:
1st, One extraordinary ; by a translation, soul and body, into it. There have
been three unquestionable instances of it, namely, of Enoch before the law, Gen. v.
24; Heb. xi. 5; of Elijah carried up by a whirlwind into heaven, 2 Kings ii. 11,
under the law; and of Christ himself, who is said to have been taken up, Acts i. 9.
But these were altogether extraordinary.
2dly, The ordinary passage is by death, whether into the upper or lower part
of the other world; as appears from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus,
Luke xvi. Hence death is called a going hence, Psal. xxxix. ult, ; a departing,
Luke ii. 29, namely, out of this world, John xiii. 1. Death dissolving the union
betwixt the soul and the body, the soul, like a bird on the opening of the cage,
gets away, and goes into the other world, departing either into heaven or hell,
2 Cor. v. 1; Phil. i. 23; Luke xvi. 22, 23. Of this passage we know little, and
can only say these few things:
1. It is a quick passage ; by which the soul is soon wafted over, and landed on
the other side. Whatever be the distance betwixt us and either part of the other
world, as it is certain it is a vast distance betwixt us and the highest heavens, yet
the departed soul soon passes it over, and is in its place there ; as appears from
Christ's saying to the penitent thief, Luke xxiii. 43, “To-day shalt thou be with
me in paradise ;” where the journey was not begun till three o'clock afternoon,
verses 44, 46, but accomplished that day. And there is no question but it is much
the same to the other part, which is the lower part of the other world.
2. The passengers are not left alone in it : but as at our coming forth of the
womb into this world, there are some people of this world ready to receive us, and
dispose of us; so, at our going out of this world into the other, there are some of
that world to receive us, and attend us. So that, however unknown the road is to
us, we will not be alone in it. And,
(1.) As to the souls of the godly passing into heaven, it is clear that it is so with
them ; and that,
i. The Lord Jesus himself is with them. The general promise secures this,
Heb. xiii. 5, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” David was confident of
it ; Psal. xxiii. 4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they com-
fort me.” This was typified by the ark's going before the people into Jordan, and
staying there till they were all got safe over. At the birth of the gracious soul into
the other world, tho Lord Jesus himself is the party that receives it, Acts vii. 59.
ii. That good angels are with them for their convoy. They attend them in their
life ; doing them many good offices unperceived, having a charge over them ; Psal.
xci. 11, “He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
And can one imagine that they will be wanting to them on such a non-such occa-
sion ? If they are to keep them in all their ways, surely they will not leave them
alone in that way betwixt the two worlds. They are ministering spirits to the ap-
parent heirs of salvation, Heb. i. ult. Surely these heirs will not want their min-
istration when they are to enter to their inheritance.
They will carry them to heaven, Luke xvi. 22. And this may serve to account
for the quickness of their passage ; being carried by angels, who, for their speedy
398 A VIEW OF THIS
motion, are said to fly, Isa. vi. 2, 6; Dan. ix. 21. Compare Psal. civ. 4; Ezek.
i. 14.
(2.) As to the souls of the wicked passing into hell, that matter is not so very
clear. The scripture speaks not of the rich glutton's attendants into his place in
the other world, Luke xvi. 22, 23 ; plainly intimating, that no comfortable or hon-
ourable attendance is for them. But yet it gives hints of their attendance by ill
angels or devils, Job xxxiii. 22, and is positive that they are driven away, Prov.
xiv. 32. And how can it be imagined but the roaring lion, who is still “going
about seeking whom he may devour,” will be ready to receive the prey when it is
coming to his mouth ?
3. It will be a strange and surprising passage. How strange will it be to the
soul to find itself in a moment unbodied ; that its body lies dropped in such a place,
and it has no more communication with it ! There will be surprises of wonder,
at the Sudden change in itself, and at the objects about it which it never saw be-
fore. The godly soul will be surprised with joy, in the happy change, the blessed
attendants; and the wicked with horror at the unhappy change, and the frightful
Society it now enters into.
4. A passage where there is no repassing. It is without coming back till the
great day. The godly would not, and the wicked shall not be able to return. It
is a passage we have no access to make trial of, but, once entering upon it, go for-
ward for good and all, Heb. ix. 27.
Now, when the soul is passed and gone into the other world, the body still re-
mains in this, being laid up in the grave until the last day. But there it lies dead
and moveless, having “no more portion in what is done under the sun.” But the
body also must pass into the other world, and all mankind shall be inhabitants of
that world at length in their bodies, as well as their souls. Of this we may note
these few things.
First, the time appointed for it is the last day. Then, and not till then, shall
the bodies of men be transported thither, Matt. xxv. ult. They must sleep in the
dust till the end of this world, Job xiv. 12; and then be removed into the other
world, for eternal inhabitants, not to remove any more.
Secondly, Then shall they be raised up out of their graves for that passage, their
souls being reunited to their bodies: so shall they awake out of their long sleep,
T)an. xii. 2. Christ will come again to judgment, and the trumpet shall sound, at
which all the dead shall arise, their souls being by his mighty power returned into
and united again to their bodies, John v. 28, 29. Then they rise to take their last
farewell of this present world.
Thirdly, They shall be gathered together by the ministry of angels into two com-
panies, the one to pass into the upper part, the other into the lower part of the
other world, Mark xiii. 27; Matt. xiii. 40, 41. Thus every grave shall be emptied
then, no place in the earth or sea shall hold back any of its dead, Rev. xx. 13; and
being brought forth, none of them shall be lost by the way unto the place where
the judgment will be ; all shall be brought thither, (Rom, xiv. 10,) good and bad,
from all corners of the earth and Sea.
Fourthly, The fair company of Christ's sheep shall be caught up from this cursed
earth, never to set a foot on it more, into the clouds, and there, in the air, be set
on Christ's right hand, 1 Thess. iv. 17. Thus they are so far in their way to the
other world. And the reprobate goats shall be left standing on their own earth,
upon Christ's left hand, (Matt. xxiv. 40,) the nearer perhaps to their part of the
other world. And this will be the last station that ever they will have upon it.
Fifthly, Christ will, by a sentence from the throne, adjudge the righteous unto
the upper part of the other world, after due cognizance taken of their case; Matt.
xxv. 34, “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world.” And, by a sentence from the same, he will adjudge the wicked unto the
lower part of it; verse 41, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels.” So there is no more use for this world; but Saints and sinners must leave
it now, having got their route for the other world.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 399
Lastly, Immediately the wicked pass away into hell in one company together,
there to receive eternal punishment ; and then the godly, having seen them turn
their backs and go away, do go off into heaven with Christ. And then comes the
general conflagration, succeeded with the creation of the new heavens and earth.
Inference 1. Death is a matter of the highest importance to all, as being the pas-
sage into the other world. As none of us can miss to die, so none of us can miss to
pass out of this world into the other. Ah! why then are we so unmindful of it 2
Why do we not set ourselves more to prepare for it 2 Why are we so much con-
cerned for this world that we must leave, and so little for that world we must de-
part to ? Pass we must, but cannot return : what is but once to be done, had need
to be well done.
Inf. 2. Though dying is in itself an awful thing, yet to the godly it is most safe
and comfortable. They have a happy lodging on the other side, and they will get
a joyful convoy thither. To look into the waters is frightful; but they have a firm
ground to the believer, and they are not so deep as they look to be. It is an aw-
ful thought to think of that moment wherein the soul drops the body, and passes
unto the other world; but Christ is ready to receive the believer's soul, and the
angels to welcome and attend it into their world of bliss.
Inf. 3. Death, however dreadful it is in itself, is far more dreadful in its conse-
quences to the ungodly. Were there no more for them but to die, and so to be done,
or cease to be, it would be more tolerable. But the horrible place they pass into in
the other world, the frightful state abiding them there, is fearful beyond expression.
What moment they are expiring, they are waited for of the destroyers, to be “driven
away in their wickedness.”
Inf. 4. All of us have certainly greater interest and concern in the other
world, than in this. For here we are but passengers, there we will be eternal
inhabitants. And not only is the greatest concern for our Souls there, but even for
our bodies too.
Of the state of men in the other world.
I proceed now to the last head I proposed to consider, namely, The state of men
in the other world. And in handling of this weighty subject, two things must be
inquired into : *
1st, The state of separate souls in the other world.
2dly, The state of soul and body reunited.
Of both which in order.
Of the state of separate souls in the other world.
The state of separate souls commences at death, whereby the separation is
made, and continues until the resurrection, when the soul and body are reunited.
Which state, therefore, can have no place where death has not place, as in those
whom Christ, coming again, will find alive on the earth. For clearing of this
branch, we shall,
1. Inquire into the state of separate souls in the other world in general.
2. Consider the different states of separate souls in the different parts of that
world.
| We shall inquire into the state of separate souls in the other world in gen-
eral. And,
(1.) They are in a state of activity, and not asleep, without life, sense, under-
standing, and action, as some profane men would have it. That is the state of the
body, indeed, after death, but not of the soul, which is of a spiritual and active
nature. The separate souls of the saints are not asleep, but “with the Lord,”
(2 Cor. v. 8 ; Phil. i. 23,) whereby the scripture expresseth a state of happiness,
1 Thess. iv. 17. Neither are the separate souls of the ungodly asleep; as is evident
from the case of the rich man in hell, Luke xvi. 23–25.
. (2) They are totally and finally removed from the business of this world, Eccl.
ix. 6. Whatever their activity be, they act no more in those things that are the
400 A VIEW OF THIS
affairs of this life. Death puts end to all that with them, Psal. cxlvi. 4; and there-
fore they are said to “rest from their labours,” being freed from the business and
troubles of this life. Accordingly, whatever they possessed while here in life, their
interest therein is expired, Luke xii. 20. However careful and busy they have been
in these, death puts a final stop thereto in a moment.
(3.) Their activity is wholly intellectual and spiritual, as that of the angels good
or bad, Matt. xxii. 30. They are then divested of their bodies, and so can use them
no more than if they had no manner of concern in them. The body furnishes all
men with business; what to eat and drink, wherewith to be clothed, where to lodge,
how to provide for themselves and families: and this is the whole business of many.
But in the other world all that is scored off.” Only the spiritual faculties, of un-
derstanding, conscience, will, and memory, last; and these will afford them employ-
ment and continual action, Luke xvi. 25. -
(4.) Their knowledge is exceedingly enlarged, their faculties are cleared beyond
what they were in this life, either to their happiness or misery. The clay body be-
ing fallen down from about the soul, it will see far more clearly than before. The
mist that arose from this vain world unto them, will then be scattered. The other
world they only heard of before they will then see ; and know the truth of what
was reported from the word, by their own experience. Whatever be the ignorance
prevailing in this world, there is none there but will know, at another rate than now,
what God, Christ, sin, &c., are.
(5.) They are in a social state, and not solitary; they are in company with
other spirits. The other world is doubtless a throng world, thronger than this,
whether we view it in the upper or lower part: for there all past generations
of men are, here is one generation only. The saints go into a blessed society,
Heb. xii.; and the wicked have their numerous society in the other world too,
Luke xvi. 28.
(6.) They are in a determinate unalterable state, and can never change seats
more, Luke xvi. 26. Now we are in a state of trial in this world ; but in the
other world, they are at their journey’s end. The tree is fallen, and must lie for
ever as it has fallen. In heaven there is no need of repentance, and in hell there
is no place for it. Death determines our eternal state. If one is well in the other
world, he is well for ever ; if he is ill there, he is so for ever.
2. Let us now consider the different states of separate souls in the different parts
of the other world, viz. heaven and hell. And,
(1.) Of the state of separate souls in heaven.
i. They are perfect in holiness there, Heb. xii. 23. In death, dropping their
bodies, they drop also the body of sin and death, that they may enter the new Jer-
usalem, where no unclean thing can enter. Then there is a full application of the
blood of Christ to them, which, in a moment, makes them perfectly clean. So
there they shine in the glory of the perfection of the divine image in them. There
is no more darkness in their minds, rebellion in their wills, or carnality in their
affections. The guilt, power, defilement, and indwelling of sin, are wholly and for
ever removed.
ii. They are in a state of rest there, Rev. xiv. 13. Their wearisome toil and
labour which they had with the troubles of this world is at an end, never to return;
the weary work they had in fighting against sin, their watching, mourning, groan-
ing, &c., thereby occasioned, are all away. They are got through the weary wil-
derness and Jordan, and are now seated in Canaan above. The victory is obtained,
and the sword is laid by.
iii. They are with the Lord there, 2 Cor. v. 8. They have the glorious presence
of God and Christ there. That Jesus in whom they believed, and whom their soul
loved while unseen, they see now, for they are with him, Phil. i. 23. That God
to whom their souls tended in faith and love while here, they are now admitted to
see his face, which is the privilege of the inhabitants of heaven, Matt. xviii. 10;
1 Cor. xiii. 12. They see all in him necessary to satisfy a soul, and they see him
as their own God, and hence arise perfect ease, rest, and Satisfaction : and they no
* i.e. set aside.—En.
AND THE OTHER WOR. L.D. 40l
more miss the comforts and conveniences of this life, than one does a candle when
the sun Shines in his meridian brightness.
iv. They are in a family of love there. Heaven is the place of love, and there
it will endure for ever, when faith is turned into sight, and hope to enjoyment,
1 Cor. xiii. 8. No society can be happy without a bond of love ; and there is so little
love in this world, that it is a miserable world: but all flames with love in the
other world ; God lets out his love to the saints there, and they flame in love to
him again. They live in love with the angels, and warm is that love which these
now “ministering spirits” bear to the “heirs of salvation,” and which these heirs
have one to another in that world. Hence is “Abraham's bosom.” For there holi-
ness is perfected, and there love both to God and one another.
v. They are in a state of joy, pleasure, and delight there, Psalm xvi. ult. ; Matt.
xxv. 21. While we are here, there is a difficulty of joy entering into us, we are so
beset with causes of sorrow ; but there the saints are entered into joy. There is
an ocean of joy there ; nothing but joy wheresoever they look. They had their
weeping time here, now they are comforted ; never a sorrowful thought can take
place with them more. The dreggy pleasures of sin and sense are not there, but
spiritual pleasures are there in fulness ; and these doubtless are the far more ex-
quisite, as our souls are more penetrating than our senses.
vi. They are in a state of holy exercise there, Rev. iv. 8. Heaven's rest is not
a lazy rest of idleness; but it is a sabbath's rest, wherein they are employed in
pleasurable and refreshful exercise : therefore they are said to “walk with him in
white,” to be “led to living fountains of waters.” Their proper work is praise ;
there they sing the “new song,” to the glory of God, and their own eternal delight.
vii. They know that their happiness shall never be lost or diminished, however
it may be enlarged, Rev. xxii. 6. So they are perfectly secure there, as in a state
of unalterable felicity. Thus the view of the endless ages of eternity must give
them a new pleasure and satisfaction, upon every reflection thereon ; while they
know it will spin out their happiness for ever.
viii. They have the comfortable expectation of the additional happiness waiting
them at the last day. Now they have the first-fruits of bliss, and they see the full
harvest is coming, Rev. vi. 11. The separated souls of the saints are in firm ex-
pectation of their reunion with their bodies, and the glorious resurrection of the
body; their meeting the Lord in the air in their bodies, their standing on his right
hand, and receiving the final sentence, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
(2.) The state of separate souls in hell.
i. They are in a settled state of sin there ; Prov. xiv. 32, “The wicked is driven
away in his wickedness.” They are in a state of sin here, it is true, but then it is
not such a settled state but they may get out of it. There are offers of Christ
made to them, whereby their guilt may be removed, &c. But then their guilt,
defilement, the dominion and indwelling of sin, are left on them never to be re-
moved. Then it is said concerning them, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust
still ; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still,” Rev. xxii. 11. There are no
offers of the despised blood and Spirit of Christ there, no voice of a Saviour and
Salvation. The backsliders are there “filled with their own ways.”
ii. They are in prison there, “reserved to the judgment of the great day,” 1 Pet.
iii. 19. There was a time wherein they run on in a course of crimes against God,
who suffered them, some longer, some shorter while : but death came and arrested
them, and the souls of the criminals were committed to the prison in hell, out of
which there is no escape. There they are prisoners in the pit, with the filth of
their sin in their prison-garments on them, never to be changed.
iii. They are in a state of torment there, Luke xvi. 23. They took their rest
while they should have been busy for salvation, and now “they have no rest,” Rev.
xiv. 11. They slept in seed-time, and they are left in a starving condition now.
Wrath from the Lord has seized them as his enemies, and is let in in floods into their
souls. They have a memory, wherewith now they can call to mind what way they
passed the time of this life ; they have a conscience that is now awake, and is to
them a never-dying worm. Nothing now remains with them of their sins but what
3 E *
402 A VIEW OF THIS
is tormenting; all pleasurable passions are now rooted out of them, and torment-
ing ones only remain.
iv. They are in a state of desperation there; Matt. xxii. 13, “Bind him hand
and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.” They had some hopes while here; though they
were but false hopes, they made them easy. But now all hope is plucked up by
the roots with them, and it is not possible they can hope any more. And O how
cutting must the despair be in hell, it being absolute | While men are here, when
all hopes of the removal of trouble are cut off, they know that death is coming, and
that will end it. But they that are in the other world know that their state is
eternal, and despair for ever. This cannot fail to heighten their sin, being no more
in circumstances for counterfeiting love to God, or regard to his commandments.
v. They have the fearful expectation of the additional misery waiting them at
the last day. It seems to be pretty plain, that the damned are not quite so miser-
able now, as they will be after the resurrection and last judgment for ever. For,
(i.) This may be gathered from scripture-testimony. The rich man in the para-
ble (Luke xvi.) was afraid of further torments, ver, 28. The devils are cast down
to hell, 2 Pet. ii. 4; but there they are “reserved unto judgment,” as malefactors
reserved in prison till the day of execution; and they are in expectation of a time
of further torment, (Matt. viii. 29,) and tremble in view of it, James ii. 19. And
at the last day, reprobate men must depart with them into the same fiery torments,
(Matt. xxy. 41,) and consequently into greater than they now have.
(ii.) It appears from the nature of the thing. For whereas their bodies are now
at ease in the grave, they also must then be tormented. So they must needs be in
fearful expectation of the sounding of the last trumpet, the resurrection of their
bodies, their station at the Judge's left hand, and the dreadful final sentence, and
the execution thereof. So the difference seems to be, betwixt their present and
future state, as betwixt malefactors in chains in the dungeon, and their being led
forth to execution.
The reasons hereof are,
[1..] At the end of the world there is to be a general judgment, wherein they
are to receive their final sentence ; and there must be something reserved to be
the effect thereof that was not before. Then wrath comes on to the uttermost, as
being the time of the last pouring out of the indignation, appearing in the general
conflagration, and sweeping away all sin and effects of sin from all other quarters,
into hell, with the damned themselves, Rev. xx. 14. So that these things now
scattered throughout the creation, will be gathered together, and lodged in and
with them.
[2.] The cup of the sin of the damned may be yet a-filling up, a-filling up to
the last day. I mean not this as to their personal sinning in hell, but as to their
current guilt in this world, when they are away out of it, for which they must
then answer: for a man's sin may be living and active, when he is dead and
gone ; as the observation of all ages testifies, seeing the world is much the worse
of some that are dead and away out of it. Is not Adam's sin, which has run more
than five thousand years in the world already, running still and infecting his pos-
terity, and will to the world's end? For which he needed a pardon, and has no
doubt got it.
It is a certain truth, that rational agents are accountable for the native conse-
quences of their actions, Exod. xxi. 33, 34. And it is as certain, that there may
be a train of mischievous consequences following men's sin in the world after they
are departed: and can one imagine that wicked men shall not be made to answer
for these ? Should one lay a train for blowing up a house, which yet should not
work till he were got many miles off; or one give poison to another, which yet
should not kill till some years after ; would not such be held murderers, and pun-
ished accordingly ? No doubt of it. So is the case here.
There are four cases, particularly, among others, wherein men's guilt may be in-
creased after they are dead, and their accounts enlarged against the great day.
ki. Their being authors of any evil, springs of mischief, as Jeroboam was,
2 Kings xvii. 22, 23. Inventors of evil things are branded with ignominy by the
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 403
Spirit of God, however they may pride themselves therein. Such are contrivers
and makers of wicked laws, whereby multitudes are driven to sin; introducers of
ill customs into nations, congregations, or families, whereby a course of sin is set
a-going, and, the older it grows, gathers the more strength, and may last many
generations, perhaps to the end of time. But all the sin and misery following on
such actions will be chargeable on the author.
[ii.] The case of injustice, whether by stealing, cheating, oppression, or defraud-
ing any manner of way, where restitution is not made, especially where men leave
such ill-gotten goods to theirs after them. For this is a continued stream of injus-
tice running from time to time; for right can never rise from wrong in the sight of
God. And the loss and misery thereby coming to the children and friends of the
injured from generation to generation, is still chargeable on the unjust man, till
restitution is made, Job xx. 9, 10. This may account for apparitions of persons
departed, ordering restitution.
[iii.] The case of companionship in sin; such as is the case of drunkards, unclean
persons, and all social sinners, who ruin others together with themselves: for at
their door the ruin of their companions in sin must lie, if they be ruined. Therefore
the rich man in hell wished his five brethren might get repentance, Luke xvi. 27,
28; knowing that, while they did not repent, he was chargeable with their ruin;
and that would increase his torment, if he should have the blood of their souls to
answer for too, at the last day, (Matt. xiii. 30,) for in burning bundles, each stick
makes the other burn the more keenly.
[iv.] The case of ill example, Matt. xviii. 7. They who, in words, actions, or
behaviour, set an ill copy to others, they will not readily, in a sinful world, miss
some to write after them, following their criminal example. But the more followers
they get, the greater will be their guilt ; and the longer they are followed, the
longer will their accounts run on, even as long as they are followed, though dead
and gone. And it is often seen, that the ill examplo of parents especially runs in
a train of sin from generation to generation.
Thus it is evident, that the cup of the sin of the damned may be increasing or fill-
ing up after death ; and if so, their torment will be increased accordingly against
the day of final reckoning. And they may know their sin to be still going on in
the world, while it is not in their power to stop its course ; and therefore, they can-
not miss fearful expectations of additional misery against the last day.
Thus far of the state of separate souls in the other world.
Of the state of soul and body reunited, in the other world.
Having spoken of the state of separate souls in the other world, we come now to
inquire into the state of Soul and body reunited. And for clearing of this also, we
shall,
1. Inquire into the state of reunited souls and bodies in general.
2. Consider the different states of reunited souls and bodies, in the other world.
1. We are to inquire into the state of reunited souls and bodies, or whole men,
in the other world, in general. This state takes place after the resurrection, gen-
eral judgment, conflagration, and departure of the righteous and wicked, each into
the respective places of their eternal abode in the other world, and continues for
ever. And we may view it in the following particulars.
(1.) They shall be in a state of living for ever and ever. As separate souls do
not sleep from death till the resurrection, so the soul and body, then reunited, shall
never be dissolved again ; so the whole man shall be in life for ever from the mo-
ment of the resurrection. There will be no gravos in the other world but the great
one, hell, where all the wicked will be together buried alive. That the saints in
heaven will ever live, is evident. That the damned in hell will be eternally alive
too, appears from their punishment of sense there will be without end, Matt. xxv.
ult. with verse 41 ; Rev. xx. 10. It is true, the state of the damned is called a
state of death, and eternal destruction ; but it is so called only in opposition to a
happy life and state of Salvation. Their life will be a death; they will be over
404 A VIEW OF THIS
dying, but never die out ; otherwise their pain of sense could not be eternal. So
it is in the other world, where we are to live indeed, to live without dying.
(2.) We will live there in the same bodies we live in here. The very term “resur-
rection” implies this. If they were other bodies that were to be made for us,
that would be a creation, but not a resurrection, of the body. It is “this mor-
tal,” this “vile body,” that will be raised for us to live in there, 1 Cor. xv. 53;
Phil. iii. 21. Besides, it is inconsistent with the divine equity, that the bodies of
the saints, the temples of his Spirit, that were employed in his service, should be
left in the dust, and other bodies glorified ; and that the bodies that sinned should
lies at ease, and other bodies suffer in hell. And surely, it is as easy for Omnipo-
tence to raise the old body, as create a new one.
(3.) But we will live there without the means of life now in use with us. Now
the body that is to die must be daily held up by the appointed means of life ; the
clay tabernacle needs more mud and earth to patch it up with every now and then.
But in the other world our bodies will be supported without them. There will be
no use of meat and drink there, 1 Cor. vi. 13. The saints in glory shall be satis-
fied without them ; Rev. vii. 16, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any
more :” and the damned, even those that had their full tables and fine liquors,
whatever need they may have of them, shall not for ever have the favour of a drop
of water, Luke xvi. Now much time is spent by saints and sinners in sleep; but
there will be no sleeping there, Rev. iv. 3, and xiv. 11. They are miserable men
who know no other, or better comforts than these.
(4.) The business and affairs of this life have no place there. Solomon observes,
that “all the labour of man is for his mouth,” Eccl. vi. 7, But though we will
have our bodies there, there will be no eating and drinking there ; and that will
cut off that labour there: there will be no ploughing, sowing, and reaping, and
other business depending thereon. There will be no business there for clothing
nor housing. There is a quite new state of matters there, Rev. xxi. 5. The affairs
of this life are for our trial in the way; but then we will be come to our journey's
end; and our entertainment there will be a reward, according to our works done
here.
(5) Earthly relations will be dissolved there: death puts an end to them, (Job
iii. 18, 19,) and they will not be made up again at the resurrection, Matt. xxii. 30.
There will be a general levelling in the other world; no difference left among men
but what piety or wickedness has made. There the servant and the master will be
alike in other respects, and every burdened one will bear his own burden alone.
There will be no more husband and wife there ; for then the mystery of God is
finished ; and the number is made up to receive no further addition.
(6.) We will be separated and sorted * there into two very different societies,
places, and states, Matt. xxv. ult. Now persons and things in this world, good and
bad, are mixed, as in a corn-field where grow wheat and tares together: but in the
other world there will be no such mixture ; every one will be disposed of there in
the due order, to be with Christ or with the devil, in heaven or hell, perfectly happy
or completely miserable. And each part of that world will be stocked with inhabi-
tants vastly more numerous than ever this world was ; since all generations of the
righteous will be in heaven, and all generations of the wicked will be in hell.
(7.) There will be no communication or intercourse betwixt the two societies,
Luke xvi. 26. The saints in heaven will know the misery of the damned, and the
damned will know the happiness of the saints, as appears from that parable ; but
there will be no passage from the one place to the other. The impassable gulf be-
tween them will bar all communication. The saints will not desire to go into the
place and company of the damned : and the pit with her bars will be about the .
damned for ever, that they cannot get out into the place and society of the saints.
(8.) Our state there will be eternal, Matt. xxv. ult. There will be no end of the
happiness of the saints, and no end of the misery of the damned. The world to
come will ever be so: when millions of ages are past, it will be as far from an end
as at its beginning ; for it will have no end.
* i. e. arranged.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 405
Inference. Let us look forward unto the life we are to have in the other world
after the resurrection, and consider that the manner of life we have here is passing.
Let these no more be our main questions, “What shall we eat 2 What shall we
drink 2 and, Wherewithal shall we be clothed 2’’ for the time will come when these
things shall be in eternal disuse. Let us not sink our minds into the affairs of this
life ; for a little time will put an end to them. Let us improve the relations we
stand in for our personal well-being in another world, and beware they be not
ruining Snares to us. Let us now separate ourselves from this world lying in
wickedness, as we would not be eternally separated, with them, from the society of
the Saints.
2. We shall now consider the different states of reunited souls and bodies in the
other world, namely, in heaven and hell. And,
(1.) Of the state of men, soul and body, in heaven. In the general, they will
be in a state of complete happiness of the whole man there. Betwixt death and
the resurrection, they are happy, but incompletely : the one half of the man, the
soul, is happy; but the other half of the man, the body, lies in the dust. But the
bodies of the saints being raised at the last day, they will be completely happy in
the whole man.
i. They will be in an inconceivably happy place there, Rev. xxi. 10, 11. We
spoke something of the place already ; but certainly it is a place happy beyond
what we can conceive while here. It is a paradise for pleasure, a kingdom for
spaciousness, a palace for splendour and glory, and a Father's house for kindness.
The most pleasant places of this world are but a wilderness in comparison with it,
a strange country to the Saints.
ii. They will be in eternal, uninterrupted light there. “Truly light is sweet, and
a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun :” but how much more sweet
must the light of heaven be, that so far outdoes the light of our sun, that our mortal
bodies which bear the one, are not able for the other | 1 Tim. vi. 16. And no
wonder ; for it is not the sun, but the Lamb, not the rays of light from sun or
moon, but the glory of God himself, that lightens heaven, Rev. xxi. 23. Hence
there is “no night there,” no “darkness for ever,” but an eternal day. Our sun
cannot enlighten our whole globe at once ; but when it is day in one hemisphere,
it is night in the other. But what can set bounds to the glory of an infinite God,
that lightens it 2
iii. They will be free from, and beyond the reach of all evil there. There will be
no hazard from within, and none from without, Rev. xxi. 25. They will be free of
sin there; there will be no body of death to molest them in that place ; they will
have no inclination to sin more ; no temptation can reach them there ; nay, there
is no possibility of their sinning there, being confirmed in a state of perfection
through the merit of Christ. They will be freed from all their troubles and suffer-
ings there ; they are beyond the reach of devils and wicked men, and the time of
the Lord's trying them is over and ended.
iv. There are no wants to them there, Rev. vii. 16. They have a needy life of it
here, but there all their wants will be made up. Their long complaints will then
be eternally silenced. There will be no want of the things of this life, more than of
a candle in the brightest sunshine: there will be no want of spiritual enjoyments,
no desertions, or hiding of God's face there. There are many things in this world
that will not be in heaven : but all that they then will or can desire will be there
for them, and therefore they can be in no want there. There would be wants in
heaven to the wicked, whose desires are not regulated, so that they could not be
happy there. But there will be none to the saints.
v. All imperfections, and badges of imperfection, shall be done away there.
Whatever denotes the imperfection of our state here, shall be removed there : in-
somuch that the ordinances of preaching the word, the Sacraments, &c., shall be
honourably laid aside, even as the scaffolding is taken down when the house is built;
the occasional graces of the Spirit, such as patience, &c., duties, such as watching,
mourning for sin, &c., are laid aside, as the sword when the war is over. Faith is
turned into sight, and hope into enjoyment.
406 A VIEW OF THIS
vi. There will be a confluence of all good, in their state there, necessary to make
them completely happy.
(i.) The constitution of their bodies will be heavenly, 1 Cor. xv. 48. So that
the case of the saints' bodies will in that world be as far preferable to their case now,
as heaven is to earth. Their bodies now are a spring of much sin, sorrow, and
trouble to them ; but then will their bodies be advanced into a state of perfect
happiness, as well as their souls. -
This will come to pass through the reforming of their bodies, in the likeness of
Christ's glorious body, at the resurrection, Phil. iii. 21. The bodies of all are now
fashioned in the likeness of the first Adam, and of him fallen (1 Cor. xv. 47, 48);
for he is the father of us all, the father of our flesh, Acts xvii. 26. And so our
bodies are mortal, inglorious, weak, and earthly, like his. But the bodies of be-
lievers are melted down in a grave, till they are reduced to dust again, and every
the least lineament of Adam’s image is gone : then, at the resurrection, Christ
takes their dust, and forms it into a body like unto his own, the body of the second
Adam ; and in this new fashion and frame it continues for ever after, in the other
world. So the bodies of the saints will be,
[1..] Incorruptible there, (1 Cor. xv. 42,) as the body of Christ is. They will be
no more liable to death nor diseases. No pains nor uneasiness can affect them any
more ; nothing will be about them for ever that may create loathing to themselves
or others; neither will they be liable to be worn with age: but they will be in per-
fect Soundness for ever.
[2.] They will be glorious bodies there, 1 Cor. xv. 43. The inhabitants of heaven
will all of them be beauties, perfect beauties without a metaphor. They are now
“all glorious within,” though some of them be hard-favoured, and others of them
deformed, naturally or accidentally: then they will be all glorious without too;
not only beautiful in their faces, but the whole body over; Matt. xiii. 43, “Then
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father.” There
will be a heavenly glory on their whole bodies, making them amiable and lovely,
surpassing the most famed beauties now as the light of the Sun doth the shining of
a candle. This will be their clothing, and other clothing they will need none,
2 Cor. v. 2.
[3.] They will be powerful and strong bodies, 1 Cor. xv. 43. All flesh now is grass,
weak and withering : but there will be no weakness nor weariness there ; nay, the
now weak and feeble saint “shall be as David, and David as the angel of God.”
How else would they be fit for the eternal weight of glory, for continual uninter-
rupted exercise ? 1 Cor. xv. 50. The strongest man would be unable to bear the
heavenly glory; the clay tabernacle in its present state would fly all in pieces there:
but they will be able to bear it.
[4] They will be spiritual bodies, 1 Cor. xv. 44. They will be true bodies still,
but endowed with spirit-like qualities. They will be no more clogs to the soul, but
as ready and fit for the exercise of heaven as if they were spirits. Naturalists ob-
serve, that bodies, the more they are raised from the earth towards heaven, the
lighter they become: surely then, when they are in the highest heaven, their weight
and ponderousness must be gone. They are spiritual bodies.
(ii.) Their souls in their bodies will shine in the purity and perfection of the
divine image; 1 John iii. 2, “When he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we
shall see him as he is.” At death the souls of the Saints are so glorified, however
inglorious they were while in the body. But being housed again in their glorified
bodies, they will retain their heavenly lustre for ever, shining there as the candle
through the lantern. And here, -
[1..] Their understanding will be perfect for ever; 1 Cor. xiii. 12, “Now we see
through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall
I know, even as also I am known.” No more scales of ignorance will then be on
the eyes of their understanding. Their capacity will be enlarged to know God and
liis works.
[2.] Their will will be perfectly conformed to the will of God, and completely
satisfied, having all that they would have, and as they would have it. Then will
be said to every Saint, without limitation, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 407
They shall never know more what it is to be balked of their will for ever; Psal.
xvii. ult., “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied,
when I awake, with thy likeness.”
[3.] Their affections shall all be perfectly heavenly. All uneasy and unpleasant
affections will be discarded there; no sorrow shall ever spring up in them more ;
Rev. xxi. 4, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”
All earthly affections shall be for ever laid aside: the dregginess of them makes
them unmeet for the heavenly state, and they shall no more be able to pick on
them than our dunghills can on the sun; Matt. xxii. 30, “For, in the resurrection,
they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in hea-
ven.” They will be all love; loving God in perfection, and all persons and things
else in him only.
[4.] Their memory of things past will be fresh. It will be so with the damned in
hell, Luke xvi. 25, 28. And how can it be doubted as to the saints in heaven, in
a state of perfection ? No sorrowful reflection, indeed, can have place in their state,
but things sometimes sorrowful will be remembered with joy, in the deliverance
therefrom. And the looking back into their wilderness-state, their stormy voyage
through the sea of this world, will fill them with wonder and praise. They will re-
member the times, places, means, and instruments, of their acquaintance with
Christ, and communion with God in the world, by which they have been brought
to all that happiness, Luke xvi. 9; 1 Thess. ii. 19.
[5.] They will have an executive faculty answering to their will. Now the spirit
may be willing, but the flesh is weak: so that they cannot do what they fain would;
but find themselves like a bird with a stone tied to its foot, that aims to fly but can-
not. But there they shall be able to put in execution whatever they will or desire
to do.
[iii.] They will be happy in the glorious society of heaven, being joint inhabi-
tants with them there.
[1..] They will have the society of one another there, being all gathered together
into one lovely company, “the general assembly of the first-born,” Heb. xii. 23.
All the saints that, from the beginning to the end of the world, shall have lived in
any part of the earth, will be altogether there, an innumerable multitude of the
redeemed, all shining ones. And since they are in a state of perfection, I wonder
how it can be questioned but they will know one another, their friends and acquain-
tances on earth, and get new acquaintance and knowledge of those at least that
have been most eminent in the church on earth : or how the use of speech and con-
versation among them can be doubted.
[2.] They will have the society of the holy angels there, Heb. xii. 22. They
will be no more afraid of angels when they themselves are become their equals,
Luke xx. 36 ; but they will join them in the heavenly choir singing their hallelu-
jahs. And whether angels shall assume airy bodies for conversing with the saints
or not ; there is no reason to think that they will be in a place with the angels, and
yet incapable of conversing with them.
[3.] They will have the society of the man Christ there, 1 Thess. iv. 17, “So
shall we ever be with the Lord.” They will see him, with their bodily eyes, who
loved them, and gave himself for them : they will see that very body that was, for
them, crucified without the gates of Jerusalem. They will see him there, shining
in inconceivable glory, as their Lord, Saviour, and Redeemer; and compass his
throne for ever with Songs of Salvation.
[4] They will have the presence and full enjoyment of God in Christ there; Rev.
xxi. 7, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and
he shall be my son.” Here is the highest pinnacle of the saints' happiness in
heaven : without this they cannot be happy completely, no, not in heaven; and in
the full enjoyment of him they will be so happy, that it is impossible they can de-
sire more for the satisfying of them. For he is an ocean of unbounded perfection.
It lies in two things.
[i.] They will enjoy God in Christ, by sight of the divine glory, to the complete
satisfying of their understanding ; Matt. V. 8, “Blessed are the pure in heart : for
408 A VIEW OF THIS
they shall see God.” The sight they will have of the divine glory, is a full and
clear knowledge of God, to the utmost of their enlarged capacities, as by seeing
“face to face,” Rev. xxii. 4; 1 Cor. xiii. 12. What heart can conceive the happi-
ness of being freely let into the view of the infinite divine perfections? Men have
a mighty satisfaction in the sight of taking * objects, as a curious garden, a splen-
did palace: but we are swallowed up when we think of being let into the view
of the infinite divine perfections, where there must be something always new.
[ii.] They will enjoy God in Christ, by experience of the divine goodness, to the
complete satisfying of their will; Rev. vii. 16, 17, “They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more :—for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall
feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” There is an all-
fulness of goodness in God, an inexhaustible fountain of it, and they shall have an
unrestrained participation of it ; Psalm xxxvi. 8, 9, “They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house : and thou shalt make them drink of the river
of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life : in thy light shall we see
light;" Rev. xxi. 3. “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them
and be their God.” He will make of his goodness to flow into them for ever, and
there shall be nothing to hinder them from all of it they can desire. And it is
impossible they can desire any thing beyond it.
(iv.) They will have a “fulness of joy.” there ; Psal. xvi. 11, “Rivers of plea-
sures” run in Immanuel's land. Joy unspeakable shall fill their hearts for ever,
and appear in their countenances, where never again shall the least cloud of sorrow
sit down. Now is the sowing time of tears, but then is the reaping time of joy:
and that harvest wherein they bring back their sheaves rejoicing, will never be
OWer.
(v.) All their happiness, joy, and glory, they will have eternally through Christ,
as the great mean of communication betwixt God and them ; Rev. xxi. 23, “And
the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it : for the glory
of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” They will continue for
ever members of Christ; and members, as members, must needs live by communi-
cation with their head. So that the immediate enjoyment of God in heaven is to
be understood only in opposition to the intervening of outward means.
(vi.) There will be degrees of glory among them ; 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42, “There is
one glory of the Sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection
of the dead.” The reward will be according to, though not for, their works ; and
they who have glorified God most by suffering or acting for him, will be the more
highly advanced in glory by him, Luke xix. 17, 19. Howbeit, all of them will
have what they can hold, the least as well as the greatest, as when bottles of
different sizes are filled.
(vii.) They shall be perfectly sure that this, their happy state, shall last for ever.
They know it now, by faith in the word; how can they doubt of it then in a state of
perfection ? Their having any doubt of it could not but breed some anxiety, in-
consistent with perfect happiness.
(viii.) Then shall the chief, last, or farthest end of man, be reached. And that
is the glory of God ; for which end they are made completely happy, in the full en-
joyment of God, Prov. xvi. 4; Rom. xi. ult. So, being made perfectly happy,
they will answer that end in glorifying God, by loving, praising, and serving him
perfectly, to all eternity; Psal. lxxxvi. 12, 13, “I will praise thee, O Lord my
God, with all my heart ; and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is
thy mercy toward me ; and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell;”
Rev. vii. 9, 10, “After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man
could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before
the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their
hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation unto our God which sitteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb;” verse 15, “Therefore are they before the
* i. e. attractive.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 409
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple : and he that sitteth on
the throne shall dwell among them ;” chap. xxii. 3, “And there shall be no more
curse : but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants
shall serve him.”
Inference 1. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
He is the best of masters, whatever hardships his servants be put to here. Heaven
will make amends for all.
Inf. 2. They who are truly godly do best consult, not only the welfare of their
Souls, but of their bodies too. The way of faith and holiness is the way to reach
the cure of all maladies at length; it is the way to get a sound body, with all the
advantages of strength, comeliness, liveliness, &c.
Inf. 3. The faith of this should arm believers against the terror of death and the
grave. Why not melt down the old crazy vessel, to be new-shaped ?
(2.) Let us next view the state of men, soul and body, in hell. Having viewed
the state of men after the resurrection in the happy part of the other world, we
must now consider the state of men, after the resurrection, in the regions of hor-
ror, in the other world. An awful subject but necessary. That part of mankind
that shall justly be doomed to that part of the other world, will be absolutely mis-
erable there. Concerning which these following things may be considered.
i. They will be totally and finally separated from God there, excommunicated
from his presence, Matt. xxv. 41. Now they say to God, “Depart from us,” while
he is following them with mercy and offers of peace: then they will be wholly and
for ever put away. And this is the punishment of loss. There are these six things
in it:
(i.) They will have no part in the habitation of the just, Matt. viii. 11, 12.
They will have no footing in the better country, no seat in the mansions of glory.
They will lose heaven the seat of the blessed; and while the godly are taken within
the city, they cannot enter the gates, but must lodge without for ever, Rev. xxii. 15.
(ii.) They will be excommunicated from the presence of the saints, and have no
share in their happy society. They cared not for their company here, if it was
not for to serve a turn ; and there they shall be freely parted for ever. The com-
pany of the righteous being gone in to the marriage, the door is bolted against them,
that they cannot get in, no, not if it were to lie among their feet, Matt. xxv. 10.
(iii.) They will be excluded from the presence of the holy angels. They will
have at the resurrection a terrible meeting with them, (Matt. xiii. 49,) and a more
dreadful parting with them, (ver. 50,) never to meet again. It is another kind of
angels with whom they must eternally lodge.
(iv.) They will be locally separated from the man Christ. They shall never
come into the place where he shines in his glory. He will effectually order their
getting away out of his presence, by a terrible voice from his throne; Matt. xxv.
41, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels.” And they shall go away one way, and he another with his saints;
and they shall never meet again. However he courted them in this world, and
they still fled from him, and would have none of him, they will never have a
good word for them or to them, from him any more.
(v.) They will be relatively separated from God, the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. They cannot be locally separated from him who is everywhere present, in
hell as well as in heaven, Psal. cxxxix. 8. But there will be a relative separation,
in an eternal blocking up of all comfortable communication between God and them;
as when two parties break up a treaty of peace, and part with hostile mind, pro-
claiming war against one another. Now, though God is not their God by cove-
nant, yet he is their Benefactor, and they get much benefit by that relation, Luke
vi. 35. But then, that is broke off for ever,
(vi.) They will be for ever under a total eclipse of all light of comfort, and ease
spiritual and bodily; Matt. xxii. 13, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away,
and cast him into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth;”
Hos. ix. 12, “Wo also to them when I depart from them.” Whatever good thing
in body or mind they now enjoy is from God, as the light is from the sun; and
J F
410 A VIEW OF THIS
therefore, God totally withdrawing from them, it is impossible that any thing good
or comfortable can remain with them; but, even as when there is but one chink in a
house to let in the light, and that is stopped, there must needs be a total darkness.
ii. They will be miserable both in body and soul there ; for they must “depart
into everlasting fire,” Matt. xxv. 41. How can it be otherwise in “the lake of fire
and brimstone,” as it is called, Rev. xx. 10 ?
As to the state of their bodies there, though they be new-framed of their dust,
yet it will be to no advantage but to fit them for a state of eternal misery. And
we may take a view of it in these three things:
(i.) Their bodies will be base, inglorious, and loathsome ; Dan. xii. 2, “And
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to shame and
everlasting contempt;” Isa. lxvi. 24, “And they shall go forth, and look upon the
carcases of the men that have transgressed against me : for their worm shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh.” No beauty can possibly be found in them there; but their countenance
will be for ever ghastly and frightful, as in the pangs of “the second death.”
They will be like so many dead carcases there for unsightliness; while death preys
on them there buried out of the sight of all, in the pit of destruction.
(ii.) There will be no health nor soundness in them there. How can there be in
bodies suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ? What hale side can one have to
turn him to, swimming in a lake of fire ? They will be “in torments,” Luke
xvi. 23.
(iii.) Yet will they be of such a constitution as to bear up, and not faint away
under their torments there, Matt. xxv. ult. They will ever be in the pangs of
death, but never die out. The power of God will keep them up in that case, that
they shall not have the favour of fainting nor dying out.
As to the state of their souls in their bodies there,
[1..] Their minds or understandings will be fitted to carry on their misery there.
They will be impressed there with clear notions of things that here they either
knew not, or would not know: but then they will only be so known as to aggravate
their misery; Luke xvi. 23, “And in hell he lift up his eyes, and seeth Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” They will know then what God is, Christ,
sin, heaven, hell, and this world then past. Their minds will then be fixed and
active ; fixed on their misery, and active in turning it about in all its shapes, with-
out possibility of diversion from the thoughts of it. The impressions of wrath will
be deep there.
[2.] Their will, as it will for ever continue enmity against God, so it will be
crossed for ever by him. What they would, they shall never obtain; and what
they would not, shall be eternally bound on them. In the state of trial they would
needs have their will, and many times they got it; but they will get it no more,
when once there ; the will of God will resist it for ever. Hence there is “no rest.”
for them, Rev. xiv. 11.
[3] Their affections will all be tormenting ; Matt. xxii. 13, “There shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.” All pleasant passions, whether of one kind or
another, will then be rooted out: no joy nor delight in any object whatsoever will
spring up within them any more. But they will be brimful of sorrow, racked with
anxiety, filled with horror, galled with fretfulness, and darted through with despair,
Rev. xvi. 21. Their souls stocked with strong lusts, and sinful habits contracted
in their life, will be left to pine on in them for ever; eagerly desiring to have them
gratified, but no gratification of them possible. So they will be under an eternal
gnawing hunger after something to satisfy the large cravings of their sinful wretched
souls; but there will be nothing to be had for ever for that end, Luke xvi. 25.
[4] Their consciences will ever be awake there, and witness to their face that
they are justly ruined, and have ruined themselves, Matt. xxii. 12. It will present
to them their sins through the whole course of their life, and cut them with re-
morse for them. It will upbraid them with their unbelief; witness against them,
that they were warned, but would not hearken. And so it will be in them a gnaw-
ing worm that dieth not.
[5.] Their memories will be fresh there, Luke xvi. 25. Sins sometimes buried
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 41 I
and out of mind with them, will be called to mind with all their aggravating cir-
cumstances. They will have a galling and cutting remembrance of the pleasures
of sin, which they sometime thought themselves happy in ; of the profits of sin,
that they sometime hugged themselves in. Times, places, means, instruments,
when, where, and by which they were ruined, or might have been brought into a
state of salvation, will all be remembered there.
[6.] The wrath of God will sink into their souls there, Psal. ciz. 18. Vindictive
justice will make inconceivable impressions on them, that will melt their souls
“like wax in the midst of their bowels.” Some of God's own people have felt
some drops of wrath here, that, if they had continued but a little longer, they
would have fainted away under them. What will the full shower of it be in hell,
where every stone of that hail is the weight of a talent Rev. xvi. 21.
iii. They will be shut up in “outer darkness” there, Matt. xxii. 13. Hell is
the place of outer darkness. It is so called in opposition to the glorious light that
the saints within heaven do enjoy. The Jews had their marriage-suppers by night;
and so, while the guest-chamber was filled with lights, there was nothing but dark-
ness without. So, while the saints are in heaven, in eternal light, at the mar-
riage-supper of the Lamb, the damned are without, in darkness. It must be so;
for light is sweet to the eyes, and nothing sweet can be there. When Christ suf-
fered on the cross, there was an eclipse for the same reason. But it went off, for
Christ overcame death ; but the eclipse in hell can never go off. And the dark-
mess there is a deep darkness; it is “the mist of darkness” that never clears,
2 Pet. ii. 17; “the blackness of darkness,” Jude 13. Hence,
(i.) Dismal and melancholy must the state of the damned be in the region of
horror, where is not the least comfortable gleam of light to their eyes. As there
is no night in heaven, but eternal day, so there is no day in hell, but an eternal
night, an everlasting gloom. If there were no more in it, it would be terrible never
to see the light.
(ii.) They will now range up and down, as vain men now do in the world, divert-
ing themselves with this and the other object. There is nothing to be seen there to
please the eye. The Egyptian darkness was an emblem of it ; which gives the
reason of the phrase, “chains of darkness,” as was before observed. And accord-
ingly, the damned are said to be “bound hand and foot,” Matt. xxii. 13; in which
posture one cannot range from place to place, but at most toss and roll himself like
a sick man on his bed.
iv. They will have the society of devils there, being shut up with them in the
same pit of destruction, Matt. xxv. 41; Rev. xx. 10. As the saints in heaven
shall be happy in the society of God himself, Christ, and his holy angels; so will
the damned be miserable in the Society of the devil and his angels. How dreadful
would it be to dwell in the pleasantest spot of the earth haunted by the apparitions
of devils . How much more to be shut up in a pit with them How much more
than all that, to be shut up in the pit of hell, in the lake of fire, with them, when
they shall be filled with wrath to the brim
v. There will be degrees of torment and misery in hell, the torments of some
more grievous than others. All there will be unspeakably miserable, and unpitied
in their misery; but the misery of some will be screwed to a greater height than that
of others. As sinners classed themselves on earth in higher or lower forms, in dishon-
ouring of God, so will they be classed in their punishment; Matt. xiii. 30, “Gather
ye together, first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them.” As there
are “many mansions” in heaven, so will there be many bundles in hell; bundles of
ignorants, worldlings, swearers, unclean, persecutors, mockers, hypocrites, &c. And
the more means of reformation any had, and the greater height of impiety they went
to under these means, the more miserable will their case be there, Luke xii. 47,
48; Matt. xxiv. ult.
vi. Their misery will be eternal there, and they will know that it will be so :
Matt. xxv. 41, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;” Prov. xiv. 32,
“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.” It will be everlasting, without
intermission ; Rev. xiv. 11, “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever
and ever; and they have no rest day mor night.” No breathing-time will be
412 A VIEW OF THIS
allowed there, but the floods of wrath will be incessantly flowing in upon them.
There will be no clearing of the storm that blows there, for ever so short a while.
It will be eternal, without ending ; Rev. xx. 10, “They shall be tormented day
and night for ever and ever.” There is no end to be for ever expected of the ease-
less torments there. And the damned, knowing this, will be cut for ever with de-
spair and rage, like wild bulls in the met.
vii. And thus God will be glorified passively, in those who now will not actively
glorify him ; Prov. xvi. 4, “The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even
the wicked for the day of evil.” God made man for his glory, capable of enjoy-
ing him for ever : he cannot fall short of his end, and therefore he will be glori-
fied upon those who now refuse to answer the end of their creation.
Inference 1. Sin is a most dreadful evil. Here is a looking-glass wherein you
may see it so. How great must the filthiness of it be, that provokes a gracious
holy God to bury the sinner in such a horrible pit out of his sight! How deep
must the guilt be, that cannot be washed out with such fearful punishment, so as
to have an end |
Inf. 2. God is a God of terrible justice, a severe avenger of sin. O correct your
mistakes of God by this, Psalm 1. 21. He gave a demonstration of his justice in
the burning of Sodom : here he gives an eternal demonstration of it.
Inf. 3. There is nothing that possibly can make the life of an impenitent sinner
in this world desirable, which has such a miserable end.
The doctrine of the other world applied.
And now, after having viewed this present world, we have given you some de-
scription of the other world, to let you into a necessary view of it; it remains to
shut up that weighty subject with some application of the whole.
First, Believe the report from the word concerning the other world, firmly ; and
let it have deep impression on your souls. Consider of it timely with all earnest-
ness; stretch your views beyond this present world; look into the world to come,
with the prospect of the word which has been cleared in some measure unto you.
There are two things very prevalent in this world with reference to the other
world.
1. Thoughtlessness about it. Men spend their days as in a dream ; going through
this world with the other world seldom coming into their view, never entering into
any suitable thoughtfulness about it. The reasons hereof are,
(1.) The reigning vanity of the minds of men, Eph. iv. 17, 18. The light and
frothy mind cannot find entertainment in any thing that is not like itself light and
vain. Therefore thoughts of the other world are shunned, as a bird delighting to skip
from bush to bush, would shun the tying of a stone to its foot. But, alas! what
avails that, since going into that world cannot be shunned that way ?
(2.) Throng of the cares of this life, Matt. xiii. 22. Men's hearts are so stuffed
and perplexed with these, that the concerns of another world cannot get entranco
into their hearts; “cumbered about many things,” the “one thing needful” is
forgot. Hence death surprises many in such a throng, and hurries them away
into another world, when they were not at all thinking on it, Psal. cxlvi. 4;
Luke xii. 20. *
(3.) An averseness of heart to the other world. The hearts of most men are so
wedded to this world, that, for as great a hell as it is, they would desire no better
heaven than what they could make here. They are in no case content to leave it,
and go into another world. And their aversion to it makes them thoughtless about
it, that they really shun the thoughts of it as much as they can, since they can have
no pleasure in them.
(4.) A fond conceit of coming in time enough after to think of the concerns of
the other world, when they come near the borders of it; though, alas ! they know
not how near they are to it, and their foot may slip, and they pass into it, ere ever
they are aware.
(5.) Satan has a great hand in it, who endeavours to hoodwink sinners, and to
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 413
be continually buzzing into their ears other things, that may keep them from seri-
ous thoughts about it; and all to compass their ruin.
2. Unbelief of it. Men are not only thoughtless about it, not turning their
thoughts that way; but when the report of it is brought to them, they do not be-
lieve it. There is a root of atheism and infidelity in the minds of men as to things
not seen, so that they hear these things as idle tales. The evidences of this are:
(1.) The little impression these things make on the minds of men, when they
hear them. How many do hear the report of the other world with as little con-
cern as they would hear an idle story, which they had no manner of concern about!
The account of the joys of heaven does not move them, and that of the terrors of
hell makes no suitable impression.
(2.) The supine negligence and carelessness about our part in the other world.
If, in the time of hearing, men are somewhat moved, yet they are like the sieve
taken out of the water ; when they go away, they lose all. They are not effectu-
ally stirred up to take some course whereby they may “flee from the wrath to
come,” and may become heirs of heaven. If it were but a cot-house they had, in
case they were to remove out of it, they would be careful to secure another for
themselves. But they know they must die, yet they are quite careless as to where
they are to lodge next.
(3.) The unaccountable mispending of time, either trifling, or doing evil; doing
nothing, or what is worse than nothing. Did men believe that now they are sow-
ing for etermity, that what they now do in this world they are to eat the fruits of
in the other world; would they be so barren in good works, and so lavish in sinful
courses and actions?
Wherefore I beseech you consider seriously of the world to come, and believe
the report about it :
1st, About the being of it. O to believe firmly that there is another world ; a
heaven and a hell ; a receptacle of joy for the departed Souls of the godly, where-
into their bodies also are to be received after the resurrection, and a receptacle of
horror for the souls and bodies of the wicked.
2dly, About the state of men in it, as held forth in the word; how that there
they arrive either at the highest pinnacle of happiness or misery, and to continue
unchangeable for ever and ever. To enforce the exhortation, I offer the following
motives:
i. Consider ye have by the providence of God heard much of it from the word of
God. The Lord of the other world has appointed his messengers to speak of it to
us in this world, that we may make ready for it in time. When the Lord has
been sounding the alarm, let us not be deaf to his call, but know and believe that
we are to march into the other world. It will be an aggravated guilt to be thought-
less about it, after hearing so much of it ; or to entertain the report as idle tales.
ii. The world we have been hearing of we will all see at length ; and see it not
afar off, but being in it. We might be the less concerned about it, if we were never
to go there : but thither we must all go. And it may well apologize for our insist-
ing so much on it, that we are to be inhabitants there, eternal inhabitants there.
It must be infatuation to be thoughtless or unbelieving about it.
iii. It will not be long ere we will be there. We have but a hand-breadth of days
to pass, and then we are there ; our age, which is as nothing before the Lord, be-
ing once run through, we pass into that other world. Our life here is but a short
preface to a long eternity, a skip from the womb to the grave ; and we have made
considerable progress in it already. And we are not far from the entrance of the
passage into the other world; and in a little we will be in one of the parts of it,
join the inhabitants thereof, and be settled in the state of it.
iv. We know not how soon we will be there. The journey to the other world is
not alike long to all. It is but a short journey the longest of it: but God brings
Some there by a short cut, and they are at the end when they think there is a great
part of the way before them.
V. A happy part there will never be reached without serious thoughts about it,
and a firm faith of it.
Secondly, Improve the believed report of the other world suitably. If there is
414 A VIEW OF THIS
really another world, a world to come, and such as from the Lord's word it has
been reported of to you ; without controversy it is a matter of the greatest concern
to us, and ought to influence our whole life. And it is not a true faith of it that
does not influence our conduct accordingly. Now, if ye would improve it suitably,
1. Improve it to a speedy choice of the way to the happy part of it, and entering
upon it without delay. We are all going to the other world: but as there are two
very distant parts of it, so there are two as really different ways thereto, viz. the
broad way, and the narrow way, Matt. vii. 13, 14. If you take the broad way, it
will have a miserable ending; if the narrow, a happy ending. Therefore choose
well speedily, and enter on the happy way without delay. And,
(1.) Choose and enter speedily into the personal way, the Lord Jesus Christ,
John xiv. 6. Unite with him by faith, Eph. iii. 17. He is Lord of the other
world, and “heir of all things:” match with him, and heaven shall be your dowry.
“The keys of hell and death” hang at his girdle; but “them that come unto him
he will in no wise cast out.” Here is the sure bargain for eternity. Enter per-
sonally into the covenant of grace, by believing on Christ.
(2.) Choose and enter speedily on the real way, the way of holiness, Isa. xxxv.
8. For “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” Heb. xii. 14. If ye mind
for the holy city in the other world, ye must be holy in all conversation. If
ye hold the way of looseness and licentiousness, profanity, or formality, it will
undoubtedly land you in the unclean place in the other world. As ye sow, ye
will reap.
2. Improve it to a lowering of your esteem of this present world, and weaning
your hearts from it, 1 John ii. 15. A right view of the other world would make
this, with all its gaudy show, little in our eyes.
(1.) Seek not your portion in it. Leave that to those who have no expectation
of the treasure in heaven; make the best of it they can, they will make a sorry
portion of it, Psal. xvii. 14, 15. Take ye that advice, if you be wise, Matt. vi. 33,
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you.” Let the riches, honours, and pleasures of the other
world be the great conquest you are set for; and the things of a present life only
a byhand work.
(2.) Set not your heart upon it, but use it passingly, 1 Cor. vii. 29–31. Carry
yourselves, not as natives, but as pilgrims and strangers in it. What a folly would
it be for the traveller, to let his heart go out on the conveniencies of the inn, which
he is quickly to leave; on the pleasant places by the way, where he is but passing !
3.) Do not value yourselves upon your possessions in it, and your expectations
from it. The former are very precarious, which ye may soon be deprived of ; the
latter very uncertain, wherein ye are fair to be disappointed. The world's moun-
tains in expectation often dwindle into molehills of enjoyment. But value your-
selves according to the possessions and expectations from the other world.
3. Improve it to a Christian bearing of your afflictions with patience, Luke xxi.
19; James v. 7. If we observe well, we will see that many times it is a falling into
afflicting circumstances in this world that makes us look first after the other world ;
and the same is what makes people look to it again, after prosperity has made them
forget it. And having believingly looked into the other world, when we look
back again to our afflictions we will be the more able to bear them patiently.
For,
(1.) We will thereby find them to be comparatively light burdens. That which
makes our afflictions so very heavy, and us so uneasy under them, is the weighing
them in the balance with other things of this world ; our sorrow and others' joy,
our poverty and others’ wealth, our wants and others' enjoyments: that is the devil's
rack which he aims to put the afflicted on, that they may be made to murmur, spurn,
rage, and quarrel. But lay them in the balance with the other world's joys and sor-
rows, they will be light as a feather, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.
(2.) We will find them thereby to be short also, ibid. The afflicted are ready to
cry out, their trouble never ends, they can see no outgate. Why, but because
they look not to the other world, a view of which would soon make them see they
are mistaken; Job iii. 17, “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 415
weary be at rest.” What are our afflictions here of the longest continuance, but
like the inconveniencies a traveller meets with on the road 2 If he is going to his
father's house, he easily digests it, knowing that he will be easy there ; if they be
carrying him away to prison, he easily digests it, seeing that it will be worse with
him. In both cases he bears it, knowing he is not to stay with them.
(3.) We will thereby see ourselves the more nearly allied to the saints in glory
in the other world, by companionship in tribulation. Where are they in the other
world that had their good things in this world, and where are they that had their
evil things 2 Luke xvi. 25. If ye look through the upper part of that world, there
ye will see the “man of sorrows,” “the man of God's right hand” there, and all
his happy attendants, persons that came out of great tribulations, Rev. vii. 14;
the sore tried Abraham, the burdened man Moses, the afflicted David, the perse-
cuted Paul, the mournful Heman, &c. If ye look to the lower part of it, there
you will see those that spent their days in wealth, and in a moment went down to
the grave, (Job xxi. 13,) in a merry jovial life ; the dancing Herodias, the rich
glutton that “fared deliciously every day,” &c. A serious look of this sort to the
other world would make us embrace our cross, and say, Lord, let me not taste of
the dainties of the wicked, nor get my heaven here.
(4.) We will thereby see ourselves a-fitting and squaring for heaven. Stones to
be laid in the temple above, must be cut and hewed before they come there. Af-
flictions are God's hewing tools, whereby he smooths people for that building ; and
rough and hard stones we are, that take much hewing. Instruments of our afflic-
tions are but the hands he employs for smoothing the stones for his building.
4. Improve it to suitable endeavours to prepare for that other world. If ye
prepare not for it, ye do not believe the report of it. And,
(1.) Labour to be habitually prepared for it. Get out of your natural state into
the state of grace : live no longer without the bond of the covenant; but person-
ally enter into it, by believing on Christ. Ye must be converted, ye must be born
again, and become new creatures.
(2.) Labour to reach actual preparation for the other world, being always ready
to go into it at a call. Let your thoughts dwell much upon it; carry yourselves
as strangers in this world ; let there be no standing controversy betwixt God and
you ; and timely despatch your generation-work, and watch and wait till your
change come. Consider what you have heard of the other world, and lay it to
heart.
THE GREAT CARE AND CONCERN NOW, THAT OUR SOULS BE NOT
GATHERED WITH SINNERS IN THE OTHER WORLD, CONSIDERED AND
IMPROVED.
THE SUBSTANCE OF SOME SERMONs PREACIIED AT ETTRICR IN THE YEAR 1729.
PsALM xxvi. 9.
“Gather not my soul with sinners.”
WHOEVER believes and considers the doctrine of the other world, must needs im-
prove it to a horror of the state of the ungodly there, on the one hand, and a desire
of the state of the godly, on the other. He cannot miss to join the psalmist in this
text, saying, “Gather not my soul with sinners.” In which words we have to
observe,
1. Something taken for granted or supposed, namely, that the souls of men are
to be gathered, each to those of their own sort, which is at death, Gen. xxy. 8.
Now there is a promiscuous multitude in this world, good and bad together, like
corn and chaff in a barn-floor, or fishes in a net: but they are gathered in the
other world, some into the happy, others into the miserable company, every one
to those of their own sort.
2. Something expressed, namely, a horror of the congregation of sinners in the
other world. Lord, says he, gather not my soul among their souls: when I
remove hence, let me not take up my lodging among them: let me not drop into
their company, state, and condition, in the other world.
3. The connection. This request comes in natively, on a reflection the psalmist
makes on the disposition of his soul, and his way, in this world. His conscience
witnesseth his dislike of associating with the ungodly; ver. 4, 5, “I have not sat
with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congre-
gation of evil-doers; and will not sit with the wicked:” his love and liking to the
presence of God, and the congregation of the saints; ver. 8, “Lord, I have loved
the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.” So he
prays with hope, “Gather not my soul with sinners,” q. d. Lord, I have no liking
of the company of ungodly sinners here; it is a burden to me in this world; let me
not be shut up with them in the other world. My soul loves thy house; let me
not be, with sinners, excluded eternally from thy presence.
The text plainly affords the following doctrine, namely,
DocTRINE, Now is the time that people should be in care and concern, that their
souls be not gathered with sinners in the other world.
In discoursing from this doctrine, we shall,
I. Consider some things implied in it.
II. Show who are the sinners that we are to have a horror of our souls being
gathered with in the other world.
III. What it is for one's soul to be gathered with sinners in the other world.
IV. Consider this care and concern; or show what is implied in this earnest
request, “Gather not my soul with sinners.”
W. Give the reasons why we should be in such care and concern.
VI. Make application.
I. We shall consider some things implied in the doctrine. It implies,
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 417
First, The souls of men, in their bodies, in this world, are in a scattered and
disorderly condition ; Saints and sinners in one place, one outward condition ; all
mixed through other: the tares and the wheat are in one field; corn and chaff in
one floor; fish good and bad in one net; sheep and goats in one flock; Ham in the
ark, Judas in Christ's family, profane and hypocrites with sincere Christians in one
visible church. This mixture has a threefold effect.
1. It keeps both parties uneasy, Gen. iii. 15. The Saints are uneasy with the
conversation of sinners, 2 Pet. ii. 7; and sinners with that of Saints, who are an
eyesore to them, Gen. xix, 9. The one wearies to have the other out of their
world, the other many a time to be away from among them. Their principles,
aims, and manner of life, are opposite ; and they cannot unite more than the iron
and clay.
2. They are an embargo upon one another, so that this world is neither so good
nor yet so bad as otherwise it would be. It is with the world in this case, as with
the believer in whom there is a mixture of flesh and spirit, Gal. v. 17. The con-
versation of sinners often infects saints, leads them into Snares and temptations;
handling of pitch they are defiled, and are often made to come mourning out of
their company, as Peter in the high priest's hall. Sometimes again, Saints win on
sinners, to turn them from the evil of their ways, 1 Cor. vii. 12, 13, 16; 1 Pet.
iii. 1. And even where that is not gained, yet it does something to keep the world
in external order, beyond what it would be if all were alike, no mixture of Saints
in the society, Matt. v. 13; like salt that keeps it from rotting and stinking, as
otherwise it would do.
3. There is a mixed dispensation of providence in the world: sometimes fair
weather, sometimes foul; sometimes public mercies dispensed, sometimes public
calamities: for God has his friends and his enemies both in one company; and the
society meets with tokens of God's good-will for the sake of the one, and tokens of
anger for the sake of the other.
Secondly, The souls of men, in the other world, will be orderly ranged into
different congregations, according to their different natures and dispositions, Saints
and sinners, who will make two unmixed societies. This implies two things:
1. A separation of the disagreeing parties now mixed, Matt. iii. 12. The good and
bad mixed in this world will be separated there; they will not make but one society
more, as they did here : and the separation will be a thorough one, not one goat left
among the sheep, nor one sheep among the goats, Psal. i. 5; Matt. xiii. 41. For all
the mixture that is here, there will be a cleanly separation there, whatever were the
ties of political, ecclesiastical, or domestical relations among them ; Matt, xxiv. 40,
41, “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other
left.” is
2. A gathering of the separate parties into their respective societies they be-
longed to, whereby they will be ranged according to their kind and sort; Saints
with saints, and sinners with sinners. For there will be two, and but two con-
gregations in the other world, Christ's and the devil's, Psal. i. 5; the bundle of
life, (1 Sam. xxv. 29,) and the bundle of death, Matt. xiii. 30. Many are mis-
placed here, and get wrong names: some of the devil's goats appearing in sheep's
clothing, and are mistaken for such as belong to Christ; some of Christ's sheep are
busked up by the malicious world in wolves' skins, as if they belonged to the devil.
But nothing of that will be there.
Thirdly, Death is the gathering-time which the psalmist has in view in the text.
Ye have a time here that ye call the gathering-time, about the term, when the ser-
vants are going away, wherein ye gather your strayed sheep, that every one may
get their own again. Death is God's gathering-time, wherein he gets the souls be-
longing to him, and the devil those belonging to him. They did go long together,
but then they are parted; and saints are taken home to the congregation of saints,
and sinners to the congregation of sinners. And it concerns us to say, “Gather
not my soul with sinners.” Whoever be our people here, God's people, or the
devil's, death will gather our souls to them.
Lastly, It is a horrible thing to be gathered with sinners in the other world.
3 G
418 A VIEW OF THIS
To think of our souls being gathered with them there, may make the hair of one's
head stand up. Many now like no gathering like the gathering with sinners; it is
the very delight of their hearts, it makes a brave jovial life in their eyes. And it
is a pain to them to be gathered with Saints, to be detained before the Lord on a
Sabbath-day. But to be gathered with them in the other world, is a horror to all
SO.'tS. QM
1. The saints have a horror of it, as in the text. To think to be staked down
in their company in the other world, would be a hell of itself to the godly. David
never had such a horror of the society of the poor, the diseased, the persecuted,
&c., as of sinners. He is content to be gathered with Saints of whatever condition;
but, Lord, says he, “gather not my soul with sinners.”
2. The wicked themselves have a horror of it; Num. xxiii. 10, “Let me die the
death of the righteous,” said the wicked Balaam, “and let my end be like his.”
Though they would be content to live with them, or be with them in life, their con-
sciences bear witness that they have a horror of being with them in death. They
would live with sinners, but they would die with Saints. A poor, unreasonable,
self-condemning thought ! I believe, that if drunkards, unclean persons, mockers
of religion, embracing and rejoicing in one another, should, as Belshazzar, see the
form of a hand-writing on the wall, that it is the purpose of God their soul should
be gathered with one another in the other world, they would be struck and ready
to faint away with horror, thinking, Ah shall my soul be gathered with drunk-
ards, harlots, mockers ? &c.
Wherefore, since all have a horror of their souls being gathered with sinners in
the other world, have a horror of being gathered with them now in their way. For
it is an absurd thing to think that you shall live with sinners, and yet die with
saints. Balaam wished to reconcile these contradictions, but found it would not do,
Num, xxxi. 8.
II. I come to show who are the sinners that we are to have a horror of our souls
being gathered with in the other world. All men in this world are sinners abso-
lutely considered ; and so was David himself; Eccl. vii. 20, “For there is not a
just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” But some are sinners com-
paratively, in comparison with others that are righteous: they are grievous sinners,
as the word properly signifies; hence they are classed with publicans, a most odious
sort of people among the Jews, Matt. ix. 10.
Now, sinners, grievous sinners, in the scripture-use of the word, are all un-
righteous persons, as appears from the opposition of these terms; Psal. i. 5,
“Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the con-
gregation of the righteous;” Prov. xiii. 21, “Evil pursueth sinners; but to the
righteous good shall be repaid;” Matt. ix. 13. He that is not righteous is, in the
scripture-sense, a sinner, a grievous sinner, Hence,
First, All unjustified persons are sinners; for they are unrighteous before God,
as being without an imputed righteousness on them, Rom. v. 19. And since all
unbelievers are unjustified, whatever is their manner of life, they are such sinners;
they walk naked before God, and their shame is not covered.
Secondly, All unconverted, unsanctified, unregenerate persons are sinners; for "
they are unrighteous, as being without an implanted righteousness, Psal. li. 13;
Rom. v. 8. They are not brought back to God, but are in a course of straying
from him ; their unholy set of spirit remains, their nature is not changed.
Thus all natural men are sinners; whose state in the other world is horrible,
whatever their appearance and way may be here. There are four sorts of them.
1. The grossly ignorant, who neither know, nor care for knowing, the foundation-
points of religion. These cannot be but sinners; for however harmless they may
be among men, they are grievous sinners before God, as being in darkness, 1 John
ii. 11; Matt. vi. 23. And miserable will they be whose souls are gathered with
them in the other world; Isa. xxvii. 11, “It is a people of no understanding:
therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed
them will show them no favour.”
2. The profane, who give the loose to their lusts, in the pollution of the out-
ward, man. Such as profane swearers, who “set their mouths against the heavens,”
AND THIE other WORLD. 419
whom God “will not hold guiltless ;” unclean persons whom “God will judge ;”
scoffers of piety, maligners, and mockers of seriousness, whose “bands shall be
made strong ;” in a word, all those who are loose and licentious in their lives. These
are sinners with a witness; and woe to them whose souls shall be gathered with
them in the other world ; Gal. v. 19—21, “They which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God;” Luke xix. 27, “Those mine enemies, which would
not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”
3. Mere moralists, who satisfy themselves with moral virtue, in obedience to the
letter of the second table of the law, but neglect the duties of religion towards God.
They are just and honest in their dealings with men, but neglect their duty to
God. These also are sinners, and miserable will be the case of those whose souls
are gathered with them in the other world; Matt. v. 20, “For I say unto you, that
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Phari-
sees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” They seek not God’s
face, and they will be hid from it.
4. Formalists, who have “a form of godliness” in a profession of religion, and
performance of acts of devotion, but are strangers to real religion, 2 Tim. iii. 5.
Some of them are gross hypocrites, who stain the profession of religion with their
untender walk in matters of the second table, Matt. xxiii. 23. Others are close
hypocrites, whose outward conversation is blameless, but they are strangers to
heart-work, the secret part of the Christian life, and entertain always some beloved
lust or other. These also are sinners, Mark x. 21; and woe will be to those whose
souls are gathered with them in the other world; Psal. cxxv. ult., “As for such as
turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers
of iniquity;” Matt. xxiv. ult., “And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his
portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Now, all these are sinners, grievous sinners, who, if they continue so, will
undoubtedly perish. They are justly called and reputed sinners, in opposition to
saints. For,
1st, They all miss the mark totally that men should aim at. The word by
which the Holy Ghost expresseth sin, is properly to “miss the mark,” Judges xx.
16. The mark that all men are obliged to aim at and hit, is the glory of God, the
chief end of man, 1 Cor. x. 31. The saints brought to the enjoyment of God in
Christ do all hit it, though not perfectly, Phil. i. 21 ; Rom. xiv. 7, 8. They live
to the glory of God, their Creator and Redeemer. But all natural men miss it
totally, Rom. iii. 23. They are conjured within the circle of self: they live to
themselves, not to God: their lusts, morality, and religion, meet all in the dead
sea of self. They are a company of self-lovers, self-seekers, self-pleasers, Phil. ii.
21. So they and their way, not being directed to God, shall perish from his pre-
sence, Psal. i. ult. ; and their straying will end in their falling into the pit.
2dly, They are guilty of death before the Lord, 1 Kings i. 21, with Rom. iii.
19. The sentence of death is in force against them, and they are sons of death.
The curse of the broken law lies on them, binding them over to revenging wrath.
But the saints are not so ; though they are not without sin, yet they are without
guilt of eternal wrath, Rom. viii. 1. They are absolved in their justification ; but
natural men, whatever be the difference of their crimes, are all sinners, law-con-
demned criminals.
3dly, They can do nothing but sin, Psal. xiv. 3. It is true, the saints sin in every
thing they do : but yet, they do things truly good, and accepted of God, Isa. lvi.
7; the imperfections attending their duties do not quite mar them, 2 Cor. viii. 12.
But natural men's actions are all sins; their natural, civil, and religious actions,
only evil. Their whole life is woven into one web of sin from the beginning to
the end, without one thread of purity in it: so they are sinners in a most proper
Sen Se.
Question, How can that be, since they do things that are unquestionably good 2
Answer, It cannot be otherwise. For,
(1.) The principle of action in them is quite wrong. They themselves are wholly
corrupt and loathsome, and so is all they do. Put the best of liquor in a vessel
used to filthy uses, and one cannot look on it; Tit, i. 15, “Unto them that are
420 - A VIEW OF THIS
defiled and unbelieving, is nothing pure ; but even their mind and conscience is
defiled.” Their filthy state defiles their duties, but their duties cannot purify them,
Hag. ii. 12–14. * - -
(2.) The end of their actions is quite wrong. They are like a servant very busy,
but in the meantime he is working to himself, not to his master; Zech. vii. 5,
“When ye fasted and mourned, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?”
4thly, They all sin with whole heart and good will to it. The saints do not so,
1 John iii. 9. They have a contrary principle in them that contradicts the inclina-
tion to sin, so that at most it is but with a half will, Gal. v. 17. But natural men
are flesh, wholly corrupt, therefore the heart goes with a bent-sail to sin. It is true,
there may be something opposing sin in the unregenerate; but then that struggle
of theirs is not betwixt flesh and spirit, but betwixt the flesh in one part lusting,
and in another fearing. -
5thly, All their sins that ever came on them through the whole course of their
lives, are still abiding on them, in the guilt, filth, and dominion of them. It is not
so with the Saints: guilt contracted is done away, the filth is in part removed, the
reigning power of sin is broken. Sin in them is like mud in a spring, but natural
men like mud in a pool. Sin is ever coming on, never going off; but all sticks,
original and actual: for there is no remission of sin to them, and no sanctification
by the Spirit. Unbelief is a need-nail to all their sins, John viii. 24.
6thly, They continue sinners in the other world ; Prov. xiv. 32, “The wicked is
driven away in his wickedness.” In the moment of death the saints are perfected,
they are no more sinners; but natural men have sin left on them when they die.
Then the sentence takes place ; Rev. xxii. 11, “He that is unjust, let him be un-
just still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still ;” and they are cast out, as
unclean, into the unclean place.
III. I proceed to show what it is for one's soul to be gathered with sinners in
the other world. It implies, -
First, All men's souls are to be gathered out of their bodies by death ; Job
xxxiv. 14, 15, “If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit
and his breath ; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto
dust.” Man consists of a soul and a body : the body was originally dust, lying
here and there, scattered on the earth ; and at death it must be reduced to the
same condition again ; the soul came immediately from God, and at death must
return to him, Eccl. xii. 17. And no man can have power to retain it in the body;
but it must be separated from it, and so the man dies.
Secondly, There are very different receptacles of separate souls: there is a
blessed receptacle of the souls of Saints, wherein they shall all be together in the
other world; and a miserable receptacle of the souls of sinners, where they also
shall be together in that world. Though the receptacle of the bodies of saints and
sinners is common to both in this world, both lying in the same churchyard, yet
that of their souls is not so. -
Thirdly, A separation of the soul from the Society of saints, Matt. xiii. 41. At
death, sinners that were mixed with the Saints in this world are gathered out from
among them like weeds from among the corn, and tares from among the wheat. And
we should be concerned now that that be not our lot. For it will be a most terrible
excommunication; Psal. i. 5, “The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor
sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” -
Lastly, A placing of the soul in the society of sinners in the other world; put-
ting them in the same place with them, and in the same state. This is to be de-
precated: “Gather not my soul with sinners.” To be gathered to sinners as our
people, shut up with them in the same receptacle of spirits, to have our lot with
them in the other world, and fare as they fare for eternity, is what we should be
in the greatest care and concern that it be not our lot.
IV. I shall consider this care and concern, or show what is implied in this ear-
nest request, “Gather not my soul with sinners.” It implies,
First, A sure and certain expectation that our souls must be gathered into the
other world by death. The psalmist prays not against the gathering simply, for
in that case neither prayers nor tears can prevail, force nor fraud; Psal. lxxxix.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 421
48, “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death ?” But since they must
be gathered, they pray that they be not gathered with sinners. ... There is no may
here ; but it must be, as it is “appointed unto men once to die,” Heb. ix. 27. We
must lay our account with it, as an event inevitable.
Secondly, A belief of the miserable state of sinners in the other world, and the
happiness of Saints. If one is not persuaded of these, he will be in no concern
about the matter. But we must look beyond this world into the other, and, in the
glass of the word, take a view of the state of sinners and Saints there, to raise us
to due concern in it. Often do men look into the state of sinners here, and behold
the easy life they have of it, and they wish in effect to be among them : but if we
look to them in the other world, we will wish to be far from them, to have nothing
ado with them.
Thirdly, A horror of the state of sinners there. The man, looking to it, shrinks
back, saying, Save me from it! Their state there duly apprehended is apt to breed
such a horror, as not only cures the envy at their present prosperous state, but
makes the man that he would not, for a thousand worlds, his soul were in their
Souls' stead, Psal. lxxiii. 18—20.
Fourthly, An earnest concern to be delivered from it. The man takes a view
of it seriously, and he is not indifferent in the matter. He is not negligent as to
the future state of his soul in the other world ; but timely lays down measures for
eternity, knowing that to miscarry in that point is a loss that can never be made up.
Fifthly, An acknowledgment that God may in justice gather one's soul with
sinners. The best have as much sin as deserves it, and all are by nature liable to
it, Rom. iii. 19. And every one that sees the ill of sin, and its just demerit, will
See that if justice take place against them, they will be gathered with sinners in
the other world.
Lastly, A betaking one's self to the mercy of the Judge, in his own way, for the
pardon of sin, and the removal of the just punishment, Job ix. 15. And that is to
confess sin, flee to lay hold on the altar, Jesus Christ, by faith, separating from the
society and way of sinners in time.
V. I come now to give reasons why we should be in such care and concern that
our souls be not gathered with sinners in the other world.
First, Because to be gathered with them is to be separated for ever from God,
and the holy and happy society whereof Christ is the head; Matt. vii. 23, “Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity.” The whole herd of sinners in the other world
will be in a state of excommunication : banished from the comfortable presence of
God, the place of his glory, Psal. v. 4, 5; kept out of the society of Christ, the holy
angels, and saints, Matt. xiii. 41. And to be gathered with them must needs,
then, be horrible.
Secondly, They will be gathered into a most doleful place ; Isa. xxiv. 22,
“They shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall
be shut up in the prison.” At death sinners are gathered into the prison of hell,
shut up there to the judgment of the great day; and from the tribunal they will
be driven away thither again all together, there to be shut up for ever, Matt.
xxiv. 41. The horror of the place they are gathered into, the eternal gloom
there, the “chains of darkness” that will hold them there, the “mist of darkness”
that never clears there, may all move to say, “Gather not my soul with sinners.”
Thirdly Because they will be gathered unto the most frightful society there,
with the devil and his angels, Matt. xxv. 41. They will be cast into the lake of
fire with the devil that deceived them; and that will be more terrible than to be
gathered with dragons, serpents, and vipers here, which would quickly make an end
of one. O that men would consider how the service of the devil in sin here will
bring them into the society of him and his angels hereafter, that they might have
a horror of being joined with sinners
Fourthly, Because sinners will be in a state of punishment there heavy beyond
expression; being “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power,” 2 Thess. i. 9. Now is the time wherein
Sinners take leave to commit their crimes, trampling on God's laws, despising his
Son, and grieving his Spirit: then will be the time that they must suffer and pay
422 º A VIEW OF THIS
for all, to the satisfaction of injured justice. And the view of that fearful reckon-
ing may cause one say, “Gather not my soul with sinners.”
Fifthly, Because they will be left in their sin there; Prov. xiv. 32, “The wicked
is driven away in his wickedness;” John viii. 24, “If ye believe not that I am he,
ye shall die in your sins.” At the moment of death, it is said of the sinner, “He
that is filthy, let him be filthy still;” and he is cast away, as an unclean thing, into
the unclean place, with all the guilt, filth, and power of his sins upon him, never
to be removed. And here consider,
1. The perverse frame of spirit which is natural to man, being enmity against
God, will remain with them there, for there is no sanctification of the Spirit begun
on the other side of death. And it will be undisguised there ; the peace being
blocked up, and the war for ever betwixt God and them proclaimed. It will be
irritated by their hopeless, miserable state, Rev. xvi. ult.
2. Their sin will be their punishment there ; a just revenge of cleaving to it
over the belly of all reproofs, warnings, and entreaties | So they will “be filled
with their own ways.” And,
(1.) They will be cut with tormenting passions; envying at the happiness of
the saints, fretting under their own misery, and despairing for ever of relief; Matt.
xxii. 13, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
(2.) As for their pleasurable sins, that their hearts were set on here, the desire
of them will continue, but the satisfying of them in any measure will be im-
possible. So they will be for ever racked between the desire, and the denial, of
satisfaction to their lusts. Who, then, would not say, “Gather not my soul with
sinners?”
Lastly, Because, being once gathered with them, they will never more be separ-
ated from among them. As the tree falls, it must lie. They that are gathered
with sinners at death, must be gathered with them at the resurrection, and shut
up with them in the pit of destruction for ever.
I shall now make some application of this subject.
Use 1. Of information. We may learn from it, .
First, That the state and condition of sinners, whatever advantages of ease,
wealth, &c., it be attended with, is a miserable one, to be pitied, lamented, and
avoided, not to be envied or desired. For it is impossible that all the wealth of
this world should counterbalance the woe in the other world that is abiding them.
Who would desire his lot with a condemned malefactor, though he fared deliciously
every day; or quietly enjoy the best covered table, while a sword was hanging by
a hair over his head?
Secondly, That the great business of our life is to learn to die, and the great
business which we have to do in this world is to prepare for the other; Job xiv.
14, “If a man die, shall he live again 2 All the days of my appointed time will I
wait, till my change come.” Here we do but sojourn, there we are to abide ; here we
are on our journey, there we come to our dwelling-place: and it is of the utmost
consequence which part of the world we arrive in, Matt. xvi. 26. And they who
do not see to that in the first and chief place, are fools with a witness.
Thirdly, That we are in hazard of miscarrying with reference to our abode in
the other world, and carelessness about it will have a fatal issue. If all were to be
gathered there into the happy receptacle without distinction, we might be easy:
but it is not so ; there will be a gathering into the region of horror, as well as into
the region of bliss. And we will be sure to miscarry, if we do not in time secure
our happy reception in the way appointed.
Lastly, That the hazard of miscarrying in it should quicken us to suitable en-
deavours for securing our happiness in the other world. Our eternal state is our
greatest concern ; and, everything being to be plied according to its weight, it
should be seen to with the greatest care, and nothing laid in the balance with it,
neither cares, profits, nor pleasures.
Use 2. Of reproof to several sorts of sinners. It reproves,
First, The careless sinner; who is careless about the other world and his future
state. How many are there who never once seriously consider, where they are
like to take up their abode in the other world ! But they live as if there were no
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 423
other life but this. O what do you think, that you will get away in a dream to
the region of bliss, that you will stumble into heaven that you was not looking out
for ? No; you may drop into the pit that way, but not get up into the holy hill,
Isa. xxxii. 9, 10. The foolish virgins that were careless about oil to their lamps,
got their head and heart full of care out of time, Matt. xxv. And so will ye, if
ye continue in that careless temper.
Secondly, The slothful sinner; who cannot bestir himself to be at due pains in
this matter, Though such are not quite unconcerned about the other world, yet
they do nothing to purpose in it. If lazy wishes and faint endeavours would do it,
they would be happy : but they cannot stir up themselves to take hold of an offered
Christ, covenant, and salvation, Isa. lxiv. 7 ; to cut off offending right hands, and
pluck out offending right eyes; to take the kingdom of heaven by force, and press
into it. Alas ! this is not a business to be managed on the bed of sloth, Eccl. x.
18. Remember the doom of the slothful servant, who was cast “into outer dark-
ness,” Matt. xxi. 26, 30.
Thirdly, The delaying sinner; who puts off the business from time to time, till
it be out of time, and he is ruined. The young put it off till they shall become
aged, the aged to a sick-bed, and the sick often find they have enough to do other-
wise. So the proper time of securing happiness in the other world is lost, as in
the case of Felix, Acts xxiv. 25. But why will men delay what must needs be
done, or else they are ruined, especially when time is uncertain 3
Lastly, The malignant sinner; who hates the society of saints, and seriousness,
a religious life and religious exercises, making the society and way of sinners his
choice. O what confidence can ye have to cry to God, not to gather your souls
with sinners in the other world, who are those “in whom is all your delight" in
this ? How can ye think to be gathered with saints in heaven, to whom, with
their way and exercises, you have so great aversion on earth? Nay, that malignity
against God's people shows you to be none of them; and you must be gathered to
your people, your own people.
Use 3. Of comfort to those who are in due care and concern now, that they be
not gathered with sinners in the other world. This is a weighty concern to them
that have it, and they will need comfort. And there are four things comfortable
in it. It is comfortable,
First, That you are in the way of duty with reference to the other world; Matt.
xxiv. 46, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so
doing.” While others are going on fearlessly, you are looking about you, con-
cerned how it may be with you in the end. It is a piece of wisdom and hopeful,
thus to be exercised in considering your latter end, Deut. xxxii. 29. God's word
speaks comfort to such; Isa. xxxv. 3, 4, “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and con-
firm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear
not : behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence ;
he will come and save you.”
Secondly, That you take your work in time while yet there is hope ; and so
your care and concern may come to issue well; Isa. xxxii. 20, “Blessed are ye
that sow beside all waters.” There is no son nor daughter of Adam but will be
in that care and concern one time or other; so that there will not be two of the
whole herd of sinners that will desire to be gathered together: but, alas ! with the
most part it will be out of time, Matt. xxv. 10, 11. Now, I say it is comfortable
in your case, that you timely entertain concern about it, while the Judge is on a
throne of grace to receive such applications. I may allude to that, 1 Sam. xxv.
8, “Ye come in a good day;” with 2 Cor. vi. 2, “Behold, now is the accepted
time ; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Thirdly, This care and concern is wrought in all God's elect, by the Spirit of
Christ. The word calls for it; Acts ii. 40, “Save yourselves from this untoward
generation.” The Spirit works it accordingly, Rom. viii. 26; 2 Cor. vii. 11. He
it was that breathed that desire in the psalmist; and those appetites and desires
that are from the Spirit cannot be in vain. So that care and concern is common
to you with all the children of God, who all join you in that spiritual breathing,
“Gather not my soul with sinners.”
424 A VIEW OF THIS
Lastly, You have to do with a good and gracious God, that has no pleasure in
the ruin of sinners; Ezek. xxxiii. 11, “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from
his way and live.” No tender man will give his oath without necessity, or where
there is no controversy to be decided by it. So here there is one, namely, the
devil allegeth to sinners against God, that there is no pleasing of him, otherwise
than in the sinner's ruin, and therefore all care and concern that way is needless.
The slothful servant licked up this vomit, Matt. xxv.24, 25: “Lord,” said he,
“I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and
gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy
talent in the earth.” And God purgeth himself by oath of it; believe it then no
more. Encourage yourself from the goodness of his nature in Christ, in that your
care and concern. -
1. Have you already got your heart's fill of the state and way of sinners out of
Christ, so that you desire no more of it, but would fain be out of the reach thereof?
The goodness of God's nature in Christ will not suffer the gathering of such a one
with sinners in the other world, Psal. xxvi. 4, 5, 9. Will a good God take a sin-
ner already groaning under, burdened and wearied with the state and way of sin-
ners out of Christ in this world, and stake him down with them for ever in the
other world 2 No ; be it far from him.
2. Have you got a longing after holiness, perfect holiness, and a liking of the
purity of the shining ones there, that your soul cries, “Gather not my soul with
sinners,” but with saints in the other world? Truly, that is the work of the Spirit
of Christ in you ; for “the carnal mind is enmity against God,” Rom. viii. 7.
Hence is the promise, Heb. viii. 10, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write
them in their hearts.” And it is the society of sinners, not as sinners, but as
miserable, the hypocrite is frighted at ; and the society of Saints in the other world,
not as saints or holy, but as happy ones, that they desire. It is inconsistent with
the goodness of God, then, to create such longing and liking, and yet never
satisfy it; so to open the mouth of the soul, and then to put an empty spoon in it.
Objection, But a concern not to be gathered with sinners in the other world is a
common thing, which Balaam and the foolish virgins had, as well as the godly :
what comfort then can be in it, since one may have it, and yet be gathered to them
in the end ?
Answer, There is a very great difference betwixt this concern in sincere Chris-
tians and others. There are four things, which if you find in your concern in this
point, you may conclude that you shall not be gathered with sinners in the other
world. -
1st, If their separation from Christ as the chief object of your soul's love, makes
you averse to be gathered with them ; Psal. xxvi. 8, 9, “Lord, I have loved the
habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth : Gather not
my soul with sinners.” The ungodly, if all were right to that * with them in the
other world, could digest that, for Christ is not the chief object of their love. But
this argues your esteem of Christ above all, (1 Pet. ii. 7,) and your desire of com-
munion with him as your chief happiness, Phil. i. 23. You look upon sinners as
seated on the other world, and you see Christ is not among them : and since he is
not with them, your soul cries, Then, Lord, let not me be with them neither, for
the chief object of my love is not among them. If this is the case, truly your souls
shall not be gathered with them ; John vi. 37, “Him that cometh to me, I will in
no wise cast out;” Psal. lxxiii. 24, 25, “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and
afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is
none upon earth that I desire besides thee.”
2dly, If you have a horror of their being left in sin in the other world, as well
as of their being laid under punishment there ; Rom. vii. 24, 25, “O wretched
man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death 2 I thank God,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Nobody believing the unspeakable torment of
the damned in the other world but must have a horror of it, because they love
* i. e. up to that point, —Ed.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 425
themselves. But laying aside the consideration of that, soberly ask yourselves,
what think you of that part of their sentence, “Let him that is filthy be filthy
still,” in itself? Abstracting from the torment joined with it, that would be no
hard thing to most men ; their hearts being wedded to their lusts, and not knowing
how to shift without them. If, then, you find that thought of itself to be killing
to you, and sufficient to make a hell; that argues you partakers of the new nature,
that hath a horror of sin as its opposite, and desires to be holy and without sin,
which is its perfection. And certainly God will not deprive the new nature of its
desired perfection, and consequently, will not gather a soul thus disposed with sin-
ners in the other world; Psal. cxxxviii. ult., “The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me;” Matt. v. 6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
3dly, If you are, with purpose of heart, coming out from among them ; out of
their society, way, and manner of life in this world. Many would be content to
live with them, though not to die with them, Numb. xxiii. 10. But are ye not
content to live with them neither, no more than to die with them ? Have ye con-
ceived no aversion to the life as well as the death, not only of the grossly wicked,
but of all that are out of Christ, strangers to the power of godliness; being drawn
to the love and choice of the fellowship of the saints, by the lustre of the divine
image on them 2 Fear not ; God will never gather you with them in the other world,
Psalm xxvi. 4, 5, 9; 1 John iii. 14; 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. Their company will not
be made your punishment in the other world, that you would not make your choice
here.
4thly, If the hope of not being gathered with sinners in the other world, puts
you on the study of universal purity, 1 John iii. 3. The hope that ungodly sin-
ners and hypocrites have of this tends to make them secure in sin, and leaves
them at ease in the embraces of some one lust or other : the reason is, because
their concern that way is only to be freed from misery, not from sin. But the hope
of the sincere is a lively one, a hope to be freed from sin, 1 Pet. i. 3; and this
makes them bestir themselves against it in time impartially, Psalm crix. 6.
Use 4. Let me exhort all of you now to be in due care and concern, that your
Souls be not gathered with sinners in the other world. This due care and concern
is very extensive, and therefore I will branch out this exhortation in several par-
ticulars. And,
First, Lay the matter of the other world to heart, and be no longer careless
about what shall be your lot in it, Rom. xiii. 11, 12. A careless unconcerned life
about the other world, will make a frightful awakening at death, Luke xii. 20. If
you were to be removed out of a farm or a cot-house, you would look out for another
beforehand: and since you are to remove out of this world, look out for a com-
fortable settlement in the other, and show yourselves men, wise men, and not fools.
Secondly, Delay it no longer; for it is no due concern that admits of one day's
delay: the reason is, ere to-morrow come, your soul may be gathered with sinners,
and staked down with them for etermity; Heb. iii. 15, “To-day, if ye will hear
his voice, harden not your hearts.” No doubt there are many in hell who once
hoped never to come there, and to have set all to rights before gathering-time; but
the misery was, it came ere they were aware, and swept them away with sinners.
They have been carried off in childhood that hoped to be religious youths; and
they have died in their youth who hoped to make all right by the time they should
enter in age. The little sleep, the little slumber they indulged themselves in,
proved their ruin ; for their poverty came upon them “as one that travelleth,” and
their “want as an armed man.”
Thirdly, Let your souls be now gathered unto Christ by faith in the bond of the
Covenant, Gen. xlix. 10. He is the Captain of salvation ; and none come to heaven
but at his back, (John xiv, 6.) as the members of his mystical body, Eph. v. 23.
Whosoever are not united to him, and brought personally within the bond of his
Covenant, will be loft to be gathered with sinners. Therefore consider the cove-
nant offered to you in the gospel, and sincerely take hold of it, as you would not
be so gathered.
Fourthly, Give up with the society of sinners here, I mean not absolutely: but
f
3 H
426 A VIEW OF THIS
make them no more your choice, your familiar companions; for death will gather
every one to his own people ; and therefore, “he that walketh with wise men shall
be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed,” Prov. xiii. 20. The blessed
man is known by the company he chooses, and most delights in, Psal. i. 1. And
he that is not concerned to separate from the company of sinners here, is in no due
concern not to be gathered with them in the other world ; for it is vain to think to
live with sinners, and die with saints.
Fifthly, Lay by your malignity against professors of religion, against seriousness,
and godly exercises. Calmly consider what you would be at. Are you really not able
to endure any appearance of religion, seriousness, and godly exercises? Then
there is nothing for you but to be gathered with sinners in the other world, where
you will see nothing like it for ever. But if you have any the least thoughts or
hopes of heaven, you are quite unreasonable to think to get there, while you bear
such a grudge against the very first draughts of that which is carried to perfection
there. I wonder what sort of a heaven they imagine to themselves that have a
heart rising at holiness; what kind of men and women they expect to see there
that are always sure to have a thrust at any serious persons here, however they have
a veil to cast over the godless and profane.
Sixthly, Associate yourselves with the godly ; gather together with those that
you would be gathered with in the other world : Psal. cxix. 63, “I am a compan-
ion of all them that fear thee,” says David, “and of them that keep thy precepts.”
If you mind to lodge with them at the journey's end, it is reasonable to travel on
the way with them too, and not with those that are holding a quite contrary route.
Let not the faults you espy about them make you despise their society : there are
no faultless companions to be had in this world ; but it must be a dreadful cast-off
spirit that makes every body's faults tolerable but theirs. That must spring from
a deep-rooted enmity. But a lover of the King will reverence his children though
in rags; and God tries your love to him by the faults he has left in his people,
John v. 1; Psal. xvi. 2, 3.
Seventhly, Do not make light of withdrawing or absenting from the congregation
of the Lord's people in public ordinances. The sabbath-congregations are the
thing that in all the earth is likest to heaven ; and therefore they are that which
has most of the saint's heart ; Psal. xxvi. 8, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of
thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.” Let the thoughts of the
gathering with the one great congregation in the upper house, recommend the
gathering together with the congregations in the lower. From whatever principles
or motives people forsake the congregations of the saints here in public ordinances,
they must either be gathered with them in the other world or with sinners: there
will be no separate heaven for them there.
Lastly, Carefully keep off the way of sinners here, and let your whole life be a
going forth by the footsteps of the flock, Cant. i. 7, 8; Heb. vi. 12. As is your
course now, so must your end be. If you go the way of sinners in this world, ye
will be gathered with them in the other: if ye go the way of Saints, ye will be
gathered with them there. * * -
To enforce this exhortation, .
1. Consider the importance of your gathering in the other world, than which
nothing can be greater. You have had the other world described to you in both
its parts: and I may obtest you by all the joys and glories of heaven, that you lay
this matter to heart ; and by the dismalness of the place, the horrors of the society,
and the dreadfulness of the state of sinners in hell, that you be in concern that
your souls be not gathered there with them. -
2. Make of your other concerns what you will, if you see not to this in the first
place, ye are ruined to all intents and purposes; Matt. xvi. 26, “For what is a
man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Nothing will compensate this loss.
3. This is the only proper time for that concern, wherein it may be effectual;
2 Cor. vi. 2, “Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salva-
tion.” If you miss it, in vain will ye cry; for a deaf ear will be given to all your.
cries, Prov. i. 24, and downwards. -
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 427
4. The gathering there will be eternal, and unalterable for ever; and therefore
it highly concerns you now, that your souls be not gathered with sinners then.
herefore, upon the whole, let me obtain of you, (1.) That you will take some
serious thoughts of the other world in both parts of it. (2.) That you will inquire
what case you are in for it. And, (3.) That you will lay down measures timely,
that your souls be not gathered with sinners there. May the Lord persuade and
incline your hearts unto this course !
THE IMPROVEMENT OF LIFE, IN THIS WORLD TO THE RAISING A GOOD
NAME, THE BEST BALANCE, FOR THE PRESENT, FOR THE VANITY AND
MISERY OF HUMAN LIFE : AND THE GOOD MAN’S DYING-DAY BETTER
THAN HIS BIRTH-DAY.
THE SUBSTANCE OF SEVERAL SERMONS PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN THE YEAR 1730.
EccLEs. viii. 1.
“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of
one’s birth.”
NEVER man more livelily represented the vanity of this world and human life than
Solomon did ; whose wisdom and wealth gave him the fairest occasion to discover
the best that could be made of it. He represents it in its best shapes as a very
heap of vanity and vexation, in the preceding part of this book. And, indeed, the
vanity of human life is undeniable. Man, as to this world, is born crying, lives
complaining, and aſter all dies disappointed. But is there no remedy, no solid
consolation in this case ? Yes; but it must be brought from the consideration of
the other world, and this life improved for reaching a happy life there : “A good
name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of
one’s birth.”
The scope of these words is, to point men away from the vanities of this life, and
from this life itself, unto something that is better, and will give rest. Is any man
affected with the vanity of human life, and would fain know what is best for him :
. Then let him know,
1. A good name is best ; “better than precious ointment,” which was a thing
highly prized in the eastern countries. A good name is that savoury character,
among good men, which riseth from a good life, casting forth its savour like good
ointment. It is said of Christ, (Cant. i. 3,) that “his name is as ointment poured
forth;” but all the saints partake of that anointing; Psal. xlv. 7, “God hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” Wherever grace is, it exerts itself
in the course of a gracious conversation, holy actions; which procure a good name
to the party, in spite of all that the malice of the world can do. It is not a mere
name, which a hypocrite may have ; but a name raised on a solid foundation of
grace and true piety.
Now, that it is “better than precious ointment,” i. e. the best things of this pre-
sent world, that carnal men set their hearts on :
(1.) It is better than all the world's wealth, that goes under the name of “oil;”
Deut. xxxiii. 24. “And of Asher he said,—Let him dip his foot in oil.” To do
a good action, is better than to gain a great worldly advantage. A course of
piety, and the just character of a holy life, is preferable to riches, Prov. xxii. 1.
So the name of poor Lazarus remains savoury, while the name of the rich glutton
Stinks.
(2.) It is better than all worldly pleasures and delights of sense, expressed by
ointment and perfume; Prov. xxvii. 9, “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart.”
The testimony of one's own conscience for godly sincerity will rejoice the heart
more, 2 Cor. i. 12. Lay the perfumed fool on a sick-bed or death-bed, these things
avail nothing while he is galled with the remembrance of an ill-spent life: but
A VIEW OF THIS AND THIE OTHER WORLD. 429
conscience of integrity will bear up a man in the face of death ; 1 John iii. 21,
“Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God;”
2 Sam. xxiii. 5, “Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure : for this is all my sal-
vation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.”
(3.) It is better than all worldly honours; for kings were anointed to testify the
conferring of that dignity on them. Men cannot carry their worldly honours into
the other world with them ; death treats the king and the peasant alike : but the
character of piety outlives death, and will be owned and regarded in the other
world, Rev. iii. 12. When wicked men shall be condemned for their actions
in which they applauded themselves, and others flattered them ; the saints will
receive Heaven's approbation of their holy actions: “Well done, good and faithful
servants.”
Wherefore, the best thing to balance the misery of human life for the present, is
to be good, and do good. That is the great lesson that Solomon gives us here.
Look on human life in all the periods of it, childhood, youth, middle age, and old
age; and ye will find it is but just so many stages of vanity, whereof some are past,
and others passing. Look on it in the various circumstances of it, prosperity and
adversity, health and sickness, wealth and penury; and you shall find it but vanity
cast in different shapes. Turn up what side of it you will, the young or the old,
the single or married state, it is larded with vanity on every side. Only consider
it as an opportunity of being and doing good, and so it is a substantial thing ; and
so very substantial in that respect, that it may well balance all the miseries
that attend it. But take away that, and it is at best but a useless burden, Psal.
lxxxix. 47.
2. Death, the passing into the other world, is best; the dying-day is best, “better
than the birth-day.” It is hard to believe that; and if men frame their sentiments
according to the prevailing opinion of this world, they will never believe it: but if
they frame it according to the doctrine of the other world, they must needs believe
it as it is represented in this text. &
Ye have heard that there is another world; a lower part of it, the region of
horror; to which death is the passage for sinners, whose dying-day must therefore
be their most doleful day, in the view of which ye have been exhorted to cry,
“Gather not my soul with sinners.” But ye have heard also, that there is a higher
part of that world ; a region of perfect bliss and happiness, to which death is also
the passage for saints, or persons that have got the good name: now, if you believe
that doctrine, you must needs conclude from it, that the day of such a one's death
is better than the day of his birth, which is the thing here meant. And since we
have offered a view of the dark side of the cloud, the gathering with sinners in the
other world; it is just we offer a view too of the bright side of the cloud, the gather-
ing with saints there.
There is a comparison here of two of the days of human life, both of them
specially remarkable. The one is the first day of our life here, the birth-day,
wherein we come into this world out of the womb. The other is the last day of
our life here, the death-day, wherein we go out of this into the other world. The
question is, which of the two is the best day, the most desirable in itself? The
subject is determined in the first clause, to be the man with the good name, who
has been savoury in his life, being and doing good. And Solomon decides the
question with respect to such a one, roundly telling us, “the day of death is better
than the day of his birth,” Heb., namely, the man with the good name. When he
came into the world at his birth, his friends rejoiced, they thought it a good day:
When he goes out of this world into the other, they mourn, thinking it a sad day.
But think they as they will, it is the best day of the two ; and were it not the par-
tition betwixt the two worlds, we would see it to our conviction,
Wherefore, the best thing to balance the misery of human life for the future, to
a good man, is to die, and leave this world and the life in it. That is the lesson we
are taught here. The weight of glory that death will bring him to in the other
World, will absolutely downweigh all the misery of life hero. The bliss of the lodg-
ing he comes to there, will more than compensate all the hardships of the way ;
430 A VIEW OF THIS
that he shall say, O that happy life in the lower world, that made way for my
entrance hither into this upper world ! Who would not gladly have embraced
Methuselah's tack” of that life, for to get this
From the text thus explained, arise the two following points of doctrine, viz.
DocTRINE I. The improving of our life in this world to the raising up a well-
grounded good name and savoury character in it, is the best balance, for the present,
for the vanity and misery attending our life, better than the most savoury earthly
things.
DoCT. II. To one who has so lived as to obtain the good name, his dying-day
will be better than his birth-day, quite downweighing all the vanity and misery of
life in this world.
I shall speak to each of these in order. .
DocTRINE I. The improving of our life in this world to the raising up a well-
grounded good name and savoury character in it, is the best balance, for the present,
for the vanity and misery attending our life, better than the most savoury earthly
things.
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Lay before you some things supposed in it.
II. Show what is the well-grounded good name that is the balance of the vanity
and misery of this life.
III. What is the improvement of life whereby that good name may be raised.
IV. Confirm the point, That this improvement of life is the best balance, for the
present, for the vanity and misery attending our life, better than the most savoury
earthly things.
V. Make some improvement.
I. I shall lay before you some things supposed in the doctrine.
First, It supposeth that there is a vanity and misery that is the inseparable at-
tendant of human life in this world. No man in life is free of it, nor can be ; Psal.
xxxix. 6, “Surely every man walketh in a vain show.” No circumstances of life
can avail to the shifting it off: it accompanies the crown and sceptre, as well as
the beggar's seat on the dunghill; Eccl. i. 2, “Vanity of vanities, saith the
preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity;” Psal. xxxix. 5, “Verily every man at
his best state is altogether vanity.” Men may change their wilderness-station, but
while here will still be in a wilderness. They may get out of one vanity and
misery, but it will always be but a falling into another.
Secondly, Every man will find himself obliged to seek for some allay of that
vanity and misery of life, that he may be enabled to comport with it, Psal. iv. 6.
This makes a busy world, every one seeking something to make his hard seat
soft. For the whole world is in a sickly condition of spirit; witness their need of
the great Physician, Matt. ix. 12. Hence, there is a mighty restlessness; turn-
ing and shifting from one thing to another, for some allay of the present uneasiness.
Thirdly, It is natural for men to seek an allay to the vanity and misery of life
in earthly things: Psal. iv. 6, “There be many that say, Who will show us any
good 2" They seek precious ointment, as it were, to master the rank savour that
is about human life. For this cause, the pleasures, profits, and honours of the
world are sought after, and employed as plasters for that sore ; that, by means of
them, they may be enabled to comport with the vanity and misery of life.
Fourthly, But the best of earthly things will make but a sorry plaster for that
sore : they will not be able to balance the vanity and misery of life; but with them
all life may be rendered sapless, through the predominant vanity and misery of it.
All Haman's honours were not able to season life to him, while Mordecai bowed
not ; neither could Ahab's kingdom, in the want of Naboth's vineyard ; nor Bel-
shazzar's festival joys and pleasures, while the handwriting was seen on the wall.
That way is but seeking to allay one vanity with another : a dead fly will make
the ointment itself stink : a day's pleasure will not balance an hour's pain; nor
honour for years, blot out the disgrace that a moment fixes.
Lastly, Howbeit, the improving of life to the raising a well-grounded good name,
* i. e. lease.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WO R I, D 431
will balance the vanity and misery of life effectually ; so that he who has reached
that kind of living, has what is well worth the enduring all the miseries of life for.
There is an excellency and good in it that downweighs all the evils attending life.
II. I shall show what is the well-grounded good name that is the balance of the
vanity and misery of human life. It is the name of religion, raised from the real-
ity thereof in the person that has the name. And it is, I say,
First, The name of religion, and no less: for there is nothing good truly separ-
ate from religion, Matt. vii. 18. Men have attempted to raise themselves a name
from other things; some from their wealth, some from their wit, valour, buildings,
beauty, &c. But these may make a vain name, which at death will go out with a
stink without religion. Only religion can make a good name, being the only thing
of value with a good God and among good men; without which all things else will
be but cyphers, the name of nothing,
Secondly, It is raised on the reality of religion, and no less: for a mere show of
religion is but a vain and empty thing, which will dwindle to nothing with other
vanities. That will make but a name before men, not before God : “I know you
not,” said the Bridegroom to the foolish virgins, Matt. xxv. 12. They come under
the name of virgins, but Christ will not know them by that name.
We may take up that good name in three parts.
1. “Friend of God,” James ii. 23. That is the part of the good name that designs
the man's state of peace and reconciliation with God through Christ. There is no
good name without this, James iv. 4. And this is the name put on all endowed with
true religion, John xv. 14 ; a name better than Sons and daughters, in whom men's
name is preserved, Isa. lvi. 5.
2. “Faithful to the Lord,” Acts xvi. 15. That designs the man's temper and
way towards God. He is a sincere and upright Christian, endeavouring to approve
himself to God in all things. He makes the will of God his rule, the word of God
his oracle, the love of God his principle, and the glory of God his chief end in life. A
noble name, that God will know him by in the other world; Matt. xxv. 21, “Well
done, thou good and faithful servant,” &c.
3. Useful to men, serving his generation, Acts xiii. 36. That designs the man's
temper and way towards his neighbour. He is not a common nuisance of society,
ensnaring and mischievons to those about him, whereby some make themselves a
name that will rot, Eccl. ix. ult. Nor yet an useless member of society, concerned
for none but himself. But a profitable member, laying out himself to do good to
others as he has access, Esth. X. ult.
This is that good name that is the best balance, for the present, for the vanity
and misery of human life.
III. We come next to show what is the improvement of life whereby that good
name imay be raised. This is a weighty point that nearly concerns us all, to know
those things that will make our life savoury before God and men. I shall unfold it in
the following particulars. If you would raise up to yourselves that good name in
life,
First, Improve your life to a personal and saving entering into the covenant
of grace, and uniting with Christ, by believing on his name. Here are three things
which we have access to in this life, as vain and miserable as it is, and in it only:
and if we so improve it, we will be called friends of God.
1. Personally enter into his covenant ; Isa. lvi. 4, 5, “For thus saith the Iord
to the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and
take hold of my covenant: even unto them will I give in mine house, and within
my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give
them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.” The name of your father
Adam's house, given you at your birth into this world, is, stranger and enemy to
God, Eph. ii. 12 : Rom. viii. 7. In the gospel, God's covenant of peace is offered
to you : consider, while you are in life, what you are doing, and take hold of that
covenant with all the seriousness and awful solemnity ye are capable of in life. So
shall ye get the good name, the new name, “Friend of God,” as confederate with
Heaven, Eph. ii. 12, 13. If ye ask, how ye shall do that ? the answer is,
2. Unite with Christ. He is the head of the covenant, and we enter into it by
432. A VIEW OF THIS
uniting with him ; John x. 9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he
shall be saved;” Isa. xlix. 8, “I will give thee for a covenant of the people.” Unit-
ing with Christ, thy soul shall be wrapt up in the bond of the covenant of grace,
made with him for him and his ; even as thy relation to Adam wraps thee up in the
bond of the covenant of works, made with him for him and his. Come then, thou
art now in life, improve it to thy union with Christ ; so shalt thou have a ground
whence the good name must infallibly rise ; Col. i. 27, “ Christ in you the hope of
glory.” Make this the business of your life in the first place, to get Christ in you.
Live and travail for this, Gal. iv. 19. It alone is able to balance all the misery of
life. If ye ask, how ye shall unite with Christ 2 the answer is,
3. Believe on his name ; that is the way to unite with him ; Eph. iii. 17, “That
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Believing on him, thou shalt be in a
state of union with him, as the branches with the vine, and the superstructure with
the foundation: so shalt thou be called by a new name, the good name; John i.
12, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name.” -
Question, But what is it to believe on his name 2 -
Answer, (1.) To believe the gospel-report, namely, That Christ is, by his Father's
appointment, the Saviour of the world, and your Saviour, to save you from sin and
wrath; Isa. liii. 1, “Who hath believed our report 2" compared with 1 John iv.
14, “And we have seen and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the
Saviour of the world;” and v. 11, “And this is the record, that God hath given to
tis eternal life; and this life is in his Son.” Set yourselves to believe this: ye
will not find it so easy as you imagine perhaps. But it is impossible to receive
Christ, or believe on him, without believing this first ; John iii. 27, “A man can
receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” (2.) To trust on him ac-
cordingly, that he will save you from sin and wrath, freely by his grace, through
his righteousness, blood, and Spirit; Acts xv. 11, “We believe that, through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved ;” Rom. i. 17, “Therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” Set yourself to this ; for here-
in the uniting nature of faith lies, inasmuch as in this act of trusting on him, the
soul is, (i.) Divorced from sin, as well as careful to escape wrath ; the heart being
alienated from sin, set to be rid of it and made holy, which is the immediate effect
of saving illumination, the discovery of Christ made to the soul, in the gospel, by
the Spirit working faith, 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5 ; Matt. xiii. 45, 46. (ii.) Carried wholly
off its own bottom for these ends : self-confidence, creature-confidence, law-confi-
dence, that is, confidence in any work or good qualification of our own, are all un-
dermined together by a touch from Heaven's hand; so that the soul has not one
foot left to stand on, nor a twig without or within him to gripe to before the Lord,
but Christ alone, and what is in Christ, his free grace, righteousness, blood, and
Spirit, Phil. iii. 3. (iii.) Laid wholly on Christ for these ends, as the stones of the
building on the foundation ; cleaving and clinging to him, relying on him, who if
he should fail it, all would come down together. But it is impossible that such an
event should take place ; since Christ is the foundation-stone laid by his Father, to
bear all the weight of sinners laid on him, and therefore knits with the soul laid
on him, and secures it for ever, 1 Pet. ii. 6. -
Improve your life, then, to a personal and saving entering into the covenant
of grace, and uniting with Christ, by believing on his name. So you shall have
the good name, which ye shall never lose, that will balance all the vanity and
misery of life, and make your dying-day better than your birth-day.
Secondly, Improve your life to a living a life of faith in this world ; so shall ye
get the good name, “Faithful to the Lord ;” Gal. ii. 20, “The life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God ;” Rev. xvii. 14, “They that are
with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” All the improvement most men make
of life, is to live a life of sense, eat, drink, do worldly business, sport, play, &c. So
all that they make of life is the life of a beast, which have the delights of sense
in greater perfection than what they, for their hearts, can reach. And so their
name shall be written in the earth, an ill name, a disgraceful name, Luke xii. 20;
James iv. 3, 4, But live ye a life of faith, and so you will make of your life the life
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 433
of a Christian, a saint, a child of God, an heir of glory, a faithful servant to the
Lord.
Now, to raise up the good name, “Faithful to the Lord,” by a life of faith,
your faith must cast your life into the following mould, which will be impracticable
but by faith.
1. Let it be a life of believing and dependence on God in Christ for all. Live
believing his word in all parts of it, 2 Chron. xx. 20; believing the divine authority,
equity, and goodness of his commands, (Psal. cxix. 128,) the faithfulness and cer-
tainty of his promises, (Rom. iv. 20, 21,) the justice and truth of his threatenings,
Isa. lvi. 2. Depend entirely and trust on him at all times, (Isa. xxvi. 4,) for all
things you need, Prov. iii. 5, 6; for happiness, light, strength, and success in tem-
porals and spirituals. , Depend on him alone while ye live:
(1.) For your happiness and soul's rest, Heb. iv. 3. Never expect it from the
most promising creature, but look for it firmly from a God in Christ, Psal. xvii. ult.
(2.) For light to know your duty in all the steps of your way. Never venture
yourself to your own management, be the way never so plain, Jer. x. 23; for at
that rate ye may stumble in an even road. But let your hope be in the promise ;
Psal. xxxii. 8, “I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go; I will guide thee with mine eye.” .
(3.) For strength to perform every duty in life to God or man. Lean not to
your own stock of strength and resolutions. The good name is that of a branch,
not of a root, 2 Tim. ii. 1; John xv. 5. And so, no duty whatsoever that God
calls you to shall be above your reach as to acceptable performance ; Phil. iv. 13,
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
(4.) For your success in all ye set yourselves to in your temporal or spiritual
concerns, Josh. i. 8, 9. Remember always that heaven keeps the negative over us
in all our attempts, Lam. iii. 37. Hence it is said, “The race is not to the Swift,
nor the battle to the strong,” &c., Eccl. ix. 11.
2. Let it be a life of devotion, Psal. cxix. 38. That makes a part of the good
name in the Bible, despise and scoff at it who will; of Simeon it is said, he was
“just and devout,” Luke ii. 25. And the name of devout Christians will be in
honour when the memory of the profane shall rot. Let it be a life of devotion:
(1.) In respect of the truths of God made known to you ; reckoning every truth
sacred, and cleaving thereto against all hazards and opposition, Prov. xxiii. 23. I
do not advise you to break with every one that is not of your mind, but only to
quit no truth to any.* This the apostle directs; Phil. iii. 15, 16, “Let us there-
fore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded : and if in any thing ye be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have
already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” And
devotion leads to it. It is a part of the comfort at death: hence Paul says, 2 Tim.
iv. 7, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
(2.) In respect of the worship of God, Phil. iii. 3. If you have a father, you
must honour him ; if a master, you must regard him ; otherwise you will have a
very ill name, and you will Smart for it. Ye have a God that made you: if ye
live regardless of him, where is your good name, what kind of a day can ye
imagine the day of death will be to you? But be devout worshippers of him in
secret, private, and public, showing reverence in the frame of your heart and out-
ward gestures; so shall ye have the good name. -
3. Let it be a life of heavenly-mindedness and contempt of the world, Phil. iii.
20. So Enoch got the good name of walking with God, (Gen. v. 20,) and the
worthies, Heb. xi. 13–16. Covetousness and worldly-mindedness in professors of
religion mars their good name, Phil. iii. 19. It was a noble testimony that Luther
had from his enemies, Germana illa bestia non curat aurum.f Friends of the
world cannot be faithful to God. . . - - - º
4. Let it be a life of Christian deportment under trials and afflictions in life.
Every body will have something laid before them for their trials, wherein they
* i. e. to part with no truth in subserviency to any one.—ED.
t i. e. That German beast cares not for gold,—Ed.
3 I
434 A WIEW OF THIS
must stand candidates for the other world, to be disposed of there as they acquit
themselves in their trials for it here, Rev. iii. 21. So patience, resignation, holy
cheerfulness under the cross, are necessary to raise the good name, James i. 4.
And by an unbecoming carriage under the cross, people may lose all their good
name they had before, Mark x. 21, 22. Wherefore the exhortation is, “My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him,” Heb. xii. 5. *
5. Let it be a life of uprightness, the same where no eye sees you but God's, as
where the eyes of men are upon you. The faith of God's omniscience leads to this:
hence Joseph said when tempted to sin by his lewd mistress, Gen. xxxix. 9, “How
can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” O what name do the prac-
tisers of secret wickedness think they will have with God, who are at liberty to sin
if they can do it unseen of men? God will read out their name with disgrace be-
fore all the world at length ; Prov, xxvi. 26, “Whose hatred is covered by deceit,
his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation.” -
Thirdly, Improve your life to a living a life beneficial to mankind, profitable to
your fellow-creatures, diffusing a benign influence through the world, as ye have
access; so that when you are gone, the world may be convinced they have lost a
useful member that sought their good : so shall ye have the good name, useful to
men, Acts xiii. 36. But there is a fourfold life that will never raise this name.
1st, The noxious life that some live in the world, like foxes in the mountains ;
biting, devouring, and worrying others: they “cause their terror in the land of
the living,” but will leave their name for a curse. Better one had never been in
the world, than to be in it for mischief; to be in it as mice and rats are in it, de-
stroying much good.
2dly, The trifling life that some live in the world, like the leviathan in the sea,
Bsal. civ. 26; laughing, sporting, playing, idling, and trifling away a lifetime,
without doing any substantial good for themselves or others. Such make their life
a dream, and their death will be a terrible awakening.
3dly, The selfish life that some live in the world, like the oyster within its own
shell; careful for nothing but their own sweet self, Phil. ii. 21. The world will
be at no loss for the want of them, reaping no advantage by the having of them.
If they were to go out of the world, there is none before them in heaven that ever
they helped a step forward to it, to receive them into everlasting habitations,
Luke xvi. 9. w
4thly, The carnal earthly life that some live in the world, like the mole ever
digging in the earth, never looking upward. These are busy in life, but doing
nothing, nothing to the purpose of a better world. They may, indeed, be some
way useful to others, but then it is only as the brutes are useful in things of this
world. But that will never raise men the name of Christian usefulness.
But there is an edifying life that will raise it; 1 Cor. viii. 1, “Charity edifieth.”
The love of our neighbour, springing from the love of God, will set men to seek
the good of their neighbours, and so edify or build up the world, in which live so
many to destroy and pull down. If we live to ourselves, we will die to ourselves
too. But let us know that we are to live in this world for the honour of God, and
for the good of mankind our fellows in it; and we miss the most noble end of
human life, so far as we miss of these.
There is reason that every one ask himself, For what use am I in the world 2
How do I fill up my room in it for the common good? And if we mind for happi-
ness in the other world, we must set ourselves to be useful to men in this world,
and live to be useful in it; Rom. xiv. 19, “Let us therefore follow after the things
which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another;” chap. xv. 2,
“Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” We are
“members one of another;” and that member that is not useful for the rest is a
rotten member, to be cut off. - X-
Objection, Magistrates and ministers may, but what access have we to be useful
to the world, or to raise up that good name to ourselves?
Answer, Follow these rules of life, and ye shall raise to yourselves the good name,
how private soever ye be.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 435
1. Cast” the world a copy by your good example ; Matt. v. 16, “Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.” Many an ill example is set before them for their destruc-
tion, Matt. xviii. 7. Give them your good example yet, for their edification ; and
live as meanly and privately as ye will, ye shall be as useful in the world as a
beacon is at sea, letting shipmen see the rocks they are to hold off; Phil. ii. 15,
16, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the
world ; holding forth the word of life.” And give them a good example,
(1.) Of devotion and piety towards God, in a strict and religious observance of
your duty towards him. This will be a practical testimony for him, a light that
will condemn the world's profane contempt of him, Prov. xxviii. 4.
(2.) Of exact justice and truth, in all your doings and sayings with men; Zech.
viii. 16, “Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour: execute the judgment
of truth and peace in your gates.” The world is sunk in a gulf of injustice and
falselhood; and the multitude of those that make no conscience of justice in their
deeds, and truth in their words, is so great, that they are thought nothing of.
Come, row against this stream. *
(3.) Of sobriety in moderating your own passions, with a spirit of peacefulness,
meekness, and forbearance, Matt. xi. 29. This is necessary for the good name, and
without it it will be marred, Prov. xxv. ult.
This is a life-preaching of the gospel to the world, to which every one of you
has access; Tit. ii. 11, 12, “For the grace of God, that bringeth Salvation, hath
appeared to all men; teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we
should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” And that is a
useful man in the world that, on good grounds, can say, when he is to leave it,
with the apostle, “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and un-
blameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe,” 1 Thess. ii. 10.
2. Be of a beneficent disposition, disposed to do good to mankind as you have
access, Gal. vi. 10. Some are of “the household of faith,” have a special concern
to do good to them: others are not, ye must have a concern for them too ; though
they are not saints, they are men of the same common nature with yourselves,
Luke vi. 35. We should greedily embrace an opportunity of doing good to others;
thinking with ourselves, that is the proper business of our life. And be disposed
to do good, -
(1.) In temporals, as ye have access; Heb. xiii. 16, “But to do good, and to
communicate, forget not : for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased.” There is
no body but, some one time or way or other, may be profitable to others. The
duties of humanity are of great usefulness in the world; being kind, merciful, and
compassionate to them that are in distress, or need, Col. iii. 12. It has great en-
couragement by promise, Prov. iii. 9, 10; Psal. xli. 1, &c.
(2.) In spirituals. There are none of the children of Adam but have immortal
souls that must live for ever. And true grace is natively communicative, as one
candle serves to light another: “I know him,” says God of Abraham, “that he
will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep
the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment,” Gen. xviii. 19. And says
the woman of Samaria to the men of the city, (John iv. 29,) “Come, see a man
which told me all things that ever I did : is not this the Christ?” So ye should
be ready to be useful to others, according to their spiritual exigence ; instructin
the ignorant, warning the secure, encouraging good motions, bearing down .
ones, &c, -
3. Lay out yourselves to forward the usefulness of others, 1 Cor. xvi. 10, 11.
Whomsoever ye see disposed and employed to be useful, help them forward, facili-
tate their work, strengthen their hands what you can ; so shall ye be useful to the
greatest purposes at second hand. The water cannot grind the corn; but it can
turn about the wheel, and the wheel the millstone, and so the millstone will grind
it ; and so, the water is useful for grinding, in such sort that, when it fails, there
tº: i. e. Present.—ED.
436 A VIEW OF THIS
is no doing it. So the meanest of the Colossians could be useful for declaring the
mystery of Christ; Col. iv. 3, “Withal, praying also for us, that God would open
unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also
in bonds.” People generally think little of weakening the hands of those that
are useful: but I have often thought, that it is one of the most miserable uses of
being in the world, to be in it for a weight hung upon them that would be useful,
Matt. xxiii. 13. -
4. Be conscientious in the performance of the duties of your station and relations;
1 Cor. vii. 24, “Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with
God.” That is the sphere of usefulness that God has allotted to you : every one
may be useful that way; and nobody can be useful otherwise, whatever they may
vainly imagine. It is exemplified in the case of the priests, Mal. ii. 6; of wives,
1 Pet. iii. 1; and of servants, Tit. ii. 9, 10. To pretend to usefulness without our
sphere is the effect of pride and presumption, and is the same absurdity in moral
conduct as it would be, in nature, for the moon and stars to set up for the rule of
the day, the sun contenting himself with the rule of the night.
Thus ye have that improvement of life by which the good name may be raised.
IV. I proceed to confirm the point, That this improvement of life is the best
balance, for the present, for the vanity and misery attending our life, better than
the most savoury earthly things. And here I shall show,
First, That it is the best balance, for the present, for the vanity and misery
of life. -
Secondly, That it is better than the best and most savoury earthly things.
First, I am to show that this improvement of life is the best balance, for the
present, for the vanity and misery of life. - r
1. Hereby a man answers the end of his creation, for which he was sent into the
world: and surely the reaching of such a noble end is the best balance for all the
hardships in the way of it. The merchant toils in travelling, the husbandman in
ploughing and sowing; but the gaining of their end downweighs all that toil to
them. The chief end of man's life in the world is to enjoy God as our Friend, to
be dutiful and faithful to him as our Benefactor, and useful to men our fellow-
creatures: if we reach that noble end, what matter what hardships we wade through
unto it? If we miss it, we have nothing that will counterbalance them.
2. It brings such a substantial and valuable good out of our life, as will down-
weigh all the inconveniencies that attend life in the world. Gather the vanities
and miseries of human life together ; its frailties, weaknesses, disappointments,
crosses, &c.; they will make a great heap: and put them in the balance with bare
life itself, with mere worldly comforts and conveniencies, they would downweigh it,
Psal. lxxxix. 47. One may say, these comforts are not worth the living for, at
the rate of that vanity and misery that attend them. But here are three things,
namely, our own happiness in God's favour, the honour of God, and the good of
mankind; any one of these, and much more all of them together, is worth living
for under all the inconveniencies of life, and will downweigh all the misery of life
in this world; there being more good in the one, than there is evil in the other.
3. It brings such valuable good into our life, as more than counterbalanceth all
the vanity and misery of it. And that is, (1.) A present comfort and satisfaction
within one’s self, 2 Cor. i. 12. The soul-satisfaction there is in the reflection, that
God is one's friend, that they have got something done for the honour of God and
for the good of their fellow-creatures, is enough to counterbalance the vanity and
misery of life, Prov. xiv. 14. (2.) A future prospect, namely, of complete happiness,
which must needs turn the scales entirely, be the miseries of life what they will,
-Rom. viii. 35–39. -
4. That good name well-grounded, is a thing that may cost much, indeed, but it
cannot be too dear bought, Prov, xxiii. 23. Whatever it cost you, you will be
gainers, if ye get it, Phil. iii. 8. Let men and devils raise the market to the high-
est pitch they can to increase the difficulty of your obtaining it, they can never
raise it so high as to give you ground to stop bidding for it. This has been the
concurring testimony of all the Saints, confessors, and martyrs, from the beginning,
Heb. xi. 1–39. \,
AND THE OTHER WORLD, 43'ſ
Secondly, I shall show that this improvement of life is better than the best and
most savoury earthly things.
1. It will give a greater pleasure to the mind, than any earthly thing can do,
Prov. iii. 17; Psal. iv. 7 ; 2 Cor. i. 12. This appears in its bearing up the heart,
under the greatest trials and hardships. What can all the delights of sense, pro-
fits and pleasures of the world, avail a dying man 2 But this good name rejoiceth
the heart in the face of death. This made confessors joyful under the loss of their
substance, and martyrs cheerfully to embrace flames and gibbets.
2. It will last longer than they will all do, Psalm czii. 6. Abraham was rich
in silver and gold, and Job in stocking ; but these things of theirs are all gone
now : but their good name they raised to themselves is yet to the fore.* Allearthly
things have a principle of corruption in them ; rust eats the silver, moths eat the
fine clothes, and our bodies themselves will rot: only the good name is incorrupti-
ble, and will not be eaten up either by the teeth of malice or time, Isa. lvi. 5.
3. It is the only thing we can keep to ourselves in the world to our advantage,
when we leave the world. We must all leave the world; and then, whatever
riches, wealth, honours we have in it, we must leave them to others: only what
name we leave behind us we will keep to ourselves when we are gone, we will be
our own heirs in that, Matt. vi. 19, 20. If it be an ill name, there is our disad-
vantage ; we leave nothing to ourselves in the world, but what stinks in it. If it be
the good name, it will be savoury after us, when we are away. So,
4. The good name will, after we are away, be savoury in the world, when the things
that others set their hearts on will make them stink when they are gone. How savoury
is the name of Lazarus (Luke xvi.) at this day, notwithstanding all his poverty
and sores . How is the name of the rich man buried with himself, known only
by his being a sensual gluttonous man, a name that every one abhors' Days
have been wherein some have been rigid oppressors, and raised wealth to themselves
that way; while others were patient under their oppressions. There have been
great and honourable men in the world, Some of them sitting on a throne, who
lived in whoredom, persecution, blood, and murder; while others have Christianly
submitted to be pent up in prisons, shot, hanged on gibbets by their orders; they
are all gone now, the oppressors and persecutors, as well as the oppressed and per-
secuted. I appeal to the conscience of every one, which of their names is most
savoury now, and which of the two would ye choose for yourselves if ye could 3
5. The good name will go farther than the best and most savoury things of the
earth. Mary pours a box of precious ointment on Christ, which no doubt sent its
savour through the whole house : but Christ paid her for it with the good name
that should send its savour through the whole world; Matt. xxvi. 13, “Verily I
say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there
shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.” But
ye may think, we can have no hope that ever our good name will go that wide.
That is a mistake ; for if we raise ourselves the good name, it will certainly be pub-
lished before all the world at the last day, Rev. iii. 5; and it will carry it over the
march f betwixt the two worlds into the other world, verse 12. The name of kings,
princes, nobles, gentlemen, &c., will go no further with people than this world;
there will be an absolute levelling of mankind in the other world ; these great
names will not take place there; but the good name will, and make the only
difference.
I come now to the improvement of this subject.
Use 1. Of information. This doctrine informs us that,
First, There is a way to get the vanity and misery of this life balanced even for
the present; so that one may get a sufficient sweetening to all the bitterness of it,
that they may not quite weary of life, but patiently wait their change. This dis-
covery should be very acceptable, because it is seasonable, to all ; and all should
set themselves to the improving of it, as needing it.
Secondly, That way is only the way of a religious life, in faith and holiness. By
such a course, and no other, can the good name be raised. It is not being great
* i. e. still remains,—ED. t i. e. the boundary.—ED.
438 A VIEW OF THIS
but good ; not being high, but useful, that will raise it. In vain do men think to
make themselves a name by their wealth and honour, while they are not careful to
improve these to the glory of God and the good of others; for all they will get
thereby will be but a blaze of a name, that will soon go out with a stink: or to
balance the miseries of life, by the chance of worldly profits and pleasures; for these
they will find attended with vanity and misery. But faith and holiness will make
a lasting good name.
Thirdly, People ought to be concerned for a good name as a most precious thing,
and therefore, both to be and appear good, both to have a holy practice and a holy
profession; the latter as well as the former being necessary to raise it, and the for-
mer as well as the latter. A holy practice without a holy profession is a contradic-
tion ; for the one is a necessary part of the other, which is a light that must needs
discover itself, Matt. v. 16; Phil. ii. 15, 16. A holy profession without a holy
practice is Pharisaical and hypocritical ; and the name it will raise, being without
a root, will be but for a moment, and that before men only.
Fourthly, The right improving of life is the way to the good name. It is the
way to obtain it, and secure it. Thus every one has access to it; Isa. lvi. 4, 5,
“For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs, that keep my sabbaths, and choose the
things that please me, and take hold of my covenant : Even unto them will I give
in mine house, and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and
of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.”
Sons and daughters must die themselves, and their name be extinct ; flourishing
families may soon be rooted out. But a life rightly improved will leave a savoury
name when it is at an end, and will keep up the name of those that have neither
son nor daughter, and that for ever.
Use 2. Of reproof to,
First, Those who are in no concern for a good name. It is pitiful trifling, indeed,
for men to hunt for an empty name before the world, in the way of vain-glory, Matt.
vi. 2. But they that live careless of a well-grounded good name, being careless of
their name, are careless of their souls too. They value not what may be thought
or said of them never so truly, so that they can but please themselves, and satisfy
their own lusts for the present: that is the life of brutes, concerned only for the
present time, not for the time after death. It is a sad life, to live a life of sin, and
afterward to leave our name for a curse.
Secondly, Those who set up for a name, but are in no concern to improve their
life for the honour of God and good of mankind. They will never get the good
name that way; they may get a vain name, or an ill name. Faith and holiness
are the only pillars to rear up the good name.
Thirdly, Those who, under the vanity and misery of life, seek for this and the
other comfort of the world to support them, but never set themselves to a Chris-
tian improvement of life to balance their afflictions and hardships. That is to be
solicitous for cure, and yet to stand off from the sovereign never-failing remedy.
Use 3. Of exhortation. Let the vanities and miseries attending this present life
move and engage you to improve life for raising up to yourselves the good name, as
the best thing to balance them for the present. Seriously consider the vanity and
misery of life, and let the view of them be a spur to a Christian improvement. And
for this cause consider,
First, What a vain and miserable thing your life on earth is, if you make not
something of it for an after life, Psal. xxxix. 6. It is a fleeting, passing vanity, a
vapour, a puff of wind that will soon be away. The bloom of youth soon fades;
its vigour decays; and man goes as fast down as ever he rose up, and sometimes is
pulled down suddenly. Every age and condition is attended with so many miser-
ies thereto allied, that there is no rest in any part of it.
Secondly, There is no cure for the vanity and misery of life to drive them away.
Men are still working at that indeed, but in vain ; Eccl. i. 15, “That which is
crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.”
Ye may as well think to turn the winter into summer, and clear the air of midges
flying about in a warm summer-day. The removal thereof is reserved for the other
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 439
life in the other world; but while men live in this world, there will be vanity and
misery attending them.
Thirdly, The only thing valuable in this life is, that it is an opportunity for
raising a good name, that may pass with us into the other world. That is an
advantage of this life that is not in the other, Eccl. ix. 10; Isa. xxxviii. 19. Take
it by this handle, and you have it as a valuable good among your hands; a seed-
time for eternity, an apprenticeship for heaven, a tide for Immanuel's land.
Fourthly, Every piece of the vanity and misery of this life that comes on you,
is a providential call to you to improve it as such an opportunity. The language
thereof is, “Arise, depart, this is not your rest ;” Cant. iv. 8, “Come with me
from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana,
from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of
the leopards.” Every thorn of uneasiness you find in life, is a warning to you to
leave seeking your satisfaction in the empty creation, and to take up your soul's
rest in God.
Fifthly, To improve it so will give a present ease and relief under the burden :
though it will not take it off your back, it will strengthen you, and make you go
more lightly under it, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. It will give you more effectual consola-
tion under them, than all the comforts of the world can do. Though ye will still
be in life but as pilgrims, yet it will give you a song in the house of your pilgrimage.
Sixthly, It will secure you a happy life in the other world, where none of these
vanities and miseries shall ever have place any more for ever. Thus ye will lay
up treasure in heaven which cannot be lost, Matt. vi. 19, 20. Now is the seed-
time, there will be the eternal reaping of what is now sown, Gal. vi. 8.
Lastly, If ye do not so improve it, you will never taste the happiness of life.
You will lose the present life as to any true happiness therein, though you may
deceive yourselves with a shadow of happiness therein : yet the truth is, you have
no sufficient balance for the vanity and misery of life, which you cannot miss.
And then your life in the other world will be a life of unmixed misery, a thou-
Sand times worse.
To help you to this improvement,
1. Take some time to consider, what name you bear, and how your name savours,
in heaven and earth. It will be of little value to be savoury on earth, if it be not
so in heaven too, Rev. iii. 1. But if it be savoury in heaven, it will, in spite of
malice, be savoury on earth too, in the consciences of men, 2 Cor. iv. 2. Now,
this will be according to your souls’ state before the Lord, and the habitual bent
and course of your life and actions ; 2 Cor. ii. 15, “For we are unto God a sweet
savour of Christ, in them that are saved ;” John xv. 14, “Ye are my friends if ye
do whatsoever I command you.”
2. Address yourselves to the living of a life of faith and holiness, as the proper
work of this life while it lasts; Isa. xxxviii. 19, “The living, the living, he shall
praise thee, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known thy
truth.” Dream away life no longer, trifling away precious time; but open your
eyes, rouse up yourselves to mind and ply the end of your creation ; 1 Cor. xv. 34,
“Awake to righteousness, and sin not ; for some have not the knowledge of God:
I speak this to your shame.”
3. Keep in view the approach of death, as what shuts up and cuts off working
time, John ix. 4. Remember it is now or never you must raise the good name.
For this present state only is the state of trial ; the future state is the state of
retribution, wherein each will be rewarded according to his work. As the child
born dead into this world, cannot be brought to life by the light thereof; so he
that enters spiritually dead, and without the good name, into the other world, will
never have life nor good name there.
I tºll now proceed to the consideration of the other doctrine from the text,
namely, - - - -
DocTRINE II. To one who has so lived as to obtain the good name, his dying
day will be better than his birth-day, quite downweighing all the vanity and mis.
ery of life in this world. This is a paradox; a truth, though unlikely. In hand-
ling it, I shall,
440 A VIEW OF THIS
I. Discover some truths contained in it.
II. Show in what latitude this doctrine is to be understood.
III. Demonstrate the truth of this paradox, this unlikely tale, That the saint's
dying-day is better than his birth-day.
IV. Apply the subject. - -
I. I shall discover some truths contained in this doctrine. *
First, However men live, they must die. He that has had a birth-day, what-
ever he makes of his life, must have a dying-day too ; Heb. ix. 27, “It is appointed
unto men once to die.” The careless, graceless life of the fool will not ward off
death, neither will the well-improved life of the wise do it, Psal. xlix. 10. Both
must lay their account with it ; they that look and prepare for it, will not be disap-
pointed ; and those that never mind it, it will certainly overtake.
Secondly, The birth-day is a good day, notwithstanding all the vanity and mis-
ery of human life. This is the common sense of mankind about it. And though
some have cursed it, as the worst of days, that alters not the case, being the effect.
of a transport of passion. But it is a good day to the relations, notwithstanding
the bitterness mixed with it, as our Saviour observes, John. xvi. 21, “A woman
when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but as soon as she
is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man
is born into the world.” And so it is to the party too, as an entrance on the stage
of life, whereby God is glorified, and one may be prepared for a better life ; Isa.
xxxviii. 19, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day,” &c.
Thirdly, The dying-day is not always so frightful as it looks; it may be a good
day too. There may be a kind heart, where there is a stern countenance on occa-
sion. As in scouring of a vessel, Sand and ashes, first defiling it, makes it to
glister; so grim death brings in a perfect comeliness. The waters may be red
and frightful, where yet the ground is good, and they are but shallow, passable
with all safety. .
Fourthly, Where the dying-day follows a well-improved life, it is better than
the birth-day, however it may appear. There is this difference betwixt them ; the
birth-day has its fair side outmost, the dying-day has its fair side inmost : hence,
the former begins with joy, but opens out in much sorrow ; the latter begins with
sorrow, but opens out in treasures of endless joy. And certainly it is better to
step through sorrow into joy, than through joy into Sorrow. - .
Fifthly, The dying-day, in that case, is so very far better than the birth-day, that
it quite downweighs all the former vanity and misery of life. The angelic guard con-
veying Lazarus into Abraham's bosom, left not his sometime sores and straits the
weight of a feather, being compared with the honour and glory of it, 2 Cor. iv. 17.
However heavy their case has been, they remember it then as waters that fail.
Lastly, But it will not be so in the case of an ill-spent life. In that case, the
birth-day will still keep the preference, it will be better than the dying-day, though
in the meantime it would have been best of all that such had never been born,
Matt. xxvi. 24. For whatever joy or sorrow they have been born to in this
world, they will never taste of joy more, but be overwhelmed with floods of sorrow,
when once their dying-day is come and over. - s
II. I shall show in what latitude this doctrine is to be understood. •
First, As to the parties, those who have so lived as to obtain the good name. It
is to be understood of them, --
1. Universally, whatever different degrees be among them in the lustre of the
good name. There are children, young men, and fathers of that name ; it is more
illustrious with some of them than others; for though all are alike friends of God,
yet all are not alike faithful to God, and useful to men, 1 John ii. 12. But if they
obtain that name at all, the day of their death will be better than that of their
birth ; for the lowest saint in the other world will be in better case than the great-
est of men in this world. - -
2. Inclusively of elect infants dying in their infancy, before they are capable of
being faithful to God, or useful to men: because having the Spirit of Christ dwell-
ing in them, whereby they are united to Christ, they are the friends of God, and,
if their organs were disposed, they would be faithful and useful. The seed of
AND THE OTHER WOR L D. 441
faithfulness and usefulness is in them, 1 John iii. 9. Only they lack opportunity,
not being arrived at the use of reason, Matt. xix. 14. -
Let godly parents, who have sometimes laid their infants in the grave, for whom
they took hold of God's covenant, know for their comfort, that, though the names
of these babes are forgotten in this world by all but them, because they were so
short while in it, they have the good name, a shining name in the other world, that
will never be forgotten there. And the day of their death, however heavy it was
to you, it was really better than the day of their birth ; much sin and misery
being hid from their eyes that you have felt.
3. Exclusively of all others. They that have not so lived as to obtain the good
name, have neither part nor lot in this matter ; Prov. xiv. 32, “The wicked is
driven away in his wickedness.” When men's passions are raised through the
miseries of this life fretting them, death appears desirable. So it did to the mur-
murers, Numb. xiv. 2. So to Judas, under horror for an ill-spent life. But they
are too hasty and inconsiderate there ; for be this life as bad as it will, it is the
best they can look for.
Secondly, As to the points in comparison, the birth-day and the dying-day, it is
to be understood of them, * t
1. In their formal notion, as days of passing into a new world. Consider the
day of the saint's birth as a coming out of his mother's womb into our world, and
the light thereof that he never saw before ; and the day of his death as a passing
into the other world which he never saw before neither. And the latter is better
than the former ; it is the preferable passage ; it is better for him when he has got
the good name, to leave his body a corpse, than it was to leave the womb of his
mother when he was a ripe infant.
2. In all circumstances whatever. The saint's dying-day, compared with his
birth-day, does so preponderate, that no circumstances whatsoever can cast the bal-
ance ; suppose him born healthy and vigorous, dying in the most languishing man-
ner, or in the greatest agonies; born heir to an estate or a crown, dying poor at a
dike-side, neglected of all ; yet the day of his death, in spite of all these advan-
tages of his birth, is better than the day of his birth.
Thirdly, As to the preference, it stands in two points.
1. The advantages of the saint's dying-day are preferable to the advantages of
his birth-day. Cast up the sums of both in any way you can imagine, and the for-
mer will far surmount the latter, as the heavens are above the earth.
2. The advantages of the saint's dying-day downweigh all the disadvantages of
his birth-day. This is more than the former. A man sows his seed, and he gets
a crop better than what he sowed ; yet perhaps when he has counted all costs and
pains, these overgo the profit. But it is not so in this case. . Let all the disadvan-
tages of the saint's birth-day be considered as a continued chain of numberless
sinks from his birth to his death ; and his dying-day will downweigh them all. It
will remain an eternal truth, that such a dying-day was well worth wading through
all these miseries of life unto it, let them appear in their most frightful shapes that
ever they appeared in unto mortal. -
III. We are next to demonstrate the truth of this paradox, this unlikely tale,
That the saint's dying-day is better than his birth-day. It appears most firm truth
from the following considerations. - -
First, The day of the saint's birth clothed him with a body of weak and frail
flesh, and so clogged him ; the day of his death looses the clog, and sets him free,
clothing him with a house that will never clog him, 2 Cor. v. 1–3. Do not think
your bodies are you : they are something belonging to you, but not you ; for you
will be to the fore, thinking, moving, acting, when they will be lying rotting in the
churchyard. It is the soul that is you, which, being housed in the earthly taber-
nacle, is clogged thereby. Indeed the souls of the wicked are clogged far heavier
at death, with anguish and despair. But the dying-day sets the saint perfectly
: like a prisoner out of the prison, or a bird out of the cage, Luke ii. 29. Con-
Slder, , - * . -
1. In the day of his birth, he was an helpless infant, that could do nothing but
Weep and sprawl; the soul being in a * in a mass of flesh and blood; but
K
4-42 A VIEW OF THIS
in the day of his death, the soul being divested of that body, will immediately show
itself intelligent and active, a companion of angels, Heb. xii. 23; Luke xx. 36.
And he that could not creep out of harm's way in his birth will, in the day of his
death, be able to mount upward, as on eagles’ wings, to the highest heavens, like
the bird when the stone tied to its foot is taken away, Luke xxiii. 43 : for then
comes the more full accomplishment of that promise, Isa. xl. 31, “They that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
2. In the day of his birth, there were many little things necessary to be done
about him : he behoved to be washed, and dressed, and Swaddled up in clouts;
laid to the breast, because he could not lay himself to it; fed, because he could not
put the meat in his own mouth. In the day of his death he will need none of these
things, but flee away dropping his mantle of the mortal body, leaving it to his
friends to dispose of it at their will. -
3. In the day of his birth, he knew not where he was, whither he was going, or
to whom ; and so he could have neither joy nor grief upon the event, till, feeling
the change of his condition ungrateful to the present sense, he fell a-crying. In
the day of death, he knows very well where away * he is going; and that he is
going to Christ, which is best of all : and so, understanding the happy change, re-
joiceth in it, 2 Tim. i. 12. It is true, in the way to death, through the weakness
of faith, it may be dark with him ; but death having done its work, all the shadows
will flee away in an instant.
4. In the day of his birth he had long to wait, ere he should ripen to be of any
use for himself, for others, or for God: several days ere he should be capable
to Smile ; weeks ere he should know his mother ; months ere he could speak or go ;
years ere he could know any thing, but about meat and clothes; so many years in
infancy, in childhood, ripening far more leisurely and slowly than young brutes:
but in the day of his death, he will ripen all of a sudden; he will be at his pitch of
glory and happiness in an instant, as when the Sun instantly breaks through a
cloud, and scatters his beams all over the horizon. There is no infancy nor child-
hood in the other world, because there is no old-age there : but as Adam was created
in his perfection, at his full stature ; so will the souls of the saints be advanced to
their natural perfection, as they drop their bodies. -
5. In the day of his birth he was exposed to danger, could not miss to catch
...scathe if all the better care was not taken to prevent it : many a poor child has
been stified in the birth, and careless management of them after their coming into
the world has had fatal effects. But in the day of his death he is set beyond the
reach of danger. Never a gracious soul perished in death : but as soon as the
ship of the body was broken in pieces, the passengers were safe ashore; and what-
ever danger they are in here by Satan and his instruments, they are out of danger
when on the other side of death in the other world, Rev. xxi. 25.
6. In the day of his birth, he was born to die; and in the day of his death, he
dies to live. There is a certain affinity betwixt our birth and death, so that there
were never any born that did not also die, except two persons, Enoch and Elias;
and to make that odds even, Adam and Eve both died that were never born. So
our birth is but the preamble of death, Eccl. iii. 2; and when dying comes to an
end, being born is at an end too, Luke xx. 35, 36. But there is as certain a con-
nection between the Saint's death and his life made by virtue of the death and re-
surrection of Christ, Eph. ii. 6. And who can doubt but it is better to die to live,
than to be born to die ; to put off, than to put on, the clog of mortality ? Now, in
our birth we put it on, but in our death put it off. Therefore the day of the saint's
death is better than the day of his birth. -
Secondly, The day of his birth clogged him with a body of sin; the day of his
death sets him quite free from it, and brings him into a state morally perfect,
Heb. xii. 23. There was never man born into the world, except the man Christ,
but he brought a body of sin in him into it, Psal. li. 5; John iii. 8. In the day
of our birth, we are born with fallen Adam's own image on us; therefore it is par.
* i. e. to what locality—Ed.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 443
ticularly marked of Seth the father of the holy seed, Gen. v. 3. Insomuch that
even those who are sanctified from the womb, are not to be excepted ; for they
are sanctified but in part, and still have ground for that cry, Rom. vii. 24, “Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?” till death. . But then in the day
of the saint's death, that body of sin is destroyed and razed quite and clean: and
therefore the day of his death is better than the day of his birth.
We may view his case in these particulars.
1. The day of his birth fixed the disease in him, he was born a sinner, Psal. li.
5. Hence it is not, as accidental ailments, to be removed by human art : but
being owing to his birth, it is natural, not to be cured without a miracle, John ix.
32; Job xiv. 4; and coming in by his birth, according to the dispensation and
settled order of grace, is not to be quite removed but by death.
2. The day of his conversion began the cure, loosed sin at the root, though it
did not root it up. This was the day of his new birth, better than the day of his
first birth; 1 Pet. i. 23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor-
ruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.” On good grounds
is this day preferred to the birth-day; Ezek. xvi. 4, 8, “As for thy nativity, in
the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water
to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor Swaddled at all. Now, when I
passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love, and
I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee,
and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine.” Here the man mismade in his birth-day was new-made ; mismade after
the image of fallen Adam, new-made after the image of the second Adam, 2 Cor.
v. 17.
3. The intervening days between the day of conversion and the dying-day, the
cure is a-carrying on. There is a struggle with the disease in order to its removal,
which in a measure prevails, though not altogether, Gal. v. 17. And as it is
better there is something to struggle with the disease, than that it should bear
full sway; so these days, however troublous they are, are better than the birth-
day, as it is more hopeful to be groaning on a sick-bed than to be silent in the
grave.
4. But the day of his death roots up the disease for good and all, and perfects
the cure, leaving not the least remains of it in the soul, Heb. xii. 23. The lep-
rosy was in the walls of the house; no scraping nor plastering would remove it,
but still it broke out and spread again : but in the day of death, when the walls
of the body are taken down and carried out, then there are no more vestiges of
the leprosy left to remain. The seventh day of the compassing of the accursed
walls of Jericho was the best day of the seven, and the seventh time that day
the best time; for then the wall that had so long stood unmoved, fell all down
together. 3 ºr
Thirdly, The day of the saint's death carries him into a better world than the
day of his birth did. The other world where Christ is, is a better world than that
where we are: in the faith whereof Paul desired to die, that he might enter into
it, Phil. i. 23. The day of his birth brought him into this world, a wilderness;
the day of his death takes him into the other world, a Canaan, a better country,
a paradise. What was the wilderness to the Israelites in comparison of the pro-
mised land? Such is this world to the saints in comparison with the other. Take
a Swatch of the difference.
1. The day of his birth brought him into a world of uncertainty, set him down
on slippery ground; the day of his death takes him into a world of certainty, sets
his feet on a rock. When he was born, whatever he was born to, he was born to
uncertainties. His health, wealth, ease, yea, his life itself, hung always at an
uncertainty: he might have been this moment in health, but sick at the heart the
next. His reputation and character was at an uncertainty: while a man is on
the side of the grave, his character in the world is not so established but, by some
wrong step or other, it may yet be blemished, that he may set in a cloud that has
shone bright. But when the man with the good name dies, he is set beyond all
uncertainties more. He is so well that he can never be ill again; the kingdom he
444 A VIEW OF THIS
receives cannot be moved, Heb. xii. 28. However tossed his life was here, he is
established there, Rev. iii. 12. Death comes up the last of the train of all his
uncertainties; establishes his welfare ; and seals his good name and character, as
no more liable to be blemished. - - -
2. The day of his birth brought him into a world of sin and defilement; but the
day of his death brings him into a world of purity, Heb. xii. 23. From the time he
was born into this world, till he dies out of it, he breathes in and out an infectious
air; his own plague-Sores are running on him, and he sees those of others running
too; and wherever he is and with whomsoever, he is in hazard of Snares and de-
filement. But, from the moment of death, he breathes the pure air of Immanuel's
land, where there are no clouds nor vapours; where all diseases are healed, and
no unclean thing can enter. Spotless purity reigns there; there is no hazard more
of ensnarement or defilement, Rev. xxi. 25.
3. The day of his birth brought him into a world of toil and labour; but the
day of his death brings him into a world of rest, Rev. xiv. 13. Much toil there is
for the back and belly, and some have more of it than others. But nobody wants
it altogether, no, not those who go with an even-up * back, Gen. iii. 19; Eccl. i. 8.
They are liable to weariness as well as others; an evidence that their very plea-
sures, ease, and recreations are a labour. But the other world is a world of rest
to the people of God, Heb. iv. 9, and of refreshing, Acts ifi. 19. As God did the
works of creation in the six days, and rested the seventh day; so they, having
improved life laboriously to the obtaining of the good name, shall there have eter-
mal rest. They will rest from all the business this world is now throngfabout.
There will be neither labouring the ground, nor tending cattle in the other world;
nor any servile work whatsoever there. There will be no labour of the mind, nor
painful study there: but as Solomon lay down and slept, and awaked a wiser man
than ever one was by study; so they, sleeping the sleep of death, will awake with
a pitch of knowledge as far above that which they have at their best now, as the
knowledge of a man is above that of a child. The toilsome and laborious duties of
religion will have no place there: there will be no watching, no combat, &c. Act
they will for ever, but never know weariness more; their work will be their re-
ward, their eternal recreation.
4. The day of his birth brought him into a world of care and sorrow ; but the
day of his death brings him into a world of ease and joy, Matt. xxv. 21. Though
a man be born to a crown, he will find himself born to cares and sorrows; for as
the fairest rose wants not its prickles, so the most plentiful enjoyments of the
world want not their thorny cares, sorrows, and vexations attending them. And
often does the most piercing and racking vexation rise from what was taken for
the spring of the greatest comfort. But death puts an end to all these in the case
of the man with the good game. A drink of the well of life at death extinguishes
all care and sorrow for ever, fills with joy unspeakable. Those of them that sighed
most here, will sing eternally there: they will sing for ever the song of Moses and
the Lamb on the other side of death, though they groaned on this side.
5. The day of his birth brought him into a world of disappointment; but the
day of his death brings him into a world surmounting expectation; 1 Cor. ii. 9,
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Man is born to dis-
appointments in this world; especially good men, for whom the Lord minds better
things in the other world. All worldly things are greater in expectation than in
fruition. Hence it is the young and unexperienced that have the greatest expec-
tations from them, and fondness for them; because they are not yet cut with so
many disappointments as the aged. This holds in the very brutes; where the
young ones are the most lightsome in their kind, the old being, as it were, cut
with disappointments, and cloyed with finding the same thing over and over. But
death brings the good man to heavenly things, that will be greater in the fruition
than in expectation; as the queen of Sheba said to Solomon of his magnificence,
1 Kings x. 7, “Behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity
* i. e. erect. —ED. + i. e. busy.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 445
exceedeth the fame which I heard.” But a greater than Solomon will be found
there. And death will bring them to a happiness in that world that has neither
brim nor bottom, beyond what they could either hear or conceive.
6. The day of his birth brought him into a world of death; but the day of his
death takes him into a world of life, Mark x. 30. This is a dying world we are born
into, where some are still coming in, and others going out to make room for them;
the children coming in as with a warning away in their hand to the parents, as
their children will to them in their turn. But in the world that death carries him
to, there are no marriages, births, nor burials. There the father lives as long as
the child; and there is no difference betwixt them more, both living eternally.
Fourthly, The day of his death settles him among better company than the day
of his birth did, Heb. xii. 22, and downwards. The comfort of one's being in a
place depends much on the society there; unpleasant society or neighbourhood
will make the most pleasant place a little ease,” as strewed with thorns. Great is
the difference betwixt the society the man was in in this world, and that which
death carries him to in the other world. Let us consider the odds f a little.
1. The day of his birth landed him in the arms and embraces of his mother, if
she died not in bringing him forth, in which case he behoved to want that kindly
reception into the arms of a mother. But in the day of death, he is received into
Abraham's bosom more kindly and warmly than that of any mother, and which
death never makes cold and stiff, Luke xvi. 22.
2. The day of his birth brought him into the arms of his glad father, if he was
not dead before he was born; but in the day of his death, he is presented to, and
received by, his heavenly Father into his embraces, whose love and affection to
his children is above that of earthly parents, as the heaven is above the earth.
God in Christ is an affectionate Father, even love itself, 1 John iv. 16. Christ
will then receive the soul he died for with a satisfaction surpassing that of the
most tender mother, Isa. liii. 11; and the Father of our Lord Jesus will behold it
as bearing the image of his own Son, and his own image.
3. The father and mother that lovingly embraced him in the day of his birth,
may yet come afterward to frown on him, beat him, be bitter against him ; they
having little comfort in him, or he in them : but when the day of death is once
come and over, the child of God shall see no more frowns, beating, nor bitterness.
His minority will then be overpast ; even the discipline of the covenant, the rod
will be for ever laid by. He shall be etermally indulged and comforted, Isa. lxvi. 13.
4. The day of his birth brought him at most into but a small company of bro-
thers or sisters; perhaps he was an eldest child, or an only one: but the day of his
death lands him in a numerous family, whereof each one with him calls God in
Christ Father, Rev. xiv. 1. The saints are divided in many families on earth;
but in heaven they make but one family, from Adam to the last saint that shall
come there, Eph. iii. 15. They may look on every saint there as a brother, which
will be a comfortable sight of the heavenly multitude, Rev. vi. 11.
5. Brothers and sisters afforded him, perhaps, but a coldrife welcome in the day
of his birth, either through a defect of wit to set natural affection astir, or through
ill nature, that, on the score of interest, made them look on him with a grudge;
or however they embraced him affectionately in the day of his birth, there were
not wanting animosities and heart-burnings in their after-life now and then. But
in the day of his death, there will be a kindly welcome from all. The parent's
affection on earth, and his substance, is limited to a certain measure; and the
more there are to part them among, the less every one gets: but the love of God,
and the treasure in heaven, is infinite and boundless, fills all to the brim, and yet
they cannot exhaust it. So that, if there were ten thousand more worlds of saints
created, it would rather add to than diminish from the happiness of every one that
is now there. There love is perfected; and as no seeds of hatred are left within
nor without, they will live together in eternal, uninterrupted love.
6. In the day of his birth, he had the welcome of a few neighbours present at
the birth: in the day of his death, he will have the welcome of angels; whereof
* i. e. a place of restlessness and discomfort.—ED. f i. e. the difference.—ED.
446 A VIEW OF THIS
not one only, but several shall carry him into Abraham's bosom, (Luke xvi. 22,)
with a warmer affection than any woman can receive the new-born infant, as the
love of angels is more glowing than our earthly love. They will carry him to an
innumerable company of them, (Heb. xii. 22,) in whose presence there was joy at
his repentance, and much more must there be at his coming home to stray no more,
Luke xv. 10. -
7. Whatever welcome he had in the day of his birth from neighbours or rela-
tions, the joy was but on one side ; though they rejoiced in him, he could not re-
joice in them, for he knew them not : but in the day of his death the joy will be
mutual; he that in the day of his birth was not equal to imperfect men, will, in
the day of his death, be equal to the angels. He will know God and Christ, the
saints and angels, and will rejoice in them, as they will rejoice in him.
8. Whatever welcome he had into the world in the day of his birth, he had
much uncomfortable society there in the days of his after-life, that made him often
see himself, in his neighbourhood in the world, as in Mesech and Kedar, Psal.
cxx. 5; yea, dwelling among lions’ dens and mountains of leopards, Cant. iv. 8.
But in the day of his death, he will bid an eternal farewell to all uncomfortable
society, and never see more any in whom he will not be comforted to be with them.
(1.) He was born into a world where there was a seed of the serpent to turn
against him as heart-enemies, whenever he turned to God, John xv. 19. His
living with them, and dealing with them, wove many a snare to his soul, made
him many a weary day; and often did he find deep wounds from them, Psal. lvii.
4. But he will die into a world of profound peace and love, where mone of that
seed can have access; a world peopled entirely with the seed of the woman, all
united to Christ, the head, by the same Spirit, and among themselves, by the
firmest bands of love.
(2.) He was born into a world where even saints had their blemishes, their
faults, which made their society uncomfortable and hardly tolerable ; so that he
had much ado to dwell even with some in whom the grace of God dwelt. But he
will die into a world where saints have no blemish left in them; where there will
be no unkindly, peevish, or touchy “ saints, to mar the comfort of society; but all
will be perfect in knowledge and love.
(3.) He was born into a world where men have their particular interests to
drive, and selfishness causes them to drive over their neighbours, over all bonds
of justice, equity, and love; the greater swallowing up the lesser, till they be
planted alone in the earth. But he dies into a world where there is no divided
interest more, but all centre in the glorifying that God who allows them all a per-
fect happiness in the enjoyment of him; furnishing all as the sun doth this world,
without withholding from one what is afforded to another.
(4.) He was born into an ensnaring world, brought into society where he re-
ceived infection and did infect again; where he was a temptation to others, and .
others were a temptation to him; the consideration whereof made him often weary
of the world. But he dies into a world where there is no more of that: were he
once past that step, he will be no more a snare to any, nor will any be a snare to
him. The leaves of the tree of life are for healing, but there is no more sin nor
death.
Fifthly, The day of his death brings him into a better state than the day of his
birth did. As the state of glory is better than the state of this life, so is death to
one who has well improved life better than his birth. Great is the odds on the
part of the day of death in this case, however advantageous the birth may be.
1. The day of his birth sets him down in a state of imperfection, natural and
moral; the day of his death advances him to a state of perfection of both kinds,
Heb. xii. 23. There is a natural imperfection in us in respect of our very frame,
more than in the young of brutes according to their kind; a great imperfection in
the necessity of meat, drink, clothing, education, and teaching: the which con-
tinues with us all our life long. A moral imperfection much more wretched, in
respect of the guilt and corruption of nature we bring into the world with us; the
“ i. e. easily offended.—Ed.
&
AND THE OTHER WOR I.D. 447
which last also continues with us all our life, though the reigning power of it be
broken.
But in the day of his death, both these are done away. He arrives at a natural
perfection ; the soul will be perfected in all its faculties, no more darkness and con-
fusion in its apprehension, no more error or mistake in judging, and therefore no
false reasonings. There will be no need of human teaching there ; every saint
will be a profound philosopher, and an infallible divine, the image of God on them
in knowledge of the works and will of God being brought to perfection. The dung-
hill work of eating and drinking, the childish work of busking and decking, they
will have no more use for. The saint arrives at a moral perfection that day;
grace is perfected, the love of God, planted now in the heart, and preserved as a
spark of sacred fire in the midst of an ocean of corruption, will quite dry up that
ocean ; and they shall be as pure as if they had never sinned, being set beyond the
possibility of sin.
2. The day of his birth brought him into a state of probation and trial; but the day
of his death brings him into a state of retribution and recompense, 2 Cor. v. 10.
The day of his birth set him down on the ice, where he was to have a hit or a miss”
for eternity ; he was brought into this world, to undergo his trials for the other
world, in which most men come foul off. There he had Christ and his salvation offered
him, to be embraced by faith, which was to be evidenced by steering a course of holi-
ness maugre f all opposition. But then he was baited with temptations from the
devil, the world, and the flesh ; he was brought on a stage of afflictions, crosses,
and various hardships, to see if he could bear them for Christ. This made his life
a fight, a continued scene of trial,
But in the day of his death, he is taken off his trials, with the Judge's approba-
tion, and the full reward is appointed him, and given him. The Lord Christ, who
looked on all the time of his trials, observing how he carried, seeing how he got
many a fall, yet rose again, then passes a merciful verdict on him ; Matt. xxv, 21,
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord.” And then he is to fight no more, but triumph for ever : he has wrought
his work, and he gets his reward of grace. The trials were perhaps long, but the
retribution will be longer : the former was but temporal, the latter will be eternal.
3. The day of his birth brought him into a state of changes; but the day of his
death brings him into an unalterable state ; Rev. iii. 12, “Him that overcometh
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.” The
state of man from his birth is like that of the moon, ever waxing or waning, never
appearing with its former face ; he is still lying open to ungrateful alterations, so
that though he be never so well to-day, he cannot boast of to-morrow but he is in
hazard of exposing himself as rash, Prov, xxvii. 1. But in the day of death, the
last change comes, and brings him into an unalterable state of happiness; he is
fixed for ever in endless joy and peace. For though there be clouds to overcast in
the lower, there are none in the upper regions.
Lastly, The day of the saint's death brings him to, and settles him in, better ex-
ercise and employment than the day of his birth did. He will spend his eternity
in the other world better than he did his time in this world, how well soever he
spent it ; Rev. iv. 8, “They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” There is a great variety
of men's exercises and employments here, and few or none are so exercised but they
would be content to be better : well, the day of death will make it far better with
the saints. The odds will be great.
1. He was born to earthly exercise and employment, but he dies to heavenly.
When he is born, he falls a-sucking his mother's breast, that is all he can do; when
he dies, he falls a-sucking in abundantly the divine consolations. As he grows up,
, he is put to learn ; when he dies, he is irradiated in a moment with a light that
dispels all his darkness. When he is come to years of action, he is employed in
Some labour of the hand or of the mind; when he dies, he is beyond all labour,
* The author here refers to a well-known Scottish game.—ED. f i. e. in spite of.-ED.
4.48 A-VIEW OF THIS
but is active in the glorifying and enjoying of God, which was the great end of his
Creation. -
2. He is born to wearisome, sorrowful, and heavy exercise: he dies to joyful,
comfortable, and eternally refreshing exercise. As he was much employed in sigh-
ing here, he will be employed in singing there. Many a time he laboured in vain
here, but there will be no labour in vain there : he will always reach his end, being
arrived at the state of perfection.
3. He was born to such exercise as he was not able to continue with, but needed
rest; and so a great part of his time was spent in doing nothing but taking the
necessary rest : but he dies to such exercise as he shall endure with continually,
needing no rest by sleep or the like, Rev. iv. 8. There is no night there, for it is
not needed there.
I shall now shut up this subject, with some application of what has been said.
Use 1. Of information. This shows us,
First, That whatever good things the saints have in hand, they have more in
hope. If they were born to never so great things, as Solomon was to a crown, yet
they die to greater things. Whatever they enjoy in this world as men, or as
Christians, they will enjoy more in the other world: their best things come last.
Secondly, Whatever afflictions, trials, and crosses in life they have been born to,
there is a time coming wherein all their losses will be made up, and their heaviest
weights will be downweighed with comforts, Isa. lxvi. 13. Sometimes, when the waves
of trouble are overflowing, they are apt to look back on the day of their birth with a
grudge, that brought them into such a troublous sea, Job iii. 3.; Jer. xx. 14, 28.
But that is their infirmity, their impatience. Let them wait a little, and they will
see there is a better day coming. -
Thirdly, Sense is no good judge of what is best or worst. Of all things death is
the most terrible to sense ; therefore in the day of death there is nothing but groan-
ing, sighing, and mourning, whereas in the day of one's birth there is feasting and
rejoicing. Yet to a good man the day of death is better than the day of his birth.
Such is the doctrine of faith, quite opposite to that of sense. They must be ill-
guided, then, that walk by sense. -
Fourthly, There must be another life besides this, and a far more happy one ;
otherwise the day of death, that takes us away from all the comforts of this life
which the day of our birth brings us into, could not be better than the day of the
birth. The day of a good man's birth ushers in a holy and happy life, though im-
perfect; which must certainly be better than no life at all.
Lastly, There is a way to take off the terror of death, and to make the dying-
day our best day, better than the day of our birth. That matter depends on the
improving of life. Our life-time is our seed-time for the other world, and death is
the harvest; according as we live now, so will the crop be that we will have to reap
then, Gal. vi. 18.
Use 2. Of exhortation. First, To saints. Secondly, To sinners, and all.
First, Saints, whose chief business in life has been and is, to improve life to the
raising of the good name, let this serve to bring you into good terms with death.
Death will not be to you what it will be to others; the storm is to you changed
into a calm ; and it will be your best day, better than the day of your birth. And
that you may know to whom this belongs, it is designed for those of a threefold
character, agreeably to what was said before. This comfortable message is,
1. For you who have made it your business to obtain the favour and friendship
of God, by taking hold of God's covenant of free grace, uniting with Christ the head
of it, through faith, and whose main concernin life is to be found in him, Phil. iii. 8–11.
Have you been awakened to see your lost state by nature; illuminated in the know-
ledge of Christ as the only remedy; and brought to embrace him in the free cove-
nant, as the sufficient and only way to the Father? Why truly, being thus implanted
in Christ, the day of your death will be better than the day of your birth.
2. Ye whose main care it is, in the course of your life, to please God, (Col. i. 10,)
as a wife is to please her husband, and a servant his master, and one his friend and
benefactor, 1 Pet. ii. 19. Are you so disposed, that you dare not please men at
the expense of his displeasure ? Gal. i. 10. Have you renounced your own will,
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 449
as to your duty, and as to your lot? Have you laid aside the pleasing of yourselves,
and your own lusts, that is no more the scope of your life, but to please God?
Rom. xv. 1, 3. Is it the scope of your life to please him in doing, and in bearing?
And wherein ye see you have displeased him, are ye displeased with yourselves,
confess, mourn over it, apply to the blood of Christ, and long for the day when
you shall displease him no more ? If so, the day of your death will be better than
the day of your birth, you will be pleased for ever.
3. Ye whose business in the world is to serve your generation in real usefulness
to others, as ye have access in your several stations and relations, Acts xiii. 36.
Are you so disposed as that, out of regard to the God above, you dare not be mis-
chievous and hurtful to others, even when it is in the power of your hand? Job
xxxi. 21—23. Do ye look upon uselessness for God or men in the world with a
horror; and upon yourselves but as stewards of your time, gifts, substance, oppor-
tunities of usefulness, for which ye must give an account to God, and therefore lay
out yourselves to improve your talents, and do good thereby ? Has the warm influence
of divine grace opened your shell of selfishness, wherein ye sometimes lay snug, care-
ful for nothing but your own sweet self; and brought you out with a public spirit to
be useful in God’s world as ye have access, with a benevolent disposition to do good
to mankind? If so, the day of your death will be better than the day of your birth.
And therefore I exhort you to the following duties.
1st, Be mortified to life, and abate of your fondness for it. There is nothing
in the world we naturally stick to more closely than life, Job ii. 4. But certainly
there is a necessity of being mortified to it, to have our desires after it deadened in
a regular way; Luke xiv. 26, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father
and mother,-yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”. Without
question, there may be too great eagerness for life, which is sinful in all, and most
unbecoming Saints,
Question, How far should we be mortified to life?
Answer 1. So far as not to quarrel the unalterable statute of death, Heb. ix. 27.
Sin brought in death; by it mankind forfeited life. Many ills it brought into the
world, but a short life in this world was really the least ill that it brought in. We
see this statute was just, that it has been exactly observed from generation to gen-
eration : our hearts should comply with it, saying, Even so be it, and should have
no grudge against it. Why should the rocks be removed for us?
Answ. 2. So far as not to desire, though it were at our option, to stay always in
this world, Job vii. 16. That is certainly an unmortified desire of life, to wish this
life were eternal to us: and a habit of it argues a graceless state. It was a pro-
fane tale of a cardinal of Paris, that he would be content to forfeit his part of the
happiness of heaven, if he might live here for ever. Grace in the heart certainly
mortifies men to this life : they that are born from above, will certainly desire to
be above ; they that are united to Christ, will certainly desire to be with him ;
and therefore the Christian course is a coming up out of the wilderness, where,
though they must sojourn for a while, they will not desire to fix their abode, Cant.
viii. 5.
Answ. 3. So far as to be content to part with it at God's call, Luke xiv. 26. God
is Lord of our life; he has set each of us in our post in life, to stand till he give
order to relieve us. As we quarrelled not his setting us on the stage of life by
our birth ; so we should be content to come off again when he calls us by death.
#. time, way, and manner of our leaving it, we should leave contentedly to his
isposal. -
Answ. 4. So far as never to desire to live just for living's sake, but for the solid
advantage of life. This life is such a mass of vanity, that it is not desirable for itself
but some circumstances that attend it. So we may desire to live to honour God
in the world, and to be useful, Isa. xxxviii. 19. And if we should be laid by from
usefulness in the way of doing, we may be content to live for usefulness in the way of
suffering. But life is not to be desired stripped of all manner of usefulness; for that
º make ourselves, not God, our chief end, Now, to mortify you to life, con-
Slder, -
(1.) The uncertainty of it ; it is but a *low, you know not how soon it may
j L.
450 A VIEW OF THIS
be gone; a vapour, that may evanish ere you are aware. I may say them, as Prov.
xxiii. 5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?” What folly is it to
let the heart too fondly out on that which in a moment one may lose, and every
moment hangs at uncertainty It is surely wisdom to sit loose to that which we are
never sure of.
(2.) The unsatisfactoriness of it. Every period of life, however promising it may
be on the entry on it, will leave you disappointed in your progress in it, and com-
ing off from him in it, Eccl. i. 8. There is nothing in it or about it, that belongs
not to the other life, wherein the heart of man can find a rest. Still the bed is
shorter, stretch it as ye will, than that ye can lie on it,
(3.) The sinfulness of it. There is none liveth, and sinneth not. That, in-
deed, makes life desirable to sinners, that, since they cannot part with their sins,
they cannot think to part with life neither, for that then all occasion of satisfying
their lusts is cut off for ever. But certainly it must mortify saints to life, that
they cannot have it but there is sinning with it, 2 Cor. v. 4, with Rom. vii. 24.
(4.) The troubles of it, the many afflictions and trials that attend it. These,
indeed, should not make us impatient to be away, like Jonah, chap. iv. 8. For
they are our trials we are put upon for the other world, which we are resolutely
to bear with patience and resignation, and to discover the reality of the grace of
God in us. But they may well be allowed to mortify us to this life: for that is
one of the ends they are sent for, to be as gall and wormwood laid on the breast
to wean us. And the wisdom of providence is to be adored in that, ordinarily,
towards the end of life, troubles come on thicker than they were wont, as in the
case of our Saviour.
(5.) There is a better life than it abiding you in the other world, Heb. xi. 16.
The faith of the palace in heaven would mortify one to the cottage of clay here:
for why shèuld they be fondly addicted to their present state whom a better state
is awaiting? It is our conversing so little with heaven, that makes us so fond of
the earth. Were we viewing the promised land more with faith's prospect, we
would be more disengaged from this wilderness-world.
(6.) The state of imperfection inseparably attends this life; that there is no
getting beyond the former, till ye get beyond the latter. You may struggle as
you will towards perfection, and if you be real Saints, you will do it, (Phil. iii. 14,)
from an inward principle not managed by the prospect of the event; but you will
never reach it till this life be at an end. Rise up as oft as ye will, wash, and
watch; ye will fall again and defile yourselves, till the day of death put an end to
that weary work.
2dly, Be not frighted at death, nor “afraid with any amazement,” Isa. xxxv. 4.
To make a jest of dying argues contempt of God, and secret desperation: to be
careless and unconcerned about it, a carnal security that will have a frightful
awakening. To be in deep concern about it, becomes all; but to be frighted and
put into disorder by the view of it, is unbecoming saints. To allay that terror,
(1.) Consider that, in the day you embraced Christ in the covenant, you cer-
tainly did it in view of your dying, to lay down measures for eternity. Why, then,
should ye be frighted at that which ye have been thinking of and preparing for
before ? Leave that to them who have been carelessly dreaming away their
lifetime.
(2.) Death, though a grim messenger, is Christ's messenger of good to you, to
carry you away in peace, Luke ii. 29. It is like the waggons that Joseph sent
to bring Jacob into Egypt to him. And faith's ear opened would hear the voice
to the dying Christian saying, as Gen. xlvi. 3, 4, “I am God, the God of thy
father: fear not to go down into Egypt.—I will go down with thee into Egypt;
and I will surely bring thee up again.” It is such a call as Peter had from Christ
to come to him upon the water. And however boisterous the wind, and black the
water may be, there is no fear of sinking to the ground; only believe.
(3.) In your struggles against sin, and wrestling with temptations, have ye not
sometimes looked wistfully for death's relief? Rom. vii. 24; Cant. viii. 5. Have
ye not comforted yourself in the prospect of cold death's drowning out quite those
passions and lusts that have so often taken fire again after a flood of godly sorrows
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 451
going over them? Why, then, should you be put in a fright and disorder at the
view of its approach” --
(4.) It were inconsistent with God's honour, and the glory and dignity of Christ,
to put off his friends and followers with that kind of life he gives them here, Heb.
xi. 16. One may be confirmed in this, considering 1 Cor. xv. 19, “If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” Therefore of
necessity all their losses must be made up in the other life. Why, then, should
saints be angry at their blessings, and be frighted at the Lord's coming to accom.
plish all his promises 2
(5.) The upper world is the world of peace and love, “Abraham's bosom.”
There are gone thither before us our godly acquaintances, whom we once looked
on as the excellent of the earth, the loss of whose society was heavy; we will get
it there again. The holy angels will be loving and lovely companions. He who
on earth died for us while enemies, how loving and lovely will he appear there,
where we shall be perfect God is love itself, and there his infinite love will be
displayed in an inconceivable manner.
(6.) Christ passed the ford before you, has altered the nature of the waters,
(Rom. viii. 34,) and caused them to abate; and now he bids you follow, for that
there is no fear, Cant. ii. 10, 11. Keep the eye of faith on Christ, who forded
the waters of death before you, and that will be a mean to abate the terror.
3dly, Familiarize death to yourself, Job xvii. 13, 14. Do not keep at a distance
from it in your thoughts. I would not have the terror of death rob you of the
comfort of life: but it is the greatest folly for a man to wind himself up so in the
comforts and amusements of life, as to debar the serious thoughts of death, and
can serve to no end but to bring sudden and remediless ruin; for whether men
will think of death and prepare for it, or not, it will be in on them at length.
And what we must meet with, it is best to acquaint ourselves with before. There-
fore,
(1.) Be frequent in your taking a view of the other world, with the help of the
prospect of the word, to be looked through by the eye of faith. Be often, as it
were, getting up to the top of Pisgah, thence to view the promised land. You
cannot get thither for a trial, to come back again, Job xiv. 14; but there is a map
of it drawn in the Bible, by considering of which you may be brought acquainted
with it. -
(2.) Be often viewing the passage thereto. The Jordan of death runs betwixt
it and this our wilderness, and by it is the passage we must all take. We will not
get any essay made of it, that we may mend at one time what we marred at an-
other: there is the more need, then, to look well and often to it before we enter
in, which we know not how soon we may be obliged to.
(3.) Let your hearts be habitually disposed to these views, to notice the many
memorials of them that Providence has furnished. There are still some dropping
off into that world; some young, some aged. What is every winter but an emblem
of death, and every spring but an emblem of the other world and the resurrection?
Yea, every night is the grave of the former day, as the following day empties the
grave again. t
4thly, Raise comfortable expectations from death. View the day of death in
the light wherein our text sets it, and behold it as a good day, the best day.
(1.) Expect it as the day that will better your condition, however heavy that is
now, Psal. xvi. 9. Though ye have many heavy days in your life, partly from
your own corruption, partly from the corruption of others; partly from the holy
hand of God for trial, partly from the devil seeking your destruction: look to the
day of death, as what will set all to rights, and bring in to you what heart can
wish. The day of death to a child of God is his marriage-day, Matt. xxv.; the
day wherein the traveller comes home from abroad to his Father's house; the day
Wherein he is past his minority, and enters to his inheritance.
(2) Expect it as the day that will establish your condition, Rev. iii. 12. Your
condition is wavering and uncertain now, Psal, Xxx. 6, 7. Sometimes your soul's
case is prosperous, but ere ye are aware it is all wrong again ; sometimes washed
fair and clean in the fountain, anon ye are lying in the mire again; sometimes ye
452 A VIEW OF THIS AND THE OTHER WORLD.
have your feet on the neck of your corruptions, anon they trample you under
foot; sometimes ye can raise one of the songs of Zion, anon the harps are quite
out of tune, hanged on the willows. Sometimes your outward condition is smiling;
but that lasts not, it turns gloomy, and troubles break in perhaps from all quar-
ters together, the springs of your comfort run bitterness, and your worldly com-
forts are dried up one after another. But look forward to the day of death, as
what will end all ungrateful changes.
5thly, Work your heart to, and entertain a regular desire of death. The day
of death is certainly to a child of God an object of desire: the apostle professeth
it, Phil. i. 23, “I desire to depart, and to be with Christ;” and that in the name
of all the saints, 2 Cor. v. 2, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be
clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” And it is a piece of good
preparation for death.
Question, What is the regular desire of death?
Answer 1. For the matter of it, it lies in these three things. -
(1.) A desire of it as the passage to uninterrupted communion with God in
Christ, Phil. i. 23. Sometimes it ariseth from the saint's want of communion
with God, which, being uneasy, does rightly make death desirable, as that which
would make up that want, and secure against it any more for ever: sometimes,
from the sense of the sweetness of that communion, Cant. viii. 6. But the enjoy-
ment of God being a part of a man’s chief end, death is desirable as a means to it.
(2.) A desire of it as the passage to perfection in holiness, Phil. iii. 14. Thus
the man desireth it that he may be free of sin, and put beyond the possibility of
sinning more, Rom. vii. 24; that he may be in capacity to serve the Lord without
marring or wearying of the work. This is the main part of man's chief end, and
therefore death must be desirable as a means thereto.
(3.) A desire of it as an entrance into rest. The rest of death is promised to
the Saints for their comfort in all their heavy and restless circumstances, Isa. lvii.
2. And therefore it must be desirable under that consideration. It is very natu-
ral for the tossed in a storm to be desirous to be ashore, for the weary labourer to
desire to have ease, and for the Christian to desire his eternal and perfect rest,
Job vii. 2.
Answ. 2. For the quality regulating it, it must be accompanied with entire re-
signation to the will of God, Matt. vi. 10. We must, in our desire of it even on
these accounts, be resigned to the will of God.
(1.) As to the time, we must never be peremptory as to that, but wait the time
prefixed of God, Job xiv. 14. He will keep us no longer in life than he has use
for us, either in the way of doing or suffering ; and we must be content to wait his
time for our admittance into uninterrupted communion, to perfection of holiness,
and into rest: and to be peremptory for rest at our time, and resolved to suffer no
more, while yet God dischargeth us not, is devilish, and exposeth to eternal suffer-
ing, as the sentry deserting his post is deservedly shot to death.
(2.) As to the way and manner. There are many ways of going out of the
world: we must leave it to the Lord, which shall be the way for us; whether the
way of lingering sickness or sudden death, natural, or violent by the hand of man.
I think, if God should refer it to us, we should refer it back to him.
Secondly, Sinners, and all whosoever would have the day of death better to you
than the day of your birth, improve life for that end. To sum up your duty in a
word, as you have already heard, (1.) Let it be your great care and concern to
get the favour and friendship of God through Christ, by taking hold of God's
covenant of free grace, uniting with Christ, the head of it, through faith in his
name. (2) Lead your life a life to the honour of God, studying to please him in
all things. Renounce your own will, and your own corrupt affections, and wholly
give up yourselves to him, to be ruled by him, and governed by his laws. (3.)
Live usefully for men. Lay out yourselves to promote the spiritual and temporal
welfare of all ye have access to in your station. By these means, and no other
way, ye will obtain the good name by which your dying-day will be better to you
than your birth-day. -
CHRIST'S SPECIAL ORDER FOR GATHERING HIS SAINTS TO HIM AT THE
LAST DAY ; WITH THEIR DISTINGUISHING CHARACTER, AS ENTERING
INTO HIS COVENANT NOW, CONSIDERED.
TITE SUBSTANCE OF SOME SERMONs PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN MAY, 1730.
PsALM l. 5.
“Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me
by sacrifice.”
LookING forward to the other world, we will see a great gathering to come, a
gathering of Saints, and a gathering of sinners: what part we shall have in these,
depends on the entertainment we now give to the gathering unto Christ in the cove-
nant. They that will not now be gathered to Christ in the bond of the covenant,
will then be driven from him, and gathered with sinners into the pit ; they that
gather now to him in that bond, will be gathered to him in glory then : “Gather
my saints together unto me ; those that have made a covenant with me by sac-
rifice.’
This psalm certainly relates to the coming of Christ for judgment: verse 3, “Our
God shall come, and shall not keep silence : a fire shall devour before him, and it
shall be very tempestuous round about him.” But whether to his first coming, to
abolish the ceremonial law, set up the simple gospel-worship, and to judge, condemn,
and take vengeance on the formal superstitious Jews, destroying their temple, and
ruining their kingdom ; or to his second coming, to judge the world, is a question.
I think it is plain it relates to both, the former as an emblem, pledge, and type of
the other; and thus we find them stated by our Saviour himself, Matt. xxiv. Only
the coming of the Judge is expressed in terms directly and immediately looking to
his second coming, as the procedure and issue in terms directly and immediately
looking to his first coming. So, our text falling within the former part, we have
all ground to consider it as relating to the other world. ... In this psalm,
1. We have the party in whose name the court is called and held. It is in the
name of the Holy Trinity, Heb. “God I God Jehovah ; he hath spoken,” &c.
God will judge the world by the man Christ.
2. The issuing out of the summons to the whole world, “Called the earth from
the rising of the sun, unto the going down thereof;” from east to west, from the
one end to the other. All nations must come to it: Asian, European, African,
American ; Christian nations, and Jews, Mahometan, and Pagan nations. .
3. From whence the Judge sets forth, making his glorious appearance. At the
giving of the law, he came from Sinai, with terrible majesty, Deut. xxxiii. 2. At
this his appearance, he will come from Zion, the “mount Zion, the city of the liv-
ing God,” namely, from heaven, the church being so called as a heaven on earth.
Thence he will come shining in power and great glory. He comes out of Zion, be-
cause he comes as a Saviour to his own, and that now men, having heard the gos-
pel, are judged according to it.
4. His awful coming to the judgment. He is God as well as man. “Devouring
fire" shall be his harbinger, 2 Thess. i. 8. But will any then bid him welcome 3
Yes, his people will. Heb. “Let our God come ; and let him not be silent;” q, d.
Come, Lord Jesus ! be not as one deaf to the cries and sighs of thy friends, and
454 A VIEW OF THIS
the tumult of thine enemies. Sometime his people, doubting and fearing, trembled
at the thoughts of his coming: but then they will be beyond all these, seeing the
day their own.
5. Whither the summons shall be directed. “To the heavens,” where the souls
of the blessed are, that are dead: “to the earth,” where the living are, good and
bad, and where the bodies of the dead are, under which is comprehended hell,
where the souls of the wicked are, Rev. xx. 13.
6. A special gracious order in favour of his people, in the words of the text. Now
comes the time of setting all to rights with them, completing their desires, and fully
answering of all their expectations from him.
1st, We have the order itself, “Gather my Saints together unto me;” wherein
consider,
(1.) The parties in favour of whom it is issued out. It is the saints, holy ones,
Heaven's favourites, beneficent ones that were useful in their generation. These
were sometimes little regarded in this world ; but then they will be the only per-
sons that will be regarded. Christ the Judge will acknowledge them as his own,
Mal. iii. 17: “They are my saints: the world disowned them, and contemned
them ; and I was silent, and many a time seemed not to own them neither. But
now I will speak out in their favour, I own them to be mine whoever are saints.’
Then farewell all other marks of distinction among men, rich and poor, healthy
and sickly, learned or unlearned ; Saints and sinners is the only remaining distinc-
tion then.
(2.) What is ordered about them : “Gather them together unto me.” Gather
them to me: not, before me only, among themselves; such a gathering there will
be of sinners there, as well as saints, Matt. xxv. 32 ; but gather them close to me,
says Christ the Judge, that they may be where I am, sit with me on my throne,
and be ever with me. They have been scattered here and there, in the cloudy
and dark day; now gather them together, and that to me, as my members, Gen.
xlix, ult. -
(3.) To whom the order is directed. It is plain from the original, that it is to
others than them, and to a plurality; and that as plainly shows it is to the Judge's
attendants, the holy angels, Mark xiii. 27. These are they that gather the tares
in bundles for the fire, and the wheat to the Master into his barn. -
2dly, The parties to be gathered to him characterized : “Those that have made
a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Their names not being expressed in the order,
how shall they be known from others ? Why, here is their distinguishing charac-
ter. Christ the Judge sometime set up his standard in the world, as being an ap-
pointed Head for sinners to gather to, Gen. xlix. 10. . He published, in the gos-
pel, sinners’ welcome, and invited them to come to him in the bond of his covenant.
While some slighted him and the covenant, they came into it, and so were gathered
to him by faith, while others stayed away. Now, says Christ, all those that gathered
to me, embracing the covenant offered to them in the gospel, gather them now to
me, that they may receive their crown, and the benefits of that covenant in full
tale.—But the further explication of this part of the text shall be deferred till
afterwards. -
From the first clause I observe the following doctrine, namely, -
DocTRINE, When Christ comes again, to put an end to this world, and complete
the state of the other world, he will publicly own the Saints as his own, and they
shall be honourably gathered to him by his order.
In treating of this doctrine I shall,
I. Consider the time of these great events, when this order for gathering the
saints to Christ shall be given.
II. Christ's public owning the Saints as his own.
III. The gathering of them to him.
IV. The order for this gathering.
V. Lastly, Conclude with an use of exhortation.
I. I shall consider the time of these great events, when this order for gathering
the saints to Christ shall be given. It will be at his second coming, his coming to
the general judgment. What number of years must run out before that, we know
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 455
not : only we know that it will be, and it is drawing on, And to set the purpose
of the text in due light, it is fit here to consider,
First, That Christ will certainly come again, in the character of the Judge of
the world. As sure as he came the first time, and was judged, condemned, and
crucified by sinners; so sure will he come the second time, in power and great
glory, and judge the world; Acts i. 11, “This same Jesus which is taken up from
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
It is a piece of his exaltation, and reward of his sufferings, which he has yet trusted
his Father, and has not yet got : but it is impossible, by reason of the divine faith-
fulness, that it should fail; Phil. ii. 9, 10, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name ; that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow.” It is the joint desire of the saints wrought in them
by the Spirit, that he should come ; Rev. xxii. 17, “The Spirit and the bride say,
Come;” to which he echoes back, verse 20, “Surely I come quickly.” And he has
appointed the sacrament of the supper, not only as a memorial of his first coming,
but as a pledge of his second coming, 1 Cor. xi. 26.
Secondly, When Christ comes again, this earth will be very throng, and a won-
derful mixture will be in it, more than ever at any time before : he having called
to heaven, and the other receptacle of departed Souls, and brought them all back
to their bodies which are in the earth. Then surely, •
1. The earth will be thronger than ever, though there will be no striving then
for more room in it, as now ; the now strivers would then be content to be lost in
the crowd. But I say, it will then be a thronger earth than ever. For not only
will there be a generation alive on it as now, but those of all generations before
them from the beginning of the World will rise up among them too. And what a
throng world will that make!
2. There will be a wonderful mixture then in it, at a pitch there never was be-
fore. For there will be a mixture of Saints and sinners in the generations then
alive; and besides, all the saints and sinners of former generations will rise up
among them. There will be a mixture of Pagans and Christians, Papists and
Protestants, good and bad, sincere Christians, profane and formal hypocrites. For
instance, in our own land, there have been generations that lived and died Pagans
or Heathens, others that lived and died Papists, besides those that have been since
the Reformation. Now, all these lie buried in our land, and therefore all of them
must rise there. What a mixture will this make in Scotland ' What a throng is
in our churchyards, though there is no want of room there ! but the mixture can-
not be discerned ; there is no discerning the difference of the dust of the body that
was for fornication, and that which was for the Lord there. But when they are
raised, the mixture will be visible.
3. Only that will be a throng that will soon be separated, a mixture that will
not last, but quickly be done away. . The gathering of the saints will put an end
to it; which being done by the ministry of angels, we may be sure will be quickly
despatched.
Thirdly, When Christ comes again, he will put an end to this world ere he go.
His very first appearance will put an end to the business of it. All trades, employ-
ments, and diversions in this world, will be dropped that moment for ever. The
shepherd will not give a cry or a look more to his sheep ; nor will the ploughman
make out his furrow, nor the huntsman pursue his game a step further. And ere
he leave it, he will put an end to itself, by setting it on fire: by the general confla-
gration, cities and villages, mountains and valleys, will be consumed to ashes; so
that it shall no more be capable of affording a habitation to man or beast ; while
withal the heavens that cover it shall pass away, 2 Pet. iii. 10.
Lastly, When Christ comes again, he will complete and settle for ever the state
of the other world, Rev. xxi. 5. The state of this world is fitted for men's proba-
tion and trial, and is very variable : the state of the other world, of men, and affairs,
in it, will be quite new, suited for reward of men's deeds done in the flesh; and it
will be made unalterable for ever... It is begun already in the case of separate souls
godly and wicked: but then it will be brought to a pitch ; the godly made happy,
the wicked miserable, completely, and settled for ever there no more to change.
456 A VIEW OF THIS
II. I proceed to consider Christ's public owning the Saints as his own. At that
time when Christ comes again for these great purposes, what will be the lot of be-
lievers ? Why, he will own them as “his saints.” We may take up this in the fol-
lowing things. -
First, Saintship will be the only mark of distinction among men then. The per-
sons of distinction now are those descended of honourable families, the rich and
wealthy, able to make a figure in a vain world, that appear in their gay clothing:
they must gather by themselves now, others must know and keep their distance.
But then all that kind of distinction is razed for ever, and there is an absolute
levelling. The only persons of distinction remaining are the saints, to be honour-
ably gathered to the great King, while others are all to be cast away out of his
presence, as the vile trash of this world. -
Secondly, Saintship will then be declared Christ's badge. In all ages of the world,
while hypocrites have falsely pretended to it, it has been the object of the ridicule
of the profane, and an eyesore to both, Isa. lix. 15. Saints is a name of mockery
with many : but they will see it then a name of honour. The faith that is without
works of a holy tender life, whereby people pretend to be believers in Christ, but
show not holiness in their life, will leave them without the mark, Rev. xiv. 1. Only
a faith that sanctifies the heart and life will avail.
Thirdly, Those that have borne this badge, Christ will not forget nor misken.
Though they have been long buried and out of mind in the world, he will remem-
ber them ; though they “ have lain among the pots,” under various afflictions,
reproaches, and ill names, he will not misken them. He was himself once in a very
low condition; but then he will appear in glory, and so shall they with him, Luke
xxii. 28, 29. All the filth cast on them will then be wiped off.
Fourthly, He will own them as his before his Father and the holy angels; Rev.
iii. 5, “He that overcometh,--I will confess his name before my Father, and before
his angels.” He is to bring them into his Father's house, there to dwell for ever; and
therefore he owns them before his Father, because they can come thither only in his
right. They are to be the companions of the angels for ever; and this is the
recommendation of them to them, They are “my Saints.”
Lastly, the grounds of his special propriety in them shall then be opened and
appear; Mal. iii. 17, “They shall be mine,” i.e. appear to be mine, “ saith the
Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.” He will own them as his
Father's gift to him ; his own purchase; his own conquest by his grace; his by
their own consent, participation of his Spirit, and spiritual marriage ; his people,
his brethren, his spouse, his own members mystical. -
III. I shall next consider the gathering of them to him. This gathering,
First, Presupposes the resurrection of the dead Saints, and the changing of those
found alive. Of the ministry of the angels in these we find no mention : the voice
of Christ himself raiseth the dead, (John v. 28,) whether the archangel that sounds
the alarm, (1 Thess. iv. 16,) be a created angel or not. And the changing of those
alive appears to be performed in the same manner, 1 Cor. xv. 52. That they may
be gathered to Christ, they are raised up out of their graves, and soul and body
reunited. -
Secondly, It lies in these three things.
1. In severing and separating them from among the wicked. Those found alive
will be found mixed with wicked ones, and those in the graves will be found lying
among the wicked too. But the angels will make a separation, a cleanly separation,
that they shall never mix more, Matt. xiii. 48, 49. Sometimes they sighed and
said, “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar !
My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace,” Psal. cxx. 5, 6. But the
beginning of that gathering will put a full end to that. -
2. In bringing them together from all corners of the earth into one company,
Matt. xxiv. 31. By the gospel-efficacy on them, they were separated from the
world in respect of their state and manner of life, and were gathered together in
one spiritual bond: but in respect of their bodily presence they were still mixed
with unbelievers, and at distance from other Saints. They were scattered far
abroad over the face of the earth, and few places could show any considerable
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 457
number of them together: but then the eastern and western Saints, the northern
and southern, shall all be gathered together into one glorious company. The even-
ing of the world is come, and Christ's flock is brought together.
3. In bringing them all together unto Jesus Christ, in the place where he will
be in the air, 1 Thess. iv. 17. Thither the Judge will come, and there will he set
his throne ; and “where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”
Thither will the raised and changed saints ascend to him in one glorious company,
and be set on his right hand as his friends, while the wicked are left standing as
criminals on his left hand on the earth. And thus the happy gathering is com-
pleted.
Thirdly, For the kind of it, this gathering will be,
1. A great gathering, greater than any now to be seen in this world. It is
true, the saints appear few now in comparison of others: but when the saints of
all generations, in all places of the world, shall be gathered together, it must needs
be a great gathering; they will be numerous like the stars of heaven, which no
man can number, Gen. xv. 5. Accordingly John saw “a great multitude, which
no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stand
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands,” Rev. vii. 9. - r
2. A speedy gathering; being performed by the ministry of angels, which move
like a flame of fire, Psal. civ. 4. The bodies of the saints will then no more be
heavy and lumpish, but spiritual bodies, light, nimble, and active like spirits, being
new-fashioned after the likeness of the second Adam's body. So that it must
needs be soon despatched. Yet,
3. An exact and accurate gathering, so as there shall neither be one goat
brought away with the sheep, nor one sheep left among the goats. But all Saints
that ever lived from the beginning to the end of the world, shall be gathered to-
gether to Christ, and they only, without the least mixture of another sort.
4. A gathering never to part. The gatherings in this world, good as well as
bad, continue only for a little; they soon break up and disperse: but this gather-
ing, being once assembled, shall never break up nor be dissolved, but continue
through all the ages of eternity.
IV. I shall drop a word to the order for gathering them to him.
First, It speaks them his favourites, whom he has a special regard for. Now
he is coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on his enemies; but as the angels
were despatched to Sodom to bring away Lot, before the overthrow of that city,
so are they ordered to gather Christ's saints to him before the final overthrow of
the world, and the wicked therein. Others had common favours in life heaped on
them; but now these are at an end, and the Saints appear the only favourites of
Heaven.
Secondly, A design to honour them before the world, as when one is by a great
man called to him in the sight of others. God's people have their time of trial,
and living by faith on Heaven's promises: the world therefore reckons them fools;
and because their course and way is opposite to theirs, they hate them and are
hard on them. Now Christ comes to end the dispute, and declare and decide at
length, who were the wise, who the fools; and decides it by their gathering to
him, while others stand trembling before him awaiting their fearful sentence.
Thirdly, A. design to complete their desires and happiness. It was their desire
to be with Christ, as best of all, and now says he, “Gather them to me.” They
Were wearied of Mesech and Kedar; they longed for the society of saints that
would be comfortable, and to be at the highest pinnacle of their happiness. This
gathering them to him answers all these ends.
I shall conclude this doctrine with an use of exhortation. I exhort you,
... First, To be in greatest concern of all things to be Christ's saints now. Despise
it not; if so, you will see yourselves fools at last. Neglect it not, lest ye be
neglected and passed by when this gathering comes. It is better to have your
name enrolled by Jesus among his Saints, than by men among the great and hon-
ourable of the earth. - * º
Secondly, Gather to Christ now as your head, by faith. He has his Father's
3 M
45S A VIEW OF THIS
commission for this purpose, to take out of the world lying in wickedness a people
for himself; Gen. xlix. 10, “Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” He
has visited our ends of the earth for that purpose, set up his standard among us;
and now we have, as we have often had, a solemn call to come in. Gather, then,
to him, as ever you would be gathered to him in the end of the world.
Lastly, Having gathered to him by faith in the bond of his covenant, publicly
own him as yours, your Head, your Priest, Prophet, King, and Lord. The sacra-
ment of the Supper is appointed for that end, as a public owning ourselves to be
his, before the world, angels, and men. And those that are indifferent of doing
that honour to Christ, would do well to consider what expectations they have of
his owning them. - -
Proceed we to the character of the parties to be gathered to Christ at his coming :
“those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice ;” Heb. “cutters off of my
covenant upon a sacrifice.” Their character is taken, not from worldly advantages
that attended them, for these will then be perished ; but from the covenant, for
that will be then lasting, Isa. liv. 10. So their character is true covenanters, they
that have been gathered into the bond of the covenant unto him. Where observe,
1. The covenant from which their character is taken : it is not a covenant of
their own devising, nor the covenant of the first Adam : but it is Christ's covenant:
“my covenant,” says the Judge of the world, who gives order to his angels to
gather them to him. It is the covenant the Father made with Christ as second
Adam, called commonly “the covenant of grace.” t
2. The nature of that covenant ; it is a “covenant upon a sacrifice,” namely, the
sacrifice of Christ, that expiatory sacrifice. The covenant of works was not upon
a sacrifice, for God was not then offended : but this covenant, being made with an
offended just God, behoved to be upon a sacrifice, and could not be without it.
3. Their coming into that covenant, every one personally for himself. This is
expressed by their being “cutters off of it;” a phrase taken from the cutting a beast
asunder at parties entering into a covenant, (Jer. xxxiv. 18,) which had a reference
to the curse of the covenant to fall on the breakers. And the cutting off of the
one part, so as they were never to come together again, imported the inviolableness
of the covenant, Gen. xv. 10, 18. Hence the phrase is used for entering into a
covenant, the sign for the thing signified. To this their action, also the words,
“upon a sacrifice,” do relate, q, d. That cut off upon a sacrifice, my covenant made
upon a sacrifice. Now, the sacrifice being the sacrifice of Christ, it is plain our
cutting off in that case must be by laying as it were our hand on the head of the
sacrifice cut off by divine justice ; and so it denotes our entering into the cove-
nant by believing on Christ. And it presupposes the offer of the covenant made
to us. - . - -
From this part of the text we observe the two following doctrines; namely,
DocTRINE I. There is a covenant with God which is Christ the second Adam's
covenant, made upon the sacrifice of himself, and offered to sinners.
DocT. II. Those who now gather unto Christ, personally and sincerely entering
into his covenant of grace offered to them in the gospel, while others slight him and
his covenant, shall, at the last day, be joyfully gathered to him in the air to receive
their welcome to the kingdom of heaven; while others shall be left on the earth to
receive their doom from him, to be driven to the pit. -
DocTRINE I. There is a covenant with God which is Christ the second Adam's
covenant, made upon the sacrifice of himself, and offered to sinners. w
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Consider the nature of this covenant in the general.
II. Show in what respects it is Christ's covenant.
III. Consider its being a covenant upon a sacrifice, and that of himself.
IV. Make application. - -
I. I shall consider the nature of this covenant in the general. It is a covenant
of peace and reconciliation betwixt God and sinners, (Isa. liv. 10,) whereby an
offended God and offending sinners may become friends for ever, and they rein-
stated in his favour, and established therein. And hence you may perceive, that,
First, Not the necessities of Christ, the maker of it, but of sinners, whom it was
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 459
made for, required it. He was infinitely happy in himself and in his Father's love,
and stood in need of nothing without himself: but they needed it, and he made it
for them, Cant. iii. 10. It is a covenant of grace, for his making it was an act of
pure grace to us. -
Secondly, It is the new covenant, brought in to repair the ruins of mankind by
the breach of the first. God and Adam were friends when they entered into the
covenant of works: but that being broken, sinners fell under the curse ; and to
recover them out of that ruinous state this covenant was made.
Thirdly, It is the covenant by which sinners may have life and salvation, Mal.
ii. 5. By it all their sores may be healed. In it there is a righteousness secured
for the unrighteous, a pardon for the guilty, sanctification for the unholy, and
eternal happiness in the other world for heirs of hell and wrath. There is as much
in it as may make one easy and joyful in the face of death : hence David, in his
last words, says, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, “Although my house be not so with God; yet
he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure :
for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.”
O blessed covenant, which, by what is said, you may see is just the covenant of
grace : O happy device Do not your hearts say within you, Whom is it owing to ?
whose covenant is it ! Surely it never came out of our forge. Christ claims it as
his. It is “my covenant,” says he. Therefore we shall show,
II. In what respects it is Christ's covenant.
First, He devised it: it never bred in our breast, and never would. He was,
with his Father and Spirit, the offended party; but the devising of the covenant
of peace is not owing to the offenders, but the offended. For it was devised before
the offenders were in being, Prov. viii. 29–31; 1 John iv. 19.
Secondly, He made it with his Father without us, in all its articles and clauses,
Psal. lxxxix. 3.; Cant. iii. 9. The bargain was concluded from eternity between
the Father and the Son, in our favour, while we were not yet any of us in being. So
that the remedy for us was kindly provided before we fell under our disease ; that
so it might be ready for us, and we might not die of it.
Thirdly, He was the head of it, the sole undertaker in it on the side of sinners.
There was, in this covenant, a burden to be undertaken for sinners: and Christ
took the burden on himself alone for them, to pay their debt, and to bear their punish-
ment; and accordingly he bare the burden alone, Isa. lxiii. 3. He gave it as his
bond of suretiship for the elect ; which the Father accepted, no more to look to
them, but to him, for satisfaction, Heb. vii. 22. The condition of it lay on him
solely, namely, that he should “fulfil all righteousness.”. Sinners could do nothing
in this; but he undertook to do it, by his being born perfectly holy, living perfectly
righteous, and making satisfaction by his death.
Fourthly, The promises of it were made to him ; not only that of a glorious
reward to himself, but of eternal life to all his, Gal. iii. 16 ; Tit. i. 2. As, when a
father covenants with a surgeon to heal his son's broken leg, the promise is made
to the father, and he also pays the surgeon's fees, though the benefit redounds to
the son. -
Fifthly, He receives sinners into it, the administration thereof being wholly com-
mitted to him, so that coming to him by faith is our coming into the covenant ;
John x. 9, “I am the door : by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.” Justly
is it reckoned his covenant, since the Father has left it with him, to take in whom
he will into it ; and none are instated in it, but by, in, and through him.
Sixthly, All the benefits of it are in his hand. They are now purchased by him,
and the Father has lodged them with him, intrusted him with them all from the
least to the greatest, Matt. xi. 27. So that he has the dispensing of them all; if
the sinner would have the pardon of the covenant, he must go to Christ for it ; if
he would have the sanctifying influences of the covenant, he must apply to Christ
º ºm ; for he is our Joseph, who has all the stores of grace and glory in his
18,110. - - -
Lastly, It is in his right alone that sinners can get the benefits of it, or claim
them, Phil. iii. 9. They can claim them no otherwise than as they are his mem-
bers, his spouse, his children. Hence, at the last day, when they are to get the
460 A VIEW OF THIS
complete enjoyment of the covenant-benefits altogether, the order is given by him,
“Gather them to me:” q. d. for they cannot go into heaven, but at my back; they
cannot have the benefits but as they are in me, Rom. v. 17.
III. I come to consider this covenant's being a covenant upon a sacrifice, and
that of himself. And here consider, -
First, Why this covenant behoved to be upon a sacrifice.
Secondly, Why on the sacrifice of Christ himself.
Thirdly, The import of its being a covenant on a sacrifice.
First, Consider, why this covenant behoved to be upon a sacrifice. The reason
is, the honour of God injured by man's sin required, that if there was to be another
covenant for life and salvation to man now a sinner, it behoved to proceed on a
sacrifice making atonement for the breach of the first by sin. Man could not break
the first covenant unpunished, else where were the honour of the holiness, justice, and
law of God? Isa. xlii. 21 ; Rom. iii. 25. Therefore is that caution added, Exod.
xxxiv. 6, 7, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” At the
proposal of a covenant of peace for sinners, justice stands up and pleads, There
shall be no peace without I be satisfied, Heb. ix. 22; therefore a sacrifice is pro-
vided, that the covenant of peace may upon it go on, and the broken first cove-
nant is engrossed in the second, that all its demands shall be answered.
Secondly, But why is it a covenant on the sacrifice of Christ himself? The reason
is, because no other sacrifice could avail in the case ; Heb. x. 5, “Sacrifice and
offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.” One can hardly
think that, if the covenant could have been made on a less costly sacrifice, the only
begotten Son of God would have been made the sacrifice, John iii. 16. There was
a necessity of Christ's death, if sinners were to have life, Luke xxiv. 26.
1. The Levitical sacrifices of beasts could never avail in this case. For they
were not of equal value with the guilty heads, beasts being in value far below men.
Therefore by them, indeed, the debt might be acknowledged, and the way of paying
it typified: but not paid.
2. Men could not be sacrifices for themselves in this case, to procure a covenant
of peace ; for if once the sacrificing knife had come to their throat, they would
never have recovered ; if they had been once laid on the altar, they would have
been consuming, but never have sent forth a savour of rest to incensed justice.
3. Angels could not have been a sacrifice ; for neither could they have ever over-
come the weight of wrath that was due, but would have sunk under it. And these
sufferings, not being of infinite value, could not have been accepted for recompense
of the wrong done to an infinite God. Wherefore, Christ only could be a sacrifice
to procure the covenant of peace. For,
(1.) He only could bear the curse, and overcome it. The curse of the first
covenant behoved to be executed, in order to the establishing of the second for
peace to sinners; and he only could bear it, so as to bear it out, and bear it off,
Gen. xv. 10, 17, 18; Gal, iii. 13. The wicked in the other world will bear the
curse, indeed, for themselves, and so will be made sacrifices for themselves, accord-
ing to that, Psal. xciy, ult, “He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and
shall cut them off in their own wickedness ; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them
off.” . But they will never be able to drink this cup up, and overcome it: so they
shall have no peace for ever.
(2.) He only was of infinite dignity, and so his sufferings only could equal the
offence of an infinite God by the sins of the world. Christ's sacrifice was of “a
sweet-smelling savour unto God,” Eph. v. 2. It is an Old Testament expression
used Gen, viii. 21, “The Lord Smelled a sweet savour,” Heb, “a savour of full
rest,” namely, “quieting his Spirit,” as the expression is, Zech. vi. 8. The sins
of the elect world, most abominable to God, sent up, as it were, a most rank smell
into his nostrils; no sufferings of the creature could master it, but the sufferings
of Christ did it fully. - - -
Thirdly, Let us consider the import of this covenant's being a covenant on a
Bacrifice, t
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 461
1. This says, that wrath is appeased, justice has got satisfaction for sin; the
bar which the broken first covenant laid in the way of sinners’ peace with God, is
removed : for the new covenant is made on a sacrifice, whereby atonement is made
for the breach of the first covenant, and justice has got of the Surety, for the sin-
ner, what it could demand, 2 Cor. v. ult. -
2. It is consistent with the honour of God to take sinners into this covenant, and
receive them into favour as his confederates. For now the holiness, justice, and
truth of God, have the wrong done them repaired by this sacrifice ; and his mercy
and grace have a free vent thereby, Psal. lxix. 4.
3. Sinners have a free access into it. Solomon observes, Prov. xviii. 16, “A
man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.” And what
will Christ's gift of himself as a sacrifice not do? Surely now the sinner may come
forward under the covert of that precious blood; the Sword that guarded the tree
of life was sheathed in the sacrifice of Christ, and laid by, Cant. ii. 10, 11.
4. There is a feast for them, a feast on the sacrifice, the parties covenanting
feasting together. Upon the covenant made betwixt Jacob and Laban there
was a feast kept, Gen. xxxi. 54. So, upon this covenant made on the sacri-
fice of Christ, there is a feast ; 1 Cor. v. 7, 8, “Christ our passover is sacrificed
for us. Therefore let us keep the feast.” The flesh and blood of Christ crucified
is meat indeed and drink indeed, and we are to feed and feast thereon by faith.
5. It is a sure covenant, as made on that sacrifice, the virtue and efficacy whereof
being eternal, one can never be shaken out of it. The mercy and grace of God to
sinners have a sure foundation here ; Psal. lxxxix. 14, “Justice and judgment are
the habitation of thy throne : mercy and truth shall go before thy face.” What
can shake a sinner out of this covenant, when he is once really in it 2 Nothing can
be supposed to do it but sin. But then it is a covenant on a sacrifice whereby sin
is expiated, and therefore it cannot have that malignant effect. Accordingly, the
promise of the covenant runs, Jer. xxxii. 40, “I will make an everlasting covenant
with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good ; but I will put
my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”
I shall now make some improvement of this doctrine.
First, Then, see how Christ loved us. When the Jews saw Christ come weeping
to Lazarus’ grave, they said, “Behold how he loved him l’ John xi. 36. How
much more may we say so, when we consider him making a covenant with his
Father for the salvation of lost sinners of mankind, and that on the sacrifice of
himself It was much that he took any notice of our just ruin, being enemies to him
as well as to his Father; more, that he made a covenant for our recovery ; most
of all, that, in order to establish it, he made his soul an offering for sin, and con-
sented to shed his precious blood for it.
Secondly, Then, let us take this his covenant, and rest in it, as made by him.
Let us leave to him the glory,
1. Of sole maker of it with his Father, Zech. vi. 13. Let us not pretend to
frame, make, and devise a covenant of our own, distinct from his, in our accepting
of it. Let us not quarrel his covenant, nor go about to model it anew, agreeably
to our corrupt minds. Let us make no exceptions against it ; no exception in
favour of any beloved lust; no exception against any of the duties of the covenant,
nor against the discipline thereof which is the cross. Let us desire nothing out
that he has put in, nor anything in that he has left out ; Acts iz. 6, “Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do ?” So sincere covenanters look upon it as well “ordered
in all things,” 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.
2. Of sole undertaker in it. He was so when it was made, and when it was ful-
filled ; Isa. lxiii. 3, “I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there
was none with me.” Let none now, then, put in for a share in the undertaking.
Some, in their pretended covenanting with God, undertake for their part, that if
God will save them for Christ's sake from hell and wrath, they will be good ser-
vants to God as long as they live, and keep his commands, and so do their part :
and so they would share the glory with Christ, Rom. iv. 4. They consider not
that they are without strength, and can do nothing : that they have as much need
of the grace of Christ to sanctify, as to justify them. But come ye to Christ in
462 A VIEW OF THIS
his covenant, to get your nature changed, the power of sin broken, and to be caused
by him to walk in new obedience. - - - -
3. Of the sole immediate right to the promises of it, Gal. iii. 16. You are wel-
come to claim the promises, according to your need : but ye must claim them only
in his right, and be content to come in at his back to get them made out to you.
This has been the way of the saints, as Daniel, chap. ix. 17, 18; and Paul, Phil.
iii. 9. There is no standing of a sinner before God, but under the covert of the
Mediator's blood; and no plea for sinners, but in his name.
And to move you hereto, to acquiesce in the covenant as his, leaving him the
glory, consider, -
1st, It is best for us as he has made it, Eccl. iii. 14. If we should offer to mend
it, by adding to, or taking away anything from it, we would be sure to mar it.
Infinite wisdom knew best what was for our good, and infinite love set him on it.
As Christ saw better than we what was our true interest ; so he loved us more
than we loved ourselves, for he loved us infinitely, Eph. iii. 19. . -
2dly, Only he is able enough for that undertaking, Psal. lxxxix. 19. And the
work can be put in no other hand but it will be marred. Why should we desire to
take burden on ourselves, when he is content to be the great Burden-bearer; to
bear our weight, and all the weights that hang at us, whether of duty, guilt, or
affliction ? He is sure, and can never stumble under our weight, nor fall ; but we
are ready to fall at every turn, Psal. lv. 22; Isa. xlii. 4.
3dly, The promise is sure in his right, and the claim that way cannot miss,
Psal. lxxxix. 33. When, pleading the benefit of the promise, we consider ourselves,
we see nothing but guilt, sinfulness, unworthiness, fickleness, and inconstancy,
to cut off our hopes, but looking to Christ, we see perfect holiness and righteous-
ness, infinite dignity and excellency ; so that we may say, Lord, I am unworthy,
yet my Saviour Christ is worthy for whom thou shouldest do this for me.
Lastly, Let poor trembling sinners be encouraged to come into this covenant,
since it is a covenant on a sacrifice. It is an awful thought for a sensible guilty
creature to enter into covenant with a holy jealous God. “Our God is a consum-
ing fire :” how then can we stand before him, and not be consumed ? The sacri-
fice being interposed, we are safe : Christ going between, mediating the peace with
his atoning blood, wrath is turned away, and the sinner received into favour and
friendship. I proceed now to,
DocTRINE II. Those who now gather unto Christ, personally and sincerely enter-
ing into his covenant of grace offered to them in the gospel, while others slight him
and his covenant, shall at the last day be joyfully gathered to him in the air, to
receive their welcome to the kingdom of heaven, while others shall be left on the
earth to receive their doom from him to be driven to the pit. -
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Premise some things on this point in the general.
II. Consider sinners’ sincere personal entering into Christ's covenant of grace
now, that will secure their joyful gathering to him at the last day.
III. Make improvement.
I. I shall premise some things on this point in the general.
First, All mankind were, by Adam's fall, separated and scattered from God, as
sheep gone astray, 1 Pet. ii. ult. Mankind was at first joined to God in the bond
of the first covenant ; and so, they were his family about his hand, headed by him,
and enjoying his favour. But by sin they broke away from him ; and being gone
from him, the centre of unity, they were separated in affection one from another,
Tit. iii. 3. And in this state they remain while out of Christ, scattered and wan-
dering on the mountains of vanity. -
Secondly, To bring scattered sinners to God again, Christ was appointed the
head to whom their gathering should be ; 1 Pet. ii. ult., “For ye were as sheep
going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls;”
chap. iii. 18, “Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God.” The first Adam was the head under whom they went
away ; and he left them wandering, a ready prey, for the devourer: the second
Adam is the head for their return, by whom they may be brought back unto. God,
AND THE OTHER WORLD. - 463
and put up in safety with him for ever, John xi. 52. He is the great Shepherd,
intrusted by his Father for gathering the strays of mankind into one flock and
fold.
Thirdly, There is a double gathering of scattered sinners to Christ. The one is
now a-doing, has been from the beginning, and will be to the end of the world ;
and that is a gathering of sinners by the gospel to him into the bond of the cove-
nant of grace, Gen. xlix. 10. The other is to come certainly at the world's end ;
and that is a gathering of them, by the angels, to meet him in the air, never to
set their foot more on the cursed earth, but to go away with him to heaven. And
that will be a gathering quickly despatched, as appears from the text. -
Fourthly, There are many who will not be gathered to Christ now, whatever
pains he is at to gather them ; Matt. xxiii. 37, “How often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens together under her
wings, and ye would not l” He sets up his standard among them, he calls to them to
come in to him ; but they get away from him. They love better to wander on than
to return ; they prefer a vain world and their deceitful lusts to Christ; and they
love rather to be at their liberty, than to be brought into the bond of his covenant.
They cannot endure to be so hedged up, Psal. ii. 3. So they refuse to gather to
him. -
Fifthly, Yet there are still some who, with heart and good-will, gather to him,
and willingly come into the bond of his covenant. Efficacious grace makes them
willing, Psal. cx. 3. They are weary of their distance from God, and their wan-
dering life; seeing how, in that case, they are exposed to the utmost danger, and
are in no safety from the roaring lion, who “goes about seeking whom he may
devour :” and so, they willingly gather to Christ, and come into the bond of his
covenant, as their only safety.
Lastly, At the end of the world, whatever separation there is between these par-
ties now, the wanderers and those within the bond of the covenant, there will be a
greater then. The wanderers and the gathered being both raised out of their
graves at the sound of the last trumpet; all those gathered within the bond of the
covenant shall be gathered together to Christ in the air, to go with him, and be ever
with the Lord, and the wanderers will be brought together on the earth before him,
receive their dreadful sentence to depart from him ; and then they going away, the
earth will be set on fire.
II. I shall consider sinners' sincere personal entering into Christ's covenant of
grace now, that will secure their joyful gathering to him at the last day. And
here three things are to be distinguished:
First, The proposal of the covenant. - - --
Secondly, The sinner's entering into it in a saving manner, so as to secure his
gathering to Christ at the last day.
Thirdly, The profession and declaration of that entering into it, by some fit sign.
First, The proposal of the covenant. It must be proposed to us, before we can
enter into it; and so it is indeed proposed to us to be entered into.
1. Consider how it can be proposed or offered to us. The covenant of grace
being determined to be Christ's covenant, made and concluded from eternity betwixt
his Father and him, and its conditions perfectly fulfilled already by Christ, and all
its promises made to him; it is a difficulty with some, how that covenant, already
concluded, can be proposed or offered to us to be entered into. But,
1st, Suppose one in a town makes a bargain with the master in his own name,
and the name of his neighbours there, fulfils the condition, and the benefit only
remains to be received ; and all this is done without advising with them, or their
knowledge of it: may not that man, when he comes home, offer that covenant to
his neighbours, and they enter into it just by acquiescing in it ! If any of them
will not, it will not be forced on them ; but if they acquiesce and accept, it is as
good and valid as if they had been at the making of it. So it is in this case.
2dly, Adam's covenant was also made without us in the name of mankind, and
broken too while we were not ; yet by our very descending from him by natural
generation, we are personally instated in it to our condemnation; and this without
waiting our acquiescing or consent to that covenant. How much more may the
464 A VIEW OF THIS
second Adam's covenant be offered to us, and we instated in it to our salvation, by
our express approbation and acceptance -
2. Consider how it is actually proposed and offered to us. It is proposed, and
offered to us in the gospel, by Jesus Christ, in his own and his Father's name ;
therefore he is called “the Messenger of the covenant,” (Mal. iii. 1,) who came
from heaven, and proclaims and offers the covenant to sinners. Now, it is offered
to us in the gospel,
(1.) At large, in its several articles and clauses; both the conditionary part as
fulfilled, (Rom. i. 17,) and the promissory part to be fulfilled, (Heb. viii. 10, 11, 12;
Ezek. xxxvi. 25, and downwards,) and so the rest of its promises to be found through
the whole Bible. All are proposed and offered under the name of the covenant at
large; Isa. lv. 3, “Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you,” which takes in all the promises.
(2.) In compend, in the offer of Christ himself the head of the covenant, Say
not, How shall we take up the covenant that is such a large and ample transaction,
and withal the parts thereof scattered through the whole Bible 2 It is set before
you abridged, namely, in Jesus Christ, to be taken up with one glance of your eye;
Isa. xlix. 8, “I will give thee for a covenant of the people.” The offer of Christ to
you is the offer of the covenant : even as if a father who has made a beneficial bar-
gain for his family, should offer to adopt you ; that offer of himself for a father to
you, would be the offer of that bargain. Now, you have this offer of the covenant,
i. Under Christ's hand in his written word, which ye have in the scripture. A
wise man will make no offer in writing to one but what he minds to perform : his
hand-writing will bind him, if it is accepted. And may not the offer of the cove-
nant made you in writing, under the hand of the great God our Saviour, satisfy
you in that point ? Take heed, then, lest, when “God has written to you the great
things of his law, ye count them as a strange thing,” Hos. viii. 12.
ii. By public proclamation in his name, by the voice of the ministers of the gos-
pel, his criers appointed for that effect, Prov. ix. 3. If a prince proclaims an offer
of indemnity to rebel subjects, may not that satisfy them as to the reality of the
offer ? And should not this offer actually proclaimed to you, sinners, in the gos-
pel, by Christ's ambassadors, fully satisfy you as to the reality thereof: Objec-
tion, Ministers are but fallible men. Answer, True ; but their commission is
infallible; and so far as they stick by that, which they do in offering the covenant
to sinners, you have an infallible ground of faith in what they say. And as the
crier's voice in a proclamation is in effect the king's, so is theirs in this case.
Hence the apostle says, Heb. xii. 25, “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh :
for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven,” And says our
Lord, Luke X. 16, “He that heareth you, heareth me ; and he that despiseth you,
despiseth me ; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.”
3. To whom is it offered ? Christ's covenant of grace is offered to sinners of man-
kind indefinitely ; that is, it is offered to them, and any of them whosoever without
distinction. So the offer stands in the written word, and so the ministerial offer
is to be made. This is clear from many testimonies; Prov. viii. 4, “Unto you, O.
men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men ;” Mark xvi. 15, “Go ye into all
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature ;” John iii. 16, “God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on
him, should not perish, but have everlasting life;” Isa. lv. 1, “Ho, every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy
and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price ;” Rev.
xxii. 17, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Therefore it is
offered to you and every one of you, and you are warranted to enter into it.
Objection, But it may be I was not elected, and Christ did not represent me in
that covenant. Answer, Your warrant to enter into Christ's covenant does not at
all depend on your election, or non-election, but on the revealed will of God making
a real offer of it to you, (Deut. xxix. ult,) and that you have, and if you believe it
not, you disbelieve the gospel, (Isa, liii. 4,) make God a liar, (1 John v. 10,) and
so must perish Mark xvi. 16. Where do you find that ever a person's election
AND THE OTHER WORLD. • 465
was the ground of his believing, or entering into the covenant ? It is not revealed
to the elect to bring them to believe in Christ; but they first believe, and then, by
that means, they see they were elected.
Moreover, the promises are proposed indefinitely. So was the first promise ;
Gen. iii. 15, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” So
are other promises of the covenant; Isa. lv. 3, “Incline your ear, and come unto
me: hear, and your soul shall live ; and I will make an everlasting covenant with
you, even the sure mercies of David;” Heb. viii. 10–12, “I will put my laws
into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall
know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their un-
righteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more;”
Ezek. xxxvi. 25–27, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall
be clean : from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will 1 cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Where is there any limi-
tation or distinction of persons there ? * . .
Objection, The conditional promises are, indeed, to all, but not the absolute ones.
Answer, there is a connection of duty and privileges in some promises; but I know
no promises absolutely conditional, but to Christ, who has fulfilled the condition
of them already ; Rom. iv. 4, 5, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not
reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” The pro-
mises of the covenant, call them as ye will, are to all indefinitely ; for non est dis-
tinguendum wbi lea, non distinguit.* Therefore the apostle lays it for a ground of
faith to the murderers of the Lord of glory; Acts ii. 38, 39, “Repent, and be bap-
tized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to
your children, and to all that are afar off, even as-many as the Lord our God shall
call.” - -
Inst. If these promises be to all, then they must be fulfilled to all. Ans. That
is false ; according to the apostle's reasoning, Heb. iv. 1, “Let us therefore fear,
lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to
come short of it.” It follows, indeed, that they must be fulfilled to all who accept
them by believing ; and so they shall, John iii. 16. But not to them who will not
accept them, believe, nor apply them to themselves. No promise binds the promiser,
if it is not accepted by the party. It is no imputation on God's faithfulness, that
they are not fulfilled to unbelievers of them.
Secondly, The next thing is the sinner's entering into the covenant in a saving
manner, so as to secure his gathering to Christ at the last day. This the text
expresseth by “cutting off his covenant on a sacrifice,” that is, by cutting off the
Sacrifice to enter into the covenant. And this, being the sacrifice of Christ himself,
can be no other but the laying the hand on the head of the sacrifice which then was
to be cut off by divine justice. And this, in gospel language, is just believing on
Jesus Christ sacrificed for us. So it is by believing on Christ crucified, that we
are personally and savingly entered into the covenant.
It is agreeable to the nature of the covenant, that this should be the way of
entering into it. For whereas the covenant is not made with us immediately, as
parties-contractors for ourselves, in which case we would enter into it by promising
to do something on our part as the condition thereof; but mediately through Jesus,
who mediated therein as a representative, undertook the fulfilling the condition
thereof, and had the promises thereof made to him: it is evident there can be no
Way of our personal entering into it in a saving manner, but by uniting with him.
* i. e. a distinction is not to be made where the law makes nome.—ED.
3 N
466 A VIEW OF THIS
which the scripture determines to be by faith alone ; Eph. iii. 17, “That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith.” Accordingly it is determined, John x. 9, “I am
the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”
Now, this believing on Christ crucified or sacrificed for us, whereby we are entered
into the covenant, formally lies in three things.
1. Believing the absolute sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation
of sinners, and your salvation in particular, and the complete security of the cove-
nant for that effect to all within the bond of it ; Jer. iii. 22, 23, “Return, ye back-
sliding children, and I will heal your backsliding : behold, we come unto thee, for
thou art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,
and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation
of Israel.” The soul, seeing the infinite ill that is in sin, as an offence and abom-
ination to an infinite God, must see also the infinite dignity of the sacrifice of Christ,
arising from the infinite dignity of his person, ere it can believe this ; and must
also see the immoveable faithfulness of God, as the ground of believing the com-
plete security of the covenant.
2. Believing that this covenant, in the condition thereof fulfilled by Christ's sac-
rifice of himself, and the promises thereof made thereupon and bearing salvation, is
offered really and truly to you in particular, by Jesus Christ, with the good-will of
his Father ; so that it is lawful for you to come forward into it, and use it as your
own. This is the report of the gospel; Isa. lv. 3, cited above ; 1 John v. 11,
“This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life ; and this life is in his
Son.” And it is demonstrated by the Spirit inwardly to the elect, whereby they see
the door of the covenant open to them, Isa. liii. 1; and whoso believeth it not, can
never enter into the covenant, but make God a liar by their unbelief of it.
3. Trusting on the sacrifice of Christ for your salvation from sin and wrath, upon
the ground of God's faithfulness in the covenant ; Acts xv. 11, “We believe that,
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved.” The soul renounc-
eth all confidence in itself, or any other, and relies wholly on the sacrifice of Christ,
the fulfilled condition of the covenant, for the promises of the covenant being ful-
filled to itself, because God has so engaged in his proclaimed covenant, and he can-
not but be faithful in his covenant.
Thus the soul is formally entered into the covenant, receiving Christ in his
priestly office, and so uniting with him.
And this necessarily brings along with it the covenanter's,
(1.) Receiving Christ as his Prophet, renouncing his own wisdom and the wisdom
of the world, giving up himself to be guided by his word and Spirit, Matt. xvi. 24;
Acts xiii.22. Uniting with him, he must needs be our head for direction and guidance.
(2.) Receiving him as his King and Lord, renouncing the dominion of sin, the
devil, and the world, and wholly giving up himself to be ruled by him as his head
for government, Psalm ii. ult. ; Isa. xxvi. 13
And thus the soul entering into the covenant, taking Christ in all his offices,
takes God in Christ for his God, and gives up one's self to be one of his people for
ever, consenting to the offer made ; Heb. viii. 10, “I will be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people.” Whoso thus enter into the covenant now, shall be
joyfully gathered to him at the last day, as those that have entered into his cove-
nant by sacrifice. -
Thirdly, The last thing on this head is the profession and declaration of that
entering into Christ's covenant by some fit sign. This is a solemn declared enter-
ing into the covenant, in which one may be either sincere or hypocritical ; Deut.
xxix. 10, 12, “Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God:—that thou
shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the
Lord thy God maketh with thee this day.” And so it will not of itself, if it be
separate from the former, secure our gathering to him at the last day. Meanwhile,
it is a duty required of us now for God's honour, and requisite for our comfort,
Deut. xxvi. 17. It is done three ways.
1. By words spoken (Psal. xvi. 2); either in prayer to God, wherein a person
solemnly and in express words declares unto God, in secret, his acceptance of and
entering into the covenant ; or before men, where, the thing being proposed by one,
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 467
others signify their acquiescing by some fit gestures, as bowing of the head, Exod.
iv. 30, 31. -
2. By writing under their hand, declaring their accepting of the covenant; Isa.
xliv, 5, “One shall say, I am the Lord's : and another shall call himself by the
name of Jacob: and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and sur-
name himself by the name of Israel.” This has been an useful practice of many
in their life, and comfortable to their relations when they were gone, when they
found their written acceptance of God's covenant of grace.
3. By instituted significant actions. Such is the partaking of the Lord's table :
the very taking of the bread and wine at the Lord's table, and eating and drinking
the same, being a solemn declaration before the world, angels, and men, that we enter
into Christ's covenant. So in case it be separate from believing, though it cannot
savingly enter us, we will be treated as covenant-breakers.
Use. To conclude, I beseech you by our gathering together to Christ at the last
day, that you now gather to him in his covenant. For this cause I recommend to
your consideration,
First, That this is a special gathering-time, wherein the great trumpet of the
gospel is sounding, and double-sounding, a gathering ; a time wherein the Lord is
sending out the angels of the churches, ministers, to gather you. Let not the
trumpet of the gospel sound in vain for you, nor the angels of the churches attempt
in vain to gather you. They bring Christ's voice, and the offer of the covenant
to WOu.
$ºndly, As sure as the trumpet of the gospel is sounding now in your ears, and
the angels of the churches are at work to gather you to Christ now, whose attempts
you may render vain ; so sure will the last trumpet sound in the same ears, and
the angels of heaven gather them joyfully to Christ who now come into him, to
meet him in the air, while they will leave the rest on earth.
Thirdly, What will you think to see at that day others taken, as within the bond
of the covenant, and yourselves left, as without it? With what pale faces, and
trembling hearts, will ye look up to the Judge coming in the clouds of heaven, and
to your neighbours, Christ's covenant-people, carried by angels and flying above you,
away to meet the Lord in the air, with a shining glory on them
Lastly, How will ye brook your last sight of them when, they, having, in the
first place, received their welcome to their kingdom from the Judge on the throne,
ye shall get your sentence to depart from him “into everlasting fire, prepared for
the devil and his angels ;” and so must turn your backs, and make away to your
place, they being then the spectators of your begun misery, and your beloved world
being set on fire ?
Think on these things in time, and whatever ye are, or have been, know that
you are allowed free access into the covenant, and therefore enter into it sincerely.
Go alone by yourselves, think on your lost state by nature, examine yourselves as
to your liking of the covenant, and if you find your heart pleased with it, go on your
knees, and solemnly declare before God your accepting and entering into it, taking
Christ in all his offices, and God in Christ for your God and portion for ever, And
so be persuaded, that on this your gathering to Christ in the bond of his covenant
now depends your being gathered to him in glory at the last day.
THE SAINTs’ LIFETIME IN THIS WORLD A NIGHT-TIME; THEIR EXPECTA-
TION OF THE DAY'S BREAKING IN THE OTHER WORLD, AND THE SHA-
Dows FLEEING AWAY ; AND THEIR GREAT CONCERN FOR CHRIST's
PRESENCE TILL THAT HAPPY SEASON COME. -
THE SUBSTANCE OF SEVERAL SERMONS PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN THE YEAR 1730.
- SoNG ii. 17.
“ Until the day break, and the shadows flee away ; turn, my beloved, and be thow
like a roe, or a young hart, wbon the mountains of Bether.”
IN these words you have the breathing of a gracious soul, with respect to the time
that may pass in this world, before one comes to enter into the other world: it is
to have his countenance and the communications of his grace by the way, until
they come there where there will be nothing to intercept it. And it would be a
good sign of meeting with a kindly reception from Christ into that world at last,
that we are now saying from the heart, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee
away; turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe, or a young hart, upon the moun-
tains of Bether.” Where observe, -
1. The connection of these words with the preceding verse, whereby they appear
to be the breathing of a soul really married to Christ ; having a sense of the mar-
riage-bond ; and not ashamed of it, but resolutely owning it : “My beloved is mine,
and I am his—Until the day break, and the shadows flee away; turn, my beloved,”
&c. The spouse of Christ looks on herself as one that is married to a husband
whom she dearly loves, but is not yet ready to take her home: she desires, there-
fore, that, until the time come of his taking her home, he will not be a stranger to
her, but give her the comfort of his presence with her, that the present situation
will allow ; thereby intimating, that she is not to look for the comfort of her life
from any other but him, whether he be absent from, or present with her. -
2. The words themselves ; in which consider, ... •
1st, The happy term that Christ's spouse lives in expectation of, which is ex-
pressed by two things, the latter consequential on the former ; “the breaking of
the day,” and the “fleeing away of the shadows.” . By the day here is meant the
day of eternity, that will break in the other world, in the light of glory arising to
those that are married to Christ here. That is the or that day by way of eminency,
2 Tim. i. 18. This implies two things.
(1.) That she looked on her lifetime in this world as a night-time : else why
should she have expected the day breaking ? and that in the night-time there were
many shadows, darkening things to her, and allowing her but obscure views of them;
else why should she expect their fleeing away ? As one travelling by night, in a
mountainous or woody country, if the night were nevér so clear, it is nowise com-
parable to broad day-light; and besides, there are many dark and gloomy steps
caused by the shadows that the hills and woods cast; which, though they amount
not to a total darkness, yet the light by their means is but a very faint one : such
is the believer's travelling through this to the other world.
(2.) That she believed and expected that that night would not last, and that the
shadows would vanish at length. She looks for the “breaking,” Heb. “blowing
of the day,” because, however dead a calm there may be through the night, ordi-
A VIEW OF THIS AND THE OTHER WORLD. 469
marily at break of day a gale of wind rises; and that break or blowing of the day
will quickly chase away all the shadows, that they shall not be to be seen any more.
That blowing will be of the Spirit of Christ, in a full communication of influences
to the believer, at the day's breaking to him in the other world ; whereby all the
shadows now intercepting the light from him will in a moment evanish.
2dly, The great thing her soul desires, and she breathes after, till that happy
term come. It is communion with Christ her Lord and Husband, in such sort and
measure as the state of this life by divine regulation will allow. She is not for turn-
ing back to, and solacing herself with her former lovers, till her Husband take her
home : no, being married to him, her eyes are shut now on all others, and they are
towards him alone: “Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe, or a young hart,
upon the mountains of Bether.” It consists of two parts.
(1.) A desire of his countenance towards her, “Turn, my beloved,” &c. Heb.
“Come round about.” It intimates, (1.) His turning his back on her, showing
some sign of displeasure with her; the frequent lot of God's children in this world.
(2.) That even in that case her heart was upon him as her beloved, and her eyes
going after him, that she would have him turn his face. (3.) That she would fain
have his countenance again when lost : q, d. Turn about to me, that I may behold
thee with joy.
(2.) A desire of nearness to him, and the embraces of his love : “Be thou like
a roe, or a young hart,” &c. Come to me speedily. She lays not the stress of
the speedy meeting on her motion to him ; but as of free grace, on his motion to
her ; by his grace coming over mountains betwixt them, and that speedily : even
as a roe comes to its mate, or a young hart to its dam, upon the mountains of
Bether, 2 Sam. ii. 29. The word signifies a half-part.
From the text thus explained, may be deduced the three following points of doc-
trime, namely,
DocTRINE I. A soul once truly married to Christ will, from thenceforth, look on
the lifetime in this world as a night-time, a shadowy one, as indeed it is.
DocT. II. To those that are truly married to Christ, the day will break in the
other world, and the shadows flee away; and they should live in the comfortable
expectation of it.
Dog T. III. It will be the great concern of those married to Christ, during their
night-journey in this world, that he may come and turn to them, till, the day break-
ing and the shadows fleeing away, they get to him in the other world.
I shall speak to each of these in order.
DocTRINE I. A soul once truly married to Christ will, from thenceforth, look on
the lifetime in this world as a night-time, a shadowy one, as indeed it is.
In touching a little on this doctrine, I shall,
I. Show in what respect the saints' lifetime in this world is a night-time.
II. How the soul once married to Christ comes to look on its lifetime in this
world as a night-time.
III. On what grounds such a soul justly looks on it as a night-time, a shadowy
OIlê.
IV. Improve the point.
I. In what respect the saints' lifetime in this world is a night-time. To clear
this, consider,
First, The life of a child of God in this world, from the moment of the marriage
With Christ, is a day-time, in comparison with the time he lived in his natural
state, 1 Thess. v. 5. Therefore says the apostle, Eph. v. 8, “Ye were sometimes
darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.” While they are in their natural
State, they are in midnight darkness, it is black and dark night with them. But
being united to Christ, the night of their natural state is at an end, and the day of
grace is come with them. And this is such a day as will never be succeeded by
another night.
, Secondly, But in comparison with his state in the other world, it is but a night-
time. When he enters there, a day of glory shall break to him, that will so far
surpass all he has seen, that he shall be made to think he never saw day before,
Rom. xiii. 12. The natural man is in black and dark night, and the saints in this
470 - A VIEW OF THIS
world are in a cloudy moon-light night; only the saints in the other world are in
broad day-light, Col. i. 12. -
II. We shall consider how the soul once married to Christ comes to look on its
lifetime in this world as a night-time. There are four things concur to it.
First, They then have some new and precious light, however faint, that they had
not before. They can say with the blind man cured by Christ, John ix. 25, “One
thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” They see that in sin, in
Christ, and in the other world, that they did not before perceive. Strangers to
Christ are like blind men, to whom the night and the day are alike ; but being
once married to Christ, they are like him who said, “I see men as trees walking,”
Mark viii. 24. They see, but find they do not see clearly, and so conclude that it
is night with them.
Secondly, Being once married to Christ indeed, the sun of this world sets upon
them. The world's love to them is turned to hatred, it conceives an antipathy
against them, John xv. 19. And look, as when the darkness of the night follows
the lightsome day, and sits down on the beautiful cities, the green hills, the pleasant
meadows and gardens, all these lose their lustre and beauty, and become black and
gloomy: so, when once a soul is married to Christ, the world loseth its former
beauty to the man ; it is quite another thing in his eyes than it was before ; the
vain world is turned out of its gaudy day-dress, into its night-dress, where its former
beautiful appearance is gone ; Gal. vi. 14, “The world is crucified unto me, and I
unto the World.” -
Thirdly, Yet the Sun of righteousness is still hid to their eye-sight, however he
lets out some rays of light to them, and they discern him by faith, 1 Pet. i. 8. In
some northern part belonging to this kingdom, the body of the Sun, about this time
of the year, does, indeed, go out of their sight about the middle of the night, yet
still, certain rays from it appear all along ; so is it with the believer. Therefore
he must look on it as night, though it be but a short one. That Jesus to whom
they are joined in spiritual marriage, is gone to heaven, and there he abides hid
from their eyes though manifest to their faith, Cant. iv. 6. As Jacob married to
Leah, got not a broad view of her till the morning; so the believing soul married
to Christ, will not get a broad view of its Husband, till the day of eternity break.
Lastly, The beauty of the light let into them, natively causes a longing for the
perfection of it, Phil. iii. 13, 14. As one with a dim light discerning a beautiful
object, presently calls for a clear light whereby to discern it fully; so the soul that
has seen as much of Christ's excellency as to engage the heart to him, longs for a
full sight of his glory ; and while the light will not serve that purpose, it natively
concludes that it is night still. -
III. I shall next show on what grounds they justly look on it as a night-time, a
shadowy one. - -
First, They justly look on it as a night-time. For,
1. It is a time of much darkness with them, (1 Cor. xiii. 12,) darkness of igno-
rance and of uncomfortableness. However vain men may pride themselves in the
knowledge they have reached, puffed up therewith as empty bladders; serious
Christians will still be bewailing their ignorance and weakness in the divine mys-
teries, Psal. lxxiii. 22 ; Prov. xxx. 2, 3. And however lightsome a life the native
vanity of mind may make some ; it is not possible, but the imperfections, infirmities,
and struggles attending the Christian life here, must make much uncomfortableness
in it, Psal. xcvii. 11. How then can they but count it night 2
2. It is a time wherein the wild beasts are got out of their dens, ranging about,
Psal. civ. 20, 21. In the darkness of this life, what howling and yelling of the
infernal crew, the devils and wicked men acted by them, do reach the Christian's
ears, and make his heart to shiver ! So that to travel through the world is often
as unpleasant, as through an howling wilderness in the night. And not only so, but
they are often in hazard of being devoured by them, and swallowed up, 1 Pet. v. 8.
No wonder they long for day-break, when these wild beasts will go into their dens,
and be silenced, Psal, civ. 22. - - -
3. It is a time inclining to sleep and inactivity, 1 Thess. v. 7. All the unregen-
erate world is fast asleep about them, and will not awake ; and they themselves
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 47 l.
have a constant struggle to hold up their head. If it were day with them, they
could bestir themselves and apply to their proper business : but it is night, and with
difficulty they watch one hour.
Secondly, They justly look on it as a shadowy night,
1. Because there are many things intercepting the light from them : by such
means shadows are made in the night, as when a house or a hill intercepts the
light of the moon or stars by night. Thus it is with God’s people in the world,
there are many things to mar the light of their Lord's countenance shining on
them, Isa. lix. 2; Psalm xxx. 7. And by means of these interposing hinderances,
they cannot have now that light of knowledge and comfort that they would desire.
2. It is a time wherein they have some precious light, yet but faint, and mixed
with much darkness. Where there is no light at all, there cannot be shadows, all
is but one shadow ; and so it is with natural men, “there is no light in them,”
Isa. viii. 28. But souls married to Christ have the light of grace, which, however,
is but a dim and mixed one in comparison of the light of glory, 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
3. It is a time wherein the very means of their light and knowledge give but
small and dark representations of the knowledge of the other world, and the riches
of his kingdom. So does a shadow of a house in the night represent it but very
darkly and imperfectly ; so the shadow of a man by a looking-glass is but an im-
perfect representation of the man, not comparable to seeing face to face. Thus
we have a shadow of Christ in the gospel, in the word, in the sacraments: but it
is but a shadow darkly representing him and the happiness of his kingdom, (2 Cor.
iii. 18,) so that the half is not seen, But as one taken with a beautiful picture,
natively longs to see the original; so does a sight of Christ by these shadows, cause
one to long for the day breaking and the shadows fleeing away, that they may see
him face to face.
We shall now make some improvement of this point, in the following uses.
Use 1. Of information. Is the time of this life indeed a night, a shadowy one,
to those married to Christ, and do they look on it so 2 Then,
First, They to whom this life in this world makes such a pleasant day that they
desire no better, are in bad case. If it is so with you habitually, ye are not truly
married to Christ, Cant. viii. 5. Ye are yet in your natural blindness, that night
and day are alike to you ; and the day of grace is not yet risen on you. And if it
be so with you only occasionally, you may be sure that while it is so, your souls are
out of frame, and the grace of God in you is under a cloud.
Secondly, Then the time of this life is a dangerous time, even to those that are
espoused to Christ; and they have need to watch, “every man having his sword
upon his thigh, because of fear in the night,” Cant. iii. 8. They are in danger of
sins, snares, and temptations: for it is a time wherein the roaring lion is ranging
about, who will be bound down in his den if once the day were broken. This made
the apostle “jealous over * the Corinthians “with godly jealousy: for I have
espoused you to one husband,” says he, “that I may present you as a chaste vir-
gin to Christ. But I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,”
2 Cor. xi. 2, 3. They are in danger of various troubles, which are incident to them
in this night-season. But it is but to watch a while ; if the day were broke, the
danger is over.
Thirdly, The Christian's life in this world is a lonely and wearisome life ; for
the travellers to Zion have a night of it, a shadowy one. If one travel by day, he
will readily get company, for then every body is astir; and this makes the way to
destruction a throng way ; the carnal world going at ease in it, because the sum of
this world is up on them, and their night is coming in the other world. But if one
travels by night, he will readily have a lonely journey of it : and therefore there
are but few in the way to life. So it is told us, Matt. vii. 14, “Strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Micah therefore laments the loneliness of it with him; Micah vii. 1, “Woe is me,
for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits, as the grape-gleanings of
the vintage: there is no cluster to eat:” and the psalmist; Psalm cii. 6, 7, “I am
like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am
472 A VIEW OF THIS
as a sparrow alone upon the house-top.” For it is night with them : but in the
other world the day will break to them. This makes it wearisome travelling. It
is so ordered, as the march through the wilderness, for their trial.
There is a fourfold allowable weariness in the Christian life, which our Lord will
not be displeased with in his people, that it make them often to propose that
question, Isa. xxi. 11, “Watchman, what of the night?”
1. Wearying of an ill world, a world lying in wickedness; Psal. cxx. 5, “Woe is
me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar.” Surely
God himself is weary of them, of their obstinate impenitency, carnality, pro-
fanity, and formality; Isa. lxv. 2–5 ; i. 14. It is but kindly that his people
weary of their society who thus weary their God; and that they long for the day
when they will be by themselves. - ~.
2. Wearying of an ill heart, the body of sin and death ; Rom. vii. 24, “O wretched
man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?” God has left
it in them for their exercise and trial, as he did the Canaanites in the land : but
surely they are to make no league with it, but to war against it; and it is accept-
able to him to weary and long for the day that they will be rid of it. And there
is never a weary look they give for it, but he kindly noticeth it.
3. Wearying to be at home in Immanuel's land, where there is no more night,
but an eternal day; 2 Cor. v. 4, “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan,
being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mor-
tality might be swallowed up of life ;” Rom. viii. 23, “And not only they, but our-
selves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Indeed
the Lord makes their travelling in this world difficult to his people for that very
end, that they may long to be home.
4. Wearying for our Lord's gracious visits to their souls, while they are abroad;
Psalm czxx. 6, “My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the
morning ; I say, more than they that watch for the morning.” How passionately
does the spouse cry for them in the text It is a sign it is very ill with the Chris-
tian, when his Lord is away, and he cares not ; when his communion with God is
stopped, and yet he is at ease, Cant. v. 3. See Psalm xxx. 7.
Fourthly, That a Christian's life in this world has many ups and downs in it, is
not at all strange ; nay, nor that the alteration comes very suddenly ; for he is
travelling in a night, a shadowy night. There is nothing more stable than a Chris-
tian's state, but nothing more alterable than his frame, Psal. lxxxix. 36, 37. He
may be going on cheerfully in the moonshine, singing his song in the night; anon
he enters some black and shadowy valley in his way, or a cloud overcasts, and strikes
a damp on him ; he gets through the valley, the cloud passes off, and he recovers:
and so one after another, “till the day break, and the shadows flee away.” -
Use 2. Hereby ye may try whether ye are truly married to Christ or not ? If
it is so, ye will look on your life in this world henceforth as a night-time. And,
First, Your former value for this world will be sunk, and your love to it turned into
a holy contempt and neglect of it, in comparison with Christ your Husband, and his
kingdom in the other world, Matt. xiii. 46. The blackness of the night will be sit
down on it, in its most gaudy dress, of profits, pleasures, and honours in it, 1 John
ii. 15. You will look on it as a shadow, hiding much of the Bridegroom's glory
from you; and so will keep up a struggle against it, as that which, getting in
betwixt the Sun of righteousness and you, will cause an eclipse of the light of his
Countenance. -
Secondly, Your esteem of Christ will be raised above all, 1 Pet. ii. 7. Your
love to him will be a superlative love, above all persons and things, Luke xiv. 26.
She that without consideration runs into a marriage with a man, is ready to dis-
cover something in him afterwards that makes her despise him, and, when it is out
of time, to prefer some other of her suitors: so they that are rash and indeliberate
in their pretended closing with Christ, that were never blessed with a saving dis-
covery of him to their souls by the Spirit, will be ready to rue the match, and to
return to the flesh-pots of Egypt. But the soul once truly married to Christ, will
find him a covering of its eyes: they will charge their eyes to be henceforth closed
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 473
on all his rivals, as never to see another so fair; Psal. Ixxiii. 25, “Whom have I
in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.”
Lastly, Ye will count it day only in the other world, however bright the sunshine
in this world may be : “Until the day break and the shadows flee away,” &c.
Therefore your main concern will be to reach eternal light there, Phil. iii. 14 ; to
be prepared and made meet for it, Rev. xix. 7. And you will aim at the purity
of it, 1 John iii. 3. So you will be going through this world as in a night-journey,
with the eye fixed on the other world before, desiring and expecting the break of
day that will be there. -
Use 3. Of caution. This gives a watchword to all that profess their souls'
marriage with Christ. It is night-time : therefore, w
First, Beware ye fall not asleep, 1 Thess. v. 7. Take heed of carnal security,
which is the bed of the devil's making for us: a dangerous bed, how soft soever;
and the softer the more dangerous. Satan got David into it, and there he polluted
himself with adultery and murder; and Peter also, where he defiled himself with
denying his Lord and Master. But it is but few that get the cast of grace, to raise
and cleanse them in such a case, that these two eminent Saints got. People are
ready to fall asleep after a full meal, Cant. v. 1, 2; and wise virgins may be over-
taken with sleep, as well as foolish virgins, Matt. xxv. 5. -
Secondly, Beware ye fall not a-dreaming. The whole life of some is one con-
tinued dream or delusion, which they awake not out of till they are past hope and
help ; Isa. xliv, 20, “He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside,
that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand 2’’
chap. xxix. 8. God's children also are in hazard of dreaming too in this their
night-time, when they fall asleep. David fell a-dreaming of golden mountains in
this world, Psalm xxx. 6; Peter of perfect safety, when Satan was laying a snare
for him, and seeking to winnow him. O sirs, open your eyes, stand on your watch,
know ye are here among “the lions’ dens, and the mountains of the leopards.” Do
not dream of world's ease, but lay your account with trials; nor of safety from
Snares, but lay your account with temptations.
Thirdly, Beware of mistakes and misapprehensions of things, to which people
are liable in the night. Live by faith, and trust not your own understanding,
Proy. iii. 5. Judge not of things in your way by sense, but by the rule of God's
word. Our eyes in the night are apt to deceive us. A step will appear much more
difficult by reason of the darkness, than really it is: so there will be stones of diffi-
culty appearing in the way of a duty not to be rolled away, which yet when you
come up to will be found rolled away to your hand. A bush will appear a house
to the traveller, and disappoint him turning to it for shelter : so does this and the
other created comfort to us in this night-journey. In the night we are ready to
take our friends for our foes, as did the disciples on the sea: so we are apt to do
with our crosses and trials. - . . -
Fourthly, Beware of stumbling, John xi. 10; and walk circumspectly, Eph. v. 15.
Keep up a holy jealousy over yourselves; Prov. xxviii. 14, “Happy is the man
that feareth alway.” Where the darkness of the night trysts with snares and stum-
bling-blocks in one's way, it is hard for one to keep his feet; so it is in your way
to heaven. Peter found a snare in the mount, as well as in the high priest's hall;
and Lot in the cave with his own children, as well as in Sodom. Take then that
caution, 1 Cor. x. 12, “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.”
Lastly, Beware of wearying in a way of languishing, fretfulness, and impatience;
the which is incident to people in the night not asleep. Whatever be your troubles
in the world, yea, your struggles with the body of sin and temptations, do not weary
$o as to fall a-languishing, unfitting yourselves for bearing and doing ; so as to fret
and be impatient, and Say, it will never be day. For though it is night, the morn-
ing cometh. *
Use ult, Evidence yourselves truly married to Christ, by your looking on the
time of this life as a night-time, a shadowy one. And this, -
First, By stretching your views habitually beyond it: “looking, not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen,” 2 Cor. iv. ult. A soul
married to Christ will not terminate its desires and expectations within the narrow
- 3 o
474 A VIEW OF THIS
limits of time ; nor would they, if it were in their offer, sit down contented with
this life perpetuated, more than they would be content with an eternal night here
that would never have a day; Job vii. 16, “I loathe it; I would not live alway.”
But live ye in expectation of this night's passing, and of the morning's coming in
the other world.
Secondly, By watchfulness and circumspect walking, as not insensible of your
hazard. Travellers by night look well to their feet, however carelessly men walk
that travel by day, Prov. iv. 26. Many professing to be espoused to Christ,
discover their hypocrisy by the looseness and carelessness of their after-walk. -
Thirdly, By continual eyeing and use-making of the pillar of fire that gives light
in the night in this wilderness. Christ is that pillar of fire, that enlightens the
believer's darkness in this world: as he is a Husband, he is the soul's guide.
Keep the eye of faith on him while the night lasts, that all your motions, removes,
and rests may be directed by him ; Col. ii. 6, “As ye have therefore received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk in him ;” John viii. 12, “I am the light of the world;
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Lastly, By learning and using the song in the night. Our Lord has allowed the
travellers to Zion such a song as may refresh and cheer them in their night-journey
through the wilderness; Isa. xxx. 29, “Ye shall have a song, as in the night when
a holy Solemnity is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to
come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel.” They learn it
out of their Bible; Psal. cxix. 54, “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house
of my pilgrimage.” They sing it by faith ; believing the promises, and crediting
and applying the blessed report concerning the other world, the day's breaking and
the shadows fleeing away. And this cheers them in the melancholy night they
have. Slight it not; Job xxxv. 10, “But none saith, Where is God my maker,
who giveth songs in the night º’’ Isa. lxiv. 5, “Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways;” Neh. viii. 10,
“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” - w
Doc TRINE II. To those that are truly married to Christ, the day will break in
the other world, and the shadows flee away ; and they should live in the comfort-
able expectation of it. - -
In handling this point, I shall, - -
I. Consider the day's breaking, and the shadows fleeing away thereupon.
II. Believers living in the comfortable expectation of the day's breaking to them
in the other world, and the shadows fleeing away thereupon,
III. Apply the doctrine. -
I. I shall consider the day's breaking, and the shadows fleeing away thereupon.
And on this head I shall speak of, -
First, The day's breaking in the other world to those that are married to Christ.
Secondly, The shadows, upon this breaking of the day, fleeing away. -
Thirdly, Confirm the point, that the day will break, and the shadows flee away
as to those that are married to Christ.
First, I am to speak of the day's breaking in the other world to those that are
married to Christ. And here I shall show, (1.) What a day will break to them
there; (2.) How this day will break to them there.
1. I shall show what a day will break in the other world to those who are married
to Christ. - - - - -
(1.) A clear and bright day; Isa. lx. 1, 2, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people : but the Lord shall arise upon thee,
and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” Whatever gloomy, dark, and melancholy
times the spouse of Christ has here, she will have a bright day of it in the other
world. There will be no clouds in it ; the dark and cloudy day will then be at an
end. The glory of God lightens the upper hemisphere there whither they go; and
“in him there is no darkness at all.” .
(2.) A fair day and calm. There are no storms nor tempests, no blustering
winds nor rains, in Immanuel's land; Rev. xxi.;4, “There shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying ; neither shall there be any more pain.” It will be one
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 475
continued tempest in the lower part of the other world ; there the great rain of his
strength will be falling continually on his adversaries: but there will be an absolute
calm there, as Exod. ix. 24–26, where we are told, “There was hail, and fire
mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land
of Egypt since it became a nation.—Only in the land of Goshen, where the chil-
dren of Israel were, was there no hail.” O what a pity is it, that the faith thereof.
should not make us bear better the clouds returning after the rain now !
(3.) A glad and joyful day ; Psalm czXvi. 5, “They that sow in tears shall reap
in joy.” Their woe-days will then all be at an end, Rev. xxi. 4. The light and
gladness now under the cloud, will be fairly sprung up to them then. It will be
the day of the heir of glory's coming home from his travels in the foreign land
unto his own country, his Father's house, and his Father's embraces. It will be
the spouse of Christ's marriage-day, when the marriage with the spiritual Bride-
groom shall be joyfully solemnized.
(4.) An eternal day. . Some places of our world have a long day, but they have
a night too, and that a long one. But there will be an everlasting day in Imma-
nuel's land, Rev. xxi. 25. There is a night too in the other world, as well as a day:
but they are in different regions, and never change. It will be day in the upper
hemisphere, and eternal day; and night in the lower, and eternal night.
2. Let us next see how this day will break there to those who are married to
Christ.
(1.) As, coming near their night-journey's end, they enter the passage betwixt
the two worlds, the darkness and shadowiness of the night will come to a pitch.
For as the darkest hour ordinarily goes before day-break, so it is here ; the hour
of death is so in a signal manner, “the valley of the shadow of death,” Psalm
xxiii. 4. When they go down to that valley, there is a gloominess there which
they had not had the like of before : they have much ado to keep their heart from
failing, because of the black and dismal aspect. But their Lord and Husband will
not leave them, but guide them through it, Ibid. and xlviii. ult.
(2.) As soon as they are got over to the other side, immediately the day breaks,
and it is fair daylight to them. Then the welcome day ariseth, never to go down;
their hearts are cheered, their eyes enlightened, and there is no fear of stumbling
any more. -
i. A heavenly gale ariseth, such as never before blew on them : they get a full
measure of the Spirit of Christ, which in a moment brings them to a state of per-
fection, Heb. xii. 23. This is that “blowing of the day” in the text. The Spirit
blows upon them here, and conveys grace from Christ to them, excites and strengthens
it, Cant. iv. 16. But then he blows on them so as to perfect it.
ii. The light of glory appears, and spreads over all to them, Isa. lx. 1. The
shining ones receive them, to carry them home to Abraham's bosom. While they
pass into the upper regions, the day then is broken, and goes on to the perfect day
there, growing more and more lightsome, and filling them with new and unseen
delights. - - -
iii. Getting in to the highest heavens, “the Sun of righteousness” is up on
them : and there they are in inconceivable light and splendour, which we can have
no notion of but what is childish, Col. i. 12. There shines the glory of God, and
of the Lamb ; and such is the splendour, that there is no need of the sun nor of
the moon.
Secondly, I proceed to consider the shadows, upon this breaking of the day,
fleeing away. And here I shall show, (1.) What is that fleeing away of the sha-
dows; (2.) What are the shadows that will flee away when that day breaks.
l, I shall show what is that fleeing away of the shadows. We may take it up
in three things. . . . •
(1.) The utter removal of every thing interposing betwixt God and them, and
intercepting the light of his countenance, Rev. xxi. 3. Now there are many things
of that nature; but when the day breaks, there shall be none of them. The day
of grace breaking removed all interposing hinderances in respect of their state of
peace and friendship: but the day of glory breaking will remove all interposing: .
hinderances in respect of their full enjoyment. -
476 A VIEW OF THIS
(2.) The removal of all dark, gloomy, and melancholy things out of their cond:-
tion, Matt. xxv. 23. They shall then put off their blacks, and be clothed in white
raiment: no sigh will be heard more, nor the least vestige remain of a sorrowful
spirit. There shall be nothing from without them, nor within them, to cause the
least down-look. After all the frights they have been in, they shall be perfectly
composed, and enjoy an inconceivable serenity.
(3.) The removal of all imperfection of light, and whatsoever gives but a faint
and shadowy representation of Christ and the glories of the other world, 1 Cor.
xiii. 12; Rev. xxii. 4. By nature we are blind, and cannot see them, though they
are to be seen here in the looking-glass of the gospel. The day of grace breaking
to a man, he beholds them in the glass: but in the day of glory, the glass is
removed, and he sees face to face. Their fleeing away imports,
i. The suddenness of their removal. Though, the moment before, the shadows
were at their longest, blackest, and darkest pitch, the next moment they shall be
gone. As if the sun should in a moment break from under a cloud, and enlighten
all that was dark before. - - r
ii. The completeness of their removal; they shall evanish, without leaving any
mark behind them where they had been. So does a shadow flee away, turning to
nothing. The light of glory extinguishes them quite,
2. We are to inquire, what are the shadows that will flee away when that day
breaks. They may be comprehended under the following particulars.
(1.) The shadow of this world will then flee away, 1 Cor. vii. 31. The night
comes on by the interposing of the earth betwixt us and the sun : and this cursed
earth, getting in betwixt Christ the Sun of righteousness and us, makes a black
and dark shadow. It hides the face of the lovely Jesus from natural men wholly,
as the sun is hidden in the night: from the Saints it hides his face in great measure,
as a cloud interposing betwixt us and the Sun, so making them sometimes go
“mourning without the sun.” -
But the day of eternity breaking, the believer will see it fled away. At death
they will go from it, they will be quite above it, it will be under their feet. It
will not be able to cast any more shadow to them than a hill in a sunny day, when
one is on the top of it, whatever it may do to those below in the valley. And at
the resurrection, the world itself will flee away, being suddenly destroyed, Rev.
xx. 11. It was often taken for a substantial good, but then it will flee away as a
shadow ; 1 John ii. 17, “The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof.”
(2.) The shadow of sin, Heb. xii. 23. The sun shone fair and bright on man-
kind in the state of innocency, and made this a pleasant world, the very suburbs
of heaven, where every thing Smiled on man, and his condition was altogether
lightsome : but no sooner sin entered, but the darkness of the night was spread
over all in one shadow. The day of grace dawning in conversion, a new light arises,
sin being removed in its guilt of eternal wrath, and in its dominion : but, alas ! it
still remains in its indwelling power, occasioning a continual struggle, ofttimes
prevailing ; hence are many long and black shadows in the believer's way, extend-
ing as far as it reaches, so that, by reason of guilt and defilement contracted, they
often find themselves as in the shadow of death, Isa. lix. 2. They keep right a while,
and then they walk in the light of the Lord's countenance: they are overtaken
again with sin, and then they are under a cloud again, and walk in darkness.
But the day breaking, sin will flee away. There will be no more unbelief, ill
heart, or corruption of nature: though it is fixed now with bonds of iron and brass,
these will in a moment give way, like tow touched with the fire; and sin will pass
away, leaving no mark behind it, more than a shadow. The believer's wounds will
all be healed, and all his now running Sores, so as there shall not appear the least
scar where they were. - -
(3.) The shadow of temptations; Rom. xvi. 20, “The God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly.” This was the first shadow that was in the world.
The command, promise, and threatening were shining clear to our first parents :
but in came the subtile serpent with his temptations, which cast a shadow over
them, that darkened them all to Eve, so that they appeared to her in other colours,
Gen. iii. 6. She carried the temptation to Adam, and he also was overshadowed
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 477
ere he was aware, and he sinned, and then the shadow spread over all the world.
Now the light of the word shines, and represents sin as ugly and destructive :
temptation rises, and with its shadow mars the light, and sin appears lovely and
beneficial. Thus the believer is often by this means left in the dark, robbed, and
spoiled ; and takes poison to himself with his own hands, being blinded with the
shadow of temptation. -
But when the day breaks, that shadow will flee away. The tempter who got
into the earthly paradise, will have no access into the heavenly. All the mist he
raised before the eyes of believers here, will be suddenly dispelled, and never
gather again more : but there they will have an eternal sunshine, where every
thing will appear in its native colours; and they shall not be capable of being
deceived any more. There will be no more need of watching, fighting, &c., the
hazard being over.
(4.) The shadow of outward troubles will flee away; of troubles on our bodies,
relations, name, affairs, &c., Job iii. 17. Sometimes the sun of prosperity shines
on the believer, and there is silence as it were half an hour; anon trouble ariseth,
spreads, and continues, till it casts such a shadow as hides prosperity quite out of
his sight, and causes him to forget it, Lam. iii. 17; yea, as hides the face of God
from him, that he cannot behold his countenance with joy, his weak eyes being
unable so to master the shadow as to behold it. Things appear frightful in it, that
believers are apt to think he has forgot them, (Isa. xlix. 14,) that he treats them
as his enemies, (Job xiii. 24,) and can hardly think that they have any more room
with him, Job ix. 16, 17.
But when the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, they will have a profound
peace, an eternal calm, in . Immanuel's land. Though the storm blow never so
long and hard on them, in this their night: when once the day is broken, and
Christ has them home, he will never let an air blow on them more. They may
then look back on the tossed and troublous life they have had, but they will remem-
ber them all “as waters that fail.”
(5.) The shadow of inward spiritual troubles, through desertions, and hidings of
the Lord's face. . These are sometimes so black and gloomy, that they are apt to
cry out, that their hope is perished from the Lord. Such a damp may seize them,
as that they begin to think that all they have had has been but delusions; and they
may be at razing foundations. . They may have much ado to keep up hope, saying,
as Psalm lxxvii. 7–9, “Will the Lord cast off for ever ? and will he be favourable
no more ? Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? doth his promise fail for evermore ?
Hath God forgotten to be gracious 3 hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?”
Their spirits may be wounded, the arrows of God sticking in them. Then it is
dark night. -
But if the day were broken, and the shadows fled away, they will be comforted
fully with the greatest tenderness, when brought into Abraham's bosom ; Isa.
lxvi. 13, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you ; and ye
shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” And readily they that have had the sharpest
conflicts, will have the greatest comfort ; Sure, bitter entertainment here, will make
Sweet sauce to the entertainment there.
(6.) The shadow of ordinances will flee away; Rev. xxi. 23, “And the city had
no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” The word and sacraments give but
faint representations of the Bridegroom's glory, they show him but as it were in
his night-dress; they are but the looking-glass wherein they see his shadow, 2 Cor.
iii, ult. Though they show more glory in him than in the whole creation, yet the
half is not discovered thereby. -
But when the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, they will get an immediate
sight of him, “as he is,” 1 John iii. 2; see him “face to face,” 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
The ordinances that served them in their night-travelling through the wilderness,
will be honourably laid aside when the day is broken to them in the promised land,
as was the tabernacle when the temple was reared up. There will be no need of
the lower table, when they are set down with the King at the higher. So preaching,
prayers, sacraments, &c., shall flee away. - - -
478, A VIEW OF THIS
(7.) The shadow of all manner of imperfections, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. There are
many imperfections attending the believer here, natural and moral. He must eat,
drink, sleep, &c., for his body : his soul is compassed about with many spiritual
infirmities, there is a weakness in all his faculties. These cast a broad shadow,
and hide much of the King's glory to him. -
But when the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, the body shall no more be
a clog to him : all the faculties of his soul shall be brought to their perfection.
The mind shall arrive at a perfection of knowledge, the will of conformity to
the will of God, and the affections of regularity and order. Their enjoyment of
God shall be full: they shall be put off no more with sips and tastes, but drink of the
rivers of his pleasures for evermore. Faith shall be turned to sight, and desire
and hope into full and unhampered possession. -
Thirdly, I shall now confirm this point, That the day will break, and the sha-
dows flee away, as to those who are married to Christ. Consider for this purpose
the following things: -
1. It was so with their Head and Husband, and the procedure with them must
be conformable to that with him; Heb. xii. 2, “Jesus, for the joy that was set
before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God;” 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12, “It is a faithful saying, For if we
be dead with him, we shall also live with him : if we suffer, we shall also reign with
him.” Our Lord Christ had a dark shadowy night of it in this world; the sun of
this world's prosperity hid itself from him all along, and the further on in the night
it was with him, it grew still the darker, till it came to the utmost pitch in the
valley of the shadow of death. And then the day brake to him, and all the
shadows fled away; and now he is for ever in the light. . -
2. The nature of God's work of grace in them: it cannot be left unperfected ;
Psalm czxxviii. ult., “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Time
was when they were in a state of blindness, no light being in them, Isa. viii. 26.
God has brought them out of that state, and there is a light arisen to them, a light
of grace, the nature of which is to go on to perfection; Prov. iv. 18, “The path of
the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
Grace and corruption are like the house of David and Saul; struggle they may a
while, but the latter must be extinct, and the former enjoy all.
3. The bounty and goodness of God to his people. God is essentially good, and
he is good to them in Christ his Son. It is inconsistent with the goodness of his
nature, to keep them always in the darkness of the night, and horror of the shades.
Surely, looking to his good and gracious nature, we may conclude that the day
will break and the shadows flee away, especially considering, that there is a longing
for in them created by his own Spirit.
4. The nature of the covenant, which is everlasting, and cannot be broken. It
secures by promise the perfecting of the happiness of his people; it was made for
that end; the promises are not accomplished here perfectly ; nay, it is an earnest
only of their accomplishment that is given. Therefore there must be a time when
the day shall break, and the shadows flee away. w -
II. I proceed to consider believers living in the comfortable expectation of the
day's breaking to them in the other world, and the shadows fleeing away. It im-
plies these two following things: - -
First, Their looking on themselves as travellers only through this world, who are
not to stay in it, Heb. xi. 13. As soon as the soul is married to Christ, it begins
to be a pilgrim on earth in its own account ; reckoning heaven the home, and earth
the house of its pilgrimage. Men in their natural state are like the Egyptians in
their darkness, who moved not from their place ; but being touched with convert-
ing grace, they are like the Israelites travelling through the wilderness to Canaan.
Secondly, Their laying their account with the continuance of the night and the
gloomy shades, while they are here. ... Our Lord has told them, that it must be so;
John xvi. ult., “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” And though sometimes,
they fall a-dreaming of light and ease, (Psal. xxx. 6,) yet their habitual course is
not so, being persuaded that “they must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom of God,” Acts xiv. 22. They are resolved to trust their portion and rest
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 479
till they come to the other side, and in the mean time to bear their trials till they
are safely arrived there.
Thirdly, A contentedness to leave this world, and go to the other ; Luke ii. 29,
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.”
Every body sincerely joining themselves to the Lord Christ as their Head and
Husband, are thus contented, Cant. viii. 5. They may indeed have a natural
horror of death, but they are reconciled to the pleasant land on the other side of it ;
as one is unto health, while yet they have a horror of the bitter potion whereby it
must be compassed. Sometimes again they are unclear as to their interest, and
this may make them unwilling to remove : but this is consistent with that content-
edness, since it makes not an absolute unwillingness, but only in such circumstances;
as one may be willing to go to a place, yet not willing to take the journey blind-
folded.
Fourthly, A faith of the day, the clear and bright day that is in the other world;
Heb. xi. 13, “These all died in faith.” The report of it is no more to them as idle
tales, but they are persuaded of it, and look on it as the land of light and comfort,
as far preferable to this world as the day is to night. . If they were not persuaded
of the other's being a better world than this, they could not be content to part with
this for it. -
Fifthly, A desire to be there in the other world, where the day breaks, and the
shadows flee away; Phil. i. 23, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to
depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” As it is natural for the wak-
ing traveller to desire the breaking of the day, and to be there where it is daylight;
so it is natural for the waking Christian to desire to be there where it is eternal
day in the other world. And this desire is at the root of the believer's desire of
a total deliverance from sin, and of a full uninterrupted communion with God:
these they desire, and these they know are not to be reached but in the other world.
Sixthly, A hope and expectation of the day's breaking to them there, and the
shadows fleeing away; Rom. viii. 23, 24, “And not only they, but ourselves also,
which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by
hope.” There is a lively hope of the glory to be revealed, so that they hope, however
dark it is for the time, it will not be always so ; the morning will come. Hope has
its struggles as well as faith: but the hope of believers is never totally overthrown,
more than their faith.
Lastly, A comforting themselves in this world with the prospect of the other
world; 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the
things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
If the night be gloomy here, they should comfort themselves with the prospect of
the day's breaking there, and the shadows fleeing away, and sing in the house of
their pilgrimage, in hope of the joy abiding them at the end of their journey.
I shall now make some practical improvement of this doctrine.
Use 1. Of information. This informs us,
First, That, whatever be the trials of believers in this world, there is a happy
state abiding them in the other world, wherein they will be beyond them all; Héb.
iv. 9, “There remaineth a rest to the people of God.” The wicked may have a
fair and calm day here, but there will be an everlasting night for them there.
But it is better to have our night here, and an eternal day there, than to have our
day here, and eternal night there. -
Secondly, The report of unbelief to the people of God in their dark hours, whereby
it is said to them, It will never be better, is false, and not to be credited, Lam.
iii. 17, 18. It is the work of faith to contradict these evil surmisings, tending to
cut off hope ; and to believe the promise, when one does not see. Satan ruined
the world at first by working a misbelief of the threatening: now he carries it on
by a misbelief of the promise.
Thirdly, This is the time wherein we are called to walk by faith, 2 Cor. v. 7.
In the other world we will walk by sight ; for there the day will be broken, and
480 A VIEW OF THIS
there will be no shadows to interpose: but till we come there we must be content
to live by faith, trusting for our good things to come after we have patiently re-
ceived our evil things, and made our way through the gloomy shades here.
Fourthly, That there will be a vast difference betwixt the state of believers here
and in the other world. What a difference is there between a dark shadowy night,
and a fair bright day ! Such will there be between the state of grace and glory.
Their knowledge will be exceeding extensive, beyond what it is now ; and their
comfort and joy exceeding great, beyond what any time they now are.
Lastly, It is the Christian's own fault if he wants comfort in the hardest pieces
of his lot, John xiv. 18. They were never ill-dined, we say, that know of a good
supper. Whatever be the entertainment of a child of God here, there is a blessed
entertainment awaiting him there : and as the workman works cheerfully in pros-
pect of his wages, and the traveller goes cheerfully knowing he is going home ; so the
Christian should comfort himself in this world with the prospect of the other world.
Use 2. Of exhortation. Let such as are married to Christ, having received him
in his covenant, and given themselves to him, learn to comfort themselves with the
prospect of the other world, where the day will break, and the shadows flee away.
To move unto this, consider these things.
First, You will certainly need comfort in this world. Take what way ye will,
ye will meet with sorrows, difficulties, and hardships, that you will be in need
of some cordials to keep you from fainting ; and being married to Christ, ye will
need them in a special manner ; for then your God will have you exercised with
various trials, the world will withdraw its countenance from you, and Satan will
set himself against you with a peculiar spite. -
Secondly, The comforts of this world are deceitful, and will never be found able
to balance the sorrows of it, being but “broken cisterns that can hold no water,”
Jer, ii. 13. Some of them they can do nothing at all to, as in Belshazzar's case
under the terror of God; at best they can but amuse for a while, but the grief
recurs. So that in end one must say to them, “Miserable comforters are ye all:”
they are a weak dike,” that will be carried away with the flood in a little.
Thirdly, The other world is a fountain of comfort in all cases ye can be in, tem-
poral or spiritual. -
Here the man in outward trouble may find a salve for his sore. If he is oppressed
with poverty, he may comfort himself with the prospect of the treasure there, and
the inheriting all things; if he is under contempt of the proud, he may comfort
himself with the prospect of the glory there ; if he is under sickness of body, “the
leaves of the tree " there are “for the healing of the nations.” Is he weary 2 there
is rest there. Has he no certain abode 2 there they go no more out, &c.
Here the man in spiritual distress may comfort himself. Is the body of sin
heavy 2 in the other world there will be a freedom from it. Is he dogged with
temptation ? there the tempter cannot enter. Is he under desertion ? there is
uninterrupted communion with God there. There is nothing one can meet with
heavy here but a believing view of the other world may afford suitable consolation
against it.
Lastly, The comforting of yourselves with the prospect of the other world, is a
duty wherein ye will at once singularly honour God, and consult your own interest.
1. Hereby ye will honour God's testimony, trusting him for things unseen, Heb.
xi. 1. So ye will give him the glory of his faithfulness. He has magnified his
word above all his name, and you will magnify it by believing it indeed.
2. It will strengthen you notably in your Christian walk; Neh. viii. 10, “The joy:
of the Lord is your strength.” It will carry you above the world's smiles, and
make the world's great things little in your eyes, Phil. iii. 8. It will strengthen
against its frowns, and bear you up under the greatest trials, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.
I shall close with the following directions. - - - -
1st, Keep Christ, the Lord of the other world, in your view as your Lord and
Husband ; looking “to be found in him, not having your own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
* i. e. wall.—ED.
AND THE OTHER world 481
is of God by faith,” Phil. iii. 19. We can draw no comfort from the other world
but in that blessed channel: in him are all our hopes, for by him only we have a
title to heaven. &
2dly, Inure yourselves to an habitual looking to the other world, 2 Cor. iv. 18.
When the habitual frame of the heart is carnal, no wonder that a glance with the
eye to the other world be not comfortable: but when the habitual bent is upward,
occasional glances that way will have a good effect. -
Lastly, Frame the whole course of your life in a suitableness, not to this, but
the other world, Rom. xii. 2. Carry as travellers to Zion, going through this wil-
derness to the promised land. Let your conversation be suitable to an expectant
of that better world, namely, “in heaven,” Phil. iii. 20.
I now go on to the last doctrine I observed from the text, namely,
DocTRINE III. It will be the great concern of those married to Christ, during
their night-journey in this world, that he may turn and come to them, till, the day
breaking and the shadows fleeing away, they get to him in the other world.
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Show what is Christ's turning and coming to them, that will be their great
concern to have.
II. Give the import of this concern, that he may turn and come to them, till the
day break and the shadows flee away.
III. Give the reasons of this concern.
IV. Confirm this point, that this will be the great concern of those married to
Christ.
V. Apply the doctrine.
I. I am to show what is Christ's turning and coming to those married to him,
that will be their great concern to have. We may take it up in two things.
First, His affording them his presence. That will be their great concern to
enjoy during their night-journey ; that if they must have a dark and shadowy
night-journey of it through the world, he would not leave them, but be with them
in it ; Exod. xxxiii. 15, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.”
Nobody can want God's essential presence, whereby he is everywhere present ;
Psalm crxxix. 7, and downwards. He is not far from any, Acts xvii. 27. But
there is his gracious presence, whereby he is present with the children of men by
his Spirit of holiness working in thom ; in which respect he is far from the wicked,
(Prov. xv. 29,) and sometimes withdraws from his own in part, (Cant. v. 6,) though
never totally, Heb. xiii. 5. Their concern then will be for,
1. His seen or sensible presence with them, of the want of which Job complains,
(Job xxiii. 8, 9,) and in the enjoyment of which the psalmist triumphs, Psalm xxiii.4.
As the Israelites had the pillar of fire by night present with them, discovering
itself by its own light ; so would they have the presence of God with them, discov-
ering itself to them by its own light. For though they have it, if they perceive it
not, they cannot have the comfort of it, as in Mary's case, John xx. 14, 15.
2. His operative or efficacious presence in them; Phil. iii. 8, 10, “I count all
things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; that
I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffer-
ings, being made conformable unto his death.” As the Israelites’ concern was for
the pillar of fire to enlighten their darkness, to guide them in their night-marches,
&c., so will believers be concerned for Christ's presence to enlighten them, quicken,
strengthen, and purify them ; to work in them mightily. And unless they find it
operative, they will not reckon they have it.
Secondly, His affording them his countenance, the shining of his face, and the
manifestation of his favour ; Psalm iv. 6, “Lord, lift thou up the light of thy coun-
tenance upon us.” This unbelievers never have, Psalm vii. 11: there is always a
cloud on it to them : they are not pleased with him, and he is never pleased with
them, Heb. xi. 6. And this believers sometimes want; Isa. lvii. 17, “I hid me,
and was wroth :” though they are never cast out of his favour, they may fall to be
deprived of the manifestations of it for a time. Their concern then will be for,
1. The turning away of his anger, and removal of any ground of controversy he
has with them ; Psalm lxxxv. 4, “Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause
- 3 P
482 -- A VIEW OF THIS
thine anger towards us to cease.” Herein the church rejoiceth ; Isa. xii. 1, “O
Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned
away, and thou comfortedst me.” They will be concerned, that while the shades
are thick and gloomy about them below, heaven may not be lowering on them too ;
but that it may be clear above, though it be dark and shadowy below.
2. The manifestations of his love ; Cant. viii. 6, “Set me as a seal upon thine
heart, as a seal upon thine arm ;” and i. 2, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of
his mouth ; for thy love is better than wine.” The carnal world knows none of
these things, and therefore cannot be concerned for them. Proud scornful sinners
deride them as vain imaginations of fantastic fools. But in the experience of the
saints, they are more powerful and efficacious than all the pleasurable enjoyments
earth can afford, Psal. iv. 6, 7. They will carry them through the dark and diffi-
cult steps, where all the world's cordials will leave its votaries to faint.
II. I shall give the import of this concern of those married to Christ, that he
may turn and come to them, till, the day breaking and the shadows fleeing away,
they get to him in the other world. It imports,
First, That during the night-journey in this world, Christ sometimes turns away
and withdraws from his people ; so that, seeking him, they cannot find him ; Cant.
iii. 1, “By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him,
but I found him not :” even as Moses, who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,
was withdrawn from them in the wilderness, and they knew not what was become
of him. Christ seems sometimes to lock up himself from his people, for his own
holy ends; they cannot have that access to him as sometime before. So he puts a
difference betwixt earth and heaven, the house of their pilgrimage and their home,
that they may like home the better.
Secondly, The travellers to Zion, when Christ is away, though it be night, they
readily miss him: Cant. iii. 3, “The watchmen that go about the city found me;
to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth ?” Indeed it may at times be
with them as with Samson, Judges xvi. 20, who “wist not that the Lord was departed
from him.” But that is through inadvertency: if they once begin to look about
them, they will be sure to miss him as the spouse did ; Cant. v. 6, “I opened to
my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone : my soul
failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but
he gave me no answer.” It is a property of a gracious soul, to be capable to tell
Christ's visits, his goings and comings. It is not every one can do that. Worldly
men reign as kings without him, they miss him not. The blind man cannot tell
when the day comes on, or when the night: but the seeing can do both. The
wife can readily tell when her husband goes abroad, and when he comes home :
though the servants, being without about their work, may know neither the one
nor the other.
Thirdly, A holy dissatisfaction with all things, while he is away. An angel's
presence could not please Moses in the wilderness, (Exod. xxxiii. 2, 15,) nor dry
Mary's cheeks in the garden, while she knew not where her Lord was, John xx.
12, 13. The house, though thronged with servants, is empty to the wife, while
her beloved husband is not there. The gracious soul would make stepping-stones
of all, to carry it to Christ the best-beloved.
Fourthly, A holy resolution to give him a welcome reception, if he will turn and
come again : then the doors should be cast wide open to receive him ; Cant. viii.
1, 2, “O that thou wert as my brother that sucked the breasts of my mother
when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, Ishould not be despised,”
&c. And this joined with self-loathing for giving him occasion to depart. “What
a madman,’ says one in this concern, “was I, that I could not keep his presence
when I had it 2 But, O! if I had it again, I should not so easily quit it.”
Fifthly, Earnest outgoings of the heart after him, in desires for his return ; Isa.
lxiv. 1, “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down,
that the mountains might flow down at thy presence 1” Job xxiii. 3, “O that I
knew where I might find him that I might come even to his seat l” While the
soul is in this concern, one messenger will be sent to heaven after another, in solemn
prayer, and frequent ejaculations, with that message, Cant. v. 8, “I charge you, O
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 483
daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of
love.” And when they can do no more, they will send greedy looks after him, to
the place where his honour dwells, as did David, (Psal. v. 3,) and the church, Lam.
iii. 49, 50.
Lastly, A holy restlessness in the soul, till he turn and come again; Cant. iii. 1,
and downwards. In this concern how restless was Job, going backward and for-
ward, looking on the right and left hand chap. xxiii. 8, 9. As the needle in the
seaman's compass, touched with a good loadstone, rests not till it turn about to the
north ; so the soul, touched by the Spirit of Christ, presently moves towards him,
(Cant, v. 4,) or as the dove, sent out of the ark, could not rest till it was taken
in again. - -
III. Let us next give the reasons of this concern in those married to Christ, tha
he may turn and come to them. I offer you the following:
First, Their superlative love to Christ ; Cant. i. 3, 4, “Because of the savour of
thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins
love thee.—The upright love thee.” Love natively tends to union and communion ;
hence the soul is more where it loves than where it lives: it exerts itself in desire
after the presence of its object, when at a distance, and has much ado to bear
absence. But, alas ! Christ may tell most of us, as Delilah did Samson, Judges
xvi. 15, “How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me?”
Secondly, Their comfort in their night-journey depends on it; without it they
must go drooping, for nothing will make up the want thereof. It is Christ's turn-
ing to them in it that makes all they meet with by the way savoury to them; and
the want of it is a worm at the root of other enjoyments. The dove could find
nothing out of the ark but carrion that it could not feed on, and therefore returns;
but the raven could feed on it very well, and therefore comes not in again.
Hypocrites will bestow a few faint wishes on Christ ; but if he answers them not,
they are not sore slain therewith : they have more doors than his to go to, if they
come not speed at his ; they know how to shift for themselves otherwise. But
sincere souls must either be served or die at his door ; John vi. 68, “Lord, to
whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”
Thirdly, Their experience of the desirableness of his presence and countenance
in their night-journey ; Psal. lxxiii. 1–3, “O God, thou art my God, early will I
seek thee : my soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land, where no water is: to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen
thee in the sanctuary. Because thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips
shall praise thee.” It is natural to be in concern for that which one still needs,
and remembers himself to have been the better of formerly. They know his
presence has made them safely pass many a dangerous step, and easily get over
many a difficult one ; that his countenance has often enlightened the darkness of
their night, and made them confidently pass many a gloomy shade.
Lastly, Their felt need of it: they know not how they will ever make out the
night-journey without it ; Exod. xxxiii. 15, “And he said unto him, If thy presence
go not with me, carry us not up hence.” It was in the faith of his presence and
countenance that ever they ventured on it ; and in the faith of the same, that ever
they look to get fair to the journey's end. And felt need of it must produce a con-
cern for it, (Mark vii. 24, 25,) rising from,
1. The sense of their liableness to mistake their way, that they need him for
their direction and guidance, Jer. x. 23. If he should leave them, they will reckon
themselves left in a wilderness, and that in the night; no wonder, then, they be in
such concern for his presence and countenance. -
2. The sense of their weakness for the journey, that they need to go leaning on
him, as a weak woman on her husband, Cant. viii. 5. Sense of weakness in them-
selves, and of the fulness of strengthening grace in him, prompts them to this
COIlC61°n. -
3. The sense of the great opposition and difficulty to be met with in the way,
Eph. vi. 12, 13. Christian soldiers have no brow for a bargain, if Christ their
Captain be not on their head, 2 Cor, iii. 5; and they will stick at nothing howso-
484 . A VIEW OF THIS
ever hard, if he be ; Phil. iv. 13, “I can do all things,” says Paul, “through
Christ which strengtheneth me.”
IV. We shall now confirm this point, That it will be the great concern of those
married to Christ, during their night-journey in this world, that he may turn and
come to them, till, the day breaking, and the shadows fleeing away, they get to
him in the other world. To evince this, we offer the following things:
First, Christ, their Lord and Husband, has got their heart above all other, and
it rests in him. They have answered the call, Prov. xxiii. 26, “My son, give me
thine heart.” They have said, he is their rest, (Heb. iv. 3,) as in the state of
marriage; they close their eyes on all others, never thinking to see an object so desir-
able, Psalm lxxiii. 25. Now, “where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,”
Matt. vi. 21. Wherefore it cannot miss to be their concern, that he may turn and
come to them ; even as, when a woman has fixed her heart on and accepted one
for her husband, it is natural to desire frequent visits, till he take her home for
altogether. -
Secondly, They are “partakers of the divine nature,” 2 Pet. i. 4; partakers of
Christ, of his Spirit, his grace, his image: and like draws to like ; the carnal world-
ling to the world, and the Christian to Christ. As the water exhaled from the sea
by the influence of the sun, is gathered into clouds, which dissolved, it falls down
on the earth again, where, cast up by springs, it empties itself, by rivers and brooks,
into the sea again, whence it came, Eccl. i. 7 ; so grace comes down from above,
from the fulness thereof in the man Christ, into his Christians, and, watering them,
does, in the exercise thereof, mount up again towards him in such breathings after
him, and concern that he may turn and come to them. -
Thirdly, All believers may be observed to be great miscounters of time when
Christ is turned away from them in their night-journey; Isa. liv. 7, “For a small
moment have I forsaken thee,” &c., compare Psalm xiii. 1, ." How long wilt thou
forget me, O Lord? for ever ? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” As the
time wherein the moon hides her head to the traveller by night seems long, in com-
parison of the time of her shining bright ; so the time of Christ's withdrawing and
hiding his face from a gracious sowl is a weary time, a kind of petit” eternity.
Which speaks a mighty concern. - - -
Lastly, When they are themselves, they are resolute for his presence and coun-
tenance, Eph. vi. 15. Grace gives men an edge for holy violence, Matt. xi. 12.
It will make men very peremptory for Christ, that they will not take a refusal,
Gen. xxxii. 26; to threap f kindness on him, and special interest in him, Isa. lxiii.
16; to make an argument of their unworthiness and misery, mustered up against
them to mar their confidence, Matt. xv. 27 ; and to stick at nothing standing be-
twixt Christ and them, so as they may get to him, Phil. iii. 8.
I shall now conclude this subject with some application of what has been said.
Use 1. Of information. This shows that, -
First, The grace of God ennobles the heart, makes it to aspire to the highest
things, and gives it a bent of desire beyond others. (1.) It carries the heart off
this world, and sets it on the other world, as the place of their great hopes, Col.
iii. 1. Others may desire their portion in this life, and eagerly pursue it there ;
but they will certainly carry their views quite beyond it to the other world, Phil.
iii. 13, 14. (2.) It gives them a new notion of heaven, and refined desires thereof,
as the place where they may be with Christ, Phil. i. 23. Carnal men have carnal
desires of heaven, as a place of rest, Welfare, and happiness, abstracted from the
enjoyment of God in Christ : but it is Christ's being there, and full communion
with him to be enjoyed there, that is the main-spring of the gracious soul's desire
to be there, Col. iii. 3, 4. - -
Secondly, That the soul once truly married to Christ is fixed as to its choice,
never to alter it on any terms; neither to be boasted from him by the world's
frowns, nor bribed from him by its smiles, Heb, iv. 3; Cant. viii. 6, 7. Be the
night never so dark, the journey never so hard, they are resolute to go on, till, the
day breaking, they get to him in the other world. -
* i. e. little. French.-ED + i. e. urge.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 485
Thirdly, The travellers to Zion desire and look for their furniture for the way
from Christ, as well as their entertainment at the journey's end; Cant. viii. 5,
“Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?”
There are many who discover their hypocrisy, by desiring no more of him, than
that he will take them into his covenant at the beginning of their way, and into his
heaven at the end of it ; having little concern for his presence and countenance
during their progress. They would have a rest to their consciences from him at
their setting off, and a rest to their souls from him at the end : but the rest to
their hearts while they are going on their way, they look for in the world and in
their lusts. Such will be miserably disappointed ; for “without holiness no man
shall see the Lord,” Heb. xi. 14.
Use 2. Of trial. Hereby ye may try your state. If ye be really joined to the
Lord Christ as your Head and Husband, to be with him in the other world, it will
be your great concern to enjoy such communion with him here as is allowed his
people by the way, till ye come to get full communion with him there. There is
a twofold communion with Christ allowed his people by the way to the other world.
First, Habitual communion, which is a commonness of interest with him ; 1 John
i. 3, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
This is a necessary result of the spiritual marriage-tie, and believers never want it
from the moment of their union with Christ. They may set their names on what
is his, as having a joint interest therein with him ; “All are yours, and ye are
Christ's,” I Cor. iii. 22, 23. They have with him a common interest in his right-
eousness, what he did, what he suffered ; in his Spirit, purchase, graces wherewith
he is filled, &c. • *
Secondly, Actual communion, which consists in a certain friendly intercourse
betwixt Christ and the soul, he letting down the influences of his grace on them,
and they moving towards him in the exercise of grace ; Cant. i. 4, “Draw me, we
will run after thee; the King hath brought me into his chambers,” &c. This a
believer may want for a time ; and this is the thing desired in the text, under the
name of Christ's “turning, and being like a roe, or a young hart upon the moun-
tains of Bether.” And the desire of this communion with him is the touchstone of
a gracious state. There are several degrees of it.
1. Communion with Christ by desires awake after him; Isa. xxvi. 9, “With my
soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek
thee early ;” when the spiritual hunger and thirst after him is created in the soul,
and the soul longs, thirsts, and pants after him, Psalm lxiii. 1. This cannot be
but by influences from him, whereby the soul is set in motion after him, Cant. v. 4.
It is a step to more ; Matt. v. 6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness; for they shall be filled.”
2. Communion with Christ in the exercise of a faith of adherence to him ; Psalm
xxii. 1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Though the soul cannot
sing, yet it will resolutely say to him, My God. Though his dispensations are
black and drumly, and seeming to go against the promise, yet the soul will hold by
the gripe of the promise, saying, as Job xiii. 15, “Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him.” It is a power from on high that teacheth one's hands so fo war.
3. Communion with Christ in the exercise of hope; Psalm xlii. 5, “Why art
thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in
God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” Though sensible
enjoyment is wanting, and there is no present feeling; yet the soul believing the
promise, hopes for the accomplishment of it in due time. So it waits on about his
hand, in the diligent use of the means; expecting a good issue at length. This is
the product of divine influences, according to the apostle's prayer, Rom. xv. 13,
“Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may
abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
4. Communion with Christ in sensible enjoyment; when they are admitted to
See his face by a faith of assurance, hear his voice so as to know it, taste of his
goodness, smell the savour of his name, (Cant. i. 3,) and to feel the workings of
his grace on their souls. This fills the soul with solid comfort, refined delight, and
Sometimes with heavenly rapture, 1 Pet. i. 8.
486 A VIEW OF THIS AND THE OTHER world.
. Now, what gust have ye for these things 2 Is it indeed your great concern to
reach them in the habitual course of your life, and so to have communion with
Christ while in this world, till ye get full communion with him in the other? If the
enjoyment of such communion with Christ while here, is your great concern, then,
1st, Ye will desire it above all things else ye can reach in this world, preferring
it to the best things that earth affords, Psalm iv. 6, 7. Ye will value it more than
the profits and pleasures of the world, counting them but dung in comparison
thereof. -
2dly, Ye will highly prize holy ordinances, public, private, and secret, as the
means of communion with Christ; and yet not be satisfied with them without com-
munion with him in them. They to whom these are a burden or tasteless, plainly
discover they value not communion with Christ ; these being the galleries wherein
the King is held, Cant. vii. 5: they are not of the psalmist's mind, who says, Psalm
lxxxiv. 10, “A day in thy courts is better than a thousand : I had rather be a door-
keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Those
that rest in them, and are pleased when the task is got done, show they value not
the true use of them, represented to us in the spouse's practice, Cant. iii. 2, “I
will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will
seek him whom my soul loveth.”
3dly, It will be your great concern to guard against whatever may mar it, or
keep you back from it ; and to keep the way wherein you may obtain it. That is,
you will beware of living in the allowed practice of sin, but be tender and holy in
your lives, Psalm lxvi. 18; John xiv. 21.
Use 3. Evidence yourselves truly married to Christ, by making it your great
concern to have actual communion with Christ here, till ye come to the full enjoy-
ment of him in the other world. To press this, I offer these motives very briefly.
First, This is necessary to evidence your sincerity in the marriage-covenant ;
1 John ii. 19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.” Being careless of com-
munion with Christ speaks that the heart is not with him, but with other lovers.
Secondly, It is necessary to your getting safe through an ensnaring world;
therefore says Christ to his people, Cant. iv. 8, “Come with me from Lebanon,
my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of
Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.”
If ye are left alone, ye will fall in the wilderness.
Lastly, Without communion with Christ here, there will be no communion with
him in the other world, according to what the psalmist says, Psal. lxxiii. 24, “Thou
shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.” Communion
with Christ in grace here, is the foundation of communion with him in glory here-
after.
I close with these few directions.
1st, Look for communion with Christ in the way of free grace and unhired love:
that he may come over mountains to you, mountains of guilt and unworthiness, as
undeserving of such a high privilege.
2dly, Seek it resolutely in all means of his appointment, going from one mean
and ordinance to another till ye find him, as the spouse did, Cant. iii. 1, and
downwards. ... So may ye, persevering, succeed, whatever difficulties be in your way.
3dly, Be diligent observers of providences, and make a due improvement of them
as means of communion with him, Psalm xcii. 4 ; cvii. ult.
4thly, Be habitually tender in your walk; keeping off from every thing that may
grieve his Spirit, and provoke him to depart ; acting in this case as the spouse did,
Cant. iii. 5, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the
hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.”
READINESS FOR OUR REMOVAL INTO THE OTHER WORLD OPENED UP,
URGED, AND ENFORCED. -
THE SUBSTANCE OF SEVERAL SERMONS PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN THE YEAR 1730.
LUKE xii. 40.
“Be ye therefore ready also : for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.”
AFTER all we have heard of the other world, what will it avail if it issue not in
preparing for our removal into it? That is certainly the use which all of us are to
make of it, which we have in the words of the text. In which we have two things:
1. An alarm to be ready for a removal into the other world: “Be ye therefore
ready also.” In the parable of the rich man, verses 16–21, our Saviour had shown
the dreadful surprising removal of secure sinners into it, when they are not at all
ready for it, but dreaming of a long continuance at ease here, which puts prepara-
tion for it out of their heads. And thence he proceeds to caution against inordi-
nate care for this uncertain life, and to stir up to be ready, to be on the wing, for
the other life, verse 35; and to be always ready, as those that are at an uncertainty
as to the time of their removal. This is to be “ready also,” as well as the good-
man of the house would be if he knew what hour the thief would come.
2. The reason why we should be ready, always ready, never unprepared: “For
the Son of man cometh at an hour when we think not.” Because we know not
when we may be called off, more than one knows what time of the night the thief
will break in on his house. Now, Christ the Son of man comes as a thief, at a
time uncertain to us. There is a twofold coming of the Son of man. (1.) At the
general judgment. (2.) At death. Both are to remove us into the other world :
the word is general, agreeing to both ; and in point of our making ready they come
to one, because whatever readiness we can be in for the general judgment, must be
made before death, there being no access after that to make ready any more, but
as the tree falls it lies. So we shall consider it as his coming at death, to carry
us off hence. There are two things here.
1st, The certainty of our removal into the other world : “The Son of man com-
eth ;” he will certainly come, how long soever he may delay his coming. That is
a tryst that cannot be broken.
2dly, The uncertainty of the time of it, as to us, however precisely it is appointed
in the divine decree: he has not told us when it shall be, more than the thief tells
the goodman when he is to make an attempt on his house. So that if there be
any time when we are not ready, he may, for any thing we know, as readily come
then as at any time. -
From the text ariseth this weighty point of doctrine, namely, -
DocTRINE. Such is the certainty of our removal into the other world, and the
uncertainty of the time of that removal, that we ought always to be ready for it.
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Premise some things imported in it.
II. Consider the certainty of our removal into the other world.
III. The uncertainty of the time of it.
IV. The readiness for that removal.
V. Apply in some practical uses,
488 - A VIEW OF THIS
I. I shall premise some things imported in this doctrine. . . -
First, Great is the weight that depends on our being ready for a removal
into the other world. Eternal well or woe depends on it: for according to the
situation we are found in, at our removal, so will we be received and lodged there;
in the upper part the region of bliss, or the lower part the region of horror, to
remove no more. And this makes carelessness to prepare for it absolutely unac-
countable. . *
Secondly, We are naturally unfit and unready for that removal. Were it a
matter indifferent which part of that world we should land in, we could at no time
be reckoned unfit and unready for it ; for they that are not ready for eternal light
above, are ready for eternal fire below. But it can never be indifferent to a rational
creature, which of these shall be its portion. And therefore they that are not
ready to be inhabitants of heaven, are not ready for their removal: and such are
we all naturally, having no title to it, (Eph. ii. 3, 12,) and no meetness for it, till
we get it anew by grace, Col. i. 12.
Thirdly, Now is the time, and here is the place, of getting ready ; 2 Cor. vi. 12,
“Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation.” We
are set into this world to make ready for the other; and time is given us to prepare
for eternity. If time be once over, and we be turned out of this world, we have no
more access to make ready for the other; Eccl. ix. 10, “There is no work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.” So it is with us,
In OW. Or IléVéI’. - -
Lastly, We ought always to keep ourselves in readiness, that we be not surprised,
and taken at a disadvantage ; hence says our Lord, Luke xxi. 34–36, “Take
heed to yourselves, lest, at any time, your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting,
and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” One
may be ready at one time who is not ready at another as he ought to be ; falling
carnally secure, after he has bestirred himself to prepare. But at that time when
he is least looking for the removal, it may be nearest; and whatever unreadiness
it trysts with, so great will the loss be.
II. We shall consider the certainty of our removal into the other world.
First, It was the other world, and not this, that man was chiefly, and in the
first place, designed for, as to his settled abode. When God made this world, he
made it but as a thoroughfare to the other, a place through which man should pass
into the other, Matt. xxv. 34. The other world was always the home ; this was
but the place of the pilgrimage, where, at no time, man was to stay for good and
all, but only to Sojourn. For consider, -
1. This world was ordained to be the place of trial; the other the place of retri-
bution, according to men's works. The trial cannot always last, otherwise it would
be no trial: but the retribution may very well last for ever, and really will do so.
Therefore we must necessarily remove out of this world as the place of trial, into
the other as the place of retribution, which therefore must be looked on as our set-
tled abode ; Matt. xxv. ult., “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment:
but the righteous into life eternal.” - - - -
2. This world never had in it that perfection of either happiness or misery that
was designed for man according to his behaviour in it. Even in paradise there
was a want, and in the deluge there was an ark. But God will perfect his work of
whatever kind. Therefore the settled abode is there, not here.
Wherefore it is a fatal mistake ever to look on this world as our home, whether
we be saints or sinners; that is the use of the other world only.
Secondly, The man Christ is removed into the other world, never to come back
to dwell in this; and to that world where he is we must needs go. The happiness
secured for his own people, who must be taken to the place where he is, (John xiv.
3,) and the misery ensured for his enemies, who must be “punished with everlast-
ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power,”
(2 Thess. i. 9,) brought thither, and slain before him, (Luke xix. 27,) make
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 489
this necessary. Therefore, as sure as Christ hath removed into that world, we
must follow.
Thirdly, Men must be for ever, but this world will have an end ; therefore our
removal out of it into the other world is most certain. “This is not your rest,
because it is polluted:” and because of its pollution, it must be burned up, 2 Pet.
iii. 10. Now, the soul is immortal, and the body shall have a resurrection, and so
the man must be for ever'; he must be in some world; and since this will be de-
stroyed, he must certainly remove into the other.
Fourthly, Our life in this world is a journey through it, ending in a going out of
it, and therefore into the other world, Psal. xxxix. ult. We enter upon it at our
birth, make progress therein in our life, and come to the end of it at death, which
is the passage into the other world. All things are in motion here, and everything
undergoes changes; but none does more so than man, who springs up, and quickly
goes down again ; and at length his place knows him no more.
Fifthly, Death, the passage into the other world, is appointed for all ; Heb. ix.
27, “It is appointed unto men once to die.” All must pass through that dark and
shady vale ; and then they are in the other world, and have no more concern in
what is done under the sun. And the certainty of our dying we may not only read
in our Bibles, but in our very bodies themselves; where every gripe, pain, and
weakness we feel overtaking us, are tokens of death approaching.
Lastly, The experience of all ages since the beginning confirms the certainty of
this removal. Where are all the generations that have been before us? They are
no more to be seen in this world, more than if they had never been in it. Yet
God’s word assures us that they are in being, the godly ones of them happy, and
the ungodly miserable. They are gone then into the other world. And do we not
see by daily observation, that the course of dying is continuing as before ? And are
there are any of us all, who have not some that were our acquaintance in this world,
already removed into the other before us? And are we to expect the rocks to be
removed for us? -
III. The next head is to consider the uncertainty of the time of this removal.
And here I shall show,
First, How this uncertainty of the time of our removal is to be understood.
Secondly, How it appears.
Thirdly, Why the Lord has kept men at this uncertainty. -
First, I am to show how this uncertainty of the time of our removal is to be
understood.
1. It is not to be understood, as if the time of our removal were absolutely uncer-
tain, and undetermined with God. No ; it is determined exactly and precisely, to
the least moment, at what time each of us shall make our removal into the other
world, how much time we shall pass in this life, and beyond which we shall not go ;
Job xiv. 5, “His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee;
thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.” However uncertain it is as
to us, it is as certain before the Lord as anything can be. This is evident : for,
the decree of God reacheth the least of things, even to the very numbering of the
hairs of our head, Matt. x. 20. And can we think that he who numbers the hairs
of our head, numbers not the days of our life that we shall fulfil 2 Truly, they are
S00m numbered to him, being “as an hand-breadth, and as nothing before him,”
Psal. xxxix. 5; and he knows them exactly, Job xiv. 5. How else could he fore-
show certainly men's death, as he did Moses', (Deut. xxxi. 14,) and that of Jero-
boam's child, 1 Kings xiv. 12, 17 ? It is certain, that man cannot subsist a mo-
ment but as God holds him in life; so the withdrawing of his concourse must put
an end to it, Psalm Xc. 3. And he knows certainly what he will do, Acts xv. 18.
And who can doubt but he certainly knows when he is to receive his own people
into glory, and when the day of his enemies will come 2 Fifteen years were added
º the years that Hezekiah had lived, but not to the term of life appointed of God.
But, - . . . .
2. This uncertainty is to be understood with reference to us. Though it is cer-
tain in respect of the decree of God, yet it is uncertain in respect of our knowledge
of it. Men may conjecture about it, by signs: and no doubt God may, as he secs
3 Q
490 A VIEW OF THIS
meet, discover the time of one’s removal, either to himself or to others. But other-
wise, it is most uncertain to us.
Secondly, I shall show how this uncertainty of the time of our removal appears.
1. Our removal depends entirely on the will of another, quite concealed from us,
Luke xii. 36. It is so with us that we cannot go when we please, were we never
So fond of the other world, or weary of this. It is the will of his command revealed,
that we wait the will of his providence for the removing, in all cases without excep-
tion, Exod. xx. 13. It was the peculiar prerogative of the man Christ, to be Lord
of his own life, John x. 18. And though desperate proud sinners invade it, he can
by his providence draw a bar before them, that either in mercy or in wrath shall
oblige them to wait his time, of both which there have been instances: howbeit
sometimes in wrath, the will of his providence attends their will, and gives them
their swing. But however, our removal depends not on our own, but his will, not
to be discovered but by the event ; which therefore makes it uncertain utterly to us.
2. We plainly perceive that God does not keep one time for the removal of men
into the other world. Had he appointed one certain term of years and days, to
which every one should come, and nobody fall short of ; then we would have had
no more ado to know our time, but to have counted what we were short of that
common term of life: but there is no such common term appointed, but some are
removed sooner, others later ; and there is no stage of life whatsoever, infancy,
childhood, youth, middle age, old age, but some are removed therein. And which
of them we have not seen shall be ours, we know not. So we are kept uncertain.
3. As there is no period of life, so there is no state of health, that may not be
brangled by sickness, and overthrown by death. When men are in a fixed state of
health, strong, lively, and vigorous, they seem to be farthest removed from death :
but how often do we see death at the heels of such a stateſ How many strong and
lusty go off as soon as those that are weak groaning under various infirmities Job
xxi. 23–26. We have an instance in the rich man that fared sumptuously every
day, as well as the beggar which was laid at his gate full of Sores, Luke xvi. 22.
Nay, often the weak and sickly prolong their life, while the strong are mowed down
and carried off one after another ; Job iii. 20, 21, “Wherefore is light given to
him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in Soul? which long for death, but
it cometh not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures 3’’ compared with Luke
xii. 19, “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many
years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” What uncertainty appears
there ! - - -
4. Ofttimes when death is least minded, and farthest out of one's thoughts, it is
at the door ; the removal into the other world comes when men are thinking on
nothing, but fixing themselves and enjoying the pleasures of this ; 1 Thess. v. 3,
“For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon
them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape,” Luke xii. 20,
just cited. How many have revelled away into the other world, going down to the
sides of the pit, as with tabret and pipe How many drunkards and debauchees
have never come to themselves till they were removed out of this world ! going
into that world without a capacity for a previous thought of it ! So utterly uncer-
tain are men, - -
5. Man's life is liable to various accidents for taking it away ; Eccl. ix. 12, “For
man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil met, and as
the birds that are caught in the Snare ; so are the sons of men snared in an evil
time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.” What though you are in perfect health,
and no cause of death appears from within 3 There are so many things from without
that may beat up your quarters in this world, and hurry you into the other, that
ye are still at an uncertainty; “as when a man goeth into the wood with his neigh-
bour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the
tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour that he
die,” Deut. xix. 5; Luke xiii. 1, 4, Fire, water, stones falling or lying in the way,
beasts of the field, fowls of the air, &c., a thousand unforeseen accidents may be
instruments of our removal, blowing out life,
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 49 }
6. How often do men seeking life, find death ; and labouring for their stay,
hasten their removal! Such uncertainty are we kept at. Sensual men pamper the
body, with design to keep it up: and by their intemperance in eating and drinking,
destroy it ; laying on so much fuel, that they put out the fire. And where that is
not the case, how often is death found in physic, and in necessary food, taken with
a design to preserve life 2 Kings iv. 40. A morsel at a meal has choked some,
and removed them from their covered table into the other world. A hair in milk,
and a stone in a raisin, it is said, has done the business.
7. Where there has been no visible cause from without, nor sensible cause from
within, how many have suddenly dropt down dead, to the perfect surprise of their
relations and neighbours aware of no cause thereof Our life is in the hand of the
Giver always, as a ball in the hand of him that holds it up : there needs no more
but to withdraw that hand, and that moment we fall; Psalm Xc. 3, “Thou turnest
man to destruction : and Sayest, Return, ye children of men ;” and civ. 29.
Thirdly, It remains on this head to show why the Lord has kept men at this
uncertainty. No doubt God could have made the time of our removal into the
other world as open as the time of the setting of the sun, &c. But he has con-
cealed it from us. It is meet to consider why. We pretend not to give a reason
moving the divine will ; but the reasonableness of it, or for what causes the Lord
has willed the concealment of that time from us, we may consider. The reasons
are these.
First, It is best for his own glory and honour, the chief end of all things. Hereby
he shows,
1. His mastership over mankind, who of right are all his servants, however re-
fractory most of them are. Every master thinks it his right to have his servants
at his call, without a previous tryst, Matt. viii. 9. How much more is it God's
right over us, to call us off when he will, from the place where he has set us, to the
place he has appointed us for after | Our Lord teacheth us this, that he claims this
as a Master to come when he will, and that his servants be ready waiting on ; Luke
xii. 36, 38, “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for the Lord, when he
will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open
unto him immediately. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the
third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.”
2. The efficacy of his authority; Eccl. viii. 8, “There is no man that hath power
over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death; and
there is no discharge in that war: neither shall wickedness deliver those that are
given to it.” He has revealed the will of his command to men, in his laws; and
that is disregarded in great part by all, and wholly by some, in life. How neces-
sary then is it, that the authority so often trampled on by mortals in life should be
vigorously executed at length, in obliging them to obey the will of his providence,
without knowing aforehand when He sets trysts with men for duty which they
regard not ; the vindicating of his authority requires their removal to give account
upon sight of his summons.
3. His sovereignty. It is a sign of his sovereign dominion over us, Solomon
observes, Prov. xxv. 3, that “the heart of kings is unsearchable.” Kings of the
earth have their secrets of government, which their subjects are not to pry into,
but obey orders: God has a sealed book of decrees, which none but the Lamb is
worthy to open the seals of. It proclaims his sovereign dominion over mankind,
that he keeps such a momentous point concerning them concealed, verse 2. And
it is apt to strike an awe of him on those who consider it, as of an absolute Lord
whom we are to obey without disputing, and upon the first call ; with the depths
of whose counsel concerning us we are not to meddle, Deut. xxix. ult.
Secondly, It is best for the good of mankind that it is concealed. Were the
book of the decrees laid open before the world, and a liberty given to every one
that would to turn it up, and look out the time of mortals' removal; fools would
readily run to it, but wise men, I think, would start aback. That the time of our
removal into the other world is kept a secret with God, closely concealed, is of good
use. If ye ask, what use is it for 2 It is of use, -
1. For a badge of our dependence on God every moment. Hereby we are taught,
492 - A VIEW OF THIS
that we are his debtors for every breath we draw, and pulse that beats : we see we
are mere precarious beings in the world, tenants at will, not knowing when we may
be charged to remove. By this means great and Small, old and young, are obliged
to see how they wholly depend on the will of God as to their continuance here ; a
lesson we need to have inculcated on us, we are so apt to forget it.
2. For a token to remember the other world. It is natural for them that must
remove, and know not how soon, to be often thinking on the place they must remove
to : so our uncertainty as to the time of our removal out of this world to the other,
natively leads us to think of that world. How ready are we to spend our days in
a forgetfulness of the world we are going to, as matters now stand And how much
more would it be so, if we were sure that death were at so many years' distance as
sometimes it is
3. For a curb to our lusts, to check and bridle our unruly affections. This con-
cealing is of good use to keep us from indulging ourselves in sloth, to still our
anxiety, and repress all carnal earthly affections. He that considers the uncer-
tainty of the time of his death, is furnished with an useful mean to cool his affec-
tions in the pursuit of this world, which otherwise he would be apt to give the loose
untO. -
4. For to be a balance between the rising and standing generations, the young
and the aged. While both are kept at an uncertainty, that it is not known which
of them shall bury the other, and be their heirs, this is a mean to keep both in
due affection to, and concern for one another. While there is so much unnatural-
ness in the world, as matters now stand, what would it be if that were certain that
is now but probable %
5. For encouragement to people's regular pursuit of their worldly affairs, tending
to the good of society. If men were certain as to the time of their removal, it
would no doubt make them very slack in their business, and at length cause them
quite to give it over, unless pure necessity obliged them thereto; and this would
tend to their families’ disadvantage, and the prejudice of the public. But God has
in wisdom concealed that matter, so that hope of enjoyment causeth men to be
doing till God bid them stop.
6. For a seasoning to the comforts of life, that men may get the allowable
comfort in them, and the sap may not be from the beginning squeezed out of them.
If when the child is born, it were certainly known it were to live but so many
days, weeks, or months, or that the parent must leave it at such a certain time ;
where would the comfort of the relation be 2 How often would the view of the
day of the parting extinguish it 3 But God, by keeping it out of sight, prevents
these sorrows.
7. For a band to oblige men to act, not according to future events, but the pre-
sent call of providence, and so to make them subservient to the designs thereof.
Had Jacob known beforehand that Joseph's brethren would have cast him into the
pit, and sold nim for a slave, he would not have let him go. Who would ever
entertain the thought of putting that comfort to their mouth, which they certainly
knew would be presently snatched from them, and leave them pierced with many
sorrows, which yet often falls out? But God will have men's acting to be regulated,
not by events, but the present call of providence. And men may have peace in that
which providence indeed pointed them to, though the event be heavy.
8. For a memorial to be always ready and on our watch. It is reasonable we
should be so, and that at no time we should give ourselves to carnal security: but
did we certainly know the time of our removal, we would be apt to fall asleep for the
time it were at a distance, and think it would be enough to watch and be on our
guard when the time were at hand. -
Learn we from all this to be well satisfied in the divine conduct as wise and good,
in concealing from us the time of our removal; and answer the ends of that dispen-
sation, in acknowledging our continual dependence on God, taking it as a token to
remember the other world, &c.
IV. We are next to consider the readiness for that removal. And there is a
twofold readiness for it, habitual and actual,
First, Habitual, in respect of our state. In the state we are in by nature, we
}
AND THE OTHER world. - 493
are by no means ready for that removal; if we die in that state, we perish. We
must be out of it in the state of grace, if we would be ready ; 1 Thess. v. 4, “But
ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief;”
Col. i. 12, 13, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”
This is necessary for our safe passage and arrival in the other world. There is no
getting into the state of glory, if we are not first brought into the state of grace.
To die in the state we were born in, will bury us in the pit. This readiness
consists,
1. In being brought into a relative state of grace, whereby the relation' we stand
in to God by nature, which is a miserable one, may be changed into a saving rela-
tion to him. And this lies especially in four things.
(1.) A state of justification, pardon, and absolution. By nature we are God's
criminals, under his curse, Eph. ii. 3. How can we be ready in that case for the
other world 2 What can we expect, going into it in that condition, but the sentence,
“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels 2° Matt. xxv. 41. Therefore, if we would be ready, we must see to be
justified persons, Rom. v. 1, 2. We must sue out a pardon in God's way, and not
rest till we be accepted of him as righteous: for it is such only can have access to
heaven, from whom the curse of the broken law is removed. Then, and not till
then, is the bar in our way removed.
(2.) A state of reconciliation and peace with God; Amos iii. 3, “Can two walk
together, except they be agreed ?” There can be no walking with him here nor
hereafter without it. We are born in a state of enmity with God ; there is a legal
enmity on the part of heaven against us, as a real one on our part: should we re-
move to the other world in that condition, what could be the issue, but that, Luke
xix. 27, “Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them,
bring hither, and slay them before me !” Therefore, to be ready for the other
world, we must be in a state of peace and friendship with the Lord of it. If we be
for Abraham's bosom, we must be as he was, “the friends of God,” James ii. 23.
This is the design of the gospel, that we be “reconciled to God,” 2 Cor. v. 20.
(3.) A state of adoption into the family of God, 1 John iii. 2. By nature we are
children of the devil, John viii. 44. If we remove in that state to the other world,
what can we expect but to go home into our father's house ? Therefore, if we would
be ready, that relation must be dissolved; and we must be adopted into the family
of God, that, when we fail, we may be received into everlasting habitations with
his family. If we are not of God's family in the lower house, we will never be of
it in the upper : for they are all but one family, Eph. iii. 15.
(4.) A state of peculiar interest in God as our own God. When the man Christ
was going to heaven, he says, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to
my God and your God,” John xx. 17. God himself is the reward of his people,
who, therefore, must be theirs ere they can be ready to remove into the other world,
Gen. xv. 1. In our natural state we are without God, Eph. ii. 12. And should
We die without him, where can we expect to land in the other world, but without,
Where are the dogs, &c., in outer darkness? Wherefore, to be ready, we must,
before removing, have our Maker to be our Husband, God our Creator to be our
God in covenant, according to Heb. viii. 10, “I will be to them a God.” For
there lies heaven's happiness, Rev. xxi. 3, “God himself shall be with them, and be
their God.”
This relative state of grace is necessary to be found our right and title to heaven;
Matt. Xxv. 34, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom,” &c. And
certainly we can never be ready to remove into the other world, till once that is
expedited. Nobody can expect to invade it by force, to get into that part of the
other world which they have no right to. No man could judge himself ready to
Temove into a farm or heritage here, to settle there, till once he had got a right to
it; and shall one imagine himself ready for the other world, while he has no right
to heaven 2
2. This readiness consists in being brought into a real state of grace, whereby the
494 A VIEW OF THIS
temper and disposition our souls are in by nature, quite unfit for heaven, may be
changed into a heavenly one ; 2 Cor. v. 5, “Now he that hath wrought us for the self-
same thing, is God; who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” This
lies in two things.
(1.) The quickening of our dead souls, Eph. ii. 1. We are by nature spiritually
dead; God, the soul of our souls, is departed from us; so we are lifeless and move-
less; dead to God, as really as our departed friends are dead to us. Should we
remove in that case to the other world, what issue could be looked for, but that he
should bury us out of his sight, as we do our dead friends? Therefore, to be
ready, we must be quickened by the return of the Spirit of Christ into us, Rom.
viii. 2. '
This is called the first regeneration, whereby there is a new principle of action
put into the soul, by which the soul believes on Christ, and actively unites with
him, (John i. 12, 13,) and is thereby brought into the relative state foresaid. -
(2.) The sanctifying of our natures throughout, 1 Thess. v. 23. By nature we
are unholy all over, Tit. i. 15. The soul in all its faculties is wholly defiled ; and
consequently the body in all its members. Sin reigns in the natural man ; living
lusts have the mastery of him. What a removal can one have in this case, where
the image of God is defaced, Satan's image set up, and sin bears full sway, but
that in Prov, xiv. 32, “The wicked is driven away in his wickedness?” To be ready,
then, for the other world, we must be sanctified all over ; the mind must be enlight-
ened, the will turned towards the will of God, the affections regulated, and we
renewed in the whole man.
This is called the second regeneration, whereby the soul, being in Christ by faith,
is changed into his image, and so made a new creature, 2 Cor. v. 17. Receiving
grace for grace in Christ, it has new habits implanted in it, fitting for the doing of
good works, Eph. ii. 10.
This real state of grace is necessary to our being meet or fit for heaven, Col. i. 12;
2 Cor. v. 5, forecited. Without it we are no more meet for it than fishes for meadows,
an idiot for an estate, or a dead man for a feast. Men look on heaven as a place
of ease and rest; without considering it as a holy rest from sin, and an eternal exer-
cise of holiness in heart and life: if they so considered it, they would soon see their
unmeetness for it, and that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” Heb.
xii. 14.
3. This readiness consists in persevering in that state, relative and real, unto the
end ; Matt. xxiv. 13, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved;”
Rev. ii. 10, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
Apostates cannot be ready for the other world ; if one removes in apostacy, what
can be expected but, as Heb. x. 38, God’s “soul shall have no pleasure in him?”
Therefore the perseverance of the saints is insured by the strongest security ; John
x. 28, 29, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than
all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.” So that whosoever
do make never so fair an appearance, but afterward fall away, they discover that
they never were in a state of grace, relative nor real, 1 John ii. 19.
Secondly, There is actual readiness, in respect of our frame (Luke xii. 35, 36.)
and circumstances. The former gives us a safe, this an abundant, entrance into
the better world, 2 Pet. i. 10, 11. Now, one may be habitually ready who is not
actually so ; though not contrariwise. But we are called, both by God's word
and our own necessity, to actual readiness for that removal. This lies in two
things.
1. Putting our house in order, Isa. xxxviii. It is a piece of necessary prepara-
tion for the other world, to have our affairs in this world in such a state as we may
fitly leave them ; and no man of business can be excused in a slothful leaving his
affairs in confusion, while he is not sure at what time he may be called off. For
thereby others may be wronged ; and if it be sinful to wrong others in life, it
cannot be blameless to wrong them at death, when there is no more access to
right them. tº
2. Keeping our souls' case in order ; Luke xii. 35, “Let your loins be girded
AND THE O'THER WORLD. 495
about, and your lights burning.” Though in conversion the gracious state of our
souls is secured ; yet it will require much diligence to keep our soul's case right
for a removal, and slothfulness may put us out of case for it, Eccl. x. 18. The
being of grace is sufficient for the one, but the exercise of grace is necessary for the
other. Now, an orderly case, fit for one's removing to the other world, lies in these
seven things: Q
1.) Keeping up actual communion with God in the course of our life ; Cant. ii.
ult., “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away; turn, my Beloved, and be
thou like a roe,” &c. Thus was Enoch ready for his removal; Gen. v. 24, “Enoch
walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” He who would be actually
ready must walk with God in ordinances, in providences, and the whole tenor of
his life ; being spiritual in religious duties, an observer of providences, accommodat-
ing himself thereto, and setting God before him in the course of his actions. Thus
he will serve an apprenticeship for the better world, and will be in case for a re-
moval, since that will only be to him a change of his place not of his company.
(2.) A heart weaned from this world ; Col. iii. 3, 4, “For ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” David was in case for removing
when he said, Psalm czxxi. 2, “My soul is even as a weaned child;” and Paul
when he said, Gal. vi. 14, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
When one is quick and lively in his affection to this world, easily and feelingly
touched with its smiles and frowns, he will be at death like unripe fruit, that takes
a sore pull to pluck it off the tree : but the weaned believer will, like ripe fruit,
drop off easily. So God's blasting of men's worldly comforts, exercising them with
infirmities, pains, and sickness, are kindly designed for this end.
(3.) Purity of conscience; Acts xxiv. 15, 16, “And have hope towards God,—
that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And
herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward
God, and toward men.” Hereby it is provided, that there is no standing contro-
versy betwixt God and the soul; in which case one is not fit for removal. This is
obtained by a strict and tender walk in every thing, whereby the conscience is so
far kept from defilement, Psalm lxvi. 18; 1 John iii. 20, 21. And by a daily use-
making of the blood of Christ, whereby defilements, which we will inevitably con-
tract, are wiped away, John xiii. 10. A thorn of unpardoned guilt in a believer's
conscience, renders him in ill case for the great journey.
(4.) Diligence in our generation-work; Luke xii. 43, “Blessed is that servant
whom his Lord when he cometh, shall find so doing.” David had a kindly removal
upon this; Acts xiii. 36, “After he had served his own generation by the will of God,
he fell on sleep.” . That man hath lived long enough who has got his generation-
work allotted him expedited, though he do not live to any great age; and they
that through sloth neglect it, will find themselves carried off ere they are ready,
though they become very old. Happy is the man that is found so doing, doing
still on, as one that sees death at his back; and it is kindly, if the Master soonest
loose the sorest wrought servant.
(5.) Willingness to remove and be gone at the Master's call; Luke ii. 29, 30,
“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For
mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” They who are mortified to life in a Christian
manner, resigned to the divine disposal as to their staying and going, leaving to
him, the time and manner, are in case for removal. In the soul's closing with
Christ there is a dead stroke given to the love of this life, Luke xiv. 26. But there
is need of repeating the stroke, till the soul be in case to come freely away.
Pºy (6.) A well-grounded expectation of a better life in the other world ; 2 Tim. iv.
7.8, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto
all them also that love his appearing.” For men to pretend willingness to remove
without that, argues either a brutish stupidity, or a delusive Security, or a desper-
*to impatience; in all which cases men are not ready for the removal, however
496 A VIEW OF THIS
willing. But where there is a Christian assurance or well-grounded hope of a safe
landing, that is a piece of the readiness required, 2 Pet. i. 10, 11.
(7.) Watchfulness and waiting; Luke xii. 37, “Blessed are those servants, whom
the Lord when he cometh shall find watching.” Our Lord has told us that he will
come, but has not told us when : this requires us at all times to guard against
spiritual sleep and carnal security, and follow Job’s resolve, chap. xiv. 14, “All
the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come.” They are not
ready who are catched unawares. . .
Now, these things make an actual readiness, which is necessary, -
1st, To fit us for what kind of death it pleases the Lord to remove us by. Hereby
we will be in case to remove by sudden death, as good old Eli did ; by a raving
sickness, as well as by a composed one ; or by a violent toss of sickness, or lethargy.
For then our work is done, all is ready ; we have nothing ado but to go.
2dly, To prevent a hurry when death is come to the door. Though one is habit-
ually ready, if they are not thus actually ready, the heart in that case is put in
confusion with the alarm ; and then there are many things to do, and a little time
to do them in. And that makes a sad hurry ; whereas there might be much com-
posure obtained by this method.
3dly, For our comfortable passage, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, above cited. The neglect
hereof occasions even God’s children sometimes, either to go off in a cloud, and set
in a mist; or else to have a sore struggle about their case, ere they get their ravelled
case righted. We are not to limit sovereignty, which may leave at any time the
most watchful Christian in a damp, as the sun sometimes in a moment gets under
a cloud: but surely this is the ordinary means for a comfortable removal.
4thly, For our greater glorifying of God in our removal, as the worthies, Heb. xi.;
of whom it is said, verse 13, “These all died in faith, not having received the pro-
mises, but having seen them afar off ; and were persuaded of them, and embraced
them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” We
should study not only to live, but to die to his glory. . That is our last opportunity
of acting for God in the world ; and it is pity we should be out of case for it. Now,
when we are thus actually ready beforehand, (1.) We will have the more time to
act for God's honour, our own safety being already secured, as in Stephen's case,
whose last breath was spent in praying for his murderers, Acts vii. ult. They that
have much to do for their own case on a death-bed, will have little time to spare
for the behoof of others to be left behind. (2.) We will have the more heart, and
be in better capacity for consulting God’s honour and the good of others: as good
old Jacob, while blessing his sons, lifts up his soul in that devout ejaculation, Gen.
xlix. 18, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.” A clear and comfortable
state of our own souls’ case, will be oil to the wheels in that matter.
I shall now make some practical improvement of this subject.
Use 1. For instruction and information. Learn hence,
First, That this world is not our home, but the place of our sojourning; but our
home is in the other world, Heb. xiii. 14. We are here as strangers in an inn by the
road ; but the grave is our long home, and the other world our everlasting home.
When men go abroad in this world as travellers, they lay their account not to stay
abroad; but sometimes they settle abroad for good and all, so that their return
home is uncertain ; but our removal from this to the other world is absolutely cer-
tain, without all peradventure ; it cannot fail.
Secondly, It concerns us nearly to keep loose gripes of this world, and not to
dip too deep in it, but to use it passingly as those who are not to stay with it,
1 Cor. vii. 29–31. The comforts and conveniencies of life are like servants in an
inn, who wait on us to the door, but return to wait on other strangers when we are
away. It would be folly for the traveller to set his heart on the inn; for that
would make his removal from it but the greater grief.
Thirdly, It will be our wisdom to acquaint ourselves, as much as may be, with
the other world, Job xvii. 13, 14. Were one but to remove into another farm, he
would surely acquaint himself with it beforehand; and shall we, who are to remove
into the other world, live strangers to it? Nay, let us often visit it, by thinking of
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 497
it. Though we cannot see it beforehand with the eye, we may by faith ; though
we cannot go thither for trial, we have the map of it in the scriptures.
Fourthly, It concerns us carefully to acquaint ourselves with the passage to it,
1 Cor. xv. 31. Death is that passage, which we must certainly all take. And our
happy or wretched landing on the other side, depends entirely on the course we
steer through it. What need have we then to be taking instructions about it, fix-
ing them on our hearts timely, that when we come to pass it, we may take the
passage right, where so many are shipwrecked ? It is indeed the business of life, to
learn to die.
Fifthly, It is vain for us to be carnally secure, and promise on the head of the
time to come ; for our removal is uncertain. In all our projects, hopes, and expec-
tations of things of this life, we should balance them with the view of the uncer-
tainty of our time, James iv. 13–15. It is folly to boast of what we are not sure
of, Prov. xxvii. 1. How many a beautiful web of contrivance in the fancies of car-
nal men, has been suddenly cut off, perishing in the thought without ever going
further | Psalm cylvi. 4 ; Luke xii. 20.
Sixthly, It is folly to be lifted up with prosperity in the world; for it is certain
it will not last, and so uncertain when it will come to an end, that it may end ere
we are aware, Prov. xxiii. 5. If we begin to nestle in a well-feathered nest, we
may quickly be tumbled down out of it ; and we will get nothing of it with us to
the other world. Worldly prosperity makes indeed easy living here ; but it is so
ensnaring that it is hard to make the way through it to the happy part of the other
world, Mark x. 23. -
Seventhly, It is needless to be cast down with adversity in the world ; for that
will not last neither. The world's smiles and frowns, both of them pass away like
foam on the water, Eccl. ix. 6. If one meets with sorry entertainment in an inn
by the road, he comforts himself that he is not to stay with it. In your adversity,
your relief may be nearer than ye are aware ; your removal is uncertain. Lazarus
was cured of his sores and his hard lair at the rich man's gate, when carried by
angels into Abraham's bosom.
Lastly, We can at no time be safe, unprepared for the other world: for what
may come at any time, we must be ready at all times, if we would be safe indeed;
because whatever time we are not ready, it may come and surprise us unprepared.
Use 2. Of reproof, and that to three sorts of persons.
First, Atheists and unbelievers of a future state, who pretend that, when men
die, they are done, and that there are no future rewards and punishments. Such
were the Sadducees of old, who, judging the soul nothing different from the tem-
perament of the body, held the soul's perishing with the body, and that there was
no resurrection, and consequently no removal into another world, Acts xxiii. 8.
The whole divine revelation witnesseth against this, so that our Lord proved the
resurrection from the Pentateuch, Matt. xxii. 31, 32. The being and nature of God
as holy, and just, and Governor of the world, overthrows it ; since it is evident,
that it is not consistent therewith that evil men should be always the most prosper-
ous, and the good the most afflicted ; yet so it must be, if there is not a removal
into the other world, where the scales will be turned; “for if in this life only
We have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” 1 Cor, xv. 19. Besides,
this has a witness against it in every man's breast ; that it is to be doubted if any
man can reach to be fully satisfied in this principle, (Rom. ii. 15,) conscience
accusing even for what they are in no hazard for in this world.
There is a lamentable growth of such principles at this day, that the foundation
of Christianity were perhaps never in the time of the greatest darkness so much
struck at. Of which I shall only say these three things. - -
1. The prevalence of a spirit of profaneness and enmity against serious godliness
and practical religion has turned the bent that way, 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. When
men are set on their lusts, to follow them at any rate, they must seek a shelter
under which they may most peacefully enjoy them : hence these principles are
greedily drunk up in the generation. The inundation of profaneness makes such
a flood, as throws down before it the foundation-principles of religion standing in
their way. - -
- 3 R.
498. A. VIEW OF THIS
2. The obscuring of, and flinching from the doctrine of Christ crucified, his right-
eousness and grace, has made the progress of such principles more easy. The
manifestation of the mystery of Christ to the world, is the great divine ordinance
for its reformation. This the apostles used among the Jews and Pagans, and there-
with succeeded, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24; Eph. iii. 8 ; Acts xvii. 18. The Pagan moral-
ists advanced fine reasonings without this ; but they could not prevail. Yet at
this day, not the former, but the latter method, is most insisted on ; as if men were
more apt to be made religious by force of reason, than by discovering to them the
righteousness and grace of Christ. But that method will be found but a betraying
of the cause of religion ; as lamentable experience this day declares.
3. The growth of such principles is a sad prognostic of some uncommon stroke
abiding the generation. There is no mention of Sadducees in the Old Testament;
but they swarmed among the Jews in the time of our Saviour and his apostles.
And on the back of that, that nation got such a ruinating stroke as they never
before met with. And the Sadduceeism of this day, and daring strokes at the root
of Christianity, are terrible signs foreboding some uncommon stroke.
Secondly, The bold and curious intruders into the divine secrets, to reach a cer-
tainty of that which God will have uncertain as to us. God will have us uncertain
whether we shall live long or short while, when we shall remove. How dangerous
must it be, then, to use unlawful arts for the discovery of these, and consult fortune-
tellers on these or the like future events' Deut. xxix. ult. What good use can be
made of such pretended discoveries? If one is answered according to his wish, he is
ready to be turned secure, and carried off depending on providence, and disap-
pointed at length. If otherwise, what a snare and rack do people bring themselves
by that means ! . -
Thirdly, The secure and careless, who are at no pains to make ready, but live
as if they were never to remove hence. This is the prevailing temper of the world;
Matt. xxiv. 38, 39, “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eat-
ing and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered
into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be.” It is a world of sloth, wherein most men
consider little of the world to come. Solomon sends such to the ant, to learn a
lesson of foresight and provident care; Prov. vi. 6–11, “Go to the ant, thou slug-
gard, consider her ways, and be wise : which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How
long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?” &c.
Men make ready for to-morrow in this world, for days and years to come in it,
which ofttimes they never see : but slight the most necessary preparation for the
other world. - .
Use 3. Of exhortation. Let us, then, be exhorted and stirred up so to prepare
for our removal in the other world, as to be always ready for it. I shall branch
out this into three particulars natively arising from the text, namely,
First, Make ready for your removal.
Secondly, Delay not to make ready.
Thirdly, Having made ready, keep ready. -
First, Make ready for your removal into the other world. Since it is so certain
that we must all remove, and uncertain when, we must sound the alarm to all, to
make ready for it. Therefore awake and bestir yourselves to put matters in order
for the removal. Here I shall, -
1. Suggest some motives to press you to make ready.
2. Consider the impediments of people's making ready, to be removed out of
the way. - -
3. Give directions or advices for making ready.
1. I am to offer some motives to press you to make ready. Consider,
(1.) Our removal is certain, there is no escaping of it; Psal. lxxxix. 48, “What
man is he that liveth and shall not see death 2 shall he deliver his soul from the
hand of the grave?” . There is a time appointed for our removal precisely: and
when that time comes, ready or unready, we must go; the grim messenger will not
wait; Eccl. viii. 8, “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 499
spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that
war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.” Sometimes
people sit at home, because they are not ready to go away when they are called;
or the caller will wait, till they make themselves ready. But when the hour ap-
pointed for our removal comes, the messenger death will neither wait till we be
ready, nor go away without us.
(2.) We are all naturally unready for that removal, quite unready and unfit for
it. For, (1.) We want a title to heaven, the place of happiness in the other world,
and are bound over to hell, the place of misery there, by the curse of the broken
law, Gal. iii. 10; Eph. ii. 3. How can we venture into that world in this case ?
We have the breaking of that bond of wrath to seek, and the getting of that title
to heaven constituted. Till this be done, we are utterly unready. (2.) We are
nowise meet for heaven, but meet for the pit of destruction, being yet in our sins.
How can the natural man, that is yet under the guilt, dominion, and pollution of
his sin, be ready for the King's palace, but his prison, in the other world?
(3.) Our eternal state in the other world depends on what readiness we are in for
removing to it; Eccl. xi. 3, “If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north,
in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be.” They that are made ready
for heaven, will be received into it ; they that are not, will find the gates thereof
shut on them, Matt. xxv. 10. And without there is outer darkness, weeping and
gnashing of teeth, chap. xxii. 13. Since such a weight hangs on our being ready,
what unaccountable folly is it not to make ready
(4.) There is no making ready there ; Eccl. ix. 10, “For there is no work, nor
device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.” Men may
go from home in no fit condition to appear and show themselves in a strange place,
but they may get themselves fitted out there where they are going : but it is not
so in this case. There is no buying of oil more for the lamps, when once the
Bridègroom is come. If death strip us not of the body of the sins of the flesh;
which it certainly will not do, if we are not begun before to put off the old man;
it will go with us into the other world, and hang about us for ever ; Prov. xiv. 32,
“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.”
(5.) There is no coming back again when once we are removed; Job xiv. 14, “If
a man die, shall he live again 3’ Could we expect a return into this world, to mend
what was amiss in our former removal ; that, if we were not ready the first time
we went away, we should be sure to make ready the next time ; the matter would
be the less. But it is not so. The removal out of this world that we must take,
is never to return. Sure, that is a loud call to make ready for it.
(6.) The nature of the removal requires a making ready for it. We make many
removes in this world that are so insignificant that they require no preparation for
them : but in the meantime, we make some, that it would be unaccountable not to.
make ready for them. Much more is it so in this case : for it is, (1.) A going a
great journey; Psalm xxxix, ult, “O spare me, that I may recover strength, be-
fore I go hence, and be no more.” Eccl. ix. 10. What rational man going out of
the country or the kingdom, though but for a time, will not be making ready for it
beforehand 2 But what is going over the seas, in comparison of going through “the
valley of the shadow of death ?” What is going into other countries, compared
with going into the other world 3 It is a long and dangerous journey; and nothing
the less weighty that it is common, being the way of all flesh, since it is a journey
we will never come back over again. Wherefore, make ready for this journey,
make timely provision for it, take your way-marks right, and secure a comfortable
lodging there. (2.) A going to a marriage, which ye have been invited to, whether
ye be wise or foolish virgins, Matt. xxv. The marriage is betwixt Christ and be-
lievers. . In the gospel sinners are invited to it, and called to make ready for it in
this world. In the other world that marriage is solemnized, and there is the eter-
nal marriage-feast, beginning with the night of death's coming on ; it is held in
Christ's Father's house there, full of glorious light. But without is nothing but
darkness. Death is the going away to it; what time they that are ready are
taken into the marriage-house, they that are not ready are barred out in outer dark-
mess. Wherefore, make ready for this marriage, on which depends your making
500 A VIEW OF THIS
or undoing for evermore, Rev. xix. 7. (3.) A going to a judgment-seat, even the
tribunal of the Judge of all ; Heb. ix. 27, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment.” We are debtors to the divine justice, and must answer it.
We cannot deny the debt, we are unable to pay, the longer it runs on the more it
increaseth ; we must make ready, by employing the Advocate, making the Judge
our friend now, procuring the discharge of the debt to be produced there ; or we
must go to the prison, Matt. v. 25. We are criminals, and there must receive the
sentence of death, if we get not now a remission to produce against the indictment,
and so be ready. -
(7.) The pains of making ready will be fully compensated with the fruit of it;
Matt. xxv. 10, “They that were ready, went in with him to the marriage ;” verse
21, “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things:
enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” The joys of the heavenly marriage-feast will
more than compensate all the painful work of making ready for it. To make sin-
mers meet for heaven, they are to be wrought and hewed with various trials and
struggles ; right eyes to be plucked out, and right hands to be cut off; but there
is no reason to stick at that ; 1 Cor. xv. ult, “Forasmuch as ye know that your
labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
(8.) It will be dear-bought ease that is got by shifting to make ready ; Prov. vi.
10, 11, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.”
That spiritual sleep and carnal ease will make way for everlasting disquiet and
unrest. They who will needs rest now when they should wake and act for eternity,
must be deprived of the eternal rest in the other world; Prov. xx, 4, “The slug-
gard will not plough by reason of the cold ; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and
have nothing.”
2. I come to consider the impediments of people's making ready for the other
world to be removed out of the way. These I take to be these four chiefly :
(1.) A vanity of mind, by means whereof men can never be brought from fleet-
ing in the vain things of a present life, to serious thoughts of their removal into
the other world. They see others about them carried off, time after time ; but it
can make no Solid lasting impression on them, more than if they were immortal;
the vanity of their minds suffers them not to bring it home to themselves, but still
they look on the other world as a thing foreign to them. &
O lay aside this, if ever ye would be ready ; Eph. iv. 17, “This I say therefore,
and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the
vamity of their mind.” And act like rational men, seriously laying your account
with a certain removal of yourselves into the other world, uncertain at what time ;
Prov. xx. 3, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself.”
(2.) A heart throng of business of this life, whereby no room is left for thoughts
of a removal into the other world; as was the case of the old world before the deluge,
and of the sinners in Sodom before their utter overthrow, Luke xvii. 26—29.
Martha's business hinders Mary's : they are so plunged into the many things, that
the one thing needful is justled out. While this and the other thing is to be done
for the body, the soul's case is left a-bleeding, and neglected.
But, O ! why not the main care for the main thing ? Ye may see to your neces-
sary business, and your business for the other world too : but why should the former
enhance your whole man 2. Nay, the latter ye ought to do, in the first place, though
not leave the other undone.
(3.) An averseness to think of the other world and a removal thereto, whereby
it comes to pass, that these thoughts are shifted, till they force in themselves by
death at the door. This averseness riseth from conscience of guilt and prevailing
carnality, and staves off serious thoughts.
But to what purpose is it to stave off the thoughts of that which will certainly be
in on us at length ? Were it not our wisdom to do like that king, Luke xiv. 31, 32,
who, “going to make war against another king, sitteth down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand 2 or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 501
ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.” Set yourselves, then, to conquer that
averseness, and drive over the belly of it, getting your hearts, by application of the
Redeemer's blood, “sprinkled from an evil conscience ;” and that will break your
carnality.
(4.) Slight thoughts of what is necessary in order to preparation for the other
world, whereby men imagine they may do that time enough, when there is any
appearance of their removal. By this means it comes to be put off from time to
time, till often in the issue it is out of time. r
But did men seriously consider the matter, what necessity there is of a change
of their state, for habitual readiness; what necessity of a gracious orderly frame,
for their actual readiness: they would not look on it so slightly ; but see it a matter
of the greatest weight, not to be easily compassed, and therefore to be set to timely.
3. I shall now give you some directions or advices for making ready.
(1.) While you are yet in health, set yourselves solemnly to take hold of Christ
Jesus in the covenant, for death and eternity. In this lies your security for the
other world, whereof he is Lord : and it is little enough to do it with an express
view to the other world and your removal. And it is best preparing for sickness
and death when one is in health ; for it is hard to say, what one may be capable
of doing that way when he comes to a death-bed. But let men toss and wrestle as
they will with their sickness unto death; it will always be well with them that saw
to their soul's concerns while they were in health, and have not their main business
to do when death is come to the door : while it would be too much rashness to ven-
ture our souls in their souls’ stead, who, after having spent the time of their health
carelessly and irreligiously, begin, in their “sickness unto death,” to show a mighty
seriousness and concern about the other world.
For the right managing of this work, be advised,
i. To set apart some time for it, more or less, by day or by night, as your cir-
cumstances will allow ; so will ye get the business for the other world done in
health in your chamber, out-house, or field, with more ease and deliberation than in
sickness upon a bed. Tenants will take some time off their ordinary business to
go and take their land for another year; servants, to go and hire themselves into
another family: and so others in other cases: and will people not go a little off
their ordinary course of devotion, to make ready for the other world 2
ii. Begin the work with prayer to God, and then sit down and consider and open
out your whole life, in its several periods, before the Lord: beginning with your
conception and birth in sin; proceeding to take a view of the sins of your childhood,
youth, &c. And deal impartially with yourselves, in searching out your sins.
And when ye have searched out and reproached yourself with all that you can
find, know that there are multitudes which have escaped your notice ; Psalm xix.
12, “Who can understand his errors ?” And then view the curse of the law
justly due to you on these accounts; and thereupon take a view of the remedy in
Christ. -
iii. Then go to God in prayer, and confess before him accordingly, what you
were in your birth, what you have been in your life, and what you deserve to be
made in the other world. Go through the several periods of your life in your con-
fession, and lay out before him the particulars wherewith conscience charges you.
This is the way to vomit up the sweet morsel; and why should we hide, or stick
to confess our sins particularly, since we must all answer before the tribunal of
God? Having thus confessed your sins, confess your desert of hell and wrath for
them, and condemn yourselves, yet looking to God in Christ for mercy and pardon ;
1 Cor. xi. 31, “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”
iv. This done, consider the covenant offered you in Christ in the gospel, with
the perfect righteousness, full remission, and right to eternal life, held out to you
therein. Examine yourselves, as to your believing it, and your willingness to enter
personally into it, and to venture your salvation on that bottom, and to take Christ
in all his offices ; to resign yourselves to him as your Head and Husband, to be his
only, wholly, and for ever.
v. Then go to prayer, and Solemnly, in express words, from the heart, take hold
of the covenant, believing, and resting your souls on Christ in it, with an express
502 . A VIEW OF THIS
view to death and etermity; give consent to him in the gospel-offer; taking him in
all his offices, resigning yourselves to him for time and eternity. And ye that can
write may, for your comfort and establishment, write this your acceptance of the
covenant and subscribe it with your hand ; Isa. xliv, 5, “One shall say, I am the
Lord's : and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob : and another shall
subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of
Israel,”
vi. After that you may address yourselves to God as your covenanted God ;
laying before him particular petitions relative to your removal into the other world,
your reception into heaven, and the happy resurrection of your body at the last day.
Such a time well-spent would be the best spent time of all your life; and this
course sincerely followed, ye would be ready for the other world, come the removal
when and in what manner it will, so that ye might say with David, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5,
“Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlast-
ing covenant, ordered in all things and sure ; for this is all my salvation, and all
my desire, although he make it not to grow.”
(2.) Put your worldly affairs in order for your removal, such of you as have any
occasion that way. Be precisely just and upright in the course of your dealings
with men, that you may have nothing to leave that is not well come, as ye would
not leave a moth or a curse in it. Accommodate your way of living unto your abil-
ity, and go not beyond it. One had better live scrimply * upon what is his own,
than plentifully upon what is another's. Keep your business as far as possible from
a state of perplexity and confusion, by stating and keeping your accounts clear.
And one's testament lying by him, would not in the least either make him sick or
sore : but it would be a great ease when sickness or death comes, to think that
part of one's work is done already. And it would be no great toil for them that
can write to alter it from time to time, as there is any notable alteration in their
affairs.
Secondly, The next particular branch of exhortation which I offer you as native
from the text, is, Do not put off or delay to make ready for your removal into the
other world, but immediately set about it, since it is quite uncertain at what time
you may remove. To enforce this, I offer the following motives :
1. God has allowed you time to make ready, but not one moment to delay it;
2 Cor. vi. 2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation;”
Heb. iii. 15, “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” All the
time you have had since you came to the years of discretion, has been allowed you
to make ready ; so that, if you should now be removed unready for it, ye will not
have it to say that ye had no time for it. Perhaps it did not come in your head
to make ready for the other world, having been so short while in this. But whose
fault is that ? However, should you put it off but till to-morrow, ye do it at your
peril without God's allowance.
2. One hour's delay may be an eternal loss, yea, one minute's ; for this hour,
this minute, you may be removed into the other world. And where, then, is the
next hour, or minute, which you put it off to ? Why will men thus let slip the time
they have, and trust to a time they have not, and perhaps never shall have 3 What
a venture is it to venture an etermity upon an uncertainty ? Should one cast away
in a water put off till the next minute his taking hold of the rope, we would reckon
him a self-destroyer, because ere the next minute he may be at the bottom.
3. Though ye get the time ye put off unto, how are ye sure of grace to help you
to improve it? Though the ship be not gone off, the wind may be fallen, and the
tide gone. That is an awful word, that may justly strike with trembling, Luke
xiv. 24, “I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of
my supper.” Indeed, delayers to make ready seem to imagine, that it is in their
own hand to put themselves in readiness, when they think good : but, alas ! they
deceive themselves, 2 Cor. iii. 5. Common experience shows that, when such a
time comes, men are as ready for a new delay as ever. -
4. The longer ye delay, ye make the work of making ready more hard ; Jer.
* i. e. sparingly.—ED.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 503
xiii. 23, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may
ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.” It is like the mending of a dam :
take it in time, it will be the easier; but put it off, the breach grows wider and
wider, that will cost far more labour. Alas! it often fares with our Souls in this
case as with bodily diseases, which, if taken timely, might be carried off; but at
length they grow so inveterate, being neglected, that they spurn all remedy.
5. So far as ye delay, ye are unfaithful and cruel to your own souls, leaving them
for the time in hazard of perishing. If you had a child fallen into the fire or the
water, would ye delay to pull him out 2 Thy soul is fallen into a gulf of sin and
misery under the curse, and is every moment in hazard of falling down to the bot-
tom; why do ye put off? why do ye not presently set yourselves to make ready ?
Here I am aware of several objections, which I must answer.
Objection 1. I am but young yet : what needs so soon making ready for the other
world 2
Answer 1. And may ye not die young 2 Are there not in the churchyard such as
have died in childhood 2 are there not boys and girls in their graves there, young
men and maids, men and women in their prime 2 I suspect that, on a just calcula-
tion, there would be found far more such than those of grey hairs. Therefore delay
not to make ready though young.
Answ. 2. To whom should your youth and strength be devoted ; to God your
Maker, or the vain world? Whatever extravagant notions obtain among the young
with respect to this matter, I defy them to get a footing for them but in their vain
imaginations; not to be supported but by overlooking God and their Bible, which
lay them under a necessity of Solid seriousness, strict walking, and making ready,
as well as others. Are they excepted in the divine precepts and calls to these
things; or in the threatenings in case of neglect? No; Psalm czlviii. 12, 13,
“Both young men and maidens, old men and children: Let them praise the name
of the Lord : for his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the earth and
heaven :” i. e., Let them praise and serve God with the vigour of youth, and not
spend it on the vain world; it is God's gift, let them not sacrilegiously rob him of
the use of it, but seriously consider that caution, Eccl. xi. 9, 10, “Rejoice, O
young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth,
and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou,
that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove
sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; for childhood and youth
are vanity.”
Answ. 3. It is a rare thing to find such as are bred up under the gospel, and
spend their youth without making ready, to get grace to make ready after ; Job
xx. 11, “His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him
in the dust.” It is an ordinary thing in a vain world, for the young to think with
great reason to stave off the seriousness of religion till once they be married at
least. But it is a just and awful observe, that they who lived under the gospel
vainly and carelessly before, are rarely converted after they are married, but are
a step farther back from Christ. It is founded on Luke xiv. 20, “Another said,
I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.” And to confirm it, do but
observe, how many there are who, in their youth and single life, gave hopeful signs,
wither away when once dipt in the cares of a family. But in case of that grace do
reach you after that time, ye will readily find it a saving so as by fire ; being
. and bruised in your entry to it, at another rate than you might have been
efore.
Answ. 4. After all, it is a base and disingenuous thing to put off the answering of
the gospel-call and serious religion till once ye are past your best. How think ye God
will take that off your hand? Mal. i. 8. You will reserve the dregs of your time
for God, and give the cream and flower of your days to the vain world. I beseech
you, imagine yourselves in these circumstances applying to God, and beginning to
make ready ; and let conscience guess what is likely to be your answer and success.
Objection 2. My hands are now so full of business, that I cannot get opportunity
to make ready : but if I were at the end of such and such a business, and freed
from some entangling circumstances I am now in, I would set myself to make ready.
504 A VIEW OF THIS
Answer 1. Is not your business for the other world your main business? Though
your other business should go never so well, if that be marred ye are ruined, so as
nothing will make up your loss, Matt. xvi. 26. If that were once right, let your
affairs in the world be never so unsuccessful, it cannot make you unhappy. How
then can ye reasonably put it off longer ?
Answ. 2. Take heed that the business that mars you to-day from your great work
be not succeeded to-morrow with a business that will mar you more. It is ordinary
that he who puts off his great work to a fitter time than the present, when the
time comes he set, it is found less fit than the former. The case of Felix may be
a warning here, Acts xxiv. 25.
Answ. 3. That is at best a great and hazardous venture. Death comes in on
men in the midst of business without ceremony, however loath they may be to
break it off to prepare for death ; Psal. cxlvi. 4, “His breath goeth forth, he re-
turneth to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Luke ii. 20. Where-
fore let no circumstances, however perplexed and entangled, move you to delay.
Objection 3. It is time enough to make ready when one comes to a death-bed.
Answer 1. That is a manifest contempt of God, and of the other world. What!
Is the matter of the other world such a trifling thing, as to delay making ready for
it, till ye be able no more to pursue the things of this life 2 Is it so small a mat-
ter in your eyes, to obtain the favour of God, and a reception into his family above?
You will certainly change these thoughts.
Answ. 2. Ye may possibly get no death-bed, but may in an instant drop out of
this into the other world. Death sends not always messengers before, to warn of
its approach ; many a man in health has by Some providential incident been sud-
denly despatched into the other world. And delayers have ground to fear it to be
their lot in a special manner, as ye may see, Matt. xxiv. 48—51.
Answ. 3. Though ye get a death-bed, ye may be rendered incapable of making
ready by the nature of your disease. Though ye be capable, you may get enough
ado even to die, through a vehement toss of sickness. If there was one thief on
the cross that got repentance, there was another that died hardened ; and this is
most likely to be your case who so delay.
Answ. 4. Death-bed repentance is seldom sincere. What is recorded of the
Israelites in the wilderness may well have weight here ; Psalm lxxviii. 34–36,
“When he slew them, then they sought him : and they returned and inquired
early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high
God their Redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they
lied unto him with their tongues.” The terrors of death may make a mighty con-
cern about the other world in a graceless heart : but what sincerity there is for
the most part in these things, may be learned from the case of such brought to the
gates of death who, after all, turn just back to their old bias.
Thirdly and lastly, The last thing upon this use of exhortation is, Having made
ready, keep ready. Your interest as well as duty is concerned in this. Therefore
take the following directions.
1. Keep grace in exercise ; Luke xii. 35, “Let your loins be girded about, and
your lights burning.” Slumbering virgins, though wise, are not ready to meet the
Bridegroom. Let faith be awake, love kept warm, desires astir, &c. And labour
to be spiritual in all religious performances.
2. Beware of dipping deep again in this once forsaken world; of being drowned in
its pleasures, racked with its cares, glued to its profits, lifted up with its smiles, or
sunk with its frowns; 1 Cor. vii. 29–31, “This I say, brethren, the time is short.
It remaineth, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none ; and
they that weep, as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice, as though they
rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though they possessed not ; and they that use
this world, as not abusing it : for the fashion of this world passeth away.”
3. Be careful to keep a clean conscience, as Paul, Acts xxiv. 16, “Herein,”
says he, “do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward
God, and toward men.” Have you got on your wedding-garment ? keep it unstained
as far as may be ; and what spots are daily contracted, be daily Washing out, John
xiii. 10.
AND THE OTHER WORLD. 505
4. Be always busy in your generation-work, for the honour of God, and the good
of others, as ye have access; that the Master coming find you not idle ; Luke xii.
43, “Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.”
5. Live in expectation of the better world, and your removal into it; Job xiv. 14,
“All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come ;” 2 Tim. iv.
7, 8, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the
righteous Judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them
also that love his appearing.” Look for the day of your removal, as a day that
will be your redemption-day, your marriage-day, your home-going day, the day
better than that of your birth.
Upon the whole that has been said touching the other world, I make these two
concluding reflections.
1st, We will all at length be in that world, of which we have so long had the re-
port ; and we will see in it what we have heard about it, however foreign it appears
to us now. Some of our brethren and sisters have been carried off into it in the
time that we have been on this subject ; and certainly it is not for nought that it
has so long sounded in our ears.
2dly, However we may now lightly pass, and make very little reflection on what
has been said thereon, I doubt not we will all have our reflections upon it, when
we come there : particularly, whether we land in the upper or lower part of it,
looking back on what we have heard of it, we will have this reflection, That the
half has not been told. What others we will there have, the day will declare.
DISC O U R S E S ON PR A YER.
OF THE NATURE OF PRAYER IN GENERAL ; WITH THE IMPORT OF PRAY-
ING WITHOUT CEASING.
THE SUBSTANCE OF Two SERMONs PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN THE YEAR 1727.
1 THDss. v. 17.
“Pray without ceasing.”
THESE words are an exhortation briefly delivered, as laws use to be : and therein
we have, (1.) A duty proposed, “Pray;” (2.) The manner of it, “without ceas-
ing.”
§ We have the duty itself, “Pray.” It may be asked, What is prayer ? I
answer, It is “an offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to his will,
in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment
of his mercies.’ Here I shall consider,
First, The object of prayer, or whom we are to pray to.
Secondly, The parts of prayer.
Thirdly, The matter of it.
Fourthly, In whose name we are to pray.
Fifthly, The several kinds of prayer.
First, I am to consider the object of this duty, or whom we are to pray to ; that
is, God; not to saints and angels, as the Papists do ; for prayer is a part of reli-
gious worship, and therefore due to God only, (Matt. iv. 10,) and he only knows
all things, and is present everywhere to hear us, Isa. lxiii. 16. To all the three
persons in the Trinity prayer is due. That it is so to the Father, nobody doubts.
That it is due to Christ, the Son, appears from Stephen's calling upon him in
his last moments, and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” Acts vii. 59. Even
Christ the Mediator is to be worshipped, though his divine nature is the reason why
he is worshipped; Heb. i. 6, “And let all the angels of God worship him.” The
Holy Ghost also is to be worshipped, as appears from the apostolical benediction,
2 Cor. xiii. 14, “The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.”
In respect of the object of worship, people would do well to satisfy themselves in
their addresses to God, with the belief of the Trinity of persons in the Godhead,
Who aro but one object of worship, and not think to comprehend God, but to make
use of the names and titles he has taken to himself in the word. Beware of
maginations of God or the three persons, and of dividing the object of worship, as
if, praying to the Father, you did not also pray to the Son and the Holy Ghost.
It is most necessary our prayers begin with such a description of God, as may
both strike fear and dread in our hearts, and confidence of being heard ; as, “Our
Father, which art in heaven ;” “O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the
Covenant and mercy,” &c. Daniel ix. 4. And this will readily be the case, if we
have due thoughts of his glorious Majesty and infinite excellency.
Secondly, The parts of prayer are three: (1) Confession, (2) Thanksgiving, and
(3) Petition.
1. Confession ; Dan, ix. 4, 5, “I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my
confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant
and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; we
510 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
*
have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have
rebelled,” &c. It well becomes sinful dust and ashes, in addresses to God, to
come with a blush in the countenance, and tears in the eye, and confession in the
mouth. It is necessary to humble us in the sight of God, and it is the humble
only that are heard, Psalm x. 17. Confession is the vomiting up of the sweet
morsel, and God has joined pardon and confession together ; 1 John i. 9, “If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.” God's ears are shut to those whose mouths are bound up
from this. Some say they cannot pray. O can ye not confess what you are, have
done, and daily are doing? How can ye want prayer, while ye have so many sins
to confess 2
2. Thanksgiving; Phil. iv. 6, “In every thing by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be make known unto God.” Every man is God’s
debtor for mercies, as well as sins; the least return ye can make, is to acknowledge
debt. He that is unthankful for what he has got, cannot think to come speed in
addresses for more.
3. Petition, wherein prayer properly consists: It is an offering up of our desires
to God. Wherein we may note the act of prayer, “offering up our desires.” The
prayer that God makes account of is first in the heart; 1 Cor. xiv. 15, “I will
pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.” It is a pouring
out of the heart to God, Psalm lxii. 8. The Spirit of God moves on the waters
of our affections; and then they are poured out before the Lord, as the water of
the well of Bethlehem was by David. Many times our prayers come as mud out
of a vessel; but as water they should flow freely. Then,
In prayer there are real desires of what we seek of God, which desires are offered
to the Lord. The mouth must not speak out any thing but what is the desire of the
heart. It is dangerous to mock God, who knows the heart; to confess sin, and
not to have the heart affected with it ; to seek supply of wants from him, and not
have the heart impressed with a due sense of the want of them. There are two
sorts of desires. -
(1.) There are natural desires, which are the mere product of our own spirits,
offered unto God, but not regarded as prayer (Hos. vii. 14.) by the Lord. These
may be not only for temporal things, but for spiritual also, as those who said to
Christ, “Lord, evermore give us this bread.” A natural man, from a gift of prayer,
may seek grace and glory, as a bridge to lead him over the waters of wrath; but
coming only from their own spirits, such a prayer is not acceptable.
(2.) There are spiritual desires, (Zech. xii. 10,) which the saints breathe out
unto God, having them first breathed into them by the Spirit, Rom. viii. 26. And
these may be, for temporal things as well as spiritual, accepted, seeing they are put
up in a spiritual manner. These are always sincere and fervent, so as the soul
earnestly craves the things sought.
Thirdly, The matter of prayer, or what we are to petition and seek for. These
are, the things that are agreeable to God’s will. To pray for the fulfilling of un-
lawful desires, is horrid, James iv. 3. But the will of God is the rule of our prayers;
1 John v. 14, “This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing
according to his will, he heareth us.” We find the will of God in his commands
and promises. Whatever God has commanded us to seek, whatever he has pro-
mised, that we may and ought to pray for. These are, (1.) Spiritual mercies;
grace, glory, the increase of grace, comforts, &c.; (2) Temporal mercies; health,
strength, &c., mercies relating to our bodies and temporal estate in the world.
Some have no freedom to bring their temporal concerns to their prayers. That
we may and ought to do it is plain :
1. In that God has given them a place in his covenant; they are promised as
well as spiritual mercies; 1 Tim. iv. 8, “Godliness is profitable unto all things;
having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come;” Isa. xxxiii.
16, “Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure; ” Psalm i. 3, “Whatso-
ever he doth shall prosper.”
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DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 511
Prov. xxx. 8, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient
for me.”
3. Christ teaches us so to do in that pattern of prayer, Matt. v. 9, &c., “Give
us this day our daily bread;” where we may observe that they ought to have a place
in our prayers daily.
4. God has commanded it; Phil. iv. 6, “Be careful for nothing ; but in every
thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made
known unto God;” Ezek. xxxvi. 37, “Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for
this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” Compare ver. 30,
33, &c., “I will multiply the fruit of the tree,” &c. It is a general command, “In
all thy ways acknowledge him,” Prov. iii. 6.
5. Sin and duty are very large. Men are under a law as to their management of
temporal concerns, and light and wisdom should be sought for the same from the
Lord ; Psalm czii. 5, “A good manºwill guide his affairs with discretion.” No
doubt many things go the worse with us, that God is so little owned in them. If
that be true, that “God doth instruct the ploughman to discretion, and doth teach
him,” (Isa. xxviii. 26,) there is good reason we pray, that “God may establish the
work of our hands upon us,” Psalm Xc. ult. Surely those Christians that neglect
it, deprive themselves of many experiences of the Lord's kindness. For the tem-
poral mercies they meet with, were they answers of prayer, would be so many ex-
periences of the Lord's love, Isa. xli. 11. Nay, I think it were a piece of Chris-
tian prudence, for the child of God, when he finds his heart not so affected as he
would have it for spiritual mercies, to make an errand to God of a temporal mercy,
whereby his heart may be the more fitted for asking spiritual blessings; as we
have instances often in the Psalms, and also in the famous wrestling of Jacob.
Only,
ğ) Pray for temporal mercies for the sake of spiritual, not contrariwise ; Matt.
vi. 33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you ;” Prov. xxx. 8, 9, “Give me neither poverty nor
riches, feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and
say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God
in vain.”
(2.) Keep within the bounds of the promise. Now, all promises of temporal
things have this condition,--if they be for God's glory, and his children's good.
Pray so as you may be content to want them, if God see it meet. But as for
grace, the favour of God, and communion with him here and hereafter, it can never
be our duty to be content to want them ; 1 Thess. iv. 3, “For this is the will of
God, even your sanctification.” -
Fourthly, In whose name are we to pray ? In the name of Christ; John xiv.
13, 14, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”
This is to plead the merits of Jesus Christ. We must come to God in the name
of Christ, laying all the stress upon his merits. All things go by favour in the
court of heaven ; the Father hears us for the Son's sake. This implies that we
must be in Christ, before we can pray acceptably. But I shall consider this par-
º more fully, when I come, in course, to speak of praying in the name of
rist.
Fifthly, There are several kinds of prayer. I shall speak a word to these three;
ejaculatory, secret, and family. -
1. Ejaculatory prayer; which is a sudden despatch of the desires of the soul to
heaven, upon any emergent occasion, sometimes with the voice, and sometimes
without it. I will say of it,
(1.) It has been the practice of the Saints. Thus Jacob, when making his testa-
ment, says, Gen. xlix. 18, “I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord.” And when
giving charge to his sons concerning Benjamin, chap. xliii. 14, “God Almighty
give you mercy before the man,” &c. Moses, when brought into a great strait
at the approach of the Egyptians; Exod. xiv. 15, “The Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they
go forward.” David, when told of Ahithophel's being among the conspirators
With Absalom, says, 2 Sam, xv. 31, “O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of
5 12 DISCOURSES ON PR AYER.
Ahithophel into foolishness.” And Nehemiah, when in the king's presence, and
asked by him his request, says, chap. ii. 4, “I prayed to the God of heaven.”
(2.) Such prayers are very necessary. Light and strength for duty, against
temptation, &c., are often needed, when we cannot get to our knees.
(3.) They are very useful for present help, and are notable means to keep the
Soul habitually heavenly, and in a proper frame, when we make more solemn ap-
proaches to God.
(4.) It is no small mercy, that God's door stands always open, and that our
prayers may be at heaven before we can be at a secret place.
2. Secret prayer, wherein the man or woman goes alone to a secret place, and
they pour out their souls before the Lord. -
(1.) It is commanded expressly by our Lord ; Matt. vi. 6, “When thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which
is in secret,” &c. & -
(2.) They will have much ado to evidence their sincerity, whose prayers are all
before men; Matt. vi. 5, 6, “When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen of men,” &c. A hypocrite may pray in secret; but
a sincere soul will be loath to neglect it.
(3.) As no man knows our case so well as ourselves, so it is a sign of little ac-
quaintance with our own hearts, if we have not something to tell Christ, which we
cannot tell before others; Cant. vii. 11, 12, “Come, my Beloved, let us go forth
into the field: let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let
us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates
bud forth : there will I give thee my loves.”
(4.) The greatest enjoyments of the people of God have been in secret prayer: as
in the case of Jacob, Daniel, &c.
* Family prayer. God must be worshipped in our families, as well as in our
ClOSetS.
1.) God commands it, in so far as he requires every kind of prayer; Eph. vi.
18, “Praying always with all prayer.” The scripture speaks of a church in Aquila's
house, Rom. xvi. 5. Surely the family was not such a one that shut God out of
doors. The family-sacrifice was God’s ordinance ; Exod. xii. 21, “Draw out, and
take you a lamb, according to your families, and kill the passover.”
(2.) It was the practice of Christ, Matt. xxvi. 30; John xvii.; and of the saints,
as Job, chap. i. 5; Joshua, chap. xxv. 15 ; and Cornelius, Acts x. 2. Elisha
prayed with his servant, 2 Kings iv. 33.
(3.) The master of the family has the charge of the souls under his roof; and
surely the case of a family requires family prayer. Are there not family wants,
sins, and mercies, that require such an exercise ?
O what a heavy vengeance abides families that are without the worship of God!
Jer. x. 25, “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon
the families that call not on thy name.” That house that is not sanctified by
prayer, is like to be the house of the wicked, where God’s curse is. How will
ye answer for the souls committed to your charge, who do not pray in your families?
No wonder godly persons should scare at your family ; though, indeed, it is to be
lamented, that many professors, like Jonah, will flee from the presence of the
Lord, out of a praying family to a prayerless one ; whom a storm sometimes
UITSUI6S. -
p Before proceeding to the other head,—the manner of praying,-permit me to
make a very brief improvement of what has been said.
First, Let me address myself to those that live in the total neglect of this duty
of prayer. O repent and amend, and set about this necessary duty. Consider,
1. A prayerless person is a graceless person; in a state of wrath, in “the gall
of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.” No sooner is Paul converted, but “be-
hold he prayeth.” Still-born children cannot be heirs. The Spirit of grace is
the Spirit of supplication. The Spirit makes us to cry, “Abba, Father.”
2. A prayerless person is a thief and a robber of what he possesses in the world.
How darest thou use God's creatures, and not ask his leave 2 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5, “For
DISCOURSES ON PRAY ER. 513
every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with
thanksgiving : for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” Surely, thou
prayerless one, a curse is on thy house, thy basket, and thy store. But alas ! many
live like swine ; they never look up to heaven, nor cry till the knife of death be at
their throat. . - * - -
3. It is a privilege that God will allow us to come so near him, and to pour out our
hearts before him ; a privilege bought by the blood of Christ. The prayerless per-
son undervalues this rich privilege, trampling on that blood that bought it, which
will be a worm in his conscience in hell that will gnaw it for ever. -
4. Thy soul lies at stake. That dumb devil that possesses thee must be cast
out of thee, or thou art undone for ever. Thou art lost by nature ; wilt thou not
cry for the life of thy poor soul ? God says to thee, as Pilate to Christ, John xix,
10, “Speakest thou not unto me 2 knowest thou not, that I have power to damn
thee, and have power to save thee?” Thou canst not be saved without calling on
the Lord by prayer. - -
But perhaps one may say, I will pray on a death-bed. Answer, What if God
cut thee off in a moment ? what if thou die in the rage of a fever ? how knowest
thou that God will then hear thee ? Ponder and seriously consider what the Lord
says, Prov. i. 24–31, “Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and
would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when
your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction com-
eth as a whirlwind ; when distress and anguish cometh upon you : then shall they
call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early, but they shall not
find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord :
they would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof: therefore shall they
eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.” And
remember that such a conduct will bring you to that miserable pass described, Isa.
viii. 21, 22, “And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry; and it
shall come to pass, that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves,
and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto
the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish ; and they shall
be driven to darkness.” -
Another may say, I cannot pray. Answer, Will ye try, for God calls thee; thou
mayest expect assistance; Exod. iv. 11, “Who hath made man's mouth 2 or who
maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind 2 have not I the Lord?”
Seriously consider thy state and sins, and thou shalt have matter for confession ;
consider thy mercies, and thou shalt have matter for thanksgiving; consider thy
wants, and thou shalt have matter for petition. Though thou canst not express
thyself as some others, yet be sincere. Parents love to hear their babes that are
learning to speak; and God will never refuse to hear the sincere language of a
heart, though it is not expressed in the most proper words.
Secondly, To praying persons I would say, Continue constantly in this duty of
prayer, and never give it over as long as you live. Consider,
1. Your need, wants, temptations, Snares, &c., never cease, nor will cease while
ye are here ; and why should ye cease to pray ? God will have his people live
from hand to mouth, because he loves to have them always about his hand.
2. Praying is a soul-enriching trade. It is a trade with heaven, and brings
down temporal and spiritual mercies. He that drives this trade most diligently,
will be found the most thriving Christian. Surely the leanness among professors
is owing to this neglect in a great measure.
3. If ever a time called for prayer, this time does, while the ark of God is in
hazard, and damnable errors are spreading. O then pray, and pray frequently,
and ere long your prayers shall be turned to praises.
II. I proceed to consider the manner of praying, or to show in what respects
we are to “pray without ceasing.” This is not to be understood as if we should
spend our whole time in the exercise of prayer.; for there are many other duties,
both of our station in life and as chiº that we are bound to perform ; and
T
514 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
these must have their time ; and God does not bind us to inconsistencies. But we
must, - -
First, Pray frequently, as David did ; Psal. cxix. 164, “Seven times a day do I
praise thee, because of thy righteous judgments.” The Christian should be no
stranger to, but often at that work. It is a piece of walking with God, wherein
the soul seeks communion with heaven, and wherein he should abound, Col. ii. 6, 7.
We find Daniel frequently at it, when it was death to pray, Dan. vi. 10. See
Psalm ly, 17, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and
he shall hear my voice.” Hereby may be known what case the soul is in ; the
more diligent one is in this duty, he will be the more thriving.
Secondly, Pray statedly, without ceasing from the set times of prayer. These
are evening and morning. The morning and evening sacrifice were called “the
continual burnt-offering,” Exod. xxix. 39, 41, 42, as being offered continually at
those times which were the times of prayer, Acts iii. 1. The light of nature itself
teaches us to begin and end the day with the worship of God. And they should
be reckoned lost days that are not so begun and ended.
Thirdly, Pray occasionally, without ceasing from embracing occasions of praying
which the Lord puts in your hand. Do as David did ; Psalm xxvii. 8, “When
thou saidst, Seek ye my face ; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I
seek.” An observing Christian will sometimes find himself called to pray between
hands; and it is dangerous to sit the motion of an occasional tryst that God some-
times sets a person. To such a tryst there concurs, (1.) An inward moving of the
soul to converse with God by prayer, Psalm xxvii. 8, just cited; the Spirit of the
Lord exciting to duty, by representing a particular need, or fit occasion of converse
with God, and so pressing a man forward to the throne to supplicate : (2.) A fair
opportunity for it, Gal. vi. 10. And forasmuch as there may be motions to prayer
that are not from the Spirit of God, they may thus be discerned by the unseason-
ableness of them ; for the Spirit of God puts people to duty seasonably, Psalm i. 3.
Fourthly, Pray constantly ; Eph. vi. 18, “Praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.” There
must be a persevering in this duty, in the several kinds thereof, as the Lord gives
opportunity. And this imports a continuing the course of praying ; never giving
up with it while breath remains, nor giving it over for a time, Psalm czix. 112.
The latter makes way for the former, as swooning does for dying for good and all.
Fifthly, Pray importunately ; not fainting nor giving over your tabled petitions
as long as your needs remain, but resolutely pursuing them before the throne; Luke
xviii. 1, “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always
to pray, and not to faint.” Pray till ye get the answer of your prayers, if it should
be never so long delayed. God loves to have such petitioners about him as are reso-
lute, and will not take a may say,” as in the woman of Canaan's case, Matt. xv.
22–28.
Sixthly, Be habitual in the use of ejaculatory prayer ; for this is a kind of prayer
that can be mixed with whatever other good thing ye are about. There is an occa-
sion for lifting up the heart to the Lord in an ejaculatory petition, in every busi-
ness that is lawful, and in every company ; and there is always an opportunity for
it too. All our actions should be seasoned with it. -
Lastly, Keep your hearts always in a praying frame ; that whenever God calls
you, you may be ready as the soldier at the Sound of the trumpet, Eph. vi. 18.
Hereto two things are necessary. (1.) That ye keep a clean conscience, watchin
against sin, having habitually recourse to the blood of sprinkling, Heb. ix. 14. (2.)
That ye use moderation in all things, Phil. iv. 5. That joy or sorrow, eating or
drinking, working or diversion, that unfits a man for prayer, is too much ; for
glorifying God is our chief end, to which all other ends must be subordinated ;
1 Cor. x, 31, “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory
of God.” - -
Use 1. Of reproof to those that, being come to years of discretion,
First, Have not yet begun to pray ; but live like beasts, eating, working, or
* i. e. a refusal.—ED.
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 515
playing, and sleeping, but have not begun to pray to the God that made them.
Ah! know ye not that ye must die, and live eternally in another world? that ye
are criminals, and have forfeited your life by your sin Ż that ye must be pardoned,
or perish? And ye that have not set up God’s worship in your families, will ye
not give God house-room with you? Know your danger, and flee from the fury
which the Lord will pour out on those who call not on his name.
Secondly, Those that have left off praying. Sometimes they have prayed, but
have given it over now ; some in secret, and some in their families. Remember
that this makes you apostates, and that apostasy is very dangerous. Consider the
two following scripture passages, 2 Pet. ii. 21, “It had been better for them not
to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn
from the holy commandment delivered unto them;” Heb. x. 38, “If any man
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Thirdly, Those that pray now and then only, as it suits with their conveniency.
Some will pray on the Sabbath-day, when they have no other thing to do. Some-
times they are in a good mood, and take a start of praying ; at other times they
will rise from bed, and go to it, without ever bowing a knee to God. They will
pray at even, but not at morn. Some cannot be got to set up the worship of God
in their families in the morning; others for several days in a week have no family-
worship, sometimes in the year in the throng of business. Let conscience say, if
that be “praying without ceasing.” Is it not a contempt of God in his worship,
and like the hypocrite, (Job xxvii. 10,) of whom it is said, “Will he always call
upon God?”
Use 2. Pray without ceasing. For, (1.) Satan never ceases to seek your de-
struction, 1 Pet. v. 8. (2.) Your need of the Lord's help never ceaseth : ye need
direction, protection, life, strength, mercies of all kinds, spiritual and temporal.
(3.) Lastly, Time never ceases to run, and ye know not when it may run out.
There is good reason we pray always, since we know no time wherein death may
not overtake us.
Yi-wº ſº-º-º-º-º: de-º-º-º-º- ºr-. &- tº- §§º-” tº ,
OF THE SPIRIT'S HELP IN PRAYER.
SEVERAL SERMONs PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN THE YEAR 1727.
RoMANs viii. 26.
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groan-
àngs which cannot be wttered.”
SoMEWHAT of the nature of prayer in general, with the import of praying without
ceasing, has been explained to you. But it is not every kind of prayer that is
acceptable to God. Among praying people there is a twofold cry that goes to
heaven: (1.) The cry of strangers, not known and approved there. That is prayer
wrought out by ourselves, in virtue of a natural sense of want, by a gift of know-
ledge and utterance. (2.) The cry of children ; that is prayer wrought in us by
the help of the Holy Spirit dwelling and acting in us, and is accepted of God. Of
this our text speaks. In which, &
1. The connection is to be noticed, “likewise.” This chapter is an inventory of
the privileges of believers. (1.) Freedom from condemnation ; verse 1, “There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” (2.) Sanc-
tification; verse 5, “They that are after the Spirit, do mind the things of the
Spirit.” (3.) Comfort against death ; verse 10, “If Christ be in you, the body is
dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (4.) Sonship
to God; verse 14, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God.” (5.) Glorification abiding them ; verse 18, “For I reckon, that the suffer-
ings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall
be revealed in us.” From this high privilege the apostle looks down on the cross
and afflictions here laid on believers, and shows there is no comparison betwixt
these afflictions and that glory, they being but like a prick with a pin received by
one in his way to a crown. And this is a first grand consolation against the cross
laid on believers. (6.) The help of the Spirit for the present, in the text. And
this is the second grand consolation of believers under the cross. They have not
only, under all their afflictions, eternal glory made sure to them in the end; but
for the present time, while they are going under their burden, they have the Spirit
of the Lord helping them, and particularly in prayer, the noted relief of the dis-
tressed : “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,” &c. And that is a
great consolation under the cross.
2. The words themselves, in which we may observe two things.
1st, A general assertion of the Spirit's assisting of believers in the midst of their
infirmities. And here, (1.) There is something supposed, namely, That they are
compassed with infirmities while here. They are recovered of their deadly sickness
of sin ; but they are still weak: they are restored to life; but they have as yet
little strength, and are much bowed down with pressures on them. (2.) Something
expressed, namely, the Spirit's helping of them in that case. Weak people need
help, especially under heavy burdens. And believers want not help under theirs:
they have the best of help ; the help of God himself, the eternal Spirit of the
Father and the Son, the third person of the glorious Trinity, by whom the Father
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 517
*
and the Son do act in them. He “helps our infirmities,” that is, helps us in our
infirmities to whatsoever we have to do or bear.
This help of the Spirit is a joint action, as the word imports; q. d. He together
over against takes a lift of our burden. Where the Spirit helps, the man is not idle;
but while the believer is going under his burden, he lifts the heavy end of it, and
makes it the lighter to us: he does as the nurse with the child learning to go; the
child moves his feet, but she holds him up and helps him, holding it up by the arms.
2dly, A particular condescension, namely, his helping them in prayer, which
brings great relief under the cross. And here, 4.
(1.) We have a general infirmity that believers labour under, and that is little
skill of praying. Whenever the grace of God touches their hearts, they are set
a-praying: however, they are in it like bairns beginning to speak; while unbelievers
meanwhile are but like dumb people making a roar. Their weakness and unskil-
fulness in praying lies in two things, (1.) In the matter of prayer, “We know not
what we should pray for.” We are apt instead of bread to ask a stone, instead of
a fish a scorpion ; to pray for what would do us ill, and against what is for our
good. (2.) In the manner of prayer, “We know not what we should pray for as
we ought.” We cannot put our prayers in right shape, even when we are right as
to the matter of them. We cannot put our petitions in form, in the style of the
court of heaven. &
(2.) The Spirit's help afforded them in this case: “But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us,” &c. Where we may notice, (1.) The agent in this help, “the
Spirit itself,” rather, “the Spirit himself:” the meaning certainly is so ; for the
Spirit here spoken of is a person, not a thing, though, by reason of the language
the apostle wrote in, it is expressed neutrally. (2.) The help itself, He “maketh
intercession for us.” Christ intercedes for us in heaven; the Spirit intercedes in
us, by his effectual working in us, helping us to pray aright, and make intercession
for ourselves. He forms our petitions for the court of heaven. No gifts could
avail to this end. If the best gift without the Spirit were bestowed upon a man,
he could not make a prayer that would be acceptable to God, though it might be
much admired of men. (3.) An instance of a particular whereto the Spirit helps
in prayer, “with groanings.” Not that the Spirit's help in prayer appears in these
only ; but that even these groanings for divine aid, which believers have in their
prayer, though they may be reckoned small things, yet are really great and preva-
lent with God, as proceeding from and produced in them by his own Spirit; and
they are more forcible and expressive of the desires of the soul than any words, so
they are “groanings which cannot be uttered.” It is evident, that the Spirit of
God in himself doth not groan ; but groanings are attributed to him, so far as he
causes us to groan, by exciting our affections. Therefore his intercession is to be
understood of his causing and helping us to intercede in prayer for ourselves.
The following doctrines may be observed from the words thus explained.
DoGTRINE I. It is a comfortable case under affliction, where the party is helped
from heaven to pray under the burden.
DoCT. II. It is the privilege of believers to have the help of the Holy Spirit,
under the infirmities with which they are compassed while here.
DOCT. III. Such is the weakness of God's own children, that they have not skill
to manage even their addresses to God by prayer aright without the Spirit.
DoCT., IV. All our praying aright is so far done by the help of the Spirit, that
it is justly reckoned his work, his making intercession for us.
, DocT. V. The Spirit helps believers to pray, particularly causing in them gra-
cious groanings, which cannot be uttered.
DogTRINE I. It is a comfortable case under affliction, where the party is helped
from heaven to pray under their burden. This doctrine arises from the connection
and scope of the words.
In discoursing from it, I shall consider,
I. What is the help from heaven to pray under a burden.
II. The comfort that is in this case, * *
III, Make improvement,
518 DISCOURSES ON PR AYER.
I. What is the help from heaven to pray under a burden. I take it up in these
two particulars:
First, Help to lay the case before the Lord, and to table petitions before the
throne of grace upon the case. If any are thus helped, it is a token for good,
they may take comfort of it; Psal. lxvi. 16, 17, “Come and hear, all ye that
fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him
with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.” Little do we know how
to table petitions on our case at the court of heaven: but if a shower of trouble
should fall on us, and withal the Spirit of prayer be poured on us, we would have
no cause to complain. Though the Lord press down a person with the one hand,
and stir him up to the exercise of prayer with the other, it is a hopeful case, as
was that of Jonah, chap. ii. 1.
Secondly, Help to insist and resolutely to hang on and not faint, however long-
some the hearing may be, Col. i. 11. Thus the Spirit helps the children of God
in prayer; Psal. cxxxviii. 3, “In the day when I cried, thou answeredst me, and
strengthenedst me with strength in my soul;” 1 Cor. xii. 9, “And he said unto
me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
The patience of others in applications to the throne of grace will soon be tired
out : they cannot wait; so they drop the matter, (Job xxvii. 10,) and go to an-
other door. But those in whom the Spirit dwells see no other door, John vi. 68;
and the Spirit is a spring of living water in them, which causes them to hold on.
II. What is the comfort that is in this case. It is manifold. I instance in the
following particulars.
First, That is comfortable in it, that the native effect of affliction is stopped in
such a person by influence from heaven. Affliction in its own nature is a whip, a
brier, a thorn ; and the native effect of it is, to drive the sinner away from God,
to harden his heart, irritate his corruption, and make his heart a hell; Job xxxvi.
13, “The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath : they cry not when he bindeth
them.” But, by divine institution, it is a medicine, having a promise annexed to
it ; Isa. xxvi. 9, “When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the
world will learn righteousness:” and so it brings the believing sinner to God, as
the bitter potion causes the sick man turn to his physician, who would all he could
to keep himself out of the way of an enemy that had given him such a bitter
draught, Rom. x. 14.
Secondly, It is comfortable, even that the party gets a vent to his full heart.
Those in a trouble find a kind of relief in pouring out their heart into the bosom
of a sympathizing friend ; and it is an aggravation of affliction, when the fire must
burn in the bosom, and there is no access to give it a vent. How much more is
it a solid comfort, to be helped to pour out one's heart unto a gracious God, able
and willing to help in due time ! Micah resolved to take comfort this way ; Mic,
vii. 7, “I will look unto the Lord ; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my
God will hear me.” And Hannah got it; 1 Sam. i. 15, 16, “And Hannah
answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk
neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial : for out of the abundance of
my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.” Wer. 18, “And she said, Let
thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did
cat, and her countenance was no more sad.”
Thirdly, It is comfortable, that the Lord takes that way to draw the sinner to
him, and keep him about his hand, and it is effectual; Hos. v. ult., “I will go
and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in
their affliction they will seek me early.” We reckon in the world, that they are
in the best case that hold all within themselves: but in respect of spiritual thriv-
ing, they are fairest for that who are kept from hand to mouth, and never want a
new errand to God's door. The Lord loves to have his children always about his
hand, but they would be like bairns at their play about meal-time, that would
nover mind home, if hunger did not bite them; and so in effect it fares with many.
Fourthly, That is comfortable in it, that it is a sign of oternal good-will and
everlasting love to such persons; Luke xviii. 7, “And shall not God avenge his
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER, 519
own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though lic bear long with them ż"
They would be tired out, if they were not God's chosen, possessed by his Spirit.
Do ye see a place which is always full of water, summer and winter, in the greatest
drought 2 ye may be sure that is no pool, but a spring, John iv. 14. The man
prays and wrestles against a body of death, cries and goes on under a weight of
trials: he holds on notwithstanding of seeming fruitlessness. See the verdict,
Matt. xxiv. 13, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
Fifthly, That is comfortable in it, that his prayers shall be heard at length to
his heart's content, if it should not be till he get into heaven; Luke xviii. 8, “I
tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” The help of the Spirit in prayer is
a certain pledge of the hearing of prayer, James v. 18. If a poor man were to
petition the king, but had no skill to draw his petition; and the king should send
one from about his hand to help that poor man, and draw his petition for him ;
would not that be a sign that the king had a good mind to grant it? So it is equally
a certain sign of God's good-will to the praying person, and a certain token that
his prayers shall be heard to his full satisfaction at length, that the Spirit now
helps him in prayer, and, as it were, draws his petitions for him.
Sixthly, It is comfortable, that the party is, now and then, getting some off-
fallings about the Lord's hand; otherwise he would give over. In the way of duty,
wherein people are not formal, but truly serious, there is a concomitant reward;
Psal. xix. 11, “In keeping of them there is a great reward:” and particularly in
prayer; Isa. xlv. 19, “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.”
Though the Lord does not give the main request for the time, yet he gives some-
thing that keeps the heart from fainting; Lam. iii. 57, “Thou drewest near in
the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.” So we find it happened
to Paul; 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9, “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it
might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for
my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
From what is said on this doctrine, the following things may be shortly observed
for improvement.
First, The Lord's cross on his people's back, is better than the world's crown
on the head of his enemies. For there is more comfort in the one's being helped
from heaven to commit their case to the Lord, and depend on him for it, than in
all the prosperity of the wicked. For all is well that ends well; and the former
will have a joyful end, the latter a sad one, Prov. i. 32, 33.
Secondly, They are doubly to be pitied who are under an afflicted lot, and
withal strangers to the duty and comfort of prayer. This world is a place wherein
neither good nor bad will miss their share of crosses. But to see this world frown-
ing on a man, and, in the meantime, him not seeking his comfort from heaven; to
See a person full of matter of complaints, and yet having no heart to pour them
out into the bosom of our heavenly Father, is a sad sight.
Thirdly, Let praying people beware of afflictions deadening them, and taking
heart and hand from them in prayer. Satan will do his utmost to work up afflic-
tions to this pitch ; and when he has got it done, he has what he would wish, he
has an envenomed arrow sticking in their flesh. Let them haste to get it away,
as ever they would cast a coal of hell out of their bosom ; and remember that
“God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,”
1. John iv. 16; that “the Lord doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children
of men,” Lam, iii. 33; and that “all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” Rom. viii. 28.
Lastly, Let those who are helped to pray under their affliction be thankful, and
acknowledge God has not forgotten them. When the Lord's people have plied
the throne of grace long for a mercy, and yet it comes not, they are ready to think
that the Lord regards them not. But if ye be helped still to hang on, that very
thing is an evidence that this is not true, and it is a token for good in your case.
DooTRINE II. It is the privilege of believers to have the help of the Holy Spirit,
under the infirmities with which they are compassed while here.
Here I shall show,
520 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
I. What are the infirmities believers are compassed with here.
II. Why, in the depth of sovereign wisdom, believers are left compassed so
with infirmities while here. .
III. Consider the Spirit's helping believers under these infirmities.
IV. Make some practical improvement. - -
I. I am to show what are the infirmities believers are compassed with here.
First, They are always compassed with natural infirmities. -
1. Pure natural infirmities, which, though they be their weights and burdens,
yet are not their sins. There is a natural weakness inwrought with human flesh,
though at its prime of vigour, Isa. xl. 6; so that it was found even in the man
Christ, 2 Cor. xiii. 4. This makes God's children objects of their Father's pity;
Psal. ciii. 13, 14, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them
that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.”
Such are the need of meat, drink, sleep, &c., whereby the tabernacle must be
daily underpropped, Matt. xxvi. 41. Even Samson was sore pressed with such
infirmity; Judges xv. 18, “He was sore athirst.” -
2. Sinful natural infirmities, which are both pressures on them, and defilements
of them, wounding and polluting. . . .
(1.) Common to them all, namely, the remains of the corruption of nature,
which makes them all a company of poor weaklings, groaning under their infirmi-
ties, Rom. vii. 24. Their sanctification is imperfect; every grace in them has
the contrary weed of corruption growing by the side of it. Grace, indeed, has got
the house, but dwells not alone in it; the Canaanites are left in the land, and they
cannot quite drive them out. Hence is the struggle not only with those without,
but those within. - - -
(2.) Peculiar to every one of them, namely, the particular bias of corrupt nature
in each of them, arising from their natural constitution and temper; and this is a
cast of disposition to some particular evil, commonly called the predominant sin,
“the sin which doth so easily beset us,” Heb. xii. 1. Thus the peculiar infirmity
of some is passion, of others vanity, worldliness, &c. Every one will know their
own ; for it will be that which costs more struggle than any thing else, and in
which they will find need of the peculiar help of the Spirit.
Secondly, They are often compassed with accidental infirmities. 1
1. Sinless ones. Such are afflictions, trials, and temptations, which, though not
their sins, yet are heavy weights to them, causing them much need of help, as in
Paul's case, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, 9. Thus, diseases and ailments of whatsoever nature
go under the name of infirmities, as weakening body or spirit, Luke v. 15. Timo-
thy had frequent attacks by them, 1 Tim. v. 23. And in the road to heaven,
such weights and pressures one way or other will not be missed, Acts xiv. 22. '
2. Sinful ones; being wrong casts of spirit, arising from education or other
circumstances, giving them, as it were, a second nature. Such was the infirmity
of the disciples, whereby they were ready, on all occasions, to mind a temporal
kingdom of Christ, and to be stumbled at his sufferings; and the bias towards the
ceremonial law, which the believing Jews had remaining with them, Rom. xv. 1.
Hence, the infirmities of believers may be taken up in the following parti-
culars. -
1st, They have weak heads for discerning and understanding sin and duty,
snares, temptations, and proper means for eviting the one, and compassing the
other; Jer. x. 23, “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” The subtle
enemy is ready to outwit them, and by his devices to triumph over their weakness.
Therefore we are warned not to trust our own understanding, Prov. iii. 5. -
2dly, They have weak hearts for venturing on difficulties, which make them
ready to faint at the appearance of them, Isa. xxxv. 4. And the formidable
enemy is ready to damp them and discourage them. They know themselves how
little strength they have ; and their faith being weak withal, they are apt to sink
in their courage for doing and suffering. - - *
3dly, They have weak hands for doing of duties in the right manner, Isa.
xxxv. 3. They are not in themselves man enough for the most ordinary duties of
religion; and therefore, being left to themselves, they quite mismanage them,
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 521
John xv. 5; 2 Cor. iii. 5. And sometimes the Lord calls them to extraordinary
duties.
4thly, They have weak backs for bearing of burdens, so that they are easily
bowed down, yea, and foundered under them, 2 Cor. ii. 16. Their suffering
strength is small, considering the weak frame of their bodies, and the remaining
distempers in their souls.
II. I come now to show why, in the depth of sovereign wisdom, believers are
left compassed so with infirmities while here. Surely it is not for want of power
in their Father to deliver them ; for he is almighty, and, in the moment he gave
them grace, could have perfected them in soul and body. Neither is it for want
of love to and concern for them; for he has the bowels of a Father, and gave them
his own Son, which was more than all that. But so it is ordered,
First, That the members may be conformed to the head, Rom. viii. 29. Our
Lord Jesus did not enter to his glory but after a long track of sufferings, Heb. ii.
10. This was necessary in the case of Christ the head, for the purchasing of our
salvation, Matt. viii. 17; Luke xxiv. 26. And it is necessary in the case of be-
lievers, that they may be conformed to him, bearing the image of his sufferings,
for his glory. -
Secondly, That the emptiness of the creature may be discovered, and the pride
of all created glory stained, and that the crown may be put on the head of free
grace only; so that we may say, “The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain
the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth,”
Isa. xxiii. 9. Therein a scene is opened, wherein there is a full display of the
nothingness of the creature, that heaven may appear to be peopled with those that
could have no pretensions to it, but on the score of mere free grace.
Thirdly, That all the graces of the Spirit in believers may be brought forth
into the field of battle, and exert themselves, 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. There are some graces
whose exercise is to be eternal, as love, reverential fear, &c.: these will be exerted
in heaven as well as here. But there are others that are occasional in their exer.
cise, such as faith, hope, patience, watchfulness, &c., which agree only to a state
of imperfection: and there they have occasion to show themselves. So, for the
exercise of these, and trial of both sorts, the Canaanites are left in the land. And
therefore some are loaded with peculiar infirmities.
Fourthly, That the power of the grace of Christ may be magnified. The in-
firmities wherewith believers are compassed, make a scene wherein the power of
Christ is signally displayed, as says the apostle, 2 Cor. xii. 9, “Most gladly, there-
fore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me.” God could have seated Israel in Canaan, without stroke of Sword; but then
Joshua's valour, which appeared in the conquest of that land, had lain hid. Be-
lievers are committed unto Christ's hand, as the great Pilot, to guide them through
the Sea of this world, to the shore of Immanuel's land; and it will magnify the
power of his grace, that, by his conduct, so many broken ships are brought safe
ashore, through so many rocks and shelves, and suffering so many storms.
Fifthly, That the bruised serpent may be beat the more shamefully, and Christ's
victory and triumph over him may be the more signal. He encountered Christ in
person on the cross: and there he was overcome, the Son of God being an over-
match for all the power of hell. But that his defeat may be more shameful, he is
yoked with poor believers with a heap of infirmities about them: and by them too,
after he has done his worst, he is baffled at length; Rom. xvi. 20, “The God of
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” -
And here it is worth observing, that our Lord Jesus singles out some of his
people to combat with Satan, loaded with some uncommon infirmity, whereby he
has a peculiar advantage against them that he has not against others; and all to
make that malicious spirit's defeat yet more shameful. As if one, to pour con-
tempt on his enemy, should say, I will take such an one of my children that are
not quite recovered out of their sickness, and I will bind one of his arms behind
his back, and yet make him throw you down, and tread on you. Thus, Job was
Stripped of all his comforts; his children, wealth, and health; nothing left him
but his life, and his unkind wife that Satan had use for: and Satan makes a
º 3 U
522 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
furious attack on him to blaspheme, when he had him at all this disadvantage.
And yet he was baffled in the end; James v. 11, “Ye have heard of the patience
of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful and of
tender mercy.” And when the gospel was to be spread in the world, Satan had
the power of the sword and the learning in the world engaged in the defence of
his kingdom: and Christ singles out a few fishermen, neither swordsmen nor book-
men, Paul excepted, and they pull it down; notwithstanding all the magistrates
could do by their force, and the learned by their subtilty, to support it.
Lastly, To screw up the glory of the exceeding riches of grace to a height; Eph.
ii. 7, “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace,
in his kindness towards us, through Christ Jesus.” According to this dispensa-
tion, believers are drowned deeper in the debt of free grace than otherwise they
would have been, Rom. v. 20. By these infirmities wherewith they are compassed,
it comes to pass that their accounts of pardoning and supporting grace are swelled
with many items; the view of which will make them sing the praises of God in
heaven, on a higher key than innocent Adam would have done.
III. We shall consider the Spirit's helping believers under those infirmities they
are compassed with. And here I shall show,
First, The import of this.
Secondly, How the Spirit helps them under their infirmities.
First, I am to show the import of the Spirit's helping believers under their
infirmities. It imports in it,
1. A bent of heart in the believer toward his work and duty, set him by the
great Master, (Rom. vii. 22,) for what people have no mind to, they need no help
for. The heart of every child of God is reconciled to the whole law, Heb. viii. 10.
And what God carves out for him either to do or suffer, he would fain come up to,
Matt. xxvi. 41. Even when there is a felt averseness to it, this bent in the renewed
part remains with him, to which that averseness is a burden, Rom. vii. 22, 23.
2. The infirmities hanging about the believer make duty difficult to him : if it
were not so, what need would he have of help ? Matt. xxvi. 40, 41. These hang
like weights on him, and draw him down, when he would mount upwards: so his
executive powers cannot answer his will. He is at best like a bird flying with a
stone tied to its foot; whereby it comes to pass, that it cannot fly far till it light,
and the short way it flies is with difficulty.
3. The believer is sensible of his infirmities, for it is supposed that he is wrestling
under them, Rom. vii. 23, 24. He sees, he feels, that he is not man enough for
his work; that his own hands are not sufficient for him, nor his own back for his
burden: this is what drives him out of himself to the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
2 Cor. iii. 5. And thus he lies open to the help of the Spirit, while proud nature
in unbelievers is left helpless; 1 Pet, v. 5, “God resisteth the proud, and giveth
grace to the humble;” Isa. xl. 4, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low.”
4. The believer aims at and attempts to do his duty, over the belly of his in-
firmities. For helping is a joint action; Phil. iii. 14, “I press toward the mark.”
Many feel a difficulty in the weightiest parts of religion that makes them at length
to give them over. They neither have ability in themselves to master such a lust,
nor have the grace to betake themselves to Christ for the help of his Spirit. But
they sit down contented under it, soothing themselves with this, that every one
has his infirmity, and that is theirs; and so they discover their hypocrisy. But
real saints wrestle with their infirmities, sit not down, but go on though they go
halting.
5. The Spirit of the Lord comes in to the believer's help in this case, so as the
work and duty is got done. For “the Spirit helpeth our infirmities.” As the
nurse helps the child attempting to go, or one helps a man attempting to lift up
a weighty burden; so the Spirit helps the weak believer essaying his duty, to per-
form it. He stretches out the withered hand, and with the aiming to stretch it
out, power is sent in from above. *
Secondly, I am next to show how the Spirit helps believers under their infir-
mities.
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 523
1. He helps them by his influence in gifts. Here he does two things.
(1.) He bestows on them gifts necessary for the performance of what the Lord
calls them to, of whatever nature that be, temporal or spiritual; 1 Cor. xii. 8–11,
“To one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom ; to another the word of know-
ledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts
of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another
prophecy ; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to
another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self-
same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” The gifts of believers
are various, according to the variety of their stations in life, and the respective par-
ticular duties required of them in their stations. Every one has not all, nor will
ever have all ; because there are many of them which they have no necessity for,
in respect of what God calls them to. But there are two things I would have you
advert to.
i. Whatever good gift a child of God has, he will get use for it for God, soon or
late, (1 Cor. xii. 7,) though for a time he may have little or none for it. For in
that case the Spirit lays in aforehand for their help. David had the gift of music
in his younger years; the use of it for God appeared afterward, when on that
account he was sent for to Saul’s court, and afterwards he ordered the temple-ser-
vice in that point. Paul had a gift of human learning ; he got use for it after-
wards, when he fought those at Athens with their own weapons, Acts xvii. 28.
Moses had a gift of extraordinary meekness of temper, and Job of extraordinary
patience: each got as much ado with them for God.
An unbeliever, indeed, may have a gift which he never has any use for for God.
For he always does one of two things with it ; either he hides it in the earth, and
makes no use of it at all, (Matt. xxv. 25,) or else he uses it to the service of his
own lusts, James iv. 3, 4, But God will not let any good gift in his own people
lie by useless. •
ii. Whatever duty, in temporal or spiritual things, God calls a believer to, he
will, in a way of believing, get the gift from God necessary for it ; Prov, x. 29,
“The way of the Lord is strength to the upright;” and iii. 6, “In all thy ways
acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” For it is the office of the Spirit
to help his people's infirmities. And so a call from the Lord to any piece of work,
imports a promise of a gift of ability for it, the sap of which promise is to be sucked
by believing it: and it is withal a call to look to the Lord for the help of his Spirit.
For the Lord treats not his children as the Egyptian taskmasters did, who would
have the Israelites make brick without giving them straw. Moses is called to go
Jehovah's ambassador to the court of Egypt; he is sensible of an infirmity, but
the Spirit's help is secured to him, Exod, iv. 10, 12. Bezaleel and Aholiab must
work the curious work of the tabernacle. Where should they have learned it, when
they were slaves in Egypt at the brick kilns ? But the Spirit helps their infirmity,
bestowing on them necessary gifts, Exod. xxxi. 2, &c.
But in case the believer do not go to God for the gift in the way of believing,
no wonder he want it. For is it anything strange that the help of the Spirit is not
given a man in a particular wherein he does not look for it as he is commanded to
do? Prov. iii. 6. .
(2.) He influences them to the exercise of these gifts, Matt. x. 19, 20, “But
When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall
be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak,
but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” As every good gift is from
the Spirit, so the same Spirit has not given them away so to any but that he has
still lock and key on them, opening them out, and shutting them up as he will, Isa.
xxix., 14. Therefore there ought to be a dependence on the Lord for the help of
his Spirit, to the exercise of any gift necessary for what the Lord calls one to.
That unbelievers have a common influence of the Spirit, in the way of common
providence, to the exercise of their gifts, though they look not to the hand it comes
from, is for the benefit of human society: but even the Spirit's influence on gifts,
coming to believers in the channel of the covenant, their blunders and mismanage-
524 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
ments in the exercise of their gifts, are rebukes to them for their not looking more
to the help of the Spirit therein, and to bring them to their duty.
2. He helps them by his influence in grace. Here he helps their infirmities
three ways. g
1.) He preserves the grace he has planted in believers, so as it never dies out;
1 John ii. 27, “The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you ; and
ye need not that any man teach you : but, as the same anointing teacheth you of
all things, and is truth, and is no lie ; and even as it hath taught you, ye shall
abide in him.” The quickening Spirit of Christ being communicated to the dead
elect in the time of loves, they are made to live and believe in Christ, and so aré
united to him : upon which union the same Spirit takes of the treasure of grace in
Christ, and plants in the believer “grace for grace ’’ in Christ Jesus, Eph. i. 13,
with John i. 16. And this for all time after he preserves; 2 Tim. i. 14, “That
good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth
in us;” John x. 28, “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand;” Deut. xxxiii. 3, “All his saints
are in thy hand; and they sat down at thy feet: every one shall receive of thy
words,” that is, thy Spirit. Luke xi. 20, with Matt. xii. 28. Now, this is a great
helping of their infirmities, if ye consider jointly these four things. - :
i. That holy quality called grace is, in its own nature, a thing liable to be lost.
Adam at his creation was endowed with a far greater measure of it than any believer
has in this world : yet that holy fire in him was quite extinguished; that heavenly
plant, by one bite of the venomous teeth of the old serpent, died out quite, and
withered away. How then is it preserved in believers compassed with infirmities,
but by the help of the Spirit 3 Free-will in Adam lost it, but the free grace of the
free Spirit preserves it in weak ones of his family.
ii. It dwells with an ill neighbour, even the corruption of nature, that is quite
opposite to it. The old man of sin had the first possession ; the new man of grace
is brought in upon him, and meets with a continual resistance, yet is preserved.
There is the weight of a body of sin and death pressing grace in the believer, yet
is it not crushed to death. Whoso looks into his own heart, and sees what power-
ful lusts are there, must needs wonder to see the pearl kept in such a dunghill,
and the spark of holy fire kept in the midst of an ocean of corruption, and must
own it to be entirely owing to the help of the Spirit; Gal. v. 17, “The flesh lust-
eth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the
one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
iii. The whole force of hell is bent for its extinction ; 1 Pet. v. 8, “Your adver-
sary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.”
The image of God repaired in a believer, though but in part, is an eyesore to
Satan ; he cannot endure to look at it. Therefore he uses all his subtilty, power,
and unwearied diligence to raze it. He works against it incessantly ; turns him-
self into all shapes, that he may overturn it; employs his friends within, and his
friends without, to the same purpose: yet it is preserved. How but by the help
of the Spirit 2 1 John iv. 4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome
them : because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” -
iv. The believer in himself is but a weak creature : he has a weak head, heart,
hands, and back; is easily outwitted by a subtle enemy, discouraged, overthrown,
and bowed down. Innocent Adam's strength and skill failed in preserving the
grace received in his creation : yet the believer's grace received in his new creation
is never lost; though of itself it is a perishing quality, is surrounded with corrup-
tion, and the whole force of hell is employed to extinguish it. For why 2 the Al-
mighty Spirit helps their infirmities.
(2.) He excites grace in them, and brings forth into exercise ; Phil. ii. 13, “For
it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” If
the exercise of gifts depends on a common operation of the Spirit, surely the exer-
cise of grace on a special operation of the same Spirit. As the fire buried under
the ashes will not serve the purposes of the family's provision, nor the tree with its
sap retired into the heart and root bring forth fruit; so grace in the habit only is
not sufficient for duty. The holy fire must be blown up, and through the return
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 525
of the sap to the branches, they must bud and blossom. And this is the work of
the Spirit; Cant. iv. ult., “Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south, blow
upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out: let my Beloved come into
his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” Now the Spirit excites grace in believers,
i. By presenting objects to their minds fit to rouse it up, and so he acts as a
teaching Spirit; John xiv. 26, “He shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Corruption
thrives most in darkness, because it belongs to the kingdom of darkness. But
light let into the soul stirs up grace, therefore it is called “the light of life,” John
viii. 12. Thus the Spirit presenting a man's sin to him in its ugly colours, stirs
up the grace of repentance, Psal. li. 3; discovering “the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ,” it excites love; and discovering the creature in its emptiness,
excites contempt of the world. And this is a great help: for,
(i.) We are apt to forget these things, when we have most need to mind them;
as to forget human frailty, and divine might, when there is greatest need of con-
fidence in the Lord, against the terror of man; and the Spirit in that case is the
believer's remembrancer, and so excites grace; Isa. li. 12, 13, “I, even I am he
that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that
shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the
Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations
of the earth; and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the
oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?”
Our weakness in such points makes us need a monitor, being often like Hagar,
whose eyes saw not the well, though it was very near by, until God opened them,
Gen. xxi. 19. So that when such a thing is suggested, one is often made to
wonder how they saw it not.
(ii.) When we do mind them, we cannot command a lively sight of them with-
out the blowing of the Spirit, Hos. viii. 12. They lie before our eyes as so many
dry bones, till the Spirit set them in a motion by setting them in a due light.
Joseph's brethren could not forget that they had been guilty concerning him, nor
David, that he had sinned in the matter of Uriah: but till the Spirit set these
things in another light to them, they were not moved to repent.
ii. By touching their hearts and affections, and immediately bringing them forth
into exercise. Thus the sleeping spouse was awakened; Cant. v. 4, “My Beloved
put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.”
And so he acts as a quickening Spirit. The hearts of men are in the hand of the
Lord, to turn them what way he will: and so he moves them by a touch in com-
mon things, as he did the band of men that went with Saul to Gibeah, “whose
hearts God had touched,” 1 Sam. x. 26; and he also moves them by a touch in
gracious actions, as the spouse found, Cant. vi. 12, “Or ever I was aware, my soul
made me like the chariots of Amminadib.” As the thaw-wind makes the frozen
waters to flow amain, and the air in the bellows blows up the fire; so there is an
influence of the Spirit on the hearts of believers, opening them in the exercise of
grace, Phil. ii. 13. This is a great help to believers: for,
(i.) Their hearts are ofttimes very dead within them, when called to duty,
either doing or suffering; Cant. v. 2, 3, “I sleep, but my heart waketh : it is the
voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my
dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops
of the night. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my
feet, how shall I defile them?” Their affections are flat, and their souls indisposed
for spiritual action. But when the Spirit touches their hearts, they are fitted for
duty; their spiritual life is brought forth into liveliness and activity; Psal. lxxx,
18, “Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.”
(ii.) They can by no art of theirs remove that their deadness of heart and
affections, (2 Cor. iii. 5,) but they will lie windbound in the harbour till the Spirit
blow. They may be long toiling in rowing in the use of means, and yet be still
but where they were, for all they can do. But the influences of the Spirit rising
and filling their sails, they will presently make way, Cant. vi. 12.
Now, this double action of presenting to their minds, and touching their hearts,
526 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
whereby the Spirit excites grace, is signified to us by comparing the Spirit to fire,
which has both light and heat with it, Matt. iii. 11. And there is a twofold mean
the Spirit makes use of for that purpose, viz. the word and providence, of which
afterwards.
(3.) He strengthens and increases grace in them; Eph. iii. 16, “That he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might, by
his Spirit, in the inner man.” Grace is a heavenly seed capable of growth,
(2 Pet. iii. ult.,) and so admits of various degrees of strength, not only in different
persons, in respect of which some are little children, others youths, others fathers,
(1 John ii.,) but in the same person at different times; Isa. xl. ult, “They that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” And indeed of its own nature it
is a growing thing, as a seed: grace hath a seminal virtue in it, that fits it for
growing and receiving more strength, John iv. 14. Meanwhile the seed will not
grow unless it be watered from above: so grace grows not, but by the influence of
the Spirit; Hos. xiv. 5, “I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the
lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.” Now, the Spirit doth strengthen and
increase grace,
i. By frequent exciting it into action. The habits of grace, as well as others,
are strengthened by the repeated exercise of them. The more it shines, it shines
the brighter, Prov. iv. 18. It is for this cause that God has bound converts also
to the hearing of the word, whereby their graces are brought forth into one act
after another, as the object is still anew proposed: and for this cause he trysts his
people with a variety of incidents, afflictions, and trials, which bring their graces
into frequent exercise, whereby at length they become strong.
ii. By bringing forth into exercise one grace, he strengthens the rest; 2 Pet. i.
5–8, “And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ; and to
virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience;
and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” As a mason, by laying on a new stone in his wall, fastens the rest under
it; or the sheaves of corn stand the more firmly, that one is set at the side of an-
other: so one grace is still the better of another joined to it in the exercise thereof.
So humility strengthens meekness and patience, love strengthens obedience in all
points, and faith strengthens all together; like a band or key-stone in an arch,
the more firm it is, the firmer is the whole arch; so the Spirit, by bringing forth
one grace in the believer's heart after another, strengthens the whole collection,
and makes it the more firm and steady.
iii. By affording them Christian experiences, whereby they find the truth and real-
ity of what they have believed, and the blessed sensible advantage of the exercise of
grace; Rom. v. 3–5, “We glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh
patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not
ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us.” Experienced Christians are therefore always the strongest
Christians, even as the spoil got in one battle helps the soldier to fight the more
stoutly in the next, 1 Sam. xvii. 36; 2 Tim. iv. 17, 18. Former experiences are
the traveller to Zion's way-marks in dark steps, and his cordials in difficult ascents.
Every taste of divine goodness and grace refreshes and strengthens. Now, it is
the Spirit that gives these experiences; John xvi. 14, “He shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you.”
iv. By immediate supplies of grace; Phil. i. 19, “I know that this shall turn to
my salvation, through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
As the lamp is preserved from going out, and is caused to burn more vigorously,
by new oil poured in ; so grace is strengthened by the Spirit giving new supplies
thereof, Isa. xliv. 3, 4. Hence the Spirit is said to “build us for an habitation to
God,” Eph. ii. ult. He works the first grace; and all the intermediate supplies
of it, and the perfecting of it, are his ; Psalm czxxviii, ult, “The Lord will perfect
that which concerneth me.” Now, this is a great help : for,
(i.) Weighty is the work that lies to the believer's hand; doing work, suffering
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER, 527
work. The Christian life is no easy life, however men that go no further than the
outside of it may make it so to themselves. It is a striving, taking by force, run-
ning, labouring, fighting, &c. How could it be managed, but that the Spirit
helps ? *
(ii.) Great is the opposition that they must work against; Eph. vi. 12, “For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
The wind will be blowing in their face from hell at all times; and sometimes they
will meet with violent storms. How could they stand against it, if the Spirit did
not help ? *
(iii.) Weak are the hands that work is put into, that has all that opposition.
There is a feebleness natural to them, that makes them oft hang down. How
could they ever do that work maugre * so much opposition, but that the Spirit
helps them ?
The means which the Spirit of God makes use of to preserve, excite, and
strengthen grace in believers, and so to help them, are two.
1. Providences; Psalm xcii. 4, “For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through
thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands,”. The kingdom of providence
is put in the hand of the Mediator, for the behoof of the kingdom of grace ; and
he guides it by his Spirit. The wheels of providence are managed by the Spirit,
(Ezek. i. 20,) and so managed as to help believers in their infirmities. And here
two things are especially to be noticed.
(1.) Seasonable turns of the wheel of providence, whereby the believer's wain is
often kept up when it is at the oversetting ; 1 Cor. x. 13, “God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the tempta-
tion also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it ;” Psalm Xciv. 18,
“When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.” Thus many
times the believer is brought to an extremity, as Isaac when the knife was at his
throat, when providence seasonably interposes for his relief and outgate, Psalm
cxxv. 3.
(2.) Seasonable intermixtures of providence. Thus the Spirit intermixes
encouraging dispensations with difficult duties, (Judges vii. 13, 14,) merciful
incidents with their sharp afflictions; and on the other hand, afflicting incidents
with their prosperity: and all that they may neither be swallowed up with adver-
sity, nor destroyed with prosperity. -
2. Ordinances; Isa. xii. 3, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the
wells of salvation.” These are instituted by the King of Zion, for the special
means of grace, whereby his Spirit is to work, and to render them effectual. And
the experience believers have of the Spirit's helping their infirmities by these,
makes them very precious in their sight. And among these there are two espe-
cially used for this end. .
i. The sacraments. They are exciting and strengthening ordinances particularly,
and consequently preservative of grace. The eunuch's experience witnesseth this
as to baptism ; Acts viii. 39, “He went on his way rejoicing.” And the Lord's
supper is “the communion of the body and blood of Christ,” (1 Cor. x. 16,) which,
by the Spirit's working, has been to the experience of many a great help.
ii. The word. This is the most special mean. Providence has its efficacy from
the word, and so have the sacraments. It is their continual mean of help, their
every-day's meal, which they can go to when providence is most lowering, and
sacramental occasions offer not. And the Spirit uses it for their help three ways.
(i.) Preached; 1 Cor. i. 21, “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to
save them that believe.” This affords to the attentive believer a continued occa-
sion of the exercise of his faith and love, while a variety of spiritual truths and
objects are represented to him, in their turn ; which the Spirit makes use of to
draw forth his graces into exercise. Whence believers go away instructed, warmed,
strengthened, in a word, edified, by reason of so many actings of grace, during
their hearing, like the two disciples going to Emmaus, when they said, “Did not
* i. e. notwithstanding, in spite of.-E.D.
528 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened
to us the scriptures 2" Luke xxiv. 32. s
(ii.) Read; 1 Tim. iv. 13, “Till I come, give attendance to reading.” This has
the same advantages attending it. Thereby the Spirit of God speaks immediately
to the believer by his own word in his own express terms. And the experience of
the usefulness of this mean has made saints prize their Bibles as their life.
(iii.) Suggested; John xiv. 26, “He shall bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.” The bringing of the word to mind with a man
is the office of the Spirit; and by that means he helps believers’ infirmities, bring-
ing a word suitable to their case into their remembrance, whether to clear them in
doubts, comfort them under pressures, direct them in difficulties, or check them
for their debordings, &c. And herein he uses often the very words of the Bible;
always what is the sense and doctrine of the Bible. And, - * -
1st, Sometimes the Spirit barely suggests the word to the mind, without any
peculiar light about it, or power impressing it ; John xiv. 26, just cited. Thus it
is presented as an object for the believer to act faith on, and is a call to look up to
the Spirit to enlighten it, and help to believe it, Acts viii. 30, 31. And thus a
word at first coming in this way, comes afterwards to be illuminated, by the
Spirit's shining on it to the man. - -
2dly, Sometimes there is a peculiar light and power that comes along with it at
the very first, clearly holding out the meaning of it, and impressing it so on their
hearts that they must needs believe and embrace it ; John ii. 17, “And his disci-
ples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”
There were many Old Testament passages, speaking more clearly of Christ, which
they understood not ; but the Spirit thus suggested this to them.
Meanwhile it is to be observed, that all suggestions of the word are not from the
Spirit of God. That Satan may suggest scripture to a man, is evident from Matt.
iv. 6. Therefore is that warning, 1 John iv. 1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits whether they are of God : because many false prophets are gone
out into the world.” But the cloven foot may be discerned in such cases two ways.
[1..] They are always of a tendency to drive sinners away from Christ ; 1 John
iv. 2, 3, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God.” And they tend to drive out of
the road of duty; Matt. iv. 6, “And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down : for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning
thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy
foot against a stone.” This was the design of the testimony he gave to Christ and
to his apostles; while the testimony was indeed true in itself, he gave it maliciously,
for an ill end. Therefore, mark the tendency of suggestions of the word. What-
ever tends to carry off from faith in Christ, or from any point of commanded duty,
is not from the Spirit. For his work tends to faith and sanctification. Hence,
[2.] They are always applied by him contrary to their true sense and scope; for-
asmuch as the Lord’s word cannot serve an ill purpose, unless it is wrested: as
is evident from what the devil says to Christ, Matt. iv. 6, above cited, compared
with Psalm xci. 11, 12, “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep
thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy
foot against a stone.” And therefore the Scripture-passage is to be considered, and
how it agrees with other scriptures as to the sense and scope in which it is suggested;
Matt. iv. 7, “Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God.” The Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth,” and leads to the true
sense and scope of Scripture, John xvi. 13. sº- -
I add one observation more on the means, namely, That sometimes the Spirit
helps believers' infirmities by a particular providence trysting the word to their
case. This often comes to pass in hearing the word preached, while the word in
its ordinary course is brought directly to what is their case in the time; so that
it is like the Midianite's telling his dream, (Judges vii. 12,) while Gideon, unknown
to him, was overhearing : or they are providentially led to such a place where such
a word suitable to their case is handled, Cant. iii. 3. The same particular provi-
.*
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 529
*d
dence appears often in the reading of the word, whether at family-worship, or in
secret, or by some providential casting of it in one's way. I think it dangerous to
make a fortune-book of the Bible, as some, under temptation, have opened the Bible
to know their case by the first word that should cast up to them. This is an
unwarrantable and dangerous practice, though a merciful God may sometimes
condescend to outshoot the devil in his own bow, as in the case of her who threw
the glass at the wall, and it broke not. But when people are thus met in the
way of their duty, or surprised with a word suited to their case, the work of the
Spirit is to be owned in it, as an accomplishment of the promise, Isa. xxx. 21,
“Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, This is the way, walk ye in it,
when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” Certainly the Spirit
gives instruction, reproof, invitations to unbelievers this way; and much more helps
the infirmities of his people the same way: for so the word is in its true use ;
2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” And this
should recommend the reading of the word of God in an ordinary.*
I shall now make some short improvement of this doctrine.
Use 1. Of information. This teaches us and shows, -
First, That believers owe their spiritual strength and comfort to the same hand
that they owed their spiritual life to. As the mother who brought forth the child
nurses it with her own breasts; so the Spirit, who is to the elect the Spirit of life
to quicken them lying dead in sin, is likewise the Comforter to strengthen them
under their infirmities, when spiritually alive ; John vi. 63, and xvi. 13, compare
Psalm crxxviii. ult.
Secondly, The Lord calls none of his people to any duty but they may get it
done acceptably, however difficult it is. For the help of his own Spirit is their
allowance; Phil. iv. 13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me.” Here is the great difference betwixt those under the law and under grace.
The law or covenant of works exacts duty rigidly, but affords no help : the cove-
nant of grace affords the promise of help with the command ; for the latter is, but
the former is not, “the ministration of the Spirit,” 2 Cor. iii. 8.
Thirdly, How that gospel paradox, 2 Cor. xii. 10, “When I am weak, then am
I strong,” is so often verified in the experience of the saints. Many a time, when
they are strong and well-buckled in all appearance for a work, it miscarries: why?
they do not go out of themselves in a way of believing, and so the Spirit withdraws.
At other times, they see themselves quite out of case and ability to manage such a
work, and yet it succeeds: why? the Spirit comes in to their help, while they are
Sensible of need. .
Use 2. Of reproof. It may reach a reproof, .
First, To believers sometimes venturing on duties more in confidence of their
own abilities, than of the Spirit's help, as Peter did when he said, “Though all
men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended,” Matt. xxvi. 33.
This is the cause that the duty is marred ; the bow so bended cannot miss to break.
It is sometimes marred as to the very getting it done, and always to its accept-
ance with God.
Secondly, To unbelievers, who neither have the Spirit, nor are careful to have
him dwelling in them and influencing them. Their best works are “dead works,”
having nothing of the quickening and sanctifying Spirit in them ; and they
themselves are but natural men, spiritually dead, Jude 19. Whatever flourish
they make with their gifts in duties, their best duties will no more be accepted of
sº than carrion or a beast that died of itself, would have been accepted on the
&ltar, - - -
. Thirdly, To those who press on men still this and the other duty, without lead-
ing them to Jesus Christ for his Spirit and grace. This is “another gospel,” that
Will never make men holy, (Gal. iii. 2,) for it is not “the ministration of the Spirit.”
And the same veil they cast over the Spirit and grace of Christ, they will always
* i. e. in regular course.—ED.
3 X
530 IDISCOURSES ON PR AYER.
be found to cast over the corruption of man's nature too, that they may with some
decency say to every man, “Physician, healthyself.”
Use 3. Of exhortation. And, -
First, To natural men void of the Spirit, Be concerned to get the Spirit first
to quicken you, and then to assist and help you. Ye can do nothing acceptable to
God in that state ; and no wonder, for ye have not the gracious help of the Spirit,
without which ye can have no access to God, Eph. ii. 18. So ye and your works
are both dead carcases before him. - .
Therefore come to Christ in the way of believing ; for the fulness of the Spirit
is lodged in him to be communicated, Rev. iii. 1. So uniting with him ye shall
receive the Spirit. The fire that was set to the incense, was brought from the altar
of burnt-offering. See John xx. 22, and Gen. ii. 7. . .
Secondly, To believers. (1.) Let this comfort you under, and reconcile you to,
the state of infirmities, wherewith ye are compassed, 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10. Though
sinless infirmities are not to be desired, and sinful ones are much to be lamented ;
yet it is matter of rejoicing, that in these the Spirit gives sweet experience of
his help. (2) Learn to look habitually for the help of the Spirit under your infir-
mities. While ye consider what ye have to do or bear, it is reasonable you cast
one eye on your infirmity, but another eye upward for the Spirit's help. And by
this means you will get his help ; Luke xi. 13, “If ye, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?” - -
DocTRINE III. Such is the weakness of God's own children, that they have not
skill to manage even their addresses to God by prayer aright, without the Spirit.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself mak-
‘eth intercession for us. They are like young children putting their hand to a work,
‘but with so little skill, that they must needs have one to stand over them, and
direct them at every turn. - - -
In discoursing from this point, I shall show,
I. What is implied in this truth. -
II. Wherein believers are ready, through their weakness, to mistake, go wrong,
and mismanage in their prayers.
III. Apply. - -
I. I shall show what is implied in this truth. It implies,
First, That they are not of themselves able for what is to be done and borne in
the Christian life, 2 Cor. iii. 5. So far from it, that they do not well know what
is necessary for their help, what to seek of God for that end, and how to seek it.
If a duty is to be done, a cross to be borne, they are at a loss there through weakness
and infirmity; that sets them to their prayers: but then they are at a loss there
again, they know not what and how to ask.
Secondly, That the children of God are all praying persons, Zech. xii. 10. If
they can speak at all, they will speak to God by prayer: and even when they either
cannot speak, or have no access to speak, if they have the exercise of judgment,
they will pray in their hearts, 1 Cor. xiv. 15. So the habitual neglect of prayer
is none of the spots of God’s people. There is no child so unnatural, as to be still
in his Father's presence, and never to converse with him. - - -
Thirdly, A gift of prayer, without the Spirit of prayer, cannot be sufficient to
make one right prayer, that will be acceptable to God, John iv. 24. Gifts of
prayer are bestowed on believers, as well as others: but still, they know not what
to pray for as they ought, without the Spirit prompting them. The prayer that is
the mere exercise of a gift may, indeed, be edifying to the hearers, but cannot be
acceptable to God. - - " . . " . . . . . º º
Fourthly, Nay, habitual grace is not sufficient for praying aright; for still there
is a necessity of actual assistance from the Spirit; Psalm lxxx. 18, “Quicken us,
and we will call upon thy name.” Life is not sufficient for making a discourse
to our prince ; a man may have life, and yet not be able to speak a word: but
some vigour and liveliness is necessary to such a purpose. . So spiritual life never
departs wholly from the believer, (1 John iii. 9,) but it must be breathed on anew
DISCOURSES ON, PRAYER. 53 I
to fit him for praying, Cant. iv. ult, New influences are still necessary; hence is
the promise, Isa. xxvii. 3, “I will water it every moment.”
Lastly, Prayers are marred so far as the Spirit of God does not assist the party
in them ; they are marred so far in point of acceptance with God, Eph. ii. 18. As
no prayer can be accepted but through Christ's intercession, so none will be offered
to God by the Intercessor farther than it is the product of the influence of his own
Spirit. Nadab and Abihu's hearth-fire offered with the incense, was a costly les-
son of this, Lev. x. 1–3. So, if through the whole prayer, the Spirit's assistance
is wanting, the whole will be unaccepted; if in any of it, that wherein it is want-
ing will be so. - -
II. The next head is to show, wherein believers are ready, through their weak-
ness, to mistake, go wrong, and mismanage in their prayers. They are ready to
do so both in the matter and manner of them.
First, In the matter of prayer: “We know not what to pray for.” Even the
things to be prayed for, they are not so well versed in them, but they are ready to
go wrong therein. So that they need the Spirit's teaching, to tell them and make
them take up their errand, when they are going and come to God in prayer; they
need to be set right, and kept right, in the very matter of prayer. Their weakness
in this point appears, in that,
1. They are apt to pray against their own mercy. Thus did Job; chap. vi. 8,
9, “O that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that
I long for even that it would please God to destroy me ; that he would let loose
his hand and cut me off " When Satan was permitted to take all from him, there
was an express reserve of his life as the greatest mercy: but he prays very earnestly
against it, though no doubt at long-run Job blessed God from his heart that he did
not hear him in that. We are so weak, that, in God's dispensations, many times
we take our friends for our foes, and call what is for our good evil, as Jacob did
when he said, “All these things are against me,” Gen. xlii. 36.
2. They are apt to seek what is not so good, as God has a mind to give them ;
2 Cor. xii. 8, 9, “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart
from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee.” To be freed
from the “messenger of Satan’’ was good; but to have God's grace poured in
sufficiently to maintain the combat, was better. And therefore Paul, upon reflec-
tion, takes God's way to have been better than what he himself proposed ; verse 9,
“Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me.” Narrow asking ofttimes makes narrow receiving. It
fares with believers sometimes as with Joash ; 2 Kings xiii. 18, 19, “Elisha said
unto him, Take the arrows: and he took them. And he said unto the king of
Israel, Smite upon the ground ; and he smote thrice, and stayed. And the man
of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldst have smitten five or six times,
then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it : whereas now thou shalt
Smite Syria but thrice.” They “are straitened in their own bowels” in asking,
and therefore they come not speed. - •
3. They are apt to seek what would be for their hurt. So did Jonah, when he
“wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live,” chap.
iv. 8. It would have been very ill for Jonah to have died in such a bad frame and
temper of spirit as he was then in. And if God had struck him immediately, it is
like he would immediately have changed his note. David prayed for the life of
the child, 2 Sam. xii. 16; but God took it away, for it would have been a living
blot upon him. As a foolish child seeks a knife to play with, which he can do
nothing with but hurt himself; so we are apt to seek from God what in mercy he
keeps from us. º - *
4. They are apt to seek food for their corrupt lusts and affections; Matt. xx.
20, 21, “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children, with her sons, wor-
shipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt
thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit the one on thy
right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.” James and John were
tickled with a lust of ambition, and they seek honour to satisfy it. And it is God's
goodness to his people in such a case, not to do with them as he did with the lusting
532 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
Israelites, Psalm cvi. 15, “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into
their soul.” Men may go wrong here, and not see their error till the Lord correct
it : for they may take lust for love, (Luke ix. 54, 55,) and so seek to feed their
enemies whom they should starve. * *
5. They are apt, through ignorance or inadvertency, not to pray for what they
really need for their case ; as the children of Israel, when they “went up to the
house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to
the battle against the children of Benjamin 2" Judges xx. 18. To pray for God's
presence with them, was not in their head: but that they really needed it, they
afterwards felt to their cost. Many sad experiences praying people may have of
this, which may show the need of the Spirit's assistance. Hence general and for-
mal prayers, little suited to the particular cases and exigencies of the party; which
is but trifling in so solemn and serious a matter as prayer to God.
6. Though they do know and advert to it before they go to prayer, they are
ready to forget it in the time. There is a forgetting of particular petitions designed
or coming of course, which is an effect of the Spirit's influence: in that case, the
forgotten petition is from one's own spirit, not from the Spirit of God; as in the
instance of the prodigal son, (Luke xv.,) what he designed to say to his father, verse
19, “Make me as one of thy hired servants,” when he came to him, he forgets,
verse 21. There is such a forgetting, which is an effect of our own weakness: in
that case, the petition forgotten is from the Spirit of God, the forgetting it from
ourselves, Heb. ii. 1. Thus going to God sometimes, we forget much of our
º whether by Wandering of heart, or being left to ourselves in the matter. In
a. WOTO,
7. They are apt to pray for things not agreeable to the will of God, that there
is neither precept nor promise for. The many petitions in which they are not heard
evince this ; because, “if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us,”
1 John v. 14. There is so much remains of corruption in the best, that it is hard,
even in our prayers, to keep within the compass of what is agreeable to his will.
I shall now endeavour to assign the reasons why God's own children are so apt
to mistake and go wrong, even in the matter of prayer.
The great reason is, the remains of darkness that are on the minds of the best,
while here ; Job xxxvii. 19, “Teach us what we shall say unto him ; for we can-
not order our speech by reason of darkness.” It is true, God's children are not in
midnight darkness; but their light is but a twilight, in which they are apt to mis-
take their way. And the more sensible they are of this, the more need they will
find of the Spirit's help in prayer. More particularly, we know not what we should
pray for, but are ready to go wrong, even in the matter of prayer. -
1st, Because we have at best but little knowledge of our own case : and no won-
der that they who are not thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the disease,
mistake as to the remedy. The blind man, Mark viii. 22–25, is an emblem of
the natural man, the true convert, and the glorified Saint. The child of God, while
here, “sees but in part,” 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Every believer is a mystery, Cant. iii.
6; a mystery to the world, a mystery to himself. There are many folds and plies
in his case, which he himself cannot unfold; plies of grace, sin, temptation, dan-
er, &c.
2dly, Little knowledge of what is good and best for us, Gen. xlii. 36. We see
the weakness of understanding in children makes them often to desire of parents
what really is not for them : even so it is with God's children, and therefore it is
fatherly love that denies some of their petitions; as in the case of Job, Jonah, and
others. We are apt to think that that is best for us that is most pleasant and most
easy: but that is often a very deceitful rule. -
3dly, Little acquaintance with the word, particularly the commands and the pro-
mises, the measure of our petitions. There is much need of the Spirit's help in
that matter, John xiv. 26. We are ready to measure our petitions rather by our
own inclinations, than by the word: and many read the Bible often, that have but
very little skill of making a practical improvement thereof in their prayers, Mark
x. 35, 37. •
4thly, We are apt to take the subtile cravings of lust for the cravings of grace
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 533
or innocent affection, Luke ix. 54, 55. And thence good people unwittingly are
made intercessors for their spiritual enemies; which if they did discern, they would
confess their error, and retract their request. Sin dwells in the believer together
with grace, and that so closely, that the language of the one is often taken for that
of the other. r *
5thly, Believers are liable to prejudices, and wrong notions of things, which they
have drunk in from their education, manner of life in the world, &c. Such was
the disciples' notion of the temporal kingdom of Christ, that was the spring of that
rash petition of James and John, Mark X. 37, “Grant unto us that we may sit, one
on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.” Such was that
of the case of Gentiles among the believing Jews, that was the spring of the offence
taken at Peter, Acts xi. 2, 3, “They that were of the circumcision contended with
him, saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.” An
erring conscience will mislead men under pretence of divine authority, John xvi. 2;
Acts xxvi. 9. No wonder then it form wrong requests in prayer, Luke ix. 54.
6thly, They are subject to much confusion in prayer, both through natural and
spiritual indisposition, Psalm lxxvii. 4. Hence they are ready as Job did, (chap.
xxxviii. 2,) to “darken counsel by words without knowledge.” The exercise of their
very gift is not always ready at hand with them, far less the exercise of their grace.
An influence of the Spirit is necessary, both for the one and the other. And when
it is wanting, so that they are in no case for praying, no wonder they know not what
to pray for. -
Secondly, Believers are ready to go wrong in the manner of prayer: “We know
not what we should pray for as we ought.” It is not in vain our Lord gave his
disciples a direction in that point ; Matt. vi. 9, “After this manner pray ye,” &c.
The prayer may be right as to the matter, that yet may be mismanaged in the man-
ner of performance, 1 Chron. xv. 13. And, therefore, there is need of the Spirit's
help in this point too; not only to teach us what, but how to pray. Their weak-
ness in this point appears, in that,
1. They are apt to slip the best season for managing their address before the throne,
Thomas missed an opportunity of communion with Christ, that left him under the
feet of unbelief, while the rest were delivered from theirs, John xx. 24, 25. The best
season is, when the signal is given from heaven to the petitioner to come forward:
Sometimes the door is as it were cast open to him, and there is a sign given by some
inward motion of the Spirit, or some providential call, moving him to come forward.
The spouse missed this ; Cant. v. 2, 3, “I sleep, but my heart waketh,” &c., and
she smarted for it ; verse 6, “I opened to my Beloved, but my Beloved had with-
drawn himself, and was gone : my soul failed when he spoke : I sought him, but
I could not find him ; I called him, but he gave me no answer.” Moses was very
careful to fall in with it immediately ; Exod. xxxiv. 8, 9, “And Moses made haste,
and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, If now I have
found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us (for it is
a stiff-necked people) and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine
inheritance.”
2. They are apt to enter on prayer with a temper of spirit very unfit for such a
holy exercise ; being either entangled with worldly cares, or discomposed with
unruly passions, Luke xxi. 34; 1 Tim. ii. 8. They both make the spirit of a man,
like troubled water, unfit to receive the image of the sun, unfit for divine commu-
mications. Jonah's prayer behoved to be marred when he was in a fret. There-
fore the apostle exhorts married persons to take heed to their behaviour one towards
another, that “their prayers might not be hindered,” I Pet. iii, 7; nothing being
more apt to do it than domestic jars, Mal. ii. 13.
... 3. They are apt to be formal, lifeless, and coldrife in prayer, Cant. iii. 1; Rev.
iii. 2. We are called to be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” But even where the
fire of grace is in the heart, unless it be blown up by the influence of the Spirit of
God, the prayers will be mismanaged, Psalm lxxx. 18. There will be bands of
iniquity on the heart, which they will not be able to loose, more than to dissolve
#. ice with their breath: but “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
iberty.” -
534 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
4. Their hearts are apt to wander in duty, and will do so if the Spirit fix them.
not. Therefore David prays, “Unite my heart to fear thy name,” Psalm lxxxvi.
11. When Abraham had divided the carcases, the fowls came down on them : so
when one is conversing with God, evil spirits will be at work, to cast in something
that may divert him from the present duty, Rom. vii. 21. Many a prayer is lost.
this way, while the heart steals away after some other thing than what it should
then be on. - -
5. They are apt to content themselves with exercising their gift without exercis-
ing their grace. Therefore Paul warns the Ephesians, chap. vi. 18, to “pray
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and to watch thereunto with
all perseverance.” Hence many petitions, confessions, thanksgivings, all of them
just, yet lost, for want of suitable affections coming along with them. For it is
the exercise of praying graces, reverence, faith, love, humility, &c., and not the
exercise of praying gifts without them, that is pleasing to God.
6. They are apt to disproportion their concern to the weight of the matters they
pray for. This is carefully guarded against in the Lord's prayer, (Matt. vi. 9, &c.,)
where the glory of God has the first place, and there is but one petition for tem-
porals, and two for spirituals. But how ready are we to be more concerned for
our own interest, than for the honour of God; more fervent for temporal, than for
spiritual mercies 2 This makes the prayers like “the legs of the lame” that “are
not equal,” the affection being disproportioned to the matter.
7. They are apt to be too peremptory in circumstances without leaving a due
latitude to sovereignty. That is “limiting the Holy One of Israel.” This is often
done as to time, the timing of mercies, in which we are too apt to take upon us to
prescribe to the sovereign Manager, (John ii. 3, 4,) as to the manner of bringing
about a mercy, which, short-sighted as we are, we are very ready to determine.
And the same may be said as to the measure of mercies.
8. They are apt to mix their own wild-fire with the holy fire in prayer. So did the
disciples, (Mark iv. 38,) when they say, “Master, carest thou not that we perish Ż"
The language of passion is sometimes mixed with the language of grace in the
prayers of saints; which when they discern, they will be ready to correct, Psalm
lxxvii. 7–10. Hence there are expressions of Saints unto God, recorded in scrip-
ture, not for our imitation, but for our warning of this corrupt bias of the heart, as
Job xxx. 21, “Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest
thyself against me ;” Jer. xv. 18, “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound
incurable, which refuseth to be healed ? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar
and as waters that fail?” These he looks on as the ravings of his sick children.
9. They are apt to lay too much weight of their acceptance in their prayers on
what will bear none of it. It is certain, that there is nothing will bear any weight
of that, but the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, Rev. viii. 4. But the natu-
ral bias of the heart lies another way, to lay weight on the very performance of
the duty, and the way how it is performed, as with such affection, pointedness,
length, nay, the very voice, as insignificant a thing as it is before the Lord. Hence
our Lord cautions against “using vain repetitions '' in prayer, “as the heathem.
do : for they think,” says he, “that they shall be heard for their much speaking,”
Matt. vi. 7. And that the heathen laid much stress on a loud voice in prayer,
appears from what Pharaoh says to Moses, Exod. ix. 28, Heb. “Make ye supplica-
tion to the Lord, and much,” that is, Make much supplication. Compare 1 Kings
xviii. 28, where it is said of Baal's prophets, that “they cried aloud.” There
are remains of that legal bias in the hearts of God’s own children, Matt. xix. 27.
And it is only by the Spirit that Saints are brought to lay their whole weight on
Jesus Christ, Eph. ii. 18; Phil. iii. 3. . Otherwise their deceitful hearts will be
found disposed to slip aside that way, they being very ready to believe the accept-
ance of some fluent prayer of theirs, and hard to believe the acceptance of one that
goes not so fluently though seriously; yet the blood of Jesus is still the same
security. - :
10. They are apt to faint and give over, upon the Lord's delaying to answer;
whereas it is a chief piece of right management of business at the court of heaven,
resolutely to insist and hang on, Luke xviii. 1, 8. We are naturally hasty, and
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 535
long trials are apt to run us out of breath. There is need of much faith, that
“patience ’’ may “ have her perfect work:” and that is not to be reached without
the help of the Spirit, Rom. xv. 13.
I shall now give the reasons why believers are so apt to go wrong in the manner
of prayer. They are the following. t
1st, Because of the sublimity of the work, that is so far above our reach, that
we can by no means know how to manage it but as we are taught by him with
whom we have to do in it. To say a prayer in a formal uttering of words,
is no such hard work indeed. But rightly to manage an address at the throne
of heaven, on which sits the sovereign Majesty—and that about the weightiest
of all concerns—is such sublime work, that it passes the skill of the greatest orator
on earth to do it without the Spirit, Eccl. v. 1, 2. Were any of us to go on busi-
ness to our earthly king, would we not need to be directed by some knowing the
way of the court 2 How much more do we need direction from the Holy Spirit in
our addresses to the throne of grace
2dly, Because of the remains of corruption that yet hang about them, Rom. vii.
24. This is a clog at their heels at all times, and will not miss to exert itself in
holy duties; verse 21, “When I would do good, evil is present with me.” There
is much darkness yet in the minds of the best, as to spiritual things; no wonder
they know not how to pray as they ought. Much perverseness there is in the will,
both with respect to God's precepts and providences. There is much carnality and
disorder in the affections, as they all soundly feel that are concerned to get the
heart fit for praying, kept right in it, and kept right after it.
3dly, Because there is a subtile adversary busy to mar them in that their work,
Zech. iii. 1. He well knows that all the hope in their case is from the divine help;
and therefore, while they are before the throne of mercy, he will bestir himself
effectually to mar their application. He is an enemy to prayer, and therefore he
will keep back from it if he can ; if he cannot, he will do his utmost to mar it.
4thly, Because of the weakness of grace in them. Grace disposes men to pray,
Zech. xii. 10. But the weakness of that grace leaves them in hazard of misman-
aging in it. Sometimes it is not in exercise ; at best it is but weak, and mixed
with corruption; in the struggle with which it will be overcome, if the Spirit come
not in to its help. -
I shall now make some practical improvement. -
This doctrine may be of use, both unto strangers to God, and to his own chil-
dren. And,
First, Ye that are strangers to God, yet in your natural state, without the Spirit,
and therefore children of Satan, we may take you in these two sorts to be spoken
to, namely, prayerless natural persons, and praying natural persons.
1. Prayerless natural unconverted persons, such as are living in the state they
were born in, and withal living without praying to the God that made them. I
have two things to say to you from this doctrine. -
(1.) Learn from it, that this prayerless life of yours declares your case a very
Sad one. It declares you,
i. None of God’s children: for whatever mismanagements of it they fall into,
they all practise the duty of prayer. So of you that is verified, Deut. xxxii. 5,
“Their spot is not the spot of his children.” And if so, ye are the children of the
devil, (John viii. 44,) of the family of hell. And his possession of you remains
undisturbed to this day, since ye have never been so far awakened, as to set you
to, and keep you at prayer. .
ii. Without the Spirit of God, Jude 19. And being without the Spirit, ye are
spiritually dead in sin; for so are all naturally, (Eph. ii. 1,) and it is “the Spirit
that quickeneth,” John vi. 63. So that whosoever are without the Spirit are dead
still. You are, then, dead souls in living bodies. It is plain you are dead;
for your speech is laid, your senses are gone, there is no moving nor breathing
towards God in you, and the Spirit of life is departed from you.
(2.) Be exhorted from it to reform. And,
i. Set about prayer, 1 Thess. v. 17. Remember ye are God's creatures, and there-
fore obliged to worship him. Ye are men, and not beasts, and therefore should
536 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
distinguish yourselves from them by religion, Isa. xlvi. 8. Ye have souls that will
not die, and therefore ye should be concerned to pray for them, that ye live not in
eternal misery.
ii. Be concerned to partake of the Spirit, and come to Christ for that end, who
“hath the seven Spirits of God,” Rev. iii. 1. Ye say ye cannot pray. If the
Spirit of Christ were in you, it would not be so, Zech. xii. 10; Gal. iv. 6. Ye say,
ye have no time for prayer, or ye have no place to pray in. If the Spirit of Christ
were in you, ye would have a heart to pray; and if ye had the heart for it, ye
would find both time and place.
2. Praying natural unconverted persons. People may be praying persons, and
yet “in the gall of bitterness,” and none of God's children: praying persons,
and yet profane, (Isa. i. 15, 16,) formal hypocrites, Matt. xxxiii. 14, 27, 28. They
may have a gift of prayer that are void of the Spirit and grace of prayer. To such
I would say from this doctrine—Then,
(1.) Certainly ye can pray none at all aright ; an evidence of which is, all your
prayers are rejected of God, Prov. xv. 8; John ix. 31. If God's own children can-
not pray aright without the Spirit, how is it possible ye should do so, who neither
have the Spirit nor yet are children of God? If the weak man cannot go without
help, surely the man void of life cannot move at all. View your own case in the
case of the true saint, and think, if it be so in the green tree, what must it be in
the dry. They are God's children, yet cannot pray aright to their Father without
the Spirit: how much less can ye who are none of his family, and therefore never
have the Spirit 2 They always have the Spirit dwelling in them as a Spirit of life,
yet cannot pray aright without actual influence from him ; how then can ye ever
pray aright, who are so far from his actual influence, that he is not so much as in
you, since ye are not in Christ? Hence, .
i. Your praying, though continued never so many years, without coming to Christ
by faith, is but like so many ciphers, which being without a figure at their head,
the value is just nought. There is never one right or acceptable prayer among
them all, Heb. xi. 6. They are all lost labour. And such a life of duties is but
a wandering in the wilderness of duties, like Israel's wandering forty years in the
wilderness, where they died at length, and never entered Canaan.
ii. All your prayers are “turned to sin,” Psalm ciz. 7. If ye have never prayed
aright, ye have always prayed wrong, spilled and marred that duty, profaned that
holy ordinance. And so, what ye reckon so much praying to God, God will reckon
so much taking of his name in vain, for which he will not hold you guiltless.
Wherefore, let praying persons look well to their state.
(2.) Think not much of your gifts of prayer, for a gift of prayer will go short
way before God. If it were never such a ready, full, and taking gift, it cannot
make a man pray one petition aright without the Spirit, John iv. 24. Yet how
are men puffed up with such a gift that have it ; and have not grace to keep them
humble under it ! They think themselves something on the account of their gift,
while God knows they are nothing, as being without the Spirit; for they see wherein
they excel others, but see not wherein they come short of true prayer in the sight
of God, Gal. vi. 3, 4. I have four things to say of a gift of prayer, without the
Spirit of prayer. -
i. It is a good gift of God indeed, (James i. 17,) but it is but a left-hand gift,
which may be lost and taken away again from him that has it now ; Zech. xi. ult,
“Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock; the sword shall be upon his
arm, and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye
shall be utterly darkened;” compared with John X. 12, for the prophecy relates
to the scribes and Pharisees. . It is of that sort that is common to Christ's sheep
and the devil's goats. The Spirit of prayer is a grace-gift, a right-hand gift, which
can never be quite lost; Rom. xi. 29, “For the gifts and calling of God are with-
out repentance.” - -
ii. It may be useful to others for the profit of their souls, but in that respect it
is useless to yourselves, 1 Cor. xiii. 1–3. Others may have communion with God
in your exercise of your gift, but you yourself can have none, Prov. xv. 8. Gifts
are bestowed on hypocrites for the good and behoof of the Saints, as the purse-bearer
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 537
to a young prince gets his purse filled, to answer the needs of the prince, 1 Cor. iii.
21–23. The raven, though an unclean creature, was employed to feed Elijah.
The gift the carpenters had that built the ark, was of use to the saving of Noah
and his family ; but they themselves perished in the deluge for all their skill of
ark-building.
iii. It cannot but be hurtful to your own souls; which hurtfulness is not from
the good gift itself, but from the light and foolish heart it is lodged in, Prov. i. 32.
The very gospel (2 Cor. ii. 16.) is hurtful that way ; yea, Christ himself is a stum-
bling-block by that means. A man with a gift of prayer, without the Spirit, is
like a ship without ballast ; the more sail she has, she is in the greater danger of
being overwhelmed, t
iv. You may perish for ever, for all that gift. Judas had a gift of praying,
doubtless given him with the gift of preaching ; yet for all it he fell from his min-
istry, and is gone to “his own place,” Acts i. 25. The light of a gift without the
warmth of the Spirit of grace, serves to show the way to outer darkness. And
such a gift will aggravate the condemnation of the possessor, being like a bag of
gold on a drowning man, that makes him only to sink the sooner and the deeper.
(3.) Come forward, then, another step in religion, and be concerned for a higher
attainment in it than ye have yet reached. Ye have come the length of praying ;
that is good, but it is not all : if ye stick there, ye perish. Come forward to Christ,
out of all confidence in your prayers, by believing uniting with the Son of God. Ye
have attained to the gift of prayer: come forward till ye reach the Spirit of prayer,
which Christ communicates to all his members, John i. 12, with Gal. iv. 6.
Secondly, Ye that are God’s own children, to you I would say,
I. Surely many a mismanaged prayer hath gone through your mouths, so that
ye may say, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags,” Isa. lxiv. 6. So much prayer as has been made by you without the
Spirit, so much mismanaged unacceptable prayer has there been, for which ye need
pardon. Ye may here view,
(1.) The many prayers of yours that have been the mere lifeless exercise of a
gift, without the Spirit, from the beginning of them to the end. All which have
been lost prayers by the lump. Since ye were acquainted with Christ, ye have
kept a constant course of praying daily : but at this rate it will be found there
have been many days, and perhaps weeks and months, wherein ye have prayed
none at all aright and acceptably. So that if ye seek your prayers in heaven,
which ye think ye have sent thither, it will be found that many of them never
came there : they wanted the wings of the Spirit's influences, and so fell upon the
earth, and are lost. - *
(2.) The many parts of some of your prayers, and some parts of the best of them,
that have been the mere product of your own spirits, and not of the Spirit of God.
How much of the prayer has been over many times, ere your lips have been touched
with the live-coal 2 And perhaps ere ye have done ye have quenched the coal, pro-
voked the Spirit to depart. And when it has been best with you, the deceitful
heart has made a sinful mixture in it. At this rate, seeking many a long prayer
before the throne, ye would find that but a short part of it came thither ; perhaps
but a few sentences. For, alas ! the skin and dung of our sacrifices are often more
bulk, than the flesh that comes on the altar.
2. Be humbled under a sense of your mismanagements in the prayers ye have
prayed all along to this day; “for in many things we offend all,” James iii. 2.
See the need ye have of the blood of Christ to purge away the guilt of your prayers,
and apply it by faith for that end, Rev. vii. 14. Lament the too little concern
3. have had to get the Spirit's help to your praying, and seek for the pardon
thereof. .
3. Learn that praying is a more solemn, serious work than it is generally looked
on to be ; and that it is not such an easy thing to pray to purpose, as we are apt
to imagine. Take these three warnings then.
(1.) Trust not to your gift of prayer, neither be vain of it, Prov. iii. 5; 1 Cor.
i. ult, O it is sad to think of that vanity, and airiness, and self-seeking that is
to be found in some people's exercise of their praying gift . It is an argument that
3 Y
538 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
the person forgets both God and himself. And nothing can be more contrary to
the help of the Spirit in prayer. The heart is deceitful in this point, and we have
need to watch it.
(2.) Trust not to your frame. One may have a good frame before he go to
prayer, and yet when he comes to the work, may not find his hands: hence often
least is got when most is expected ; because it is expected rather on what we have,
than what we look for from the Spirit. . A person may have a good frame in prayer
that may quickly leave him ; the wheels of the soul in swift motion may suddenly
stop, 2 Tim. ii. 1; Prov. xxviii. 26.
(3.) When ye go to prayer, be impressed with a sense of your inability to man-
age it aright, Josh. xxiv. 19 ; and then, and all along in prayer, lay yourselves
open, and look for the help of the Spirit. Lay the sacrifice on the altar, and look
to the Lord for fire from heaven to consume it, as Elijah did, 1 Kings xviii. 33,
37, 38. The Spirit is that fire. - - -
I proceed to another doctrine from the text. .
DoCTRINE IV. All our praying aright is so far done by the help of the Spirit,
that it is justly reckoned his work, his making intercession for us.
In handling this point I shall show,
I. What is to be understood by praying aright.
II. That all our praying aright is done by the help of the Spirit.
III. In what respects our praying aright is so far done by the help of the Spirit,
that it is justly reckoned his work. - -
IV. What is the Spirit's work in our praying aright, or what his making inter-
cession for us is... .
V. Apply the whole.
I. I am to show what is to be understood by praying aright.
Negatively, (1.) It is not praying aright in a legal sense, without any imperfec-
ition in the eye of the law attending the prayer. There was never a prayer in the
world of that sort, since Adam's fall, except the prayers of the man Christ. The
best prayers of the best saints have always been attended with blemishes visible to
the eyes of God, though not to ours, Isa. lxiv. 6. Such praying is our duty indeed,
(Matt. V. ult,) but the attainment of none in this life, by any measure of grace to
be expected, Phil. iii. 12. (2.) It is not praying aright in a moral sense, wherein
the most rigid hearer can discern nothing contrary to the precepts of morality. A
prayer may be so far right, as no unlawful thing may be prayed for in it, and yet
be naught, Luke xviii. 11. The matter may be very good, where the manner of
praying spoils all. If that were enough, the book-prayers of formalists would be
sufficient help in some cases to pray aright. (3.) It is not praying aright in a
rhetorical sense, a well-worded prayer with a suitable delivery. Words, voice,
and gesture, are of little moment before God, 1 Sam. xvi. 7 ; 1 Cor. ii. 4. It may
be a right prayer where the expression is far from being polite, where sentences are
broken off before they make a complete sense, as in Psalm vi. 3, “My soul is also
sore vexed ; but thou, O Lord, how long 2’’ The Lord himself knows what is the
mind of the Spirit, though the words do not fully express it. And where all these
things are accurate and exact, the prayer may be all wrong before God: where
there is not a wrong word, there may not be one right affection. . .
Positively, It is praying aright in an evangelical sense, so that in the eye of the
gospel it passes as acceptable prayer before the throne. This implies two things.
(1.) Sincerity in prayer, (1 Chron. xxix. 17,) in opposition to formality and hypo-
crisy, 2 Tim. iii. 5; Psalm xvii. 1. The righteous God loveth uprightness of heart
in duty, Prov. xv. 8; and though there may be many blemishes in the duty,
where the man is sincere in it, the Lord will regard it, notwithstanding of these
blemishes. Hereby the heart is really for God as the chief good, and goes along
with the tongue in prayer. (2.) A perfection of parts in prayer, though not of
degrees. That is to say, Praying aright is, *
First, Praying for things agreeable to God's will revealed in his word of com-
mand or promise, 1 John v. 14. Nothing can make praying for things without the
compass of the command and promise to be praying aright. For there faith has
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 539
'nothing to bottom itself upon ; and “without faith it is impossible to please God,”
Heb. xi. 6.
Secondly, Praying in a right manner in a gospel-sense; Jer. xxix. 13, “Ye
shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
Hereunto are required praying graces and affections in exercise, as faith, fer-
vency, humility, reverence, and the like. These are the soul and life of prayer;
whereas the expressions of the lips are but the body of it. Where these are want-
ing, the duty will be reckoned but “bodily exercise,” 1 Tim. iv. 8.
Such praying is right in so far as it is acceptable in the sight of God, that is,
capable of being accepted according to the rule of the gospel. It is a sacrifice
fit to be laid on God's altar; a prayer which may be put in the Mediator's
hand, that through his intercession it may be actually accepted. For it is
not any thing in our prayers themselves for which they are accepted, but only the
intercession of Christ; for the best things in them are mixed with sin. Only
such prayers are fit to be put in the Mediator's hands; and he will take
them off the sinner's hand, to present them to the Father, and the Father will
accept them at his hand: whereas other sorts of prayer, wherein the petitioner is
not sincere, or where they are wrong as to the matter of them, or are not made
in the right manner, they cannot come to the Mediator's hand; he will never pre-
sent them for acceptance ; and so it is impossible they can be accepted.
Hence it is evident, that none who are out of Christ, unregenerate, unconverted,
can at all pray aright, or pray as they ought. For what sincerity can be there,
where converting grace has never touched ? What faith, fervency, or humility, can
be exercised by unbelievers dead in sin, whose stony heart is not yet removed 2
Therefore the form of prayer, Matt. vi., begins, “Our Father,” &c., showing that
none can pray aright or acceptably but God's own children, or those who have an
interest in him as their Father ; and it is the Spirit that teaches them so, Gal. iv. 6.
II. I am next to show, that all our praying aright is done by the help of the
Spirit. This is to be understood as comprehending these two things.
First, It is done by the help of the Spirit indwelling in us, Gal. iv. 6. Ye are
not to think that the Spirit as an external agent helps us to pray aright: nay, but
the Spirit helping to pray is, as a Spirit of life, dwelling in the man as a member
of Christ, 1 John ii. 27. So that till we have the Spirit dwelling in us, we can
never pray aright,
Secondly, It is done by the help of the indwelling Spirit actually influencing us,
(Gal. iv. 6,) “crying, Abba, Father,” that is, so influencing us as to make us cry.
Even the indwelling of the Spirit is not enough for that effect: but there is requi-
site an agency of the Spirit in us, whereby we may be acted in prayer ; which is
called “the blowing of the wind,” John iii. 8 ; Cant. iv. ult.
Now, that all our praying aright is done by the help of the Spirit indwelling and
influencing, is clear,
1st, From scripture-testimony. The Spirit is the author of our whole sanctifi-
cation, whereof praying aright is a part, 2 Thess. ii. 13, particularly, of all our .
acceptable worship, Phil. iii. 3. It is by him we have access to God in worship,
Eph. ii. 18. And prayer by name, if of the right sort, is owing to his help, Eph.
vi, 18; and that as an indwelling Spirit, a “Spirit of adoption,” Rom. viii. 15,
with Gal. iv. 6; and an influencing Spirit, 1 Thess. v. 17—19.
2dly, We are spiritually dead without the Spirit indwelling, and spiritually asleep
without the Spirit influencing, Eph. ii. 1; Cant. v. 2. Neither a dead man, nor
a sleeping man, is fit to present a supplication to the king: so neither is a dead
Sinner, nor a sleeping Saint, capable to pray aright. The former, praying, is like
a ghost walking and talking ; the latter like a man speaking through his sleep.
It is the Spirit that quickens the dead soul, John vi. 63; who, coming to dwell in
the heart, makes the first resurrection: and it is he also who awakens the sleeping
Saint, Cant. v. 4.
3dly, There is no praying aright without sanctifying grace, nor without that
grace in exercise, John ix. 31 ; Cant. iii. 1. Where sanctifying grace is not, the
filth and pollution of sin remains, and defiles all, Tit. i. 15. So that such a man's
praying is like the opening of an unripe grave, Rom, iii. 13. Accordingly, the
540 - DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
praying Pharisees are called “whited sepulchres,” Matt. xxiii. 27. Where grace
is not in exercise, there is incense, indeed, but no pillar of smoke ascending from
it to heaven; spikenard, indeed, but no smell thereof. Now, it is the indwelling
Spirit that works sanctifying grace, 2 Thess. ii. 13; puts that grace in exercise,
Cant. iv. 16; and so fits men to pray, Zech. xii. 10.
4thly, To praying aright is required light and warmth ; a light of the mind, and
warmth of affections; the former for the matter, the latter for the manner. And
.it is a false light and warmth that makes some natural men think that sometimes
they pray aright, Isa. lviii. 2. But all genuine light, and vital warmth, comes
from the Spirit, Eph. i. 17, 18; 2 Tim. i. 7. Hence the emblem of the virtue of
the Holy Spirit was “cloven tongues, like as of fire,” Acts i. 3, 4. And the effect
thereof is someway compared with that of drunkenness, (which excuses it no more
than Christ's being compared to a thief excuses stealing, Rev. xvi. 15,) for as the
liquor being received to excess, influences the man, so that things come in his head
which otherwise would not, and the affections and passions are wrought up by it,
Prov. xxiii. 33 ; so the Spirit, indwelling and influencing, presents to the mind
matter of prayer, and works up the affections suitable thereto, Eph. v. 18, 19;
Cant. vii. 9.
III. I shall show in what respects our praying aright is so far done by the help
of the Spirit, that it is justly reckoned his work. That it is so reckoned in scripture
is evident from the text, where his “interceding for us with groanings” cannot be
understood of himself as the subject, but of us, according to the analogy of faith.
It is plain also from Gal. iv. 6, “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Now the Spirit's cry-
ing, “Abba, Father,” is meant certainly of our crying so by the help of the Spirit,
not of a crying whereof the Spirit is the subject ; for God is not the Father of the
Spirit, because it is the second person, and not the third, who is the Son of God,
and Father and the Son are relatives. And thus the apostle explains it, Rom. viii.
15, “Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
Now, the reasons of this are,
First, Because all that is right in our prayers is from the Spirit, and all that is
wrong in them from ourselves, either as to matter or manner, 1 Cor. xii. 11; 1 Pet.
i. 22, with 2 Cor. iii. 5. In the incense of our prayers there is smoke that goes
up towards heaven, ashes that remain behind on the earth ; it is the fire from the
altar that sends up the smoke, it is the earthly nature of the incense that occasions
the ashes, The flesh of any such spiritual sacrifice is wholly owing to the Spirit;
the skin and dung is our own, and ours only. Therefore all our right praying
is justly reckoned the Spirit's work.
Secondly, None pray aright but as they are members of Christ, and children of
God, Gal. iv. 6; Rom. viii. 15 ; John xv. 5. Now, it is the Holy Spirit of the
Head that dwells in and actuates all the members acting as members, 1 Cor. xii.
11, 12. Therefore, as the soul sees by the eye, and hears by the ear, so whatso-
ever the members of Christ do aright as members is justly ascribed to the Spirit
that actuates the mystical body, and is the Spirit of adoption. But there may
be a defect in seeing by the eye, and hearing by the ear ; these are not to be
ascribed to the soul, but to some disease in the eye or ear: So whatever defects
may be in the members of Christ, these are not to be ascribed to the Spirit, but
to the remains of corruption within them, and their state of imperfection while here.
Thirdly, The Spirit is the principal cause of our praying aright, we are but the
instrumental causes of it. The act of praying in heart and expression is done by
us: but the grace, ability, frame for prayer, and the exciting and bringing forth
into exercise that grace and ability, is from the Spirit, Phil. ii. 12, 13. Hence
prayer is said to be “inwrought " in us, James v. 16. If the wind blow not, the
spices send not forth their pleasant smell, Cant. iv. 16. . As the sound of the horn
ceases as soon as one ceases to wind it ; so does our praying aright on the withdraw-
ing of the Spirit, 2 Cor. iii. 5. º e
Lastly, All our praying graces, as all others, are, in their exercise, the product
of the Spirit, and his work in us, Gal. v. 22, 23. There is a root and stock of grace
in the believer, implanted and preserved by the Spirit, 1 John iii. 9. In prayer
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 541
these are brought forth into exercise ; the man acts faith, love, &c., and therein
the soul of prayer lies: but look on them as they are so brought forth from the
stock, and they are the fruit of the Spirit, though the believer is the tree they
hang on. For the Spirit is the vital fructifying sap of the trees of righteousness,
Isa. xliv. 3, 4. Thus the holy lustings, longings, and desires of a believer against
sin are called “the. Spirit's lusting,” Gal. v. 17, (compare verse 16, 18,) in the
same sense as the groanings in our text. See 1 John iv. 4.
Objection. If our praying aright is the work of the Spirit, what need have we of
the intercession of Christ, for the acceptance of our prayers ? Surely the Spirit
needs no intercessor betwixt him and the Father. Answer. Though it is the Spirit's
work, it is not his work separately by himself without us; but it is his work in us,
and so our work too, Gal. iv. 6, with Rom. viii. 15. And so far as it is done by
us, we groaning, lusting, crying in prayer, every thing has a sinful mixture from
us at best : so there is need of Christ's intercession still. The water comes pure
from the fountain, the Spirit; but running through a muddy channel, such as
every saint here is, it cannot be accepted in heaven but as purified and sweetened
by the intercession of Christ.
IV. I come now to consider, what is the Spirit's work in our praying aright, or
what his making intercession for us is. And here I shall show,
First, The difference betwixt Christ's intercession and the Spirit's.
Secondly, The help of the Spirit in prayer.
First, I am to show what is the difference betwixt Christ's intercession and the
Spirit's.
- º Christ intercedes for us in heaven, at the Father's right hand, Rom. viii. 34;
the Spirit intercedes in our hearts, upon earth, Gal. iv. 6. We have no interces.
sion made for us in heaven but by Christ the only Intercessor there.
2. Christ's intercession is a mediatory intercession, wherein he mediates or goes
between God and us ; an office peculiar to him alone, 1 Tim. ii. 5. But the
Spirit's intercession is an auxiliary intercession to us, whereby he helps us to go to
God in a right manner, prompting us to intercede for ourselves aright.
3. The Spirit's intercession is the fruit of Christ's intercession; and what is done
by the sinner through the Spirit's intercession is accepted of God through the
intercession of Christ. Christ by his death purchased the Spirit for his people,
and, through his intercession, the Spirit is sent into their hearts, where he helps
them to pray for themselves: and these prayers are accepted of God by means of
the Mediator's intercession, John xiv. 16 ; xvi. 7, 13; Rev. viii. 4.
In a word, the difference is such as is between one who draws a poor man's peti-
tion for him, and another who presents it to the king, and gets it granted. The
Spirit does the former, and Christ does the latter, for us.
Secondly, I shall consider the help of the Spirit in prayer, which is his making
intercession for us, in the style of the scripture. We shall view this work of the
Spirit more generally, and more particularly.
1. More generally, and that in two things. He acts in it,
(1.) As a teaching Spirit, John xiv. 26. It is our infirmity in point of prayer,
“We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” He enlightens our minds,
and helps our ignorance as to the matter and manner of prayer, 1 John ii. 27. He
is the great Teacher of the church, and none teacheth like him. He will teach
them who are so weak that no other can teach them ; so that, hearing some of
God's weak children pray, one must needs say, This is the finger of God.
(2.) As a quickening Spirit, Psalm lxxx. 18. Therefore the Spirit is compared
to fire, which gives both light and heat. He removes spiritual deadness, and stirs
up praying graces in the heart; whence his influences are compared to the blow-
ing of the wind that puts things that were at rest in motion. Thus he is said to
“make intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered ;” setting the gracious
heart a-labouring and working towards God, with the utmost earnestness, as one
groaning.
2. More particularly, the work of the Spirit in our prayers lies here.
(1.) He excites us to pray; Rom. viii. 15, “Ye have received the Spirit of adop-
tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” He promptoth us to go to the throne of
542 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
grace, who otherwise would be negligent of it, and backward to it; Cant. v. 2–4,
“I sleep, but my heart waketh, &c. My Beloved put in his hand by the hole of
the door, and my bowels were moved for him.” Thus, he leads us to God (Eph.
ii. 18. Gr.) as an internal moving principle. This lies in two things. -
i. He impresses our spirits with a sense of a divine call to it, and so binds it on.
our consciences as duty to God, Psalm xxvii. 8. Heb. “My heart said unto thee,
Let my face seek thy face, when thou saidst, Seek ye my face.” Thus he applies
the general command for praying to particular times, that the man is made in
effect to say, Now God is calling me to this duty: and so he sees he cannot slight
it without disobedience, but must go to it from conscience of duty. This cuts off
the low motives to prayer, of custom, credit, regard to the commands of men, &c.
ii. He disposes our hearts for it, inclines us to the duty, that we willingly comply
with it: “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face,
Lord, will I seek,” Psalm xxvii. 8. Men may have a sense of the command on
them, who, for want of a disposition to the duty commanded, either neglect the
command, or else are but dragged to obey it. But the Spirit powerfully inclines
the will to the duty, so that the man obeys out of choice, Psal. cx. 3; Cant. vi. 12.
This cuts off the low motive of fear of man, and slavish fear of God too, which
move many. - -
(2.) He gives us a view of God as a gracious and merciful Father in Christ,
Gal. iv. 6. Without this there can be no acceptable prayer. Where there is no
spiritual view of God at all in prayer, we worship we know not what. Where we
view him as an absolute God out of Christ, we may be filled with terror of him,
but can have no true confidence in him. But by the Spirit viewing him in Christ,
we have at once the sight of majesty and mercy. And hereby he works in us,
i. A holy reverence of God, to whom we pray, which is necessary in acceptable
prayer, Heb. xii. 28. By this view he strikes us with a holy dread and awe of the
majesty of God, whereby is banished that lightness and vanity of heart that makes
such flaunting in the prayers of some, as if they were set down on their knees to
show their gift, and commend themselves.
ii. A holy confidence in him; Eph. iii. 12, “Abba, Father,” speaks both rever-
ence and confidence, whereof the Spirit is the author, Rom. viii. 15. This con-
fidence respects both his ability and willingness to help us, Matt. vii. 11. Without
this there can be no acceptable prayer, Heb. xi. 6; James i. 6. This is it that
makes prayer an ease to a troubled heart, the Spirit exciting in us holy confidence
in God as a Father. Hence the soul, though not presently eased, draws these
conclusions. (1.) He designs my good by all the hardships I am under, Rom.
viii. 28. (2.) He pities me under them, Psalm ciii. 13. (3.) He knows the best
time for removing them, and will do it when that comes, 1 Sam. ii. 3.
Hereby is cut off that unbelieving formality whereby some expect nothing by
prayer, and get as little ; as also the despondency wherewith others are struck,
from the sense of God's justice, and their own sinfulness. -
(3.) He gives us a view of ourselves in our own sinfulness and unworthiness,
John xvi. 8. This always accompanies the view the Spirit gives of God; Isa. vi.
5, “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts.” We are very ready to become strangers to ourselves, and to lose
sight of our sinfulness. But the Spirit of prayer, according to the measure of his
influence, opens out the man before his own eyes, casts abroad the many foul plies
of his heart and life, Luke xviii. 13; Isa. lxiv. 6. Hereby he works in us,
i. Humiliation of heart before the Lord; fills us with low thoughts of ourselves
before him, Gen. xviii. 27; makes us see ourselves unworthy of the mercies that
either we have got, or desire to have, Gen. xxxii. 10; fills us with holy shame and
self-loathing, Luke xviii. 13; Ezek. xxxvi. 31. This fits us for the receipt of
mercies of free grace; and the want of it makes sinners to be in their prayers as
if they came to buy of God and not to beg, and so to be sent empty away. -
ii. Cordial confession, that comes away natively from seen and felt sinfulness,
Psalm lxii. 8. Thus the influence of the Spirit in prayer causes full and free con-
fession of sin with the mouth, to the honour of God, and our own shame. And
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER, 543
the things thus being impressed on the heart, there follow natively words to express
them by ; and where they fail, groans do well compensate them before the throne.
This cuts off the formal, hale-hearted confessions of sin, wherewith prayers are
often vitiated. *
iii. Hearty thanksgiving for mercies received, Psalm czvi. 11, 12. Hereby the
smallest mercies appear very big; and the sinner, that wondered at other times
how he came not to get more mercies, begins to wonder he has any at all left him,
Lam. iii. 22. But without a discovery of our sinfulness by the Spirit, all our
thanksgivings for mercies are but empty compliment, like the Pharisee's, Luke
xviii. 11.
iv. A high value for the Mediator and his righteousness, which lies out of the
view of the humbled heart, Phil., iii. 9. As the stars are best seen from the bot-
tom of a deep and narrow pit, so Christ crucified is best discovered in his excel-
lency and suitableness by the humbled soul. The lower the soul is in its own
eyes, the higher will the Mediator be in its eyes; and the higher the Mediator is,
the more fit one is to pray.
(4.) He gives us a view of our wants, and the need we have of the supply of
them, Luke xv. 17. This may be seen, comparing the Pharisee's and publican's
prayers, Luke xviii. 11—13. The Spirit taught the one, and not the other. The
want of this mars prayer; Luke i. 53, “He hath filled the hungry with good
things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.” Here he acts,
i. As an enlightener; opening the eyes of the mind, to discern the wants and
needs we are compassed with, Eph. i. 17, 18. The Spirit's shining in on the soul,
as the Sun on a moth-eaten garment holden up betwixt us and it, the soul gets a
broad sight of its wants; whence it is made to say, Isa. lxiv. 6, “We are all as
an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;” Luke xviii. 13,
“God be merciful to me a sinner;” Psal. xix. 12, “Who can understand his
errors?” This the Spirit doth by opening up the law in its spirituality, and giving
us a view of our own circumstances in a present evil ensnaring World.
ii. As a remembrancer; bringing seasonably to mind the wants we have adverted
to, John xiv. 26. “To every thing there is a season:” but ofttimes, in the season
of getting supply at the throne of grace, our wants and needs escape us, they come
not in mind, till the market is over. The Spirit is a remembrancer in this case,
seasonably suggesting our needs for ourselves or others. So he sets things
before us in time of prayer.
iii. As a forewarner of what we may need, John xvi. 13. So we find Job not
only offering sacrifice with a view to what he could not know, (chap. i. 5,) but also
possessed with a fear of a trial before it came. chap. iii. 25. Thus men are led to
lay up for what they may meet with, and in prayer to have a view to the grace
that may be needful in such and such emergencies. Hereby he helps us,
(i.) To matter of prayer, sets before us things to be prayed for. Where the
Spirit is thus at work in the soul, persons will be taught to pray, and it will supply
the want of a form: and therefore they that soothe themselves with that, they
cannot pray, do but bewray themselves to be void of the Spirit of God.
(ii.) To the right manner of praying: for hereby he, -
[1..] Impresses us with a sense of need, that we are made to pray feelingly, that
the tongue does but express what the heart feels, Luke xv. 17–19. Insensible-
mess of our needs makes us formal in prayer, and therefore to be “sent empty
away.” A mere rational sight of our wants will not cure it; but the light of the
Spirit is “the light of life,” (John viii. 12,) that will not miss to affect the heart.
[2.] Hereby we are rendered sincere in our addresses to God, Psalm xvii. 1.
Feigned lips in prayer proceed from a dark and insensible heart. He that really
sees his disease, and is persuaded of the need of the Physician, there is no doubt
of his being in earnest for his help. i
[3.] Hereby we are made importunate in prayer. Necessity has no law, and
hunger breaks through stone-walls, as we see in the woman of Canaan, who did
hang on over the belly of discouragement, and would take no refusal. Importu-
mate praying is prevailing, Luke xi. 8; and felt need that one cannot bear without
relief, makes importunity, *
544 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
[4] Hereby we are made particular in prayer; laying our hand on our sores,
and laying out our particular wants before the Lord, Luke xviii. 41. General
prayers, like general preaching, have little of the Spirit in them. They that go
where help is to be found, being indeed pinched, will readily tell where they are
inched. A.
p (5.) He gives us a view of the grace and promises of the covenant, Psalm xxv.
14; John xiv. 26. Without this the sinner pressed with a sense of need has
nothing to support him, and therefore cannot pray in faith. Our Lord Jesus
Christ has purchased all the grace and promises of the covenant for his people,
and there is enough there for all they can need. It is the office of the Spirit to
open them out before their eyes, and apply them. . And here the Spirit,
i. Brings to their remembrance the grace and promises suited to their case,
Gen. xxxii. 11, 12. The promises are the rule and encouragement of prayer; but
while they lie out of our sight, we can neither have suitable direction nor encour-
agement from them: but when the Spirit draws near with the promise to us, there
is help at hand in prayer.
ii. He unfolds that grace and these promises, causing to understand them in a
spiritual and saving manner, 1 Cor. ii. 12. The letter of the promise can only
help to words in prayer; but the Spirit shining on the promise will help to pray
in a gracious manner; for the demonstration of the Spirit is always with power.
Hereby, w
(i.) The Spirit teaches what to pray for, according to the will of God. While
the promises, rightly understood, regulate our prayers, and they are agreeable to
the grace of the covenant, we may be sure we do not err in the matter, 2 Sam.
vii. 28, 29. These are God’s bills and bonds to his people, and by them he shows
what he allows us to ask of him. What he is debtor to his faithfulness for, we
may crave.
(ii.) In what terms to pray for ; the terms of the promise, terms agreeable to
the grace of the covenant. And this is the rise of some expressions of God's chil-
dren in prayer, which may seem strange and uncouth to others, that have not their
view of the grace of the covenant, which want makes them appear unseemly to
them: yea, they may seem strange to themselves. And hence also is the agree-
ment, to a nicety, that is to be found betwixt the answer of prayer, and their
expression in prayer, sometimes.
(iii.) Hereby he fills our mouths with arguments, helping us to plead and pray,
Job xxiii. 3, 4. The grace and promises of the covenant, held before the eyes by
the Spirit shining on them to the soul in prayer, is such a fountain of heavenly
oratory, that will make a weak and unlearned Christian plead and pray at the rate
that others are strangers to, and which themselves at another time are quite
unable to reach. -
(iv.) Hereby he stirs up in us a faith of particular confidence as to the thing
prayed for, so that we are helped to pray believingly, and not doubtingly and dis-
trustfully. The necessity of this faith in prayer is evident from the scriptures,
Matt. xxi. 22; Mark xi. 24; 1 Tim. ii. 8; James i. 6: and the Spirit is the author
of it, 2 Cor. iv. 13. He gives a view of the promise and grace of the covenant
with relation to that thing, and helps to regulate the prayer thereby, strengthens
to believe the accomplishment of the promise in that particular for the Mediator's
sake, and consequently the hearing of prayer in that particular. Hereby it appears
what this faith is, namely, a confidence agreeable to the promise as demonstrated
by the Spirit: absolute as to the particular thing, where the promise is demon-
strated absolute, or by the Spirit particularly applied to the thing, (Psalm czix.
49,) which may be in things not absolutely necessary, as Mark v. 27, 28, 34; or
indefinite, where the promise is left so by the Spirit; that is to say, a confidence
of the thing itself, or of what is as good. And hereby also this faith is distin-
guished from presumption, in that it is founded on a word of God, and the merit
of Christ.
(v.) Hereby he works in us a holy boldness in prayer, Eph. iii. 12, Faith
coming before the throne, and spreading out the word of promise with the grace
of the covenant, makes bold there for a gracious answer, . How bold was Jacob in
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 545.
that case ; “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me !” Gen. xxxii. 26, Foolish
men have ignorantly censured this boldness in the prayers of God's children: but
God is well pleased with it, when he says, “Ask me of things to come concerning
my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me,” Isa. xlv. 11;
though the counterfeiting of this holy oil must needs be dangerous. It is distin-
guished by its attending humility, as in Jacob ; Gen. xxxii. 10, “I am not worthy
of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto
thy servant.”
(6.) He raiseth in us holy desires for the supply of our wants; “groanings which
cannot be uttered.” The Spirit working as fire, fires the heart in prayer, sets it
in motion, (Cant. v. 4,) a lusting, longing, panting for what may tend to the per-
fection of the new creature, either removing the impediments of its growth, or sup-
plying it with fresh incomes of grace for its growth. Of this more afterwards.
But thus we are made to pray fervently, James v. 16 ; Rom. xii. 11.
(7.) He gives us a view of the merit and intercession of the Mediator, Eph. i.
17. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, without whose illumination Christ will be
a hidden beauty to us. He showed Zechariah the Intercessor, at his work, Zech.
i. 12; and Stephen, Acts vii. 56 ; and he shows believers the same sight for sub-
stance, by the eye of faith, 1 Cor. ii. 12. Hereby, .*
i. He points us to the only way of acceptance of our prayers, John xiv. 6; when
hypocrites, overlooking Christ, lose all their requests. He teaches us to pray as
we ought, and so to pray in the name of Jesus Christ, depending on his merit and
intercession allenarly.
ii. He lays beforo us a firm foundation of confidence before the Lord ; 1 John
ii. 1, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous;” an Advocate who never loses the plea he takes in hand, (John xi. 42,)
having an indisputable ground to go upon, namely, the purchase of his own blood.
A fresh view of this makes faith in prayer renew its strength, and fills with confi-
dence; Eph. iii. 12, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of him.” -
iii. He furnishes us with an answer to all objections that an unbelieving heart
and a subtile devil can muster up against us in prayer, Rom. viii. 33, 34, “Who
shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth ; who is he
that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Are we sinful
and vile 2 The merit of Christ is of infinite value. Are we unworthy for whom
God should do such a thing ? Yet the Mediator is worthy. Can our prayers, smell-
ing so rank of sinful imperfections, not be accepted at our polluted hands 2 Yet,
being perfumed with his merit, they can be accepted at his hand, Rev. viii. 4.
(8.) He manages the heart and spirit in prayer, which every serious soul will
own to be a hard task; Jer. x. 23, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is
not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps;” Gal. v. 16.
Therefore the psalmist says, Psalm xxxi. 5, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit.”
And,
i. He composes it for prayer; Psalm lxxxvi. 11, “Unite my heart to fear thy
name.” He frames the heart that is out of frame for it; commands a heavenly
calm in the soul, whereby it may be fitted for divine communications; saying to
the heart tossed with temptations, troubles, and risings of corruption, “Peace,
be still:” and he blows up the fire of grace into a flame, 2 Tim. i. 7. So the pre-
paration of the heart is owing to him; Psalm x. 17, “Lord, thou hast heard the
º of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to
ear.” -
ii. He fixes it in prayer, that it wander not away in the duty; Ezek. xxxvi. 27,
“I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye
shall keep my judgments and do them.” There is need not only of quickening
grace in duty, but of establishing grace ; for the heart itself is apt to wander off
from the serious purpose, and the powers of hell exert themselves to divert from it.
But the supply of the Spirit in prayer keeps the heart fixed. And in the case of
Wandering,
3 z
546 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
iii. He reduces it from its wanderings in prayer; Psalm xxiii. 3, “He restoreth
my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” It
will always cost a struggle to hedge in the heart in duty, and the help of the Spirit
is necessary to maintain the struggle, Rom. vii. 21 ; Gal. v. 17. But sometimes
the heart is quite carried off by its wandering disposition, that the prayer is quite
marred, the heart leaving the tongue. In this case the Spirit convinces and hum-
bles the soul under the sense of that sin, and so makes it more serious than before,
from thence showing the corruption of nature, Rom, viii. 37. - -
(9.) The Spirit causes us to continue in prayer from time to time, till we obtain
a gracious answer ; and so makes us pray perseveringly, Eph. vi. 18. The Lord
may keep his people long hanging on for an answer, ere they get it. The promise
may be big with the mercy prayed for, and yet it be not only many months but
years ere it bring forth, as in the case of Abraham and David. ...This is a sore
trial, and there would be no keeping from fainting, if the Spirit did not help our
infirmity. But he helps to hang on,
i. By accounting for the delay of our answer in a way consistent with God's hon-
our and our good, and so satisfying us in that point ; Psalm xxii. 2, 3, “O my
God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not ; and in the night-season, and am
not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”. He
helps to discern the unsoundness of the subtile reasonings of unbelief, tending to
despondency, and so hinders from making rash conclusions; Psalm lxxvii. 10, “I
said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of
the Most High.” And so he keeps up in us kind thoughts of God's dispensations.
ii. By strengthening faith and hope, which have the battle to fight in this case,
Eph. iii. 16. Hangers on at the throne of grace may get a long stand, but they
will get their strength renewed, Psalm xxii. 13, 14. This the Spirit does, by shin-
ing anew on the promise ; adding other promises to it tending to the same scope ;
giving some present experience and off-fallings from the Lord's hand, whereby the
soul is refreshed in the time ; and helping to observe the signs of the approach-
ing day, while yet the night continues. g -
iii. Continuing and reviving on our spirits the sense of our need, which, pinching
us anew, obliges to renew our suit for relief, until the time we get it ; 2 Cor. xii. 8,
“For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.” If
in this case we were left to our own spirits, we would seek our help from another
quarter than hanging on about the Lord's hand, and our sense of need would wear
off, and we would drop our petition. But the Spirit perfects what he begins ;
Psalm czxxviii. ult, “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” -
I shall now make some practical improvement of this subject.
Use 1. Of information. This may let us see,
First, That men in this world are under the influence of that part of the other
world which they are in the road to. If ye are in the road to the happy part of
the other world, ye are under the conduct and influence of the Holy Spirit, prompt-
ing and helping you to do your duty to God. Whence ye may gather, that they are
in the road to destruction who are under the conduct and influence of the spirit of the
world, prompting and helping them to a course of sin. Consider the prevailing
course of your lives, and trace it to the spring, and ye will find it is the spirit ye
are acted by, 1 John iv. 4. One part of men is led by the Spirit of God, and they
are holy, heavenly, and spiritual; another by the evil spirit, and they are unholy,
hellish, and carnal. He is a spirit of covetousness in some, of uncleanness in
others, &c. - . . - - º *
Secondly, Praying is another thing than men generally take it to be. It is not
the exercise of a gift, but of grace ; not a piece of a task laid on men, but a privi-
lege they are advanced to ; not a work to be done in our own strength, but by
help from heaven; not a piece of the form of religion, but of experimental religion.
Consider prayer in this scripture-view of it, and among many that bow their knees
in prayer to God there will be found few really praying persons; many whose
hearts must say, on what they have heard of it, (Ezek. xx. 49,) “Doth he not
speak parables?” * -
Thirdly, True praying will always make people holy and humble ; for the Spirit
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 547.
by which it is done is the Spirit of holiness and light, Matt. iii. 11. Does a man
value himself upon, and appear proud and conceited of himself on the account of
his good praying ? still continue in his profane, untender, unholy course ? His
prayers are his own, they are not by the help of the Spirit in him. God regards
them not. - - - • . . *
Fourthly, Great is the encouragement that poor sinners have to apply them-
selves to serious and spiritual praying. The weakest are left inexcusable, if they
neglect prayer still; and the formal professor, if he continue with his formal task-
work of praying still. We have the Hearer of prayer to go to, the Father of our
Lord Jesus, with our petitions; an Intercessor in heaven, to present them ; and
an Intercessor on earth, to draw them for us, and help us to make our petitions.
This is the office of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, -
Use 2. Of exhortation. Set yourselves for “praying in the Spirit,” Eph. vi.
18. Prayerless persons, give yourselves to praying, and to this kind of praying.
Praying persons, satisfy not yourselves without this kind of praying. Stand not
still in the outer court of prayer, with hypocrites and formalists; come in to the
inner court, with God's own children. Look for the help of the Spirit, employ
the Spirit, in all your duties, and particularly your prayers. Remember that all
the prayers are lost that are not done in the Spirit. - - -
I shall give you some advices, how to get the help of the Spirit in prayer.
First, Come to Christ in the way of believing the gospel. The fulness of the
Spirit is lodged in Christ, Rev. iii. 1. He communicates the Spirit to dead sin-
ners, 1 Cor. xv. 45, with John xx, 22; and this in the word of the gospel, Gal. iii.
2. It is vain to expect the help of the Spirit in prayer, till once we have received
the Spirit to dwell in us; Eph. iii. 17, with 1 John iii. ult. To receive the word
of the gospel as an ingrafted, quickening word, whereby we close with Christ for
all, is the necessary foundation for all this.
Secondly, Beware of maltreating the Spirit. And so,
1. Resist not the Spirit, Acts vii. 51, Do not stave off convictions, and awaken-
ings out of a state or course of sin. - Beware of sinning over the belly of light, and
persisting in sin against calls to repentance. That is to resist the Spirit, and so
to provoke him to leave you. - -
2. “Quench not the Spirit,” 1 Thess. v. 19. If this holy fire begin to burn at
any time, so as you see the light and feel the heat of it, do not withdraw fuel from
it, by neglecting the motions and operations of it, not taking care to cherish them;
do not smother them, by not giving them vent in prayer; far less drown it out, by
taking your swing in any sinful course; Luke xxi. 34, “Take heed to yourselves,
lest, at any time, your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness,
and cares of this life.” - . -
3. Grieve not the Spirit, Eph. iv. 30. The Spirit is grieved by undervaluing
his graces, comforts, influences, and his means of communicating them; by sins
gross in their nature or aggravations, whereby the conscience is wasted and sig-
nally defiled, whereby some have quite withered away, the Spirit leaving them.
4. Wex not the Spirit, Isa. lxiii. 10. Vex him not by your still relapsing into
the same sins, (Numb. xiv. 22,) especially after convictions of the ill of them, con-
fessions thereof, resolutions against them, and smarting for them. This is the
great trial of the divine patience, whereby men are in hazard of being given up of
God, Numb. xiv. 27. - - - -
5. Blaspheme not the Spirit in his operations, particularly praying in the Spirit.
Take heed of making a mock of religion, preaching, praying, seriousness, talking
slightingly of these things, and of making persons the objects of your derision and
spite on these accounts. Sometime these things were only to be found among
malignants and persecutors; but now they are to be found among people that pray
themselves, and partake of the Lord's table. These Satan is training up for
greater service, when such times shall come again. But take heed, it is a danger-
9us course, as those young blasphemers of the Spirit in his operations felt; 2 Kings
ii. 23, 24, “As Elisha was going up by the way, there came forth little children
out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald-head;
go up, thou bald-head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed
548 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
them in the name of the Lord: and there came forth two she-bears out of the
wood, and tare forty and two children of them.” - l
Thirdly, Walk tenderly and circumspectly, Eph. v. 15. A loose and untender
walk, wherein people let down their watch over the frame of their heart, and the
course of their life in words and actions, provokes the Spirit to withdraw, when a
tender walk is followed with the tokens of his favour; John xiv. 21, “He that hath
my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me,
shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
Fourthly, When ye go to prayer, be convinced of your absolute need of the
Spirit. Look for him, and wait and lay yourselves open to his influences, Luke
xi. 13. Labour to revive that conviction at every occasion of prayer, and to keep
it up throughout it. Look for the Spirit in the promise, believing it with applica-
tion; Ezek. xxxvi. 27, “I will put my Spirit within you,” &c. Lay yourselves
down at his feet, to be enlightened, quickened, &c., (Jer. xxxi. 18,) as one lays
open himself to receive the fresh air.
Fifthly, Be habitually concerned for answers of prayer. They that are in
good earnest to have their petitions granted, will be careful to have them right
drawn; but they that are indifferent in the one, will be so in the other too; Psalm
v. 3, “In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee,” says David, “and will
look up.” If ye be concerned for Christ's intercession for you in heaven, so will
ye be for that of the Spirit in your own heart,
Sixthly, Let the Bible be dear to you, and look on it as God's word to you in.
particular; Rom. xv. 4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were
written for our learning; that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures,
might have hope;” Rev. iii. ult, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.” The word is the vehicle wherein the Spirit is
conveyed to us: it is the channel of communication of his influences to us; and
the instrument he works by in us, in all the parts of his working in us, exciting,
enlightening, &c.; Isa. lix. ult., “As for me, this is my covenant with them, Saith
the Lord, My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor
out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.”
Seventhly, Be careful observers of providence; Psal. cvii. ult., “Whoso is
wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness
of the Lord.” The Spirit is in these wheels; and the more people are set to
observe their motions, the more they will readily get to observe. This is a way
to carry you off formality in prayer, and give you an errand in good earnest to the
throne of grace, whether in the way of petition, confession, or thanksgiving.
Lastly, Be watchful in prayer, Eph. vi. 18. The evil spirit watches against us
at all times, and in a special manner the fowls come down on the carcases of our
spiritual sacrifices. When ye sit down on your knees, the heart will be apt to
fall a-wandering, and it will be much if before the end it do not give the slip. The
Spirit of the Lord only can manage our spirits, and he will be provoked by our
wanderings to withdraw. Therefore take that watchword, Prov. iv. 23, “Keep
thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are the issues of life.”
I shall now proceed to the last doctrine observable from the text.
DocTRINE W. The Spirit helps believers to pray, particularly causing in them
gracious groanings, which cannot be uttered.
In discoursing this point, I shall,
I. Consider the nature of these groanings caused by the Spirit in believers,
II. Show how the Spirit makes intercession for believers with groanings.
III. In what respects these groanings are groanings that cannot be uttered.
IV. Conclude with two or three reflections,
I. We shall consider the nature of these groanings caused by the Spirit in
believers. And here I shall show, -
First, Of what kind they are.
Secondly, The moving causes of them.
First, I am to show of what kind these groanings are.
There is a twofold groaning. (1) A natural groaning, the effect of pain, and
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 549
any heavy pressure that lies on men's spirits; Jer. li. 52, “Through all her land
the wounded shall groan.” This is common to men with beasts; Joel i. 18, “How
do the beasts groan l’’ And men may groan so, without any gracious movings of
heart towards God; therefore they are none of the groanings in the text; Job
xxxv. 9, 10, “By reason of the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed
to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. But none saith, Where
is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?” (2.) Spiritual and gracious
groanings, whereby the gracious soul natively expresses its movings towards God
under some heavy pressure; 2 Cor. v. 4, “We that are in this tabernacle do groan,
being burdened.” These are they with which the Spirit helps believers, and which
he causes in them. When men are in a swoon, they groan none; but when they
are recovering, they will discover it by groaning; an argument that their sense
and feeling is returned. So by these groanings believers are distinguished from
the dead in sin. -
These spiritual groanings of believers speak,
1. Their feeling of a weight and pressure upon them; 2 Cor. v. 4, above cited.
Such is the imperfection of our state in this life that, if there is life in a soul, it
must groan, because there is no escaping of pressures, from an evil world without,
and an evil heart within. And the easy jovial life that men lead without these
groanings, they owe it to spiritual death, which has taken away their feeling, Eph,
iv. 18, 19.
2. Their labouring under these pressures, like one under a burden; Psal. vi. 6,
“I am weary with my groaning,” Heb. “laboured to weariness in my groaning.”
This imports,
(1.) An earnest endeavour to get them off, or to bear them while they are kept
on. The new creature is surrounded with weights of various kinds, which in their
own nature tend to hinder its growth, and coming to perfection: and there are
mighty labourings and workings of it against them, that it may get forward to its
desired perfection, Phil. iii. 14. -
(2.) Great difficulty in that labouring, so that the man is as it were out of
breath wrestling with his burden, which natively issues in a groan, Eph. vi. 12.
There is difficulty in the Christian life, that will try what metal men are of, and
will put them to the exerting of their utmost vigour; and therefore it is compared
to the exercise of wrestlers and runners.
3. The working of their affections under them ; especially,
(1.) Grief of heart, Jer. xlv. 3. Groaning is the natural expression of sorrow:
and sighs, sobs, and groans, are what a heart pierced and weighed down with grief
naturally vents itself in. Christ was “a man of sorrows,” and so we find him
“groaning,” John xi. 38; and true Christians, whatever their natural temper is,
will be found to resound as an echo to a groaning Saviour.
Particularly, groans are the more heavy, when they arise from a double grief, a
grief for such a thing, and a grief that is beyond our power to help it: and of this
sort mostly are the groans of believers, Rom. vii. 24.
(2) Earnest desire of help and relief, 2 Cor. v. 2. Here the heart of the
believer in these groanings moves directly towards God, with eyes lifted up to
heaven. And hence these groanings are prayers in effect, and are so reckoned
before God, Rom. viii. 27. Whence it appears how the Spirit makes intercession
for us with groanings, that helping to groan before the Lord, he helps to pray.
These groanings may be considered two ways.
1st, As they are joined with solemn prayer. When a Christian is seriously
praying, and is so weighted that his prayers are here and there interrupted with
groanings; these groanings, which the prayers are interspersed with, are in God's
account parts of the prayer, and as acceptable parts as are in it all, whether they
come in when a sentence is closed, or come in before it be perfected; Psalm vi. 3,
“My soul is sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?” Men know not distinctly
the meaning of such groans; but the Lord sees it as plain as if expressed by words.
2dly, As they are separate from solemn vocal prayer. And thus we may also
consider them two ways. - -
i. As they come in the room and stead of vocal prayer intended. I believe it is
550 Discourses ON PRAYER.
very possible, that a child of God may go to his knees to pray, and may rise again
without having been able to speak a word, but only to groan: and though he thinks
he could pray none at all, he is mistaken; as far as the Spirit helped him to groan,
he helped him to pray, though none could understand that prayer of his but God
himself, who searcheth the heart, Rom. viii. 27. As a full bottle does not orderly
empty itself, so a heart may be too full to empty itself by words, but by groans;
Psalm lxxvii. 4, “Thou holdest mine eyes waking : I am so troubled that I can-
not speak.” - - t
ii. As they are without any design of solemn prayer. When a man is walking
or sitting, musing on the sinfulness of his own heart and life, or on the wickedness
that is done in the world, with the dishonour that comes on the holy name of God
thereby ; till his heart, swelling with grief, natively vents itself in a groan ; that
groaning is, in God's account, a prayer, and a prayer that shall be heard at length,
as proceeding from the influence of his own Spirit. What was it that set the wheel
of providence in motion, to stop the wicked career the Egyptians were in ? Exod. ii.
24. Why, God heard the groaning of the children of Israel.
Secondly, I come now to show the moving causes of these groanings of believers.
Believers, by the Spirit, have their groanings unto the Lord, -
1. Under a pressure of trouble. While they are here, they cannot miss so much
of a suffering lot as will make them groan, Rom. viii. 18, 23 ; and by the Spirit
these groans are directed towards God, as those of a child under the difficulties of
the way, are directed to his father. . -
(1.) Sometimes they are groaning to him under outward troubles. So Israel
groaned under the Egyptian bondage, Exod. ii. 23, 24 ; yea, Christ himself, John
xi. 33, 38. These are weights that press their spirits, make them to groan, and
look upward for relief, (Rom. viii. 23,) longing for the day when they shall be
beyond them. - - -
2.) Sometimes they are groaning under inward troubles; Psalm xxx. 7, “Thou
didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” While here, they are liable to spiritual
desertions, wounds in their spirits under the apprehensions of the Lord's anger
against them. And they groan out their case towards the hand that Smites them.
Both outward and inward troubles meet often together, as in the case of David ;
Psalm vi. 2, 3, 6, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal
me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how
long 2 I am weary with my groaning ; all the night make I my bed to swim ; I
water my couch with my tears;” and in that of Job ; chap. xxiii. 2, “Even to-day
is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.” - • I
2. Under a pressure of temptations. These are a heavy weight to a gracious
soul; they made Paul to go groaning to God again and again, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8
Our Lord Christ had experience of an hour of the power of darkness; Luke xxii.
53, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against
me : but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” And his followers will
not want experience of the same, wherein temptations come on thick and vigorous.
These cause groanings, . *. -
(1.) Because of their disturbing the peace of the soul; they turn the calm into
a storm, that the soul is tossed thereby as on a raging sea, which makes them cry,
“Lead us not into temptation.” • . . -
(2.) Because of the difficulty of one's keeping his ground against them, Eph. vi.
12, 16. Every temptation has a friend within us, and men's nature is unto tempta-
tion as tinder to sparks of fire, apt to take fire; so that it requires hard wrestling
to keep our ground. - -
(3.) Because of the danger of falling thereby into sin. Temptation is the preci-
pice, and sin is the devouring gulf: and they who have a sense of their danger, no
wonder they groan under the pressure, and groan for relief. . . . . .
3. Under the pressure of sin. This is a light burden to the most part of man-
kind; but it is the heaviest burden to a child of God, and causes in him, through
the Spirit, the heaviest groans. For it is of all things the most contrary and oppo-
site to the new nature in him, whence are these continued strugglings; Gal. v. 17,
“The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh : and these
DISCOURSES ON PR AYER. 551
are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
Many troubles Paul met with ; but did any of them all ever cause in him such an
exclamation as that, Rom. vii. 24, “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death ?” Now, the children of God groan,
(1.) Under the weight and pressure of their own sin, the sin of their nature, and
the sin of their life; Psalm li. 3, 5, “I acknowledge my transgressions; and my
sin is ever before me. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother
conceive me.” It lies on them heavy as a body of death, while others being dead
in sin, it is no burden to them ; no burden to their heart, though sometimes it may
be to their conscience. And there are three things in their sin that press them sore.
i. The filthiness of it ; that deformity that is in it, being the quite contrary of
the holiness of God expressed in his law. The soul seeing the glory of the holiness
of God, and how its sin is the very reverse of that glory; that fills it with shame,
(Ezra ix. 6,) and self-loathing, Ezek. xxxvi. 31. Beholding itself in the glass of
the pure and holy law, as a polluted and defiled creature, it groans under it as one
pressed down to the earth with a burden; Jer, iii. ult, “We lie down in our shame,
and our confusion covereth us : for we have sinned against the Lord our God.”
ii. The prevailing power of it ; Psalm lxv. 3, “Iniquities prevail against me,”
Heb. “ have been mightier than I.” The new nature struggles against sin, Gal.
v. 17. The new man of grace and the old man of sin are engaged in combat; and
ofttime, the old man prevails, and the new man is cast down. Now, the believer,
taking part with grace against corruption, groans under this prevailing power of
corruption (Rom. vii. 23, 24.) as an insupportable tyranny, that he longs to be rid of.
iii. The guilt of it ; Psalm li. 4, “Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and
done this evil in thy sight.” In the eyes of a believer life lies in the favour of
God, the shinings of his countenance ; but their guilt binds them over to his
anger and overclouds his countenance. And that is a weight that makes them
groan, that, when it is removed, they rejoice as one that has got a burden taken
off his back; Psalm xxxviii. 4, “Mine iniquities are gone over mine head : as
an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me:” compared with Hos. xiv. 2, “Take
away all iniquity, and receive us graciously ; so will we render the calves of
our lips.” - -
{} Under the weight and pressure of the sin of others; Ezek. ix. 4, “Go
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations that
be done in the midst thereof.” As one cannot but loathe an abominable thing on
another as well as on himself; so sin, wherever it appears, on others, as well as on
ourselves, will be a burden to a gracious soul, that will make it groan ; Isa. vi. 5,
“Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Thus Lot was under a continued burden
in Sodom, while he was among them, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. And none groan spiritually
under their own sin that do not groan also under the sins of others amongst whom
they live. There are three things in the sins of others that make them groan.
i. The dishonour to the holy name of God that is in them, Rom. ii. 23, 24. To
see men trampling under foot the holy laws of God, and, by their profane courses,
affronting the God that made them, and walking after their own lust, cannot but
be a burden to any who truly love the Lord, and are concerned for the honour of
his name; Psalm crix. 136, “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,” says David,
“because they keep not thy law.” Zeal for the honour of God, as it is native to
his children; so where it cannot prevail against sin, natively vents itself in groan-
ing under the burden, Psalm lxix. 9.
ii. The ruin to the sinner's own soul that is wrapt up in it, Jer. xiii. 17. There
needs no prophetical eye, but an eye of faith in the Lord's word, to foresee the
ruin of those that go on impenitently in their sinful course, Rom. vi. 21. When
sinners are fighting against God, by going on in their trespasses; it is easy to see
whose head must be wounded in the encounter, (Psalm lxviii. 21,) and who must
fall at length, however long they keep foot, Deut. xxxii. 35. Now, the prospect
of this is enough to make a gracious soul groan for those that cannot groan for
themselves; Psalm crix. 119, 120, “Thou puttest away all the wicked of the
552 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies. My flesh trembleth for fear
of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.” So Hab. iii. 16. - -
iii. The hurt that is in it to others. It is Solomon's observation, that “one
sinner destroyeth much good,” Eccl. ix. ult. And there is a woe pronounced on
the world because of offences, Matt. xviii. 7. Sin is a noxious vapour, spreading
its infection over many; wounding some, and killing others; grieving to the godly,
and hardening to the wicked. And a serious view of the mischief it does to others,
beside the sinner himself, makes the godly groan.
From what is said, it appears that sin is the fundamental and chief cause of the
believer's groaning. Troubles outward and inward rise from it, temptations lead
to it. That is it within them, and that is it without them, that makes them groan.
That is the burden to the Spirit of God that grieves him, as one groaning under a
burden, Amos ii. 13; Isa. i. 24. That is it that makes “the whole creation
groan,” Rom. viii. 22. And it is that which makes the believer groan.
II. The second general Head is to show how the Spirit makes intercession for
believers with groanings.
First, He works in them a spiritual feeling of their burdens; Rom. viii. 23,
“And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves.” The time was when they lay with the
rest of the world, without sense or feeling of the burden on them, and he gave
them life: and sometimes spiritual life in them has been so low, that they could
have but little true feeling of their own case; and it was a burden to them to
bestir themselves to rid themselves; Cant. v. 3, “I have put off my coat, how
shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?” But the
Spirit excites grace, and gives them a lively feeling of their spiritual case; ver. 4,
“My Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved
for him.”
Secondly, He gives them a view of the free and unburdened state, wherein
mortality is swallowed up of life, 2 Cor. v. 4. There is such a state, it is repre-
sented in the word of truth. The Spirit strengthens the eye of faith, whereby the
soul sees it clearly, though afar off; a state wherein there is an eternal putting off
of the burden of trouble, temptation, and sin. w
Thirdly, He excites in them ardent desires of riddance from their burden, and
of arriving at the unburdened state; 2 Cor. v. 2, “For in this we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven;” Rom. viii. 23,
“Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body.” What ardent desire of deliverance would a man have,
who was kept lying among dead corpses, rotting and sending forth their stench
into his nostrils | Such ardent desire will a Christian have, when, through the
Spirit, grace is put in lively and vigorous exercise, while the dead world without
him, and the body of death within him, conspire to annoy him with their savour of
death, Rom. vii. 24. Hence, - -
Fourthly, He engages them in earnest wrestling with their burden, in order to
get clear of it, that the new creature of grace may get up its back, and run the
way of God’s commandments, Gal. v. 17. Here grace has a mighty struggle with
its enemy, longing and panting for the victory, and pressing towards a state of
perfection, Phil. iii. 14.
Lastly, Finding themselves still entangled with their burden, notwithstanding
'of all their wrestling, he helps them to groan out their case before the Lord, as a
case that is beyond their reach to help; Rom. vii. 23, 24, “I see another law in
my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?” But the groaning through the Spirit's
aid is not groaning and dying, but,
1. Groaning and looking to the Lord for help; Psalm czxiii. 1, “Unto thee I
lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.” The believer groans and
looks upward to God for relief. His burden of trouble, he will lie under it, till the
Lord take it off, and will not take any sinistrous course for his deliverance; Isa.
xxviii. 16, “He that believeth shall not make haste.” The burden of sin, he is
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. - 553
never to be reconciled with that; but however long he wrestles with it without the
desired success, he will ever be looking and longing for deliverance, Phil. iii. 13, 14.
2. Groaning and waiting for relief, Rom. viii. 23. Unbelief makes one to groan
and despair of deliverance, either in temporals or spirituals, Jer. ii. 25. But the
Spirit makes the believer to groan and wait in hope, Gal. v. 5. Though the eyes
fail while they wait for their God, yet still they will wait in the hope of the pro-
mise, Luke xviii. 1.
III. I come now to show in what respects these groanings are “groanings that
cannot be uttered.”
First, The working of their affections, thus set in motion by the Spirit, is some-
times such as stops the course of the words. This is often seen in the workings
of natural affections, how that either joy or grief filling the heart, mars the ordi-
nary course of words; the heart being too full to be vented easily in expression.
It is not, then, to be thought strange, that it so falls out in the case of spiritual
affections put in mighty motion by the Spirit. Yea, they do,
1. Sometimes interrupt the expression, and the groaning fills up what is wanting
in the words, Psalm vi. 3: even as a hurt and pained child tells his case to his
mother, in imperfect expressions, filling up the want with tears, sighs, and sobs; so
that she may have difficulty to understand what ails him. But our Father in heaven
has no difficulty in coming at the meaning of his children so expressed; Rom. viii.
27, “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.” Our
elder Brother sometimes spoke by broken sentences from the same cause ; Luke
xix. 41, 42, “And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it,
saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” So Gen. iii. 22.
2. Sometimes stop the expression altogether, like as a multitude of people
rushing all together to a door, they all stick, and none can get out; Psalm lxxvii.
4, “I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” So a child of God may go to prayer,
and not be able to speak a word. But let them go to their knees before the Lord
for all that ; and if they cannot speak a word, let them groan their case before the
Lord. That is a proper way of praying in the Spirit; and God will certainly
hear and accept that kind of praying, though there be nothing but groaning in it.
Do ye put away dumb people without an alms, because they cannot speak? are
ye not more moved with their signs and humming noise, than with the cries of
common beggars? Do not the sighs and sobs of your frighted or hurt children
move you more, than their complaints formed in words 2 And do ye think
that God will disregard the groans and sighs of his people, when they cannot
speak a word to him? No, Surely; he will hear the groaning of the prisoner,
Psal. cii. 20.
Secondly, What they feel and see in this case by the Spirit, is always beyond
what they can express in words. I own that what a child of God sometimes feels
and sees in prayer, is so small, that their words may sufficiently express it; but
when the Spirit helpeth them to these groanings, it is quite otherwise, their words
cannot come up to their affections. When the Spirit gives a Christian an experi-
mental feeling of the burden of sin, realizes to him the glory of the unburdened
state, and makes him groan between the two, there is something there that is
truly unspeakable. As the gift of Christ is unspeakable to those who truly see it,
(2 Cor. ix. 15,) and the joy in the Holy Ghost to those that feel it, (1 Pet. i. 8;) so
are the groanings by the Spirit unutterable to the groaners.
I conclude with two or three reflections.
First, God’s people are a groaning people. For they have the Spirit of Christ,
and he makes intercession for them with groanings: they have put on Christ, and
he was a groaner. And those that are strangers to these groanings, their groan-
ing time is coming; walking now in the vanity of your minds, will make eternal
groaning. -
Question. How are God's people regarded when they get leave to groan on ?
Answer. They must abide the trial of their graces, and be conformed to the image
of a groaning Saviour. In due time their burden will be taken off, and they
grOan no more.
4. A
554 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
Secondly, Prayer is a business of great weight and seriousness. It is one thing
to say a prayer, another thing to pray indeed acceptably. Wherefore from this,
and all that has been said,
Lastly, Learn to pray by the help of the Spirit, for no other praying is accept-
able to God: look to him in all your addresses to the throne, and depend upon
his guiding and influence; that through Christ Jesus, ye may “ have access by one
Spirit unto the Father,” Eph. ii. 18. -
OF PRAYING IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.
THE SUBSTANCE OF SOME SERMONs PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN THE YEAR 1728.
JoBN xvi. 23.
“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”
OUR Lord Jesus is here comforting his disciples under the want of his bodily
presence which they had so long enjoyed, showing them that it should be well made
up to them. They should see him again after his resurrection, though not to return
to that familiarity with them as before ; they should see him by the Spirit, in his
exalted state; and should find God so reconciled to them by his sacrifice of him-
self, that they should have a boldness of access to the throne in heaven which they
had not before; that in that day they should ask him nothing in that manner they
used while he was with them in the days of his flesh, but in a manner more to his
honour and their comfort. Here he declares, -
1. What that manner is, and that in two things. (1.) They should apply them-
selves, in askings or petitioning, directly to the Father as their God and Father,
allowing them access to him, for the supply of all their needs. (2.) They should
apply to him in the name of the Son, the exalted Redeemer, expressly, seeing
more clearly the way of sinners treating with God through the Mediator, than either
the Jewish church had done, or they themselves while they had his bodily presence
with them.
2. The success of that manner of applying to God. It should be successful in
all points. Whatsoever, in spiritual or temporal things, they should petition the
Father in the name of Christ, he should give it them for his sake.
The following doctrine arises from the words.
DocTRINE. Whosoever would pray to God acceptably, must pray to him in the
name of Jesus Christ. -
In treating this point, I shall,
I. Show what it is to pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
# Give the reasons why acceptable prayer must be in the name of Christ.
I. Apply.
I. I * tº how what it is to pray in the name of Jesus Christ, That this takes
in whatever is necessary in prayer, both as to matter and manner, is evident from
the text: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name,” &c. And no man can thus
pray but by the Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 3. *
Negatively, It is not a bare mentioning his name in prayer, and concluding our
prayers there with ; Matt...vii. 21, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” We must begin, carry on, and
conclude our prayers in the name of Christ; Col. iii. 17, “Whatsoever ye do in
Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the
Father by him.” The saints use the words, “through Jesus Christ our Lord,”
I Cor. xv. 57; but the virtue is not in the words, but in the faith wherewith they
are used. But, alas ! these are often produced as an empty scabbard, while the
sword is away.
Positively, we may take it up in these four things,
556 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
First, We must go to God at Christ's command, and by order from him. This
is the import of the phrase, “in his name;” Matt. xviii. 20, “Where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” If a poor body
can get a recommendation from a friend to one that is able to help him, he comes
with confidence and tells, Such a one has sent me to you. Our Lord Christ is the
friend of poor sinners; and he sends them to his Father to ask supply of their wants,
and allows them to tell that he sent them, John xvi. 24. And coming that way, in
faith, they will not be refused. This implies,
1. The soul's being come to Christ in the first place; John xv. 7, “If ye abide
in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done
unto you.” Sense of need brings the soul to Christ, as the poor man's friend, who
has the favour of the court of heaven, that through his means the Soul may get its
wants supplied there. See Acts xii. 20. We must first come to Christ by faith,
ere we can make one acceptable prayer to God.
2. That however believers in Christ are relieved of the burden of total indigence,
(John iv. 14,) yet while they are in the world, they are still compassed with wants.
God will have them to live from hand to mouth, and so to honour him by hanging
on daily about his hand for their supply from time to time. In heaven they shall
be set down at the fountain; but now the law of the house is, “Ask, and ye shall
receive,” Matt. vii. 7.
3. That Christ sends his people to God by prayer, for the supply of their wants.
This he does by his word, commanding them to go, and by his Spirit, inclining
them to go. For thus the whole Trinity is glorified by the praying believers;
the Father as the Hearer of prayer, the Son as the Advocate and Intercessor
presenting their prayers to the Father, and the Spirit as the Author of their
prayers; Eph. ii. 18, “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father,”
4. That acceptable prayer is performed under the sense of the command of a
God in Christ; Isa. xxxiii. 22, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-
giver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.” Men may pray, though not accept-
ably, with little or no sense of the command of God on their consciences; that is
not serving God, but themselves. They may pray under the sense of the command
of an absolute God out of Christ; that is but slavish service to God. But the
believer has the sense of the command, as from Jesus Christ, where majesty and
mercy are mixed in it; and that is son-like service.
5. That the acceptable petitioner's encouragement to pray is from Jesus Christ;
Heb. iv. 14–16, “Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest that is passed
into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we
have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore,
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need.” It is Christ's token that he has given them to carry with
them, that affords them all their confidence with God : that is the promises of the
covenant sealed with his own blood. Faith, laying hold on these, carries them as
Christ's token to the Father upon which a poor criminal may expect to find accept-
ance and supply.
Secondly, We must pray for Christ's sake, as our motive to the duty. This
also is imported in the phrase, “in his name ;” Mark ix. 41, “Whosoever shall
give you a cup of water to drink, in my name, because ye belong to Christ,-he
shall not lose his reward.” As we must be influenced by his command, as the reason
of our praying, so with regard to him as our motive. As there is no coming to
God but by him ; so there is no kindly drawing of us to God but by the allurement
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus, 2 Cor. iv. 6. Any other sight of the glory
of God would fright the sinner away from him, as from a consuming fire. So we
must behold God in Christ, and go to him as the object of our love and adoration.
This implies,
1. An high esteem of Christ in the acceptable petitioner; 1 Pet. ii. 7, “Unto
you which believe, he is precious.” No man's prayer will be acceptable to God
who wants a transcendent esteem of the Lord Christ; for God is honoured in his
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 557
Son, John v. 23. And the more the esteem of Christ has place in one's heart, the
more it will be found he will give himself to prayer.
2. Complying with the duty out of love to Christ; Heb. vi. 10, “God is not
unrighteous, to forget your work and labour of love.” The soul must discern
Christ's stamp on every duty, and so embrace it for his sake. The duty of prayer
some embrace and use, because of the usefulness of it to themselves; but God’s
children embrace it for the sake of Christ; 2 Cor. v. 14, “For the love of Christ
constraineth us.” Love natively leads to desire communion with the party beloved;
and love to Christ recommends prayer to a holy heart, as a means of communion
with God in Christ.
3. Complying with the duty out of respect to his honour and glory; Phil. i. 21,
“For to me to live is Christ.” Christ humbled himself, and therefore the Father
has glorified him, chap. ii. 9–11. And every act of praying in his name glorifies,
him, being an acknowledgment, before God, of the unspeakable dignity of his
merit and intercession, as procuring that access for sinners unto God, that no other
way could have been obtained.
4. Doing it with heart and good-will: for what is done for Christ's sake by a
gracious soul, must needs be so done ; Isa. lxiv, 5, “Thou meetest him that rejoic-
eth and worketh righteousness; those that remember thee in thy ways.” One
praying indeed in the name of Christ, is acted by a principle of love to him, which,
oiling the wheels of the soul, sets all in motion, so that the heart is poured out like
water before the Lord. And where that principle is wanting, there is an acting by
constraint.
Thirdly, We must, in praying to God, act in the strength of Christ. This also
is imported in the phrase ; Luke X. 17, “And the seventy returned again with
joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” So
Zech. x. ult, “I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and
down in his name.” We must go to prayer as David went against Goliath ; 1 Sam.
xvii. 45, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts.” And here consider,
1. What this presupposes.
2. Wherein it lies.
1. Let us consider what this acting in prayer in the strength of Christ presup-
poses. It presupposes,
(1.) That praying acceptably is a work quite beyond any power in us; 2 Cor. iii.
5, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves.”
The want of this persuasion mars many a prayer, and makes many a rash and
inconsiderate approach unto God. To manage aright an address to God on his
throne of glory, cannot miss to appear such a work in the eyes of all who have due
thoughts of God's majesty, or of their own ignorance and weakness.
(2.) That there is a stock of grace and strength in Jesus Christ, for our help, as
to other duties, so for this duty of prayer ; 2 Cor. xii. 9, “My grace is sufficient
for thee.” Man at first had his stock of grace in his own hand, and he made a
sad account of it. Now the Lord has lodged it in the Mediator, as the head of
believers; Col. i. 19, “For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness
dwell.” In him there is not only a fulness of sufficiency for himself, but of abun-
dance for his people, as of water in a fountain, or of sap in the stock of a tree ;
John iii. 34, “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.”
(3.) Sinners are welcome to partake of this stock of grace and strength in Christ,
2 Tim. ii. 1. For it is lodged in him as a storehouse, to be communicated. The
fountain stands open, and whosoever will may come and take, Zech. xiii. 1. They
are very welcome. As it is an ease and pleasure for the mother to have the full
breast sucked by her babe, so it is a pleasure to Christ to communicate of his ful-
ness; Isa. lxvi. 12, 13, “For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to
her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a stream : then shall ye suck,
ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you ; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
(4.) We must be united to Christ, as members to the head, and branches to the
vine, if we would act, in prayer or any other duty, in the strength of Christ ; John
xv. 5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him,
558 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER,
the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” We
cannot partake of the stock of grace and strength for duty in Christ, without par-
taking of himself, Rom. viii. 32. As the soul in a separate state doth not quicken
the body, so the soul not united to Christ cannot be fitted for duty by strength
derived from him. The graft must knit with the stock, ere it can partake of
the Sap.
2. I am to show wherein acting in prayer in the strength of Christ lies. It lies
in two things.
(1.) The Soul's going out of itself for strength to the duty; that is, renouncing
all confidence in itself for the right management of it, 2 Cor. iii. 5, forecited.
Every duty is to be undertaken, begun, and carried on, under a sense of utter
weakness and insufficiency for it in ourselves.
i. Gifts are not to be trusted to, Prov. iii. 5. That is the way to get gifts
blasted, for they are but an arm of flesh, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. And though ye should
have the free exercise of your gift; yet a bare gift can never make a man do a
duty graciously. The work will still be but a dead work, without the life of grace
derived from Christ the Lord of life.
ii. Nay, grace recéived and implanted in us is not to be trusted to for this end.
Learn ye, that even of our gracious selves we can do nothing, 2 Cor. iii. 4, 5.
There must be continued supplies of grace from Christ to us, else we will bring
forth no fruit, John xv. 5. It is true, grace is a seed that in its nature tends to
fruit: but what will come of the seed, if the showers, and dew, and heat of the
sun be withheld 2
(2.) The soul's going to Christ for strength to duty, by trusting on him for it;
Isa. xxvi. 4, “Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlast-
ing strength.” This is the exercising of faith, by which the Saints live, (Gal. ii.
20,) and derive grace and strength from Christ their head, John i. 16. Faith is
that grace by which the weak soul fetches in strength and grace from the fountain
of it in Christ. So he prays in the name of Christ, in this respect, who goes about
the duty in confidence of, and trusting in Christ for, strength and ability to manage
it acceptably; Psalm lxxi. 16, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will
make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.” To make this more plain,
consider, -
i. By faith a Christian sees, in the glass of the word, an utter inability for duty
in himself, believing, on the testimony of the word, that of himself he is unable to
work any good work, (Isa. xxxvi. 12,) nay, not to begin it well, (Phil. i. 6,) to
will it, (chap. ii. 13,) nor so much as to think it, 2 Cor. iii. 5. In all which the
Christian's faith is strengthened by experience.
ii. By faith he sees also a fulness of grace and strength treasured up in Christ
the head, to be communicated to the members of his body; 2 Cor. xii. 9, “And
he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect
in weakness;” Col. i. 19, “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness
dwell.” And he beholds the promises he has made of it as the conduit pipes by
which it is conveyed unto them; 2 Pet. i. 4, “Whereby are given unto us exceed-
ing great and precious promises; that by these you might be partakers of the
divine nature.” These things the Christian believes on the testimony of the same
word of God: and thus he sees a sufficiency to oppose to his own emptiness, and a
fulness of strength to remedy his own weakness.
iii. By faith he trusts that this fulness in Christ shall be made forthcoming to
him, in a measure of it, for the duty, according to the promise; Psalm xviii. 2,
“The Lord is—my God, my strength, in whom I will trust;” Hab. iii. 19, “The
Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will
make me to walk upon mine high places.” Thus there is a particular application
in faith, that the Christian trusts in the word of promise, that grace and strength
shall be given to him. So the word holds it out for particular application by faith;
2 Cor. xii. 9, “My grace is sufficient for thee;” and this is the way to bring in
strength, as the Psalmist's experience testifies; Psalm xxviii. 7, “The Lord is my
strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped:” and so the
promiso secures it; Jer. xvii, 7, 8, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER, 559
and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and
that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but
her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither
shall cease from yielding fruit.” Take away that trust, that particular application,
the soul is left helpless, having nothing to gripe to, and the communication of
strength is blocked up ; according to what the apostle James says, chap. i. 6, 7,
“Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: for he that wavereth is like a wave of
the Sea, driven with the wind, and tossed. For let not that man think that he
shall receive any thing of the Lord.”
Fourthly, We must, in praying to God, pray for Christ's sake, as the only pro-
curing cause of the success of our prayers; Dan, ix. 17, “Now therefore, O our
God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to
shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.” Going to God in
prayer, we must, as it were, put off our own persons, as not worth noticing in the
sight of God, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ; come and receive the blessing in
the elder Brother's clothes, having all our hope from the Lord's looking on the
face of his Anointed. This is the main thing in the text; a relying on the Lord
Jesus for the success of our prayers in heaven. Here I shall show,
1. What is presupposed in this.
2. Wherein it consists. -
1. I am to show what is presupposed in praying to God for Christ's sake. It
presupposes, -
(1.) That sinners in themselves are quite unacceptable in heaven, even in their
religious duties. Not only are the wicked so, (Prov. xv. 8,) but even the saints
considered in themselves, Isa. lxiv. 6. The reason is plain; God is holy, we are
impure and defiled. There is such a rank Smell of sinful pollution about us, that
the opening of a sinner's mouth in prayer is like the opening of an unripe grave,
Rom. iii. 13. It is too strong, that we cannot sweeten ourselves. The loathsome
savour of the sins about the best, cannot be mastered by any sweet savour of their
duties, but only by the sweet savour of the sacrifice of Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 15, with
Eph. v. 2.
(2) Christ is most acceptable there; he is the darling of heaven, the prime
favourite there ; Matt. iii. "ult., “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” He is acceptable there as God, the only begotten of the Father from
eternity: but that is not it. He is acceptable as God-man, Mediator, who has in
our flesh fulfilled his Father's will, by his obedience and death; Eph. v. 2, “Christ
—hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling
savour.” And he is acceptable to the Father,
i. In himself, Matt. iii. ult, above cited. The Father is well pleased with his
person; and delights in him, as the brightness of his own glory, and his own
express image. He is well pleased with his undertaking the work of our redemp-
tion, and his management of that work: he is well pleased with his holy birth,
righteous life, and complete satisfaction; so pleased with his humbling himself,
that he has “highly exalted him,” Phil. ii. 9.
ii. He is so well pleased with him, that he accepts sinners for his sake; Eph.
i. 6, “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” For his sake rebel sinners are
accepted to peace and favour, criminals to eternal life, their performances, mixed
with much sinful imperfections, are accepted as pleasing in his sight. The sweet
Smell of his sacrifice so masters the rank savour of sin about them, that they are,
for his sake, brought into his presence and made near. The Father knows not to
refuse him any request; John xi. 42, “I knew that thou hearest me always.”
(3.) Sinners are warranted to come to the throne of grace in his name; Heb.
iv. 15, 16, “We have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help in time of need.” It is sinners of mankind, not of the angel
tribe; chap. ii. 16, “ For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he
took on him the seed of Abraham.” Whatever be our case, he will do for us to
the uttermost, Heb. vii. 25. He is an Advocate that will take our most desperate
560 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
causes in hand, carry them through, and that in a way agreeable to justice ;
1 John iii. 1, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous.” The petitions put in his hand cannot miscarry. *
2. I am now to show wherein this praying to God for Christ's sake consists. And,
(1.) In general, it consists in our relying on the Lord Jesus only, for the suc-
cess of our prayers in heaven. And,
i. Consider what we are in this matter to rely on him only for.
(i.) We are to rely on him only, for access to God in our prayers; Eph. iii. 12,
“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” In
vain do we pray if we get no access to the prayer-hearing God; and there is no
access to him, but through Christ, John xiv. 6. Whoever attempt to draw near
to God otherwise, will get the door of heaven cast on their face: but we must take
hold of the Mediator, and come in at his back, who is Heaven's favourite and the
sinner's friend. - -
ii.) For acceptance of our prayers, Eph. i. 6, forecited. Our Lord Christ is
the only altar that can sanctify our gift, Heb. xiii. 10, 15. If we lay the stress of
our acceptance on any person or thing but Jesus Christ the crucified Saviour, we
cannot be accepted. For our best duties, being mixed with sinful imperfections,
cannot be accepted of a holy God but through a Mediator; and there is no Medi-
ator but he, 1 Tim. ii. 5. - *
(iii.) For the gracious answer of prayer in granting our petitions. So the text,
“Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” We have
forfeited all other pleas for Heaven's favours, by Adam's fall. And now no prayers
can be heard and answered in heaven but for Christ the second Adam's sake. A
sinner cannot have the least favourable glance from the throne of God but what is
given for Christ's sake. What men get otherwise, they get with a vengeance, an
impression of wrath on it, Hosea xiii. 11; Psalm lxxviii. 29. -
ii. Consider how we are to eye Christ as the object of this reliance. We are
to eye him in it as our great High Priest, Heb. iv. 15, 16, forecited. A be-
liever is to eye Christ in his prayers, in all his offices. We are to eye him as
our Prophet, teaching us by his Spirit how and what to pray for; as our King,
having the office of distributing Heaven's favours tº poor sinners: but in point
of our access, acceptance, and hearing, we are to eye him as a Priest; for it
is in that office only we can find what to rely on before God for these ends. And
here we find, - -
i.) The infinite merit of his sacrifice to rely on; Rom. iii. 25, “Whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood.” Man by sin lost
himself, and all Heaven's favours, from the greatest to the least, from heaven's
happiness to the least drop of water to refresh him. Accordingly, Christ, redeem-
ing sinners by his blood, paid the ransom not only for their persons, but for all
Heaven's favours to them, from the greatest to the least. Therefore he says,
“Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David,” Isa. lv. 3.
He bought their seat in heaven, their peace, and pardon, yea, and their seat on
earth, their bread, and their water; Isa. xxxiii. 16, “He shall dwell on high; his
place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his
waters shall be sure.” Now, would we pray in his name?
Then in prayer eye Christ on the cross, bleeding, dying, and, by his bloody
death and sufferings, paying for the mercy thou art seeking. Is it a spiritual
mercy, or a temporal mercy ? It is a purchased mercy, the purchase of the blood
of Christ ; seek it of God as such, as the purchase of the blood of Jesus.
(ii.) His never-failing intercession to rely on ; Heb. vii. 25, “Wherefore he is
able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them.” Our great High Priest, having offered his
sacrifice on earth, is now gone into the heavens, presenting there the blood of his
sacrifice in the infinite merit thereof before his Father, that he may obtain the pur-
chased mercies for his people. So that the supply of the needs of his people is his
business in heaven, as well as it is theirs on earth. And he offers their prayers to
his Father, Rev. viii. 4. Therefore, if ye would pray in his name, -
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER, 561,
In prayer eye Christ as your Intercessor at the right hand of God, Rom. viii. 34.
If the price of his blood was extended to the purchasing of all the mercies we need;
surely his intercession extends from the greatest to the least of them also. And
therefore we need not stick to put our petitions for any mercy we need in his hand.
Hence it may appear,
(2) More particularly wherein praying in the name of Christ, and for his sake,
COnSISt.S. -
i. Renouncing all merit and worth in ourselves, in point of access, acceptance,
and gracious answer, saying with Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 10, “I am not worthy of the
least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy ser-
vant.” If we stand on the personal worth, from the consideration of our doings
or sufferings, or any thing in or about ourselves, we pray in our own name, and
will speed accordingly. Self-denial is absolutely necessary to this kind of praying,
that, stopping our eyes to all excellencies in ourselves or duties, we may betake our-
selves to free grace only. - -
ii. Believing that, however great the mercies are, and however unworthy we are,
yet we may obtain them from God through Jesus Christ, Heb. iv. 15, 16. There
can be no praying in faith without this. If we do not believe this, we dishonour
his name, whether our unbelief of it arise from the greatness of the mercy needed,
or from our own unworthiness, or both. For nothing can be beyond the reach of
his infinite merit and never-failing intercession.
iii. Seeking in prayer the mercies we need of God, for Christ's sake accordingly.
So we present our petitions “in his name,” John xvi. 24. We are to be ashamed
before God in prayer; ashamed of ourselves, but not ashamed to beg in the name
of his Son. Our holy shame respects our unworthiness: but Christ's merit and
intercession are set before us, as a ground of confidence.
iv. Pleading on his merit and intercession ; Psalm lxxxiv. 9, “Behold, O God
our shield, and look upon the face of thine Anointed.” We are not only to seek, but
to plead in prayer, as needy petitioners whose pinching necessity makes them fill
their mouths with arguments, Job xxiii. 3, 4. Christ's merit and intercession is
the fountain of these arguments ; and to plead on mere mercy, mercy for mere
mercy's sake, is too weak a plea. But faith, founding its plea on Christ's merit,
urges God’s covenant and promise made thereupon, Psalm lxxiv. 20; his glorious
perfections shining in the face of Jesus; the honour of his name manifested in
Christ.
v. Trusting that we shall obtain a gracious answer for his sake ; Mark xi. 24,
“What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them.” The
soul praying according to the will of God, is to exercise a faith of particular confi-
dence in God through Christ, which is not only warrantable but necessary, James
i. 6, 7. This glorifies the Mediator, and glorifies the faithfulness of God in the
promise: and the want of it casts dishonour on both.
II. The second general head is, to give reasons why acceptable prayer must be
in the name of Christ. I offer the following.
First, Because sinners can have no access to God without a Mediator, and there
is no other Mediator but he, Isa. lix. 2; 1 Tim. ii. 5. Innocent Adam might have
come to God immediately in prayer, and been accepted ; for while there was no
sin, there was no need of a Mediator. But now the justice of God bars the access of
sinners to him; and there is none to mediate a peace betwixt God and the sinner
but Christ, John xiv. 6. -
Secondly, Because the promises of the covenant were all made to Jesus Christ,
as the party who fulfilled the condition of the covenant, Gal. iii. 16. The promises
are the measure of acceptable prayer: what God has not promised, we cannot
warrantably pray for. In prayer we come to God to claim the promises: and we
cannot claim them but in the right of Christ the head of the covenant, to whom
they were made ; that is to say, we cannot pray acceptably but in his name.
Thirdly, Because our praying in the name of Christ, is a part of the reward of
Christ's voluntary humiliation for God's glory aid the salvation of sinners, Phil.
ii. 9, 10. He gave his life a ransom for sinners, and a price of redemption of their
forfeited mercies: therefore God has statuted and ordained, that sinners shall
4 B
562 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
crave and receive all their mercies in his name ; that they shall kneel in him to
receive the blessing, as his members.
Fourthly, Because it is not consistent with the honour of God, to give sinners
a favourable hearing otherwise, John ix. 31, with 2 Cor. v. 19, 21. Where is the
honour of God's justice, if Heaven's favours be bestowed on sinners otherwise than
on the account of a satisfaction ?—the honour of his holiness, if they may have
communion with him as they are in themselves?—of his law, if they may get their
petitions of mercy answered but in the name of one who has answered its demands?
They dishonour God, his Son, and his mercies, that ask any thing but in the name
of Christ.
Fifthly, Nothing can savour with God that comes from a sinner, but what is per-
fumed with the merit and intercession of Christ, 2 Cor. ii. 15; Eph. i. 6. It is
not the inward excellency of the prayers of the saints that makes them acceptable
in God's sight; but the righteousness of Christ, which is by faith on the praying
Saint praying in faith, Heb. xi. 4. The merit of his righteousness, presented, in
his intercession, with the prayer, makes it acceptable, Rev. viii. 4. It savours in
heaven out of his mouth.
Lastly, The stated way of all gracious communication between heaven and earth,
is through Jesus Christ, who opened a communication between them by his blood,
when it was blocked up by the breach of the first covenant, John xiv. 6. What-
ever favour is conveyed to us from heaven in a way of grace and love, whatever
we offer to God in a way of duty or desire, must go through him. This was repre-
sented in Jacob's ladder, Gen. xxviii. If we would come to God, or present a peti-
tion to him, it must be through Christ, Heb. ix. 19, 20. If the Lord comes to us,
or sends us a gracious answer, it is through him, 2 Cor. v. 19. - -
I shall now make some practical improvement of this subject. -
Use 1. Of information. From this doctrine we learn, r
First, What a holy God we have to do with in prayer, who hath said, “I will
be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glori-
fied,” Lev. x. 3. He sits on his throne of majesty ; and we can have no access to
him, being sinners, but through Christ. His very throne of grace, from which he
breathes love and good-will to sinners, is founded on justice and judgment, Psalm
lxxxix. 14. We must come to him under the covert of the Mediator's broad right-
eousness and efficacious blood; otherwise we cannot stand before his spotless
holiness. -
Secondly, Let us prize the love of Christ, in making an entrance for us into the
holy place, through the wail of his flesh, Heb. x. 20. The flaming sword of justice,
which guarded the way to the tree of life, was bathed in his blood, to procure us
access to God. He bought again the estate that Adam forfeited for us, and he
bought it with his precious blood; that, since we could not have it again in our
own name, we might have it in his.
Thirdly, There can be no acceptable praying to God but by believers united to
Christ, having on the garment of his righteousness; John, ix. 31, “God heareth
not sinners.” An unregenerate man, living in his natural state, may pray; but
can never pray acceptably, while in that state ; for he cannot pray in the name of
Christ, which is not the work of the tongue using these words, but the work of the
heart by faith relying on Christ, his merit and intercession.
Fourthly, Even believers cannot pray in the name of Christ, and so not accep-
tably, without faith in exercise. It is not enough for this end, that one have faith
in the root and principle ; but faith must be exercised in every duty : Gal. ii. 20,
“The life which I now live in the flesh,” says Paul, “I live by the faith of the
Son of God.” It is as necessary to every acceptable performance, as breathing to
the common actions of life, John xv. 5. . . -
Lastly, We have great need not to be rash in our approaches to God in prayer,
but that we prepare our hearts and compose them aforehand for such a solemn
duty, Eccl. v. 1. We should beware lest custom in these things, and particularly
..in the more frequent and less solemn approaches to God in prayer at our meals,
turn us to formality ; but should labour to impress our hearts with the holiness of
God, the necessity of a Mediator, and stir up grace in our hearts. -
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER, 563
Use 2. Of reproof to all those who approach unto God in prayer otherwise than
by and in the name of Jesus Christ. The idolatrous Papists allow other mediators
of intercession besides the one only Mediator: and pray to, employ, and rely on
Saints and angels, to intercede in heaven for them, though religious worshipping
of the creature is directly forbidden, Matt. iv. 10; and angel-worship, Rev. xix.
10; and the Saints departed are not acquainted with our particular cases, Isa. lxiii.
16. But those also among us are to be reproved, as approaching to God in prayer
otherwise than in Christ's name,
First, Who make approach unto God in prayer, as an absolute God, without
consideration of the Mediator. This is the effect of the natural blindness and
ignorance of men's minds; not knowing God, nor discerning the flaming sword of
justice guarding the tree of life, they rush forward on the point thereof to pull the
fruits. Let such consider their dangerous rashness, and reform; Heb. xii. ult,
“For our God is a consuming fire;” knowing they can never worship God accep-
tably in that way; John v. 23, “He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not
the Father which hath sent him.” Hence, the knowledge and belief of the doc.
trine of the Trinity is the foundation of all acceptable worship, without which it
cannot subsist; Eph. ii. 18, “For through him we both have an access by one
Spirit unto the Father;” and the Christian church is thereby distinguished from
the rejected Jews, (1 Thess, i. 1,) and it must be practically improved in every
piece of true worship.
Secondly, Those who, in their approaches to God, put other things in the room
of the Mediator, or join other things with him. For as there is no access to God
without a Mediator, so there is none but by the one Mediator only; John xiv. 6,
“No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” But who do that? Even all
those who in their approaches by prayer lay the stress of their access and accept-
ance with God, in whole or in part, on any thing but Christ. Whatever thou
reliest on for these ends besides Christ, has his room, and so mars the duty, (Phil.
iii. 3,) and provokes God, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. There is a bias in the hearts of the best
this way.
There are four things which men are apt to put thus in the room of Christ, in
whole or in part.
1. Their own worth, in respect of their qualifications and good things done by
them, Judges xvii. ult. This the proud Pharisee relied on in his approach, Luke
xviii. 11, 12: “God, I thank thee,” says he, “I am not as other men are, extor-
tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I
give tithes of all that I possess.” So proud and conceited professors go to their
players, and with their money in their hand miss the opened market of free grace.
They say they beg for Christ's sake, but yet in reality they have more expectation
from their own personal worth, than from the merit of Christ's blood. Their want
of a humbling work of the Spirit raises the value they have for themselves; and
the want of saving illumination sinks the value of Christ's merit with them.
2. The mercy of an unatoned God, that is, mercy considered in God without a
view to the satisfaction of his justice by the Mediator. This the ignorant and pro-
ſame are apt to stumble on, whose eyes are open to the mercy of God, but blind to
his justice, which therefore they are in no concern about the satisfaction of. It
never enters into their hearts to question, how it is consistent with the honour and
justice of God to accept them; but the notion they have framed of the mercy of
God answers all their difficulties. Howbeit, no such mercy is proposed to sinners
in the gospel, Isa. xxvii. 11; Psalm lxxxv. 10. It is true, it was a good prayer
of the publican; Luke xviii. 13, “God be merciful to me a sinner:” but his words
bear an eye to mercy through a propitiation; and so was the mercy of God held
forth to the Old Testament church in the mercy-seat, as well as to the New.
3. The manner of their performing the duty itself. Great weight is laid here,
* if a well-said prayer were sufficient to recommend itself and the petitioner too,
Cain laid such a weight on his sacrifice, Gen. iv. 4, 5. A flash of affections and
seeming tenderness in prayer, is in the eyes of many a prayer that cannot be re-
jected ; Isa. lviii. 3, “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou Seest not ?
Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?” Enlarge-
564 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
ment in duty raises the value of it so in their own eyes, that they cannot think
but it must be valuable in the eyes of God too. So in the earnestness of the
prayer, and many words used, Matt. vi. 7. Let men examine their expectations,
and they will be fair to find more weight laid there than on the merit of Christ,
though this only can bear weight. * -
4. Their own necessity; Hos. vii. 14, “They have not cried unto me with their
heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and
wine, and they rebel against me.” Sense of need is a necessary qualification in
acceptable prayer: but pinching necessity, where the heart is unhumbled, is apt
to be set in a room higher than becomes it, as if of itself it were a sufficient plea.
When it is thus abused may be known by this, that on the not hearing of the
prayer, the heart riseth against God: a sign that the petitioner is not as a needy
beggar craving an alms, but a needy creditor craving his own. Our necessity
should quicken us to seek, but it is the merit and intercession of Christ alone that
is to be relied on for our access.
Use 3. Wherefore, rely on Christ, and on him only, for access to God in, and
acceptance of, your prayers; that is, Pray in the name of Christ.
Motive 1. In this way of praying ye may obtain any thing ye really need. So
says the text, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it
you.” There is no mercy so great, nor any sinner so unworthy, but he may have
it, coming to God this way, Heb. vii. 25, with John xi. 42. God can bestow it in
that way with the safety of his honour, the sinner may confidently expect it on
good grounds. For Christ's merit is infinite, his intercession always prevalent.
2. There is no access to God, nor acceptance of prayer another way, John xiv. 6.
It is through him our persons can be accepted, (Eph. i. 6,) and through him our
duties can be so, Heb. xi. 4. Every sacrifice not offered on this altar, however
valuable it seems, will be rejected. There is no return of prayer in a gracious
manner otherwise.
I conclude with giving you a few directions for praying in of Christ.
First, Labour to impress your hearts with a sense of the spotless holiness and
exact justice of God, Psalm lxxxix. 7. This will show the necessity of a Mediator
to interpose, as in Israel’s case. - -
Secondly, Be sensible of your need of, and look for, the help of the Spirit in
every approach, Rom. viii. 26. As the sending of the Spirit is the fruit of Christ's
merit and intercession; so the Spirit, being come, leads back to the Mediator,
Eph. ii. 18. -
Thirdly, Shake off all confidence in yourselves, and see your utter unworthiness
of the least mercies, how great soever your need of them be, Gen. xxxii. 10. As
Jacob put off his own raiment to put on his elder brother's for the blessing, so do
ye cast off your own filthy rags, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fourthly, Satisfy not yourselves with bare seeking for Christ's sake; that is not
enough : but be confident that ye shall get access, acceptance, and a gracious
return for his sake, Mark xi. 24. Raise a believing expectation in him. -
Question. How may one teach that? Answer. (1.) By a believing view of Christ
on the cross purchasing, and at the Father's right hand interceding for, our mercies;
and particularly eyeing his sufferings, agreeable to your wants, as in the case of
your want of light, the darkness came on him; in the case of your want of bread,
his hunger, &c., (2.) By a believing application of the promises suitable to your
needs. (3.) Considering this as God's ordinance for communication between
heaven and earth, Gal. iii. 8.
Lastly, Watch against your hearts going off to any confidence in the duty itself:
for that is to dishonour the name of Christ, and will provoke the Spirit of the
Lord to depart from you.
- # * * * - -
* • -
l - *- * * * , ... • . * * * * ~ * * *
OF GOD’S HEARING OF PRAYER.
THE SUBSTANCE OF SOME SERMONS PREACHED AT ETTRICK IN THE YEAR 1728,
PsALM lxy. 2.
“0 thow that hearest prayer, writo thee shall all flesh come.”
WHAT avails prayer if it be not heard? But God's people need not lay it aside on
that score. Our text bears two things with respect to that matter.
1. A comfortable title ascribed to God, with the unanimous consent of all the
sons of Zion, who are all praying persons, “O thou that hearest prayer.” He
speaks to God in Zion, or Zion's God, that is, in New Testament language, to God
in Christ. An absolute God thundereth on sinners from Sinai; there can be no
comfortable intercourse betwixt God and them by the law: but in Zion from the
mercy-seat in Christ, he is the hearer of prayer; they give in their supplications,
and he graciously hears them. Such faith of it they have, that praise waits there
for the prayer-hearing God. -
2. The effect of the savour of this title of God, spread abroad in the world,
“ Unto thee shall all flesh come ;” not only Jews, but Gentiles. The poor Gen-
tiles, who have long in vain implored the aid of their idols, hearing and believing
that God is the hearer of prayer, will flock to him, and present their petitions.
They will throng in about his door, where by the gospel they understand beggars
are so well served. They will “come in even unto thee,” Heb. They will come
in even to thy seat, thy throne of grace, even unto thyself, through the Mediator.
DocTRINE. God in Christ is the hearer of prayer.
In handling this doctrine, I shall show,
I. Wherein God's hearing of prayer lies. t
II. The import of his being the hearer of prayer.
III. What prayers they are that God hears.
IV. More particularly consider the hearing and answering of prayer.
V. Apply. *
I. I am to show wherein God's hearing of prayer lies. God being omniscient
and everywhere present, there can nothing be said or done in the world but he
hears or discerns it. But the hearing of prayer, in the sense of the scripture, is a
peculiar privilege of the Lord's people, and lies in the following things.
First, God's accepting of one's prayer; Psalm cyli. 2, “Let my prayer be set
forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacri-
fice.” Many prayers are said in the world that are so far from being accepted of
God, that they are an abomination to him, Prov. xxviii. 9. God turns them away
from him, as one flings a petition over the bar that he is displeased with, Psalm
lxvi. ult. But the prayers that he hears, he is well-pleased with them, he approves
of them. Hence he is said to attend, hearken to the voice, and consider prayer,
as one listens to a sound that pleases him, and dwells on a pleasing thought ;
Psalm lxvi. 19, “Verily God hath heard me: he hath attended to the voice of my
prayer.” He delights in the petition; Prov. xv. 8, “The prayer of the upright is
his delight.” He loves to hear the petitioner's voice; Cant. ii. 14, “Let me hear
thy voice; for sweet is thy voice.” He accepts the petitioner's person, and his
566 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
petition too, as the angel said unto Lot, Gen. xix. 21, “See, I have accepted thee
concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou
hast spoken.” For where prayer is heard, the person is accepted too, as Gen. iv.
4, “The Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering;” Job xlii. 9, “The Lord
also accepted Job.”
Secondly, His granting the request; Psalm xx. 1, 4, “The Lord hear thee in
the day of trouble:—grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy
counsel.” The sinner coming to God with a petition, lays it before him, and his
desire is granted. God wills it to be unto him accordingly; Matt. xv. 28, “O
woman,” said Christ to the woman of Canaan, “great is thy faith: be it unto thee
even as thou wilt.” The mercy prayed for is ordered for the sinner, in kind or
equivalent. Thus prayer is heard in heaven, heard and granted.
Thirdly, His answering of prayer ; Psalm cii. 2, “In the day when I call, answer
me speedily.” This is more than granting the request, being a giving into the
petitioner's hand what is desired. It is an answer not in word to the believer's
faith only, but in deed to the believer's sense and feeling. Thus Hannah prayed for
a child, and she got one ; Paul prayed for the removal of a temptation, and he got
grace sufficient to bear him out against it. Thus prayer heard in heaven comes
back like the dove with the olive-branch of peace in her mouth.
II. I shall show the import of God's being the hearer of prayer. These comfort.
able truths are imported in it.
First, God in Christ is accessible to poor sinners; 2 Cor. v. 19, “God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”
Though he sits on the throne of glory, and we are guilty before him ; yet he is on
a throne of grace, so as we may have access to him with our supplications. The
flaming sword of justice guards the tree of life on the side of the law; so that, on
that part, our God is a consuming fire, which sinners are not able to dwell with :
yet behold him in Christ, and through the Vail of his flesh he is accessible to the
worst of sinners. -
Secondly, He is a sin-pardoning God; Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, “And the Lord passed
by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.” . Prayer is made particularly for
the pardon of sin; the daily cry at the throne is, “Forgive us our debts.” If,
then, he is the hearer of prayer, he is a sin-pardoning God. We cannot pay our
debt; but God can forgive it, and will forgive it to all that come to him in Christ
for forgiveness. All kinds of sin he forgives freely, Micah vii. 18; Isa. i. 18.
There is no exception but of the 'sin against the Holy Ghost, which, in its own
nature, makes the guilty refuse pardon, Matt. xii. 31. The pardon is proclaimed
in the gospel, (Acts xiii. 38,) not to encourage presumption in any, but to prevent
despondency in all ; Psalm czXX. 4, “There is forgiveness with thee that thou
mayest be feared.”
Thirdly, He is an all-sufficient God ; Gen. xvii. 1, “I am the Almighty God,”
Heb. “all-sufficient.” He is self-sufficient for himself, and all-sufficient for his
creatures. If he were not so, he could not be the hearer of prayer ; the needs of
praying persons would soon exhaust his treasure. But though all flesh come to
him for supply of their various wants, he is the hearer of prayer ; he has enough
for them all, to answer all their needs, come as oft as they will. He is a fountain
of goodness, that never runs dry, but is ever full.
Fourthly, He is a bountiful and compassionate God; Psalm lxxxvi. 5, “Thou,
Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them that
call upon thee.” He is willing and ready to communicate of his goodness and
mercy to poor sinners for the supply of all their needs. He is more ready to give
than we to ask: we are not straitened in him, for he is the hearer of prayer; but
in our own bowels. He has laid down a method how we are to ask; and in that
method it is, Ask and have ; James i. 5–7, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall be
given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering ; for he that wavereth is
like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind, and tossed. For let not that man
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 567
think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” The faith of this is necessary
to acceptable prayer; Heb. xi. 6, “For he that cometh to God, must believe that
he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Fifthly, He is an omnipresent and omniscient God; Psalm czXxix. 7, “Whither
shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Heb. iv. 13,
“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” How else
could he be the hearer of prayer? What part of the world soever the petitioner is
in, whether he prays with the voice or with the heart only, God is the hearer of
prayer. Idolaters might choose high places to worship their idols in ; but it is all
one to the hearer of prayer, whether the petitioner be on the top of the highest
mountain, or as low as the centre of the earth. Jonah was heard out of the whale's
belly. Though thousands of voices be going in prayer to the throne at the same
time, the infinite mind comprehends them all, and every one, as easily as if there
were but one at once.
Lastly, He is a God of infinite power; Rev. iv. 8, “They rest not day and
night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” While there is such a
variety of cases that the creatures have to lay before him in prayer, he could not
be the hearer of prayer if there were any thing too hard for him to do. But
nothing is impossible with him; he calleth things that are not to be as if they
were, at the voice of prayer.
III. I proceed to show what prayers they are that God hears. It is not every
prayer, nor every one's prayer, that God hears. But it is the prayers of his chil-
dren, for things agreeable to his will, made by the assistance of his Spirit, and
offered through Christ.
First, They are the prayers of his own children, who are justified by faith, and
reconciled to him; James v. 16, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.” Our Lord, teaching how to pray, teaches us to call “God our
Father;” which can be only through faith. Our persons must be accepted in
justification, ere any work of ours can be so. Where there is no peace betwixt
God and the sinner, what communion can be there?. Amos iii. 3, “Can two walk
together except they be agreed?” The scripture is plain, “God heareth not sin-
ners,” John ix. 31. God’s way of giving graciously, is to give other things with
Christ; Rom. viii. 32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” It is in the
covenant only that one can have a bottom for acceptance of his prayers,
Objection. Then it is in vain for any to pray but true believers. Answer. There
is less evil in praying by an unbeliever, than in his omitting it; and consequently
less punishment will be. But going to pray, go to Christ by faith, and so your
prayer shall be accepted; and no otherwise.
Secondly, They are such prayers of theirs as are for things agreeable to God's
will; 1 John v. 14, “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask
any thing according to his will, he heareth us.” Even in saints there are remains
of a corrupt will, and so it is not left to them to pray for what they please ; not
what is the choice of their corruption, but what is the choice of their grace. When
James and John would have prayed for fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans,
Christ rebuked them, and said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,”
Luke ix. 54, 55. Elias did it; but they might not, not having his spirit.
Thirdly, They are prayers made by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, hence
called “inwrought,” Gr. James v. 16. No language is acceptable in heaven but
what is learned from thence. It is not the art of prayer, but the Spirit of prayer,
that is pleasing in the sight of God. The former may be reached by God's
enemies, whose false heart may vent itself by a flattering tongue, as Israel did :
Psalm lxxviii. 36, 37, “Nevertheless, they did flatter him with their mouth, and
they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him,
neither were they steadfast in his covenant.” The latter is the peculiar privilege
of God’s children, yet common to them all; Gal. iv. 6, “Because, ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
Lastly, They are prayers offered to God through Christ the Mediator, the soul
568 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
trusting on his merit and intercession alone for the hearing of them; Dan. ix. 17,
“Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications,
and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's
sake;” John xiv. 14, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Christ
is the altar on which our spiritual sacrifices can be accepted; and it is not con-
sistent with the honour of God, to hear the prayers of sinners otherwise.
IV. The doctrine being thus explained in the general, I come, in the next place,
more particularly,
First, To confirm it, and show that there is such a thing as hearing of prayer,
the privilege of the Lord’s people in this lower world.
Secondly, To show in what manner the Lord hears prayer.
First, I am to confirm it, and show that there is such a thing as hearing of
prayer, the privilege of the Lord’s people in this lower world. God is in heaven,
they are on the earth; voices from heaven, or angel-messengers to report the
acceptance of prayers there, are not to be expected. Nevertheless we are sure
there is such a thing still in being. And it is necessary to prove it, (1.) For the
Sake of a profane generation, who, as they are strangers to, so they are despisers
of, communion with God. (2.) For the sake of formalists, who go about the duty
of prayer as a task, but are in no concern for the fruit of it; send away the mes-
senger, but look for no report. (3.) For the sake of discouraged Christians, who
go bowed down because they cannot perceive it as they desire.
That God is the hearer of prayer, and will hear the prayers of his people, is
evident from these considerations:
1. The supernatural instinct of praying that is found in all that are born of
God, Gal. iv. 6, forecited. It is as natural for them to pray, to fall a-praying
when the grace of God has touched their hearts, as for children when they are
born into the world to cry, or to desire the breasts; Zech. xii. 10, “I will pour
upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of
grace and of supplications.” Compared with Acts ix. 11, where, in the account
that is given of Paul at his conversion, it is particularly noticed, “Behold, he
prayeth.” Hence the whole saving change on a soul comes under the character
of this instinct; Jer. iii. 4, 19, “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My
Father, thou art the guide of my youth?—I said, Thou shalt call me, My Father;
and shalt not turn away from me.” This supernatural instinct, being the work of
God in the new nature, cannot be in vain. Accordingly it is determined, Isa. xlv.
19, “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.” But it would be a
vain appetite, if it were not to be satisfied by hearing. t -
2. The intercession of Christ; Rom. viii. 34, “It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh inter-
cession for us.” It is a great part of the work of Christ's intercession to present
the prayers of his people before his Father, Rev. viii. 4; to take their causes in
hand contained in their supplications, 1 John ii. 1. So we find him interceding
for his church of old in her low condition, (Zech. i.,) and in the New Testament,
John xvii. He is ever at the work, and cannot neglect it, Heb. vii. 25; and it
cannot be without effect; John xi. 42, “I knew that thou hearest me always,”
said Jesus to his Father.
3. The promises of the covenant, whereby God's faithfulness is impawned for
the hearing of prayer; as Matt. vii. 7, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;” Isa. lxv.24, “And it shall
come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and whiles they are yet speak-
ing, I will hear;” Psalm cylv. 19, “He will fulfil the desire of them that fear
him; he also will hear their cry, and will save them.” The promise of hearing of
prayer is one of the great lines of the covenant; Hosea ii. 20, 21, “I will even
betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall
come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens,”
&c., and it is so proposed with his being his people's God; Zech. x. 6, “I am the
Lord their God, and will hear them.”
4. The many encouragements given in the word to the people of God, to come
with their cases unto the Lord by prayer. He invites them to his throne of grace
DISCOURSES ON I’IRAYER, 569
with their petitions for supply of their needs; Cant. ii. 14, “O my dove, that art
in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy counte-
nance, let me hearthy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.”
He sends afflictions for to press them to come ; Hos. v. ult., “I will go and return
to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face : in their afflic-
tion they will seek me early.” He gives them ground of hope of success, (Psalm
l. 15,) whatever extremity their case is brought to ; Isa. xli. 17, “When the poor
and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the
Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” He shows them
that, however long he may delay for their trial, yet praying and not fainting shall be
successful at length ; Luke xviii. 8, “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.”
5. The gracious nature of God, with the endearing relations he stands in to his
people; Exod, xxii. 27, “And it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that
I will hear: for I am gracious;” Matt. vii. 9–11, “What man is there of you,
whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone 2 or if he ask a fish, will he
give him a serpent ? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things
to them that ask him ?” He wants not power and ability to fulfil the holy desires
of his people ; he is gracious, and will withhold no good from them that they really
need. He has the bowels of a father to pity them, the bowels of a mother to her
sucking child. He has a most tender sympathy with them in all their afflictions,
the touches on them are as on the apple of his eye ; and he never refuses them a
request, but for their good, Rom. viii. 28.
6. The experiences which the saints of all ages have had of the answer of prayer.
The faith of it brings them to God at first in conversion, as the text intimates; and
they that believe cannot be disappointed. Abraham, Moses, David, and Job's
experiences of this kind are on record, with many others, Paul's, &c. The Psal-
mist sets up his case as a way-mark to all the travellers to Zion ; Psalm xxxiv. 6,
“This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his
troubles.” And to this day the saints' experience seals the truth thereof.
7. The present ease and relief that prayer sometimes gives to the saints, while
yet the full answer of prayer is not come ; Psalm czxxviii. 3, “In the day when I
cried, thou answeredst me ; and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.”
The unbosoming of themselves to the Lord in prayer, comforts and strengthens the
heart, 1 Sam. i. 18. This is on the faith of the Lord's hearing of prayer; Micah
vii. 7, “I will look unto the Lord : I will wait for the God of my salvation : my
God will hear me.”
Secondly, I come to show in what manner the Lord hears prayer. For clearing
of this, I lay down the following observations thereon :
1. A thing desired of God may be obtained, and yet the prayer not heard and
accepted, as in Israel's case ; Psalm lxxviii. 29, “So they did eat, and were well
filled ; for he gave them their own desire.” For as it is plain on the one hand,
that sinners out of Christ may sometimes obtain a thing they pray for, as in the
case of the Ninevites, it is as plain on the other, that no prayers of theirs can be
accepted of God, according to John ix. 31, “God heareth not sinners.” It is one
thing to get a thing prayed for, another to get it as an answer of accepted prayer,
Psalm lxxviii. 34–38. Now, this falls out in two cases.
(1.) When the thing prayed for is given downright in wrath, as it was in the
case of the Israelites seeking a king; Hos. xiii. 11, “I gave thee a king in mine
anger,” Men often need no more to ruin them but to get their will ; and God
may give it them with a vengeance. They get eir desire, but it is far from being
accepted ; for it is in anger he comes to them.
(2.) When it is given in the way of uncovenanted condescendence. Thus, sin-
ners out of Christ may get particular requests of theirs answered, as Ahab, I Kings
XXi. 29. For though God does not accept their persons, nor any performance of
theirs; yet he may show regard to his own ordinance of prayer, and therefore
make it not fruitless even to them. And thus the Lord does to train on sinners
to the yielding themselves to him, and to depending on him by faith and prayer;
IIos, xi. 3, “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms,”
- 4 C
570 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
Answers of accepted prayer come in the way of the covenant of grace, but these
in the way of common providence. And they may be discerned by these attend-
lng Signs.
1st, Wilfulness and unhumbledness of spirit in asking; 1 Sam. viii. 19. “Never-
theless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel ; and they said, Nay, but
we will have a king over us.” When one's will is peremptory, and is not brought
to a holy submission to God in the matter, but they will wring the mercy out of
God's hand, and have it at any rate, whether with or without his good-will: be sure
that is what comes in the way of common providence only.
2dly, Strengthening and feeding of lusts by them when received, Psalm lxxviii.
29, 30. Hence, on such receipts men commonly grow worse, and their mercies
are short-lived : being greedily snatched off the tree of providence ere they are ripe,
their teeth are set on edge with them, verses 30, 31.
3dly, A frame of spirit, in asking and receiving, not of the mould of the gospel,
but of the law ; whereby more stress is laid upon our own necessity than on the
intercession of Christ ; there is much desire of the mercy, but no believing depen-
dence on the Lord for it in the promise as a free promise through Christ ; and
ordinarily it leaves the heart fixed on the gift, and does not carry it back to the
Giver. -
2. A prayer may be heard and accepted, and yet the desire of it not granted.
That is to say, God may be pleased with, and accept of the prayer as service to
him, and yet may see meet not to grant the thing prayed for. Even as a father
going to correct one of his children, may be very well pleased with another child
of his interposing for sparing, though he may not see it meet to forbear for all that.
The truth of this is put out of doubt, in the case of Jesus Christ himself, (Matt.
xxvi. 39,) who prayed, saying, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from me : nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Compare Heb. v. 7,
“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications,
with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and
was heard in that he feared.” If it was so done with the Head, no wonder it be
so with the members too, as David, 2 Chron. vi. 8, 9, “But the Lord said to David
my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou
didst well in that it was in thine heart : notwithstanding, thou shalt not build the
house, but thy son which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house
for my name.” A thing may be very agreeable to the command of God to be
prayed for, which yet may be otherwise ordered in the holy wise providence
of God. It is one thing what he requires of us by his revealed will, another what
in his secret will he minds to do ; Deut. xxix. ult., “The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God ; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our
children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Now, of prayers accepted and not granted, it is to be observed,
(1.) They are not absolute and peremptory, but with holy submission to the
divine pleasure, as of our Lord's, Matt. xxvi. 39. If we pray absolutely for what
God has not so promised, and such a prayer is not granted, it is not accepted
neither. So all that this amounts to is, that God sees meet to refuse what the
petitioner did seek, but with submission to his will either to grant or refuse it.
(2.) Where a prayer is accepted and not granted, there is in the bosom of the
denial an unseen greater mercy. Had that cup passed from Christ, where had
been the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the salvation of an
elect world, that was wrapt up in the denial of that sinless desire of Christ's holy
human nature ? Had David's child lived for whom he prayed, he had been a lasting
stain on his father's reputation: but God refused David's petition in that, where
the refusal was a greater mercy than the granting would have been.
(3.) Hence that treatment of such prayers is agreeable to the chief scope and
aim of the petitioner, which is God's glory and his own good. This is the design
of believers in all their accepted prayers, which being agreeable to the promise,
there is no jarring there betwixt God and them. Only, they in this case look on
such a thing as they pray for to be the most proper mean for that end ; God sees
it is not, and therefore refuses it. So all that this amounts to is, as if one should
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 57.1
desire one to lead him such a way to such a place ; he refuses not to lead him to
the place, but he will not lead him that way, but a nearer and better way.
Question. How may I know such prayers of mine to be accepted, when they are
not granted ?
Answer 1. When the heart is brought to submit to the denial as a holy and right-
eous dispensation; Psalm xxii. 2, 3, “O my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou
hearest not ; and in the night-season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O
thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” When the sinner from his heart clears
the Hearer of prayer, leaving his complaint on his unworthy self, such an effect is
an argument of prayer accepted, though not granted.
Answ. 2. When, though the thing be denied, yet divine support under the denial
is granted, and made forthcoming. Christ having prayed, saying, “Father, if
thou be willing, remove this cup from me ; nevertheless, not my will but thine be
done : there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him,” Luke
xxii. 42, 43. And he was carried through all his sufferings by his Father, so that
he was victorious over death itself. Thus often God, denying the petitions of his
children, with respect to temptations, troubles, &c., yet testifies his acceptance of
their prayers by the supports given under the same ; Psalm czxxviii. 3, “In
the day when I cried,” says David, “thou answeredst me; and strengthenedst
me with strength in my soul.”
Answ. 3. When such a soul is helped to go back to the same God with new peti-
tions in faith and hope of hearing; 2 Sam. xii. 20, “Then David arose from the
earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into
the house of the Lord, and worshipped.” This argues a faith of the promise of
all working together for good, Rom. viii. 28; a leaving a latitude of dispensation
to sovereignty, well becoming a submissive and resigned petitioner.
3. The desire of a prayer may be heard and granted, and yet it may be long ere
it be answered. That is to say, all prayers not answered to our sense and feeling
are not lost; they may stand granted in heaven, and yet it may be many a day
ere the answer of them come to us. A prayer may be granted, and yet the mercy
prayed for be still withheld, so that the petitioner may be obliged to send new peti-
tions day by day for it still. -
I shall first confirm this, and then show why it may be so ordered.
1st, To confirm the truth of this, consider,
(1.) Scripture-instances. Abraham prayed for an heir, it was granted, Gen. xv.
3, 4; yet it was more than thirteen years before that prayer was answered, in the
birth of Isaac, Gen. xvii. 25. So the Israelites in Egypt, Exod. ii. 23, 24; and
Daniel, chap. ix, 23. Such instances are recorded for our learning.
(2.) There is a difference betwixt the granting of a petition, and the intimation
of that grant to us; betwixt Heaven's order for our getting of the mercy, and the
execution of it. The one is the hearing and grant of prayer, the other is the
answer: and though these sometimes may come both in one instant, as Matt. xv.
28, “Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith ; be it unto
thee even as thou wilt; and her daughter was made whole from that very hour ;”
yet often they are at a great distance of time, as in Abraham's case.
(3.) The hearing and granting of prayer is an object of faith, the answer of
prayer an object of sense and feeling, 1 John V. 14, 15 ; Matt. xv. 28. A prayer
made through the assistance of the Spirit, according to the will of God, and offered
to God through Christ, is heard and granted in that instant wherein it is made :
and this is what we are to believe, on the ground of the faithfulness of God in the
promise, before we get the answer to our sense and feeling ; for “faith is the sub-
stance of things not seen,” and “we walk by faith not by sight ;" and therefore
this is the ordinary way to put the grant and answer at some distance of time,
though not always, Isa. lxv. 24.
2dly, I shall show why the answers of prayers heard and granted, are kept up
for a time, and may be for a long time.
(1.) To keep the petitioners hanging on about the throne of grace; Prov. xv. 8,
“The prayer of the upright is his delight.” The Lord by this means gives them
many errands to the throne, so that they must always be going back again, and
572 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
renewing their suits. So fathers make their little children follow them, and hang
about them, and speak to them as they can: and no father has such delight in the
company and converse of his children as God has in his, Cant. ii. 14.
(2.) For the trial of their graces; James i. 12, “Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which
the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” This life is the time of trial;
and God's withholding for a time the answers of granted prayers is a piece of trial
that will go in through, and out through, the child of God. It tries their sincerity
and earnestness for an answer, Job xxvii. 10, with Luke xviii. 7; their patience
and disposition to wait on God, Hab. ii. 3; their hope in God, Psalm cylvii. 11,
and xlii. 5: especially it tries their faith in the word of promise, and that is a trial
of great estimation in the sight of God; 1 Pet. i. 6, 7, “Wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season (if need be) ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and hon-
our, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Every new act of faith in the
word, is more valuable than all the famed exploits of carnal Selfish men; especially
when faith keeps hold of the promise like a rope in the water, while providence is
bringing one wave after another over the man's head, Psalm lyi. 10. So Matt.
xy. 21—28.
(3.) Till they be prepared and fitted for receiving the answer; Psalm x. 17,
“Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart,
thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.” Mercies we need, but we are not at all times
meet to receive them. God gives his left-hand gifts to strangers, in the way of
common providence, whether they be prepared for them or not: and hence, many
are ruined, getting much laid to their hand before they have the grace or wisdom
to manage it, for God's honour and their own good. But his right-hand gifts to
his children, in the way of the covenant, though they be ready for them, yet he
will keep them back till they be made ready and prepared for them too. So he is
at pains to humble them, and work them for that thing. Saul was brought to the
kingdom easily, but David not so,
(4.) Till the best time come for their getting it, when it may come to them
with the greatest advantage; Eccl. iii. 14, “I know that whatsoever God doth, it
shall be for ever : nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it; and God
doth it, that men should fear before him.” There is much in the timing of a
favour; the same thing may be worth double to a man at one time beyond what
it will be at another. And be sure, if God is keeping back the answer of a granted
prayer, he is only reserving till the best time of bestowing it, John xi. 14, 15,
and ii. 4.
Question. How may a Christian know his prayer is heard and granted, while yet
it is not answered ?
Answer 1. If ye have prayed in faith, no doubt your petition is heard and
granted, though it should not be answered for ever so long after; Matt. xxi. 22,
“All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” God
refuses not, nor rejects any prayer for things agreeable to his will, made in faith
of the promise, through the assistance of the Spirit, and offered to him through
his Son. And ye ought to believe, that such prayers are granted, but that God
for holy wise ends delays the answer.
Answ. 2. If ye are strengthened to hang on about the Lord's hand for the
answer, hoping and waiting for the Lord, Psalm czxxviii. 3. It is a certain truth,
which ye may build upon ; Gal. vi. 9, “In due season we shall reap, if we faint
not.” This is the very character of an elect believer, on his trials for glory;
Luke xviii. 7, “Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto
him, though he bear long with them?” Granted prayer brings something in hand,
namely, grace to wait on ; Psalm xxvii. ult, “Wait on the Lord: be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Com-
pare ver, 13, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the
Lord in the land of the living.”
Answ, 3. It is a good sign whom ye are encouraged to wait for the desired
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 573
answer, by the Lord's answering you in other things that fall out in the meantime
of the delay. For the Lord lays these to your hand to support your faith and
hope in point of the delayed answer. How was David's faith of the promise of the
kingdom kept up, so many years, during Saul's reign? Why, David in that time
had many experiences of answers of prayer, and fulfilling of promises in other
things, as Psalm xxxiv. 6, “This poor man cr and the Lord heard him, and
saved him out of all his troubles.” *
4. Prayers accepted and granted, shall certainly be answered to the believer's
sense and feeling at length. The answer may be delayed, but it cannot be for-
gotten, nor miscarried. Such prayers will surely be turned into praise at long-
run; and faith will bring in sense and feeling, when it is tried a while.
I shall first confirm the truth of this, and then show when they shall be so
answered to their sense and feeling.
1st, To confirm this, consider, sº * -
(1.) The interest the Mediator has in the matter, which secures and puts it
beyond doubt. It is upon his merit that the prayer is accepted, on his intercession
that it is granted; so that he is nearly concerned in the obtaining of the answer:
and then he is the great Steward in heaven, into whose hands the whole fulness of
covenant-benefits for sinners’ supply is put. How, then, can it fail, when the mercy
petitioned for is lodged in the hand of our Intercessor for it? *
(2.) The faithfulness of God in his word; Psalm lxxxix. 8, “O Lord God of
hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?”
This stands as a rock immoveable in all the changes that befall his people. His
word must be accomplished, and his promise fulfilled, whatever stand in the way
of it. Heaven and earth shall rather be removed than it fail, or fall a minute
behind the set time of its bringing forth; Hab. ii. 3, “For the vision is yet for an
appointed time; but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait
for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
(3.) The love and pity God has to his children that cry to him. “His ears are
open to their cry,” Psalm xxxiv. 15. He forgets it not, Psalm ix. 12. As he is
their God, so he will be “a God to them,” as the expression is, 1 Chron. xvii. 24,
namely, to do the part of a God to them; that is, to hear and answer their prayers.
(4.) Such prayers are the product of his own Spirit in them, Rom. viii. 26.
And be sure, the mouths that he opens, he will fill; the holy appetite and desires
that he creates in them, he will satisfy.
2dly, I shall show when they shall be answered to their sense and feeling.
There are two periods in general wherein God gives answers of prayers accepted
and granted. Answers of prayer are given,
(1.) In time, during the petitioner's life in this world; Psal. lviii. ult, “Verily
there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.”
Believers in this life have communion with God, and do get answers of prayer, as
provision allowed them of their Father, for their journey through the wilderness.
But one may wait a long time of his life for an answer of some prayers, and ere
he go off be made to say, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,” Luke ii. 29, 30.
Of the seasons of life for answers of prayer, we may say in the general, there
aro four seasons thereof.
i. A time of the Lord's return to a church and people from whom he had hid
his face; Psalm cii. 16, 17, “When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear
in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their
prayer.” The children may cry long to their father, ere he let on he notices
them, when he is angry with their mother: but when he is pleased with her, they
get speedy answers from him, Dan. ix. 1, 2, 23. Times of reformation, and out-
pouring of the Spirit on a land, are times of answers of prayer to particular per-
Sons: which should move us to carry along the public case, with our private cases,
as David did; Psalm li. 18, 19, “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build
thou the walls of Jerusalem,” &c.
ii. A time of greatost extremity, when matters are carried to the utmost point
of hopelessness; Deut. xxxii. 36, "For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent
574 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
himself for his servants; when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none
shut up or left.” When God's people are brought to that they can do no more,
then is the special season of God's doing for them; Isa. xli. 17, “When the poor
and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the
Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” When the child
was laid by for dead, the well was discovered. When the knife was at Isaac's
throat, the answer comes from heaven, “Stay thine hand.” A sentence of death
is often passed on all probable means; the thing is put as it were in the grave,
and the stone sealed; and then comes the resurrection of it, 2 Cor. i. 8–10;
Psalm czxvi. 1, “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like
them that dream.”
iii. A time of the petitioner's deepest humiliation, when he is beat down from
all his heights, and brought as low as the dust of the Lord's feet, as in Job's case,
chap. xlii. 6, 7, &c., and the woman of Canaan’s, Matt. xv. 27, 28. It is the
Lord's way with his children to lay them very low, before he raise them up; to
empty them soundly of themselves, before he fill them. They must be made to
see their own utter unworthiness, that God is no debtor to them; be wholly re-
signed to the divine pleasure, and become as a weaned child. And that may cost
much hewing; but it is the way they are prepared for mercy, Psalm x. 17.
iv. A time wherein the mercy may come most seasonably for God's honour and
their comfort; Gal. vi. 9, “In due season we shall reap if we faint not.” The
husbandman expects to reap his crop in the harvest, for that is the most proper
season. Our God is the best judge of time for this or that purpose, and he does
all in judgment, Deut. xxxii. 4. So that the petitioner shall be fully satisfied as
to the delay of the answer, and the whole steps of providence in the matter, and
be made to sing as Rev. xv. 3, saying, “Great and marvellous are thy works,
Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.”
(2.) In eternity, when the believing petitioner is got into another world, then
will be a season of answers of prayer; Mal. iii. 17, 18, “They shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them
as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him
that serveth him not.” I do not say, they will pray in another world; but prayers
poured out in this world will be answered in another world, partly after death, and
fully and completely at the resurrection. For consider,
i. There are accepted and granted prayers, that are never answered on this side
of time, yet they cannot miss to be answered; Psalm ix. 18, “For the needy shall
not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.”
Therefore they are answered in eternity. Such is that prayer of all the children
of God; Rom. vii. 24, “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?” the complete victory over all their enemies, and being
set beyond their reach, which is delayed till the resurrection; 1 Cor. xv. 26, “The
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
ii. There are prayers that are answered here in part, but are not fully answered
till the petitioner comes into another world. The prayers for the coming of Christ's
kingdom are begun to be answered now, but they will not be fully answered till the
last day. Petitions for deliverance from temptation, the power of lusts and cor-
ruptions, are answered so as an earnest is given, but the full answer is till then in
reserve; Rom. xvi. 20, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet
shortly.”
iii. All the accepted prayers of those that wait for the Lord, whether for their
souls or their bodies, will be at once answered in heaven fully: there the pro-
mises will be told out to them for ever in full tale. There are many prayers for
deliverance from temptations, trials, and troubles, which God sees not meet to
answer now ; but they will be all answered at once then ; Rev. xxi. 4, “God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things
are passed away.”
Therefore, let none think that all the prayers are lost that are not answered
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 575
during this life: for prayers here made in faith, may be delayed as to their answer,
till the petitioner come home to his Father's house; and there will be a second
crop there of prayers answered here.
Question. When an answer of prayer comes, how shall it be known to be an
answer of accepted and granted prayer, and not come in the way of common
providence?
Answer 1. Mercies that come so make the soul more holy, tender, and watchful,
whereas others prove Snares and fuel to men's lusts; Psalm vi. 8, “Depart from
me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.”
Common providence filled the rich man's barns, then said he, “Soul, take thine
ease.”
Answ. 2. They enlarge the soul in thankfulness to God; Psalm czvi. 1, 12, “I
love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. What shall
I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?” And they make it to
rejoice more in the Giver than in the gift; 1 Sam. ii. 1, “My heart rejoiceth in
the Lord.” The signature of God's good-will that is upon the mercy makes it of
a great bulk, though it may be a small thing in itself; Gen. xxxiii. 10, “I have
seen thy face,” said Jacob to Esau, “as though I had seen the face of God, and
thou wast pleased with me.” Thus coming from God in the way of the covenant,
it leads back to God; but others not so.
Answ. 3. They come seasonably, the heart being in some measure prepared for
the receipt, (Psalm x. 17,) when the soul is moulded in a submissive disposition.
Exercised souls will be afraid of a mercy's coming too soon.
5. God answers prayer, either by giving the very thing itself asked, or the
equivalent of it; as a man may pay his bond, either in money, or money-worth.
So there are two ways of God's fulfilling his promises, and answering his people's
prayers.
(1.) Sometimes God answers prayer by giving the very thing desired. So he
answered Hannah's prayer for a child, and Solomon's prayer for wisdom. And
what comes that way will bear much the bulk in the eyes of a gracious soul,
because of the good-will of God that is stamped on it, whereby it is distinguished
from what comes in the common road.
And what comes that way, readily comes with a good incast” to it, especially if
the petitioner has been kept long hanging on for it. Such an incast got Solomon;
2 Chron. i. 12, “Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give
thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had, that have
been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.” They that
wait long for their answer, ordinarily get as it were both the stock and interest
together. So Abraham and Sarah waited long for the promised seed, even till they
were come to extreme old age: and then they got it with a renewing of their age.
(2.) Sometimes by giving, though not the thing itself, yet the equivalent of it,
that which is as good; as one may pay his bond, by giving, though not money,
yet what is as good as money. Thus, though God did not give David the child's
life, yet he gave him a Solomon, a mercy as good and better. Paul, though he
got not free of the temptation at his asking, yet he got grace sufficient to bear him
up under it, 2 Cor. xii. 9.
And God's as-good that he gives his people, will readily be found better, all
things considered. That is best which is best for God's honour and our good, and
God knows better than we what is most suitable to these purposes. It would have
been more easy for Paul to have been freed from the messenger of Satan ; but it
Was more for God's honour and his spiritual good, to be helped to fight that mes-
Senger and overcome,
Learn, then, that your prayers may be answered, though ye get not the very
thing ye ask, Though God answer you not in kind, if he answer you in kindness,
Ye have no reason to say your prayer is not heard. If he take not off your burden,
yet if he gives you support, he hears you, Psalm crxxviii. 3. There are two ways
how God gives his people as good.
* i, e, addition, —ED.
576 DISCOURSES ON PRAY ER.
i. Sometimes he gives them as good in the same kind ; though he gives them
mot the same temporal mercy they would have had, he gives them another of the
same kind as good as it. Though he gave not David the life of the child he asked,
he gave him a Solomon. So God reserves to himself the choosing.
ii. Sometimes he gives them as good in another kind ; as not giving them such
a temporal mercy, he gives them a spiritual mercy and enjoyment in the room of
it; and surely there is no loss there, x
Question. How may one know that God answers his prayer, by giving him the
as-good?
Answer 1. When that which is given answers or serves the purpose as well as
the thing desired would have done. David desired the child's life as a token of
God’s reconciliation with him ; but Solomon's birth answered the same purpose,
2 Sam. xii. 24, 25. So there was no loss as to the main thing in view.
Answ. 2. When the heart is brought to rest contented with what is given, in the
room of what was desired. So Moses was sufficed with a sight of the land from
Pisgah, instead of entering into it. When the thing given takes the heart off what
is withheld, it is a sign it comes as an answer of prayer by the way of an as-
ood.
g iii. When a person is to his own conviction a gainer by the choice God makes for
him. Thus the Lord sometimes answers his people's prayers in trouble for deliv-
erance, by giving them manifestations of his love and mercy which they would not
have gotten if the trouble had been removed ; Lam, iii. 57, “Thou drewest near
in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.”
6. God’s answer of prayer sometimes agrees with the expression used in prayer,
though not with the preconceived design and desire of the petitioner. There is a
special help of the Spirit allowed God's people in prayer, beyond what they have
otherwise, Rom. viii. 26. Hence, going to God on such a particular errand, they
are sometimes carried so to express their desire, that the answer agrees exactly to
the expression used in the petition, though the petition as expressed doth swerve
somewhat from what they intended.
It will, therefore, be profitable, on the receiving an answer of prayer, to compare
it with the expression in which the petition was made : and the harmony betwixt
them, being observed, will set the matter of the answer in a clear light.
7. One mercy may be the answer of the prayers of many. Whether it be a pub-
lic mercy to a society, or a private mercy to a particular person, it may be given
in answer to the prayers of many, and many may take the comfort of that answer.
As, when the prayers of a congregation are heard, or a mercy is given which many
have privately prayed for, though the answer is one, it may belong to many.
Question. How may one know that in such a case there has been any regard had
to his prayer for the mercy?
Answer 1. If thy heart did join in prayer for the mercy with others, thy affec-
tions being touched with earnest desire of the mercy, thy soul lifted up to depend
on the merit and intercession of Christ for the granting it, thou needest not doubt
but it is an answer to thy prayer as well as to others; Matt. xviii. 19, “I say unto
you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, as touching any thing that they shall
ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”
Answ. 2. If thou findest thy heart enlarged in thankfulness to God for the mercy
when it is obtained, that is another evidence that it is an answer to thy prayer as
well as others; 2 Cor. iv. 15, “For all things are for your sakes, that the abun-
dant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God.”
Many a prayer had been put up for the coming of the Messiah ; Simeon, when he
saw him, is transported with thankfulness of heart, as having obtained his desire,
Luke ii. 29.
I shall now shut up this subject with some practical improvement.
Use 1. Of information. Hence See,
First, How much we poor sinners, stand indebted to free grace providing a
Saviour for us. We could have had no access with our prayers to an absolute
God; justice would have barred our acceptance. So fallen angels have no access
to God allowed them; for Christ took not on their nature. But great is our privi-
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 57.7
lege in this point ; 1 John ii. 1, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
Secondly, The heinousness of the sin of neglecting prayer. A price is put in
men's hands to get wisdom, but they have no heart to it. The door of mercy and
grace stands open, but they will not come to it. God sits on a throne of grace,
ready to answer petitions, but they have none to put in his hand.
Thirdly, The impiety and profaneness that is in abusing of prayer, making a
scorn of it in ordinary conversation, as ‘God pity you, help you, bless us, save us,’
&c. . How lamentable is it, that the name of God, and the ordinance of prayer,
should be thus prostituted to the lusts of men at every trifle ! The day will come,
when God's pity, help, &c., which ye make so light of now, will appear more valu-
able than ten thousand worlds, and ye shall not have them, if ye repent not of that
contempt which ye now treat them with.
Fourthly, The folly of those who are in no concern for the hearing of their prayers.
Surely they forsake their own mercy. Ye would have little satisfaction in your
meat, if it did not feed you ; in your clothes, if they did not keep you warm,
What satisfaction then can ye have in your praying, if ye cannot find it is heard?
Lastly, This shows why serious souls do so much value prayer, and betake them-
selves thereto in all their straits. Slight it who will, it will not be slighted by
those who have experience of the Lord's hearing their prayers; Micah vii. 7, “I
will look unto the Lord ; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will
hear me.” Daniel was such a man ; and he would rather venture on the den of
lions, than forego his praying to God. The neglect of it is a sign of unacquainted-
ness with that. - - -
Use 2. Of direction and comfort to the people of God, in all the trials and troubles
they meet with in the world. Here is your course ye should take, Go to God with
your case, whatever it be, and make your prayer to him about it ; Phil. iv. 6,
“Be careful for nothing : but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” Here is your comfort,
God is the hearer of prayer; Isa. xlv. 19, “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek
ye me in vain.” There are four things I would suggest to you here for your direc-
tion and comfort. -
First, God has made the way to heaven lie through many tribulations, that his
children might have the more errands to his throne of grace. That this is the
path-road to the kingdom of God, is clear from scripture-testimony; Acts xiv. 22,
“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God ;” John xvi.
ult., “In the world ye shall have tribulation;” and the experience of Christ the
head, and the saints in all ages. That this is the design of it, appears also from
the word; Hos. v. ult, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge
their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”
Prosperity seldom fails to issue in forgetting of God, Deut. xxxii. 15. Adversity
causes to feel a need of his help, Zeph. iii. 12. So God keeps the thorn of afflic-
tion at the breast of his people, to keep them waking, and sends the cross, to invite
them to the throne of grace.
Secondly, The way to heaven in that respect never alters, though the external
circumstances of the church in the world do alter. Sometimes, there is persecu-
tion in the church; sometimes, peace : but in the most peaceable time of the church,
God’s people shall go through the world to the kingdom through much tribulation.
The seed of the serpent will vent their enmity, one way or other, against the people
of God, though they have not law on their side to bear them out in persecuting
them. God will have his people tried, and caused to suffer in their bodies, goods,
liberty, and life, if not by the hands of persecutors, yet by his own hand one way
or other. For that is a perpetual rule, Matt. xvi. 24, “If any man will come after
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me :'' Luke xiv. 26,
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and chil-
dren, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disci-
ple.” So there is no change but only as to the means and instruments of trial.
Thirdly, Whatever be your trial, whether it be in temporal or spiritual things,
ye are welcome to the throno of grace with it, Phil. iv. 6, forecited. Whether it
4 D
578 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
come on you immediately from the hand of God or men, ye may carry it to God
by prayer, and pour out your heart before him as a prayer-hearing God, in confi-
dence that he can help you, and will do it in due time. w
Fourthly, The more trials and afflictions God's people meet with, the more
experience readily they will be found to have of God's hearing of prayer ; Rom.
v. 3, 4, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also ; knowing that tribula-
tion worketh patience ; and patience experience ; and experience hope.” Of all
the patriarchs Jacob had the maniest trials, and accordingly was richest in experi-
ences. The more battles the Christian soldier is engaged in, the more is he enriched
with spoil. The Israelites had not sung that triumphant song recorded Exod. xv.,
had they not been in that great strait at the Red Sea.
Use 3. Of Exhortation. Then,
First, Improve your privilege of access to God through Christ in prayer. Since
God has cast open the gates of mercy, come enter in by them : since he is saying
to you, “What is thy petition, and it shall be granted thee?” slight not the golden
season of petitioning. Consider,
1. Your need is great. Whatever ye have or want in temporals, surely ye need
a resting-place for your conscience and for your heart; you need something to
make you happy in time and eternity. • .
2. The whole creation cannot answer your needs. There is an emptiness in
every creature, that it cannot be a resting-place to you, Isa. lv. 2. The soul is of
such a make, that no less than an infinite good can satisfy it. Only God in Christ
can make you happy.
3. He offers to supply all your needs; Psalm lxxxi. 10, “I am the Lord thy
God; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” Ask in faith, and ye shall receive.
4. This door of access will not always stand open ; Matt. xxv. 10–12, “And while
they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with
him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other
virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I Say
unto you, I know you not.” Now is the accepted time.
Secondly, Be concerned for God's hearing of your prayers: look after them,
and see what speed they come. There are two things wherein this concern should
2,0008, T.
Fº In making your addresses to the throne of grace, being careful so to manage
that as ye may be accepted. They who are rash in their approaches to God, and
careless how their petitions are formed and presented, cannot be duly concerned
for a hearing of them. Labour therefore so to pray, as your prayers may be heard
and accepted.
2. In depending and waiting on after prayer for an answer; Psalm v. 3, “My
voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord ; in the morning will I direct my
prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Do not drop your suits; but insist for an
answer, depending for it on the promise of God in his word.
Thus far of God's hearing of prayer. I shall shut up this with a word to another
doctrine for the use of the whole. - *
DocTRINE. Such is the glory of God as the Hearer of prayer in Christ, that it
will make all flesh that discerns it come unto him.
Here I shall show,
I. What is that glory of God as the Hearer of prayer in Christ that is so attrac-
tive. -
II. How this glory of God in Christ is discerned by a sinner.
III. What that coming unto God is that is the effect of discerning that glory.
IV. Deduce an inference or two.
I. I am to show what is that glory of God as the Hearer of prayer in Christ that
is so attractive. It is twofold.
First, The glory of his all-sufficiency ; Gen. xvii. 1, “I am God all-sufficient.”
He is not only all-sufficient for himself, but for his creatures: if he were not so,
he could not be the hearer of prayer. But sinners in the darkness of their natural
state discern it not : they cannot comprehend what way he can be so, and there-
fore they traverse the round of the creation, seeking in the creature that sufficiency;
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 579
till the light of the glory of God's all-sufficiency shine into their hearts in Christ.
Then it shines unto them with a threefold ray of glory. &
1. An absolute suitableness to their case, which must needs be very glorious
in their eyes, since that is what they were always seeking, but could never find
before, according to that, Isa. lv. 2, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that
which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken
diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness.” Therefore, with the wise merchant, they “sell all to buy the one
pearl,” Matt. xiii. 45, 46. The heart of man is an empty, hungry thing, going
among the creatures seeking a match for itself, in which it may rest: but there
they cannot find it; but discovering it in a God in Christ, they are attracted with
the glory of that sight.
2. A complete fulness for them; Col. i. 19, “For it pleased the Father, that in
him should all fulness dwell.” In his all-sufficiency the soul sees the fulness of a
Godhead, an infinite boundless fulness, to answer and satisfy the boundless desires
of an immortal soul. That is a fountain for the thirsty soul to drink at to the
full; a treasure to enrich the soul oppressed with poverty; a salve for all its
Sores, and a remedy for all its wounds. So it cannot miss to attract.
3. An ability to help in all possible incidents; Heb. vii. 25, “Wherefore he is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them.” The arm of the creature is weak in all
cases, and quite too short in many cases; but so is not the arm of an all-sufficient
God; Isa. lix. 1, “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save:
neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” There is nothing too hard for him,
there is nothing that Omnipotency can stick at. Who can but draw towards such
a one for a Friend?
Secondly, The glory of his free grace and good-will to poor sinners; hence the
heavenly host sang, Luke ii. 14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good-will towards men.” When the Lord would show Moses his glory, he
proclaimed the name of the Lord before him, (Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7,) “The Lord,
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and
sin.” The glory of all-sufficiency may attract the desire of sinners; but the sinner
cannot come to him while that treasure appears to be locked up from him, a gulf
fixed betwixt him and it. But when once an all-sufficient God appears open to
the sinner, there is a bridge for him laid over the gulf; and so he comes freely
. to God in Christ. This shines to the coming sinner with a threefold ray of
glory. *
1. Readiness to forgive sin; Psalm czXx. 4, 7, 8, “But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared;” “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord
there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.” He is gracious to pardon the sins for which he might
justly condemn the sinner: he is willing to be reconciled to offenders, and receive
them into peace, 2 Cor. v. 19. This is an attractive glory where the conscience is
awakened.
2. Willingness to give and communicate all that is needful to make the sinner
happy; Rev. xxi. 7, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be
his God, and he shall be my son.” He is gracious to give, as well as to forgive,
Hosea xiv. 2; not only to lay by his wrath against the sinner, but to load him
With benefits. - ->
3. And all this freely, without any view to any worth in the creature, as Isa.
lv. 1, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no
money; come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and
without price.” No condition, no qualification is required: only the sinner is
Welcome to take and have, whatever he has been.
II. The next thing is to show, how this glory of God in Christ is discerned by
8. Sinner. *
First, The mean of discerning it is the gospel; 2 Cor. iii. ult, “Beholding as
in a glass the glory of the Lord.” As, by means of light in the air, we discern
580 DISCOURSES ON PRAYER.
bodily objects, so, by the means of the gospel, we discern this glory of God, 2 Cor.
iv. 4. By the law we discern the glory of an absolute God terrifying and con-
founding to a sinner; but by the gospel the glory of God as in Christ, attracting
and refreshing to a sinner. It is as a looking-glass wherein we see the image of
things, 2 Cor. iii. ult. It brings before us the lovely image of a God in Christ
reconciling the world to himself. -
Secondly, The organ or instrument of discerning it is faith, Hab. iv. 2. Though
there be full light in the air, and the looking-glass presenting the beautiful image
of a person be set before one’s face; if the man’s eyes be out, he cannot discern
it. So the glory of God in Christ is held forth unto men in the gospel; but they
are spiritually blind who are unbelievers, they perceive it not; 1 Cor. ii. 14, “The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness
unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
But faith sees the glory; John i. 14, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Thirdly, The author of sinners' discerning it is the Spirit, 2 Cor, iii. ult. It is
he that illuminates the dark mind, that cures sinners of their natural blindness.
He works faith in the soul, brings home the gospel report to the sinner in par-
ticular, demonstrating it to be the word of God, and God’s word to him in par-
ticular, and so makes the soul embrace it by believing it, Isa, liii. 1. -
III. The third head is to show what that coming unto God is that is the effect
of discerning that glory. The sinner discerning the glory of God in Christ as the
Hearer of prayer,
First, He comes away from all other doors, which before he used to hang about
for supply. He despairs at length of coming speed there; Jer, iii. 22, 23, “Re-
turn, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings: Behold, we come
unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for
from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.” The light of the glory of God shining into his heart,
discovers the emptiness of all the poor shifts the sinner makes to get supply in his
natural state of blindness. & -
1. He comes away from the door of the empty creation, where he had long
laboured to find a rest; and despairs of finding it there any more. The profits,
pleasures, comforts, and conveniencies of this world, appear lying vanities that can
never give rest to the heart, and they must have another portion; Jer. xvi. 19,
“O Lord, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the
Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely
our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.”
2. From the door of sin, where he expected a satisfaction in the fulfilling of his
lusts; and he despairs of ever finding it there, Job xxxiii. 27. He finds that
puddle-water will not quench his thirst ; that the pleasure of it is but short, but
the pain and sting of it lasting.
3. From out of the world lying in wickedness, (2 Cor. vi. 17,) as he would
escape away from lions’ dens and mountains of leopards, Cant. iv. 8. He despairs
of ever finding his account in the way of the world. - -
Secondly, He comes away unto God in Christ, for all, and instead of all; Jer.
iii. 22, “Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God.” And he
comes unto him, .
1. As a Saviour that will save his submissive supplicants, Jer. iii. 22, 23. Faith
apprehends him as God our Saviour, and so comes to him and trusts on him for
salvation from sin and from wrath; Matt. i. 21, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus;
for he shall save his people from their sins.” - t -
2. As a portion that will eternally make up impoverished and ruined creatures,
(Psalm cylii. 5,) and in which the poor petitioner may find what he has so long
sought for in vain in the world and the way of sin.
3. As his resort for ever in all his needs, whatever they shall be, Psalm lxxi. 3.
The soul coming unto God, comes to him as one that will never go back to another,
but will hang on about his door, though he should die at it.
DISCOURSES ON PRAYER. 581
I conclude with an inference or two.
First, Whoso come not unto God in Christ, as a Saviour, &c, are certainly
ignorant of him, and see him not in his glory: “For they that know thy name,”
says the psalmist, “will put their trust in thee,” Psalm ix. 10.
Secondly, Great and powerful must that glory be which draws sinners from all
other doors unto God. By nature we are backward to come unto God; it must
be a very ravishing glory that has such an effect on perverse sinners.
Lastly, Be concerned to discern that glory; to discern it by faith and by expe-
rience, in order to your coming to him as your Saviour, portion, and continual
resort,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
ANTIDOTES AGAINST UNBELIEVING FEARS.*
REv. i. 17, 18.
“Fear not ; I am he that liveth and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
To-DAY is the feast of the Christian passover. A communion-table is about to be
covered. . The great end of persons sitting down at that table is, that they may
suck the breasts of consolation, and drink abundantly of that blood which flows from
the pierced side of a crucified Saviour. Some feed at this table without fear.
Others fear so much that they cannot feed. To such poor trembling souls our text
speaks good and comfortable words: “Fear not,” &c. &
As the Lord showed to Daniel, a man greatly beloved, the state of his church
till his first coming ; so to John, another beloved disciple, he discloses the state of
his church till his second coming. Both of them were dignified with a vision of
Christ, the Son of God ; and on each of them it had almost the same effect. In
Daniel there remained no strength, Dan. x. Here we see the vision had a similar
effect on John. He is represented, verse 17, as a dead man. He was confounded
with the glory of the person whom he saw. His eyes were dazzled with the bright-
ness, his strength failed, he could act no more than if he had been dead. But our
Lord revives him. He lays his right hand on him, and strengthens him, that he
might be able to stand, hear, and receive his orders. Jesus comforts him. He
rebukes his fears: “Fear not.” There is a fear with which God is well-pleased,
and a fear of which he does not approve. This last is excessive fear, which greatly
mars us in our duty, makes our hearts faint, and our hands hang down, so as that
we have neither heart nor hand for our work. This is incident to the people of
God.; but Christ does not allow them in it, though he is tender of them under it.
We have next the grounds of consolation to dispel this fear, namely, (1.) The
Godhead of Christ. He is the first and the last, — the first principle of all things,
from whom they had their beginning, and the last end of all things: an irrefraga-
blo testimony this of the divinity of Christ. And it shows us that the comfort of
believers depends upon this article. (2.) The union of the Godhead and manhood
in one person :-where Christ is held forth as God, the living God; who had life
from eternity of himself, and gave life to all the creatures:—as man ; in that it is
said he died. It is spoken of the same person. It was the living God that died,
though not the divine nature. Here we see proposed for John's comfort, the death
of Christ, God-man. He was made man, and died. (3.) His resurrection: “I
am alive.” He overcame death, and arose the third day. (4.) The eternity of
that life to which he was raised up : he lives “for evermore.” To all this is pre-
fixed a “behold !” to stir up believers to notice it as the grand fountain of their
comfort; and it is followed with an asseveration, “Amen,” or verily, to put them
Out of doubt of it.
Next, we have his mediatorial sovereignty: He hath “the keys of hell and of
death.” The keys are an ensign of government. The key of the house of David
is laid upon his shoulder. He opens, and none can shut ; he shuts, and none can
* Delivered immediately before the * of the Lord's supper, October 6, 1706.
E
586 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
open, Isa. xxii. 22. None go to death or hell but when he sonds them ; and none
are kept out of hell, and taken to glory, but by him.
From this subject we may observe the following
DoGTRINE. That the death and resurrection of Christ, that eternal life to which
he was raised, and his mediatory sovereignty, are the great grounds of the saint's
consolation, and sufficient to dispel all their unbelieving fears.
In discoursing upon this subject, I shall, by divine aid,
I. Speak a little, and but a little, to each of these things, to unfold them, so as
that the ground of comfort in them may appear.
II. Point out the consolation of the saint to be found in these.
III. Make some practical improvement.
I. To speak a little to each of the things in the text, to unfold them, so as that
the ground of comfort in them may appear.
1. As to his death. On this I offer these few remarks: (1.) His death suppos-
eth—his incarnation, and living as a man in the world; John i. 14, “The Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us.” This has a respect to the Shechinah, or the
divine presence ; that was a fire, encompassed with a cloud, which was above the
ark in the first temple. Christ's divinity was clouded with his humanity; the form
of God, with the form of a servant; Phil. ii. 6–8. He took upon him our nature.
He was a partaker of flesh and blood, Heb. ii. 14. Thus he became a substantial
Mediator between God and man, that so he might be a Mediator of reconciliation;
how he was conceived, born, and lived in the world, the Evangelists fully relate.
(2.) His death was vicarious: He died in the room and stead of sinners, not indeed
of all, but of his own sheep. The Socinians allow that he died for our good though
not in our room ; but this places the death of the martyrs and of Christ on the same
footing. But the scripture is plain, Matt. xx. 28, “IIe came to give his life a ransom
for many.” Gal. iii. 13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us.” He was made sin for us, and died, “the just for the
unjust.” There was a real imputation of the sins of the elect unto Christ, and a
real translation of the punishment due to us upon him; Isa. liii. 4–6, “Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with
his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray : we have turned
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
This was typified by the sacrifices under the law, on the head of which the offerer
laid his hand, typically transferring the sin upon the beast; which was really
accomplished in that true sacrifice of Christ, who gave himself for us, “an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour,” Eph. v. 2. (3.) His sufferings
and death were most exquisito : “God spared not his own Son.” In the death of
Christ there was a complication of deaths; they murdered his reputation, execrat-
ing him as a blasphemer against God, and a traitor against the government; plac-
ing him between two malefactors, as if he had been the greatest of the three.
They murdered his body, and that in a most cruel manner. The wrath of God fell
upon his soul, the first drops of which made him cry out, “My soul is exceeding
sorrowful.” His enemies showed no pity, but gave him vinegar to drink. He got
judgment without mercy from God. Even the Sun was darkened, that he might
not have the light of it, because it is pleasant to the eyes. (4.) His sufferings and
death were satisfactory, and that fully. “By his one sacrifice, he hath for ever
perfected them that are sanctified.” He was Lord of his own life: he voluntarily
laid it down, and that upon a compact betwixt the Father and him. Being God,
the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him, the fulness of merit cannot be doubted;
for so his sufferings were of infinite value, to which nothing can be added. He
was God, and purchased the church with his own blood, Acts xx. 28. There was
a proportion between the sins of the elect and the sufferings of Christ. Sin is an
infinite evil, his sufferings were of infinite value. His deity stamped an infinite
value on his sufferings; and in this respect they do more than equal all the
possible sufferings of ALL CREATUREs together; for what would they all be to God
DYING 2
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 587
2. As to his resurrection, and the life to which he was restored. The text says,
“Behold, I am alive.” Had he lain still in the grave as dead, all the hopes of believers
had died with him ; but behold, we have David's comfort : his soul was not left in
hell, neither did he see corruption, Psalm xvi. 10. Here consider, (1.) That God
raised up Christ; Acts i. 24, “Him God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death; because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” There was the
weight of all the elect's sins lying on him as a grave-stone. This was rolled away,
and he was raised up by the exceeding greatness of God's power, Eph. i. 19. By this
power, also, the Father declared him to be his Son indeed, Rom. i. 4; and that he
was fully satisfied for the debt Christ undertook to pay. Therefore, though Christ
himself could have rolled away the stone, yet an angel, God's officer, is sent to
do it, to open the prison-door; thereby declaring, that the Judge had no more
to exact of him, that the debt was completely paid. (2.) Where he now
lives. It is in heaven, the better country, which we had forfeited by sin, but
where we still would fain be. Forty days after his resurrection he ascended into
heaven. As a public person he died, and as such he ascended. There “the fore-
runner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever, after the order
of Melchisedec.” He is set down on the Father's throne, and is at his right hand.
Having offered his bloody sacrifice, he is now gone into the holiest of all, and there
will continue till the restitution of all things. (3.) For what he lives. The apostle
tells us, that it is to make intercession for us; and he himself says, it is to prepare
a place for us in his Father's house, where there are many mansions. He went
there to take infeftment of heaven for us, and he lives to keep possession. He
lives there as the Advocate of the Saints, who have continual business at the court
of Heaven, yet have no skill to manage it; “but,” says Paul, “Christ is entered
there to appear in the presence of God for us.” This is said in allusion to a cus-
tom among confederated states and princes, who have their agents, who, upon all
occasions, appear in the presence of the prince in behalf of those they represent,
and for whom they negotiate, to take up any emergent differences, or manage what-
ever business may be put into their hands.—We now go on,
3. To the etermity of this life: The man Christ lives “for evermore. Amen.”
Says Paul, “He ever liveth,” and that as God-man. The saints cannot outlive
their Advocate; nay, through eternity they shall behold his glorious face. He
will never lay aside our nature. He is now for ever out of the reach of death.
“He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him.” Joseph's brethren,
when they saw their father was dead, were in a great fear, lest Joseph should
avenge the wrong they had done him. No such fear needs the believer have.
Jesus lives for ever, to be the eternal bond of the Saints' eternal communion with
God. For, seeing we can neither come to God by ourselves, nor by ourselves
abide in communion with him, it is necessary, that as we come to God by
Christ, so by him also must we abide with God for ever. The members must
receive influences and glory from their Head, to whom they shall remain for
ever united. He lives for ever, to be their Prophet, for the Lamb is the light of
the New Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 23 ; and he will be their Priest for ever ; he contin-
ueth for ever, having an unchangeable priesthood, Heb. vii. 24. He will eternally
represent his own sacrifice as the foundation of our eternal glory ; and as for his
kingdom, it is an everlasting kingdom, that shall not be destroyed, Dan. vii. 14–
Let us, -
4. Attend to his mediatorial sovereignty. He hath the keys of hell and death.
IIe hath all power over the present and future worlds. Hell and death are terri-
ble to the believer ; but Christ holds the keys of both. He went down to the
grave, opened the door, and brought the keys away with him. None go to hell
but whom he sends there, and consequently the keys of heaven are in his hand ;
which is here also understood. He has “all power in heaven and earth,” Matt.
xxviii. 18. Of this, Joseph's exaltation in Egypt was a type, Gen. xli. 40. And
these keys are the purchase of his blood; Phil. ii. 8, 9, “Because he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name,” &c.
588 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Now, these things, the death, resurrection, life, and power of Jesus, may be
considered three ways, in order to improve them for consolation to the saints. (1.)
As patterns and examples. It is the ordinary way of distressed persons, to con-
clude there is no sorrow like their sorrow ; and if ye can satisfyingly answer that
ordinary question of theirs, Was there ever any in my case that got safely out of
it? you will do much to allay their grief, and raise their hopes. Thus we find the
apostle improving the sufferings and glory of Christ; Heb. xii. 3, “For consider
him,” says he, “that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied, and faint in your minds.” Yea, Jesus himself says, Rev. iii. 21,
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I
also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne.” (2.) As pledges,
assuring the saints of what they wish for. Thus the apostle improves the resurrec-
tion of Christ, to assure believers they shall not lie ever consuming in a grave, but
shall be raised up to glory. Christ, says he, is risen from the dead, the first-fruits
of those that slept, 1 Cor. xv. 20; and Jesus tells us, that his life is a pledge of
ours: “Because I live, ye shall live also,” John xiv. 19. (3.) As containing in
them sufficient Salves for all their sores. Thus are these the magazine of the
Saint's consolation; his wounds are the clefts of the rock, wherein the poor creature
may safely hide itself. Only bruise the spices, pour out the ointment, consider
them in their nature and effects, and assuredly they will send forth a pleasant
Smell, sufficient to revive and comfort a fainting soul.—We are now,
II. To point out the nature of that consolation which saints may derive from
these. For this purpose, let us take a view of the fountains of their fears and
distrust.
1. There is the supereminent glory and infinite majesty of the great God. This,
When seen and considered by poor worm man, whose habitation is in the dust, is a
great Source of fear. This made John fall down at his feet as dead. Who can
behold the glorious majesty upon this earth, and not be ready to dwindle into
nothing ? How do some tremble at the view of their fellow-creatures exalted above
them in power and dignity But O, what a vast disproportion betwixt God and the
greatest monarch This challenges our fear indeed, but the saints ought not to
let it degenerate into slavish fear. God has vailed his throne in the heavens, he
Spreads his cloud upon it, Job xxvi. 9. This is the common benefit of mankind
upon this earth. But the saints have another ground of consolation in the text;
and that is the death of Christ, wherein we behold God incarnate, God made flesh,
God in our nature. Can ye not look straight forward to divine majesty? then fetch
a compass, and look through the wail of the flesh of Christ, and so ye may see God,
and not die. “Often and willingly,” said Luther, “would I thus look at God.”
2. Sin is another fountain of fear; sinfulness considered with the nature of God.
Here the sinner first sees guilt in himself, and justice in God, which two together
make a very frightful spectacle. It is the nature of guilt to bind over to punish-
ment, and of justice to inflict it; so that guilt is a great source of fears. But fear
not, O Christian ; Christ was dead, and is alive for evermore ; therefore the guilt
that exposes to hell-fire is done away. Thou mayest indeed be guilty, so as to
bring upon thee fatherly chastisements for your amendment, but thou art not liable
to eternal plagues. You may plead not guilty to the charges of the law as a cove-
nant of works: “For if God be for us, who can be against us?” Rom. viii. 31.
Upon the cross there were two crucified, the Son of God, and the law of God.
But the Son of God, by his becoming dead, bruised to death the law as a covenant
of works, in respect of believers. “He took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,”
Col. ii. 14. Therefore the law, our first husband, being dead, our relation to it is
dissolved, and we are legally married to Christ, who was raised from the dead, that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. Justice is satisfied. No flaming sword
stands any more to guard the tree of life. The storm hath exhausted itself upon
Christ ; fear not, but come forward. He died in our room. Justice exacted, and
he answered. Fear not old accounts, for God spared not his own Son. A thou-
Sand may fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, by the stroke of jus-
tice, but it shall not come nigh thee. Do ye doubt the completeness of the satis-
faction ? Behold Christ in heaven, with the complete discharge in his hand. He
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 589
is out of prison. He brought the keys with him, and is now on the throne. Ever-
lasting righteousness is brought in, and it is put on thee by him. He is made of
God unto you righteousness. Your own is only filthy rags; but that which is
imputed unto you will abide the judgment of God, and endure for ever.—But,
3. The sinner sees pollution in himself, and holiness in God. When he beholds
the spotless purity of God, and himself as an unclean thing, he is ready to
say, O will God look on vile me? will these pure eyes cast a favourable glance on
such a dunghill-worm ? Fear not, Christ was dead, and is alive. He is made of
God unto you sanctification. Thou hast some grace amidst a heap of corruptions.
Though thou seest not what a lustre this casts within thee, yet God sees it: “The
king's daughter is all glorious within,” Psalm xlv. 13. But look to your outer
garments, which are of wrought gold, they will hide all your deformities. Though
you are, in respect of inherent grace, but fair as the moon, yet your imputed
righteousness is clear as the sun.--To this some may object, “I am guilty of gross
sins, and that even since the Lord began to deal with me.” “Fear not;” Christ
died ; and if so, God died for your sins. If he was God who died, when he was
pouring out his blood, he knew all the sins you would be guilty of, even after your
conversion. He did not shed his blood in vain, and therefore in his death he had
even these in his view ; and will not the blood of God be able to expiate the gross-
est sins ? It cleanseth from all sin. Remember also, he is alive evermore to
intercede for you : “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,” John
ii. 1. If his blood was sufficient for expiation, his intercession cannot but be preva-
lent.—“But I may say, I sin evermore, and that breaks my soul.” “Fear not;”
Christ lives evermore; and if ye believe the apostle, it is to make intercession for
you. If Christ lives evermore, ye shall not sin evermore : for he will not thus live
alone without you ; where he is, there you shall be also, John xvii. 24.—“But the
sin of my nature lies nearest my heart: I am just a lump of hell, and a mass of
sin. Acts of sin are transient, but this is permanent, and I cannot be freed of it.”
“Fear not;” Christ died, and therefore, though it may make your way to heaven
difficult, yet ye shall never be condemned for it. Nay, good news, O believer !
with the death of Christ sin got a fatal wound. Your old man was crucified with
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, Rom. vi. 6. You wonder it is so
troublesome ; but why do ye do so? The old man is mortally wounded; and can
you think he will groan out his life in silence, and not move a tongue against
Christ? But as surely as Christ came not down from the cross till he breathed out
his last, so surely shall the body of death in you be destroyed.
4. Desertions are a cause of fears. The deserted soul is an affrighted soul.—
Say some, “Christ is withdrawn from me : My sun has gone down : Nothing now
but darkness and confusion : I can see no evidences of the Lord's love to me: I
may say as Job, chap. xxiii. 8, 9, “I go forward and backward, but I cannot per-
ceive him.” But fear not, Christian ; it has been, and it will be, better with you.
Good news to you in your low state, Christ died, and in his death he was forsaken
of God; and yet he now enjoys the bosom of the Father, and the light of his
Countenance. Who would not be content to follow Christ, even through the valley
of the shadow of death 2 Ye pray, and it seems ye are not heard; so it was with
Christ: “O my God,” said he, “thou hearest not,” Psalm xxii. 2. But though
your husband be far off, though you cannot see him, yet he is not dead, he is alive ;
and if alive, he will come again, for he hateth putting away. Though ye seem to
be out of sight, yet ye are not out of mind; he liveth evermore. Zion's account
of Christ under a fit of desertion, is not canonical, it is not orthodox, Isa. xlix.
14–16, “But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten
me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion
9il the son of her womb 7 yea, they may forget, yet will Inot forget thee. Behold, I
have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me.”
To this the objection may be proposed, “But how can I endure to want the joys
I have sometimes had, and these blessed consolations 3" Answer, Trust in God,
and have respect to the recompence of the reward of grace. Will you disquiet
Yourselves because there is not a second summer in one year 2 Bless God that helps
You to the fight in any measure ; wait patiently for his comforts, and be constantly
590. MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
at your work.—Again say others, “Were there no more in my case, I might keep
heart; but I am under dreadful apprehensions of wrath, and there are positive
outgoings of God's anger against my soul, as Job vi. 4, ‘The arrows of the Almighty
are within me.’” Here, I confess, it is hard to stand, and not to fall down at his
feet as dead. Yet we must say, “Fear not ;” for Christ was dead, and the wrath
of God was poured out into his soul, which melted his heart like wax in the midst
of his bowels: yet he swam through this ocean. Now, that he is alive, is a pledge
that ye shall not drown : for, says he, “because I live, ye shall live also.”
It was one of the ends of Christ's death, to deliver you and the like of you; Heb.
ii. 15, “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage.” You are mistaken, if you think the arrows are dipped in deadly poi-
son; for Christ was dead, and is alive, and the poison of these arrows entered into
his soul in full measure, and he drank it up ; Gal. iii. 13, “Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed
is every one that hangeth on a tree.” They will wound very sore, though there
be no poison, no curse in them. Your cloud has a white side, if ye could discern
it ; only believe, and ye shall be established. This is the heat of the battle with
you. Keep hold of the death of Christ as your shield, that will defend you. Look
not on God, but through the veil of the flesh of Jesus. Dry stubble may be safe,
if there be a strong crystal-wall between it and the fire. Does God appear as a
consuming fire ? Christ is the crystal-wall; set him betwixt you and an angr
God. The light of that fire will shine through him to refresh you, but it will
not burn through him. It has been often tried ; he is still alive, and ye shall
live also.
4. Temptations are a source of fears. Sometimes Satan gets leave to dog saints
at their heels. With what horrid temptations poor souls may be harassed, some
know by sad experience ; fiery darts that they tremble to think of, and that they
dare not name ! This fills them with fear : but to such I say, “Fear not.” Christ
died, and is alive evermore. He that thus lives evermore gave a deadly wound to
the tempter. When Jesus was in the world, Satan set on him with the most severe
temptations; but Jesus overcame him, and at his death triumphed over him. He
spoiled principalities and powers ; Col. ii. 15, “And having spoiled principalities and
powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” You see,
then, that the enemy with whom you fight is already vanquished, and the victory
of Jesus over him is a sure pledge of yours. Yea, as in the first Adam we were
all tempted and fell, so in the second Adam we were tempted and stood ; and so
have overcome already in our Head. We have no more to do but cry to our Lord,
who, from his own temptations, well knows how to succour his tempted people.
We must give the alarm, and handle our weapons. Though the fight may last
a while, yet it will come to an end, and we shall be more than conquerors. Jesus
is in heaven, waiting till his enemies be made his footstool; and he will bruise
Satan under our feet shortly.
5. Death is the cause of much fear. O how hard is it to look on it with a stayed
countenance Death is terrible, in that it is a dissolution of nature, parts Soul and
body; and therefore we are so apt to shudder at the thoughts of it. But “fear
not :” for Christ died. His precious soul and body were parted: so he orders us
to travel no path but such as he hath trode before us. By his death he has destroyed
death ; he has unstinged it to the believer. Then, fear it not, it can do you no
harm. “But death is terrible, in that it takes us out of this world from all our
enjoyments, from our dearest relations and friends, and sends us into another
world, where we know not a foot of ground, where we never saw a face. Were a
child born with that judgment that men have, the first sight of this world might
be terrible to them ; so must the unseen world be to us.” But “fear not ;” He
that was dead is alive ; and when ye are carried off, you shall be with him who is
infinitely better than all earthly relations. Here is your comfort. Jesus hath the
keys of hell and death. He is Lord supreme of that other world to which you
are travelling. He sends you such word as Joseph sent his father, Gen. xlv. 9,
saying, “God hath made me Lord of all Egypt; come down unto me, tarry not.”
O to believe it firmly
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES, 59 l
7. Hell is a fountain of fears. Sometimes the godly are above, sometimes under
the fears of hell. It is terrible, the thought of being excluded for ever the presence
of God! “Who can abide with everlasting burnings?” When we look down to
the pit, it seems hard to escape it ; when we look up to heaven, our souls faint lest
we never get there. But fear not : for Christ died; and if so, he suffered the
torments thou shouldest have suffered in hell, as to the essentials of them. He was
under the punishment of loss; God forsook him, Psal. xxii. 1. He endured the
punishment of sense, even to drops of blood, and the wrath of God poured into his
soul: then God will not require two payments for one debt. Christ lives, he rose
and entered heaven as a public person ; and therefore, believer, thou shalt as
surely go to heaven as if thou wert there already. Yea, the apostle says we are
there already ; Eph. ii. 6, “We are raised up together, and made to sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” as our Head. Jesus lives for evermore ; and
therefore, thou shalt be for ever with the Lord. He has the keys of hell and death.
Suppose your father or best friend on earth had these keys, would you be afraid 2
But we may have more confidence in Jesus than in ten thousand fathers, or even
the mothers that bare us. They may forsake us, and a mother may be found that
will not have compassion on the son of her womb ; but, O believer, Jesus hath said,
“I will not forget thee;” Isa. xlix. 15, 16, “Can a woman forget her sucking child,
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb 7 yea, they may forget,
yet will Inot forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands,
thy walls are continually before me.” Though Satan be the jailer of hell, yet he
keeps not the keys; they hang, believer, at the girdle of your best Friend.
III. We shall conclude with some improvement.
1. From this subject, we may infer the comfortless state of them that are out of
Christ. Are the truths in the text grounds of consolation to the saints 2 How,
then, can they bear up who have no interest in Christ 3 Nay, we may turn the
black side of this white cloud upon unbelievers, and tell them, that if Jesus died,
how can they escape 2 If he be alive, he will avenge their contempt of him, and
their neglect of his salvation. If he lives for evermore, then they will have an
eternal enemy. If he has the keys of hell, then they cannot escape that prison,
or be rescued out of it.
2. That it is the duty of Christians to improve these things for their actual com-
fort. Christian, sit down at his table, and suck the breasts of consolation. Build
your comforts on these truths. Alas! our comforts are often short-lived, because
we do not found them sure enough. I will give you but a few notes concerning
this. (1.) The grieving of the Spirit cuts the throats of our comforts. (2.) Good
men sometimes build their comforts on outward blessings; hence, when these are
gone, their comfort is gone. (3.) On grace within them, not on grace without them:
the comfort of some streams from their obedience principally, therefore it is soon
dried up ; whereas the death and life of Christ are liable to no change, as is our
obedience. (4.) Upon the coming in of words to their minds, Hence, when a
promise comes in, they are comforted; when a threatening, all is gone. I do
believe, that the Spirit comforts his people by the word, and that he makes words
come in with an impression on the soul; John xiv. 26, “He shall teach you all
things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said.” But
then these words lead the soul direct to Christ, and to build our comfort on him ;
but it is not of God to build it on the bare impression of a comfortable word. The
coming in of a word should guide us to Christ; and though the impression, the
guide go, yet we may keep our hold of him. Here we are presented with an objec-
tion, “But I fear I have nothing to do with these consolations.” Answer, Are you
this day willing to take Christ? Then give your consent, and he is yours, and all
is yours; “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely,” Rev. xxii. 17.
Object. “But I fear I am not sincere, in that I am actuated from fear of hell, and
hope of reward.” Ans. If ye fear not God's wrath, so as to endeavour to escape
it, ye are despisers of God; if ye desire not salvation, so as to labour for it,
ye are monstrous murderers of your own souls. Let your self-love only be regu-
lar, and it is commendable; and then it is regular when your desires of hap-
piness are carried towards it through Christ and the way of holiness; so that
592 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
your soul longs for Christ as well as salvation, and ye desire to be holy as well as
happy. It is regular, when it is subordinate to the will of God; and that is, when
the man justifies God though he should cast him off, and yet, come what will, is
resolved to cleave to the Lord and his way.
A word to other two sources of the saints’ fears.
1. Weakness and spiritual inability for the duties of religion. The Soul taking
a view of the great work it has to do, what strong lusts are to be mortified, tempta-
tions resisted, duties performed ; and then, considering how weak and unable it is
for any of these things, it is even ready to sink. But “fear not :” Christ died,
&c.; Heb. xii. 12, “Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble
knees:” Christ died, and therefore strength for duty is purchased. In the first
Adam, the influences of the Spirit were forfeited ; in the second Adam they are
bought back again. The well-ordered covenant is sealed and confirmed. There
is a fulness in the covenant for all your wants. There are promises in it that will
answer all your needs. Now, the covenant is confirmed, for the testator is dead.
Christ liveth : he arose from death, and lives evermore ; therefore he that has the
believer's stock of strength is alive. Adam got our first stock, but he became insol-
vent; Christ got the next, he liveth in the court of heaven as a public person, and
treasury of strength, “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace,”
John i. 16.
The believer's Surety to the Father stands good ; and what need they fear as
long as their Cautioner holds foot ? Christ is the believer's Cautioner for sanctifica-
tion and perseverance, John x. 28, and chap. xvii. 12, “While I was with them in
the world, I kept them in thy name : those that thou gavest me I have kept, and
none of them is lost, but the son of perdition ; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
Therefore he is called “the surety of a better testament,” Heb. vii. 22. Now, he
will not see his people in want of what is necessary for their through-bearing. He
lives for that end, to dispense the benefits of the covenant. He holds the keys,
therefore they shall not want. The Spirit is given by virtue of his ascension; John
xvi. 7, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away;
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you : but if I depart, I will
send him unto you.” For what purpose was Joseph sent to Egypt, and exalted there,
but to provide for his father's family, being therein a notable type of Christ? Well,
then, fear not; wiles help weak folk. Though ye want strength, yet you have wisdom
afforded you, even in betaking yourselves to Christ. I may allude to that, Prov. xxx.
24–29, “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceed-
ing wise. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the sum-
mer; the conies are but a feeble flock, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; the spider taketh
hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” Ye have the wisdom of the ants,
to provide your meat in summer ; of the conies, to build in the Rock Christ ; of
the locusts, not to set out alone ; and of the spiders, to be in the palace of the
great King, holding by the promises. 2 Cor. xii. 9, “My grace is sufficient for
thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
2. The danger of an evil time is another source of fear. Psalm xlix. 5, “Where-
fore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass
me about 7” Two things there look ghastly upon them, (1.) The hazard of sinning.
An evil time is a time of many Snares. The soul is afraid that he will never stand
out, but one day will fall. “Fear not :”—Christ died, and it was an evil time, a
time of many snares, yet he came safe off. This he did as a public person, and so it is
a pledge that ye shall also be carried through ; see Heb. iv. 14—16. Christ lives
evermore, therefore ye may say, as David, Psalm xviii, 46, 48, “The Lord liveth,
and blessed by my Rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. He deliver-
eth me from mine enemies,” &c. He lives to intercede, which was Peter's secu-
rity: “I have,” says he, “prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” He is busy
for his people, when they have most need. (2.) There is hazard of suffering, and
that is frightful to flesh and blood. “Fear not :”—Christ died, and therefore the
bitter dregs of the cup are drunken off. He was forsaken in his sufferings, that
you might be supported in your sufferings.-Your sufferings will but conform you
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 593
to Christ your head. Christ liveth, and therefore ye shall be supported in suffer-
ing, that the world may know that he who was dead is alive. Remarkable is that
word, 2 Cor. iv. 10, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord
Jesus, that the life of Jesus also might be made manifest in our body.” A suffer-
ing time is a special season in which Christ uses to appear. We read thrice of
Christ's hour; John xiii. 1, “Now, before the feast of the passover, when Jesus
knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the
Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the
end.” Chap. xvii. 1, “These words spake Jesus, Father, the hour is come,”
&c. That was an hour of darkness. John ii. 4, “Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.” That was an hour
wherein the wine was done, and the pots were filled with water ; you know what
followed.
Here it may be objected, “But what if ordinances be taken away?” Answer. If
they be, the God of ordinances endures for ever. Christ liveth, “and he shall be
for a sanctuary,” Isa. viii. 14. And says God by Ezekiel, concerning his scattered
people, “Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they
shall come,” chap. xi. 16. When there was no ordinary food to be got in the wil-
derness, it was sent down from heaven. Though our kirk-doors should be shut,
heaven's door shall be open as long as Christ liveth.—Obj. “But I think I am
very unfruitful under ordinances.” Answ. It is the greater shame ! But if this be
thy trouble, know that Christ liveth; and therefore, if there be sap in the root,
there is always hope of the branches. There is enough there, draw it out. But
as Christ first died, then arose, so the believer grows downward as well as upward.
If ye have a heart-memory, though you want a head-memory, it is well.—Olſ.
“But what shall those do, when they are seized with fear and discouragement, and
cannot tell wherefore ?” Answ. The Lord may sometimes exercise his people so,
to show them their own weakness and nothingness. But possibly it may be the
majesty of God that so affects thee, and the reason why it is not discerned to be so,
may be an intimation of the Lord's love just going before it. See Dan. x. 10–12,
“And behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees, and upon the
palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, under-
stand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright; for unto thee am I
now sent: and when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.” But
however it be, the only cure is believing; Psalm xxvii. 13, “I had fainted, unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” The
sooner you believe, the better; for in this case a man is like one that is going to
ride a great water that is increasing ; the longer he delays, the water grows still
the greater.
Now, the way to make use of these things, so as to draw comfort from them, is
to believe. There is, in the first place, a firm assent to the truths revealed, 1 John
v. 5, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is
the Son of God 2" then, an act of faith, realizing these things; Heb. xi. 1, “Now,
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” To
which may be added, an act of assurance; Gal. ii. 20, “I am crucified with Christ;
nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me.” If ye cannot reach to all this extent, yet you may reach an act
of adherence. A trembling hand may draw the water of consolation out of the
wells of Salvation. Amen.
594 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
II.
BELIEVERS SEEKING A CONTINUING CITY.”
HEBREws xiii. 14.
“For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”
HEAVEN ever moves, yet is that the place of our rest; earth ever rests, yet is that
the place of our travel, where we rest not. Time runs with a rapid course, and
carries all men swiftly down the stream. It admits of no delay, and whether we
sleep or wake, we are carried forward, to be sent forth within a little into the vast
ocean of eternity, and to land us either in heaven or hell. Whether we will or
not, we must ere long bid farewell to the world; and were it with man as it is with
the beasts, who when they are dead are done, we might sit at ease, suffering our-
selves to be carried away with the stream at all adventures. But then man begins
to live, when he is dead and gone ; and therefore, having here no continuing city,
what remains but that we direct our course to one that is to come, and which is
the great thing our text aims at. In which consider:
1. A supposition. The apostle plainly supposeth our absolute need of a continu-
ing city, that is, a place of true happiness and rest; for so it must be understood,
for otherwise, hell is of the same continuance with heaven. Man is capable of
happiness, the desire of it is interwoven with his nature. No man is insensible that
he labours under some great defects, and every man sees the need he hath of some-
thing to give him perfect rest and satisfaction : and therefore the soul, like an
hungry infant, sucks wherever it comes, and finding no rest in one thing, goes to
another; and never can attain true rest, till it be perfectly carried to God himself,
to take up its everlasting rest in him.
We have next a position consisting of two parts: (1.) That the continuing city
is not to be found in this world; our rest is not here. Here we do but sojourn for
, a time, and no sooner we come into it, but as soon we begin our journey to go out
of it again; and like the rising sun haste forward to the going down. We begin
then to die, when we begin to live ; and death follows our life, as the shadow does
the body, till it at length overturns us. Then the tale is told, and the fable of life
in the world is ended. (2.) That the continuing city is to come. There is a place
of perfect happiness and rest for the children of men, though not here. The pre-
sent world affords many fine cities, but the world to come has only that continuing
city. Heaven is that continuing city, Heb. xii. 28, in which there are many mansions
for the heirs of glory, when come home from their travels.
We have also in the text the practice of the godly, most important to both parts
of the position. They admit the conviction of this world's emptiness, and live
under the sense of it. They look upon the world, as it is in itself, as indeed afford-
ing no continuing city to them. They say, we have here no continuing city, we
see none, we seek none, we expect none in it; but they seek that which is to come.
The Greek word is emphatical, and signifies to seek with all our might; to seek
with great care and solicitude. They do not sit down and faintly wish for it, but
set themselves earnestly by all means to obtain it. Their former question, “Who
will show us any good?” is turned to that, “What shall I do to be saved £" While
others are taken up about present things, they are labouring to procure to them-
selves a blessed immortality.
Lastly, The connection. These words are given as a reason or motive to stir up
to the duty proposed, ver, 13, namely, that we ought to be denied to the world,
* Delivered June 1st, 1707.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 595
take up Christ's cross, and patiently bear all reproaches for him. For why? Says
the apostle, “we have no continuing city here;” and ere long we shall be out of
the reach of enemies; and even at this time, we are seeking other things than the
world can afford.
DocTRINE. We have no continuing city in this world; but it is the duty of all,
and the practice of the godly, earnestly to seek after the continuing city above.
We shall,
I. Show that we have no continuing city here.
II. In what respects heaven is a continuing city.
III. I shall open at large the seeking of this continuing city.
IV. The reasonableness of the point. We are then,
I. To show that we have no continuing city here. This is evident,
1. Because the dissolution of this world is approaching, Psalm cii. 6; 2 Peter
iii. 7–12. It had a beginning, and it shall have an end. The day will come,
when the earth, and all things therein, shall be burned up. It was a dreadful day
when Sodom was burned, but it will be much more dreadful when all the cities of
the world shall be consumed. Sodom destined to the flames, was no city for Lot to
continue in ; and seeing this world must also be burned up, may we not conclude
we have no continuing city in it 2
2. Because we must all remove from it by death. Death is settled by a fixed
decree. “It is appointed unto all men once to die.” One generation passeth
away to give place to another. Every birth and every death, is an argument to
persuade us, that we have no continuing city here. Every child that is born, comes
into the world with a warning away in its hand. Every dying person lets us see the
way which we are to follow. There is room enough on the earth, notwithstanding
all the vast numbers that have been before us. We must all answer the summons
of death. It will not pity the poor, be bribed by the rich, nor boasted away by
men of might. -
3. Because of the uncertainty of all things here below, though we should last,
and the world also. All worldly things stand on two lame legs, uncertainty and
insufficiency, and therefore are not to be depended upon. There is nothing here
that can satisfy the soul. He spoke like a fool, who said, “Soul, thou hast much
goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” Though
these things were sufficient, yet are they uncertain. They perish with the using;
like the apples of Sodom, fair and fresh without ; within full of sulphur, and being
handled fall to ashes.
4. Because the Lord never designed it for a continuing city. The Lord made it as
a stage to serve for a time, to be taken down when men had acted their parts upon
it. It was the place for the trial of the children of men. Heaven was the place
prepared for the godly before the foundation of the world; and hell was prepared
of old, for others. This earth was only a narrow neck of land, to be swallowed up
of eternity. We proceed, *
II. To show in what respects heaven is a continuing city.
1. The city itself is continuing. It is “a building of God; an house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens.” It is “a kingdom which cannot be moved.”
Though the footstool may be set aside, the throne must continue. That city pre-
pared before the foundations of the world were laid, must endure when the founda-
tions of the world are overturned. It is a sure purchase that is made in the city
above; for when the cities below shall be laid in ashes, this shall stand and flourish.
2. The Lord of the city is a continuing Lord, even Jesus Christ. He died once,
but shall die no more. He has fought the battle for his people, and has reached
the crown, and is set down on the throne. He sends his people such news as Joseph
sent to his father ; “God hath made me lord of all Egypt, come down unto me,
tarry not.” Jesus continues for evermore,
In respect of his matures, Rev. i. 17, 18. The human nature which he took on,
he never did, and never will put off. Death made a separation betwixt his soul
and body, but not betwixt his natures. The saints shall for ever see the human
nature united to the divine nature ; the man Christ at the right hand of God.
. In respect of his offices. He will be the prophet of that city for ever. He that
596 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
gave them the light of grace, shall give them the light of glory. He is an everlast-
ing priest, even a priest for ever. It is true, he will offer no more sacrifice, “for
by one offering, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” But he will
eternally exhibit that sacrifice, and intercede for his people, Heb. vii. 26; this is
the everlasting security of the saints. He will be King there for ever, for of his
kingdom there shall be no end. -
3. The citizens of that city are continuing. “Life and immortality are brought
to light by the gospel.” There is no death there. The garments of glory shall
never be put off. Death entered paradise, but cannot enter this city, where the
Lord of life reigns in his glory, 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54.
4. The abode of the citizens in this city is continuing. Adam was cast out of
the earthly paradise, the Jews out of Canaan. But every saint “shall be made a
pillar in this temple of God, and he shall go no more out.” Heaven is the rest
that remains for the people of God. They may have many a weary step in the
wilderness, but when once come home they shall go no more abroad.
5. The privileges of it are continuing ; they shall never be retrenched. Who
can count the privileges which the citizens enjoy there. The people of God in this
world are high privileged with the favour of God, and peace with him, pardon of
sin, adoption, sanctification. They shall have all these in their utmost perfection,
to be continued for ever. Their peculiar privileges in heaven are such as these :
mone of the miserable effects of sin are there. “God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” No
bodily pain, no soul distemper, no desertion there. The Zion above will not com-
plain that the Lord has forgotten her, or that God covers himself with a cloud,
‘‘ for there shall be no night there.”
There shall be no sinning there, “for there the spirits of just men are made per-
fect.” The body of sin and death dies with the death of the body. The most holy
person on earth sinneth, but the least star in heaven shall be without spot. Lamps of
hell shall then wonder to see themselves shining lamps of glory. There shall not
be even the possibility of sinning there. Adam when created had no sin, but the
saints in the city above shall not be capable of sinning. They shall be for ever
confirmed in a sinless and happy state.
We have told what is not in it, but to tell you what is in it is more difficult.
We may, by attempting it, darken counsel by words without knowledge. Take only
these two words; “Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like
him ; for we shall see him as he is. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
These are words which the inhabitants of heaven only are fit to explain.
6. The work of that city is continuing work. They rest not night nor day, sing-
ing praises to him that sits upon the throne. The harps of the people of God are
not always in their hands now ; sometimes they are hanged upon the willows,
Their work there will be eternal recreation, and perfect pleasure. This teaches
us that we must be made meet for heaven, and serve our apprenticeship here in
the ways of holiness, before we can be admitted into that continuing city.
7. The rest, quiet, and safety of that city, are continuing. “It is a kingdom
that cannot be moved.” There are four things that put a city in hazard, but none
of them are here. Enemies laying siege to it without. This puts the church in
hazard here, and therefore there are watchmen set on the walls; but no enemy
can approach to the city above. The devil and his army cannot come near it.
Want of provision within, occasions hazard ; but there shall be no lack there, for
rivers of pleasure that never run dry abound there, Rev. vii. 16, 17. The inhabit-
ants of a city disagreeing among themselves is very hazardous. This was as
hurtful to the earthly Jerusalem as the Roman army. But there can be no
mutiny in this city. Then shall that be perfectly accomplished, “They shall not
hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” The sad divisions
amongst the Lord's people strike at the root of Christianity, by muttering as
much as that Christ is not come, Isaiah xi, 6–8. Therefore our Lord prays,
that his people “all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES, 597
that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me.” Finally, mismanagement of the governor may bring danger. Wisdom will
save a city, and folly ruin it. Here is infinite wisdom at the helm, and how can
they miscarry 2 We proceed,
III. To open up at large, the seeking of this continuing city. Here we shall
show what it supposeth ; wherein it consists; what do they seek that are rightly
seeking; and finally, the properties of this seeking.
First, What this seeking supposeth.
1. It supposeth the want of a continuing city. None will seek what they do
not want. When man sinned he lost God, and so a right to heaven ; this all men,
by nature, are under. And he that is thus seeking is sensible of his loss, and is
under conviction that the world can afford none such ; unless it were so, he would
never seek it. Every serious seeker of heaven looks on the world as a wilderness,
and himself as a pilgrim and stranger on the earth, Heb. xi. 13, 14. But, alas! few
are under this impression concerning the world.
2. The faith of a continuing city ; that there is a place of happiness and rest.
They believe that “there remaineth a rest for the people of God.” They see that
there is a land afar off, and that it is attainable by mortals. The faith of this is
more rare than most men imagine. Were there a place in the world where men
might live in all manner of prosperity, free from all evil, and all welcome to it, they
would go; would not men flock thither, if they really believed it 2
3. A sense of the need of it. Wise men will not seek that of which they have
no need. The seeker of heaven sees the need he hath of it. He is one of a more
noble spirit than to be satisfied with the husks which the earth affords. The earth
may serve the body during this mortal life; but he knows he hath a soul that
must live eternally, and a body that must be raised up again ; and that this world
can do him no service in these things. -
4. The soul turning its back upon the world. The person who seeks heaven,
with Paul, “forgets the things that are behind.” “He is coming out of the
wilderness, like pillars of Smoke ;” and answers that call, “Come with me, from
Lebanon, my spouse.” We cannot seek both, more than serve two contrary
masters. Our arms are too short to grasp both heaven and earth at once. If ye
seek heaven, let earth go.
Secondly, Wherein doth this seeking consist Ž It consists in these two things:
1. In earnest desires after it. “But now they desire a better country, that is, an
heavenly.” The soul desires to be there in due time. Their heart is there, for
their treasure is there. Their souls are reconciled to heaven by the power of grace.
They have seen the beauty of the holy land and heavenly city; though not with
their bodily eyes, yet with the eyes of faith. They have been captivated with the
map of it in the word of God. They desire it because Christ is there; and there
glory dwells, and holiness reigns for ever. “Our conversation is in heaven; from
whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Most men have no
such desires. They would quit their part in paradise, if God would let them stay
on this side of Jordan.
2. In suitable endeavours for it. The want of this holds many out of heaven.
“The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.” If wishes
would carry men to heaven, who would go to hell? But there are difficulties in
the way to it, which they cannot digest, and therefore they intermeddle not with
it. But they who seek it aright, turn the face of their souls that way, and labour
for it. “Let us labour, therefore,” says Paul, “to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall, after the same example of unbelief.” Strivers only are right seekers.
“Strive,” says our Lord, “to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” “The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force.”
Thirdly, What do they seek, that are rightly seeking 2
1. They seek the Lord of the city. The command is, “Seek the Lord while he
is to be found, call upon him while he is near.” Jesus, the Lord of it, is himself the
way and the door ; none can enter but by him, John xiv. 6. Jesus is to the true
seeker the greatest beauty of the upper house, Psalm lxxiii. 25. The name of the
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city is, The Lord is there ; and this draws the soul of the believer hither. And if
Christ were not theré, heavén would not be heaven to the believer. “Being risen
with Christ, they seek the things which are above, where he sitteth at the right
hand of God.” -
2. A right and title to it. By Adam's sin we forfeited our right to it, so we
have our title to seek. We are commanded to “seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness.” The soul sees itself miserable, whatever it have, if it
have no right to that city. Hence Christ is precious. A match with the heir of
all things is very desirable, seeing by him we are made citizens there. “For
through him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father; and are made fellow-
citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” .
3. A conformity to it; even the kingdom of God to be within us. As every
man labours to conform himself to the manners of the court where he desires to
be, so the Christian “has his conversation in heaven,” and desires to be more and
more changed into the image of the Saviour. Heaven must come down into us,
before we can get up to it. If our Father be in heaven, we will strive to be like
him. Can we look on these to be seeking heaven, who mind nothing but the world
and their lusts; in whose thoughts, words, and actions, there is nothing of heaven.
4. Evidences for the city. The soul will not only seek a right to it; but to
know his right. Hence they will be crying, “show me a token for good.” When
their interest is darkened, their hearts are filled with sadness; and when they
beheld it, their souls rejoice, when they can say, “For we know, that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” A man that is seeking to buy houses
or lands, will labour to get good evidences of his right to them. -
5. The possession of it in due time. “Let us labour, therefore, to enter into
that rest.” One time or another, you will be at Paul's wish, “a desire to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better.” Christ gives it as an encouragement
to his people, “I go,” says he, “to prepare a place for you;” and therefore they
seek and wait till their minority be past, that they may enter heirs to that glory.
“Desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.”
I shall close with a word of use, of what has been said. Bestir yourselves, then,
to seek after the continuing city. Are there not many among us, who have neither
right to, nor evidence for heaven ; who live here as if this were their rest, as if
they were never to remove ; who, if death were to seize them this day, know not
where they would lodge through the long night of eternity. -
Consider the motive in the text; “we have no continuing city here.” We must
continue for ever, but not here. Were we to die like the beasts, we might live as
they do ; but we have never-dying souls. O consider well, that you must remove,
that you may seek in time a continuing city. Death is posting on. Our life is but
a vapour, a shadow, a nothing. The grave we must visit, there is no continuance
here. -
Fourthly, the properties of this seeking. How must we seek, if we would suc-
ceed? This is a necessary question, for our Lord tells us “many will seek to
enter in, and shall not be able ;” and Paul tells us, “that a man is not crowned
unless he strive lawfully.” There may be much seeking to little purpose. A
1. They that rightly seek the continuing city, seek it laboriously. “They
labour to enter into that rest.” They must not only open their mouths as beggars,
but ply their hands as workmen seeking their daily bread, who earn it with the
sweat of their brow. “We must seek it as silver, and search for it as for hid
treasures.” Many would be fed like the fowls, who neither sow nor gather into
barns; and be clothed like the lilies, who neither toil nor spin. They would receive
heaven if it would fall down into their mouths, but cannot think of working for it.
They have something else to do. It is true, our labour and pains will not bring us
there ; but there is no getting there without it, Prov. xxi. 25. For consider the
several notions of the way to heaven, all importing true labour. We must work;
yea, “work out our own Salvation,” or otherwise we lose what we have done. It
is as the work of the husbandman, which is not easy. “Sow to yourselves in
righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 599
the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” It is the running of a
race that requires patience and much eagerness; for we must “press toward the
mark, and so run that we may obtain.” We must wrestle and fight for it; for
heaven hath a strait gate, and cannot be entered with ease. We must strive to
enter, yea, press into it, and take it by violence. We must put forth our utmost
strength, as those who are agonizing, Luke xiii. 24; and at last overcome, Rev.
iii. 12. These are the metaphors by which the Christian's exercises are described,
and they certainly denote real labour.
Consider also the types of the way to heaven. Many a weary step, and many a
bloody battle had the Israelites, ere they could settle themselves in Canaan.
Jerusalem stood on a hill, and was surrounded with hills : many a weary step had
some of them to take ere they won it, 2 Sam. v. 6: and when they came there,
they had the hill of God to ascend, even Mount Moriah, where the temple stood :
hence that Psalm xxiv. 3–6.
Besides, slothfulness is the pathway to hell, Prov. xiii. 14, and xx. 4. The
sluggard is an unprofitable servant to himself and his master. For an idler to get
heaven, is a sort of contradiction. Heaven is a reward, and therefore supposeth
working. Heaven is rest, keeping of a Sabbath, and therefore supposeth previous toil.
2. Voluntarily ; the Lord “meeteth him that rejoiceth and worketh righteous-
ness.” When men do nothing in religion but by compulsion, they cannot succeed.
God’s people are a willing people; and he cares not for compelled prayers, or forced
endeavours, when the hands go without the heart. Men naturally are enemies to
heaven ; and till heaven be in their heart instead of the world, they will never
seek it to purpose.
3. Diligently; “The soul of the diligent shall be made fat.” We shall lose it, if
we seek it not diligently ; “By much slothfulness the building decayeth.” Men
are busy for the world, the devil is busy to keep us out of heaven ; and shall not
we seek it diligently ? But most men are of Pharaoh's principle, that religion
is only a work for them that have nothing else to do; hence no diligence among
them.
4. Vigorously. We are commanded to ask, to seek, to knock. It is not easily
got. Faint attacks will not break open the gates of this city. It is requisite we
summon together all the powers of our souls, “and whatsoever our hand findeth
to do, do it with all our might.” The iron is blunt, therefore we must exert the
more force. Fervency in seeking is necessary to make it effectual. It is “the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man’’ that “availeth much.”
5. Resolutely, as Jacob for the blessing. We seek what we cannot want ; and
therefore must steel our foreheads, and run through difficulties. “Skin for skin,
all that a man hath will he give for his life.” The people whose hearts failed when
they heard of the Anakims, were obliged to turn back into the wilderness. They
that mind for this city, must have their “feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace,” that they may go forward through the rugged way.
6. Constantly. We must be “steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord.” We must not seek only by fits and starts; that makes our
seeking uneasy. Hot and cold fits are signs of a distempered body. This work is
for term of life; “No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit
for the kingdom of God;”. “The just shall live by faith; but if any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” Deserters are shamefully punished,
while prisoners of war are treated with respect.
7. Seek it quickly, without delay, for we know not how soon our sun may go
down. We “must work the works of him that sent us, while it is day; the night
cometh, when no man can work.” Your glass is running. If your time be done
before your interest in heaven be secured, it will be a heavy case. Hell is replen-
ished with those that resolved to better afterwards. *
8. Seek evangelically, that is, in a gospel way. This comprehends seeking, first,
from a principle of new life, called the life of Jesus, 2 Cor. iv. 10; secondly, from
a sweet motive of love to God, even the love of Christ constraining us; and thirdly,
from a noble end, the glory of God, the honour of the Redeemer, and glory of his
grace, and our own Salvation; finally, doing all in borrowed strength ; travelling
600 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
“through the wilderness leaning on our Beloved ; denying ourselves, rejoicing in
Christ Jesus, and having no confidence in the flesh.” We shall now,
IV. Show the reasonableness of the point. And,
First, Why it is the duty of all, thus to seek after the continuing city.
1. Because none of us have a continuing city here. Our old tabernacle is ready
to fall down about our ears, what then should be doing, but seeking that building
of God? Hence we must remove, is it not then highly reasonable we should seek
where we may take up our eternal lodging ?
2. It is the command of God, whose commands we are not to dispute, but to
obey, “for a son honoureth his father, and a servant his master.” Now what is
his command Ž It is, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” What a cord of love
is such a command, where duty and interest are so linked together
3. Because perfect happiness is only to be found there. That is the place where
the soul-satisfying treasure only is to be found. “Lay up for yourselves, then,
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves
do not break through nor steal.” You will never be able, by any means, to extract
happiness from earthly enjoyments. Solomon had run round the world and viewed
all, and what is his report, even Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. . The very nature
of the soul is such, that nothing under the Sun can satisfy it; yea, the very erect
form of the body teaches us to seek heaven.
4. It is a dreadful contempt of heaven, not to seek it. It was the sin of the
Israelites, “that they despised the pleasant land.” It is God’s mansion-house, the
land where glory dwells. Not then to be at pains to attain it, is a sin near akin
to the sin of the devils, “who kept not their first estate, but left their own habita-
tion.” Yea, it is a contempt of the blood of Christ, the price by which heaven
was purchased. O sirs, prefer not in your practice, the world, to the glory of
heaven. Observe Heb. xii. 14–16. Will men say that they prize heaven, when
they will not be at pains to secure their title to it?
5. There is no getting there without seeking it thus. There is no reaching the
treasure of glory without digging for it. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall
die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
If men must have yet a little sleep and a little slumber, outer darkness will be their
waking-place, Luke xiii. 24.
Secondly, Let us show why it is the practice of the godly. They seek this city,
1. Because they have been convinced that they have no continuing city here.
By the Spirit of the Lord, the gracious soul has “seen an end of all perfection;”
has got a sight of the vanity and emptiness of created things, and this has turned
the soul back again from the broken cisterns, to the fountain of living water.
They have seen that excellency in Christ, which has darkened the glory of created
things.
*Because their treasure is in heaven, Matt. vi. 21. If a man's treasure be
in his coffers or in his barns, his heart will be there also ; if in heaven, his heart
will be there. Christ is the believer's treasure, and he is there ; an eternal weigh
of glory is his treasure, and it is also in heaven. º
3. Because heaven is the only rest for the godly. The world is the place of their
toil and pilgrimage. They have trouble from without and from within, while here;
but their rest is remaining for them above, Heb. iv. 9. They say to one another,
as Naomi did to her daughters-in-law, “The Lord grant you, that you may find
rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Rest is sought by every one, and
seeing the godly look not for it here, they must needs be looking for it there.
4. Because this seeking is the native product of a new nature. The old nature
carries the man downward, the new nature upwards, toward heaven. Grace is an
active principle come from above into the heart, and carrying the soul up to its
own source. Every thing desires its own preservation and perfection, now glory
is the best preservative and perfection of grace. It is a fountain that will not be
stopped, but will cast up its waters. “It is in them a well of living water, spring-
ing up to everlasting life.”
Application. Is it so, that here we have no continuing city ? Then we may be,
First, Informed and convinced of several particulars.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 601
1. Then we must all die, and be as water spilt on the ground. Here our tent is
set down, but not to continue here. The pins of the tent must be loosed, and man
must go to his long home. Ere long you shall be arrested within the four posts of
a bed, not to come forth till you be carried to the grave. Death will settle down
on your eyelids. The fairest face shall be pale, and the breath shall go, and the
body crumble to ashes; for here we have no continuing city.
2. Life in this world is but a short preface to eternity, an inconsiderable point
between two vast terms. The world lasted some thousands of years before we
were born it; and how long after we are gone, who knows? but then there is an
eternity to succeed. O that we could so tell our handbreadth of days as to apply
our hearts to wisdom | -
3. It is well with them who are gone to heaven. “Blessed are the dead who
die in the Lord, from henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labours.” Rest is desirable, they had it not here ; they have got it now.
Their weary days and nights are now at an end. Sickness and trouble shall be to
them no more. Weep not for them, but for yourselves, that are yet on the trouble-
some sea ; we are abroad, they are at home.
4. Behold here the vanity of all things below, and the folly of valuing ourselves
on account of them. When death comes, we must bid them an eternal farewell,
and leave what we have to others; and they to others again, till the fire at the
last day consume all. Some have a beautiful tent, others a black and uncomely
one ; but against night, all are taken down. -
5. Their case is to be pitied and not envied, who have their portion in this life.
What good did the rich man's treasure do him in hell? Though a man act the
part of a king on a stage, if he have nothing when the curtain is drawn and the
play ended, he is in a pitiful case. Alas! the world does with many, as with the
young man, it brings an eternal eclipse on their souls.
6. See the folly of men who are neglecting to secure their title to heaven. O
sirs! we are quickly carried down the stream, ere long we will be in eternity.
Why, then, are you not making it your business to seek a continuing city, seeing
here we have none Ž -
Use 2. Of trial. Hereby you may try yourselves, whether you be truly re-
ligious or not. How does the pulse of your affections beat? What is that you are
seeking? is it heaven or the world 2 I told you in what this seeking consists, and
upon this I would propose two questions:
1. What desires have you after heaven? Are your souls yet reconciled to it?
Could you get an abode here for ever, would you desire to remove 2 I fear there
are many would even be content to settle down on this side of Jordan. They
desire heaven, but not for contempt of the world, but fear of hell. But a gracious
soul cannot be content with this their sinful condition in the world, to want uninter-
rupted communion with God, which is only to be enjoyed above. -
2. What endeavours are you using to get it 3 Simple wishes for heaven will never
come speed. Many wish for heaven, but work for hell. If this be not your main
work to seek the continuing city, you willnever get there. But, alas! what little
pains do most men take to get heaven If coming to the church, giving the com:
pliment of a morning and evening prayer to God, cold-rife and dead suits, will
bring them to heaven, they will be sure of it; but they will never see it, if they
cannot reach it without cutting off right hands, mortifying their lusts, and taking it
by violence.
Use 3. Of exhortation. From this I may press several duties upon you. And,
1. Be content with such things as you have. Nature is content with little, grace
with less; but corruption enlarges the soul as hell, that it never says it hath enough.
Though a stranger get but bad accommodation on a journey, it pleases him to think
that he is going homewards, he is not to stay with it. You are on your way to
eternity. It is of little consequence whether a traveller have a cane in his hand,
or a rough stick, either of them may serve, and both are laid aside at the jour
ney's end.
2. Do not sit down upon the world's smiles. If the world court you, do not give
it your heart, but tell it you are not to º O! it is hard to keep the heart from
G
602 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
falling in love with a smiling world ; hard to carry a full cup even ; to take a
large draught of carnal comforts, and not to fall asleep. Ere long, the richest
shall be on a level with the poorest ; and when the fool, who sets his heart on his
wealth, comes to die, he cannot answer the question, whose shall those things be,
which he hath provided. -
3. Bear afflictions patiently. You are posting out of the place of afflictions. If
you be not in Christ, ere long the cross will be turned into an unmixed curse. If
you be in Christ, ere long all tears shall be wiped away from your eyes.
4. What you do, do quickly. Beware of delays, they are very dangerous. Our
great work is to do good, and to get good. Ply your work with all speed and dili-
gence. Parents, do good to your children; ere long they may be taken from you,
or you from them.
5. Seek the continuing city that is to come. O ! set yourselves to this work in
good earnest; apply to it with all diligence. Young and old, rich and poor, you
must all go out of this world. O ! strive to secure your lodging in heaven.
Motive 1. Consider you are all seeking something. Man is a restless creature,
always crying, Give, give. The river runs as fast when it is overflowing its banks,
as when it is going in its proper channel. The watch moves as fast when it is going
wrong, as when it is going right. The spider is at pains as well as the bee. Alas!
many men are like the spider; it consumes its bowels to make its web. The
exert themselves wholly for their bodies, and neglect their souls. O what folly is
this :
Mot. 2, The devil is seeking to keep you out of heaven. He is constantly seeking
whom he may devour. He wants not skill to contrive means for your ruin. He
hath had experience for several thousand years in that trade. He wants not malice
nor cunning. And will not you be at pains for your own salvation ?
Mot. 3. You have loud calls to this work. You have the call of the word.
Wherefore hath the Lord instituted ordinances among you but for this end? A
master doth not light a candle for his servants to play themselves at it. You are
not shut up in the dark, muffled up in clouds of ignorance. The night is over,
the day shines. Go forth, then, to your work, and to your labour, until the even-
ing. The voice of providence calls loudly to you. God seems to be on his way
against these lands, for their contempt of the gospel. And I dare say, men under
the gospel cannot but sometimes have their convictions.
Mot. 4. Our abode here will be very short. Ere long, all of us shall be in an
unalterable state. Some are at the borders of the grave ; all are going forward.
Our life is a vapour, and our days a shadow that passeth away. Let us then work
the works of him that sent us, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man
can work, Amen.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 603
III.
GOSPEL-COMPULSION."
LUKE xiv. 23.
“Compel them to come in.”
AND are they not happy that are in 2 Is your Rock as their rock, O sinners, your-
selves being judges? And why will not ye come in too? Christ's house is not yet
filled. Many have come in, but yet there is room for more, verse 22. And we
are sent to compel you to come in. So we have it in charge in our text.
The scope of this parable (which, upon the matter, is the same with that of the
marriage-feast, Matt. xxii.) is to show the rejection of the Jews for their rejecting
of Christ, and the calling of the Gentiles into their room. The supper to
which they are bidden here, is Jesus Christ, with all his saving benefits: he
is the maker, and the matter of this supper also. In the morning of time,
in the patriarchal ages, men were invited to this feast; for even then there
were not wanting preachers of righteousness, 2 Peter ii. 5. In the mid-day,
under the law, they were invited to it, by Prophets, Priests, and Levites. And
here in the evening, in the last times, the times of the gospel, they are called to it
as a supper; the dispensation of the gospel being the last dispensation of grace to
the world. The Jews were they that got the first offer, but they would not come ;
they made their excuses, as ye may read ver, 17–20 of this chapter. The Gen-
tiles get the next offer: the servant is sent out to the streets and lanes; the minis-
ters of Christ preach the gospel to the poor Gentiles, and they receive it. But all
come not in at once : therefore the servant is sent out into “the high-ways and
hedges,” where the most miserable sort of people are to be found ; and even these
must be compelled to come in. Possibly this double sending forth of the servant
may point out the Lord's way in the dispensation of the gospel to the Gentile world;
the gospel being first preached to those of them who had renounced the idolatry of
their country, and worshipped the true God; and sometimes assembled with the
Jews in their synagogues to learn of them the knowledge of God, though they did
not embrace the ceremonial part of their religion : these might well be represented
by the poor, maimed, and blind, sitting in the streets and lanes of the city. But
afterwards it was carried to the most dark corners of the earth, where there was no
respect either to the Jewish or Christian religion, but all were sunk together in
most gross ignorance and idolatry; which might fitly be represented by the high-
ways and hedges. See Acts x, and xiii. 42, 46, 49.
In the text we have three things. (1.) The great design ministers should have
before their eyes in preaching of the gospel; and that is to bring sinners in to Christ.
It must not be to draw them to a party, but to draw them to Christ. It is not to make
them only change their work, they continuing still without, by preaching mere
morality to them ; but it is to make them change their master too, to get them into
Christ by faith. (2) Consider whom they are to deal with in order to bring them
in ; even those that are sitting in the high-ways and hedges, like beggars in rags
and sores, the most unworthy and vile sinners. (3.) The method they must use
to get them in ; “Compel them to come in,” not by using bodily violence towards
* Delivered July 18th, 1710—the day on which the author first dispensed the Lord's supper at
Ettrick. He himself says of this Sermon in his Memoirs:—“I had palpable assistance in studying
the action-sermon on Luke xiv. 23, ‘Compel them to come in ;’ and though, being much hurried on
the Saturday, I found myself out of case, and had little hope of it when going to the Kirk, yet
verily the Lord was with me in that Sermon.”—And again : “I afterwards revised the action-ser.
mon with a view to publish it in the Fourfold State; but gave over that purpose.”—ED.
604 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
them. Christ put the sword of the Spirit in the hands of his ministers, but
not the temporal sword. Dragooning, torturing, murdering, may be fit means
to bring in men to antichrist, but not to bring them in to Christ. The compulsion
in the text is a moral compulsion, such as those use who invite men to feasts, who
are not wont to cudgel them in, but seriously and earnestly to deal with them un-
til they consent. So should ministers compel sinners to come in to Christ, dealing
with them seriously and affectionately, so as sinners may see they are in good ear-
nest upon their Master's errand. We must give them the charming invitations
and offers of the gospel, upon the one hand, and lay before them the terror of the
Lord, on the other hand ; that if men will go to hell, they may go with a witness.
Withal, here is intimated that efficacy of the Spirit, which goes along with the
word, to the conversion of the elect ; which does not force, but sweetly necessitates
them to come in.
DocTRINE. It is the great work of ministers to compel sinners in a gospel-way,
to come in to Christ.
The best way that I can handle this text is to aim at that which is given in
charge in it. And in order to this, consider with me the import of it. -
I. Sinners naturally are out. Were it not so, they needed not be compelled to
come in. Hear all ye this day that are out of Christ, what ye are out of, and where
ye are.
First, Sinners, do ye know what ye are out of ? (1.) All ye that are out of Christ,
are out of God's family, Eph. ii. 18, 19. God's household is the household of faith,
ye are none of it. His house may be an empty house for you. Adam ran out of
the house, and all his posterity with him ; and ye are still there where Adam left
you. And is not that a sad case, to be out of God's family 2 Though ye are in
our mother's house, ye cannot call him Father, seeing ye are not in Christ his Son:
ye can have no claim to the portion and inheritance of the children, Gal. iv. 30.
(2.) Ye are out of God's covenant of peace, and so without hope of salvation, while
in that state, Eph. ii. 12. Ye read of a glorious chariot, Cant. iii. 9, 10. It is
the covenant of grace, the covenant of peace, as it is held forth in the everlasting
gospel ; for that is the word of “truth, meekness, and righteousness,” upon which
Christ rides and prospereth. The first chariot, wherein Adam and his children
should have been carried to heaven, was the covenant of works: Adam had the
guiding of it ; but it did not drive far till it was broken to pieces. Now, there is
a new one made, in which Christ is carrying all his people to glory; but ye are
out of it, “King Solomon,” the Mediator Christ, made it ; it could not be made
without him. He made it for “himself,” to manifest his own glory, and the
exceeding riches of his grace by it; and “for the daughters of Jerusalem,” to
carry his bride home to his Father's house, in it. It was made of the durable
“wood of Lebanon ;” for he will have it to be an everlasting covenant, that shall
never be broken. It has “pillars of silver,” those excellent promises that are pecu-
liar to the covenant of grace, as the promises of pardon, perseverance, &c., for it
is “established upon better promises.” And because there is no small weight in
this chariot when a sinner is in it, he hath made “the bottom thereof of gold ;”
Solid and strong, so that none that are in it, though heavier than mountains of brass,
shall fall through it: “for the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
The Lord knoweth them that are his,” 2 Tim. ii. 19 ; they are secured by God's
eternal decree of election. No storms of wrath can fall upon them that are in it;
for it hath a covering of the purple blood of Jesus Christ. “The midst thereof,”
the “inner part ’’ of it, is “paved with love ; love lines the chariot;” it is above
them, it is on every hand of them; yea it is underneath them, so that if they do
fall in it, they shall not get such a grievous fall, but they will be able to rise again.
Happy they that are in it ! But, alas ! sinners, ye are out of it. Ye are lying
there where the first chariot laid you when it broke. (3.) Ye are out of God’s
favour, being out of Christ. Now, that is dreadful ; for “our God is a consuming
fire.” And there is no shelter from the wrath of God but under the covert of the
blood of the Mediator, Eph. ii. 13. The destroying angel is coming through, and
there is no blood sprinkled on your door-posts, God is in Christ, reconciling the
world to himself; if ye do not come in, and meet him there, what can ye expect
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 605
but that he will meet you without, “as a bear bereaved of her whelps,” rent the
caul of your heart, and devour you like a lion ? Hos. xiii. 8. What do your duties
avail while ye are out of Christ? Can they procure you God's favour? Your tears
will never come into his bottle, nor will your prayers reach his ears, John xiv. 6.
Secondly, Know ye, sinners, where ye are ? I will tell you where ye are. (1.)
Ye are on the devil's pasture, the mountains of vanity, about “the lions’ dens, and
the mountains of leopards,” where Satan feeds his herd. Ye are out of God's
house, wandering abroad for bread, begging at the world's door, saying, Where is
it 2 Ye know not Christ, “the bread of life;” and therefore the dung of worldly
profits and pleasures is so valuable in your eyes. But tell me, sinner, are you ever
satisfied ? You would “fain fill your belly with the husks” of the world; but do
they fill you indeed ? Is not the substance squeezed out of these things, so as ye
find them but empty husks 2 In all your traversing of the mountains of vanity,
came ye ever to the place of which you could say, (and stand by it,) This is my
rest, and here I will stay ? no, nor never shall, till ye come to Christ, Isa. lv. 2.
(2.) Ye are in hell upon earth. To be in hell, is to be without, Rev. xxii. 15; and
ye are not come in ; ye are “condemned already,” John iii. 18; bound in the
prison, Isa. lxi. 1. What is the difference betwixt you and them that are in hell?
Ye are both prisoners; only ye are in the outer prison, they are in the inner
prison. Ye are both away from Christ; only ye will depart from him, they must
depart from him. The fire of God’s wrath is set on in the consciences of both ;
only it is not as yet blown up and made to flame in you, by “the breath of the
Lord like a stream of brimstone to kindle it,” as it is in them ; but ye know not
how soon it may be so. But there is yet another difference ; they are prisoners past
hope, ye are “prisoners of hope.” Therefore we proceed to another point.
II. It is the great errand of the friends of the Bridegroom to bring them in that
are out. Sirs, ye that are out, ye are where ye should not be, ye are on forbidden
ground. We would have you in ; we would have you come in to Christ, to unite
with him, by believing in him, accepting of him in all his offices. -
First, We declare unto you, that our Lord is invested with the sole authority
and commission to be the great Prophet, the Preacher, and Teacher of the way to
Immanuel's land, Acts ii. 22, 23. He has set up his school amongst us, but he
hath few disciples; and we are come to compel you to come in, that his house
may be filled. Satan has many disciples; carnal wisdom has many scholars.
Alas for it ! O leave them. Our Lord alone is he that is given of the Father to be
the great Leader to the heavenly Canaan, Isa. lv. 4. None ever came, or shall
come there, but his followers; come in, then, giving up yourselves to him to be
guided by him. Ye would all be happy, ye would all be at heaven at last; but ye
are wandering in a wilderness, where there is no way; and ye will surely lose
yourselves, if ye take not him for your leader. The way to glory is a difficult way,
and ye are not acquainted with it; nay, ye are blind travellers, ready every moment
to fall over some precipice. O ! will ye take a guide 2 Ye are now standing, as
it were, in a place where two ways meet, uncertain which of them to take. Your
own wisdom, which is folly, points out a fair broad way, saying, “Whoso is simple,
let him turn in hither,” Prov. ix. 16: but turn not in thither, for “the dead are
there, and her guests are in the depths of hell,” ver, 18. The Wisdom of the
Father, our Lord Christ, points out to you “a narrow way,” but it “ leadeth to
life;” and he is this day saying unto you, “Whoso in simple, let him turn in
hither,” ver, 4. Come in, then, renounce your own wisdom, give up yourselves to
him, to be led and guided by him. “Hear, and your soul shall live.”
Secondly, Sinners, do not ye know that ye are guilty, and that ye can have no
access to an unatoned God? There was a breach made betwixt God and man by
sin. Justice demands a sacrifice; an atonement must be made. The sinner him-
self is unclean, he cannot be the priest; and he is not able to provide a sacrifice,
for the cattle on a thousand hills are not sufficient for a burnt-offering. Where-
fore Jesus Christ became our Priest ; his human nature was the sacrifice ; his
divine mature the altar that sanctified the gift ; the wrath of God was the fire that
burned the sacrifice; the blood was carried in to the most holy place, when Christ
ascended into heaven, and sat down at the Father's right hand, to intercede for
606 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
sinners, upon the ground of his satisfaction. Now, here is the atonement; and
we would have you to fall in with this device of salvation by a crucified Christ,
renouncing your own righteousness, that you may mount to heaven by the ladder
of Christ's mediation. In the earthly paradise God set up a ladder by which all
mankind might get up to the heavenly paradise. It was the covenant of works; a
ladder able to bear the weight of all the world at once; but so contrived, that if
but the least pin in it were loosed, all would break together. All mankind
mounted it, even the first Adam, and all his children in his loins: but he having
loosed one pin thereof, in a moment the ladder broke, and he and his fell down into
a gulf of misery, and an horrible pit, where they might see heaven afar off, but
no way to get to it more. This dreadful break rejoiced the devils; it astonished
the angels; they saw that they could not mend it nor make another, and they
were wiser than to attempt it. The Son of God saw there was none amongst all
the creatures to help, and therefore his own arm brought salvation. Another ladder
is made, Jesus Christ God-man, the Mediator betwixt God and men, the way to
the Father, Gen. xxviii. 12. The foot thereof is “set on the earth,” for he is
man ; the ladder was set so low as sinners might reach it; it was set very low,
even in “the lower parts of the earth,” (Eph. iv. 9,) the region of death. The
top “ of it reached heaven,” for he is God; the ladder is so high, that it can set
the sinner up to heaven. It can neither loose nor break with the utmost weight
upon it; for it is knit together with blood of infinite value, shed to the utmost of
what justice demanded, Heb. ix. 14. Come, sinners, lay all your weight on it,
and fear not. The first ladder could bear nothing but men's persons; it could not
bear one sinner with a burden of guilt on his back, but it would break under him ;
but this will bear you, and your burden of guilt too, though it should be “heavier
than the sand of the sea.” Ah there are but few upon this ladder, we would
compel you to come on. Have ye a mind to lie still in the gulf? have ye taken
your last sight of heaven? have ye bid an eternal farewell to glory? or have ye not
done it 2 then why will ye not be compelled to come on ? O come before the ladder
be drawn up. I know what ye are thinking in effect, ye that will not be compelled
to come on ; ye are thinking like “a thief and a robber, to climb up some other
way.” I know what ye are doing ; ye are doing one of two ; ye are either mend-
ing the old ladder, and making the best ye can of the broken pieces, by your
morality and legal walk; or ye are making a new one of your own, a ladder of
uncovenanted mercy, trusting to the mercy of God, without uniting with the
Mediator. But set ye the feet of them as low as ye will, God's justice will never
suffer the tops of them to reach heaven. Lay your weight on them, then, if ye
will do no otherwise ; venture your souls on them, venture eternity on them, and
climb up ; but know assuredly, though ye should get up so high by them as ye
could knock at heaven's door, and say, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” there they
shall fail you, there they shall break, and tumble you down into the lowest hell,
John xiv. 6.
Thirdly, Christ has got a kingdom from his Father, Psal. ii. 6—8; but he has
few real subjects. He has set up his standard here this day; and we are come to
compel you to come in, and submit to him as your Lord and King. Ye are under
strange lords, and have long refused allegiance to your true Lord. O renounce all
your idols now, and give yourselves away to him, to be from henceforth his only,
his wholly, his for ever. Come in now, and “kiss the Son,” Psal. ii. 12. Bow the
knee to him ; put the crown on his head, Cant. iii. 11. Open the everlasting doors
of your hearts, that the King of glory may come in, Psal. xxiv. 7. If any poor
soul be saying within itself, “Alas! the armies of hell within my breast are not
so easily dispossessed ;” it is true indeed ; but yet I hope you are not so closely
blocked up, but that intelligence may be got betwixt Christ and you ; ye hear his
offer to be your King, will ye give your consent to it? I will ask you but two
questions to clear this matter. (1.) If you can do no more, yet will you give your
good-will of the kingdom 2 Are you willing to part with youf lusts, though you be
not able to put them away ? Though you cannot shake the yoke of bondage off
your own neck, will you give Christ your good-will, to take it off, and lay his own
upon you ? As a King “he will subdue our iniquities,” Micah vii. 19. (2.) Can
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 607
your heart consent to the absoluteness of his government 2. He must be an abso-
lute monarch, his will in all things must be thy law. And why should he not be
so 2 for he can do no wrong, Psal. xlv. 6, 7. Will you consent that he model the
kingdom in thy heart as he will? Shall he set up and cast down there as he
pleaseth ? have you no secret reserves, no lust that is but a little one, and must be
spared; no prince of the blood of hell, that he must deal gently with for your sake?
If it be so, “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without?”
Thy consent to him as he offereth himself, is thy coming in.
III. Sinners may come in. Know then ye have the Master of the house's good
leave to come in. Were it not so, he would not send out his servants to compel you
to come in. Nay, sirs, he could keep his doors bolted against you if it were not his
will ye should come in ; and if ye would be so bold as to come and knock at the
door, or offer violence to it, he could speak a word that would make you fall back-
ward. Our Lord Jesus Christ gives fair liberty to all of you, even the worst of
you, to come. Ye that are bearing the devil's mark in your foreheads ; ye openly
profane persons, that sit as it were in the devil's highways; ye that are bearing
his mark in your right hand, which ye can hide when ye please, ye vilest hypocrites,
who are hid about the devil's hedges; ye are all welcome for Christ's part, he will
not cast the door in your face. Surely there can be no less imported in his
charge to compel you to come in. And therefore I would have you step forward.
Consider (1.) Is it nothing to you that ye have leave to come in 2 It was not so
always. If, before Christ was revealed, the sinner had offered to have come in, he
would have met with the flaming sword of justice, that would have driven him
back to his dungeon of misery and darkness. If Christ had not been ground
betwixt the upper and nether millstones of the Father's wrath, he could not have
been bread to sinners, though they had been hungering after him. (2.) The fallen
angels have not leave to come in, and never had since they went out, Jude ver, 6.
If it were possible they could believe in Christ, and be content to come in to him,
they would get the door cast in their face; for they never got leave to come in.
The door was barred on them, and the bar was never drawn, nor ever will, Heb.
ii. 16. And God was no more debtor to us than to them. (3.) Be your case what
it will, this is sufficient to determine you to come in. If ye remain without, ye
are ruined, and all doors of hope are closed on you, except this, Acts iv. 12. The
door is open, ye are not forbidden to come in, ye perish if ye come not in ; could
we say no more but, it may be ye may get in, this might determine you to give it
a fair trial, if ye would but act rationally. Lastly, This leave to come in will not
last always with you. “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath
shut the door,” there will be no more leave to come in, Luke xiii. 25. They that
are in hell this day, cannot get in though they would never so gladly; there is
no passing of the gulf fixed betwixt Christ and them, Luke xvi. 26. The first
Adam closed the door upon us, but there was a second Adam to open it; if the
second Adam close the door on us, there is not a third to open it; 2 Cor. iv. 3,
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” The apostle here had
respect to what he had said of the wail on Moses's face, (chap. iii. 13,) the wail
spread over the Old Testament, ver, 14 ; but the gospel removes this wail, ver.
16–18. “But,” says he, “if our gospel also be vailed, it is wailed to them that
are lost;” there is not another dispensation of grace to be expected to take off that
vail. It is God's last grace to the world, Heb. i. 1, 2. The Lord has been mak-
ing a feast for the world these five thousand years, and now the last service is on
the table. The last ship for Immanuel's land is now making ready to sail; there-
fore ye must put to sea, now or never, Heb. x. 26, 27.
IV. Sinners are desired to come in. They not only have leave to come in, but
they are desired by the Master of the house to come in. Arise, then, ye worst of
sinners, “The Master calleth you.” Ye are called, not to a funeral, but a feast;
not to a prison, but to the guest-chamber, where he may entertain you with all the
delicates of heaven. If ye were not desired, why would he send his servants to
compel you to come in? and will ye refuse when ye are desired? Consider, I pray
you, (1.) It ill becomes you, vile worms, to sit his call. I am sure he might be
for ever happy in himself, though ye and I both were where, in strict justice, we
608 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
should be, in the bottomless pit. He needs none of us. What are we that lie
should be pleased to trouble himself about us, whether we sink or swim The
angels adore him, his Father honours him, and vile wretches, whom he desires
to come in, have the face to refuse him whom “the Father heareth always.”
(2.) There are many as good as you whom he never desired to come in. He does
not call you because he has none other to call, who might fill his house. He might
remove this gospel from you, and send it into the dark places of the earth, and
compel the Pagans to come in. Should he do it, it is very likely his offers would
be better entertained amongst them, than amongst us. Some divide the world into
thirty parts, and find that nineteen of these are possessed by Pagans, six of them
by Jews, Turks, and Saracens, and only five by Christians; and of these five parts
Christian, many are antichristian, lying yet under the darkness of popery. And
has the Lord chosen us out from among so many, to give us the invitation to come
in, and shall we refuse ? Lastly, How will ye look him in the face, when ye
appear before his tribunal, if ye will not come in now at his desire? How will ye
look back on rejected love? What will ye do when he comes in wrath to you, that
will not come to him now, upon his call?
Objection. But some will say, Is it possible that he calls me, even vile and
wretched me 3 Answer. We have general invitations clogged with no conditions,
free offers made to all that will come, Isa. lv. 1; Rev. xxii. 17. And the Lord
expressly shows that no vileness nor unworthiness shall stop any that will come,
Isa. i. 18; Jer. iii. 1; and what would ye have more ? We are sent this day in
our Master's name, to compel you all to come in, be your case what it will. And
if that would persuade you, we should come to you, one by one, and tell you, that
it is you, and you, and you, that Christ calls to come in. But if ye believe our
doctrine from the word, concerning the misery of your natural state, without hear-
ing your name and surname in particular, why would ye require more in the doc-
trine concerning the remedy ?
V. Sinners must come in ; “Compel them to come in.” Sirs, ye not only may
come, but ye must come, even the worst of you. Ye are not only desired to come
in, but ye must not abide without. Consider,
First, “This is his commandment, that ye believe,” 1 John iii. 23. Ye are
peremptorily commanded to come in. God is peremptory with you, and so must
we be peremptory with you too. Therefore I tell you, ye must come ; and I
charge you in his name to come in, and not sit his peremptory command. Lay
your hands to your hearts, then, and see what ye will do; whether ye will still abide
without, and obey the devil, and your doubts, fears, and jealousies of Christ, or
come in upon God's command. Have ye any regard to the authority of God? have
ye any respect at all to his command 2 then give a peremptory answer, within your
own breasts, just now, whether ye will come in or not. Are ye peremptory, that
ye will not come, like those sullen desperate sinners, Jer, ii. 25, “No, I have
loved strangers, and after them will I go 2°. Then what shall we say or do for you?
Lord, compel them to come in. Oh I will ye harden yourselves against the Lord,
will ye stretch out your hand against God, and strengthen yourselves against
the Almighty ? For Christ's sake, for your soul's sake, recall that word.
Secondly, But if ye dare not be peremptory that ye will not come, then be per-
emptory ye will come; for your coming is so commanded, that it will admit of no
excuse. Those that were first bidden to this supper, they would not come, but
they sent their excuses; but were their excuses sustained ? No; God would not
take them off their hand, but passeth a peremptory sentence against them, ver, 24,
“None of those men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper.” We dare
admit no excuses in this matter, bring them from whence ye will, whether from
the heaven above you, the hell within you, or the world about you ; whether from
God’s greatness, your own vileness, or world's incumbrances. Whatever your case
be, ye are commanded of God to come ; and his commands are not to be disputed,
but obeyed. Wherefore, if ye will not be peremptory that ye will come, we must
report to our Lord that ye will not come. -
Thirdly, This duty is so peremptorily commanded, that ye must come, and come
presently; it admits of no delay. “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 609
your hearts, Now is the accepted time.” We dare not allow you a day, nay, nor
an hour, to think on it, whether ye will come or not ; lest the next day, or the next
hour, ye be cast into hell, or a hell be cast into you, for sitting the offer made to
you this moment, which is gone before I can name it. Wherefore delay no longer;
but this moment open the everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in.
Fourthly, This is the duty God has commanded you; John vi. 29, “This is the
work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Ye can do the Lord
no greater pleasure than to come in. Would ye exalt him this day ? then come
on his call, Hos. xi. 7; would ye put the crown on Christ's head 2 would ye make
it a “ day of the gladness of his heart?” then come in, Cant. iii. 11. It is a great
ease for full breasts to be sucked ; the breasts of mercy and love are full; come,
starving sinner, do him the pleasure to suck the breasts of his consolations. This
is the great comprehensive duty: if ye do this, ye do all; if ye do not this, ye do
nothing. What mean ye to be nibbling at the works of God, neglecting this, which
is the work? Ye are keeping your windows closed in the day-light, and setting up
a candle, here and there, within your house ; yet there are terrible dark corners
within the house still ; open your windows, I beseech you, and let in the Sun, “the
Sun of righteousness,” and that will be instead of all, and better than all. Would
ye, all at once, be wise, righteous, and holy 2 then come in to Christ, 1 Cor. i. 30.
Ye that can do nothing, come to Christ, and so ye shall do all, Phil. iv. 13. Would
ye honour God? would ye honour his law 3 then come to Christ. But if ye
come not to Christ, do what ye will, ye do nothing. Should ye henceforth keep
all the ten commands, but neglect this, all you do would get a black note of con-
demnation from heaven written on it. Remember, I pray you, that “he that
honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father,” John v. 23. All your other
duties are but ciphers without this ; and multiply them as ye will, the sum in all
will be but nought, if this duty do not stand upon their head.
Lastly, It is a duty commanded, with certification of God's eternal displeasure
and wrath against those that will not come, Mark xvi. 16, “He that believeth not
shall be damned ;” Psalm ii. 12, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from
the way.” And therefore I, as an ambassador for Christ, do, in his name, com-
mand and charge you, and every one of you, to come in, under the pain of God's
displeasure, under the pain of vengeance, even the Mediator's vengeance ; certify-
ing, that if ye will not come, our Lord Jesus Christ will come out of heaven against
you, and ye shall be slain before him, Luke xix. 27. To be slain and die before
Christ, who died to save sinners, is a thousand deaths in one ; it is a hell upon a
hell. But those “that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be pun-
ished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,” even that Lord
whose gospel they have not obeyed, 2 Thess. i. 8, 9. Ah I would he be pleased but
to confine his presence to heaven, and only allow those that now despise and slight
him, the favour of being punished from the absence of the Lord ; all ! would
he but make their destruction come to them at Some distance, would he dart
the arrows of his wrath into them from afar; nay, but he will have a throne of
justice in hell, that they may be “punished from the presence of the Lord,” who
while in the world fled from his presence on a throne of grace in the gospel. O
consider in time what ye do : no fire will burn so violently as that which breaks
forth from the altar; no flame of wrath will pierce into a damned soul, like that
which is blown up by the breath of a slighted Mediator.
VI. And lastly, Sinners shall come in : “Compel them to come in.” Leaving
secret things to the Lord, I must tell you, sinners, Christ will not want as many
as will fill his house. And struggle as long as ye will, in ye shall come. His house
shall be filled. The Mediator has bought the furniture of his house too dear to
want any of it, and to leave so much empty room in it. I hope there are some
here that are the purchase of blood, which men and devils shall not get kept back
from Christ. His Father has engaged by covenant, that his house shall be filled;
Psalm xxii. 34, “They shall come.” See Isa. liii. 10, 11. Nay, is not Christ's
hand at the hearts of some just now 2 Do not some of you find a moving of the
iron gate of your hearts, towards an opening of it to Christ Have you not felt
something within working to compel * to come in 2 Are not some almost in
H
610 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
already ? Thrust forward ; there is no safety till ye be not only almost, but alto-
gether Christians.
Come in to Christ then, ye old people, that are bowing down to meet the grave.
Ye have delayed long, delay no more. Though it is very rare, yet it sometimes
falls out, that a man is born when he is old, Joel ii. 28. Come in, ye of middle
age. Are ye out of Christ in your best estate 2 Surely, then, your best state is
a bad state, a miserable state. Ye are busy providing for your families, but what
are ye doing for your souls? Ye are laying up for old age, which, it may be,
you will never see ; what are ye laying up for eternity ? Come in, ye young
people : ye are too old to be out of Christ. Do not think religion is only for
the hoary head, the wrinkled brows, and hollow eyes; there are more with
green heads than with gray hairs in the grave. Therefore come in, and delay
not. The older ye grow putting off the work of religion, your hearts will
grow the harder to work upon. Come in, ye profane wretches, that are far from
righteousness: come, ye hypocritical professors, that are not far from the kingdom
of God: come, ye trembling souls, that are hard at it, and yet dare not come in.
O why will ye not come in ? I think it must be either because ye will not, or because
ye dare not. I fear there are some amongst us that will not come in ; they have
no mind to quit their lusts; they must follow their old courses, cost what it will;
they see no beauty in Christ for which he is to be desired. I shall say little more
to such. If ye be resolute for sin, hell, and death, and that no Christ, no heaven,
no hell, shall keep you back from the broad way; who can stop you ? But be it
known unto you, and be it recorded in the black book of your consciences, which
shall be opened at the day of judgment, That salvation was in your offer this day,
that we endeavoured to compel you to come in to Christ, but ye would not ; and
that therefore your blood shall be on your own heads. ,
As to you that dare not come in, why dare ye not after all ye have heard Ž are
ye afraid to come in on Christ's call ? dare ye not embrace his invitation ? dare ye
not obey the great command of God 2. *
Objection. “But my sins are innumerable, and most heinous; can there be any
room for me 2 dare such a vile and unworthy wretch as I come in ?’ Answer. If
your sins were each of them as big as a mountain, were they as numerous as the
sand of the sea ; yet the blood of Christ, being the blood of the Son of God, is able
to purge them away, 1 John i. 7. Lay over all your guilt and unworthiness on
him who is altogether lovely: sooner shall the rocks sink under the weight of
a bird lighting down upon them, than that blood shall fail you. Remember,
none are compelled to come in, none are called, but the vile and unworthy,
Matt. ix. 13. Should your disease keep you from the physician 2 dare ye not
come to the fountain to wash, because ye are unclean 2 for whom is the fountain
opened, but for unclean sinners? The gospel-supper, though a costly one indeed,
was provided for none but those that were unworthy of a drop of water, and far
more unworthy of Christ's blood. Be assured, beloved, the question betwixt
Christ and you is not, Whether or not Christ will stoop so low as to wash such a
foul soul in his own blood 2 that is a question determined already, Isa. i. 18;
Zech. xiii. 1. But the question that remains to be decided, is, whether or not,
after Christ has stooped so low as to be willing to do that, the vile unworthy crea-
ture will give him the affront of stooping in vain 3 What say ye to that question ?
Ye have affronted the law of God; will ye affront the Son of God too, refusing his
offer 2 If vileness and unworthiness could have kept sinners out from Christ, never
one of Adam's sons had come in. Did not Christ find all the fair ones that are now
in glory, lying in their blood 2 are there any now walking in white, but those who
were washed in the blood of the Lamb 2 Turn over the Bible, look into the history
of ages that are past, see if ye can find any one that died at his door, who could
not be admitted because he was so vile, wretched, and unworthy.
Objection. “But there was never a case like mine.’ Answer. There have been
very bad cases in Christ's hand, which he has cured ; and never did the cure of
any case put in his hand misgive. What think ye of Mary Magdalene's case out
of whom he cast seven devils 2 Mark xvi. 9. Was not Paul’s case, who was a
blasphemer and a persecutor, and yet found mercy, a case that may be compared
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSEs. 611
with yours ? 1 Tim. i. 13. Sure I am, the workings of sovereign grace upon him
were designed to encourage the worst of sinners to come in, verse 16. Manasseh,
though he had the benefit of a religious education by his godly father, was an
horrid idolater, a consulter with the devil, (2 Chron. xxxiii. 6,) a bloody murderer,
2 Kings xxi. 16 ; yet he came in, and was received graciously, 2 Chron. xxxiii.
12, 13. And what do you think of the case of Adam, who at once murdered all
his children, ruined the souls of all mankind, and sinned against greater light than
ever ye could do 2 But let us yield it to you this once, that never one's case was
like yours; and let us add to it, and never shall one be like it hereafter, it is so
very bad : then I think ye have, as the penitent thief on the cross had, an occasion
of glorifying our great Redeemer peculiar to yourself, wherein none of the vessels
of glory have shared, or shall share with you. Come in, then, thou whose case is
a marrowless case, whose case has no parallel: you have the advantage of an occa-
sion to honour Christ with the cure of a case so desperate, that the like of it was
never in his hands before. “Remember not the former things, neither consider
the things of old,” Isa. xliii. 18; come in to Christ with your new case, and behold,
says our Lord, “I will do a new thing,” verse 19. His blood has not yet gone so
far as it can go. Grudge him not a new jewel in his crown of grace, that will shine
brighter than any yet put into it. Come in, then, and take the place appointed
for the chief of sinners, deepest in the debt of free grace, if it be yet empty. I
assure you, they that have come in already think it is not, but that themselves
have filled it up. If it be indeed as thou Sayest, then they are mistaken ; come
you in, and you shall get it.
Objection. “But, alas ! I cannot believe, I cannot come in to Christ.’ Answer.
To clear your way in this matter; see that you set yourselves to come in to Christ
in a promise. Christ is held forth to sinners in the promises of the gospel, Isa. lv. 1;
John vi. 37; Rev. iii.20; xxii. 17. If ye would come to his seat, come to the pro-
mises; he is in “the still small voice;” ye will find the babe wrapt up in these
Swaddling-clothes. They that overlook the promise, and try to believe and come
in to Christ, go the wrong way to work: that is like a woman's consenting to marry
a man of whose consent to take her she has no declaration. But the gospel promise
is the contract sent down from heaven, signed already by the Bridegroom's hand :
do ye take and read it over, sign it, by your heart's consenting thereto ; and then
Christ is yours and ye are his. But close with Christ in the promise as a free promise,
as indeed it is, Isa. lv. 1; Rev. xxii. 17. Many bar the doors of the gospel promise
with bars of their own making, and then they cry out and complain that they can-
not enter in by them. O ! say some, if I had so much love, repentance, and broken-
ness of heart, then I could believe. But I advise you to believe, that ye may get
these things, Zech. xii. 10; Acts v. 31. Now, though the promise be written in the
Bible only, it is assuredly Christ's consent to be yours, as if ye had a voice from
heaven for it, yea, and more surely. But you will say, I dare not meddle with
the promise. Answer. Then meddle not with Christ, but perish ; for there is no
meddling with him but in the gospel promise. But why is a drowning man so fear-
ful, that he dare not catch hold of a cord, even a silver cord, thrown in to hale him
to land 2 Nay, beloved, be not so foolish: though the promise be, in your eyes,
like Moses's rod, turned into a serpent ; yet take it by the tail, and it will become
a rod in your hand; Hos. xi. 10, “The children shall tremble from the west,” as
the Israelites trembled after Saul, that is, “followed him trembling,” 1 Sam. xiii. 7.
So then Christ's bride may sign the contract with a trembling hand, love her Lord
with a trembling heart, and follow him with trembling legs. And O that all of
you would say, though it were with a trembling voice, “Behold, we come unto
thee; for thou art the Lord our God.” If so, ye would not be in vain compelled
to come in.
6 12 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES
IV.
AN INTERESTING INQUIRY."
MAT THEW xx. 6.
“Why stand ye here all the day idle 2"
IN the beginning of this chapter, Christ spake a parable concerning the kingdom of
heaven, the scope of which is to show, that those who, by conceit of themselves and
their actings for God, do place themselves among the first and chief favourites of
heaven, shall be rejected of God, and treated as the last; they shall receive the last
of heaven's favours; while they who, through a feeling sense of unworthiness, dare
not make such advances, shall be brought forward from among the last, where they
placed themselves, and advanced to the first rank, where they shall be placed of God,
who gives heaven as a gift to them that do not plead for it as a debt. This is plain
from the occasion and conclusion of this parable ; the vineyard is the church ; the
householder is Christ, whose vineyard it is; his going out at several hours is the call
of the gospel at several times, coming to some sooner, to others later; the market-
place is wherever the gospel comes. Our text is a pithy expostulation with those that
are standing there idle, even at the eleventh hour, within an hour of Sun-set ; accord-
ing to that, “Are there not twelve hours in the day ?” They are idle, in so far as
they are not taken up about their work for eternity, Our text, you see, is a close
application ; the nature of this day's work requires it ; and I hope you will not
think we misapply it, if we apply it to you. Every word in it has its particular
weight. The following inquiries are suggested from it.
I. Why are ye idle 2 What reason can ye give for your being idle 2
II. Why are ye idle more than some others ?
III. Why stand ye idle 2
IV. Why here idle?
V. Why idle in the day 2
VI. Why idle all the day 2
We shall attend to these inquiries in their order.
I. Why are ye idle 2 If ye deny the charge, there are two things, at least, which
must be yielded to by most, if not all of us.
1st, Ye have been very busy doing nothing; but it is better, they say, to be idle
than doing nothing. What is it that most of us are busy about, but nothing ?
Prov. xxiii. 5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly
make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven;” that which is
nothing for our souls, nothing for a blessed eternity. Indeed man is a laborious
creature; the life of the greatest sluggard is a continued succession of actions; the
soul of man is like a watch that goes as fast when it goes wrong, as when it goes
right. But, alas ! laborious idleness and solemn trifling in the vanities of this
world, is but a pitiful way of spending a man's life, which is but a short time of
trial, in order to an unalterable state.
2dly, Ye have been very busy doing worse than nothing; like these, 2 Thoss.
iii. 11, “For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, work-
ing not at all, but are busybodies.” Alas! most of our lives are ill parted betwixt
two ; one is spent in weaving the spider's web, the other in hatching the cockatrice
eggs, Isa. lix. 5; either spent in nothing, or worse than nothing ; either sitting
still or making more progress hell-ward ; either letting the separation wall stand as
before, or building it higher and stronger. But there is one thing that cannot be
* Delivered, Fast-day, August 19th, 1713,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 613
yielded, at least to the most part of this generation ; and that is, that they are busy
in their great work. No, no ; idleness in this respect is the epidemical disease of
the day, under which both professors and profane are pining away. For your con-
viction in this, consider,
First, What else means the lean souls among us? Solomon tells us, Prov. xix.
15, “An idle soul shall suffer hunger;” and Prov. xiii. 4, “The soul of the slug-
gard desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.”
We may take up that lamentation, Isa. xxiv. 16, “But I said, My leanness, my
leanness!” Alas! for the many rickety children of the church this day, with their
big heads, and lean slender bodies, who are puffed up with their knowledge, but
are yet to learn the elements of practical godliness and experimental religion.
Consider,
Secondly, The little desire there is among us after the heavenly rest. Job tell us,
chap. vii. 2, “A servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and an hireling looketh for
the reward of his work;” so if we were not idle, we would be more desirous of that
rest that remains for the people of God. But I fear, if I would speak agreeably
to their consciences, they would say, that the Turk's paradise would fit their desires
better than the heavenly rest. It was the language of a profane Cardinal, “I would
quit my part of paradise for present enjoyment;” so no doubt many would quit their
part of heaven on lower terms, for they only desire heaven, because they love not
to go to hell. They care not for the heavenly rest, because they trouble not them-
selves with the work meet for heaven. Consider,
Thirdly, The little appetite after our spiritual food. The labouring man's work
makes him find his stomach, and the Christian labour would make men prize the
table covered to them in ordinances. The ordinances are greatly slighted this day;
it is lamentable to think how little they are regarded. It is only in the Lord's
hand to cure it, by filling folks' hands with heart-work about their souls’ case. It
is this that would readily make them eager of help.
Lastly, What else means the rank poverty, and rotten rags, which is all the
portion of many souls’ Rev. iii. 17, “And knowest not, that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” How many are there, who are the
genuine offspring of the serpent on their belly do they go, and dust is their meat :
they feed on nothing but the husks of created comforts, wherewith the devil feeds
his herds; as for communion with God, and sense of his love, they know no more
of them than if they had immortal souls for no other end than to keep their bodies
from rotting. They go up and down in the rage of their profanity and lusts, like
so many ghosts in their grave-clothes, busy in nothing but dead works.
I inquire, then, why are ye idle 2
1. Is it because ye have nothing to do? Truly, ye have very much.
(1.) Ye have your salvation-work upon your hand; Phil. ii. 12, “Work out
your salvation with fear and trembling.” Many have never begun that work
yet ; many that have seemed to have begun, are at a stand with it now. Ye were
born children of wrath, under the curse of the first covenant; what are ye doing
to get free from the wrath to come 3 There is a burden of guilt lying on you, what
are ye doing to get it off? Divers living lusts hanging about you, what are you
doing to mortify them? Is there any time to be idle, when that work is not wrought
out 2 Salvation-work is weighty work, for damnation-work is very terrible; ye
have that to undo that ye have been doing. Thou hast been weaving thy life into
one web of sin, and ye have it to open out again into self-examination, repentance,
and bitter mourning.
(2.) Ye have your generation-work to attend upon ; Acts xiii. 36, “For David,
after he had served his own generation, by the will of God fell asleep.” God made
thee, and sustains thee; some of you he has set in higher, others in lower stations;
what have ye done for God, what service to your generation ? The sun, moon,
and stars are useful in their several places; plants, yea, and beasts, are all useful.
For what use art thou in the world 2 for Him who set thee there, and to those he
has set thee among 2 Assure thyself, God will call thee to answer that question.
I fear most of us have that work to begin yet.
2. Do ye think ye will get sleeping to heaven, and that your short-winded wishes
614 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
for mercy will secure you from the wrath of God? Prov. xiii. 4, “The soul of the
sluggard desireth, and hath nothing.” No ; ye must “so run that ye may obtain.”
Take the kingdom by force; strive, wrestle, else ye are ruined ; deceive not your-
selves, as if ye would just make a slip of it, out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's
bosom. Thou wilt find it a leap out of that bed of sloth into a bed of fire and
brimstone, where ye will lie down in eternal sorrow, if ye do not seasonably bound
to your feet, and put hand to your great work. $
3. Do you think the devil is as idle about your souls as you are ? No; though ye
cannot creep out of your bed of sloth, the devil is going about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour; though ye will be at no tolerable pains to secure
your salvation, he will spare no pains to secure your damnation. Sleep ye, or
wake ye, Satan is at your right hand ; and if ye be not rowing against the
stream, he will carry you down the stream, till he have you in the ocean of God's
wrath, where ye will never see the shore. The second inquiry is,
II. Why are ye idle, while others are gone to work in the Lord's vineyard 2
Why do ye sit still, while others are fleeing from the wrath to come 2 Why are
ye sleeping, while others are wrestling with God, as for their bare life 2 Why are
ye dressing, eating, and drinking, while others, moved with fear, are preparing an
ark against the day of wrath on these lands, and on the world? -
1. Is it because the work in the vineyard is too coarse for your fine fingers ?
John vii. 48, “Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him ? But this
people that knoweth not the law are cursed.” It is lamentable to think how
religion is almost grown out of fashion among the fashionable people of this degen-
erate age ; and shocking to see with what contempt some look on seriousness about
soul-matters, resolving that these silly people, as they call them, shall for them
enjoy their folly alone. Certainly these men would never have taken their name
from one crucified between two thieves, if it had not been the religion of their
country. But these that are wise in heart think very differently, and glory in the
cross of Christ.
2. Is it because ye have another thing to do 2 Many in our day are of Pharaoh’s
opinion indeed, that religion is only for them that have no other thing ado. Ye
are idle; but for them, they have their families and farms, &c., to look after.
But, man, hast thou not an immortal soul to look after as well as others ? They
said of Herod, It is better to be his swine than his son. I am sure many a man's
soul may say to him, Well are your beasts in comparison of me ; for one thought
that is spent on my case, there are ten on theirs. *
3. Are not ye by nature under the wrath and curse of God, as well as others ?
Yes; Eph. ii. 3, “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others;”
and therefore let me say to you as the penitent thief to his fellow, Luke xxiii. 40,
“Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?” Better go
to heaven with a few, through all the labours of the Christian life, than to slide
away to hell, at your own ease, with the multitude ; better weep now, than weep
eternally, for it will be no comfort to go to hell with company.
4. Will ye be content to see the labourers set with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and yourselves, with the fellow-loiterers, shut out? You must either set to their
work now, or you will see your doom at length, digest it as you will.—I now
Inquire,
º: Why stand ye idle 2 Have ye put on a whore's forehead, and refuse to be
ashamed ? It would set” you better to hide your head, as ashamed in that ye take
up room in the world to no good purpose, living in a shameful neglect of your own
souls, and the great end of your creation, which was not to sleep away a lifetime on
the earth, nor to stand like a barren tree in God's vineyard, drawing away the sap
from others, but to glorify God by acting to and for him.
1. Why then stand ye idle in the sight of men ? Have ye a mind to tell the world,
that go to God's vineyard who will, ye have no mind to stir 2 embrace God and
his service who will, ye will have nothing to do with him, nor it neither ? Are you
afraid you want witnesses to stand against you before the tribunal of God, to testify
* i. e. become.—ED.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 615
how little you valued the working the works of God? The groans of those that
warned you to your work, that were grieved at your licentious lives, will witness
against you; nay, the stones and timber will cry out of the walls within which you
live against you, and witness how little God was in all your thoughts, how little ye
ever wrestled with God about your soul's case, and how the prayer, when ye made
it, has died in your mouths.
2. Why stand ye idle in the sight of the all-seeing God, who set you down in
this world to work your great work 2 There are many that seem to be diligent
workers, but God knows them to be mere idlers; what they work is before men,
but their vineyard in the enclosure of their breasts is all overgrown with weeds,
and they are at no pains to pluck them up. Have ye bid a defiance to the great
Master, whose eyes are upon you in secret, as well as in public, that sees your
heart, as well as your outward conversation? Be sure, he will call you to account.
—The inquiry, next, is, -
IV. Why stand ye here idle, even in the market-place, where the great Master
has been often calling whom he found here, and you among others, to go and work
in his vineyard 2 and you had not been standing here idle, if you had been willing
to work.
1. Why stand ye here idle, in a land of gospel-light 2 Isa. xxvi. 10, “In the
land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the
Lord?” If you will serve the devil and your lusts, why do ye not go to the dark
places of the earth, and work your works of darkness there ? but why must they
be brought forth in the face of the sun; why here, in this covenanted land, a land
under the sacred bond of solemn covenant to the work of holiness, and the means
of holiness? a bond which neither the breaking nor burning of them could loose ;
and they had never met with that treatment, had not men been as great enemies
to piety as to Presbytery. But I dare say, there is no land where men must buy
their ease at a dearer rate than in Scotland.
2. Why here, where the Lord is in a special manner calling you to work, setting
up his standard, and is about to cover a table for his labourers? Will you be idle
spectators, while Christ is to be sacramentally crucified before your eyes? will you
be idle here, where the Lord is in a special manner calling you to search and try
yourselves 2 If you will stand here idle, it will be a new item, in great letters, in
the accounts of the despisers of Christ, and slighters of the power of godliness in
Yarrow.”—I may once more inquire,
V. Why stand ye idle in the day ? The day brings with it a call to work, though
indeed it is the time when the wild beasts enter into their dens and lie at their
ease, Psal. cii. 22, 23, But better to be a beast, than to be like a beast ; they
that sleep, sleep in the night; but what shall we say of them that cannot be got
awakened, even in the day ?
1. Then why are ye idle, when ye have a day to work in 2 No wonder our fore-
fathers were idle, when they were wrapped up in the midnight darkness of Pagan-
ism and Popery 3 But though it was night with them, it is day with us; the Sun of
the gospel is arisen above our horizon, it has been long up, and will ye be idle in the
day ? God has not only set up the candle of conscience within you, but has made
the sun of the gospel to arise and shine without you, to call you to work, and to
let you see to work; Tit. ii. 11, 12, “For the grace of God, that bringeth Salva-
tion, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Such
a day idled away will make a dreadful night !
2. Why are you idle, when you have but a day to work in 2 John ix. 4, “The
night cometh, when no man can work.” It is to-day if ye will hear his voice.
The time of your life, and the season of grace, is but a day, and that day will soon
be over; there is no working in the grave, Eccl. ix. 10. The candle burnt to Snuff
cannot be lighted again, and time once gone can never be recalled; God will not turn
night to day, to let the sluggard see to work, who turned his day to night. Now,
* The place where this discourse was delivered.
616 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
when you have but a day, will you idle it away ? Ye will, it may be, count it
rather by years yet to come; but sure I am, the Spirit of God never learned * you
that way of accounting, James iv. 14, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on
the morrow ; for what is your life 2 it is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little
time, and then vanisheth away;” Psal. xxxix. 5, “Behold thou hast made my
days as an hand-breadth, and mine age is as nothing before thee.” I shall only
Ingll Ire, - • *
º Why are ye idle all the day 2 Will no less than all the day serve 2 May not
the time past suffice 2 Is it not high time now at length to awake 2 Is it not the
eleventh hour with many of you? and the youngest here knows not but they may
be in the last hour of their day. And are ye not afraid your glass run out ere
your work be done 3 Sure it looks very like the very last hour of this church and
nation's day: we have had a long day, but now may we say, Jer. vi. 4, “Woe
unto us, for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evgning are stretched out.”
We are threatened with a dreadful eclipse of gospel-light and a dark night; and we
may well conclude as to many of us, that our eyes will never see the breaking of
the day again.
As the practical improvement of this subject, I shall only call on you to ponder
seriously in your mind the important inquiries addressed to you ;—to pose your
consciences closely with them as in the sight of God;—to profit by the instructive
lessons afforded from them ;-and, in short, that you study a being “diligent in
business, fervent in spirit,” always “serving the Lord.”
V.
THE SUITABLE IMPROVEMENT OF SAINTS’ FORMER EXPERIENCES.”
2 KINGs ii. 14.
“And he took the mantle of Elijah, that fell from him, and smote the waters, and
said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah 2"
AMONG all the elders who have through faith obtained a good report, there is none
more remarkable than Elijah the Tishbite. He was a person altogether extra-
ordinary. In his exercise and experience he was singularly distinguished. His
translation was a striking loss to the church of God. It was, however, not irrepar-
able. His exercises were, in some measure, patterns to the people of God in after-
ages; his experiences were powerful encouragements to a following of him who
through faith and patience inherited the promises; and, what was of still greater
importance, Elijah's God still lived, and, as being the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever, was to be the object of hope and confidence to his people in all generations.
In all their straits, he was to be looked to, and inquired after, for his presence with
them, and his blessing upon them. Thus, we see, was, Elisha exercised in the
yerse before us ; for when overwhelmed, and in perplexity, “he took the mantle
of Elijah, that fell from him, and Smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord
God of Elijah 7"
This verse shows us, - -
1. What Elisha did. (1.) He took Elijah's mantle, that fell from him: God so
ordered, that it fell in Elisha's sight for his comfort, that he might have it as a
“ i. e. taught.-Ed. * - + Delivered August 16th, 1713.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 617
token of the spirit of Elijah resting on him. He willingly takes it up ; he did not
say, ‘What avails the mantle now, when it is not above Elijah's shoulders ?? No;
that God that did wonders by it before, can do the same again, on whose shoulders
soever, by divine appointment. Even so the ordinances of God are to be prized for
the Lord's sake, not slighted for the sake of the instruments, though they are not
like to fill the room of those that went before them. (2.) He smote the waters
with it. He was to go back to the schools of the prophets in Jericho. Though the
Lord take away eminent instruments, his work must not be neglected; they that are
left behind must bestir themselves to carry on the Lord's work. Jordan was be-
tween him and them, as oftentimes depths of difficulties will be found in the way
of duty. He might have boated it over ; that was the easiest way, and to a carnal
eye the safest. But it was not the way his godly predecessor took before him; there-
fore, having the same Spirit as he had, he will rather believingly venture on the
waters, in the faith that God would carry him through, as he did Elijah before him.
So he “smote the waters.”
2. We have what he said when he smote the waters: “Where is the Lord God
of Elijah 2" It is a vehement exclamation for the presence of that God that was
with Elijah : “Where is,” &c.; or a most ardent prayer for it: Where art thou ?
as some read it; for neither is nor art is in the original. He inquires no more after
Elijah : he has no petitions to that saint when once he was departed ; that had been
impious: what he had to ask of him, he asked while he was on earth. He does not
sit down and weep, and pore on the loss of Elijah, as if there had been no more hopes
of good days since he was gone ; but he betakes himself to Elijah's God. Though
Elijah was gone, his God still remained. Elijah's experience of good from Elijah's
God, kindled in Elisha's heart a surprising desire after him, and fills him with
hope of good entertainment at that door where Elijah had come so good speed ;
for these are not words of diffidence, but of mighty earnestness and strong faith ;
as appears by considering,
3. The issue of the whole, which was according to his wish. God was present
with him the same way he had been with Elijah before, Jordan is divided, &c.
These words, “he also’ are emphatical, to show the freedom of God's grace, which
is tied to none, but open and free to all that come to him for it in the way that
others received it.—From these words, I take this
DocTRINE. That the consideration of God’s presence with his people in former
days, should bring the succeeding generation to the same God for the same enter-
tainment.
In speaking to which, I shall,
I. Instance a few of these experiences of God's people in former days.
II. Show how we should come to God for the same entertainment.
III. Give the reasons of the doctrine.—And,
IV. Add the improvement.
I. I shall instance a few of the sweet and desirable experiences of the Lord's
people, which should bring us to the gracious Giver for the same, and such like ; and
I shall instance none but those of Elijah, who, you must remember, was “a man
subject to like passions as we are,” James v. 17 ; and to these I think the text leads
me. Some instances of Sweet entertainment this holy man had ; such as,
1. The God of Elijah gave him the sweet experience of keeping warm and lively
in a very cold and dead generation; so that he was best when others were worst.
His zeal for God burned most vigorously when the generation was turned most cold-
rife, halting betwixt God and Baal, like true fire that burns most keenly in the win-
ter frost; when a chill and cold air was the only air about him. By the warm
blowings of the Spirit from above upon him, he was kept warm within. When no-
thing but deadness was on every hand, the Spirit of life from above kept him lively,
So it was with Noah in the old world; Gen. vi. 9, “Noah was a just man, and
perfect in his generation.” And Lot; 2 Pet. ii. 8, “For that righteous man dwell-
ing among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day
with their unlawful deeds.”
But where is the Lord God of Elijah in these dregs of time, wherein professors
generally are carried away with the stream of impiety from all their liveliness and
4 I
618 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
tenderness that sometimes have been among them; when, the more wickedness sets
up its head, piety is made to hide its head the more ?—a sad evidence that God is
gone from us, when the standard of wickedness makes such advances, and that of
shining holiness is retreating, and can hardly get hands to hold it up. I will tell you
two sad experiences, common at this day:
(1.) The fulfilling of that scripture, Matt. xxiv. 12, “And because iniquity shall
abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” It is a time when atheism, deism, and
immorality, make prodigious advances, and practical godliness is under a deep
decay. I doubt if ever Satan had more hands at work to overthrow revealed reli-
gion, and to raze the foundations of it, than at this day: and this effort of Satan's
against the church, has joined with it a most lamentable decay of the vitals of
practical religion in those that are called by the Lord's name ; so that we are like
to be exposed to this furious attack, wanting the best piece of our armour against
it, that is, an experience and feeling of the power of truth on our own Souls. Ah!
“Where is the Lord God of Elijah 2"
(2.) What heat there is strikes, all outward, while, in the meantime, folks are
key-cold within : a sad sign of a distempered body. It is not hard to discern several
showing a great deal of concern in the lamentable occurrences of our day; but how
hard is it to find a man that is truly awakened to the exercise of godliness by all the
alarming dispensations of our day; that is moved with fear, and busy preparing an ark
for the evil day, labouring to get the particular controversy between God and his
soul removed, putting out of his way the stumbling-block of his iniquity, and setting
matters in order for the day of the Lord ' Nay, Sirs, though some talk in their
sleep, it seems we will all sleep together, till God’s heavy hand give us a fearful
awakening: “Where is the Lord God of Elijah 7”
2. The God of Elijah gave him the sweet experience of the power of prayer;
James v. 17, “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three
years and six months; and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the
earth brought forth her fruit.” He was mighty in prayer; by his prayers the
bottles of heaven were opened, the key of the clouds turned, nay, the bands of
death loosed, 1 Kings xvii. He was a great favourite of Heaven, whose cries
pierced the clouds, got into the throne, and returned, like Noah's dove, with an
olive-branch of peace in his mouth. Such experience of the power of prayer had
Jacob ; Hos. xii. 4, “Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed,” Gen. xxxii.
Many times the Lord's people, when closed up on every side, have found a sweet
outgate, their souls flying upward in prayer. The prayers of the saints have been
the great ordinance of the church, have frustrated the plans of enemies, and turned
them back on their own heads.
But where is the God of Elijah, while the trade with heaven by prayers is so very
low 2 Alas for the dead, cold, and flat prayers, that come from the lips of professors
at this day! so weak and languishing, that they cannot reach heaven. Sometimes
the Lord lets loose enemies on his people, tosses them from vessel to vessel, and
then the way betwixt heaven and them was well occupied. They had still some
particular suits lying before the throne, and they could have given a good account
of their receipts. But long ease has made them lose their tongue; so that the
experience of many in that point now can hardly be named, unless they turn back
to former days. There is one experience of Elijah's which, I fear, is not uncom-
mon among praying folk at this day, and that is, a restraint laid on them, that
they cannot wrestle with God for the averting of wrath from the generation of
God’s wrath, 1 Kings xvii. 3–9. Such a sad experience had Jeremiah also, be-
fore the Babylonish captivity, Jer. xiv. 11, and xv. 1. And though God doth not
So reveal his mind now in particular cases, yet I suppose that it will be found, that
those who live near God, and have the Spirit of prayer in such cases, may find
something equivalent thereto in their liberty and confidence with the Lord, and
that according to the subject of their requests: Ezek. xxxvi. 37, “Thus saith the
Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for
them.”
3. The experience of the Sweet fruits of dependence on the Lord, and of a little
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 619
going far, with his blessing; 1 Kings xvii. 16, “And the barrel of meal wasted
not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord.” Elijah
saw so very few for God in his day, that he thought he was alone ; and the Lord
strengthened his faith by such experiences. Many times God's people have had such
experiences of the Lord's bringing great things about by small beginnings, as the
cloud like a man's hand; according to the promise, Prov. iv. 18, “But the path of
the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day;”
Hos. vi. 3, “His going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto
us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” God has many ways
of working in the experience of his people, and when he works by means, some-
times he does great things by small means, as the feeding of Elijah, the widow,
and her son, so long on a handful of meal and a little oil in a cruse, Haman's
hellish plot overturned by the king's falling from his rest one night, Esther vi. 1 :
sometimes by contrary means; as Elijah was fed by the ravens, who were more
likely to have picked flesh from him, than to have brought it to him.
But where is the God of Elijah at this day, when what we have seems to be
blown upon, that it goes in effect to nothing ?, Our table is plentifully covered, yet
our souls are stawed;” our goodness sometimes looks as a morning-cloud, it blackens
the face of the heavens and promises a hearty shower, but quickly proves as a
little cloud, like unto a man's hand, which is ready to go to nothing ; yea, the gen-
eration is blinded by the means that have a natural tendency to give light. Ah!
“Where is the God of Elijah?”
4. The experience of a gracious boldness to face the most daring wickedness of
the generation he lived in, though it was one of the worst. This eminently appeared
in his rencounter with Ahab, 1 Kings xviii. 1; his standing alone against four hun-
dred and fifty of Baal's prophets. Whatever was his natural temper, he owed this
to the grace of God: for when he was left to his natural courage, it failed him,
chap. xix. 2–4; but the Lord spirited him then for the hard work he had to do,
that he feared nothing in his Master's cause; Acts iv. 13, “When they saw the
boldness of Peter and John, they marvelled, and they took knowledge of them,
that they had been with Jesus.”
But where is the God of Elijah now, while the iniquities of our day meet with
such faint resistance; while a brow for the cause of God, a tongue to speak for him,
and a heart to act, are so much wanting 2 The wicked of the world, though they
have an ill cause in hand, yet they pursue it boldly ; but, alas ! the people of God
shame their honest cause, by their cowardice and faint appearing in it. If God
gives us not another spirit, more fitted for such a day, we will betray our trust,
and bring the curse of the succeeding generation on us.
5. The experience of a glorious and powerful manifestation of himself in a solemn
ordinance, even at the sacrifice on mount Carmel, which was ushered in with the
spirit of prayer in Elijah; 1 Kings xviii. 37–39, “Hear me, O God, hear me,
that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned
their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt
sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that
was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and
they said, The Lord he is the God, The Lord he is the God.” That was a glorious
day's work, when Satan fell like lightning from heaven ; from which day, no doubt,
many dated their conversion, some their revival, and people there generally felt
somewhat divine on their spirits. Such glorious days the church has often had in
ordinances, which have been as a high stream-tide of the gospel; so that three
thousand were converted at one sermon, Acts ii. 41.
But where is the God of Elijah, when so little of the Spirit's influences is found
in ordinances, even in Solemn ordinances 2 Here is the mantle, but where is the
God of Elijah 2 Here are the grave-clothes in which sometimes the Lord was
wrapt up, but where is he himself? Communion-days have sometimes been glorious
days in Scotland ; and sometimes the gospel hath done much good, so that minis-
i.e. satiated, indisposed to eat more.—ED.
620. MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
ters have had almost as much to do to heal broken hearts as now to get hard hearts
broken : but “where now is the God of Elijah'?”
6. The experience of being enabled to go far upon a meal, 1 Kings xix. 8; but where
now are such experiences, while there is so little strength in the meals to which we
now sit down 2 This is a time wherein there is much need of such an experience; the
Lord seems to be saying to his people, “Rise and eat, for the journey is long;”
and what a hard journey some may have ere they get another meal, who knows?
7. The experience of the Lord's removing difficulties out of his way, when he
himself could do nothing at them ; Jordan divided. So Peter had the iron-gate
opened to him of its own accord : for when the Lord takes the work in hand, were
it never so desperate as to us, it will succeed well with him. Sure we have need
of Elijah's experience this day. How is the case of many souls so embarrassed at this
day, that they cannot extricate themselves, by reason of long and continued depar-
tures from God, so that all they can do is, that they are sighing and going back-
ward! Ah! “where is the God of Elijah,” to dry up those devouring deeps? Enemies
have surrounded the church, and brought her to the brow of the hill, ready to cast
her over; “where is the God of Elijah,” to make a way for her to escape —I shall
next consider,
II. How we should come to God for the same entertainment, if we would come
speed.* There were two things Elisha did, for the presence of God to be with him
as he had been with Elijah. -
1. He prayed for it, sent his prayer to heaven for it; and if we would have the
experience of God’s presence as in former days, we must ply the throne of grace
for it this night. And there are three things in his prayer which must be in ours:
(1.) A most pressing sense of need, where he saw he could not venture into
Elijah's post without Elijah's God. Sense of need makes earnest prayers. What
is the reason we see not the glory of the Lord as formerly 3 we reign as kings with-
out it : men have found out ways of their own to get comfort, without communion
with God; they have the creatures’ breasts to suck at, when the Lord's consolations
are not dropping into them. But if ever the Lord return to this generation,
there will be a hunger raised in them that all the world will not be able to
satisfy.
§ A most vehement desire of his presence: “Where is the God of Elijah?”
There was a flame of desires after the Lord, that could not be satisfied without
him. Some have observed in nature, that the tongue is tied by a double string to
the heart in man. If so, it seems it has been designed that the tongue should be
a stringed instrument, to sound out only the language of the heart. , Were the
heart more eager for the divine communications, we would wrestle with God in
earnest, and not let him go till he bless us ; but, alas ! our coldrife prayers do but
beg a denial.
(3.) There was great faith in his prayers: “Where is the God of Elijah?” Faith-
less prayers will be inefficacious prayers to the end ; but the hand of faith will
pierce through the cloud wherewith the Lord covereth himself. (1.) He believed
God could do what he sought; therefore he calls him Jehovah, and the God of
Elijah, who had discovered his power in dividing the waters before. (2.) He
believed God would do it : he had God's call to the work; Elijah was taken away
from him, but he had Elijah's mantle in his hand, for a token God would be
with him, as with Elijah before ; and he was “not faithless, but believing.” So we
must believe also, if we would see the glory of God, not only the power but the
good-will of God; Jer. xvii. 6, 7, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,
and whose hope the Lord is.”
2. He used the means Elijah before him did, for attaining God's appearance and
manifestation of himself. He smote the waters: no matter though the means be
unlikely to produce the effect, if they be of God's appointment; and in faith we
must stretch out the withered hand, if we would have it restored, and venture on
the work upon the credit of the promise.
As a conclusion to this discourse, let me exhort you to go to the Lord Jesus this
night, and wrestle for his presence as in former times; and lot the consideration
* i. e. would be successful.-ED,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 621
of God's presence with his people in former times, take you to the same God for
the same entertainment.
To prevail with you, I would offer the following motives.
1. Consider, it is too evident the Lord has forsaken this generation in great
measure. He is writing bitter things against this church and land. Her beauty
is marred upon all her assemblies; where the cloud of glory some time rested, we
may write Ichabod 1 Hence it is so few are converted in our day ; and the Lord's
own children, though they get some food, yet they fare not so well as in former
times. Why? because the Lord is withdrawn in his anger. The sun of the gos-
pel in Scotland is as a winter-sun, and looks as if near the setting, at least getting
under a dark cloud; Isa. lxiv. 7, “There is none that calleth upon thy name, that
stirreth up himself to take hold on thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and
hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.”
2. This would be the way to get a blessing ; importunity prevails much in
heaven. Were we thus exercised, we might get a blessing to this church, a bless-
ing to this communion ; Cant. iii. 4, “I found him whom my soul loveth : I held
him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house,
and into the chambers of her that conceived me :” a blessing we should seek
from him to ourselves. Though the Lord is sometimes so angry with a generation,
that there is no turning away of his wrath, yet the serious seekers of his face will
always get the blessing ; Isa. iii. 10, “Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with
him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.”
3. The door we set you to is a door where many have been liberally helped before
you, and the Lord's arm is not shortened. The saints that were richest in expe-
rience got them all there ; and all the fair ones now in glory, he was their God,
that was with them in life, death, and now after death. Let the good report of
his house, then, make you flock about his door, for there is no ground for that
temptation, Job v. 1, “Call now, if there be any that will answer thee, and to
which of the saints wilt thou turn ?”
4. It is a door where there is nothing given for personal worth. All that ever
was given there to any of the children of fallen Adam, was given with that protes-
tation, Ezek. xxxvi. 32, “Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it
known unto you : be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of
Israel!” That the most unworthy in all succeeding generations might see they were
welcome, it is for his own sake ; and that cannot change.
5. What will ordinances avail without his presence 2 Nay, they will do ill,
instead of doing us good ; they will bring on us a curse, instead of a blessing: and
therefore wrestle with him, and protest, (Exod. xxxiii. 15,) “If thy presence go not
with us, carry us not up hence.” The sermons will be to you as an empty sound,
the Lord's table as an empty chair of state, when the King is away. If his presence
be not given you, you will get no spiritual feast ; and one had better be at a com-
mon table, than at the Lord's table, when they do not feed ; 1 Cor. xi. 29, “For
he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.”
If the King be away, then there will be no furniture for trials; none for the
evil day, that seems to be approaching, quickly ; none for a dying-day, that is
awaiting all of us. Now, if ye would find him, seek him in Christ, look for him in
the several means of his appointment, streets, courts, &c. Put away every thing
that mars his presence with you.
622 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
VI.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.'
2 KINGs ii. 14.
“And he took the mantle of Elijah, that fell from him, and Smote the waters, and said,
Where is the Lord God of Elijah 2"
I SIIALL now,
III. Give the reasons of the doctrine ; or show, that the consideration of God's
presence with his people in former days, should bring the succeeding generation to
the same God for the same entertainment.
This consideration may, and ought, to work upon us two ways:
1. By way of simple excitation and upstirring. When Elisha considered what
God had done for Elijah, it set his soul on fire; inflamed his desires; set his heart
a-longing after the Lord, that he might deal the same way with him. Thus, the
consideration of God's gracious appearances to and for his people in former times,
should be a powerful motive to labour for the same or like experiences. It should
inflame our hearts with a holy emulation, and earnest desire of the blessed enter-
tainment others have got before us at God's door ; for the following reasons:
(1.) Because, so far as we come short of it, it is a sign we are so far off the way
where the footsteps of the flock are to be seen, Cant. xvii. 8; and that is so danger-
ous, that it may well strike a nail to our heart to think of it. What is the reason
we fare not so well about the Lord's hand as others before us? Have we not the
same God to go to, the same covenant-promises? We have the same breasts of
divine consolations, as full as ever ; but it seems we have much lost the art of suck-
ing them that sometimes has been our experience.
(2.) Because, so far as we come short, it is a sign of God's anger against us; that
he hath some quarrel with us he had not with his people in former days of the
right hand of the Most High : and may not this prick us to the heart, and set us
to our knees? Isa. lix. 12, “For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and
our sins testify against us.” What is it but the sins of the generation that stops
the communication of the divine goodness? Does the Spirit of the Lord depart
till he be grieved, or the holy fire go out till it be quenched ? Does the Lord close
his distributing hand till his people close their mouths 7 or does not the oil run
while there are empty vessels to receive it 2 While the furious wind of persecution
blew on God’s people in Scotland, and the sweeping rains fell, sweeping away their
earth from about them, the fountain of the divine goodness to them ran freely;
but now, alas ! through long ease, we have got the springs stopped with our mud
and earth.
(3.) Because we have as much need as they had ; Luke xv. 17, “And when he
came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's house have bread
enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger | I will arise, and go,” &c. If we
be less at God’s door than others before us, it is not, I am sure, for any wealth we
have at home, more than they had ; it is not that we do not stand in need, but that
we are not so sensible of our need. Many of the Lord's people have taken little
rest, when they had more than we can pretend to ; they have been very anxious to
increase their stock, when it was far above ours; and when we consider how fast
they ran, when they had reached far above our small measure, should not that stir
us up to mend our pace’ Phil. iii. 13, 14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have
* Delivered August 16th, 1713; afternoon.
MISCELI, ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 623
apprehended; but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things that are before, I press towards the mark, for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
(4.) Because these glorious examples should not be without due influence upon
us. Example is a most efficacious incitement; Caesar grieved when he saw the
statue of Alexander, and considered how he, at the age of thirty, had conquered
the world, and himself, being older, had done nothing; Heb. xii. 1, “Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed about with such a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us.” How may we blush when we consider the stature
of those before us, that have been as the palm-tree, while we, growing in the same
soil, are like pitiful shrubs Surely, if our spirits were not mightily sunk and
degenerate, the glorious example of the Lord's people in former days would set our
whole soul a-going after the God of Elijah.
2. It should work on us by way of encouragement. Elijah's example gave Elisha
hopes he might find God the same to him he had been to his predecessor. En-
couragement is a notable spur to diligence, and is that which is most likely to
take with men. What is it which makes us that we wrestle not for God's presence,
as in former days 2 even unbelief, that tells us we need not be at the pains, for it
will not do. But the report of the godly in former days contradicts the report of
unbelief, and therefore should bring us back to God’s door: even as when a beggar,
having called at a door for his alms, was coming away without it, and should meet
with another that had been plentifully served there, who would say to him, ‘That
is a good house, and though one may stand long at the door ere they be served, yet
they give aye a liberal alms at length;' would not that bring the beggar back again?
So should the consideration of God's presence with his people in former days
bring us to him for the same entertainment. For this there are the best reasons;
Such as,
(1.) Because the experiences of the Lord's people in former days were given, and
put on record, for that very end. All the experiences of God’s presence with his
people in former days, are as so many signs of peace on earth and good-will towards
men. They, as it were, stand at God’s door, to invite and encourage those of
succeeding generations to come in there for the same or like entertainment; and
his people do but answer the design of them when they come and inquire, “Where
is the Lord God of Elijah 3” Eph. xii. 7, “That in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ
Jesus;” Rom. xv. 4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might
have hope.”
(2.) Because these experiences say there is enough to be had in God for the
seeking, if we seek in his own way ; Psal. xxii. 4, “Our fathers trusted in thee;
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried to thee, and were delivered;
they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.” The saints that have gone before
us have spread a good report of God's house, that others after them might come
to the same door. They have had the experience of the Lord's help in all the cases
that we can be in ; and whatever be the difficult steps we have to go, if we mark
narrowly, we will see the footsteps of the flock before us in those steps through
which their God has graciously handed them ; Psal. xxxiv. 6, 8, “This poor man
cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. O taste and
see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” And their
experiences are their testimony to the truth of his promises; Psal. xii. 6, “The
words of the Lord are pure, as silver tried.”
(3.) Because we have the same advantages that they had, yea, and more than
some of them, that lived in darker days than we do. How many have groped the
way to the throne of grace when they had not such light shining around them as
we have to show the way ! but however we make the comparison, we have the
same God to go to that they had, who has as much to give, and is as gracious as
ever ; James i. 17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
cometh down from the Father of lights; with whom is no variableness, neither
624 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
shadow of turning:” the same High Priest over the house of God, that is as well
heard by the Father now as ever; Heb. xiii. 8, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
and to-day, and for ever:” the same covenant, for it is everlasting: the same pro-
mises, whose truth and mercy endure for ever.
(4.) Because all that ever the best of the saints got was in the way of free grace.
It was not only undeserved, but given over the belly of ill-deserving; and if it be
free grace that opens the door, what needy sinner is there but may come forward
for a share ? All the love that was ever bestowed on any of them was free love,
without the least deserving; if ye think there is any exception, look through them
all, from Adam downwards, and name the man if you can. Paul challenges the
world to do it; Rom. xi. 35, “Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed unto him again?”
TV. I am now to make some practical improvement. And this,
First, In a use of reproof. This reaches a reproof to several sorts of per-
SOIn S ; aS,
1. To our modern blasphemers, who reckon the saints’ experiences of the work-
ings of the Lord's Spirit on their spirits nothing but the effects of imagination,
heat of fancy, or somewhat else. So true is it, (1 Cor. ii. 14,) “The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ;
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” But when we
consider the sanctifying effects of these operations felt on their spirits; how, by these,
their hearts are loosed from the lusts to which they were formerly glued, inflamed
with love to God and his holy law, and thus led to despise the world, rejoice in tribu-
lation, joyfully to suffer for Christ, and deny themselves to all that is dear to them
in the world for his cause ; we must conclude, that these men do but new-model
the doctrine of those that taught long ago, that Christ cast out devils by Beelzebub,
the prince of devils, and that, as their working is formal, Suited to the spirit of the
natural man, so their spirit is profane.
2. Those that slight the experiences of the people of God, and appearances to
and for them, as not worth their notice, far less of their pains, to get the same
entertainment. And yet they did more service to the cause of God, by their godly
simplicity, than we are like to do by our refined prudentials; and no wonder, for
if a man will be truly wise, (1 Cor. iii. 18,) “let him become a fool, that he may
be wise.” A little faith and dependence on the Lord for light and strength, will
go farther than much carnal foresight. But they had the spirit of preaching, pray-
ing, and other things belonging to the Service of God ; and we have the bare act
of it. The good Lord send back the spirit, come of the act what will !
3. To those who are ready to talk big of the experiences of God's people, and
of God’s appearances for them in former days. With a whole heart, their con-
sciences bearing them witness, they are not concerned to wrestle with God for
themselves or others now, or to put to their hand, in their several capacities, to the
revival of practical godliness in the generation; but, on the other hand, do improve
it to the hardening of their own hearts, and to the contempt of ordinances and minis-
ters. These are the genuine offspring of those who built the tombs of the prophets,
and garnished their sepulchres, yet are filling up the measure of their fathers’
iniquities, Matt. xxiii. 29. Whence I may observe, (1.) That dead prophets are
better liked by a formal generation than living ones, for they get less trouble of
the dead than of the living. (2.) Such would make a brave use of the means of
grace that were in former days, which they are sure they cannot get, while they
have no power to improve the means that are among their hands. (3.) These will
condemn their fathers’ misusing of the prophets that are gone, who yet will trample
on their successors that are remaining. -
4. To those who improve the experience of the Lord's people in former days
against themselves, to the deadening their own spirits, instead of quickening
them, when they look upon them. By the subtlety of Satan, they are thereby
discouraged and broken, instead of being animated, as they ought, to seek the
same entertainment. It is the remains of a legal disposition in any of the children
of God that is the source of discouragements arising from this airth. They look
more to the goodness that was in the Saints, and the ill that is in themselves, than
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 625
to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which alone the divine goodness
did flow to them, and through which it may flow as freely to themselves.
Fifthly, To those whose hard thoughts of God the experience of all the Saints
from Adam cannot remove. So vile are they, they conclude, that God's heart
cannot be towards them, though they have all the experiences of former Saints, as
so many depositions to confirm the welcome of all that come to him through Christ,
whatever they have been. O lay by these hard thoughts of God, so destructive to
yourselves, and so dishonourable to God. Look among all that ever came to God,
if ye can find one that died at his door; if that be your lot, you will be the first :
but God's word says you shall not ; John vi. 37, “Him that cometh unto me, I
will in nowise cast out.” Beware of hard thoughts of God, whatever your disappoint-
ments be ; if the devil can get that point wrought up in you, he has you fair before
the wind for hell, where the fearful and unbelieving land; and there is not a readier
way on earth than that to create a hell within a man, a hell, I say, where sin and
sorrow for sin are both at a height. But here some may propose this objection,
“No other person's case is like mine.” Answer. And there is none good as
the Lord ; he is goodness itself, infinite goodness, and infinitely good to sinners
in Christ; and that is sufficient to swallow up your matchless evil. What think
ye of Paul, Manasseh, Adam ? But though ye cannot see a case like yours among
all the elect of God, you cannot thence conclude your case is marrowless, more
than, if ye were in a wilderness where ye could see no marks of a person's foot, ye
might conclude never one was there before you. But suppose the Saints’ experiences
leave you, yet the word will reach you; Rev. xxii. 17, “And the Spirit and the
Bride say, Come ; and let him that is athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him
take of the water of life freely.” And if your case be quite new, God will do a
new thing, according to his word. Some person must go foremost in every case;
venture you, then, on Christ with that case of yours, that others that may be in it
after may follow, and ye shall find a matchless Physician for a matchless malady.
I shall only add,
Secondly, A use of exhortation. Let me exhort all, especially communicants, to
seek the Lord's presence and glorious appearances as in former days; and make this
your great business, never ceasing till he make himself known, as in the days of old.
1. Seek his glorious presence to the spirits of his people, as in former days.
The Lord's work here is at a sad stand ; cry, “Revive thy work in the midst of
the years,” Hab. iii. 2. Their bones are in that respect lying dry about the grave's
mouth. O cry for the Spirit of life to enter into them! Even the trees of God's
planting are become mighty sapless ; God’s wheat is mighty withered at the root:
cry for a shower of influences, that the work within, that is at such a stand, may
go on yet, and soul-exercises may be set on foot again.
2. Seek his powerful manifestation of himself, to purge the generation's wick-
edness, and to make holiness more common and shining in our day. There is a
deluge of profanity overflowing the land: “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” Cry
for his appearance, to turn the stream, to make iniquity hide its head, and holiness
to settle in its room. There is a glorious promise to the gospel-church, in Zech.
xiv. 20, “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto
the Lord ; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the
. :” cry for the accomplishment of it, to him with whom is the residue of the
pirit.
3. Seek his glorious appearance in ordinances, as in former days; that he
would beautify the place of his glory by his presence. Do your utmost to get him
into your mother's house, for it is a heartless house when he is away. “We have
been in pain; we have, as it were, brought forth wind; we have not wrought any
deliverance in the earth.” “Where is the Lord God of Elijah 3"
4. Seek his glorious appearance for his churches, now when they are so low,
and the hand of the Antichristian faction is so high ; Jer. li. 50, “Remember the
Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind;” for your mother-church
in particular, against which many are gathered, saying, Let Zion be defiled.
Behold how pin after pin in her tabernacle is loosed, that it must quickly lie along
upon the ground, if the Lord himself * not appear to hold it up. Seek for the
626 MIISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
revival and preservation of the covenanted work of reformation, that sacred pledge
transmitted to us at the expense of the precious blood of many of the saints, the
bearing down and destroying of which is like to make these nations yet swim with
blood. Our rowers have rowed us into deep waters, where they have sunk our
nation, and Solemnly buried our covenants in the ruins of it : “Where is the Lord
God of Elijah 77°
Cry for their resurrection: and if ye can do no more, ye may do as Martha and
Mary, that owned their relation to their brother while in the grave; and say as
Mary and those with her, (John xi. 34,) when Christ asked, “Where have yelaid
him ?” “Lord,” say they, “come and see.”—For motive,
1st, Consider, that the Lord’s appearances and manifestations of himself as to his
people in former days, would make a pleasant change on the face of affairs this day;
it would be as life from the dead; Isa. xxxv. 12, “The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory
of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall
see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.” It would renew the
earth's withered and decayed face. If, therefore, you have any respect for the
thriving of your own Souls, any pity on the perishing souls of a graceless multitude,
any regard to God's honour and ordinances, any concern for his ark and work, seek
his glorious appearance for his church.
2dly, Consider, that matters are come to such a pass with us now, that nothing less
than God's gracious appearance for us, and presence with us, as in former days,
can prevent our ruin. We have all grounds to fear an arousing stroke from the
hand of the Lord, by means of a French, Popish, and malignant faction, set to raze
our Jerusalem to the very foundation, whose tender mercies are cruelty; and if we
should miss it, which is not likely by all appearance, there will be a blacker sight
seen on this church and these nations, by reason of that spirit of enmity against
the purity of religion, and against all practical religion, that has made such dread-
ful advances this day, that, if God do not seasonably strike in, will, through time,
“wear out the saints of the Most High.”
3dly, Consider the glorious things spoken of the latter times, to which the world
seems to be advancing apace. The extraordinary efforts made this day for advanc-
ing the kingdom of the devil in the Christian part of the world, the universal decay
of piety in the churches, look like a critical juncture, when the honour of God is
called upon to “arise like a giant refreshed with wine,” to purify a people to him-
self, and to strike his enemies on the hinder-parts. Whatever sad work may be
made on the churches before that come, O cry, “Awake, put on strength, O arm
of the Lord! awake, as in the ancient days,” Isa. lix. 9.—I shall close with a few
advices.
1. Stir up yourselves to repent and reform: “Strengthen the things that remain,
that are ready to die,” Rev. iii. 2. It is high time we were bending to our feet,
when the fire has begun to catch hold of our bed of sloth ; we have slept long
enough, labour now to get and keep matters clear betwixt God and your souls.
2. Lament after the Lord ; 1 Sam. vii. 2, “And all the house of Israel lamented
after the Lord,” Upon that they had occasion to set up another Ebenezer. The
tears of the Lord's people after a departed God are the ready way to bring back
their tender-hearted Lord. Mourn over your own sin, and the sins of present and
former times.
3. Study unity, and beware of division, Psal. cxxxiii. 3.; be more afraid of your
own than of other people's sins. This church at best is but weak; let us not by
divisions make ourselves an easier prey to the common enemy, lest God be provoked
to cast us into the fire, to make us burn together.
4. Lay out yourselves for the advancement of piety, to stir up one another to
holiness, love, and good works. Put to your hand this way to hold up a standard
for Christ in the world; the devil's agents are busy, not only against the out-works
of religion, but to sap the foundations of it. What are you doing to strengthen
them? To talk and complain about the defections of the time will not do it, but
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 627
apply your main force to advance and strengthen the vitals of religion in your-
selves and others.
5. Labour to put yourselves in a posture for suffering ; cast the burden of earth
off your back, and let your shoes be on your feet, your eye on the prize ; pursue it
over the belly of all hardships you may meet with, and you will readily find God will
be with you.
6. Pray, pray, lift up a cry for the remnant that is left ; let us meet continually
at the throne of grace, ministers and people, to tryst with him in his ordinances,
and to wrestle for his presence.
VII.
ENOCH'S CHARACTER AND TRANSLATION EXPLAINED; WITH A DESCRIP-
TION OF WALKING WITH GOD, AS THAT IN WHICH THE LIFE OF RELI-
GION LIES.*
GENESIS v. 24.
“And Enoch walked with God, and he was not ; for God took him.”
IT is too evident that the generation we live in is in a declining condition ; that pro-
fessors are few, but real Christians fewer by far. Religion with many is turned to be
the object of their ridicule ; and among those that own it, to mere dry and sapless
notions, for the most part. Few now are added to the church, or brought over out
of the devil's camp. True godliness languishes, and serious experimental religion
wears out. Therefore I would press religion, in the life and power of it, on those
that would “save themselves from this untoward generation.”
Here shines the brightest star in the patriarchal age, which, having given light
to the lower world for a time, was afterwards translated into a higher sphere, and
passed out of the world in as unusual a manner as he lived in it. For as men live
in the world, so ordinarily they go out of it.
There is a long account here, where nothing is marked but names and numbers,
men's living and dying, till we come to Enoch, whose singular piety is recorded.
Observe, The life of man is for the most part a vain thing, of which, by the sleep-
ing of some, and the slumbering of others, nothing remains remarkable but that
they lived and died. But close walking with God serves another and better pur-
pose, than to cause one just fill up room in the world for a while.
From the short history of these antediluvian patriarchs, we may learn one lesson
that will serve us all our days, viz., That we must die, how long soever we live.
It is reported of one, that by hearing this chapter read in the church, he got such
an impression of his own death, that he turned religious, that he might die well.
But from the history of Enoch we may learn two lessons; (1.) How to live well
in this world. (2.) The happiness that abides those in another world who so live
here; even eternal happiness of soul and body with the Lord.
In the words there is remarked a real preaching that was given to the old world
by Enoch : a life-preaching ; for his conversation preached to them what religion
Was, and what was their great duty, viz., walking with God: a removal-preaching;
we cannot say his death preached, for he did not die; but his passage out of the
world preached, that there is another and a better life with God in another world,
* Several sermons preached in the year 1716.
628 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
both for soul and body. And this is no doubt marked to show us the mercy
bestowed on that generation, that the godly in it might be encouraged, and the
wicked left without excuse, while such a bright star shone so fair in that dark age.
For it is observable, that his walking with God is twice told: once ver, 22; and
here again in the text, in conjunction with his happy removal, giving us a com-
pendious body of divinity, written for the use of that age especially, not excluding
others, in this man's life and translation out of the world. So that God “ left not
himself without a witness” in that degenerate age. They not only heard, but saw
in him, the power of godliness, and the reward of it too. .
Observe, Men will not only have the instructions and warnings they get from
the word, but those they get from the examples of holy men, to answer for in the
day of accounts. There are silent preachers, who yet speak home ; as Noah, who,
“being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark
to the Saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world,” Heb. xi. 7;
and the men of Nineveh, and the queen of the south, of whom our Lord says,
Matt. xii. 41, 42, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this genera-
tion, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and,
behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in
the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the
uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and, behold, a greater
than Solomon is here.” Examples of a holy life, if they do not lead spectators to
heaven, will drive them more deep into destruction.
Though it is charitably thought that all these patriarchs were good men, yet
Surely the age wherein Enoch lived was a very degenerate and profane age.
Methuselah his son died the same year the deluge came on. He lived 969 years.
Enoch walked with God 300 years. So from his translation there were but 669
to the deluge. Of that they got 120 years' warning of the deluge; so that to that
time there were but 549 years. There were none of those here mentioned but
they lived more than 700 years. And God's Spirit had been long striving with the
generation before the last 120 years. So that we may well reckon that many
of those who lived in Enoch's days, were of those God's Spirit had so long striven
with, and that were swept away by the deluge; and consequently, that it was a
very degenerate and profane age he lived in, wherein men had come the length to
talk and act boldly against the God that made them, as appears from Jude 14, 15,
“Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 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 sin-
ners have spoken against him.”
Observe, Be the times never so bad, it is men's own fault they are bad too.
Eminent holiness, and intimate communion with God, may be attained in the worst
of times. While that generation was running to ruin, “Enoch walked with God.”
The reasons are,
1. Because however men grow worse and worse, Heaven is still as good and
bountiful as ever; Isa. lix. 1, 2, “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that
it cannot save : neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you, that he will not hear.” God's door still stands open, though the generation
conspire to trouble it very little for supply. Our Lord will never shut his door
upon his people, because they are few ; but it shall stand open as long as there is
one that has business in his house ; Micah ii. 7, “O thou that art named the
house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened ? are these his doings 2 do not
my words do good to him that walketh uprightly 3" -
2. Because those that mind for heaven, must row against the stream always;
and if they do not, they will be carried down the stream in the best of times: for
says our Lord, Matt, xi. 12, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” If
people will ply the throne of grace, and resolutely set themselves against the
epidemical disease of their day, they may keep lively in the midst of a dead
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 629
crew, though with much difficulty, as our Lord observes, Rev. iii. 4, “Thou hast
a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments.”
3. The badness of the times affords matter to excite God's people the more to
their duty, and close walking with God. The profaneness and formality of those they
live among, and the dishonour done to God thereby, should be like oil to the flame
of their holy love and zeal, as it was to David; Psal. cxix. 126, 127, “It is time
for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law. Therefore I love thy
commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.” The prospect of what must
needs be the issue of such apostacy of a generation may also quicken them ; even
as one is the more concerned to see his own safety, that the rest of the family are
pulling down the house about their own ears; as was the case with Noah, who,
among a very wicked and abandoned people, had this character, “Noah was a just
man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God,” Gen. vi. 9.
4. Because as the Lord shows himself most concerned for the welfare of those who
are most concerned for his honour, so, the worse the times are, they that cleave
to him closely may expect to fare the better; as Noah also did, when the Lord said
to him, “Come thou, and all thy house into the ark: for thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation,” Gen. vii. 1. Moses never had a more glorious mani-
festation of God, than at that time when the Israelites had fallen into the idolatry
of the golden calf, and God was about to destroy the whole nation; as you will
find by comparing Exod. xxxii. 10, and chap. xxxiii. and xxxiv.
Use 1. Learn that those who keep not up communion with God, in the life and
power of religion, in evil times, are in God’s account joined and embarked with the
generation of his wrath; and be who they will, they will Smart with the rest for it,
though they put not forth their hands to the motorious abominations of the times
they live in. Hence is that threatening, Zeph. i. 12, “It shall come to pass at
that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are
settled on their lees; that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither
will he do evil.” It is a heavy word that sets formal hypocrites and profane
wretches on one and the same bottom ; Psal. cxxv. ult., “As for such as turn aside
unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of
iniquity.”
Use 2. Bad example with its influence will not excuse people before the Lord.
While it is no comfort to go to hell with company, there can be no safety in follow-
ing a multitude to do evil. What I will men think that because the conspiracy
against God and holiness is strong, therefore they may join in it; that because
serious godliness is going over the brae,” therefore they may give it a push 2 But
woe will be to them that give an unhallowed touch to God's wain when it is at the
halting.
Use 3. To be complaining of the evil of the times, sighing and going backward in
religion, is a fruitless unavailing complaint, neither pleasing to God, nor profitable
to one's self. For at no time does religion consist in talking, but walking with
God. And that is but to condemn ourselves out of our own mouths.
Use 4. Let us be exhorted to study the power and reality of religion in these
dregs of time. Let us draw the nearer to God, that we see so many going far from
him. And as we would not bring the wrath of God on ourselves, let us neither
join with a profane generation, nor continue on our lees with a formal dead-hearted
generation, strangers to the power of godliness. Consider here,
First, Enoch's holy life in this world; Secondly, His happy removal into a
better world.
First, Let us consider Enoch’s holy life in this world. “Enoch walked with
God.” The Spirit of God puts a special remark on this. It is Enoch’s honour, that
he did not walk as others did, after their lusts. Yea, he walked more holily
and closely with God than other good men of that age.
Observation 1. God takes special notice of those who are best when others are
worst, Gen. vi. 9. We see this in the instance of Noah in the old world, and of Lot
in Sodom ; likewise of those mentioned Ezek. ix.4, concerning whom the Lord said,
* i. e. in a declining state.—ED.
630 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
“Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set as
mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations
that be done in the midst thereof;” and those taken notice of, Mal. iii. 16, 17,
“Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord heark-
ened, and heard it ; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine,
saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare
them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”
1st, To be thus argues an ingenuous spirit, a love to the Lord for himself, and
a love to his way for its likeness to himself; that the soul is carried thus to it
against the stream of the corruption of the age.
2dly, It argues not only grace, but the strength of grace. It must be strong faith,
love, &c., that so much bear out against the strong temptation to apostacy, arising
from the combination of a generation against God and his way. To be holy when
the helps to a holy life are least in the world, argues the vigour of grace in the
heart.
Use. Labour ye, then, to be best while others are worst, to confront the impiety
of the generation wherein ye live. Do they indulge themselves in licentiousness?
be ye the more strict and holy in your walk. Do they take up with mere exter-
nals in religion ? strive ye the rather to get into the inner court, to “taste and
See,” and there to have communion with God.
Obs. 2. It is the honour of a professor of religion, to outgo others in the matter
of close walking with God. God himself is glorious in holiness. The more holy
one is, the more like is he to God. The liker he is to God, the more honourable is he.
Use 1. This lets us see what would be a blessed emulation among professors,
viz. that we were striving who should be most tender, holy, and circumspect. O
that that were brought in, in the room of all our strifes and contests about prac-
tices and opinions, which eat out the life of religion in our day ! But, alas ! real
holiness is little regarded, and therefore little striven for.
Use 2. It must be a godless-like mark in any person, to have the serpentine
grudge rise in their breasts against others, as they see them eminent for holy and
tender walking. These are the persons most beloved and honoured of God; and
it looks devilish-like to hate them, and have one's heart rise against them, for that
very reason for which God loves them.
In the first part of the words we have,
1. The person characterized ; and that is Enoch. There was another of this name
descended from Cain, who had a city called after his name, Gen. iv. 17. Immortality
is desired of all; and because men cannot stave off death, they follow after a shadow
of immortality, that at least their name may live when they are gone. Therefore
that has been an ancient custom, for men to “call their lands after their own
names,” Psal. xlix. 11. How much better was it with this Enoch, that took that
course to get on him the name of the city of God, which Christ promises to write
on all his people ! Rev. iii. 12. The city called by the name of the other Enoch
was destroyed by the deluge, and is now unknown; but the city of God lasts still,
and will last for ever.
Observe, True piety is the best way to honour, even to true honour. For “the
righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance,” when “the memory of the wicked
shall rot.”
Enoch signifies dedicated, initiated, instructed. His life answered his name, for
he lived as one devoted to the Lord. Obs. It is the duty of those devoted to God
by their godly parents, to devote themselves to the Lord. And where grace comes
in with good education, it ordinarily makes men famous in their generation, and
signally serviceable to God.
He was the seventh from Adam, and a prophet, who foretold the last judgment,
even in that early age of the church ; Jude 14, above cited. He was like Noah,
“a preacher of righteousness” in his day; and like John Baptist, “a burning and
shining light,” burning in his conversation, shining in his doctrine.
Observe, They that live near God, are mostly likely to be put upon his secrets,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 631
and to know most of his mind; Psalm xxv. 14, “The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him ; and he will show them his covenant.”
2. His character: he “walked with God.” He lived like a man of another
world; a life of close communion with God. It imports, (1.) That he was really reli-
gious; not only religious before men, but before God. Obs. Religion lies inwardly.
We are that really which we are before the Lord ; Rom. ii. ult., “He is a Jew which
is one inwardly.” (2.) He was eminently religious. Obs. Men may attain to emi-
nency in religion in very bad times, by setting the Lord always before them. See
here,
(1.) What he was ; a spiritual traveller through the world: He “walked.”
Whereas it is said of others, They “lived;” it is said of Enoch, He “walked with
God.” He looked on himself as a pilgrim and stranger in this present world, (Heb.
xi. 13, compare verse 5,) and did not sit down in it to take up his abode on this
side Jordan.
Observe, They that would live a life of communion with God, must live as pil-
grims in this world, as travellers through it to a better country.
i. Their hearts must be loosed from the world, bidding an eternal farewell to it
as a portion, 1 John ii. 15. The heart gone from God naturally sits down on the
creature to suck the sap of it, and to pursue it as its chief good. Now, the first
step to the soul's thriving, is to lift the heart from the creature, and once fairly to
give up with the vain world.
ii. They must be fixed on the better country, Heb. xi. 14. They must look to
the land that is afar off; resolutely aiming to be there, and therefore habitually
keeping it in their eye, as the mark they desire to hit, Phil. iii. 20. Thus we shall
be heavenly in the frame and disposition of our spirits.
iii. They must keep death much in their view, the passage out of this world into
the other; Job xiv. 14, “If a man die, shall he live again Ž all the days of my
appointed time will I wait till my change come.” See what a familiarity he had
contracted with it ; chap. xvii. 14, “I have said to corruption, Thou art my father;
to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.” This is the way to wean our
hearts from the world, and to stir us up to converse much with another world.
iv. They must beware of dipping deep in things of this life, but go through the
world lightly, like travellers, who serve themselves with a passing view of those
parts they go through ; 1 Cor. vii. 29–31, “But this I say, brethren, the time is
short. It remaineth, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none;
and they that weep, as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice, as though
they rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though they possessed not ; and they
that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.”
The reason is, because the world is one of the great make-bates betwixt God and
a soul, and so far as it gets in betwixt God and us, it causes an eclipse of the light
of the Lord's countenance.
Use. As evor ye would have a life of communion with God, live as pilgrims in
this world. The manna never fell from heaven in the wilderness, till the provision
brought from Egypt was spent and done, Deny yourselves to this world, if ye
would have the taste of things of a better world. When the vessels of your hearts
are emptied of the love of the world, the oil of grace will run.
(2.) The company he kept while he was in the way: He “walked with God.”
Pie did not walk with the generation he lived in ; did not go with the multitude,
thinking it enough to do as they did : but he “walked with God,” being a follower
of the Lord, keeping his eye on him.
Observe, True religion makes one give up with the way of the world, and set
God before them for all. It is the way of strangers from God to follow the course
of this world, Eph. ii. 2. They that mind for heaven, must be nonconformists to
the world, Rom. xii. 2. They must be practical separatists from the world, in life
and conversation, Psalm xii. 7 ; as it was with Joshua, who said, chap. xxiv. 15,
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Use 1. See here what a graceless-like thing it is for people to content themselves
to be like neighbour and other. Ah, Sirs, though all the world should approve
you, if God condemn you, what will it avail? They that pin their faith or holiness
632 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
on other people's sleeve, have neither faith nor holiness, and will never see
heaven. •
Use 2. See the necessity of a religion beyond the reach of the common gang of
the world, Zech. iii. 8. Ye must not satisfy yourselves with the religion that
most part do ; but press forward to leave them behind you, because they do not
walk with God. - v A
(3.) His constancy in the way of the Lord : He “walked incessantly,” as the
word signifies. He did not take his religion by fits and starts, as many do ; but
he kept a constant course of it. Verse 22 tells us, he walked with God three hun-
dred years, all the time he lived after he begat Methuselah. Though perhaps he
was a good man while he lived single in his young days; yet his last days were his
best days. His greatest eminency for piety was in the days of his married life;
while his family was increasing, his soul was increasing too.
Observe, A married state is a state of life very consistent with the soul's flour-
ishing in religion.
Use. How unreasonable, then, is that excuse, which goes mighty far with the
world, Luke xiv. 20, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come !” It
was not so with Enoch ; the comforts of it did not so bewitch him, nor the cares
of it so rack his spirit, but that he was one of the holiest and heavenliest men that
ever lived. What a pity is it, that that state should be a state of declining in
religion to so many ; and that as their family increases, their soul's case goes to
wreck; so that of their marriage-day it may be said, as John vi. 66, “From that
time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him l’” It is a
holy state, and a helpful one, by God's appointment. It must needs be a dread-
ful business where the one proves a Snare to the other, for apostacy from the life
of God.
Secondly, There is Enoch's happy removal into a better world. -
1. Consider his leaving of this world; “He was not,” no more in this world.
Of all the rest it is said, they died : but of him only, “he was not,” for he died
not, but got out of the world without dying. He was taken off:
(1.) Soon, being only 365 years of age. That was in the midst of his days: for
there were none of the patriarchs before the flood but they lived more than as long
3.9 all Il. - -
ºw, God ofttimes takes them soonest out of the world that are dearest to
him. Why, then, should we be fond of long life?. He was a man that was dear to
God, and useful for God. And if he did not live long, he lived fast, and did more
in his few days than others in double the time. He had no loss, for the remainder
of his days he got in heaven.
(2.) Suddenly; so the phrase seems to import, Psalm xxxvii. 36, and so the
nature of the thing requires it to be ; as in the case of Elijah, 2 Kings ii. 11;
and those who shall be changed, 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52: cases parallel to this. He
evanished.
Observe, A sudden removal out of the world may befall the best of God’s children.
Why should the Lord's people, then, be afraid of sudden death ? It does but make
sore work short work; and they that are in Christ can never be taken habitually
at least unprepared ; and they that always walk habitually with God, are always
actually prepared. Good old Eli died such a death.
. 2. Consider his transportation to heaven: “God took him ;” took him home,
took him up, soul and body at once, to himself into heaven, Heb. xi. 5. God
made a change on his corruptible body without death, even such a change as will
be made on the bodies of the Saints that shall be alive at Christ's second coming.
So there was as great a difference betwixt his removal and that of others, as
betwixt his life and theirs.
Observe, When the saints leave the world, God takes them home to himself.
. All the patriarchs mentioned in this chapter were alive at Enoch’s translation
except Adam, who died some time before, and Noah, who was born some time after.
Adam himself had heard the voice of God, and Noah got an eminent confirma-
tion of his faith in his preservation in the ark. Enoch’s translation might be con-
firming to the rest, in the faith of a future happy state of the Saints, both in soul
\
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 633.
and body. And it was a sure pledge of the resurrection, that was then very far
off, and not yet come.
Observe, The weight of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which God
so early confirmed. It is worthy to be remarked, how Enoch’s body was carried
to heaven before the law, Elijah's under the law, and Christ's under the gospel.
So that each of the three great periods of the world's age, had in it a notable pledge
of the resurrection of the body. -
Use. Let us, then, live and die in the faith of it; and while we live, live as those
that look for it.
Having thus given a large practical explication of the text, I proceed to observe
a point of doctrine from them, as the ground of some further discourse.
DocTRINE. The life of religion lies in walking with God; or, The great thing we
should aim at for practical godliness, is to walk with God.
Here I shall,
I. Explain this walking with God.
II. Confirm the doctrine, That the life of religion lies in walking with God.
III. Apply.
I. For explication of this walking with God, I shall consider it,
First, In the foundation thereof, with respect to our state.
* Secondly, In the matter of it, in respect of our frame and conversation.
Thirdly, In the properties thereof. -
First, I am to consider walking with God in the foundation thereof, with respect
to our state. And so it presupposes, •.
1. Spiritual life restored to the soul in regeneration. Men are naturally dead
to God and holiness; “dead in trespasses and sins,” Eph. ii. 1. A dead man
cannot walk, and a dead soul cannot walk with God. Before Lazarus once in the
grave could move again, he behoved to be quickened and raised again. No
wonder that many cannot walk with God, seeing they are strangers to the life
of God. They live as they were born, in a natural state. Consider, - -
(1.) The eye of the understanding is out, and man naturally is blind, Eph. v. 8.
Walking with God is a regular walk; how then can the blind soul walk so 2 To
walk at random is to walk contrary to God, Lev. xxvi. 21, Heb. Never a soul
will stumble on the way of God; for while in the state of blindness, Satan and
lusts lead the soul. Therefore we must be cured by divine illumination ; and for
this cause the gospel is preached, (Acts xxvi. 18,) “to open men's eyes, and to
turn them from darkness to light.” , -
(2.) The feet of the soul, the will and affections, are quite indisposed for walking
with God, and they must be cured. Hence is the promise, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27,
“A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and
ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” - *
i. They are distorted, disjointed, and cannot ply to the way of God; Jer. xiii. 23,
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also
do good that are accustomed to do evil.” They have got a set to backsliding from
the Lord, and they cannot be cured without a miracle of grace. That must give
them a new set, or we are undone for ever; Psalm lxxxv. ult, “Righteousness
‘shall go before him ; and shall set us in the way of his steps.” f
ii. They are weak, and unable to bear us in his way, Rom. v. 6. . We lost our
strength in the loins of our first parents; and never recover it till we be in
'Christ, to partake of his Spirit. . .If the soul aim to rise, it cannot ; if to walk, the
legs fail under us. Nay, -
t
4.
iii. They are powerless, John xv. 5, and vi. 44. There is power in them to
carry us still further out of God's way; but they are absolutely unable to move
heavenward, till they be endued with power from on high. Therefore we are to
be concerned for the new nature, the principle of spiritual life. . . . . .
2. Coming to God through Jesus Christ. We must come to God before we can
walk with him, and it is by faith we come to him, Heb. xi. 6. We are naturally
at a distance from God; in the everlasting covenant God offers to meet us in
4 L
634 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Christ. So by coming to Christ we meet with God, that we may set off in our way
with him. Whoso would walk with God,
(1.) Must take God for their God in the covenant, Heb. viii. 10; renouncing
all others for him, and accepting him as their God and portion, to walk with him
as their covenanted God. The world bears great bulk in sinners’ eyes naturally;
but we must look over it and above it, to the God that made it, that we may take
up our soul's everlasting rest in him. So did Enoch, while the rest were follow-
ing vanities; he closed his eyes on them, and came to God as his soul's home.
(2.) They must embrace Christ in the offer of the gospel, seeing in him only we
can meet with God. God out of Christ is “a consuming fire;” but wailed with the
flesh of Christ, he is a refreshing sun. We cannot walk with an absolute God,
more than dry fuel can lie before a consuming fire.
(3.) A state of reconciliation with God; Amos ii. 3, “Can two walk together,
except they be agreed ?” Man naturally is in a state of enmity with God. And
while that lasts, he can never walk with God dutifully to him, nor comfortably to
himself. For in that state what we do can never be acceptable to God, nor can
we look for comfort to ourselves by it: and hence Eliphaz advises; Job xxii. 21,
“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto
thee.” Therefore we must be in a justified state, having our sins pardoned for the
sake of Christ, and so in a state of peace through the great Peacemaker. When
God and a sinner in a state of enmity meet, what can be expected but,
i. Angry looks? No wonder he turn his back on such ; so that though they
come to Jerusalem, they see not the King's face; Hos. v. 6, “They shall go to
seek the Lord ; but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from
them.”
ii. Angry words 2 God can speak so as to make the conscience hear, where
there is no audible voice; Psal. l. 16, “But unto the wicked, God saith, What
hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my covenant in
thy mouth ?” That is a question that imports anger, upbraiding, accusing, and
grief for the contempt put upon him. And O what a sad matter is it to have him
angry with us in whose favour life lies; him to upbraid us, who does us all the good
we get; him our accuser, who is our only Intercessor; and him to be grieved with
us, who can only make us glad |
3. Angry strokes 2 When enemies meet, no wonder there be blows a-deal-
ing. Sometimes there are strokes on the body, 1 Cor. x. 1–6; strokes on
the soul, Mal. i. ult. See how it was with the Israelites in the wilderness;
Psal. cvi. 15, “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.”
Wherefore let us labour to have God for our friend in Christ, that we may walk
with him.
4. Conversion or returning to God. We are naturally turned away from God,
and therefore are called to return to him, Hos. xiv. 1. Our hearts are turned
away from himself; our feet are turned away from his way. We must turn back
again ere we can walk with him. -
(1.) Our hearts must be brought off the world to God; Cant. iv. 8, “Come with
me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon : look from the top of
Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the moun-
tains of the leopards.” The first removing of the heart was from God to the
creature, from the fountain to the muddy streams and broken cisterns, Jer. ii. 13.
There men naturally seek their happiness, comfort, and, satisfaction. But it must
remove again, leave the bulky vanity, the fair deceitful nothing, and return to God.
Our hearts must be lifted, our love, joy, delight, &c., off the creature, and set on
God. -
(2.) Our hearts must be brought from our lusts to the Lord, from our sins to
our Saviour: we must say, “That which I see not, teach thou me; if I have
done iniquity, I will do no more,” Job xxxiv. 32. That day the soul returns to
the Lord, the idols will be cast to the bats and to the moles, Isa. ii. 20. For if
God get the throne in the heart, they will get the cross. It was in this case God
observed Ephraim, and was well-pleased with him; Jer. xxxi., 18–20, “I have
surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 635
chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be
turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I
repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed,
yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim
my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly
remember him still ; therefore my bowels are troubled for him : I will Surely have
mercy upon him, saith the Lord.”
(3.) We must be brought out of ourselves unto God; Matt. xvi. 24, “If any
man will come after me, let him deny himself.” Man turning off from God turned
into himself, and made himself his chief end, acting from himself and to himself.
So we are naturally hemmed in within the cursed circle of self, out of which we
must be turned ere we can walk with God. And,
i. Out of our self-wisdom, put in the room of Christ as a Prophet. For thus
saith God to all that would walk with him, “I will instruct thee, and teach thee
in the way which thou shalt go ; I will guide thee with mine eye,” Psal. xxxii. 8.
Whoso would give up themselves to the Lord, must, as it were, put out their own
eyes, resolving never more to guide themselves, that they may follow the Lord, as
Abraham did, (Heb. xi. 8,) who, at God's call, “went out, not knowing whither he
went.” .
ii. Out of our self-righteousness, put in the room of Christ as a Priest. We
must come up to duties, and then come over them ; renouncing all confidence in
them, laying no weight on them in the point of commending us to the favour of
God. For what stress is laid on them that way, derogates from the honour of him
on whom the Father has laid help, and is inconsistent with the character of the true
circumcision, Phil. iii. 3. Otherwise we cannot walk with God in duties.
iii. Out of our self-will and self-ability, put in the room of Christ as a King.
Man is naturally wilful, and will have his own liking, and do what seems good in
his own eyes. But in the day that one comes to walk with God, he gives up with
his own will, saying, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” He gives it
to be led as a captive after Christ's chariot-wheels, so that he may draw it and
drive over it as seems good in his eyes, 2 Cor. x. 5. *
Man also naturally goes into himself for strength wherewith to do commanded
duty, being ignorant of Christ as the head of influences for sanctification. But in
the day one comes to walk with God, he renounces his own stock as insufficient,
and gives up himself to live by Christ, in the way of being daily supplied, John
vi. 57. For then he sees the truth of that saying, “He that trusteth in his own
heart is a fool; but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered,” Prov. xxviii. 26.
Secondly, I shall consider walking with God in the matter of it, in respect of
our frame and conversation. And indeed this duty goes as broad as the whole law.
I must take it up in some particulars. If we would have the life of religion in our
walk, we must not walk at random. -
1. We must walk with God in the way of habitual eyeing of him in all things.
It is the neck-break of many, that “God is not in all their thoughts;” and the
ruin of religion among professors, that they forget God, though he is not far from
any of us. The heart is like a common inn; so thronged with strangers, that the
master is not noticed, but thrust out to make room for others. It was otherwise
with David; Psal. xvi. 8, “I have set the Lord always before me: because he is
at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
(1.) We must eye him as our witness in all things. Let us say everywhere as
Hagar, Gen. xvi. 13, “Thou God seest me.” Let us fix on our hearts awful appre-
hensions of his omniscience and omnipresence; as Psal. cxxxix. 7, “Whither shall
I go from thy Spirit 2 or whither shall I flee from thy presence 3’ There is a
root of atheism in our hearts that says, “The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and
the Lord seeth not,” Ezek. ix. 9. And O how ready are the best to forget, though
they are ever, under the chalk of his eye, that he is a witness to every thought,
word, and action Thus walking with God implies, -
... i. The believing of his all-seeing eye; embracing it with a firm faith, that he is
intimately acquainted with all our ways, Heb. iv. 13. His eye is on us where no
other eye can see us, yea, where our own eyes cannot reach, that is, into our
636 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
hearts. And where the true faith of this is, it will not want an impression of pro-
portionable depth with the strength of the faith wherewith it is apprehended. ‘.
ii. An habitual minding of this all-seeing eye that is on us, Psal. xvi. 8. Walkers
with God are frequently sisting themselves in the presence of this God; and espe-
cially when the temptation comes, they look to him that sees them, and say, “Shall
I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” - -
iii. A suitable respect to this all-seeing eye, influencing our hearts, lips, and lives,
to beware of sin, and to be diligent and upright in duty. The eyes of a child will
restrain people sometimes; how much more should the eye of God, that is never
off us !
(2.) Eye him as our Judge, to whom at length we must give an account, Rom.
xiv. 10. Let us remember, and often have in our mind, that word which at length
will reach our ears, “Rise, ye dead, and come to judgment.” We might walk as
we list, if we were never to be called to account. But there is not a thought, word,
or action, but what must be judged, Rom. ii. 16; Eccl. xii. ult. We can never
say there is more than a step betwixt us and the judgment-seat, and therefore there
is good reason we should walk as prisoners going to the bar. . . )
i. Let us walk as under the eye of an infinitely holy Judge, who cannot look on
sin but with abhorrence, Hab. i. 13. He can never be brought by any means to
approve of sin, how little soever we think of it. The least spot is offensive to the
eyes of his jealousy, and he cannot away with it. ,
ii. Let us walk as under the eye of an accurate Judge, from whom no crime can
be hid, whose eyes no pretences nor fair colours can deceive. Let us remember,
when we come there, our crimes cannot be hid for want of evidence ; for the omni-
Scient Judge himself is witness to all, and that omniscience will pierce through all
the vails wherewith we now cloak our sins.
iii. Let us walk as under the eye of an impartial Judge. He is one that cannot
be biassed either by feud or favour. He is no respecter of persons, but rewards
every one according to his work. The belief of this would make us impartial in
our own cause ; and if we were walking with God, we would sist our own cause
without partiality. :
(3.) Eye him as our Redeemer and Saviour; Isa. xlv. 22, “Look unto me, and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else.” To
eye God as our witness and judge, without eyeing him as a God in Christ, atoned
by his blood, would fright us away from him, so as we could never walk with him
more. But that a guilty creature may walk with God, let him,
i. Eye the mercy of God in a Mediator; Isa. lv. 7, “Let the wicked forsake his
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
That is a large covering under which may be hid all the guilt of our walk. It
reaches deep, and extends very far; Psal. lxxxvi. 13, “Great is thy mercy toward
me; and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.” In our most accurate
walking, and when we have done our utmost, there will be need of grace and mercy.
And we must believingly apply to it, that, when we have fallen, we may rise up
again and walk. -
. . ii. Eye the righteousness of a Redeemer. Had the most close walker with God
nothing to look to but the righteousness of his own works, he would never have
ground of joy all the way through the wilderness. But the naughtiness of his
own righteousness makes him look often to the imputed righteousness, and there
he joys; Isa. xlv. 24, 25, “Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteous-
ness and strength. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory.” - - . -
. Eye the conscience-purging blood, Heb. xii. 22, 24. If thou hast come up into
Christ's chariot of the covenant, the covering of it is a covert of purple that is ever
over thy head. When conscience is wounded with guilt, it is like a thorn got
into the foot of the traveller, who can walk no more till it be drawn out, Heb.
ix. 14. - - " .
iv. Eye him as the fountain of strength, Isa. xlv. 24, forecited. This was the
way that David resolved to walk with God; Psal. lxxi. 16, “I will go in the
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 637,
strength of the Lord God.” The way we have to go is difficult, we have little
strength, and there is much opposition; we need to keep our eye on him in whom
the believer's strength lies, Psal. lxxxiv. 5. None walk with God but those that
draw strength from him, for the whole of their walk. And that lies in two things:
(i.) Believing the promise of strength and furniture, for whatever piece of the
way we are called to go through ; Psal. cxvi. 9, 10, “I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken.” The spiritual
traveller has many a difficult step in his way to Immanuel's land, but in the cov-
enant there is strength promised to carry him through them all. He must keep
his eye on the promise, and firmly believe it; for that is the way to suck the breasts
of these consolations. -
(ii.) Using the means on the credit of the promise. God’s institutions have
promises annexed to them; and they become effectual, being thus believingly used;
Heb. iv. 2, compare John xvii. 17. To pretend to believe without using of means, is
presumption; to use the means without believing the promise, is lifeless formality.
Is there a lust to mortify, or a temptation to resist? let us use the means, and
believe the promise of sanctification with close application to ourselves.
v. Eye him as our Master, Lord, Head, and Husband; Psal. xlv. 11, “He is
thy Lord, and worship thou him.” See how the spouse comes out of the wilder-
ness walking with God, even leaning on him as her Head and Husband, Cant. viii.
5. We must walk with him, as obedient servants with a master, dutiful subjects
with a king, &c. Whomsoever others serve, let it be our resolution to serve the
Lord, Josh. xxiv. 15. And this imports, that we must be ready,
(i.) To receive his orders, and the least indications of his mind to comply with
them, signified to us by his word or providence. How closely did the psalmist
thus walk with God! Psal. cxxiii. 2, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto
the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mis-
tress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.”
And this is the duty of all pretending to be espoused to Christ. So that it must
needs be great untenderness, that “God speaks once, yea, twice, yet men regard
it not.”
(ii.) To do his bidding: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” said Paul,
Acts ix. 6. Our Lord let us see, that it is not talking of, but thus walking with,
God, that is religion indeed; Luke vi. 46, “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do
not the things which I say?” And it is not the hearers, but the doers of the word,
that shall be justified. . There is no walking with God, if we walk not in the road
of obedience to his commands. If we take our own way, we walk not with him,
but Satan. º -
(iii.) To be careful to please him in all things, 1 Cor. vii. 34; to give content
to the heart of Christ in whatever we do, Col. i. 10; not only to do the thing he
commands, but to do it to his mind, so as he may take pleasure in us, and delight
to do us good. For thus the duty of Christ's spouse in walking with God is summed
up ; Psal. xlv. 10, “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;
forget also thine own people, and thy father's house.”
vi. Eye him as our chief end. . As he that walks with God sets off in his way in
him and by him, so he walks to him as the great end of his walk; Psal. xvi. 8, “I
have set the Lord always before me ;” Rom. xi. ult, “For of him, and through
him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” This implies
two things: - -
(i.) Aiming at his glory in all things, 1 Cor. x. 31. We must make that the
great scope of all our actions, and of our whole life. He that walks with God dis-
places self, which is the dead sea into which all our actions naturally run, and sets
up the honour of God instead thereof; reckoning his life no more useful in the
world than it tends to the honour of God. For we are as trees in a vineyard, of
no use but as they bring forth fruit to the master's use, Luke xiii. 7.
(ii) Seeking to enjoy him as our chief happiness, Psal. lxxiii. 25. Man can
never be self-sufficient, no, not angels; that is the peculiar prerogative of God,
whose perfections are infinite. So he must needs seek his happiness without him-
self. While he is without God in a natural state, he seeks it in the creatures;
638 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
when he comes to God, he takes God for it. And walking with God, he habitually
seeks it in the enjoyment of him, and feeds at that table he sits down to in con-
version. And so, if ye would walk with God, (1.) Ye must seek to enjoy him in all
things, in the measure he is to be enjoyed here, Psal. xxvii. 4; seek to enjoy him
in ordinances, (Psal. lxiii. 1, 2,) publig, private, and secret. Ye must not stay in
the shell nor in the outer court; but seek to believe, taste, and feel, Psal. xxxiv. 8.
Ye must seek him in providences, (Psal. xciv. 4,) merciful and favourable, smiling
and frowning. He will be the sap and foison * of mercies to the walker with God,
Gen. xxxiii. 10; and they will see his name in cross dispensations, Micah vi. 9.
(2.) Ye must seek to enjoy him in heaven hereafter. If ye walk through the
world with God, ye will walk as pilgrims bound for another and better country,
keeping that in your view as your only rest, Heb. xi. 13, 16. He that walks with
God, walks as one living, that he may die well, making it the business of this life
to learn to die, and to get beyond it to a better life.
2. We must walk with God in the way of the heart's going along with him in all
things, as the shadow goes with the body. Hence it is called “walking after the
Lord,” Hos. xi. 10; “following the Lord,” Numb. xiv. 24. Walking with God is
no bodily motion, but a spiritual motion, a moving of the heart and affections; and
so it must import necessarily the heart's going along with him. I will take it up
in these three things. If ye would walk with God, your hearts must go along
with him,
(1.) In the way of believing in all things. Thus Enoch walked with God, Heb.
xi. 5. God is a Spirit, and our souls are spirits. The way of communion betwixt
God and us is in the way of believing ; for we cannot know him to our salvation
but as he has revealed himself to us in his word. So, God manifesting himself by
his word, we cannot walk with him but as our hearts go along with these manifes-
tations of himself in the way of believing ; hence is that account the apostle gives
us of his walk; Gal. ii. 20, “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the
faith of the Son of God; who loved me, and gave himself for me.” So walking
with God imports,
i. Believing of his commands. Faith discerns the stamp of divine authority on
the commands, and so gives them a suitable weight on one's own spirit. It esteems
and judges them all right and reasonable, Psal. cxix. 128. So they are believed
to be not only from God, but suited to the divine perfections, and to man's real
welfare;—which cannot miss to influence the person to obedience.
ii. Believing of his promises, the promises of the gospel, Heb. xi. 13. He that
walks with God, does not only believe the great leading promises of the covenant,
of God himself's being their God, and of eternal salvation, but the lesser promises
depending on these. And while others take other things for their heritage, they
take the promises for theirs, Psal. cxix. 111. So the great thing that sways them
in their course of life, is the prospect of unseen things, (2 Cor. iv. 18,) to be had in
another world, and likewise the prospect of what is promised even in this life.
So the promises are apt to influence obedience: and when they do, that is walk-
ing with God; when one ventures on, and follows the way of duty on the credit of
the promise, for instance, giving out of their substance at God's call, upon the faith
of the promise, Prov. iii. 9, 10, &c. - *
iii. Believing of his threatenings, Heb. xi. 7. We find holy men have thus walked
with God, being influenced to a tender holy walk by the faith of God's threaten-
ings in his word, Job xxxii, ult. David was not of a servile legal spirit, when he
says, Psal. cxix. 120, “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy
judgments.” Hence they that walk with God will not venture on an ill thing,
more than they would take fire into their bosom, because the terror of God makes
them afraid of sin.
(2.) In the way of compliance with his holy will. If we do not thus in all things,
we walk contrary to him. When man fell off from God, his own will became his
law, and was set in opposition to the will of God. When he returns to God, his
* i. e. strength, virtue.—Ed.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 639
will is inclined by grace to God's will; and walking with God, it goes along there-
with, complying with it in all things. So walking with God imports,
i. Complying with the will of his command in all things, Acts ix. 6. The heart
of the believer is reconciled to, and approves of the law as “holy, just, and good;”
and while he walks with God, he labours sincerely to suit his walk thereunto in all
things, being grieved at any reluctancy that is in his heart against any piece of
obedience, crying with David, Psal. cxix. 5, “O that my ways were directed to
keep thy statutes!”
ii. Complying with the will of his providence, the heart being reconciled to that
lot which God is pleased to carve out, Psal. xlvii. 4. O what walking contrary to
God is there in this respect, while the proud unhumbled heart will not, cannot
accommodate itself to divine dispensations, but murmurs, frets, and repines, and
rebels against the Lord, as the sovereign Governor of the world!
(3.) In the way of habitual moving of the heart towards him. Grace has an
attractive virtue in the heart, drawing it towards God. And when it is in exercise,
it will make the heart to be moving towards him, whereas otherwise it settles on
other things besides him. So in walking with God there is,
i. Frequent thinking and meditating on him, Mal. iii. 16. That is a black
character of the wicked, Psal. x. 4, “God is not in all his thoughts.” And the
saint is in a backgoing condition that begins to forget him, Jer. ii. 32. Yea, fleet-
ing thoughts are not sufficient; if we walk with God, he will be the subject of our
meditation, both occasional and stated, Psal. lxiii. 6. If we walk with a man, he
is ever in our view, and so we cannot miss to think on him.
ii. Habitual moving of the heart towards him, in love, desire, trust, &c. He is
the chief good and the best of beings, which should ever command our love, Deut.
vi. 5. That is the holy fire that is kept glowing and flaming in the heart of one
that walks with God; loving him for himself, and for his goodness to us. Desires
after him are the breathings of a soul touched with the love of God, tending to
perfect enjoyment. And the continual wants and weakness that such a one finds
himself compassed with, turn him very naturally to trust and dependence on him.
iii. Frequent use of ejaculatory prayer, 1 Thess. v. 17. This is that kind of
prayer to which we have access at all times; the darting up of a desire to the Lord,
whatever be the lawful business we are about, or whatever be our case. And hardly
can people be thought to walk with God, that are not frequently sending these
swift, though silent, messengers to heaven. We find Jacob, in the midst of his
testament, using such a devout ejaculation; Gen. xlix. 18, “I have waited for thy
salvation, O Lord.” See Moses’ practice, Exod. xiv. 15; and Nehemiah's, before
he answered a king, Neh. ii. 4.
3. We must walk with God in ordinances, Luke i. 6; submitting to, and seeking
communion with, God in all ordinances as we have access. The ordinances are the
banqueting-house of Christ, wherein he feasts his people, Cant. ii. 4; the galleries
wherein the King is held by those that walk with him there, Cant. vii. 5. Parti-
cularly, communion with God is to be sought and kept up,
(1.) In secret prayer, Matt. vi. 6. We must walk with God in a due and ordi-
mary observance of that kind of prayer. It is a duty wherein the people of God
have had as much communion with God as in any other; witness Jacob's experi-
ence, Gen. xxxii. 24; and Daniel's, chap. ix. 22. The Lord promises his people
a particular familiarity with him in that duty; Cant. vii. 11, “Come, my beloved,
let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.” And however some
may be blithe to get it shifted, yet the truly exercised would find it hard, nay, they
could not at all live without it. And how people can walk with God, taking it only
now and then, and not making conscience of ordinary observing of it, I see not.
And indeed people will readily know by their disposition in secret prayer, whether
they be in a thriving case or not. -
(2.) In family prayer, Acts x. 2, 3. Never one that gives Christ heart-room,
but they will be willing to give him house-room too. And there are none that
Walk with God themselves, but they would fain all their family walked with God too,
Josh. xxiv. 15. And there are none who have gone about it seriously but must
say, that family worship is an ordinance in which God is to be found. Prayerless
640 MISCELLANEous Discourses.
families are in a dangerous condition, they are as if the owners should uncover the
roofs of them, that wrath may be showered down on them; Jer, x, ult., “Pour out,
thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not
on thy name.” And I think if people were walking with God in family duties,
they would not lay by the morning-exercise as many of you do. And what is it.
that hinders it? What but the weary world? ye cannot get time for it, because:
of your business. But are not ye afraid of God's curse on that business that shuts
out his worship 2 And if it should thrive, ye take the way to get leanness to your
souls. It looks not like walking with God to stand off from family-worship till
they have no other thing ado, and it is a graceless like thing to offer only that time
to God that costs you nothing. - - • * *
. (3.) In reading of the word, John v. 39. We find the truly godly have been
great lovers of the Bible. O how does David commend it, especially in the 119th
psalm, though it was but a small part of it that was written in his time ! One that
would walk with God should even walk through the Bible, reading it, and acquaint-
ing themselves with the mind of God in it. And ye will see that, whenever persons
come to be in earnest exercised about their case, they will very naturally go to
their Bibles in quite another manner than they used to do.
(4.) In extraordinary prayer, setting time apart for it either in secret, or in
families; of which I have spoken before.* •.
(5.) In hearing of the word. Whenever the Lord puts an occasion of hearing
the word in your hand, he says in effect, “Come, walk with me in the galleries,”
and “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation,” Isa. xii. 3. And
every believing soul will reply with David, Psal. lxv. 4, “Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts;
we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.”
The Sabbath-day is a day of blessing ; the preaching of the gospel is the great
Imeans for the salvation of sinners, 1 Cor. i. 21. Is it not, then, a slighting of
communion with God for people to idle away so many Sabbaths at home, in mak-
ing so little conscience of attending on public ordinances? Read through the whole
Bible, and ye will not find a gracious person but was much addicted to the place
where his honour dwells, to public ordinances. And I assure you, the godly in
some places would wonder if they could have any good in them at all, that can
contentedly sit at home, when they are neither sick nor sore, nor have any provi-
dential necessity put upon them. It is very observable, Numb. ix. 10–13, “That
if any man of Israel, or of their posterity, should be unclean by reason of a dead
body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he should keep the passover unto the Lord:
but the man that was clean, and was not in a journey, and forebore to keep the
passover; even the same soul should be cut off from his people, because he brought
not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season.” Whence observe, that as
those who against their wills are forced to be absent from God's ordinances, may
expect the favours of his grace under their affliction; so those who of choice absent
themselves, may expect the tokens of his wrath for their sin. jj.
(6.) In the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. That is an ordinance especially
appointed for communion with God, 1 Cor. x. 16. And it has been so in the
experience of many souls. Wherefore, it must be strange how those can walk with
God that never set their foot on that holy ground, though they have one oppor-
tunity after another. . . . -
And if ye would walk with God in these duties, (1.) Ye must make conscience
of preparation, even prepare for secret prayer, &c. (2.) Seek and press forward
for communion with God in these ordinances, and take not up with the external
work. (3.) Do not take them by starts, but keep an ordinary, as ye have occasion;
otherwise ye cannot be said to walk with God in them. . .
4. We must walk with God in providences. These are his ways wherein he
walks towards us, and we must walk with him in them ; Hos. xiv. ult, “Who is
wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them ? for
the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them.” Sometimes he
* See Memorial concerning Personal and Family Fasting.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 641
goes with us in the way of smiling, sometimes of cross providences: but whether
he take the high road of lifting up, or the low one of downcasting, we are to follow,
and walk with him. This lies in these seven things.
(1.) We must notice his hand in all that we meet with from any hand whatso-
ever. God guides the world by wisdom, and without him second causes cannot
move, Ezek. i. 20. Whether thou meet with a mercy or a cross, say in thine
heart, This is the finger of God, Gen. xxxiii. 10. The not noticing of this is a
spice of atheism, that God is highly displeased with ; Psal. xxviii. 5, “Because
they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall
destroy them, and not build them up.” See how the Pagan Chaldeans do with
smiling providences; Hab. i. 16, “They sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense
unto their drag : because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.”
And see what the Philistines say of their afflictions, “It is a chance.” But he
that walketh with God, takes all out of the Lord's hand.
(2.) We must accommodate ourselves to the aspect of providence, whether it be
shining or lowering, Eccl. vii. 14. For without this we show a contempt of provi-
dence, which the Lord takes heinously, as you may see by looking to Isa. xxii.
12–14. We must rejoice in his mercies, and walk soberly and concernedly under
the strokes of his hand. .
(3.) We must labour to find out the design of providence. Providence has a
voice, and it is a voice of speech which may be understood, Ezek. i. 24. The
works of providence are a book which the walker with God labours to read the
mind of God in. Merciful dispensations are preachers of repentance, and happy
are they that hear their voice, Rom. ii. 4. Cross dispensations have a language
to the same purpose ; Micah vi. 9, “The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and
the man of wisdom shall see thy name : hear ye the rod, and who hath
appointed it.” - -
To help you to know the particular design of providence in cross dispensations
that ye meet with,
i. Pray in faith for it, believing that God will discover it to you in the use of
means in his own time ; Job x. 2, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.”
Compare Matt. xxi. 22, “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing,
ye shall receive.” But take good heed that your souls be truly and honestly laid
open to divine instruction, that you be disposed to know it at any rate, though it
should touch you in a most sensible part; Psal. xxv. 9, “The meek will he guide
in judgment; and the meek will he teach his way.” •
ii. Search for it, as the Israelites did for the accursed thing, Psal. lxxvii. 6.
Think upon it, in order to find it out. Take a view of your way, what it was
before and at the time when ye met with the cross; even as, when men have lost
any thing they go back till they come to the place where they are sure they had it.
iii. Take help of the word in this matter. Consider scripture threatenings, or
examples, that may be apposite to your case. All that you or I meet with is but
a fulfilling of the scripture, Hos. vii. 12. And as providence gives light to the
word, so the word gives light to providence. And thus Moses opened up the mean-
ing of a dark providence to Aaron from the word; Lev. x, 3, “This is it that the
Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all
the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.” - -
iv. Listen to the whispers of conscience under the rod. The sin that under the
rod conscience casts most in thy teeth, is very likely to be the sin that God is
aiming at ; as in the case of Joseph's brethren, (Gen. xlii. 21,) who “ said one to
another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish
of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear: therefore is this distress
come upon us.” Even as the man that has a sore finger, whatever touches his
hand, the finger Smarts; an evidence that there his sore lies. -
v. Consider what sin it is that thou hast had most reproofs for from the word,
most checks for by some lesser steps of providence, most challenges for from cou-
science, and yet thou hast not reformed. That is likely to be it. For God's rods
follow his rebukes, as Absalom did with Joab; Jer. xxii. 21, 22, “I Spake unto
thee in thy prosperity, but thou adº, I will not hear: this hath been th y manner
t M
642 MISCELL AN E O US DISCOURSES.
from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice. The wind shall eat up all thy
pastures, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; surely then shalt thou be ashamed
and confounded for all thy wickedness.”
vi. Consider the nature of the stroke or cross; for very readily there is a dis-
cernible affinity betwixt the sin and the stroke. Sometimes God punishes men in
the same kind with their sin, as in the case of Adoni-bezek, Judges i. 7. Some-
times in the occasion of their sin, as Eli's indulgence to his children was punished
by the death of them. Sometimes their punishment is in what is most contrary to
their sin, as David's sin in numbering of the people. Sometimes God measures to
us in temporals as we do to him in spirituals, Hos. iv. 12, 13; 1 Cor. xi. 30, and
several other ways.
One that walks with God will have so much ado with these things, that they
should very carefully observe them, for daily practice of taking up God's mind in
what they meet with.
(4.) We must endeavour to comply with the designs of providence, Job xxxvi. 10,
11. Providences in favourable dispensations are God’s “cords of love and bands
of a man,” whereby he draws sinners to himself. In afflicting dispensations they
are God’s furnace for melting of souls, that they may take on suitable impressions.
And O but it is sad when the effect of all is that, Hos. xi. 2, “As they called
them, so they went from them ;” Jer. vi. 29, 30, “The bellows are burnt, the
lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain; for the wicked are not
plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath
rejected them.” That is a grievous complaint, Jer. v. 3, “Thou hast stricken
them, but they have not grieved ; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused
to receive côrrection: they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have
refused to return.” But he that walketh with God makes it his business to comply
with the dispensations of providence in the design of them, to serve the Lord more
cheerfully that God is kind to him, and to bring forth the peaceable fruits of
righteousness under afflictions.
(5.) We must notice the harmony of providences with the word; Psal. xlviii. 8,
“As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts.” This is
the way to get communion with God in providences. And a sweet feast they often
afford to those that are thus exercised to discern them ; hence says David, Psal.
xcii. 4, “Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in
the works of thy hands;” and said Jacob to his brother Esau, Gen. xxxiii. 10,
“Therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou
wast pleased with me.” The word is the scheme and draught of the government of
the world; and the lines of providence are all drawn accordingly. So that what-
soever thou meetest with, it is an accomplishment of Scripture promises, threaten-
ings, or doctrines. And a child of God in applying them thus to the rule, may
have sweet communion with God.
(6.) We must follow the conduct of providence in subserviency to the word;
keeping our eye on the promise, Psalm xxxii. 8, “I will instruct thee, and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go : I will guide thee with mine eye.” To
separate providence from the word, and then make it a rule, is dangerous, Jonah
i. 3. But to follow the conduct of it with an eye to the word, is a notable part of
the Christian's walking with God. Providence is the hand of the Lord, whereby
he opens the way in the wilderness to his people, that they may follow him. And
go where they will, as long as they can thus keep their eye on their guide, they
may judge themselves in the safest way.
(7.) We must live in the exercise of the graces suitable to the dispensations of
providence wherewith we are trysted, Eccl. vii. 14. Some dispensations are sweet
and comfortable ; let us by them be stirred up to love the Lord the more, Psalm
cxvi. 1. Let any comfort that we find in the creature be used to enlarge our hearts
in thankfulness to, desire of, and cheerfulness in, serving the Lord. Some are
heavy, and require patience; some dark and doubtful, and require faith. Some
take away our created supports, dry up our cisterns, and put out our candle ; and
such require trust in the Lord, and to rejoice in him, Hab. iii. 17, 18. Thus he
that walks with God, follows him whithersoever he goes,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 643.
5. We must walk with God in the stations and relations wherein he hath placed
us. These are the sphere that God hath given us to move in, in the world. And
whoso walks not with God in them, will never please him. There are two pieces
of work which a Christian has to do:
(1.) One for himself, and that is his salvation-work, Phil. ii. 12. That is, to
secure his eternal welfare in the enjoyment of God, and so to make sure his gracious
state, to maintain a gracious frame and disposition, by getting incident contro-
versies betwixt God and his soul done away, grace actuated, strengthened, and
nourished, till he come to the stature of a perfect man in Christ. This lies in his
personal walk.
(2.) One for God, and that is his generation-work, Acts xiii. 36. This lies in his
relative walk. Whence we may conclude, that so far as a man or woman is defec-
tive in their relative duties, so far they are useless for God, and take up room
in the world for no purpose. And so far as they do ill, instead of good, in their
relations, they walk contrary to God. We see how the Lord, in the works of
nature, has jointed together the creatures; the sun to shine by day, and the
moon by night, the beasts to serve man, and the earth with the products thereof
to serve both. The beauty of the world lies in every one's keeping their place,
and being serviceable in the place wherein God has set them. And so relations
are the joints of society; and they that would walk with God, must walk with
him in them.
i. We must labour faithfully to discharge the duties of our stations and relations,
as under the eye of God, who is our common Overseer, Witness, and Judge, Psalm
ci. 2. God has shaped out our work to us, whether in the church, commonwealth,
or family, wherein some are as eyes, some as hands, and some as feet. Though
the work of others may be higher and more honourable than ours, our greatest
honour will be to approve ourselves to God in our own part. God observes how
every one does his duty; the husband, the wife, the master, the servant. And
they that walk with God will behave themselves in these things as under the eye
of God, as well as when they are at prayers, &c. Col. iii. 22.
ii. We must do the duties of our relations under a sense of the command of God.
It is not enough that the husband love his wife, or the wife submit herself to her
husband, &c., if conscience of duty towards God do not sway them thereto, Eph.
v. 21. We must make God our great party in all these things, otherwise we do
not walk with God in them. There is no relation one stands in but God has
set them in their duty; and so the performance of these duties is as much the
trial of our obedience, as the most religious actions we are capable of.
iii. We must do the duties of our relations with an eye to the real good of
our relatives. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” is the sum of the second
table. No man is born for himself, but to be serviceable to God and his fellow-crea-
tures, Rom. xv. 3. And the more useful we are to others, the more we serve God,
and the more we are like him : for he does good unto all, even to the unholy
and unthankful.
iv. We must do the duties of our relations with an eye to the honour of God,
1 Cor. x. 31. O the dishonour that is done to God by the little conscience that is
made of relative duties, by crying relative sins ! Should the fabric of the world
run into confusion; sun, moon, stars, day and night, go out of their courses; where
were the honour of God arising from the beauty of an orderly management of the
world But, ah how often are the foundations in churches, states, and families
out of course, and there nothing but disorder and confusion, contention and oppo-
sition, every one going out of their course; and so the honour of God, and their
.. gº and comfort, lying buried in the ruinous heap! This is walking contrary
to God.
This walking with God is particularly noticed concerning Enoch; Gen. v. 22,
“And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years,
and begat sons and daughters.” He walked with God in his family as a father
and a husband, in a married state. So if thou be a walker with God, it will
appear in the relations wherein thou standest ; for grace makes a good husband,
644 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
a good wife, a good master, a good servant, &c. And the duties of relations will
readily try both the reality and strength of grace.
6. We must walk with God in all our actions, whether natural, civil, or religious;
1 Cor. x. 31, “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all
to the glory of God.” Religion is to our conversation like salt to meat; necessary
to season our whole life, whatever it is that we are about. -
(1.) We must walk with God in our natural actions, such as eating, drinking,
sleeping, &c. These are common to us with the beasts; but we must not be like
the beasts in the use of them, but walk with God therein. Now, if we would walk
with God in these things, - •
i. We must do them under a sense of the command of God. Eating, and drink-
ing, &c., are duties of the sixth command : and therefore we ought to do them
because God has said, “Thou shalt not kill.” Wherever there is a divine ordi-
nance ; respecting any natural action, we ought therein to have respect to that
ordinance ; 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5, “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to
be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving : for it is sanctified by the word of
God and prayer.” Our bodies are the Lord's, and he binds us by all lawful means
to preserve them ; and then domen walk with God in these things, while they patch
up the mud-wall house under the sense of the command of the owner.
ii. We must depend on the Lord for benefit by them, 1 Tim. iv. 5. Without
the blessing on the means, the end cannot be obtained. Without God, our meat
cannot nourish us, nor our clothes warm us; so that the emptiness of the creature
points us to God at every turn, agreeably to what our Lord says, Matt. iv. 4,
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.” It is no less than spiritual idolatry to overlook the Lord, and
look for the benefit from the creature itself, Jer. xvii. 5; Hos. iv. 10. If he would
say the word, we might eat and not be filled, sleep and not be refreshed. So that
even in these we are called to walk by faith with God, looking for the benefit of
God's ordinance and appointment about these things.
iii. We must use them for God and his service ; as the traveller takes his staff
in his hand, not to be a burden or a carriage to him, but to help him on his
journey. While the soul is in the body, it has a mighty dependence thereon ; and
so it is as the horse that must be cared for, to the end we may accomplish the
journey, 2 Kings iii. 15. So walking with God in these things, would make us
use them so, as may most fit us for the work of our Christian calling, having that
as our great scope before our eye. - -
iv. We must keep a holy Christian moderation in these things, Phil. iv. 5. We
must be like Gideon’s lappers, even when waters of a full cup are set before us.
People may easily fall into a sinful eagerness in these things, (Gen. xxv. 30,) and
sink their hearts into these things wherein they should only lightly go along with
wariness, (Luke xxi. 31,) regulating ourselves in the use of them, by what is best
to fit us for our salvation and generation-work, which is the true rule of moderation.
For the heart must not sit down on them as its end and rest; but pass through
them as a means and way, 1 Cor, vii. 29–31.
v. We must ascend by the creature unto the Creator, from creature-sweetness
to that infinite fulness that is in God ; Zech. ix. ult, “How great is his goodness,
and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new
wine the maids.” Seeing all perfection in the creature is originally from God, it
must be in him, and that infinitely. If there be any thing desirable in the streams,
it must be more so in the fountain. If the light of the sun be so pleasant to the
eyes, he who is light itself must be infinitely more so. Whatever pleasure or
delight we find in meat, drink, &c., it points us to God, from whom that sweetness
is derived, as drops from the ocean. * -
vi. We must look on them as covenant-mercies, and the fulfilment of promises,
Deut. xxvi. 3, &c. God has secured our necessary comforts by promise; Isa.
xxxiii. 16, “Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure.” Psalm czXvii. 2;
lxxxiv. 11. So, when we receive them, we should look on them as such ; and
then, however coarse the meat be, being served up in the dish, not of common
MISCELLANEOljS DISCOURSES. 645
providence, but of the covenant, it will have an uncommon sweetness, and we will
have communion with God in that which others find no more in than beasts do.
vii. We must be thankful for all our mercies unto God as the giver of them,
1 Thess. v. 18. We must pay to him verbal acknowledgments, (Hos. xiv. 2.; Deut.
viii. 10,) and real acknowledgments; serving him in the strength of our mercies,
and that cheerfully, as he deals graciously with us in these things. What we have
from him must be used for him, Rom. xi. ult. ; and the more liberally he deals
with us, the more cheerfully ought we to serve him, Deut. xxviii. 47, 48.
(2) We must walk with God in our civil actions, such as are competent to men
in society ; as trading, buying, selling, working, and, in a word, managing our
worldly business: that as we may not act like beasts in the former, so we may not
act as men that know not God in the latter. Now, if we would walk with God in
managing of our temporal affairs,
i. We must act in these matters as under a sense of a command or appointment
of God in them. God has given each his calling, station, and work: and we are
to act therein suitably in obedience to him, 1 Cor. vii. 24; doing our proper busi-
ness as to the Lord, who is our great Master, Eph. vi. 7. Thus a man should go
about his worldly business, whether for his own or another's advantage, because
God has said, “Thou shalt not steal;” looking on it as a piece of his duty to God.
ii. We must depend on him by faith, for direction in our business, Prov. iii. 6.
We must pray for it and trust God for it. Temporal affairs are not excepted ;
Phil. iv. 6, “In every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God.” Whence is a dexterity and skill to
manage a temporal business, to do a piece of work to purpose without or within
doors ? is it not from the Lord? James i. 17, “Every good gift, and every perfect
gift is from above ;” Isa. xxviii. 26, “For his God doth instruct him to discretion,
and doth teach him.” Common influences of the Spirit are as necessary to the
exercise of a gift, as saving influences are to the exercise of grace. Remember
the error the princes of Israel fell into ; Josh. ix. 14, “The men took of their
victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord ;” and Lot's unhappy
choice, wherein he did not own God, Gen. xiii. 11, 12.
iii. We must depend on the Lord by faith, for the success of our lawful endea-
vours, Psal. cxxvii. 1. Whatever men undertake with an eye to God in it, they
may depend on him for the success of it, Psal. i. 3. An unsanctified confidence of
success God often blasts, that he may let all men see, in everything, that “by
strength no man shall prevail,” (1 Sam. ii. 9,) and that “the race is not to the
Swift, nor the battle to the strong,” Eccl. ix. 11. And while people torment them-
selves with anxiety as to events, he brings their fears ofttimes on them, and lets
them see that, by taking thought, no man can add a cubit to his stature.
iv. We must cut and carve in them as may be most for the honour of God and
our soul's welfare. This is the great mark that we would always keep in view, and
according to which we must steer our course. Our eternal interest is our greatest,
and all other interests must wail” to it. The honour of God is the sheaf to which
all others must bow ; and the balance is to be cast on that side always on which
these are ; Matt. xvi. 26, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?”
Where is the gain where the foot is lost to save the shoe 2 The world, with whom
gain is godliness, and a penny more or less determines them in their affairs, would
have thought Moses a foolish man for missing a good bargain, Heb. xi. 24. But
he acted even as wisely as a man who cares not for gaining of that pound, in gain-
ing which he must lose a talent. Therefore, consider in your worldly affairs what
will be best for your souls.
v. We must deal with men as under the eye of God, a holy jealous God, whether
we be masters, servants, neighbours, &c., Eph. v. 15. Be strict and precise observ-
ers of common justice, according to the golden rule, “Whatsoever ye would that
men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.” Whatever occasions you have
to do an unjust thing, let the eye of God be a sufficient restraint, Job xxxi. 21–23.
* i.e. yield, submit.—ED.
646. MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Let men pretend to what strictness they will otherwise, while they are not strict in.
their morals this way, they do more ill to religion, than perhaps they will ever be
capable to do good.
vi. We must observe Christian moderation in these things, 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30. Do
not give yourselves wholly to them, to relish nothing but what savours of them, as
those of Sodom did, Luke xvii. 28. Let them not steal away your heart, and
justle out religion, like those mentioned Luke xiv. 16, &c.; but remember still you
have greater business in hand than that ; and therefore dip no farther into them,
than you may do with safety to your soul's case.
vii. We must be suitably affected with the providence of God in these things;
ascribing the success of our affairs to the Lord, and giving him thanks for blessing
the work of our hands; acknowledging disappointments and crosses in them to
come from the same hand; taking them kindly as trials wherewith the Lord sees
meet to exercise us, and labouring to know and comply with the design of them.
(3.) We must walk with God in our religious actions, and so distinguish ourselves
from hypocrites; who do the things, pray, hear, &c., but do not walk with God in
them. Now, if we would walk with God in religious duties,
i. We must do our duty out of respect to the command of God, Psal. cxix. 4.
We must say in this case, as Simon did in another, (Luke v. 5,) “At thy word I
will let down the net.” When people are led to duties from a custom, or some
such low principles or motives, they do not walk with God in them. He that walks
with God in them, discerns the stamp of divine authority on every duty, and that
awes his heart into a compliance therewith.
ii. We must seek the honour of God in all we do, John viii. 50. And, indeed,
if we be let into a view of his glory in duties, the advancing of it will be our great
aim. If thou be in duty with others, let God himself be your scope, and take heed
of parting the glory betwixt him and thyself. If thou be alone, seek to give him
the glory of all his perfections, by acknowledging of, and carrying as under the
impression of the same.
iii. We must go about our duty in his own strength, Zech. x. ult, ; Psal. lxxi.
16; renouncing all confidence in ourselves, 2 Cor. iii. 5. No gifts are to be
trusted to in this ; for they may soon be blasted, and no bare gift can make one
act graciously. Nay, habitual grace is not to be trusted to for that end ; for the
fire not blown cannot give us light. Actual grace needs still to be preserved and
fed, else it will fail. Therefore we must lean on the Lord himself for it, Isa. xlv.
24. And we must stretch out the withered hand in duty, in hopes of influences
from him ; and set to sea, in confidence of the blowings of the Spirit.
iv. We must be spiritual in our duties, John iv. 24; Phil. iii. 3. One that walks
with God will not take up with bodily exercise, or lip-labour; but endeavour after
inward worship, which is the work of the heart. This lies in loving, fearing, trust-
ing, desiring, humbling of the heart before him ; believing his word, &c. And so
he will reckon no more to be done in worship of God, than what is done with the
heart. º
v. We must seek to enjoy God in duties, and not be satisfied without it, Psal.
xxvii. 4. When thou comest to the galleries, let thine aim be to see the King in
his glory. And let not the empty chair of state satisfy thy soul; for nothing is
sufficient for the soul but the enjoyment of God himself, Psal. lxxiii. 25. And if
this be thine aim, thou wilt pursue it, and thrust forward till thou come even to
his seat. -
vi. We must carry in duties as under the eye of God, in a special manner;
Psal. lxxxix. 7, “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints; and to
be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” That looseness of heart
whereby it wanders here and there at duty, proceeds from the want of a due fear of
God upon the soul, and is most contrary to walking with God; Jer. xii. 2, “Thou
art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.” The fixing of the heart under
the impressions of his awful presence, that so the soul may carry suitably before
him, is to sanctify the Lord in our heart, Lev. x. 3. -
vii. We must be frequent in duties, 1 Thess. v. 17. They that walk with God
are frequent in solemn duties; but in the interval of these they will be taken up
. MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 647
with others of a less solemn nature, such as thinking, meditation on God, ejacula-
tions, &c. And thus they will be readily kept in tune for the return of the more
solemn duties. And, indeed, people then cease to walk with God when they begin
to be more remiss and unfrequent in solemn duties, and to be less careful of the
frame of their hearts in the interval.
viii. We must let new occurrences send us to our duty. This has been the prac-
tice of walkers with God, that, whatever they have met with remarkable, it sent
them to God; and, “Therefore,” says the prophet, “I will look unto the Lord ;
I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me,” Micah vii. 7.
And where can a gracious heart have such a vent, as before the Lord, whatever it
be full of, whether joy or grief?
ix. We must observe the fruit of our duties, Psal. v. 3.; carefully notice what
speed we come in our applications to the throne, and what effect God's speaking
from his throne has upon us. This is communion with God, to be sending word to,
and receiving word from heaven ; to be importing something thither in duties and
the exercise of grace, and to be exporting something thence for the spiritual enrich-
ing of the soul.
Thirdly, I shall consider walking with God in the properties thereof. Walking
with God is religion; and it is,
1. Practical religion, religion in deed, not in word only ; and there is no other
sort of religion that will bring us to heaven : hence says our Lord, John xiii. 17,
“If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” Talk as we will, if we do
not walk with God, we are naught. Jacob dissembling with his father was the
lively emblem of a hypocrite ; the voice Jacob's, the hands Esau’s. There is a
great difference betwixt saying and doing in religion. The former is easy, the
latter is difficult.
(1.) One may talk well of God and the things of God, and yet have nothing of
the truth of religion. He may have a clear head in matters of religion, that has
a dark heart ; he may have a ready tongue to speak of them, whose feet are
shackled with divers lusts, that he cannot walk in the way he speaks of, 1 Cor.
ºxiii. 2. How many are ready in the history of the Bible, that are strangers to the
mystery of practical godliness It is said of Cleopatra queen of Egypt, that
people were chained to her rather by the ear than by the eyes. So many, if ye
hear them speak, they are something ; but if ye look to their life, they are naught.
(2.) One may talk well for God, and yet have nothing of the truth of religion.
JBut though they talk for him, they walk contrary to him. A man may preach for
od, and teach others the way, that yet he never sets his foot on himself, Matt.
xxiii. 4; being like a boatman that ferries others over the water, but still with his
own back towards the shore. Both ministers and professors may contend zealously
for the faith of doctrine, while they are utter strangers to the life of faith ; like a
physician prescribing remedies to others, while himself is dying of his disease, with-
out applying of proper remedies.
(3.) One may talk well to God, that yet never walks with him. Many speak fair
to the Lord, whose walk is ever foul, never cleansed ; as in Israel's case, Deut. v.
27, 29. Fair professions, resolutions, promises, are often seen going up as dust.
Look to their words, they are like Naphtali giving goodly words, but still as Rachel,
though beautiful yet barren ; Matt. vii. 21, “Not every one that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
. But religion being a practical thing, let no man think he has begun to be reli-
gious, till he come to practice ; James ii. 16, 17, “Faith, if it hath not works, is
dead, being alone.”
2. It is inward and heart religion, 1 Pet. iii. 4. They that have no religion but
What is visible to the world, have no true religion; for God is the invisible God,
and walking with him must be so too; Rom. ii. 28, 29, “He is not a Jew which is
9me OutWardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh : but he
is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.” It may be very
hºrd to make any difference betwixt the life of a hypocrite and a sincere person:
When the thread of hypocrisy is fine-spun, it may pass the skill of the best discerner
648 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
to discover it. And therefore, one that walks with God has a view beyond what he
can see in others, or others can see in him. Ye must distinguish betwixt two
things in religion: -
(1.) The shell of it; and that is all you can see of my religion, or I of yours.
This shell is religious bodily exercise ; preaching, praying, works of piety, justice,
mercy, and charity, 1 Tim. iv. 8. These things are not very frequent in the world;
but at the great day many of them will be found like deaf nuts, which, being cracked
and their inside discovered, are cast into the fire.
(2.) The kernel of it; and that is what none can see but God and their own
consciences that have it; and that is soul-exercise, heart-work, 1 Tim. iv. 7 ; Acts
xxiv. 16. That only is godliness, and not the other. Preaching and praying,
though it were with tears and the greatest seeming seriousness, is not godliness:
it is the faith, fear, love, humiliation of heart, hatred of sin, resignation to the
will of God, and conformity of the heart to his mind, which is in the preaching or
prayer, that is religion in God’s account. It is not the works of piety, &c., them-
selves, but the love to God for his own sake, and love to our neighbour for his, the
holiness of the principle, manner, motives, ends, that is in these works, that is reli-
gion. The bodily exercise is but the vehicle in which these sacred drops are taken.
Let no man deceive himself. No kernel grows without a shell, and none can
have the power of godliness without the form of it; but there is many a shell without
a kernel, and much form where there is nothing of the power. -
3. It is heavenly religion, Phil. iii. 20. According to men's state and their
nature, so will their actions be ; for as is the tree, so will the fruit be. The heart
of man, according as grace or corruption reigns in it, will tincture every thing
that comes through it. Hence a natural man's very religion is carnal and earthly,
James iii. 15. His best things in religion smell of the earth. If a gale blow at
any time on his soul, it rises low; if he sorrow for sin, it is the sorrow of the world;
if he offer fire, it is strange fire. On the other hand, religion tinctures the very
natural actions of one that walks with God; for this is a walking as one of another
world.
Walking with God is indeed walking like one of the other world, namely, the
upper world. The man conforms no more to the way of this world, Rom, xii. 2;
keeps no more its course, Eph. ii. 2; but is coming through it as a pilgrim, and
coming out of it, Cant. iv. 8. And,
(1.) His root in this lower world is loosed, that he may be in due time trans-
planted into the upper world. The believer is no more one of the world's own,
John xv. 19. There is a certain sweetness to a man in his native soil; and so
there is to natural men in the world, they are rooted in it by the greedy gripe their
hearts take of it, Psal. xvii. 14. But when grace comes, that gripe is loosed, and
fixes on heaven ; and so that sweetness goes off, and the world turns the weary
land to him, Isa. xxxii. 2. They do not find that sweet in it which others find, and
which they themselves sometimes found in it. Their hearts are on the way-gate.
(2.) The other world is the main thing he has in view, 2 Cor. iv. 18. While the
present world bears most bulk in the eyes of others, the world to come bears most
bulk in the eyes of those that walk with God. That is their designed and desired
rest, that sways them in the course of their life; their desires, hopes, endeavours,
centre there. They overlook, and put on a holy regardlessness both of the good
and ill of the present world, if by any means they may escape the ill of the world
to come, and attain the good thereof. The purchase they design lies there.
(3.) He is making away to the other world, as a man on his journey, Cant. viii.
5 ; not only by the course of nature, as all others, but in heart and affections, by
which the soul moves; hence the apostle says, Phil. i. 23, “I am in a strait be-
twixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.”
It is true, when grace is not in exercise, a believer may be for building tabernacles
here, he may be very unwilling to pass over Jordan; but then he is not walking
with God, but standing still. Sometimes when believers are in the dark as to their
state, or for some other reasons, they may be crying, as Psal. xxxix. 13, “O spare
me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.”
Nevertheless there is never a groan they give under the body of death, never a
MISCELLANEO US DISCOURSES. 649
desire they have of perfection of holiness, but there is wrapt up in it a desire to be
with Christ, which is best of all, -
(4.) He is conforming himself to the fashions of the other world, Psal. xlv. 10.
It is his own country, being born from above ; he is a pilgrim here, and therefore
a man wondered at, as one of strange fashions. He sets himself to be like God
in holiness, for that is the happiness of those that are above. As men serve an
apprenticeship in a trade, that afterwards they may set up in it; so the life of a
walker with God is an apprenticeship in holiness here, to set up in glory hereafter.
(5.) He draws his great comfort from the unseen things of another world, Heb.
xi. 27. The apostle will have those in the Christian race to look off to Christ,
“who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame,
and fs set down at the right hand of the throne of God,” Heb. xii. 2. When this
world smiles, his chief encouragement is not from it, but from the other world.
When it frowns, thence is his support, Hab. iii. 17, 18. This has made the Saints
choose rather poverty and reproach, confinement, banishment, prisons, and death,
than to act against the laws of heaven; and to undergo these joyfully, while the
world wondered how they could bear up under them.
4. It is lively and active religion; being a walking with the living God, wherein
there is not only grace, but grace in exercise, Cant. i. 12. That is a remarkable
character given to Christians, 1 Pet. ii. 5, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up
a spiritual house.” What! Stones, and yet lively 2 lively, and yet stones 2 Yes.
The power of godliness is a compound of these two. It makes men lively in God's
matters, yet as stones for solidity: solid, yet active, such as their spirits will stir
within them in these matters. There are three sorts that cannot be walkers
with God.
(1.) Dead people ; they must be borne to their place, for they cannot go. Unre-
generate, graceless people cannot walk with God. What is the reason that so few
walk with God? Why, truly the most part of gospel hearers are dead people, Eph.
ii. 2; and till they be raised out of the grave of a natural state, it is not to be
expected of them. There was a great cry in Egypt while one was dead in every
family ; but, alas ! there are many so in many families. .
(2.) Sleeping people ; they are not fit for walking ; and sleeping Christians
cannot walk with God, Cant. v. 2. Sometimes the saints are going pleasantly on
their way in the exercise of grace ; their desires, love, faith, &c. are awake and
stirring. But through unwatchfulness, security creeps on ; and then they must
lie down, they can go no further, till the Lord waken them, Matt. xxv. 5. And
this is one reason why there are so many that have the root of the matter in them,
who are not walking with God at this day.
(3.) Lame and wounded people, that have got broken bones by some grievous
fall into sin, Psalm li. 8. They that have a thorn of guilt in their conscience,
cannot walk till it be drawn out. For the conscience is defiled, the power of grace
weakened, the soul's communion with God marred ; and they cannot recover their
liveliness till they make new application of the blood of Christ, and renew their
repentance. * -
5. It is regular religion, and uniform : for he that walks with God must needs
Walk by a constant rule; eyeing him, not in some things only, but in all, Gal.
Vi. 16 ; Psalm xvi. 8. He gives one rule of walking, extending to man's whole
cºnversation ; and so he that walks with him, walks regularly, aiming at a holy
mºness, preciseness, and exactness, in conformity to that rule in all things, Eph.
Y.15, Gr, ; noticing carefully the prints of his feet with whom he walks. Now,
this imports, te
... (1) A design and fixed purpose in religion, namely, a purpose of conformity to
God in it; Acts xi. 23, “And exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they
Would cleave unto the Lord.” The words are emphatic, “that they would cleave
into the Lord,” q. d. abide by his side; “with purpose of heart,” laid down and
determined beforehand. A man may do a good thing in religion, which yet will
not be reckoned good indeed to him ; because, though he did it, he had no mind to
please God in it. Religion's chance-customers will never be esteemed walkers with
God; Lev, xxvi, “ walking contrary,” Heb, “by accident, at all adventures.”
- 4 N
650 MISCEI.I., ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
(2.) A constancy in religion, in opposition to wavering, Heb. x. 23. Hereaway
and thereaway in religion is not walking with God, who “ is of one mind, and who
can turn him ?” Job xxiii. 13. They that walk with men, or according to their
own affections and inclinations, it is no wonder to see them at one time destroying
what at another time they were building up ; of one way in religion to-day, and
another to-morrow ; for these are changeable like the moon. But walking with God,
people would go even forward, and keep their way they were on ; neither going off
on the right hand because others go off at the left, nor going off at the left because
others go off at the right, Prov. iv. 25–27.
(3.) An evenliness in religion, in opposition to a detestable unequalness, Matt.
xxiii. 23. To run with vigour in the lesser things of religion, and move like a
snail in the greatest matters of it, is not walking with God. A wide conscience
in substantials, and narrow one in circumstantials, is a conscience of a profane
and godless make and mould ; hence is that intimation, Hos. vi. 6, “I desired
mercy, and not sacrifice ; and the knowledge of God, more than burnt-offerings.”
A sincere conforming of ourselves to the duties required in the ten commands,
summed up in love to God and our neighbour, is true holiness. Instituted ordi-
nances are the means of holiness; which will be laid aside in heaven, when perfec-
tion in holiness is obtained. Now, to be hot in these last, and cold in the other,
is as detestable, as to be concerned to give meat to your neighbour, while, in the
meantime, you stab him to the heart, to take away his life.
(4.) An universalness in religion, Psalm czix. 6. He that makes no bones of
balking some steps, walks not with God. They that confine their religion to their
religious actions, and extend it not to their natural and civil actions, have no reli-
gion at all. What does it avail to pretend to a tenderness of conscience in one
thing, and yet in other things to swallow a camel ; to a tenderness in dealing with
God, while no tenderness appears in their dealings with men? Psalm czix, 128 ;
Matt. xxiii. 24. This is one of the causes of atheism and contempt of religion in
the generation ; Rom. ii. 23, 24, “Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through
breaking the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.”
6. It is laborious and painful religion; for it is no easy life they have whose
trade it is to walk on their feet, Heb. vi. 10. And it is no easy religion to walk
with God. Religion is not a business of saying, but doing; not of doing carelessly,
but carefully, painfully, and diligently. If ye would be religious indeed, ye must
put to your hands to work, set down your feet to walk, run the Christian race,
ply all your strength to strive to enter in at the strait gate, wrestle with all your
might against principalities and powers, &c. This will be evident, if ye consider
these following things; for an easy religion is the ruin of many.
(1.) Consider the scripture-notions of walking with God, in which the life of
religion lies, and you will see they imply laboriousness. It is a working and
labouring ; John vi. 27, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that
meat which endureth unto everlasting life;” Gr. work. Here he that works not,
shall not eat. It is not only a working, but a “working out,” Phil. ii. 12; a
bringing the work to perfection; otherwise what is wrought will be lost, 2 John 8.
Some labour is easier than another ; but religion is compared to that which is the
hardest labour. *
i. It is compared to the husbandman's work, which is no easy labour, ploughing,
sowing, reaping ; Hos. x. 12, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy:
break up your fallow-ground.” . There is no ground so hard to labour, as the hard
heart is to the spiritual husbandman. No ground does so quickly and incessantly
bring forth thorns and briers as the corrupt nature. And whereas the husband-
man for ordinary finds his work as he leaves it, the Christian rarely finds it so.
ii. To the soldier's labour; 2 Tim. iv. 7, “I have fought a good fight.” He
must watch while others sleep and take their ease, otherwise the enemy will be
upon him. He must fight ; he must not flee, but so fight as to overcome his
spiritual enemies, Rev. iii. 21. He must pursue, Heb. xii. 14; namely, as one
follows a flier, till he catch him. Heaven must be taken by storm, Matt. xi. 12.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 651
The gate is strait, there is no entering with ease ; men must press into it, elso
they cannot come thither, Luke xvi. 16. A.
iii. To the wrestler's labour, Eph. vi. 12; such as makes all the body to shake
again. They must put forth their utmost strength, as those that are agonizing,
wrestling with death, Luke xiii. 24. This the Christian finds in wrestling with
strong lusts and violent temptations.
iv. To the runner's labour in a race, Heb. xii. 1. That requires patience and
great eagerness, Phil. iii. 13, 14; for they must so run as to obtain the prize,
1 Cor. ix. 24.
(2.) Consider the way the Christian has to walk in towards Immanuel's land,
and ye will see that religion is a laborious business. For,
i. It is a difficult way; though plain in itself, yet to us it is difficult to know,
Cant. i. 7, 8. How much precious time do the travellers spend in disputing which
is the way, that might be better improved in going forward | Nay, many spend all
their days in disputing about the way, till the sun go down on them, and night
overtake them, ere they have begun to set off. Many mistake the way quite and
clean, Eccl. x. 15 ; some going in the way of bare morality, some of drowsy wishes,
and some of formality, &c. And many good Christians in the way are brought to
that pass, that they know not where to set down the next step ; but have hard
work to know the road they should take.
ii. It is a wilderness-way, and therefore very solitary, Cant. iii. 6. Canaan was
a type of heaven ; and to it the Israelites came through the waste howling wilder-
ness, where they had many a weary step. An emblem of the way to heaven.
There the Christian often suffers hunger and thirst, there he is bit with fiery ser-
pents, there he is attacked by furious enemies, and there he has the Jordan of
death to pass.
iii. It is a rising, an upward way, Cant. viii. 5. The way of sin is down the hill,
easy, and therefore much frequented. But the way to glory lies up the hill: and
hence so many are frighted from it at first sight ; and many that seem to set fair
off once, are quickly out of breath, and so retire. The temple, a type of heaven,
was situate on a hill, Moriah, 1 Kings x. 5. Much hard travel had some of the
Jews ere they got to Jerusalem, Psalm lxxxiv. 6, 7 ; and when they came there,
they had the hill of God to ascend into, Psalm xxiv. 3.
(3) Consider what he has to walk through that walks with God in the way of
the life of religion. He will meet with troops of opposition, but he must break
through them all. They must walk through,
i. Opposition from the devil, 1 Pet. v. 8, 9. No sooner does a soul set on the
way of God in earnest, but the armies of hell are set in battle-array against him.
The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the way,” &c.; but the Christian resolutely
walks forward. But it is hard work when a poor Christian is engaged with a
Imalicious and subtile devil, that has had five thousand years' experience of the
black art of temptation.
ii. Opposition from the world. The world agents the devil's cause for him, and
never ceases to take the ill cause of the dragon against Michael by the end.” But
they that mind for heaven, must set their face against the storm, and weather all
the blasts that come from that quarter. They will not want the counsel of the un-
godly, but they must refuse it, Psalmi. 1; the mockeries of the wicked, but they must
despise them, Psalm crix. 51. N ay, sometimes it comes to persecution, and resisting
even to blood ; but they that walk with God, must go through even a sea of blood
When called, Matt. xvi. 25. Daniel would not leave his prayers for thirty days,
when praying was death by the law, Dan. vi. 7, 10.
iii. Opposition from their own hearts' lusts. A man's enemies are those of his
own heart, Rom. vii. 24. Sometimes the false heart will be saying within the
man, “Arise and let us go back to Egypt;” sometimes with Peter, “Master,
Spare thyself;” sometimes with Judas, “What needs all this waste 3’ sometimes
With Pharaoh, “I will not let you go.” But the Christian must, over the belly
of all these, walk forward; Matt. xi. 12, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth vio-
lonce, and the violent take it by force.”
* i. e. to support it.—ED.
652 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
(4.) Consider what he has to walk over. There are some things in the Chris-
i. way to heaven, which he may be cannot get through, but he must go over
them. - -
i. Over the belly of discouragements, Heb. x. 35. Satan plies the engine of
discouragement with all his force ; and often mightily prevails by it, to make the
Christian halt in his Christian course. And they may long sit still, if they mind to
sit till they be removed. Nay, they must even break over them and go forward,
though it be hard labour to get over them ; saying with David, Psalm xlii. 5,
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope
thou in God; for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”
ii. Over the belly of stumbling-blocks laid in the way, Matt. xviii. 7. The
world is ruined by offences. Some give the offence, and others take it; that is,
some fall in the way, and others cannot go by the stumbling-block, but break their
necks over it. But he that walks with God, when he cannot get them removed
out of the way, he goes over them, but will not go off his way for them as people
generally do ; Job xvii. 9, “The righteous shall hold on his way; and he that hath
clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.” - -
iii. Over the belly of their credit and reputation sometimes. Many a time a
Christian must make a stepping-stone of his credit, to follow his duty; as David
did, when he said unto Michal, “I will yet be more vile than thus, and I will be
base in mine own sight,” 2 Sam. vi. 22. And it is a general rule in the practice
of godliness, that they must be fools who will be wise. That is hard ; but some-
times they must even make a stepping-stone of their reputation with carnal and
untender professors, and lay their account with their obloquy and reproach for follow-
ing of their duty, as you may see Matt. xxvi. 7–10. -
iv. Over the belly of their affections and inclinations. It was Levi's commenda-
tion, “Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him ; neither
did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children,” Deut. xxxiii. 9.
They have little sense of practical religion that do not see they must put the knife
to the throat of their own inclinations and affections many times, to follow duty
laid before them by the Lord. These are not the rule of our walk; but they that
walk by their own inclinations and affections, walk not with God, but walk as they
that are “sensual, not having the Spirit.” And this is hard work, and so much the
harder when they meet altogether, as sometimes they do in the case of the godly.
(5.) Consider the little strength we have to walk with ; 2 Cor. iii. 5, “Not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves.” We got all of
us a bruise in the loins of our first parents. Even such as walk with God are healed
but in part, the broken bones are but beginning to knit. Well, if the iron be
blunt, he must put to the more strength; the less one has, he must make the better
use of it. All these considerations show that religion is a laborious and painful
business. -
Well, Sirs, a slothful easy religion is a dangerous business. Take heed to it;
it will not be found walking with God. The sluggard is lost by his own sloth : he
“will not plough by reason of the cold,” says Solomon ; “therefore shall he beg
in harvest, and have nothing,” Prov. xx. 4. He is the unprofitable servant: see his
doom, Matt. xxv. 26–30, “Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness:
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” He is unprofitable to himself, for
he neglects his salvation-work; unprofitable to his Master, for he neglects his
generation-work. Mark the sentence ; he loved darkness to sleep in, he shall have
his fill of it, “outer darkness.” For carnal mirth, he shall “weep.” He would
not work because of the cold, in hell he shall “gnash his teeth.”
7. It is self-denied religion; Matt. xvi. 24, “If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself.” Thus our Lord Jesus walked when he was in the world;
and “he that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he
walked,” 1 John ii. 6. Self-denial is one of the first lessons that Christ puts in the
hands of his scholars, and they have need of it in practice through the whole of their
conversation. In the religion of walkers with God these two things are remark-
able, laboriousness and self-denial, which sweetly meet together in it, as the wings
of the cherubims over the ark. -
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES . 653
(1.) Laboriousness, working, as if they were to win heaven thereby, 1 Cor. ix.
24; following holiness with all eagerness, as knowing that heaven is not given to
loiterers, but labourers; and endeavouring to take the new Jerusalem as by storm.
For walking with God, they look on themselves as under his eye, and therefore ply
their salvation and generation-work. And the love of Christ constrains them to be
serviceable to him, and to ply themselves for conformity to his image.
(2.) Self-denial. * .
i. Overlooking their work and labour, as if God had not required it ; putting no
confidence in it before the Lord ; nor valuing themselves upon it in his sight, Phil.
iii. 3; but laying the whole stress of their acceptance with God on the merits of
Christ. This must needs be so: for,
(i.) He that walketh with God is acquainted with the holiness and spotless
purity of himself, the exceeding breadth of his law, and the jealousy of his Holy
Spirit; and therefore he cannot miss to see the imperfections of his best works in
these bright glasses, and say, as Psal. xix. 12, “Who can understand his errors ?”
and czxx. 3, “If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand 2’’
(ii.) He honours the Son, living by faith in him, Gal. ii. 20. And that is one's
going out of himself for all to Jesus Christ ; out of his own ill in point of practice
and self-loathing, and out of his own good in point of confidence, Isa. lxiv. 6.
ii. Overlooking their own strength for working, as mere weakness, 2 Cor. iii. 5.
Self-denial makes one go out of himself for sanctification to the Spirit of Christ, as
well as for justification to his blood, 1 Cor. i. 30; Isa. xlv. 24. For walking with
God is a walking and leaning on him to be carried on the way, Cant. viii. 5; a
staying one's self upon him, as the traveller doth upon his staff. This must needs
be so : for, - -
(i.) Whoso tries the way of walking with God, will quickly find he is not man
enough for the opposition he will meet with in the way; not able to go but as he
is led, nay, nor stand but as he is held up, John xv. 5. The least temptation or
unmortified lust, how hard is it to one left to grapple with it in his own strength ;
Peter falls at the voice of a silly maid.
(ii.) The scripture declares, that there is no safety in, nor good to be had from,
one's working merely from his own inherent stock; Prov. xxviii. 26, “He that
trusteth in his own heart, is a fool.” Nay, there is a curse denounced on him that
does so, which will cause that he will never bring his work to perfection; Jer. xvii.
5, 6, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and
whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like heath in the desert, and
shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilder-
ness.” And therefore have we that watchword, Heb. iii. 12, “Take heed, breth-
ren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the
living God.”
8. It is humble religion, Micah vi. 8. For howsoever any may set up before
men, they must needs vail their faces when they see themselves in the presence of
a holy God. Proud and conceited religion is of the wrong stamp : for it is quite
unlike the Spirit of the holy Jesus ; and of the saints, who, the more religious they
were, were always the more humble. And the more proud and conceited profes-
sors be of their religion, be sure they are so far strangers to walking with God.
Now, this humble religion will appear,
(1.) In low thoughts of ourselves, and honourable thoughts of others, in whom
the image of God appears, Phil. ii. 3. Paul counts himself the chief of sinners,
though the chief of New Testament saints. A high conceit of ourselves, with an
undervaluing of others, is a shrewd sign of little acquaintance with walking with
God. For it is impossible but the man that walks with God must see more evil
in himself, than he can in any other that bears any thing of the holy image of God.
But he that has the foul face, but looks not into the glass, may think it more
beautiful than any that he sees. -
(2) In being denied to vain-glory, Phil. ii. 3. He that walks with God will not
have occasion to hunt after the applause of men, unless he go off his way, and so
far leave his Leader. It is a sad sign of little walking with God, to affect so much
honour and respect from men, and for one to trumpet forth his own praise; a dis-
654 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
position Smelling rank of a naughty heart; Prov. xxvii. 2, “Let another man
praise thee, and not thine own mouth ;” John xii. 43, “They loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God.” It may nourish one to death, but not to life,
like the chameleon to live on air.
(3.) In refusing to stoop to nothing whereby the honour of God, and the edifica-
tion of the souls of others may be advanced; as exemplified in our Lord's hum-
bling of himself, Phil. ii. 5–8. He that walks with God will be content to make
a stepping-stone of his credit, ease, &c., for these ends, counting nothing too low
for him whereby he may follow the Lord. But, alas ! there is a cursed respect for
ourselves, that so prevails with many, that they count some duties of religion below
them. And their pretended credit must spread, though it should darken the
heavens, and wrap up the glory of God in a cloud. -
(4.) In a kindly accommodating of our spirits to humbling providences, Job i.
21. Sometimes the Lord leads his people very low, through afflictions, crosses,
poverty, and wants. The humble will follow him whithersoever he goes. But
the proud, nothing will satisfy them but rising, and they will blacken the heavens
with their murmurings and complaints when they are falling. But if our lot be
not brought up to our spirits, let our spirits be brought down to our lot. We are
on our journey out of this world ; and we may come as soon, and more safely, to
an happy end of it the low way, as the high way.
(5.) In an absolute resignation to the will of God; saying in every thing, “Not
my will, but thine be done,” Luke xxii. 42. Walking with God is a following of
him as the shadow does the body. It causes men put a blank in the Lord's hand,
that he may fill up in it what he pleases. But so far as we come short of the great
duty of absolute resignation to the will of God, we come short of walking with God.
9. It is constant religion. Walking is not a rising up and sitting down again; but
a continued action, like that of a traveller going on till he come to his journey's end.
Enoch walked on through the world, till he was not. It is constant in two respects:
(1.) Without interruption. It is not a religion taken by fits and starts, but
going on evenly ; Psal. xvi. 8, “I have set the Lord always before me.” Some
people's religion is like an ague, wherein they have their hot fits and cold fits. They
go to and fro; they will be one day for God, and another for the devil. Whatever
good mood they be found in at any time, they do not abide at it, Hos. vi. 4. And
so they can never bring it to any good account, for they are always beginning; ever
learning, but never come to the knowledge of the truth. These people's religion
consists in two things:
i. Flashes, and that is all they have from heaven; flashes of affections, like those
mentioned, Psal. lxxviii. 34, “When he slew them, then they sought him : and
they returned and inquired early after God.” The Spirit of holiness does not rest
on them ; but some light touches of his common influences they get, which do not
abide. Hence, with convictions sometimes, and with melted but unsanctified
affections, their hearts will be as when, in the time of great rain, every pool is full,
but quickly dry again, because it has no spring. Whereas it is otherwise with
those that walk with God; John iv. 14, “The water that I shall give him, shall be
in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.”
ii. Overleaps into the holy ground, and that is all that heaven has from them ;
Job xxvii. 9, 10, “Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him ? will he
delight himself in the Almighty ? will he always call upon God?” . They do not
usually feed on God's pastures, but at the table of the world and their lusts. God
saw this was the temper of the Israelites, which made him say concerning them,
“O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all
my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their chil.
dren for ever !” Deut. v. 29. They will be to-day crying “Hosanna,” to-mor-
row, “Crucify him.” Religion is not their element, and so they cannot abide
with it, Job xxiv. 13. o
(2) Without defection and apostasy. . We read of some, (John vi. 66,) that
“went back, and walked no more with him.” They cast off religion, and laid it
by for good and all. These people's walking with God, if we may call it so, will
be no more remembered but to their condemnation, Ezek, iii. 20. They will never
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 655
see heaven; Luke ix. ult., “No man having put his hand to the plough, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Lot's wife was an emblem of such :
she looked back to Sodom ; and God turned her to a pillar of salt, for a terror to
apostates. For such he abhors, Heb. x. 38. But they that walk with God will
not be,
i. Bribed away from him, by the allurements of the world and flesh ; which is
one engine of Satan, whereby he makes many apostates, as Judas, Demas, &c.
How many are there who have sometimes, by their addictedness to the way of God,
promised great things, and so have gone on for a time flourishing ! But afterwards
Satan has led them aside by temptations, and always farther and farther off the
way, till he has got them to cast off religion altogether.
ii. Boasted away from him, by the severities they may meet with in following the
Lord ; Cant. viii. 7, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods
drown it.” Sometimes Satan plays the fox, by cunning wiles to draw sinners to
apostasy; and sometimes the lion, to drive them to it by hardships, mockeries,
hard usage, and persecutions. But religion, where it is of the right stamp, will
last, whatever methods be used to put it out.
10. It is progressive religion, religion that is going forward; Prov. iv. 18, “The
path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the per-
fect day.” There is a mark the soul aims at when he sets off in the Lord's way,
and that is perfection in holiness; and walking with God is a pressing forward to
it, Phil. iii. 13, 14. Such a one is adding a cubit to his spiritual stature. When
the seed of grace is sown in the heart in regeneration, the man must walk with
God, that so the seed may grow and shoot forth. And so in walking with God the
new creature grows,
(1.) Inward, growing into Christ, Eph. iv. 15 ; uniting more closely with him,
and cleaving more firmly to him as the head of influences, which is the spring of
all other growth.
(2.) Outward, in good works, in life and conversation. Not only, like Naphtali,
do they “give goodly words,” but, like Joseph, they are as “fruitful boughs.”
(3.) Upward, for their “conversation is in heaven,” Phil. iii. 20; in heavenly-
mindedness and contempt of the world.
(4.) Downward, in humility and self-loathing. Thus he that walks with God
makes progress in Sanctification.
There is also in it a progress in experimental knowledge of religion, 2 Pet. iii.
ult. The traveller, the farther he goes on, he knows the country the better: and
he that walks with God gets Christian experience. Not only is his head more
filled with raw unfelt notions, but his soul is stored with saving acquaintance with
truth. The further he goes on, he becomes the more expert a traveller to the
heavenly Canaan. He observes what has worsted, and what bettered his soul's
case ; and so will labour to eschew the one, and follow the other. And when he
comes to a dark step, he can bear out the better, that it is not the first he has gone
through.
Thus far of the nature of walking with God.
II. I shall next confirm this doctrine, That the life of religion lies in walking
with God. In order to this, consider,
First, That religion is not a matter of speculation, but of practice. Whatever
light it brings into the mind, it is for moving the heart and affections. And there-
fore it is called “the doctrine according to godliness.” And the greatest mysteries
of our religion are “mysteries of godliness,” 1 Tim, iii. 16. I think the devil
may be a greater speculative divine, than the best of us can pretend to be. And
the apostle supposes one may “understand all mysteries,” and “all knowledge,”
and “yet be nothing,” I Cor. xiii. 2. So little worth is the knowledge of religion
without the practice, the word without the power. -
Secondly, All other practice of religion, without walking with God, is but bodily
exercise, little worth, 1 Tim. iv. 8. The Jews wrote on their synagogue-doors,
“Prayer without intention is as a body without the spirit.” And where walking
with God is wanting, there is the carcase of religion, but the soul of it is away. It
can never be pleasing to God, because it is not agreeable to his nature, John iv. 24.
656 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Thirdly, The great difference betwixt the sincere Christian and the hypocrite
lies here; Phil. iii. 3, “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” What makes
the sincere Christian differ from the hypocrite in his walk? Is it that he performs
external duties? No; you cannot pitch upon one of these, but a hypocrite may per-
form the same. Is it that he knows and can speak of religion better? No; a
hypocrite may excel a good Christian in these gifts. Is it that he has sometimes
a flood of affections? No; Pharaoh, Esau, and the stony-ground hearers wanted
not these. But the hypocrite never comes up to walking with God, which the
sincere does, though not always.
Fourthly, Without this there is no sanctification ; because without it there is no
communion with God, and so no sanctifying influences. A man may pray many
a prayer, hear many a sermon, and be many a year a professor of religion, and
yet never be a whit the more holy, unless he walk with God. All without that in
this point is but the washing of a blackmoor, labour in vain. For spiritless lifeless
walking will never heal our unholy nature. Hence, when the heart is away from
God, the man is as “the heath in the wilderness, and shall not see when good
cometh,” Jer. xvii. 5, 6. *
Fifthly, This is that part of religion that will remain in heaven for ever, 1 Cor.
xiii. 8. Thus the happiness of heaven is held out under the notion of “walking
with God,” Rev. iii. 4. All divine institutions tend to this. For this was the
course the first Adam was set on, but broke off from ; this course the second Adam
held ; and to be brought back to this will be man's greatest happiness. So that
without controversy, the soul of religion lies here.
Lastly, Our spiritual religion lies in communion with God. In ourselves we are
dead spiritually, being slain in Adam. Now our life is in Christ, Col. iii. 4, and
we cannot partake of that life but by communion with him ; Gal. ii. 20, “I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I
live by the faith of the Son of God.” It is that communion with Christ that
makes men truly lively, and their religion, religion indeed, in so far as it makes
men walk with God.
I shall now make some improvement of this subject, in uses of information,
reproof, and exhortation.
Use 1. Of information. This lets us see,
First, That the religion of those is little worth, that are utter strangers to walk-
ing with God. It is but the carcase of religion without the soul. The apostle
speaks of “vain religion;” James i. 26, “If any man among you seem to be reli-
gious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion
is vain.” This is such. It is vain with respect to God's approbation, for he will
never approve of it, Rom. ii. 28, 29; and vain with respect to their own salvation,
it will never bring them to heaven nor abide the trial, Matt. vii. 22.
& Secondly, True religion lies not in a form, but has a power with it causing a
holy walk, 2 Tim. iii. 5. True religion is not a vain inefficacious thing, but has a
commanding power with it. It is, in the heart, like the centurion when it says to
the man, “Go,” he “must go;” and when it says, “Come, he cometh.” It has
a restraining power, it binds up the man from sin. Job was tempted to blaspheme,
but the power of godliness restrained him. It sets the man in God's way, it keeps
him on it, and causes him to go forward in it.
Thirdly, That no man has more true religion than what influences his walk. God
will never measure people's religion by fair words or a shining profession, but by
the course of their life and actions, in faith, love, and other moral duties. God
has written his law in the Bible, has transcribed it again into the renewed heart,
and they write it over again in their holy conversation.
Fourthly, There is little of the life of religion in the world, there is so little
walking with God in it. There are few that have the form of godliness in com-
parison of those that want it; and yet but few of those who have the form that
have the power too. How few are there that eye God in all things; whose hearts
go along with him as the shadow with the body; that walk with him in ordinances,
in providences, in their stations and relations, and in their actions, natural, civil,
and religious ! O how rare is practical, inward, heavenly, &c., religion
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 65'ſ
Use 2. Of reproof. Hence we may reach a reproof to several sorts of persons
that do not walk with God.
First, Those that have never yet risen up from their sin. Walking with God is
a motion of the soul from sin to Sanctification, Isa. i. 16, 17. It is like the going
up a stair, where the first step raiseth a man from the ground, and so he goes up
by degrees till he come there where he would be. Heaven is the upper room, faith
and holiness are the stairs, and the state of sin is the ground. But, alas ! many
have not come the length of the first step yet ; they are still in their sins, under
the guilt of them and under the power of them. They have not, with Lazarus,
come out of the grave; with Matthew, left the receipt of custom ; nor, with
the palsied man, risen out of their bed; and far less, with Enoch, do they walk
with God.
1. Consider, we cannot say of you, “Ye are not far from the kingdom of God;”
for truly ye are even as far from it as Adam led you and left you. The way to
the pleasant land is long, and your day is far spent; but to this day ye have not
entered on the way, not stirred a foot from your old sins. Are ye not afraid that
your day go ere ye are able to overtake the journey : r
2. If ye lie still, ye will never see heaven. As soon shall heaven and hell meet,
as you shall get to heaven in that state and case. If ye sit still, ye die; and there-
fore, rise and walk, and flee from the wrath to come. -
Secondly, Those whose life is a mere wandering ; Eccl. x. 15, “The labour of
the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the
city.” Many spend their days thus wandering: among the creatures their souls
wander, and from one they go to another ; they take a miserable round in the
vanities of this world, but never go beyond them to God. They wander up and
down in the way of sin; sometimes they fall into one miserable course, sometimes
into another, but never into the course of holiness. They walk in a round, where-
of the centre is hell, and the cirumference sin and vanity. All their life they go
from one sin and one vanity to another ; and at death, when they leave the world,
they are in the same place they were in when they came into it. As they were
born in sin, they die in it, and tumble down to hell, their miserable life being not
a walking with God, but a wallowing in one puddle of sin all along.
1. Your thus wandering is a sad sign that your natural blindness is not removed,
Rev. iii. 17. Your plague is in your head, and so your heart cannot be right. Ye
have never yet discovered the excellency of Christ the Captain of our salvation,
nor the glory of the land that is afar off, and ye know not the way leading to it.
Therefore your case is sad.
2. Remember the generation that wandered in the wilderness died there, and
never saw the land of Canaan, 1 Cor. x. 5. This will be your doom, if ye con-
tinue. Ye are walking in a mist, among fearful precipices and fiery serpents; how
can ye miss to fall ? -
Thirdly, Backsliders, that have turned their backs on God's way, John vi. 66.
These, instead of walking with God, fall away from him, back to their old sins.
They gave up their names to him, lifted themselves under his banner, but now they
have turned runaways. They came under bonds to God and his way; but they
have broken his bonds, and cast away his cords from them. They once appeared
on God's side, but they have got over into the devil's camp.
1. Your sin is greater than if ye had never set off in the Lord's way. Ye know
that relapses into a disease are most dangerous, and most hopeless; and so “it had
been better for you not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after you
have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto you,” 2 Pet.
ii. 21. For then men sin over the belly of more light than before ; they cast a
particular infamy upon the way of God, as if they would make the world to believe,
from their experience, that Christ's yoke is intolerable.
2. Your condemnation will be the greater. It is a fearful word, Heb. x. 38, “If
any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him;” Prov. xiv. 14, “The
backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.” As the sorest fall is from
the highest place, so the deepest plunge into the lake of fire is from the threshold
of heaven, And when the backslider is taken in the snare of destruction, it will
4 o
658 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
be a peculiar worm in his conscience for ever that, once in a day, he was well
nigh escaped.
Fourthly, Resisters of the Holy Ghost ; whom God is using all means with to
draw them to his way, but they will not come on it; Jer. ii. 25, “I have loved
strangers, and after them will I go.” Not only are they called by the word, but
by providence. God meets some in their evil ways, like the angel with the drawn
sword in his hand meeting Balaam, and yet they will not leave it. God hedges
up their sinful ways with thorns, yet they break through the thorn-hedge. Their
consciences tell them they are wrong, and give them many a secret blow to drive
them into the way; but they follow their corruptions, over the belly of their con-
SC1011CeS. *
1. This is dreadful and dangerous work, as being a fighting against God and
against yourselves, Acts vii. 51. But though the potsherds of the earth strive
among themselves, it is miserable folly to strive with their Maker. The voice of
the word, providence, and conscience is the voice of God; take heed how ye enter-
tain the same. -
2. The issue must needs be terrible, if it be continued in, Job ix. 4. For when
God judgeth, he will overcome. What can be expected of it, but that God be
provoked to cease striving with you, and to lay the reins on your neck, (Gen. vi.
3; Psal. lxxxi. 11,) and afterwards call you to an account as wilful rejecters of
salvation ?
Fifthly, Enemies to the way of God; who not only do not walk in it them-
selves, but hinder others to walk in it, as the scribes and Pharisees, Matt. xxiii. 13.
There are agents for the devil in the world who have a malignant hatred against
the power of godliness, and set themselves to quench the Spirit in others, by
mocking, tempting them to sin, &c. Consider,
1. That is the devil's trade, and therefore a sad indication of one that is a child
of the devil. Let such hear what the Spirit of the Lord says to them, Acts xiii.
10, “O full of all subtilty, and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of
all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?” God
is especially an enemy unto those that are enemies to his ways, and so set them-
selves to advance the devil's kingdom. -
2. The blood of souls will be a heavy load; and such as turn others from the
way of God, their blood will be upon their head. And those that set themselves
that way, they need not doubt but that in such a corrupt world they will always
be successful with some, Luke xvi. 27, 28.
Sixthly, Loose and licentious professors, who walk so scandalously that the
world may see they do not walk with God; Jer. vii. 8–10, “Behold, ye trust in
lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and
swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye
know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my
name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” There are many
that profess religion, that it were telling religion * they did not pretend to it. For
hearken to their words, take a view of their life, there is no tenderness to be seen
there. The voice is Jacob's, but their rough hands declare them to be profane
Esau’s. There is nothing that looks like holiness about them but the profession
of truth ; but their tongues and their lives are profane. Whoso sees them, may
see their light hearts and offensive lives have nothing of the ballast of the power of
godliness. Consider,
1. A loose and licentious life, under whatever profession it appear, argues a god-
less and graceless heart, Phil. iii. 18, 19. It is an easy thing for people to make
a profession, which costs them not the life of a lust; to addict themselves to this
or that opinion, while they do not addict themselves to the study of a holy life;
to pin a new creed to an old life. But were grace in the heart, and they made
partakers of the new nature, it would make them study holiness in all manner of
conversation.
2. What will the end of that way be, think ye 2 See Psal. cxxv, ult, “As for
* i. e. it would be to the advantage of religion.—ED.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. - 659
such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with
the workers of iniquity.” . And if there be a hotter place in hell than another, the
hypocrite that has a profession of religion but a licentious life shall get it, Matt.
xxiv. ult. And their profession will serve but to make them so much the more
marks for the arrows of God’s vengeance.
Seventhly, Close hypocrites, whose outward conversation is blameless, but in the
mean time they are strangers to the life of religion and walking with God, “hav-
ing a form of godliness but denying the power thereof,” 2 Tim. iii. 5. They go
about duties, but they are strangers to communion with God; they walk blame-
lessly, but walk not with God; they abound in bodily exercise, but are estranged to
spiritual worship; they exercise gifts, but they have nothing of the exercise of
grace. Their souls are estranged from the life of God, and are dead within them;
and they are like some dead beasts, there is nothing of them profitable but the skin,
i. e. the outward form.
1. Consider that religion may serve to blind your own eyes and the eyes of the
world, but not the eyes of God. The close hypocrite will be like Ahab in dis-
guise, but the arrow hit him for all that; for there is no deceiving the eyes of the
Almighty. - .*
2. It will have a miserable issue. God loves to discover hypocrites; Rev. iii.
16, “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out
of my mouth.” Sometimes he withdraws his restraint that he has on them, and
turns out their inside in this life before the world, as Judas, Ananias, and Sapphira.
But he will not fail to do it at the great day, when every one shall be judged
according to their works.
Lastly, Gracious persons whose grace is not in exercise, who, though they be
spiritually alive in respect of their state, yet are not lively, but dead in their frame,
Cant. v. 2. They are not walking with God as sometimes they have been, but are
fallen asleep, and are going after the way of their own hearts. O Sirs, ye are off
the way, and I will tell you how ye may know it. A gracious person may know
that he is not walking with God,
1. By the decay of his love to his Guide. This was God's controversy with the
church of Ephesus, Rev. ii. 4, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast
left thy first love.” And may not the Lord say to many of his people this day,
as Jer. ii. 2, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine
espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not
sown º’ While the soul walks with God, it keeps its eye upon Christ, and seeing
him cannot but love him. But the soul loses sight of Christ; then out of sight,
out of mind;.. and what the eye sees not, the heart rues not. A sad sign that ye
are off the way.
2. By decay of love to the fellow-travellers; Matt. xxiv. 12, “Because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” There has been a day wherein
the people of God have dearly loved one another, delighted to pray, converse, &c.,
together; and the wrong done to any of them was, by reason of their sympathy, as
done to them all. But, alas! where is that now 2 Christian love is much decayed.
What is the reason ? Why, as travellers, as long as they are going out the road
together, have a particular kindness one for another; but when they begin to stay
by the way and scatter, one going to his business, and another to his, that wears
off even so; the Lord's people taking different ways and scattering from one another,
their love to each other cools.
3. By the decay of zeal for the honour of their Leader. If one would affront a
Captain on the head of his troop, all the soldiers’ hearts would stir within them.
But when he is left alone, there is none concerned to resent the injuries done to
him. I never like that zeal that, overlooking the substantials of religion, burns
9ut on the lesser things. . But this I will say, that were there more walking with
God among us, there would be more zeal for the great things of religion; and if so,
then more for the lesser things too. Were we more concerned for the kingdom of
Christ within us, we would be more zealous for the kingdom of Christ without us.
4. By the decay of tenderness, and care to please the Lord, Col. i. 10. While
David was walking with God, he was tender of the least sin, his heart Smote him
660 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
when he had cut off the lap of Saul's garment. But at another time he lay
long under horrible guilt in the matter of Uriah, his heart being hardened. Some-
times Christians could have had no rest without the enjoyment of God in duties;
but alas ! at other times they are formal in performance of their duty as a task.
And an evil deed will not be so heavy to them, as a rash word or vain thought
would sometimes have been.
5. By the decay of diligence in duties, instead whereof slothfulness creeps in,
Eccl. x. 18. He that walks with God will be diligent to note every step of his way;
so it is an ill sign when the heart turns careless. He will be much conversant with
God in the duties of religion, often found on the road to the throne, because he has
much business with heaven: but when he walks not with God, he remits of his dili-
gence, and comes far short of his former pains in his soul-matters.
6. By a decay of heavenly-mindedness, instead of which there creeps in carnality
and earthly-mindedness. Walking with God makes a heavenly life, Phil. iii. 20.
And while a child of God holds at it, it tinctures all his thoughts, words, and actions
with a savour of heaven, Cant. iii. 6. But when that fails, all these savour of
the earth.
7. By a decay of liveliness and earnestness in duties. Sometimes a child of God
is like Jacob wrestling for the blessing ; he is very peremptory, and will not take
a naysay, Gen. xxxii. 26. Sometimes again, as Ephraim, like a “silly dove with-
out heart,” (Hos. vii. 11,) having neither heart nor hand to ply the throne of
grace : a sad sign of not walking with God.
Now, to such I would say two things: -
1st, Horrid ingratitude is stamped on your ceasing to walk with God; Jer. ii. 31,
“O generation, see ye the word of the Lord: have I been a wilderness unto Israel?
a land of darkness 2 wherefore say my people, We are lords, we will come no more
unto thee ?” The pleasantest and most profitable days a Christian ever has, are
those wherein he walks with God; and when he gives over that, his real well-days
are done, Hos. ii. 7. Then his bones flourish as an herb, but otherwise they wither
like the grass. Therefore may we say, “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish
people and unwise?” Deut. xxxii. 6.
2dly, It is easy to go off the way, but not so to get on it again ; it is easy to
halt and sit down, but not to rise up again and walk. Ye had need to awake in
time, lest the Lord give you a fearful wakening, either by some heavy stroke, or,
which is worse, by letting you fall into some grievous guilt, as he did David.
Use 3. Of exhortation. Study the life of religion, in walking with God. Walk
not after your own lusts, nor in the way of the world, either its way of profaneness
or its way of formality; but go through the world walking with God. I offer the
following motives:
Motive 1. Ye are going fast through the world, and ere long will be at your
journey's end. Time runs with a rapid course ; and whether ye sleep or wake, ye
will soon find yourselves pass the border of time ; Job ix. 25, 26, “My days are
swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. They are passed away as
the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.” The watch going wrong
may run as fast as when she goes right: and the man that walks after his own
lusts, makes as great speed to the end of his journey, as he that walks with God.
And since we must walk through the world, and cannot abide here, why will we
not choose the best company in our way, and walk with God?
Mot. 2. Walking with God is the only way to get safe to our journey's end, Heb.
ii. 10. It was only Caleb and Joshua that got to Canaan, for they followed the
Lord fully. All the world is on a journey; but there are two ways, and two com-
panies. There is the way of holiness, and all the saints walk there, with the Lord
on their head; and the end of this way is salvation. And there is the way of sin,
a broad way, wherein are many roads, bare civility, morality, profaneness, and for-
mality: all the unregenerate walk there, and the god of this world on their head,
and the end is destruction. Choose ye with whom ye will walk.
Mot. 3. Religion is not a matter of speculation and talking, but a matter of
practice and walking with God; Psalm cryi. 9, “I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living.” Your eternal state lies at stake, which ye will never bring
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 661
to a comfortable issue without this. Till ye enter on this way, ye are to begin to
be religious, how long soever your standing in a profession has been. After chil-
dren are born, it is long ere they begin to walk; but as soon as one is born again,
becomes a child of God, he immediately falls a-walking with God.
Mot. 4. There is a pleasure, a refined, undreggy pleasure in walking with God ;
Prov. iii. 17, “Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are
peace.” This pleasure arises from the testimony of conscience, which is a feast to
the soul, (2 Cor. i. 12,) enough to make a sick man whole ; from the intrinsic
pleasantness in the way of holiness, which has a surpassing beauty in the eyes of
those that are capable to discern, Psalm crix. 97, 165, and from the soul's communion
with God it finds in that way, Psalm iv. 6, 7. This makes the hardest steps of it
pleasant, and makes the soul perceive a paradise within the thorn-hedge of troubles
that attend it ; 2 Cor. xii. 10, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake : for when
I am weak, then am I strong.” And that religion is so sapless to most of us, and
such a burdensome thing, much needs be imputed to unacquaintedness with walk-
ing with God.
Mot. 5. There is great profit and advantage that attends it ; 1 Tim. iv. 8,
“Godliness is profitable unto all things.” Walking with God makes a flourishing
case of the soul, when others are withering and pining away in their iniquity. It
is an enriching trade for bringing in Sanctifying influences to the Soul; it promotes
each part of sanctification, vivification, and mortification. It is the best evidence
of sincerity, as Gen. vi. 9, “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations,
and Noah walked with God.” And though it does not give us a title to heaven, (it
is the blood of Christ that does that,) yet it is an evidence of our title, without
which we cannot make good our plea for heaven.
Objection. But what can it do to us for a through-bearing in the world? Answer.
Very much ; “having promise of the life that now is,” as well as “of that which
is to come,” 1 Tim. iv. 8. Those that walk with God have a promise of provision
in this world ; Psalm xxxvii. 3, “Trust in the Lord, and do good, so shalt thou
dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed ;” Matt. vi. 30, “Wherefore, if
God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the
oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ?” It is no may be,
but as sure as the covenant can make it ; Isa. xxxiii. 16, “Bread shall be given
him, his waters shall be sure.” It is true, God's bond is not always paid as it
were in money; but it is always paid in money-worth, if it be not so. If they get
not the thing itself, they get as good ; 2 Cor. vi. 10, “As having nothing, and yet
possessing all things.”
Nay, all the profit of religion to one's self ariseth from walking with God. For
what does it avail to have the knowledge of religion in the head, while it sinks not
into the heart 2 That can no more sanctify a soul, than painted fire can burn. All
the profit of it then must be to others, as that of the carpenters that built Noah's
ark: for he and his family only were preserved in it from the deluge, while the
builders were swept away by that universal flood.
Mot. 6. Walking with God is the best security in evil days. There are sinning
and ensnaring times: who can be safe in them as they that walk with God? even
as, in a dark day, those that keep closest with their guide are likeliest to get safest
through ; Prov. xi. 3, “The integrity of the upright shall guide them.” There
are suffering times, days of common calamity, and then those that walk with God
are likeliest to be brought through, as Noah, Gen. vi. 9.
Mot. 7. This is the way all have taken that have walked through the world to
Immanuel's land. God's children only are heirs; and they that are his children
must follow him, Eph. v. 1. There is no walking with God in heaven but for those
that walk here with him in holiness. And therefore remember, “If ye live after
the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the
body, ye shall live,” Rom. viii. 13.
I shall now shut up all with some directions and advices for walking with God.
1. Labour to be sure ye be Christians indeed, and once fairly set on the way, by
closing with Christ. Renounce the World and your lusts; and look on yourselves
662 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
as men bound for another world, under the conduct of the Captain of the Lord's
host, Cant. iv. 8.
2. Lay it down for a certain conclusion, that religion is quite another thing than
a parcel of external performances. It is a conforming of the soul to the image of
Christ, and of the life and conversation to the holy law, by a participation of the
virtue of his blood and Spirit. And therefore there must be constant endeavours
to abide close by Jesus Christ, in the exercise of faith, love, and universal tender-
ness, not only in life, but in heart, Prov. iv. 23. .
3. Being set on the way, labour to hold by it. Ye must learn not to be shamed
out of God's way, by the reproaches of the world. Care not for the name of sin-
gularity, and be not ashamed to be fools in the world's eyes, 1 Cor. iii. 18, 19;
not to be bribed nor boasted out of God's way, by any advantage or loss in the
world, Heb. xi. 24. .
4. Closely ply the work of mortification, Gal. v. 24. What is your need of
Christ, if it be not to save you from your sins? Matt. i. 21. Beware of making
Christ the minister of sin, by going the round betwixt sinning and confessing,
without suitable endeavours for mortification. Mortification is no easy business,
but most necessary.
5. Beware of indulging yourselves in those things that are accounted but small
sins, and abstain from the appearances of evil. No man will walk with God to whom
any sin is so small that he will make no bones of it. And those that stand not
to go frankly into the borders of sin, will very readily step over. -
6. When ye fall, lie not still, but get up again by a new application of the Re-
deemer's blood, and renewing your repentance. For no man can walk so but he
will stumble; but then the suitable remedies are to be improved for recovery.
7. Be frequent in self-observation and examination. Take notice often how the
pulse of your affections beats. Retire into yourselves, and observe the way of your
hearts and lives, Hag. i. 7. And examine yourselves often as to your state and
case, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. Ask yourselves whether ye be going forward or backward,
what profit ye make of duties?
8. Be diligent observers of providence, (Psalm cvii. ult,) towards yourselves and
others.
9. Be tender of waiting on the Lord, to know sin and duty in particular cases.
10. Be diligent in all religious duties; missing none of them, and being frequent
in them all. For these are the trysting-places for communion with God, which
they that would walk with him must diligently attend.
I1. Prepare for duties before ye set about them: not only public duties, but
private and secret ones. For the rushing on these without consideration, is the
high way to make them vain and fruitless.
12. Labour to be spiritual in all things; in religious duties seeking to exercise
grace, and enjoy communion with God; and even in other things, to act as under
his eye, and by influence of his command.
13. Live by faith, 2 Cor. v. 7. For it is by faith that the soul is set and kept
in this walk
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 663
VIII.
THE PLEASURES OF REAL RELIGION.”
PROVERBs ii. 17.
“Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
THE Hebrew name of this book imports, sentences well pressed together, and power-
ful to command our assent and regulate our conduct. In this context, wisdom, or
real religion, is commended in the 16th verse from what she hath. They get much
with her who get her. She brings to them in both hands. In the text, she is
commended for her discipline ; the way and manner of life to which she directs
her votaries. This is that which chiefly prejudices the men of the world against
her, so that they cannot think to live with her. It is represented here in these
two, her ways and her paths: “Her ways,” that is, the ways in which she directs
us to walk through the world. She has ways of her own, that are not the ways of
the world, but ways peculiar to herself, that are chalked out by the holy commands
of God. This is called the way of faith and holiness. “Her paths,” that is, her
strait ways, as the word signifies. Amongst her ways there are some very strait
ones, and these are most frightful to the world. They are so strait, that they can-
not endure them. But they are mistaken. Behold the commendation of them, in
two points. First, they are sweet, they “are ways of pleasantness.” They are
like pleasant walks, which invite men to walk in them by the pleasures that are
about them, with the trees, flowers, and other things which surround them. Such
a pleasantness the word imports, verse 18, “She is a tree of life to them that lay
hold upon her ; and happy is every one that retaineth her.” Issachar “ saw that
rest was good, and the land pleasant.” They are so far from being unpleasant
and melancholy, that they are “ways of pleasantness,” very pleasant. They are,
secondly, safe. Many ways are sweet that are not safe, pleasant that are not pro-
fitable; but both sweetly centre here. “Her paths are peace,” that is, they are
paths of peace. There is no danger in them, nothing to annoy the traveller, while
he but keeps straight forward. They are peace itself, most peaceful. That is, all
prosperity attends them, and so some versions read it, for so the Hebrew expresseth
all prosperity and welfare.
Next observe the extent of the commendation : “all her paths are peace.”
Even those of them that seem most rugged and unpleasant are peace. There are
both pleasure and profit wrapped up in them. There is no contrariety amongst
them. One does not embitter another, as it is in the ways of the world. The
pleasures of religion are full of peace.
DocTRINE 1. The way of religion is the way of wisdom. They that are truly
religious are wise, and the following of religion is the wisest course in the world.
Here I shall,
I. Present to you some of the scriptural characters of the way of religion.
II. I shall show that this way of religion is the way of wisdom. I am, then,
I. To present to you some of the scriptural characters of the way of religion.
1. The way of religion is the way of truth. The apostle Peter expressly calls
it “the way of truth.” The faith of principles is a part of religion, as well as the
practice of holiness. And therefore faith is called wisdom, Eph. i. 8. The God of
truth has revealed truth to us in the scriptures of truth, and requires us to believe
it. And the way of error is contrary to the way of religion, and is the product of
* Delivered in 1717.
664 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
the blindness of men's minds: “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak
not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” This error
proceeds also from their corrupt affections, and can never be sanctified by all the
plausible pretences with which it is set off: “Will ye speak wickedly for God?
and talk deceitfully for him ?” A wrong head may lead people out of the way of
religion as well as a wrong heart.
2. The way of God's commandments: “I will run,” says David, “the way of
thy commandments, when thou hast enlarged my heart.” In this way, then, the
soul labours to do what God requires, and to abstain from what he hath forbidden.
So men are out of the way in transgressing these commands, doing what God for-
bids, and omitting what he requires. Nothing belongs to the ways of religion which
is not hedged in by the commands of God on every side. What men offer to God
as duty which he has not commanded ; and what they account sin, which his law
makes not so, is but superstition, and not religion : and in this men are apt to
abound when religion falls into decay among them, as appears in all formalists.
3. The way of faith and not of sense: “We walk by faith, and not by sight.”
Religion sets a man chiefly in pursuit of unseen things. The cry of the world is,
“Who will show us any good 3” But religion leads a person to make choice of an
unseen Christ for his portion ; unseen hopes, joys, and pleasures; yea, “to look to
the things which are not seen, and which are eternal.” Others value themselves
on what they have in hand; they on what they have in hope. The way of reli-
gion is the way of trust and dependence for all on God in Christ, for light, life,
and strength. They “live by the faith of the Son of God.” They go out of this
way who trust in themselves and live upon their own stock.
4. The way of holiness: “It shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean
shall not pass over it ;” “As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all
manner of conversation.” Religion teaches holiness in heart and life; piety towards
God, and righteousness towards man. It allows no sin, however small the world
accounts it to be. Nay, the very appearance of evil, religion teaches to eschew.
It gives one holy rule, by which to regulate heart, lip, and life, the conversation
at home and abroad, in public before the world, and in secret before God alone,
in our personal and relative conversation.
5. The way of irreconcilable opposition to the devil, the world, and the flesh.
And therefore the Christian life is called a warfare. The way of worldly ease, to
row with the stream, is not the way of religion. They who enter upon religion,
must encounter the powers of hell; and as it is Satan's business to tempt, it is
theirs to resist and wrestle against him. They commence nonconformists to the
world. For the command is, “Be not conformed to this world.” They make a
practical separation from the world lying in wickedness; holding quite a contrary
course to that in which the gale of the world's example would drive them. The
Lord “preserves them from this generation for ever.” They deny the cravings and
lusts of the flesh, with all ungodliness, “and live soberly, righteously, and godly in
this present world.” They strive to mortify irregular passions and affections.
For “they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.”
6. The way of spiritual worship: “For we are the circumcision which worship
God in the Spirit.” In this a man aims at inward obedience ; consecrating his
heart as a temple to the Lord, in which to offer the spiritual sacrifices of faith,
fear, love, thankfulness, and other parts of unseen religion. They who take up
with the form of religion and mere external duties are out of the way: “Having
a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.” True religion teaches to
give spiritual service to God, because he is a Spirit ; and to join the power of god-
liness with the form of it.
7. The strait and narrow way: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way,
that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” The multitude chooseth
the broad way of sin, in which they find room for their beloved lusts, and
walk at all adventures without a certain rule, but as their corrupt inclinations draw
them. There is no such room in the way of religion. They must deny themselves
the latitude of thoughts, words, and actions, that others freely take to themselves,
endeavouring in all things to think, speak, and act by rule, the rule of the holy law.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 665
8. The way of universal obedience: “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I
have respect to all thy commandments.” The first step which a person takes in
that way, the soul says, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” They dare not
wilfully neglect any of God's commandments. Some persons neglect the duties of
piety towards God, and deal fairly with their neighbours. Some take an opposite
course. They pretend to piety and neglect morality. Some fix on the substantial
duties, with a slighting of circumstantials; others are so taken up with the circum-
stantials, that they justle out the weighty matters of the law ; but the way of real
religion joins both. For while it requires the weighty matters of the law, “judg-
ment, mercy, and faith,” to be done, it enjoins also “not to leave the other
undone.” -
9. The good old way: “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see,
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls.” If you have a mind to walk heavenward, you must go by
“the footsteps of the flock;” the way which the saints have trodden, in the several
ages of the church. This is the way in which we will see the “cloud of witnesses”
that have gone before us. We are directed to their steps, whom the world hath
counted fools, because they could not be satisfied to take the way of the world.
We proceed now, -
II. To show that this way of religion is the way of wisdom.
1. “The only wise God” has directed the children of men unto the way of religion,
and therefore it must be the way of wisdom. Do they not act wisely that take the
course to which God has directed men 2 What is our Bible, but a system of pre-
cepts of religion ? It is God’s word commanding and recommending this way to
us. This was the way in which God set man at first. When by sin he lost his
way, it pleased God to make a new revelation of his will, and to set him on his way
again, the way of religion in faith and holiness.
2. Our Lord Jesus Christ brings his people to this way, and leads them in it to
the end. He is given to be “a leader and commander to the people.” He that
is the wisdom of the Father, is the guide that hath gone on the head of the blessed
company that travel this way through the world; and they “run, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of their faith.” He leads his people off from the
way of sin and of the world, into the way of religion. He guides them in it and
keeps them on it unto the end; for “this God is our God, for ever and ever; he
will be our guide even unto death.” He knows what is the wisest and best course
for them to take, and his love to them engages him to lead them to it; therefore,
let who will account it folly, it is the way of wisdom only.
3. The Spirit of Christ effectually determines his people to this way, moves and
excites and strengthens them to walk forward in it: “This I say then, Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” “The Spirit searcheth the
deep things of God,” and the same that is the Spirit of wisdom, is the Spirit of
holiness and sanctification. And therefore, the way of holiness must be the wisest
course we can take.
4. Would you know what way God himself would take, if he were walking
among men on this earth ? We may know this already. The Son of God became
man, and dwelt among us; and the way which he took was not the way of the
world, but the way of religion and unspotted holiness. “He left us an example,
that we should follow his steps.” He kept himself unspotted by sin. “He did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” He was not charmed with the world's
good things when they were offered to him, nor driven out of his way by its evil
things. “When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that
judgeth righteously.” They were the unseen things of another world which he
proposed to himself to obtain, even “the joy set before him.”
5. It is the way that is most agreeable to right reason. Devoting ourselves
wholly to God, is our “reasonable service.” The way of sin is most pleasing to
our lusts and passions; which, being blind, as rejecting the government of reason,
cannot cease to lead us wrong. But the way which our passions do condemn is, in
the meantime, the way that reason and conscience do justify. The way of our
4 P -
666 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
passions thrusts us down into the order of brutes, which follow their appetites; but
the way of religion advances us to walk in the way of rational creatures.
6. It is the only way to happiness here or hereafter. “Happy is the man that
findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.” All the happiness of
the creatures consists in assimilation to God. The more holy, the more like God;
and so, the more holy, the more happy. It is impossible a man can be happy in
the way of sin, even in the world, while there is a holy God above him angry with
him every day, and a conscience within him ready at occasions to disturb his
rest. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” But, in the midst of
troubles, the pious are happy in the favour of God, and the testimony of conscience.
With God, and in Christ, they have peace : “Our rejoicing is this, the testi-
mony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly
wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.”
And when they come to the end of their days, the difference is vastly greater; for
then, the happiness of the godly is completed, and the misery of the wicked is com-
pleted also: “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that
man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together, the end of the
wicked shall be cut off.” &
Use 1. Of information. Is the way of religion the way of wisdom? Then,
1st, There is little wisdom in the world, for true religion is very rare. “Few
there be,” says our Lord, “that find” this way. Man is born like a wild ass’s
colt ; and he goes on in his folly all his days, till the Spirit of God teaches him
“the wisdom that is from above.” But when once his eyes are opened by the
Holy Spirit, and he is made truly wise, to know what belongs to his peace, he is no
more in a doubt what to choose. And to this natural blindness of the human mind,
the neglect and contempt of religion is to be imputed.
2dly, The way of sin and wickedness must needs be the way of folly, and they
are fools that follow it: “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity, and the
scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge 3’ The Spirit of God
brands all the ungodly with the name of fools; and they are the greatest fools in
the world that live strangers to religion and true godliness, whatever opinion them-
selves or the world may have of their wisdom. They live fools, whatever way they
live, while they live strangers to religion and the power of godliness. They have
three marks of a fool. (1.) They are easily cheated out of their most valuable
things. Satan goes about these simple ones, till they are tricked out of their
souls, their part of Christ and heaven, and all the happiness of another world:
and “what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?”
And wherefore do they part with them, but for the gratifying of a lust ; a more
foolish course than if one should part with an estate for a childish toy. Esau was
“a cunning hunter;” but in the matter of the blessing he acted as if he had been a
fool or an idiot. (2.) They suffer the best bargain to slip through their fingers
again and again, while they are enamoured of those things which are of no value
in comparison of it : “Wherefore, then, is there a price in the hand of a fool to
get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?” They have no heart for the enriching
treasure in the field of the gospel, because they have no judgment to discern the
worth of it, while they are busied with vanities that pass away with the using.
Their precious time and opportunities are spent in grasping of shadows in many
things, while the one thing needful is forgotten. (3.) They feed themselves with
dreams and fancies, in which there is no reality. They are foolish virgins with
lamps without oil; foolish builders on the sand. Their life is one continued dream,
in which they judge aright of nothing; neither of God, heaven, hell, nor even the
world. So that there must be a terrible awakening, when they do awake out of
their dream. Again, living impenitent, they die fools. The rich man in the gos-
pel is called a fool at his death. Then indeed the folly of all such appears. Time
spent, and nothing laid up for eternity; another world to be gone into, but no
preparation for it ; what has got their most serious thoughts evanisheth, and what
they never minded to purpose, to that they must now go.
3dly, Then, the way of religion is preferable to the way of sin, as wisdom is to folly,
light to darkness. This men will not see now ; but they shall see it when the
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 667
great God has determined who have been wise and who fools. Then it will appear
clearly in another world, what is so much controverted in this, whether they be
wisest that seek their portion in hand, or those that desire to have it in hope.
Then folly will be written on the foreheads of many now in high reputation for
wisdom; and others now deemed fools will appear to have taken the wisest course.
4thly, “The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour,” as the wise man is
more excellent than the fool. God, who judges according to truth, judges so, and
so will we all at length. While all the rest of the world act the part of fools and
madmen, they behave themselves wisely, and the end will crown their work, which
will show that grace is better than gold, and things that are not seen are prefer-
able to things that are. -
Use 2. For comfort and encouragement to those that are truly godly. And
thus it may be, in case of being looked upon as fools by the world. Alas ! the
generation is come to that, that seriousness in religion is sufficient to expose a per-
son to the scorn of those that are unacquainted with it. But if they think you are
fools, look you to the Bible, and you will see that they are fools: “If any man
will be wise, let him become a fool.” It may be also in case of your being defec-
tive in worldly wisdom. Our Lord tells us“ that the children of this world are
wiser in their generation than the children of light.” But if you be “wise to salva-
tion,” bless God and be thankful. It may comfort you also, in case of being con-
demned by onlookers, in matters in which you have the testimony of God's word
and your own consciences. Many a time a man walking straight by the rule in a
particular action, will be condemned as a fool by such as do not see the springs
and reasons of his acting in that way, when the Searcher of hearts will approve him.
Use 3. Of reproof. And it may serve to convince and reprove as fools,
1st, Those who value themselves on their carnal worldly wisdom, while they neglect
religion in the reality and power of it. There is a generation who make it their
great business to gain the world ; upon it their hearts are set continually, while
religion at best is but an occasional work, and they attain to a certain dexterity
in it by this means, as being the thing that is their constant study and in which
they place their greatest satisfaction. But, alas ! they are wise in trifles and foolish
in matters of the greatest importance ; they gain a mite, they lose a talent; the
ease of their souls goes to wreck, and by their boasted wisdom they are fooled
out of their most valuable concerns. For “whosoever will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God.”
2dly, Those that are “wise to do evil, but to do good have no knowledge.” Many
have sufficient cunning to contrive mischief, who can do nothing truly good for
themselves and others. As for such wisdom, behold the character of it, “It is
earthly, sensual, devilish.”
3dly, Those who account religion folly. O how is the spiritual taste of many
depraved how contrary their judgment of spiritual things to God's thoughts of
them Folly is by them accounted wisdom, and true wisdom folly: “Woe unto
them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for
darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”
Use 4. Of exhortation. Study to get religion, since it is true wisdom. Enter
on that course, since it is the wisest course you can follow.
1st, As reason distinguisheth men from brutes, and sets them in a higher sphere,
so religion is a piece of wisdom that distinguishes one man from another, and makes
him “more excellent than his neighbour.” The nearer one comes to God, who is
a perfect being, he must needs be the more excellent. The truly religious are
“partakers of a divine nature,” and of all men on the earth, resemble the God of
heaven most, as being “followers of God,” and “partakers of his holiness.”
2dly, Religion is that wisdom which is preferable to all things else that come under
that name in the world. All earthly wisdom possessed and valued by men of the
earth is but a shadow, a dream, in comparison of this. For it is practical wisdom.
This only is to know the Lord. What avail the profound speculations of natural
men in all the learned sciences, the dry and sapless notions of religion in formal
professors, which never make them better men though more knowing? The excel-
lency of this wisdom is, that it casts the Soul into the mould of truth, sanctifies the
668 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
heart, and regulates the life, in a conformity to the divine nature and will; and
thereby perfects human nature, raising up a glorious fabric out of the ruins in
which it lay by reason of the fall.
3dly, Religion is wisdom for the one thing needful, the better part. The wisdom
of the world is low and grovelling in the advantages with which it is attended. It
may make a man more fit to manage his worldly business, more acceptable and
useful in civil conversation: but, alas ! all this reaches only to the outworks; in
the meantime, the soul, in its greatest concerns, is neglected. But religion
advanceth the life of the soul, in the favour of and communion with God ; evi-
denceth the person's title to heaven; and carries him forward in the way to ever-
lasting happiness. For saith Wisdom, “Whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall
obtain favour of the Lord.”
4thly, It is wisdom for the better world; for “the wise shall inherit glory.” What
pitiful wisdom is that whose designs and advantages are confined within the limits
of time. The profits of the worldly-wise man as to himself must die with him;
“in that very day his thoughts perish.” But the works of the spiritually wise
follow him into the other world, Rev. xiv. 13. There they joyfully reap through
eternity what they have sown in time.
5thly, If you be not religious indeed, you must be arrant fools; fools for time, and
fools for eternity. Without it, you remain in the fallen miserable state in which
you were born ; and without it, you will die in the same state, without God, with-
out Christ, and without hope, and thus be miserable for ever; for “without holi-
ness no man shall see the Lord.”
DoGTRINE II. The ways of religion are the most pleasant and peaceful ways.
There are two things to be handled here ; the pleasantness, and peace, to be
enjoyed in the ways of true religion. *
We are to speak first of the pleasantness of the ways of religion. If one be for
a pleasant life, let him lead a religious life. This is a paradox not easy to be
believed but by those who find it so in their own experience. Let us here,
I. Inquire to whom are the ways of religion pleasant.
II. Evince the ways of religion to be pleasant.
III. Evince the ways of religion to be the most pleasant ways. We are,
then,
I. To inquire to whom are the ways of religion pleasant.
1. To those who have the art of walking in them. As in all trades there is a
certain art, which when persons have attained, the trade turns easy and pleasant
to them; so it is in religion. Thus, Paul had learned a contentment in every lot,
Phil. iv. 11; so that he could walk with pleasure through every condition in which
providence placed him. The reason why we have so little pleasure in religion is,
we are but bunglers at it, it seldom goes right with us, the work is often notably
marred.
2. To those who habituate themselves to close walking with God. “Enoch
walked with God.” And says Paul, “Our conversation is in heaven.” Such
descriptions of the Christian life evidently imply there is a pleasantness in it. The
beginning of a new course of life is commonly the most difficult and unpleasant.
And that which makes religion so difficult and unpleasant to us is, either, that we
are yet but to begin it in earnest, or, that we stay not at the work and hold hand
to it, but make such interruptions, as that we are always as it were but beginning.
Whereas, when the first difficulties are surmounted, if we could then hold on
steadily, the work would become easy and pleasant.
3. In respect of the pleasure that springs up from them. “ Light is sown for the
righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” The most harsh and bitter
ways of religion, as of repentance, sorrow, mortification, and the like, have a plea-
sure that in due time ariseth from them ; like the pangs of a travailing woman,
which end in the joy of a man-child brought into the world. Even of these thorns
men gather figs; and in these bitter sorrows, and sharp exercises and conflicts, are
the seeds of joy and pleasure ; and from under that cloud will bright beams burst
forth. For these are but the path of pain leading into a paradise of pleasure ; and
at length the poor, mourning, tempted Christian, will go on like Samson, when he
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 669
took the honey out of the dead lion, and went on eating, saying, “Out of the eater
came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” For such darkness
is as the dawn of the morning, which goes on to broad day. We proceed,
II. To evince the ways of religion to be pleasant, even “ways of pleasantness.”
This appears, if we consider,
1. The testimony of the saints; who, in all ages, have given this for their verdict
of the ways of God to the world. And though the graceless world contradict this,
we may decline them as incompetent judges in this matter; for how can blind men
judge of colours? or men whose taste is vitiated, judge of savoury meats? One
eye-witness is worth a hundred ear-witnesses. The testimony of the saints is to
be regarded, as of those who declare “what they have seen, and tasted, and handled
of the Word of life;” to which others cannot pretend. Now, we have the verbal
testimony of the saints. Job gives them a noble testimony: “I have,” says he,
“esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” How amply
does David speak of them ; “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in
the time that their corn and wine increased.” He preferred a day in waiting upon
God to a thousand. Paul tells us from his experience, of a joy in the most rugged
parts of the way: “I take pleasure,” says he, “in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake ; for when I am weak,
then am I strong.” Peter, speaking of afflicted saints, speaks forth even their
pleasure found in the ways of religion: “Believing,” says he, “ye rejoice with
joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”
We have also their real testimony, their deeds and practices witnessing the plea-
sure in the way of religion. Joseph would rather venture all, than exchange the
pleasure which he had in his untainted chastity, with the sensual pleasures of sin.
Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. Daniel would rather be cast into a lions' den or fiery
furnace, than forego his religion. How many of the saints have chosen a stake or
a gibbet, rather than leave the way of religion . They were not insensible of
pleasure, for they were men as well as saints; but behold the mystery of it: “They
took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in
heaven a better and an enduring substance.” In the meantime, they could say,
“Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly
sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God we have had our con-
versation in the world.”
2. Pleasure, innocence, and holiness, arrive always together at their height.
The world was never so pleasant, as while Adam stood in his integrity. When-
ever sin entered, there followed a train of miseries and disgusts. When sin
shall be expelled and the saints lodged in heaven, they shall drink of “rivers of
pleasure ;” for then holiness shall be perfected. Now, this plainly discovers sin is
the cause of all displeasure to us; and therefore, the ways of religion must needs
be ways of pleasantness, where it is to be found for the present, and which leads
to the perfection of pleasure in the life to come.
3. The way of religion is the most godlike way and life in the world. They
who walk in it, are to be “followers of God, as dear children.” Our Lord Jesus
Christ followed this way. “My meat,” said he, “is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to finish his work.” He followed it exactly in all points, and gave us
the copy of a perfect religious walk. Now, God being the chief good, and most
happy in himself, as the fountain of all happiness, he has infinite complacency,
delight, and satisfaction in himself and his own perfections; and therefore, the
way of religion must be the way of pleasantness, for it makes us to resemble God.
4. Religion, so far as it does prevail, frees us from the cause of our woe. We
blame this and the other thing for our miseries, but there is a real cause “why
God contendeth with us.” There are two causes which occasion to us all the
misery with which we meet in the world; a guilty conscience, and unsubdued lusts
and affections. Take away these, and we should be freed of all our piercing
uneasiness. The way of religion leads us to the blood of Christ, which frees us of
the former: the inhabitant of Zion “shall not say, I am sick; the people that
dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” And religion also leads us to the
670 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES,
Spirit ; and by him our lusts are mortified, their power is subdued. Now, accord-
ing to the measure in which the soul is freed from these, so will it enjoy a true
pleasure. What pleasure a man who has been in a fever finds in a cool, that will
a soul find upon a victory over corrupt lusts; which made Paul cry, “O wretched
man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I thank God
through Jesus Christ my Lord.” In a cutting manner did the moralist answer
Alexander the Great, boasting that he was lord of the world: “Thou art,” said
he to him, “a servant to my servants, a slave to those lusts over which I am lord.”
5. The Lord leaves not his servants to walk in the ways of religion in their own
strength, but directs and assists them by his Spirit. “I can do all things,” says
Paul, “through Christ, who strengtheneth me.” This was one reason why Paul
took pleasure in the most rugged parts of the way: “For when I am weak,” says
he, “then am I strong.” It is a pleasure to a child to go up a stair, when the
father holds him by the hand, and helps him up every step: “Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves, to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of
God.” Our Lord never enjoins his people to bear their burden alone, but says he,
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.”. When he orders
you to do a piece of duty, he lays in meat for the work; or to bear a cross, he
strengthens for bearing it. Now, as it is pleasant sailing when the wind blows
fair, so it is pleasant walking in the ways of religion under a gale of the Spirit.
6. The Lord binds upon his saints the walking in his ways with the softest and
sweetest ties imaginable; the answering of which must needs create a pleasure in the
doing thereof. I own that terrors and curses pursue the sinner till he has entered
upon this way. But when once he has entered into it, his duty is bound upon him
by the ties of the covenant of grace, even gospel-ties, which are the word of his
grace, and the law of love, John xv. 12–14. These have a sweet constraint,
2 Cor. v. 14. The covenant of grace hath no threatenings of eternal wrath: the
gospel damns no man; it needs not, for the law will do it, to them that are not
saved by the gospel. Much of the unpleasantness of religion to us flows from our
acting under the influence of the covenant of works. But that is not true religion,
and no wonder that it be not found a way of pleasantness.
7. There is a sweetness interwoven with the Christian walk. “In keeping God's
commandments there is a great reward.” There is a pleasure that attends and is
mixed with duty. As merchants invite men to taste their wines, to encourage them
to buy; so the Lord gives his people a taste of his goodness, to encourage them in
his service. Hence the invitation unto the practice of religion runs thus, “O taste
and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” God pro-
vided in his law, that the mouth of the ox should not be muzzled that treadeth out
the corn. Upon which I may say with Paul, “Doth God take care for oxen 2 or
saith he it altogether for our sakes 2 For our sakes, no doubt, this is written ;
that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope,
should be partaker of his hope.” While the Lord sets his servants to his work,
he sets them also to their meat. Each of them may say with Christ, “My meat is
to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” There is a pleasure
in doing good, which the gracious soul in a gracious frame enjoys. Religion is a
reward to itself; and therefore it is a part of the happiness of heaven, where
“his servants shall serve him.”
8. There is such a transcendent pleasure at the end of the way, that must needs
make the way a way of pleasantness. As sin is called the way of death, because
it leads to death, so religion is the way of pleasure, because it leads to endless joy:
“Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy
right hand are pleasures for evermore.” A great and noble end makes the means
leading to it pleasant. Jacob's seven years’ service “seemed to him but a few days
for the love he had to Rachel.” Where the reward is “an eternal weight of glory,”
what burden can be too heavy to bear that we may gain it 2 It must needs reflect
a pleasantness on the whole of the way leading to it. -
III. I shall now evince the ways of religion to be the most pleasant ways. There
are greater pleasures in them than are to be found out of these ways, or in the
way of sin.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 671
1. Consider, that religion brings a calm into the soul which no other thing can do.
It gives it a rest.and satisfaction that is nowhere else to be found. “Come unto
me,” says Jesus, “all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and
e shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Religion takes a person’s heart off the rack on which sin held it, and calms
the stormy sea on which he was tossed before. For “the wicked are like the
troubled sea, when it cannot rest; whose waters cast forth mire and dirt. There
is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Religion brings them out of the
slavery and bondage in which they were, and gives them true liberty. “I will
walk at liberty,’” says David, “for I seek thy precepts.” There are three things
which will place this in its proper light: - -
(1.) Religion breaks the reigning power of lusts and corruptions, which create
the soul much uneasiness: “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” Lusts un-
mortified must needs make a restless soul. These are worse than so many Egyp-
tian task-masters over the soul, all calling it to serve them. The soul has thus to
serve divers lusts and pleasures; and these are contrary one to another, they draw
the heart in different directions at once. Pride lifts it up, covetousness presses it
down, while envy, malice, and hatred, agitate and distract it. What a blessed
calm must, then, be in the soul, at Christ's accession to the throne of the heart,
when there are so many masters subdued and deprived of their power!
(2.) Religion brings the soul to the accomplishment of its desires, and to say,
“I have all and abound.” It is impossible to satisfy the cravings of unmortified
lusts: they are the true “daughters of the horse-leech,” and the more they are
indulged, the more they still desire. But religion first contracts the desires of
the soul, cutting off the luxuriant appetites of the heart, bending the desire to-
wards the one thing needful, and bringing them to the enjoyment of it; and then,
under many wants, they are “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
While a person is in the way of sin, he is still seeking his rest under some
created shadow ; and there he can never have it, since the complication of all
created things is not sufficient to satisfy the desires of a soul, nothing less than
an infinite good can do it. “Open thy mouth wide,” says God, “and I will fill
it.” Now, religion sets the soul on the breasts of divine consolations, and in them
it finds enough. In God the soul returns into its rest; for in God there is enough
to afford the soul a pleasant contentment, even in the midst of all outward wants.
Besides, religion dries up the devouring depths of earthly desires which plagued
the soul. “Whosoever,” saith Jesus, “drinketh of the water that I shall give
him, shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a
well of water springing up to everlasting life.” Christ becomes a covering of the
eyes to the soul, upon its having made the blessed change. For this pearl of great
price, the person parts with all that he hath, that he may possess it.
(3.) Religion brings the soul into a state of resignation to the will of God. It
discovers infinite wisdom tempered with love and good-will in the ordering of our
lot; and so the soul rests in that, “The will of the Lord be done.” That man
must needs have a profound calm within when nothing crosses his will ; but what
confusion must be there, where things are still contrary to the will Now, while
there is a God in heaven, no man will get all his will: for God’s “counsel shall
stand, and he will do all his pleasure.” And though men's will stand against his
like a rock, he will rend that rock to accomplish his pleasure ; if it will not bow,
he will break it. Now, the yielding bush stands fast in the earth, while the lofty
Oaks are turned over with a tempestuous wind. And thus, while men out of the
way of religion meet with many sharp disappointments, nothing falls wrong to the
resigned man. If God will raise him high, he is pleased; or if he lays him low,
he is pleased: and thus in the midst of storms he enjoys a calm.
Use 1. Let this reconcile your hearts to the way of religion, as a pleasant way.
There is an objection against it lies deep in the hearts of all natural men. They
consider God as “a hard master, reaping where he hath not sown, and gathering
Where he hath not strawed.” But it is a groundless prejudice, and for the removal
of it nothing is necessary but, “Come and see.” And O' it is sad that men should
672 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
take up objections against religion merely on trust, and though they try many
ways to find out a pleasant one which they may follow, yet they will not allow
religion a fair trial also. -
Use 2. Let this engage you to prefer the way of religion to the way of sin, be-
cause it is the most pleasant way. You have known something of the impure
pleasures of sin; but religion shows you a more excellent way, a way in which
alone true pleasure is to be enjoyed. There is a sweetness in religion to those
that are so happy as to break the shell to come at the kernel. Get forward, then,
to the inner court, and you will be made to say, “It is good to be here.”
2. Consider that religion frees a man from much trouble with which the way
of sin always plagues him. Ungodly persons “will deceive every one his neigh-
bour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies,
and weary themselves to commit iniquity.” With how much ease and pleasure
does a man walk who, on his journey, goes straight on the highway, in comparison
of him who, having lost the way, traverseth hills and mountains, woods and marshes!
This is the case between the saint and the sinner, as will appear from these con-
siderations : -
(1.) There are many corruptions and lusts that, in their own nature, are a punish-
ment to themselves. It was not without reason that envy hath been represented
as a serpent gnawing its own tail; for “envy slayeth the silly one.” Covetousness
and anxiety for the world stretch the heart on tenter-hooks. Wrath and passion
carry a man out of himself. Fretfulness and discontentment is a secret fire, burn-
ing and consuming in the midst of the bowels. It is so in other cases. How plea-
Sant a life, then, must a charitable frame of spirit, a holy carelessness, a meek and
contented disposition, make
(2.) How much trouble is there in making provision for lusts! and this religion
cuts off. The covetous man rises early, sits up late, eats the bread of Sorrow, to
accomplish his desire. “The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight.” The
drunkard bereaves himself of his sleep, to satisfy his lust. The proud and ambitious
man is at great trouble to accomplish his end. Now, from all this religion delivers
a man, causing him to walk at ease and liberty. And for what end is all this
waste in pursuit of lusts, but to buy destruction, or at best to lay in matter for
bitter repentance?
(3.) Much trouble arises from the disappointments with which men meet in the
pursuit of their lusts, when they cannot be gratified. Ahithophel's wicked project
miscarries, and he hangs himself. Joseph’s mistress is disappointed, and she boils
for revenge. Disappointments in the way of sin are often galling, and cut to the
heart ; as Jonah felt on the blasting of his gourd. But religion, cutting off sinful
desires and hopes, leaves no room for the trouble of these disappointments.
(4.) What trouble arises from lusts gratified! They bring forth bitter fruits, which
set the sinner's teeth on edge. Besides the sting which they leave in the conscience,
they have such a cursed train of mischiefs following them, that men, though they
had no regard to conscience, yet regard to themselves might make them quit the
way of sin. We often see how the gratifying of a lust exposeth to an untimely
end. How does it often ruin families and particular persons ! See what a multi-
tude of miseries are grafted upon one sin : “Who hath woe 2 who hath sorrow %
who hath contentions? who hath babbling ? who hath wounds without cause ? who
hath redness of eyes 2 They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek the
mixed wine.”
3. Consider that the most exquisite pleasures to be found in the way of sin, are
nothing comparable to the pleasures to be found in the way of religion. “There
be many,” says David, “that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up
the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more
than in the time when their corn and their wine increased.” There are various
things which confirm this truth:
(1.) The pleasures of true religion are of such an elevated nature, that all others
are but low and grovelling in comparison of them. I shall name some of these
pleasures, and may bid defiance to the world to find any like to them.
i. There is the pleasure which the soul finds in a victory obtained over lusts
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 673
and corruptions. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he
that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” A soul is never in better case,
than when it finds Christ letting blood of the heart-vein of a lust, nor more solidly
joyful than when it sees them nailed to the cross: “God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world.” The pleasure which a person hath in gratifying
of a lust, is the pleasure of a servant ; but that in the victory over it, is that of a
master. The former is a borrowed one, brought in from without himself; the
other is from within : for “a good man shall be satisfied from himself.”
ii. There is the pleasure which a person finds in the approbation and testimony
of his own conscience upon his doing well: “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony
of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom,
but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world.” . This is a
feast that is enjoyed at the table of religion ; it is enough to make a sick person
well; it diffuses health through the soul, and pleasure through the whole man :
“Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and mar-
row to thy bones.” As the sting of conscience is the greatest pain, so the well-
grounded approbation of conscience must be amongst the most exquisite pleasures.
iii. The pleasure which a person finds in the testimony of God's acceptance of
his work. God often gives such testimonies of his approbation and acceptance of
particular pieces of service done by his people : “Thou God meetest him that
rejoiceth, and worketh righteousness; those that remember thee in thy ways.”
And O ! how pleasant is that to the soul: “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy,
and drink thy wine with a merry heart ; for God now accepteth thy works.” Do
but imagine what an earthly king's telling you he kindly accepts, takes notice of,
and is well pleased with what you had done for him, what a pleasure that would be.
But what is all this to the pleasure of God's discovering to his people their accept-
ance with him ?
iv. The pleasure one finds in doing good and being useful to their fellow-crea-
tures, to mankind. “I have showed you,” says Paul, “all things, how that, so
labouring, ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord
Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” While some stand
as ciphers in the world, of no use to others: while some stand as blots to mar the
beauty and comfort of society ; as thorns and briers to make others uneasy about
them; what pleasure must they have, whose business is to make others happy,
well and easy, so as their souls and loins may please them Would men do good to
the needy by those things which they expend upon their lusts, they would have
far more pleasure in the former than the latter; especially in doing good to and
winning souls, even saving a soul from death.
v. The pleasure one finds in communion with God ; the wind blowing and the
spices flowing out, influences of grace coming down from heaven on their souls, and
they returning them again in duty and the exercise of grace. All this is described
in the Song, in these words, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south ; blow
upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into
his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” Christ putting in his hand at the hole of
the lock, and the soul opening to and embracing the welcome guest ; all the world
cannot produce such a pleasure as this, since it is a blessed intercourse with God,
the fountain of all pleasures, and the most glorious of all objects.
vi. The pleasure that one enjoys in assurance of the Lord's love, and eternal
salvation. This creates an unspeakable pleasure, even a thousand times more than
if one were made sole emperor of the world. Now, the saints “rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory ; receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation
of their souls.” To think that God is their God, that heaven is theirs, and that,
come death when it will, it will consummate their happiness that shall never end ;
that their happiness for ever is secured ; an assurance of this will give that plea-
sure, that nothing in all the world can be like it.
(2.) The properties of these pleasures of religion are such, that no other pleasures
are comparable unto them. Consider,
i. They are refined and pure. They are “wines on the lees, fat things full of
4 Q
674 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
marrow, wines on the lees well refined.” And so they must be the most exquisite
ones, most powerfully and effectually pleasing the soul. All the pleasures of sin
are gross and impure. They leave behind them a defilement in the soul, and a
sting in the conscience. So that, however sweet they may be at the brim, they
become bitter at the bottom. They leave a disgust behind them ; a remorse and
gnawing in the conscience, which often makes men curse the day they ever tasted
them.
ii. They ever satisfy without loathing or disgust. All other pleasures are
surfeiting; so that at length the heart turns upon them, and persons have so much
of them, that for the present they can have no more. And therefore the pleasures
of the world without intermission would be painful. But there is no wearying of
the pleasures of religion; let them be continued without interruption, there is no
less pleasure in them than was in the first tasting. They never grow stale, never
sapless. Other pleasures are such when tasted ; but these, when drunk in the
most plentiful measure, are in longest continuance.
iii. They are most ready and near at hand. When the pleasures of sin are to
be brought in from other objects; the drunkard's and unclean person's from their
companions in wickedness; the covetous man's from his wealth ; the proud and
ambitious man's from the esteem of others; the pleasures of religion rise from
reflections within a man's own soul. “A good man shall be satisfied from himself.”
They arise from his God and his grace, which are not from him, which he enjoys
as much when alone as in company.
iv. They are the strongest and most engaging pleasures; for they continue
under the greatest hardships of the world, and even in the face of death. Where
are the pleasures of the way of sin, when one is deprived of his wealth, health, and
much more when lying on a death-bed, in view of eternity ? They fall away then,
they cannot abide the shock. But the pleasures of religion, spoiling of goods can-
not remove ; for the saints “know in themselves, that they have in heaven a better
and an enduring substance.” A prison cannot do it; “Paul and Silas sung there.”
Shameful treatment cannot ; for they “rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer
shame for Jesus' sake.” And in the face of death these pleasures put a new song
in their mouths; “O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ?
The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to
God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
v. These pleasures are lasting. Others are but vanishing shadows, or like a
dream that passeth away. “The pleasures of sin are but for a season.” What
indeed are the pleasures of sin, but as “the crackling of thorns under a pot, and the
end of that mirth is sadness?” But the pleasures of religion endure. “I will see
you again,” saith Jesus to his people, “and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy
no man taketh from you.” They begin in time, and they are carried on through
eternity, while there remains with others nothing but the bitter dregs of theirs.
4. Consider that religion helps a person to draw the greatest pleasure from
created things which they can afford. No man enjoys the pleasure which created
things afford, in that measure that the truly religious man does. “Blessed are the
meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” Thus, in the way of religion, a man
stands fairest for having pleasure in the comforts of life. For,
(1.) It makes a man enjoy what is allowed him from them, without fretting for
the want of what is denied him. Religion teaches us, “in whatsoever state we are,
therewith to be content.” How often do men's corruptions, rising upon wants in
the creature, embitter all that might be had from it ! And the evil that is about
it, squeezes out the sap of the good that is in it. But the renewed soul would find
itself pleased.
(2.) It seasons and sweetens the pleasure of created things, while the saints reckon
they have them with God's good-will and favour. This puts an additional sweet-
ness in lawful enjoyments to them, while others have the pain of thinking of God's
anger coming along with, and annexed to the forbidden fruit.
(3.) Religion helps a man to take pleasure in those things which to a carnal man
can yield none. “Therefore,” says Paul, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 675
I am weak, then am I strong.” Moses preferred the afflictions of the people of
God to the pleasures of Pharaoh's court. So that the soul, by means of religion,
gathers figs of thorns, which can serve only to annoy the ungracious world.
(4.) Religion extends the fund of the man's pleasure over the whole world. It
teaches a man to rejoice in the works of the Lord, and to notice the divine wisdom,
power, and goodness, which appear in the whole visible world. “The works of
the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure in them.” It is
observable that the pleasure which men who go on in the way of sin have from the
creature, arises chiefly from artificial things invented by luxury, which bewrays
their loss of that innocent pleasure arising from the works of God as he made them.
(5.) It gives a man a right of property in created things, so that he cannot but
enjoy them with the greater pleasure, having a sense of his property in them.
“All things,” says Paul to believers, “are yours.” One can take more pleasure
in a cottage of his own, than in a palace that is not his. It is a pleasure to be
able to say of any good thing, It is my own. And that a gracious person may say
of all things. Hence that paradox, “As having nothing, and yet possessing all
things.”
#. Believe, then, that the way of religion is the most pleasant way. You have
all ground to receive this testimony concerning it. And if it were received, it would
engage you to say, “As for me, I will serve the Lord.” Alas! how sad is it, that
people should in effect court their own destruction in the rugged ways of sin, and
flee from their happiness in the pleasant ways of religion. Indeed, we are in a
valley of tears; but we might gain our salvation with as little trouble to ourselves,
as we take in compassing our own ruin. We come now,
In the second place, to speak of the peacefulness of the ways of religion. Peace
is what every one desires. Even the end of war is peace. All seek it, but few fall
on the right way to it. The way of religion is “the way of peace,” Rom. iii. 17.
Here I shall,
I. Inquire what peace is to be enjoyed in the way of religion,
II. Evince this to be the most peaceful way. I am, then,
I. To inquire what peace is to be enjoyed in the way of religion.
There is a sevenfold peace to be found in religion.
1. Peace with God: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is a breach betwixt God and sinners, made by
Adam's sin, and enlarged every day by new transgressions. The sinner bears a real
enmity against God: “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” And God bears
a legal enmity against the sinner. His word condemns him ; says, “There is no
peace to him,” but a cloud of wrath hangs over his head. “He that believeth not
the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” This is his
case while in the state of sin; but as soon as he comes into the way of religion, the
breach is made up, the cloud evanisheth, heaven smiles on him. He is counted
the friend of God. “Ye are my friends,” said Jesus to his disciples. The com-
munication betwixt heaven and him is opened; and he has access to God as a
friend, while others as enemies are banished from his presence, Job xxxiii. 23–26.
2. Peace of conscience: “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience.”
Conscience is the best friend, or worst enemy, a person hath in all the world. An
evil conscience pierceth much more severely than the sharpest arrow. “A wounded
spirit who can bear?” It is a gnawing worm ; nay, it tears the soul, as a lion doth
its prey. The guilt laid on it in the way of sin envenoms the arrow, and makes
conscience gall the man. This is the serpent which bites him who “breaks over
the hedge” of God's laws. . But in the way of religion conscience is pacified. The
blood of Christ applied by faith draws out the sting. The conscience speaks peace
to a regular walker with God: “Great peace have they which love thy law; and
nothing shall offend them.” This rejoices the soul in midst of troubles, and feasts
him in famine. And this inward peace is a sweet sauce to the bitterest dish which
providence sets before a Christian ; while an evil conscience, even in much out-
Ward prosperity, goes along with sinners, and is a dead fly in their best ointment.
3. Peace of heart by the soul's rest in God : “Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” Adam left all his children with a
676 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
conscience full of guilt, a heart full of wants, even wants that cannot be numbered.
They go to created things for the supply of these wants; but in doing so, they “go
through dry places, seeking rest and finding none.” In the way of religion, a person
comes to God in Christ; there the soul is at peace and rests in its centre. Here
the soul is brought into the ark as the dove, sits down by the fountain of living
waters, and is put in possession of the matchless treasure. Thus the believing
heart enters into peace and rest, as having all its desire, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. What a
disturbed heart had Hannah ! but when she had poured out her soul before the
Lord, and obtained the hope of a gracious answer, “she did eat, and her counte-
nance was no more sad.”
4. Peace of mind: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
thee, because he trusteth in thee.” In the world, there is a variety of events, no man
! knows what shall be. In the way of sin a person is kept fluctuating in that respect;
tossed hither and thither, like a ship without a helm, left to the conduct of the wind
and seas. Our Lord forbids this, and says, “Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what
ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind:” Be ye not like meteors in the
air, tossed hither and thither, sometimes hoping, sometimes fearing, buoyed up
with the one, cast down with the other, and so in continual agitation. When a
person is not in the way of religion, there is no help against this ; but in that way
there is peace of mind to be enjoyed upon solid grounds, and it is the native effect
of peace and holiness. “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect
of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.” Behold the sure ground.
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth Salva-
tion ; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth !” And hence ariseth the triumph
of the saints in times of trouble and in doubtful events, Psal. xlvi. 1–4.
5. Peace with the creatures of God: “For thou shalt be in league with the
stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.” While
man is at enmity with God, the whole creation stands in array against him. When
he goes out of God's way, God's creatures lie in wait to attack him on the least
signal given. Upon this, frogs entered Pharaoh's chambers, and worms devoured
Herod. He may say as Cain, “Every one that findeth me will slay me.” But in
the way of religion, he shall have them all his confederates, as all the servants run
to serve him whom their Master delights to hononr. Angels are his attendants;
and from the highest to the lowest creature, he may comfortably look on them, as
knowing that all is his, because he is Christ's.
6. Peace, even prosperity, as the scripture useth that word: “Say ye to the
righteous, that it shall be well with him ; for they shall eat the fruit of their
doings.” Religion is the true way to prosper, to get good success; for while a
blasting curse attends the way of sin, a rich blessing is found in the way of religion.
It is the way to promote the prosperity of the soul, even as the soul of Gaius pros-
pered. Loose living ruins a man's spiritual state. Living lusts prey like vermin
on the soul; deface the beauty, and eat out the life of the better part. The soul is
the man; and while it is going back, though bodily health and wealth abound,
he prospers no more than the ricketty child, whose head grows big, but the body
decays.
i. religion also is the way to prosper in every other respect. “The godly
man shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season ; his leaf shall not wither ; and whatsoever he doth shall
prosper.” Outward prosperity, indeed, is not so annexed either to the way of sin,
or of religion, as to determine in which of them a person is. But there is a pro-
mise for it in the way of religion, which shall be accomplished as far as it shall
serve to God's glory and their good: “Length of days is in her right hand; and in
her left hand, riches and honour.” But there is no such promise respecting the
way of sin. Besides, where prosperity comes in the way of religion, there is a
blessing in it by virtue of the promise, and it shall prove to the person's real good :
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.” But in the way of sin prosperity is
attended with a curse, that hath dismal effects for their destruction. “The pros-
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 677
perity of fools shall destroy them.” It was the saying even of a heathen, “No-
body is happy till after death.” And we know the end crowns the work. How
often do we see it verified in this life, “He that walketh uprightly walketh Surely;
but he that perverteth his way shall be known l’” How often does the stone, sin-
fully moved, roll down on them that moved it ! And “when a man's ways please
the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” So that the way
of holiness will always get the preference sooner or later. “Mark the perfect
man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace. But the trans-
gressors shall be destroyed together ; the end of the wicked shall be cut off.”
7. Eternal peace. What crowns the peacefulness of the way of religion is,
that the end of that way is peace, while the end of the other is destruction. The
godly man dies in peace, though he die in the field of battle. This made Balaam
wish “to die the death of the righteous.” “They enter into peace; they rest in
their beds.” They shall rise again in peace. “Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise. Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust;
for thy dew is as the dew of herbs; and the earth shall cast out the dead.” They
shall enjoy the most profound peace for ever in another world, a peace that cannot
be interrupted; For “the gates of the city shall not be shut at all by day, and
there shall be no night there.” Now, in the way of religion this peace is attained.
We are naturally strangers to peace. Wicked men have none, and they grasp at
it without a covenant-right. But a soul coming into the way of religion, is on the
highway of peace ; nay, one no sooner takes the first step in that way, but he enters
into peace : “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord
Jesus Christ.” However terrible the storms have been, faith apprehending the
blood of Christ produceth peace according to its measure.
This peace is also maintained by religion. “Great peace have they that love
thy law ; and nothing shall offend them.” Nothing can mar the peace of a saint
but sin. “Peace,” said Jesus, “I leave with you, my peace I give unto you :
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid.” The world may rob the Christian of his external peace: but his
Supernatural, internal, and eternal peace they cannot reach ; these may be enjoyed
even in the midst of war and trouble. “These things,” saith Jesus, “I have spoken
unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation;
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The holy steadfast walk with
God will have its effect; for “the work of righteousness shall be peace.” And
no sin having access to them in heaven, their state there will be without the least
disturbance. We now proceed,
II. To evince this to be the most peaceful way. What was said on the plea-
Santness of this way does manifest this. I shall only add a few things. In the
way of sin men may have some stolen shreds of peace; but no entire, no solid peace
can be found in it. It is too divine a thing to be found any where but in the way
of faith and holiness. May it not be said to sinners as Jehu said to the king's
messenger, “What hast thou to do with peace?”
1. What peace can one have in the way of sin, while God that made him
is angry with him ; “God is angry with the wicked every day.” All the peace
which earth can afford, while heaven is frowning, is but a pleasant dream, a
short-lived fancy, a fabric beautiful without a foundation, that will fall to the
ground with a hideous noise ere long. But O what peace in the favour of “the
God of peace l’’ This peace is confined to the way of religion. There the God
of peace is their God, and from a throne of grace breathes peace and good-will
towards the creature.
2. What peace to a man that is a stranger to the Mediator of peace? “But
those mine enemies,” saith he, “which would not that I should reign over them,
bring hither and slay them before me.” Against them, you see heaven is farther
incensed, by their slighting the Prince of Peace. But the way of religion, the
Mediator himself, is our peace. And the emanations of the divine perfections, all
meet to carry on the peace of the Saints, and he who out of Christ “is a consuming
fire” is, through him, a reconciled Father.
3. What peace to a person who is without the covenant of peace 2 What hath
678 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
such an one to do with it, that remains in a state of war against God? But they
that are in the way of religion, are taken up into the chariot of the covenant, and
are making away to eternal peace.
4. What peace can there be so long as stinging guilt remains in the con-
science, unsatisfied desires in the heart ; while anxieties and fears, for which in the
way in which men are there is no cure, remain in the breast, and divers lusts are
reigning and raging within Ż To those in this state there can be no peace. But
O the profound peace, where the conscience is purged, the heart come to its rest,
the mind satisfied, and the reign of sin broken
Use 1. Of information. This teaches us,
1st, That religion is the true way to make a person happy, as leading them to the
greatest pleasure and peace. Would you be happy, then be religious. This is the
surest, the most compendious way, nay, the only way to happiness. To this the
poor have as ready access as the rich, and we need not go far for it ; for “the
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith
which we preach, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved.” Come hither, then, and thy soul shall find a satisfying rest.
2dly, Religion is the best cement of society. It is that which makes all relations
comfortable, by the pleasure and peace which it brings along with it. Were there
more religion amongst us in the world, there would not be so many jarrings, it
would bring in a blessed harmony, Isa. xi. 6. It is the low degree of practical
religion among men that occasions so many contentions, breaches, and discords,
in states, churches, and families.
3dly, Religion is the best choice in the world for young or old. It is the “one thing
needful;” the better part, that shall not be taken from us. The world is a valley
of tears and trouble. We are born weeping ; and choose what way we will, we will
meet with crosses and disasters. Every one needs something to allay his sorrows,
and seeks it also. Some go to one thing for it, and some to another; most go the
wrong way. But religion is the best allay that is to be found; and there is no-
thing in all the world that will correct the bad air that blows in it, in the way that
religion will do. Its pleasure and peace will stand those shocks before which all
others will evanish.
4thly, The opinion of the unpleasantness and trouble of religion is a most groundless
prejudice. This mistake makes many stand back from it. This makes it espe-
cially look strange and frightful to young persons, whose years call for what is
pleasant and gay. But O consider that in calling you to a religious life, we call you
not to bid adieu to all pleasure and peace, but only to change your pleasure and
peace, a meaner one for a higher and more noble one ; a less for a greater; an
unsound one for a solid one ; a short-lived for a lasting, even an everlasting one.
Therefore, deceive not yourselves with pleasant dreams, shadows, and airy
baubles, while that which is solid, powerful, and lasting is before you.
5thly, Pleasantness is a very desirable thing. It is one of the great motives to
bring people to the way of religion, and it is an attendant of the good old way.
It is what all men naturally do desire, but what few attain in a right manner.
When pleasantness is drawn from the way of sin, it is a most ensmaring hook.
But happy are they that have most of it in the ways of God.
6thly, Peace is a very desirable thing also, and worthy to be followed. It is another
of the motives that bring persons to the way of religion. It is the beauty of society,
and ought to be followed in the several subjects of it. “Follow peace with all
men,” says the apostle. This calls for peace in our families, and in our neigh-
bourhoods; peace in the state, and peace in the church. It is a pleasant and a
profitable thing. Psalm czxxiii. It is really a wonder that the duty of seeking the
peace of the church should have so little weight with the consciences of men, but
that all things tending that way should be so suspicious; when Christ and his
apostles so often urge it. Our Lord is the Prince of peace, the church the society
of peace, religion the way of peace ; the godly are the meek, the quiet in the land.
And nothing pleases enemies better than to see the church broken in pieces. The
farther from peace, the farther from the power of godliness, 1 Cor, iii. 3, 4,
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 6.79
Must we then be for peace at any rate 2 No. Gold may be bought too dear, and
so may peace. Behold the boundaries: “The wisdom that is from above is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” We must give any thing for peace
except truth and holiness: “Buy the truth, and sell it not ; also wisdom, and
instruction, and understanding.” But is not truth betrayed by maintaining peace
with such as differ from us in some particular point of truth and holiness? Many
think so indeed, to the breaking of the peace of this church ; but the apostle
thinks and determines otherwise, Rom. xiv. 22; Phil. iii. 16. But those men
who, being touched in the tender point of their own interest, sacrifice the peace of
the church to it, and for their own defence break over the hedge, and carry a foul
conscience with them ; they might learn a useful lesson from the ermine, a beast
that has a very precious fur, which it will by no means defile : the hunters there-
fore lay mud and clay across the way, and then hound the dogs at it: it runs from
them, till it come to that mud, but then rather than stain its fur by crossing it, it
will turn back among the dogs and die.
Use 2. Of exhortation. Be exhorted, then, all of you, to the study of religion.
Leave the way of sin and folly, and cleave to the way of wisdom and religion.
Lay aside your prejudices against it, and come, taste and see, the pleasure and
peace of true religion.
1. You that have entered on the way of religion, come press forward in it, and
you shall taste that pleasure and peace that are in it. Cease not to make advances
in the way, till you find it so in your own experience. And if you thus press on,
you shall say I have found pleasure and peace indeed.
2. You that are strangers in heart to religion, embrace it now. Let the beauty
of its ways draw you towards it. Satan has long kept you in the dark about it,
told you there is no pleasure nor peace in it; but O believe the testimony of God
and those that have tried it, who tell you that of all ways it is the most pleasant
and the most peaceful. All you, then, that are lovers of a pleasant life, turn in
hither, and take this way. Come, you that would have pleasure; here is the most
pleasant way in the world. Would you spend your days pleasantly 3 make religion
the first business of them. Are you anxious to be delivered from a life of grief,
heaviness, and sorrow ; to have the scales turned, and delight, joy, and satisfaction
to come in their room? here is the way. All you also that would have a peaceful
life, come in hither. Are there any whose peace is broken by outward trouble,
that can get no more peace in the world than a lily among thorns? Any whose
peace is broken by inward troubles, going mourning without the Sun, broken with
God's terrors, harassed with Satan's temptations, stung with a guilty conscience?
Here is a sovereign balm for you, for all your outward sores, and an effectual cure
for all your inward pains; religion will ease you; faith and holiness will put you
all right.
But before I come to the motives, I must remove the impediments, by answering
some plausible objections.
Objection 1. Does not common observation tell us that they who keep themselves
entirely loose from religion, have a far more pleasant life than the strict follower
of religion ? Answer, There is one grand prejudice against this, which may justly
call us to examine the matter more narrowly, namely, that at this rate, the life
that is nearest that of a beast is the most pleasant life. But this is a principle of
which human reason cannot but be ashamed. Therefore, I say, the common
observation thus determining is too superficial to be depended upon. It determines
by sensible appearances and noise. But do you not observe that the shallow
brooks make greater noise than the deep waters, and it is not your most exquisite
pleasures, but the smaller ones, that are discovered by laughter; so the pleasures
of religion are above that airy gaiety that appears in such men. To make a right
judgment here, you must compare the solid joys of religion with the airy joys of
fools. You must perceive and compare the peace of mind that accompanies the
pleasures of the one, with those twinges of conscience that accompany the other,
and you will soon see that you have been out in your reckoning. " *
Object. 2. Are not religious persons often found the most sorrowful and dejected
680 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
ones? Answ. There are great differences as to the natural tempers of some, and
grace does not take away but correct these natural dispositions. There are some
naturally cheerful that are religious, and some such who are irreligious; there are
some religious persons of a more heavy spirit, and so are there of the other sort.
Why should religion be blamed on the account of those who have what is unpleas-
ing in their way, not from religion, but from what is common to men ? Again, the
sorrows of the religious many times flow from their stepping out of the way. And
when persons leave the way of pleasantness in less or more, it is no wonder their
sorrow be proportionable, falling into “the lions' dens and mountains of leopards.”
Yet it will be found, that the religious heart which “knows its own bitterness,” with
which others are unacquainted, hath also those joys with which “strangers do not
intermeddle.” “A wise man feareth and departeth from evil; but the fool rageth
and is confident.”
Object. 3. What pleasure can there be in many of the exercises of religion, as
repenting, mourning, mortification, watching, and the like 2 Answ. 1. However
little there be, there will always be as much as in many of the ways of sin, as envy,
wrath, malice, anxiety, fretting, murmuring, striving against the will of providence,
and the like. Answ. 2. There is a pleasure at least at the root of these exercises
of religion, which springs upward in solid joy. “Blessed are they that mourn, for
they shall be comforted.” Yea, there is a pleasure in them while they go on and
prosper in a person's hand. It is a pleasure to a gracious soul to find the heart
loosed from the bands of wickedness, to get victory over a corruption, and to stand
its ground against temptation. Godly sorrow and joy are not inconsistent. Hence
the command is, “Rejoice with trembling.” -
Object. 4. But is not trouble the ordinary companion of religion ? Answ. Choose
what way you will, the storm of trouble blows so vehemently in the world, that you
can never altogether escape it. But religion brings peace in the midst of trouble.
It removes inward troubles of conscience; it brings the heart and mind to rest in
God and acquiesce in the disposals of providence; and makes a person inwardly
easy, while under outward troubles. “In the world,” says Jesus, “ye shall have
tribulation : but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Yea, as the well-
cultivated field bids fairest for the best crop, so the most afflicted Christians have
commonly the greatest incomes of peace and joy, 2 Cor. i. 5, and xii. 10.
Object. 5. I have tried religion and have not found it so. Answ. Since others
have tried it as well as you and find it so, you must conclude it is so, though you
have not found it. Look into thyself, and thou wilt find the cause of it there.
There are many that try the ways of religion with their old nature unrenewed, how
can it but be heavy to them ? Some try them in the way and under the influence
of the covenant of works, not in the way of believing : no wonder, then, that they
complain, since they mistake the yoke of the law for the sweet yoke of Christ.
Some are but entering upon the way of religion; and no wonder they feel it hard
going up the hill of Zion, who have not been used to such kind of travelling. Some
are so inconstant in their religious endeavours, that they never take it but by fits
and starts; they never inure themselves to the life of faith, and a close walk with
God: what wonder, then, if they continue strangers to the pleasures of religion ?
Some are so superficial they seldom if ever enter into the spirit of it, in inward
spiritual worship and communion with God; and while they still stand by the out-
skirts of it, and do not dip into religion, it is no wonder they fall short of the plea-
sure of it.
Take, for instance, the duty of prayer, in which God's people have found much
peace and pleasure. Yet how can it be so to one who goes to it with his taste
quite vitiated with the luscious sweets of sin; who makes his address to God, purely
as a criminal to his judge, and dare not call him Father; who has done with it,
ere he be well begun; whose heart is wandering hither and thither in the time of
it, or who contents himself with the lip labour of it? These objections removed,
consider these motives following:
Motive 1. Embrace the way of religion, that pleasant and peaceful way ; for
whatever can make a way pleasant and peaceful is to be found in it. Consider here,
1. It is the king's highway, not a by-path, Isa. xxxv. 8. It is the way marked
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 681
out and determined by the King of heaven, for mortals to walk in towards eternal
bliss. The Father has appointed it by his eternal decree, Eph. ii. 10. . The Son
of God in man's nature trod every step, and marked it out by the prints of his
feet, “ leaving us an example that we should follow his steps.” . The Spirit of the
Lord not only points it out to sinners, but guides his people to it and on in it.
2. It is the way, the only way, to Immanuel's land; for “without holiness no
man shall see the Lord.” It leads to the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, the
celestial paradise ; and has such a close connection with it, that they who are once
set fair on the way are said to be come to these already, Heb. x. 22, 23. And
were it otherwise ever so unpleasant, this is sufficient to denominate it a pleasant
way. It is a pleasant way that ends so pleasantly, especially considering that the
opposite way of sin “leads down to the chambers of death.”
3. The pleasant land to which it leads is always within the reach of a traveller's
eye, from the first step to the last upon it: “Thine eyes shall see the King in
his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.” Faith embracing
Christ and all his salvation, fixes its eye on heaven at the very first step. And if
the traveller lose sight of it at any time, he may impute it to himself; the weak-
ness of his eye that cannot see afar off; the mists and fogs that arise from the for-
bidden ground, to which he often turns aside. The Lord of the land allows the
travellers to keep it in their view all along. Like Moses, they may “ have respect
unto the recompence of reward.” And it is a city set on a hill that cannot of
itself be hid from those that are on the way.
4. It is a plain straight way. The great direction in this way is, “Let thine
eyes look right on, and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee;” “This is the
way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”
The turning and winding way, where travellers are ready to lose themselves, is
the way of the crooked serpent. But blessed are they that keep straight, for they
are in the pleasant way to blessedness, Psal. cxix. 1. One lust may be contrary to
another, so one error to another, that makes the way of sin a crooked uneven way.
But all graces, duties, and truths, centre in God in Christ, and so lead to one and
the same point. -
5. It is a clean way; there is not a foul step in this way, and the unclean cannot
walk in it, Isa. xxxv. 8. There are on every hand mires into which many fall and
perish ; but they are no part of the way of religion, but the way of sin: “There-
fore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every
false way.” As long as the soul keeps this way, it remains sweet and clean, and
in a florid beauty; lovely in the eyes of God, and of men whose eyes are opened. It
is true the world loathes it ; but that is as swine do a clean palace, to which they
prefer the dunghill. But it is the godlike, heavenly way.
6. Though there be difficulties in the way, yet there is sufficient help at hand to
carry a man through the most difficult step. “My grace,” saith Jesus, “is sufficient
for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” God lays no burden upon
his people but what he allows them strength to bear. If he orders them to go
through the fire or water, he hath promised to be with them, and to keep them,
Isa. xliii. 2. If they be to swim through a sea of blood, he will bear up their
head. And as their afflictions abound, so he makes his grace abound too.
7. It is a well-frequented way. It is true, not so frequented as the broad way,
in which the devil's multitude goes: yet not solitary. There is a cloud of wit-
nesses hath gone before on that way, and it is by “the footsteps of that flock” we
are now called to go. And there are never wanting some generous souls, who
trample on things below, and aspire to the things above.
8. There are inns by this way for the refreshing of the traveller, whenever he is
disposed to make use of them. Gospel ordinances and duties are these inns designed
for their refreshment, that they may go on the more vigorously : “He brought me
to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” And never were inns
by the way more acceptable to a weary traveller, than the word, sacraments, and
prayer, have been to the saints. -
9. There is pleasant company by this way. Even the society of the saints
makes it very pleasant. The communication of sorrows and of joys, and communion
4 R
682 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
of prayers are most refreshful. But the society and communion with the Lord of
the land allowed to the travellers by the way is the top of the pleasure. It was
observed of Caesar, that he ordered not his soldiers to go, but desired them to come
with him on such an expedition. And that is the very voice that sounds in this
way: “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon.” They
go with him in his chariot of the blessed covenant.
Mot. 2. Let the pleasure, and peace in religion, engage and determine your
Souls to that way. For consider these are the very things which you are seeking
after, and which you cannot but seek, you cannot cease to desire, more than you
can cease desiring and seeking to be happy. Why come you not, then, to the place
where they are pointed out to be 2 It is observable that the gospel invitations are
framed to answer the natural desires of men after pleasure and peace, or happiness.
You are like men in a mist going up and down seeking these things, crying, “Who
will show us any good 2" The gospel answers, Here, here it is ; “Ho! every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters;” “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And yet they do not find it, but still hold
on their old cry in the mist ; and the true reason is, they look upon the gospel
answer as a mock, an idle tale, and therefore the blame of men's ruin is laid on
unbelief, though they will not believe that to be the cause, and that is a part of the
disease ; for “who hath believed our report 2 and to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed?”
Mot. 3. Consider the galling disappointments with which you have met, in seek-
ing pleasure and peace otherwise than in the way of religion. Would men con-
sider the cold entertainment with which they have so often met from the world,
and in the way of sin; how often in vain they have begged at these doors, and in
vain pursued such things, they would turn their backs upon them, they would give
over the chase, and say with the prodigal, “I perish here with hunger. I will arise
and go to my Father.” -
How often have you found the pleasure and peace got in that way, mean, empty,
trifling, sinking far below expectation 1 “Vanity of vanities, Vanity of vanities, all
is vanity.” These mountains afar off and in expectation, have turned to mole-hills
when near and in fruition. The deceitful creature and deceitful lusts have promised
great things, but performed always meanly; so that were we not bewitched with
the love of them, we had come to that long ere now, never to credit them more.
But, alas! “Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they
go to Assyria.” Have not these pleasures and peace been unsatisfying while you
had them 2 They could not fill your heart, more than you could fill your hand
with grasping dreams and shadows. You behoved still to have more, they could
not perfectly still the cryings of the hungry soul within. -
Have they not been short-lived ? It shall even “be as when an hungry man
dreameth, and behold he eateth ; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty.” They
have died among your hands, and melted like Snow before the sun, or gone out like
the foam on the water. g
How often in this pursuit, when you have got the pleasure, have you not lost the
peace | When you have climbed for the forbidden fruit and got it, has it not stuck
in your throat, that you could not enjoy it? For “whoso breaketh an hedge, a
serpent shall bite him.” This was sadly exemplified in the case of Judas. Has
not the gratifying of lusts, so disobliged your conscience, that it has broken your
peace, and marred the promised feast or the pleasure ? O wretched disappointment,
where, plucking the rose, one gets a thorn run into his hand.
How often in this pursuit have you lost both the pleasure and the peace you
sought, and in their stead received displeasure and disturbance “They that
observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies.” Many times striking at the
rock for water, fire flashing in the face is all that is got ; and sucking the breasts
of the creature, blood is wrung out instead of milk. Is not this a bad reward
which sin and the world give us for our love 2 Is not our labour ill bestowed upon
them ż “Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts, that the people shall labour in the
fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity ?”
O Sirs, shall not these disappointments in this way prevail to cause you turn
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 683
to the way of religion ? Will you still hold on to cry there for pleasure and peace,
where it is told you a thousand times they are not there to give you? Hath God
told you they are to be had in the way of religion, and experience told you that
you seek them in vain elsewhere, and yet will you not try religion ?
Mot. 4. You shall find both pleasure and peace in the way of religion. Not
only are they there; but you shall find them there, according to the measure of
your keeping the way of religion. “Hearken,” says God, “diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” What you
have been so long disappointed of in the way of sin, you will find there. The
fountain is an opened fountain, its flowing stream is never dry. “Whosoever,” saith
Jesus, “drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water
that I shall give him, shall be in him, a well of water, springing up into everlast-
ing life.”
%. here, and you shall find pleasure, refined, satisfying, strong, lasting plea-
sure. You are invited to this feast, and God calls not sinners to an empty table:
“O taste and see that the Lord is good ; blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”
The psalmist speaks his own experience in this matter when he says, “Who satis-
fieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
The way of religion is the same it was then, the treasures are as full as ever;
God’s bounty is not dried up more than it was then. “Behold, the Lord's hand
is not shortened that it cannot save ; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.”
If there be any change it is to the better, even so far as the gospel dispensation
excels that of the law, in the more plentiful effusion of the Spirit, greater light,
and familiarity by the Spirit of adoption.
Here also you will find peace, peace with God, peace internal, external, and
eternal, as much as shall be for God's honour and your own good. Behold the
blessing poured on the head of the travellers in this way: “And as many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”
The black cloud hangs over the way of sin; and sinners have the dark side of the
hill, on which heaven lowers continually. But O happy these that walk in the
way of religion' They have the sunny side of the hill. If the clouds of outward
trouble drop there, yet while it rains it shines, and that is comfortable.
Now, is not Christ's offer as good as that of sin and the world? Our Lord offers
you pleasure and peace too, and he will surely give them, he will not disappoint
you. And will you not fall in with it ! It is but the blasphemy of the wicked heart,
to say he is an austere man. It is not consistent with his honour, to suffer his
creatures to be losers at his hand, or to bring them into a worse condition than he
found them: “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath provided for
them a city.” -
Mot. 5. The pleasure and peace to be found in the way of religion are vastly
preferable to all that is to be found in the way of sin, as bread is to husks, or to a
stone, or to ashes. This is evident from what was already said on the third gen-
eral head. They are truly satisfying; for they are suited to the nature of the soul,
which is spiritual and immortal, and can never be satisfied with the pleasures of
sense, which are fading. But the pleasures of religion are like the soul itself,
spiritual, fit to feed, delight, and perfect the soul, and they endure for ever.
Mot. 6. The pleasures of religion are inseparably attended with peace. The
way of religion is not only sweet but safe. So says the text. One may perhaps
find pleasure in the way of sin, but there is no safety in it. The most pleasant
cup that can be found in the way of sin isfull of deadly poison: “Stolen waters
are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant ; but he knoweth not that the dead
are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.” There is a sting comes
along with that honey, and the Smiles are killing. But where one is feasted with
the pleasure of religion they may partake without fear in that respect, for there
can be no death in the pot. Here pleasure and peace, sweetness and safety, are
mingled with one another.
Mot. 7. You shall find eternal pleasure and peace at the end of this way: “Thou
wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence there is fulness of joy ; at thy right
Whand there are pleasures for overmore.” Hereby you will find them on the other
684 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
side of the grave ; you will carry them along with you to another world, or rather
you will go to them there in their perfection. For all of that kind here is but
the first fruits, and a pledge of what is to be had in heaven. There the saints
shall enjoy the most refined pleasure in a perfection which we cannot now com-
prehend, and withal the most profound peace, without the least touch of uneasi-
ness while eternity lasts. - g
Now I have delivered my message unto you, respecting the pleasure and peace
of God's way. I have recommended religion unto you, and laboured to remove the
prejudice of unpleasantness which Satan and the world lay it under, intending to
dress it up in such a frightful figure, as to make you afraid of it. I now would
ask you,
1st, Do you now believe? John xvi. 31. Do you credit the report of the gospel,
respecting the way of religion ? Do you believe it to be the true way of pleasure
and peace? I am afraid the hearts of some do look on what has been said but as
pulpit flourishes, and idle tales. But what is that, but to disbelieve the word of
God; for nothing can be said higher than what our text itself says on this matter.
I tell you, if you be not cured of your belief, you will be cured of it when you come
to be in the situation of the rich man, “who, when in hell, lifted up his eyes,
being in torments.”
2dly, Are you now resolved to take this way or not ? What will you do? Will
you hold on the broad way with the multitude, and not know the way of peace? Or
will you now resolve to turn your back on them and it, and go by “the footsteps of
the flock?” I would say to you, as the prophet Gad said to David, “Now advise,
and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.” Sirs, your all is lying at
stake. Your stake for eternity turns upon this point. Take heed what you do.
Is there any one among us who will say in their practice still, “It is vain to
serve God. For I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” Such persons
have no taste for the pleasures of religion, but are resolved to make the best which
they can of the pleasure and peace in the way of sin. Then I must tell you, that
you are left without excuse, and are not only losers, but despisers, of the promised
land. For I must protest in behalf of him that sent me, that none among us,
young nor old, shall have it to say, that they knew not that religion was a pleasant
life, but that the veil is drawn off her face, that whosoever would might see her
loveliness and attractive beauty.
I must also tell you that in this you sin against displayed love and good-will.
God has not been speaking to you from Sinai with thunder and terror, but from
Sion, with the still small voice. You are not driven with whips into the way, nor
dragged with chains of iron, but drawn with cords of love, and yet you will not come.
Therefore I say finally, that by this you do “judge yourselves unworthy of eternal
life.” And therefore I declare that if you do not repent you shall never see life,
but wrath will be your portion. And it will be dear-bought pleasure and peace
now, at the rate of everlasting burnings, and roarings under the lashes of revenging
iustice.
J But now, if there be any who are resolved to go this way, their question will be,
What course shall I take to find the pleasure and peace of religion ?
1. Close with Christ the Mediator of peace, in the way of the covenant of peace
through his blood. Come up into the chariot in the way of believing. This is the
only true foundation of the pleasure and peace of religion?
2. Be still going to Christ in a way of believing, for the supplies of the Spirit of
holiness, to carry on the renewing of your nature. For the more your nature be
renewed and the old nature crucified, the more pleasure and peace you will find
in religion.
3. Grow in love to the Lord, by believing God to be your God in Christ, believ-
ing what he hath done for you in the great work of redemption, and what he hath
prepared for you that love him.
4. Labour to starve your lusts, and to root out the love of the world. “Put ye
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof,” Rom. xiii. 14. As long as the gust and relish of earthly things is
too quick and lively, the gust of religion will be flat and dull. A heart drenched
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 685
in sensuality, or any excessive love to created things, will be like wet wood, not
easily fired from heaven.
5. Strive to be spiritual in every duty; aiming at communion with God in reli-
gious exercises, studying to do whatever you do from right principles, in a right
manner, and to a right end, for in these consist the life of religion, Song iv. 16,
and v. 11.
7. Be a constant close walker with God, making religion your business: this
will turn it to be a pleasure unto you; and the more you go on in it without inter-
ruption, it will be the more pleasant.
7. Go often to the fountain to wash, and make much use of an imputed righte-
ousness: “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” This is the way to
keep the conscience sweet and pure, to get the peace of God to rule in your hearts.
8. Believe the promises of strength and furniture for duty, and go to the duty
upon the credit of the promise. This is to “be strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus.” *
9. Be heavenly in your frame and conversation. “For our conversation,”
says Paul, “is in heaven.” Keep the other-world much in your view. Live in
the hope of drinking of “the rivers of pleasure.” Believe the promises about these
things, and let it be your main scope and end to get forward thither. So life will
be blessed and death no terror. Or if you would have the directions in one word,
Live by faith, and then you will find the pleasure and peace of religion. Amen.
IX.
FEAR AND HOPE, OBJECTS OF THE DIVINE COMPLACENCY.”
PsALM czlvii. 11.
“The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.”
THERE are times of danger in which the event is very doubtful; but even then,
the safety and success will always be on the side the Lord casts them. In conse-
quence, it is an important question, How may we engage him on our side 3 Certain
it is, his pleasure lies not in created strength. Horse and foot, courage and strength,
may be on the side which God will disown, and which shall be worsted: “IXy
strength,” says he, “shall no man prevail,” 1 Sam, ii. 9. His pleasure is in the
strength of grace: “He will keep the feet of his saints;” or, as it is expressed in
the text, “The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in
his mercy.” In which words we have,
1. The character of those whose part the Lord will take in all their trials and
troubles, and in all their encounters with their enemies. The first part of their
character is, they are fearers of God. They have the awe of his majesty upon
their spirits. The second is, that they hope in, or rather for, his mercy. They,
in a becoming manner, wait and patiently seek for relief from God, and that in the
Way of mercy through Christ, not for any thing in themselves. Observe next the
mixture of these parts of their character: They do not only fear God, but hope
in him ; for fear without hope will sink into raging despair. They not only hope,
but fear; for hope without fear will turn into presumption. These two God hath
Joined together, let not us put them asunder.
* This and the following discourse were delivered in 1718.
686 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
2. The privileges of these persons: whoever may be displeased with them, and
however much they may be displeased with themselves, God takes pleasure in
them. He accepts their persons and their service, and he will show himself to
be on their side. They shall not hope in vain; however hapless their case be in
itself, they shall get a merciful relief in due time. -
From these words, observe this
DocTRINE. The Lord takes pleasure in those, who, whatever case they be in,
entertain a holy fear of him, with a kindly hope in his mercy. -
In discoursing which, it is intended,
I. Shortly to describe this holy fear, that in all cases ought to be entertained,
with a hope of the Lord's mercy.
II. To describe that kindly hope of his mercy, to be entertained in all cases,
along with this holy fear.
III. To show the necessity of keeping up this holy fear and kindly hope in all
cases together in the soul.
IV. To show what is that pleasure the Lord takes in such.
W. To confirm the doctrine of the text.
VI. To make a practical improvement of the different parts of the subject.
I am, then,
I. Shortly to describe this holy fear, that in all cases ought to be entertained,
with a hope of the Lord's mercy. This fear of God is,
1. An awe and dread of his majesty and transcendent greatness; Psal. lxxxix.
6, 7, “For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the
sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the
assembly of the Saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about
him.” With this the lightness and vanity of the heart is to be repressed. The
soul must entertain high and honourable thoughts of God, as a sovereign of inde-
pendent being, in whom all perfections do concentre; must look up to the clouds
and behold him on his throne in heaven, and so bring itself thereby to a profound
reverence of his greatness.
2. A reverence of his absolute, his unlimited authority and power: “Fear him,”
said Jesus, “who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say
unto you, fear him,” Luke xii. 5. He can command us whatsoever he will, and
dispose of us as he pleaseth. Let us have a reverential regard to the uncontrollable
sceptre he sways over all creatures. Since he doth in heaven and in earth what
seemeth good unto him, and “none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What dost
thou?” we should silently submit to his disposals. -
3. A fear of offending him in any thing; Psal. iv. 4, “Stand in awe, and sin
not.” This is a fear, and caution, and circumspection, which we should always
carry about and never lay aside. We walk amidst many snares; Satan and a
corrupt heart are ready to entangle us; but God cannot away with sin; it is the
only offence we can give him. He is well pleased to see us afraid of offending him,
to see the poor sinner affrighted at every thing that is provoking to him, and keep-
ing up a holy tenderness this way.
4. A fear of imputing iniquity to him, or harbouring hard and unbecoming
thoughts of his majesty; Job i. 22, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged
God foolishly.” The proud heart, casting off the fear of God, arraigns and con-
demns the conduct of holy Providence as rigorous and unrighteous; and so
murmurs against the Lord. But holy fear silenceth the mutiny of these unruly
passions, and says, “He does all things well, is holy and righteous in all his ways
and works.”
5. A dread of going out of his way for help, however hard the case be ; Isa. viii.
13, 14, “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let
him be your dread: and he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling,
and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare,
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and many among them shall stumble, and fall,
and be broken, and be taken.” Holy fear takes off the wheels of the chariot of
impatience and unsanctified haste, which drives furiously to get out of that case in
which infinite wisdom has placed us. The soul dare not adventure to shake off the
yoke, till the Lord put to his own hand and take it off.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 687
Lastly, A dread of his holy hand in his judgments; Amos, iii. 8, “The lion
hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy %"
This fear keeps the heart from slight thoughts of them, and furnishes awful thoughts
of a smiting God, the weight of whose hand no man is able to bear. And there is
here a dread of the hand of the Lord lying on their person for the past; Heb. xii.
5, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of him.” The man noticeth the stroke, and what impressions of anger
are engraven on it; and so he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so there may be
hope, Lam. iii. 29. Whatever he meets with, he takes it as from the Lord, and
reverenceth the hand that smiteth. There is also a dread of what the Lord may
inflict upon him ; Psal. cxix. 120, “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I
am afraid of thy judgments.” The fearer of the Lord sees that, whatever be his
stroke, it is less than his deserving. They say as Ezra, chap. ix. 13, “Thou,
our God, hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve ;” and therefore submit
themselves, lest the Lord make the stroke greater, and punish them seven times
more. Let us now,
II. Describe that kindly hope of his mercy, to be entertained in all cases along
with this holy fear. It is, a
1. A firm persuasion of the good, gracious, and bountiful nature of God, who
delights not in the misery of his creatures; Psal. xxv. 8, “Good and upright is
the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way;” Ezek. xviii. 23, “Have I any
pleasure at all that the wicked should die? Saith the Lord God; and not that he
should return from his ways, and live º’” God is the fountain of all goodness to be
found in man or angel, and so is himself a boundless ocean of goodness. He loves
to have poor sinners entertaining these kindly thoughts of him. And well may they
do so, even under hard pressures, for God lays not on man more than is meet or
right, Job xxxiv. 23: and even this he does with a kind of holy reluctance, for
“he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men,” Lam. iii. 33.
2. A hope of mercy to all their unrighteousness, through Christ. This is the
great hope, called “the hope of the gospel,” Col. i. 23. For it is the main hope
purchased by Christ to lost sons of Adam, and held forth to them in the gospel;
Heb. viii. 12, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more.” To cast away this hope, is at once to throw
dishonour on the mercy of the Father, and the blood of the Son, and the efficacy
of his Spirit; to cast it away, is to please Satan, and to ruin our own souls.
3. A hope of good by their afflictions, trials, and troubles; Rom. viii. 28, “And
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.” It is the Lord's ordinary way to
bring his people nearer him by afflictions; “Before I was afflicted, I went astray,
but now have I kept thy word,” Psal. cxix. 67 : yea, by this way, also, does he
bring in those that are strangers to him ; Hosea v. 15, “I will go and return to
my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face; in their afflictions
they will seek me early.” When the Lord will not use a rod upon a person, that
is a terrible sign : but there is always hope when the Lord is at pains with a rod;
and to hope for this good, is the way to advance it.
4. A hope of support and protection under their afflictions; Heb. xiii. 5, 6, “He
hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say,
The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” The
Lord can carry persons through deep waters, and yet keep them from sinking, for
he is the lifter up of the head. However high the waters swell, they are still under
the check of him whom the winds and the seas obey. The everlasting arms under-
neath, though not seen in the time, secure the sinner from sinking to the ground,
and bring him safe ashore. Now, faith and hope is the way to bring in that
Support.
5. A hope of seasonable relief, or having such deliverance in due time as shall
be best for God's honour and their good; Psal. xlii. 5, “Why art thou cast down,
O my soul! and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” The Lord has many ways of
giving relief from trouble. Sometimes he makes the storm blow off, and restores
6S8 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
a calm; sometimes he hides them in the grave, and gives them a blessed exchange;
for an afflicted life in this world, a joyful happy life in another world. It becomes
us to hope for his mercy, in whatever way he may send it ; Heb. x. 35, “Cast not
away your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.”
6. A hope of eternal life in a better world; 1 Pet. i. 13, “Wherefore gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, (for what ?) for the grace that is
to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Those hopes will never
please God that are confined to the things of this world. He has provided and
offers better things to poor sinners; there is a hope laid up for us in heaven, Col.
i. 5. While that hope remains firm and well-grounded, happy is the soul, whatever
be its case ; and since he offers it, and makes it over to whosoever will embrace
Christ, that hope should never be cast away while we are here.
7. A waiting for the mercy needed and desired; Psal. xxvii. 14, “Wait on the
Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the
Lord.” The hoping soul will wait for God, and bear till his time come, however
long it may seem to be. He hath the times and seasons in his own hand. He
knows what is the fittest time for giving a mercy, and we must leave it in his own
hand, and wait on him. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the
Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and
hath long patience, till he receive the former and the latter rain; be ye also patient,
stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
Lastly, All this hope is to be grounded only on the free grace of God through
Jesus Christ, and the precious promises of the word, held forth to us in him; 1 Pet.
i. 13, quoted already. Therefore it is called hope for his mercy; “Remember
thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope,” Psal. cxix.
49. If hope be founded on any work or merit in ourselves, or be not bounded by
the, promise, that is to say, if we hope for what God has not promised, then it
cannot be pleasing to him : so that this hope follows faith’s embracing Christ in
the gospel, and resigning the soul to the Lord ; which being done, hope goes and
stands upon the watch-tower, to behold and wait for all promised good things com-
ing with Christ from God in due time to the soul. We now proceed, -
III. To show the necessity of keeping up this holy fear and kindly hope together
in all cases. They are necessary to keep an even balance in the soul at all times,
ready to fall either to the one hand or the other. God's voice to us is, (Isa. xxx.
21,) “This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye
turn to the left.” But, O ! how apt are we to go off the road, especially if we are
obliged to traverse the mountains of darkness and affliction, of desertion and temp-
tation. But this fear and hope will hedge us on every hand, that we turn not to
the right hand or to the left; whereas, if either be wanting, there is a wide gap,
at which we will readily fall into the mire. But more particularly,
1. They keep the soul from splitting on rocks on both hands. We are in this
world as on a sea, therefore had need to take care. The way we pass is beset with
two dangerous rocks; one on the left, despair, where thousands split ; another on
the right, presumption, where ten thousands have been shipwrecked. Some fall on
them in a dead calm, they are fearless and careless, and ere they are aware they
'dash on the rock of presumption and go to the bottom ; Job xxi. 13, “They spend
their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave,” To others a storm
arises; they are tossed, grow hopeless, and then split on the rock of despair.
‘Whereas holy fear would carry us safe by the one, and kindly hope by the other,
whatever storms blow : “Which hope,” says Paul, “we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the vail.”
Heb. vi. 19.
2. They keep the heart in a due mean between carnal security and torturing
anxiety. Holy fear keeps men awake, while fearless souls are sleeping within the
sea-mark of wrath, not knowing when a wave may come and sweep them away.
They may be saying, like the rich man, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” But God may then say,
“Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee,” Luke xii. 19, 20. Kindly
hope composes the heart, and calms the disturbed spirit, while others destitute of
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 689
it are tormenting themselves. Fear keeps from soaring too high, hope from sink-
ing too low. -
3. They keep notably to the duty of praying, which is necessary in all cases, and
is a messenger often to be sent to heaven, especially in times of trouble ; Psal. 1.
15, “And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify me.” Fear stirs up to the duty, hope draws to it. Fear fills the soul with
reverence for God, and makes it to be in deep earnest in its addresses; hope guards
it against terror and confusion in its applications to the throne. Fear carries off
presumptuous confidence; but hope makes it hang upon mercy and grace.
4. They help on patience and resignation to the will of God, without which no
man is master of himself; Luke xxi. 19, “In your patience possess your souls.”
Hope looks for better things, a calm after a storm ; fear tells us, such a stroke, ill
carried, may bring on a worse. Thus the soul is in a holy manner both flattered
and frighted into contentment with its lot. Thus it is kept from despising the
chastening of the Lord, which many do, with their natural courage; and from faint-
ing under his rebukes, as weak-hearted ones are liable to.
Lastly, They arm us on every hand against our adversary the devil; James iv.
7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from
you.” There are two things, one of which the devil drives at continually. Either,
(1.) To go forward with all ease in the way of sin; for, says the liar, there is no
hazard; and thus whole shoals of sinners go on to the pit. But the fear of God
will repel this temptation. Or, (2.) Not to offer to return to God, or go to Christ;
for, says the murderer, there is no hope. But the kindly hope repels this. By
this last he attacks the awakened sinner, and by the former the secure one. What-
ever be your case, then, get your souls possessed of this kindly hope and holy fear.
Beware of quitting either hope or fear. Are you at ease, and your hope great 2
O balance it with fear, lest, having too much sail without ballast, ye suddenly be
overcast and overwhelmed. Are you in trouble, and your fears great 2 O buoy
up your souls with hope, lest ye sink altogether. For motives, consider,
1st, The want of any of them makes you a prey to your grand enemy; 1 Peter
v. 8, “Be Sober, be vigilant; for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist, stedfast in the faith.” Which-
ever of the avenues of the soul stand open, the enemy will enter by it; and once
he get in, you know not what havoc he may make there. Are you fearless? he
will have his snares fitted for that case. Are you hopeless? be sure he will take
his advantage of it.
2dly, The safety of the soul in this sinful and ensnaring world depends on your
entertaining both. The mariner may easier sail the ocean without his compass,
the blind man go over his heights and depths without his guide, than you go through
this world without these; for the worst that can befall them is the death of the body,
but your souls will be ruined.
3dly, The want of either is highly dishonourable to God. Is there a God in
heaven, and will you not fear him ? Has his Son died to purchase hope to sinners?
and has he declared in his word, that he would have you hope in and for his mercy,
and will ye not do it? Mal. i. 6, “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his
master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where
is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts.” By the want of fear, you declare you
value not his greatness; and by the want of hope, that ye can put no trust in his
Word. I come now,
IV. To show what is that pleasure which the Lord takes in such.
. 1. He approves them in so doing. The Lord says, Thou didest well that it was
in thine heart, though Satan may suggest it to be presumption; Psal. cxv. 11,
“Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord ; he is their help and their shield.”
What God requires to be done, he will surely approve of when it is done; this he
requires, and therefore will approve of it.
2. He accepts of them; he is well-pleased with the persons that do so. The
exercise of these graces is a piece of very acceptable service to God, which he takes
9ſ sinners' hands for Christ's sake, though it be attended with many imperfections,
That unbelief which remains in the hearts of them that fear God, makes them sus.
4 s
690 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
pect they will be very unwelcome to hope for good at the Lord's hand ; but it is a
mistake, for such exercise is very pleasing to the Lord.
3. The Lord delights in them that do so. Their name may be Hephzibah, for
the Lord delighteth in them, as a father does in his child, who both fears him, and
hopes for good at his hand.
(1.) The Lord delights in their persons; Jer. xxxi. 20, “Is Ephraim my dear
son ? is he a pleasant child 2 for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remem-
ber him still, therefore my bowels are troubled for him ; I will surely have mercy
upon him, saith the Lord.” They are accepted in the Beloved; their fear carrying
them to Christ, and their hope fixing them upon him as the storehouse of all bless-
ings. Being covered with imputed righteousness, they are all fair and lovely in
the eyes of the Lord, there is no spot in them, Song iv. 7.
(2.) He delights in their graces; Song iv. 16, “Let my beloved come into his
garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” Holy fear and hope are the fruits of his
own Spirit in the souls of his people, that grow up there as in a garden, being
watered with the dew of heaven. They are leading graces, which bring along with
them a train of others, all tending to promote holiness in heart and life.
(3.) In their duties; Prov. xv. 8, “The prayer of the upright is his delight.”
Where the fear of the Lord has place the duties of religion will get room; the
soul will be afraid of neglecting to pay its due homage unto the Lord; and hope
being joined thereto, will bring them to the Lord with expectation of good at his
hand; and this is the Lord's delight.
(4) In their company; Song v. 1, “I have come into my garden, my sister, my
spouse.” He loves to have them near him, hanging about his hand, conversing
with him, receiving his word from his mouth, and making their requests known to
him : Song ii. 14, “Let me see,” says he, “thy countenance, let me hear thy
voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” The mighty God,
who has his higher house in heaven, has the contrite spirit for his lower house.—I
shall now proceed,
V. To confirm the doctrine of the text, or show, that the Lord taketh pleasure
in those, whatever case they be in, who entertain a holy fear of him, with a kindly
hope in his mercy.—For this purpose, consider,
1. This is answerable and agreeable to the revelation of God’s mind in his word,
what he has made known of himself both in the law and in the gospel. The fear
of God is the great purpose of the law, hope for his mercy through Christ is the
great purpose of the gospel. The law was given in such an awful manner, as might
fill sinners with the dread of the great Lawgiver; the gospel brings in the blessed
hope to lost sinners: so that this fear and hope, answering the design of both, can-
not miss of being very pleasing to God.
2. It glorifies God in his glorious perfections, discovered to us in the face of Jesus
Christ. The great end of the gospel-contrivance is, to show the glory of God in
Christ as in a glass; 2 Cor. iv. 6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Now, the entertaining of these two,
fear and hope, doth at once give him the glory of all these. Holy fear gives him
the glory of his awful majesty, inflexible justice, infinite power and holiness;
kindly hope gives him the glory of his free grace, mercy, love, and goodness; and
the joining of these two together gives him the glory of his infinite wisdom, that
hath found out the way to give vent to both in the sinner's case.
3. It is agreeable to the Spirit's work of grace on the soul, whereby the sinner
is first cast down and then lifted up. The Spirit of God coming to the elect soul,
finds it secure, careless, and presumptuous, thinking itself “rich and increased in
goods and standing in need of nothing,” Rev. iii. 17. The Spirit then discovers
what a God, and what a law, the sinner has to do with, and so works this holy fear
in the heart. When the soul is awakened, it is ready to despond ; and the Spirit,
by the doctrines of the gospel, works this hope. Thus the sinner comes and cleaves
to Christ.
Lastly, The Lord is very gracious unto such. They are entertained with some
off-fallings while they hang about his hand in the ordinances and duties of religion;
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 691.
Psal. lxy. 4, “We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy
holy temple.” Yea, they are filled as with marrow and fatness; God makes known
his secrets to them, even the secrets of his covenant; Psal. xxv. 14, “The secret
of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant.” He
shows them also the secrets of his word; Luke xxiv. 32, “And they said one to
another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and
while he opened to us the scriptures?” Also the secrets of his works, and the dispen-
sations of his providence. And at length they shall be admitted to the full fruition
of him in a better world; they shall enter into the joy of their Lord, and be for ever
with him.
X.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
PsALM czlvii. 11.
“The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.”
HAVING, in the preceding discourse, briefly gone through the doctrinal part, it only
remains, that, in the
VI. And last place, I make a practical improvement of the whole ; in doing
which, I propose to enlarge at considerable length, by adverting to the different
parts of this subject.—I begin,
First, With an use of information. It informs us,
1. That God in Christ is full of good-will to poor sinners; since he will have
them thus to depend upon him as children on a father, fearing and hoping in him;
He it is who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth,
1 Tim. ii. 4. Is not this a plain proof that he hath no pleasure in the death of
him that dieth ? Ezek. xviii. 23; and that their ruin is of themselves, if they should
perish ; that he does not cast them off that hang by him, nor cast them out that
come unto him, John vi. 37.
2. That however prosperous and favourable our case be, we have ground to keep
up a holy fear upon our spirits; “Happy is the man that feareth alway,” Prov.
xxviii. 14. Whether, it be that our outward state in the world, or our spiritual
state, be peaceful, easy, and prosperous, still there is ground to fear, for we are in
hazard of offending God in it. There is no way so plain and even but we may
stumble in it. Outward prosperity ruins many ; “The prosperity of fools shall
destroy them,” Prov. i. 31. And even in a prosperous state of the soul, there is
no safety in being secure and careless, for in the managing of that we are apt to
offend ; 2 Cor. xii. 7, “Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abun-
dance of the revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messen-
ger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” No paradise
on earth but the serpent may be found there; and if one were rapt up to the third
heavens like Paul, they will bring back with them a corrupt heart, ready to give
them a slip, or lead them astray. We are in danger of a heavy turn and sad change
in our condition; we are “to serve God with fear, and rejoice with trembling,”
Psalm ii. 11. See how quickly David's prosperity was changed; Psalm xxx. 7,
$ 6 Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” Job's condition, both temporal
and spiritual, how suddenly was it changed Sovereignty lifts up and casts down;
692 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
and the anger of a jealous God may soon be stirred, so as to make a mighty over-
turn in one's condition ; therefore we should not be “high-minded, but fear,”
Rom. xi. 20.
3. It informs us, that however low one's case be, there is still room for hope
while here; therefore we should always entertain a kindly hope; Psalm xliii. 5,
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why art thou disquieted in me? Hope in
God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my
God.” One may be at his wit’s end with his difficulties, knowing of no outgate;
but yet he may have ground of faith and hope, because so great things have been
done by our merciful God as to raise us up. He made a world out of nothing; he
has raised the dead, and particularly Christ, while the whole elect's sins lay as a
grave-stone on him. What, then, hinders him to do a great work for us when he
has done a greater? In him we may trust that he will yet deliver us, 2 Cor. i. 10.
Whatever our case be, we are not the first that have been in it, and delivered too
in God's own way; Psalm xxii. 4, “Our fathers trusted in thee, and thou didst
deliver them.” People are apt to say, never one was in such case as theirs.
But, “is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new 3 it hath been
already of old time which was before us,” Eccl. i. 10 ; and suppose it were new,
et faith and hope in God are not in vain ; for he has a new cure for a new case,
Isa. xliii. 18, 19. Whatever our case be, can it be worse than a lost case ? Luke
xix. 10, “The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Can it
be worse than a self-destroying case ? Hos. xiii. 9, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself, but in me is thine help.” Can it be worse than a case in itself quite hope-
less, even as dry bones? Ezek. xxxvii. 11, 12; but even by the Spirit of the Lord
these bones can be made alive. It is not beyond the reach of the power of God;
Gen. xviii. 14, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” Who can be so low, as that
the everlasting arms cannot raise up 2 “With God nothing is impossible.” A
word from heaven can make all things take a happy turn, for saying and doing are
but one thing with God. God says to the sinner, Believest thou that I can do
these things? If thou dost, there is a ground of kindly hope. In a word, the
covenant of promise reaches to, and includes mercy of all kinds, necessary to make
us happy; so that we have not only God's power, but his will, to give us mercy in
all cases held out to us in the word, if so be we will take his way of faith and hope.
—From this subject there is,
Secondly, An use of exhortation, in several branches.
1. Fear the Lord; get and entertain a holy fear of God in your spirits. The pro-
fane and licentious lives of some, the carnal and loose hearts of others, proclaim a
general want of this; Psalm xxxvi. 1, “The transgression of the wicked saith within
my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.” But all fear of God is not
a holy fear pleasing to God. There is a servile fear, and a filial fear. Not to the
former, but to the latter, I exhort you. -
Herewith some various difficulties and inquiries may arise, which we shall en-
deavour to answer, such as,
1st, When is the fear of God only slavish 2 In answer to this, take the following
observations: The fear of God is only slavish, -
(1.) When it ariseth only from the consideration of God's wrath as a just Judge.
. This fear of God is to be found in the unconverted; they have “the spirit of bondage
again to fear,” Rom. viii. 15 ; yea, in the devils, they “believe and tremble,”
James ii. 19 ; and if the conscience once be awakened, though the heart be not
sanctified, this fear cannot miss to take place. It is a natural passion flowing from
self-love and a sight of danger, which is so much the more vehement, in proportion
as the danger apprehended is greater or smaller, nearer or more distant. One
under this fear, fears God as the slave fears his master, because of the whip with
which he is afraid of being lashed: he abstains from sin, not out of hatred of it, but
because of the wrath of God annexed to it. An apprehension of God's heavy hand
on him here, or of hell and damnation hereafter, is the predominant motive of his
fear of God, whom he fears only as an incensed Judge, and his powerful enemy.
(2) When it checks or kills the love of God. There is a fear opposite to the
love of God, which by this very character is discovered to be base and servile;
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 693
1 John iv. 18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because
fear hath torment.” There is a necessary connection betwixt true fear and love,
the one cannot be without the other ; they are both links of the same chain of
grace, which the Holy Spirit gives those whom he sanctifies; but slavish fear fills
the heart with hard thoughts of God, and the more it prevails the farther is the soul
from the love of God.
(3.) When it drives the sinner away from God. Under its influence Adam and
Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, and Cain went out from
his presence. All the graces of the Spirit, as they come from the Lord, so they
carry the sinner back to him : so no doubt it is an ungracious fear of God that
frights the sinner away from him ; for they that seek and return to him, will fear
him and his righteousness. This fear hath this effect in different degrees, and the
higher the worse:—It takes heart and hand from persons in their approaches to
God; 1 John iv. 18, quoted already : it kills them before the Lord, knocks all con-
fidence and hope in God on the head, so that their hearts at duty are like Nabal's
dying within them, and become as a stone : so when they should run for their life,
it cuts the sinews of their endeavours; when they would wrestle for the blessing,
it makes their knees feeble, and their hands hang down. It makes them first
averse to duty, and then give up with it; they deal with God as one with his
avowed enemy, into whose presence he will not come, Gen. iii. 8. The people of
God have sometimes had a touch of this ; 2 Sam. vi. 9, “And David was afraid
of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of the Lord come unto me?”
Though it never prevails with them to extinguish love, yet sometimes a believer is
like a faulty child, who, instead of humbling himself before his parents, hides him-
self in some corner, and is so frighted, that he dare not come in, and look the
parent in the face ; but this is a most dangerous case, especially if it lasts long.
In a word, it makes them run to physicians of no value. For what is more natural
than men that are frighted from God under apprehended danger, to run to some
other quarter, and that to their own ruin; Rev. vi. 16, “And said to the moun-
tains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on
the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”
2dly, What is to be thought of this slavish fear of God? To this I answer,
There is something good in it, and something evil.
(1.) There is something good in it, namely, the fear of God's wrath for sin which
lies unpardoned on the guilty sinner, or which the sinner may be inclined to commit;
James ii. 19, “Thou believest that there is one God, thou dost well.” To cast off
fear of the wrath of God, and the terrible punishments which he has annexed to
sin, is a pitch of wickedness which but the very worst of men arrive at. The fear
of God’s wrath against sin, and that duly influential too, is recommended to us by
Christ himself: Luke xii. 5, “Fear him,” says he, “which, after he hath killed,
hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.” It is also recom-
mended by the example of the very best of Saints; Job xxxi. 23, “For destruction
from God was a terror unto me ;” and says David, “My flesh trembleth for fear
of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments,” Psal. cxix. 120. And the law of God
is not fenced with terrors to be disregarded, but to awe men's spirits. But,
(2.) There is something evil in it, yea, much evil in it, if we consider, the scrimp-
ness and narrowness of its spring. Why should the fear of God be confined to
spring up from his wrath against sin only or chiefly, since there are so many other
perfections of God, which may give rise to the fear of him, which are disregarded
by this means? It casts a vail of disrespect on his holiness, goodness, and hatred
of sin, on his relations of Creator, Preserver, Father, Supreme Lord, and Governor
of the world. The horrible effects and tendency thereof, as it rises only from this
Spring, and overflows all the banks of godly fear. Fear of God, even of his wrath,
is good, but the excess of it is very bad. Fire and water are both good and neces-
sary, but very bad when the one burns man, and the other drowns him. Hence,
since what is acceptable in the sight of God is perfect in parts, though not in
degrees, is good in the manner as well as matter, this fear is not what he takes
pleasure in, nay, it is displeasing to him, and is the sin of those who hear the
gospel, whose fear ought to be extended according to the revelation made to them.
694 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES,
And thus one may be displeasing to himself, to those about him, and to God also;
and if they attain to no other fear of God, what they fear will probably come upon
them. Nevertheless, this fear, kept within bounds, may, by the Spirit, be made
the means to bring the sinner to the Lord in his covenant. For the fear of God's
wrath is a good thing in itself, Rom. viii. 15 ; it serves to rouse the sinner out of
his security, to make him sensible of his danger, and to seek for relief; Psal. ix.
20, “Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but
men.” And therefore the law, and its threatening, as a red flag, are displayed in
the sight of secure sinners, that they may be roused to flee from the wrath to come.
To this there may be offered this objection, The fear of the Lord's wrath can
make but an unsound closing with the Lord in his covenant. Answer. That is
very true, if there be nothing more. But fear of God's wrath not only may, but
ordinarily, if not always does, begin the work which love crowns. Fear brings men
to the gates of the city of refuge, and when they are there, love is kindled, and
makes them press forward. Fear brings the poor captive woman to confer with
the conqueror about the match ; but thereby love is kindled, and faith makes the
match. It works, however, very differently at other times; for Satan and our
corrupt hearts are ready to drive forward this fear of God's wrath to exceed all
bounds; and no wonder, for when it has got over the boundaries, it makes fearful
havoc in the soul's case, like a consuming fire, deadening all good motions towards
God, and quickening evil ones, to the dishonour of God, and one's own torment;
and no case out of hell is liker hell than this, both in respect of sin and misery.
But when the Spirit of God has a saving work in view, he can easily make the
spirit of bondage subservient to the spirit of adoption.
3dly, How should one manage in the case of a slavish fear of God’s wrath ? Here
I answer, We had need to be well guided, for the losing or winning of the soul
depend upon it. For your assistance I offer the following directions.
(1.) Labour to clear the grounds of your fear of God's wrath, by a rational
inquiry and discovery. There are, even of these fears, some that do really proceed
from a bodily distemper vitiating the imagination, namely, from melancholy, and
the like ; and in this case, your trouble rises and falls according to the disposition
of your bodies, but not according to the comfort or terror you received from God's
word, as it is in truly spiritual troubles. Thus it often comes on, and goes off,
they know not how ; showing the first wound to be in their head, not in their
conscience. Of this sort was the evil spirit Saul was troubled with, under which
he got ease by music, not by his Bible. In this case, as well as others, it would
be of use to consider the real grounds of fear from the Lord’s word, and the con-
sideration of one's own state or case, and so to turn it as much as may be into
solid fears upon plain and evident reasons for it. This would be a step to the
salvation of the soul. But, alas! it is sad to think of tormenting fear kept up on
we know not what grounds, and which can produce no good; while in the mean-
time people will not be at pains to inquire into the real evidences of their soul's
hazard, the sinfulness of their state, heart, and life. Ask, then, yourselves, what
real ground there is from the Lord's word for this fear of yours. -
(2.) Beware of casting off the fear, dread, and awe of the wrath of God against
sin; Job xv. 4, “Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.”
This is the issue of some people's fears, who, one way or other, get their necks
from under the yoke, and grow more stupid, fearless, and profane, than even by
the just judgment of God. It is true, that fear is not enough ; but there is some-
thing to be added, and yet not this fear cast away. If thou be brought into a
state-of sonship to God, the dread of God's wrath against sin will come along with
you, though it will be no more slavish ; as if a slave were made his master's son
by adoption, he would still fear his anger, though not slavishly as before. But be
one's state what it will, better be God's slave, fearing him for his wrath only, than
the devil's free-man, casting off the fear of God altogether. There is less ill in
the former than in the latter. Yea, -
(3) Cast not off the fear of that wrath, even its overtaking you, till such time
as thy soul be brought away freely to Jesus Christ; Hos. v. 8, “I will go and
return to my place till they acknowledge their offence; in their affliction they will
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 695
seek me early.” Thou hast no warrant to cast it off sooner: for certainly wrath is
pursuing thee, till thou be within the gates of the city of refuge; and to be without
fear of that wrath that is still advancing on a person, is ruining. Indeed, as soon
as thou hast sincerely come to Christ in his covenant, though the fear of wrath
against sin is never to be laid by, yet then thou mayest and oughtest to cast off the
fear of vindictive wrath overtaking thee; “There is no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus,” Rom. viii. 1.
(4.) Look not always on an absolute God, for surely that can produce no fear of
God but a slavish one ; but look on God in Christ as the trysting-place himself has
set, for receiving the addresses of the guilty on a throne of grace; 2 Cor. v. 19,
“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their tres-
passes unto them.” This is the way to repress and curb the horrible effects of
lavish fear, to make love to God, faith, and hope, spring up in the soul, and so
mould that fear of thine into filial fear and reverence. In a God out of Christ
thou canst discern nothing but inflexible justice, and the utmost terror; and from
his throne of unvailed majesty, hear nothing but terrible voices, thunders, and
earthquakes. But in a God in Christ thou mayest behold bowels of mercy, and
flowing compassions; and from the throne of grace hear the still small voice of
mercy and peace, Isa. xxxv. 3, 4.
(5.) At what time soever you find the fear of God's wrath begin to choke
the love of God in your hearts, or to drive you away from him in any way,
check and curb that fear resolutely, let it not proceed, though you were in
the time under the most atrocious sin; Psal. lxv. 3, “Iniquities prevail against
me; as for our transgressions, thou wilt purge them away.” For then you are in
the march between God's ground and the devil's ; and there is a wind from hell,
blowing up the fire of fear, that will consume you, if it be not quenched; for the
separation of the soul from God, and its going away from him, can in no case fail
to be of a ruining nature: and the more that it increases with a person, his heart
will be the more hardened, and he will be set the farther off from repentance.
(6.) Greedily embrace any gleam of hope from the Lord's own word, and hang
by it. Ye should do like Benhadad's servants, and say, We have heard that the
king of Israel is a merciful king, and we hope he will save us, 1 Kings xx. 31.
The apostle calls hope the Christian's head-piece, (1 Thess. v. 8,) not to be thrown
away in a time of danger.
(7.) Come away resolutely to the Lord Jesus, lay hold on him in the gospel-offer,
and consent to the covenant ; Heb. vii. 25, “He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by him.” Lay hold on the horns of this our altar, and
you shall not die; he will swallow up death in victory, Isa. xxv. 8. Flee into this
city of refuge ; the avenger shall not overtake thee. Do as the lepers of Samaria
did, reasoned with themselves, and went to the camp, where meat was to be found.
Thou art like to sink in a sea of wrath, Jesus holds out his hand to draw thee ashore.
Thou art afraid, perhaps, it is not to thee, it is vain to try ; but know that it is
the hand that must take thee out, or thou art a gone man; neglecting to take hold,
thou art ruined ; otherwise thou canst be but ruined.
4thly, When is the fear of the Lord holy, filial, and reverential, such as the
Lord takes pleasure in ?—For your satisfaction in this inquiry, I would answer,
º When the chief spring of it is not our own harm, but God's infinite excellence
and perfection striking an awe upon the soul; Gen. xxviii. 17, “And Jacob was
afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place this is none other but the house of
God, and the gate of heaven.” On this account, God was called the Fear of the
holy patriarchs, while in the world, Gen. xxxi. 42. Thus ingenuous children fear
their parents, not because of the ill they may do them, but because of that author-
ity and superiority they have over them. When the soul is awed into a profound
reverence for God by the consideration of his transcendent excellence in all things,
this is a becoming or true filial fear.
(2.) When the offending of God is feared as the greatest evil. A graceless man
Imay fear the punishment of swearing, but a righteous man feareth an oath, Eccl.
ix. 2; the former may fear the threatening as the greatest evil, but the righteous
feareth the commandment and shall be rewarded, Prov, xiii. 13, What would
696 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
the most of the world fear about sin, if they were secured against wrath 2 No-
thing. But the fear of God, his great fear, would remain notwithstanding, viz. the
displeasing of his gracious Father.
(3.) When fear of his wrath is joined with a kindly affection and love to him,
Psal. xc. 11—13. No man fears God who has not a dread of his anger, and the
more grace, the more of this dread ; so that a godly man will fear a frown more
than another a stroke of his hand. But withal this does not straiten the heart, but
enlarge it in love to him ; for those perfections of God that are the most proper
objects of fear, are beautiful and lovely in the eyes of a saint; and therefore, under
the effects of his anger, they condemn themselves and justify God.
(4.) When the fear of God draws the sinner to God and makes him cling to him;
Hos. iii. 5, “ They shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall
fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.” As if he had said, They shall
fear away to the Lord, like a good-natured child under fear of his parent, running
away to him, and catching hold of him ; the language of which is, Any thing but
separation from my holy Father. Holy fear also keeps the soul with the Lord ;
Jer. Xxxii. 40, “I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from
me;” and that upon the same principle.
5thly, How doth this fear work in the gracious soul? To this question I answer,
Holy fear is an influential grace, diffusing its influence through the whole man,
and therefore all religion is often comprehended under the name of fear of God.
(1.) It makes God's verdict of things in his holy law the man's complete stan-
dard. In matters of faith, it causes him believe that God has said it; in matters
of practice, to do or forbear, because God has bid or forbid it, though his own
reason and all the world should contradict; Prov. iii. 7, “Be not wise in thine
own eyes; fear the Lord, and depart from evil.” Holy fear awes the soul into
implicit compliance with all that an incomprehensible God makes known in his
word. So was Abraham brought to offer his son, and the fear of God carried him
over all obstructions, Gen. xxii. 12.
(2.) It awes the soul into abstaining from such sins as there is no other awe-band
against. There are some cases of temptation wherein there is nothing from any
creature to mar compliance with it, the way is quite clear on that part. But then
the fear of God will be a sufficient restraint. Sometimes thou mayest have a fair
occasion to wrong thy neighbour, and there is no fear of his knowing thou
didst it; but if thou fearest God, thou darest not for thy soul do it more than if
all the world were looking on thee; Lev. xix. 14, “Thou shalt not curse the deaf,
nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the
Lord.” Sometimes occasions for sin occur, and men will bear thee out in the sin-
ful practice ; but if thou fearest God, thou darest not do it more than if all the
world should conspire to hinder thee, Job xxxi. 21—23. Holy Providence lays
such occasions before men for their trial.
(3.) It awes the soul into compliance with duties, even such as one has no other
thing to drive him to ; Eccl. xii. 13, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man.” Holy fear reverenceth the authority of God, not
only in abstaining from sin, but in complying with duties; Deut. vi. 13, “Thou
shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him.” Those who have no inward principle
to set them on to duty, have no fear of God before their eyes. But that principle
will carry a man to duty, over the belly of opposition and contradiction, from Satan,
an evil world, and the corrupt reasonings of one's own heart.
4.) It makes one mainly fear the offence of God in the commission of sin, and
omission of duties. The great care of a fearer of God is, lest he depart from God,
Jer. xxxii. 40; holy fear and love are always joined, and therefore he that truly
fears God, hates sin, and lothes it, because God hates it ; Prov. viii. 13, “The
fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” He loves his duty because it is pleasing in the
Lord's sight; whereas others hate sin for fear of wrath, and only love duty for the
sake of the reward. It suffers not the soul to rest in any degree of holiness already
attained, but spurs it on towards perfection; 2 Cor. vii. 1, “ Having, therefore,
these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” As Noah's fear made
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 697
him not only begin the ark, but advance the work till it was perfected, so this holy
fear still works against sin, till the soul be out of hazard; and that is not till death.
Truce with sin, or indulging lusts, says either there is no fear of God in the heart,
or that it is asleep ; for in whatsoever measure one fears God, he will stand at a
distance from sin, and seek the destruction of his corruptions.
(5.) It carries the man to his duty, over the belly of the fear of man or any
other creature; Matt. x. 28, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul.” If one be in hazard of being frighted from his duty by the
fear either of devils or of men, there is no antidote like the fear of God; 1 Pet. iii.
14, “But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid
of their terror, neither be ye troubled ;” for as the light of the sun removes the light
of a glow-worm, that shines only in the dark, so the fear of God banisheth other
fear in the point of duty to the Lord.
I shall now add a few motives to influence the study of this filial fear; such as,
1st, Infinite greatness and goodness meet together in him, and in him only, and
therefore it is his due ; Jer. x. 7, “Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?
for to thee doth it appertain.” His glorious and unspeakable perfections entitle
him to it, and it cannot be denied him without the highest sacrilege. Nay, men
must needs be strangers to him who do not fear him ; for no sooner does the crea-
ture know him, but it must fear him ; the sight of his greatness without his good-
ness, will produce a terror ; but the sight of both, a holy reverence.
2dly, The relations requiring reverence of us meet together in him ; and the
truth is, we owe no reverence to any but as they do in some sort, by the eminence
they stand in, represent God, whom we are to fear above all, and to fear in them.
A reverential fear is due to our superiors, but God is the Supreme Being. We
owe it to those who are superior to us in office and dignity; Rom. xiii. 7, “Render
therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom,
fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour.” God is the supreme Governor of the
world. Is the servant to reverence his master, the child his parents, the wife her
husband 2 Surely then God, who is the Ancient of days, who stands to his people in
such endearing relations, is to be feared by them; Psal. xlv. 11, “He is thy Lord,
and worship thou him.” -
3dly, It is our wisdom to fear God; Psal. cxi. 10, “The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom.” O sinner wouldst thou be wise indeed ? then fear God;
it is the beginning of wisdom. A man never begins to be wise till the fear of God
enters his heart. He goes on in folly and madness till he get this ballast to his
soul; he is frisking about the pit's mouth, in hazard every moment of falling down,
till the awe of God strikes his soul. It is the chief point of wisdom ; all the wis-
dom of the world is but folly in comparison of this. Wisdom teaches men to fear
dangers, losses, and the like; but what avails it all, if men fear not the offending of
God, and the loss of the soul.
4thly, It is in some sort the whole of religion; Job iv. 6, “Is not this thy fear,
thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?” for it is the sum and
substance of religious duties, which therefore are comprehended under that name
in many parts of the Bible, and it has an universal influence over the whole of
religion, drawing it all after it in the special parts thereof: for where it once gets
place, it will bring in every known duty, and set the soul at a distance from all
known sin. -
5thly, It would free you of other fears that are tormenting, in whatever degree
it gets place in your hearts. Fear of men and devils is so entertained by many,
that it becomes a tormenting passion, frighting them out of the way of duty to
God. This is the first expedient to get rid of these. Allow the great God his
own room in the heart, and let him be thy fear and thy dread, and so the creature
will prove contemptible in comparison of him. -
6thly, Consider the precious promises made to, and the benefits bestowed on,
those that fear the Lord. If thou be a fearer of God, go matters as they will,
with thee it shall be well; Eccl. viii. 12, 13, “Though a sinner do evil an hun-
dred times, and his days are prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with
them that fear God, which fear before * but it shall not be well with the
T
698 MISCELI, ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he
feareth not before God.” It prolongs men's days, in so far as it keeps them in the
way of holiness, Prov. x. 27; see a cluster of promises, Psal. xxv. 12–14; com-
pare Prov. xix. 23, and Psal. xxxiv. 9, which you may read at your leisure.
7thly, The want of the fear of God is an infallible sign of a wicked graceless
heart; it looses the reins to wickedness of heart and life, and so betrays men into
ruin, Psal. xxxvi. 1–4. Those that fear not God now, will be made to fear him
hereafter, when there shall be no escaping out of the hand of their terrible Judge.
Some may say, O! how shall I attain to this holy fear of God? With a view
to promote this attainment, I would offer the following directions.
1st, Labour to know God, who and what he is ; 1 Kings viii. 43, “That all
people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel.” It
is a benefit of the second covenant, to know the Lord ; Hosea ii. 20, “I will even
betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord.” God, to the
most of the world, is like a prince in disguise amongst his subjects, they treat him
rudely because they do not know him; an unknown God will not be feared. While
ignorance of God reigns in the heart, there is no place for holy fear; for that will
make men count darts as stubble, and laugh at the shaking of the spear.
2dly, Stir up in your hearts a desire to fear him ; it is a token for good when
one is willing to entertain the fear of God; Neh. i. 11, “Thy servants who desire
to fear thee.” This desire hath the promise, and it will be accompanied with suit-
able endeavours after it. Many fight against the fear of God, that they may live
at ease, and may be able to give themselves loose reins to their sinful practices;
no wonder their hearts be hardened from it. And hence, if at any time they be
taken with the fear of God, they do what they can to be freed of it, as they would
pluck out arrows out of their flesh.
3dly, Take God for your God in Christ, and devote yourselves to him. The
God we choose for our God, we will fear; Micah iv. 5, “For all people will walk
every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
for ever and ever.” And so, when men set up their idols of jealousy in the Lord's
room, these get the fear that is due to God. So the worldling fears his clay-god,
his life is in its smiles, and its frowns are his death. But take the Lord for your
God, I say, in Christ; for no otherwise he offers himself to us in the covenant,
2 Cor. v. 19. This is the way to holy fear. For, (1.) It is a promised benefit of
the covenant; Jer. xxxii. 40, “I will put my fear in their hearts.” Whoever
comes into God's covenant of grace, the fear of God is, by the Holy Spirit, stamped
upon their hearts, whereby it may be known that they belong to God as children;
and they devote themselves, on the other hand, to his fear, Psal. cxix. 38. They
are his servants, devoted to his fear. They give themselves to it, and make it
their great study. (2.) This covenant is a covenant of peace and friendship betwixt
God and the guilty creature, through a Mediator, Heb. xii. 22–24; so that thy
state is changed the moment that thou comest into the covenant, from enmity to
peace with God, Eph. ii. 19: they become “fellow-citizens with the saints,” and
are “of the household of God.” This happily joins love and dread of God together,
producing holy fear and reverence of God ; whereas, while God is apprehended
certainly as an enemy to us, fear him we may with slavish fear, but not with holy
fear, since we cannot love him.
4thly, Be much in the exercise of repentance. Sorrowing after a godly sort for
sin, as it dishonours God, is offensive to his majesty, separates the sinner from God,
and exposes the soul to his anger, is the ready way to produce holy fear for the
time to come; 2 Cor. vii. 11, “Yea, what fear,” says Paul, namely, as the effect
of “ sorrow after a godly sort.” They that are burned dread the fire ; and they
that feel the bitterness of sin, will fear God, and stand at a distance from it. The
looking into our frightful acts of sin, will awe our hearts with a dread of the
offended Majesty, and make us fall down, saying, “Forgive us our debts.”
5thly, Pray for it earnestly as a promised benefit of the covenant, and join thereto
a faith of particular confidence ; Matt. xxi. 22, “And all things whatsoever ye
shall ask, believing, ye shall receive them.” Beg of God, that he would manifest
himself to you, so as ye may be filled with holy fear of him. Ye may read and
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 699
hear much of God, and little impressions be made on your spirits by it at all; but
when the Lord discovers himself to the sinner, his own glorious light will so repre-
sent him as the soul cannot choose but both love and fear him ; Job xlii. 5, 6, “I
have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Where-
fore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
6thly, Draw together the scattered affections and faculties of the soul, and set
them on the Lord; Psal. lxxxvi. 11, “Unite my heart to fear thy name.” As the
scattered rays of the sun will not burn till they be collected by a burning-glass;
so the heart walking at random will not be filled with holy fear. Withdraw your
hearts from pursuing vanities and gadding after idols, and labour to see the Lord
in those glasses where we may perceive how he is to be feared.
I would urge you to look to him particularly,
(1.) In the glass of his word. See how he is there represented as one
worthy to be feared; Psal. lxxxix. 7, “God is greatly to be feared in the
assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about
him.” O with what awful solemnity may we hear him there speaking of
himself, his saints speaking of him and to him, and the angels also, with
their valled faces, crying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!” Had we
eyes to discern his voice in his word, every page would fill our hearts with pro-
foundest reverence. See him, (1.) In the shining holiness of his commandments,
perfectly pure from all earthly dross; and when thus seen, how can the sinful
creature not fear him Exod. xv. 11, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the
gods? who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”
He appears there to be all light, and that “in him there is no darkness at all.”
The holy, spiritual, and extensive law, may fill our hearts with the dread of the
Lawgiver of whose nature it is a transcript. See him, (2.) In the amazing so-
vereignty of his threatenings. This filled good Josiah with fear, 2 Kings xxii. 19;
Hab. iii. 16. Behold thence flames of wrath flashing out on the faces of impeni-
tent sinners. All the threats of men own death to be their utmost ; and, O ! how
will the fear of death fright mortals | But the Lord's threatenings go beyond death,
and carry the matter to an endless eternity. See him, (3.) In the unspeakable riches
of his gospel-promises displayed in the word. His terrors are no more severe on
the one hand, than his promised encouragements are great on the other. If hell
be in the one scale, heaven is in the other. Who would not therefore fear him 2
Look to him,
(2.) In Christ, “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his per-
son.” See God in Christ, and there see an object of fear and love in one. If ye
would be stirred up to fear God, look to Mount Calvary, and there behold Christ
groaning, and dying on a cross for the sins of an elect world, and you will see three
awful sights. (I.) The severity of God's justice against sin, not sparing his own Son,
Rom. viii. 32. Many terrible instances have there been of this, in the deluge, and
the like. But what is the tumbling down of sinful angels into the pit, the delug-
ing of a world, the burning of Sodom, to the Son of God dying on a cross, and
bearing his Father's wrath ? O ! if this was done in the green tree, what shall be
done in the dry 2 (2.) The channel of mercy and grace, in which they flow to
guilty sinners. It is by the Mediator's stripes we must be healed; the sinner's life
comes in the way of Christ's death; no mercy, no grace, but through the wounds
of a Redeemer. There was love from eternity in the breast of God towards an
elect world, but Justice stood in the way of Mercy's getting through to the
criminals; a way was then made by the blood of the Son of God. (3.) The price
of pardon, (1 Pet. i. 19,) “the precious blood of Christ;” no pardon, but what is
the price of blood, and that blood of infinite value ; that is the ransom which had
to be given for the captives, or they could never have been set free. O ! who can
see these, and not fear this awful and tremendous majesty thus appearing ! Look
at him,
(3.) In the glass of his adorable perfections. How small a portion do we know
of him but there is nothing which we have manifested to us concerning him but
may contribute to this holy fear. On the one hand, consider his infinite power,
whereby he can do all; and his universal dominion, whereby he may do what he
700 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
will, Job xxxvii. 23, 24, and xxv.2; his justice, holiness, omniscience, omnipre-
sence, infinite veracity, and truth, whereby all he has said shall be made good to a
tittle. Who, then, can but fear him ? Consider, on the other hand, his mercy, his
love, grace, and goodness, which are so unbounded and unspeakable. Who, then,
can but fear him ? Look at him,
(4.) In the glass of his works. Look to his works of creation, Psal. xix. 1. Do
not the earth and heaven, with all their glorious furniture, cry aloud to us to fear
this God? Look to his works of providence ; Jer. v. 22, “Fear ye not me? saith
the Lord ; will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the
bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass 3’’ His managing of
the world challenges our fearing of him. (1.) His mercies with which we are loaded,
call us to reverence him as our great Benefactor, Jer. v. 24. (2.) His judgments;
his judgments, in particular, against ourselves, (Luke xxiii. 40,) and against others,
which we may everywhere discern; Psal. cxix. 118–120, “My flesh trembleth
for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.” Every stroke laid on in this
world is fitted to create a fear of him in our hearts. The serious view of his
general judgment, that is to come, must needs strike sinners with fear; 1 Pet.
i. 17, “And if ye call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judgeth
according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.”
See also Eccl. xii. 13, 14. &
2. I would now earnestly exhort you to “hope in " the Lord for “his mercy.”
Entertain a holy hope in God in all cases. For clearing of this, we must know,
that hope in general is an inclination to, and expectation of, good possible to be had,
but not without some difficulty. As hope is conversant about divine things, or the
mercy of God, it is of two sorts, holy hope, and presumptuous hope ; the one well-
grounded, the other ill-grounded. Here, therefore, also some inquiries may be
proposed, which we shall endeavour to answer ; such as,
1st, What is the true hope for mercy, which the Lord takes pleasure in? Answer.
It is a certain expectation of attaining the mercy, which faith believes, grounded
on God’s grace and faithfulness.
(1.) For the kind of it; it is an expectation of mercy to be attained. Hope
looks always on its object as future ; Rom. viii. 24, “For we are saved by hope.
But hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope
for ?” This is a main difference between faith and hope, faith looking always on
its object as present in the promise; for “faith is the substance of things hoped for,
and the evidence of things not seen.” And hope is a certain expectation of it, not
so much in itself, (for true hope may be attended with much doubting, Lam. iii.
18,) as in the event; for it will never fail the party that has it, nor put him to
shame by disappointment, for it hangs on faith ; Rom. v. 5, “And hope maketh
not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy
Ghost given unto us.”
(2.) For the object of this hope ; it is mercy which is hoped for. Now, there is
a threefold mercy hope looks for. (1.) The mercy of eternal life itself; Jude 21,
“Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life.” This is the chief thing the believer is to hope for, and
he may, with the utmost certainty and confidence, expect it, 2 Tim. i. 12. This
hope, even the hope of salvation, the apostle will have the Christian to put on as
an helmet, (1 Thess. v. 8,) and even to stretch forth his hope over death and the
grave. (2.) The mercy necessary to bring us to eternal life; as perseverance
therein to the end, notwithstanding all the difficulties that are in the way; Rom.
viii. 38, “And we know, that all things work together for good to them that love
God, and are the called according to his purpose.” Though the grace of God in
him be like a spark of fire in an ocean, he ought firmly to hope that the same
heavenly breath that kindled it will keep it in to the end. (3.) The mercy of all
other good things, so far as God shall see the bestowing them on us for his own
glory and our good. There are many particular things good in themselves, which
we know not whether they will be so to us or not ; for example, deliverance from
such a trouble ; therefore it is not to be absolutely hoped for, but under this quali-
fication, that God sees it to be good for us. º
MISCELLANEOljS DISCOURSES. 701
- (3) For the antecedent of this hope; that is faith, which is the evidence of
things hoped for, Heb. xi. 1. There can be no true hope without faith; where
faith does not open the door, hope cannot enter. Faith embraces the mercy in
the promise of God, and hope waits for the accomplishment of the promise; so
that one cannot truly hope for that which God has not promised, neither can one
hope for the accomplishment of that promise which faith does not believe.
(4.) The ground of this hope is God's free grace in Christ, and his faithfulness;
1 Pet. i. 13, “Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to
the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The mercy promised is quite above the sinner's deserving; but he considers the
fulness and freedom of God’s grace, and withal how unalterable he is to his word,
and therefore hopes upon having that word made good to him.
A second question is, How may the hope of mercy be known to be presump-
tuous 2 Answer. Presumption is the soul-ruining plague, whereby a person assumes
to himself what God has, by no testimony of his word, declared to be his, and
which alters the beautiful order of mercy established by God, joining together what
God has separated, and separating what he has joined. Upon this I observe,
(1.) That hope is presumptuous which is not founded on the Lord's word. Such
hope is brisk in the dark, but loses all its lustre by the light of God’s word brought
in upon it; John iii. 20, 21, “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved; but he that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought
in God.” God’s word is a friend unto his grace, but an enemy to delusion ; it is
the touchstone that discovers the true metal, and also the counterfeit. You hope
for salvation, in what word of God is your hope founded ? Does the Lord's word,
searchingly applied, strengthen or weaken your hope 2 Say you, The general
invitations are the ground of my hope 2 These may be grounds of hope that ye
may get eternal life, if you will take God's way: but do you not hope that you
shall get it, without a due consideration of this? Now, these can never be the
grounds of a solid hope ; for all that hear the gospel are comprehended in these, as
well as you.
(2.) That hope is presumptuous which overlooks and neglects the means appointed
by God for the attaining of his mercy unto eternal life ; 1 Pet. i. 3, “We are be-
gotten by God to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
The way thou art to be happy for ever is, that thou be united to Christ by a true
faith, that thou be a new creature, that thou lead a holy life. Dost thou neglect
these, and yet hope all will be well? Thy hope is presumption, and will ruin thee,
Deut. xxix. 19, 20.
(3.) That hope is presumptuous which is built without erasing the old founda-
tion, Luke xxxiv. 48. Many have hopes of heaven which grow up with them-
selves, they were never shaken out of themselves, nor had the naughtiness of their
hopes discovered, and so never were led to Jesus Christ, to build on him by uniting
with him. -
A third inquiry may be, How may the hope of mercy be known to be true hope,
which God will take pleasure in 2 In answer to this, it may be noticed,
(1.) True hope is founded on the free grace of God in Christ; 1 Pet. i. 13, quoted
already. The scriptures are “written for our learning, that we, through patience
and comfort of them, might have hope,” Rom. xv. 4. Hope is not built upon our
good dispositions, good works, external and common benefits which we enjoy; for
these are but a sandy foundation, unable to bear this weight: but the anchor of
hope is cast so as to fix upon the immoveable ground aforesaid, Heb. vi. 19. It is
true holiness discerned by us in ourselves, as an evidence, that doth help us to a
firm hope; but the stress of hope lies not upon it as a ground-work.
(2.) True hope is a lively principle of sanctification; 1 John iii. 3, “And every
man that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he (God) is pure;” and therefore
it is called “a lively hope,” 1 Pet. i. 3. . As a spring by degrees does work out the
mud that is in a well, so hope of mercy does work out corruption; as the prospect
of the marriage-day makes the parties to be taken up in preparing for the marriage,
so the true hope of eternal life puts one to be preparing for it, Rev. xix. 7. That
702 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
hope which suffers sin to lie untouched in heart and life, that does not put on a
person to mortify sin, is a dead hope ; and true hope carries to universal holiness,
even as he is pure.
(3.) It makes one diligent in the use of means appointed by God, Heb. x. 23,
25; but withal not to rest on the means, but on the Lord. To hope without using
the means appointed and required, is presumption; to rest on the means is a spice
of atheism. But that is true hope which makes the soul delight in all duties and or-
dinances; to leave no appointed means unessayed, in order to attaining the blessed
end ; and then, when all is done, to place all confidence of success on the Lord.
With a view to press this holy, lively hope, I would mention the following
motives.
1st, It is not only our comfortable attainment, but a duty required of all that
believe ; 1 Pet. i. 13, “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the
end.” And therefore the apostle Paul presseth diligence in seeking after it in full
measure ; Heb. vi. 11, “And we desire that every one of you do show the same
diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end:” and he prays for it; Rom.
xv. 13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that
ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” It is a duty that
is in a special manner comfortable.
2dly, It is most necessary; hope is as necessary to a Christian, as a head-piece
to a soldier in a battle, 1 Thess. v. 8; as necessary as an anchor to a ship, Heb.
vi. 19 ; yea, so necessary, that we are said to be saved by it, Rom. viii. 24.
3dly, It is a great friend to holiness, and perseverance in the ways of God, 1 Cor.
xv. 58. As it honours God's grace and goodness, so it strengthens the soul, and
animates it to all duties, to fight against corruption and temptation, and to pursue
holiness.
3. Let all be exhorted to entertain a holy fear of God, together with a holy
hope for his mercy. Mix these, and balance your souls with them, whatever your
case be. While you are going through the world, keep your course in the middle
between the two rocks of presumption and despair. For this purpose,
(1.) Beware of desponding or despairing of the mercy of God in Christ. There
is an allowable despair, which all ought to entertain, in order to their getting their
hope fixed on God, namely, acquitting of all hope in our own sufficiency, or ability
to make ourselves happy by ourselves, or that ever we shall be well while we con-
tinue in a state of black nature. But what we call despair is a giving over all
hope in God, which is a horrible sin. There is a threefold despair you should
beware of, as ye would not ruin your own souls:
i. A sensual despair, which ariseth from an excessive love of the profits and plea-
sures of this world, with a secure contempt of spiritual and eternal good in another
world; 1 Cor. xv. 32, “Let us,” say they, “eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.”
Alas! how many are there plagued with this? Their souls are festered with the
desire of present good, which is their all, and, having no hope of better after this
life, they give the swing to their lusts after these.
ii. A sluggish despair; Prov. xxii. 13, “The slothful man saith, There is a lion
without, I shall be slain in the streets.” Their sloth musters up difficulties to
them, forming some that are groundless, imaginary ones, and aggravating real
ones, so that they conclude beforehand that they will not be better, their endea-
vours will not succeed, and therefore they lie still, and will do nothing for their
own help ; this ruins many.
iii. A sorrowful despair, which ariseth from strong fears, which raise such a mist
in the soul, that grounds of hope in its case are hid out of sight, and they are in
their soul's case as in Acts xxvii. 20; neither sun nor stars for many days appear,
no small tempest lies on them, and all hope that they shall be saved is then taken
away. There are different degrees of this. Sometimes it is silent and sullen,
making little noise, but is smothered in one's breast like a burning fire. In such
a case, one would do well to give it a vent before God, his servants, or godly expe-
rienced Christians, lest it ruin them. This is the way David took when in such a
case ; Psalm xxxix. 2–4, “I was dumb with silence; I held my peace, even from
good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me; while I was mus-
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 7 03
ing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know mine
end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.”
Sometimes it is raging, as in Judas, who, under horror laid upon his sin, did mis-
erably end his life.
Beware of all these, and resist the beginnings of despair; and if it has fastened
on any soul, let them strive to quench it, as they would do a fire. The former
makes way for the latter, and all together make way for remediless despair in hell.
I shall only say two things of it. (1.) It is defiling, and makes the soul most
loathsome before God: for it conceives most basely and abominably of God and
Christ, directly opposing itself to the grand design of the gospel; it blasphemes
the power of God, and the efficacy of his Son's blood and Spirit. (2.) It is ruin-
ing: for it makes the sinner flee from God, and cast away the means of recovery,
and so insures their destruction ; besides that it often drives the sinner to put an
end to his torment here, by leaping into endless torments before the time, as in the
case of Judas. And while we see how Satan is ready to take advantage, we had
need to take heed.
(2.) Beware of presumption. Take heed that ye do not flee from the one rock
to dash on the other. Indeed, despair is tormenting, while presumption is easy.
Nevertheless, though none of them is good, yet a person presuming is ordinarily
in greater hazard than one despairing ; for the presumptuous sees not his case as
the other does; the one is well pleased with his damnable condition, the other is
weary of his and wishes to have it changed; so that many more perish by the one
than by the other.
To conclude: Remember, on the one hand, God is a holy jealous God, who
cannot away with sin, or a state of sin, but the fire of his jealousy burns against it.
On the other hand, remember that the blood of Christ takes away all guilt, his
Spirit overcomes the most hopeless case, and his mercy reaches wide for every con-
dition. Fear him, ye that hope in him ; hope in his mercy, ye that fear him :
for “the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his
mercy.” Amen.
XI.
DEPARTING FROM INIQUITY THE DUTY OF ALL WHO NAME THE
NAME OF CHRIST.."
2 TIMOTHY ii. 19.
“And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
A solEMN occasion of renewing our covenant with God being before us, it is neces-
sary that we count the cost ere we begin to build. A Christian profession is easy,
a Christian practice not so. It is melancholy to see how many in their practice
do yoke together the name of Christ and the working of iniquity, as if they had
found out that secret of conjoining light and darkness, Christ and Belial, which is
hid from all saints. Our text confounds this “mystery of iniquity,” showing that
men must either part with Christ, or depart from iniquity: “And,” says the
apostle, “let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
In this verse, the apostle obviates that scandal, and that shaking discouragement,
which arose to the saints from the apostacy of Hymeneus and Philetus, mentioned
* This and the following discourses on the same text were delivered in May and June 1719.
704 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSEs.
in ver. 17. Satan would stand on the ruins of these men, and affright the saints
with this temptation : Behold what loose ground you stand upon those who are
now shipwrecked stood once as fair for the harbour as you. To drive the bottom
out of this temptation, the apostle tells them, that for all this, the foundation of
the perseverance of real saints stands firm, as in ver. 19, “Nevertheless, the
foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that
are his.” As if he had said, The devil has got but his own, he has got none of
Christ's. They were among Christ's sheep indeed : they were, however, nothing
but the devil's goats, of whom he ever had a sure hold by some iniquity or other,
one lust or other; and now by this bond of iniquity he has drawn them out from
among the sheep of Christ; 1 John ii. 19, “They went out from us, but they
were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not
all of us.” But the foundation upon which every real saint is built is sure, and
can never be overturned. This is the decree of election: (1.) A foundation of
God's own laying ; (2.) A sealed foundation of God's own sealing ; and therefore
affording the most ample security. A seal is for confirming and ratifying a decree
and purpose ; the decree of election, including the perseverance of the saints, as
the means to the end, is sealed for this end, and that with a twofold seal: “Hav-
ing this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his ;” and, “Let every one that
nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
1. It is sealed with God’s knowledge : “The Lord knoweth them that are his.”
Among the mixed multitude in the church, the Lord knows his own. He knows
those whom he has chosen ; he cannot mistake them, though men may, and some-
times do, take others for them. He knows them practically, that is, he knows
them to distinguish them from others: he will take care of them that they be not
lost, as one does with what he knows to be his own ; and this secures them.
2. It is sealed with effectual sanctification ; Eph. iv. 30, “And grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption;” “Let
every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” He sees to the
sanctification of his own, causing them to depart from iniquity, which is the only
thing which can ruin them ; and thus again they are secured.
For understanding of this, consider, that the apostle here has an eye to the his-
tory of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, (Numb. xvi.,) those Old Testament apostates
who perished in their sin. There was a dispute betwixt them and Moses and Aaron
for the priesthood: the congregation at length thought the former as much the
Lord's as the latter, verse 19; though at first it seems they knew not in whose
favour to decide. Moses refers it to God's judgment; verse 5, “The Lord will
show (Heb. make known) who are his, and who are holy ;” importing, that the
Lord knew who were his. This was the security of Moses and Aaron when the
stroke came. When the earth was to swallow up Korah and his company, as in a
spiritual sense it does all apostates, the congregation was, by God's appointment,
charged to depart from the tents of these wicked men, and to touch nothing that
was theirs, verse 26. This charge was effectual to the congregation, but not to
these men's wives and their children, verse 27; so the latter perished, and the
former were secured. It seems this was a typical event, an emblem of the sure
standing of the saints, while hypocrites fall away and perish. º
This double seal answers to the two parts of the covenant; Jer. xxxii. 40, “And
I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from
them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not
depart from me.” This covenant shall not fail on God's part, for it hath this seal,
“The Lord knoweth them that are his ;” nor on the part of the saints, for it hath
this seal, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
—Let us attend,
1st, To the seal itself, which, in its general nature, is a command of sanctifica-
tion; in which consider,-to whom it is directed, upon whom this awful charge is
laid. They are the Lord's own words, directed to every one that nameth the name
of his Son, that is, to all who profess Christ. And this character of professors
serves not only to distinguish them from those without the church, who are inca-
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 705
pable of apostacy; but also shows the obligation laid on them to holiness by their
profession, the holy name named by them binding them to a holy life ; the incon-
sistency between the holy profession and an unholy life, which, though men join
together, God will have separated sooner or later, for he will strip them either of
their fair name, or their foul heart and life, in time or in eternity. Consider the
duty commanded; “to depart from iniquity,” as from a thing one formerly stood
to and followed. Iniquity is that thing which we all naturally follow as a master
and leader; but there must be a falling off from it, an apostacy or falling away
from sin, as the word imports. And this is the way to prevent apostacy from the
Lord ; for this does import that it is some one iniquity or other indulged, and left
to reign in the heart, which betrays professors into apostacy, as Judas, Demas, &c.
—Consider, - -
2dly, How this can be a seal to secure the saints and elect ones from apostacy,
since it is but a commandment. To this I answer, That the nature of the pre-
ceding seal would seem to have required this expression, “And they that are his
depart from iniquity.” But it is in form of a command, to show that the saints
depart from iniquity by choice, and that they are by the Lord himself powerfully
determined to this choice ; so that their perseverance is both rational and gracious.
It is a command, at the same time it is a powerful and efficacious command of
God, like that in Gen. i. 3, “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light;”
a command which effects what it requires in all who are his. It is such a com-
mand as that in Numb. xvi. 26, (quoted above,) which brought away from the tents
of Dathan and Abiram all who were not to be swallowed up with them. And this
command is going through wherever the gospel is preached, and will go till the last
day; like a brisk wind separating the corn from the chaff, carrying away from the
tents of sin all who are ordained to eternal life, though others dwell on in them
still. Thus, though the profane and hypocritical, and all who are not the Lord's,
are still held by some one bond of sin or other which is never broken ; yet this
powerful word looses the bands of all sin, sets them and their sins asunder, and keeps
them asunder, who, being sealed with the first seal, are his. And all this God’s
efficacious word can do, as well as keep the world from returning into its primitive
mass of confusion; Heb. i. 3, “Upholding all things by the word of his power.”
And so it is a seal securing them from apostacy. From this subject two general
doctrines may be proposed:
DocTRINE I. That God doth charge all who name the name of Christ to depart
from iniquity.
DocT. II. That God's charge to depart from iniquity becomes infallibly effectual
in all who are his, so as that they do truly depart from iniquity, while others hold
it fast to their utter ruin.—I begin with
Doot. I. That God doth charge all that name the name of Christ to depart from
iniquity.
In illustrating this point, I shall show, -
I. Who they are whom the Lord charges to depart from iniquity.
II. What is implied in departing from iniquity, which God chargeth these to do,
III. How he charges those who name the name of Christ to depart from iniquity,
IV. Why those particularly who name the name of Christ are charged to do so.
—And then add the practical improvement.
We are,
I. To show who they are whom the Lord charges to depart from iniquity.
The text tells you it is “every one who names the name of Christ.” Thus, it is
every one of you, whatever your character be. The poor pagans, amongst whom
Christ is not named, God winks at them ; but he charges you, and every one of
you, to depart from iniquity. This charge is to you,
1. Baptized persons, capable to discern betwixt good and evil; the name of Christ
is called upon you, and you name him ; God charges you to depart from iniquity.
You are engaged to be the Lord's, to fight against the devil, the world, and the
flesh. You have no liberty to follow your lusts and the vanity of your minds,
You are charged, as God's subjects, to have no more converse with his enemies;
since you have given up your names * you are to dwell no more in the tents
U
706 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
of sin. There is no exception of the young more than the old, but every one who
mameth the name of Christ is to depart from iniquity. The charge is to you,
2. Who profess faith in Christ, and hope of salvation through him. You name
his name, and therefore you are charged. Although, perhaps, you will not so
much as bow a knee to God, nor have so much as a form of godliness, yet you have
not renounced the faith, nor your part in Christ; therefore, since you retain his
name, and will be called Christians, depart from iniquity; live like Christians, and
not like those who never heard of Christ. The charge is to you,
3. Who pray to God through Christ. You name the name of Christ, and there-
fore are charged to depart from iniquity. Some of you, perhaps, pray only some-
times, as if you had more necessary business than serving the Lord : some pray
ordinarily, yet go on in some sinful course or other; as if God was only to be served
with fair words, and your lusts with the whole course of your life. But though
this be your situation, this charge God lays on you notwithstanding, Depart from
iniquity. This charge is to you,
4. Who profess faith in Christ, and holiness of life also. You name the name of
Christ, and therefore you should depart from iniquity. Are there not many such,
whose lives are miserably stained in points of immorality, who walk most unsuit-
ably to their character, by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of ?
Rom. ii. 23, “Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law
dishonourest thou God?” God charges you to walk up to your character, to your
profession, and to depart from iniquity. This charge is,
5. To communicants, who name the name of Christ in a most solemn manner,
by sitting down at his table, before God, angels, and men. This charge is to you.
You have named this name, and gone back to those iniquities of which you were
convinced. Are there not some who have adventured to stretch forth their hand
to the Lord at his table, and have quickly again stretched it out to their lusts? To
you the Lord is saying, Quit your communicating, or your iniquity; join no more
an unholy life to such a fair and flaming profession.
We are now,
II. To show what is implied in this departing from iniquity which God chargeth
us to aim at. Here,
First, Let us inquire in what this departure, this happy apostacy, lies. And,
Secondly, What of iniquity God charges us to depart from. We are,
First, To inquire in what this departure, this happy apostacy, lies. There are
five things which belong to it. There is,
1. A giving up with our rest in sin. God says of sin to all who name Christ,
“Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is polluted : it shall
destroy you, even with a sore destruction.” Sinners, ye are settled on your lees,
as wine on the dregs, but there must be a separation ; you are dwelling in a dan-
gerous place, like Lot in Sodom ; lying among the pots, as the Israelites in Egypt;
sleeping securely like the sluggard on his bed, “while his poverty cometh as one
that travaileth, and his wants as an armed man.” God chargeth you to awake
and bestir yourself, to spring to your feet, and prepare to make progress in the
ways of holiness. There is,
2. A going off from sin, and giving up with it ; Job xxxiv. 32, “If I have
done iniquity, I will do no more.” God is saying to you of sin’s dominion, as he
said to the Israelites at Horeb, “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount; there-
fore up and be gone from the tents of wickedness; ye have dwelt too long in the
tents of Meshech and Kedar.” May not the time past suffice to have done the will
of the flesh? 1 Pet. iv. 3. Ye have long wandered on the mountains of vanity,
come away from them now ; Song iv. 8, “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse,
with me from Lebanon.” Bid a long farewell now, and turn your backs on the
lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. There is,
3. A standing off from sin, as the word properly signifies; Prov. iv. 15, “Avoid
it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” Keep yourselves at a distance.
Stand off from it as from a fire that will consume you, as from a leprosy that will
infect you, as from an unclean thing that will defile you, as from a sword and
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 707
arrow which will pierce and wound you to death, as from a serpent whose biting and
stinging is poisonous, painful, and deadly. There is,
4. A going off to the other side, namely, to Christ and holiness; Isa. lv. 7,
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for
he will abundantly pardon.” There can be no neutrality in the matter betwixt
sin and holiness, no standing between the two : “He that is not with me is against
me,” saith Jesus; “and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad,” Matt.
xii. 30. Sin and holiness are such opposites, that one of them must be predomi-
nant in every subject capable of either. Apostates from religion betake themselves
to the other side ; and they who run away from Christ, they list themselves under
Satan's banner: and so do those who fall away from sin, fall in with Christ and
newness of life. There is,'
5. A going farther and farther from sin. Even the saints must always be
departing from it; Job xi. 14, “If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and
let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.” The first departure of the saints in
conversion, though it be sincere, is not perfect; but what is then begun, must be
held on in the progress of Sanctification, as a spring, when opened, runs and runs
on, till the mud be wholly removed out of the fountain ; Prov. iv. 18, “The path
of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day.” They having this hope purify themselves, even as God is pure, 1 John iii.
3. And hence their departing from sin consists in daily mortification, and living
more and more to righteousness.
Secondly, Let us inquire what of iniquity God charges us to depart from. It
is the accursed thing, with which we have nothing to do. We must depart from
all sin, from the whole of it. We must depart,
1. From under the dominion of sin ; Rom. vi. 12, “Let not sin therefore reign
in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Sin has a
dominion over all who are out of Christ. It commands their whole man. The
motions of it are the laws they obey. It is a dominion which is opposed to Christ's:
in the one, grace reigns unto life ; but in the other, sin reigns unto death. Christ
offers to break the bands of your yoke ; come, then, to him, and shake off the yoke
of your sins, renounce your allegiance, withdraw and refuse obedience to your old
masters; say, “What have I any more to do with idols º' We must depart,
2. From the practice of sin; Isa. lv. 7, quoted above. Give up with and put an
end to your sinful courses; be no longer workers of iniquity, for such workers will
get a sad reward of their work ; Matt. vii. 23, “Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.” To what purpose do men pretend to believe in Christ, while they are
the servants of sin? How can one serve two such contrary masters? What avails
the pretended belief of the truth, which purges not the heart and life of ungodliness
and unrighteousness? Rom. i. 18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighte- .
ousness.” Depart, then, from the practice of sin, in your outward man, your life
and conversation. God is saying to you this day, (James iv. 8,) “Cleanse your
hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.” Reform your lives,
if ever you would have communion with God here or hereafter, Psal. xxiv. 3, 4.
Isa. i. 16, “Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your doings from
before mine eyes; cease to do evil.” Look to your conversation, see what is in it
offensive to God, and dishonouring to his name, and depart from all this; Lam. iii.
40, “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.” Turn from
gross pollutions of the outward man, and live the Christian life, or give over the
Christian name, Jer. vii. 9–11. There have been sober heathens, who were
remarkable for their temperance, their justice in dealings, and, in a word, regular
lives according to the precepts of morality. But how many Christians are there
whose lives are stained with profane swearing and cursing, drunkenness, injustice,
dishonesty, filthiness, and other gross pollutions, by reason of which “the way of
truth is evil spoken of !” God charges you, since ye name the name of Christ, to
depart from these, upon the pain of eternal exclusion from his presence, 1 Cor. vi.
9, 10; Gal. v., 19–21. Wherefore, let him that did these things do so no more,
708 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Turn from the lesser pollutions of the outward man; Acts xxiv. 16, “And herein
do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and
toward men.” A person may be drowned in a rivulet as well as in the deep sea,
if they take not heed to themselves. Vain and idle words, as well as vile and
wicked ones, may ruin a man; Matt. xii. 36, 37, “But I say unto you, that every
idle word that a man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judg-
ment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned.” There is a careless way of living, though not the way of open pro-
fanity, which yet is offensive to tender Christians, in which men swim to destruction
in a stream of sins that few in the world make any account of, and they go to hell
without making the sound of their feet to be heard by the way. Hear their
doom, Psal. cxxv, 5, “As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord
shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.” “This I say, therefore, and
testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the
vanity of their mind,” Eph. iv. 17. Look to the law and to the testimony; cleanse
your way by these, Psal. cxix. 9. If the word of God condemn your practice,
though all the world justify it, God charges you to depart from it.—Depart from
the practice of sin in the inner man, James iv. 8 (quoted above); Psal. xxiv. 3, 4
Sin may be beaten from the outworks, while it has retired in safety to the heart .
there may in appearance be a clean life, while the heart is foul all over, and wicked-
ness is practised at ease in the secret chambers of imagery. Therefore God charges
you, as Jer. iv. 14, “O Jerusalem I wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou
mayest be saved; how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ?” Turn,
then, from heart-vileness. Since the heart is as open to God as the life, it is of
little use to be as a whited sepulchre, while within they are full of rottenness; to
clean the outside of the cup, while the inside is full of ravening. Purge your hearts
of speculative filthiness; away with filthy imaginations, impure thoughts, envy,
covetousness, malice, 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2. Be as much concerned to crush these vipers
in the shell, as to resist external actions. Turn from heart-vanity; Eph. iv. 17,
quoted above. Vain thoughts are like idle words, offensive to God, and therefore
hated and resisted by the godly ; Psal. cxix. 113, “I hate vain thoughts.” Vanity
of heart is the next step to, and paves the way for, wileness of heart and life. It is
the “house swept and garnished,” to which the devil “returns with seven other spirits
worse than himself.” Therefore labour to get your hearts filled with good motions
and holy desires, regulated by the fear of God, warmed with his love, guarded by
watchfulness, and so busied as that ye may not feed on wind, but may be taken up
about what may be of good use, both profitable and pleasing.
3. Depart from the devising and contriving of sin. A good man may be surprised
into sin; but for a man to sit down and contrive sinful actions, is to make his heart
a forge for Satan. To sleep and wake in pursuing the contrivance of sin, is the
character of a wicked man; Psal. xxxvi. 4, “He deviseth mischief upon his bed;
he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.” Thus men
set themselves wilfully in an ill way, which grieves the Spirit, extinguishes his
motions, and wastes the conscience. Men may show their worldly wit in this way,
that they are “wise to do evil;” and they may, for a time, prosper in their ways, and
bring their wicked devices to pass, Psal. xxxvii. 7. But such a habitual practice
will prove a man graceless, 1 John iii. 8, 9; and will be bitterness in the end, for
evil-doers shall be cut off, Psal. xxxvii. 9. Depart, then, from the devising of sin,
or quit the name of Christians.
4. Depart from the love of sin; Ezek. xiv. 6, “Thus saith the Lord God, Repent,
and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abomi-
nations.” 1 John ii. 15, 16. While the love of sin reigns in the heart, though
they may seem to depart from it, the devil has a pledge of them that they will not
go far away, but that they will come again back to him. This is that which makes
so many communicants a scandal to their profession; so many who put their hand
to the plough, to look back. They still love sinful liberty, their hearts are not
divorced from their lusts, and so they return to their idols. If you name the name of
Christ, and profess love to him, God charges you to turn your esteem of sin into
disdain and contempt of it, Cast your “idols to the moles and to the bats,” Isa,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 709
ii. 20. Let grace and holiness have the ascendant of sin and wickedness in your
esteem. Account them no more the happy men who take to themselves a liberty
in sinful courses, but as men who are most miserable, vile, and pitiful, as slaves to
sin and in the road to destruction, Psal. xv. 4. You are charged to turn your
love of sin into hatred and abhorrence of it; Psal. xcvii. 10, “Ye that love the
Lord, hate evil.” Hate it as evil, as the worst of evils, worse than any sufferings;
hate it as hell; Rom. xii. 9, “Abhor that which is evil.” Hate it as destructive
to the soul, as dishonouring and displeasing to God. Abhor it as you would do a
cup of poison, though a golden cup. Your love of it must be turned into loathing.
Look not only upon it as an ill thing, but as a filthy and a loathsome thing, at
which one's heart is apt to stand, Isa. xxx. 22; Ezek. xviii. 31. You have long
kept at it as a sweet morsel. Let your soul apprehend its real filthiness, so as
that you may vomit it up again, Your former cleaving unto sin must be turned
into longing to get rid of it; Rom. vii. 24, “O wretched man that I am who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?” Long to be free of it, as a prisoner longs
for the opening of the prison-doors, as a captive for his liberty. Look on it as a
burden on your back, which makes you stoop ; as a burden on your head, which
perplexes you how to get free of it; as a burden on your stomach, which you will
endeavour to cast up. This is the heart's departing from sin, without which all
other departures from it will be to little purpose. \
5. Depart from the enjoyment of the fruits of sin. The righteous man is one
“who despises the gain of oppression, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes,
that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing of
evil.” When lovers part, they give back their tokens; and when a sinner parts
with his sin in earnest, he will part with its fruits, whatever advantages he has by
them. This is so evident even to a natural conscience awakened, that Judas, re-
penting of his betraying of Christ, could not longer brook the thirty pieces he had
made by his sin; and Zaccheus, sincerely repenting, is ready to make restitution,
Luke xix. 8. It was Balaam’s character, he “loved the wages of unrighteousness.”
And he who wilfully keeps the fruit of his sin, thereby nails down his own soul in
a state of impenitency, so that he cannot repent of that sin; he binds the guilt of
it on himself as with bands of iron and brass, so that it cannot be forgiven while
this disposition remains. Wherefore purge out this leaven, and cast away the
fruits with the tree.
6. Depart from the occasions of sin, and all temptations to it; Ezek. xiv. 6,
quoted above. It is vain to pretend to depart from sin, when men do not watch
against the occasions to it. They who, in a siege, resolve really not to give up the
town, will defend the outworks as long as they can. Those do not depart from,
but run into sin, who cast themselves into the way of temptations. Therefore says
Solomon, Prov. iv. 14, 15, “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in
the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” Mind
the apostle's advice, 1 Thess. v. 22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” Occa-
sions and temptations will seek us out while in this evil world; but let every one
who nameth the name of Christ be upon his guard against them.
7. Depart from the workers of iniquity; 2 Cor. vi. 17, “Wherefore, come out
from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing; and I will receive you.” Let birds of a feather flock together; but if ye
name the name of Christ, depart from the tents of wicked men. True, we cannot
altogether shun them while we are in the world; but to make choice of ungodly
persons for our companions is the way to ruin ; Prov. xiii. 20, “He that walketh
with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Where-
fore, if you be setting your faces heavenward, depart from those whose faces are
towards hell; Acts ii. 40, “With many words did Peter testify and exhort them,
saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation ;” Psal. xii. 7, “Thou
shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
7 10 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
XII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED
2 TIMOTHY ii. 19.
“And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
HAVING, in the preceding discourse, considered to whom the charge is addressed,
and what is imported in the charge, “depart from iniquity,”
We now proceed,
III. To explain the nature of this charge, or to show how the Lord charges those
who name the name of Christ to depart from iniquity.—You may know the nature
of this charge given to them in the text, by these following properties. It is,
First, An universal charge, and this in two respects:
1. In respect of the persons naming: “Every one,” says the text, “who nameth
the name of Christ.” There is no exception in the charge ; it is directed to all
and sundry who profess Christ, or who are called Christians, whether ye be com-
municants or not. Since you are Christians by name, you are charged by the
God who made you to betake yourselves to the Christian life, and depart from
iniquity. Whether you be high and honourable, or low and mean in the world;
whatever difference is betwixt you and others; God makes none in this charge.
But whether young or old, you are included in the charge, and you cannot resist it
but at your highest peril. (
2. The charge is universal in respect of the sins which you are to depart from ;
Ezek. xviii. 31, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have
transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O
house of Israel?” They are, all and every one of them, dishonouring to God, dis-
pleasing to him, disagreeable to the holy name by which you are called, and there-
fore all of them are to be departed from. You must part with your fashionable
sins, with which, to be neighbour-like, you comply, though you should be a won-
der to many, as well as with unfashionable ones, to which you have no temptation;
Rom. xii. 2, “And be not conformed to this world.” You must depart from your
gainful sins, as well as those by which you make no profit; Matt. xvi. 26, “For
what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” You must part with the sins
of your calling and station in the world, as well as those which lie out of your
road. This is an ordinary screen for sin; but see Luke iii. 12–14. You must
part with little sins, as well as with great sins ; with your darling sin, your bosom-
idol, as well as with others less beloved ; with the sins of your constitution, that
sin which most easily besets you, Heb. xii. 1; in one word, with all your sins of
heart and life.—It is,
Secondly, A peremptory charge ; Acts xvii. 30, “And the times of this igno-
rance God winked at ; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” There
are no ifs or ands for your keeping your sins, or any of them. Many go about to
compound the matter with God. They will part with such and such a sin; they
will only harbour this and that, which is but a little one, a right eye, &c.; but in
vain; you must part with all. If you would give rivers of oil, or the fruit of your
body for your sins, you cannot be allowed to keep any one of these accursed things.
—It is, - -
Thirdly, A charge for the present time ; Psalm xcv. 7, “To-day, if ye will hear
his voice, harden not your heart.” It requires obedience upon hearing of it,
a speedy and quick compliance, like that, Psalm czix, 60, “I made haste, and
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 7 11
delayed not, to keep thy commandments.” You are not allowed to advise another
day whether you will depart from iniquity or not. For aught you know, it is now
or never with you ; 2 Cor. vi. 2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now
is the day of salvation.” And if you refuse this once more, God may take you at
your refusal, and determine your eternal state by it; Prov. i. 24, and downwards.
Often refusals are most dangerous; Prov. xxix. 1, “He that, being often reproved,
hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”—It is,
Fourthly, A charge with certification, a charge upon your highest peril ; Heb.
xii. 25, “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who
refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away
from him that speaketh from heaven.” You are charged to depart from iniquity,
as you will answer it before the Judge of the quick and dead. There is in this
instance a five-fold certification. There is this certification,
1. That if you do it not, you shall incur the high displeasure of God; Rom. i.
18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” Who knows the
power of His wrath who is able to frown the creature into the lowest abyss of
misery 2 His anger makes the hills to tremble, the mountains to smoke ; alas !
how can worm-man bear it 2 There is this certification,
2. That if you do it not, you shall have no communion with God in duties; Amos
iii. 3, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed ?” You may go to your
prayers, but God will not be found of you ; he will turn the back, and not the face,
to you; Psal. lxvi. 18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me.” You shall find a separation-wall built up between God and you ; Isa. lix. 2,
“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins
have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” You may come to a commu-
nion-table, but your harboured lusts shall separate betwixt God and you : this will
make it a sapless meal to you. There is this certification,
3. That if you do it not, your best services and duties will not be accepted, but
rejected as an abomination. Remember that God requires obedience rather than
sacrifices; and it is in vain for men to think to please God in the external acts of
devotion, while they do not make conscience of obeying his commandments in holi-
ness of life ; Prov. xxviii. 9, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law,
even his prayer shall be an abomination.” Will men dare to go over the belly of
their duty enjoined them from the Lord's word, without ever aiming to comply
with it, and yet think to communicate acceptably 3 There is this certification,
4. That if you do it not, you will get a curse, instead of a blessing, in your
approaches to God, Mal. ii. 2, 3. God has made some monuments of his vengeance
who have presumed, in their sins unrepented of, to approach his presence in a
solemn manner, Levit. x. 1, 3. But because God does not strike men often this
way, there are found those who, living in secret wickedness, come to the Lord's
table to cloak their wickedness, little considering the blasting curse to which they
expose their souls. There is this certification,
5. That if you do it not, you shall perish in your iniquity; Heb. xii. 14, “Fol-
low peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
True holiness is in all manner of conversation. One thing lacking will ruin and
sink the ship of your souls, as well as a thousand.
We are now,
IV. To show why those particularly who name the name of Christ are charged
to depart from iniquity. All to whom the gospel comes are so charged, but those
who profess Christ are in a special manner thus charged. For,
1. The practice of iniquity is a contradiction to their profession; so that they
cannot have this practice but they give the lie to their profession. An holy pro-
fession, and an unholy practice, are such inconsistencies, as that the one over-
throws the other; for “what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with
Belial?” 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. By their profession, they are friends of God; by their
practice, they are enemies: by the one they carry Christ's yoke; by the other, sin
and Satan's. Thus the life is woven into one practical lie.
7 12 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
2. Whosoever partakes of Christ's salvation, departs from iniquity; for salvation
from sin is the leading and chief part of Christ's Salvation ; “Thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” Therefore none can
justly claim Christ as his Saviour who still lives in sin. Hence we are told,
James ii. 17, that “faith without works is dead.” . And a holy life is just as
necessary to evidence our interest in Christ, as light is necessary to evidence that
the Sun is risen.
3. The practice of iniquity in such, is in a peculiar manner offensive to God and
grieving to his Spirit. Sin is offensive to his holiness, wherever it is found ; but
the offence is doubled in those who name the name of Christ; Amos iii. 2, “You
only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.” Friends' wounds pierce deepest; and the nearer that the
relation is betwixt the offender and the offended, the offence is the worse taken,
Psal. xli. 9, and lv. 12, 13. The treachery of a traitor is more grievous than the
enmity of an open enemy, and more severely punished; and accordingly the
impiety of those who name the name of Christ, is more heinous than that of others
who do not ; Matt. xi. 22, “But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre
and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.” The breaking of a covenant,
which all the baptized as well as communicants have entered into, is most aggravat-
ing, both in respect of sin and punishment: See Matt. xxiv. 51. Compare Jer.
xviii. 34.
4. It reflects a peculiar dishonour upon God; such sins bring a scandal upon
that holy name and religion which they profess; Rom, ii. 24, “For the name of
God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.” The loose lives of professors
expose religion to the ridicule and reproach of its enemies; so that they are the
Judases by whom the Son of man was betrayed. Religion is the worse of them;
and it meets with worse entertainment in the world, that workers of iniquity do
profess it.
We are now,
W. To make some practical improvement; and this,
First, In a use of information. This doctrine shows us,
1. That all and every one amongst us, by the authority of God who made us,
and in whose name we were baptized, are obliged to depart from iniquity. You
cannot keep it without rebellion against your sovereign Lord, without treachery
and breach of your covenant. O that men would seriously reflect on the authority
they are under ; consider the charge given them from heaven, and how they will
answer for their disobedience to it, when God rises up to judgment l—This shows us,
2. That for men to abstain from the Sacrament of the Supper to this end that
they may not be abridged of their liberty in sinful courses, is not only impious,
but childish and foolish. It is impious, as it is a determined disobedience to God’s
express charge. It is foolish ; because this liberty is already cut off from them,
and renounced by them, by their taking on the profession and badge of Christianity.
Their abstaining from the sacrament of the Supper, unless also they renounce their
baptism, and all their part in Christ, will not take their name out of this charge
from heaven.—We are instructed,
3. That they are bold adventurers, and run a dreadful risk, who come in their
sins, unrepented of, and not sincerely resolved against, and sit down at the Lord's
table; 1 Cor. xi. 29, “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.” It is one of the
most solemn ways of naming the name of Christ, to communicate at his table,
Whoso partake of this bread and cup do solemnly and practically confess, before
God, angels, and men, that they take Christ, and part with their lusts; that they
proclaim an irreconcilable war against the devil, the world, and the flesh, accord- i
ing to this charge. And for such to be still in the enemy's camp, or to return
after the sacrament to their former known sinful courses, is solemnly to lie, and
to mock God, the consequences of which will be most terrible ; Gal. vi. 7, “Be
not deceived; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man Soweth, that shall he
also reap.” -
4. Behold here how the Lord's table is fenced, by a fence of God's own making:
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 713
“Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” There is
a great privilege before us, the making a most solemn profession of the name of
Christ, and our communion with him. Here, in the text, are God’s terms of admis-
sion to the privileges, and these are most reasonable ; which are, that those who
shall profess their coming over to Christ's side, shall desert the enemy's camp; if
they be for the light, they must renounce the works of darkness; if they take
Christ, they must let these go. You hear the terms; lay your hand to your heart,
and see what you will do. If men will not depart from iniquity, let them not take
Christ's name in vain. Our text debars from this holy table whosoever will indulge
themselves in, and will not part with, any known sin whatsoever; particularly,
(1.) All neglecters of the duties of piety towards God. Surely prayerless per-
sons, and such as only call on God now and then; slighters of God’s ordinances, his
word, his Sabbaths; depart not from iniquity, but live in it, and cannot with a good
conscience sit down at his table. Though they may deceive men, they cannot
deceive God, who says to them, (Psal. l. 16, 17,) “What hast thou to do, to declare
my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? seeing thou
hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.” Depart from these, then,
or presume not to sit down at the Lord's table.
(2.) All who make not conscience of their duty towards men,-righteousness,
mercy, and charity. Those who can wrong their neighbours, by undermining and
cheating them, picking and stealing from them, by unfaithfulness in what they
have of other men's among their hands, are fitter to join a society of robbers,
than to sit down at a communion-table; Jer. vii. 11, “Is this house which is called
by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? behold, I have seen it, saith
the Lord.” See 1 Cor. vi. 9. Those who shut up their bowels from the poor and
needy, who oppress and grind the faces of others, are utterly unfit for this seal of
God’s mercy. Those who live in hatred of their neighbours, in malice and envy,
and who cannot be reconciled to, nor forgive those who have done them a wrong,
are unfit for this seal of God's pardon ; Matt. vi. 15, “But if ye forgive not men
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Depart from
these, or presume not to go to the table of the Lord ; for with a good conscience
you cannot come there, unless you be resolved from the heart to be conscientious
in all your relations; conscientious neighbours, parents, children, masters, ser-
wants, &c.
(3.) All those who are not sober in their lives, Titus ii. 12. The gospel
“teaches, that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world.” Can a man who will not quit the table of drunkenness be fit for the
Lord's table 2 Do but imagine a person sitting at the Lord's table one day, and
getting drunk another day; what a monstrous and horrible thing is this! I Cor. x.
21, “Ye cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.” Those who
are wedded to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, will
but get a stroke to their souls by such a solemn approach. Depart from intem-
perance, then, and from the vain way of the world, or presume not to approach this
holy table.
(4.) All those who suffer their tongues to go at random, and make no con-
science of their words. It is the character of persons very different from the people
of God which you have, Psal. xii. 2–4, “They speak vanity every one with his
neighbour; with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak: the Lord
will cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things; who have
said, With our tongue will we prevail, our lips are our own, who is lord over us?”
Let swearers and cursers take heed to this, and let them not deceive themselves
with this, that they do it only in a passion; let them soberly consider what agreement
there is betwixt a solemn profession of the holy name one day, and a profaning it
another; betwixt their professing faith in Christ, bringing their consciences to his
blood, and their endeavours for God's blessing one day, and another day swearing
by their faith, their conscience, and cursing themselves or others. Let liars, filthy
speakers, slanderers, and backbiters, who use their tongues so busily in the service
of the devil, know what they have to expect, if they approach the table of the Lord,
Psal. 1, 16–23. And let all know, that a loose unbridled tongue will prove a
4 x
714 MISCELI, ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
man's religion vain; and this vain religion will leave him in the lurch at length ;
James i. 26, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his
tongue, but deceiveth his own heart ; this man's religion is vain.” Depart, there-
fore, from all these, or presume not to approach the Lord's table.
(5.) All those who make no conscience of inward purity, the keeping of the
heart; Matt. v. 8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Out-
side religion may give you outward privileges, but it will leave you to break your
teeth on the shell, without ever enjoying the kernel of them. Speculative impuri-
ties and sins entertained in the heart, will exclude you out of heaven; and, before
the Lord, will exclude you from his table, if you are not repenting of them, and
resolving through grace to wrestle against them. Depart also from these, or ven-
ture not to approach this holy table.
(6.) All those who entertain and indulge themselves in any known sin, or in the
neglect of any known duty, or are not content to have their sin and duty discovered
to them; Psal. lxvi. 18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me.” One thing may mar all in the bargain betwixt Christ and your souls. If
one lust be reserved and excepted, it is no bargain ; Mark x. 21, 22, “Then Jesus,
beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest; go thy way,
sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven; and come, take up thy cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that
saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.” Men, then, should
soberly consider, with what conscience they can sit down at the Lord's table, while
they are living in sin, in that which they are convinced to be sin, and yet are never
endeavouring to amend it. -
5. Behold how the door of access to the Lord's table is opened to all true peni-
tents, whose hearts are loosed from, and set against all sin. Those who would now
sincerely depart from their iniquity, and turn from it without reserve to the Lord, are
welcome to name the name of Christ, they have his Father's allowance for it; Isa.
lv. 7, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and
let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon.” He saith not, that they who will name the name
of Christ must be without iniquity; there are none such in this lower world: but
they must depart from it; they must turn their backs on it, though it may tempt
them ; they are to flee from it, though it may follow ; they are to resist it, nay,
even though it attack them. Whosoever, then, are brought to be weary of their
former sinful courses, are sincerely desirous of, and are resolving through grace to
be the Lord's only, wholly, and for ever, to take Christ for their Saviour from sin
and wrath, to take holiness for their way, and God's word for their rule, they have
access to the covenant, and to the seal of the covenant, in a comfortable way.
6. This shows us the necessity of self-searching, examining ourselves, on this
occasion, 1 Cor. xi. 28. Communicants should examine themselves beforehand as
to their sins, as well as with respect to their graces, since God has commanded
every one that nameth the name of Christ to depart from iniquity. Make not
superficial work of communicating, but examine your heart and life for the time
past, that ye may discover what has been and what is your iniquity or iniquities,
from which you are now to depart; Lam. iii. 40, “Let us search and try our ways,
and turn again to the Lord.” One reason why there is so little reformation on the
back of communions is, that the people do not beforehand take a view of what is
wrong, they do not consider what they are to endeavour the reformation of Now,
if a person do not know what he should depart from, how can he depart from it 3
Wherefore, the same authority which charges you to depart from iniquity, charges
you to take a view of what has been amiss in your ways. Take some time for this,
and be as particular as you can, to search out the old leaven, and devote to a curse
what you find out. Examine how your hearts stand affected to your sins for the
time present; whether you really repent of them or not ; whether you be ashamed
of them before the Lord, are heartily grieved for them, hate them, and are longing
to be rid of them,--to be delivered from the guilt, the stain, the power, and the
indwelling of them, or not. If you have not attained to this, you are, while in this
case, utterly unfit for a communion-table. If you have, the Master of the feast
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 15
makes you welcome. If your repentance be real, it will reach to all your known
sins whatsoever, without exception, both the root and the branches; Rom. vii. 24,
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Examine how your hearts stand affected to them for the time to come ; if you be
sincerely resolved, through grace, on newness of life. Surely it is meet at all
times, but especially before a communion-occasion, to be thus resolved; Job xxxiv.
31, 32, “Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will
not offend any more. That which I see not, teach thou me ; If I have done ini-
quity, I will do no more.” If you cannot think to give up with your sinful courses,
or to live without them, do not mock God, and bring more guilt upon your souls,
by sitting down at his table. But if you would wish to be holy as God is holy,
and, under a sense of your inability to subdue sin, desire to betake yourself to
Christ for his sanctifying Spirit, resolving through grace to watch against sin, and
resist the motions of it, ye are welcome guests to the Lord's table. We shall
only add,
Secondly, A use of exhortation. We exhort you to depart from iniquity, turn
from your sins, since you name the name of Christ. Let none think to find
shelter for their sins under this, namely, that they intend not to take the sacra-
ment. You have taken a sacrament already, which obliges you to this, and there-
fore I charge one and all of you to depart from your iniquity this day. If you will
not, know the same Christ whose name you name, while you will not depart from
iniquity, will be your great enemy; Luke xix. 27, “But those mine enemies, which
would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me.” Sin
is the great make-bate betwixt God and the sinner, and the friendship with your
lusts will be enmity with the Lord. Hereupon I would ask you, How think ye to
live on God’s ground, amongst the midst of his creatures, while God is your
enemy? Know ye not that all the creatures are banded together against him to
whom God is an enemy? Does not the meat thou eatest say, “Lord, if thou wilt
allow me, I will choke this rebel?” the earth, “I will swallow him up who will
not depart from iniquity ?” Again, let me ask you, How will you look the king of
terrors in the face 2 What comfort will those sins which thou now holdest fast leave
thee, when the old sinful tabernacle begins to fall down, the soul to flee away, and
the carcase is brought down to a grave, both to be imprisoned, the former in hell,
the latter in the grave, till the resurrection ? How will you bear to be raised
up, and sisted before the great tribunal, to answer for all those sins you will not
now depart from, and to receive the eternal reward of your works?
Particularly, O communicants' presume not to sit down at the Lord's table,
without departing from iniquity. Purge out the old leaven, that ye may keep the
feast. O communicants will ye betray the Son of man with a kiss? When sit-
ting down at his table, you profess yourselves to be his friends, members of his
family. But if you depart not from iniquity, you will betray him as sure as Judas
did, for you are in league with his enemies. And your vows at the communion-
table will become like Samson's green withes, which were broken at the first onset,
and you will return back again with more eagerness to these sins from which you
never really departed; you know what will be the end of such conduct. Will ye
go out against Christ as against a thief with swords and staves? You do it by
going in your sins unrepented of to his table. We are to commemorate his love in
dying for our sins; sins which furnished a Judas to betray him, nails to pierce him,
and a spear to enter into his side. And will you presume on this exercise, holding
fast these sins, and refusing to let them go 2 If you would proclaim war against
Christ, instead of sitting down at his table, you could reach him no other way,
than you will do by holding fast iniquity. It is the day of his espousals, of his
coronation ; let us not make it a day of crucifying him afresh. Would you see
Jesus, and in him God reconciled to your souls, blessing you with the seal of your
pardon, peace, and right to eternal life? | Come away to Christ freely from your
sins; make your most beloved lusts stepping-stones, over the belly of which you
will come to his table, putting a bill of divorce into the hand of them all, with a
sincere resolution, through grace, never to entertain them willingly again. In this
event, I know nothing to make the separation betwixt him and you ; Isa. lix, 1,
716 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES,
“Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save ; neither his ear
heavy, that it cannot hear.” But, alas! some say, I cannot get rid of my sins.
To this I answer, Is thine iniquity thy burden, which thou wouldst as fain be rid
of, as of an oppressing weight? Then thy heart is away from it, and God accepts
thee in this case, sincerely, though not perfectly, to be departed from it. It is one
thing to be sitting still in a house, willingly entertaining a guest ; another, to be
labouring to get away, though the troublesome guest will not part with us. If the
latter be thy case, you may come to the Lord at his table, with hopes of welcome,
you will then be strengthened for the struggle, and shall get the seal of complete
victory in due time. Amen,
XIII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
2 TIMOTHY ii. 19.
“And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
IIAviNG, in the preceding discourses, offered all that was intended on the first doc-
trine taken from this subject, I now proceed to a consideration of
DocT. II. That God's charge to depart from iniquity is infallibly effectual in all
who are his, so as that they do truly depart from iniquity, while others hold it
fast to their own ruin, Acts xiii. 48; Matt. i. 21 ;-or briefly thus, That all the
elect of God shall depart from iniquity.
In explaining this, I shall,
I. Show when and how far this charge is effectual in all who are his.
II. Evince the truth of this doctrine, that the charge is effectual in all who
belong to God.
III. We shall, in the conclusion, make some practical improvement.
We are,
I. To show when and how far this charge is effectual in all who are his. I showed
before, from what of sin we are to depart. And, in general, this charge is effec-
tual, in all the parts of it, in them who are the Lord's. But more particularly,
First, It is effectual in them who are his, in this life. Here the work is truly
and happily begun ; they all become saints on earth, who shall be saints in heaven,
Psal. xvi. 3. Though by nature they are wild olives, growing in the forest of the
worldlying in wickedness, they are plucked up and planted in the nursery of
grace, where they grow till transplanted into paradise; while their fellows stand
still in that forest till cut down for the fire. It is effectual in this life, in a gospel-
sense, though not in a law-sense, in respect of a perfection of parts, though not of
degrees. And this in three respects:
I. It is effectual in all who belong to God, in so far as they come freely away
from sin in conversion. Some may be longer in coming away than others, they
may abide in the tents of wickedness after other sealed ones are gone, but they
shall infallibly follow sooner or later: For, says Jehovah, Joel iii. 21, “I will
cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.” This
one and the other may often be passed by ; while others are taken, who shall cer-
tainly have a place in the building of mercy. Here consider the following things:
That all mankind by nature lie in wickedness. They are “dead in trespasses and
sins,” Eph. ii. 1. They are in the devil's camp. They are bound with the bands of
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 717
wickedness; estranged from God and all that is truly good. They will not leave
it, because it is their element. Consider also, that yet among them God has some
which he has chosen to life, and whom, in his eternal purpose of love to their souls,
he has sealed as his own, to bring them away, and to make them partakers of his
glory. Consider farther, that the alarm of the gospel comes indefinitely to all,
whether they be the Lord's or not. It comes to the devil's camp, and says, (2 Cor.
vi. 17,) “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separated, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.” It says as Moses
to Israel, in respect of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, “Depart, I pray you, from
the tents of these wicked men ;” or as the angel to Lot, “Escape for thy life :
look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain,” Gen. xix. 17. Consider,
that as God knows who among them are his, so he infallibly brings them away from
among the rest, in obedience to the gospel-alarm ; “As many as were ordained to
eternal life believed,” Acts xiii. 48. This march out of the devil's camp was begun
at the first preaching of the gospel in paradise, and is continued to this day, though
sometimes more, sometimes fewer go off together. And it will be continued until
there be not one of them that belong to God left among them ; and then comes
the end.
Now, in conversion, the Spirit sounding the alarm, Depart ye, depart ye they
that are the Lord's are impressed by it: so the dead soul awakes, the impenitent
heart melts; they spring to their feet, resolved and determined to depart from the
tents of sin. The devil and those who are his, do what they can, by allurements
and threats, to hold them still ; but under the conduct of the Captain of the Lord's
host, they march out with banners displayed, and depart freely from iniquity, the
trumpet still sounding, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart
from iniquity.” As to the nature of their departure, we observe the following
things:
( j They depart from sin sincerely. They depart from it, because it is a de-
parting from God, contrary to his holy nature and law; they depart from it as
sin, Luke xv. 18. They who belong to God, leaving their sins, leave them not
from the inferior motives only of danger to themselves, here or hereafter ; but from
higher motives also, because they are offensive to God, they dishonour his Son,
grieve his Spirit, transgress his law, and deface his image. Thus the worthy com-
municant reforms, and departs from iniquity. Here, however, there may be pro-
posed this
Question, How do they with those sins from which they formerly departed from
lower motives only, or which left them ere they left them —To this I answer,
That they do with them as men use to do with those who die by their own hands.
They bury them disgracefully, and throw stones upon their graves. They look
back to them, and loathe them. They left them at first for their own sake; they
go further away from them for God's sake. They neglected them before, as having
no use for them; they abhor them now for their intrinsic loathsomeness. They
were hanging before betwixt heaven and earth, like Absalom on the oak ; now,
they thrust the darts into their hearts, and throw them into a pit.
(2.) They depart from iniquity voluntarily ; not out of constraint, but choice ;
Psalm crix. 30, “I have chosen the way of truth ; thy judgments have I laid
before me.” They do not cast away sin only as one would do a live-coal out of
his bosom, because it will burn him ; or a serpent, because it will sting him ; but
as a loathsome, unclean thing, because it will defile him. Some depart from their
iniquity against their wills. They part with it as Phaltiel with his undutiful wife,
2 Sam. iii. 16. They dwell in the tents of sin, and will not move hence, till there
is no abiding longer there for them; as the covetous man parts with the world at
death, or when it is violently taken from him ; whether he will or not, he must let
it go. But this departure is not lasting, such will go back again, Psalm lxxviii.
34–37. And so hence there occurs a
Question, May not a person be driven from his iniquity by the terror of God?
To this I answer, I conceive that when the time comes, at which a person who
belongs to God is to depart from iniquity, there are two trumpets which sound in his
ears. The first trumpet is that of the law ; which is so terrible, that it makes the
7 18 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
man's soul quake within him, and makes an earthquake in the devil's camp to him,
so that he finds no more firm footing there, nor rest as before, but he must flee for
his life in consternation. ... But if there be no more, he may flee from one part of it
to another, but he will still abide within the trenches. The second trumpet is that
of the gospel ; the still Small voice, sounding pardon, peace, welcome to Christ's
camp, and to the feast of fat things, to all those who will depart from iniquity. This
takes the trembling sinner by the heart, and makes him come away freely and vol-
untarily from iniquity: so that, although the trumpet of the law should cease,
this charms him so as he can stay no longer in the tents of sin, Hos. ii. 14; iii. 5.
(3.) They depart from iniquity resolutely, absolutely, and unconditionally, cost
what it will; they cannot, they will not, they must not stay. Others may do as
they please ; but, with Joshua, they peremptorily say, “We will serve the Lord,”
Josh. xxiv. 15. If all the world should sit still, they will go, though they should
go alone. Satan may frame many objections against their departure, and enter
into terms for their staying, as Pharaoh with the Israelites, about their departure
from Egypt. But converting grace makes their ears deaf to all proposals of this
nature. If they should leave all they have in the world, they must leave sin, Luke
xiv. 26; if it should be never so much to their loss as to their temporal interest,
they will depart; if they must go through fire and water, make their way out of
it through briars and thorns, any thing but sin; Rev. xiv. 4, “These are they who
follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” These were “redeemed from among men,
being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.” He whose departing from iniquity
depends on ifs and ands, effectual grace has not yet reached his heart.
(4.) They depart from iniquity speedily, without delays; Psal. cxix. 60, “I made
haste, and delayed not, to keep thy commandments.” Many good purposes come
to nothing by delays. The man intends to part with such and such a sin, to
comply with such and such a duty, only he cannot do it yet. And whereas there
is one hinderance in his way at present, there are two after ; and so the project
flies up for good and all. But they who belong to God are snatched away as
brands out of the burning. They will delay no longer to depart from sin than
one delays to fling a burning coal out of his bosom, or a stinging serpent. Being
determined to depart, they are determined to depart without delay, because a
moment's delay in this matter may be an eternal loss.
(5.) They depart from it universally, Psal. cxix. 104, “Through thy precepts
I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way ;” Ezek. xviii. 31, “Cast
away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed, and make
you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Whoso
departs from one sin sincerely, and as sin, departs from all sin known to him to
be such ; because the reason moving him to depart from one, is to be found in all.
Every sin is a deadly wound to the soul, and therefore, if but one remain uncured,
the man is a dead man; Matt. v. 29, “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,
and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” One sin retained will make
all our reformation naught; as Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal's concubine, was the
death of his seventy sons by his wives excepting one, Judg. ix. 5. Hence, those
who belong to God depart from all sin without exception, however others may have
their reserved idols. Thus they depart from that sin which is the sin of their
constitution, that sin which attends their calling in the world, that sin to which
they have the strongest and most frequent temptations; Psal. xviii. 23, “I was
also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.” That sin which
most easily besets us, (Heb. xii. 1,) is the predominant evil the heart must be loosed
from, the right hand and right eye, the one thing lacking, which mars all other
things; from which, however loath they be to part, they will be made willing to
part with it in the day of power. Thus, all who belong to God do come freely away
from sin in conversion; and so the charge is effectual.
2. It is effectual in all who belong to God, in so far as they never again return
to it as formerly, but persevere in that course of holiness which is once begun.
They who have once freely departed from the tents of wickedness, shall never again
come back to them; they shall never mix again with the ungodly world, from among
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 719
whom they have come out; Psal. xii. 7, “Thou shall keep them, O Lord, thou
shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Converting grace fixes a gulf
betwixt the two, which they shall never repass. I own a gracious soul may fall
from its first love to carnal sluggishness, remissness, and indisposition for duties.
Thus it was with the church of Ephesus, Rev. ii. 4. Yea, they may fall into some
enormous offences and gross transgressions of the law, as Peter did; and they may
for some time lie in these unrepented of, as David and Solomon did; and they
may relapse into the same sins formerly mourned over, Rev. xxii. 8; compare ch.
xix. 10. Thus, Abraham denied his wife twice. They may thus fall after solemn
engagements to the Lord, as Peter did, after the first communion, and after gra-
cious manifestations, Song v. 1–3. To be more particular,
(1.) They shall never fall back to sin, with the same heart and good-will which
they had to it before ; not with a full consent, but with reluctance; Rom. vii. 19,
“For the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that do I.”
They may be sin’s captives while they are here, driven back to some iniquity or
other by the force of temptation; but sin's ready subjects they shall never more
be. There is a principle of grace within them, which, at the lowest ebb, will check
that full spring-tide of sin which they were wont to have before they departed from
it, Song v. 2.
(2.) They shall not lie still in sin, but sooner or later rise again to repentance.
So did Peter, David, and Solomon. They shall not live in the habitual practice
of any known sin. Hypocrites, after solemn engagements to God, may return and
live in the habitual practice of their former lusts; like the mixed multitude sound-
ing a retreat into Egypt, they may fall away, and never recover. But though a
straying slave never be sought after, a straying son will be. Those who belong to
God may fall in the way, but they shall never fall out of God’s way of holiness;
Job xvii. 9, “The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands
shall wax stronger and stronger.” Having once departed from iniquity, they shall
hold on their way; for, he that set them on the way shall keep them in it;
2 Thess. iii. 3, “The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from
evil.” The Lord is the keeper of all those who have departed from iniquity, and
he watches night and day, Isa. xxvii. 2. They are kept by the word of God, which
is a sufficient defence against the powers of darkness. Their keeper never leaves
them, nor forsakes them, Heb. xiii. 5. When once Christ takes hold of a soul, he
will never part with it again, however low the pass to which they may be brought;
Psalm lxxiii. 23, “Nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden
me by my right hand.” None can loose his hold, nor pluck them out of his hand,
John x. 28. Again, they have an immortal principle within them for carrying
them forward. The Spirit of Christ dwells in them for ever, John xiv. 16. Grace
is a never-dying seed, which remaineth in them, 1 John iii. 9. This, by virtue of
the covenant, secures the continuance of their departure from iniquity, Jer. xxxii.
40. Hence, when the believer steps aside from the Lord, there is still in him a
restlessness, more or less, until he return like the dove into the ark, Song v. 2.-
Farther, sin can never recover that dominion over him which it has lost, and that
irrecoverably; Rom, vi. 14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you.” And
though, in the war with sin, corruption may sometimes get the upper hand, yet
grace shall overcome at length ; Gen. xlix. 19, “Gad, a troop shall overcome him;
but he shall overcome at the last.”
3. It is effectual, in so far as they go farther and farther from it in the progress
of sanctification, Prov. iv. 18, “But the path of the just is as the shining light,
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day;” Isa. xl. 31, “But they that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,” &c. Grace is of a growing nature;
and though it grows not at all times, yet it does grow. The life of a saint is a
going up out of the wilderness of this world; and the further he goes, he is the
nearer his journey's end. And thus a gracious soul is still departing from iniquity,
and shall depart. He departs, by watching against it ; and always the more
watchful, the farther from it ; Psalm xxxix. 1, “I said, I will take heed to my
ways, that I sin not with my tongue ; I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while
the wicked is before me.” Any distance we can be at from sin while here, is a
720 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
distance of opposition ; and the more the Christian has his eyes in his head, to
observe the motions of the enemy, to avoid occasions and temptations to sin, he is
set at the greater distance from it. Unwatchfulness is the ruin of many. They
who belong to God shall be made to watch ; and if they be at a time taken nodding,
it shall serve to make them more awake afterwards. Again, they shall depart, by
keeping up a struggle against sin; Gal. v. 17, “For the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” Sin may get quiet harbour in the breast
of a hypocrite ; but in those who are the Lord's it can get no more ease than mud
in a spring-well, where there will be a working it out ; John iv. 14, “The water that
I shall give him,” saith Jesus, “shall be in him a well of living water springing up
to everlasting life.” And this struggle will continue as long as there is a Canaan-
ite in the land; for it is not as in the hypocrite, against some kind of sins only,
but against the whole kinds of them. And the gracious soul will be groaning,
longing, wrestling for the perfect delivery, no truce being to be made here, but the
war undertaken for extirpation, Rom. vii. 24; Phil. iii. 13, 14. Finally, he
departs by growing in grace ; Psalm xcii. 12, “The righteous shall flourish like
the palm-tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” Many go back to their
old lusts again, because, though they seem to depart from some sins, yet, being
destitute of grace, they cannot grow in the opposite graces, and therefore it fares
with them as in Matt. xii. 44, 45; thus their “last state is worse than the first.”
But as a man is always the farther from his disease, the more that nature is
strengthened ; so the gracious soul is set the farther from sin, the more that the
contrary graces are made to grow in him. -
From this part of the subject we may learn,
1. That if ye be the Lord's people by sincere dedication, his covenant people,
ye have come away freely from all your lusts unto himself. You have been at
his table, solemnly devoting yourselves to him : if you have dealt honestly with
him, and have not eaten and drunk unworthily, your hearts are loosed from all
your idols, you have with heart and good-will turned your back on the Sodom of
sinful courses, with sincere resolutions not to look back. However little influence
this charge has had on others, it is effectual on you; you have taken the alarm,
and have begun your march out of the tents of sin, you dare no more be disobe-
dient to the heavenly vision. If so, it is well; if otherwise, you have but mocked
God, and wronged your own souls.—You may learn,
2. That if you be indeed the Lord's people by covenant savingly, you will not
go back to your former lusts; Luke ix. 62, “And Jesus said unto him, No man,
having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God.” You are not to return to your vain conversation. You have lifted up
your hand to the Lord, and you cannot go back in point of right ; and unless you
have been dealing deceitfully with God, you will not go back. Apostacy and
backsliding take the mask off hypocrites, and fearful is their condition; for fallen
stars were never genuine stars, but stars only in appearance; 1 John ii. 19, “They
went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made
manifest that they were not of us.” Think on this when temptations come, that
to return into the tents of sin, is to prove yourselves not to be the Lord's.—We
may learn,
3. That if you be the Lord's by election, you shall part with those sins which
now part betwixt the Lord Christ and you. For though you hide yourselves from
him who came to seek you, he notwithstanding will find you out; and as fast as
your lusts hold you, and you them, the Lord will make you fain to cast them
as fire out of your bosom, if he has any thoughts of eternal love to you. If he
has not, you will get them kept, and you may embrace and hug them during life
and through eternity ; they shall clasp about you like serpents, stinging with endless
despair. But it looks fearfully ill, while the trumpet of the gospel, day after day,
and year after year, is sounding an alarm to depart from sin, and others are march-
ing away in your sight, that you are still staying behind. - 1
The life of a saint is a departing from iniquity, and this is their work while
here ; so that, although it still cleaves unto them, yet they are not sitting down
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 721
contented in it, but endeavouring the separation for altogether. Thus the charge
is effectual, in so far as they go farther and farther from it.
Here there is another Question, But is it not often seen that Christians are
farther from iniquity at first than ever they are afterwards 2 hence many complain
that their days, after a long standing in religion, are not found to be by far so
good as when they were but young Christians.—In answer to this, I observe, (1.)
That there are not a few who, though never sound converts, yet had awakening
grace at their first setting out in a profession, making a mighty reel” among their
affections, and a great change on their life ; which wearing away by degrees, they
settled on a lifeless empty form of godliness, and so were farther from iniquity then
than ever before. But this will not prove it to be so with the truly godly.—I
observe, (2.) That Christians of a long standing in religion have their sleeping and
decaying times, and young Christians also have theirs. In Song v. 2, we find the
spouse asleep after great manifestations; and in Matt. xxv. 5, we find the wise,
as well as the foolish virgins, slumbering and sleeping. And if we compare the
sleeping days of aged Christians with the waking days of those who are only young,
no doubt the latter has the advantage of the former, even as a waking boy is in
less danger of the enemy's surprise than a sleeping man. But since the power of
grace effectually stirs up both from their spiritual slumbers, it is but just the com-
parison pass betwixt them in the waking frame.—I observe, (3.) That there is a
difference betwixt the bulk of religion, and the solidity and weight of it; the vehe-
ment commotions, and its firmness and rootedness. Young Christians may be of
more bulk than the old in respect of many glistering affections, arising from the
newness of the thing, which are mixed with it, and afterwards go off. But with
old Christians, though there be less bulk, it is more solid and weighty; as the gold,
the oftener it is in the fire, is the more refined, though not so bulky. Young
Christians have more vehement affections; but the old have them more regular,
rooted, and firm ; thus the old is better. The longer one stands in Christianity,
certainly he has the more experience of the goodness of God, and of the corruption
of his own heart, and of the danger from spiritual enemies. Hence he must be
more resolute in solid serious dependence upon the Lord for all; more humble,
self-denied, and more firm against temptation; and, in one word, have more of a
regular composed tenderness with respect to sin and duty. And herein lies the
stress of departing from iniquity; 1 John v. 3, “For this is the love of God, that
we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous. Young
soldiers may rush upon the enemy with greater briskness; but the old ones stand
the ground best, and abide the shock more firmly. Wherefore, let not Christians
of long standing in religion be discouraged, as if they were not departing from
iniquity, because they do not make such visible progress as when religion was
new to them, if there remain with them a rooted tenderness with respect to any
thing that may be displeasing to God, with a sincere purpose and endeavour to
keep a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man ; 2 Cor. i. 12,
“For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have
had our conversation in the world.” Add to this a serious longing to be freed
from the body of death, Rom. vii. 24; and to be perfected in holiness, Phil. iii.
13, 14. For as the progress of the ship in the main ocean is not so discernible as
when it was coming off from the shore, though it may move as fast; so it is no
wonder that the progress of the Christian of long standing be not so visible as at
the first : or as the growth of a tree the first year is more discerned than after,
so it may be with the Christian.
Having thus shown how far the charge is effectual in this life, we add upon
this head,
That it is effectual in all who are the Lord's people, at death ; and this in so
far as that then they perfectly depart from sin, and sin from them. They come
then to “the spirits of just men made perfect,” Heb. xii. 23. There is a great differ-
ence betwixt the godly and the wicked in life, and a still greater at death. As the
wicked do in life hold fast their iniquities amidst all the means of justification and
sanctification offered them; so at death all these means are removed for ever out
* i. e. commotion.—ED.
4 Y
722 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
of their sight ; and thus their iniquities meet upon them, to prey on their souls
for ever, Then sin is settled in its full power in their souls as on its own base :
no more hopes nor possibility of sanctification ; and the several pieces of guilt, as
cords of death, are twisted about them for ever. As sin in the godly is in their life
loosed at the root, so at their death it is rooted up ; as in life they depart from it
sincerely, so at death perfectly. The body of death goes with the death of the
body ; that as death came in by sin, so sin may go out by death. Now, sin is in
the godly as the leprosy in the walls of the house, which, therefore, being taken
down, the leprosy is removed ; when the gracious soul drops the mantle of the
body, it will at the same instant drop all the uncleanness cleaving to it. Amen.
XIV.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
2 TIMOTIIY ii. 19.
“And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
HAVING, in the preceding discourse, shown that this charge is effectual with all who
are the Lord's, both in this life and at death, we now proceed, as was proposed,
II. To evince the truth of the doctrine, that the charge is effectual in all
who belong to God. With this view, I would have you to consider the following
things:
iºnidor that it was for this purpose that they were elected; Eph. i. 4,
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” All whom God
has chosen to life are chosen to holiness; so that the decree of election in their
favour, secures their departure from iniquity. If a person had determined to
save a certain number of madmen, going about to kill themselves, with knives in
their hands, the resolution to save them would import the taking the knives out of
their hands; so here, reprobates may get their lusts kept, but the elect shall not.
Wherefore, as sure as the elect cannot perish, and the Lord will lose none who are
his, so sure shall all who are his depart from iniquity. There is no separating of
the means and the end, which, in God’s decree, are firmly joined together. Life
is the end, departing from iniquity the means; therefore, they who are ordained
to life shall infallibly depart from it. As sure as the purpose of God cannot be
broken or disappointed, so sure shall they who are his depart from iniquity. It
is God's purpose in election to bring them out of their sin to everlasting life;
Eph. i. 4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”
This purpose cannot be broken, for says God, “My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure,” Isa. xlvi. 10. Therefore, they shall depart from iniquity;
and whoever holds it fast are strangers to the grace of God. Consider, that,
2. It is the end of their redemption by Christ. Why did Christ give himself
for those who are his ? It was, that “he might redeem them from all iniquity, and
purify them unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,” Tit. ii. 14.
Why gave he himself for his church 2 It was, that “he might sanctify and cleanse
it, with the washing of water, by the word,” Eph. v. 26. He came to save them,
but from what? From their sins, Matt. i. 21. Sin had a double hold of those who
were his : it held their consciences by the cords of guilt ; and held their heart,
will, and affections, by the interest it had got there. Christ shed his blood, by
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 723
the efficacy thereof, to loose the former, and procured the influences of his Spirit,
who, by his indwelling, might loose the latter.
Those for whom Christ did not die will continue in their sins, and perish in them.
They are not willing to part with them, and the influences of the Spirit are not
procured for them to make them willing. Had Christ been to save sinners in their
sins, then those who will not be saved from their sins might have been saved from
death. But it is not so. Those for whom Christ died shall infallibly depart from
iniquity; and such are all those who are the Lord's; John x. 15, “I lay down my
life for the sheep.” Otherwise, the design of Christ's death is frustrated ; he died
in vain, and all the promises of a seed, made by the Father to his Son in the
covenant, turn to nothing ; to imagine which is blasphemous.
Christ bare a good-will to those who were his from eternity, and would have
them made happy. But they were unholy; therefore he must redeem them from
their iniquity, by his blood; otherwise the gates of the city would have remained
closed for ever on them. And now that the ransom of the blood of the Son of
God is paid, is it possible that the prisoners can remain undelivered 2 Some may
be apt to say, ‘O! will ever Christ sanctify such an unholy creature as I am 2 I
will surely perish by the hand of my lusts, and will never get free of them.’ Why,
poor soul, if this be thy exercise, to depart from thy iniquity, it is an evidence thou
art his; and it is his honour and interest to make thee holy, and deliver thee from
the dominion and power of thy powerful lusts, in so far as he shed his blood for
this end. And, however worthless thou art in thyself, thou art dear bought, and
therefore must not, canst not, be lost.
3. Consider, that it is the end of their effectual calling. They are “called to be
saints,” Rom. i. 7. The “world lies in wickedness.” Those who are the Lord’s
by election lie among them till the effectual call come, which brings them out
from among them ; “Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you,” 2 Cor.
vi. 17. This call is necessarily connected with election, and it can never be effec-
tual without the soul's being brought to depart from iniquity; “Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called,” Rom. viii. 30. The conversion of all
the elect, their regeneration, their translation from the power of darkness, are
infallibly secured, and consequently their departing from iniquity. For what is
conversion, but turning from sin unto God 2 and regeneration, but arising from the
death in sin?
4. Consider, that it is the end of all providences. Providence has an eye on all the
children of men, but has a special eye on those who are the Lord's people. Favour-
able dispensations are cords of a man, to draw sinners from their iniquity; Luke
i. 74, 75, “That he would grant us, that we, being delivered out of the hands of
our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness, before
him, all the days of our life.” Afflictive dispensations are scourges, to drive them
from their iniquity, Isa. xxvii. 9, “By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be
purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin;” Heb. xii. 10, “He chasten-
eth for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.” True, they are
not effectual on many ; mercies do not allure them, judgments do not affright
them. But “Wisdom is justified of her children.” And can it be imagined that
they shall not be effectual to them ?
5. Consider, that it is the end of all ordinances. Wherefore does the Lord send
the gospel to sinners, but that they may depart from iniquity ? Titus ii. 11, 12,
“For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teach-
ing us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right-
eously, and godly, in this present world.” The word is designed for the sanctifica-
tion of souls; John xvii. 17, “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is
truth.” The promises, the threatenings, the doctrines all lead away from sin.
The sacraments of the New Testament are also appointed for the same end ; in
a word, all gospel-ordinances whatever, Eph. iv. 12. They are all “for the per-
fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ.” These will have their effect on those who are his, however they be in
vain to others,
724 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
6. Consider, that since all who shall be saved shall depart from iniquity, and all
who are the Lord's shall be saved, it is evident, that all who are his shall depart
from iniquity. Such as continue in their sin can have no communion with God
here, much less hereafter, Psal. v. 4–6, and Psal. xv. throughout. No sooner did
the reprobate angels depart from holiness to sin, but God thrust them down to hell,
2 Peter ii. 4. Adam was driven from the tree of life on his sinning, Gen. iii. 22.
Who, then, can expect to see the face of God in heaven, without departing from
iniquity ? We now come, -
III. To make a practical improvement of the whole; and this,
First, In a use of information. This subject informs us,
1. Whence the success of the gospel is derived. We see it has its effect on
some, in turning them from their sins unto God; while others, having the same
means of grace, are untouched by them. Trace this to the spring-head, and it
must be ascribed, neither to the free-will of the party, the piety or parts of the
preacher, but to the eternal love of God terminating on some. There is a time of
loves set in the counsel of God, respecting all the elect; and when this time comes,
they shall infallibly answer the call. We may see,
2. That the unsuccessfulness of the gospel, barrenness and impenitency under
the means of grace, are matters which draw very deep. Men think little of dis-
obeying God's charge, sounded continually in their ears by the gospel; think
little of going on in sins from which they are charged to part: but did they con-
sider that the charge must be infallibly complied with by all who are the Lord's,
their own sitting of it would be a terror to themselves. For in so far as they
comply not with it, so far they show themselves not to belong to God. Where
God has much people, the gospel will have much success. We may learn,
3. That iniquity is that abominable thing which God hates. It is the greatest
of all evils, and therefore, as it is that thing which God sets himself particularly
against, so we in a special manner should set ourselves against it. Poverty, mean-
ness, and contempt in the world, God suffers in those who are dear to him ; but he
will not suffer sin to have dominion over them, and at length will quite expel it
from those who are his. He will not bear with it in his own, as he hates it for
itself. We are informed,
4. That there is a divine power comes along with the charge, to all who are the
Lord's people, when once the time of love is come. This is that which makes
them depart, while others hold fast their iniquity; Isa. liii. 1, “Who hath believed
our report 2 and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” The elect of God are
as much “dead in trespasses and sins” as others are ; sin has the same dominion
over them as over others. But with the word the Spirit enters into them, and
brings them away from the tents of sin, causes them to rise up out of their graves,
while others lie still in them. We may learn,
5. That departing from iniquity is absolutely necessary to evince that we belong
to God, because all such do depart from iniquity. It is the fruit of election and
conversion; and so, the great evidence of interest in God's eternal love, and his
present favour. For understanding this, three things are to be noticed : -
(1.) That a person's being in his sin, still under the dominion of it, unsanctified,
unholy, is a certain evidence of his being in a state of enmity with God, in a state
of wrath, and that he does not actually belong to God, but to Satan. One may
pretend faith in Christ, and a covenant-interest in God, while he is going on in a
course of sin. But his pretences are vain, his works disprove his faith, his unholy
life discovers his graceless state ; James ii. 17, “Even so faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone.” - º -
(2.) That a person's being still in his sin, under its dominion, will not, while he
lives, prove him to be none of God's elect excepting only in the case of the unpar-
donable sin, which is most rare. The reason is, that the charge is effectual in all
the elect, yet it may be long in taking its effect on some, as in the case of the thief
on the cross. So that, while there is life, there is hope. This I note, to baffle that
temptation with which Satan attacks some, namely, That they are not elected,
and therefore they need not set their minds towards religion, for it will not do with
them. This is barefaced reasoning from hell; for be your case never so hopeless,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 725
though ye be quite graceless, and this never so long continued in, while you do not
obstinately, and altogether maliciously, reject salvation by Christ, it cannot prove
you to be none of God's elect ; for at the eleventh hour you may be called. Yet,
(3.) Without departing from iniquity, no person can certainly know he is elected,
or that he belongs to God. By this, indeed, a person may know it, 2 Peter i. 10:
but without it, no man can ; for God does not allow us, nor can we at first-hand
go and read our names in the book of life. We must learn it by sanctification,
which is the fruit of election, by which we come to know both our election and our
effectual calling. We may improve the subject,
Secondly, In a use of trial.
. Hereby you may try whether you be the Lord's covenanted people or not. This
may be known by your departing from iniquity, or your not departing. Here, to
assist you, we shall mention the two following marks:
Mark 1. If you are departing from iniquity, there will be a sincere endeavour
after universal obedience, Psal. cxix. 6; aiming to please God in all things, and
not indulging yourself in any known sin, being content to know, in all cases, what
is sin and what is duty. The truly godly will set themselves against the first
motions of sin, Rom. vii. 7 ; against secret sins, Psal. xix. 12; even against that
sin which most easily besets them, Psal. xviii. 23; and will witness against self,
in its various shapes, Matt. v. 3.
Mark 2. If you are departing from iniquity, you will be wearying and groaning
under the remains of sin, Rom. vii. 26. However much the hypocrite may content
himself with as much grace as seems necessary to secure heaven to him, yet the
godly man is going on, and pressing forwards towards perfection, though he cannot
reach it ; and looks on the remains of sin as iron fetters, which he would fain be
quit of, that he may be holy, as God is holy; and perfect, as his Father in heaven
is perfect. We may improve the subject,
Lastly, In a use of exhortation.
We beseech you, O sinners' to depart from iniquity. You have dwelt too long
in the tents of sin. You are called now to arise and depart from all your sins, freely
to part with them, never to return to them, but to be still departing farther and
farther from them. The exhortation concerns both saints and sinners.
There are three motives, which the text affords us to prevail with sinners in
drawing them from their sins. These are, the evil of sin; the necessary connec-
tion betwixt a person's departing from it and his belonging to God; and the
obligation lying on sinners to part with it, from their naming the name of Christ.
We shall consider these separately, as in their nature important and weighty;
and O that we could improve them, so as to draw you all from your sins ! We
begin with,
Motive 1. Sin is an evil, a great evil from which you are called to depart. Sin-
ners are deceived with an appearance of goodness, of profit, or of pleasure in their
sins. But God knows it is the worst of evils; and therefore from it by all means
God will have his own to depart. O that I could draw the monstrous evil in its
own colours, to bring you all from it to holiness! Could you get a genuine sight
of it, you would run from it as from a fire; as from hell-fire; Rom, xii. 9, “Abhor
that which is evil.” Sin is the greatest evil. This will appear if the following
things are attended to. Sin is an evil,
1. In the eyes of God; Jer. xliv. 4, “O do not this abominable thing that I
hate.” God, who knows all things, and cannot be deceived with fair appearances,
looks on this, which men naturally set their hearts on, as the worst of ills. O !
shall we not think of it as God does? Consider,
(1.) It is the only thing which he condemns, and he everywhere condemns it in
his word. The world cries out on many things which are not sin, but God on no-
thing else. Many would persuade themselves that God looks on their sins as
they do. But this he takes as an affront to his holiness; Psal. 1. 21, “These
things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine
eyes,” Look to his word, which is the indication of his mind; and there you will
see, he never speaks good of sin,
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(2.) It is the only thing which he pursues with his wrath, and he does this
wherever it is found. It is the enemy he pursues through the whole creation,
wherever it appears. It entered in among the angels, and fixed itself in the repro-
bate ones; wrath immediately pursued it, and tumbled them down to the pit;
“God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered
them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto the judgment,” 2 Peter ii. 4. It
got place with mankind in paradise; and wrath was at his heels there ; Adam's
prosperous state was quickly turned into misery. The very ground on which the
sinner treads, is cursed for its sake. The sinner, in his sinful state, is in a state
of wrath. It abides on him, John iii. 36. The sky never clears on him, while he
is a sinner. Even with his own children, God writes his indignation on it; Isa.
xlii. 24, “Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers ? Did not the
Lord, he against whom we have sinned ?” The earth is made to groan under it ;
and when the end comes, the defiled creation has to go through the fire to purge
it. But above all, see how he pursued sin in his own Son, though it was only on
him by imputation; Rom. viii. 32, “He spared not his own Son, but delivered
him up for us all.” The sins of the elect met on him ; and therefore the sorrows
of wrath met in him, and left him not till they brought him to the dust of death.
(3.) Departing from it is the only testimony of his creatures' love to him which
he requires, and nothing less can be accepted. He does not seek rivers of oil, nor
other costly sacrifices; but “he hath showed thee, O man what is good; and
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?” If he call them to lay down their lives for him, it
is only in the way of their standing off from sin ; otherwise it is not acceptable,
nor required. But his law is, Suffer any thing rather than sin. Behold it in one
word, “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil,” Psal. xcvii. 10.
2. Sin is an evil, and a great evil, in the eyes of the truly godly. Whenever
the eyes of any person are opened by grace, then immediately they are of this
mind; while the rest of the deluded world hug the serpent in their bosom, they are
for flying from it at any rate. If they lose this opinion of it at any time, it is
owing to the loss of their light, their falling asleep. But, in their settled judg-
ment, it is the worst of evils. For,
(1.) Of all evils it has lain nearest their hearts, and produced the heaviest com-
plaints and groans, Psal. li. 3; Lam. xvi. 17. Hear Paul's complaint ; Rom.
vii. 24, “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this
death ?” Did ever persecutions, prisons, reproaches, or all the ills he suffered, draw
such a complaint from him 2 In tribulations he rejoiced, in a prison he sang ; but
in the fetters of the body of death, he groans like a dying man. -
(2.) Sin or suffer being put to their choice, they have always, when themselves,
choosed to suffer rather than sin; Acts xx. 24, “But none of these things move
me ; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course
with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the
gospel of the grace of God.” It is true, a godly man may sometimes be bemisted,
so as not to see a thing to be sin which is sin; nay, sometimes, in a hurry of temp-
tation, to avoid suffering, he may fall into sin against light: but otherwise, by
divine grace, they will choose poverty, imprisonment, banishment, death, rather
than sin ; even the greatest temporal evil, rather than the least sin. Thus the
cloud of witnesses gave their testimony. From these they did not “accept deliver-
ance, that they might obtain a better resurrection,” Heb. xi. 35.
3. Sin is indeed, in its own nature and properties, the greatest of all evils. To
make this evident, consider, -
(1.) That of all things sin is most contrary to the nature of God, who is the chief
good, and therefore it is the chief evil, Lev. xxvi. It is walking contrary to God.
It is worse than all penal evils ; these met in Jesus Christ, who was God as well as
man, but sin was not found in him ; Heb. vii. 26, “For such an high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” God owns him-
self the author of penal evils, but it is blasphemy to father sin upon him.
This fights against God; and, as one says, the sinner, so far as in him lies,
destroys the nature of God, dethrones him, and strikes at his very being, God,
MISCELIANEOUS DISCOURSES. 727
swearing by his holiness, swears by himself; but nothing is so opposite to holiness
as sin is, nothing can be more or as much so ; nay, it is the very thing which
makes the devil evil, and therefore it is more evil itself than even the devil.
—Consider,
(2.) That sin is most contrary to the rational.nature. Right reason condemns
it; and no reason approves it, but as blinded and prejudiced. It degrades men,
and makes them like beasts, the filthiest of beasts, dogs and swine, 2 Pet. ii. 22;
more beastly than the beasts themselves; Isa. i. 3, “The ox knoweth his owner,
and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not con-
sider.” Thus the wicked man is a vile man, though never so honourable, Psal. xv. 4.
Hence it is, that although there are some who glory in their shame, yet sin is such
a work of darkness, that no person ordinarily is disposed to father the monstrous
brat.—Consider,
(3.) That sin is the deformity of the soul. That is the seat of sin which is the
noblest part of man. But it is the deformity of that part; and the corruption of
what is the best is certainly the worst evil. Even a deformity in the face is worse
than in another part; a bloody man on a throne is worse than such a person on a
dunghill. Thus the ill of sin appears in what it does to the soul; it defaces God's
image there and so mars its beauty; Psalm xiv. 3, “They are all gone aside, they
are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” No
running sore, canker, or gangrene, is comparable to it; for these do but prey on
the body, sin on the soul. It makes men unlike God, and like the devil. God is
holy, just, and good; the devil is unholy and wicked ; and so is the sinner going
on in his sin. It makes a person like the devil, as a child is to his father, John
viii. 44; therefore both go to one place in the end; Matt. xxv. 41, “Then shall he
say also unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”—Consider,
(4.) That sin is a hereditary evil, and these are the worst of evils, the hardest
to be cured. We were born with it; Psalm li. 5, “Behold, I was shapen in ini-
quity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” It is woven into our very natures,
it cannot be taken away without a miracle of grace; even such a power is necessary
as is required in raising the dead, and quickening them. The whole man must be
born again, new-moulded, new-framed, ere the person can depart from iniquity.—
Consider,
(5.) That sin is the mother of all those evils which ever were, are, or shall be ;
the teeming womb of all mischief. What cast the angels out of heaven, Adam
out of paradise ? What deluged the old world, and burned Sodom? It was sin.
Of all the evils of soul and body to which man is liable, sin leads the van. Behold
how death, in numberless shapes, has overflowed the world ! What a flood of mis-
eries is overflowing mankind, kingdoms, churches, families, persons, souls, bodies :
What has opened the sluice of these ? Rom. v. 12, affords the answer, “Where-
fore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned.” There is never a sigh nor a groan
in this world, under any hardship whatsoever, but it rises from the sting of this
serpent ; and it has filled hell with groans which will last for ever.—Consider,
(6.) That where sin is removed in its guilt and power, the greatest evils cannot
harm us; 2 Pet. iii. 13, “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of
that which is good 2" Diseases, crosses, death itself, without it, is like a serpent
without a sting, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56. The severe lashes of the just Judge of heaven
and earth, are turned into the rods of a loving father, Psalm lxxxix. 31, 32. Death
is but the falling asleep, and dying only the shadow of death. Nay, they shall do
us good; Rom. viii. 28, “And we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Out
of the most dark, troubled, and confounding case, God will raise a beautiful frame.
Every stone cast at them shall be a precious stone, Sanctified for their good.—
Consider,
(7.) That wherever sin is in force, it not only strengthens other evils, but blasts
and poisons all that good which a person enjoys. It not only arms diseases, death,
and hell, against a man, but turns his very blessings into curses; Mal. ii. 2, “If
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ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name,
saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your
blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.” In
all the enjoyments and comforts of a sinner out of Christ, there is “death in the
pot.” One man's crosses ruin him, another man's prosperity ensnares him and
proves his ruin, Prov. xxx. 8, 9. Nay, the very means of grace are “a savour of
death unto death” unto some, 2 Cor. ii. 16. What is the reason ? why, sin poisons
the fountain. Thus, be the waters sweet or bitter, they are killing.—Consider,
(8.) That sin is the most painful and tormenting evil, when once the pain of it
is raised, and the poison begins sensibly to operate ; Prov. xviii. 14, “The spirit
of a man will sustain his infirmity: but a wounded spirit who can bear 7” It is
true, that it is so long in working with some, that it may never thus work till in
hell they lift up their eyes; but O how dreadful must it then be Conscience is a
tender part; and this, sin torments. What torment was Cain in, when his con-
science got upon him . It made Felix tremble, Belshazzar's knees to Smite one
against another; it involved Judas in utter despair, so as to make away with him-
self. See Job xx. 12–16.—Consider,
(9.) That sin is a most deadly evil; Rom. vi. 23, “The wages of sin is death.”
It brought temporal death into the world; and the body of man, which by its
creation was not liable to death, it made mortal. But more than this, it is the
cause of spiritual death. It kills the soul, separating it from God and communion
with him ; and makes many a man dead while he lives, so that his living body is
but a coffin to a dead soul, Eph. ii. 1. And finally, it brings on eternal death.
—Consider, - \
(10.) That sin is a most infectious evil. No plague nor pestilence so dangerous.
Many persons, in times of a raging plague, have been preserved. But as for the
plague of sin, when once it seized Eve, she infected Adam, and he all his posterity.
And now the world is a pest-house, where not one is quite free. Some are under
the cure of grace, and in the way of recovery ; but the most part are pining away
in their iniquity, and every one of them infecting another more and more ; Eccl.
ix. 18, “One sinner destroys much good.” This one sinner may have the blood
of many at his door, whom he has ruined by his advice, carelessness, and evil
example.—Consider,
(11.) That the giving up of a sinner to sin, is the concluding stroke which God
gives him, so that it is the worst thing a person can meet with. Here I would
have you more particularly to consider, that when God in wrath gives a man over
in this life, he leaves him, and gives him up to his sin. God deals with sinners to
part with their sins, they will not; God's offers are slighted, then, as in Psal. lxxxi. 12,
“He gives them up to their own hearts' lust; and they walk in their own counsels.”
He is at much pains with them by providences and ordinances, but nothing does
with them ; then in anger he gives them over; Ezek. xxiv. 13, “In thy filthiness
is lewdness; because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt
not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest on
thee.” Thus, “Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone,” Hosea iv. 17. Of
the heathen world it is said, “For this cause God gave them up to vile affections,”
Rom. i. 26. We read of one who was given up to the devil, that he was again
recovered; but where find ye a man given up to himself, to his lusts, reclaimed ?
Wherefore, better be given up to the devil than to sin. Fearful sentence “Let
him that is filthy, be filthy still.” Consider, when at death the impenitent sinner
is carried out of the world into the pit, there are no more endeavours to separate
betwixt him and his sin. In life he would depart from God, and so his doom is,
“Depart from me, ye cursed.” Then his sins are left to prey upon his soul for
ever; no more pardon, no more sanctification; Prov. xiv. 32, “The wicked is
driven away in his wickedness.” God strives with the man in life to part him and
his sins, but he will not part from them ; so the whirlwind of death rises, and
carries both away together to the pit.—Consider,
(12.) When God has brought in all his elect to himself, and the last man of
them has left the tents of sin, then shall the world be at an end. The sheep shall
be separate from the goats, the sinners driven away in their wickedness to hell;
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this world defiled by sin shall be burned up ; and they, and sin, with all its effects,
shut up in hell for ever, Rev. xx. 14, 15. Then shall there be “new heavens and
a new earth,” but no sin there, 2 Pet. iii. 13. It shall be settled in hell for ever,
as on its own base.—Sin must be an evil, a great evil. For,
4. If you will continue in sin, of all things Satan loves most to have it so. It
gratifies the enemy of mankind most ; and this in two things, on which he is most
particularly set :
(1.) The dishonour of God. Satan is a rebel against God, who has not the
smallest hopes of peace, and is utterly desperate ; therefore rages and maliciously
sets himself against God, sinning against God himself, and tempting men to sin
and continue in it, that he may have the satisfaction of their dishonouring God,
and despising his Son; thus grieving his Spirit, and trampling on his laws.—Satan
is set upon, -
(2.) The ruin of souls; 1 Pet. v. 8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour.” He loves to keep them in subjection to himself, that he may reign freely
in their hearts, which will be as long as they are under the dominion of sin; and
to have them companions with him in eternal misery, which he is sure to accom-
lish if he can keep them in their sins.—I come now to -
Mot. 2. To prevail with you in departing from iniquity, observe this is necessary
from your belonging to God, your departing from sin. Whoso are his, infallibly
do depart from iniquity, whatever others do. This has been proved before. Now,
upon this consider, The weight that lies here, whether a person belongs to God or
not. You need to have this cleared, whose you are, whether the Lord's people or
not. For consider, t
(1.) Your state for time turns upon this point. All the world is divided into
two parties; one belonging to God by covenant and dedication, Heb. viii. 10 ;
another to Satan, “the god of this world,” 2 Cor. iv. 4. See them distinguished,
1 John v. 19, “And we know that we are of God, and the whole.world lieth in
wickedness.” The one is the family of heaven, the other Satan's family. If you
belong to the former, you are justified, adopted, all is yours, and ye are Christ's.
If to the latter, ye are in a state of wrath and enmity against God. Consider,
(2.) Your state for eternity turns upon this point. If ye be the Lord's, ye shall
be for ever happy with him. Your names will be found written in the book of
life. If not, your names will not be found there : and see the doom of such ;
Rev. xx. 15, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast
into the lake of fire.” You shall infallibly evidence, by your departing from
iniquity, that you are the Lord's, Rev. xiv. 1–5. Sanctification is an infallible
proof of election and justification, and an infallible pledge of glorification. It is a
middle link of the indissoluble chain which begins with election and ends with
glorification, Rom. viii. 29, 30; 2 Thess. ii. 13. The spirit of holiness is God's seal
upon them that are his, by which they come to be owned and discerned to be his ;
Eph. i. 13, “In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise.” But as long as you depart not from sin, it is a positive
evidence that you belong not to God by accepting of the covenant, Jer. xxxii. 30.
Your cleaving to sin is an evidence that you are not united to Christ, and you can
have no positive concluding evidence that you belong to God by election. It is
but at best a peradventure it may be. And as always the longer that a person
continues in sin, there are the less hopes of his recovery, so there is the less proba-
bility of his belonging to the election of grace. And if you die in your sin, it will
be beyond dispute that you do not belong to God at all.
Depart, then, from iniquity, as ever you would have any concern for showing
yourselves to be the Lord's. Upon this let me ask you, Is it a matter of indiffer-
ence to you whether you be the Lord's or not ? Truly this is the language of
souls careless about their salvation, and particularly about their sanctification. It
is declared to you, that all who are the Lord's depart from iniquity. Yet you are
careless about your departing from it. This speaks your indifference. I would
further ask you, Can you ever be happy if you be not the Lord's 3 How can you
live without his favour, living on his ground and at his cost 3 Acts xvii. 25, “He
4 Z
730 - MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
giveth to all, life, and breath, and all things.” How can you think to look the king
of terrors in the face without the favour of the King of heaven, which you can
never have while you do not depart from iniquity ? Rom. i. 18, “For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” I would ask you, lastly, Is it not a miser-
able office against your own souls, to dispute away any saving relation betwixt
God and you? Every new disobedience to this heavenly charge, is a new argu-
ment against yourselves that you are not his. This charge in the gospel is
addressed to all to whom the gospel comes ; it is like a fanning wind separating
the wheat from the chaff. By it the grace of God brings away the elect out of
the tents of sin, leaving others to perish there. What a dismal thought, then, is
it to be left, time after time, in iniquity I come now to
Mot. 3. Which is, that obligation which is lying on those who name the name of
Christ to depart from iniquity. The Christian profession obliges all who make it
to be holy, and to walk as Christians. And here I would consider, -
First, The obligation which lies on all to depart from sin who name the name of
Christ, who are Christians by profession, as we all are.
Secondly, The obligation which specially lies on communicants. I would
consider, -.
First, The obligation which lies on all to depart from sin who name the name of
Christ, who are Christians by profession, as we all are. Here consider,
1. That your baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, by which you were
taken engaged to renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, and to obey the Lord
Jesus, (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20,) is a seal of God's covenant, to which you have
thereby consented. And since you bear the badge of Christianity, you ought to
live Christian and holy lives. And God will treat you as covenant-breakers if you
do not. Consider,
2. The Author of your profession, from whom you take your name ; Acts xi.
26, “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” From Christ
we are called Christians. And pity it is that ever those who profess Christ should
be called by the names of sinful and wicked men. You know those who are named
for men are so named because they are followers of them. And so the name Chris-
tian signifies a follower of Christ, one who follows that way which Christ taught.
Now, consider him, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Jesus Christ,
Heb. iii. 1. What was the Author of your profession ? He was holy, Heb. vii. 26.
His name is a name of holiness : Anointed of God for a Prophet, Priest, and
King. A Christian indeed partakes of the anointing of the Holy Spirit; “Ye
have an unction from the Holy One,” 1 John ii. 20. They are made “kings and
priests unto God and his Father,” Rev. i. 6. Now, how does a sinful life agree
with the holy name, example, and doctrine of Christ?—Consider,
3. The faith and religion you profess. Surely the principles of our religion are
holy, and teach us to depart from iniquity, and give no allowance to live in sin.
Even reason says, men ought not to live, nor can they rationally live, in contra-
diction to their profession and its principles. Other religions allow something sin-
ful; but the Christian religion, proceeding from him who is holiness and truth
itself, condemns every even the least evil; and therefore Christians by their pro-
fession are obliged to depart from iniquity.—Consider,
4. The end of your faith and profession, the way to which it directs, namely,
heaven, which is a holy place. The gospel has discovered life and immortality,
2 Tim. i. 10; a happy state after this life, where holiness is perfected, Heb. xii.
23. And meanwhile it directs to a life agreeable to this holy and happy state ;
for it “teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, right-
eously, and godly in this present world,” Titus ii. 12. Have you no hopes, no
expectations, of heaven ? If you have, surely you ought to depart from iniquity;
for it cannot be expected that that holy place is for dogs and swine,—for such as
are strangers to holiness here.
Secondly, I would consider the obligations to depart from iniquity which lie on
communicants in a special manner. You have, in a very solemn manner, named
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 731
the holy_name of Jesus, by partaking of the sacrament of our Lord's body and
blood. Let this, then, engage you to depart from iniquity.—Consider,
1. That these additional vows of God are upon you to depart from iniquity.
You have lifted up your hand to God, and you cannot go back. The terms of the
Christian life were told you, and you have, after deliberation, engaged yourselves
to the Lord. Beware lest, after vows, you begin to make inquiry, Luke ix. 62.—
Consider,
2. That religion will be wounded by you if you do not depart from iniquity;
Rom. ii. 24, “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through
you.” You will be accounted betrayers of Christ; for you will give false testi-
mony against his way in favour of sin, as if you had tried the way of religion, and
after trial found cause to cast it off. And therefore, as you would not more than
ever dishonour the Lord and his way, depart from iniquity.—Consider,
3. That you will be great losers if you do not depart from iniquity. You will
lose all the pains you have been at in religion; 2 John 8, “Look to yourselves,
that we lose not those things which we have wrought.” It may be, you have been
at some pains to get something, and have done much in the way of God; but one
thing lacking will mar all. You will lose your souls; for it is only they who de-
part from iniquity, so as never to return to it, that are saved; “He that endureth
to the end shall be saved.” Backsliding is most dangerous, Heb. x. 38 : “If any
man draw back, my soul,” says God, “shall have no pleasure in him.” The very
setting off once in the Lord's way obliges to hold forward. They can never sin at
such a cheap rate as before ; heavier vengeance abides backsliders, and a fall from
heaven's threshold is worst of all.
Now, the Lord is saying to the sinners in Zion, as Jer. vi. 8, “Be thou instructed,
O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land
not inhabited.” He is threatening to depart from the generation, since they will
not depart from iniquity; and sad will the departure be ; Hos. ix. 12, “Woe
also be to them when I depart from them.” There are three sad consequents of
God's departure when provoked to it, with which we are threatened this day.
There is,
(1) Confusion in the church, the breaking of the staves of Beauty and Bands.
There is a melancholy account of this consequence of the Lord's departure, Rev.
viii. 7, 8. We have already felt the former, and were threatened with the Lord's
making, in his wrath, the whole mountain of his house a burning mountain with
the fire of division. A sad sight it will be, come when it will, however fond of it
many have appeared. Zion's work will be heavy work when Zion's builders are
by the Lord's anger made like Babel's builders.—There is, -
(2) Calamity in the state. Many perhaps would little value what should become
of the church, if they might otherwise live at ease. But God's departure from a
generation, often brings nations into the deepest perplexity and distress, 2 Chron.
xv. 3–6. When God departs from a generation, to see what their end will be, it
will be a sad end, Deut. xxxii. 19, 20.—There is,
(3.) The ruin of many souls and bodies also. When God so leaves a generation,
there are many smares for the soul. Confusion in the church brings deadness and
darkness on, and makes havoc of the case of many souls. Calamity in the state,
which removes peace far away, tends always to the ruining of temporal concerns,
and often of men's souls' concerns also.
O, then, depart from iniquity, as ever you would that God should not depart
from you, nor from the generation 1 Our iniquities are the Achans in the camp
which trouble us; the Jonah in our ship which threatens to raise the storm. God
has been long calling, by his word and providence, to us to depart from iniquity,
and reform. But instead of this, the generation has been filling up the cup of
their iniquity, and want but some one thing or other to make it run over. But
whatever befall us, departing from sin will be your security ; Isa. iii. 10, “Say
ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him ; for they shall eat the fruit of
their doings.” God's way is the only way of safety; Prov. x. 9, “He that walk-
eth uprightly walketh surely, but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.”
And a good conscience will be a feast in midst of trouble, 2 Cor. i. 12. Whereas
732 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
an evil conscience, made such by continuing in sin, will be a bad companion at
any time, more especially in the evil day.—If any should propose this -
Question, What shall we do that we may depart from iniquity? I answer, Im-
press your spirits with your own sinfulness. Consider your sinful nature; Psalm
li. 5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Observe how it spreads itself through the whole of your hearts and lives; Isa. lxiv.
6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags; and we do all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, as the wind, have
taken us away.” How contrary is it to God's nature and law, how inconsistent
with your interests for time and eternity Make application to Christ by faith for
its removal; to his blood, to remove the guilt of sin, 1 John i. 7; to his Spirit, to
break the power of it, and to sanctify you. Faith is the great mean of sanctifica-
tion; “Purifying their hearts by faith,” Acts xv. 9.—We exhort you,
Lastly, To watch. Be ever on your watch-tower. Your spiritual enemies are
still about your hands. Watch, therefore, against all occasions, temptations, and
appearances of evil. Improve the season of duties. Study to be always doing
good, and so your hand will be filled with other work. When departing from evil,
you will do good, you will seek peace, and pursue it earnestly. Amen.
XV.
TRUE BELIEVERS, IN RELATION TO GOD IN CHRIST AS THEIR REFUGE
AND PORTION."
PSALM czlii. 5.
“I cried unto thee, O Lord : I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land
of the living.” - -
THAT is a pertinent question to put to each of you, which was proposed to Elijah
in the cave, “What dost thou here, Elijah?” 1 Kings xix. 9. Sure I am, you
have weighty business to do here, whether you lay it to heart or not. Ye are in
this world as in a weary land, a wilderness, a place of great danger and of great
wants: and if you have felt it so, ye are come with a design to seek a refuge,
where ye may be in safety; and a portion for your souls, whence your wants may
be supplied. Our text discovers where ye may find both : “I cried unto thee, 0
Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.”
These words show us the course David took for relief in most straitening circum-
stances. He was hiding himself in a cave, that of Adullam or Engedi, for fear of
Saul, by whom he was in hazard of his life. His spirit was like to sink under the
burden of perplexing fears and griefs: he was in the utmost perplexity, ver. 3;
“My spirit was overwhelmed within me,” says he. He was deserted by all, and
as an outcast that no body cared for ; ver. 4, “I looked on my right hand, and
beheld; but there was no man that would know me ; refuge failed me ; no man
º for my soul.” In this case he betakes himself to the Lord by prayer. And
ere,
1. We may notice his praying in that case: “I cried unto thee, O Lord.”
Though his case was extremely heavy, yet it did not render him incapable of
praying, but quickened him to that delightful exercise, and caused him to cry to
* The first sermon on this text was preached, August 19, 1722, immediately before the admini-
§tration of the Lord's supper. º
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES, 733
heaven out of the belly of the earth. Fears, sorrows, and perplexities on any
account whatsoever, are gone too far when they restrain prayer to the Lord; yet it
may be the case of a saint, as of Asaph when he said, “I am so troubled that I
cannot speak,” Psal. lxxvii. 4. Such would do well to hearken to that word, Cant.
ii. 14, “O my dove, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice: for sweet
is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” The best ease for a heart full of
trouble and grief, is to give it a vent into the bosom of a gracious God; as appears
from the title of Psal. cii., “A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and
poureth out his complaint before the Lord.” Hannah found it so in her comfortable
experience, 1 Sam. i. 18; who, having “poured out her soul before the Lord, went
her way, and her countenance was no more sad.”
2. His faith in prayer: “I said, Thou art my refuge, and my portion.” He said
it not only with the mouth, but also and chiefly in and with his heart, as the word
is often used. His heart and soul said it, upon the discovery of the Lord's holding
forth himself in his word, the ground of faith, for a refuge and portion to the Sons
of men. And here three things are to be observed:
(1.) Faith's discerning the Lord Jehovah's fulness for, and suitableness to, the
soul's case; and this must be by the perspective of the word, illuminated by the
Spirit. The psalmist saw the Lord, by faith, perfectly suited to his case, in the
several exigencies thereof.
i. He was compassed about with evils threatening to swallow him up, and in all
the creation he could find no place to flee to where he might be safe: “Refuge
failed me,” says he, or, “A place to flee to is perished from me.” But by faith
he discerns a refuge above him, though there was none in all the world : “Above
me thou art a refuge; and if I can get there, I would be safe.”
ii. He was under many wants, and there was none to supply them. Though he
could have got a place to flee to in the earth where he might have been safe; yet
how could he live in it? for no man cared for his soul or life, ver. 4. But faith
discerns Jehovah to be a portion that one may live on when the world will afford
him nothing: ‘Thou art a portion; and if I can get that, I will have enough.”
(2.) Faith's discerning the soul's liberty of access to the Lord, as a refuge and a
portion. This also must be by the perspective of the word, illuminated by the
Spirit. The gospel-offer casts open the door of the refuge, and proclaims the por-
tion to be free to every man that will take it, Rev. xxii. 17: which general offer is
equivalent to a particular one ; as if the Lord should say, ‘The refuge is open for
you and you, every one of you, so that you may flee to it without fear; and the
portion is free for you and you, and every one of you, and you may take and use it
as your own, without fear of vitious intromission.’ Hence our Lord says, “He
that believeth shall be saved,” Mark xvi. 16; and the apostle, “Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” Acts xvi. 31. And this offer the
Spirit of the Lord carries home on the soul, that the man believes the offer is to
him in particular, the refuge is open to him, the portion free to him, according to
the word, 1 John v. 11, “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life.”
(3.) Faith's appropriating of the Lord as a refuge and portion to itself: “Thou
art my refuge, and my portion.” The Lord speaks by his Spirit in his word, and
says to the soul, “I am a safe refuge and a full portion, and I am willing and offer
myself freely to be thy refuge and thy portion.’ The soul believes God, and says,
“Then, Lord, thou art my refuge and my portion; even so I take thee.’ And
thus the bargain is closed, and the soul takes possession of the refuge and portion
which was offered. This is that direct acting of faith in the cave, which the psalm-
ist reflects upon with pleasure afterwards: “I said it then.’
And it shines bright in sincerity as “faith unfeigned :” “Away with all other
refuges, as refuges of lies. Lord, I take thee for my refuge, and thou art my
refuge, where I shall be in Safety, as desperate as my case appears to be. And I
take thee not only as my refuge, but my portion; and my portion from this
moment, as well as my refuge. I design not to take the crown of Israel for my
tºº. on earth, and thee for my portion in heaven, when that is gone from me ;
ut thou art my portion now even in the land of the living ; for my heart to live
upon while in this world, as well as in the next,’ -
734 MISCEI.LANEOUS DISCOURSES.
As this text affords a large field of discourse, I shall only at present take notice
of one doctrine from it, namely,
DoGTRINE, The soul that would have safety and satisfaction, must take the Lord
Jehovah for a refuge and portion to itself, saying, whatever others say, that he
is its refuge and portion.
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall a little at present consider the nature
of this refuge and portion. And here I will offer a few things,
First, Concerning the refuge.
Secondly, Concerning the portion.
First, Concerning the refuge, I offer the following particulars:
1. The Lord Christ, or God in Christ, is the refuge itself; Isa. iv. 6, “There
shall be a tabernacle—for a place of refuge.” “The Branch of the Lord,” (ver. 2,)
namely, “the man whose name is the Branch,” (Zech. iii. 8, and vi. 12,) is the
tabernacle here spoken of, which is “for a place of refuge,” as appears by compar-
ing John i. 14, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt (or tabernacled) among us;”
and Isa. xxxii. 2, “A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert
from the tempest,--as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land:” A man, who
is also Jehovah ; “The Lord our Righteousness,” Jer. xxiii. 6. None less than a
God, the eternal God, is, or could be, a sufficient refuge for guilty creatures; no
arms less strong than the everlasting arms could bear the weight, Deut. xxxiii. 27.
Yet sinners could never have taken refuge in an absolute God more than dry
stubble could be safe in a consuming fire ; Heb. xii. ult, “For our God is a con-
suming fire.” Wherefore, that God might be a refuge for sinners, he put himself
in our nature, he took upon him our flesh. The fulness of the Godhead dwelt
bodily in Christ, Col. ii. 9. Thus he became our refuge, which we might safely
flee to. But a God out of Christ no sinful creature can deal with to its salvation,
but to its certain destruction. For thus saith Jehovah himself, Isa. xxvii. 4, 5,
“Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle 2 I would go through
them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he
may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me.” None that know
God will dare to approach him out of Christ.
2. This refuge is by a legal destination a refuge for lost mankind, for sinners of
Adam's race, 2 Cor. v. 19, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto him-
self, not imputing their trespasses unto them ;” John iii. 14–16, “As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up ;
that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life. For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This destination
gives men a right to flee thither for safety, which sinners of the angelic tribe have
not; for as to sinners there is a man-love, though no angel-love, called “the kind-
ness and love of God our Saviour toward man,” Tit. iii. 4. Hence the call to the
refuge is directed to men; Prov. viii. 4, “Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice
is to the sons of men;” and to the people; Psal. lxii. 8, “Trust in him at all times;
ye people, pour out your heart before him.” And this call is their warrant;
“God is a refuge for us,” Ibid. Wherefore be what ye will, if ye be men or
women, if of the lost family of Adam, stand not disputing whether ye may enter
this refuge, and take possession of it for yourselves or not ; your warrant to enter it
is clear, and your safety upon your entering it infallibly sure. -
God knows who are his, and for whom the High Priest died, and for whom the
refuge was designed in the eternal decree of election. These are secrets on
the knowledge of which your warrant to enter the refuge does not depend. You
must first enter, upon the warrant of the legal destination of the refuge registered
in the word, whereby it is appointed for sinful men; and then ye will know what
concerns you in these secrets. Remember, the cities of refuge were appointed, not
for Israel only, but for the stranger and sojourner among them, Num. xxxv. 15. If
a stranger and a sojourner would not believe that he might have access to the cities
of refuge, because he was not an Israelite, and therefore would flee for refuge to
his own country, no wonder he fell by the hand of the avenger of blood.
More particularly, I will tell you of four sorts of men whom God in Christ is a
{}
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 735
refuge for ; and I am sure each of us may find our name among them. He is a
refuge, s
§ For the oppressed; Psal. ix. 9, “God will be a refuge for the oppressed.”
Are ye oppressed by sin 2. Do you find it holding you down as a giant doth a weak
man, so that your souls are saying, “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death ?” Rom. vii. 24. Are ye oppressed by Satan 2
Do you find the strong and subtle adversary an overmatch for you? Are ye
oppressed by the world 2 by the men of the world, in your goods, in your name and
reputation; or on any other account are you crying out of violence and wrong 3
are ye oppressed by the things of the world, the cares, business, or frowns of the
world 2 Here is a refuge for you : come in hither unto a God in Christ, saying,
“O Lord, thou art my refuge;” and, “O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for
me,” Isa. xxxviii. 14. And there is a promise for your safety; Psal. lxxii. 4, “He
shall break in pieces the oppressor.” This promise is branched out to your
several cases. As to the oppression by sin; Micah vii. 19, “He will subdue our
iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” As to
Satan; Rom. xvi. 20, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet
shortly.” And as to the world; John xvi. ult., “In the world ye shall have tribu-
lation : but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
(2.) For outcasts, Psal. cxlii. 4, 5 ; the text and context. Are there any among
us to whom the world's face is quite changed; and the brooks of comfort in it are
dried up, and they are so tossed, chased, and harassed in it, that they have for-
gotten their resting-place 2 Are any of you “become a stranger unto your breth-
ren, and an alien unto your mother's children ?” Psal. lxix. 8. Is it grown such a
strange world, that even “your own familiar friend, in whom you trusted, which
did eat of your bread, hath lifted up his heel against you?” (Psal. xli. 9,) and that
wherever ye turn yourselves in it, to find rest and refuge, the door is cast in your
face? Here is a refuge for you; here is one open door; come in, thou blessed of
the Lord ; Psal. cxlvii. 2, “The Lord gathereth the outcasts of Israel.” It seems
the Lord minds to have you in : he is doing with you as a father with a stubborn
son run away from out of his father's house, thinking to shift for himself among
his friends, and not come back; the father sends peremptory word through them
all, saying, “In whose soever house of yours my son is skulking, presently turn him
out of doors, and let none of you take him in ; and if he come in, give him not
one night's lodging, nay, let him not heat in your house.’ Wherefore is all this,
but just to get him back again to his father's house ?
(3.) For debtors, broken" men, unable to pay their debts; Isa. xxv. 4, “Thou
hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge
from the storm.” Herein David was a type of Christ ; for “every one that was
in distress, and every one that was in debt, gathered themselves unto him,” 1 Sam.
xxii. 2. All Adam's family is drowned in debt. Our father Adam made a bond,
wherein he bound himself and his heirs to perfect obedience to the law, as the con-
dition of life to him and all his, and that under the penalty of death in its utmost
extent. This bond is the covenant of works. And when he subscribed it, he had
enough to pay the round sum, and so to secure heaven and glory for him and his.
But, alas ! by his own mismanagement he broke, and could never more pay it: so
the bond lies upon the head of all his heirs, till, getting into the refuge, they are
discharged of it upon their pleading the cautioner's payment; Rom. vi. 14, “Ye
are not under the law, but under grace.” Whence it is evident, that those who
are under grace in this refuge, are not any more under the law, or under that
bond, and that they who are not in the refuge, under grace, are still under the
bond, the law as the covenant of works. And know, O sinner, that thou art liable
in payment both of the penalty and principal sum contained in the bond; “For
it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the law to do them,” Gal. iii. 10. And either of these are
farther out of your reach to pay, than the buying of the richest inheritance in the
world is out of the reach of a beggar in rags. And though perhaps ye know it not,
“ i.e. bankrupt.—Ed.
736 MISCEL LANEOUS DISCOURSES.
there is a caption * out against you, and ye know not what moment ye may be
laid up in prison upon it, from whence ye can never come forth, Matt. v. 25, 26.
But here is a refuge for you, into which as soon as ye enter, your debt is paid;
Rom. vii. 4, “Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.”
(4.) For criminals liable to death by the law, Heb. vi. 18. Sinners, ye have,
by your crimes against the King of heaven, forfeited your life, and laid yourselves
open to the stroke of justice: the avenger of blood is at your heels; and if you be
seized by justice, and fall into the hands of an absolute God, you perish for ever.
But here is a refuge for you, which will afford a rest to your weary souls, Matt. xi.
28; a hiding-place, where ye shall be safe, Isa. xxxii. 2.
3. The gate of this refuge, through which sinners enter, is the vail of the flesh
of Christ, rent, torn, and opened to let in the guilty creature unto Jehovah as a
refuge, Heb. x. 19, 20. It is only by a crucified Christ the sinner can come unto
God comfortably, John X. 9. The sinner fleeing for refuge, must fix his eyes in
the first place on the wounds of our glorious Redeemer, and come by the altar
unto the sanctuary, Rom. iii. 25. When Jacob had seen the ladder set on the
earth, whose top reached heaven, representing Christ not only as God, but as man
“ descending into the lower parts of the earth’ by his death and burial, he saith,
“This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven,” Gen.
xxviii. 17. Without such a costly gate sinners had never had access to God as a
refuge.
# The covert in this refuge is the righteousness of Christ. Hence Christ is
called “The Lord our Righteousness,” Jer. xxiii. 6; and the apostle glories in
that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is
of God by faith,” Phil. iii. 9. The sinner getting in under this covert is safe from
the reach of revenging justice, the curse of the law, and the hurt of any thing,
Luke x. 19 ; Isa. xxvii. 3. This covert, which is ever over the head of the sinner
from the moment he enters the refuge, consists of three plies.t
(1.) The satisfaction of Christ's death and sufferings; 1 John ii. 2, “He is the
propitiation for our sins.” Thus they are under the covert of the Mediator's blood,
through which no revenging wrath can make its way, Cant. iii. 10, with Rom.
viii. 1. This is imputed to the believer, who is reckoned to have suffered in Christ,
even as he sinned in Adam. Hence the apostle says, “I am crucified with Christ,”
Gal. ii. 20. -
(2.) The righteousness of Christ's life and conversation, who obeyed the com-
mands of the law as a public person, as well as he suffered the penalty of it in that
capacity; Rom. v. 19, “As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners;
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” So that his obedience
is theirs too, and all the good works that he did, for the space of thirty-three years
that he lived in the world: the believer has them all in order, to found his plea
for heaven upon ; Rom. viii. 4, “That the righteousness of the law might be ful-
filled in us.”
(3.) The holiness of his birth and nature; Heb. vii. 26, “For such an high
priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners.” This
also is theirs and upon them ; John xvii. 19, “For their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” Not as it were imputed to
them in the point of gospel sanctification, as Antinomians say; but in point of justi-
fication, as a part of the law-demand of righteousness for life ; which law requires
for that end, not only satisfaction for sin, but also good works; and not only good
works, but a good and holy nature, having no bias to evil, (Exod. xx. 17,) all of
them perfect in their kind. And as Christ's satisfaction for sin is the only solid
plea against the first, and the righteousness of his life the only solid plea against
the second ; so the holiness of his birth and nature is the only solid plea against
the last ; Rom. iv. 5, 8, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness; blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Hence Christ says of the spouse, “Thou
art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee,” Cant. iv. 7.
* i. e. a legal warrant to seize on the person of a debtor.—ED.
t i e. folds or layers.-ED.
l,-
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 737
5. The several apartments in this refuge for the various cases of the refugees,
are all the attributes and perfections of God the Lord, Jehovah ; Prov. xviii. 10,
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower ; the righteous runneth into it, and
is safe.” And hence the sinner's refuge is said to be in God, Psal. lxii. 7. Every
thing in God is a refuge to the man who is once under the covert. Is he in per-
plexing difficulties that he knows not how to be rid of? let him flee into the room
or chamber of the divine wisdom. Is he under any thing quite above his ability ?
let him flee into the chamber of the divine power. Is he under guilt 2 let him flee
into the chamber of divine mercy. Does the law bend up a process against him
for debt already paid by his Cautioner; take him by the throat, saying, Pay what
thou owest, or I will cast thee into the prison of hell? let him flee into the chamber
of divine justice ; 1 John i. 9, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
And so in other cases.
6. The boundaries of the refuge are the everlasting covenant; Psal. xlvi. 7,
“The God of Jacob is our refuge.” It is God's covenant-title. The borders
of the cities of refuge were to be nicely marked: for upon the outside of the line
was death to the criminal ; on the inside life, for death could not come over the
line, Numb. xxxv. 26, 27. Sinners without the covenant, there is no refuge for
you ; but come within, and none can touch you there.
7. The sinner's entering into the refuge is by faith, as in the text, “I said, Thou
art my refuge.” Of which more afterwards.
Secondly, Concerning the portion, I offer only two things. -
1. The same God in Christ who is the refuge for poor sinners, is also the portion
for them to live on ; “Thou art my portion in the land of the living.” They are
but silly refuges that men can find in the world; they may be starved out of them
and forced by want to abandon them. But God in Christ is a refuge for us: and
he is a portion in the refuge ; and those who take refuge in him, need never go
abroad without the border of their refuge to bring in provision for themselves.
2. God in Christ is what one may live on ; Psal. xvi. 5, 6, “The Lord is the
portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup ; thou maintainest my lot. The lines
are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” The men
of the world cannot understand this ; but the experience of the saints in glory puts
it beyond question; and so does the experience of the saints on earth; witness
David, Psal. lxxiii. 25, “Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none
upon earth that I desire besides thee;” and Habakkuk, chap. iii. 17, 18, “Al-
though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the
labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be
cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in
the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” One may live upon that happily
which is commensurable to all his desires for the perfecting of his nature, and
maintaining it in his perfection. And this no creature can be to a man, but God
is, and will be to all who take him for their portion.
In him the man has a dwelling-place, Psal. Xc. 1; raiment, Rev. iii. 18; meat
and drink, John vi. 55; and all, in a word, Phil. iv. 18; 2 Cor. vi. 10. And
hereto belongs the sanctification of the soul, in the beginning, progress, and con-
summation of it, as that which is for the perfecting of the soul, 1 Cor. i. 30. So
that as sure as the soul is made safe in Christ, it is sanctified in Christ; Isa. xlv.
24, “Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.”
I shall now make some practical improvement of this subject; which I shall
discuss briefly in a twofold use.
Use 1. Of trial. Hereby ye may know whether ye be believers or not, and will
be welcome guests at the Lord's table.
1. What is your refuge 3 where take ye shelter, or what is your refuge from
avenging justice, the curse of the law, and the wrath of God for your sins 2 If ye
flee for refuge to your own working, doing, and suffering, your repentance and
reformation, your case is bad. But is the covert of Christ's righteousness your
only refuge, and, renouncing all other pleas, do you hold by that? then God is
your refuge, Psal. lxii. 6. Do ye make him your refuge, and flee to him, when
pursued by sin, Satan, and an evil * Alas! most men either seek no
A.
738 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
refuge from sin, or they make themselves, their own strength, wisdom, or resolu-
tion, their refuge. But the believer makes God his refuge for all,
2. What is your portion ? Many pretend to make God their refuge, but the
world and their lusts are their hearts' choice for a portion. But the believer takes
God in Christ for a refuge, and portion too, not only for a defence from evil, but
for a treasure of provision to live upon even in the world. The world's good things
they may take for comforts, but God alone for the portion of their souls. And
therefore, whatever fondness they may sometimes fall into, through temptation, for
other things, they will show God is their portion in the case of competition; like
the child, who may be fond of others that caress it, yet prefers its mother to all
others.
Use 2. I exhort you to take God in Christ this day for your refuge and portion.
First, O flee into this refuge. For motives, consider,
1. Ye need a refuge : for your souls are in the greatest hazard; the avenger of
blood is pursuing you; and ye are in an evil world, and judgment is fast approach-
ing on the land wherein ye live. It is high time for you to look out for a place
of safety.
2. There is no other safe refuge for you. Have ye not already found other
refuges, where ye expected safety, fail you? and so will ye find it unto the end.
Death will cast you out of them all. But if ye flee by faith into this refuge, it
will never fail nor disappoint you.
3. This refuge is open to you. God in Christ is ready to embrace you with open
arms, and afford you all manner of safety from revenging justice, the fiery law,
hell, wrath, an evil world, and sin, the worst of all enemies.
Secondly, Take God in Christ for your portion this day. For motives, consider,
1. The Lord is willing to take you for his portion. When all the world is
divided into two parts, such as will believe in Christ, and such as will not ;
though the latter may be great and wise men in comparison of you, and ye never
so little worth, he says, They shall be my portion ; Deut. xxxii. 9, “For the
Lord's portion is his people:” and will not you say, “Thou art my portion ?”
2. There is no shadow of just competition betwixt the Lord and all other por-
tions. Ye will get the double portion, as first-born, by taking him for your portion.
He is a full, complete, Satisfying portion, and a lasting portion that will never
decay. Now, the all is divided into two parts; God himself, and the world with
all that is in it : choose you this day which shall be your portion. And remember
that upon this choice your everlasting happiness or misery depends.
But one may say, How shall I take the Lord for my refuge and my portion ?
how shall I say, “Thou art my refuge, and my portion ?”
1. Be sensible of thy need of a refuge and a portion to thy soul, which it can-
not find among the creatures, as the prodigal deeply felt, Luke xv. 14. Till the
vanity of created refuges and portions be discovered, and they appear refuges of lies,
the soul will never take God in Christ for its refuge and portion; Jer. xvi. 19,
“O Lord, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the
Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely
our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.”
2. Believe God in Christ to be a safe refuge and a full portion. The soul will
never come to Christ, till it be persuaded that that safety and satisfaction is to be
found in him, which is to be found nowhere else, Luke xv. 17. -
3. Believe the gospel-offer with particular application to thyself, namely, That
the Lord is offered for a refuge and portion to thee. This is the report of the
gospel; and he who does not believe it, makes God a liar, 1 John v. 10.
4. Form a steadfast resolution of spirit to take God in Christ for thy refuge and
portion; to venture to flee into the refuge, and lay hold on him as thy portion,
upon the warrant of the gospel-offer, as the prodigal did ; “I will arise, and go to
my father,” &c., Luke xv. 18.
5. Renounce all other refuges and portions, and lay the whole stress of thy safety
and provision, for time and eternity, upon God in Christ, saying, “Truly in vain
is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly
in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel,” Jer, iii. 23; “God is a refuge for
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 739
us,” Psal. lxii. 8. Bid farewell to the refuges of lies, lift thy confidence and depen-
dence from off all others, and fix it upon God in Christ, upon the warrant of the
word, saying, as Psal. lxii. 5, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expec-
tation is from him.”
6. Resolutely cleave to the Lord as thy refuge and portion, saying with Job,
chap. xiii. 15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Thou art my refuge
and portion, I will seek no other, I can take no other, for time and for eternity.
XVI.
THE SOUL’S RECOGNITION OF TAKING GOD FOR A REFUGE AND
- PORTION ILLUSTRATED.”
PsALM czlii. 5,
“I cried wnto thee, O Lord : I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land
of the living.”
LAST Lord's day I opened the nature of the refuge for poor sinners, pressed you to
flee into it, and to say each of you for yourselves, Thou art my refuge, and showed
how ye should say it. I now propose another doctrine, namely,
BocTRINE. That those who have said to God in Christ, Thou art my refuge and
portion, should recognise, reflect upon, and call to mind their so saying ; or those
who have taken God in Christ for their refuge and portion, should recognise their
so doing : “I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion.” David said this in the
cave, and afterwards he comes over it again.
In handling this doctrine, I shall proceed as follows.
I. I shall show what is imported in this recognisance of that deed or say of the
soul. -
II. Why they should recognise it.
III. Apply.
I. I am to show what is imported in this recognisance of that deed or say of the
soul: “I said” it. It imports,
1. A remembrance of the solemn transaction, Psalm ciii. 18. This is a deed
never to be forgotten, but always to be kept in remembrance. It was God's quar-
rel with Tyre, that they “remembered not the brotherly covenant" with Edom,
Amos i. 9. How much more if we remember not the covenant with God himself
But it fares with many in effect, as with men in other cases; they say the word,
but afterwards they never mind they said it : for, alas ! they “remember it as
waters that pass away,” which is in effect, it slips out of their mind, Job vi. 16.
But, O ye who have said this, remember,
(1.) What you said, You said that God in Christ should be your refuge, that
under the shade of his wings you hid yourselves, and that, renouncing all other
refuges, as refuges of lies, you did betake yourselves to the covert of Christ's right-
eousness, and that there ye would abide for your portion: which was a formal accept-
ance of and laying hold on the covenant. -
(2.) To whom you said it. To God in Christ speaking to you in the gospel-
offer, and inviting you into the refuge. What men say to their superiors, they
think themselves specially concerned to mind. And surely what ye have said to
God, ye ought in a peculiar manner to remember, and awe your hearts with the
* This second sermon was preached August 26, 1723.
740 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
consideration of the majesty of the party to whom ye said it; Psalm xvi. 2, “O
my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord.” For he is not one
with whom we may play fast and loose.
(3.) How ye said it. Did ye not say it in your hearts, while God in Christ was
held out as a refuge for you? And the language of the heart is plain language with
a heart-searching God. Did not some of you say it with your mouths? And did
not all communicants say it solemnly before the world, angels and men, by their
receiving the elements of bread and wine?
(4.) Upon what grounds you said it. Did you not see a necessity of a refuge
for you, and a necessity of taking God in Christ for your refuge 2 Ye had rational
grounds for it, and lasting grounds that can never fail; so that ye can never have
ground to retract, nor shift about for another refuge, Jer. ii. 31.
(5.) Where ye said it. Remember the spot of ground where ye said it in prayer,
where ye said it at the communion-table, Psalm xlii. 6. The stones of the place
will be witnesses of your saying it, Joshua xxiv. 27.
2. A standing to it, without regretting that we said it, remembering what is
said John vi. 66–69, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and
walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go
away ? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast
the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God.” Men often repent what they have said, and therefore
will not own they said it. But gracious souls will not repent their saying this, but
will abide by it. If they were to make their choice a thousand times, having
chosen God in Christ for their refuge and portion, they would not alter, but their
first choice would be their last choice ; Jer. iii. 19, “I said, Thou shalt call me,
My Father, and shalt not turn away from me.” Many alterations may be in
men's circumstances in the world, but there can never be one that will afford
ground for their going back of this their saying. &
3. An owning of the obligation of it: “I said,” and am obliged thereby to
stand to it; for “I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back,”
Judges xi. 35. God in Christ is yours, and ye are his by your own consent; ye
are no more your own ; ye have said the word, and must own that it is binding on
you ; and ye must beware that after vows ye make not inquiry. Whoever may
pretend they have their choice yet to make of a refuge and portion to themselves,
ye cannot : ye are engaged already, and ye are not in safety to hearken to any
other proposals, more than a woman who has already signed her contract with
OIle IOla,ll.
4. A professing of it confidently without being ashamed of it: q. d. “I own it
before all men, and am not ashamed of my choice.’ Antichrist allows some of his
vassals to carry his mark in their right hand, Rev. xiii. 16. But all the followers
of the Lamb have their mark on their forehead, where it will not hide, Rev. xv. 1.
The world would put the people of God to shame on the head of their refuge and
portion, as if they had made a foolish bargain of it; Psal. xiv. 6, “You have
shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.” But sincerity
will make men despise that shame, as David said, “And I will yet be more vile
than thus, and will be base in mine own sight.”
5. A satisfaction of heart in it: q, d. ‘I said it, and O but I am well-pleased that
ever I said it; it was the best saying I could ever say,’ Psal. xvi. 2, 5–7. And
this is in effect to say it over again. And good reason there is for them who have
sincerely said it, to be well satisfied in their refuge, and to rejoice in their portion.
The reflecting upon it may afford solid delight and content of heart. Ye who
have taken the Lord for your refuge, may with much satisfaction reflect on it; for
e have,
y (1.) A safe refuge; Prov. xviii. 10, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower:
the righteous runneth into it, and is safe ;” chap. xxix. 25, “Whoso putteth his
trust in the Lord, shall be safe.” Ye may sing the 91st psalm as your own charter
for safety. Whatever storms blow, no plague shall come near thy dwelling while
thou dwellest there. Revenging justice can do nothing against you there : the
fiery law cannot throw the fire-balls of its curses within the border of your refuge;
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 74.1
Rom. viii. 1, “There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus;”
Gal. iii. 13, “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us.” God, who without the refuge is a consuming fire to sinners, within
it is a refreshing, warming, enlightening fire to them. However heavy days of
common calamity ye may see, ye may be very easy in your refuge, having such a
covert above your head; Job v. 22, “At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh,”
like the child in the shipwreck, smiling at the motions of the broken board.
(2.) A well-furnished refuge: “Thou art my refuge and my portion,” says
David in the text. There will never be any need to leave it for want of provision,
and to shift elsewhere. God in Christ is a full portion in the refuge, of which we
may afterwards speak more particularly. There is nothing the man wants and is
really in need of, but he shall have it there ; Psal. lxxxiv. 11, “For the Lord
God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will
he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” What is in the refuge 2 There is a
fulness there, yea all fulness; Col. i. 19, “For it pleased the Father that in him
should all fulness dwell.” And where all fulness is, [1..] There is not any thing
wanting to make the sinner happy; there is a variety of provision, yea, all manner
of provision; Cant. vii. ult., “At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new
and old;” Rev. xxi. 7, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” [2.] There
is plenty of everything; no exhausting of any part of the provision ; nothing will
ever run short there ; Rev. xxii. 2, “In the midst of the street of it, and of either
side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and
yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations.”
(3.) The only refuge where men can be safe; Psal. xviii. 31, “For who is God
save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?” There are other refuges, indeed;
but then they are all refuges of lies, and they will be all swept away, and those
who lodge in them left naked, and open to all ruin; Isa. xxviii. 17, “The hail
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.”
All must come to your refuge or perish ; Acts iv. 12, “Neither is there salvation
in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men where-
by we must be saved.” So that your duty and interest both say to you in this
case, Let them return unto you, but return not ye unto them.
(4.) A near-hand refuge ; Jer. xxiii. 23, “Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord,
and not a God afar off?” God in Christ is everywhere present; so be where ye
will, ye are always within a step of your refuge, to be made by faith; Rom. x.
6–8, “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in
thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from
above;) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ from the
dead;) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy
heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach.” Hence the people of God
have had the benefit of their refuge when they were cast into prisons, dungeons,
banished to remote parts of the world. The cities of refuge were so situated, that
some of them were on this side Jordan, and some on that side, that they might be
near to flee to. In a moment thou mayest flee into thy refuge by faith. Hence
faith is called a looking, Isa. xlv. 22, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth.” -
(5.) A refuge none can stop in your way to. However the child of God be
blocked up, like David in the cave, however he be hampered, none in the world
can stop his way thither: “I said, Thou art my refuge.” God himself has pre-
pared the way; and there is no stop in it for any that mind for it. Hence Christ
says to the spouse, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the
winter is past; the rain is over and gone,” &c., Cant. ii. 10, 11. Enemies may
stand betwixt you and all created refuges; but nothing can hold you out of this
refuge, who by faith go thither. “ For,” says the apostle, “I am persuaded, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
resent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
i. able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,”,
Rom. viii. 38, 39.
742 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
(6.) A ready refuge. The gates stands open night and day to receive the
refugees; Zech. xiii. 1, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house
of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” None
who flee thither are refused, or denied access; John vi. 37, “Him that cometh
unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” The father meets the prodigal son while he
was yet a great way off; and no man can be more ready to enter the refuge, than
the refuge is to receive him.
(7.) A lasting refuge ; a refuge for time, for all times, be they never so bad;
Psal. lxii. 8, “Trust in him at all times:—God is a refuge for us.” From the
beginning to this day, throughout all generations, this refuge has lasted, Psal.
xc. 1; and will last a refuge for sinners to the end. And it is a refuge for
etermity too, when all other refuges shall be razed ; Isa. xxv. 4, “Thou hast been a
refuge to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm,”
&c.; Heb. vii. 25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
6. A pleading the benefit of it: q. d. “I have said it, and plead the benefit of
God's refugees, safety and satisfaction;' Lam. iii. 24, “The Lord is my portion,
saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.” God loves to have his people plead-
ing their interest in him ; Jer, iii. 4, “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me,
My Father, thou art the guide of my youth ?” The saints are very pointed and
peremptory in it; Psal. cxvi. 16, “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy
servant, and the son of thy handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.” And this
they do over the belly of discouragements, Isa. lxiii. 16, “Doubtless thou art our
Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not : thou,
O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting.” We
should hold by it, and by no means quit it, as the guilty did by the horns of the
altar. Therefore saith the apostle, Heb. x. 35, “Cast not away your confidence,
which hath great recompense of reward.”
II. The next head is to show why they who have taken God in Christ for their
refuge and portion, should recognise their so doing. They should do it,
1. For the honour of God in Christ. It tends to the Lord's honour for his people
to be often recognising and re-acknowledging their subjection to him, and their
consent to the covenant, Jer, iii. 4, forecited. For it says, they remember it,
stand to it, own it, profess it confidently, are satisfied in it, and plead the benefit
of it. For this cause the Sacrament of the Supper was instituted, and is often to be
celebrated, that so the covenant may be confirmed and recognised again and again.
2. To revive the impressions of it on their own souls; Psal. xvi. 2, “O my soul,
thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord.” We are apt to forget what we
have most solemnly said unto the Lord in the covenant. Hence Moses says unto
the children of Israel, Deut. iv. 23, “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget
the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you.” How soon did
Peter and the rest of the disciples forget after the first communion what they had
said unto the Lord! The hearts of the best are fickle ; impressions of good are
easily worn off them, and very soon too do they begin to wear weak. We have
much need, therefore, to be putting ourselves in mind of what passed in that case,
lest the heart be like the adulteress, “which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and
forgetteth the covenant of her God,” Prov. ii. 17.
3. Because there is a competition in our case betwixt the Lord, and the world
with the lusts thereof; and after we have said to the Lord, “Thou art my refuge
and portion,” these will set upon us to take them for a refuge and portion. Where-
fore this is necessary in that case to make a decision of the case still, and to silence
the Lord's competitors, and cut off their pretences to us: even as a woman already
espoused would recognise her espousals, to silence one continuing to make suit to
her, Tit. ii. 12.
4. To excite ourselves to the duty of the relation constituted by that saying. If
we have taken refuge under the shadow of the Lord's wings, we must be as obe-
dient children, walking according to the law of our God, our Husband, elder Bro-
ther, and King. If we have taken him for our portion, we must live to and for
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 7.43
him, as we live by him, Psal. ciii. 17. But we will be ready to neglect our duty,
if we call not to mind the engagements to it taken upon us.
5. To strengthen us in the faith of the privileges of the relation. It will serve
to confirm our trust in him for safety and satisfaction, when we remember that we
have said unto the Lord, “Thou art my refuge and my portion.” It will be a
means to cause us to adhere to him as such ; Job xiii. 15, “Though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him.”
I come now to apply this doctrine to them that have said the Lord is their refuge
and their portion, and to those who cannot be brought to say it.
First, Let me address myself to you who have said unto the Lord, Thou art my
refuge and portion, at a communion-table or otherwise.
1. Since ye have said it, recognise, reflect upon, and call to mind your say-
ing it.
(1.) Do it often ; often call to mind your saying of it. We find David often upon
it, Psal. xvi. 2, forecited ; Psal. xxxi. 14, “I said, Thou art my God ;” cKix. 57,
“Thou art my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep thy words;” cxl.
6, “I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my God.” Ye cannot remember it too
often ; for it is a thought that is always seasonable. It must be habitually in your
mind: it must never be out of it, either virtually or expressly. For your hearts
are apt to forget the Lord ; and, forgetting him, and your relation and engagement
to him, ye go all wrong.
(2.) Do it occasionally at some times in an explicit manner. Come over that your
transaction with God, and set it again before your eyes expressly, and that on these
four occasions especially :
i. When a temptation is before you to sin, in thought, word, or deed; as
Joseph did, Gen. xxxix. 9, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against
God?” Many think they are to be excused in the woful outbreakings of their cor-
ruption, because, forsooth, they are provoked and tempted: as if a soldier should
say, he did not yield to the enemy until he attacked him. But ye are called to
resist temptation, and, that ye may resist it, to remember that ye have said unto
the Lord, “Thou art my refuge and portion.” Let that thought pass through
your heart before ye yield, and it will help you to stand.
ii. When ye find yourselves unfit for or backward to duty, take this into your
thoughts in a believing manner: so will ye see both what may excite you to duty,
and what may encourage, strengthen, and oil the wheels of your soul: as Paul
experienced; Rom. vii. 24, 25, “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Here is your relation to God, and your privilege.
iii. When ye are in danger or difficulties that ye know not how to get through,
then remember that ye have “said to the Lord, Thou art my refuge.” This is
the way to compose your souls in a patient waiting for God, and comfortable
expectation of relief from him ; whether they be dangers of your soul, body, out-
ward estate, reputation, &c.
iv. When ye are under the world's frowns, things going wrong with you there;
when the persons or things of the world disappoint you in your expectations from
them; then remember you have said, “Thou art my portion.” This will be of use
to compose your heart under all these, since these are not, but God is your portion.
(3.) Do it sometimes in a solemn stated manner; taking some time by yourself
alone to review what passed betwixt God and your soul in the day you said, “Thou
art my refuge and portion.” Self-examination is necessary after as well as before
a communion : and I must say, it is a very bad sign, when people are at no pains
that way after a communion. If ye have not done it as yet, see that ye do it this
night; retire yourselves by yourselves a while, and review what you said to the
Lord this day-eight-days; to whom, how, upon what grounds, and where ye said
it. And particularly examine yourselves, whether ye said it sincerely or not,
“Thou art my refuge.” If you have made God in Christ your refuge, then,
i. Ye will have a superlative esteem of him above all persons and things;
1 Pet. ii. 7, “Unto you that believe he is precious.” The city of refuge was bet-
ter to the refugee than all the land of Canaan besides, for there only could he be in
744 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
safety of his life. And God in Christ will be better to the sincere soul than all
persons or things else ; Psal. lxxiii. 25, “Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and
there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee;” Luke xiv. 26, “If any man
come after me, and hate not his father and mother, &c., he cannot be my disciple.”
ii. Ye will have fled to him for safety from sin, as well as from wrath; Matt.
i. 21, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their
sins.” Ye will have made his sanctifying Spirit, as well as his justifying blood,
your refuge. And because the sincere refugee flees from sin as sin, your souls will
be longing to be rid of all sin, counting it as your enemy and the pursuing avenger;
and the remains of sin in you will be your souls’ burden, Rom. vii. 24, fore-
cited.
iii. Ye will look for safety from God in Christ alone, and not from the law or
your own works; “For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,” Gal.
ii. 16. From thence will be the support of your souls. When a man is without
the city of refuge, if the avenger of blood pursue hot, then he quickens his pace;
if he halts, then he halts, all his motions and comforts depending on his motions
or haltings. But when he has got within the city, it is not so with him. Thus,
as to men out of Christ, the great motives to obedience are fear of punishment and
hope of reward by their works, which are the great grounds of their comfort: but
the soul which has made God in Christ its refuge, looks for its safety only from
Christ's works and suffering ; Phil. iii. 3, “Rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having
no confidence in the flesh ;” and so its labour is turned into a “labour of love,”
Heb. vi. 10.
2. Since ye have said, that God in Christ is your refuge, hold by it, and carry
yourselves accordingly.
(1.) Abide in your refuge, John xv. 4. Cleave to God in Christ as your refuge
for ever, Acts xi. 23. Your continuance there is necessary to evidence your sin-
cerity; John viii. 31, “If ye continue in my love, then are ye my disciples indeed.”
Drawing back is dangerous; Heb. x. 38, “If any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him.” It speaks hypocrisy ; 1 John ii. 19, “They went out
from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt
have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest,
that they were not all of us.” And,
i. Venture not out without the borders of your refuge; Heb. iii. 12, “Take
heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living
God.” A man is no longer in Safety than he is within the refuge, Num. xxxv. 26,
27. For without it death reigns, without it is nothing but the land of darkness and
shadow of death.
ii. Beware of betaking yourselves to any other refuges, for there is no safety
in them, Acts iv. 12, forecited. Every man is sensible he needs a defence, some-
thing to trust to for safety in his straits: but all things else besides God in Christ
will be found lying refuges which will not secure you, Isa. xxviii. 17. And,
(i.) Make not men your refuge. For, “Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from
the Ilord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when
good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land
and not inhabited,” Jer. xvii. 5, 6. David was one that had much experience of
men's falsehood, and disappointing the expectations of those that trusted in them;
Psal. cxlii. 4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that
would know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” Therefore saith
he, “It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. It is better
to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in princes,” Psal. cxviii. 8, 9; “Put
not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His
breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts perish.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his
God,” Psal. cxlvi. 3—5. Wherefore, in all cases where ye may be in hazard this
way of placing confidence in men, beware of it, and place your confidence in God.
(ii) Nor make world's wealth your refuge; Prov. xviii. 11, “The rich man's
wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit.” O what safety
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 745
are men apt to promise to themselves from their abundance! and yet after all it
proves but a refuge of lies; Psal, lii. 6, 7, “The righteous also shall see, and fear,
and shall laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength: but
trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”
Much need is there, then, to take heed to the advice, Psal. lxii. 10, “If riches
increase, set not your heart upon them.” :
(iii.) Nor make your own works and duties your refuge. Paul could not trust
himself under that covert, but desired to be “found in Christ, not having his own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith,” Phil. iii. 9. It is natural to men, when
conscience is raised on them, and begins to pursue them, to flee to their own works
and doings, and to seek refuge about mount Sinai for their guilty soul, as the Jews
did, who sought after righteousness, “not by faith, but as it were by the works
of the law,” Rom. ix. 32. Your only safety is under the covert of blood.
(iv.) Nor uncovenanted mercy, mercy for mere mercy's sake, as many do, who, not
careful to be savingly interested in Christ, betake themselves to mercy, without
betaking themselves to Christ by faith. These justice will draw from the horns
of the altar: for “without shedding of blood is no remission,” Heb. ix. 22. It is
mercy through a propitiation, that is the only safe refuge for a guilty creature;
for said the publican, “God be merciful (propitious, Gr.) to me a sinner,” Luke
xviii. 11.
(2.) Improve your refuge for safety, comfort, and establishment in all cases. This
is the life of faith which all believers are called to as that wherein their duty and
interest jointly lie; Gal. ii. 20, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me.” And,
i. With respect to sin, improve your refuge. When ye are assaulted with
temptation from the devil, the world, and the flesh, betake yourselves to God in
Christ for safety and preservation, as Paul did, Rom. vii. 24, 25, forecited. Ye
are in this world as in a wilderness, where your souls’ enemies are ready to attack
you, and cause you to violate your fidelity to your Lord and Husband; ye should,
then, cry out to him, that ye suffer violence, and flee into the arms of his grace,
where ye may be safe. Thus did Paul, (2 Cor. xii. 9,) who, being harassed with a
thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, besought the Lord, that it might depart
from him; and received this answer, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my
strength is made perfect in weakness.” Men's grappling with temptations in their
own strength, is the cause why so often they come foul off; Prov. xxviii. 26, “He
that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.”
ii. With respect to the law as a covenant of works. There is no standing
before it but under this covert. Sometimes it invades the believer, and makes
high demands of him for his salvation. [1..] Thou art a sinner, and justice must
be satisfied for thy sin: then flee thou into thy refuge, and hide thyself in the
wounds of the Redeemer; plead the satisfaction of his death and sufferings, and
hold them betwixt you and the fiery law: so shall ye stop its mouth; Job xxxiii.
23, 24, “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand,
to show unto man his uprightness; then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver
him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.” [2.] Thou canst not
have a right to heaven without working for it works perfectly good, and exactly
agreeable to the law; for “it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,” Gal. iii. 10.
Then improve your refuge, and, by faith laying hold on Christ's perfect obedience
to all the ten commands, plead that as your security, and so you shall be safe;
Rom. iv. 5, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the
ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” [3.] If the law yet insist and say,
But thy nature is corrupt and stained; flee to thy refuge, and plead the holiness
of Christ's birth and nature, by virtue of which imputed to thee, thou art “without
spot before the throne of God,” Cant. iv. 7; Rom, iv. 8, both formerly cited. Here
is your only safety in this case.
iii. With respect to the evil day, Jer. xvii. 17. We have just ground to expect
5 B
746 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
a day of trial, a day of common calamity, abiding this church and land, as well as
each of us may lay our account with personal trials and afflictions. And we should
improve our refuge in that case for our comfort and establishment,
(i.) Before it come. The prospect of trials is often very heavy; and unbelief
taking a view of them, is ready to rack and torture the heart with that, how
one shall be carried through. But the man who has taken God for his refuge,
should improve it so, as to establish his heart in the faith of through-bearing, come
what will come; Hab. iii. 17, 18, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall
yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd
in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
There is good reason for it: for however great the trial be, our refuge is sufficient
both against sin and danger: therefore says Paul; Phil. iv. 13, “I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” Jer. xv. 11, “Verily it shall be
well with thy remnant, verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the
time of evil, and in the time of affliction.”
(ii.) When it is come. Whatever storms blow, believers have such a cover over
their heads, as may afford safety, comfort, and establishment: for “if God be for
us, who can be against us?” Rom. viii. 31. There is a kindly invitation given to
all God's people, with respect to the evil day, Isa. xxvi. 20, “Come, my people,
enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it
were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” And the voice of
faith in answer thereto is, “My soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy
wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast,” Psal. lvii. 1. It
is good news, that Zion's God reigneth, whatever the time brings forth.
iv. With respect to death. Death is of all terribles the most terrible, and is
therefore called “the king of terrors.” But those who have taken God in Christ
for their refuge, have what may comfort and establish them, even in that case.
Even from that last enemy God is a refuge. So that,
(i.) The fear of death ought not to perplex and terrify them. David could say,
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,” Psal. xxiii. 4.
Death can do no harm to those whose refuge the Lord is. For,
(ii.) The sting of death cannot reach them. They may sit within their refuge,
and sing, “O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory 3 The
sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Cor. xv. 55–57.
The refuge was provided against sin and death in a peculiar manner, and they
may expect all safety in it under the covert of the wings of a crucified Redeemer.
And it is the weakness of faith that makes them so fearful about it.
Secondly, Ye who cannot be brought to say unto God in Christ, “Thou art
my refuge and my portion.” To take God in Christ for your refuge, I would
have you, -
1. To reflect on the folly of this your course. And you may see it, if you con-
sider, that,
(1.) There is no safety for you without this refuge. Ye are guilty; and the
avenger is the justice of God, by which ye will undoubtedly fall, if ye get not
within this refuge. Ye must either be in Christ, or God will pursue you as an
enemy. And, [1..] He is a just God, and ye cannot escape by flattering him;
Gen. xviii. 25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” [2.] He is every-
where present, and ye cannot flee from him, Psal. cxxxix. 7. [3.] He is omnipo-
tent; and so ye cannot resist him, and make head against him : “Who hath
hardened himself against him, and hath prospered ?” Job ix. 4. [4] He is eternal,
and ye cannot outlive him. See 2 Thess. i. 6–9. †
(2.) That however long ye delay, ye must draw to it at last, or perish. And
who knows but ye may come too late 3 e -
2. I would have you instantly to repent, and turn to this refuge : Zech. ix. 12,
“Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope.” Though ye have sit many
calls, and given Christ many refusals, yet there is room for your Saying unto him,
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 747
“Thou art my refuge, and my portion;” he allows you to take your word again,
and rue * upon him ; Jer. xiii. 27, “O Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean 2
when shall it once be?” How peremptory were the people in their refusal? Jer.
ii. 25, “Thou saidst, There is no hope. No, for I have loved strangers, and after
them will I go.” Yet see chap. iii. 1, “But thou hast played the harlot with
many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord.” Christ insists upon your
saying to him, “Thou art my refuge, and my portion;” gives you one offer of
himself after another; why so, but because he would have you yet to be wise, and
turn to him 2 Come, then, sinners, while yet there is room.
XVII.
GOD IN CHRIST THE BELIEVER's PORTION.f
PsALM cxlii. 5.
“I cried wnto thee, O Lord : I said, Thow art my refuge and my portion in the land
of the living.”
HAVING considered the nature of the refuge and portion mentioned in the text,
especially that of the refuge, and shown that those who have taken God in Christ
for their refuge and portion should recognise their so doing, I now proceed to an-
other doctrine from the words, namely,
DocTRINE, To those who have sincerely made God in Christ their refuge, the
same God in Christ is their portion to live on in that refuge.
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Consider God in Christ as a portion to live on. &
II. Show in what respects he is the believer's portion, or the portion of those
who have taken him for their refuge.
III. Confirm the doctrine.
IV. Make some practical improvement.
I. I am to consider God in Christ as a portion to live on. For understanding
of this, consider,
First, Man needed and doth need a portion. Portions are given to supply wants,
and answer the needs of those who get them. The need is twofold:
1. By necessity of nature, from the moment of his being, he needed a portion,
something without himself to live upon. Innocent Adam did not need a refuge to
flee to, guilt brought on that necessity. While he kept free from sin, none could
do him harm. But he needed a portion as he was a creature, and therefore was
not self-sufficient, which is an incommunicable property of God; Gen. xvii. 1, “I
am God all-sufficient.” God was infinitely happy in himself before there was any
creature; but no creature can be happy in itself, having desires to be satisfied,
that must be satisfied from another quarter.
2. By necessity of loss. God himself, without the intervention of a mediator,
was man's portion at first, and the well-furnished world was but the incast to the
bargain, Gen. i. 26, 27. It was never given him for his portion; for it was what
his innocent soul could never have subsisted on. But when he gave him every
herb for the support of his earthly part, he gave him himself as his God for the Sup-
* * i.e. repent, change your mind—Ed.
f This discourse, consisting of more sermons than one, was delivered in September 1722.
#48 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
port of his heavenly part. But man by sin lost his portion, God turning his enemy,
and all access to the enjoyment of God being stopped. Thus mankind was left in a
starving condition.
Secondly, The same way that God became a refuge to which guilty sinners
might have access, he became a portion to which starving sinners might have access,
namely, in Christ. The former drew with it the latter.
1. None less than a God could ever be a sufficient portion to man. Indeed, if
man had no nobler part than the body, the earth of which it was made might be
a sufficient portion to him, as it is to the beasts. But since he is endowed with a
rational soul, which is capable of desires that all the creation cannot satisfy, and
none but God himself can, it is evident, that only God himself can be a sufficient
portion to man.
2. But an absolute God could never be enjoyed as a portion by a sinful creature,
Justice stood in the way of it, which requires the sinner to die the death, according
to the threatening, Gen. ii. 17, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die;” and therefore forbade the enjoying of their portion, by which the sin-
ner might live. What was the life promised in the covenant of works, but that
complete happiness flowing from the full enjoyment of God in heaven, and the
happiness flowing from the enjoyment of him here ? The covenant, then, being
broken, the justice of God necessarily staved him off from this,
3. But God having clothed himself with our nature in the person of the Son,
and so become a refuge to the guilty creature, he became also a portion for the
starving creature, upon which it might live. As a refuge we find in him a covert
from revenging wrath, and what fully answers the demands of the law on our account.
Hence taking him for our refuge, and so sheltering ourselves under the shade of a
crucified Redeemer, in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead, there is nothing
to hinder our enjoyment of him as our portion, Psal. xvi. 5, 10. º
Thirdly, God in Christ, then, is a portion, legally destined for, and offered to, sin-
mers in the gospel. He is a portion for them to live on, as well as a refuge for them
to flee unto ; John iii. 16, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
I take up this in these three things: -
1. The soul of man may live on the enjoyment of God (Lam. iii. 24.) in Christ,
It needs no more to make it live happily; John vi. 57, “He that eateth me, even
he shall live by me.” The prodigal, when he was minded to return to his father,
was convinced of this; Luke xv. 17, “How many hired servants of my father's
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger l’ And if you ask,
What is this bread 2 our Lord Christ answers, John vi. 51, “I am the living bread
which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever;
and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world.” And if ye ask, Where the strength of this bread lies for nourishing of the
soul? it is answered, John vi. 63, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh pro-
fiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life;”
Col. ii. 9, 10, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And
ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.” The
enjoyment of God in Christ,
(1.) Removes the maladies of the soul; Psal, ciii. 1–3, “Bless the Lord, O my
soul,—who healeth all thy diseases.” Sin has cast the soul into extreme disorders,
has left it in a diseased condition, and the sickness is mortal, which the soul can-
not miss to die of eternally, if it be not cured; John viii. 24, “If ye believe not
that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” It is cast into a fever of raging lusts, which
cause in it many irregular and preternatural desires. And the answering of these
desires does but increase the distemper of the soul, Men whose portion the world
is, endeavour to satisfy them from their portion, but all in vain; Eccl. i. 8, “The
eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing;” Hab. ii. 5, “He
is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and
is as death, and cannot be satisfied.” Neither can he be satisfied from a holy
God, whose holiness is perfectly opposite to their nature. But here lies the
matter :
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 749
The enjoyment of God in Christ kills these desires, and frees the soul from them,
according to the measure of it; John iv. 14, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that
I shall give him, shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him, shall be
in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Like as the feverish
man's drought is slaked, according to the measure of his recovery wrought by some
suitable remedy; so God in Christ being enjoyed by faith, the irregular desires or
lusts of the soul die; and when God in Christ shall be perfectly enjoyed in heaven,
they shall be perfectly expelled out of the soul, Heb. xii. 23. Thus mortification
is the effect of the enjoyment of God in Christ; and as lusts die, the Soul lives,
—lives happily and comfortably.
(2.) It satisfies the regular cravings of the soul; Isa. lv.2, “Hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”
Take away the lustings flowing from the distemper of the soul by sin, the desires
of the heart are brought into a narrow compass, all centering in one thing, namely,
what is really needful and useful for the soul's well-being ; Luke X. ult, “One
thing is needful;” Psal. xxvii. 4, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that
will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” . And that is to
be found in the enjoyment of God in Christ, Psal. xxvii. 4, and lxxiii. 25, fore-
cited. Now, the regular cravings of the soul may be comprised in these two things:
i. A desire of what may perfect its nature. Every thing has a native inclina-
tion towards its own perfection: and the sinful creature being made a new creature,
has a strong inclination to its own perfection, and consequently desires what may
advance that. Hence we read of the lusting of the Spirit, Gal. v. 17, the groan-
ings of the gracious soul under the remains of corruption, Rom. vii. 24. Now, that
which is perfecting to the renewed soul is the transformation of it into the image
of God, 1 John iii. 2. For this is it by which it is brought back into the happy
state it was created in at first, Gen. i. 27. And without questioh every thing is
the more perfect, the nearer it comes to the likeness of him who is the fountain of
all perfection, And therefore holiness is indeed the happiness and life of the soul.
Now, the enjoyment of God in Christ answers this desire of the soul, according to
the measure thereof. And in Christ there is a fulness for satisfying of it; for in
him there is a fulness of the Spirit of sanctification, with light, life, strength, &c.,
and whatsoever is necessary for nourishing up the new creature to perfection, John
i. 16; Rev. iii. 1. And through the enjoyment of God in him, the perfection of
the soul is carried on, according to the degrees of the enjoyment, 2 Cor. iv. 18.
ii. A desire of what may continue it in its perfection. This also is what every
thing has a native inclination to, since nothing can desire its own destruction. And
this the new creature or renewed soul is also endowed with, namely, a desire of its
being for ever continued in the state of perfection once attained unto. But what
portion is sufficient for such a boundless desire of the soul? Not this world surely,
which will not last, but will be burned up ; but the eternal God, the everlasting
Father, of infinite perfections, who is an inexhaustible fountain of perfection for
ever. Therefore says the psalmist, “My flesh and my heart faileth : but God is
the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever,” Psal. lxxiii. 26.
2. There is a sufficiency in God in Christ for the whole man, soul and body too;
Rom. xi. 36, “For of him, and through him, and to him are all things.” He is
infinite in perfections, therefore there can be nothing wanting in him, which is
necessary for the good of his creature any manner of way; Job xi. 7, “Canst thou
by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ?”
Hence David says, Psal. xxxiv. 10, “ They that seek the Lord shall not want any
good thing.” So that he who would have a portion, that might furnish him with
all he needs, both for his soul and his body, may have it in a God in Christ.
Thus God in Christ is a portion the whole man may live on.
Question. How can that be 2
Answer, 1. There is enough in God to give a man full contentment of heart in
any lot whatsoever, to cause him say from inward feeling that he has enough, what-
ever be his wants; Phil. iv. 11, “I have learned,” says the apostle, “in whatso-
ever state I am, therewith to be content;” Hab, iii. 17, 18, formerly quoted. And
750 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
that is equivalent to one's having all, and wanting nothing, 2 Cor. vi. 10; Phil.
iv. 18. A man living thus in a cottage, with coarse fare and a small measure of
it, lives better than a discontented king in his palace ; Luke xii. 15, “For a man's
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” God
satisfies such as with marrow and fat, of which a small quantity fills so as the man
desires no more, but rejoiceth in his portion.
2. All good things whatsoever that are not formally in God are eminently and
virtually in him as in their cause ; Matt. xix. 17, 18, “There is none good but
one, that is God.” That is to say, As one getting a great sum of money for his
portion, may live upon it; because though it is not formally meat nor clothes, he
cannot eat it nor clothe himself with the metal; yet it is virtually and in effect
both meat and clothes, in so far as it can purchase these things to the man, and so
is equivalent to all such things; Eccl. x. 19, “Money answereth all things:” even
so one getting God in Christ for his portion may live upon him; because he can
furnish him with all good things whatsoever. So having him to be theirs, they
have all in effect, since he has all, 1 Cor. iii. 21; not only all for the Soul, but all
for the body too.
These two grounds being laid, I say there is a sufficiency in a God in Christ for
all that is necessary for the whole man; so that they who have him for their por-
tion, have in him a sufficiency for the body as well as for the soul. And,
1st, For their maintenance, in meat and drink. That day the man takes God
for his portion, his bread is baken, his provision is secured for time as well as for
eternity. That is a clause in the disposition made to them of their portion; Psal.
xxxviii. 3, “Verily thou shalt be fed;” Isa. xxxiii. 16, “Bread shall be given him,
his waters shall be sure.” All living is fed by him, Psal. cxlv. 15. However
poor and needy they may be, he who feeds his birds, will not neglect his babes,
Psal. cxlvii. 9.
Question. But what can a man make of that sufficiency in God as a portion for
maintenance, when he has empty pantries to go to ?
Answer. If he go by faith to his portion as his maintenance, he may make these
four things of it: . • -
(1.) He may get providential provisions brought to him in the channel of the
covenant, that is, as an accomplishment of the promise on which he relies. And
if that were bare bread and water, it will be more sweet to the godly man than the
most delicious meats to one whose portion God is not. So I doubt not Elijah's
fare was sweeter to him, (1 Kings xvii. 6,) than the fare of Baal's priests at Jezebel's
table. Godly persons in straits helped to live by faith, get many sweet experiences,
which they want when their lot is more plentiful. And sure I am the creature
never tastes so sweet, as when it comes in answer to prayer and faith in the promise.
(2.) He may get a little to serve far, as in the case of Daniel and his com-
panions, Dan. i. 15; whose countenances, at the end of ten days, appeared fairer,
and fatter in flesh, by living on pulse and water, than all the children which did
eat the portion of the king's meat. Nature may be content with little, and grace
with less; whereas lust can never get enough. There is a curse that insensibly
wastes the provision of some ; while the small provision of others, by God's bless-
ing, comes to be like the widow's barrel of meal, and cruise of oil, 1 Kings xvii.
She never had much, but yet she never wanted altogether. It is a certain truth,
that “man doth not live by bread alone,” Matt. iv. 4 ; and that as men may eat
plentifully, and not have enough, so they may be kept at very slender provision,
and yet through grace have abundance.
(3) When the streams are quite dry, he may get a draught of the fountain that
will be strengthening and refreshful to his very body. Moses being in the mount
with God, ate none for forty days, and missed neither meat nor drink. It is true,
that was miraculous: but it tells us, that the godly man's portion is able to feed
him without meat or drink. And I believe the experience of many of the saints
proves, that a watering of grace to the soul is even sometimes refreshing and
strengthening to the very body, agreeable to these scripture texts; Isa. lxvi. 14,
“Your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb;” Psal. xxxv.
9, 19, “My soul shall be joyful in the Lord ; it shall rejoice in his salvation. All
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 751
my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from
him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth
him 2’’
(4.) He may quietly and contentedly, in the faith of the promise, hang on at
the door of his storehouse, not doubting but his Father will seasonably interpose
for his help and relief, after he has tried him, and thus feed on hope; Psal. xxxvii.
3, “Trust in the Lord, and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily
thou shalt be fed.” And this is one of those ways how the Lord's people are satisfied
in days of famine, verse 19. Do not you observe, that sometimes the hungry child
cries for bread, and the mother gives him a promise of it some time after, and
thereupon he is easy % And may we not think a promise embraced by faith will
have a satisfying influence on a child of God?
2dly, For their clothing. That likewise is an appurtenance of the saint's por-
tion; Matt. vi. 30, “If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and
to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith?” There is a lust for clothing and attire, for satisfying of which earth and
seas, and even the most remote countries, Persia and the Indies, are ransacked :
and yet that lust is not satisfied; still some new thing is desired. But, O the
satisfaction of heart, where the man or woman lodges the key of their wardrobe in
the hand of a God in Christ, believing that he will clothe them as is meet in his
sight. This made the sheep-skins and goat-skins wherein the worthies (Heb. xi.
37.) wandered about, more comfortable to them than the most gorgeous apparel
could be to their persecutors.
3dly, For their housing or lodging; Psal. xc. 1, “Lord, thou hast been our dwell-
ing-place in all generations.” They that have God for their portion, though they
were cast out of house and hold, will not want a place where they may lodge
securely and comfortably. He who made a fiery furnace a comfortable lodging to
the three children, can make any place sweet to his own. Jacob never lodged a
night more comfortably, than when he durst not stay at his father's house for Esau,
but got the vault of the heavens for the roof of his bed-chamber, the bare field for
his bed, and a stone for his bolster, Gen. xxviii. That he preferred, as the house
of God, to all the houses that ever his foot was in, verse 17.
4thly, For their provision with money. They that are lovers of it, shall never
get enough of it, heap up as they will, Eccl. v. 10. Nay, it is ruining to them
who seek it, use it, and value themselves upon it, as their portion ; 1 Tim. vi. 10,
“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
But those whose portion God is, shall have as much of it as he sees they really
need, and that is abundance ; Job xxii. 25, “Thou shalt have plenty of silver.”
If their portion furnish them not money, it will furnish them money-worth, what
is as good and better, Heb. “silver of strength,” Ibid. The people of God might
be very easy on this head, if they could believe that all the riches of the world
belong to him, and are at his disposal, and that infinite wisdom and love carves out
their portion of them ; and that therefore, if their part thereof be small, it is neces-
sary for them it should be so, and that want is made up another way; Hag. ii. 8, 9,
“The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, Saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of
this latter house shall be greater than of the former, Saith the Lord of hosts: and
in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.” X-
Lastly, For a purchase to them. If men are for a heritage, some possession
they might call their own, there is no such sure way for it as to take God in Christ
for their portion. God gives bits of the earth, lairdships and lordships, &c., to
some few of his children, though but few of them, 1 Cor. i. 26. The greatest part
of those who are so well provided now, are those who have no more to expect at
his hand. But, -
(1.) Whereas worldly men have but bits of this earth that they can call theirs,
they that have God for their portion have a right to the whole earth as their
Father's ground; Matt. v. 5, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth.” It is not the carnal worldlings that fight and worry one another for it, but
the meek and quiet ones whose hearts rest in God, that shall inherit the earth.
752 MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES.
There is often a great difference betwixt the saints and others in this earth in
respect of their possessions; they for whom God has least kindness for, oft-
times get the largest share of earth ; but betwixt a believer and an unbeliever, in
that case, there is just such a difference as betwixt the young heir and one of his
father's tenants. The tenant may be in possession of much of the land, while the
young heir possesses not a furrow of it: but he has a right to it all; the tenant
has no more than what he must pay a dear rent for, and may be turned out of at
the term.
(2.) Whereas worldly men's property is confined to this earth, and they have
no peculiar interest in the visible heavens, air, sun, moon, and stars; the children
of God's property extends to these also, and they have a peculiar interest in them,
as the outworks of their Father's palace, Psal. viii. 3. The visible heavens are a
space of the universe which Providence has kindly put beyond the reach of men
to impropriate : So that the beggar and the king are equally free to the air, sun,
moon, &c. If it had been otherwise, no doubt the men of the world would have
divided these among them too, as well as they have done the earth, waters, and
Seas; so that the meaner sort would have had the light of the sun, moon, &c., to
have paid for to the proprietors, as well as they have their houses and farms on
the earth, &c., to pay for. But, blessed be God, worldly men's heritage extends not
that far. Yea, but the portioners of a God in Christ have a peculiar interest there;
1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, “All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours.”
Each of them may look up, and say, That is my sun, and my moon, my stars, my
air, purchased by the blood of my elder Brother, and disponed in the everlasting
covenant by his Father to me, to give light to me, and for me to breathe in, by
day and night, and discharged to wrong or hurt me ; Psal. cxxi. 6, “The Sun
shall not smite thee by day; nor the moon by night.”
(3.) Whereas worldly men have no claim at all to the highest heavens, and so have
no place to go to, when they shall be shaken out of the earth at the resurrection,
but the pit of hell; the heirs, the portioners of God in Christ, their great interest
lies there. Heaven is their own country, their own city, kingdom, and mansion-
house; it is their own home, which they shall never depart from, if once they
were there. It is disponed to them with their portion, and Christ as their proxy
has taken possession of it for them in their name; Heb. vi. 20, “Whither the
Forerunner is for us entered.” Hence they are said to be settled there already,
Eph. ii. 6. In one word, they enjoy all in their Head, Col. ii. 9, 10.
3. Every man may have this God in Christ secured to him as his portion, in
virtue of the everlasting covenant offered in the gospel. For thus the covenant is
proposed to be believed, embraced, and appropriated by all to whom the gospel
comes; Heb. viii. 10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord : I will put my laws into their mind, and
write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me
a people.” A man's portion speaks a disposal of it to him by gift from the donor,
and his property in it by claiming it as his own, and so accepting the gift. Thus
God in Christ is a portion offered to all to whom the gospel comes, and a portion
accepted by believers. I take up this in four things.
1st, The all which man is capable to enjoy, is divided into two great parts, God
and the creature. This division was made by sin; for before it entered, man
enjoyed God and the creature, the latter as the incast to the former : but man
falling off from God, chose the creature as a portion in opposition to God; Luke
xv. 12, 13, “The younger said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days
after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far
country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” He left his father,
with his portion. And thus all men by nature, while the two portions are set
before them, grasp the creature as their portion.
2dly, Man by this choice brought himself into a wretched condition. (1.) He
betook himself to a portion that could never be sufficient for him ; Isa. lv. 22,
“Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread 2 and your labour for
MISCELL ANEOUS DISCOURSES. 753
that which satisfieth not ?” (2.) He lost all right to God as a portion any more.
His name became “Lo-ammi, Not my people,” Hos. i. 9. Therefore men in their
natural state are said to be without God, Eph. ii. 12: and if man had been never
so willing to have returned to the possession of God as his portion, by the first bar-
gain, he could have had no access, more than the fallen angels, Gen. iii. 22, 24.
Yea, and it was quite beyond his power to have procured himself access to God
again as his portion.
3dly, God in Christ hath freely made over himself as a portion to sinners, in the
gospel; so that they all may, and are welcome to take possession of him as their
portion again. This is Heaven's grant to poor sinners of the race of Adam, from
which fallen angels are excluded; John iii. 16, “God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” Compare Prov. viii. 4, “Unto you, O men, I call; and
my voice is to the sons of men.”. And thus the mercies of the covenant are called
sinners’ “own mercies,” Jonah ii. 8; and the living God “ the Saviour of all men,”
1 Tim. iv. 10; and salvation “the common Salvation,” Jude 3.
Question. But how hath God made over himself to lost sinners of Adam's race,
as a portion?
Answer. By way of free gift to be received by faith. Hence Christ is called “the
gift of God,” John iv. 10; Isa. ix. 6; John vi. 32; his righteousness a “gift,”
Rom. v. 17; yea, and eternal life is “given,” 1 John v. 11. This is the free gift
made by Heaven to Adam's family, so that they may by faith, every one of them,
claim it, and take possession thereof, without fear of vitious intromission. And this
is indeed the foundation of faith ; for no man can warrantably take what he has no
manner of right to, nor can any receive what is not first given him. There must
be a giving on God's part before there can be a receiving on our part, John iii. 27.
The purport of what is said on this head is, that there is a gift of this portion
made to you and every one of you. . And by this gospel it is intimated to you,
1 John v. 11; so that nothing remains to make it your own in a saving manner
but that you by faith claim it and take possession of it. Ye have a clear and solid
ground on which ye may do so, whatever be your case ; Rev. xxii. 17, “Whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely.” And this brings me to the
4th and last thing, namely, Faith claims the gift of this portion, appropriates
it, and takes possession thereof; so that it becomes actually the believer's own por-
tion in a saving manner, John i. 12. The sinner, convinced of his utter poverty
and want, and the insufficiency of the whole creation to satisfy the soul in the
starving condition that it is therefore in, hears and believes that God in Christ
hath given himself as a portion to sinners, and therefore to himself in particular, in
the word of the promise of the gospel ; and therefore trusts and confides in him as
his portion for happiness and satisfaction, upon the warrant of the word of grace.
Thus faith takes possession, and saith as in the text, “Thou art my portion;”
Lam. iii. 24, “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
him.” See Psalm ii. ult, “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him;” Isa.
xxvi. 3, 4, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee;.
because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever : for in the Lord
Jehovah is everlasting strength.” . Thus the man renounceth all other portions,
believes a sufficiency in God, and that that sufficiency shall be made forthcoming
to him, according to the promise, and so rests in God in Christ as his portion.
This is saving faith, by which the soul takes God for its portion.
Even as if where a family is ruined and reduced to beggary, a friend of theirs
should draw up a disposition, wherein he makes over to them his estate, unknown
to them. And while they are going about in a starving condition, he causes inti-
mate it to them, that they may come and claim it, and take possession of it, and so
live on it. In that case, those of that family that claim it enjoy it as their own:
but if any of them will not believe the grant of the estate to be made to them, and
therefore will not put in their claim to it, nor lay their weight on it; they must
starve for all it, it never becomes theirs actually to any saving purpose. Adam’s
posterity is this family; God in chnº, the friend ; the gospel promise in the
- C
754 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Bible is the disposition; the preaching of the gospel is the intimation; faith is
the making of the claim ; and unbelief is the not putting in a claim.
Thus have I shown you how God in Christ is a portion for sinners to live on.
I shall,
Fourthly and lastly, Speak of the properties of this portion.
1. God in Christ is a suitable portion; Isa. lv.2, “Eat ye that which is good,
and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Many have little satisfaction in the
portion given them, because it is not suitable to their case ; but God in Christ is a
portion suited to all the necessities of poor sinners, and therefore they may rejoice
in him, Isa. lxi. 7. The whole world cannot make a suitable portion for man's
soul. He spoke like a fool who said, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry,” Luke xii. 20. The soul
being a spiritual substance, carnal things can never be a suitable portion to it, as
being quite unsuitable to its nature. But God is a Spirit, of infinite perfections,
and therefore a suitable portion for the soul.
2. The double portion. Such a portion belonged to the first-born, Deut. xxi. 17;
by which we may understand that which Elisha prayed for: “I pray thee,” said
he to Elijah, “let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” This seems to have
had something typical in it : for all believers in Christ, in the language of the
Holy Ghost, are “first-born,” Heb. xii. 23, denoting that to them belongs the
blessing, the dominion, the priesthood, and the double portion. Now, God in
Christ is their portion, therefore he is the double portion. This world is but the
single portion, a portion for unbelievers; whatever be theirs, God is not theirs.
But they that have God for their portion, they have the good things of this life as
the incast to the bargain, Matt. vi. 33 ; 1 Tim. iv. 8. God's dealing with Saints
and sinners, is like that of Abraham with his children, Gen, xxv. 5, 6, “Abraham
gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines which
Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away.” All is the believer's,
Rom. viii. 17, compare Heb. i. 2.
3. A full portion; Col. i. 19, “It pleased the Father that in him should all ful-
ness dwell;” compared with chap. ii. 9, “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily.” There is no worldly portion that one has or can have but there
is always something wanting in it. There was a want even in paradise. The
treasures and kingdoms of the greatest monarch on earth cannot furnish all
things. But there is a fulness in God himself, he is “all-sufficient,” Gen. xvii. 1;
Eph. i. 23. The saints in heaven are all filled by him, so that they want
nothing; and sometimes, he has filled saints on earth, that they have been
made to cry, Hold, lest the earthen pitcher, the body, should burst with the
incomes of his fulness. -
4. A heart-satisfying portion; Psalm lxiii. 5, 6, “My soul shall be satisfied,” says
David, “as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful
lips,” &c. Man's heart is a devouring depth, into which if one should cast the
fulness of ten thousand worlds, it would all be swallowed up ; and the heart would
still be crying, Give, give. For the whole creation, yea, all possible creations,
cannot be commensurable to the desires of the Soul of man ; because the Creator
enlarged its capacity to the enjoying of himself an infinite good, nothing less
can truly satisfy or still its desires and cravings. But God himself is a portion
satisfying to the soul: while he pours in of his goodness to the soul, it desires
nothing beyond him, and nothing, besides him ; Psalm lxxiii. 25, “Whom have
I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.”
Here is a portion, in which the restless soul comes to rest, like the hungry infant
set on the breast, Isa. lxvi. 11.
5. A certain and secure portion; Matt. vi. 19, 20, “Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”
No worldly portion is so : all of that kind is but moveables, which may be lost :
but the saint's portion is not so ; Heb. xii. 28, “A kingdom which cannot be moved.”
How many have had riches and wealth sometime a-day, who have been robbed and
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 755
spoiled of all, having nothing left them But none can take away this portion;
for “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” Rom. xi. 29. And
this is the advantage of having God for our portion, in the tenor of the second
covenant, beyond that of the first; John x. 28, 29, “I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My
Father which gave them me, is greater than all: and none is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand.”
6. A durable portion. As there is no losing of it, so there is no wasting of it
neither, John iv. 14. Many have had great portions in the world, who have got
through them, having spent so prodigally that they have left themselves nothing.
But this portion is infinite, so it is a well that can never be drawn dry. This is
enough to bear the believer's ordinary and extraordinary charges, as the worthies,
Heb. xii., experienced.
7. An everlasting portion, Psalm lxxiii. 26. Though men's portion in the world
neither be taken from them, nor wasted by them ; yet it will last no longer with
them than the dying-hour. When the breath is out, it is no more theirs; it
becomes the portion of others after them. But death takes not away the believer's
portion ; therefore is the phrase, “Lay up for yourselves,” Matt. vi. 20. He will
be the believer's portion in time and throughout eternity. And hence it follows
that he is,
8. A nonsuch portion, the best of portions, the most desirable portion : no por-
tion comparable to him; Jer. x. 15, 16, “They are vanity, and the work of errors:
in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like
them : for he is the former of all things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance;
the Lord of hosts is his name.” Psalm xvii. 14, 15. And so the believer reckons
all but loss and dung in comparison of a God in Christ, Phil. iii. 8. So the world's
portion being put in competition with Christ and his heavy cross, the Lord's people
have rejoiced in their portion in the midst of the most cruel sufferings, and would
not have exchanged their portion with their persecutor's fulness and ease.
II. The next general head is to show in what respects God in Christ is the por-
tion of his people, or the portion of those who have taken him for their refuge.
1. They have and possess him as their portion in virtue of the covenant of grace,
which is the disposition they have to it, Heb. viii. 10. Being brought within the
covenant, they are secured in this which is the portion of God's covenant-people,
his children and heirs. Others have the offer and grant of this portion, but they
are actually possessed of it.
2. They desire him above all for their portion, Psalm lxxiii. 25, often cited.
They have seen the vanity and emptiness of created things for a portion, (Psalm
xxvii. 14,) the fulness and sufficiency of God in Christ; and therefore their desires
terminate in him for a portion, John xiv. 8; Psalm xxvii. 4. They desire him
only, wholly, and for ever. And so he is called their “desire,” Hag. ii. 7; all
their desires of a portion centring in him.
3. They choose him for their portion. When the two parts into which the all
is divided are set before them, and they are bid choose, their souls take hold of a
God in Christ, and say, “Thou art my portion ;” I will take thee as my portion
and inheritance before all the world, Joshua xxiv. 15. They halt not, as many,
betwixt two opinions; they are determined, they are brought to a point; he is
their choice.
4. They claim him as their portion; Lam, iii. 24, “Thou art my portion, saith
my soul.” Their souls say with Thomas, “My Lord, and my God.” It is the
proper work of faith to claim him as theirs. God insists on this, that they should
claim him; Jer. iii. 4, “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father,
thou art the guide of my youth ?” He promises that they shall claim him ; verse
19, “I said, Thou shalt call me, My Father.” And the Spirit of Christ in them
causes them to claim him; Rom. viii. 15, “Ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father;” Gal. iv. 6, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” According to the measure of
their faith, so is their claim, strong or weak, clear or unclear; but wherever faith
56 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
is, it doth claim God in Christ as theirs. Doubts and darkness may indeed so
overcloud the believer, that he cannot perceive his claiming God in Christ as his,
it is like a pulse so weak that it can hardly be felt ; yea, he may be at that that
he says, he has no claim to him as his, that he dare not, cannot claim him as his
God or portion: and yet bid him in that case quit his claim, he would not do it
for a thousand worlds: which argues that he hath a real claim, though to him as
it were imperceptible. ;
5thly, They rest in him as their portion; Heb. iv. 3, “We which have believed
do enter into rest.” Their poor hungry souls have been seeking a portion to live
on. While they sought among the creatures for it, they could find nothing to rest
in as a portion; but a discovery of God in Christ being made to them, and they
apprehending him by faith, their souls say within them now, “This is my rest.”
They are like “the merchant-man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found
one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it,” Matt. xiii.
45, 46. They see that there is a fulness in him to satisfy their souls, to answer
all their needs, and supply all their wants; so they rest in him as their portion.
III. I proceed now to confirm the doctrine. It appears from,
1. The nature of God, particularly his all-sufficiency and goodness. There is
enough in him for all that sinners stand in need of: so he needs not send them
for their provision to an other quarter. He is good, infinitely good; and therefore
ready to communicate of his sufficiency to his own ; Psalm czix. 68, “Thou art
good, and dost good ;” and will not send them to another. And so it is indeed;
Psalm lxxxiv. 11, “The Lord God is a sun and shield;” a shield for protection,
and a sun for provision. - -
2. The nature of the covenant, which is for provision as well as protection of
those who come into it. The leading promise of the covenant; Heb. viii. 10, “I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people,” imports the one as well
as the other. And so both are promised together, Psalm lxxxiv. 11, just quoted.
God’s covenant is not like the treacherous covenant the Duke of Alva made with
some, to whom he promised them their life, but afterwards starved them, pretend-
ing he had not promised them meat too. No ; “I say unto you,” says Christ,
“Take no thought (i. e. anxious or perplexing thought) for your life, what ye shall
eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on: Is not
the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” Matt. vi. 25. It is a full
covenant wherein all is secured to believers; Rev. xxi. 7. “He that overcometh
shall inherit all things.” It is a covenant of service, and masters give provision
as well as protection to their servants: a marriage-covenant, and the husband, if
he be able, will surely maintain his own wife.
3. The nature of faith, which is the soul's going to God in Christ for rest; and
that not only for rest to the conscience, under the covert of blood as a refuge;
but for rest to the heart, in an all-sufficient God as a portion, Matt. xi. 28. This
last as well as the former is the errand faith goes to God in Christ upon : and
doubtless it cannot come amiss, for it obtains all, that being the constant rule of
the dispensation of grace, “According to thy faith be it unto thee.”
4. The honour of God requires it ; Heb. xi. 16, “God is not ashamed to be
called their God.” Believers go to him and trust in him for all; and it lies upon
the honour of God to provide for them, as well as to protect them. Hath he said,
“If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath
denied the faith and is worse that an infidel,” 1 Tim. v. 8 ; and will he not see to
the protection of his own family 2 Is it not a dishonour to any man of ability, to
have his spouse or children hanging on about the hand of strangers, for something
to live on ? So it reflects dishonour on God, that his people hang on so about the
world's door: and we may be sure they need not do it, John iv. 14.
5. The comfort and happiness of believers require it. It is not possible they
can be provided otherwise with a portion on which they may live; John vi. 68,
“Lord,” said Peter, “to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal
life.” Though while they lived in their natural state, they could like the prodi-
gal feed on husks like the swine ; yet their new nature cannot now relish such
entertainment. Hence proceed those breathings of the new nature in them, “O
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 757
God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is,” Psal. lxiii. 1.
And these desires are of the Lord's own kindling, and therefore he cannot but
satisfy them, by being a portion to them himself. May not the whole creation say
to the soul in these breathings, as 2 Kings vi. 27, “If the Lord do not help thee,
whence shall I help thee ?”
6. The duty of believers supposes it. It is their duty to live on a God in
Christ as their portion ; Isa. lv. 2, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your
soul delight itself in fatness.” This very thing is the life of faith, which is the
great thing God requires of his people. Hence Paul says, “The life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,” Gal. ii. 20; compare John
vi. 27, 29, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you : for him
hath God the Father sealed. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent.” It is their privilege ; ver, 57, “He that eateth me, even he
shall live by me ;” and consequently their duty to live by him. They ought to
live on him, and lay all their wants upon him ; Psal, lv. 22, “Cast thy burden
upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” Consequently he is their portion to
live upon. He takes it ill at their hands, that they seek to any other for supply ;
this says they are welcome to him.
I come now to the practical improvement of this comfortable subject, which I
shall discuss in a threefold use, namely, of information, trial, and exhortation.
Use 1. Of information. Hence we may learn,
1. The happiness of believers. They have in a God in Christ what makes them
happy persons indeed. There are but two things necessary to make a guilty
creature happy, namely, suitable protection and provision. The first removes
evil from them, the last furnishes them with necessary good. In God the believer
has both ; for he is both a refuge to them, and a portion in that refuge. Where-
fore we may conclude, as Psal. ii. ult, “Blessed are all they that put their trust
in him.”
2. The unhappiness of unbelievers. They are poor portionless creatures, whatever
they enjoy in the world ; for any portion they have, is not worth the name. It is
but a creature-portion, and that will be but a time-portion ; it will neither Satisfy,
nor will it last with them. And therefore the Spirit of God speaks very diminu-
tively of it; Prov. xxiii. 5, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not ? for
riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven;”
Matt. xiii. 12, “Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he
hath.” God is not their portion, for he is not their refuge : they have not a God
to live upon as their God, since they are not by faith seated under his shadow.
3. Justification and sanctification are inseparable ; for to whom God is a refuge
he is also a portion. Faith takes God in Christ for a refuge, and so the soul is
justified ; Rom. viii. 1, “There is now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus.” It takes him for a portion, and so the soul is sanctified; Eph. ii.
20, 21, “Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed
together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” Think not that ye shall
separate what God has so closely joined. Ye that are unholy in your lives, may
assure yourselves that your sins are not pardoned. The reigning power of sin in
you may assure you, that it has yet its condemning power over you. If the guilt
of it were taken away, the reigning power of it would be broken. Alas ! how do
men deceive themselves | They will be called by Christ's name ; but they will
eat their own bread. They will pretend to make Christ the rest of their con-
sciences, while their hearts cannot rest in him, but in their lusts. But water as
well as blood came out of Christ's pierced side : and if ye be sprinkled with the
blood to the remission of your sin, ye are sprinkled with the water too, for the
sanctification of your hearts and lives. -
4. However, justification in the order of nature goes before sanctification. First,
God is the sinner's refuge, and then he becomes his portion; Rom. iv. 5, “To him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
7.58 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
counted for righteousness.” Whosoever, then, would be made holy, and would
attain to true evangelical repentance, which is the top-branch of true holiness, and
the compend of all good works, must seek to be justified by faith in order there-
unto. For till once the curse be taken off the soul in justification, how is it pos-
sible it should bring forth any good fruit 2 How can God become the portion of the
sinner, till once he is become his refuge 2 A legal repentance may and doth go
before the remission of sin as to the guilt of eternal wrath ; but true gospel-repent-
ance follows it, and that inseparably; Luke vii. 47, “Her sins which are many,
are forgiven ; for she loved much.”
5. Believers are so set up with a portion, that they cannot break. Since God
himself is their portion, they can never be poor; they will have enough in the
worst of times; Psal. xxiii. 1, “The Lord is my shepherd,” says David, “I shall
not want.” The believer's portion is not like that of the world, consisting of
moveables, which may be taken from them ; but it is “a kingdom which cannot be
moved,” Heb. xii. 28. The Chaldeans and Sabeans took away Job’s cattle, but
not his God and portion; and therefore he could say after all his sad losses, “Is
not my help in me !” Job vi. 13. The believer is like the landed man; though
robbers take away his money, they cannot take away his land too: though a flood
sweep away the crop, yet it leaves his ground still ; so that he has whereon to live.
Hence an eminent saint said, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no
meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the
stall; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation,” Hab.
iii. 17, 18.
6. God is all-sufficient. Who but one all-sufficient could be a portion to all
that flee into the great Refuge 2 How great must that portion be, which all
the saints from Adam have lived, and shall live upon, to the last that shall be in
the world; and that not only for time, but for eternity They shall all be heirs-
portioners, and all shall have enough. This world is but a sorry portion; one
generation must go, that another may come and enjoy it: for it cannot serve all
together, as God in Christ can do. -
Use 2. Of trial. Hereby ye may try whether ye be within the precincts,
bounds, and protection of the great Refuge, or not ; that is, in effect, whether ye
be in Christ, or out of Christ ; whether in a state of salvation or of condemnation.
This a point of great weight, and it nearly concerns you to know where you are ;
whether ye are yet got within the liberties of the refuge, or yet without them.
And I would offer some motives to press you to put this to a trial.
Motive 1. Life and death hang upon this point; Mark xvi. 16, “He that believ-
eth, shall be saved ; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.” Your eternal
salvation or damnation depend upon it. All that are within the precincts of this
refuge are safe ; death cannot come over the line : all that are without them are
in the utmost hazard of eternal destruction every moment; Psal. vii. 12, “If he turn
not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.” There is
no safety there ; for it is the dominion of death, in which no man can be safe.
Mot. 2. There are several particular differences betwixt the state of them that
are within, and of those that are without this refuge ; and these differences are
great and weighty. I will lay them before you in these five points:
1. In the matter of sin: there is no safety from it without this refuge. If you
be not within this refuge, sin has all its power over you. It has a reigning power
in you, so that do what ye will, ye can do nothing but sin, and cannot please God;
Rom. viii. 8, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God;” John xv. 5,
“Without me ye can do nothing.” Ye may wrestle against it as you will, but ye
will never get victory over it, for that is got only within the refuge; 1 Cor. xv. 57,
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Sin has a condemning power over you ; it is armed with its sting against
you, and keeps you under the guilt of eternal wrath ; John iii. 18, “He that
believeth not is condemned already.” So it preys on you, as death on the carcase.
But if ye be within the refuge, sin's dominion is broken unto you; Rom. vi. 14,
“Sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, but under
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 7.59
grace.” And though it yet dwell in you, it shall never recover the dominion, but,
like the house of Saul, grow weaker and weaker. And it cannot condemn you,
more than the fire could burn the three children : for “there is no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus,” Rom. viii. 1. Our Lord Christ felt the con-
demning power of sin as a public person, and so it can never repeat its sentence on
those who are in him.
2. In the matter of the law as a covenant of works. It extends its dominion
over all to the very border of the refuge : so all that are within the refuge are free
from it, but all that are without are under it, Rom. vi. 14. So if ye be without,
ye are under the covenant of works, which exacts obedience of you every way per-
fect under the pain of the curse ; and whatever comes short of perfection in your
obedience is rejected. So that when ye have done all you can, and the best you
can, yet you and your works are all rejected of God, because your works are not
perfect. In the dominion ye live in, less is not accepted. But if ye be within the
refuge, ye are under the covenant of grace, where obedience, yea, perfect obedience,
is indeed required, but not under pain of the curse, which Christ already has borne
away from all who are in him. But sincere obedience is accepted, and God takes
it kindly off their hands, though it is not perfect, for the sake of the Mediator's
perfect obedience, which always appears within the refuge.
3. In the matter of the curse. All without the refuge are under the curse, by
the sentence of the law bound over to the revenging wrath of God; Gal. iii. 10,
“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the
book of the law to do them;” Rom. iii. 19, “What things soever the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law : that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God.” But all within the refuge are freed
from the curse ; Gal. iii. 13, “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us.”
4. In respect of Satan. All without the refuge are under his power, Acts xxvi.
18. They are his captives, prisoners, servants or slaves, and members of the king-
dom of darkness. But they that are within the refuge, are set free from the power
of that enemy, (Col. i. 13,) and reign in life through Jesus Christ.
5. In the matter of death. To all without the refuge death is armed with its
sting ; but to those that are within it, it can do them no real harm, 1 Cor. xv. 57,
already quoted. -
Mot. 3. All of us are born without the refuge, being “children of wrath,” Eph.
ii. 3. None enter within it but those who are born again. If ye be living, then, in
the state ye were born in, ye are without the refuge, and so in the miserable case
ye have heard of
Mot. 4. Sinners when once awakened see that there is no living without the
refuge. Hence Peter's hearers, when pricked in their heart, cried out, “What
shall we do?” Acts ii. 37. No man could contentedly live in that case one moment,
if he saw his danger. -
Mot. 5. Many miss the entry into the refuge who seem to aim at it, Luke xiii.
24, and so seem to themselves and others to be in, while they really are out.
Now, ye may know if the Lord be your refuge by this. If the Lord be your
portion to live on, he is your refuge. If ye have taken God in Christ for your
refuge, ye have also taken him for your portion to live on. And whether God in
Christ be your portion or not, ye may know by these marks:
Mark 1. Ye will have a transcendent esteem of and value for him, and love of
him above all. He will have the highest seat in your judgment and practical
understanding, in your heart, and in your affections, Luke xiv. 26. Propriety in a
thing raises the value for it. A man will have a greater value for, and liking of
his own cottage, than another man's castle. Hence the world is the chief in the
minds and hearts of worldly men ; they love the world, and the things that are in
the world, 1 John ii. 15. But God in Christ is chief with the saints. The great
pleasure of the former lies in their appropriating the things of the world: so the
worldly man has his great pleasure in earthly Mys; Hos. ii. 5, “She said, I will
go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax,
mine oil and my drink;” Dan, iv. 30, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built
760 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of:
my majesty ?” The great pleasure of the latter lies in appropriating God in
Christ: so they have their greatest pleasure in spiritual and heavenly Mys, as
Psal. xviii. 2, “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God,
my strength, in whom I will trust ; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and
my high tower.” 4
Mark 2. Ye will be so disposed as to be satisfied in the enjoyment of God in Christ,
even in the want of other things; Hab. iii. 17, 18, forecited. This is the rest of
the soul in God as a portion ; Psal. lxxiii. 25, “Whom have I in heaven but thee ?
and there is none upon the earth that I desire besides thee.” Men who have the
world for their portion, are very easy in the want of the enjoyment of God; they
reign as kings without him, and rejoice in their portion. And the saints give
worldly men the peel of that, being easy in the enjoyment of God, under the
want of those things that worldly men set their hearts on ; Gal. vi. 14, “God
forbid,” says the apostle, “that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Though, alas! worldly men being altogether flesh, and the saints being spiritual
but in part, the latter cannot get up to the measure of the former, to care quite as
little for the world as they do for God.
Mark 3. Ye will not be content with any thing without him ; Psal. lxiii. 1, “O
God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee ; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh
longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” No less than a God
can afford a rest to the gracious soul: nothing can fill up his room to those whose
portion he is. Carnal men, whose portion is the creature, take their creature-portion
from them, and they cry out, “What have I more ?” Judges xviii. 24. If their
worldly enjoyments go, the pillow is taken quite from under their head, and they
cannot be content even with a God without them, Exod. v. 7–9. Esau says,
Gen. xxv. 32, “Behold, I am at the point to die : and what profit shall this birth-
right do to me?” And if God go, the pillow is taken from under the saint's head,
and all the world cannot make him a bed, where he can lie easy ; but still he cries,
“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Psal. xxii. 1.
Objection. But may not a gracious soul sometimes be very easy, even when the
Lord is departed from him ? -
Answer. It is true it may be so, when they are spiritually asleep: but yet they are
never so fast asleep, but they have some uneasiness on that head, as the spouse
had ; Cant. v. 2, “I sleep, but my heart waketh.” And there is still a secret dis-
content in the soul with all things while he is away. And they will not lie always
still in that case, but will awake, and clearly show that nothing without a God can
content them ; Cant. iii. 1, &c.
Mark 4. He will be your chief concern; Matt. vi. 21, “Where your treasure is,”
says our Lord, “there will your heart be also.” Whatever it be that a man takes for
his portion, he will be mainly taken up about that. Men that have their portion
in this life, the things of this life are their main business; these get their sleeping
and waking thoughts: all things else must yield thereto ; and what concerns their
souls is dragged at the heels of these things: and is cut and carved as may best con-
sist with the advancing of them. And men whose portion the Lord is, it is their
main business to enjoy him ; as David witnesseth, “One thing have I desired of
the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the
days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple,”
Psal. xxvii. 4. It is their greatest care to obtain his favour; for, Psal. xxx. 5, “In
his favour is life.” And all other things must yield thereto ; Phil. iii. 8, “Yea,
doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord ; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
Mark 5. It will be your great desire, and sincere endeavour, to be like him, 1 John
iii. 3. Men generally look like their portion. It is known upon them, whether
they have a small and poor portion, or a great and fat portion. And they that
have God for their portion, will be like him in holiness, and it will be their desire
and endeavour to be more and more like him, in all his imitable perfections; 2 Cor.
MISCELIANEOUS DISCOURSES. 761
iii. 18, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself,” and gave us a copy
of holiness and righteousness, love and beneficence to mankind, meekness, patience,
&c.; and his people will follow these.
Mark 6. It will be your great design to please him in all things, by having respect
unto all his commandments, Psal. cxix. 6. She that is married takes the husband
instead of all others, leaving father and mother for him ; and so labours how to
please her husband. And they that take God for their portion instead of all others,
will be careful to please him, and walk by his direction in all things, Psal. xlv. 10.
His will, will be not only the rule, but the reason, of duty to them : and what is
his pleasure they will not willingly balk. He is their portion, and so their all.
And so their obedience is illimited.
Mark 7. It will be upon his own that ye will serve him ; Gal. ii. 20, “I live,”
says the apostle, “yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;” Phil. iv. 13, “I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Hypocrites never take God for
their portion ; they seem to themselves to have of their own ; and upon that they
serve him, leaning to their own abilities, like hired servants. But the saints, con-
vinced they have nothing of their own, live on him as their portion, depending on
him for strength, throughbearing, &c., in duties; Matt. v. 3, “Blessed are the
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Use 3. Of exhortation ; and that to those who have made God in Christ their
refuge, and to those who are without a saving interest in him.
First, Ye who profess to have made God in Christ your refuge, carry as becomes
those who have in him a portion to live on. And,
1. Hang not on about the door of the world and the lusts thereof for satisfac-
tion, as those who have no other portion but what they can squeeze out of these
dry and fulsome breasts, John iv. 14. Leave the husks which the swine do eat,
to those poor prodigals that are not come home to their Father's house. Ye have
bread enough there. That contentment which others seek in these, ye may have
in God.
2. If the world Smile on you, let it not have your heart, since it is not your por-
tion ; Psalm lxii. 10, “If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.” Carry
your heart lightly over time-enjoyments, and let it not dip in them. Though these
are carnal men's good things, they are not thy good things, Luke xvi. 25. Thy
portion is in thy refuge.
3. If the world frown, bear it with holy courage. Whatever thou lose, thou
canst not lose thy portion, which is in thy refuge. Alas! it is sad to think that
believers should appear in that case as if all were gone, since they never want a
ortion.
p Secondly, Ye who want a saving interest in Christ as your refuge, seek to get
God in Christ for your portion. For motives, consider,
1. Nothing less can be a sufficient portion for you. Increase your portion in
the world, as ye will, ye will still be in want, while God is not your portion. But
in him your souls shall find complete satisfaction.
2. Any other portion may be lost. They that have not a God to live on, may
soon be at that, they shall have nothing at all to live on. But if God be your
portion, ye shall never want.
3. What but a God in Christ can be a portion to you at death, at the judgment-
day, and through eternity? All things will leave you at death, and you can carry
nothing with you into the other world. What portion then can you have, if God
is not your portion now Ż
4. If God be not your portion here, ye will have a dreadful portion in the other
world. God will then cut you asunder, and appoint you your portion with the
hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matt. xxiv. ult Remem-
ber what Abraham said to the rich man, Luke xvi. 25, “Son, remember that thou
in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but
now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” -
5. God in Christ is now offering himself as a portion unto you ; and ye may
have this enriching portion. Your work now is to embrace the offer, and close
the bargain. -
5 D
762 MISCELIANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Guilty creatures, take a God in Christ for your refuge ; so shall ye be well
provided for safety against the law, sin, death, and hell.
Poor portionless creatures, take God in Christ for your portion. Renounce all
other portions, and take him for your portion for time and eternity. So shall you
be provided happily from this time and for ever. -
XVIII.
MAN'S PROPER WORK IN THIS WORLD, AND HIS JOURNEY TO ANOTHER.
ECCLESIASTES ix. 10.
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no work, nor
device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thow goest.” “
As no man had more access to know what might be made of this present life than
Solomon ; so none gives us more mortifying accounts of it than he. He shows it
to be short, uncertain, and mixed with a variety of ungrateful events. And there-
upon he calls us to make the best use of it we may, and that it will bear. (1.) He
will have us to take the comforts of life, in the favour of God ; ver. 7–9, “Go
thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God
now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white ; and let thy head
lack no ointment, Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, all the days of
thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity;
for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the
sun.” (2.) To ply the business of life while life lasts. So there are comforts to
be had in life, and there is business to be done in it. Happy are they who, taking
the one, do the other. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might,” &c. -
In these words we have two things:
1. An exhortation to ply the business of life, while life lasts. No man was born
to be idle, nor sent into the world to sleep or dream away a lifetime, but to be
doing, and doing good. And here is,
(1.) The business of life, “Whatsoever thy hand shall find to do with thy might,”
Heb. The work we have to do is a work of many pieces, as much as to fill up
every minute of our short time: and no part of it is to be neglected, “Whatsoever
thy hand shall find to do.” It is determined two ways, what we have to do. (1.)
What God gives us opportunity for, what our hand shall at any time find to be laid
hand by our Creator. He is our great Master, and appoints every one his par-
ticular work, by his word and providence: he lays it to our hand, by giving us
opportunities. And so it is restrained to that which is good. (2.) What God
gives us ability for. He gives might, strength of body and mind, comforts and
conveniences of life, as talents that we are to trade with. And we are not to
abuse these, but use them for the ends he gives them for.
(2.) The activity to be used in this business of life, “Do, do it.” Neglect not this
your work, put it not off with delays, but do you timely and seasonably, while
the time and season lasts. It is but a short time, and therefore we must husband
it well.
* The author's manuscript bears, that the sermons on this subject were begun to be preached
July 26 and ended Sept. 27, 1724. During that time he also preached from other texts.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. * 63
2. A motive to press the exhortation. Do, for your doing-time will be done
shortly ; and then if your work be not done, ye will be for ever undone. And,
(1.) Our life in the world is but a journeying to the grave, the state of the dead.
Before we begin to walk alone, we begin to go to it, even from the womb : and in
that journey there is no stopping; sleep we or wake we, we are always going the
other step towards it. And when a man is in his prime, going and living at all
ease, he is still going thither. (2.) There is no doing there ; if your work be not
done ere you come there, it will never be done. This is the world for working,
and that is the world for the reward of our work.
The scope of the text may be gathered up in the two following doctrinal obser-
vations.
DocTRINE I. It nearly concerns all men diligently to improve their opportunities
and abilities in doing their work accordingly, while life, opportunities, and abilities,
last with them.
DocT. II. Our life in this world is a journey going to the grave, to the state of
the dead, where there is no doing of our work any more.
Each doctrine shall be handled in order.
DoCT. I. It nearly concerns all men diligently to improve their opportunities
and abilities in doing their work accordingly, while life, opportunities, and abilities,
last with them. -
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall show,
I. What is the work to be done, while life, opportunities, and abilities, last with us.
II. What are those opportunities and abilities which are to be diligently improved
in doing our work.
III. Improve the subject.
I. Our #. business is to show what is the work to be done, while life, oppor-
tunities, and abilities, last with us. In the general, there is a threefold work laid
to our hand. e
1. Work for ourselves, for our own good and welfare; Psal. xlix. 18, “Men will
praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.” I put this in the first place, not that
it is our chief work, more than ourselves are to be our chief end : but that fallen
man will never work for God aright, till once he begin to work for himself, laying
his own salvation to heart. We have all work to do for ourselves; work for this
life, and for eternity. It is duty to see to the former, according to our opportunities
and abilities: but not as most men do, to make it our all, the whole business of
our life ; for it is but the least part of what we have to do, Luke xi. 41, 42. We
may say in this case, as Matt. xxiii. 23, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites; for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to
have done, and not to leave the other undone.”
2. Work for God, for his honour and glory in the world; 1 Cor. vi. 20, “ Glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” God is our Maker, and
he made us for himself; therefore we should live, move, and be for him, Matt. v.
16. If we are Christians, redeemed by the blood of his Son, this is a new tie to
this work; Phil. i. 21, “To me to live is Christ.” This is little minded by most
men, who never consider for what use they are in God's world, or in Christ's church:
what they are doing for God, wherein they are serviceable to him in promoting
his glory in the world. Yet as God is our chief end, this is our chief work, and it
will be inquired into at the day of accounts; and what we did with our oppor-
tunities and abilities for glorifying of him.
3. Work for our neighbours, for their good and welfare : according to the apostle's
direction, Phil. ii. 4, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also
on the things of others.” God has made men in society, and knit them together
by the bond of a common human nature ; and Christ has knit his people together
by the additional tie, “one faith, one Spirit,” &c.; and so has bound every man
to seek the good of mankind, and every Christian the good especially of fellow-
Uhristians, Gal. vi. 10. He gives men opportunities and abilities to benefit their
fellow-creatures: and it ought to be a question to every one of us, what use we are
for in the world, towards the good of mankind; what benefit God’s creatures, our
764 - MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
fellows, have by us; what advantage Christ's members receive at our hand,
This will be taken special notice of in the awful day of accounts, as appears from
Matt. xxv. -
God commands men to see to the temporal welfare of others; 1 Cor. x. 24, “Let
no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.” And as the poor are to
look for the welfare of the rich, so the rich are under the same obligation to seek
the good of the poor, as their fellow-creatures and fellow-Christians. And there-
fore either masters or tenants depopulating grounds, and laying field to field to the
prejudice of the poorer sort their mean of living, is no doubt a crying oppression
in the ears of the Lord of hosts, and will bring a curse on the selfish and unmerci-
ful men who do it, Isa. v. 8–10. “May not I do with mine own what I will ?” is
a saying competent to Jehovah, who is absolute Lord of the creatures, as having
made them of nothing ; but to no man under heaven, no not the highest monarch,
who, in all his dealings, is under the law of loving his neighbour as himself, and has
but a limited power over what is his own.
He commands men also to seek the spiritual good of their neighbours; Rom. xv.
2, “Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” And
that so much the more as their souls are preferable to their bodies. Hence it is,
that as soon as the grace of God reaches one's own heart, he is in a mighty concern
to get other brands plucked out of the fire, and to share of that grace he partakes
of, as did the woman of Samaria, John iv. It is Cain-like to be unconcerned for
the spiritual good of others: sure it is devilish to go about to ensnare and entrap
others into sin, and wrestle against their souls’ good. |
And thus we may take up our work we have to do with our opportunities and
abilities while they last, in these two particulars:
First, Salvation-work; Phil. ii. 12, “Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling.” We came into the world lost sinners; there is a possibility of our
salvation; and we may get it, if we will improve our opportunities and abilities for
that end. These opportunities are confined to the narrow compass of the time of
flis life ; and in that time God lays that work to our hands. And it concerns us
all timely to ply it, for we must do it now or never. There is no working of that
work in the grave, when the candle of life is blown out at death ; as the tree falls,
it must lie for ever. There are many pieces of salvation-work that we must do,
while doing-time lasts with us. The chief whereof are these :
1. We must consider our ways, and come to ourselves by a sound conviction of
sin, the sin of our nature, hearts, and lives. This is a work not to be delayed, lest
opportunity and ability slip ; Hag. i. 7, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider
your ways.” Ability may be taken from us in this life, and we rendered incapable
of a solid thought. In the other world the opportunity is gone. There, indeed,
men will consider their ways, but it will be out of time. Now is the time for that
work of consideration while in life and health. Ply it, then, and see your ruined
natural state, till it cause you to cry, “What shall I do to be saved ?” Some go
rambling through the world in a profane life, and in a moment slip down to the
grave, never considering till it be out of time. Some go sleeping and dreaming
through the world in ignorance or formality, and never lift their eyes till in hell.
But all that shall be heirs of Salvation, take thought of their souls’ state in time.
2. We must come to Christ and unite with him by faith ; for without that there
is no salvation, Heb. xi. 6. Here is work, most necessary work for us, to embrace
Christ for all his salvation, as held out to us in the gospel; to flee for refuge to
the Redeemer's blood, and take shelter under that covert ; to get from under the
covenant of works and its curse, to be personally instated in the covenant of grace,
and savingly interested in the blessings of it; John vi. 29, “This is the work of
God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”. There is now an opportunity for
it ; Christ is offering himself and his covenant ; delay it, and the opportunity may
slip you for ever, Matt. xxv. 10. In the other world there is no beginning to
believe unto salvation,
3. We must get out our pardon of all our sins under the broad seal of heaven.
A necessary work; for without it ye will perish in your sins, Matt, y, 25. A man
whose life being by the law adjudged to be taken from him, depended entirely on
MISCELLANEO US DISCO URSES. - 765
the king's pardon, would lose no time of suing for his pardon, lest it should come
too late. Now is the time wherein heaven's pardon is to be had, and in a little
that time will be gone. In death there is no pardon to be had, no removing of the
curse. Yet how do men trifle in this matter, as if the pardon were to wait till they
were ready to receive it!
4. We must be born again, become new creatures, get new hearts and a new
mature, and be renewed in all the faculties of our souls after the image of God.
Here is work to do; Ezek. xviii. 31, “Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart, and a new spirit ; for
why will ye die, O house of Israel?” This is absolutely necessary work, John iii.
3; for “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And
now is the season of the new birth ; but when death comes, it is gone. There is a
mighty change in the grave indeed whither we are going, but there is no saving
change there. The bodies that lie down there full of the sins of their youth, will
rise with them again; and the sinful souls that parted with them at death, will
meet them again in no better plight at the resurrection. Ye must be born again
Il OW Ol' Iſle V6I’.
5. We must repent of our sins. This is a work absolutely necessary; Luke xiii.
4, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Heaven's gates are bolted
against impenitent sinners. We must turn from our sins unto God, with hatred
of, and hearty sorrow for them, otherwise we will die, we will perish in them, Ezek.
xviii. 31, above cited. And now is the season for repentance ; there is no repenting
in the grave. In the other world, impenitent sinners will doubtless change their
minds; they will regret from the heart their graceless, careless way, and they will
wish a thousand times that they had seen to themselves in time : but their repent-
ance there will be their torment; it will be out of time, not kindly, and will not
be accepted.
6. We must mortify our lusts. This is not easy work, but it is absolutely neces-
sary; Rom. viii. 13, “For,” says the apostle, “if ye live after the flesh, ye shall
die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
We must either be the death of our lusts, or they will be the death of our souls.
If one of them go, our life must go for its life; even that lust which is most dear
to us, and which we can most hardly part with, must be mortified, Matt. v. 29, and
that work must be done now or never. When death comes, there is no more possi-
bility of mortification ; there is a bar drawn for ever betwixt damned sinners, and
sanctifying influences. The state of the damned is inconsistent with the fulfilling of
some lusts: but however they may be kept from them, to their torment, there can
be no kindly mortification of lusts there; but, on the contrary, sin in the ruined
soul will come to its perfection.
7. We must live to righteousness, in works of holy obedience. This is work to
fill our hands every minute of our time, and necessary work; John xv. 14, “Ye are
my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you;” Luke vi. 46, “Why call ye
me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” They who are now idle in
life, will labour under the weight of wrath for ever, without hope of an end of their
toil. Now Christ shapes out our work for us, and takes a proof of our obedience to
him. If we neglect it now, there will be no time hereafter for it; for the other
world is that wherein men receive the reward of their works, and working-time is
over there, John ix. 4.
8. We must persevere in grace and good works to the end. This is work abso-
lutely necessary, for such only shall get the heavenly crown; Matt. xxiv. 13, “He
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved ;” Rev. ii. 10, “Be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” There is a danger of
never entering on the way of the Lord, and a danger of apostasy and breaking off
from it, when once a person is entered, Heb. x. 38, 39. If death catch us either
of these ways, there is no mending of the matter for ever. That is a step off the
way that can never be recovered.
9. We must die well. This is a necessary piece of our work, our last work,
on which much depends. If it be marred, there is no coming back to mend it ;
Job xiv. 14, “If a man die, shall he live again?” To die well is to die in the
766. MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
Lord, Rev. xiv. 13. ; to die in faith, Heb. xi. 13. ; to die in union with Christ, in
peace and favour with God, within the compass of the well-ordered covenant. It
is not a business to lay by the thoughts of till the time of it come : but the busi-
ness of our life should be to learn to die : and we should often be essaying it.
Secondly, Our generation-work, Acts xiii. 36. This is the work we have to do
for God and the generation in which we live, that we may be useful not for ourselves
only, but for God and fellow-creatures, Rom. xv. 7. It is remarked of Noah, that
he “was perfect in his generations.” There are, by the wise dispensation of God,
several generations of men in the world, one after another; one goes off the stage,
and another succeeds. Each generation has its work assigned it by the sovereign
Lord ; and each person in the generation has his also. And now is our time of
plying of ours. We could not be useful in the generation that went before us;
for then we were not : nor can we personally in that which shall come after us;
for then we shall be off the stage. Now is our time ; let us ply it, and not neglect
usefulness in our generation. This work may be reduced to these two general heads:
1. The duties of our station and particular calling and relations in the world,
1 Cor. vii. 24. Every relation has a train of duties belonging to it, and God lays
these duties on us as members of society, for his glory and the good of others That
is the room which we have to fill up in the world, by a conscientious performance
of the duties incumbent on us, as placed in such and such a station and relation.
That is to say, if one is a minister, he is faithfully to ply his ministerial work; if
a husband, a wife, a parent, &c., they are faithfully to ply the work proper to such
relations. For there is no doing of these duties in the grave, nor making up the
defects there. Then all relations are dissolved, and the difference of stations is no
more. So that these things must be done now or never.
2. Duties of special opportunities and abilities, Gal. vi. 10. Sometimes the Lord
puts in a man's hand a special opportunity of some service, good work: which
opportunity if he lets slip, he may possibly never have it again all his life, as Saul
in the case of the Amalekites, and as in Esau’s case, Heb. xii. 17. So it is men's
wisdom and duty to strike the iron while it is hot, to do the good they have oppor-
tunity to do, lest, if they miss the tide, they never have access to repair the defect.
Sometimes God gives men abilities, that if they will, they can do such a good thing.
If they fall not in with it seasonably, the time may come, when, if they never so
fain would, it is beyond their power, Heb. xii. 17.
He that takes heed to these two particulars, does the work of his generation.
II. I proceed to show what are those opportunities and abilities which are to be
diligently improved in doing our work, the work of our salvation and generation.
These are all the advantages for working which the sovereign Lord and Master
puts in our hands, with a charge to improve them in doing good with them, Luke
xix. 12, 13. All is from him, and he has put them in our hand for his own service:
and if we misimprove them, either by doing ill with them, or doing no good with
them, our accounts will be with grief, and not with joy; for he that gave us them
will call us to an account for them, Luke xvi. 2. He gives us these opportunities
and abilities, not to lay by us for no use, and far less to put them to an ill use ; but
to do with them for his glory, and our own and others’ good.
1. The time of life is given men to do their work with, and should be improved
accordingly; John ix. 4, “I must work the works of him that sent me,” says Christ,
“while it is day.” He might have cut us off from the womb, and then we would
have had no time to do any thing : he might ere now have laid us in the dust, and
then our opportunity of working had been over. But we are still in life, and our
great business is to make ready for eternity. It is a precious time, an uncertain
time, the only time for working. What use are we making of it? why should we
trifle it away, which when once gone can never be recalled ? How sad will it be, if
our glass is run, while our work is undone ! -
2. The day of the gospel; precious gospel-seasons are given us for that end,
These make the day of salvation, which need to be well improved while they last;
2 Cor. vi. 2, “Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salva-
tion.” Every sabbath, sermon, communion, &c., is a fair opportunity for peace
with God, seeing to and advancing the soul's interest. In these the market of free
-*
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 767
grace is opened, and heaven's peace and pardon are proclaimed to rebels. These
precious seasons will not last as to us, Christ will call in his ambassadors, and how
soon his last call to us may come, we know not, Luke xiv. 24.
3. Seasons of the Spirit's blowing are to be thus improved, Cant. iv. ult. Some-
times the power of God comes along with ordinances, and Christ has sensibly his
hand at the hole of the lock of sinners’ hearts; convictions fasten on them, by the
word or providences, and there is an unusual moving in the sinner's soul. Othe
need of striking in with these, to work out our salvation Then is a fair gale for
Immanuel's land, in which, should the sinner set off for the port of heaven, he
might surely at length arrive there. But the opportunity may soon be over, John
iii. 8; and not returning, the sinner lies wind-bound, and cannot move. So that
many miss of heaven for altogether by misimproving it. -
4. Fair occasions of doing good, and of service to God, Gal. vi. 10. Sometimes
the Lord gives men a fair opportunity of such a piece of service to him; and by
his providence invites men to embrace it, and act for him; then they should bestir
themselves in a special manner. These opportunities are many times long kept
open, and yet not embraced, but delayed from time to time, till in end they go out
of their hands; the sheet is taken up to heaven, and the door is shut, Matt. xxv.
10. And then there is no doing with them more.
Next, The abilities to be thus improved, while they last with us, are,
1. Soundness of mind. God has made man a reasonable creature; given him
judgment and reflection, a reasoning faculty, and a memory; which are improved
by education and use. These may be of good use, while assisted with the revela-
tion made in the word. And they are to be diligently improved for our main
concern and interest. But, alas ! how often are they thrown away on men's lusts,
and confined to worldly interests | Now, no man has a tack of these ; they may
be taken from him while life lasts; and yet without them there is no doing our
work. The most solid man or woman God can Smite with madness, or take the
exercise of their reason from them ; and then the party's state must stand, for any
visible mean, where it was before that came on ; they are not capable of altering it
to the better. -
2. Strength and health of body. All the duties of religion are best done when
one is in health and strength ; for then the body is not a clog to the soul. And
several of the duties of religion can hardly be done without it. A man cannot rise
out of a sick-bed, and go to a sermon or a communion-table, go about the worship
of God in his family, &c. Yet, alas! what a deal of work is laid up for the sick-bed
and death-bed, when men are most unfit for doing any thing ! And in the mean-
time, youth, health, and strength are spent in pursuit of the world and lusts. But
labour to make better use of them, some good use of them for eternity; for ere
long ye will not have them to make use of at all: and it will be little comfort to
think, that when ye had them, ye squandered them away on vanity, but laid them
not out in your salvation and generation work.
3. Worldly substance. That is given of God to be improved for his honour:
and whatever your portion of it is, the Lord has so far made you his stewards, and
but stewards of it, who must give account to your Lord how you have used it.
God calls us to honour him with it, Prov. iii. 9; and assuredly the more any has
of it, the more it is required of them to lay out themselves for the honour of God,
as being thereby put in the greater capacity to do for the honour of God in the
world; Luke xii. 48, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much
required ;” though ordinarily the quite contrary course is taken. And men had
need to improve it while they have it, for it is mighty uncertain, Eccl. xi. 2.
4. Power, authority, honour, reputation, and respect. These come from God,
who makes the difference in condition that is among men; some more, some
less honourable, some to rule, and some to be ruled, &c.; Psal. lxxv. 6, 7, “For
promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
But God is the judge : he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” And all
these he gives to be improved for himself, who is the fountain of power and honour.
The more a man has of them, the more access he has to act for God: hence a
word for a good cause from some will be more effectual than a struggle made for
768 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
it by others. Heavy then must their accounts be who make no conscience of
doing the great work by these. They are uncertain, and soon fly away too; while
people have them, they would need to improve them, lest God be provoked to take
from them that which they would not use for his honour, but their lusts: “ for,”
saith he, “them that honour me, I will honour; and they that despise me, shall
be lightly esteemed,” 1 Sam. ii. 30.
I shall shut up this doctrine with an use of exhortation.
While life, opportunities, and abilities last with you, ply your great work, the
work of your salvation and generation ; and do not delay it, but timely do your
work, For enforcing this exhortation, let me suggest the following motives:
Motive 1. Your work is great, and attended with much difficulty; therefore
“work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” Phil. ii. 12. If it were a
trifling business, that might be either done or not done as one thought fit, and
when to be done, done easily ; ye might perhaps cause it wait your time. But
surely your time should wait your work, and be carefully applied to it, husbanding
it well. For, g
1st, It is necessary work, and must be done, or ye are for ever undone ; Luke x.
42, “One thing is needful.” It is work for your own salvation, and God's glory :
and these are of all the most needful. It is not absolutely necessary to your hap-
piness that ye be healthy, wealthy, in respect and honour in the world: but that ye
be gracious, believing, penitent, holy, &c.; that ye live for God, and be useful for
him. If ye sleep in this your seed-time, ye will beg in harvest; if ye do not now,
ye will suffer for it for ever.
2dly, It is difficult work, and not easily done ; hence says our Lord, Luke xiii.
24, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to
enter in, and shall not be able.” Many doing people will fall short, because they
do not their work in the right manner, Eccl. x. 15. Yea, they that do best will
find enough ado to get through it safely, 1 Pet. iv. 18, and not to mar it. Consider,
(1.) It is heart-doing, doing with the heart, Prov. xxiii. 26. Among men, if the
work be done with the hands, whether it be with the heart or not, it is all a case.
But though the tongue speak well, the hands act well, and the feet carry the man
in good ways; yet, if the heart be not at the work, the work is not done to purpose,
Ezek. xxxiii. 31.
2.) It is undoing work, work wherein ye have to undo much of what is done,
like the pulling down what has been wrong put up, the opening out of a ravelled
hasp.” (1.) Your own life is a ravelled business, much disorder has been there: ye
have woven your life into a web of sin and contrariety to the divine will; ye have
that to open out again, by faith, repentance, and mortification ; else ye will be
swept away like the spider in your own web, with the besom of destruction, Ezek.
xviii. 31. (2.) The way of the generation ye live in is a ravelled business, a con-
spiracy against God; ye must do your endeavour to undo that, and to bring it to
rights. Ye must guard against being catched in their net; Acts ii. 40, “Save
yourselves from this untoward generation.” Yea, ye must set yourselves to break
and undo it, for God's honour and the good of others; and so ye must strive
against the stream, or be carried headlong by it. And try it when ye will, ye will
find it hard work; and many times ye will find that ye come little speed, Jer. vi.
29. Yet ye must not give it over, 2 Pet. ii. 8, but bear up a testimony for God,
Prov. xxvii. 4; and that is your generation-work, Luke xxi. 13. -
(3.) It is counter-doing, doing a work wherein ye will find many doing against
you, Matt. xi. 12. Apply yourselves to it when ye will, ye will find it a labouring
in the fire, where ye will have much ado to carry on the work, over the belly of
opposition. (1.) Satan will do against you, 1 Pet. v. 8. (2.) The evil world will
join issue with him. (3.) Your own corrupt heart will join issue with both.
(4.) It is doing above your strength, your natural strength, 2 Cor. i. 8. We
have work to do which our short arms cannot reach, and our natural abilities are
not sufficient for. How, then, can it be done? Why, we must learn to fly on bor-
rowed wings, and we must act with strength borrowed from the Mediator, 2 Tim.
ii. 1. So there is no time to trifle. º
* i. e. thread in a state of confusion.—ED.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 769
Mot. 2. Ye have loud calls to your work, and it is dangerous to sit them, Psal,
xcv. 7, 8. Unless ye stop your ears, ye cannot miss to hear them. Ye have,
1. The call of the word. God has given you the Bible in your hands, and every
page of it bids you be doing quickly. . He sends his messengers with his message to
the sluggards on their bed, and in the name of God it is sounded in your ears;
2 Cor. vi. 2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of Salva-
tion.” Sit not the call, lest the opportunity slip.
2. The call of pinching need and necessity. The case of your bodily wants
makes you to labour for the meat that perisheth; and doth not the need of your
perishing souls call you aloud to see to them, that they be not lost 2 The case of
the generation, wherein so much dishonour is done to God, calls you aloud to lay
out yourselves for God, Psal. cxix. 126.
3. The call of providence. If ye look to the conduct of providence towards your-
selves and towards others, ye are warned to see to yourselves in time. Many are
dropping off into another world, and the living should lay it to heart.
4. The call of conscience. Heathens want not some checks that way, Rom ii.
15. It is not to be thought, but those who live under the gospel have now and
then their alarms from within, to get out of their bed of sloth. Is there not some-
thing within that says ye have delayed long enough, and that more delay may be
dangerous 2
Mot. 3. Ye have opportunities and abilities put in your hand for to do your work
by them, Luke xix. 13. God gives you them to do with : why, then, should ye not
improve them? Consider, I pray you,
I. Opportunities and abilities are God's free gifts, given to be improved for him
in his work. He does not light the candle of your life, and keep it burning, to put
it under a bushel, or for you to use it against him. No wonder he is provoked in
wrath to take away life, opportunities, and abilities, from them who make no good
use of them.
2. Ye must give an account to God what ye have made of them, Luke xvi. 2;
what use ye have made of your years, your gospel-seasons, seasons of the Spirit's
blowing, fair occasions of doing good presented to you ; of your soundness of mind,
strength of body, worldly substance, power, and character. And it will be a heavy
account, that so many years have been spent in God's world, and nothing done by
the man for God and for his own soul; that so much health, strength, &c., &c., has
been enjoyed, and all expended on the things of the world, the pursuit of lusts, &c.
3. The more you have had of them, and not improved, the greater will your con-
demnation be, Luke xii. 47, 48. We are all in the case of servants intrusted by
the master, where some have more, some less; but the more one has, as on the
one hand his conveniency for doing is greater, so on the other, the not improving
of the greater trust will make the more heavy account. .
Mot. 4. Ye are always doing something. Why, since it is so, will ye not do your
proper, great, and necessary work? Man's life is a continued train of actions, and
the soul of man, like a watch, goes as fast when she goes false, as when she goes
true. So, properly speaking, there is no man who does nothing at all with his
opportunities and abilities: but every body does something with them ; howbeit
most men do not do their proper work with them. So men are guilty not only of
not improving, but of misimproving their opportunities and abilities. They do
with them, indeed; but they will not do that with them which God specially gave
them for.
1. Instead of doing their great work with them, they do next to nothing with
them, like those, 2 Thess. iii. 11, “working not at all.” If we consider the business
of most men's life, with the opportunities and abilities put in their hand for doing;
we will find that their whole life is such an insignificant piece of folly, as the
action of that foolish emperor who pretended to lead out an army to fight the
enemy, and all he did was to cause them gather shells by the sea-side. In a word,
their life is a continued trifling; always doing, but never doing any thing to the
purpose. Their precious time and abilities are spent in labouring for the wind;
and that they will find when they come to step into another world, and cast up the
account of their gain, Eccl. v. 16. 5
E
770 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
How many may say, ‘ I have been busy managing my house, but neglected my
heart; gained silver and gold, but no saving grace ; seen many harvests cut down,
but mine own seed for glory is not sown yet; I have been careful for my body, but
my soul is yet lying in a bleeding, perishing case !” This is but trifling, to spend
your time in caring for your body, and neglecting your soul.
(1.) Thy body is mortal, but thy soul immortal. If men were to die like beasts,
they might live like beasts, eat, drink, sleep, and work. But thy soul will remain
in life, when thy body dies: when thy tongue begins to falter in thy mouth, and
thou canst scarce speak an articulate word, it will be vigorous: when friends are
closing thine eyes, it will be going off to compear before the tribunal of God.
(2.) Thy soul craves more than the body. While the body is living, a little will
serve its back and belly; and when dead, a few feet of earth, which none will grudge
it. But nothing less than an infinite good, that is, God himself, can satisfy the
soul. He was a fool who said, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many
years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry,” Luke xii. 19. -
(3.) Thy soul is of far more worth than the body. It is a spiritual, immortal
substance, not to be laid in the balance with the cottage of clay. The soul is the
diamond in the ring, the jewel in the cabinet, the dignified honourable inhabitant
in the cottage of clay, Matt. xvi. 26. - -
What do they, then, but trifle, who are busy about the many things, forgetting
the one thing needful? They are, in their manner of life, like the spider, that
spends its own bowels to make up its web : and when all is done, at one stroke of
a besom the poor spider is either killed in its own web, or by it drawn to death.
2. Instead of doing their great work with them, they do worse than nothing with
them, they do mischief with them, Hos. xi. 2, and xiii. 6. Hence Solomon remarks,
that “the prosperity of fools destroys them;” and the apostle remarks, that the
gospel is “the savour of death unto death” to many. They who do not improve
their opportunities and abilities for God's honour and their own salvation, cannot
miss to improve them to God's dishonour and their own destruction: for the soul
of man is of a nature too active to be doing nothing at all ; so if it be not doing good,
it will be doing evil, for it must be doing something. If the matter were weighed
in an even balance, it would be found, that many are at as much pains to ruin
their own souls, as might possibly serve to save them, if they would but turn their
pains to run in another channel. Many a rack Satan puts men on in his service,
which the way of duty would set men free from, Job xxiv. 15–17. Jeremiah
testifies, they “weary themselves to commit iniquity,” Jer, ix. 5. See Psal. vii.
14; Hab. ii. 13. -
Now, since ye are still doing something with your opportunities and abilities, why
will ye not do what ye should do with them 2 Ye are running in a race: why do ye not
run in the right way, rather than the wrong? We may say in some sense, that God
does not call you to do more work than ye do ; but other work, your great work.
Mot. 5. Your opportunities and abilities for doing will not last; but they will
be short-lived. We have a day, and it is but a day we have ; Luke xix. 42, a
hireling's day, that is soon over, Job vii. 1. Time runs with a rapid course, and
carries with it all our opportunities and abilities for doing our work. Our life is
but a vapour, that soon evanisheth; a shadow that flies away; a handbreadth soon
passed over. So,
1. You must now or never do your work, John ix. 4. Working-time will soon
be gone. How can we be at ease, while so much time is over, and so little of our
work by hand? Yet are not the shadows of the evening stretching out on many,
while yet they have been in no due concern where to take up their eternal lodging?
2. If the work we have to do be sore, it will not be longsome.* He that is tired
with his journey may be refreshed, while he sees he is near the end. The saints'
afflictions are but for a moment, their weeping but for a night; the watchmen will
be called in from their posts.
Mot. 6. It is utterly uncertain to you when they shall come to an end. We are
tenants at will, have no tack of our life, and know not how soon we may be called
off; Matt. xxiv. 44, 46. So a moment's delay here may be an eternal loss. Our
* i. e. long-continued.—ED.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 77 1
abilities may be an end before our time. However, our time is uncertain as to the end
of it; but end when it will, there will be no more opportunity nor ability for doing.
Mot. 7. Our time, when once gone, can no more be recalled, no more than the
candle burnt to snuff can be lighted again. It is bald in the hindhead, and there
is no bringing of it back. As the tree falls, so it must lie.
Mot. 8. If our great work be not done in time, we are undone for ever. If
time is lost, our eternal salvation is lost.
DocTRINE II. Our life in this world is a journey, a going to the grave, to the state
of the dead, where there is no doing of our work any more.
In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall,
I. Consider this journey we are on.
II. Show that there is no doing of our work any more when once we are come
to our journey's end, to the state of the dead.
III. Make some improvement of each head separately,
I. I shall consider this journey we are on. And here we may take a view of,
1. The point where we begin our journey. We begin it from the womb, from
the first moment of our receiving life there. As soon as we become living souls in
the womb, we begin our journey to the grave. For then we are sinful creatures,
Psal. li. 5; and therefore dying creatures. So we are going this journey before
we can set a foot on the ground, yea, before we see the light of this world.
2. The point where it is ended. The term to which we are going, is the grave,
the state of the dead. The travellers never halt till they be there. That is the
place where all men meet from all the different places of the world. It is “the
house appointed for all living,” Job xxx. 23. Their baiting-houses” by the way may
be very different, as a palace, and a cottage; but the lodging-house at the end of
the journey is one. They lie down alike in the dust.
3. The journeying or travelling itself is the motion between these two points;
and that is our living in this world. What is our living here ? It is not a rest;
that is not to be expected here. It is a motion, a journeying motion. And it is
just a journeying ; a going from the womb to the grave; a coming from the womb
of our mother—woman, and going in again to the womb of our mother—earth,
Job i. 21. That is the life we have here.
4. The place we go through in our journey to the grave is this present world;
where the Sun, rising and setting, makes days and nights; where are so many springs
and harvests, summers and winters, in our time; and, what is of all most remark-
able, where God sends his messengers to meet us in our journey, to direct us to
the road, by which we may get safe to the journey's end. Many look on this world
as their dwelling-place, Psal. xlix. 11; and so as their resting-place, Luke xii. 19.
But it is but our journeying-place, which we travel through ; like a town in a tra-
veller's road, who comes in at the one end of it, and goes out at the other, Eccl. i.
4. Therefore the godly take it so, “confessing that they are strangers and pilgrims
on the earth,” Heb. xi. 13.
5. The way we make in this journey is our time. Some have a longer, some a
shorter way to their journey's end. But look back, and so much time as is over
your head, so much way have ye made, and the nearer ye are to the end. Time
goes, yea, flies away, and as it goes, you quickly cut the way, so that it grows every
moment shorter and shorter, and you are nearer the grave.
6. The several stages in our way, which, accordingly, are to some more, to others
fewer, are to all but a very few, whereby we may know that it is not a long journey.
(1.) The first stage is infancy, that wherein the journey is begun. While we
are in that first stage, we are going, indeed, to the grave, but poor we know not in
the mean time whither we are going. Then we are under a necessity of dying,
but know not that we must die, nor know we any thing of the state of the dead;
and therefore can do nothing to prepare for it. Our concern in that stage is first
confined to meat, and then extends to clothing, but no farther.
(2.) The second stage is childhood, wherein we are more advanced in our journey,
Then do we begin to be informed, that there is such a thing as dying, as a heaven
and a hell. But how rude are our motions of these things in that stage, and how
* i. e., houses for temporary rest and refreshment,-EP,
772 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
unwelcome ! They are like a dream to us, consisting of mishapen imaginations.
How hard is it to be able to have any tolerable conception of the way to be saved,
or so much as to conceive aright of the work we have to do How little of the
work can then be done till that stage be over ! Things of the world are more
natural ; yet in that stage it is hard to ply to them, or to any thing but such trifles
as will be the scorn of our riper years. So there are two stages over ere we have
well begun to know where we are, and what we have to do. The morning is gone.
(3.) The next stage is youth, which is the forenoon of our day; the stage of our
way wherein we begin to know ourselves entering into this world. But how doth
vanity and folly fill up that period of man’s life, that the going through it is turned
into a play or a dream, if not into a fit of madness in wickedness, casting off all
bands, unless it be in some whom grace early reacheth ! They think they have a
great part of their way before them, and reckon it needless to be as yet much con-
cerned about the journey's end, though two stages are over before that, and they
will soon find themselves past that stage too. So true it is, that “childhood and
youth are vanity,” Eccl. xi. 10.
(4.) The fourth stage is middle age, in which the foam of youth is fallen, and
the infirmities of old age have not yet overtaken the man, and is therefore called
“the best estate,” Psal. xxxix. 5. Now he is in best case in point of wisdom and
management. His thoughts are ripened, and his strength is fit for executing the
product of these his riper thoughts. But how is he then wrapt up in a thicket of
cares of this world, that often he cannot find the way out seriously to consider his
latter end | But this also is soon over, and he quickly arrives at the
(5.) Last stage, old age. Then his sun is remarkably turned, it is fast declining,
and he remembers the days of his youth and middle age, “as waters that pass away.”
They sometimes run full; but now that brook is dried up. If his judgment
continues firm, yet he is ordinarily beset with infirmities of body, whereby he is
rendered more unfit for action; and sometimes judgment and memory fail too.
The tabernacle is going down, till at length it lie along on the earth, to rise no
more “till the heavens be no more.” So the days come wherein men have no
pleasure : and then quickly “the mourners go about the streets;” the man is at his
journey's end. - -
These are the few stages in our way; but it is but a few that see them all. Some
find the end of the journey in the first stage, some in the second, &c. -
7. The steps we make in our way on this journey. Every breathing we make,
every pulse that beats, is a step in the way. Whether we sleep or wake, our
breath and blood is going; and so we are going on toward the grave. Infinite
wisdom has determined how often we shall breathe in and out the air, how often
our blood shall go the round in our bodies, and what number of pulses it shall
make. These are continued one on the back of another, as so many steps by which
this journey is made. And at length the last pulse beats, the last breathing is
made, whereby one gives up the ghost: and that is the last step, and so we are at
our journey's end.
I shall now make some improvement of this first head.
Use 1. Of information. Is our life in this world a journey, a going to the
grave? Then,
1. This life is a transitory, passing thing, that will not last, but will soon be over,
Job viii. 9. Form right notions of life from this; you will find it is but a short
preface to a long eternity; an inconsiderable point between two extremes, the womb
and the grave; so short, that Solomon passes it by in his assigning a time to every
thing, Eccl. iii. 2.
2. The state of the dead, and what lies beyond it is our state of continuance,
which we are to be mainly concerned for. This life is our journeying ; at the end
of our journey we will find the place of our abode. The grave is our “long home,”
heaven or hell our eternal home. This world is but the passage, as through a
strange country, to our home. Therefore Job was in the right, to render himself
familiar with it; chap. xvii. 14, “I have said to corruption, Thou art my father:
to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.” :
3, Man at his best estate is vanity, Consider him in his prime, when his health
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 773
and strength are at their meridian, death is gaining ground of him : however
stately he goes, he is going towards the grave, however little he thinks of it. While
he riseth, he doth but swell like a bubble of water, which in a moment is broken
and gone.
4. There is great need to see how we improve it, that we mispend it not, Matt.
v. 25. We came into this world without any thought of our own, how to be pro-
vided for in it. But woe to us in the other world, if we take not thought while we
are in the way.
Use 2. Of exhortation to several things. Is our life a journey to the grave, to
the state of the dead? Then, *
1. Acquaint yourselves timely with the God and Lord of that land, and make up
your peace and friendship with him, that when ye come there, ye may be treated
as his friends, and not as his enemies; Job xxii. 21, “Acquaint now thyself with
him, and be at peace ; thereby good shall come unto thee.” For if that be
neglected while we are in the way, sad will be our lot at the end of the journey,
Matt, v. 25. God is now willing to be at peace with us in his Son, who is the Lord
of that land, “has the keys of hell and of death,” (Rev. i. 18,) and is now offering
himself and his salvation to us, (Rev. xxii. 17,) yea, offering himself in a marriage.
covenant, Hos. ii. 19 ; Matt. xxii. 4. It will then be our wisdom to see that our
Maker, the Lord of that place, be our Husband now ; and then be sure he will see
well to us there.
2. Be sure to take the safe road in that journey; and beware of the road of de-
struction. All the world is on the journey : but they are divided into two compa-
nies, taking two different roads; the road of eternal life, and the road of eternal
death. The safe road is the way of holiness; Isa. xxxv. 8, “An highway shall
be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness,” that is, the holy way, namely,
Christ the personal way, (John xiv. 6,) and gospel holiness and obedience, the real
way, Col. ii. 6. It is a strait way, that will not allow room for the sinful latitude
which corrupt nature affects, and therefore ye will get but little company upon it.
The road of destruction is the way of sin, the way of unbelief and unholiness. It
is a broad way, and there the multitude goes: there go the profane, there the
grossly ignorant, there the mere moralist, there the gross and close hypocrite,
Matt. vii. 13, 14. Take your marks of the way by the word, Psal. xvii. 4.
3. Associate yourselves with those on the safe road, and beware of choosing for
your companions those on the broadway, Prov. xiii. 20; Psal. xvi. 3. Travellers
desire company in their journey ; but then they choose those who are going their
road, not those who are going a contrary one. If they do, one may conclude that
they have left their road for love of company, And many sad instances of this
there are on this journey, 1 Cor. xv. 33. Hence many sometimes hopeful, by the
society they choose, first turn untender, then loose professors, and at last apos-
tates; and so fall from the threshold of heaven down to the pit, Psal. cxxv, ult.
4. Beware of forgetting that ye are on a journey, travellers, strangers and pil-
grims in the world, Heb. xi. 13. This world that we go through is very charming
to the corrupt heart; insomuch that many come to be so taken with it, that they
think themselves at home in it. And so they mind nothing but building tabernacles
on it, resting and solacing themselves therein. . They seek no better home, they
desire no better, Phil. iii. 19; and so they are ruined when they awake out of their
dream, if they awake not timely. But see that ye count heaven your home, the
world the place of your pilgrimage, and your present life your journey homeward.
5. Beware of loading yourselves in your journey, Heb. xii. 1. Men on a journey
will be very loath to carry needless weights about them, but endeavour what they
can to be as light and expedite as may be. But, alas ! most men on this journey
think never to get enough on their back; and what is it just a backful of thick
clay, Hab. ii. 6, a defiling load of the world. Men lade themselves this way, still
grasping at more and more of the world, laying field to field, till they are just over-
whelmed with the business of this life, and by anxiety about the things of the
world, and undue eagerness, whether they have little or much. They go best
through the world that lade themselves least with it, 1 Cor, vii. 29,-31.
6, Take heed of carrying along with you such things as are apt to entangle you
774 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES
in the road, and cause you to fall; Heb. xii. 1, “Let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” A metaphor taken from long garments,
that cannot miss to retard one on a journey. Unmortified lusts are these entangling
things, especially the predominant one. In our way there are many stumbling-
blocks, and these dispose us to fall over them. In it are many snares; and these
catch men by their mortified lusts, as thorns in the way catching hold of the
traveller's loose garments. And many a mire are sinners by this means cast down
in, who do not by faith, mortification, and watchfulness, “gird up the loins of their
mind.”
7. Let not afflictions, crosses, and hardships in this world sink too deep with you:
for you are neither to stay with it nor them, 1 Cor. vii. 30. Ye are on a journey,
not in your place of continuance. You need the less to value the frowns of a pre-
sent world; for ere long ye will be beyond them, and both the smiles and frowns
of it will be buried in oblivion. The consideration of our short and uncertain time
in the world, would be an excellent antidote against immoderate sorrow : for we
are here but as actors in a play, where it is no great matter whether one be the
king or the peasant; for in a little time the fable is ended, and each appears in
the station he really is.
8. Learn to fetch your comforts in your journey from the place ye are going to,
the other world, Heb. xi. 13. And the doctrine of the gospel contained in the
Bible is the storehouse of these comforts, and faith is the mean whereby to draw
them out, Psal. xciv. 19, and xvii. 13. The believing meditation of the better
world, is the best stay for the traveller's heart, under the toil and hardships of the
way. There is such a thing as the traveller's song, to be sung by the way. David
had learned it, and he tells you where ; Psal. cxix. 54, “Thy statutes have been
my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.”
9. Be not solicitous for great things in the world, but be content with what
Providence lays to your hands, Jer. xlv. 4, 5. Being on a journey, it is no great
matter though your accommodations be not pompous. Men on a road do not
expect feasts, nor do they value them. A traveller's dinner is soon dight ; he takes
as he comes to, for he may not stay. O that we could learn the lesson, and labour
to secure ease and fulness to ourselves in the place whither we are going, and keep
up a holy indifference as to our entertainment on the road *
10. Correct your vain imaginations and conclusions in all conditions of life, by
a lively faith of this truth. In a time of prosperity, men are apt to be full of
towering imaginations, Psal. xlix. 11: they feed themselves with golden dreams;
put adversity far from their thoughts, still reckoning on to-morrow, and that to-
morrow will be as this day. But correct the mistake : ye are on a journey, and
may be at the end of it ere ye are aware. In adversity, the man is apt to say, ‘It
will never be over :’ but that is a mistake too; for our Sorrows as well as our joys
here are short-lived, and will soon be at an end.
§ 11. Let preparation for death be the main business of your life. For your
abiding happiness and misery depends on what issue your journey takes; and
now is the time, the only time to fix that point. He that lives in Christ shall die
in him ; and dying in him, be happy for ever. And he who gets not into Christ
while he lives, will find the door shut when he is dead, and no more access to Sal-
vation. Therefore, prepare in time. See to your state, that ye be in that respect
fit to die; that ye be out of your natural state, and brought into a state of grace.
And watch, and inure yourselves to a dying frame, that ye may be always as on
the wing for your departure.
II. The next thing to be considered is, That there is no doing of our work any
more when once we are come to our journey's end, to the state of the dead.
There are two things that will set this in a clear light.
1. Then our day is gone, and the night is come, John ix. 4. The state of the
dead is called a “night;" because the darkness of the night puts an end to work-
ing, as the light of the day gives an opportunity for it. When death is come, the
sun of the gospel is set on the man; and to those who burnt day-light while they
had it, God will not set up a new light in the grave, which is “the land of dark-
ness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself, and of
MISCELL ANEOUS DISC ODESES. 775
!
the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness,”
Job x. 21, 22.
2. Then the sentence for eternity is passed on men. The next step after death
is to the tribunal of God, where men are judged and sentenced “according to their
deeds done in the flesh,” Heb. ix. 27. So,
(1.) The time of God's patience with impenitent sinners is at an end. The door
is shut, Matt. xxv. 10. The mercy and goodness of God opens a door of grace for
sinners for term of life ; long-suffering patience keeps it open during that time : but
the term of life being expired, the door is shut, sinners can be waited on-no longer,
justice takes place.
(2.) Our probationary time is at an end, and our state is fixed unalterably for all
the ages of eternity, Luke xvi. 26. While men's life in this world lasts, they are
on their trials for another world: but sentence being passed after death, they are
brought to a fixed point of happiness or misery.
I shall conclude this subject with some improvement of this head.
|Use 1. Of information. Hence we may learn,
1. That the time of our life in this world is exceeding precious. It is a golden
spot, more to be valued by a guilty creature than all the wealth of the world, as
being the opportunity, and the only opportunity, for settling the business of our
eternal salvation. Then the Lord is on a throne of grace for us: then is the time
of his dispensing of pardons: then is the time of the ship of the gospel lying in our
harbour, bound for Immanuel's land, ready to take in passengers; which, if it once
hoist sail, and set off to sea, the passengers are for ever left hopeless on the shore.
O how inexcusable are men trifling away their precious hours!
2. That the moment of death is of vast consequence, inasmuch as it is the con-
cluding point of our working-time, the time of our trial, immediately succeeded by
an unalterable state in eternal happiness or misery. For as the tree then falls, it
must lie for ever. If one prays, communicates, &c., wrong at a time, he may have
access to mend it: but once dying wrong, there is no helping of that.
3. Happy they who despatch their work timely, while they are in the land of the
living : for their work is done, before working-time is over, Rev. xiv. 13. When
they come to die, they have no more ado but to die; and that of itself is sufficient
work to fill one's hand.
4. Sad is the case of those who mispend their time, whose life is at an end, be-
fore their great work for eternity is done. For their case is hopeless, since there
is no doing of their great work then any more.
Use 2. Of exhortation. What ye have to do, do quickly, without delay. And,
1. Do your salvation-work without delay, Phil. ii. 12. Ye are by nature lost
sinners, but by grace ye may be saved. But none can expect to be brought into
a state of salvation in a morning-dream. The work of faith, repentance, regenera-
tion, and mortification, is not easy. Give yourselves no rest till once ye are
brought into a state of peace with God; till ye have once shot the gulf as to con-
demnation, and your eternal happiness be secured. Then will ye live holily and
happily; and come death when it will, your great work is done, ye are habitually
prepared for it. If otherwise, death may take you unawares, and in a moment
make you for ever miserable.
2. Do the work of your generation without delay. Consider what is the work
of your station and relation, the work for God and the good of others that Providence
puts an opportunity in your hand to do, and do it quickly ; for if ye delay it, the
opportunity may be for ever taken out of your hand. Consider,
(1.) To put off your great work to another time yet to come, is inconsistent with
a sincere purpose of setting about it, 1 Pet. iv.2, 3. Who, having burning coals in
his bosom, would put off throwing them out till a more convenient season, another
hour, or another minute 2 He that is not fit to-day, will be less so to-morrow.
(2.) The longer ye delay, the harder will your work be, when it comes to the
setting to. Sin is like a water; the farther from the head, the deeper, and the
harder to get over. The longer ye continue in sin, the heart grows harder, the
understanding more blind, the will more perverse, and the affections more carnal.
(3.) It is most foolish and unreasonable to delay. How can one delay a work
776 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
till to-morrow which must be done, else he is ruined for ever, when he is not
sure of another hour? James iv. 13, 14, “Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to
morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell,
and get gain : whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow ; for what is
your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away.” Remember what was said to the rich man ; Luke xii. 20, “Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be
which thou hast provided ?” I hope we are agreed about the necessity of your
despatching your great work: the only question is, When Ž God says, To-day.
Reason says so too; for to-morrow is not yours. The conclusion then is, Do it
immediately. Up, then, and be doing.
XIX.
S E L F - E X A MIN AT IO N.*
2 CoRINTHIANs xiii. 5.
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith : prove your own selves : know ye not
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates.”
THE dispensations of providence begin to be alarming to this secure generation,
and look like the beginning of sorrows, in the great mortality prevailing in several
places. And the language of such a dispensation is as is expressed in the text,
bidding every one “examine themselves, whether they be in the faith,” &c. In
which words we have two things:
1. A necessary duty proposed; and that is, the trial of their state. It is pro-
posed under a double notion, “Examine” and “ Prove ;” the call being doubled,
because of the weight of the matter. And,
1st, Of self-examination. And here, (1.) Consider the point the apostle would
have them put to the trial, “whether ye be in the faith.” He knew very well that
they professed faith in Christ; but all is not gold that glisters. None but believers,
true believers, whose faith worketh by love, being a spiritual vital principle within
them, will see heaven: but many take themselves, and others take them, for believers,
who yet are not so. (2.) The trial he would have them to make of that point,
“Examine yourselves.” The church of Corinth was a divided church. There was a
censorious party among them, conceited of themselves, and despisers of this eminent
and highly distinguished apostle. For all the clear demonstrations there were of the
Lord’s being with him, they sought a proof of “Christ's speaking in him,” ver, 3.
Now, says he, ye are very much abroad, busy examining me, and make much ado
for a proof of Christ speaking in me: I would advise you to be more at home, and
examine yourselves. Put yourselves to the trial, whether ye are in the faith or
not. The original word signifies to make such a trial as one does of a thing by
piercing through it, whereby he may know what is within, and whether it be sound
or not.
* This discourse, consisting of two short sermons, was the last the author ever wrote, after he was
confined to his house by the illness of which he died; and was preached from a window in the manse
to the people standing without, on the 2d and 9th of April, 1732; after which he preached no more;
the God whom he had served in the work of the gospel, from the latter end of the year 1699, hav-
ing called him home on the 20th of May, 1732, to inherit the crown of righteousness laid up for
him. -
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 777
2dly, Of self-probation: “Prove your own selves,” to wit, by trial, as in courts
offenders are tried, or they who stand for an office are put on trials, to prove
whether they be fit for it or not ; or rather as goldsmiths try metals, whether by
the fire, or by the touchstone, whereby they discern the true metal from counter-
feit. This is near akin to the former expression, “Examine ;” but is not quite the
same. This last speaks the bringing the matter to a point ; the pursuing the trial
till it should end in a full proof of their state, good or bad : ‘Ye, q. d., seek a proof
of Christ speaking in me ; pray rest not till ye get a proof of your own state.’
2. The weighty ground that makes this duty necessary, most necessary: “Know
ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”
Wherein we have,
(1.) The ground itself: “Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates.” Now,
Christ dwells in the heart by faith, Eph. iii. 17. Where there is not a vital union
with Christ, the person is “reprobate.” There is no union with him but by faith:
therefore ye have great need to examine whether ye be in faith or not. Reprobate
here is not opposed to elect : for certainly the apostle did not mean to drive them
to absolute despair, in case they found themselves naught in the trial; or to per-
suade them, that if Christ was not in them already, he would never be in them.
But it is opposed to upright and genuine; and so denotes a person, or thing, that,
being tried, is found unsound or counterfeit, as Jer. vi. ult, ; and so useless, abso-
lutely unfit for the ends desired, (Tit. i. ult.) and so rejected, Jer. vi. ult.
(2.) The necessity of the knowledge of one's self in this point: “Know ye not
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you,” &c. Knowledge of one's self is
far preferable to the knowledge of other men. , Alas! what will it avail men to be
raking into the state and case of others, while, in the mean time, they are strangers
to themselves 2 They do not advert to this great point, how Christ is in them,
else they are all wrong for time and etermity.
Observe from the connection, That self-judging is a proper mean to bring people
off from rash judging of others. It was not rash judging in Peter, when he pro-
nounced Simon Magus to be “in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity,” who had
offered money for the extraordinary power of conferring the Holy Ghost. Neither
is it rash judging, to pronounce profane men, Scandalous in the habitual course of
their lives, to be going in the way to destruction ; for the Spirit of God by Paul says
the same thing; Gal. v. 19—21, “Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which
are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like : of the which I tell you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God.” But it was rash judging in these Corinthians to question
Christ's speaking in Paul because, in some things, he was not so acceptable to them
as some others. So it is rash judging to reject men who conscientiously appear
to adhere to the uncontroverted points of practical godliness because they differ
from them in some points controverted among good and holy men. Self-judging
would call men home to their own case, so that they would not be at so much
leisure to ramble abroad. It would let them see so much evil in themselves, and
so much they have need to be forgiven of God, that they would not dare be severe
on their brethren, and rigorous on their behaviour, lest the measure they mete to
others should be measured to them again. Therefore I cannot but most earnestly
recommend this practice of self-judging, which will happily tend to make you low
in your own eyes, and preserve you from many miscarriages to and misconstructions
of others.
Having thus explained the words, and considered their connection with the
preceding context, I shall at this time only observe from them the following doc-
trine, viz.
DoCTRINE. It is a most necessary duty lying on men professing the name of
Christ, to examine themselves, whether they are in the faith or not; and to pursue
that examination and trial, till, bringing the matter to a proof, they come to a point
with reference to that great concern.
In discoursing from this important doctrine, I shall consider,
J F
778 MISCELL ANEO US DISCOURSES.
I. The point to be tried.
II. The trial of the point.
III. Make some improvement.
, I. I shall consider the point to be tried. The point concerning which every one
is to try himself is, Whether he is in the faith. And here let us consider,
First, What it is to be in the faith.
Secondly, The weight and importance of this point.
First, I am to show what it is to be in the faith. To have true faith, or to be
true believers, and to be in the faith, is all one as to the matter; even as to be
in Christ, and Christ's being in us, is the same thing in effect. The man that is
endowed with the grace of faith, enriched with precious faith, is in the faith: and
the faithless, the unbelieving, in whom the grace of saving faith has never been
wrought by the Holy Spirit, is not in the faith. But I conceive the expression
aims at these three things:
1. The elect's peculiarity of this heavenly gift; hence called “the faith of God's
elect,” Tit. i. 1. It is the peculiar treasure of these happy objects of everlasting
love ; it is given to none but them ; it remains among that blessed party, as a
peculiarity of their community. Hence the apostle Peter addressed himself to
those to whom he writes, under this character: “to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us,” 2 Pet. i. 1. There is a fourfold faith mentioned in scrip-
ture : An historical faith, that devils partake of, James ii. 19 ; a faith of miracles,
which one may have, and yet want charity, or true saving grace, 1 Cor. xiii. 2; a
temporary faith, which apostates in the end may have had, like the stony-ground
hearers, Matt. xiii. 20, 21. But the faith here to be tried, is the faith that unites
to Christ, which none have but those “ordained to eternal life,” Acts xiii. 48. It
is that whereby a sinner receives and embraces Jesus Christ as a Saviour, and relies
upon and trusts in him as his Saviour in particular, for the whole of his salvation,
and in virtue of which he lives to God. Now, it is every one's concern to try
whether he be in this faith or not.
2. The life of faith. The Christian life is indeed the life of faith. Hence Paul
says, “The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of
God,” Gal. ii. 20. By Adam's eating the forbidden fruit, mankind were led off
from the heavenly life into the life of sense; living to gratify their senses, follow
their passions, please the vanity of their minds and the vileness of their affections.
Now, God has by Jesus Christ brought in a new way of heavenly life as the road to
happiness; and that is the life of faith. Ye should try whether ye are in that
road or not. The life of sense is indeed a spiritual death : see whether ye are “in.
the faith,” as in the life, the true life, of the soul.
3. The operativeness or efficacy of faith: for “faith worketh by love,” Gal. v.
6. Faith lies inwardly, undiscernible to all the world, but to God and the believer
himself. But then, it is not a dormant or inactive principle, but spreads its effects
outwardly through the whole man. Sound faith works the whole conversation, in
every part thereof, into true holiness; brings in an universal respect to the com-
mands of God, and sanctifies the whole man throughout. In vain do they pretend
to be possessed of faith, who do not “live soberly, righteously, and godly in this pre-
sent world.” For they to whom God has shown the good, Christ himself, and
have by faith rolled the burden of their salvation upon him, will “do justly, love
mercy, and walk humbly with their God,” as the genuine and never-failing fruits of
true faith. So ye would consider whether ye be in the faith, which is the way to
all other good things.
Secondly, I come to show the weight and importance of this point. There is
nothing about you that can possibly be of greater importance for you to know, and
to be clear about. It is the head point, on which all that concerns your eternal
salvation depends; and that is a matter of the last consequence to every sinner.
We must not stay to enumerate the several particulars. But the weight of it will
sufficiently appear, if ye consider, that on it depends,
1. Your union with Christ, and saving interest in him. If Christ dwells in you,
it is by faith, Eph. iii. 17. This is supposed in the text. We remain branches of
the first Adam without Christ; till we by faith come into him as the true vine. If
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 779
ye are not in the faith, if ye are not of that household, ye are none of Christ's ; ye
have no saving interest in him, and so none in his purchase. Ye are yet far from
God, strangers to his covenant, and without any special relation to him.
2. Your deliverance from the curse of the law, and your absolviture from the
sentence of the condemnation ye were born under. Hence the apostle says, “Be-
ing justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Rom. v. 1. If you have received remission of sin, it has been by faith. Hence
the apostle says, “Be it known unto you, that through this man is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things,
from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses,” Acts xiii. 38, 39. If
ye are not in the faith, there is not one of all your sins, from the womb to this day,
but is sealed up among God's treasures, and will be brought out against you in due
time. The curse of the broken law stakes you down under wrath : for “he that
believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him,”
John iii. 36.
3. Your doing any thing acceptable in God's sight: for “without faith it is
impossible to please him,” Heb. xi. 6. If ye be not in the faith, ye are “reprobate
to every good work;” ye can no more serve the true ends of Christianity, than
dross can go for gold, or discovered counterfeits pass for current money. For without
saving faith, ye are without Christ; and without Christ ye can do nothing, John
xv. 5. So that, however your works may be in the world's view, some good, some
bad ; yet there are none of them, however good in themselves, good in God's sight,
as they do not proceed from a principle of faith in the heart, and are not directed
to the glory of God as their ultimate scope and end.
4. Your eternal salvation. It is the stated ordinance of heaven, (Mark xvi. 16,)
“He that believeth shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
So the clearing of that point, is the clearing whether ye be in a state of salvation
or not. This is a point than which there is none more weighty and important.
How, then, can that miss to be a point of the greatest moment on which it depends?
Were men more concerned as to their lot and place in the other world, they would
be less concerned about the vain pleasures, amusements, and profits of this world;
and bend all their endeavours and attention to gain a blessed and happy eternity.
Upon this, I hope, some may be ready to say, “Seeing so much depends upon
being in the faith, and since we must eternally perish without it, what shall we do
to get faith, that we may not underlie the wrath of God for ever?” I answer,
Faith is the gift of God, and to him you must apply for it; Jesus Christ is the
author and finisher of faith, and to him ye must betake yourselves, that he may
work it in you; and the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of faith, and it is the
effect of his operation: so that you must have recourse to him, that he may “ful-
fil in you the work of faith with power.” More particularly, if you would have
this precious grace of faith,
1. Be diligent in reading and hearing the word. This is a mean that God hath
appointed for begetting faith in the hearts of sinners. Hence the apostle tells us,
Rom. x. 17, that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Such as would have faith without hearing, would have it out of God's way. See
that ye diligently attend the preaching of the word, and miss no opportunity of
hearing it. The ordinances are the organ through which the Spirit breathes, when
he conveys quickening influences into the souls of men. They are the conduit-
pipes through which the water of life runs. They are Christ's road in which he
comes to bless sinners. See, then, that ye be not out of the way when he passeth
by. The pool of Bethesda was a figure of the ordinances, to which the diseased
repaired to wait the descent of the angel to trouble the waters; and whosoever
stepped into the pool after the moving of the waters, was immediately healed.
But if any absented themselves, they could receive no benefit thereby. So, if ye
would be healed of your spiritual diseases, especially unbelief, that deadly malady
that fixes the guilt of all your sins upon you, make conscience of attending the
preaching of the word, and cry for the Spirit of faith.
2. Pray earnestly to God that he would teach you to believe. Remember faith
is his gift, and he bestows it on whomsoever he will. Pray diligently for it; and
*80 MISCELLANEO US DISCOURSES.
redeem time for that end. And pray importunately, besieging heaven with your
cries for that effect, as resolved to get what ye want. Seek faith from God as a
condemned man would seek a pardon: seek this as a man that sees death before him
would sue for his life. Remember, O sinner, that there is no life for you without
it : for “he that believeth not, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on
him.” Fall down, then, before God, and cry for it as for life, saying, “O give me
faith, or else I die. I may live, and be happy for ever, without friends, or rela-
tions, wealth, honours, or pleasures; but I cannot live happily and comfortably
without faith. Without it I can do nothing acceptable in thy sight. Wouchsafe
me this precious blessing, that I may glorify thy name for ever.’
II. I now proceed to consider the trial of this point. This the text takes up in
these two things—self-examination, and self-probation.
First, Self-examination. We must carefully examine, whether we be in the
faith or not. And this speaks the following things:
1. The necessity of the knowledge of the faith, both of the doctrine of faith in
fundamentals, and the grace of faith as to the nature of it, though it be not an
experimental knowledge, Nobody can examine themselves on a point they have
no notion of: so that those who are grossly ignorant of the nature of faith, are quite
incapable of self-examination in this point, but just walk on in darkness and confu-
sion to their own ruin, 1 John ii. 11. How much, then, does it concern all to culti-
vate the knowledge both of the doctrine and grace of faith !
2. Men professing faith may yet be void of it. They may seem to be in the
faith, in a gracious state, who are yet in unbelief, and in the gall of bitterness;
otherwise there would be no need of self-examination on that head. There is no
need of it in heaven or hell; for there are no false colours worn there, nor do any
there seem to be any more but what really they are. But here, in the visible
church, are foolish virgins as well as wise, and foolish builders as well as those
who are not so. Great is the need, then, of self-examination.
3. The certain knowledge of our estate, whether we be in the faith or not,
gracious or graceless, may be attained in the use of ordinary means, without extra-
ordinary revelation. Self-examination and probation is that means; 2 Pet. i. 10,
“Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure.” Many complain
they can never get to a point in that matter ; but let them inform their judgment
as to the nature and evidences of faith ; let them lay aside their laziness, and their
untender walking, showing a precise regard to the duties of morality; and it will
not be so hard. But when people remain in confusion as to the nature and evi-
dences of faith, cannot bring themselves to the bar, and continue untender in their
walk, what can be expected ? Hence our Lord says, Matt. vi. 23, “If thine eye
be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” And says the wise man, Prov.
x. 4, “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand.” Whereas diligence in
the Christian walk, and tender walking in the way of the Lord, are happy means
of getting marks of faith. Hence Christ says, John xiv. 21, “He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me,
shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
4. There is a rule of trial and self-examination given. That we are bid examine
ourselves, says there is a rule given we are to examine ourselves by. Hence the
beloved disciple says, 1 John v. 13, “These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal
life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” God's word is a
looking-glass, wherein good and bad may see their true image, if they will. It is
a fire that separates the good metal and dross; it is our way-mark, showing where
we are for the present, whither we are going, and pointing to the right way. This
scares many at the Bible ; and it is but few that make this proper use of it, but
scurf it over.” O ! Sirs, regard God's word, and try your state by it; for it is a
sure and infallible rule, nay, the only rule for it.
5. There is a faculty of self-judging in man, otherwise he were incapable of
examining himself. Hence the wise man says, Prov. xx. 27, “The spirit of a man
* i. e. read it carelessly and superficially,–ED.
MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES. 78.1
is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” This candle,
whether shining with the light of reason only, or with the light of grace also, is
capable to make the discovery. Even the foolish virgins saw at length that their
lamps were gone out. And all are made to see they are not in the faith, before
they are brought into it. So then you may, if ye will, erect this court of examina-
tion within your own breast, your own soul and conscience being both judge and
party; but it is only a subordinate judge, whose sentence, if wrong, will not stand,
but be overthrown by the Supreme Judge, by whose law the decision must be made.
6. A close applying of that self-judging faculty for the trial of that point. Hence
the Psalmist saith this was his practice ; Psal, lxxvii. 6, “I commune with mine
own heart, and my spirit made diligent search.” The man must rouse up himself,
as peremptory to know his state ; must inform himself of the rule he is to be judged
by, set it before him, and apply his own case impartially to it, that he may see how
they agree, and how the decision is to be made. Say not ye cannot do this. Ye
can examine whether ye be in a wealthy or straitened condition ; when something is
laid to your charge, whether ye be guilty or not ; and whether ye be in such a
one's favour or not. Only ye cannot, because ye will not, “examine yourselves,
whether ye be in the faith.” O Sirs, rouse up yourselves to this important exer-
cise, shake off all lazy delays, and set about it vigorously.
Secondly, Self-probation. Ye must “prove yourselves.” This speaks,
1. Ye must not take the matter of your state upon trust, hoping the best without
due evidence, and stopping there, like the person of whom it is said, Isa. xliv. 20,
“He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot
deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand 2’’ That is an easy
way, indeed, but very unsafe ; as was the case of Laodicea, Rev. iii. 17, unto whom
our Lord says, “Because thou Sayest I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked.” Men entering on self-examination find it difficult
and thorny, and they shrink back, contenting themselves to hope well, on they
know not what grounds; so the examination is broken offere the matter is brought
to a proof. If the examination before the tribunal of God could be shifted that
way, and the decision made in men's favour as superficially, the matter were the
less. But there the examination must go through, and the decision must be made,
according to, not men's groundless hopes, but the reality of things; according to
what Bildad says, Job viii. 13, 14, “So are the paths of all that forget God, and
the hypocrite's hope shall perish : whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall
be a spider's web.” * *
2. The matter may, through a close examination, be brought to a decisive proof,
however dark and intricate it may seem to be ; otherwise we would not be bid
prove ourselves. Men may, by close examination of themselves, and thoroughly sift-
ing their own hearts, discover that in and about them which, according to the
word, is decisive of their state, good or bad ; which will leave men inexcusable,
in not pursuing for it, but contentedly walking on in darkness. Closely ply the
duty according to scripture rules, and ye will find out how matters stand.
3. We must not stop, but pursue our self-examination, till we come to that proof,
and so come to a point in the matter on trial. Thrust forward resolutely, looking
to the Lord for light, and his help in the search ; (he can roll away stones of diffi-
culty, and make darkness light before you;) remembering what Christ says, Matt.
xiii. 12, “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abun-
dance.” And suppose ye should not reach that proof at one time, ye must carry
on the examination at another time, and so from time to time, till ye reach the
proof. This is your duty; and if ye steadfastly persist therein, ye will bring mat-
ters to a crisis. --
4. Having reached the proof of your state, whether ye be in the faith or not,
pronounce judgment thereon, whether it be good or bad. This is the end for which
the self-examination is gone through, and the proof was searched out, that you may
thereon form a certain conclusion, whether ye be in the faith or not. And it is
necessary so to do, that if ye find ye are not in the faith, ye may give no sleep to
your eyes, nor slumber to your eye-lids, till ye be brought into that happy state ;
782 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
and that if ye find you are in the faith, ye may give God the glory of it, and improve
your blessed condition to his honour.
I shall conclude with an use of exhortation. O Sirs, examine ye yourselves,
whether ye be in the faith, and cease not till ye bring the matter to a proof,-a.
decisive point. *
Before I press this exhortation with motives, I will take notice of some impedi.
ments in the way that keep men back from self-examination.
1. Their being carried away with the things of this world as with a flood, that
they can mind nothing else, and have a heart for no other business. Some are so
overwhelmed with worldly cares and secular business, that any solid care or con-
cern about their salvation is quite warded off, and there is no access for the same.
Hence our Lord cautions his disciples, Luke xxi. 34, “Take heed to yourselves,
lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and
cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Some are so drenched
in the vanity and pleasures of the world, that they have neither mind of it nor heart
or hand for it. “Madness is in their hearts while they live ; and after that they go
to the dead,” and are at their place, before ever they have put this matter to a trial.
O Sirs, guard against this excessive attachment to the world, which will prove
ruinous in the end. -
2. Love to carnal ease predominant. Spiritual sloth is so masterly over those
that give up themselves to it, that, in the midst of warnings from heaven, from
without and from within, they must have their ease, and keep undisturbed, cost
what it will. Hence says Solomon, Prov. vi. 9–11, “How long wilt thou sleep,
O sluggard 2 when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep 3 Yet a little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one
that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” But O what a risk is that, fore-
boding a fearful wakening ! If ye love your own souls, strive against this sluggish
disposition.
3. A false notion of the easiness of the way to heaven. Many in their thoughts
of their getting to heaven, never think of the necessity of their being in the faith,
regeneration, universal and unlimited obedience to God in the way of duty, and
sparing no known sin: only they believe God is a merciful God, and when the
time comes, they must apply for his mercy. Hence our Lord exhorts, Luke xiii. 25,
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate : for many, I say unto you, will seek to
enter in, and shall not be able.” e
4. A secret fear that all is wrong. This frights them from self-examination;
and they choose rather to patch up their present case the best way they can, than
fairly to open the wound, that it may be healed. What is this but to choose to die
of the disease, rather than to lay it open for cure ? But the eyes most closely shut
now will be opened in the other world, as the rich man's were, Luke xvi. 23. Be
not discouraged with fears, but be willing to know the worst as well as the best of
your case ; for that is your safest course. -
5. A general hopefulness as to one's state, got by some passing reflections on
some good thing they imagine they have, without examining to the bottom. This
men come at easily, as it were in passing: and being easy in this course, they
never set themselves to go to the ground of the cause, like the church of Laodicea;
Rev. iii. 17, forecited. This is a very dangerous state, and proves the ruin of
Iſla, Il W.
*satan has a mighty influence to the hindrance of it, both in Saints and sin-
mers. In the former, he mars the comfort of the clear view of their state : in the
latter, he keeps them from waking out of their natural security, and so holds them
back from Christ. And I know no duty he sets himself more against. For being
an accomplished master in hellish subtlety, he well knows, that if sinners were at
due pains in examining themselves, and discovered the damnable state they were
in by nature, they would hasten an escape to the gospel-city of refuge ; and there-
fore ſe lulls them in a sleep of profound security, that they may not feel their
misery, and the worse than Egyptian bondage they are in to sin and Satan.
Awake, then, ye that sleep, that Christ may give you light!
I shall now press the exhortation by some motives; and O that the Lord may
MISCELLANEOUS DISCO URSES. 783
carry it home with power on your hearts, as your eternal welfare is deeply con-
cerned therein . -
Motive 1. God has given thee a faculty of examining thyself. He has set up a
twofold candle for thee; one within thee, conscience, Prov. xx. 27, forecited ; and
another without thee, the written word, Psal. cxix. 105. And will ye venture to
walk on in darkness as to your state, while ye have these lights to let you into it?
Sirs, if ye will not bring in that light, and use it for this purpose, a light will be
let in, whether ye will or not, that will set the matter in due light, either in mercy,
as in the case of the prodigal, Luke xv. 17 ; or in Wrath, as in that of the rich
man, chap. xvi. 23.
Mot. 2. To be bound up from this duty still, is next door to a desperate case;
Isa. xliv. 20, above quoted. While a person is inquiring about his state, there is
some hope ; but while men are unconcerned about it whether good or bad, that
is like the case of men sleeping to death in their bleeding wounds. Publicans
and harlots entered into the kingdom of heaven before self-righteous Pharisees,
because the former were more ready by far to admit the conviction of the badness
of their state, than the latter, who were blinded with delusive ideas of their own
righteousness.
Mot. 3. It is certain ye were once not in the faith, not in a gracious state, as
the Ephesians were, Eph. ii. 3, 12. Now, dare ye pawn” your eternal salvation on
it, that ye are now in the faith, in a state of grace? No; but ye hope the best, and
are easy. But one would think, that in all reason, according to the weight of
the matter, one should labour for a porportional certainty. And to leave a matter
of the utmost importance at an uncertainty, and make a leap in the dark into the
other world, is a most miserable affair, and argues the greatest instability. Surely,
then, this requires a most solemn and deliberate trial; and if ye were wise for your-
selves, ye would bring it to a point.
Mot. 4. There are many false pretenders to religion, from off whose faces Christ
will draw the mask. Hence he says, Matt. vii. 22, 23, “Many will say to me in
that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have
cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works º' And then will I
profess unto them, ‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity;”
Luke xiii. 25–27, “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath
shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying,
‘Lord, Lord, open unto us;’ and he shall answer and say unto you, ‘I know you not,
whence you are;’ then shall ye begin to say, ‘We have eaten and drunk in thy pre-
sence, and thou hast taught in our streets.' But he shall say, ‘I tell you, I know
you not whence you are ; depart from me, all ye workers of imiquity.’” Many have
Jacob's voice, but Esau’s hands; like Judas, they kiss Christ, and betray him.
Such pretenders were the Laodiceans, when they fanced they were “rich, and
increased with goods, and stood in need of nothing,” Rev. iii. 17. Men may go a
great length, in legal humiliation with Ahab, in repentance with Pharoah, in refor-
mation with Herod, in zeal for religion with Jehu, and in strictness of life as to
the outward man with Paul before his conversion ; and yet be strangers to the life
of religion and godliness. And should not these instances alarm all who profess
Christ, to bring the matter to a trial, whether they are in the faith or not? as a
mistake here is of the most dangerous consequence.
Mot. 5. This would be a matter of the greatest utility, if followed through, both
to believers and unbelievers. To the former it brings the comfort of their faith,
clears up their gracious state, and gives them so many evidences for heaven as they
have proofs of their faith. To the other it may be the beginning of good; it
will give them the knowledge of their disease, which is the first step to the cure;
and if onee they be thoroughly convinced of their sinful and damnable estate, they
may be induced to leave no stone unturned till they be rescued therefrom, by
application, by faith, to the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ, who saves from sin, and
delivers from the wrath that is to come. t
Mot. 6. Try now your state, for God will try one and all of you, and no wrong
judgment will pass before him. O! to what purpose should we shift a trial, which
* i. e. pledge.—ED.
784 MISCELLANEOUS DISCOURSES.
we know we will certainly undergo from an infallible hand? We cannot by any
sleight or artifice cast a blind before his eyes, Gal. vi. 7, “Be not deceived ; God
is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;” Heb. iv. 13,
“All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to
do.” Not the least thing in or about us can escape his all-piercing eye; for he says,
“I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on
their lees,” Zeph. i. 12. God has trying times for lands, and for particular persons,
wherein he sets them. And such a trying time we have just now. O' let us regard
the operation of his hands, lest he proceed against us “by terrible things in righteous-
ness.” However, should we pass untried in this world, we will most certainly be tried
in the other, and there will be no altering of the decision then made. Should we not,
then, be stirred up to try ourselves now, and see how matters stand betwixt God
and us, that we may not be condemned in the great day of decision and judgment?
Mot. 7. It is the express command of God that ye should try yourselves, whether
ye be in the faith or not. God has not only warned you to try this important point,
both by his word and providence, but has expressly interposed his authority, bind-
ing it as an indispensable duty upon you to try yourselves, as ye will answer it
on your highest peril. I say, then, Try yourselves as to this weighty affair, lest
ye be found to be fighters against God, to spurn at his yoke, and to throw his cords
from off you. Try yourselves, then, I say, whether ye be in the faith or not, as ye
would regard the authority of the great Lord of heaven and earth, and would not
“fall into the hands of the living God,” from which there is no deliverance.
THE END.
ICDINBURGH :
FULLAR Ton AND Co., PRINTERS, STDAD's PLACE,
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